Part 31
MOVE > CHIEF'S OFFICE
Alright, Chief. You've got some explaining to do. (Besides your bad grammar.)
ASK > JAMIE IN ALTON PLAZA
Gillian: I'd like to ask you about a personal matter.
Chief: What? Go ahead.
Chief: .......
Gillian: Are you and Jamie seeing each other?
Chief: What did Jamie have to say about that?
Gillian: ...nothing.
Chief: Ha ha ha ha!
Whoa! Cunningham's a dick! "I'm fucking your wife! Bwahahahaha!"
Gillian: What's so funny, Chief?
Chief: You think I'm having an affair with Jamie?
Gillian: ........
Gillian: Huh?
[pause, then the music ends]
Chief: She was asking me a few things. About you.
Gillian: What kind of things?
[the music goes all sad]
Chief: She was really worried about you and came to talk to me. Apparently Gibson's death had gotten her spooked.
[pause]
Gillian: I see.
Chief: You've got a wonderful wife.
Gillian: So that's what that was all about...
Chief: Even without memories, she seems to really care about you.
Gillian: ...Jamie.
Chief: Seed, you should apologize to her. But, it's your own private problem. I shouldn't say too much.
Gillian: Jamie...
[cue normal music]
Sorry about calling you a dick, Chief. I just thought you were boning his misses on the side! Well, let's make it seem like we're actually doing some work.
ASK > RANDOM HAJILE
Chief: He's definitely not a Neo Kobe citizen. He's probably some kind of drifter.
Gillian: A drifter?
Gillian: Do you have any ideas about this Oleen?
Chief: It could be somebody's name.
Hmmm... let's go call Jamie.
MOVE > FRONT
USE METAL GEAR > VIDEOPHONE > CALL > 39-1009
Jamie: Neo Kobe Pharmaceutical Labs, may I help you? Oh, it's you, Gillian! What's going on?
TALK > JAMIE IN ALTON PLAZA
Gillian: Jamie? I'm sorry about that little stunt I pulled the other day.
Jamie: Oh... that?
Gillian: I heard from the Chief.
Jamie: Oh really...
Gillian: Why didn't you tell me?
Jamie: [pause] I don't know... I really don't.
Gillian: [pause] I'm sorry. It was really immature of me. I just got really upset...
Jamie: Gillian?
Gillian: Yes?
[pause]
Gillian: Thanks Jamie.
HANG UP
Gillian: It was nice talking to you Jamie. Bye for now...
Jamie: Talk to you later Gillian. Bye!
Awwww. Okay, let's end this E/N-fest and get to Junking!
MOVE > COMPUTER ROOM > USE JORDAN > LOAD I.D. FILE
Wait, though...
MOVE > FRONT > USE METAL GEAR > VIDEOPHONE > CALL > 39-5644
Napoleon: Whatever. Anyway, how about giving me the password?
Metal: He hung up... what are you going to do?
MOVE > ENTER TURBOCYCLE
Metal: I wonder if Napoleon is here?
LOOK > NEARBY PEOPLE
Metal: Crowds of busy year-end shoppers are milling about everywhere.
LOOK > NEARBY PEOPLE
Metal: It doesn't appear that they are too worried about the SNATCHER problem.
LOOK > DOWNTOWN
Metal: A few Christmas trees are set up here and there.
Gillian: Yeah. Christmas is just around the corner...
Metal: What are your plans for Christmas, Gillian?
Gillian: Me? Maybe some time with Jamie...? Nah... I don't really know.
Metal: So you don't have any firm plans yet, do you.
Gillian: 'Fraid not.
Metal: Don't worry. I won't let you spend Christmas alone.
I am now worried there is Gillian/Metal Gear lemon fan-fiction somewhere on the Internet.
Metal: Gillian, if nobody else is available, let's spend Christmas together.
Gillian: Christmas with you?
Metal: It will be my first Christmas! Only in a worst-case scenario, you know.
Gillian: Christmas with you is the worst-case scenario.
Ouch!
LOOK > NEON
INVESTIGATE > NEARBY PEOPLE
Metal: Everybody appears to be minding their own business. Nothing suspicious at all.
Gillian: Yeah, but there could be a SNATCHER among them, you know.
Metal: That's true, but it is too frightening to think about.
INVESTIGATE > DOWNTOWN
Metal: The Christmas sales have got the whole area seething.
Gillian: Nobody seems too worried about the risk of SNATCHERS...
INVESTIGATE > DOWNTOWN
Metal: Christmas cards in several languages can be heard.
Gillian: Yeah, Christmas is the same in many countries around the world.
Fuck... is Napoleon not coming?
LOOK > AREA
Gillian: Huh? That Santa Claus...
Metal: What's wrong?
Gillian: Nothing. Probably just my imagination.
Metal: Shall we check him out?
INVESTIGATE > SANTA CLAUS
(I bet you never thought we'd do that in this game.)
Gillian: Let's check out this Santa.
Metal: Let's go.
ASK > ABOUT NAPOLEON
ASK > ABOUT NAPOLEON
Napoleon: One of these days I'll have to tell you why I'm called Napoleon.
ASK > ABOUT ILLICIT HOSPITAL
Gillian: I need some information about underground hospitals.
Napoleon: Besides all of the legit hospitals, there are scores of those underground places all over the city. You'll never be able to find 'em all.
ASK > ABOUT ILLICIT HOSPITAL
Napoleon: Wait a second... you might be able to learn something about those illicit operations by checking up on pharmaceutical orders. After all, almost all of the drugs used on this island are manufactured here as well.
Metal: That's right. All of the pharmaceuticals on the island distributed or manufactured by "Kobe Pharmaceuticals".
Gillian: I've got Jamie checking into it for me.
[Napoleon sneezes]
Gillian: You got a cold there, Napoleon?
Napoleon: Some kind of allergy, I guess. I always get this way in the winter.
Gillian: An allergen that only operates in the winter? That could be SNOW-9, you know!
Metal: One can always pick up traces of SNOW-9 wherever SNATCHERS appear.
Napoleon: It's this sneezing. It just goes on and on...
ASK > ABOUT SNOW 9
(Note: The game mostly hyphenizes it, but not here. Also, Snow 9 closely resembles the chaff grenades from Metal Gear Solid.)
Napoleon: It's a man-made strain that was developed by the military years ago as a defensive weapon to help protect bases and the like.
Gillian: But wasn't all of it disposed of long ago?
Napoleon: Yes, but I hear talk that somebody started cultivating it again about three years ago.
Gillian: Three years ago? That's about the same time the SNATCHERS first appeared.
ASK > ABOUT SNOW 9
Napoleon: I'm sure a specialist like that will have a lot more to offer you than somebody like me.
Hmmmm... well, wait a sec...
POSSESSIONS > SHOW > VIDEO MEMORY > LITTLE JOHN
ASK > ABOUT OLEEN
Napoleon: Before that, why don't we take care of business...
Urgh.
POSSESSIONS > USE > CASH
Gillian: Damn! Take it!
Napoleon: Heh heh. Thanks a bundle...
ASK > ABOUT OLEEN
Napoleon: It may not be the one you're looking for, but I know an "Oleen Hospital".
[Napoleon sneezes again.]
Gillian: Sounds pretty bad...
ASK > ABOUT OLEEN HOSPITAL
Napoleon: Hey, I'm not doing this for fun, you know. You're going to have to do a little better than that...
POSSESSIONS > USE > CASH
Gillian: ...just as greedy as ever, eh? Here, take it!
Napoleon: Thank you very much...
ASK > ABOUT OLEEN HOSPITAL
Napoleon: I don't know too much about it, but it's over in the RF district. Why don't you go check it out?
Take easy, informer friend.
And that's where we're headed! The next couple of updates are a dogpile of greatness, so I'll try to do them as quickly as I can.
Next time:
Let's check out the Oleen Hospital... but first... Let's get some Ramen!
Bonus Post by Gillian Seed
"Well, well.... what do we have here?"
slowbeef posted:
Jamie: Don't forget it, okay?
Gillian: Thanks Jamie.
Oh go stroke your neckbeard, I've got a wife that loves meBamf posted:
Gillian MUST be a Snatcher if he can extend his head down far enough to suck his own
like that.
Do Snatchers even have
s? I mean I'm sure they have them on their skin to not be suspicious, but what use would they be? 
SNATCHER AND EMULATIONI get a few IMs about this. So, you download Gens and/or Kega Fusion. You download a BIN/CUE of Snatcher from Alluvion or the ISO from Underdogs. You're all set for some hot Snatcher action!
"Strange. Where was that cool intro slowbeef posted?" you think as you hit New Game. Then you get to the turbocycle and Gillian stares ahead, blinking. And you think, "Uh... how long does it take to get to the factory?"
Then you pound your fist in frustration.
Your game is hung.
Okay, fine, you get a save state to bypass that and go to the factory! Except... it seems like you're missing scenes from this LP thread and suddenly the game hangs again.
WTF is going on?!
Here's the deal. Back in the day, when CD-ROM consoles ruled the console video game market, some games came like this: Track 1 was the data track - it contained all the code and data and fun that made your vidoe game possible. It might also however, have tracks 2 through whatever. They were normal CD audio tracks - you could actually put it in a CD player and play them.
Games usually tended to load all the revelant data for a level off Track 1, then play an audio track for say, background music or something. CD-Quality background music! I remember the Ys games doing this for my Turbo Grafx CD.
Snatcher has audio from the game - dialogue between the characters, specifically, as audio tracks. It's pretty random what dialogue's on the audio tracks and what's on the data track. You'd think that maybe just the longer sequences would be on the audio tracks, but check this out:
Track 2 is the intro - from the narrator telling you "June 6, 1996" to "Effective today!"
Track 3 is only Gillian's brief inner monologue on the way to the factory ruins. It's the line:
Gillian: Ugh, my first day on the job and now this. Ace Junker Gibson has cornered a suspected Snatcher. I wonder if this guy really is a Snatcher... Guess I'll find out now if all that training really paid off.
Yep. For God knows what reason, those three sentences constitute a track on their own.
So let's say your emulator can't read the audio tracks or they're missing entirely. What does Snatcher do? One of two things:
1. It errors out and skips the sequence (hence the missing intro).
2. It spins its wheels endlessly, looking for an audio track it can't find (hence the turbocycle hang).
How to fix? Get a better ISO! I've heard the Alluvion BIN/CUE works for most goons and the ISO/MP3s works for others. I'm personally using Gens with the ISO/MP3s and I've had no problems. Kega/BIN didn't work for me (though I notice that I didn't have the CUE). Also, I tried the ISO without the MP3s and the game hangs as I mentioned previously.
And there you have it.