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Hiya. My name is Joseph Hewitt and I was an artist and somewhat of a designer on this. I was watching it and saw that graphic of you entering the arena where is says, Arrion vs. Mo. Arrion was an old AD&D character of mine from Jr. High School and I used that as my stage name when I was a magician in High School and then as my modem handle / license plate on my MR2 in the late 80's early 90's. Mo was Maurine the other artist at Westwood. I think this was the first game that I actually worked on at Westwood if you don't count a few days of playtesting Questron II when I first started. Maurine did most of the graphics for everything you see in the citadel in the begging. I did all the terrain you see after that. Me and another guy that worked at Infocom / Mediagenic did all the little cut scenes. Mine all look like Robotech mechs and I got in a little bit of trouble for that. I'm so sad that you didn't get to the thing at the end. That's what I meant when I said somewhat of a designer. They told me to add that puzzle to increase gameplay time. I was very inexperienced having only worked on educational games before that for Unicorn Software. It's a giant maze full of locked doors. You have to search computers scattered around the maze for a red, yellow and blue code to unlock each door. I actually wanted it to release a random security robot somewhere in the maze every time you failed, but that got cut (thank god) The very end is the copy protection. You need the white code to finish the game. You go into the map room where the tileset on the floor is a giant map of the various planets in the Battletech universe. In the manual for the game there is the same map with a circle around a grouping of planets. When you walked over planets, they would highlight. To solve it you had to highlight all the planets that were circled in the manual. That got you the white code which sends the signal to the dropship and lets you finish the game. People hated that puzzle. Tony Van our producer at Infocom / Mediagenic told me that they got actual hate mail for that puzzle because so many people either no longer had the manual or never made the connection and this was long before the internet was around. I found this video because I was looking for some of the splash screens I've did for game back then to get Karma on the pixel art sub of Reddit. But I didn't draw the title page for the IBM version, I did the Apple II and Commodore 64 versions. I may have been the sole artist on those versions, but I might be wrong. I think Maurine was working on Hillsfar by then.
I remember being greatly frustrated by that end section, mostly because I did not have the manual and could not get the final code to complete the game. As it was literally the last thing you needed to finish, it was a real headache. Years later I was able to buy a fresh copy and got the manual. At last, the end sequence! I still have a copy of the game on my HD, with a savegame right at the very end (after unlocking all the doors). That way I can replay that end sequence whenever I want...
I actually FONDLY Remember that puzzle BECAUSE I still had my manual. The game "Future Magic" Had a manual-based puzzle too, but I had lent it to a friend who then moved out of the state so I never was able to finish that game. Being able to finish this game with a manual puzzle, was like a private victory for me.
I loved this game but, man, did I hate that puzzle at the end. Still, you did great work and I have fond memories of playing this way back in the before times when everything was discovered through trial and error. Your splash screens were dope af, btw.
One thing that is interesting about this game - the code contains a LOT more of the weapons in Battletech than you will ever encounter during normal gameplay. It is possible to use a hex editor to change your mechs in the savegame files, and equip them with weapons such as PPCs, Long Range Missiles and every model of Autocannon (beyond those you see on Urbanmechs). A sign of content left "on the cutting room floor" perhaps?
I remember playing and loving this game in the late 80s. For some reason I went looking for it again last week and just fired it up. Now I remember why I loved this game. It's effectively the same game engine as the original Wasteland - the best RPG for computers until well into the 90s. These are the sorts of games I wish would get true updates to more modern game engines. These games run wonderfully in DOSBox on an Android tablet.
@14:07 There is a new fan game by the TH-camr 'Gaming Jay' called Battlemercs which is a LOT like the old Crescent Hawks games (with some Mechwarrior 1 influence too). One of his latest videos is a Beta release video and you can grab the Beta from his Google Drive (Link in his video's description). He did an amazing job IMO.
I remember beating this game after enjoying it for weeks (months?) back on my C128 (in C64 mode of course). So yeah... it feels open world, and mostly is -- but there is actually an ending to reach and technically "finish" the game. At least, I think so... haven't checked any walkthroughs or anything for maybe 30 years now.
I played this on my C-64 , or Amiga 500 I forget which ,, I loved it,, I played it through to the end. I thought it was a great game, and I think I even went back and played it again. Great game.
I loved this game when it came out, and felt let down by the sequel, as it changed game play too much, making it more about following a story and doing missions; it lost the open world aspect, which I enjoyed from the original.
We didn't want to do the sequel and eventually, the agreement with Infocom / Mediagenic was that we would do the graphics and create a basic program to create scenarios and they would put it together. At Westwood, I did all the art and Barry did all the programming and everything else was done by the publisher. I think it is one of maybe two games I've worked on that I never played all the way through even while it was in development.
If you like our work and want to support us, you can become our patrons. www.patreon.com/gaminghd
Hey folks, remember to press that bell (🔔) button next to the subscribe button and select the "Send me all notifications for this channel" option , that way you'll get a notification whenever we post a good video ! :)
Join Now on our Discord Server ! discord.gg/CZSXJwy
Hiya. My name is Joseph Hewitt and I was an artist and somewhat of a designer on this. I was watching it and saw that graphic of you entering the arena where is says, Arrion vs. Mo. Arrion was an old AD&D character of mine from Jr. High School and I used that as my stage name when I was a magician in High School and then as my modem handle / license plate on my MR2 in the late 80's early 90's. Mo was Maurine the other artist at Westwood. I think this was the first game that I actually worked on at Westwood if you don't count a few days of playtesting Questron II when I first started. Maurine did most of the graphics for everything you see in the citadel in the begging. I did all the terrain you see after that. Me and another guy that worked at Infocom / Mediagenic did all the little cut scenes. Mine all look like Robotech mechs and I got in a little bit of trouble for that. I'm so sad that you didn't get to the thing at the end. That's what I meant when I said somewhat of a designer. They told me to add that puzzle to increase gameplay time. I was very inexperienced having only worked on educational games before that for Unicorn Software. It's a giant maze full of locked doors. You have to search computers scattered around the maze for a red, yellow and blue code to unlock each door. I actually wanted it to release a random security robot somewhere in the maze every time you failed, but that got cut (thank god) The very end is the copy protection. You need the white code to finish the game. You go into the map room where the tileset on the floor is a giant map of the various planets in the Battletech universe. In the manual for the game there is the same map with a circle around a grouping of planets. When you walked over planets, they would highlight. To solve it you had to highlight all the planets that were circled in the manual. That got you the white code which sends the signal to the dropship and lets you finish the game. People hated that puzzle. Tony Van our producer at Infocom / Mediagenic told me that they got actual hate mail for that puzzle because so many people either no longer had the manual or never made the connection and this was long before the internet was around. I found this video because I was looking for some of the splash screens I've did for game back then to get Karma on the pixel art sub of Reddit. But I didn't draw the title page for the IBM version, I did the Apple II and Commodore 64 versions. I may have been the sole artist on those versions, but I might be wrong. I think Maurine was working on Hillsfar by then.
I remember being greatly frustrated by that end section, mostly because I did not have the manual and could not get the final code to complete the game. As it was literally the last thing you needed to finish, it was a real headache.
Years later I was able to buy a fresh copy and got the manual. At last, the end sequence! I still have a copy of the game on my HD, with a savegame right at the very end (after unlocking all the doors). That way I can replay that end sequence whenever I want...
Wow 😁👍 I remember discovering your game back then, wenn all we had was tabletop mechwarrior. I was blown away by it 😁👍 - many regards from Germany 👋
I actually FONDLY Remember that puzzle BECAUSE I still had my manual.
The game "Future Magic" Had a manual-based puzzle too, but I had lent it to a friend who then moved out of the state so I never was able to finish that game.
Being able to finish this game with a manual puzzle, was like a private victory for me.
@@mkarabinos excellent!
I loved this game but, man, did I hate that puzzle at the end. Still, you did great work and I have fond memories of playing this way back in the before times when everything was discovered through trial and error. Your splash screens were dope af, btw.
One thing that is interesting about this game - the code contains a LOT more of the weapons in Battletech than you will ever encounter during normal gameplay. It is possible to use a hex editor to change your mechs in the savegame files, and equip them with weapons such as PPCs, Long Range Missiles and every model of Autocannon (beyond those you see on Urbanmechs). A sign of content left "on the cutting room floor" perhaps?
I remember playing and loving this game in the late 80s. For some reason I went looking for it again last week and just fired it up. Now I remember why I loved this game. It's effectively the same game engine as the original Wasteland - the best RPG for computers until well into the 90s. These are the sorts of games I wish would get true updates to more modern game engines. These games run wonderfully in DOSBox on an Android tablet.
@14:07 There is a new fan game by the TH-camr 'Gaming Jay' called Battlemercs which is a LOT like the old Crescent Hawks games (with some Mechwarrior 1 influence too). One of his latest videos is a Beta release video and you can grab the Beta from his Google Drive (Link in his video's description). He did an amazing job IMO.
Gaming Jay Video...
th-cam.com/video/0DQJMvYWvnw/w-d-xo.html
I remember beating this game after enjoying it for weeks (months?) back on my C128 (in C64 mode of course). So yeah... it feels open world, and mostly is -- but there is actually an ending to reach and technically "finish" the game. At least, I think so... haven't checked any walkthroughs or anything for maybe 30 years now.
I played this on my C-64 , or Amiga 500 I forget which ,, I loved it,, I played it through to the end. I thought it was a great game, and I think I even went back and played it again. Great game.
Just wanted to say this was one of my first PC games. So many great moments!
The world needs more games with mechs. Mechs are wonderful.
I was so hyped when this game came out… 😁👍
That swagger animation on the mechs while they walk on the overworld tough.
Great review! I love it! Brings back a lot of memories for me!
Thank you for making this video
I loved this game when it came out, and felt let down by the sequel, as it changed game play too much, making it more about following a story and doing missions; it lost the open world aspect, which I enjoyed from the original.
We didn't want to do the sequel and eventually, the agreement with Infocom / Mediagenic was that we would do the graphics and create a basic program to create scenarios and they would put it together. At Westwood, I did all the art and Barry did all the programming and everything else was done by the publisher. I think it is one of maybe two games I've worked on that I never played all the way through even while it was in development.
Im new here but i can tell you are already one of my spirit animals.
Awesome game!
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