Battletech Pod Archive Project

Here is the Battletech Center Pod Version 3 software! Look in the description of the archive for details on extrraction and notes. archive.org/details/vwe-re…

Able to emulated. First step, is making a server emulator to see if our theory’s work. We will document everything we know, and contact the MAME community to see if they can take over from there. We are also photographing all the boards in hi-res soon, depending on our sources!

various sources to obtain the boot ROMs and other essential information from known 3.0 Pod owners. AFAIK, all the chips are off-the-shelf, aside from the Amiga boot ROMs, which we are in the process of obtaining. The off-the-shelf chipsets are available in MAME, and should be->

Amazing news! After collaborating with someone in the reverse engineering community, we have figured out a way to potentially bypass the A/ROSE card entirely! Not only that, we have been able to identify almost all the chips on the various boards! We are now collaborating with->

PLEASE STAND BY…

as I understand it, @VirtualWorldLLC is looking into this route currently, so maybe something will come of it. Without an actual working A/ROSE card, schematics, or other source, emulation progress is essentially dead. Wish I were more optimistic, but it’s all we can do for now

every mech. The hard part, is emulating the hardware networking and control systems. Unless you have a pod near you, you basically have no way to network capture the ArcNet commands. You also wouldn’t be able to test hardware streaming compatiblity for the pod-side hardware->

While emulation would be great, I think the best solution as of now would be to take assets from the software archive I was able to recover and using videos and first hand knowledge, recreate the game in an engine like Unity or Godot. The ultimate goal would be a completely ->

ripping the models from the server software, as they are in ascii format, but it’s the server/client commands, boot code, and gameplay programming that’s hard

Obviously it would be difficult, but unless it’s absolutely impossible, I think the best course of action for pod preservation, would be complete server emulation. Unfortunately that would require packet captures for hardware that’s almost unobtainable. The easy part would be

Kinda working on reviving this project again. Progress has halted since my local source has gone AWOL. Current rights holders are decently far from me so I have to rely on them for stuff (which I’m very grateful for their cooperation)

@RealTFD @CircadianSkates Nice!!! I’m getting a real 3.0 manual soon from one of my contacts! 😁

@BatTechArchive @CircadianSkates Oh yeah I totes creeped your Twitter when you got tagged by @CircadianSkates lol, I had been browsing that site for a minute. I got a Battletech Firestorm manual from the Houston trip, and some Battletech pod patches.

Mornin', Twitter. Take a deep dive into Battle Bound's viewing past with this #Battletech #documentary about one of the hobby's most endearing, beloved, & ENDURING pieces of history: The Battle Pods of VIRTUAL WORLD. "Why did something so awesome go away?" youtube.com/watch?v=EOG4y9…

@RealTFD @CircadianSkates Unfortunately not. I’m really only on Twitter and archive dot org. You can find my pod archive here, with System software, manuals, and merch preserved: @battletech_pod_preservation_project" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">archive.org/details/@battl…

@BatTechArchive @CircadianSkates I am always happy to sit down and talk shop with other creators. 😁 Do you have a podcast link or a YouTube channel?

@RealTFD @CircadianSkates It’s great! I dig the editing and the interviews! I actually haven’t seen those promo videos before! I’ll have to find them and archive them! Not trying to sound too egotistical, but if you ever want an interview so I can get the word out to more people with emu exp, I’ll do it!

@BatTechArchive @CircadianSkates Interested in your thoughts when you get the chance. It's an oldie for me here on the show but it's a goodie.

@CircadianSkates @RealTFD Thanks for the tag! I’ll check it out!

@RealTFD @BatTechArchive in case you didn't catch this and there is something helpful to you in it. Fascinating piece @RealTFD - being in Australia at the time you heard of these 'pods' but that was about it!! The whole enterprise was much larger than I imagined!!!

@ArtofBattletech will really enjoy the posters!

Updated the archive with some more manuals and promo materials. Also included in this dump is some hi-resolution merch posters that were sold at the various BTC's click this link for access to the archive: @battletech_pod_preservation_project" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">archive.org/details/@battl…

Going to try to start this project up again. just need to get in contact with a few people for updates!

I think we all know where this is going. House Steiner sends their regards. Maybe they can use @VirtualWorldLLC Battletech pods for interface training