Metal Gear Solid became a stealth game because of weak hardware

A closer look

Hiding in a cardboard box wasn't born out of tactical genius; it was born out of technical desperation. Hideo Kojima originally wanted to make a fast-paced, action-heavy combat game. However, the MSX2 computer hardware he was developing on would viciously lag and flicker if more than a few enemy sprites were rendered on screen at once. To avoid crashing the game, Kojima simply changed the entire objective from 'shoot the enemies' to 'avoid the enemies'. Technical ineptitude single-handedly birthed the modern stealth genre.