Restoring Virtual World Entertainment Battletech Pods Pt2

Day 1 working on the first pod cleaning and first power up. Overview of opticts, wiring and controls.
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[@WELLbethere]

I'm only discovering battletech/mechwarrior now, after just buying mechwarrior 5 this Christmas, I feel like I'm getting super hooked onto the franchise. But you, sir, put me to shame with your conscientiousness, taking a week off work to toil on this project. I salute you.

[@mr.gunzaku437]

This video series is criminally underviewed 🤬. More Battletech fans should see this! I wouldn't mind having the 1st or 2nd gen pods and the newer equipment installed.

[@pharaohvwe2475]

Thank you. I have been on a hiatus for a while I will be back soon with some update wr have made. Thank you for watching!

[@Fury9er]

I was fortunate to play in a tesla pod in Lazer Park in New York in 1999. Very cool experience for a battletech fan.

[@elfqueen8673]

If anyone happens to run into this video and has never played Battletech, I encourage you to find some pods and play a few games. Realy miss playing with the crew from Mech Corp. Greetings from Phoenix (The player not the city). 😊

[@JeremyWamhoff]

This is Glorious! I played at the Las Vegas Location fequently back in the day.

[@Simply-Dazzling]

This is way cooler then restoring a car or something similar.

[@mikegrant8031]

They have my favorite joystick design

[@bryankerr69]

I used to goto Battletech back when it opened at Navy Pier in Chicago. I think it was back in the late '80s, early '90s. I think I might still have my card. lol

[@BabyEatingFoxes]

Dave and Busters in Denver had these in like '05, one of the best arcade experience I've ever had. Thanks bud, luv ya!

[@pharaohvwe2475]

I ran them there and bought that set eventually.

[@BabyEatingFoxes]

@@pharaohvwe2475 Are you still in Colorado?

[@pharaohvwe2475]

@@BabyEatingFoxes yes

[@BabyEatingFoxes]

@@pharaohvwe2475 There is a potential market on the Western Slope of Colorado. Grand Junction only has "Bananas" for an arcade experience.

[@ChrisPBacon-wq4pu]

A blast from the past!

[@bluesunschurch8412]

Lol the reason why they need so many reverse buttons was because they were always full up and because those buttons were in constant use. I remember in 2010 the line was up to the front door in the middle of summer

[@lorieprice9479]

omg. '94-'96 san diego. VW took way too much of my money. i still miss those pods

[@66Vulcan66]

Same! ^_^

[@anthonydelaney8249]

Same, Pasadena as well as Coasta Mesa! Such a good time! Miss my VW ‘REAPER’ days!

[@gregpeterson1811]

Greetings from Culex, I echo Phoenix's Sentiments. Check out MechCorps down here in Houston, TX. :)

[@aceofhearts573]

Great video . Used to play these in chicago pier when I was a little kid. I played the original ones not this model. So long ago

[@cap42]

My uncle helped wire the Battletech pods up at North Pier in Chicago and I spent a great deal of time playing in those pods over a couple year period. Was very sad when they closed it down. @PharoahWVE would you happen to know which version of the pods those were and where they ended up? This was early 1990's

[@lyrebirdfurniture522]

@@cap42 VWE was based out of chicago and the north pier location had basically every version of the pods in it at one point or another. I'm pretty sure 8 of the pods went to the dave and busters location in the city, and another 8 went out to a FEC that i worked at out in the suburbs. But they were shipping and moving pods all over the place, mostly to dave and busters after the north pier location closed.

[@cap42]

@@lyrebirdfurniture522 I do remember different pods over the years but wasn't sure which ones they were. I would love to build or buy 2 pods, still have quite a few friends in the area who also played at North Pier.

[@lyrebirdfurniture522]

@@cap42 There's a google doc somewhere floating around that gets updated with all the locations of the known pods.

[@mungaloidender]

I would want to resto-mod the shit out of a few of these. Preserving history is priority and there so few of them. But it would be awesome to see a few with all modern control surfaces, screens, and hardware powering modern titles but still also be able to run the original software.

[@Tula-cs1ef]

GREAT THANKS. Now i need to figure out how to build one of these things in my two bedroom apartment.

[@BabyEatingFoxes]

I love your work, you're awesome!

[@TRIBAL-mb4tq]

Nice! I totally missed playing this while working at Dave and Busters in Milpitas Califorina. Never seen The Tesla #2 in black. They were white for us. Red planet was hella fun as well. Martian Football too. lol

[@pharaohvwe2475]

Thank you. I had a few of the white pods as well for our old site. I actually moved the Milpitas pods out when the Dave & Buster's deal ended, neat site. There was also a version of the white pods where they added weathering to them. Personally I just think they looked dirty.

[@eddapultstab2078]

My first foray into the tesla pods was in that Dave and busters. I wished I lived closer, I would beg family to take me there as a kid.

[@WilliamShinal]

My childlike impatience to play in one of these pods, especially version 3, is only getting worse! I'd tell myself to get a grip, but I don't think that's gonna help at this point.

[@pharaohvwe2475]

There are a few owners in Dallas with a set of version 3 pods. There is an episode of shipping wars with me moving the 3.0 set.

[@Alpha17x]

Are there any unique properties to the beamsplitter? I've been trying to research this implementation but I keep finding SciFi weapons and optical laser experiment white papers.

[@pharaohvwe2475]

Yes one side is normal glass the other has a fine coating of oil to make it reflect the screen. It is almost a one way mirror but you it has no tint.

[@cliffcampbell8827]

Have you thought about an air filter? If you install one (or more if necessary) you should be able to vent the heat out of the pod without risking dust contamination on any optical sensitive surface.

[@pharaohvwe2475]

I have yes. They have screens over the fans at the moment. But I have cut up filter material before but you have to do three minimum per pod.

[@j.lietka9406]

Those pods are a great way to fill ones garage! Did you replace the heavy CRT screens with lighter LED/LCD?🤔 Or replace the VGA with DVI or if possible, HDMI?

[@pharaohvwe2475]

Yes all main screens and radar are lcd. 15 of the 20 mfd's are lcd as well. I am still using the original alienware pc's

[@j.lietka9406]

@@pharaohvwe2475 cool! 🤓

[@Qardo]

We all know the cat is a Clanner. Clearly apart of Nova Cats, heh.

[@pharaohvwe2475]

Close Jade falcon

[@Dax9462002]

would love to try an build one of these

[@pharaohvwe2475]

They are not that difficult to construct. The optics are the only real challenge.

[@darkstorminc]

Post some build directions then lol

[@Dax9462002]

Hey crash override where's acid burn, cereal killer and lord Nikon

[@darkstorminc]

@@Dax9462002 trying to make sure the little boat doesnt flip over.

[@pharaohvwe2475]

@@Dax9462002 Mr. The plague

[@SonsOfLorgar]

How come there's no dust filter in the intake fans? Also, I would think it would make more sense to have a filtered intake up top, duct it to the bottom over the cool side of an A/C unit, let it flow up through the machine cabinet, then around the back of the display and finally, over the hot side of the A/C unit and blow it out on the opposite side of the intake, angled downwards.

[@pharaohvwe2475]

They have the standard mesh grates over the fans. For the tower they have the three bottom fans as intake and the top three fans as output to pull in the cold air and pass it over the tech bay. The pilot fan just blown down is all with a mesh after the fan. Bad placement on this one.

[@DuelPorpoise]

Wait, did they ever use any of these for filming scenes in the mechwarrior games?

[@pharaohvwe2475]

No but the original training videos are well produced with Joan severance, judge reinhard and weird al. The battletech game has the simulators as an expansion on your ship with images of them

[@mikevm3375]

Kinda ironic that you need to jurry rigged something about battletech 😂 ! Salvage? Check. It fits with the lore 😂😂

[@pharaohvwe2475]

All of the pod tech is now lostech. Very apt

[@neopunk5736]

What is the best way to contact you directly?

[@Henners]

Where are you located? I would love to try these out!

[@pharaohvwe2475]

I am in Golden CO.

[@JimBobJoeB0b]

If only the rights to the games besides Mech 4 and 5 weren’t so kerfuffled...see, there’s currently a Unity remake of Mech 3 being made, and that opens up the road to adding the features from the old BattleTech Pod sims to that game (y’know, the Master Mode stuff; coolant loops and leaks, generator management...), and it’d be wonderful to experience that in these pods, but alas, it’d be a roller coaster trying to get the rights for pay-to-play stuff...

[@imjust_a]

I almost wish there was some public domain Battletech alternative for the sake of games (both tabletop and video games). I've wanted to create a mech game myself, but building a compelling world around it (along with mech designs, mechanics, etc) is honestly the more challenging part. It'd be nice to lift from a general source (much like fantasy IPs often lift from a set of public domain sources) without the fear of tripping over copyright. Battletech unfortunately isn't as popular as it once was, but part of me can't help but feel as though it's in part because the IP hasn't really had a whole lot going for it in the past decade. MWO and MW5 are the only two games that I can think of (which released 6 years apart from each other), and unfortunately tabletop just became much more niche with the pandemic. Maybe things would be different if more creators had an easier time creating these kinds of things.

[@JimBobJoeB0b]

@@imjust_a it’s certainly a shame, so here’s to the hope things blow over as soon as possible, so that the next phase of our great BattleTech Renaissance can begin!

[@vcmdpropulsion126]

can you load those with newer computers and run MWO, that would be bad ass

[@pharaohvwe2475]

Would be but mwo and mw5 do not support 7 screens

[@RavenCodex]

You should have reshot that unfocused bit..

[@pharaohvwe2475]

Agreed. But that would have meant re loading them on the truck and a whole lot of heavy lifting.

[@bladewolling4947]

This was 3 years ago. I wonder what the current status is.

[@pharaohvwe2475]

Still fully operational and playing weekly

[@bladewolling4947]

@@pharaohvwe2475 Congrats!Where at? Conventions around the country or is there someplace here in Colorado?

[@pharaohvwe2475]

@@bladewolling4947 i have them in my garage

[@jestewart2009]

imagine what they could do with todays technology...

[@pharaohvwe2475]

There were some amazing gundam pods A few years ago. But sadly the arcades of old are dead. Everything is at home gaming now, and who has this much space for a simulator. I thought about upgrading them and adding movement and updated hardware but that would cost way more than I have.

[@TheJaigh]

If you or Nick can get me the vector art, I have a 30" vinyl cutter. ;)

[@pharaohvwe2475]

Nice the nose arts or the regular stickers?

[@JasonTaylorRocks]

@@pharaohvwe2475 the single color stickers. I can ask a friend and we can probably get the nosearts done at a shop we work with a lot. Ran into Nickolas at the show this weekend.

[@pharaohvwe2475]

@@JasonTaylorRocks i heard you were there sorry i missed you. 3 of us were there. If you are talking about the virtual world sticker yes i would like to have a few more. I can let you borrow one for scale.