| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| HTA ID | HTA-0659 |
| Title | Beyond 2000 — Battletech Center |
| Date | 1992 |
| Era | Beyond 2000 / Discovery Channel |
| Station | Discovery Channel |
| Program | Beyond 2000 |
| Role | Host / Narrator |
| Segment Type | Technology Feature |
| Duration | ~5:00 (estimated) |
| Source File | Discovery Channel Beyond 2000 Battletech Center 1992.txt |
| Record Version | V1 (Transcript Only) |
Henry hosts a Beyond 2000 segment on the Battletech Center, a pioneering virtual reality gaming experience. The segment profiles 30-year-old Jordan Weissman, a Maritime College dropout who created an immersive mech combat simulation. The piece explores the intersection of gaming, virtual reality, and entertainment technology in the early 1990s.
00:01 Music 00:08 Hi ho, hi ho, off to his work he goes. 00:12 He is 30 year old Jordan Weissman, Maritime College dropout, now Rich Whiskit who's landed on his feet. 00:21 Personally, I'm both outraged and envious. 00:24 His work, as he jokingly calls it, is really just playing games. 00:28 Okay, he may be looking at a turnover greater than a million dollars, 00:32 and they may be the world's first computer interactive entertainment sport-type games, 00:36 but games nevertheless. 00:38 And if you think all that interactive stuff is just a load of old jargon, 00:42 stick around. 00:43 You're about to enter the virtual reality world of Battletech. 00:49 Man has fulfilled his dream and colonized the stars. 00:54 Yet the expanse of the universe has given him only more opportunity for conquest and betrayal, for treachery and defeat. 01:02 The wealth and promise of a unified Star League has been shattered. 01:07 War between worlds rages on, and the ideals of both technology and brotherhood have been forever changed. 01:15 The year is 3029. 01:20 It's an eerie world that exists in the minds of its creators, a growing league of players, 01:26 and in 5,000 square feet of a Chicago pier turned tourist and shopping complex. 01:33 Welcome to the Solaris News Service Update. I'm Aliyah DuVayne. 01:38 In this edition, we'll be covering the escalating hostilities. 01:41 And to ease you into this world, there's a combat information center, 01:45 where you can catch up on the news from the front. 01:48 As well, there's this area. 01:50 While not quite knitting in front of the guillotine, it's close. 01:56 The multi-screen display allows the non-paying public to observe the games in progress, 02:01 to see and hear the battles, get into it enough to hand over between $6 and $8 for 10 minutes 02:08 of their own on the battlefield. 02:10 But before you head out... 02:12 Don't be cocky. 02:13 Your battle, Max, is a sophisticated machine. 02:18 Eventually, you'll be able to pilot it with the best in the universe. 02:22 But until then, listen to what I'm going to tell you. 02:25 I think I've got the gist of it. 02:27 This is team against team, 02:29 fighting it out over a hundred square miles of computer-generated terrain 02:34 that's randomly generated for each game. 02:36 Now, this is different from a more conventional arcade game, 02:40 in that this is not player against machine. 02:43 In that case, you eventually learn how it's been programmed, 02:45 and it becomes easy. 02:46 This is player against player, team against team, using the machines only to create and respond in real time to the fictional world that's going on in there. 02:57 Now, my opponents are ready, and so as they say around here, no guts, no galaxy. 03:03 Strategy when battles, not law firepower. Good luck and good hunting. 03:12 Steer with your feet, not with the joystick. 03:16 The idea is to manoeuvre these awesome fighting machines called battle mechs 03:20 to find and destroy those of the opposing team without getting blown away yourself. 03:25 As well as the screen with the action, there's the lower one 03:28 that gives you radar information and system reports on your mech. 03:33 You choose where to hunt in this computer-generated world 03:36 that was originally painted frame by frame by animators, 03:39 then sculptured with a 3D software package. 03:43 But there's a lot to learn. 03:52 There are over 100 controls inside your Battletech cockpit. 03:55 Starting on the left here, we have large lasers, which I've just armed onto the green button, 03:59 which means I've built this one to fire. 04:03 We need lasers on the red, 04:07 and so on on the long-range missiles on the blue. 04:11 We've located the enemy. It looks pretty much closer at this point, 04:14 So I'm switched from this long range screen to a short range radar. 04:18 And start putting fire in. 04:22 It's quite a challenge, so no wonder I'm losing badly. 04:26 The opposition team just happens to include Jordan and his partner Ross, 04:31 the guys who spent 10 years developing this. 04:34 We wanted to take entertainment fully interactive 04:37 so that you told the story by your actions. 04:40 You actually became the hero of the movie as opposed to a passive observer. 04:45 Every game is different because each opponent uses a different strategy. 04:50 This violent video is a marriage between basic hand, eye and foot coordination and the strategy 04:56 of chess. 04:57 But I can make it more difficult quite easily by plunging this fantasy world into night 05:04 and by lowering the wind speed and creating a fog. 05:12 Now we'll see how he gets on. 05:15 The infinite permutations achievable for each game, 05:19 along with the sensory bombardment for the player, 05:21 is creating a cult following of devotees willing to hand over their money. 05:26 The merchandising is also full on. 05:28 As well as board games and T-shirts, 05:31 over one million words of fiction are contained in the books 05:34 that keep alive the fantasy for the players. 05:39 For those who definitely don't want to leave reality behind, 05:42 And this fictional world has been created with four ordinary computers with a total of 32 megabytes of RAM. 05:49 Two of them are used for vision. 05:51 42,000 different colors are possible at any one time. 05:55 The other two are for sound effects, digitally sampled, and then computer generated. 06:00 Now, each capsule is linked to every other via a local area network. 06:05 Ask most people and they'll tell you that the Force Succession War began at Comstar's first circuit compound, Ontario. 06:14 A lot of people watching this though might be thinking that it looks like great fun, but why does it have to be so violent? 06:20 Well, in the long run, I don't think it needs to be. 06:23 The violence here, I think, is, first off, it's purely machine against machine. 06:27 We don't ever have any violence happen to an individual. 06:30 And when a person's vehicle is destroyed, their cockpit ejects out. 06:35 The pilot is always safe. 06:36 So we sort of remove the human element from it, so you're just blowing up expensive hardware. 06:41 With franchises being developed at three quarters of a million dollars each, 06:46 this new video sport is expected to spread wherever science fiction buffs have the money 06:52 and the inclination to become part of this fantasy. 07:00 Okay, so now the big question, where do you sign up for your very own Battletech system? 07:05 The answer? You can't. 07:07 Fortunately for parents across America, Battletech has not been adapted for home computers yet. 07:13 But you'll be happy to hear that the newest version of the system offers a redesigned cockpit with better controls, 07:19 four times the resolution, and a swivel chair. 07:22 And you're welcome to try out the new version the next time you happen to be in Yokohama or Tokyo.