11 replies to this topic

[Galendryl]

Seriously, imagine the equivalent today. With modern hardwares and MWO in the cockpits.
Nice stuff IMO *_*

[Zanathan]

That is a cool find. Was this real or just a concept?

[Joseph Mallan]

Zanathan, on 08 September 2014 - 04:36 AM, said:

That is a cool find. Was this real or just a concept?

It was real. I know a guy here in Michigan who has 6 of the pods from a MW center near here. He has them set up in his barn/garage.

[Kain]

Those mech pods were real

[Jody Von Jedi]

I have a friend that used to work for a company in Chicago that built "Mech Pits". He was a BT player and right out of school, when these things were big. He said a member of the Disney family bought the company shortly after he left.

[Gravitas]

Since about 2006, I have played/volunteered with the group VGCorps in the Dallas, TX area. They are owners/operators of 8 of the Virtual World Tesla II pods, and there are a few locations around the US where you might find them, as well as conventions to which pods are taken.

http://mechjock.com is the official website now.

http://en.wikipedia....tleTech_Centers will give a little bit of background info.

http://getinthepods.com is kept up mostly by the Houston MechCorps group and has convention appearances listed. Currently, afaik, VGL Underground from Michgan, Fallout Shelter Arcade from Minnesota, VGCorps from Texas, and MechCorps from Texas are the ones that take pods to conventions. Check the sites for more info.


And you can also find Virtual World Entertainment on Facebook, if you're looking for community members. Great history can be found if you search for VirtualWorldLLC 's channel on YouTube.


Now all that info will lead on an on, but to sum up, the pods are awesome, I've met many great people and enjoyed a lot of games in them. I first played back in 94-95, only getting to visit a Virtual World site 3 times then. I never forgot it, and I was very fortunate and happy to rediscover them in 06. If you get a chance, go try them out. The Battletech game currently running in them is Battletech: Firestorm and based off of the MechWarrior 4 engine. Yes, it's long in the tooth, and yes the graphics aren't the latest. But is still holds as one of the best ways to play a MechWarrior game.

Edited by Gravitas, 08 September 2014 - 06:41 AM.

[bane]

The Battletech Centers were great, and alot (ok a few) of Dave & Buster's used to have them. It was a cornerstone of their arcade game area's. You could do upto a 4v4 match normally. They also had tournaments between sites at times. The guy in Kalamazoo, MI bought a bunch from Chicago, and I believe is the one who takes them to some of the Con's like GenCon. The really cool part was the after-action printout that showed what you did and what was done to you in the game.

[Darklord]

I used to work and the Chicago Battletech Center from 90-97, started as tech and worked my way up to manager and also had plenty of time as a play tester.
The best part of the pods was the chance to interact with other players.We had so many people from around the world coming in to Chicago just to play in the pods.
If you ever get a chance to go to one of the Cons that have the pods I would strongly suggest trying them out it really adds to the game.

[McHoshi]

Solaris would be fine

[Darth Futuza]

I played this once. 'Twas fun.

[Jakob Knight]

Actually, MW4 was in large part the home port of the later Pod games. Very similar graphics and gameplay. However, the pod cockpits were -fully functional-, which meant you had to watch -everything- all around you. The various readouts, the multiple displays, the isolated nature of the pod, all changed the battle immensely.

I was one of the people who got to test the first prototype pods back at the first GenCon where they were revealed. At the time, standing in the Registration line, we thought they were mock-ups to promote Mechwarrior 2. Needless to say, when we saw what they were, we literally fell over. I don't think those pods were idle the entire 5 days of the convention, and I remember pointing to the weapons display and remarking how the mech I was piloting couldn't have all the weapons displayed. "These are Omnimechs" the guy running the pods told me "They are coming out next month."

So was my first hint of what the Clans were going to be.

Good times.

Edited by Jakob Knight, 08 September 2014 - 02:21 PM.

[Davegt27]

crazy I found this video earlier today

I remember watching this on one of my favorite shows Beyond 2000