MechWarrior

aka: Battletech: Ubawareta Seihai
Moby ID: 105
DOS Specs
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Description official description

You are Gideon Braver Vandenburg, heir to the planet. While you were away, unknown attackers destroyed your home, killed your entire family, and stole the Chalice that you need to win the throne. When you are implicated in your own family's death, you are forced into exile. With a help of an old friend who contributed an old Jenner and some credits, you must become a mercenary. Within five years, you must travel the Inner Sphere in search of clues to who set you up, and eventually avenge your family and recover the Chalice.

MechWarrior is the first 3D BattleTech game. The player travels to planets, searching for "fixers" who will set up some contracts with the local authorities. The terms are a flat payment and some salvage payments. Some houses may be very stingy but provide important information. Others pay well but may not be as helpful. It is possible to buy, sell, and repair 'Mechs, hire or fire pilots, and decide which planet to move to while trying to maintain decent relationships with all five houses of the Inner Sphere and uncover clues about the next destination. Each mission in the game is randomly generated.

Spellings

  • 机甲战士 - Chinese spelling (simplified)

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Screenshots

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Credits (DOS version)

31 People (30 developers, 1 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 80% (based on 7 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.6 out of 5 (based on 30 ratings with 4 reviews)

An all time classic -- a game that was ahead of its time.

The Good
This game was great. For its time, the 3D graphics were the best around and the gameplay was cruely addictive. If I can point out a single reason that I only lasted a year in college, it would be this game. I ran Mechwarrior on my 286, and the frame rate was great. Between levels I could upgrage my mechs and salvage equipment from my weak opponents that I obliterated, only to build a bigger better mech to destroy all who dared to challange me.

The Bad
There's not a lot to dislike about this game. The sound effects were a bit weak and could have been better. Then again, there weren't many options for digitized sound in 1989.

The Bottom Line
This game is a classic. It's the 31st century, and you start off as an inexperienced pilot with a weak 'mech. Accumulate wealth, improve your machine, travel to other systems and get contracts which pay top dollar. Once you get going and can afford to do so, recruit a crew to help you out.

DOS · by Brian Hirt (10409) · 1999

A voice of Disagreement

The Good
Having played the BattleTech board game, I loved the chance to jump in a 'Mech and slug it out. The graphics of the game really good, and the ability to fly around the universe to get contracts was very cool.

The Bad
I hated the game balance, since it was not faithful to the boardgame (i.e. in the board game, you cannot just aim for the head, which of course is the fastest way to victory in this game). Also, I REALLY hated the idiotic "negotiation" routines, where you would just stay at the high number until the other side came closer to what you wanted. Finally, I found the interface needlessly difficult (i.e. no way to cycle backwards a step in radar, so you have to cycle up 3-4 steps to wrap around) and forget giving your lancemates any decent orders.

The Bottom Line
Obviously, I had higher standards then others back then, since everyone else in the world loved this game. However, I liked the later versions better.

DOS · by Tony Van (2803) · 2000

Look, Ma! I'm piloting a Mech!

The Good
(this was originally a emailed response to Tony Van's comments. He suggested I post them here. His comments are in "quotes")

"Having played the BattleTech board game, I loved the chance to jump in a 'Mech and slug it out. The graphics of the game really good, and the ability to fly around the universe to get contracts was very cool."

Agreed. There was a lame-o plot as most games back then sort of needed, but it was easily ignored. The advantage to that is it felt more immersive this way, like you really were a Mech pilot living in the Battletech world.

Of course, this immersion is extremely limited since you can little more than take missions, hire/fire mercs and get you stupid mech fixed after those darn Locusts tore you a new one again. But for an old IBM XT EGA graphic game, it showed promise for future editions.

The Bad
"I hated the game balance, since it was not faithful to the boardgame (i.e. in the board game, you cannot just aim for the head, which of course is the fastest way to victory in this game)."

This comment is what made me write this in the first place. I think this is an unfair comparason of an essentially abstract boardgame with dice, numbers and stuff to a fully rendered computer simulation of an environment.

Naturally head shots are difficult in the board game. If head shots were even remotely as easy as they would be in real life, the game would be riddled with head shots. and head shots would account for 85% of all kills in the game. But the board game deals mostly with abstracts and numbers.

The computer game is rendered in 3D polygons. (which simulates reality in a way numbers and dice just can't)

Here's your view. There's your crosshairs. There's his head.

Why not shoot it?

To be fair, it probably is a little too easy to take out the heads, but it isn't always so easy. I've made a habbit of going for the head, and it isn't always as easy as you may think. I've often had to go for the legs to take out a mech.

I since thought about it, Tony is suggesting an inaccurate gunsight to reflect the board game rules. While this may appeal to Battletech purists, general audiences would've disliked a firing system so difficult to use.

Perhapse a difficult level setting?

"Also, I REALLY hated the idiotic "negotiation" routines, where you would just stay at the high number until the other side came closer to what you wanted."

I will agree that this interface got to be tedious after a while. But once you get rich enough, you could just take what they offer.

"Finally, I found the interface needlessly difficult (i.e. no way to cycle backwards a step in radar, so you have to cycle up 3-4 steps to wrap around) and forget giving your lancemates any decent orders."

Again, this interfaces could have been better.

Personally I found the orders for you lancemates limited but adequate. Go here, charge in, guard this point, etc.

As often as not, the lacemate will ignore your orders or attack enemies once they came within sight.

As I said, limited, but they took care of themselves in the heat of battle. It also raised my expectations for later installments in the series.

The Bottom Line
"Obviously, I had higher standards then others back then, since everyone else in the world loved this game."

I wouldn't say higher so much as off slightly.

Your complaint on head shots suggest you were looking for things to be somewhat closer to % chances from the board game. I stand by my assessment that the comparason is rather unfair and unrealistic.

Truly unrealistic would be making it as difficult to hit the head as it is in the board game. Why would it be so difficult to simply put you crosshairs on the head?

Probably the best way to look at it is not so much as an accurate representation of the Battletech board game, but as a "flight simulator" type game, in which you pilot a giant robot. In this regard, I would call Mechwarrior a success.

"However, I liked the later versions better."

I will strongly disagree with you here.

After trying the original Mechwarrior, I tried the Super Nintendo version which wasn't even a pale shadow. Basically it was a first-person version of Robotron: 2084. You run around (didn't feel like you were in a giant robot, you just glided around) shooting the other guys until they blow up.

I got MW2 and I found it closer to the SNES game. In MW1, you blow a leg off and the mech falls over, and effectively is out of the combat. In MW2, you shoot a leg off and the mech remains standing. Essentially, you have to shoot the mech until it finally explodes.

I prefer the MW1 way since targeting a vunerable spot like the head or the leg 1) takes the enemy out of the combat as quickly as possible 2) allows you to conserve ammo/heat for the other enemies around 3) you get more salvage that way (blow the head off, you just have to remove the extra crispy bacon, put in a new seat and you have a perfectly good, nice new mech. Blow it up and you have many fragments, some big, some small.)

I really can't speak for MW3 & 4, although I haven't heard much good, but I defniately disliked MW2. Pretty graphics do not a good game make.

In the final analysis, I think you were expecting the board game rather than the fligh (mech?) simulator MW1 was. The interfaces could have been better, which raised my expectations for future installments. Unfortunately, they didn't deliver.

But that's my opinion.

DOS · by Jack Spencer Jr (2) · 2001

[ View all 4 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
A split, perhaps St. Martyne (3648) Aug 11, 2009

Trivia

Music

MechWarrior has music in it, but is only played when you are at the bar or transporting to another location.

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Brian Hirt.

PC-98, Sharp X68000 added by Infernos.

Additional contributors: Justin Hall, Kasey Chang, Unicorn Lynx, S H, Patrick Bregger, Infernos.

Game added May 3, 1999. Last modified January 21, 2024.