Policenauts 3do English Patch
Policenauts (Official game website) Policenauts.net (The English translation patch for the PSX version of the game can be downloaded from this site. It also contains a summarized timeline of the game's events, among other things.) The Policenauts Paradise and Snatcher Shrine (A site dedicated to Hideo Kojima's games 'Policenauts' and 'Snatcher. Oct 17, 2016 Policenauts, Hideo Kojima’s 1996 interactive sci-fi detective story, wasnt available in English until 2009 when a group of dedicated fans at Junker HQ released a translation patch for the game.
alex9234’s Sunday Review
Happy new year, and welcome back to another episode of Sunday Review. This time I’m going to review the only Hideo Kojima game that has never seen the light of day in the west. But it’s one that is very popular among Kojima fans, and received a major amount of exposure in the gaming media just a few years ago. The game finally got a fan translation for the PS1 version back in 2009, and it’s been one of the most popular fan translations ever since. It’s so popular that even popular YouTubers like Super Bunnyhop have covered it. SPOILERS! He didn’t like it though:
The first was the 3DO version, oddly enough, which used some crappy compression for the video cutscenes. (There’s also a promotional retail release called Policenauts Pilot Disc, which has a short demo along with tons of artwork and storyboards, documentation from the designers, and a full database containing a glossary of all important terms. Policenauts – Guides and FAQs PlayStation. 3DO NEC PC98 Saturn. Log In to add custom notes to this or any other game. Notify me about new: Guides. Policenauts translation site, with full glossary in English. We also host a gallery of Policenauts game versions, soundtracks, magazines, translations, trading cards, and information.
What game is this you ask? Policenauts, which first came out on the PC-98 in 1994, and was then remade for the 3DO (Yes, the 3DO!) in 1995, and was then ported to the PS1 in 1996. However, I’m going to review the Sega Saturn version of the game, which came out in 1996, and is considered the best version of the game.
The Plot
Policenauts follows the story of Jonathan Ingram, who has been chosen as one of the 5 “Policenauts” – astronauts with Police training – to ensure the safety of the first batch of immigrants to mankind’s first space colony, Beyond Coast, in the year 2013. Among Jonathan in the “Policenauts” crew are Gates Becker from Great Britain’s Scotland Yard, Joseph Sadaoki Tokugawa from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police, Salvatore Toscanini from the NYPD, and Jonathan’s partner from the LAPD, Ed Brown. While testing out a new type of space suit in a space walking experiment, Jonathan’s suit malfunctions and drifts away deep into space in front of the other Policenauts. And thanks to the cold sleep module on his suit, Jonathan goes into cryogenic sleep, which preserves his youth. He is then found 25 years later and brought back to earth. We are then taken to the year 2040, where Jonathan works as a private investigator in a district of Los Angeles called “Old L.A.”. There, he is visited by his ex-wife, Lorraine, who asks him for his help in finding her current husband, a Japanese man named Kenzo Hojo. The only clues that were left behind by Hojo are a torn leaf, a set of pills, and the word “Plato.” Unsure on whether to take on the case or not, Lorraine decides to let Jonathan think about it for a while and leaves. However, after Lorraine leaves his office, Jonathan looks out the window and notices a man in a black biker suit holding a remote control. He tries to get Lorraine out of harm’s way, but the man presses the button on the remote control, destroying Lorraine’s Rolls-Royce and severely injures Lorraine. Jonathan chases after him, and after firing several shots at him, notices that he was bleeding out white blood. Jonathan then returns to Lorraine, who tells him that her daughter, Karen, is sick, and asks to help her. However, Lorraine then succumbs to her injuries and dies in Jonathan’s arms. He then decides to take on Lorraine’s requests, and heads out to Beyond Coast.
While on his flight to Beyond Coast, Jonathan is sitting next to a strange and different looking human. The man introduces himself as Tony Redwood, and says that he is a “Frozener” – a race of artificially-conceived human beings who possess genes best suited to the environment of outer space, and have artificial white blood. Jonathan finds him to be suspicious, but he leaves him alone – for now. Upon arrival, he then heads to the Beyond Coast Police Department, where he meets up with his former partner Ed Brown, and asks him for his assistance in investigating Hojo’s disappearance and Lorraine’s murder. Though Ed turns him down at first, he eventually agrees to help Jonathan. The two of them go out on their investigation, only to eventually find out that the people who they thought were their friends had become their enemies, and that there may be no way to get out of this investigation alive…
The Gameplay
Policenauts is a point-and-click visual novel, so you can move the cursor across the screen and have Jonathan analyze objects in the area or have him talk to other characters that are with him. In the PS1 and 3DO versions, you can move the cursor by using the controller’s D-pads, but with the Sega Saturn version, you can use the Japan-only Saturn mouse accessory to move the cursor across the screen. You can save at any point in the game, though you can also save at the end of each chapter. Also, this version, unlike the PS1 and 3DO versions, has scenes that are from the original PC-98 version.
Like it’s predecessor Snatcher, there are shooting segments where you aim the cursor across the screen to take out enemies before your health is completely depleted. While you are only given the option to aim with the D-pad in the PS1 and 3DO versions, the Sega Saturn version gives you the option to use the Saturn Light Gun accessory in the shooting segments if you hook it up in the second controller port.
The Fanservice (LOL)
You know what? Fuck it. Believe it or not, this game has A LOT of fanservice, which is very unusual for a Kojima title. There is tons of cleavage, and there are scenes where Jonathan will say very sexual things about the female characters that you encounter throughout the game. Here…are…some examples:
Moving on…
The Characters
Jonathan Ingram – Age: 30 – The main character of Policenauts. He was one of the original five “Policenauts” who were assigned to protect the first batch of immigrants to mankind’s first space colony Beyond Coast in 2013. However, due to his space suit malfunctioning, he fell deep into space, and entered a state of cryogenic sleep until he was discovered by an exploration crew 25 years later. He now works as a private investigator in Los Angeles, often taking on cases which involve victims of drug and organ smuggling rings.
Ed Brown – Age: 55 – Ed was Jonathan’s former partner during his LAPD days, but now he is the chief of the Beyond Coast PD’s Vice Unit. He was also one of the original five “Policenauts” who were assigned to protect the first batch of immigrants to mankind’s first space colony Beyond Coast in 2013. He is also a single father and has two children – his daughter Anna, and his adopted son Marc. He eventually teams up with Jonathan once again and is determined to help him find out who killed Lorraine and investigate Hojo’s disappearance.
Karen Hojo – Age: 26 – Karen is the heroine of Policenauts. She is the daughter of Lorraine and Hojo, and bears a striking resemblance to Lorraine. She is an anchorwoman for a news station on Beyond Coast, and a rather popular one as well. She is diagnosed with a rare type of cancer called secondary aplastic anemia, and in order for her to be cured, she requires a bone marrow transplant from a matching HLA type.
Tony Redwood – Age: 23 – Tony is a member of Beyond Coast PD’s SWAT team called the Advance Police Unit. He is a so-called “Frozener” – a race of artificially-conceived humans who possess genes best suited to the environment of outer space, and carry artificial white blood. He pilots one of the EMPS (Extravehicular Mobility Police Suit), and is Beyond Coast PD’s ace pilot, which got him the nickname “Mr. Goddard”, after the EMPS model used by AP. Jonathan and Ed view him as suspicious, and keep a close eye on him in the second half of the game.
Gates Becker – Age: 56 – The chief of Beyond Coast PD. He was originally an officer from Great Britain’s Scotland Yard, and was one of the original five “Policenauts” who were assigned to protect the first batch of immigrants to mankind’s first space colony Beyond Coast in 2013.
Joseph Sadaoki Tokugawa – Age: 60 – The head of the Tokugawa Corporation in Beyond Coast. He was one of the original five “Policenauts” who were assigned to protect the first batch of immigrants to mankind’s first space colony Beyond Coast in 2013. He was an officer for Beyond Coast PD for a short time, but then took over the Tokugawa Corp., following his father’s retirement. Tokugawa is the most powerful man on Beyond Coast, and pretty much controls the colony’s media.
Salvatore Toscanini – Age: 58 – Head of security at Tokugawa Corporation’s Moon Plant. He was a former NYPD officer, and was one of the original five “Policenauts” who were assigned to protect the first batch of immigrants to mankind’s first space colony Beyond Coast in 2013. Like Tokugawa, he was also a former Beyond Coast PD officer for a short time, but then went to work at Tokugawa Corp., and is now the head of security at their moon plant.
Meryl Silverburgh – Age: 24 – An officer for Beyond Coast PD’s Vice Unit and one of Ed’s subordinates. She was once a member of FOXHOUND, but after FOXHOUND was disbanded, she went to Beyond Coast and joined Beyond Coast PD’s Vice Unit to satisfy her desire for action. And as you all know, she serves as the basis for the same Meryl Silverburgh in the Metal Gear games.
My Thoughts
Well, this game blew me away when I first saw it. I first saw footage of this game in World of Longplays’ Policenauts walkthrough on YouTube, and I said to myself, “I WANT THIS!” I tried to burn myself a copy of the PS1 version, only to find out that I needed a chipped PS1 or a PS1 boot disc that could let me played burned PS1 games. I now have a chipped PS1, but when me and a friend of mine tried burning the PS1 version with the english patch, it wouldn’t work on my chipped PS1. So if anyone can help me in that area, please comment below.
Anyway, when I got a Sega Saturn a few years ago, I picked up the Saturn version, using the script from the PS1 version to help me play through the game, and I enjoyed it very much. The game has tons of great ideas, and is very creative. The plot was solid, and it leaves you guessing the whole way through, with a massive load of plot twists as well. The cast of characters were also decent and some are very likable too, especially Jonathan, who has a lot of hilarious lines when it comes to the scenes with fanservice. Speaking of the fanservice, though there is a lot of it, it’s actually tolerable. There isn’t anything that’s too excessive or oversaturated, like in modern ecchi animes like Rosario + Vampire, Highschool DxD, etc., just some scenes where you make Jonathan touch some boobs or listen to Jonathan talk dirty about the women he encounters throughout the game. Moving on, the gameplay is very good, the point-and-click interface was well integrated and a lot better than the menu interface in other visual novels, and the shooting scenes were also well integrated and provide a fair degree of challenge. The character designs and animation were also very well done too. Overall, Policenauts is an excellent visual novel with tons of replay value, and you should totally check it out if you’re looking for a great visual novel.
Also, the Sega Saturn version got an English patch made for it by the translation group SaturnAR, based in Argentina.
The team is also working to translate the game into many different languages as well.
My score: 9.25/10
Source: http://metalgear.wikia.com/wiki/Policenauts
Mar 14, 2013 - The Sega Saturn port of Policenauts features several additional. English Fan Translation Patch In Development For Sega Saturn. Translation of Policenauts, but that's time for the 3DO version (which also supports mouse). Jan 7, 2008 - Policenauts 3DO. Is this Japanese. I found the 3DO version with no FAQ, translation, or hack completely UNplayable. Photos YouTube. The Policenauts Paradise and Snatcher Shrine. Policenauts in English!!!!!111.
For the longest time, Policenauts was considered Hideo Kojima’s lost masterpiece. Although initially released in 1994 for the Japanese PC-9821 home computer, it was eventually ported to the 3DO, PlayStation and Saturn over the next few years. None of these were ever released outside of Japan. It wasn’t until 2009 that a group of determined fan translators at Policenauts.net hacked the PlayStation version and released an English language patch, to elation of thousands of fans around the world.
PlayStation
Why all the hype? At the time of its release, Policenauts was advertised as “The Next Generation of Snatcher“. While Snatcher was released in English for the Sega CD, it gained a cult audience in America and Europe, although the sales were beyond dismal, mostly due to it being released at the tail end of the system’s life span. It wasn’t until 1998 that Kojima’s name entered the video gaming world with the release of Metal Gear Solid, which not only revived interest in the old 8-bit series, but renewed interest in Kojima’s other works. The price of Snatcher in the aftermarket shot up, and gamers everywhere wondered, just what the heck was that Policenauts thing?
The story begins on Earth, now called HOME, in Old Los Angeles in the year 2040. Jonathan Ingram is a private detective with a bit of an odd past. Thirty years ago, he was one of the five elite policeman chosen to serve aboard a brand new space colony called Beyond Coast – the Policenauts. During a routine spacewalk, his suit goes haywire and sends him flying off into the yonder. Assumed dead, he actually enters a state of hypersleep, suspended in time and floating through outer space. Fast forward to the present, and Jonathan is miraculously rescued, not having aged at all during his hibernation. The world has, however, left him behind. (The resemblance to the tale of Taro Urashima, a fisherman who went underwater for three days and returned to the surface, finding that three hundred years had passed, is noted several times throughout the game.) His wife, Lorraine, had given up on him and moved on. The space colony had grown into its own nation, with its own culture and industry. With everyone having abandoned him, Jonathan takes up a job as tracking down kidnappers, junkies and bail jumpers. It’s far from glorious work, and pretty boring… until his ex-wife visits him with a case.
Lorraine stays in the dark, having aged while Jonathan has not, ashamed of what she’s become and what she did to him. But she has no one else to turn. Her husband, Kenzo Hojo, has mysteriously disappeared. Her only clues are a pair of capsules, a leaf, and mention of the world “Plato”. Jonathan is too stunned to take the case, but as soon as Lorraine leaves, her car explodes into a fiery blaze, leaving her to die in her old love’s arms. Unable to come to terms with his past and intrigued by an obvious conspiracy, Jonathan leaves Old LA to follow the few leads – back onto Beyond Coast.
Characters
Policenauts Slowbeef
Jonathan Ingram
The hero, who bears an astounding resemblance to Mel Gibson’s character Martin Riggs from Lethal Weapon, complete with shaggy mullet and baseball jacket. He has a fear of outer space, for obvious reasons, but sets it aside to find his ex-wife’s killer.
Ed Brown
One of Jonathan’s old buddies and also an ex-Policenaut. Ed is stuck working in the basement of the Beyond Coast Police Department, an old relic ticking down the days until retirement. His fires are lit once his old friend Jonathan pops into time, and is determined the solve the same mystery. He’s a mirror of Danny Glover’s Roger Murtagh, also from Lethal Weapon.
Lorraine Hojo
Jonathan’s ex-wife, who unfortunately doesn’t make it through the prologue. Jonathan still cares for her, and still keeps her pictures by his desk.
Karen Hojo
Lorraine’s daughter, to her second husband, Kenjo. She’s the spitting image of Lorraine in her youth, causing Jonathan a bit of confusion. A famous news anchor for the Beyond Coast Broadcasting Company, although a grave illness has kept her confined to her home as she mourns the apparent loss of both of her parents.
Tony Redwood
A member of the Advanced Police (or AP) on Beyond Coast, Jonathan meets Tony onboard his flight to the colony. Tony’s a Frozener, a manufactured human designed specifically to work under the harsh conditions of outer space. As a result, he looks a bit like a creepy zombie.
Gates Becker
Another one of the old Policenauts, Gates is in charge of the Beyond Coast Police, and is Ed’s boss. Like so many cop movies, Gates will spend much of his time berating the two heroes for their reckless antics.
Joseph Sadaoki Tokugawa
Policenauts 3do English Patch 1
Another old friend of Jonathan and Ed, and former Policenaut. Tokugawa is by far the most successful of the old team, having built up an entire industry in the colony, with divisions ranging from construction to pharmaceuticals. His powerful corporation all but rules outer space. The Tokugawa Corporation pops up occasionally in the Metal Gear Solid series as background detail.
Salvatore Toscanini
Yet another one of the old Policenauts, Salvatore now works in the Moon, and seems to be working with Tokugawa.
Meryl Silverburgh
One of the squad members under Ed, Meryl is a Terrestrial (a human born on Earth) who was previously a member of FOXHOUND and has tried to put her military experience to use in the police. However, the department is far more interested in utilizing the AP, so she ends up feeling useless. The character was later reused for Metal Gear Solid, since Kojima liked her so much, but in Policenauts she’s a much more battle hardened veteran.
Dave Forrest
Another member of Ed’s team, Dave is essentially Meryl’s partner. Although he was born on Beyond, he wants desperately to return to Earth. He also has an unnatural affinity for hamburgers.
Naturally, once Ed shows Jonathan around the colony, things seem more than a little bit fishy. Karen’s ex-husband Kenjo was an employee of the Tokugawa Corporation, who appear to have some backdoor deals going on with the police. Jonathan obviously suspects his old friend of corruption on multiple levels, but without any hard proof, there’s little he can do. Piece by piece, Jonathan and Ed must piece together the conspiracy, locate Kenzo Hojo, avenge Lorraine’s death, and take down the Tokugawa conglomerate. Quite a tall order for two men, one of whom is, quite clearly, getting too old for this shit.
Policenauts is structured much the same way as Snatcher, with the main difference being the interface. Instead of picking selections from a menu, you move a cursor around the screen, examining and interacting with objects by clicking on them. Like its spiritual predecessor, it’s more of an interactive comic book than a game – there are very few puzzles, and progress revolves around searching as many objects as possible until the game lets you go forward. And again, there are first person shooting segments that break up the investigation portions and provide a bit of tension. Unlike the simplistic 3×3 grid from Snatcher, you can aim anywhere on the screen, and the fights are not only longer and more complicated, but quite a bit more difficult, too.
One of the most tense moments of the story is when Jonathan and Ed are charged with finding and defusing a bomb, located in a purse in the middle of a trendy boutique. Nearly all of the purses are bootlegs, but the bomb is hidden in an authentic one. Jonathan and Ed know what the real purse looks like, so it’s up to them (and you) to examine and identify the fake purses by comparing images. It’s intense, but also a bit silly that one of only major puzzles is one the same level as a children’s magazine. After discovering the bomb, you naturally have to defuse it, as you follow very specific directions and use extremely steady coordination to take it down safely. It’s one of the best moments in the game, if mostly because it shows Jonathan and Ed at their best. It’s something of a ludicrous (if familiar) situation, and they trade barbs and various fourth wall breaking jokes when they fail. (Thankfully, a continue option prevents this from becoming too frustrating.)
PlayStation
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Policenauts 3do English Patch 2
Hideo Kojima has long been enthused by Hollywood movies, as evidenced by pretty much every single work he’s ever done, ranging from the influence of Blade Runner in Snatcher, to the likenesses of several famous actors unofficially used in Metal Gear 2. Just from looking at the two main character, it’s obvious that Policenauts is a homage to Lethal Weapon, but the relationship is more than skin deep. There’s the liberal use of the saxophone in the soundtrack, usually accompanying both shocking and hilarious moments. There’s Ed’s hot daughter that flirts with Jonathan, complete with a jovial family dinner with terrible food. And Ed, wouldn’t you know, can’t bring himself to fire his gun due to a traumatic incident in his past. (This isn’t quite Lethal Weapon, but still a well known trope.) There are tons upon tons of cop movies cliches here, but it pulls off the buddy cop thing extremely well, and there are plenty of humorous moments throughout, even though they mostly highlight how hilariously incompetent (and irresponsible) the heroes are. Jonathan is not only a hothead, but a bit of lech, rudely commenting and hitting on on every girl he meets, and occasionally finds ways to cop a feel, complete with boob jiggle. (There’s actually a whole person, a woman no less, devoted to these animations, according to the credits.) Allowing the player to be a bit of a pervert is a running gag with Kojima – Gillian Seed from Snatcher was much the same way, although it was toned down a bit in the English release.
Still, even though Policenauts is an almost perfectly successful homage, something about its story seems empty. Snatcher is a cyberpunk detective story, with tons of mysteries and plenty of suspense. That, combined with the intensely elaborate Metal Gear Solid, has earned Kojima a reputation for creating mind-blowing twists and screwing intensely with the player’s head. Policenauts is, on the other hand, merely a buddy cop movie with some sci-fi elements. It’s a much more straightforward crime story, complete with evil corporations, corrupt police departments, and drug smuggling. And while it has an amazing setup, the story never really pays off, especially since the overall plot can easily be guessed by playing through the first Act. Furthermore, the game goes to great lengths to show how awesome the police mobile suits (EMPS) are, but you certainly never get to pilot them. They just end up as enemies you fight in a few sequences near the end. What a missed opportunity.
Other small problems crop up too. There’s absolutely no way to skip through any of the voiced dialogue Snatcher didn’t let you do this either, but it also had a lot less of it. And, like most of Kojima games (and a lot of Japanese games in general), the script is detailed but overwritten. Plus, most of the actual detective work takes place in the first few Acts. There are technically seven chapters altogether, plus the Prologue, but the first two are by far the longest, and the rest consist mostly of cutscenes and shooting segments, much like the final act of Snatcher. And there are too many roadblocks, where you find progress halted because you forgot to exhaust all conversation options or missed over something in the scenery. It’s fantastic that there’s so much depth in the game world, but after you start clicking through the same text over and over to find what you missed, it quickly grows annoying. It’s even worse than Snatcher because the hot spots in the scenery aren’t always visible or apparent. At least it’s a bit longer, as an average play will take approximately ten hours or so.
Still, even if it can be exhausting at times, Policenauts has an amazingly well realized world. Space, as it turns out, is pretty inhospitable for humans, creating a whole scheme of new diseases that must be dealt with – hence Tokugawa’s rise to power. The best thing about it is the way it examines how humanity can survive in space – not only on a medical level, but a cultural level too. People born and bred on Beyond Coast are taught to act differently than their terrestrial brethren, and how it plays out in the game. For example, each group has speaks with a “Home” or “Beyond” accent – but Beyonds are told to speak in a calmer, more thorough manner, while Homes speak louder and more emotionally. There’s more than a few dialogues about aspects as how the isolation of the colony has affected things like crime, drug use, and even the insurance industry. It’s also pretty interesting that the colony was developed by a Japanese corporation, and there’s lot of commentary towards their pros and cons of their work ethics – pretty interesting given that the characters are technically gaijin. Of course, just as Metal Gear Solid was screaming “NUKES ARE BAD” at the top of its lungs, the prevailing theme in Policenauts is “SPACE IS BAD”, which is pounded into your head on several occasions.
There are also tons upon tons of Easter Eggs, many of which are easily missable. There are tons of obscure references to Snatcher, which are going to make any obsessive fans giggle, along with many other strange or goofy observations if you click on random stuff. Apparently, if you have a completed save game from Tokimeki Memorial on your memory card, at some point, the game makes a comment about the girl that you won at the end of the game. I don’t know when or where or how, but that sounds crazy/weird/brilliant, even moreso than the Psycho Mantis bit from Metal Gear Solid.
Policenauts also benefits from an excellent soundtrack, composed mostly by longtime Konami stalwart (and excellent guitarist) Motoaki Furukawa, along with Tappi Iwase, who would later go on to compose Metal Gear Solid. The main theme relies on a spooky, fourteen note theme which should also sound familiar to anyone who played Metal Gear Solid– it plays during the Konami logo in that name. It’s a bit jazzy and funky, with lots of moody saxophone and guitar work, and much of it sounds like a Hollywood flick. Still, amidst all of the excellent music, some of the themes during the investigation sequences loop too quickly, and grow annoyingly repetitive, especially if you’re stuck.
PlayStation
Like many Japanese adventure games, Policenauts suffers a bit from its linearity, and its story may be somewhat disappointing for those expecting more off-the-wall fare. But its restraint is also one of its greatest assets, because it’s not nearly as messy nor as convoluted as some of Kojima’s other games, but it’s got an extremely likable leading duo and an immensely satisfying game world. It might not be a complete masterpiece, but it’s still more than essential for adventure gamers and Kojima fans alike.
Policenauts 3do English Patch Mod
The fan translators did a fantastic job in not only localizing the text – which contains tons of medical and scientific terms, not exactly everyday reading – but keeping all of the (occasionally rather dirty) humor. They even went to great extents to fix up some bugs and make some of the name spellings to make them more consistent. The dialogue is obviously left in Japanese, which is naturally for the best, because fandubs never, ever work. As of current, only the PlayStation version is translated, but the hackers are looking into the other versions, if technically feasible.
Nobody really has a solid idea why Policenauts was never translated in the first place. The Saturn version initially appeared on retail release lists, and there was even a promotional box mockup, but it dropped off pretty quickly. Jeremy Blaustein, the localizer of Snatcher and Metal Gear Solid, said he heard of no internal plans to localize the game at the time he was working at Konami. Kojima had once said in an interview that translation work had started, but he wasn’t happy with the lip synching in the cutscenes due to timing issues – a strange, idiosyncratic reason to deny an overseas release, and possibly a false one. It may have just been the fact that Snatcher for the Sega CD was a huge failure, and Konami didn’t want to risk sinking huge amounts of money into translation and dubbing, only to get a small return, especially in a world marketplace that was looking for 3D action games, which Policenauts was not. After the release of Metal Gear Solid, Kojima was interviewed several times by the Western press about an English translation of Policenauts, but he shirked them all off, essentially saying that they should look forward to his new games and forget his old ones. Very strange words, from a rather strange man.
The original PC-98 version differs substantially from the console versions. Although all versions come on CD, the console versions use full motion video for certain important cutscenes, while the PC version just uses animated stills, similar to Snatcher. The visuals in the PC version are all high resolution 640×400 static bitmaps with 16 colors, looking remarkably crisp and surprisingly colorful, despite the dithering. The console versions consist of scanned cels, with much higher color count and detail, but at a lower 320×240 resolution, which ruins some of the detail. For example, the scientist, Victor, has an AI named Gorby to help him analyze samples. In the PC98 version, he looks like a polygonal Mikhael Gorbachev, as he should, but it’s made completely generic in the console versions. Some other small animations also had to be removed too. The bomb defusing sequence is much harder in the PC98 version, because the maze you have to guide the block through is viewed at a slight angle, making it difficult to see the edges. The viewpoint was changed in the console versions.
The character designs are slightly different, with the console version using the redesigns that animation studio AIC created for the cutscenes. Most of the scenes look approximately the same, but a few were completely redrawn, especially the biomort storage facility. The PC98 version looks heavily inspired by the 1982 thriller Coma, with suspended bodies in mid-air, but perhaps it was too graphic for the consoles. The PC version also features little portraits at the bottom of the screen during voiced dialogue, without subtitles, just like Snatcher. These were removed for the console versions, although it adds in text. (The PC98 version does let you turn this on once you’ve beaten it.)
The PC98 version also has a longer script, with more dialogue, and some events that play out slightly differently. For example, Jonathan signs a document upon giving the capsules to the BCP, which in turn is used to forge incriminating documents. And during the bomb search sequence, Ed’s daughter arrives on the scene with an “authentic” purse, before her dad confesses that it’s fake. In the console versions, she’s nowhere to be found, and Ed just confides to Jonathan about his grievous error. There’s nothing really major that was deleted, though, so it’s not like console gamers are missing huge chunks of the story. The console versions also introduce summary screens, which act to bring the player up to speed upon reloading a saved game, an element carried forward to Metal Gear Solid. (Policenauts also started the Kojima tradition of showing a character’s name, along with their voice actor, when they first appear onscreen.)
The opening is a bit different too. The console version starts with a flashback that shows Jonathan’s accident, before moving onto the opening credits. The PC version doesn’t have this and it moves straight to the credits, allowing the player to determine the backstory through the news clippings in Jonathan’s office. The opening theme is also completely different – the PC version uses the (outstanding) track titled “Old LA 2040”, while the other versions use a variation on the main theme “End of the Dark”. “Old LA 2040” can only be heard in the console versions on Hojo’s CD rack, which acts as an in-game sound test.
There are slight differences between the console versions. The first was the 3DO version, oddly enough, which used some crappy compression for the video cutscenes. (There’s also a promotional retail release called Policenauts Pilot Disc, which has a short demo along with tons of artwork and storyboards, documentation from the designers, and a full database containing a glossary of all important terms. (This is fully translated online at Policenauts.net.) The second release was the PlayStation version, which has the best looking videos, but these only run at a rather choppy 15 FPS. A supplementary release called the Policenauts Private Collection was later released, which includes nearly all of the goodies from the Pilot Disc, plus the script and storyboard. Since the Pilot Disc was meant to be a demo it dances around spoilers but the Private Collection has no problem revealing the entire game. The Saturn version is the final release, and comes in a 3 CD package with a hardcover art booklet. The video looks slightly worse than the PlayStation version, but it’s also a bit smoother. It also contains a few extra scenes and slightly modified story elements, making it the most comprehensive of the console releases, as well as light gun support for the shooting segments. It also has most of the goodies from the Private Collection, including the ability to look up any term in the glossary via hyperlinks in the in-game text.
Thanks to Charlie Johnson from the Junker HQ for the PC98 pics and Jonny2x4 for the info on the 3DO Pilot Disc.