Gnome76
04/07/04 09:22 PM
68.12.224.9
|
For me it would have been the ED-209 from RoboCop and (sadly) Robot Jox....
Hmmm.... I check IMDB, see Robot Jox was from 1990... when were the Clans introduced?
Robot Jox had proxy battles for territory, emphasized single combat, went into genetically engineered warriors... even had a kind of Trial of Position. Not that I'm saying it was a good movie in retrospect.
|
SSFSX17
04/08/04 02:35 AM
128.195.93.199
|
MechWarrior 2
Specifically, a specialized heavy-graphics version that was freely distributed with my brother's Matrox Millenium 2.5D card (man, those were the old days!) I just started reading the fiction in the game itself and got hooked really good.
Lousy good-for-nothing mortals. Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em.
|
Cray
04/08/04 06:53 AM
68.200.105.141
|
Mom: "We just moved into the neighborhood. Go find some neighbor kids to make friends with."
Me: "Awwww, moooommm."
Mom: "You can't stay shut in all day."
Me: "Awwww, moooommm."
So I went out, bumped into the neighborhood kids, and found they played Battletech. I already played Star Frontiers and D&D, so...
That was about 18 years ago now.
Mike Miller, Materials Engineer
Disclaimer: Anything stated in this post is unofficial and non-canon unless directly quoted from a published book. Random internet musings of a BattleTech writer are not canon.
|
Grizzly
04/08/04 11:26 AM
12.108.119.227
|
Well I was already playing AD&D, Star Frontiers, Gamma World and other table top games at my local game store/club. I happened to be walking through my local Waldenbooks way back in 1986(I was a member of the sci-fi book club) and bought this cool looking book called the 3026 Technical Readout. I sat down and read it cover to cover and was hooked. I went back to the game store and ordered the boxed set (2nd edition) and began playing and as they say, "the rest is history".
"I am but mad north-northwest, when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw" Hamlet
|
phoenix
04/08/04 05:02 PM
69.212.108.233
|
I had always thought big robots were kinda cool, but what got me hooked was FASA Game Enrollment Concept #319 aka The Battletech Cartoon. I watch it now and can't believe how crappy it is, but when you are a kid that show was the best. I mean, they even decided to put computer graphics in it! Then one day my dad and I were at a model and hobby shop we often visited and on a shelf with a bunch of things like DnD, I saw this box that said Battletech on the side.
History...
Phoenix
|
Spartan
04/08/04 06:45 PM
68.88.136.182
|
I was at a book store probably 14, 15 years? ago or so and I saw the blueprints for the clan heavy mechs. I bought them with some of the allowance I had saved up and studied them over and over. Finally bought the boxed set, one of the pre-clan ones, 2nd ed I think and to quote everyone else  the rest is history.
Spartan
We demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty.
(I refer you to what Nightward said)
|
Nightward
04/08/04 10:20 PM
202.138.42.98
|
Due to my phenomenal lack of hand-eye coordination and ability to play team sports, I decided to enrol in the "Board Games" group for my school's once-a-week sports program.
Way over in the corner were some guys putting down some sort of wierd board that used Hexagonal "squares". It looked more interesting than Monopoly or Chess, which everyone else was playing, so I wandered over to watch.
It was an Assualt 'Mech battle royale. One guy had a 3050 Victor, one had a 3025 Battlemaster, one had a 3025 Atlas, one had a 3025 Awesome...and as the new guy, they gave me a Dire Wolf. After watching the Victor eviscerate every other 'Mech on the field, I promptly tuned and ran.
In my Dire Wolf.
Man, I really sucked back then. I suppose it's not so bad since it was my first game, but really. A masterpiece of stupidity, that.
That was eight years ago. I've since risen to number in the top five players in Queensland. And I've not fallen outside the top ten. Admittedly there are only about 20 of us who play competitively in Brisbane, but still. I can beat off the serious players from Sydney who come up to compete at the Big Weekend.
Yea, verily. Let it be known far and wide that Nightward loathes MW: DA. Indeed, it is with the BURNING ANIMUS OF A THOUSAND SUNS that he doth rage against it with.
|
tgsofgc
04/09/04 02:52 AM
209.110.234.173
|
Well I have always been somewhat into gaming in general, well ever since I went into one of the earliest stores I ever saw magic the gathering at when I was hanging out a friends house. Anyways I played Magic the Gathering, and practically every other CCG that cam an failed (as they often were quite cheap and I liked to try new things), for a while. At the same time I was into reading DnD and other RPG books (no not the novels, the actual books), but was always kept at bay by a lack of a capable GM. Anyhow, I moved to Albuquerque NM my junior year in high school and found this great store called Wargames West (now out of business), and attended a prerelease tourny for a Magic expansion set (I forget which one). At that tourney I met a neat little clique that met their on sundays and played Battletech. They were an eclectic bunch and introduced me to countless other great games too (including Talisman, Titan, and Car Wars) though we primarily played Battletech and the Battletech CCG. That lasted about a year and I moved away, never to have a real group to play regularly with again. I rediscovered the game last year when musing to a buddy about the game, and why the Computer game sucked, only to have him bring over the Box Set and a bunch of books. He use to be very into GURPS and bought the stuff mainly cause it looked cool, adn so I taught him to play (though unfortunately his attention span limited his interest). Finally I moved up here to the white north and am again with out players, though I really want to play.
Now after that long convoluted, and poorly editted (heh can you say that when you don't edit at all) paragraph I remember watching Robotech cartoons very very very early in my life. Like before first grade.
I find that 'pinpoint' accuracy during a bombing run increases proportionally with the amount of munitions used.
-Commander Nathaniel Klepper,
Avanti's Angels, 3058
|
Spartan
04/09/04 09:32 AM
66.142.168.206
|
You actually got to pick something like board games to fulfull your PE requirement? That's pretty cool, here in Texas you either play team sports or you go to Phys Ed.
Spartan
We demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty.
(I refer you to what Nightward said)
|
Gnome76
04/09/04 03:19 PM
68.12.224.9
|
Hah... the closest we could take to a non-athletic sport was bowling. I was never able to break 180.
|
Spartan
04/09/04 04:44 PM
66.142.168.206
|
I coulda done bowling in college, I opted for SCUBA though, but in high school, you could do PE or you could be in sports. I ended up in football all four years. Got the knees to prove it too.
And yes, that would be American football 
Spartan
We demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty.
(I refer you to what Nightward said)
|
wartang
04/10/04 12:09 AM
209.201.75.61
|
me it all started back wait to far skip aheasd a few years ok 8 years old i deciced that if it had wheels it's been done before ie cars, trucks,what ever. never realy found out why every one was in to wheeled veeks er vehicles. so i was allways reading about hover crafts and robots, then i see the empire strikes back wow  walkers allright (as a side not i did not relise the stars wars movies were parts of one movie till i was nine) i dreamed of them. designed them built lego modles of them, i was going to drive an AT-AT one day, only to find out it was all fake  so i kept dreaming thinking ok how do i build a walker,  i was stuck so filed it away for later. 3 years later i move to where i am now while waiting a the bus stop i make a new freind later he introduces me to another friend, "wana play a game" "sure, what" "battle tech" "huh, ok why not" my tow freinds set up every thing this bieng city tech the is see the figureins and the record sheets i thought felt as if angles were singing the pillar of light beeming down on me felt almost as if some holy calling was placed in my lap an answer here i could pilot walkers or rather mechs so here i am still playing to day liveing my child hood dream sort of now armed with a bit more knowledge about balnce, structural stresses and the science of walking i one day hope to be the first mech warrior
i love this game
|
cmryan
04/10/04 03:52 AM
4.12.82.110
|
It was the books. Decision at Thunder Rift and The Sword and the Dagger. After reading those books I had to know more.
|
Nightward
04/10/04 06:33 AM
203.134.40.134
|
Damn. If my school had offered SCUBA, I'dve done that instead of boardgaming.
I used to really suck at sports. I've got Asthma, poor Hand-Eye Coordination...and I weighed over 100 kg. I was OKish at martial arts, especially the armed martial arts, and sucked real bad at everything else.
The times, they have a-changed. I've almost grown out of the asthma, and trimmed down to 75kg. And I'm 5'11" and have learned to coordinate my movement. I mean, I had to, 'cos otherwise I'd be dead by now, thanks to the WONDERFUL chemicals I get to use in my labs.
On the other hand, I wouldn't have played BT or met my current closest friends any other way. So I figure it's probably worth it 
Yea, verily. Let it be known far and wide that Nightward loathes MW: DA. Indeed, it is with the BURNING ANIMUS OF A THOUSAND SUNS that he doth rage against it with.
|
Spartan
04/10/04 10:14 AM
66.142.168.43
|
Wait, did you do your boardgaming in a secondary school? Or was this at university? Reason I ask is the PE/sports requirement that I spoke of was for what we call high school( I know there are different school systems everywhere and I'm not really sure what it'd be called in Australia) But the SCUBA was for my PE requirement at University.
As for not being able to play sports cause of hand-eye coordination or weight? That wouldn't have necessarily stopped you. Not here any ways, I had terrible hand-eye coordination and weighed 93kg(205lbs) when I started and 111kg(245) my final season 4 years later. The asthma on the otherhand may have prevented your participation though, depending on the severity and your ability to control it. I had asthma but mine was allergy induced and with allergy medication I could control it.
Spartan
We demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty.
(I refer you to what Nightward said)
|
Nightward
04/10/04 08:49 PM
203.134.47.36
|
What University degree did you take that you had to do PE as a requirement?
Down here, we only take courses directly related to our Degree. I've seen a buch of US shows where people at American Universities did a crapload of courses that, as far as I could see, had no connection whatsoever to their degrees. I thought that was only TV, though...
I did my Boardgaming at High School. I think you call it Secondary School or Senior HIgh or something. I dunno. The American system doesn't make too much sense to me from what I've seen, but hey. Down here it's:
Age 5: Pre-School
Primary School
Age 6: Year One
Age 7: Year Two
Age 8: Year Three
Age 9: Year Four
Age 10: Year Five
Age 11: Year Six
Age 12: Year Seven
Primary school Over. On to High School.
High School
Age 13: Year Eight
Age 14: Year Nine
Age 15: Year Ten. You can leave shool as soon as you turn 15.
Age 16: Year Eleven
Age 17: Year Twelve.
High School over. On to University. Some courses take 3 years. Others, like Engineering take 4 years to obtain your Bachelor's. After that, Honurs is one year, Masters is three, and a Ph.D. is 7 Years on top of Honurs or Masters.
I've been working on my Biology degree for the last four years, and in all that time, the only non-Biology courses I took were Physics, Maths, Statistics, and Chemistry. But those four courses teach you the basics of things you encounter later in your Biology degree any way.
At HIgh School, everyone had to play sport for three hours on a Wednesday afternoon. There were a bunch of sports offered, but I sucked at them all. Also, back then, I had no self-esteem whatsoever and so wouldn't have tried anything more strenous than board gaming any way. Unless they'd offerred Archery. I'd probably have had a go at that, because it's something I always wanted to try.
My asthma was pretty severe. I spent almost as much time in hospital as out of it until I was 4, and until I hit Year Four, I'd be in for the entirety of Winter most years. Fortunately, I was really young then and so don't remember much of it.
Asthma bites. It's not as bad as Crohn's Disease, but it is still frickin' annoying.
Yea, verily. Let it be known far and wide that Nightward loathes MW: DA. Indeed, it is with the BURNING ANIMUS OF A THOUSAND SUNS that he doth rage against it with.
|
Spartan
04/11/04 10:27 AM
66.142.168.43
|
Well here all university degrees have a series of core classes that you have to take: history, creative writing, literature, fine arts, etc. My initial degree was in applied mathematics but I only needed a bit over 30 hours of math, plus another 18 in a supporting field. Except for 8 hours each of chemistry and physics everything else I took was unrelated to my field. So I took about 70 or 80 hours of non-math, non science courses. Though now that I'm working on my Mechanical Engineering degree I don't have to worry about any of those cause they transferred over.
As for why it's done this way? From what I was told it had to do with the idea of the "renaissance man" or well rounded student, what ever you want to call it. In my opinion it just gives the idiots an excuse to put off picking a major for a while so they can fail college algebra a few times even though it's a review of what they did in high school.
Oh and our school system, at the places I went isn't all that different from what you know.
Preschool: age 4
Kindergarten: age 5
Elementary School: Grades 1-5 age 6-10
Junior High or Intermediate School: Grades 6-8 age 11-13
High School: Grades 9-12 age 14-17(when I played football)
After that any schooling you recieve is strictly voluntary.
Spartan
We demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty.
(I refer you to what Nightward said)
|
Nightward
04/12/04 12:28 AM
202.141.218.84
|
It may have started as the "Renaissance Man" idea. I rather suspect it now has more to do with gouging the maximum amount of cash out of each University student 
Down here we do "Credit". A full-time student takes 40 Credi Points worth of subjects; each point of Credit indicates an hour per week you should be putting in for the subject. It does include contact time, tutorial time, and lecture time, though; most subjects are 10CP, though some 5CP courses are also offered.
Contrary to any form of logic I am able to use, the 5CP subjects in Science at my University are all much more difficult than any two 10CP courses put together.
One 5CP course I took ran for an entire semester, demanded that you passed all 10 laboratories in the course (each one running for 4 hours) and then obtain 80% on the final exam to pass. And it was an NGP course- Non-Graded Pass. So you had to get the marks of a High Distinction to pass the course, which was then worth NOTHING for your GPA.
Not happy.
To make it all the merrier, the course ran across two semesters, and to have either course count towards your degree, you had to pass both semesters.
This is the sole reason I now loathe science with every fibre of my being and I'm quitting at the end of the semester to go study Teaching.
Yea, verily. Let it be known far and wide that Nightward loathes MW: DA. Indeed, it is with the BURNING ANIMUS OF A THOUSAND SUNS that he doth rage against it with.
|
CRASH
04/13/04 04:52 PM
68.81.215.68
|
Crash painfully wrenches the thread back on-topic.
Ahh, sorry about that. Not that playing boardgames for school credit isn’t cool, but I wanted to respond to the original question.
When I was 17ish (let’s see, that was, ugh, 15 years ago) I was really into RPG. I was big time into D&D, little bit of ShadowRun and a little of the Star Wars RPG. I got a job working at the local hobby shop. (Al’s Hobby Shop. How generic is that?) The Battletech section was pitiful, but I read through some of the sourcebooks and thought it was pretty cool. One day, I was ringing up this guy, who was buying about 6 or 7 BT miniatures and I asked him about the game. He offered to teach me, and I was hooked. As I had the power to put things on the “Order Sheet” for the store, our BT section quickly became the best in the northeast (of NE Philly, anyway). From then on, just about every cent of my paycheck went to BT stuff. (the owner would actually cash my check for me. It was pretty funny, looking back. He’d hand me my check and I’d hand it right back w/ a stack of BT gear.)
Which reminds me: RAY WILSON, ex-USMC, previously of NE Philadelphia and San Antonio, Texas – If you should happen to stumble upon this thread by accident – I am that 17 geek that you crafted into a BT fiend. I would love to hear from you. Jim “Crash” H.
"It is not home if there is no beer." - Largo, MegaTokyo.com (10.12.01)
|
Vicen_Korel
04/15/04 01:07 AM
66.38.4.207
|
I started with the MechWarrior 2 game for computer. I tried to get into the history of the game with the encyclopedia that came with the game but all the names confused me and i really just wanted to take a giant mech and blow stuff up. I found a couple of expansion packs for the FASA mechwarrior in a bookstore i frequent. Spent 4 years trying to puzzle the system out with those while looking for source books. I finally found the old battletech source book about two years ago. The pre clan book, with the LAM rules, aerial combat rules, and building construction rules. A few months after that the Barnes and Nobles in E-town, KY had the classic battletech master rules RE, and i got the mechwarrior rpg of ebay.
"Nothing sends your love like an ER PPC"
--Vicen Korel
|
phoenix
04/15/04 11:26 PM
68.77.118.160
|
Quote:
(Al’s Hobby Shop. How generic is that?)
There used to be a store near my house named Don's Hobby World. Maybe part of the contract of owning a hobby store is that you have to give it a generic name
Phoenix
|
Diablo
04/16/04 06:05 PM
24.102.197.114
|
played MW2, then played Mech Commander. then I read the flyer for FASA and read about a board game for the series. being bored and 14, I asked for it for my B-day. soon after I owned that game. played it with my step-dad for a while. then dropped it for a few years. came back and played till now.
|
Mongoose
05/07/04 11:13 PM
68.35.75.250
|
Kind of funny, really - when I graduated high school (in 1987), I immediately moved from the wilds of Northern New Mexico to Albuquerque, NM - our one "real" city in the state. I had a long-time familiarity with Wargames West, since I used to mail order my D&D supplies from them about once or twice a year. So, my first day in ABQ, I drive over to Wargames West, and there is this COOL box, with this tall robotic double-barrled monstrosity....of course I had to buy it. The game turned out to be BattleTech, the robot turned out to be a Warhammer, and I turned out to be a B-Tech junkie. Funny how it all turns out
|
tgsofgc
05/09/04 02:59 AM
209.110.230.245
|
Hey I use to play with a group at wargames west years ago... I wonder if it was the same guys.
I find that 'pinpoint' accuracy during a bombing run increases proportionally with the amount of munitions used.
-Commander Nathaniel Klepper,
Avanti's Angels, 3058
|
Toontje
05/09/04 07:06 AM
82.73.138.10
|
3056 MUSH/MUX
Rather to blow up, then.
|
Thor_Mech
05/10/04 03:27 PM
199.239.45.2
|
Well personally, while Mech 2 was a great game, it didn't quite hook me into BT. Then Mechcommander came out. I see it and think "cool" now I go out of my way to buy anything BT related. So, in a way, it was a combination of Mechcommander and The Blood of Kerensky Trilogy. By the way, does anybody remember the cards? I have 6 decks and love them all!
"Even after all these years, walking through the ranks of 'Mechs still gives me the chills"
- Intelligence Secretary Justin Xiang Allard
Outreach, 21, Sept 3051
|
tgsofgc
05/11/04 03:19 AM
209.110.233.13
|
yeah unless you had tourny mongers in your group the ccg was great fun. If you did you probally got sick of seeing the same cards and strategies whenever you played. It definately was one of the better ccgs, was awesome for multiplayer too.
I find that 'pinpoint' accuracy during a bombing run increases proportionally with the amount of munitions used.
-Commander Nathaniel Klepper,
Avanti's Angels, 3058
|
Death_Fire
05/11/04 12:31 PM
164.58.75.74
|
what started me was my total lack of a social life. I never get out so I never got exposed to this for a long time. (my school has no board game club or anything, having only 300 peaple n it!) I was talking with one of one fo my friends from church (he's 32 and I'm only 16 so he knew about this game) He started me off with the PC games, then the card game, finally the books and board game. That's been about 6 months ago now and I've never been able to get a board game in aginst him.
after I got interested in it I started recerching on my own. I read the 3050 battletech compendium and then started playing the game whenever I could. I still remember my first battle in the game. I had the med death treo (a griffon, a shaddow hawk, and a wolverine) aginst two man o' wars. Uhh, I got slaughtered. I did put up a good fight at the end though. if anyone knows whare I can practice the boardgame online, please tell me. I barely get in 2 games a month now.
The winning team is the first team that wins!
-Hitchikers Guide To The Galixies
|
CRASH
05/12/04 07:04 AM
66.208.206.222
|
Death Fire: you can download "MegaMek" for free. The rules are pretty much spot-on CBT, all level 1 rules are in there, plus some lvl 2 and 3. The tough part is finding players who are on-line when you are. There is a single player mode in the lastest couple versions, but the 'bot is only so-so. Still, it helps me get my Battletech fix when I'm jonesin' for a game.
"It is not home if there is no beer." - Largo, MegaTokyo.com (10.12.01)
|
Death_Fire
05/13/04 12:02 PM
164.58.75.74
|
Thanks! I need to catch up on my game. I haven't got to play in over 3 weeks.
The winning team is the first team that wins!
-Hitchikers Guide To The Galixies
|