The story behind this impressive Snatcher demo for Virtual Boy is touching ⊟
It’s remarkable enough that German coder Thunderstruck ported a working Virtual Boy demo for Hideo Kojima’s cult classic Snatcher on the adventure game’s 25th anniversary of the console – every image in the game has been converted to stereoscopic 3D for the Virtual Boy, and the port features a dynamic dialog system, PCM music and sound effects, a dynamic inventory system that reacts to people in the room, and more.
Thunderstruck’s motivation behind its creation, though, is bittersweet. The original idea came from another developer, Red Metal, who hoped to make a port of Snatcher for a coding competition at Planet Virtual Boy, but he unfortunately passed away before he could share any work.
“I had never talked to him but from his post I could tell that he was a very nice person,” said Thunderstruck on the Planet VB forum. “I felt like I missed my chance to get to know him. I tried to express that in a post but somehow my words felt meaningless to me.”
“It sparked an idea though… I could create a Snatcher port in his memory. So I started learning about the game and all the different versions. After playing it for a bit, I came to the conclusion that it’s too complex. But somehow I couldn’t let the idea go.”
He had never heard of the game before starting the project, but Thunderstruck spent 200-300 hours in the past year to complete this first demo. While it’s still missing features and players can only get up to the point where they leave for Alton Plaza, Thunderstruck says it’s likely the most complete homebrew port Snatcher has ever received. “I will continue polishing what is there and extending it until the game is fully completed. Even if it takes till the 25th Virtual Boy anniversary,” he promises.
You can download the demo here – it’s playable in both Virtual Boy emulators and the original hardware if you have a flashcart. Link via Retro Collect.
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