Metal Slug Complete PC 1-7 (1 DVD)

 

System Requirements:
OS: Windows XP or above
Direct X: Direct X 9.0c
CPU: 1.2 GHz Intel Pentium 4 Processor or equivalent
System Memory: XP: 512MB, Vista / Win7: 1GB
Hard Drive Space: 2.5GB
Video card: Direct X 9.0c with 128MB of Video RAM
Sound Card: Direct X 9.0c Compatible Sound Card
Input devices: Keyboard or Joystick

Descriptions:
Metal Slug Complete PC is game pack consisting of 7 games: metal slug 1, 2, x, 3, 4, 5 and 6. While some of them were available on pc since last year, they didn’t get much attention, as it was a Korean-only release, and included just the first 4 games.

Metal Slug 4 and 5 are nice addition, but they were available for the pc through various emulators, NeoRageX and MAME being the most popular choice. Story of Metal Slug 6 is a bit different; the arcade version was released for the Sammy Atomiswave arcade platform instead of Neo-Geo platform in 2006. PS2 port came in late 2006 with additional features, like sound and art galeries and combat school. Later, it came out as a part of Metal Slug Anthology for Wii, PS2 and PSP.

So it cannot be emulated at all? Not quite, as Metal Slug 6 is playable on ps2 emulator, although random freezing, framerate dropping and other glitches prevent it from being perfectly emulated. Atomiswave arcade platform emulation is not an option as MS6 rom hasn’t been dumped yet. Third option is waiting for Dolphin (NGC/Wii emulator). In 2009, Dolphin could run MSA intro sequence, and then it would freeze; maybe recent builds have more luck.

Sure, Metal Slug 6 for consoles have more extras, but is PC version not enough? It runs at fixed 800×600 resolution @30fps, without framedrops, but without advanced graphic options, either. There are minor glitches with shadows, but that is easily overlooked. The problem lies with saving the progress, as the saving is similar to “save states”, type of instant save games, enabling players to save and load at any time. Well, almost at any time, as the problems occurs when player loads the previous game session data, then the game crashes! (needs confirmation,tested only on one windows). Other options include setting the sound volume and music library. The game itself comes with few extra settings, most of them depend on your save game data which renders them kinda unusable as you have to beat the game on hard to unlock most things, and that is not an easy task.