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On this date 20 years ago Activision released Mechwarrior 2: 31st Century Combat. It is heralded as one of the best Mech simulation games with an amazing soundtrack, a great simulation engine, impressive FMVs, and an audiovisual design that really made you feel as if you were piloting a big and clunky robot. To celebrate its 20 year anniversary and the impact it had at the time on the video game genre landscape, I collected various links and references to commemorate what a classic game it was.

If anyone wants to play it on their modern computer, go over to mech2.org and download MechVM - my preferred version of the game is still the DOS version, since it had less bugs than the 3Dfx version and also allowed for 1024x768 resolution

• The amazing intro for the game . It was actually made by the same studio who many years later the popular Gears of War commercial. The Clan Wolf intro and the Jade Falcon intro were also really impressive.
• The classic soundtrack composed by Jeehun Hwang. It came as a Redbook audio on the that you could pop into your CD player and start.
• The manual was small, but thick, and had all these scribbles, quotes, and backstory of the Battletech universe. It was great to skim through and a really high-quality PDF can be downloaded here.

Various resources on Mechwarrior 2 and its development history, background and cultural impact at the time

• Read up on its development history at Local Ditch. (essential reading)
• Read Eric Peterson’s (R.I.P.) detailed overview of the development saga of MW2: Part one. (also essential)
• Read Obsolete Gamer's take on the soundtrack
• Listen to Upper memory block’s retrospective here.
• NostalgiaNight's youtube video on Mechwarrior 2.

Interviews

• Background information by Eric Peterson, the father of the MW2 engine, who unfortunately passed away recently.
  
• if you want to get your 90's nostalgia on, here's IE Magazine's preview of the game from 1994
  
• Interview with Jeehun Hwang on SoundOnSound:

Jeehun admits this was something of a gamble, since at the time he didn't have any equipment to his name (he wound up selling his only possession, a car he'd bought with his first six months' earnings, to buy a new Korg X2 keyboard workstation so he could commence the task) and he'd also never composed for orchestra. "I had never even composed music that didn't have lyrics!" he says. "But I just did what I thought would work, all on the X2's internal sequencer. Mech Warrior 2 is set in the future and is basically about clans fighting each other with hi-tech robotic weapons. I was creating lots of tribal sounding music, but also flavoured with out-of-this-world futuristic sounds. After I'd written a few songs I took them in and there was this big meeting with everyone, including the head of the company, where first they played all the music the other guy had done and then they played my music. To my surprise I got a standing ovation!"
Knowing a good thing when they heard it, Activision set Jeehun up with a computer and a small budget for equipment. Using Opcode's Studio Vision sequencing software, the X2 and a new Roland JV1080 with the Orchestral and World expansion cards, he scored the entire game.

"I was literally learning as they were paying me," he remembers. "It was the very first time I'd used a computer sequencer: prior to that, I didn't even know they existed! They also wanted me to score the movies -- the intro and outro -- so I got an old VCR with timecode and pretty much scored everything in real time and then went back over them. It wasn't really the conventional way of doing things and it took a long time, but I worked very hard on it."

His score was unconventional to say the least. Streets ahead of other video game music of the time, it seamlessly blended orchestral and contemporary sounds with elements of both classical music and hip hop.

"I was just trying to be experimental, and as I didn't have any experience writing for orchestra I just built the songs up with the sounds I liked, without adhering to one particular style," he says.

If the music was ahead of its time, so was the game's technology: Mech Warrior 2 was one of the first ever video games with full Red Book audio. Each track is burnt directly on to the CD-ROM as opposed to being coded as MIDI with sound coming from the player's computer soundcard -- the common standard at that time. With a happening soundtrack, superior sound quality and sensational graphics, Mech Warrior 2 was an overnight success.

"It sold millions of copies all around the world, was named Best Game of the Year, and I got Best Music of the Year in a lot of the game publications," reports Jeehun. "Activision were literally flooded with e-mail from people commenting on the music, many saying they'd have bought the game just for the soundtrack."

Screenshots of the game

Promo screenshots of the game

A magazine advert for the game

Gamespot's review of the game back in 1995. :

This is no cake walk: MechWarrior 2 is a tough, demanding game, with challenging controls and opponents. Maneuvering both the Mech and the turret can be a tricky proposition at times. With controls more like those of a flight sim, and a need for strategy and planning, this is not your average action game. It demands a lot of computer systems and gamers alike, but it delivers like nothing else around.

If anyone wants to read up on the history of the Mechwarrior series in general.

 

[Hendrick's]

Still waiting for a return to glory

 

[DeepEnigma]

Loved this game to death. Then MSFT butchered it for the console when they purchased the series. Loved the Ghost Bear Legacy expansion too.

Got my Dell Pentium 133Mhz with a Number Nine Motion 771 4mb. Sidewinder 3D pro with analog turning of the gyro!

Then upgraded to my first 3D card when I saw ads of how much better it looked with it.

I miss you FASA!

 

[dancrane212]

Fantastic game. I still have my Sidwinder 3D pro that came with MW2.

 

[iosefe]

Brings back memories of like...4-5 years old me trying to configure a joystick to play this

Good times

 

[SocksAndShoes]

This game blew my mind back in the day. I had a tenuous grasp of the controls so most of my missions boiled down to me walking into the middle of an ambush and getting blown up, but damn it was fun.

 

[Krejlooc]

Funny coincidence, I just installed it on an actual pentium literally yesterday. Great game.

 

[Wario64]

Damn good game

 

[No_Style]

Fantastic game. I still have my Sidwinder 3D pro that came with MW2.

Yeah! Same here.

Anyone double dip for the 3DFX version? I thought about it but couldn't afford the PC upgrade at the time.

I love the soundtrack. I still have the CDs and decided to rip the soundtrack for my iPod. So good.

 

[DeepEnigma]

Yeah! Same here.

Anyone double dip for the 3DFX version? I thought about it but couldn't afford the PC upgrade at the time.

Waves hand!

 

[0.1.1.2.3.5.8.13.21.34.55]

I remember the first time I saw this game... they had a pre-release demo running on a PC in an Egg Head software in Pittsburgh.

What a glorious game.
Such a great intro.

 

[Donos]

Just played through Advanced Warfare last weekend and thought about this game when

Spoiler

i played in the AST for a while

. New mech game with current graphics/engine ... droool. Genre seems niche though (probably too slow for kids these days) so i don't have any hopes besides kickstarter and an indi title here and there. I know Hawken but i want SP main game.

The moment when enemy mech is in range and you fire all your beam weapons...

 

[DouglasteR]

Why cant we have the same game with upgraded gfx and sounds

Even the music is perfect.

 

[Memory]

Loved MW series, used to watch the cartoon also. I really need another single player MW game, MW online is just not for me. I'd also kill for another Mech Commander game.

 

[Noisepurge]

I had to visit a friend who had a beefy machine and a brand new 3D card that could run these amazing visuals.

 

[hoserx]

Waves hand!

MW2 was one of the pack-in games with my Monster 3d , Voodoo 1 card. Also came with VR Soccer and some other stuff.

 

[Formless]

Loved MW series, used to watch the cartoon also. I really need another single player MW game, MW online is just not for me. I'd also kill for another Mech Commander game.

Another Mech Commander fan!

 

[No_Style]

I remember awing at this small PC Gamer screenshot of the 3DFX version of MW2. I vividly recall it having awesome sky boxes.

 

[DeepEnigma]

I remember awing at this small PC Gamer screenshot of the 3DFX version of MW2. I vividly recall it having awesome sky boxes.

Yes! The skyboxes were what really stood out over the non-3D version.

 

[Boogalogist]

Absolutely loved this game. Controls were daunting at first, but once you get into it, it's like nothing other. I sure miss these simulation games on the PC.

 

[LogicStep]

Man I remember playing this as a kid on my dad's PC. My god... I never got very far as it was a pretty hard game, for me at least.

 

[DeepEnigma]

So many fun times playing this online with my uncle hunting down NPC mechs.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

Oh man, the days when we thought that you had to use a proper joystick because it was simulator. Mouse is for wimps.

 

[StrangeTaco]

Absolutely awesome game. Makes me very sad to think we'll probably never see a full fledged Mechwarrior game again.

Spoiler

Clan Jade Falcon 4 lyfe

 

[blame space]

I used to play this shit in wireframe mode because my family's computer didn't have a graphics card.

 

[SomTervo]

"Jade Falcon"... Wow, all these phrases are really bringing it back.

I can't remember the music at all now, but even the description of the orchestration in that quote brought back a few glimmers of memory.

 

[TheMan]

Is this freeware yet

 

[Akronis]

I will never forgive MS for what they did to FASA and the Mechwarrior series. MWO is complete ass. I want Mechwarrior 5.

 

[Formless]

I will never forgive MS for what they did to FASA and the Mechwarrior series. MWO is complete ass. I want Mechwarrior 5.

May I ask why? I haven't followed the Mech series at all really since MechAssault came out.

 

[pottuvoi]

Still waiting for a return to glory

Yup.
MW2 and Mercenaries were the pinnacle of the series.
One of the rare games where teammates were usefull as well, survived the last mission of mercenaries due to them. (Was hiding in the crater with power off and they fought off the last couple of mechs.)

 

[Shake Appeal]

Holy shit, my memory of how this game looks is badly calibrated.

It ruled, though.

 

[TheCobraTwister]

Did any of you guys played chromehounds?

 

[Night Hunter]

I'm still salty as fuck that the MechWarrior Reboot turned into MechWarrior Online. I would love to have a new game in the BattleTech universe. A new MechCommander would be even better if you ask me.

 

[deim0s]

KODIAAAAKKKK!

Wait... that was the expansion.

Activision or whoever needs to get all the Mechwarrior games on GOG.

 

[DeepEnigma]

KODIAAAAKKKK!

Wait... that was the expansion.

Activision or whoever needs to get all the Mechwarrior games on GOG.

Loved the Ghost Bear Legacy. Man expansions used to be so much better back in the day.

 

[Dragoshi1]

Didn't they release one of the games for free a while back?

 

[rockmanjoe]

I got the 3DFx version of this game in the Diamond Monster 3D bundle and it was easily my favorite game of the bunch, along with Descent 2.

Amazing game. The atmosphere was unmatched. Those menus and animations and soundtrack. So good.

 

[dancrane212]

Didn't they release one of the games for free a while back?

Yes. Mechwarrior 4 was released for free in 2010.

 

[Taikun]

Mech2 and Netmech were my go-to games for a long time when I was a kid, loved them so much.

I was never able to get used to the joystick controlls on my MS Sidewinder so ended up playing with keyboard and doing pretty well online on KALI. Good times.

 

[nubbe]

Everything about the game was awesome
They hit every note

Pyre Light
https://youtu.be/gX4G1RJYTi8?list=PL3E409CD81FFF6F55

 

[Crayon]

This really is the greatest mech game to me and im always looking for a bettrr one.

What i find most interesting is that the game has alot of rough edges and a very simple design. And of course it survived one of the all time cases of production hell, and went on to be a masterpiece.

Happy birthday mech2. I wuv yoo.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

The first Battletech RPG by Westwood was a favourite of mine as well but I never really got into MechCommander. Just not my sort of game. Didn't really see the point of the third person Mech Assault games on the xbox either. Without the first person in the cockpit style gameplay a mech game is just a third person action game with a main character who has stiff uninteresting animations.

 

[Glowsquid]

I've been meaning to play Mech 2 for a while now, but I'm daunted by the fact there are 19(!) different versions of it. Why do people hate the 3DFX one?

Didn't they release one of the games for free a while back?

A fan-modificated version of Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries (not Vengeance or the Black Knight expansion) was made freeware for a while, but the group that distributed it moved on to making Heavy Gear Assault and Microsoft is unwilling to grant the rights to the replacement group they've set up so it's once again in limbo. It really pains me the rights to the best games of late 90's and early 00s PC gaming are owned by such an incompetent corporation.

(you can find MekTek's version very easily through means I'm not sure I can discuss, mind you)

 

[ichtyander]

I mostly played Mercenaries but man what a great game.

 

[soulchilde]

Why MS hasn't used the license for a 360 or XB1 game is baffling. Would love a modern version

 

[Interceptor]

Fantastic game. I still have my Sidwinder 3D pro that came with MW2.

Time to listen to another awesome Sidewinder packin-game OST:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CT49bhofsIc

 

[Slermy]

Fantastic game. I still have my Sidwinder 3D pro that came with MW2.

Fuck yeah! I think I finally got rid of mine though as I didn't have any way to use it anymore.

Did any of you guys played chromehounds?

I'd guess not. That game actually eclipsed Mechwarrior 2 for me. Mechwarrior 2 will always have a special place in my heart, along with its expansion Ghost Bear Legacy.

#TeamMarauderIIC

 

[Torgo]

When that 3DFX support was added :-O

Still one of my all-time favorite games, well this and the expansions. Online play dominated my existence!

 

[shadowhunter89]

What I would do for another "Proper" non-F2P Mech title....

One of the main reasons I still use dosbox is to play Mechwarrior 2 +GBL + Mercs

I still have 2 Sidewinder 3D's I also have two win 98 machines kicking around with Voodoo 2's for these games.

That soundtrack is still amazing to this day for me.

This game was one of my addictions when I was a young kid (I was 6 when it came out) and got me really into PC gaming (I gamed before this game, but I have tons of memories with this game)

I played the Dos version bundled with the Sidewinder 3D, I played the Matrox version that game bundled with that card, then I played the terrible titanium version that came out later.

I own all the Mechwarrior and Mech commander titles still (other than the first mechwarrior game from 89)

 

[Ubersnug]

I wonder if GOG will ever secure a deal to sell the Mechwarrior series in their store?