Battletech Centers

[RasaNova]

How did I never hear of these back in the day?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdJA5C_Po4U

[whizwart]

Ok, first, always fun to see young jordan Weisman.

Second, "Battletech has not been adapted for home consoles...yet" HA!

Third, I'm from Chicago and went to the first center that opened. Was tons of fun, but I recall it being a bit pricey. and it was in an upscale mall on the Chicago river near lake Michigan, meaning it was NOT conveient to get to at all. Imagine ahving to fight traffic for an hour to get to a LaserQuest and you get the idea. Also they had a pre-game briefing that had James Beluishi yapping at you. I could only figure he did the video because Weisman or somebody at FASA somehow had some connections locally with him. Can see that here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVybQ2hU0PQ

They eventually realized stuff might be getting stale and made a kind of racing game called Red Plant that had you getting beamed into some deathrace in a complex on Mars. They got Weird Al, Judge Reinhold from Beverly Hills Cop and Gedde Wantanabe from Sixteen Candles and UHF for that one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOLlt6BMoI0

I should note some folks scooped up the old pods and systems and has a few centers open still, with some runnign both games. The Wikipedia page on Battletech ceters has them all listed, so I'll just link to that for ease. Montreal and Grand Rapids are your nearest ones: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BattleTech_Centers

[RasaNova]

Hah yeah I did get a major chuckle out of that closing line of "Fortunately for parents in America Battletech hasn't been adapted for home computers" (even though... By 1992, we already had 3 BT games on PC)

I also got a kick out of the interviewer's description of the technology... And the question for Weisman of "Why did it have to be so violent?"

Anway, that video made me feel happy, sad, cringey and above all - old.

[ciscobell]

RasaNova, must not hace been close enough to you? They were fun.

Wizwart, fellow Chicagoan here, and I remember that battletech center all too well; it was expensive, but fun times! I used to take my little bothers there and we'd play a couple of games together. I was sad to see it go away.

[bba525]

There was one here in Denver, and I spend a number of hours with friends there. I spent a bunck of money, but I don't regret it.

And I recently saw on TV a guy is searching the country for as much of the original equipment as he can find, restore it, and ioen a BattleTech center.

[Battleseed]

There was one in Pasadena CA. too. Think the last center that was up and running was in Tx.

[Rattlehead]

Some of the folks that bought the old "pods" run a center (in Texas I think). But, I had the pleasure of playing them at Dragon*Con the past two years. Expensive, but lots of fun! If you get a chance to go to Dragon*Con, be sure to look for them in the PC/Arcade gaming area.

[Strayed]

I live in the great upside down southern hemisphere and at one of my local gaming arcades (which was called Time Zone during the late 80's and early 90's) where I grew up had those Battletech "mech pods".

There would always be a line and the people running the arcade jealously guarded these pods and like fat controllers from Thomas the Tank engine would time people and drag them out after a set amount of time so other people could get a turn. Sort of what happened when Street Fighter became competitive amongst the Asian community here in Australia - Friday nights at Time Zone was chaotic but still fun... now we have the internets and online gaming, so sadly no more socialising / truanting school to play videos games at the local arcade lol

I feel very old now.... lol misspent youth

[Unbearable]

One year genCon had a bank of them running and OH my gawd was it fun. They also had elvira! (squee) that same year and I for soem reason got to show her around the place because she had no idea what they were or how much geek us gamers were into. later on found out it was just a elvia clone (gencon never admitted she was there that year but she was vip so, who knows?). The pods were super cool and I remember the chicago one year we got to try them out supposedly had 72 different working controls.

Now some theme park in japan has like half the known pods and is up and running the same game, but a hecf of a price to play. I still have my battletech id card in a wallet someplace..

[Befitzero]

I acutually use to go to that center all the time here in Chicago when I could afford it. It was a bit pricey to play but always a good time. The pods could be set up for novice controls or full controls where all the switches inside the pod would have to be used , peddels would be use to torso twist etc.

they also had a racing game in the same pods that was on Mars or something like that.

I beleive the place closed down in the 90s

[Gilius Thunderhead]

They had some in my city in Australia too so wasn't just a US thing

[Kyle D'Stroy]

"Battletech has not been adapted for home consoles...yet" True, but the first time I played in one was a meetup with a bunch of folks from MPBT on Genie, which was way more expensive :)

[Twelvefield]

Wow. Now that... was... ̶b̶o̶n̶k̶e̶r̶s̶ amazing. Thanks for sharing those videos!

Is it comforting to know that 1980's fashion comes back into style in the year 3000? The piano key necktie at the bottom of my sock drawer is now going to my lawyer's office for safekeeping as long as my offspring can afford to keep his firm going for another millenium.

[machinech]

Played often in the Pasadena, CA. location. Was immense fun when they did tourney nights for the regulars playing either martian football (red planet) or mech trials. You did your set then made a mad dash below to Gordon Biersch for a beer, then back again till event was over.

[Rattlehead]

I'm pretty sure these are the guys who were at Dragon*Con:
http://www.mechjock.com/

[Befitzero]

Originally posted by Rattlehead:

I'm pretty sure these are the guys who were at Dragon*Con:
http://www.mechjock.com/

Yeah I heard that these pods were still around and traveling to diffrent cons, I was happy to hear someone was still keeping these things running.