The "Wayback Machine"

Any of you ever watch Bullwinkle? On that show, there was a segment, and I cant remember the name, but it featured Mr. Peabody and Sherman. I think it was Mr. Peabody’s Improbable History, like I said, I cant remember for sure. Anyway, on this part of the show, Mr. Peabody, a brainiac little beagle that stood upright and was basically a genius, and a little kid named Sherman would go on fantastical adventures in history. They used this thing called a ‘way-back’ machine to teleport them back through time.

I ask each of you to step with me now into the ‘way-back’ machine. I am setting the controls to the year 1995. Hold on ‘cause here we go… *machine noises start as the world starts spinning backwards all around us real fast.

I hate time travel, gives me a queasy feeling for a little bit and I get a little dis-oriented. That all blows over pretty quickly. So… here we are in 1995. Interesting year, 1995. Some of the top movies were Die Hard with A Vengeance, Toy Story, Apollo 13, Braveheart, The American President, The Bridges of Madison County, and Get Shorty. Some of the top selling albums were Smokin by a kid named Jonny Lang, Jagged little Pill by an angry little lady from Canada named Alanis Morissette, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness by The Smashing Pumpkins and P-U-L-S-E by a band called Pink Floyd. The radio was filled with songs like 1979, All over You by a group called Live and Cant Stop Lovin You by a group called Van Hagar, I mean Van Halen. Led Zeppelin, The Allman Brothers and Frank Zappa all get inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of fame but we see Rory Gallagher, Jerry Garcia, Burl Ives and Dean Martin all pass away. Dire Straights and The Grateful Dead disband.

Oh yeah, I forgot 2 more things that are very important. There was this small company based in Redmond Washington, what was the name, oh yeah, Microsoft that released a new software package (at least new looking to non Apple users) called Windows 95.

The other thing? Another small company, Activision, released a game called MechWarrior 2: 31^st Century Combat.

I was working for an electronic contract manufacturing company in Huntsville, Alabama. We had contracts to build every HP, Dell, Pavilion (HP) and NCR computer or server. We had been building these things for these companies for sometime (years). Our factory ran 7 days a week, pumping out the computers. I was a material manager for this company and was lucky enough to have a purchasing department as well as shipping, receiving and program planning all working for me. I was part of several high level meetings to talk about ‘product road maps’ and how my company could support the growing needs and industry changes. We were industry innovators we just didn’t know it at the time.

None of us knew in those days what the future would bring, we had no clue that the ‘consumer’ versions of the HPs (called Pavilions) and Dells would be obsolete less than 1 year after we shoved them out the back door. None of us ever thought that a 1gig hard drive would ever be filled. Man, can any of you imagine using a 1 gig drive today?

As I mentioned, I was involved with several ‘high’ level meetings especially ones about new products being introduced and a production ramp to cover the forecasted consumer needs. In 1994, I was asked to represent my company at a meeting in Palo Alto, California. The code name of the meeting was ‘Chicago’ and we had to sign some non –disclosure agreements before they would let us attend. When I get there, I go to the conference room where I am checked for recording devices. Once the meeting got underway, the highest ranking HP officer got up before the room and started narrating a slide show on the big wall about where HP was headed in the next year. Then a guy named Steve Ballmer from Microsoft got up to speak to the room about a new and exciting product that they (Microsoft) were working on. Some fancy new software package that was going to revolutionize computers and make every body want to own one. The package at that time was called Chicago but later became known as Windows 95.

In July of 1995, we had built over 40,000 of these machines and were just waiting on the OS to be delivered. On August 24, 1995, the sale of Windows 95 began. The 1^st 40,000 machines we built and delivered were followed by another 50,000 orders from something called a kiosk. Off to the races we went.

After a successful launch and support of the new HP Pavilions, HP decided to visit us and hand out some ‘goodies’. I was fortunate enough to receive a HP Pavilion Computer. I got serial number xxxxxx0000094 from right off our production line. It was a DX66 machine with a 840mg Hard Drive, a 15” monitor, 8mgs of ram and a 4mg ATI all in wonder video card and a 2xCD Drive.

Last year, after several upgrades, the power supply in that machine died. I have not replaced it, but when it breathed its last breath, it was a DX100 machine with 128mgs of ram and a DVD burner with 2, 20 gig hard drives and a 3DFx VooDoo 3 16mg PCI vid card and a Sound Blaster 16 sound card (ISA interface). That thing worked for 11 years and would possibly work some more if I replace the power supply. The last OS installed on it was Win98 SE.

While building lots of these Pavilions for folks and even shipping some directly to their homes, I was deeply involved in every ‘new’ version that was introduced and any new hardware or software.

In July of 1995, I was out shopping at Best Buy and I ran across these game called MechWarrior2: 31^st Century Combast. The cover of the game had a Timberwolf (Mad Cat) on it but I didnt know what it was at the time. All I knew was that it looked pretty cool and was fairly inexpensive. I read the requirements and the machine I had at home (prior to the Pavilion mentioned above) would play it. It was a DOS version of the game. I bought it. That was on a Sunday.

Sunday’s afternoons and nights and Wednesday nights were reserved for board gaming with some of my buds. We played ASL (Advanced Squad Leader) every week and I had to go to the war room (a garage type building I had added to my home specifically for game) and crank up the AC and study the game board. We were in the middle of a campaign where the Germans were attacking a munitions factory in Stalingrad in October of 1942. I was in control of ½ of the Russian forces while my team mate had the other half. I had called him earlier and asked him to show up earlier than normal if possible so we could go over a possible counter attack I had in mind.

The nights gaming went well for us and the following Wednesday night did as well. With work and board gaming going on as well as the kids playing softball, I had forgotten that I bought that computer game until one afternoon at work.

One of my board gaming buddies was a manager of the integration lab. He wrote software for a living and bossed around a few design engineers. I was at my desk after a conference call with HP when Ron called me. “Come to the lab, I have something to show you.” That was all he said and hung up before I could even answer.

I never had much professional interface with Ron’s group and I had never been in his ‘lab’ because I never had reason to go there. When I walked in, after entering the passcode on the finger lock to the lab area, I was truly freaking. Here were some 6 engineering techs seated at their work benches playing a networked game against each other. That game was MechWarrior 2. HP was going to install this game as part of the software package on some up coming promotional machines for the coming Christmas season.

WOW! Here were these big robotic machines being piloted by guys I knew shooting each other on the latest cutting edge technology, using stuff we couldn’t even buy yet!!! Ron said, “Grab a seat and shoot awhile, Its Great!” and it was. We blew up stuff for about an hour before I needed to get back to my group. Just before leaving I asked him what the name of the game was and he told me, MechWarrior 2.

On the way home that evening it came to me that I already had that game, I just had not installed it yet. My little pc with Windows for 3.1 for Work Groups was just about to get a work out.

The 1^st thing that grabbed me about the game was the intro video. Here is a link, but be warned this is for DIVX and you must have drivers/codec/software or you will be asked to install it. Nothing harmful in there, but I just wanted you guys to have a heads up. Anyway, the link http://www.lokety.com/mw2_videos.html . This video was super cool. I have watched that vid probably a hundred times and I still love it.

OF course MW2 had ground breaking graphics and game play but it was nothing compared to that video. I always wanted to see the game in that type of graphics. That n00b in the Mad Cat (Bravo 3) getting picked on by a Summoner (Thor) when the other Timber Wolf comes to help him. The OTHER Thor blows him away, then blows away the rescuer in the other Mad Cat. WOW, that was great stuff. I couldn’t wait to get this game installed and running.

Well, I installed the game and went from there. I played every mission on that game for both sides. I played instant action and the trials. In fact, I played every mission with a Nova, a Ryoken and a Mad Dog trying to beat them all using that. It was great. OF course, later I bought the Windows Edition and of course the add-ons, Ghost Bear Legacy and MW2 Mercs! Ron and I often played online via modems (I had a 14.4!!! and later swapped it out for a 28.8, w00t!) What a hoot.

Ghost Bear’s Legacy had a great intro as well. http://youtube.com/watch?v=EjUtOP1ZMuI

That Kodiak jumping up from under the ice and attacking the Mad Dog. Awesome!

And of course, MW2 Mercs http://youtube.com/watch?v=at9hxU864Fg&mode=related&search=

“Look at the bright side Kid, YOU get to keep ALL the money.”

I personally think that the MW4 Vengeance intro movie is still possibly the best one of all,

http://youtube.com/watch?v=QxfKZZ4RNng , but those early ones were really cool and set me off on my way to battling Mechs for years.

Well, the ride is almost over on the ‘way-back’ machine. We’ll be coming back to current day in just a moment. It was fun going back and looking at where we were and what we were playing. We have come a long way in some ways and yet, some 12 years down the road and I am still working for a company that makes servers (different company and we build for Sun) and I still play Mech Warrior. Ron is still my friend and we still do board gaming, just not as often.

I still have the MW2 series of games and I have an older computer that I am considering stripping down and rebuilding and then installing Win98 on it just so I can play those old games again. Sure, compared to todays graphics they will be terrible, but it’s the game itself that was fun. There were good scenarios and interesting play in those games. I have some other older games that I will put on there as well, but the Mech stuff is the main reason.

I would love to hear your stories about your start in the Mech Warrior Universe.