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Playing Battletech (C64)


Cybergoth

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Hi there!

 

Kinda fitting follow-up to Shattered Steel, here's the original mech game:

 

battletech.gif

 

When Activision managed to aquire the license, they asked Infocom to develop the first Battletech game. Considering that Infocom did nothing but plain text-adventures before that, this actually seemed like a pretty odd choice, even when Infocom passed on the actual execution to none other than Westwood.

 

Making it an RPG might also look like a questionable choice from todays point of view, but we all know that Activision would launch the real Mechwarrior series soon enough after this one ;)

 

Well, once the shock of the horrible visual impressions had settled, I must say the game so far has actually been fascinating.

 

Basically this first night I spent with training missions and learning the ropes, but I couldn't help to notice the attention to detail and the well scripted story, which I haven't seen that good in an 8-Bit RPG before. The good writing here sure is where the Infocom influence shines through.

 

After the seventh mission the 'Citadel' where I was living was overrun by enemy raiders, so it'll be interesting where my journey continues tomorrow :)

 

Greetings,

Manuel

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Hm... either this phase is supposed to be very hard - or I'm missing something essential!

 

For the last two hours I've been running around with a single, broken mech and two more party members on foot. I don't have much credits, but what's a lot worse is that none is even selling stuff to me - everyone on the planet apparently hates me :)

 

Well it happens that one member of our trio was a traitor, so maybe it's all been due to his presence in the party :thumbsup:

 

Tomorrows plan is to get another party member out of jail, which sounds like an interesting side quest ;)

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Okay, I successfully managed to break into jail and get my mate out of it :)

 

I also found another party member and managed to capture two more mechs, so now I'm commanding quite an impressive force. Still, repairs and ammunition usually eat up every money I find...

 

Apart from that, there's nothing much to report from today - I basically just tried upping my parties firepower some more.

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Ah, today I finally met a mad scientist :)

 

And old friend of my dad actually and he told me the location of a secret weapons cache. Unfortunately all he gave me was a vague direction (south-east) and I wasn't sure what to look for, so I spent the better part of an hour running around on the map until I finally found it :)

 

I think this is pretty near the end of the game, so I went back to the nearest town, maxing out the equipment of all of my party members for tomorrows expedition :)

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Well, there wasn't that much left to do and actually nothing left to fight. The last part of the game is more some kind of a switch riddle, where you have to open a dozen doors with thrice as many keys in the correct combinations.

 

The best part of the end is when you find your fathers mech:

 

battletech_x.gif

 

The rest is just some more text and a little end screen.

 

For a RPG this was quite short and also rather shallow, but I had a surprising lot of fun with it despite some flaws. Especially the story is great.

 

Some future day the "Playing..." series may see its sequel in the form of "BattleTech: The Crescent Hawks' Revenge", but first it'll continue with something different.

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