21 replies to this topic

[Sauron]

While you're waiting for all these great games to come out later this year, satiate your hunger for action at a local Battletech : Firestorm pod site.

Some of you may have heard of these cockpits known as the Tesla II pods made by Virtual World Entertainment (VWE) back in 1995. Some of you may not.

At present these are still the closest thing to experiencing piloting an actual Battlemech on Earth.

I currently am an active pilot at a site located in Dallas, TX.

The pods recently moved into their current location and we're about to kick off a planetary war system known as HEAT. (a 3 month league) We are also kicking off a dueling ladder. Solaris drops on Saturday nights will be used as a complimentary part of the HEAT war. Touraments like gunslingers and Tandem Destruction are being held soon too. Aside from having an active Battletech : Firestorm community the Dallas site has an active Red Planet community that meets on Thursday nights.

Get in the pod and join us:

(site) http://www.vgcorps.com/
(forums) http://forums.vgcorps.com/
(facebook) http://www.facebook.com/vgcorps

Not close to Dallas? OK, here's a link that will help you find a pod site close to you: (hopefully)
http://maps.google.c...9,61.347656&z=4

Always look forward to meeting new pilots and helping them learn the game we're all so pationate about in what I still believe is the most fun way to play the game, in a pod. I truly wish MSO was going to be playable in a Tesla II pod.

[Catamount]

I like how there's this big hole right where I live. The nearest is 12 hours in any direction.

Oh well

[Sarriss]

Import them to Canada! We're geeks to! Please...oh well, I shall live out my dreams precariously through you Sauron, keep living the dream!

[Sauron]

:/ Need more pods and locations! When are the Tesla III pods going to be made? lol.

[rance]

When they had them at the Wizards of the Coast in Seattle, we used to drive up there twice a month for all day battles. I still have the fight logs tucked away somewhere. It was serious fun and I recommend it to any mech pilots. Too bad it didn't catch on more. I hear some folks have them set up in their basements for all their friends. Wish I could afford going that route!

[Strumtruppen]

yeah where all the pods in canada we need to kick ameri... i mean cla... i mean IS butt

[Arkojotuun]

So I live in CA, quite close to both of the Outpost here. I tried calling the one in San Ramon and it gives me abusy signal and I tried calling the one in Auburn and the person who answered told me that I had the wrong number. These are the numbrs that are on the google maps link Sauron posted. Please help, I want to get into this to get ready for MWO and to find new MechWarrior friends.

[Sauron]

rance, on 02 April 2012 - 11:38 AM, said:

When they had them at the Wizards of the Coast in Seattle, we used to drive up there twice a month for all day battles. I still have the fight logs tucked away somewhere. It was serious fun and I recommend it to any mech pilots. Too bad it didn't catch on more. I hear some folks have them set up in their basements for all their friends. Wish I could afford going that route!

I was one of the insane fanatics with a full set of 8 cockpits in my basement back in NJ. I sold them in 2009 and have since moved to Texas. The set I owned is now in Minnesota and still in operation. Those pods were known as the Tesla II pods, I keep praying we'll see the next generation, Tesla III pods at some point. (dreamer)

But Seattle does have a site and a set up and running so if you're still in the Seattle area you should check out:
http://www.the-airlock.com/
(I believe that's only about 15-20 minutes away from the center of Seattle, according to google maps anyway, I have not been there yet, another thing on my to do list....)

[Sauron]

Doctor Darren, on 02 April 2012 - 12:57 PM, said:

So I live in CA, quite close to both of the Outpost here. I tried calling the one in San Ramon and it gives me abusy signal and I tried calling the one in Auburn and the person who answered told me that I had the wrong number. These are the numbrs that are on the google maps link Sauron posted. Please help, I want to get into this to get ready for MWO and to find new MechWarrior friends.

ok, sorry to hear about the information not being up to date on those two sites. I will have to check into those and see what I can find for you. Off the top of my head, I believe the Auburn site that had the old 3.0 coffin pods was in a private home location and I *think* he only ahs 2 of the newer pods now, but I have no idea why he hasn't updated the information nor responded. I will shoot him a message and see if I can get him to post up here when he gets a few minutes.

Virtual Escape in Concord may have sold his set and had them moved into a few existing locations, I'll try to confirm and get those updated.

That site in the link normally is up to date, but it appears it may be a little out of date, sorry about that, I will work to see what we can do to clean that up. Thank you for letting me know.

[Arkojotuun]

Thanks much I was thinking baout where I had seen these before and I remember a long time ago Dave and Busters had em, I was pretty young at the time but remember having a blast just attempting to pilot a mech in a pod. Hope that some good news comes up.

[CeeKay Boques]

There was one only an hour away from me, The Sim Playground. (simplayground.com) but they closed. He still has the pods, and is unsure what to do with them next.

Ah, to have 15k laying around....

PGI? Have YOU been to a site?

[RoboCyberMummy]

Just a heads up for anyone thinking about heading to The Airlock in the Seattle area, the owner doesn't really keep the website up to date. If you're on Facebook or Twitter, the owner updates that stuff regularly with info on events and what-not. It's probably the best way to keep tabs on what's going on there.

https://www.facebook...ck/181196731932

[Sauron]

Technoviking, on 02 April 2012 - 03:17 PM, said:

There was one only an hour away from me, The Sim Playground. (simplayground.com) but they closed. He still has the pods, and is unsure what to do with them next.

FYI that would be incorrect. Simplayground does not have his pods he sold them back in August. I know all 3 people that now own the cockpits he once had. 2 stayed in California (diff owner), 4 went to Minnesota and 2 to Michigan.

[Sauron]

Good to know thanks for sharing. I _really_ want to get to that site one of these days.

SpekX, on 02 April 2012 - 09:10 PM, said:

Just a heads up for anyone thinking about heading to The Airlock in the Seattle area, the owner doesn't really keep the website up to date. If you're on Facebook or Twitter, the owner updates that stuff regularly with info on events and what-not. It's probably the best way to keep tabs on what's going on there.

https://www.facebook...ck/181196731932

[RoboCyberMummy]

Sauron, on 06 April 2012 - 10:21 AM, said:

Good to know thanks for sharing. I _really_ want to get to that site one of these days.

We could introduce you to our whole host of odd house games, like Affirmative Action or Kung-fu Brigands.

Oh I almost forgot! We have a Gunslingers tournament this weekend! Wish me luck! I think Roadkill is coming out of retirement for this one, so it'll be a tough fight.

UPDATE: Roadkill and KwikPain killed each other in the final round. The Airlock is Sheriff-less

Edited by SpekX, 22 April 2012 - 12:26 PM.

[syngyne]

I used to work at one of the old Virtual World centers. We only had the system 3 pods, though, never got to mess with the Tesla system.

[Sug]

I believe Propwash is taking some pods to ACEN, Origins, GenCon and possibly ChiCon.

[RotS Targe]

Doctor Darren, on 02 April 2012 - 03:05 PM, said:

Thanks much I was thinking baout where I had seen these before and I remember a long time ago Dave and Busters had em, I was pretty young at the time but remember having a blast just attempting to pilot a mech in a pod. Hope that some good news comes up.

Was that the one in Milpitas? Man, I saw those, thinking, well that's cool. It was only after they got rid of them that I discovered Battletech.
Any word if the place in Concord still has them?

[Sgt Corpse]

The pods you are referring to are manufactured by Virtual World Entertainment out of Chicago. I worked at the Milpitas Dave and Buster's location for a couple years, running the site and maintaining the pods.

One day when cleaning a bunch of old "junk" from our store room, my boss gave me a bunch of swag that I sill have. Including the Battletech Flag that (he told me) was flown over the original Chicago location.

There's a well done Wiki page on current location of operational Tesla II cockpits, but unfortunately they are all running the last version of the software (Battletech Firestorm) which is based off a Microsoft version of Mechwarrior.

http://en.wikipedia....tleTech_Centers

These pods had 72 buttons assembled around 7 screens (Main display, secondary w top down radar view and 5 systems displays) with full function joystick (right hand side), throttle (left hand) and foot collectives (similar to helicopter).

In expert mode, you had full control of the mech. You also had to manage power and heat while fighting.

I'm trying to contact my former lance-mates to see if they are ready to come dominate MWO when it comes online. So you all better ready up and stay frosty.

Edited by Sgt Corpse, 11 August 2012 - 06:04 AM.

[Anders Ooooo]

Howdy folks!

Thought I'd sign up and alert some peoples here that the landfill in Marina, California has received a number of the 3.0(?) Battletech pods in their store (MRWMD Last Chance Mercantile) that are extremely dusty and have parts missing but most contain the CPU boards (Amiga 500, TI 340 graphics, 68HC11 that seems to deal with controls, buttons and LED displays) all seemingly well protected from the elements and likely functional. I don't know how long they'll keep these around before they smash them and I'd absolutely hate to see that happen. Unfortunately, they are sitting outside and with the rain as such.. ;(





Since it's been a long dream to have my own --



My goal is to replace the hardware with a new PC and both CRTs with an Apple Cinema display and a small touchscreen VGA monitor, rig up all the panels & controls to the PC - which shouldn't be too challenging as there's ample space in the cabinet and the control panel board seems to talk to the main board over RS232 DB9 cable. Real service manual/schematics would be quite helpful.

Anyway, just thought I'd let people know. One thing, these things are actually heavier than they look.

Also, I'm really curious about where these machines might've been played in their heyday.

Paul

Edited by Anders Ooooo, 11 October 2012 - 12:42 AM.