73 replies to this topic

[Tiril Darente]

Khoresch, on 12 October 2012 - 09:56 AM, said:

I'll ask him how much it would cost to ship one of these east, just to tease you guys out there.

You have my attention. Was flirting with the idea but figured trying to find a proxy too difficult.

[Anders Ooooo]

PropWash, on 12 October 2012 - 09:25 AM, said:

I stand corrected. Based on those pics, you have a 2.5 pod.

Beware the air circulation fans. Lost many a fingertip to those bad boys.

Ouch! Well the four 12v fans that I see on this one seems well situated away from anywhere I may accidentally poke my fingers. I'm guessing air is pulled up from below near the CPU cage and sent out the top. Nifty design. I read somewhere that Frog Design designed these, who also designed Apple's products in the 80's.

Paul

[M4NTiC0R3X]

Oh ya, me... Dave & Busters 'n a slightly upgraded version of those puppies.. the days!

[Anders Ooooo]

PropWash, on 11 October 2012 - 04:16 PM, said:

Even IF the pod was complete and operational and managed to fully finish its IPL, there is no game code on the boards

To make this vintage Virtual World cockpit work you need the ARCnet network and the console MAC with the custom software and the psuedo-proprietary macintosh A/ROSE ARCnet board

I suppose I could send him an Email.

ARCnet.. *cringe* Well, I guess that's one of the coaxial cables running out the top of the console (the other coaxial being video). I was searching around for CAT5.

I didn't see any hard drives or large EPROM banks so figured likely the unit netboots everything but had no intention of restoring it to the original software anyway. There is quite a bit of reusable hardware and the cabinet space is huge even without removing the CRTs and CPU boards, well ventilated with four fans. Could fit in a PC inside along with every single game console you own and an amp with video input/HDMI switcher and have a nice game console. If I figure out the serial protocol for the 'HC11 board, it would take about $15-$40 in a USB PIC boards & adapters off eBay plus a bit of programming to get these nifty panel buttons & encoders to talk tio PC or PS3/XBOX games.

Paul

[Anders Ooooo]

Loc ***, on 12 October 2012 - 10:40 AM, said:

Damn. I'm six hours away in LA at the moment. Any serious interest in these?

I'm only 2hrs away, but have been on the phone with Last Chance a few times this morning. Of the 4 they had left as of 10am, they are already spoken for and I'm on their backup list for at least one should the buyer flounder...

With his timely post here, Anders was successful in his efforts to ensure they did not go to waste.

-Loc

Wow! I'm so glad these won't go to waste. I thought word would get out about these but after a couple days, they were still out there in the back of the yard near a dumpster. Knowing rain was coming, I looked around for the very best place to avert this potential tragedy. Mission accomplished!

Cheers!!

Paul

[Hakkukakt]

raaaaaahhhhh ... but very tooo far from Swiss

[Mattiator]

I'd love to have one of these but considering they'd take up more than 60% of my current floorspace I wouldn't have been able to get one.

[DeadEye Jake]

ZIM, on 11 October 2012 - 07:36 AM, said:

Oh the memories! I was running in those in Chicago way back when. They even had me in the intro video once, before they hired actors. Too bad I'm thousands of miles away from those, would love to grab a pair.

Same here! If I was not all the way on the East coast, I would be on this like white on rice! My friends and I used to fly to Chicago once a month, just to play in these things!!

Edited by DeadEye Jake, 12 October 2012 - 10:33 PM.

[Random2CM6]

SLAYER, on 11 October 2012 - 11:48 AM, said:

Any idea which site these came from? Nor Cal so could be Sacramento, SF, or the ones from Costa Mesa I brought up to Sac?

Oh good, I read this thread and was depressed at the thought they might have been the Costa Mesa pods.

[PropWash]

We have a LOT of pods here in Michigan.

Fly to Grand Rapids and play in the 12 Tesla II's set up at Big Kidz Games.

Someone here has some 2.5's in storage waiting for the right time to triumphantly return.

[LadyZowy]

Wish i could get my hands on one. The Canadian outfits that ran these things sold them all to US game arcades in the mid 90's never once got to play in one.

[Goliath_Scorpion]

well, for 25$USD, they are awesomeness... too bad my heavy self never got to play in one... *sigh*. I have a the IT/EET degrees and training to build these "Isolation Gaming Pods"... but they would be relatively expensive. compared to 25$USD

[sadnonmage]

HSSG MaddogK, on 11 October 2012 - 08:13 AM, said:

Heh, prolly fought you back then, sheesh my BTC card is still in my wallet. Yup, those pods are just as I remember them.

BTC card, I have one of those around here somewhere.....

[Sennin]

PropWash, on 13 October 2012 - 05:14 AM, said:

We have a LOT of pods here in Michigan.

Fly to Grand Rapids and play in the 12 Tesla II's set up at Big Kidz Games.

Someone here has some 2.5's in storage waiting for the right time to triumphantly return.

I'm not too savy on the different versions but I played in the pods just like these at Dave & Buster's in Utica, Michigan most of my teenage years and even after when they converted to the Firestorm MW4 version of the game. We had a league of about 50 regulars and I would play every thursday night until after they closed and had to kick us out. The original version was so much fun and more realistic, it kept you constantly managing everything in the cockpit and not just looking at what was on the screen..

When they tried to make it easier for new players and switched to Firestorm, none of the regulars liked it. The old players were pissed because the new system made it too easy and the new players were pissed because when they sat in to play they would get crushed by guys like me even worse than the old versions of the game.

Now you tell me there are still pods in Michigan? I didnt know! I just went home on vacation for 3 weeks and I could have played Battletech in pods! OMFG! I would have been happier than a pig in sh*t! I think I need to go sob uncontrollably in a corner somewhere for a while. LOL

[Yip6]

As a former Chicago employee, I am shocked, and amazed that Darklord actually remembers what a 1st gen pod looks like.

And here I thought he was getting old'ed.

[RFMarine]

I played that in chicago years ago!

[PropWash]

Dont people GOOGLE anymore? The pods never left Michigan.

LordZowy, on 15 October 2012 - 07:11 AM, said:

Wish i could get my hands on one. The Canadian outfits that ran these things sold them all to US game arcades in the mid 90's never once got to play in one.

I thought the only pods that were in Canada were in Montreal.

Those were VWE owned.

[Darklord]

Yip6, on 15 October 2012 - 09:23 PM, said:

As a former Chicago employee, I am shocked, and amazed that Darklord actually remembers what a 1st gen pod looks like.

And here I thought he was getting old'ed.

Oh i'm old you young whipper snapper.

Hello Yip^6

The only player I knew that could drive a mech while sitting on 1 leg
And keep a v4 from overheating at 0% cooling

Edited by Darklord, 16 October 2012 - 04:22 PM.

[Yip6]

And Darklord, capable of kicking your a** no matter WHAT 'Mech you put him in.

There's still a Tesla pod out there with my blood on the inside of it; I cut myself while we were packing them and left my DNA.

You know, for luck.

[Tarl Cabot]

Dang. I had taken my nephew to Dallas one summer, hmm, many years ago!!! We went to Six Flags, the water place (whatever it was and Virtual World, one each day. On the 4th day I allowed him to decide where we would go and it was back to VW. Still have the print outs and VHS tape recording of one of our drops.

Which reminds me, I need to convert it to digital