Discovery Channel Beyond 2000 Battletech Center 1992

Beyond 2000 story on the Battletech Centers when they debuted in the early 90's. Unfortunately they were not as lucrative as they could have been and FASA eventually would be bought out by Microsoft and the Battletech franchise would become a shadow of it's former self.

[@garyprivitt861]

Battletech franchise has not faded away. It is still going strong after 35 years. And the HBS Battletech game for the PC is absoultely great.

[@ryanhampson673]

Yessir…Just got some friends into it and we play frequently…Nothing like rolling out a 8 foot hex map and deploying a couple lances

[@Menaceblue3]

REACTOR ONLINE. SENSORS ONLINE. WEAPONS ONLINE. ALL SYSTEMS NOMINAL.

[@DrTarte]

We all hear a different voice for this, depends on when we first found the franchise. Got the voice from MechWarrior 3

[@shepherdsgamingrun]

@@DrTarte Ah, the game where you play solo in a Bushwhacker for the first few missions because the operation went to heck from the beginning.

[@redactedc1928]

Would be an amazing tv show.

[@DrTarte]

@@redactedc1928 retconned into an Inner Sphere propaganda cartoon. Now that's proper ret conning.

[@Sgt_Glory]

@@DrTarte Which is pretty awesome as that means it leaves room for the story to be re-told as a movie or videogame.

[@bonapartist]

Jesus mother loving Christ these were such a mindfuck as a kid, even the area where the pods where stored was all decked out to look like a Mechwarrior hangar at my childhood location, it was like 60 degrees for some goddamn reason and it just felt all so REAL when they closed that cockpit on you.

[@Nanoforge1]

They were getting your mind ready for that "Battletech" experience you paid for.

[@linkxsc]

Worth

[@SciFiFan2012]

I went to that Chicago BT center a lot! They had RPG games, books, and BT related things like pins with the nose art on them, a "leather" bomber jacket with each simulator's nose art on the back, tournaments... They need to bring that type of interaction back and have a Battle tech sim, a SW, ST and original/reboot BSG, how great would that be?

[@kharnifex]

60 degrees? a good redline pilot removes his clothes and just wears the cooling vest

[@MASSExpedition]

((it was all real))

[@Jwend392]

"BattleTech has not been adapted for home computers. Yet." Yeah, just wait a couple more years, friendo. MechWarrior 2 Is gonna blow your goddamn mind.

[@edrice2621]

Jwend392 Actually, it already was, with the first MechWarrior game in 1989. If I recall, Multiplayer BattleTech was available around that time via GEnie.

[@ScornedOne1080]

and there's a Turn-Based Strategy BATTLETECH out now, came out a couple weeks ago.

[@AlphaCompRepair]

and MW5 coming soon.

[@midinerd]

@@ScornedOne1080 That turn-based strategy game is not better than the 90's LAN BattleTech game back at Navy Pier. You walked-away with a leaderboard/gameplay print-out of your strengths, weaknesses, and I think a 'battle log' of the game. It was fucking awesome.

[@keeganpenney169]

My mind was blown when I first played mechwarrior 2 when I was 7. Just fucking blown into a new world of possibilities.

[@tylerphelps7464]

Imagine if they built something like this now, with today's more powerful computers, game engines, video game aI, and control interface it would be a complete revolution in the gaming industry. Heck it could even start a revival in gaming arcades, but until someone decides to do it we can just speculate.

[@SonsOfLorgar]

Along with climate controlled enclosed pods on rumble actuators to let the players feel the heat, motion, recoil and impacts!

[@fengfrank5073]

Go to China, you will see those gaming rigs with full motion capsule in every maijor mall. Modern desing, lots of fun.

[@EmperorKagato]

You're in luck. They did just that and were on tour right before the pandemic. Had a chance to seem them at Anime Central back in 2019

[@RedSiegfried]

@@EmperorKagato Yeah, I know a guy in the Minneapolis area who has a bunch of them and takes them to conventions ... it might have been him!

[@EmperorKagato]

@@RedSiegfried yep that's likely the guy

[@hans-christianbauer5947]

Man, those things need to come back. I miss the 80's and 90's. In those days, companies were still willing to throw money at austere and visionary concepts of entertainment.

[@TheiLame]

I saw those capsules (idea, they were newer ofc) in Japan in april :) too bad i didnt know how to play and it was a co-op game

[@petercampi2840]

Come back? They haven't really disappeared, they just operate only in specific locations nowadays.

[@SciFiFan2012]

Peter Campi sadly, those locations are few and far between.

[@benquinnobi6461]

I go to Gen-con in Indiana every year, and see these things there all the time.

[@likeorasgod]

There is one center here in Houston. I use to play in the 90 while stationed in japan

[@GQguy24]

I was born and raised in Chicago. The first time I went to Battletech here at North Pier was when my brother took me in either 1991 or 1992 when I was 11 or 12 years old. OMG I loved it!!! Soo much so that I then asked my Mom to have my next birthday party there. I remember how I'd always choose “Ares” as my call sign whenever I'd go to BT. And I loved getting that printout afterwards that would document EVERY bit of action you had during the game. Man I miss those days.

[@annmariealanes1373]

Wow! I used to work at the Battletech Center in Chicago during the first wave of "virtual reality" / immersive gaming. My call sign was "Isis" (before Isis had a bad association lol). What an adventure it was to be there to see one of the first iterations of the pods / games, all the way to one of if not the last iteration. Looking back, I feel lucky to have had the company send me to different cities to help train the staff running the games, and I also had the privilege of emcee-ing and co-hosting gaming competitions for both Battleeech and Red Planet. What a trip down memory lane. Thanks for this!

[@herbertkeithmiller]

I played this in Chicago in the 90s three or four times. It was a great gaming experience but all the control buttons were unlabeled you had to guess or memorize about 10 different buttons to configure your Mech. When you pay $10 about $30 today for a few minutes of gameplay you don't want to spend 5 minutes of it sitting around punching buttons at random trying to figure it out. Labeling the buttons would have been a great move and made it more enjoyable but the designers chose not to do that and left them all blank.

[@Kyosanym]

Not labeling the buttons was their way of forcing to be their technical manual. That's where you can find all the labeled buttons. As well as other technical information.

[@RedSiegfried]

@@Kyosanym Yeah I bought the manual back in the day and still have it - most people had to program some of the buttons when you were in the sim but it was possible for them to store your settings in their database.

[@emotionz3]

One of my fondest memories as a kid was playing this at north pier with my Dad, around 1995. We probably dropped $100 bucks that day. Totally worth it.

[@ridetillidie8090]

I bought four of these modules from the Chicago store when they shut down. :D They still work.

[@carlbruschnigjr1757]

A friend and I went down there one weekend to play. I used a Timberwolf variant fitted with LRMs and Pulse Cannons. I figured out how to shoot over buildings to take out other mechs without being exposed to return fire. Always wanted to build my own pod after that. Maybe I still will.

[@PiNoYeBoy85]

Was this at North Park Chicago- near Navy Pier? I played once there (like when I was 8). I still have my post-action summary printout report from my battle!

[@AsilarWindsailor]

Is that right? I wonder if any of the other ones are available for purchase. I hope they aren't just sitting around somewhere collecting dust or in a scrap heap

[@PaulKostrzewa]

I played here, in Chicago, and in Las Vegas back in the early 90s... I still have my VirtualWorld ID card.

[@hummercj]

I was a Battletech Master at the Cincinnati Dave and Busters site in the late 90s and early 2000s. Competed in two world invitationals. The second of which, my team won the world championship in team play and I made it to the finals in dueling. I lost interest when VWE converted from the Tesla system to Firestorm. Firestorm had better graphics by far, but the gameplay removed all of the strategy/tactics and made it more of a shoot-em-up.

[@MrCountrycuz]

I was a member of the black roses in 1997 on AOL Battletech.

[@shawnadams1460]

Yeah, I played competitively in 95-96 when I was stationed in Great Lakes at the Chicago North Pier location. God we would have so much fun, and as Sailors with bar right below that place we played better the longer we stayed and drunker we got 😂🤣 Still think running the Vulture with 6 SRM 6's was my favorite build! You were crap out of luck if you ran out of ammo or took a crit to said ammo...but dayum could you lay out some devastation! Still have my folder with all my old print outs too!!

[@Taloon85]

God I would love to see this with modern tech, more surrounding monitors and multiple centers around the globe. but please keep the old dials and buttons. makes it so more better.

[@PyrokineticFire1]

keep some of those beautiful, red LCD displays too

[@theguardian8317]

ah! "Beyond 2000" When the Discovery channel wasn't a complete pile of reality shows excrement.

[@Nanoforge1]

The Guardian Lol!

[@John-yy1oy]

There was a serious lack of beards by today's standards.

[@Whipster-Old]

I used to love that show.

[@Tetsujinhanmaa]

This was one of my favourite shows back in the 90's.

[@DescendentStudios]

They still have this operating in Houston

[@seanmcdonald2814]

Where?

[@lonewolfy5330]

@@seanmcdonald2814 Dave and busters .

[@Whipster-Old]

Get out.

[@TustlePlays]

@@seanmcdonald2814 MechCorps Entertainment with a buncha Tesla II pods. More advanced versions of what are shown here I think, and running on something like MechWarrior 4 called Battletech: Firestorm. New Dave & Busters locations probably won't have the simpler pods running the 'same' game, but longer running franchises might have them still.

[@Tetsujinhanmaa]

Can confirm. They took the pod to Dallas for an anime convention. So much fun.

[@paulglickman2371]

Im a former master "Kevlar" at the BC in Chicago and it was a VERY sad day when it closed. One of the best things about the BC was the fact that the more you played the better you got. When they released the next generation of BT, they removed the skill in favor of making it easier for kids. I have fond memories of leagues and the many wonderful people I met there...

[@juderocks5]

Thats really depressing actually. I was three years old when mechwarrior 2 was released, and as a promotional thing, it was released with certain Mac computers that year. My dad got lucky because of his job and brought one home, and it permanently impacted my life. I played it for years until finally that computer had broken and all the other computers in the house had been too far updated to support it any longer. I've always wondered what going to a place like this would have been like.

[@jonpritts7958]

I played at the BTC in Chicago too around this time. I did leagues about 3-4 times. Code name Jonas on the Caroling Morticians team.

[@SciFiFan2012]

Never played Leagues, but my brother and I were at Navy Pier as much as possible until it closed.

[@EliTripps]

I played here back in 92-93. it was freaking awesome

[@RS43210]

"Fortunately for parents across America, Battletech has not been adapted for home computers..." Oh, thank god! That would be a disaster.

[@linkmaxwell]

I used to draw dozens of Mad Cats in my school notebooks. That intro to MW2 blew my little DOOM-loving mind in elementary school.

[@Razumen]

And MW2 came out and blew these pods out of the water. 😅😅😅

[@SSS-pn9ex]

Beyond 2000 was awesome... And now it's 2019... Craziness

[@gigaslave]

These Tesla Pods are Lostech themselves now. There's been talk of cannibalizing and quirks and stuff. Just like real battlemechs.

[@GaeasBlessing]

They should remake this game with today's graphics and the same virtual reality booth.

[@SonsOfLorgar]

But also upgrade it with motion actuators and climate control in enclosed cockpits to simulate mech heat levels, movement, recoil and impacts in proportion to selected chassi and loadout :)

[@Trickyboy1337]

@@SonsOfLorgar i want to FEEL a 203mm autocannon round core my cockpit and use me as paint for the walls

[@Johnpinckney98]

@@Trickyboy1337 And a hand written note from my commander to my family in Capellean controlled space how I was a good pilot fighting against the commies!

[@loganriling4888]

Mech5 mercs came out in 19 im sure youve played it

[@SchismTP]

These pods are still out there. Some are in private hands but many are open to the public. Fallout Shelter is in Minneapolis, for instance.

[@ethanbarnhart7714]

anyone go there regularly? thinking about checking it out

[@Splozy]

@@ethanbarnhart7714 i think some do yeah

[@RFTL]

I'm sad that i never experienced this awesomeness. Time to fire up MechWarrior 2 again.

[@stiltskino4009]

Mech warrior Living legends!!!

[@DrReal-cy4ws]

Or play MWO?

[@dragonrabbit7410]

It was good times dude.

[@funghazi]

Battlepods are still out there if you're willing to take a road trip. They were brought to MAGFest a few times and it was amazing to finally do what I'd seen on Beyond 2000 as a kid.

[@RedSiegfried]

And these simulators, or later versions of them, still exist. I've played them at a place in the Twin Cities a few years ago that still had them going. I remember going to Chicago back in the day and playing them too. Too cool!

[@leeperry7068]

I saw this show when it came out, and in a week had convinced my mom (who worked for American Airlines) to fly us from Dallas to Chicago with me and a friend to play this game. Battletech was like our life blood at the time. I still remember climbing into that cockpit and thinking it was the most insane experience ever.

[@Richard.Sanchez]

You know they had one in Dallas right? I think it was called Virtual World, at Park Lane Plaza off 75. It was next door to Photon Laser Tag.

[@leeperry7068]

​@@Richard.Sanchezoh yeah, went several times. I actually thought Red Planet was a better game at the time, but still, both were amazing.

[@basedthunder]

Woah 32 megs of ram

[@MrMonkeybat]

In 1990 that was ALLOT of RAM. But I cant really figure out what they needed it all for, the PS2 from the year 2000 only had 32MB of RAM also but that had games with much more detailed textures and polygons. The PS1 from 1994 only had 3MB RAM and the games on that where still allot more detailed than what I see here.

[@reesercliff]

MrMonkeybat isn't a meg a megabit? so 8 megabits in a megabyte so 32 megs would be 4 Megabytes or MB

[@MrMonkeybat]

Cliff Reeser In the video the presenter definitely says "32 megabytes of RAM". Usually when people say megs they are referring to megabytes especially when referring to memory which usually measured in bytes. It is only bandwidth which for whatever reason is usually measured in bits.

[@Nanoforge1]

It was indeed a lot of RAM for the times, however the processors made a difference too. Back then I think they used Motorola 68000 CPUs like the ones in Amigas, Atari STs and Macs. The memory pipeline was not as efficient as the specialized processors of the PS2. As well they also did not have very many specialized graphics chipsets like they did during the PS2 days so many of the graphics processors available were very rudimentary units that were nothing more than enhanced math co-processors that would handle the advanced computing of drawing images so that the main CPU could handle all the other data. That is why a PS2 with the same amount of RAM has games and graphics that looks so good by comparison.

[@MrMonkeybat]

Nanoforge1 The limited processors at the time explains why the detail is limited but that dose not explain why such limited detail took up so much memory. Memory was expensive back then.

[@Gravelbone]

I remember when they had this at North Pier in Chicago back in the early 90's. On the 2nd floor, it was quite fun to play with 5 other friends. Then head downstairs to Dick's Last Resort for food, drinks, and sarcasm. Good times.

[@Smith553]

They have a dicks last resort in las vegas

[@g60force]

heading over to dick's as a last resort seem kinda gay bro!

[@GQguy24]

What about Baja Beach Club? 😂

[@GQguy24]

Also, remember that pretty awesome arcade that was right across from Battletech?

[@Ace1000ks19751982]

Just amazing, it took a large computer to get graphics which are primitive by today's standard. Now, we can play games like this on the internet, and it is almost free. The graphics is like 30 times better. How technology really progressed and this show predicted the future.

[@hugobarbachano1831]

Yeah but the controls must have felt much more real than just playing with a joystick

[@horsemumbler1]

3:35

[@dantauche7917]

I heard the 32 MEGAbytes of RAM across four PCs and just laughed. My PC has 32 GIGAbytes. Crazy how technology has advanced indeed!!!

[@SketchyTinkerer]

They still have something very similar to this at Origins Game Fair in Colombus, OH in early June. I believe it's 8-10 pods and you sign up as a single to fill up empty slots or take a time slot as a group (which is what friends and I did). You can choose to play as any weight class of Mech or restrict yourselves to a select weight class and whether or not you choose to have heat enabled (only cowards play without the heat!). You select your Mech and callsign and then play for around 10 minutes or so, great time had by all, and spectators can watch highlights on monitors outside the pods.

[@cbh148]

is it this same game shown in this video? or something more modern like a PC mechwarrior game in a LAN party setup? i was a huge MW2 fan and never knew about these pod things until just a moment ago browsing around Wikipedia. had to look up a video and get my mind blown that something like this existed haha

[@SketchyTinkerer]

Yeah, I've now seen them at 2 venues: Origins Game Fair and MAGFest 2017.

[@igorschmidlapp6987]

I wasn't a "Mech-head", but preferred being a Red Planet "pilot". I also preferred the original 3.0 pods, with their "gritty realism". I think they lost their charm with the "cleaner" Telsa pods (in this vid), and with the final Tesla2 pods (some still tour to cons). Look up the "Dooley Trainer" vids to get the original "feel" ( and recognize some famous faces). The whole "pilot lounge/bar" environment was a big part of the charm (think of the officers' club in "Twelve o'clock High" or "Flyboys"). I think that the business concept could still "fly" (pun intended), with new computing hardware/graphics/networking. Imagine "translocation" into a WWI or WWII fighter/bomber, or an F-15 to do some "Top Gun" sims (I got you now, Jester)... The "translocation possibilities can boggle the mind). - "Batman", Dallas location...

[@ScottWinterringer]

VWE BATTLETECH 3.0 and redplanet have been released however emulation is nigh impossible atm. and tracking down all the hardware is proving difficult.

[@wildone106]

I still wear the pants I wore when I played this in 92 as a memorial

[@peter3388]

I was there in 1993. I am here in 2024. It is alive and well at Adepticon.

[@ZeeZeeBun]

Personally I'd love to see the return of this kind of thing... Only now with high quality surround sound, wrap around HD displays and modern graphics tech driving it..

[@SonsOfLorgar]

And 4D immersion systems ^^

[@l.everetttalbottjr.275]

I would love to see that. I think it would be used for teamwork training.

[@ZeeZeeBun]

@CLOUT Honestly, with modern tech probably a lot less than it would've cost back then... And you'd basically just need a typical game development team.. As well as a couple electronics hobbyists and proper makers with 3D printers... This kind of thing is a lot easier in 2022..

[@Nerdslayer01]

They had these at the Memorial City Mall in Katy, TX. Loved playing this game!

[@pwnn00bzorz1]

A whole bunch of these are set up at the Airlock in Kirkland, Washington. The fun is in the huge variety of available mechs. I just played last week, and it was a blast!

[@TymersRealm]

Ah... The BT Center in Chicago. I so do miss that place. It was fun playing in those pods back in the day.

[@danielvandersall6756]

Had one of these in the Downtown mall in Indianapolis; spent a lot of time in there tearing mechs apart with my Mad Dog. Good times. Now that mall is almost empty; last time I saw a movie there I was literally the only one in the theatre. Sad all that stuff died, even before the damage from COVID.

[@jastafford79]

Pods come back every year at GenCon. Almost the only reason to go anymore.

[@CamerondeGrey]

ofr YEARS after seeing this I looked for a game like this in arcades... love it

[@jecorieswilliams2639]

We used to have one in Indianapolis when I was around 7 yrs. old...That was around 23 yrs. ago. I remember they had this game and a racing game you could get inside and play and the whole machine lifted and moves. There was another game they had that you could put on a headset and battle people in virtual reality.

[@Kyosanym]

I used to go to the Virtual World Walnut, California, location. Lots of fun memories with friends and random strangers. I was the champion of their first rookie pilot tournament.

[@Harv72b]

I forked over a small fortune on this game with my buddies out in Vegas. Funny how the concept of a LAN-based, true multiplayer game seemed so mind-boggling back then. Running Wild, still undefeated. :)

[@HalianTheProtogen]

BattleTech is back in a big way after Catalyst started making the products. They've had two wildly successful Kickstarters and made hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of little plastic mechs.

[@KevinClem]

I played at the Sacramento Center every Sunday, and occasionally down in Walnut Creek - I remember how cool it was when they would (rarely) get the modems to work right and my lance could fight another center over the internet!

[@chch5873]

Me and my Navy buddies played at Walnut Creek all the time in the mid 90's. Played against teams in Chicago, San Diego, etc. Very good times!

[@hotnnasty442]

Who else here remembers playing this at Circle Center mall in Indy? Those were the days!

[@sandragruber4596]

Such a center with todays tech... I would move into it!

[@aceofhearts573]

It would be a dream come true. With today's technology I cannot imagine how good this would look but even more amazing is the tech used in the early 90s to make this

[@robinhood5627]

When i was a teen building my first and second PC it was my dream to have a pod like this for my setup to be in. Mechwarrior 5 is out these days and that's pretty amazing to play.

[@Aethelwolf]

There was a game center in Pasadena in the 90's that had several pods. It was a great time running a mech.

[@Boseeinsteinshake]

Battletech thankfully goes through a big revival right now. The Clickytech times where rough...

[@kur1tan]

"with a total of 32MB of RAM." :) How far we've come.

[@mrjustin5]

Wow. I'm always hunting for fresh Beyond 2000 TV show uploads and I just discovered this little gem. I absolutely loved this show and it was so well done and so well researched. They covered so many things that most news doesn't even cover today. This Battletech idea is similar to an idea I've had for a long time. A true space-combat simulator game. I say SIMULATOR and not "game". Because I want it to be real and thrilling, like a roller coaster ride. This looks like Mechwarrior. AWESOME!

[@mattholt1388]

Mechwarrior is from the Battletech franchise.

[@NONAME-vl5dn]

My father took me to play when I was a child... What I would do to remember any of it!

[@Antinational2]

I don't understand why this isn't a thing in modern times. I really want to build something like this.

[@krono5el]

loved watching this back then. it was the dream come true

[@trunkmonkey81]

I went to one of these places in San Diego in 96, the video was a lot smoother and played against 2 other guys. At the end, they gave you a little printout of the battle. Interesting to see all the merch and people milling around. To me, Battletech was just a niche tabletop game.

[@shawnadams1460]

Yeah, they had a Battletech center in Chicago when i was stationed in Great Lakes, lets just say between that place and the bar next door we were always broke on Monday...lol

[@DarkTenka]

They had a much better version of this in the later 90's .. There was a place called Intencity that had a lot of major "virtual reality" attractions, Battletech was one of them. It was much like this version but the graphics were much better and the console pod had lots of buttons you could press to target/inject coolant/launch probes etc. it was fucking awesome.

[@Nanoforge1]

Yes, I heard that many Battletech pod owners enhanced their pods before Virtual World Entertainments went under.

[@DengCheangLeo]

Dark Tenka 57 controls to be exact (Buttons/joystick/throttle/footpedals) with 7 screens (Main, Radar & 5 subscreens), I was the supervisor of the Battletech attraction in Intencity 1Utama Malaysia.

[@SonsOfLorgar]

@@DengCheangLeo cool! Do you have any knowledge of who the current copyright holders are?

[@JimBobJoeB0b]

@@SonsOfLorgar virtual world entertainment actually!

[@ScottWinterringer]

@@DengCheangLeo can you tell me more about these systems? the VWE 3.0 software is out there now.

[@Ace1000ks19751982]

I remember this back in the early 1990s. The first Mechwarrior game that ever came out was released in 1989 for the PC. Mechwarrior 2 came out in 1995, the graphics, and game play was more than a match for this system. Computer technology improved a lot from 1991 to 1999, and this is what made arcades obsolete. The irony is this arcade version of Mechwarrior, and the latest version Mechwarrior Online are mutliplayer only games. The difference is, you can play the later at home.

[@ShaolinTechnoMage]

Holy $h!T I had no idea that Jordan Weisman (from Shadowrun Returns) worked on the Battletech Center! I just realized this right now.

[@AlphaCompRepair]

I played these at Virtual World in San Diego every Sunday. I played 4 games of BT and 1 game of Mars Racer.

[@Nanoforge1]

@1hacksaw Glad you liked. I got to go there back in 93' and it was a really cool place. Unfortunately the majority of the centers have not lasted with the times. I think they changed their name to Virtual World Centers and then got bought out by Microsoft.

[@lucassmith4524]

That must have been really cool. I played one of these things at Dave And Busters. Of course what I played was a little more sophisticated

[@nathanstrong4359]

Got to play this in Vegas back in 95. Fucking loved it.

[@bruced648]

I played at the Chicago and Dallas centers. the pods still show up at conventions.

[@metanumia]

They need to make this facility again, but with modern PC's and current VR headsets for the cockpits.

[@Diraphe]

I'd rather have a real cockpit over a vr headset

[@Michael-im5mq]

You obviously never tried a current Vive or Oculus VR headset

[@erikvilnius314]

32megs of ram, 42 thousand different colors... wowa wee wa!

[@thegreatagitator4675]

Erik Vilnius 2000+ US$ in RAM alone at the time. Serious business.

[@rolfathan]

+Erik Vilnius Blows your socks off!!!

[@SonsOfLorgar]

The first computer I came in contact with was an Apple upgraded to have 8MB of RAM! It had an integrated ~4" B/W screen and the angular single button mouse+keyboard Apple ran with back in those days in the early 90'ies XD

[@nolanturner5607]

Would love to see what Mechwarrior 4 would look like with even a 'basic' system today. I'd pay for an unlimited, lifetime pass to the place, no hesitation. Just make sure a Madcat/Timberwolf is in there.

[@MrHousecup]

I used to love going to this place! So sad when it went under.

[@tHeWasTeDYouTh]

was it just a fad? did people stopped going?

[@pondafarr]

OMG, i loved Beyond 200 back in the day

[@mrichar9]

I went there as a little kid. It was in downtown Chicago just west of Navy Pier.

[@MrWhatevertoday]

man if arcades didn't go away i wonder if this could have stuck around

[@IanCici]

I Spent many a weekend at Chicago's Naive Pear playing Battle-tech.

[@seannewboy8612]

That was a fun experience, enjoyed both times i went.

[@felicity4711]

I first read about these in 1989 in Video Games & Computer Entertainment magazine and thought they sounded great! I wondered whatever happened to them.

[@ThoriumHeavyIndustries]

THX for this upload. :)

[@AmbroseBoaBowie]

Imagin, making a game franchise that lasts 30 years and you come across a video like this.

[@kentyannayon3741]

I got to experience a battlepod once, it was fun. I won amongst my folks, but it was predictable, as I'd already logged plenty of hours in the computer games.

[@andycapbenedictus4889]

I remember these, the trouble was home rigs started getting really good really fast. By 96 voodoo cards started appearing with powerful CPUs, they rivaled the custom architecture of these arcade systems. Then the tnt cards came along with sound cards, and it was game on for home rigs. Back then you had to go to computer show to even find some of that stuff, se a phone book sized computer shopper to explain to the venders at the show what you wanted. It was different time, the end of the arcades and beginning of home gaming riggs.

[@garf2k4]

I used to play in Virtual World London ( in the basement of the Trocadero Leicester Square ) usually twice a week... Well, that was until the wankers sold out just to have Sega World built on the top couple of floors and shut Virtual World down.

[@ComradeCommissar17]

Microsoft is the reason we haven't had Mechwarrior in years, instead we got the mech assault abominations. And if EA made it, they would charge us real money only for each individual mech and come up with Hero equipment, which would include, ECM, BAP, AMS, Anything bigger than AC2, Anything bigger than LRM10, SRM4, and MLs

[@darkstorminc]

Oh how true this comment became with MWO...

[@Ratkill9000]

Now we have Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries

[@Razumen]

@@Ratkill9000 Which is pretty bad too

[@MikeTaylorLives]

I missed out on the pre-Tesla systems, but got the chance to play both the Tesla and Tesla II machines. It's sad that they gutted North Pier. That place was fun. You had the BattleTech Center and Cyber Station/Cyberia on the third floor, lots of cool kitsch shops on the second and then all sorts of little tasty eateries on the ground floor. Now its all been replaced by upscale shops catering to the wealthy.

[@ADMTrevor]

This looked so cool!

[@tHeWasTeDYouTh]

It is 2020 and this is the first time I hear of this..........THIS IS AMAZING! Imagine if Steel Battalion had a version of the game for arcades with these giant pods. this is amazing I cannot believed people loved mechs in the 90s (talking about america)

[@jeffshaw4419]

I wish I could have always tried this, too I never got the chance, still looks pretty cool...

[@JynxBlack13]

wish i could have played these back in the day :'(

[@0meat]

Wow, I could host all of those as virtual machines on my laptop at the same time and still have better frame rate than that.

[@WilliamShinal]

Where can I find these old pods? Could there still be some of those around here?

[@Nanoforge1]

@mrjustin5 Yeah, Beyond 2000 and the CNet shows from SciFi were alot of my favorites back then too. I hear there is a really cool space sim called Artemis Starship Bridge Sim where players use multiple computers much like the stations on a typical starship bridge. I haven't seen or played it though.

[@DrMurdercock]

As a kid this and Next Step got me excited for the future. Now that I am in the futre, I wonder daily, WTF HAPPENED

[@spamuraigranatabru1149]

I would have bought so many combat vehicles if I could travel back in time.

[@wolfzero85]

this is so cool would have loved it as a kid

[@warhorse03826]

I remember the first few prototypes of these at gencon/origins in milwaukee in 1988...

[@seanmacleod1724]

I worked with these at the London site, Trocadero, Piccadilly Circus, in the mid 1990's ... Fun job, great crowd. Are there any "Virtual World" employees or customers out there reading this now ? Reply below with your call sign. Over and out... "RA"

[@PaulKerseyArchitect]

I went there-it was as awesome as it looks

[@seanbrazell6147]

Someone over there should create a new VR Battletech Pod center using the old pods with modern high-end VR. You could EASILY combine the two. Dammit.

[@Beldgor]

Don't forget, Mortal Kombat likely still hadn't been released, and Street Fighter was still causing parents everywhere to soil their pants out of fear it would make murderers out of their children.

[@Bitplanebrother]

need something like this THESE DAYS...ups ...Dosent have WMO VRheadset support? ;)

[@ColonelMetus]

The graphics are amazing

[@a.koenig]

still want one...

[@liamdoorhy7155]

There was a laser tag place near me that had these capsules like this but they closed down a few years ago

[@goriya]

Are you certain this is from 1992? I have a photo from sometime after 1994 of the North Pier building that housed the Battletech Center, and that front stairway entrance to the building hasn't been constructed yet in the photo.

[@JohnSmith-un9fy]

I am a big fan of the Atlas. Rail guns and MLR are just to fun.