Recent Adventures

I know that I have been absent from comms here lately, but let me tell you why. Just bare with me, in my usual Vettie fashion, I will eventually get to the point.

So here goes...

I have multiple computers, a laptop (that I use for nearly everything) that is a dual boot system with Win 7 and Linux Mint 12. My old gaming rig that is also a dual boot, Win XP and Linux Mint 12 and an even older machine that I use as a test bed before I elect to do something radical on either of my better machines.

This quick point, before I forget, comes in to play later in this post, but remember it, please. I recently moved to an apartment and I still have some things in boxes...(shocker right?)

The Linux Mint Community recently released LM13 with two types of interfaces, Cinnamon (basically uses applets (real similar to Apples OS)) or Mate (standard Gnome type interface.) I have read about Cinnamon and I also read where the LM team worked out many of the bugs and that LM13 (Maya they call it) had a pretty smooth Cinnamon interface IF your hardware and Cinnamon were compatible. I checked the list and all of my machines were covered.

I was interested in trying Maya, but as with any other OS, I really didnt want to screw up my 2 “good machines”, especially my laptop. That lead me to my test machine. It is loaded with Win XP and Linux Mint 9. The LM9 install was one of the prettiest, smoothest, most fun to work with OS I have encountered. I seriously considered make a triple boot.

Ok, so, I had a plan. Triple boot, not messing up Windows, or Mint 9. I downloaded the OS from the Mint website and burned the image onto disk. The check sum was perfect and the disc was operational and self booting. I should point out to any and all at this point, it is ALWAYS a great idea to back up stuff you want to keep, ALWAYS.

I had Windows running on the test machine and I inserted the LM13 disc. It came up. One of the options is to install the OS. To do so, you leave the disc in the drive and reboot they machine (making sure the BIOS is set to read from the cd first). I did and after the reboot the LM 13 disc began to run. I should point out here that the OS is NOT installed, merely running from the disc. This is a lot slower than if installed, but it lets you play with things and see how well you like the OS without actually installing it.

I played with a few things and I really like the interface and smoothness of operation (event tho slow running from the dvd). It does put an Icon on the desktop to INSTALL Linux Mint. I clicked it. Things started happening as you would expect, it comes up with the typical questions about where you are located, what language to use, time zone you are in, keyboard layout, you know, the standard OS install questions, user name, computer name, blah blah... After going through those motions, a splash screen comes up to tell you the differences from LM12 to LM13 and about the Cinnamon interface.

Normally, when there is a splash screen such as this, it changes as your install progresses allowing even a slow reader such as myself PLENTY of time to read the splash. I had read where a typical install of LM13 would take about 10 to 15 minutes depending on your hardware. As I am watching the splash and trying to keep up (it never changed past screen 1) it disappeared. Went away. Gone. I thought to myself, well, that was pretty darn fast, but I did notice that there was no re-boot notice. So I waited a bit. Then a bit longer. After 2 hours, nothing else happened, there were no disc activity lights blinking or even on, so I thought, hmm, must be time to reboot. I did.

I was expecting to see the “grub” where you choose which OS to boot into, but I didnt. On my test machine, to boot from the CD drive (even though it is set in the BIOS as 1^st boot) you have to hit the enter key or the space bar. I didnt do this because I wanted to go into LM13 and play around. After some whirring noises and skipping of the cd, my machine went to the “C” drive (as expected) then then returned an error. The error was something about (computer language data) axxbbes blah (looked Hungarian to me (and yes I have been there and seen Hungarian words, notice I said SEEN, not read)) and finally, GRUB error, do you wish to repair?

Huh? I dont know anything about Grub, I thought they were big ol' nasty worms that you used to go fishing with, How do you repair that? So I opened one of my other machines and did some reading on Grub and how to repair it and gave that a try. It didnt work.

I re-booted again, just to make sure. No good. Same thing as before. So I thought, I could put my Windows XP Cd in and do a repair so it would at least boot into Windows. I did that. Followed the options to repair the windows install. The disc agreed with me that my XP install was corrupted and would attempt to repair it. After a bit, it said it had repaired my Windows install and that I need to re-boot, so I did.

It came back with the exact same error, computer jibberish that I cant read blah, Grub Error, do you wish to repair? So now I was frustrated and hungry. Made myself a fine turkey sandwich.

After this, I decided to try to repair the Windows MRB section to see if that would help, No joy. Same old grub error. In my mind, I thought, well LM9 was working perfectly, maybe I can use it to repair the machine and get it booted up again. I put the LM9 disc in and restarted. Same error. Ok.

I did a little research to see if others were having similar troubles on the Linux Mint Forums. Not really, but still some were having issues. One guy had almost the same set up as I do, said his install didnt work, but he re-booted and tried it a second time and it worked fine. So I thought, why not?

I put the LM13 disc back in and re-booted allowing it boot from the dvd. Started up and again I hit the install Icon. Started all over. I went through all the questions and finally got to the splash screen again where it actually starts copying files and installing the OS. Another hint for most users, DO NOT DO THIS AT 1.00AM.

Again the splash screen disappeared and the disc activity stopped. I waited for close to an hour and decided that it was messed up again. In my frustration and all due to NOT paying attention, on this particular attempt to install, I told it to install on the WRONG hard drive. I had wiped out my Windows HDD, and now neither the Mint install nor Windows were there. I said a few things, got up and walked around smacking my head. The Windows install actually had some programs on it that I had the paid versions of and installed many years ago. The updates were free, but you have to pay for another install. DOH!! (remember my warning about backing up stuff you want to keep? Yeha, I wish I had remembered that, again not don attempt at 1.00am...)

I looked over at some of the boxes I had not put away yet (remember me mentioning this above?) and in front of one of the boxes was an old HP Pavilion. From what I could remember, it was a 466 Celeron machine from the Win 95/98 era that I had updated to Win98SE. I picked up the machine and put it on my desk. I had no idea if it was complete or operational. I opened it up. Let me see, floppy drive (remember those?), dvd drive (I had replaced the original cd drive some years ago), hard drive, mother board, power supply, memory sticks, cpu and fan. Everything except vid card and sound card, nice.

At this point I remembered that I had some parts in another box. I rambled around until I found them. A Soundblaster PCI 128 sound card with install disc and a VooDoo 4 4500 (32mg – that makes you sweat with envy, huh?) Well before I installed any of this, I wanted to make sure the old thing would even work. It had on-board video, altho no sound card or chip. I hooked everything up and pushed the power button.

It fired right up. It took it a little bit, but it fired up. The BIOS came up telling me it had 192mg of ram and an 8 gig hdd. WooHoo! After a few minutes the OS started. It was Win98. Wow, I thought. I have all my original Mech Warrior games and some other old games I used to love to play but never could get them to work on XP or Win 7. Maybe they will work on Win98. So I defragged the HDD and then shut the PC down. I opened it up and put the soundcard in and rebooted. ( I learned long ago that with Win95 and 98, dont put too much new stuff in at once.) It came up saying it found a new device, blah blah, I canceled that and let it finish the boot. I put the disc in and installed the software. I got sound and it needed a reboot. Done. Sound card in and working. I thought, alright, time for the VooDoo. I put the card and realized I didnt have an install disc for it. I went to my other machine and did a search for Voodoo 4 Drivers for Win 98 and man did I find drivers. I finally decided on a set that looked like actual 3dFX drivers and downloaded them, burned to a disc and ready to go.

Started the Win98 machine and the screen was totally black. I could see the HDD light blinking and the sound was on so I know it booted, but no vid. At this point, I remembered that on the older BIOS, you had to switch the setting to the vid card you installed, it was not auto select. So I put the vid cable on the on-board output and booted into the BIOS. I made the changed and shut the machine down. Switched cables again and rebooted. This time it worked and discovered new hardware, I canceled and installed the VooDoo drivers and re-booted once again. Oh yeah, it was nice.

TO my surprize, the machine ran very smoothly. I got my old MW2 games and some others out to install them to see if they would work. All 3 installed without a hitch and all three worked. I looked at the clock and it was nearly 3.30am. I went to bed knowing I had a semi successful night.

At 7.00am. I woke with a great thought in my head. On the LM13 install, if I could just kill the splash screen the actual install may be running in the background and MIGHT continue to run, if for some reason, there is something amiss with the splash screen or the splash and cinnamon or whatever. I knew the command to kill the splash, I just didnt know the actual name of the splash screen, I looked it up and found the name so I thought I would give it a try (for those with similar issues, or if you run into similar issues that command is

Sudo apt-get remove ubiquity-slideshow-mint

with all the spaces just as typed. Also, you MUST run this BEFORE hitting the install Icon.)

I went through the same ordeal and before hitting the the install Icon, I ran the remove command and got rid of the splash. I then tried the install and it worked perfectly. At this point, I decided the reinstall Win XP then go back and reinstall LM13 so the grub and everything would be there (there maybe another way of doing this, but I knew how to make this work with little trouble and I needed Windows on there anyway so...). I installed Windows and before I let it start doing the zillions of updates, I went for the LM install. Again killing the splash and making it work. It installed without a hitch on the slave drive (which is where I wanted it all along anyway, lol).

When I rebooted, it went straight into Windows, no grub, no choice, just Windows. What now? What could it be? I went back to the BIOS and changed the boot sequence to boot from the slave 1^st to see if the grub was on there instead of on the main drive. It was. When the machine came back up, there was my grub, my choices of Linux Mint 13 or Windows XP and the other items (mem tester and recover options). Boom it worked. So I updated Mint and installed a couple of items that I have used on LM12 and then went back to Windows to do all the updates.

After a few days of messing with Linux Mint Maya, I have decided that I will wait until they get some of the bugs out and them re-install it. I have since re-installed LM12 (Lisa) and all the Windows Updates.

On the Win98 front, I have been playing the old MechWarrior 2 series. Yeah the video is only 640 by 480 and yeah everything is kinda blocky, but the the games are fun. It is here that I learned of the mech world and about assigning criticals and all the neat stuff that brought those games to life. I also installed a game called Panzer General II, and old SSI game that is very close to a board game with visuals about many of the battles in WWII (excluding the Pacific theatre). You can play either side against the computer, against another human or even by email, lol! One of the other titles I installed was a great DOS game, The Age of Rifles. Again this is an SSI title that covers most rifled combat from early 1800's through just before WWI. Both Panzer General II and Age of Rifles have campaign games in them and they are not easy games to win (unless you set the computer player to low prestige (easy setting), and even then the little CPU is pretty cunning. Both of these titles have a fog of war setting that allows you to let the CPU hide its move until you stumble across the enemy, or in the case of Panzer General II, you have planes scouting ahead (but still limited as to what they detect).

So, if you have wandered where Ol Vettie has been over the past several days, well hes been revisiting the MW2 Series (fairly close to how I think the Mech Lab for MWO will be) and playing some old style computer war games and getting my butticus kicked (sometimes).

Any of you tried playing some of your older, but still favourite titles? 

Anatomy of a Mech

Anatomy of a Battlemech

Ever thought about what makes up a battlemech? Sure, lots of the books and the tabletop game goes in to some significant details as to the inner workings of a battlemech. I mean, most of you that read this Blog already have some understanding of how a mech “works”, the different types of frames, various engine upgrades, and fusion reactors.

Some of the books go into great depths to describe the motors and gyros used for upper torso “twists” and arm and leg movements. Others describe with plenty of details the cockpit of a few of the machines.

This is the part I really want to dig into because this game we play (and will possibly play [MWOnline]) is really based on the pilot's point of view. You, as the pilot, decide what chassis to use, what engine (speed) to choose, what armour to install, the electronics you think you might need, jump jets or not and lastly, what weapons you need for the current “mission” [map].

Each pilot has their own requirements as well as favourites. I have seen some players [pilots] from the past take a light mech and do a damn fine job, but put them in a heavy or assault and they were sitting ducks lasting only minutes in a multiplayer game. I have seen the reverse too. I have seen some players that take the same mech with the same loadout map after map.

It's no secret to any of you that read this Blog that Ol' Vettie's mech of choice is the Victor. That being said, I don’t use it on every map or mission because I like to try different mechs for different maps to see how I can do in them. If you count the same loadouts with different armour types, then at one time I had over 70 Victor Variants. I had one for every map with every type of “radar” situation for every enemy team that we were going to face (knowing their trends on how they “fought” on various maps). Yeah, I know, pretty fanatical for a game, huh? I literally could use a Victor on any map (weight limits allowing), but I choose to use others. Seems I have strayed from the theme of this post, I will try to reroute and get back on track.

As the pilot of a battlemech, you must decide what you need your mech to do. In the books (and to some degree in the table top game) this is “covered” by the use of a neuro-helmet. This is the connection between the battlemech and the pilot. This device is what makes a battlemech come alive. In a sense, the battlemech because a huge, armoured version of the pilot. The mech mimics your movement, your reflexes (with some limitations) and your ability (with some limitations). I say with limits because the mech is a machine and the weapons have to recharge or reload altho the pilot often wants to keep firing and the battlemech build up lots of heat simply by moving around, or jumping and when you add the heat from the weapons, well we have all been there, shut down imminent. A person or pilot might physically be able to continue on and suffer later where as the mech can only take so much before it shuts if self down, or explodes. Each pilot is able to manage this ability in their own way.

The cockpit of a battlemech consists a few things that are common with all battlemechs. Each one has a heads up display the gives us the radar screen, a speed indicator, a heat indicator, a coolant reserve measurement showing you how much coolant you have left, your weapons list, grouping, amount of ammo left (unless a beam weapon), your current armour levels and that of a selected enemy (if any) and a compass that works kinda funny (its based on your location relative to the direction your heading, not a true north kinda thing, so if a team mate tells you via chat or comms that he has a contact at 280, it might not be 280 to you). I the books, there are throttle controls and a “joystick” and some (maybe most or all) have foot controls (pedals).

Our cockpits have most of those things, but you see it on a screen in front of you (I am guessing) and you may or may not have a joystick and separate throttle (or even a combined). I used to use a joystick all the time. I tried many different ones and enjoyed them all (some lasting longer than others). Then I thought back to the MW2 days. I used to use only a keyboard. Not even a mouse. I know at least one pilot who still plays that way. I guess if I practiced enough, I could go back to just using the keyboard or the keyboard mouse combo, but instead I use a nostromo N52 and a good wired gaming mouse. The nostromo is programmable enough to set up every keyboard combo (that I can think of) that I ever use in the game and some I have programmed just in case. I am sure those of you out thee that use joysticks or keyboard and mouse combo have set up some type of setting that is easy or natural felling for you to use, And that is the point isnt it? I mean, you dont want to think about what button to push or what trigger to squeeze to make your mech do whatever action you are trying to perform, you just want it to happen (think neuro-helmet). The more natural the movement the faster your reflexes are to make that action happen. The key is act without thinking equals quicker / faster mech response.

Now your cockpit may be small and compact or it may be very large. Same with the mechs we drive, some have more pilot room than others and it doesnt always mean the bigger the mech the bigger the cockpit. Mine is a 5 by 3.5 old dining room table with a very nice leather (hi-back) office chair that swivels and rolls. Beside my table is the cpu box while on top is the screen, keyboard mouse, nostromo and speakers with a sound control unit. Underneath the table is a sub-woofer that will knock you down if turned up more than ¼ of wide open. This is my cockpit. It doubles as a computer work station and stereo system as well as an interface for my guitars (for recording and editing and eventually erasing cause it I cant play very good yet).

This is the key. A good, usable space, that is not only very comfortable but very workable. This is my 'neuro-helmet' and interface to whatever battlemech I choose to use. What about you? Feel free to describe your cockpit and interface.

You see, this is the REAL anatomy of a battlemech, its you. Your creation, your action(s), your decisions, your loadouts, your choice(s), make up the anatomy and make it work. See you on the battlefield.

Vettie Views Returns

Greetings Mech Fans

Its been a long time since Ol’ Vettie penned a Vettie’s Views article. I been thinking a lot about all the new games coming our way and considered doing an View on the list of them. I still might do that, but not today (tonite actually). I don’t have the time right now to put in the research required to give you guys the depth (I) you would require to sink your teeth into the mech titles on the near horizons for us. For my money, Mech Warrior Online will be the closest thing to what we have now and probably the easiest for us to digest or migrate to. I cant help but wonder. Remembering when Battlefield 2142 came out lots of Mech Warriors started playing that game and after a bit of time, slowly back they came. I wonder, will we see that again?

The thing is, this game that draws us to it, night after night, or whatever spare time we can muster or actually MAKE to play, continues to draw us in. The hope for MP4 is still lingering in our heads knowing what Jeho has been through and the possible loss of the game data, but we still hope. Night after night, just look at the open servers, SOMEONE IS PLAYING, even if they are just shooting bots.

Let me think. Mech Warrior 4 Vengeance came out when? The year 2000? I think. WHAT? We are still drawn to a game that is going on, if not already, 12 years old? Yes. Yes we are. This game has everything we like in a game. Great battlefields (maps) that were supplied with the game and the ability to create more of them. And the community did just that. We have tons of maps. What else? Oh yeah, BIG ol robotic styled fighting machines that you can simulate sitting in the cockpit and being able to pilot the thing. Oh that’s not all my friends, it has weaponry that you can change out to suit YOUR requirements. Let us not forget explosions, lots of explosions, big nasty explosions with lots of collateral damage if you are too close.

Yeah this game has all that, but, that’s not the good part. No, no fellow mech warriors, the best part is you. Yeah you, Im talking to you. You get in your machine and you drop at launch point and you go hunting for the other guy. Sometimes alone, sometimes with team mates, but get to hunt other guys in their favourite machine and try to blow them up. Many if not most of you use comms (Teamspeak 2 and 3) and you all get on the same channel and you banter back and forth or you talk about crap that has nothing to do with whats going on, but that is all part of the fun. Its like guys card night with out the cards and no mess to clean up when you log off.

Many of us have been playing together since Vengeance came out. When Mercs arrived, well it was a natural progression (although I waited till the price tag dropped from 50$US to about 30$US before taking the plunge, yeah I know, cheapskate here). Many of you have adopted new names over the years and most of you have kept them the same. I started as Lt. Vettie (a rank with the team I was part of way back then) but eventually dropped that in favour of just “Vettie”. Whatever the name, we are still playing the game.

Well, I was going to just do a mish mash of things on this issue, but as usual, I got carried away talking about my favourite game and you guys.

Let me give you a little update on a personal level. Ol Vettie is divorced. Ms. Vettie just had a real hard time with all the things we went through (my medical stuff, almost losing our home, relocating, kids in college, bank accounts going real south, 401k plans biting the dust no matter how much effort we put into them to keep them on the black side we just seemed to lose money, losing close to a million dollars worth of stock when the company I had (deeply) invested in sold out and on and on). I hold no grudges nor harbour no ill will. Our divorce was clean and easily settled between us.

I now live in a new town, just recently getting an apartment of my own. I prefer a house, but I am unable to do the upkeep required, so I decided on an apartment. I have a good internet connection so I will be joining in the fun on Sunder or whatever server you guys are in. I have a partnership with a friend in a small music store and I buy, trade, sell guitars (and other things). Music has always been my passion. I own a few things I never thought I would, such as a violin, but hey, if I can make a buck or two. What? Can I play it? Well its not Charlie Daniels, but I can get it to make noise. Problem is, when I do try to play (emphasis on try) dogs for miles around try to bury their heads, I dunno whats up with that…

I have a wonderful girlfriend and care lot about her. I am trying to put my life back together. Each day that I am able to get up, well I give thanx for that. Yeah I hurt all the damn time, but you get used to a certain level and you learn to live with it. There are days that are almost too much. The pain is so bad that nothing I do seems to help. Those are the tough days. Those are the days when I actually take some of the meds I am supposed to take daily, but I am not a pill guy. In fact I hate taking meds. ESPECIALLY pain meds. But there are days that I have to, just to be able to make it to the restroom. Thank goodness those days are not very often. My liver issue is not gone, but is in remission (< spelling?). I still have to be careful with my weight and what I eat and drink, but hey, that’s better than the alternative (as far as we know).

Back to Mech Warrior for a minute or seven. I been thinking lately how its kinda cool that not only have we been playing this game for 10 to 12 years, but we are STILL learning things about it. Case and point is the mission play map thing. One of the players brought it up in the Sunderjunkies forums that there were mission play maps out there that we weren’t using. I had remembered trying to get some of those maps to work back when I was running a server. The thing is, 10 to 12 years LATER, we are still running down things we didn’t know, like how to make a map work like a mission play version if it shows up as such, but doesn’t work as such. There are scripts we can change to make things a little different (like the bots) and just so many things. One of the things I find interesting about this game is that as long as it has been around and as many people that have graced our battlefields over the years there have been very few true hackers to the game. Yeah there were some, but there were also many we thought we hackers that simply weren’t, turned out to be part of the way multiplayer worked and the age of the game vs the technology that now exists that didn’t (or wasn’t even conceived) when the game was released. Kudos to MekTek for picking up the torch when Microsoft lost interest in the game and (basically) keeping it hacker free an giving us new mechs, maps (and the individuals that gave us those too), weapons and systems to keep the game as fresh as a 10 to 12 year old game could be.

I know many of you play other games out there, so do I, but we all have one thing in common, we all fall back to MW4 Mercs when we really want to have fun or just blow something up.
W00T! Fellow Mech Warriors, W00T!

What Would You Do?

What would I be doing?

Interesting question. What would I be doing? I mean what would I be doing IF I weren't doing what I am doing.

Let me put it another way. I am retired. Not rich, on a very limited income but I dont have too many bills. I am single. Yes I have have a girlfriend, but this is a 'what if' sort of thing. My kids are either done with college, or the last one is in college.

I have no ties, nothing to hold me back, except expenses. I have no savings (reference above, the part about the kids are done with college, less one still attending) to speak of. My expenses are not so much.

So what WOULD I be doing? I love the music thing and dealing with people on trades and buys and sales. I also love playing on the computer, whether it reading forums or articles or actually playing MW4.

I like to sight see. I love going to different parts of the US that I have visited before or have never been too at all.

I COULD live anywhere I wanted (again no ties), but if I did relocate, what would I do once I got there? I mean I like going to the beach, but I dont like just laying around even just on the beach. I am not much for drinking so the bar thing isnt so much for me except checking out the bands. I love the mountains too, but again, what would I do there?

I cant see me sitting around in some hotel room all day waiting on the local music hall to open to go see a band and I dont play pool. I only get my hair cut about twice a year, so no hanging at the barber shop.

I guess I could pull a Cosmo Kramer and just show up to work somewhere and do stuff until they figured out that I dont really work there.

There's no money in building computers for people, altho I do pick up some extra $ now and then repairing them or upgrading them for folks, and besides, I dont have enough cash for a brick and mortar store front (they want rent even if you dont do any business, and the utility company is the same way).

I could open a bar and have bands there, but again it takes up front cash to get started.

I could spend my days driving from point a to point b and my nights checking out stuff wherever I was, and If I liked it, I could stay a little longer than a day or two. But wouldnt that get old? Wouldnt you just want a place to come home to?

If I really really thought about it, I would probably love to do SOME of all of that stuff, but I am pretty happy doing what I am doing.

What about you? If you were to do something different from what you are doing (for a living that is), what would you do?

Guitar Hunters

Greetings Mech Fans. It has been a long time since I visited Vettie's Views and passed along my thoughts about whatever topic I randomly picked. I have kept an eye on mechland, even though I haven’t been able to get on line an play very much. I keep a close eye on MekTek so I can keep up with the changes and I drop in on the http://www.sunderjunkies.com/ to see whats up with the old friends and the new guys. Of course I sneak into the halls of the Blood Pearls cause that is where it really all started for me.

Many of you know that Vettie and Ms. Vettie have divorced. After 16 years, we grew apart and all my medical issues and then financial issues became too much and well, never mind the details. Facts are facts. Ol' Vettie has medical issues that will only get worse as time goes by but he is doing everything he can to make the most of each day.

One of the things Ol Vettie has always liked or has always been a part of is music. Every since I heard my first Beatles song on my older sisters fold and play phonograph, I have had something in me that said “you gotta be part of this!” Well let me set the record straight right up front. Vettie has no natural talent. When I was a drummer, I practiced every day banging on everything from coffee cans to dresser tops. When I got my first kit of drums, my folks quickly moved them to the basement of our well insulated house and I wore that kit out practicing every day. Later I joined the school band for some real “music education” but other than drum and colour guard competitions, I really didn't care for it. I preferred football and basketball and baseball (that’s all we had back then) and rock and roll. I was in a few garage bands and later, in the high school years, I managed to get with some guys that really had talent. We did a few covers and created some of our own stuff and it sort of took off from there. We toured the southeastern U.S. And made lots of money and had lots of fun. We were signed to front a major act and did that for one year, then we were picked up by another one for the next year. During that time, we signed a record contract and went to Memphis to cut the tracks. Soon after the deal was done, tragedy struck our band as one of our lead guitar players was killed in an auto accident. One week later, in the exact same intersection, our bass player was killed in an auto accident. Suddenly, our future became very bleak. Of the surviving members of that band, I am the only one still alive.

Let me back up a little more. Yes I was a drummer and yes I loved it. My current condition with my back and lack of some motor controls prevents me from being an effective drummer today or I would still be doing that. As I said, backing up a little (my I easily get side tracked). When I was in second grade (yes Homer they had schools back then, my father was in the Air Force. He was some sort of a Sargent or Chief Master Sargent or something. He had a squad of airmen assigned to him and most of them were single guys. Being single, young and dumb, they often ran out of money before they ran out of month. This is the main reason you see so many pawn shops near military installations (and there used to be MANY more than there are today). One of the airmen assigned to my dad had borrowed some cash from him promising to pay him back at the end of the month (payday). Well, when payday rolled around, the young man didn't have enough cash to pay back my father. I remember the dude coming to our home (we lived in on base housing) and he and dad going out to the back yard and then to the guys little VW (it was a square back sedan). A few minutes later my dad comes in the back door carrying a long black rectangular case and a small blonde coloured box looking thing. My dad and mom had a few words and then my dad asks me if I would like a guitar. DUH!

My dad laid the long black case down on the floor and flipped a few latches and opened it up. Inside this case was some orange coloured velvet like material and a fairly new Fender Telecaster. It was Black with metal flake specs and it was brand new looking. The little blonde box was an amp and it too was a Fender. I would love to have either of those today, but mostly the guitar. It was either a 1964 or 1965 model. I took a few lessons way back then and learned a few chords, but my interest had always been on the drums and sports.

Let's skip forward to present times. Many of you know I manage a local band (II Daze Gone). The lead singer of the band and I have have become very good friends. He owns a music store. The days of our youth followed similar paths, at least musically, except he stuck with it and is still doing it today.

Many of you out there watch TV? True? A show on the History Channel (I think) is (or has been) running lately called American Pickers. Ever watch it? These two guys travel around picking through peoples old barns and stuff looking for “Old Americana”. Its a pretty good show.

Well, Henry and I sort do that, except we are looking for musical stuff, mostly, guitars, basses and drums. We have found some pretty cool instruments and we have made a little cash along the way. Living in North Alabama, we are located close enough to Nashville, Atlanta, Birmingham, Huntsville and Muscle Shoals that we can work up a deal, go there and be back in just a few hours. We have traded and/or bought some really nice items at some really good bargains.

Let me give you an example. We were sitting in the store one day, both of us broke, down to about 200$ between us, wondering what we were gonna do about the store rent that was rapidly coming due. A gentleman walked in and asked if we bought guitars. Henry explained that we do, but it depends on the item, what shape its in, and of course how much the person wants for it. The man walked out to his car, raised his trunk and came back in with two guitars. He hands one to me and one to Henry. Henry and I looked at the guitars and then swapped with one another and to look at the guitar the other was holding. We both asked the guy almost in unison, “How much did you want for them?” The guy scratched his head and said “well, my dad bought me that Gibson when I was a kid to learn how to play on. I cut grass and saved my money to buy that other one. I have arthritis now, and cant play anymore. They just sitting in the corner collecting dust. I want someone else to enjoy them as much as I did. Do you think 150$ for the both is too much?” I damn near fell out of my chair. I was holding a 1963 Gretsch Corvette in near mint condition (other than the dust) and Henry was holding a 1958 Gibson LG-1 in good condition. The Gibson had the original case with it. I handed Henry a 100$ bill (my last bit of money) and he coughed up 50$ more. The man said “thank you” and walked out the door.

We had some work to do on the Gibson, but all the Gretsch needed was cleaning and a new set of strings. The neck was still straight!. We sold them both on EBAY in the Vintage Guitar section and yeah, we made our money back and paid the rent and managed to buy some groceries.

We have made many deals and will continue to do so. One of our favourite things to do is looking on Craigslist and trying to find someone that has a guitar that is broken or doesn’t work properly and they just want to sell it cheap. I bought a nice Epiphone Les Paul standard for 50$. It didnt work, no sound came out of it when plugged in and the kid's parents didnt want to fool with it because the kid had lost interest in playing it. The input jack wires were broken.

A close friend of ours, a guy who runs a studio in Decatur has the done the best deal to date that we have heard of. We call the guy Slugger. Slugger always has some kind of wild deal working. He came to the store on Saturday after calling us to see if we had any acoustic/electrics. We had a very nice Samick the we had just bought for near nothing. Slugger shows up and sees the Samick. He picks it up and plays with it. He likes it. He sits around and shoots the bull for a bit and decides to go. As he is paying for the guitar, he notices a white LTD (SG Copy) hanging on the wall of electrics. He says “Wait!” “Make me a deal for the Samick and the LTD!” We did and he paid for them and off he went. Later on in the day, we get a call from Slugger. “How much is an American Tele worth? Its a natural wood and in damn good shape.” We tell him the Blue Book value. About 4 hours later, we get another call from Slugger. “Shhh, shhh. I am in this guys bathroom. I need to know how much a DoBro brand Dobro is worth, hurry!” Again we tell him the value range based on the Blue Book. About 2 hours later, old Slugger pulls up in his Jeep pulling a trailer loaded with a brand new Craftsmen Riding mower. He comes bouncing in to the store grinning from ear to ear. “Guys let me tell you what I did today! It started with me buying those 2 guitars from you. I ran into a guy with an American Tele that he didnt want, but he did want an acoustic. I swapped him the 2 I bought from you for the Tele and he gave me some boot. I sold the Tele to another guy. This guy tells me about an old dude that had a dobro he needed to sell, so I looked him up and bought it from him. I was on my way home and a guy saw it in my Jeep at a red light and pulled up beside me asking what I would take for it. We pulled into the Sears parking lot so he could look at it. He asked me how much and I said, well I just got it and I been wanting a Dobro for a long time. How about you buy me a riding lawn mower and you can have it. He did. A brand new Craftsmen Riding lawn mower. Well I still had cash I had made from selling the Tele so I went back to the guy I traded to for it and bought back the 2 guitars I traded him.” So Slugger started the day with 300$ and a want for for an acoustic guitar. He ended the day with an acoustic electric, an electric, a riding lawn mower and some cash!! Now thats pickin!

The key to being a good Guitar Hunter is knowing the value of the item you are trying to buy and never, let me repeat, NEVER get attached to a guitar. You have to separate your “I want that” from “can I sell that?” mentality. Once you do that, then you can be successful, or make a little money. Unless you just find an old 1957 Mint Condition Gibson Les Paul in somebody's basement or attic or under their bed, you ain't gonna get rich doing this, but it is a lot of fun. Hell, most of the fun is just in making the deal.

A recent deal we made went real smooth. We worked with a guy over email and txt messages for about 2 weeks. He had a (semi rare) Epiphone Sheraton II in an antique white colour (that had already started to fade to blonde). He wanted to sell it but we were cash shy. We found out, by working with him that he needed a set of drums. Ta DA! We had a bastard set of drums that we pieced together from several others, basically leftovers from several other kits with an odd kick drum we had taken in on trade from something else. Altogether, we had about 100$ tied up in the various pieces of the kit. We put it together to make it look like a fusion kit and sent him some pics. He loved it. He was in Northern Mississippi, so we agreed to meet at a half way point. When we got there, he was anxious to see the kit. So we pulled it out and assembled it quickly. The guy was drooling. He sat on the throne and banged a bit. He said, if you guys wanna trade I am all for it!! He pulls out the case and inside is a pristine guitar, it wasn’t even dirty, no dust or anything!! We sold the guitar later that day for about 400$ he was happy and we were. A good deal all around.

Personal guitars? Yeah I got a few. I have a Union Jack Mexican Strat with Floyd Rose Tremolo system and Seymour Duncan pickups. I have a Fender American Standard Telecaster and a an Ovation CC48 that I won in a drawing. Those are my current keepers. I also have an Epiphone Les Paul Custom Studio in Antique White, a Dean Acoustic Electric Cutaway mini jumbo, a Dean Exotic Wood Acoustic electric all for trade or sell and I have a Squier (yes a Squier) Tobacco Burst finish Stratocaster that I bought new specifically to try out a new Vendor's pick ups. WOW was I shocked. These things are exclusive from Concert Parts and they blow away Seymour Duncans at half the price! They have a deep rich bluesy tone and even using distortion, each string is clear and vibrant. This may be a keeper. I have had a couple of offers for it already but I am not quite ready to sell it. I know, its just a Squier, but it is bad ass!

I am not making a ton of money, but I am having a lot of fun and learning a lot about guitars. I make enough to keep the bills paid and keep the belly full, but money isn’t everything. I am doing something I really enjoy.

Below are some pictures of some guitars and drums we have traded for or bought during our hunting escapes.

First up is a Heavy Metal Strat Made in Japan

Next is a Shector Devil Tribal

We also have an Ibanez S520 (ohh so hottt!)

as well as a couple of Les Pauls

a Jackson Dinky

as well as many others

The Marauder

Greetings Mech Fans.

After sometime away, Ol' Vettie is back at the keyboard bringing you some more fun and Mech Reviews as well as other things that I find out about the world of Mercs and MekTek and an occasional rant about something that grinds my gears.

I started to write about all the things that have been going on to keep me away from the keyboard, but who cares, right? Short version is that my internet connection would not allow me connection to my own blog site long enough to update or add new articles. Some of that has cleared up so I will try to give a new review for folks to (hopefully) enjoy.

During my time away I had a request to write about the Marauder. Seems like a good topic so I will do my best to give an objective review of the battlemech. I must say right up front that the Marauder is one of my favourites but I will still try to be objective about it. So here we go...



The Marauder is a Heavy Class Inner Sphere battlemech. It was developed near the end of the First Star League and became a favourite of many Inner Sphere Houses and Pilots. It is easy to see why. This 75 Ton warhorse is very tough. It has a long cylindrical body allowing the mech sustained life on the battle field. Hitting the mech from straight on gives you basically a small target yielding little damage. From the side view, the torso does not really have any flat surfaces, again the cylindrical shape comes in to play. A direct shot may not apply as much damage as a pilot would think simply because of this shape. Ballistics tend to hit and go up or down following th shape of the torso instead of directly into the torso. Same for laser burns. A laser hit generally will not sustain a clean burn, especially if the Marauder is in motion. If it is not moving, well the pilot should be shot.

The Marauder is basically a energy weapons platform with the exception of the dorsal gun. The Dorsal Gun is a “special” slot as far as armour is concerned. A pilot may not add or remove armour from this slot when configuring his mech for battle. Personally, I am a little leery of putting a “big” gun in there because of several reasons. I have no control of the amount of armour protecting my choice of weapon(s). It also attracts a lot of attention from enemy pilots, and I am not very good at keeping things undercover, or maybe protected is a better choice here, when I am under attack, even more so at close range. In other words, I tend to loose the dorsal gun cause I cant hide it from the bad guys. Lastly, because of mechs like the Behemoth (both versions) and the Marauder II, dorsal guns have become a favourite target for mechwarriors. Take out the “big” gun and “lots” of firepower is gone.



This dorsal slot is a “4” slot ballistic only slot meaning you can put pretty much any ballistic weapon in there except a rail gun. A Standard Gauss Rifle or Heavy Gauss Rifle seem to be favourite choices, but many of the Hyper Velocity Auto Cannons are now starting to show up in this slot. The other slots on this battlemech are two “2” slot energy only slots, one in the upper left torso and one in the “beam” rack roughly located in the “chin” area. Each arm also house a “4” slot energy only weapon slot. This would also anything from a small laser (1 slot weapon) to a PPC with Capacitor (4 slot weapon).

Stripped of all armour, engine upgrades, heat sinks and electronics show us that the Marauder has internal armour of 18.4 tons. Speeds range from 65kph to 95kph. To get a decent engine speed from the base 65kph lets say to 75kph will cost you 3 tons. This now leaves you with 53.6 tons to fill your mech with armour, electronics and weaponry. If you max out the armour with Ferro Fibrous (standard (for now)) it takes 13.6 tons. Leaving you with 40 tons for electronics and weapons.



Forty Tons will buy some fire power. I always suggest that a pilot take electronics if offered. LAMs and ECM are two of my preferred choices, but NEITHER are offered for the Marauder. Only BAP. This one is a choice I leave strictly to you. It depends on what you want to do with your mech, the mission at hand, the radar ability on map and your role as a pilot. BAP will attract some missiles (if the enemy has any and if the terrain is suitable), but it will also give some 1200 meters of “electronic” vision. It also lets you be seen from that distance if the enemy is running BAP. Again, I say pilots choice and mission dependent.

Heat Sinks. Well there are many different thoughts on heat sinks and simply put, some pilots are better heat managers than others are. I need them. I always count on using them depending on the weapons I choose to use and I count them as part of the tonnage cost of using that weapon even though different mechs have different heat capacity ratings. This where time spent in the cockpit lets you learn the mech. An example for me is the Sunder vs a Thor. The Sunder runs very cool using nothing but energy weapons but for me a Thor runs VERY hot and requires more heat sinks to keep it cool. Maps or battlefields also play a big part in heat efficiency, some are cold and some are hot. Load sinks accordingly and load them to how well you can manage heat. I use a 100% efficient map to do my base judgments (such as the coliseum). From there I know whether to add or take away based on the map to be played.

Well there used to be lots different thinking on armour. Different chassis perform (last longer) using specialty armour, at least in my opinion. The Marauder, with its shape, speed and profile does not really require any spec armour. It is a pretty tough mech on its own.

We have not talked much about weaponry for the Marauder. Again it depends on your mission and the map. Some typical load outs are 2 PPCs and a Gauss Rifle or Heavy Gauss Rifle, or exchange standard PPCs for PPCs with Capacitors (CPPCs for short). These are pretty hard hitting configurations and they cover a lot of ground. This best also makes for a nasty brawler using Large Lasers or LOTS of medium lasers and an LBX 20 0r 10, a Heavy Gauss or a Hyper Velocity 20 Auto-Cannon. There might have even been a “BBQ” config that had a flamer or two or six on it with a LBX 20.

Well I have gone over some of the basics and the standard stuff but how does this mech perform? In simple words, great. This thing is relatively fast for its size and pretty powerful. It actually handles better going backwards (good reverse speed too) so you can jam that nose into something then back out firing all the time. The dorsal gun is a bit fragile (but that's because it is a natural target) but the rest of the mech can take some punishment. The rear of the mech is probably the weak point so (in pilots words) cover your ass.

The Marauder climbs extremely well. It goes up and down mountains as easily as any mech without jump jets. Also, the Dorsal gun is set up high with a natural (gradual) downward pointing slope to it (maybe it is level but the shape of the mech gives it an optical illusion of a downward slope). I have already mentioned that this gun is a natural target, but being set up so high, it allows a pilot the ability to fire at an enemy from behind a ridge or hill or slope and never give the enemy a target other than the dorsal gun itself. Useful at times.

I guess it is about time to give you my rating and then my personal view of the Marauder. Ol' Vettie rates this thing a solid 4 minutes. Its tough and easy to pilot. The “Big” gun (Dorsal) seems to get blown off quickly leaving (most) with only arm weaponry. These go quickly too (or seemingly so after the dorsal gun) but are there long enough to inflict some heavy damage on the enemy. When on the battlefield it often becomes the number target because it is a dangerous machine.

On a personal note, I really like the Marauder and I was very happy when MekTek were able to include this mech (as well as some others) in their work and free downloads. Once known as one of the unseens, this mech gets seen quite a lot, especially on weight restricted maps. Its tough and can hold its own against larger more powerful assaults. When The Blood Pearls were active in NBT (Mercs, not HC), the Marauder was one of our mainstay mechs and they saw a lot of time on the battlefields.

Robotic resurrection

QUOTE “Robotic resurrection

FREEWARE MECHWARRIOR 4: MERCENARIES IS NOW FREE

Microsoft has finally caved, permitting the free release if its 100-ton robot-bashing sim, MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries.

Its a copious package. A game of massive (if now slightly low-res) battlebots going metal to metal across varied and large arenas, but also an interesting sim with a few surprising additions.

You're in charge of a squad of mechs-a mercenary team that'll cause you to fret over their configuration, condition and costs. Things you probably didn't envision looking after when you first clapped eyes on these metal buggers. But if Mercenaries is as much about management as mechanical mashing, it's a worry tempered by the choice you have over what missions to fight, when and where. If you need to buy a more powerful add-on, you can choose to take time-limited military missions that'll throw staggering amounts of ammo at you. You can coast easily through the standard battles, but that's just treading water. Or oil, possibly.

In battle, you'll have to ponder the systems of your mech, worrying about overheating your vast lasers while fighting off a valley stuffed with enemies, routing coolant and dodging missiles. And all the time, you've got a squad to order around on the battlefield. It's a multilayered, complex and exciting robot stomper. Grab it now.

Size 1.2GB Link bit.ly/aeje4s “

QUOTE “It's like WWF wrestling, but with more lasers”

All of the above was taken from the September edition of PC Gamer magazine, page 89. I received my copy earlier this month. I hope you have yours.

While I am sure MekTek is thankful for the advertisement and the link to their web site (but the link is cryptic and does not say “www.mektek.net”), they are not mentioned in the article or even in the link (even though the link points to their web site). MekTek have put in untold numbers of man-hours on MW4 Mercs, maybe even more than the original team did. Maybe. They (MekTek) have given us MANY new battlemechs to choose from and more weapons than you could possibly use. Because of their work, others (including some of the MekTek folks) have also added many maps and even modified the single player game to be able to be played in multi-player mode (less the Solaris battles).

Now it is just my opinion, but it seems to me that the person that penned that article, just took an obligatory look at the download, played a mission or three and said 'yep, thats nice.' I am almost positive that the author NEVER went to multi-player mode and got online with some of the real players of the game. Even though I always enjoy running back through the single player game, it pales in comparison to going online.

What bothers me the most about the article is not so much that it is obvious to any MechWarrior fan that the author did not bother to go online, or even go in depth about the game and the additions MekTek made, but this simple statement, quote “It's like WWF Wrestling, but with more lasers”. What?

WHAT? MW4 Mercs is in no way like WWF Wrestling ( a male oriented soap opera featuring steroid laden goons faking their way through matches while afterwards having dinner and beers together). Mercs online is more like game of hide and seek and kill or be killed, quickly. Mercs can get VERY intense and leave your palms sweating, while you sit on the edge of your seat seeking that next enemy that you have very little idea of where they are and what shape they are in and what weapons they have left while you watch your temp gauge slowly descend back to normal operating temperatures and look over your radar to hopefully catch a glimpse of a red dot before you are the red dot.

Its pretty doubtful that any of you have ever stepped into the squared circle of the WWF to face off against John Cena or The Undertaker or whoever is the next greatest wrestler currently. But it very likely that if you are reading this, you have picked your favourite battlemech and loaded it to the hilt with your most useful weapons and electronics and the launched yourself into some world where the buildings are huge and landscape is vast. You and your team mates are on a mission to seek and destroy the enemy to keep them from meeting their mission objectives, which are most likely the same as yours, destroy all the other team in 30 minutes or less.

I would even say that if you are reading this, it is highly possible you played in a league match at sometime during your playing days. If you have, you know the intensity level. Two to twelve team mates are “dropped” onto some terrain that maybe be covered in snow or trees or buildings or lava or any combination. You all run passive except for your scout mech or your drop commander and you follow along closely so as not to be separated from your team and become an easy target for the enemy. Slowly you make you way around the map searching for those bad guys and a good place that is advantageous to your team to stake the battle. If you are good, or just lucky, you physically spot them before they spot you. Over teamspeak or ventrillo you discuss which mech to hit first and what the chain of command is should your DC get whacked, all the while maneuvering into attack formation. When the command is given, you either open fire or charge the enemy force at full speed hoping to take them by surprise and to come out alive. The weapons start blazing and mechs begin to explode. Parts are blown off and mechs explode shutting down other mechs close by making it tougher to determine who is on top of the scoreboard. After only two to three minutes, the dust settles and the ballistics are smoking while the lasers begin to cool down, a lone voice over comms says “good job gentlemen, we kicked their asses”. Now thats intensity.

So, yes, I am glad to see the freeware post in a world wide magazine publication, but I would have liked to see MekTek get some of the credit they deserve for so much work to such a great game and I would have liked to see the person who wrote the article actually “play the game”.