Battletech Movie?

[warzog]

No matter what, this movie will suck. The director is really bad, and no computer game has ever been made into a good movie (i.e. Wing Commander, Wing Commander, Wing Commander)

I beg to differ...
The 2 Resident Evil movies were good, the 2nd is my favorite of the 2.
The 1st Tomb Raider movie wasn't too bad.
The Dungeons & Dragons movie was alright, except for the Elves, which seemed a bit wierd, to me.
And while the Wing Commander movie suffered from the infamous "Start From the Begining" that ruins many movies, and from the strange Pilgrims it introduced, it's still a fun little movie to watch.
(You just have to suspend your knowledge of the games while watching it.)

There's no reason to insult perfectly wonderful franchises like Macross.

While I am no war-monger, by any stretch of the term, using bad singing as a weapon of mass destruction makes the events of Wing Commander actually seem feasible.
The one thing that's always bugged me about Macross is that if their singing is so potent, why aren't the singers destroyed, thereby saving the listeners from having to suffer through the entire song?
(Betcha can't tell I'm not a Macross fan, unlike a friend of mine who's got EVERY friggin' movie.)

 

[Arthromitor]

This doesn't really have to do with the movie idea (which if done right would be cool)
If you like(d) playing classic Battletech then you might want to check out Megamek.net, there you can download a java based CBT computer game. just thought I'd let anyone that doesn't know about it know.

 

[Death]

No matter what, this movie will suck. The director is really bad, and no computer game has ever been made into a good movie (i.e. Wing Comamnder, Wing Commander, Wing Commander)

You know, it'd be nice if people would stop throwing WCM complaints/slams into threads that have abso-fucking-lutely nothing whatsoever to do with WCM.

Maybe it's time to bring out some Tae Kwan Leap admin-fu and deliver some boots to the head...

 

[dextorboot]

One of the other things I heard thrown around for a while was that they'd do a CGI Roughnecks style direct to DVD show.

Out of curiosity, would people be more receptive to a MechWarrior or Battletech branded movie? I don't care one way or the other, but I think the MechWarrior name is more recognizable to the current generation of gamers what with the Microsoft games and all.

 

[LeHah]

I think the question is if theres enough fans to support a MW/BT series or movie.

 

[CosmoFalcon]

From what I read at one of the Mechwarrior Darkage websites that "Mechwarrior Darkage the movie" I believe is going to be a direct to dvd release sometime next year. Also, from what I've read, it seems that the direct to dvd movie is going to be like the crap movie Robojox.
I've spent many hundreds of dollars buying and building my Battlemech pewter miniatures, source books, tech manuals and novels since 1991. I've also bought many hundreds of dollars of Mechwarrior Darkage stuff. That money that I've spent on Mechwarrior crapdark Age would've been better spent on buying more Battlemechs for use in Classic Battletech. The game mechanics in Mechwarrior crapage sucks like a rotten mixture of milk and orange juice. The game mechanics in Classic Battletech is far more superior than the Battletech wannabe trash known as Mechwarrior darkage.
Well that's my prespective and if I've offended any Mechwarrior Dorkage fans just keep in mind that I've been playing the real board game Classic Battletech since 1991.
To each their own perspectives. I'm intitled to my perspective and beliefs as well as you are intitled to yours.

 

[Bandit LOAF]

It's weird to me that people can actually find room to be holier-than-thou in the tiny toy robot fighting community.

Which one is the one with the little plastic pre-made ones that you bought like packs of cards? I played that at Dragon*Con a few years back and it seemed sort of fun.

 

[Bob McDob]

That's Mechwarrior Darkage, which is apparently universally loathed by fans of Classic Battletech and treated indifferently by everyone else. I have some units from that game that I'll probably never use - I can send it to you for Dragon*Con or something.

Anyway, as much as I'd like to see a high-budget production of the Warrior or Blood of Kerensky trilogies, I doubt it'll be happening anytime soon. A Darkage movie would probably be a safer bet financially speaking - I liked Stackpole's Ghost War and it could probably be turned into a pretty good film.

 

[LeHah]

Considering I've spent 23 years with science fiction and fantasy - I've never come across a "Classic Battletech Fan" or whatever witty title they have for themselves. I don't think they exist - people just say that they're one of them so they sound all high and mighty.

23 years - and I see more fans of Ron Pearlman dressed as a lion than I do of a "classic" mech series.

 

[junior]

Macross provided the: Rifleman, Stinger, Wasp, Phoenix Hawk, Crusader, Warhammer, Blackjack, and Archer.
Macross also provided the original Behemoth, which was only seen in the BattleDroids set.
(It had 4 huge barrels on top of the mech.)

There's also the Longbow(?) that turned up in a later TRO book, and that was based on the Spartan (I think that's the name of the destroid with the massive missile pod arms), the Marauder and Marauder II (both based on Glaug/ Officer's Battle Pod), and numerous mechs that bore a resemblence to Regault Battle Pods.

As far as the robot games go, I'd rather be playing something like Mekton or Jovian Chronicles. Shogo is more my style than Mechwarrior, and I'd prefer that giant robots actually behave in a fashion reminiscent of what their shape looks like. Otherwise, there's no reason not to use tanks instead. If you're going to tweak reality to make mecha more viable than tanks (which the creators of Battletech admitted to doing), then you might as well go all the way.

And since the Grasshopper was mentioned - I was a Grasshopper fan. But the Atlas was the official "munchkin" battlemech, which makes it not that surprising that it was the one that became popular with fans. The Grasshopper was more of a niche unit, didn't mount a grinning skull for a head, and was made completely obsolete when the rules were updated for double heat sinks. The game went from a Grasshopper that could fire everything without generating much heat versus something like the Rifleman that could barely afford to fire one or two weapons, to everything being able to fire a decent sized volley without shutting down.

 

[CosmoFalcon]

Classic Battletech versus Mechwarrior Darkage

Bandit LOAF, I can assure you that I'm not high and mighty. If anything the plastic figures for Mechwarrior darkage does have its merits for just buying and having something to look at (collecting for the fun of it).
My friends and I are currently considering how to put in many of the Classic Battletech rules (in-house rules) that will make the Mechwarrior Darkage a fun quick game when we don't have alot of time to play the Classic Battletech game.
However the Mechwarrior Darkage is not a hot selling item that Whizkidsgames claims to be. Last year I went to the comic-con in San Diego and I asked some hard hitting questions about the Mechwarrior Darkage game. It seems to be very popular with the Hero-clix and Mage-Knight crowd who've never seemed to have heard of Classic Battletech.
Many of the stores here in the central valley (California) are discontinueing sales of the Mechwarrior Darkage product because they're not making any money on it (collecting dust on the store shelves). From what I understand, the Mechwarrior Darkage isn't a hot selling item on the west coast. However, I wouldn't be suprised if the Mechwarior Darkage plastic mech game is popular in the east coast of the U.S.
Does this read er...sound alot better than the rant that I've posted last night?

 

[Fatcat]

Considering I've spent 23 years with science fiction and fantasy - I've never come across a "Classic Battletech Fan" or whatever witty title they have for themselves. I don't think they exist - people just say that they're one of them so they sound all high and mighty.

I happen to be a 'CBT Fan', and suprisingly a huge MWDA player. As much as it is different from CBT, it is a fun game, and other CBT players are very hard to come by.

I liked Stackpole's Ghost War and it could probably be turned into a pretty good film.

Wow. I read it, and it is easily the worst Mechwarrior/Battletech book i've ever read. Most of the book involves Mason Dunne going into lengthy descriptions of the liquor he's drinking and then getting beaten up by thugs (twice) and waking up in a dumpster. The battle at the end was also extremely confusing.

 

[Bob McDob]

Wow. I read it, and it is easily the worst Mechwarrior/Battletech book i've ever read.

I find that difficult to believe, considering the extraordinarly dull, repetitive, and predictable playout of the Federated Commonwealth Civil War. Or those awful "Mechwarrior" books that dumbed themselves down to appeal to new readers, or the dull prose and constant and unconvincing moralizing of Gressman's Twilight of the Clans books, and ... well, there are plenty of awful one-off novels to choose from (Far Country, which I enjoyed reading at the time but whose memory sours with age, comes to mind).

And that's a pretty poor caricature of Ghost War. It's not the greatest BT/MW novel I've ever read, but it described and fleshed out the world that Dunne inhabits with a lot greater clarity than some of the later, obviously churned-out classic BT novels which rushed through the political machinations and story arc like a history book instead of a novel. Ghost War also has the dual advantages of being fairly low-budget to film and, because it was meant as the start of a new series, simple to introduce.

I'm not saying that I think Ghost War should be the subject any new BT/MW movie (there are plenty of more compelling stories, like Wolf's Dragoon), but they could do a lot worse.

 

[Horus]

I think that a Battletech movie would be just awsome. I don't care what it was about, it would just be great. I still have all the original episode that I taped when it was on a channel over here called TCT or TCC or something like that. The channel doesn't exist anymore, but it was great. Come to think about it, I should probabily put those episodes onto DVD before the videos degrade. I hate to think how old there are now. :/

 

[Bob McDob]

Thankfully, Somerset Strikers have been WCA-ed and up for download. Do a bit of googling, you'll find them online.

 

[Bandit LOAF]

Bandit LOAF, I can assure you that I'm not high and mighty. If anything the plastic figures for Mechwarrior darkage does have its merits for just buying and having something to look at (collecting for the fun of it).

Yeah, it's just such a bizarre reaction for a community to have to something -- HOW DARE YOU BASTARDS MAKE TINY PLASTIC TOYS OF SOMETHING I LOVE?!

If Electronic Arts woke up tomorrow and made little plastic Wing Commander ships I'd be pretty happy, no matter how they're treating the rest of the franchise.

(I bought a few of them at D*C and occasionally play with my sister... it seems to be a pretty simple/fun game that you can do anywhere. I bet you could make a pretty funtastic wargame out of just the cheap troops and tanks, leaving the mechs out alltogether.)

 

[MamiyaOtaru]

and I'd prefer that giant robots actually behave in a fashion reminiscent of what their shape looks like. Otherwise, there's no reason not to use tanks instead.

I never really bought the idea that a giant robot would be more efficient than a tank until I watched Gasaraki. The first few episodes do a great job at presenting situations where a bipedal mech could excel (if it was possible to build one)
_______________
Whatever it is, it happens in two days.

 

[Horus]

I remember when I was 11 or 12, and we went to Florida for a holiday. We went to a Toys r' us, and I found loads of BattleTech toys which were really big. I got an Axe Man and my Brother got a Thor, and there were so cool. There were really moveable and could shoot missiles and everything. They were great. I'd never seen anything like these in the UK, and still haven't.

 

[Edfilho]

BT back story is almost as extensive and convoluted as Dragonlance, but at least most of it makes some sense. The DarkAge historical developments seem pretty disapointing, though - Taking most of the mechs out of a mech game is weird. I woudn't like a spacefighter-less WCU.

But the toys look good.

BTW, MW3 was made by Microprose, not Microsoft. Huge difference

I have no access to BT books, though, being in brazil. But got most of the MW games, from MW 1 to 4 including the MW2 extras and both MechCommander games. Unfortunatelly I couldn't find the expansions for MW3 and 4, only MW4: Mercenaries.

 

[Maj.Striker]

(He recently sold Wizkids to TOPPS, so that should be that, for now.)
I'm not clear on who has the rights to Classic BattleTech, right now, but I seem to recall reading about an affiliation with a German company.
Ral Partha, who made the miniatures for classic BattleTech, and was eventually owned by Fasa, has been replaced by a company called something "Ironworks."

I'm pretty sure wizkids is owned by mega toy manufacturing company, Hasbro. (also owns Avalon Hill and a host of other companies).