Slashdot Mirror

Microsoft's intention to "reboot" the MechWarrior franchise would be a good sign of future computer gaming to come, but there are two other issues: copyright and the intentions of the current owners.

The issue is that while the computer gaming rights were being traded around, the MechWarrior name itself was being traded around too. It is currently held by a company called WizKids which has granted full publication rights to Catalyst Game Labs, and is being rather proactive with it.

WizKids was nice enough with Catalyst and the printed game, but I have no idea how they negotiate the licensing of computer games, or how much creative control they're going to exercise over the finished product. Can anyone confirm if this is really a problem?

Wizkids own the board game (and I believe novel rights) but they do not own the rights for Battletech video games. That was owned by Microsoft and purchased by Smith & Tinker (founded by some guys from Fasa the original creators of the universe and the ones doing the reboot, not MS).

Though I know the game hit a snag for an entirely different legal reason. They used a Warhammer in that intro video last year and it is a design from Macross that they agreed to stop using many years ago. But that should be worked out sooner or later.

Microsoft's intention to "reboot" the MechWarrior franchise would be a good sign of future computer gaming to come, but there are two other issues: copyright and the intentions of the current owners.

The issue is that while the computer gaming rights were being traded around, the MechWarrior name itself was being traded around too. It is currently held by a company called WizKids which has granted full publication rights to Catalyst Game Labs, and is being rather proactive with it.

WizKids was nice enough with Catalyst and the printed game, but I have no idea how they negotiate the licensing of computer games, or how much creative control they're going to exercise over the finished product. Can anyone confirm if this is really a problem?

FASA may be gone. FanPro may be gone. But BattleTech and Shadowrun live on.

All the primary developers for CBT and SR for the past 7-ish years are now at Catalyst Game Labs And, already, they've released around half a dozen new products in the last 4 months.

As Robotech Master pointed out, there's still MegaMek.

Heck, if you want a taste of old-school FASA Interactive, there's even an approved copy of the sub-rosa PC BattleTech that JUST became available (thanks to Virtual World and Microsoft).

If you're looking for fiction you have BattleCorps and, eventually, Holostreets.

That and the Classic BattleTech and Shadowrun communities have been alive and bustling for the better part of a decade now.

"However this is the closest I'm going to get to seeing FASA's MechWarrior's"

If you were a true fan, you'd refer to it as "BattleTech."

Two different systems are used to drive BattleMechs and control their movements. Small, electrically driven actuators move a 'Mech's light weapons and sensor arrays. Bundles of polyacetylene fibers called myomers control a 'Mech's limbs and main weapons. Myomers contract when exposed to electrical current, much like human muscles.

You know what the most popular open-source game is? Free-civ (Civilization 1/2 clone). Digging into actual original titles, you have Battle of Wesnoth, which is enjoyable but of a level of quality roughly comparable to the bargain bin released-only-in-strategy-heaven-Japan GBA titles (except those bargain bin titles have better plots). Battle of Wesnoth deserves an award for the overall quality of their art resources, major props for managing a consistent and appealing visual style, but they're still nothing to write home about compared to even the (low) prevailing standard in turn-based strategy.

I don't think we'll ever see an open source MMORPG which is worth the time it takes to download. Focus on the things open source does well (applications with long life cycles), take the savings you get and play WoW on your Windows box.

"I just hope they release some of the out of print Battletech sourcebooks also."

For the most part, they've been "working on it" for a quite a while, but they do have the House Davion sourcebook as a PDF as well as some other House sourcebooks in text format here

Classic Battletech.

Okay, so technically, it's not so much a boardgame as it is a religion and a Way of Life, but is there any geekier reason to throw dice and push things about a tabletop?

Step two... add giant robot.

Step three... BATTLEMECH.

Transformers? Let's be honest, we all want Battlemechs.

His secret is revealed: The angular velocity of the object equals the square root of Pi, times the gravity divided by the distance the pancake is from the elbow times four - that is how to get the pancake back in the pan.

Seriously, mimicing real life movement in mathematical forumla is a tough one (that's why we don't see any battlemechs walking around, or tons of popular robots in every house hold.