MechWarrior 1 BattleMechs
MechWarrior is a mech-simulator developed by Dynamix in 1989 for IBM PC MS-DOS.
MechWarrior is based on FASA's BattleTech wargame.
The original MechWarrior was distributed on 2x 3.5" 720kB DD diskettes or 4x 5.25" 360kB DD floppy disks and extracts and installs to hard disk drive via MechWarrior Hard Disk Installation. The install size is 1.5 megs and consists of 127 files. MechWarrior supports AdLib or Roland audio and displays in 16-color EGA 320x200.
In MechWarrior BattleMechs are represented by 2D diagrams and 3D flat-shaded graphics. Most impressively, the 3D mechs feature animated walk-cycles.
In assuming the role of Blazing Ace mercenary and MechWarrior, Gideon Braver, players pilot one mech in first-person perspective while also directing the general actions of up to three lancemates via a separate command screen.
Players undertake contract-missions the object which is to immobilize hostile mechs and capture or defend bases.
The eight mechs on offer vary in durability, mobility and firepower. Some mechs are fast but weak, some are hulking tanks and yet others come equipped with jumpjets that allow them to take to the skies, propel over battlefields and land on hilltops or base installations.
Mech armaments include laser, machine-gun, Particle Projection Cannon (PPC) and missile launcher (SRM, LRM).
The name and appearance of the mech is indicative of its combat role.
- Locust
- Jenner
- Phoenix Hawk
- Shadow Hawk
- Rifleman
- Warhammer
- Marauder
- BattleMaster
Rate of fire and jumpjet duration are governed by heatsinks: an in-cockpit heat meter indicates the build-up and dissipation of heat during battle. If the mech overheats its fusion reactor shuts down and the mech is immobilized (a sitting duck).
In addition to heat levels the mech cockpit displays a forward/reverse thrust meter, radar-map, topographical map, weapon status and locked-on target status.
Locational damage is indicated on the targeting display as well as in a separate damage screen display. Hits to the head or legs have logical consequences. Naturally, it is often more efficient to target mech heads and limbs rather than their heavily-armored torsos.
As can be seen in the middle screencap, mech sensors, gyros and actuators can be damaged (but repaired post-battle):
The real-time 3D viewport is overlaid by a HUD (heads-up display) that displays crosshairs and indicates the locked-on target with a bounding box. The HUD also features a compass that indicates heading and torso direction (rotation).
Helpful in identifying hostile mechs and bases from afar, the first-person viewport is zoomable by up to 3x magnification.
BattleMechs are bought, sold, repaired and reloaded at Mech Complexes that are located on the various planets of the Successor States. The cost and availability of mechs varies depending on planet-type; RNG factors heavily as well.
Players have five years to assemble a quality crew and acquire strong mechs for crewmen to pilot. Since mech-weight contributes to jumpship costs between planetary systems, it can be a good idea to hold off on unit purchases until significant plot-progression has been made (travel lightly).
MechWarrior plays similarly to MPS Labs' M1 Tank Platoon (1989), but of course the M1 simulation is much more complex and sophisticated.
That said, MechWarrior is still one of the most technically advanced computer games of the late 80s. And truth be told, I had a lot of fun revisiting MechWarrior in 2024.
MechWarrior 1 Controls
The BattleMechs are controlled via kb and/or joystick.
- Enter / Return: Select mech/base target in crosshairs (bounding box)
- Escape: Retreat or Eject from mech
- Spacebar: Fire selected weapon
- Tab: Fire all weapons simultaneously
- Number Keys 1-9, 0: Select specific weapon
- Numpad: 8-way movement, 5 to stop
- Left / Right Arrow Keys: turn mech left / right
- Up / Down Arrow Keys: Increase / decrease movement speed
- +/-: Previous / next weapon
- ALT+J: center joystick
- < / >: Rotate torso left / right
- A: Auto-align torso and feet
- C: Call up Command Screen
- D: Call up Damage Screen
- E: View target damage
- H: Change color of HUD
- J: Activate jumpjets
- M: Moves targeting cursor up (crosshairs)
- N: Moves targeting cursor down
- O: Remove / attach specific weapon to AWS
- P: Pause
- Q: Quit from Command Screen or Damage Screen (return to cockpit)
- R: Topographical Screen: toggles between elevation map and radar map
- S: Sound toggle
- T: View topographical map
- U: Get up after Mech is knocked down
- W: Automatic Weapons System (AWS) toggle
- Z: Zoom level x3: changes main view (and Command Screen detail)
List of MechWarrior 1 Mechs
MechWarrior 2 1995 Activision
Activision Studios released MechWarrior 2 for IBM PC MS-DOS in 1995 -- a full six years after the original: an eternity in the 1990s. MechWarrior 2 requires an i80486DX2-66 MHz CPU, 8 megs of RAM and 1 meg of vRAM.
MechWarrior 2 displays in square-pixel SVGA 640x480 to 1024x768.
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