Slashdot Mirror


Bradley Trainer Support in MAME 0.62

TheAlchemist writes "The Bradley Trainer was a modification to Atari's Battlezone arcade game created for the US Army to help train personel in the use of the Bradley Fighting Vehicle. Supposedly only two of these machines were built, and of the two only one of them is known to exist today. The latest version of the arcade enumator MAME (0.62) has support for the Bradley Trainer, which hasn't been emulated until now. Pictures and more information of the Atari Bradley Trainer be found on this site, and screenshots of it running in MAME can be found here."

26 of 179 comments (clear)

  1. Great... by EvilCabbage · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now I need to worry about impressionable school kids in trench coats carrying tanks as well?

    Better start carrying a few extra lives with me.

  2. you know... by Savatte · · Score: 5, Funny

    it's still illegal to play the rom unless you own the original, which, especially in this case, is highly doubtful.

    1. Re:you know... by GigsVT · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Maybe not.... Since the work of government employees is public domain, if this was created by government employees, then at least the modifications are public domain, which seems to mean it would be legal if you own the original battlezone. If they contracted this out, which is likely, then it might be illegal.

      I guess the bigger question is... who the hell is going to care enough to sue you over something like this?

      --
      I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
  3. The Bradley by Dr_LHA · · Score: 3, Informative

    Would this be a trainer for the same Bradley who's development and general crapness was lampooned by this movie?

  4. kewl by Tumbleweed · · Score: 5, Funny

    I didn't realize tanks had score and high score displays in them! Schweet. :)

  5. in other news... by nuckin+futs · · Score: 5, Funny

    The US Air Force is using a modified version of Choplifter originally from the Apple II to train its personnel for the Commanche Helicopter.

    1. Re:in other news... by yomegaman · · Score: 3, Funny

      I wonder how many hours you have to log on Zaxxon before you can be a Space Shuttle pilot? I may have a whole new career ahead of me!

      --
      ...wearing a skin-tight topless leather jumpsuit, with cutaway buttocks and transparent crotch panel.
  6. seems a bit easy to me by myowntrueself · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "The other tanks do not fire at you, and the only way to end the game is to run out of ammo or shoot a 'friendly' tank or helicopter"

    So, uh, this is a faithful simulation of actual American war fighting methodologies?

    I mean, you are in a Bradley, flying a US flag presumably.
    Right, so who would *dare* to shoot at you?

    --
    In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
  7. WTF by almightyjustin · · Score: 5, Insightful
    arcade enumator MAME

    "enumator"?!?!?! That was painful even by /. standards...

    --

    Omnes arx vestrum sunt adiuncta nobis.

  8. What is an "enumator"? by JessLeah · · Score: 5, Funny

    Maybe they meant "enumerator". I always wanted to enumerate an arcade. (Only every time I went in an arcade, I just kept "enumerating" my losses in quarters...)

  9. Hmmmm I wonder by Jaguar777 · · Score: 4, Funny

    According to news media logic.
    If Doom/Quake = Kids shooting up school
    Then Bradley Trainer = Kids stealing tank and demolishing school.

    Remember you heard it here first!

    --
    Maybe you should educate the morons of tomorrow so they'll stop believing the leaders of tomorrow. - Dogbert
  10. New battle zone for old fans by dubbayu_d_40 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If you were a fan, check out pandemic's battle zone II: http://www.pandemicstudios.com/games/bz2/index.htm It's like starcraft from inside a tank, only better. And does anyone know of a pc port of the Pointblank that used to ship with SGI's?

  11. Of course I own one by fobbman · · Score: 5, Funny

    "By clicking on this link you stipulate that you own one of the original machines".

    Don't be silly. I don't have the simulator. I've got the damned tank in my backyard. It's just that the neighbors got upset last time I blew up their Buick.

    1. Re:Of course I own one by muzzmac · · Score: 4, Funny

      Made out of old coathangers?

  12. Well, maybe not a kid... by OffTheRack · · Score: 3, Informative
  13. Actually pretty cool... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Some relevant quotes:

    The Turret is controlled by a 'Star Wars' style yoke controller. It turns the guns and lets you change the elevation of the gun. . There are 3 type of weapons - 25mm cannon ; 7.62 mm coaxially mounted machine gun; TOW missile launcher with twin tubes.The upper left of the bezel hold the Range control, and also the magnification switch. The range control sets the height of the gun before you launch rockets or shoot the machine gun. The magnification switch changes your view from 3x to 10x. On the right side of the bezel, there is a switch for arming the TOW missiles. Once you fire these missiles, you can guide them with the 'laser' sights. You can steer the missile into targets, or into the ground if you overshoot the target.At the lower right near the yoke, are 7 buttons for selecting the 'AP' (armor piercing) rounds, or the 'HE' High Explosive rounds. You also have the choice of 'SS' single Shot or 'CF' Continuous Fire modes. You can also switch to the '7.62mm' machine gun also.


    The TOW was a wire-guided steered missile. The fact that they programmed that in is pretty cool. Also, different ammo types? I'm impressed. Did the MG and Cannon ammo follow balistic paths?

  14. Actually, by YuppieScum · · Score: 3, Funny

    I thought the lampoon was this movie.

    --
    This sig left unintentionally blank.
  15. America's Army by 0x0d0a · · Score: 4, Funny

    Laugh now. Then wait until some ambulance-chaser files suit against the US government for a school shooting caused by the America's Army video game. :-(

  16. MAME needs to emulate this now by WebMasterJoe · · Score: 4, Funny

    I want MAME to get to work on emulating the degenatron! "Swing from green dot to green dot with your red square monkey!"

    That's what I want MAME to support.

    --
    I really hate signatures, but go to my website.
  17. Re:Any special Modifications by FyRE666 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If you'd read the actual story (imagine that?!) you'd have noticed the trainer had extra controls, and was more of a simulation than a game. The "player" did not control the tank itself, only the gun turret which would probably not excite teenagers out to whup some vector-based ass...

  18. The Bradley Fighting Vehicle by Chasing+Amy · · Score: 5, Informative

    Sure, but they *wouldn't* like the Bradley if it had been constructed without the safety modifications mentioned in the film. Hot aluminum vapor filling the cabin when the tank gets fired upon isn't a good thing...

    Plus, it was originally designed as a fast troop transport and ended up a slower smaller tank after decades of bureaucracy and *billions* of dollars--a huge waste of resources at the taxpayers' expense. Remember the outcry against military cost overruns in the 80s? The Bradley was one of the big reasons. :-)

    --

    Chasing Amy
    (We all chase Amy...)
    "The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws"-Tacitus
  19. I resent your comment by x+mani+x · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I resent your "in more important news" comment. This is extremely cool news, as the Bradley Trainer has almost been a piece of mythology in video game history. The US military hired this guy to make an enhanced version of Battlezone to simulate tank combat. This isn't an arcade game, it is a military simulator, developed by an arcade game developer. Pretty much everyone interested in classic gaming has wanted to play this, and just about no one has been able to until now.

    Personally, I couldn't care less that a new version of FreeBSD came out. Go submit it as a story; don't go and use your "scoops" as troll ammunition. In short, your comment is a straight up troll and should be modded as such.

    -Mani

  20. Re:In more important news by Hork_Monkey · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I for one found this interesting. If you look beneath the surface, you see a glimpse into history of what was actually being used to train our soldiers during the cold war.

    We may live in a world now where this level of application is laughable, but look at the fact that during the 80's this was cutting edge.

    With this in perpective, this game was probably much more advanced than the training programs used by the people we were training to fight. Sure, it probably wouldn't have trained people as well as blowing stuff up in the real thing, but this was a pretty large step into modern military training.

    I had never heard of this before, so I did find it worthy to be posted here. The re-relase story may not be too interesting, but the idea of early military computer based training is to me.

  21. Real Experience by citking · · Score: 5, Informative
    I was in the Army for three years as a mechanized infantryman and can attest to the accuracy of the simulator. It really is very close to the real experience...except for sleeping in the hard driver's seat, driving 2 KM with the ramp in the down position, stalling, throwing track in the mud on a rainy day, spending 10 minutes fueling the beast, driving at night with an infrared display screen that looked like a big green blob...

    And you don't have a lieutenant four years younger than you yelling through the headset all the while.

    I miss the good ol' days! *sniff*

    --
    "This food is problematic."
    1. Re:Real Experience by lspd · · Score: 3, Informative

      I was Mech Infantry from 1996 to 2000 in the 1st Infantry Division. I've never seen this POS before. We used a UCOFT simulator (page 9) for regular gunnery training, and CCTT for company level training.

      Although I can't find anything on the net to back me up, if I remember right, the UCOFT ran on VAX/VMS. The graphics were about up to the level of bzFlag.

      CCTT is a fairly recent creation though. The graphics in CCTT are quite good, but the last time I got to play in one (1999) the AI was completely braindead. I believe the simulators in CCTT ran on Windows, but I never saw a BSOD to back this up.

      The TRUELY comical simulator was the MACS. This POS was a Nintendo light-gun built in the shape on of M-16 attached to a Commodore 64. My company still had these (though they were RARELY used) when I left in 2000.

  22. Re:roms by puto · · Score: 4, Informative

    Hey man, you didn;t hear it from me. But if you go to this link http://www.tombstones.org.uk you will find the info you need. It is a group of people who have a project to keep the roms alive. You can get all the mame roms on 10 cds for like 10-15 bucks, all verified and working. You have to find mame on your on. But you can get it off the site as well.

    I actuall ordered two sets. Paypaled money to two different people. Thinking that one would rip me off. And you know what? 7 days later they both came in the mail. It has been mame hell in my house since. 3200 working games.

    TheFlatline

    --
    The Revolution Will Not Be Televised