MechWarrior (PC/DOS) 1989, Activision/Dynamix, adlib
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 มิ.ย. 2015
- There have been many computer games produced that were set in the universe of Battletech boardgame. Today we will talk about one of the earliest that graced our hard drives. The very original Mechwarrior.
In Battletech, players take control of giant war machines called Battlemechs. On the first glance most people would call them "robots", but this is not true at all. In the cockpit of every Battlemech sits a live, breathing human who controls this giant behemoth of destruction. These brave men and women are the Mechwarriors.
The background story is the typical "last survivor of your family" style. To cut it short, you are Gideon B. Vanderburg, a son of ruling family of Ander's Moon colony. All of your family were killed and your family heirloom, the Chalice of Herne, was stolen during a surprise attack by an unidentified group of Battlemechs. You've sworn to avenge your family and reclaim what is rightfully yours.
And here your adventure begins.
During the game you must find out where the murderers of your family have gone and reclaim the Chalice. To add to the challenge, this must be achieved in a limited time span.
You need to assemble a team of the best pilots and BattleMechs you can. To do this, you'll need money which you can earn in two ways; either become a mercenary and fight other wars, or become a merchant, buying Battlemechs at worlds where they are cheap and reselling them on other worlds where they are far more expensive. It is your choice. Guess what brings more interest?
Your initial Mech is a Jenner, a light Mech that is second lightest one in the game (but not the worst). After patching it up, you will be ready for your first contract. You can sell your services to any of the five Successor Houses, providing that you are on a planet that belongs to it, but contracts for each of them have their own twists, so be careful when choosing your employer.
The game has various features that add a lot of realism to the gameplay. For example the reputation you gain by carrying out missions for the Successor Houses can result in being able to negotiate better contract terms and find better mechwarriors offering to join your forces. On the other hand, if you have a particularly low reputation in one of the Houses, they might refuse to give you any employment at all. In combat you have to watch your heat levels. Your teammates gain experience during the game, and sometimes you may find that the repair facilities can run out of parts for specific type of repairs.
There are eight Battlemech types available in the game. As said, you begin with one of the cheapest and lightest. Fortunately, there are better Mechs avaible that you will be able to buy as soon as you have enough money. These range from the lightly armored and armed but extremely fast Locust, to the agile and decently armed (but quick to overheat) Phoenix Hawk, to the mighty Battlemaster whose firepower has to be seen to be believed. The eight mech types in the game are quite diverse and almost every one of them can find its use during the game.
When your beloved machine is damaged, you can naturally repair it, providing you are rich enough. Mech repairs aren't cheap, but it's cheaper to repair an old machine then to buy a new one. If you don't have the money, you might need to do with only most basic repairs to most basic systems, just enough to make your mech usable to earn money for a full repair. One thing that I really miss is the ability to customize your mechs, known well in the boardgame. Can't have everything, I guess.
During the contracts you will have to fulfill various types of objectives, ranging from disabling or destroying all enemy Mechs to destroying important enemy structures to defence of base facilities. Each mission type requires slightly different thinking, as destroying an enemy ammo storage is a quick thing to do even with a light Mech, but defending one is much more difficult. You can target specific parts of enemy mechs and achieve different results by damaging them; i.e., destroying an arm makes your enemy lose the weapons he has mounted in there, while blasting his cockpit, although much harder, takes him down outright. You can leave your accompanying Mechwarriors to their own AI, or switch to a real-time command screen that allows you to plan their actions more tactically to a degree. - เกม
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This whole video took me back to a better time in life. Playing this on a 286, eating cold fried chicken & drinking Crystal Pepsis. and giving zero F's about anything. Life was great.
This was such an awesome game in it's time. I loved the freedom of choice, where to go, which house to work for. Just like another all time favorite of mine: Privateer.
The sense of adventure was even stronger than in MW2:Mercs, due to the huge starmap. Good old times, achieving so much with so little.
Dude, great comment!
Reactor: Online. Sensors: Online. Weapons: Online. All systems nominal.
Perfect 🙏🏻 I'm a MW4 vengeance / mercenaries fan because it's my childhood
@Julien52 Im a MW2/mercenaries fan, bro. That game alone is how I got hooked on BattleTech.
My introduction was MechWarrior 2, and I've actually never seen any footage from this game! These visuals are fantastic for the time. Great atmosphere.
Lol, right? This game was a mere myth. Everyone I knew thought MW2 was the first in the series and the title was some kind of marketing stunt.
Gameplay really looks impressive for it's time.
3:59 - Finally i remember why Gordon Ramsay looked familiar.
Don't think I want to go back to this one but there's something about the presentation that's really charming in a way the others aren't.
I've had images of this game in my head for the last several years, such as the bar, requesting missions, the dropship taking off, but couldn't remember which one it was for the life of me! I definitely need to play this one again.
I played this game incessantly as a teenager and thought it was revolutionary! Watching gameplay brought back memories, except that was rough piloting. Super frustrating watching OP fires weapons that are out of range! I used to always enjoy piloting a locust to see how many battle masters I could take down with only machine guns by shooting their legs out and getting maximum salvage.
I enjoyed myself so much when I discovered you could just run to enemies in a Locust and machine gun their knees point blank!
:D
Agreed!! When I finally figured out the dam Jenner could fly, it was my favorite mech after that... those missiles were great!
Same here! That Jenner hit like a midget on heroine! I would kneecap Battlemasters one after another!@@helpdeskjnp
As oily smoke begins to rise from the last Darkwing mech, the infantry flees. Inside the abandoned bunker a high security vault breaks under concentrated laser fire. Beyond the ruined door the sacred Chalice of Herne sparkles with reflected light.
Back on Ander’s Moon the chalice and data disk on Operation Inroad clear the Vandenburg name and the family title and honor is restored.
Yes. 👏 👏 👏
Evidently this was before the lawsuit. Because the "Shadow Hawk" and "Battle Master" were still based on the Fang of The Sun Dougram models, "Dougram" and "Bigfoot" respectively. I just found this out. And I played this game in 1990 and following. So basic now...but intense for the time. The Battle Master was a god.
Marauder, Locust, Phoenix Hawk, and Rifleman were also subject to the lawsuit making them "unseen". I can't remember seeing the Jenner in any Japanese media personally, but if it was that means every mech in the game was a Harmony Gold lawsuit mech.
So glad the new Battletech and MechWarrior games slapped Harmony Gold back and those mechs are all back.
I used to play this on a computer at my dads work when Id go with him on a teacher workday or something. Spent all 8 hours playing it while my dad boxed up circuit boards etc for BofA warehouse in NorCal.
I played this game so much on my family's old 286, I still remember the money exploit (buy mechs for cheap on factory worlds like Coventry or Hesperus II, fly to a world in the middle of nowhere and sell them at a huge profit, repeat until rich and running a full lance of Heavy and Assault mechs).
MW2 + expansions remains in my top 3 of the 90's.
Its taken me this long to see what MW1 looked like lol.
Good God the nostalgia. I logged endless hours if this game back in the day.
One of my favorite games I have ever played back in 1990. I also played "Spirit of Excalibur" which I also loved.
Same here I think off hand that it came on one floppy disk and I still have Mechwarrior 2 in it's box sitting up on a shelf gathering dust, Just got Merch 5
I didn't have a soundcard at the time... I'm actually impressed by the intro music.
depends on what sound card you had, the higher the bit and name brand the better the sound ie sound blaster, sound blaster pro etc. The sound blaster card I had the music sounded slightly better then this video, very slightly. A Japanese version that came out for PC in 87 blew this audio out of the water.
I found a lets play where the player has a 16 bit sound card audio enabled, its piano based instead of midi, check it out (bar and victory sequences)
th-cam.com/video/hjz7H7PqZyk/w-d-xo.html
Oh my battletech in 8 bit, the last sound track, I saw coming!
xD I love it
Man I remember this game! I loved it, I owned everyone with those chicken looking mechs with its guns. I’d just get up close and shoot the legs out and they didn’t stand a chance. Or shoot the cockpit and kill the pilot. I played that forever...
OMG did *THAT* bring back some memories!
Ok love that this game is selling these mechs damaged thats legit.
Never did play this. But I'll let you guys in on a tidbit. Kesmai games had a multiplayer battletech that used a modified version of this game during the combat scenes. It was a reason a lot of us were on GEnie back in the 90s.
hey thanks :) I played endless hours this game when I was just a kid :) good memorys :)
Yet I never knew that there was some hostory in the game :) cool to find that out decades after :)
thanks
Considering this port came out 2 years later, the animations on the Japanese Sharp personal computer are superior but the gameplay animation US pc port had em beat. The Sharp x68000 port had superior audio 16-bit yamaha processing (used also in alot of arcade ports of the late 80's early 90's)
For me Mechwarrior 5:Mercs ticks all the boxes this original did 30 years ago by doing just the same thing with all the updated visuals.
I remember this one in college.
Awesome; so much innovation/creativity back then.
It's too bad the 'Mech combat was limited to PC speaker, not even Tandy 3-Voice.
I wonder what the sound effects would've been like on an MT-32 with big drums being used for footsteps, etc.
If I read correctly, the message from Jordan (at 38:44) says "Black Widow company current on Misery".
So I think you should have gone to planet Misery (in Kurita region) to proceed with the story...
That is correct. I got the feeling the that Major Thriftwood did not know what he was doing. He also appeared to be searching for Kangaroo Jack under his real name of Puritan in the planetary search engine. Maybe as if he did not comprehend the given text. As I recall, confronting Natasha Kerensky, commander of the Black Widow Company got you knocked on your ass and told in no uncertain terms that the widows weren't there, and that they would never carry out a contract with their emblems altered.
Ahhh, D. Sajak... the memories. ❤
Simple games fun games ahh they were fun. Thanks for the memories
thank you, good memories.
Exactly . Great memories
I never knew enemies wouldn't shoot back if you're facing them alone!
I think It's a defense mission. The enemies are trying to reach the base to destroy it, so they would just run past.
big thanx
These graphics are so good, very lifelike.
Godamn! This thing had music?!?! OMFG, I played the hell outta this game on my 486 and never got to hear the music for it. (I had a SB16 card)
I don't even have to watch this to hear the music! I've sometimes wondered why I would get a midi stuck in my head and here's the reason why!
Does he show off the jump jets in this video?
Would this run on my dos gaming pc?
It has a 8 mhz (16mhz turbo!) 286 cpu, about 960 kb of ram, a glorious pc speaker, a trident oak vga card (256 colours jay!) ...
Will it run? :D
Oh I assume it's small enough to run from and save to a single 3.5 inch diskettE? Ik does not have a working harddrive anymore I am afraid...
It ran on my Intel 8088, with 640KB of RAM, and the game requires only 16 colors (EGA). I'm not sure if it would run from a single floppy though. You can buy a compact flash adapter that will let you use compact flash cards as hard drives in old computers.
Well it runs on dosbox fine too.
I want this game!! it was, still is my favorite all time, I can't find it anywhere.
@Robert Torquati literally name one! Maybe its been a while since I looked
@Robert Torquati thanks, i googled after i saw your post and saw that, wasnt sure if it was a legit site, i'll give it a go
Woooow 2 was a hell of an upgrade
Yea, there were huge leaps in 3D technology between 1989 and 1995.
Its all about gameplay brother ! If you dont have a brain that does not have to have pictures and images spelt out for it to comprehend what the imagination does a far better picture of doing then you best be just watching a movie and laugh at poor dislodge and cheap comedy along with action " things that look KOOL.
So in alot of ways , Upgrading something that origin was pure gusto in fact is downgrading.
What are you rambling on about now?? :D
who me ? that 3d enhancement dont mean shit , but for those who would rather not think too much then sure by all means buy a nice car that you dont know how to appreciate .
Yes, you. Not trying to get into a fight with you, but you do seem to be rambling, somewhat incoherently. I think you're trying to claim that simply changing from the overhead view of the first BattleTech PC game to the 1st person, 3D perspective of MechWarrior doesn't "mean shit" in the context of the game. At least that is my best guess. If so, then yes, you are right to some extent, but given your lack of command of the English language, it is difficult for me (and others) to discern the actual meaning of what you're trying to say. The comparison of 3D "enhancement" to a nice, yet unappreciated car is completely nonsensical.
How can I run this game on DOSBOX perfectly? Because my game crashes in the middle of any mission.
What I did was sold all the mechs and went with the story bought and sold mechs from the interior systems to the outer rim systems. then I hired mercs to fight for me in the best mechs.
the horrible sounds make no justice for this magnificent little mech game
thanks!
Man I played this game into the ground.
(8:42) "I'm risking my life! So this drink is going to cost you a wee bit more!" 😉
No MSG was harmed in the making of this video... 😉😎🤘☮
Do the enemies ever shoot back? Or was this game made before enemy AI?
No, the enemies would shoot back, depending on the mission. If on a defensive mission, the AI goal was to destroy the POI you're defending (base, depot, etc), so the mechs would ignore you and blitz the base. This tactic would change when you began fighting teams instead of just 1 on 1. then, half would fight you while the other half blitzed the base.
Yes sir, they’ll mess you up!
how do you get ascess to this game
Good lord, I played this for hours upon hours back in the day. But, to be fair I played all of them for hours and hours. In the midst of playing 5 now... Good to see we have some veteran MechWarriors who still partake in the action today. You filthy surats would make even the Zellbrigen proud. FOR CLAN WOLF!!!!
3:53 Barkeep has Covid. Dots everywhere
Aged but still cool
Funny how the Jenner had good armor where the high tier mech had the worst armor😂
Absolutely terrific game! I was big fan of marauders
Voiceover? I have no idea what's going on here. I wanted help learning to play the game.
It's interesting and a little sad that this has pretty decent music, but completely crap sound effects.
It was late 80s PC. The AdLib sound board was great at some things, and total crap at others. If you think that was bad, try hearing it with pc only sound on my old IBM PS/2. Or an old 286.
@@REMcCullick I've heard speaker only sound. No thanks!
dont like gameplay, but visuals are amazing !
Ah yes...and the buy low, sell high run from tier 4 planets to tier 1 planets to build up cash? Awesome.
Just realized the intro is a total ripoff of the Conan the barbarian intro :O
Conan would probably be piloting a Summoner.
THAT'S WHY IT ALWAYS SOUNDED SO DAMNED FAMILIAR!!!!!!! I was watching just now and read the last line, "It was an age of high adventure" and thought, "Someone's been reading too much 'Conan'". But now that you mention it I realize the entire opening is a rewrite of the famous Conan intro. "Between the fall of Atlantis and the rise of the sons of Numenor...". Yeah.
@@Wavemaninawe No, a Hatchetman!!!!!
Robot jocks
better than MWO
Sierra Echo Xray? Lol
Too bad it only supported the PC speaker. The sounds are reallly primitive.
I never played this but it looks like the other mech doesn't shoot back it just walks away from you.
hmm it was strange or maybe he started running away when he saw me coming! :)
On the defensive missions enemies would usually go directly for their objective (the building) and you did not have much time to take them out.
I never liked adlib, and it’s sound world has aged so badly; for sure compared to SB.
This is a great game, but the effects are just too cringy.. Luckily there are other old super duper mech games with better soundscape.
damn... You clumsy amateur! =) Shoot everywhere except the target! Just facepalm...
Yes i'm. Would need more target practise. Also very hard to target with game stutter and with keyboard only.
this combat is sooo strange. whey dont even shoot back
Recovering from a tumor operation, I played this game like crazy. Never got tired of it. To me it was awesome. GIMEGIMEGIME, yahooo.