22 replies to this topic

[Trixxstrr]

The virtual world entertainment BattleTech centers. Here is the training video they used to play for the 3.0 version.

I went to the Chicago one in North Pier around 1993 when i was 12 while on vacation with my family. It was the coolest thing ever for me at the time. The way they had the cockpit pods set up with the joysticks and all of the different switches around the screen was really great. It was almost overwhelming for me, and I'm sure I did pretty badly at it. I think it was 8 or 10 pods of people playing against each other. It seemed way ahead of its time to me. I remember after the match they gave you a battle report that was a few pages long that showed every event from the match of who hit who for how much damage etc. That would be a cool thing to see in MWO too actually. Anyway from what I read they updated the game version a few times over the years so I'm sure some of you played the newer versions also.

[Adrienne Vorton]

if there was any in germany, i´d probably live in it

[Daemon Lance]

There was one in houston,Tx it was awesome. I guess it was located at a mall. I would have been 14 in 1993 that seems about right. Didn't live in texas though so i only played a total of 5 times. I dreamed constantly of that place.

[Protoculture]

I went to one in a mall when I was a kid and then later when I was in my early 20's I worked at a Dave and Busters that had one and I ran the game myself.

It ran on 486's on a token ring network and it also ran a mars racing game that I forget the name of.

The pods had programmable buttons and foot pedals that controlled the lower half of the mech with joystick on the torso and you could link weapons in groups etc.

After the game there was a replay with a 3rd person follow cam that spent the most time following the leader but showed clips of every player in the game.

There were tournaments, including employee ones, but I never went to any of those. I do miss the pods they were amazing.

[Haroldwolf]

There was one in Old Pasadena that I went to regularly when I lived in SoCal.

[PirateLincoln]

Used to go to the Virtual World in Indianapolis. Even after they stopped being a Virtual World they kept the pods for a few years. Miss those days, now the only time there are pods in Indy is during GenCon. Not that I live there anymore, but still.

[President Camacho]

Haha, yeah! My dad used to take me when I was like 14! The Virtual World in walnut creek.They had some other game too, like a race game set on mars or something...cant remember. Never really played that one.

[Grits N Gravy]

Here is a great video from a show in 1992 that shows the Alpha builds. The first pods ran on 4 motherboards with 32 mb of ram.
I played on these and it was awesome.

The cockpits were really cool and had more in common with a flight sim than shooter. You had two monitors, one with a radar that was between your legs and the primary which showed the front view. The sides had all your weapons listed with 3 colored buttons. You would use these to group weapons. You used foot pedals to steer, and the throttle to set your speed, it had a clutch button that you would press to go in reverse. Above the primary screen were rocker switches that controlled misc stuff. It was a very complicated setup. They later switched it to steer with the joystick and the aim cursor was always aligned with the center. You could press one of the rocker switches and go to the old school setup.

Edited by Grits N Gravy, 09 September 2012 - 06:33 PM.

[DonGardenio]

I heard stories from my friends who played it down here in Malaysia. We used to have a **** City down here which apparently had those pods.

Sadly I never got a run on those things and the place closed down.

[p3ppi]

I once played in such a thing in Los Angeles. Something called triangel-square next to the NIKE-Tower or so. Is there something similar in germany ?

[Greenday]

I'm actually fortunate enough to own a couple Virtual World 3.0 cockpits. Here are a couple videos of me racing a few courses solo in Red Planet.

Kiwi's Karma:


Head Office:

Edited by Greenday, 10 September 2012 - 05:17 AM.

[Greenday]

One more :-)


Shroom's Lair:

[Iern]

...does that bring memories

I went and played pods in Trocadero (London) whenever I could, back in the mid 90ties...it was simply awesome implementation of btech....

[Atlas3060]

I still try to make it when my schedule isn't messed up.

[bunny fu fu]

They still have them up and running every-year, for the local sci-fi anime convention in Lake Charles LA.

[DLFReporter]

Wasn't there an entire (although **** poor) book dedicated to the Battletech Center Idea?
The one where they somehow manage to teleport a woman into the IS from our 'dimension'. ^^

[Greenday]

DLFReporter, on 10 September 2012 - 05:38 AM, said:

Wasn't there an entire (although **** poor) book dedicated to the Battletech Center Idea?
The one where they somehow manage to teleport a woman into the IS from our 'dimension'. ^^

[SilvaDraconis]

I miss them dearly. None near me anymore and I still haven't had the $ to ****** up my own set.

[Fabian Hansen]

Trixxstrr, on 09 September 2012 - 07:54 AM, said:

The virtual world entertainment BattleTech centers. Here is the training video they used to play for the 3.0 version.

So that's where Judd Nelson ended up.

Greenday, on 10 September 2012 - 05:40 AM, said:

I remember reading the German version, which was part of the official Battletech novel series. Very weird, despite being written by Nigel Findley, who was one of the better Shadowrun authors.

[Rat of the Legion Vega]

Before this game, the only time I had played multiplayer mechwarrior was two matches as a kid at the Virtual World pods in the C.N. Tower Canada. I dominated both matches, but then I was mostly fighting other kids and their parents. I also bought a "Mad Cat" patch there I put on the shoulder of my jacket sleeve back in the day.