ADG Episode 194 - MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries

[@LGR]

I am the undisputed best mech. Small, fast, float like a butterfly, sting like a bad DOS game!

[@Pixelmusement]

+Lazy Game Reviews Say Hello to my little ATLAS! >;D

[@JimBobJoeB0b]

Yo, great to see you here LGR! Btw have you stopped by the MechWarrior 2 Discord at all?

[@JimBobJoeB0b]

Yo, great to see you here LGR! Btw have you stopped by the MechWarrior 2 Discord at all?

[@S2Tubes]

@@Pixelmusement Amusingly, there actually is a little Atlas in the game. The crippled Atlas. It's not an Atlas, but a Centurion. In one of the later patches, you get salvage based on what you disable, not the prescripted salvage. If you keep the "Atlas" unexploded, you get a Centurion to salvage.

[@coaxill4059]

@@S2Tubes I always thought that the Commando was like a tiny Atlas. Laserhands and Missilechest, though lacking ballistic weaponry, makes it as close as any 25 tonner can be.

[@bjh13us]

This game had one of the best opening cinematics ever.

[@Pixelmusement]

+Benjamin Handelman I'll give it that. ;)

[@fevermario]

On my dad's old disc copy of this game, there was a bug where in the instant action mechlab you could customize your mechs well beyond the maximum tonnage limit, and your mech would still be accepted as legit by the game. (This only worked in instant action) I of course, exploited the hell out of this quirk, to make some truly glorious abominations. I made an elemental with 12 ER PPCS that instantly exploded if you fired all of them at once. I made a Dire Wolf with 4 ER PPCS that could run as fast as a Summoner. I took the already speedy Firemoth, gave it four medium pulse lasers, and made it so stupidly fast that It could get from one side of a map to the other in about 7 seconds, and if any other mechs got in it's way, both they and I would be instantly killed because of my insane speed.

[@Pixelmusement]

+Fever Mario Back in the early days of online gaming, I used to do a thing with MechWarrior 3 called "Catch the Firefly!" where I would take a Firefly mech, strip it of virtually everything, give it an insanely fast engine, then run around the battlefield like crazy and watch as other players tried desperately to hit me given dial-up lag! XD

[@arrankharchkrall2916]

This was my very first entry into the Mechwarrior series. Definitely had a blast with it and learned VERY quickly to /NEVER/ put any weapons into the arms and always use heatsinks into the legs and just fill the arms up with them when no more weapons were needed. Played the Matrox Mystique version of the game, however, so all those bugs that are on display in the video were not even noticed. Personally didn't care about the lack of Image Enhancement as it would be another 3 years before I was introduced to the original Mech 2 and Ghost Bear Legacy. The game-breaking bugs that I encountered did not appear until upgrading all the way to Windows XP. The entire game seemed to proceed to self-destruct at that point and missions became completely unplayable, especially the missions following your capture by Clan Wolf. All in all, an excellent game. Also, this game PALES in comparison to the massive amount of bugs Daggerfall had, or may still have. I refuse to ever touch Daggerfall again for the very reason that ANY time that game crashed it corrupted files that it had NO business even touching. System Registry files to be precise. Had several cases where I had to completely reinstall the OS because the game somehow managed to corrupt the MBR of the system drive / partition.

[@doomsdayelectronica6547]

I had a special 3D accelerated version of this that came with a Sony Vaio computer, which ran exclusively on ATI Mach 64/RAGE hardware, and Windows 95. If I still had the disk, I'd review it. It did have VGA support, but no DOS support. I played the hell out of it back then, and loved it.

[@enjicooper1779]

Ah, I remember that too. Good ole P2 300 MHz machines.

[@nilTheyogi]

same! that vaio was my intro to mechwarrior and all kinds of stuff as a kid

[@419Films]

I remember transferring one of my _Battletech_ mechs into this game for multiplayer. It served me well enough, given that I didn't think it would work as well as it did in real time v turn-based. A 100-ton mech with the minimum engine it could take, a single jump jet (for turning around), 8 erPPCs (extended range Particle Projection Cannons, for those who don't know), and enough heat sinks to negate the heat generated by them. I was pretty much able to one-shot just about any mech under 40-tons. Assuming, of course, that I could hit something moving faster than me (which was, really, anyone else playing). XD

[@silverhawk7324]

Hahaha I used that build for Solaris games

[@Deltaworks23]

I loved this game despite the bugs. The campaign was so good, playing as a rising new merc on the eve of the clan invasions. And those journal entries on the dropship added a ton of depth to the story.

[@josepablolunasanchez1283]

Mission design is excellent. No mech game managed to be at this level in mission design.

[@TheRealKoltoroc]

Ok, some in universe nitpicking about the Enhanced imaging technology that the clans use. The Inner Sphere pilots could at that time NEVER use them because they depend on implants that were not available to the inner sphere. Getting clan mechs does not change that. The mechs had to be refitted with traditional neurohelmets to make them usable for Inner Sphere pilots. That means the story reason is perfectly sound and not an excuse. So not having the models for the wireframe mode makes sense since you are not supposed to have access to it anyway.

[@Pixelmusement]

+Koltoroc So... what about when you play instant action and are trying to roleplay a clan warrior dusting off some Inner Sphere scrubs? ;)

[@GdotWdot]

In the late 90s I once bought a collection of leftover demo discs from German magazines. They had a couple full releases like Descent 2 ,and this as well. It didn't work - the installer tried to look for German locale which they didn't include (!) and when I tampered with it, the English files were incomplete anyway. Good to know I didn't miss much.

[@spacelamaglama]

This game is amazing. I spent a lot of hours playing with a Saitek joystick, playing with my brother sometimes via ethernet cable. The music is amazing too!

[@Cenot4ph]

this was the first mech game i played back in the day

[@homelessEh]

despite the bugs it still a solid game imo. once way back i remember there being this grand mod for it that added tons of mechs vehicals and air craft.. like the grand father of the mw4 mektek business.

[@twoquickcapri]

This is probably my second favorite MW game after MW4 Merc.

[@karry299]

Still the absolute best Mechwarrior game. MW3 would be my second best choice, but it's unplayable on modern hardware, so it's pretty much irrelevant.

[@hattedsandwich2415]

Not true brother, you can play this game flawlessly with dgvoodoo and an fps limiter like riva tuner. I'm playing with windows 10 and a gtx 1080, and dg voodoo lets me set resolution to 3440x1440, I shit you not

[@Pulmonox]

@@hattedsandwich2415 Sadly, I've tried this. Even getting settings as correctly as I was able to implement them, the hardware accel problems persisted, so I guess it's still 'hit-or-miss' on whether or not this works. I haven't been able to play Mech 3 since it's hayday, and it makes me sad, 'cause it was one of my favorites.

[@JimBobJoeB0b]

If y’all wanna get Mech 3 working, head on over to the MechWarrior 3 Discord 2.0 server, we can help you there.

[@SeekerLancer]

If I'm remembering correctly, Activision had already lost the license by this point. That's the reason why Mercenaries was made as they were allowed to continue making "MechWarrior 2" expansions but not MechWarrior 3, so they just called their next standalone game MechWarrior 2 instead. In any case this is probably the first video of yours I've watched that I find myself really disagreeing with. It's my favorite of the series and I never really had serious problems with the bugs after beating the game many times over the years. It's not nearly as bad as Ghost Bear Legacy in my opinion or the Titanium Trilogy versions (which are utterly and totally broken). The salvage system doesn't exist in the DOS version by the way, salvage is pre-determined so don't bother shooting for the head.

[@Pixelmusement]

+Christopher Blair You can disagree all you want, but those lasers of mine were absolutely passing straight through my targets. Heck, the Windows version had (has? dunno if this was ever patched or not) its own unique bug with Small Pulse Lasers specifically in that, because of how short their range is, they hit their range limit BEFORE any collision is checked, so you can't hit anything with them! D:

[@tehpw7574]

@@Pixelmusement I never knew of the limits in as depth explanation as you prove but i learned to favor weapons that did visual splash damage (like PPCs, SRM & LRMs and my favorite, the Arrow IV), often aiming low to the legs in order to cripple them quickly so that i could focus on another target. One bug you didn't mention was the disconnect (ie MISSING) of the heat sinks that came with an engine. Mechs ran unnecessarily hotter as a result.

[@AnriDarkmoor]

@@tehpw7574 Across the series I've always favored PPC's, pulse lasers, SRM & LRMs most of the time. Other times I enjoyed using AC's and Gauss in place of Pulse or PPC but I usually swayed towards PPC most of the time when I could. I mean who doesn't like a death beam :).

[@tehpw7574]

Was the code editable at that time? From a common type of file that didn't require any C+ knowledge?

[@Skull_Gun]

I highly suspect the collision detection is closely linked to CPU speed, I mean it's totally why jumpjets don't refill when playing the Windows version of Mechwarrior 2 unless you use something to force more interrupts. I seem to have a lot less issues with the Mech 2 trilogy when playing on actual hardware that doesn't get close to solid 60 fps.

[@DirpyMaster05DA]

I used to play this at the age of 4. Oh, the memories.

[@BeyondTheScanlines]

Damning. I always thought solidly of it, though nowhere near as highly as I did with Mech2. Perhaps a case of subtly noting the bugs? I'm not sure. Kind of a bummer that there isn't any community patches or anything. Would have been rad to see it all fixed up by fans. Alas.

[@Pixelmusement]

+hellfire64 There actually IS a community patch, but I've read that getting it working properly can be a hassle so I didn't attempt to try it.

[@DarioRuellan]

+Pixelmusement what about the music? Mech2 has one of the best soundtracks I can remember

[@Pixelmusement]

Darío Ruellan The music in Mercs, quality-wise, is on par with Mech 2, however the variety is lacking as many tracks sound similar to other tracks. So it's only a slight shade below Mech 2's awesome music. :B

[@MadmanMcNabb]

Aight. The Mechwarrior 2 series and Doom started my interest in both video games and Battletech. I played this stuff back in the mid 90s on a computer that seriously strained to handle the job, and over the years with better systems I mastered all of them on hard difficulty. What I can tell you is that a mild form of save-scumming is mandatory because of glitches and the aforementioned issues with figuring out the mission timing. You do want to grind the random side missions (for cash and salvage depending on the patch) and get lance mates as soon as possible. You want Jennifer Brockton and Konshiki Yabu. (If memory serves, Jennifer is a notorious leg-shooter and will cripple enemies constantly) LRMs are broken in Mech 2, while LRM-boating is an option, for more balanced gameplay I'd include them but not to excess. Basically anything that does splash damage is disproportionately strong. (If it seems too hard spamming LRMs and inferno missiles/flamers is a cheap win) Arrow IVs are the real insta-win button, but the game is internally balanced well enough that ammo for them is limited and you'll have to watch the arms merchant like a hawk to keep one 'mech stocked with them. Mech 2 Mercs has a very interesting mechanic where failing one campaign mission doesn't automatically end the campaign. In fact, there's scripted salvage that makes it possible to snag things like Warhawks if you intentionally lose a mission. The eternal trick to all the Mercs games is to grind side missions as much as possible to build up funds and/or salvage hardware, and go into the campaign missions with as much friendly tonnage as possible. Customization can be used to up-armor 'mechs (still valid to this day in Mech 5) and move stuff off easily damaged arms. Torso-twist and circle enemy 'mechs while hammering away, head-shooting here, leg shooting there, and basically just stacking the deck as much as possible while using effective in-game tactics. The Clan Invasion aspect of Mech 2 Mercs is ALWAYS worth the trip to me.

[@mikemayberry7121]

I have an idea for a show. A mad scientist traps Gemini, LGR, Vinny from Vinesauce, and JonTron in a satellite orbiting the earth, and forces them to play the worst DOS games he can find. It's called "Ancient DOS Game Theater 3000".

[@Pixelmusement]

+Michael Mayberry Or "Lazy Ancient DOS VinnyTron Theatre 3K1+" :B

[@RighBread]

Really awesome, informative video. Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries, despite it's terrible flaws, actually remains as my favorite game of all time. There's actually a few more glaring issues than you mentioned, which you may be aware of: - The Titanium edition of the game contains a major bug that actually circumvents the possibility of death via overheating. - Occasionally, after adding heat sinks to a 'mech, the game will suddenly stop recognizing that you have any heat sinks at all, and the 'mech becomes permanently unable to utilize heat sinks. I have yet to discover the source of this, but my hunch is that it has something to do with using the "Repair All" function, rather than manually repairing each part of the 'mech individually. I'd definitely like to see this on GOG in the future with all patches implemented. I am running it on DOSbox, but there's definitely more issues than I remember as a kid.

[@JimBobJoeB0b]

@Pixelmusement I’ve found the reason for the bug that causes shots to miss, and it appears it’s exclusive to lasers. Quoting IGN’s walkthrough of the game: “There is a bug about Lasers (both ER and Pulse versions): if you fire them before the previous Laser beam finished its animation (a small smoke cloud on the impact point), the lasers will miss.” So the bug has something to do with the impact sprite when a laser hits it’s target.

[@Pixelmusement]

+MasterBuchannon Hmm... Well, the important thing to note here is that when the lasers miss a target, they can still hit things BEHIND the target, so it's probably a very complex oversight with how weapon collisions are being handled, thus why it never got fixed (at least in the DOS builds).

[@JimBobJoeB0b]

Pixelmusement I'm hoping that I can get a group of nuts together to try to fix some of the bugs in the game...though I'm sure that'll be difficult. One person who would know a good amount of this stuff is SkyFaller, a member of the MechWarrior 2 community who made an application called MechVM, which allows for the installation of the different versions of MechWarrior 2 on newer OS'es, importing of 'Mech models and reading the contents of the prj files. By the way, have you ever heard of the NAIS She'll for Mercenaries?

[@Pixelmusement]

+MasterBuchannon I have. I used it for a period of time a long time ago to test out having different kinds of mechs added to the game which weren't in there by default, but wasn't impressed so ultimately stopped using it. :P

[@JimBobJoeB0b]

Pixelmusement did ya ever try making a custom emblem?

[@Pixelmusement]

+MasterBuchannon Nope.

[@kizmetmars]

Those in-game menus really remind me of Tachyon: The Fringe.

[@MrPopoGod]

Mercs actually lacks the Unseen entirely; the whole Harmony Gold kerfluffle went down between GBL and Mercs and the Unseen were removed. We've got replacements like the Thug instead of the Maurader.I'm curious what software version your Mercs was patched to. I still have my disk that's labeled as 1.05 and completed it many times, loving every second. I don't recall problems with the collision like you were demonstrating. Interestingly, the game doesn't actually have a salvage system until the last patch (which I think was 1.1). Prior to this you get fixed amounts of loot at various points in the campaign. The end of the Galadon V missions gives you a Jenner, and the first mission of the Draconis Deep Strike (can't remember the planet name, it's the ice world) gives an Assassin (which is perfectly suited for blitzing the final mission of that campaign). Then that patch added dynamic salvage and personally I think it utterly destroyed the playability of the game. Post-mission salvage calculation took ages and it was extremely hard to get anything worthwhile, leaving you with a severely reduced economy.

[@Pixelmusement]

+AmyLeeSlave If the salvage is fixed and not variable in initial releases then that would mean Activision were lying about the salvage system they claimed was in place. The last official DOS patch was v1.06. I believe Windows got a v1.1 patch, but the Windows version has its own share of issues. It's also possible that they focussed on fixing the Windows version and just ignored the DOS version for whatever reason. There IS an unofficial v1.1 for DOS, but I've heard getting it working can be a hassle.

[@josepablolunasanchez1283]

Autocannons have a bug.

[@KaroKoenich]

Quite the good-looking games for their time, the Mechwarrior 2 series. I did play through MW2 and the Ghost Bear's Legacy add-on several times and loved them. Missed out on this one, because back then, my computer couldn't do it. How well does it do with all patches installed, and are there no further community hacks available?

[@Pixelmusement]

+KaroKoenich I was playing it fully patched. There IS a community patch, but from what I've read, getting it working can be a hassle so I didn't attempt to use it.

[@EricDKaufman]

Best Soundtrack EVER

[@EdmondDantes224]

I have the Pentium version of this game (requires Windows 95/98) and played through with the economy disabled... well, I never beat the campaign, because here's what happened, and this is a bug I didn't see you mention so maybe you didn't experience it: Basically, I got to a mission where (IIRC) I was supposed to be escorting something... and I had eliminated all enemies... but the mission just would not end. I think the cars I was escorting just kept bumping into a wall and even giving up and destroying the cars didn't result in a fail state or anything. I tried again, and again the mission would not conclude. That's if I'm remembering right. I do remember a mission in a state where I had basically won but I never got a victory screen or any sort of update. And afterwards, I got bored of this game.

[@Pixelmusement]

+EdmondDantes224 As I admitted to in the video, I've never played into the main game far enough for the clans to invade so it's entirely possible these same missions are bugged in DOS too. :P

[@skwydzee2716]

I played through this entire game when it came out and I didn't encounter that many bugs, no more than most PC games of that era. We got used to save scumming just in case of a crash lol.

[@Pixelmusement]

QA testing is one of my specialties so I can spot bugs from a mile away, and given my programming knowledge, sometimes even figure out exactly why one's happening! ;)

[@reko3103]

Shoutout to all the Mercnet players!

[@JimBobJoeB0b]

Reko CommanderHunter reporting for duty!

[@FireFoxBancroft]

Funny because I enjoyed this game. Yeah the bugs are aggravating but it was still fun for me.

[@wardrich]

I love the irony with the licensing... Trying to squeeze out as much money as possible now means more people are going to just pirate it since it isn't available for digital download. 10/10 industry move.

[@ro-337]

I know the other MechWarrior games aren’t DOS games, but I’d love to see you review them the same.

[@Pixelmusement]

Mech 3 is notoriously difficult to get working right under Windows 10 and Mech 4 and Mech 4 Mercs don't work well with capture software, thus part of the reason why I haven't done filler videos about them yet. :P

[@ro-337]

@@Pixelmusement Dang. I never played MW3 so I didn’t know. I remember recording some things of MW4, but that was years back on Windows 7. MW5 is a bit too new and not finished. There’s still the rest of the DLC to come out. We both know there’s no way they’ll skip the Clan mechs.

[@Pixelmusement]

@@ro-337 I dunno... MW5 started really strong but got insanely difficult very quickly and is lacking some features present in all MechWarrior games prior except MW1, such as the ability to adjust overall difficulty as well as manually define your enemy targets in Instant Action. Granted, MW5 DOES have modding support, so perhaps fans may add these features in the future if the devs don't. :P

[@RegulationGamingHP]

It's my favorite game of all time... But you're not wrong. Your pints are exaggerated as far as the severity of these issues, but you're right. :) Very nice show. If you're interested, there's a skirmish mod that mostly fixes the randomly generated missions. But they come with their own issues.

[@Pixelmusement]

+Regulation Gaming I think having missions fail because of end of mission crashes and shots failing to collide with targets is pretty severe... TBH though, I'm much less familiar with the Windows releases than the DOS release, so it's possible some of these issues were addressed there. (Although I do recall other issues being present, like Small Pulse Lasers disappearing from existence before they can hit anything due to how their speed and range are calculated.)

[@RegulationGamingHP]

Pixelmusement that's true. The windows releases were laden with issues as well (though the Titanium Edition is notable for being the only MW2: TE version worth a damn). I'm only saying that despite it's problems, it's a highly interesting game, and one capable of being one of the most satisfying games ever, even these days. I wrote about it recently on Regulationgaming.com (I swear it's not a plug. Obviously you can ignore this if you want but it articulates where I come from)

[@TheJohnmurphy516]

I loved this game growing up and the main story missions were great. But it does have bugs. One bug I noticed was you can hire a pilot to fly an aircraft into battle... But you could not buy an aircraft for him to fly. So he was useless

[@AnriDarkmoor]

I never did play this one but always wanted to just never got around to it. Spent so much time on MW2 as a kid then 7 years later when MW4 Mercs released I spent even more on that but oddly enough I never knew MW2 mercs was a thing till late 2000.

[@omicronx94]

mw2 mercs was the best one by far (everyone acknowledge this). you missed out.

[@AnriDarkmoor]

@@omicronx94 Awwwww :( I'm totally have to try it now...

[@babal1ty]

Mech action at its best.

[@Pixelmusement]

+babal1ty Or worst, depending on the level of sarcasm being used. ;)

[@babal1ty]

+Pixelmusement Call me blind, i commented before watching and didn't see that it was mercanaries :D so no sarcasm intended.

[@imwithstupid086]

700K is actually insanely low for a fusion reactor. It's even kinda low for a pottery kiln.

[@Pixelmusement]

+imwithstupid086 I know, right? Needs more zeroes tacked onto it! ;)

[@SeekerLancer]

Lore wise single C-bill would be worth a lot of dollars.

[@josepablolunasanchez1283]

FASA was getting impatient with the delay of Activision to release anything. At some point Activision decided to make money with the license, but they could only make games under "Mechwarrior 2" name. Many mechs are absent in mercenaries because Harmony Gold was in a lawsuit rush over the unseen mechs. Studio Nue owns the mecha designs, used by Big West for Macross, which granted distribution rights to Tatsunoko productions. Tatsunoko sold "all rights" to Harmony Gold, which believed to be the sole owner of the franchise, a deception that was uncovered when Big West sued tatsunoko. In the other hand, Twentieth Century Imports licensed mecha toys to FASA. And Harmony Gold sued FASA over the unseen. But as you may guess, none of them had the rights that Studio Nue has.

[@warriorsrace6960]

I wasted endless summers playing MechWarrior 2 & MW2 Mercs.... Good gawd ....

[@Pixelmusement]

+The Crescent Hawk As evidenced by your screen name. ;)

[@warriorsrace6960]

@@Pixelmusement indeed :D

[@bandetx]

I played this as a kid and i never once encountered a bug that was noticeable.

[@Pixelmusement]

+Bandet There were multiple versions of this released, including DOS, Windows, hardware accelerated for specific video cards... The DOS version is the buggiest by far and most of the bugs in the Windows version will go unnoticed just by nature of what it takes to trigger them. (Such as IS Small Pulse Lasers disappearing from their range limit before they process any collision... except who uses IS Small Pulse Lasers, really? ;)

[@crowsbridge]

I loved this game, I think I still have the box. I don't remember any technical difficulties. I wonder why your PPC graphics don't look like mine did.

[@Pixelmusement]

+Alexander Rodecape The PPC graphics were changed between Mech 2 and Mech 2: Mercs, plus I believe the hardware accelerated versions may've changed them yet again, though I might be mistaken. But yeah, a LOT of people don't remember the technical difficulties for whatever reason, but as I demonstrated, they're clearly present, and I do have the game patched up. :P

[@crowsbridge]

I figure that happens alot with classic old games, people only remember the good parts.

[@AlyxxTheRat]

Bet Clint is Clint's favourite Mech in this game too :P

[@Pixelmusement]

+Alexandria “Alyxx” Thorne Though it's kinda small and lightweight... Hmm...

[@Cyberdemon2006]

huh.. Blake Stone: Planet Strike would've been my guess

[@burstdragon3233]

And I was just thinking on how to send you my Mercs Disc.

[@MannyKunV]

im surprised you didnt mention the bug where enemy mechs can walk thru terrain and be inside mountains and can still hit you

[@Pixelmusement]

Because I didn't know that was even a bug! 8O

[@MannyKunV]

@@Pixelmusement well that was a problem i had. enemys would spawn on the floor plain and walk in and out of mountains/cliffs. and they can still shoot you thru them which was irritating. also my version didnt play any in game music. the only audio i ever heard was the ambient sound of the waiting rooms on the base and dropship.

[@warriorsrace6960]

I own this game but can't seem to get it to run in MechVM, I own Win 10 64 bit and I've tried everything I know to do and still can't get it to work... Would love some ideas and or help. Grew up playing it and would love to play it again.

[@Pixelmusement]

I just run the DOS version through DOSBox. I've never heard of MechVM so have no idea how to comment on using it, although it's intriguing to know such a thing exists... :o

[@warriorsrace6960]

@@Pixelmusement I figured it out, seems win 10 doesn't like the 3d accelerate versions of the game.

[@Pixelmusement]

@@warriorsrace6960 That doesn't surprise me, though you might be able to coax them into working with the assistance of DXWnd, though that's a pretty advanced tool and takes a lot of effort to configure just for a CHANCE of making things work. :B

[@warriorsrace6960]

@@Pixelmusement When you have time, take a loo at this mechvm.org/ it only works with the DOS meech2 games though

[@aionboogie1252]

Star seige is fun give it a try , i used to think nothing was like mercenaries until i played star seige

[@hgbugalou]

I always likes plan old MW2 over mercenaries.

[@Blarbo]

Buggy, but I am very fond of it

[@von_nobody]

dos version of UFO have too same problem if battle mission crash or your deliberate terminate battle exe. Master of magic similar thing that you can start game from battle exe and get last battle, after that you could continue game normally. This affects probably all multi exe games that store game state on disk before executing next exes.

[@Pixelmusement]

+von nobody Not quite. The original MechWarrior 2 works the same way and this NEVER happens, as Mech 2 never crashes when it goes back from gameplay to the launcher. So long as this method of separating executables is working properly, data is never lost or mixed up. :B

[@jacobthesitton9142]

Your intro is still running at 30fps :P

[@Pixelmusement]

+MeatBeat I switched to 60 FPS mid-season. Next season the intro will be 60 FPS. ;)

[@eduardmart1237]

How did you managed to run it?

[@Pixelmusement]

+Эдуард Мартыненко With CD-based DOS games it's best to use CD burning software to capture an image file of the game CD, then while in DOSBox you use its IMGMOUNT command to mount the image file as a CD drive. DOSBox settings can be left as defaults or personal preferences, save for whatever I list at the end of videos as DOSBox Configuration settings, which should be set exactly.

[@Spacemutiny]

I was never heavily into Battletech so I don't know how fans generally felt about Mechwarrior 3, but that is actually my favorite. Unlike Mechwarrior 4, which I also enjoy, it really felt like you were in a gigantic machine. Too bad it is almost impossible to get running on a modern machine :(

[@Pixelmusement]

+Anthony Micari Someone over on the VOGONS forums was trying to hack together a patch for MW3 to make it work widescreen and on modern systems and such, but yeah, MW3 has lots of compatibility issues beyond the systems of the time. MW4 on the other hand works pretty well and has worked pretty well since forever, though admittedly, I haven't yet tried it on Win 8/10.

[@hattedsandwich2415]

dg voodoo works on my system, I'm playing mw3 at 3440x1440p, windows 10 with a gtx1080

[@SeekerLancer]

MW3 is well loved.

[@linushyper300]

No Violence warning? Lol

[@Pixelmusement]

+Dr Ivo Robotnik There's a world of difference between robots exploding and Human heads exploding. :P

[@rbow84]

It was pretty good when I played it. Way better than mw 2

[@Banzeken]

It's also a lot glitchier and more unfinished than MW2. I think I'll stick with the properly Q&A tested original, thank you very much

[@SeekerLancer]

@@Banzeken I'll play both.

[@Banzeken]

@@SeekerLancer You absolutely should.

[@legionofdoom2009]

"...with valid screen resolutions of 320x200, 640x480, and 1024x768." What? No 800x600?

[@Pixelmusement]

+legionofdoom2009 Nope. Not unless you're playing with certain hardware accelerated versions, which then ONLY support 800x600. o_O

[@RetroIslandGaming]

I never liked this game when it came out. I would go right back to MW2. What a shame though, I highly looked forward to its release. This was also the last Mechwarrior game I ever bought. Now I want to play some MW2! Well, soon as I get a joystick. Good review going over all the crap this game presented.

[@TedHooper]

You sir have no clue