In the game Metal Gear Solid and its sequels (Metal Gear Solid: VR Bullshit No One Cares About; Metal Gear Solid 2: More Solider; Metal Gear 3: Not So Solid; Metal Gear Portable: Diminishing Returns), Solid Snake communicates with co-workers via Codec radio. By the time the player finishes the game, it’s clear that Codec’ing is the most annoying form of communication known to man. Not only do people frequently grouse at Solid Snake (and by extension, you) for not doing his job right, they would often blab all the exposition of the story while Snake sulked and pouted about how nobody loved his brooding, whiny ass. The irony was that the player was made to feel rewarded for gaining Codec frequency codes, the game’s equivalent to cell phone numbers. As if. It was like someone slipping you a coupon for a free root canal.

The most notable thing about the Codec conversations, besides their overwrought melodrama, was their length. Gamers sat through hours and hours of these conversations trying to make sense of a labyrinthe plot that would confuse Tolkein, in the fear that skipping them might mean missing one vital bit of information necessary to clear the next level. In the time it took Snake to work through his issues long enough to have a conversation with Mei Lin or Naomi, you could renew your license at the DMV, make a soufflé and still have time to witness the entire course of human history.

The developers sure did love the Codec: those conversations must have been a Hell of a lot cheaper to produce than expository cutscenes. We’ll give them this, though: it was kind of cool when Snake would die and you’d hear, via Codec, “SNAAAAAAKE!”