205 replies to this topic

[Zyllos]

DamoclesGuard, on 02 November 2011 - 09:14 PM, said:

I always wanted to. but there wasn't one within 10,000 kilometers of me. Seriously, I live in Oklahoma, nothing cool ever comes to Oklahoma.

Oh now, I travelled to Gen Con Indy (man, leaving after work @ 6:00pm and driving until about 10:00am the next morning sucks!) this year and played in the pods for the first time. And I live in Oklahoma also!

FYI, my call sign is the same as listed on this forum.

[tennisen]

I played them in Toronto, they use to have them in the bottom of the CN Tower...it was fun and immersive but: Limited mech, and expensive and I was young and therefore poor back then so I never went back. Still now with a decent rig and this game coming out... I might just be able to buid my own pod! I smell a summer project and a very angry wife coming to my home office real soon!

Edited by tennisen, 03 November 2011 - 08:58 AM.

[Creel]

Just moved to DFW and have been itching to get back in the pods. Haven't made it over there yet.

[Phoenix33]

I had over 300 missions in the one's that where in the Dave & Busters in Atlanta. I really miss those pods.

[astral]

PropWash, on 02 November 2011 - 05:48 AM, said:

Up here in the Northern sector the cockpits are generally from VGL Underground in Kalamazoo, MI (GenCon, ACEN, Origins, YoumaCon, Chicago ComiCon) or from the Fallout Shelter Arcade up in the Twin Cities.

Fallout Shelter Arcade Does Anime Detour and Convergence in MN, and just last weekend had there Grand opening of there new space and are now running missions every Sat and Sun, check em out http://falloutshelterarcade.com

[Thomas Hogarth]

Sauron, on 31 October 2011 - 11:12 PM, said:

I played in the set that was in the Palisades Dave and Busters and loved it so much that when the put the pods up for sale at the end of the lease era with D&B, I bought the 8 pods that were there and put them in my basement in northern NJ. I ran them there from September of 2005 until I sold them in November of 2009. My beloved old set is now in Minnesota and still operational. This year I moved from NJ to the Dallas, TX area, I just could not bare being too far away from the pods, so now I'm near 2 sets of pods, the Dallas set and the Houston set, though I do need to make a trip down to Houston, this past summer was just tad hotter than I expected to find here in Texas.

If you have not yet played in a pod, or you have and you are looking for a set near you to play in check: http://getinthepods....-locations.html I believe that is the most up to date page at this time with the current locations of VWE Tesla II pods running Battletech : Firestorm. GET IN THE POD! Maybe we can get Piranha to consider figuring out a way to get the new game into the sim pods also. To date, no version of Battletech on a computer beats playing the sim in a pod! (IMHO)

Oh, hey, I played with you when you guys traveled down to Miami.

A note on MWO in pods: As I understand, the pods are basically PCs running fairly simple software. The display is a refraction(?) display... I don't think its input is different than that of a regular monitor. The controls wouldn't be hard at all to port to the new game - in fact, they may have drivers for Windows which would make the whole thing quite easy indeed. The hard part is the MFDs and their associated functions.

[Darklord]

Porting over has a few big hurdles to get past.Not as easy as you think.


DL

[Tritarian]

Indianapolis, IN 4th floor circle center mall.

Took my 150th mission pummeling in a raptor, vs 7 mixed heavy/assault frames.

I still got 5 kills, and 12 deaths thou.
Great times....

[Ghost]

The only game I ever played in a pod was Unreal Tournament. It was pretty great.

[PropWash]

I hear that a lot.

Its not a driver / joystick setup. It is over 96 control devices with high resolution optical encoders. Each button IO function has multiple layers of illumination and response levels tied directly with the behavior in the software.

Also, the main screen is an infinity optics visualization system. The mirror starts at $3000 and the beam splitter is about $2000.

To date....Nobody had come even close to what the current Tesla system is or can do. After 15 years, it is still king.

thomas hogarth, on 03 November 2011 - 10:11 AM, said:

Oh, hey, I played with you when you guys traveled down to Miami.

A note on MWO in pods: As I understand, the pods are basically PCs running fairly simple software. The display is a refraction(?) display... I don't think its input is different than that of a regular monitor. The controls wouldn't be hard at all to port to the new game - in fact, they may have drivers for Windows which would make the whole thing quite easy indeed. The hard part is the MFDs and their associated functions.

[CrescentHawk]

I played in the pods whenever I found them. I loved using the Highlander. No one ever expected something that big to go airborne. Highlander Burial baby.

[Buzzkillin]

I saw it at a Dave and Busters years ago, I wanted to play it so bad, but I was young and stupid and played another game while waiting for my family. So when we finally got there they told me I didn't have enough credits. So I just watched a few matches. I would really like another chance to play in one.

[PoorImpulseControl]

The reason there are only a few titles available for the Tesla pods is due to the custom nature of the hardware that Propwash touched on earlier. There have been quite a few people that have said "oh, well couldn't you just port X over?" with no real concept of what was going on "behind the scenes." Long story short: There is quite a bit of what I'll call "limited production run" hardware that was custom designed and built for the Tesla system.

That being said, I do hope that Virtual World's affiliation with Smith and Tinker allow for some development to breathe some life into the old pods...Or foster some development on some new ones!

[Johnathan McKenna]

I've never had the opportunity to play in one... to my eternal regret

[PropWash]

Rest assured, I'm kissing every ring, lifting every rock, bribing every...Well.. Lets say I'm working hard on great things for our existing Tesla II operators and community as well as things that could dramatically expand our installation base.

PoorImpulseControl, on 03 November 2011 - 09:20 PM, said:

The reason there are only a few titles available for the Tesla pods is due to the custom nature of the hardware that Propwash touched on earlier. There have been quite a few people that have said "oh, well couldn't you just port X over?" with no real concept of what was going on "behind the scenes." Long story short: There is quite a bit of what I'll call "limited production run" hardware that was custom designed and built for the Tesla system.

That being said, I do hope that Virtual World's affiliation with Smith and Tinker allow for some development to breathe some life into the old pods...Or foster some development on some new ones!

[Joseph Mallan]

Holding my breath for you to get this game in your pods! I'd make the trip again for the experience and fun.

[HooDoo]

I can honestly say in my opinion it is hands down the best simulation of Mech combat out there! I was fortunate to have played in the old VW site in Dallas back in the 3.0 days and then got to play with a great group of guys with the Tesla 4.0-4.9 pods.

[ice trey]

Nope, but I've always wanted to. I know they used to have a pod in the CN tower, once upon a time, but I think that's long gone by now.

That was the only thing I'd ever wanted to do in Toronto as a kid, and my parents avoided the CN tower outright, short-changing me of my chance.

[PropWash]

Well I'm happy to say that the pods are alive and well at select locations around the US.

http://www.mechjock.com/main/sites/

With the travelling sets, there is a chance that some will appear not TOO far from you in the next year or so.

MechCorps, MechJock, TFA, and VG Corps will likely be expanding their convention schedules in the next few years.

Call it a hunch.

Keep an eye on www.getinthepods.com (the site is owned and operated by MechCorp, an independent Tesla II cockpit operator) to see where the cockpits are travelling to.

You will find that many, if not most, regular BattleTech pilots are on these forums and will be extremely active in this community.

Collectively, we are all very excited by Piranhas plan for MechWarrior OnLine.

And for what its worth, we try to keep all of our news updated at http://www.battletech.com as it is one of our web sites.

Edited by PropWash, 04 November 2011 - 05:29 AM.

[IntruderAlert]

I played in the pods when they came to Indianapolis and set up for a while on the launch of the new Circle Center (1993-4).
I still have all the old Virtual World brochures and booklets. My first intro into BattelTech.

-IA(FWL)