Look, it's the Gundam version of the game Nene and Gryph played in Hopelessly Lost!

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/japan/panoramic-mecha-simulator-arcade-game-is-networked-awesome-312751.php

Looks pretty sweet, too, and almost exactly as it was described in the story -- Gryph, had you seen something like this when you wrote the scene?

>Gryph, had you seen something like this when you wrote the
>scene?

I hadn't heard of this particular game; Virtual MechWar is an extrapolation of the old Battletech Centers, which were similar, but based on (obviously) earlier VR pod technology.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

The old Battletech stuff is still around, there is one at Dave and Busters here in Atlanta. I still go play now and again, but its been a while, so I hope its still there :)

******************************
Remember, two wrongs do not make a right, but three lefts do.

I'm really here, but I'm not here, really.
******************************
RCW#665 the other neighbor of the beast

>The old Battletech stuff is still around, there is one at Dave and
>Busters here in Atlanta. I still go play now and again, but its been a
>while, so I hope its still there :)
>
>

According to one of the commenters on that page, D&Bs doesn't have one now.

Peter Eng
--
I'm only a Charter Member because of the DCForum upgrade, and because there's no rank below "Clueless F!wit."

>The old Battletech stuff is still around, there is one at Dave and
>Busters here in Atlanta.

Last time I was in Times Square in NYC, "Lazer Park" at 1560 Broadway (entrance on 163 W. 46th) still had half a dozen pods up and running.

-- Bob
-------------------
The President is on the line
As ninety-nine crab rangoons go by...

The Dave and Buster's in Cinci also had 8 or so working pods.

The Gamewyze in Plano, TX has 8 pods, and are willing to travel with them to conventions. They used to run the 4.10 BattleTech software, about a year ago, but due to hardware issues are now on FireStorm most of the time.

4.10 was the best mech sim I've ever played. The mech management features were my favorite part. Every time I sat down, I had a custom configuration of coolant, generators and triggers I'd set up. It was like a ritual. The only thing it didn't have was configurable mecha. A Madcat was a Madcat was a Madcat. No swapping in extra LRMs instead of PPCs or any such. You could unbalance things too easily that way, or such is the theory.

From what I understand, they are now doing SiteLink games of Firestorm, with up to 16 pilots, They also have 'league nights' I think they call them... for clan on clan beatings, based around a turn-based strategy game with in-pod combat. I haven't been in in months, but it sounds pretty awesome. Also, once a month they do an all-nighter, $25 for as many missions as you can stand 9AM-9PM.

Anyhow, if anyone here is in the Dallas area and wants to check it out, $10 for your first 5 missions, and I'll come play with any excuse possible. ;)

That's enough of that rant. sorry.

--Maeglin

>Look, it's the Gundam version of the game Nene and Gryph played in
>Hopelessly Lost!
>
>http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/japan/panoramic-mecha-simulator-arcade-game-is-networked-awesome-312751.php
>
>Looks pretty sweet, too, and almost exactly as it was described in the
>story -- Gryph, had you seen something like this when you wrote the
>scene?

There was a game, almost ten years ago now, called MechForce, that was basically what Gryph wrote about. Persistant stats and everything. It didn't have ranks or anything, and you could choose whatever mech you wanted, but other then that, yeah. Push to talk, interference from weapons fire, etc. Awesome, awesome game.

--
-Pasha
"I invented Warp Drive, whatta ya got?"
"I'm the Norse God of Mecha."
"Well, I guess you win then."

Those things are everywhere in Japan; even the fairly run-down arcade here in Abiko has a set of 3 or 4. I didn't like it myself; YMMV. Also, like 90% of games have persistent stat cards nowadays (they're usually 300en or 500en, and are actually a simple magnetic card that retrieves your information from an internet database.)