78 replies to this topic

[Scout Derek]

Per title.

Positive thread was needed.


For me, 1996. MechWarrior 2. Friend of father gave me it to try out. From there I played the MechWarrior Franchise up to today.

[Coolant]

1993, was in the Navy and while underway found a copy of the original Mechwarrior for DOS on a floppy disk in my shop's desk drawer. I played it regularly until I got back to the States. Have no idea how it got there and I never saw anyone else playing.

Flash forward to 2004, saw a copy of the Mechwarrior 4 Compilation Pack (Vengeance, Black Knight and Mercenaries) at Walmart and bought it reminiscing of the great time I had playing the original Mechwarrior.

Edited by Coolant, 24 April 2017 - 01:29 PM.

[Jables McBarty]

Not sure when the first time I had contact with it. A childhood friend of mine had some of the toys with action figures--presumably from the cartoon. Possibly the same friend played MW2 on his computer while I watched. This was when I was pretty young--7 or 8, possibly earlier, as the memories are pretty fuzzy. But I didn't know of these things as "battletech" or "mechwarrior" at the time--just as cool robot thingies.

I first knew what BT/MW were when I played MW3 at another friend's house, probably soon after it released, which would put me at 11 or so. That was when it came prepackaged with the Sidewinder joy stick. He gave me a burned copy which I then played over and over again.

It was either after playing MW3, or even a decade after that when I played MW4 (after the freelease) or even MWO that I recontextualized those earliest memories of MW2/BattleTech cartoon toys as being MW/BT-related.

Edited by Jables McBarty, 24 April 2017 - 01:38 PM.

[Ruar]

1987-88 or so. One of the guys in my Boy Scout troop brought in the 3025 Tech manual. I ended up buying it off him and pretty much memorized it.

[Composite Armour]

I played Mech Assault on the Xbox, it was a fun game and I enjoyed it, but time went on and I mostly forgot about it. Couple of years later I see a vid randomly for MWO, recognized the Atlas from MA and here I am.

[Cabusha]

Mid-90s PC Gamer article featuring MechWarrior 2. Been hooked on MW / Battletech ever since.

[Dimento Graven]

1982, table top.

Followed it ever since.

[JediPanther]

I briefly played battletech on my dad's commodore 64 then tried the mechwarrior for snes/genesis before promptly forgetting them as bad boring games playing other games. Years later i saw the catapult trailer for closed beta and as luck had it i had the cash for it so i went for it all.

i had a blast playing the c1,joined a fraction warfare unit playing with the great Warpigs merc Company as a Cat/lrm specialist before expanding into light mechs. The Catapult c1 and k2 still remain my top two mechs for usage. currently unable to play the game due to money and hardware issues for about a year and half so far but i'll return eventually.

I keep a back up copy of the game files for personal use even though I haven't been able to extract or remodel the mechs in a 3d program.

[Jay Leon Hart]

I can list my first three with rough dates;

Between 1994 & 1997 - BattleTech: The Animated Series. I used to love watching the big stompy robot show. Maulers are cool! Jade Falcon suck! (But Summoners are cool!) I used to watch it when I went to my nan's house after school.

Between 1997 & 1999 (I know it was this range, because I only got a PS1 when GTA and Tekken 3 were released) - MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat. What a game! I was so bad at it and didn't understand anything, but WOW PPCS ARE COOL! I think this may have been the first FPS I ever played (either this or Unreal on my cousin's PC). Even though I was really bad (like, worse than my MWO stats, bad) at the game, I still enjoyed playing it.

1999 - MechWarrior 3. This is when it *really* started for me. I loved this game (I still have my boxed copy in pretty decent nick). My uncle let me play his copy when I visited and when I got my first PC for Christmas, it was one of the first games I bought (along with Total Annihilation). And thus began my "never use consumable resource, I might need them later!" hang-up that pretty much persists to this day. I completed MW3 (and later, MW4 and expansions) using only Energy weapons, as I didn't want to "waste money" on ammo. I never got the play the MW3 expansion... I may have to "acquire" it

[WrathOfDeadguy]

I had a brief run-in with the franchise growing up back in the 90s when I caught reruns of the Btech cartoon on TV, but I had no idea what it was until years later when I was digging through the lore after playing through MW3 and MW4... then just sort of fell down the rabbit hole.

[Lazor Sharp]

I first got to play MW2 Mercs at a friend of my wife's house... Her husband was out of town, so she cranked up his computer and game, and I learned how to play it over the week end, while they BS'ed about girl things..... Promptly bought MW2 when I got home..... Been a Fan ever since......
So the girls had Stevie Ray Vaughn and various Austin local artist's going in the next room

Edited by Lazor Sharp, 24 April 2017 - 02:53 PM.

[ocular tb]

First experience was probably around 1996 when we got our first PC and MW2 came with it. That was my obsession for much of the 90's although I never got to play the other games. It wasn't until about 2009 that I actually got to play MW4 and then I found out about MWO in 2013 and been here ever since.

[Bishop Steiner]

Scout Derek, on 24 April 2017 - 01:20 PM, said:

Per title.

Positive thread was needed.


For me, 1996. MechWarrior 2. Friend of father gave me it to try out. From there I played the MechWarrior Franchise up to today.

1987.

7th Grade. Was hanging out with one of my Heavy Metal/Skater Dood buddies like the little snot nosed punks we were, talking about stuff, and D&D was brought up. Happens that his house was literally right next door to the school, so we decided to skip class after lunch, and go play some RPGs.

Anyhow, knowing my fondness for Robotech and other Mecha anime, he busts out his Battletech Collection, some minis, a map, etc. Roll up a character (Mechwarrior RPG 1ed), a Kuritan from the Rasalhague District, and I roll a Warhammer mech.

We pop on some Death (Scream Bloody Gore had just been released, and thanks to the magic of cassette swapping, I got introduced to another long time love and obsession the same afternoon), and go to town. He lends me Mercenary's Star, which I read in whole that evening, and I pretty much never look back.

Been my favorite game and Sci Fi IP ever since.

Edited by Bishop Steiner, 24 April 2017 - 02:05 PM.

[Bud Crue]

Bishop Steiner, on 24 April 2017 - 02:05 PM, said:

1987.

7th Grade. Was hanging out with one of my Heavy Metal/Skater Dood buddies like the little snot nosed punks we were, talking about stuff, and D&D was brought up. Happens that his house was literally right next door to the school, so we decided to skip class after lunch, and go play some RPGs.

Anyhow, knowing my fondness for Robotech and other Mecha anime, he busts out his Battletech Collection, some minis, a map, etc. Roll up a character (Mechwarrior RPG 1ed), a Kuritan from the Rasalhague District, and I roll a Warhammer mech.

We pop on some Death (Scream Bloody Gore had just been released, and thanks to the magic of cassette swapping, I got introduced to another long time love and obsession the same afternoon), and go to town. He lends me Mercenary's Star, which I read in whole that evening, and I pretty much never look back.

Been my favorite game and Sci Fi IP ever since.

Almost identical, but for my awakening was in '85 with Battledroids, Twisted Sister and Run DMC.

[Moonlight Grimoire]

Local friends back in spring 2001 showed me MechWarrior 4: Vengeance when I was 10 or so. Great game, was in and out of touch with the series, eventually got MW4:Mercs in 2003 or so after hanging out at a friends place and seeing it there. Kept really in it with the dark age novels and the dark age clicky tech (heresy I know, I loved the sculpts and for your first tabletop the rules were simple enough to not drown in). Kind of lost track of Battletech after WizKidz died, though they sent me a nice parting gift of a huge box of models as a "we are sorry for those botched models you bought" including some con exclusive mini's.

Then I want to say around 2009-2010 I got into MW:LL for a few months then drifted back off again. It wasn't until Rabtar became my friend and brought me into the old school tabletop and now MWO in 2013-2014 that I really got deep into Battletech though. I had some light knowledge of the universe, I had gotten MechAssault 1 and 2 in High School and had fun with them, but always wondered where the hell the series went and was sad that it was pretty much dead.

Now? I do some 3d design on the side reviving battletech designs such as the Champion (see my signature) and 3d printing models as well as playing the tabletop from time to time in person. It is certainly cheaper than 40k ever was (not to derail). Once midterms are over I need to get back to resurrecting a few vehicles from battletech to show off, got a few fun ones kind of sketched up but need to be translated to 3d for rendering goodness. Sadly I have 0 skill at texture work.

[Bishop Steiner]

Bud Crue, on 24 April 2017 - 02:10 PM, said:

Almost identical, but for my awakening was in '85 with Battledroids, Twisted Sister and Run DMC.

Pre 1987, my RPG play was limited to D&D, RuneQuest and Top Secret SI. What can I say, it wasn't ultra common and accepted yet, and well, I was under 12, so my own freedom was limited. It's funny how much more accessible all this stuff is now than ever, and yet how the death of brick and mortar comic shops, rise of online gaming and such has really shafted pen and paper and TT RPG play.

[Stonekeg]

I was introduced first to table top sometime around 91-92. I had a shiny new Mad Cat come rolling out of the wood-line into a worn torn battlefield, and was ready to mop up the remnants. Then there was the part where I was introduced to a cockpit kill.

I've been looking for vengeance ever since.

Edited by stonekeg, 24 April 2017 - 02:16 PM.

[Bud Crue]

Bishop Steiner, on 24 April 2017 - 02:12 PM, said:

Pre 1987, my RPG play was limited to D&D, RuneQuest and Top Secret SI. What can I say, it wasn't ultra common and accepted yet, and well, I was under 12, so my own freedom was limited. It's funny how much more accessible all this stuff is now than ever, and yet how the death of brick and mortar comic shops, rise of online gaming and such has really shafted pen and paper and TT RPG play.

Damn I forgot about Top Secret. Mine were D&D and then AD&D...I loved those hard covers...and as a child of the cold war Gamma World (I assumed we were all going to be irradiated into mutants or killed by the bomb so it was a natural fit). I didn't get biggly into BT until a bit later, but once I got a few others on board BattleTech (and a bit of AeroTech too) became our primary TT/RPG game (never really got into MW as an RPG though god knows we tried).

[Metus regem]

1993, thanks to this game:




How ever it wasn't until October of 1995 that I really got into it, thanks to a friend of mine introducing me to a group of guys at lunch during my grade 8 year of High-school that were playing this:



From there it's been a part of my life for nearly the last 22 years.

[ScrapIron Prime]

1985. Discovered the board game at Wargames West in Albuquerque, immediately became a regular. Bought pretty much everything since then, tabletop or computer, except Mech Assault.