What devices can the game be played on?

[banvatoi21]

What devices can the game be played on?

[RotS fan]

This is the forum of the table top version of BattleTech. So I would say any table will do. Sometimes even the floor 

[Lorcan Nagle]

I've played BattleTech on boats and trains.

[klarg1]

I've played BattleTech on boats and trains.

I prefer table, but I have played on the floor.

A more responsive answer is that Table Top Simulator and MegaMech support pretty much any regular computer.

[elf25s]

This is the forum of the table top version of BattleTech. So I would say any table will do. Sometimes even the floor 

in 1985 we started on a table moved on to the floor then to whole garage and standees were replaced with legos and names of mechs strips of paper stuck between the bricks...we started the game in late june did not finished it ever...but game came to abrupt end in mid september when our friends dad said time to park the car back in the garage....

[Aotrs Commander]

You certainly could play in on mobiles, tablets and laptops, but I think you'd probably need more than even most people these days to get a suitable surface. But with enough devices, it wouldn't make a bad city-scape, it you stacked them - or used a non-flat device for the buildings, I suppose. Actually, tools and whatnot (screwdrivers, hand drills etc) might make for good crashed starship wrecks, it you pretend you're playing on a junk world (it's a bit more Star Wars, or... 40K, I guess, but for the sake of arguement).

You can go a long with with fairly-flat pebbles, actually. I got a load of 'em initially to play starships yonks and yonks ago (before they started saying "oooh, you can't take stones off the beach!") I dig 'em out again for this exact purpose, when I'm playing BT or MG Sci-Fi, they might grand little rock piles. (I now use asuqirum gravel for asteroids, but they also make a nice thing to sprinkle on the ground table occasionally.)


You could even do a good-old fashioned book-fort, though, like I made for me toy cars when I were a lad.

(Kids just don't do that these days...)



Anything really, so long as you get a decent density of terrain features. You imagination is your limit.

[epic 2.0]

Ping pong table was great for me when I first started. 

[Sartris]

With enough magnets it might be playable on a wall

[klarg1]

With enough magnets it might be playable on a wall

With nice light plastic ‘mechs? No doubt.

Hmmm…

[worktroll]

Going to make determining line of sight real hard in about 33% of cases ...

[Caesar Steiner for Archon]

The question isn't what you can play it on, but what surfaces you can enforce sole dominion over for a couple of hours. Do you have the force of will to claim the dinner table for your exclusive use?

[Pat Payne]

What devices can the game be played on?

As others have pointed out, BattleTech is an analogue tabletop game, so there isn't any actual "platform" that there is support for (though like everyone else, I'm going to put tongue in cheek and say that a table or floor counts as a platform in the strictest sense).

That being said, there are a couple of ways to play Battletech on the computer:

1. There is a program called MegaMek that is available and while a fan creation is officially tolerated by TPTB and has a dedicated discussion area here in these forums. It works on any computer that can run Java 8 or Java 11 depending on the particular MegaMek build;
2. There is an official BattleTech computer game published by Hare Brained Schemes that is compatible with Windows and (IIRC) Mac computers. It's available on Steam and GOG, and maybe as physical software (if that's still a thing)

[BATTLEMASTER]

I've played Alpha Strike on the floor with my daughter.  The battlefield gets really interesting with burned-out toys littered throughout    Jumpy 'mechs also like sniping from the couch!

[Charistoph]

Do you have the force of will to claim the dinner table for your exclusive use?

No.  The wife always denies my batchall.

[GRUD]

With enough magnets it might be playable on a wall

With nice light plastic ‘mechs? No doubt.

Hmmm…

Several years back, someone posted pics online (I want to say on LotB?  Before FB took off anyway!), of a game they ran at some Con.  Was a large hex-shaped cylinder, maybe 1-2 feet on a side, 3-4 feet long, made of metal.  I think it was supposed to be a Space Station, and the 'Mechs used had magnets under the base.  Or maybe the bases were magnets?  But they were all Metal minis, and some were on there sideways, and seems like some were upside down even. 

Ok, I found the pic, posted by "Infinitecat", labeled "Asteroid 1", so I guess it was supposed to be an asteroid?  Not sure that would work, as I didn't know asteroids even had gravity.    And Yes, some Could very well be plastic.     And also Yes, looks like it was "Driveway Con"!    The "Properties" of the pic shows I got it in 2005, but I've NO idea When they actually made it.   

Anyway, yes, with magnets, lots of things (Probably NOT "All"!) are Possible!   

[Prospernia]

This is the forum of the table top version of BattleTech. So I would say any table will do. Sometimes even the floor 

I prefer the floor because you can easily add additional-maps.  We also used TV-trays, that were flimsy.

[BATTLEMASTER]

I really like the magnetic wall idea.  I wish I went to school with enough needs that we'd do something like that on a study hall whiteboard!  But no, everyone but me was on a sports team and that's all they did - LOL

[klarg1]

I really like the magnetic wall idea.  I wish I went to school with enough needs that we'd do something like that on a study hall whiteboard!  But no, everyone but me was on a sports team and that's all they did - LOL

Think of it as a way to assemble a huge table where nobody needs long arms to reach  the middle, but might need ladders to reach the sides.


It would honestly look pretty coo, if a little odd.


Even better: Battletech on the floor, magnetic aerospace on the ceiling!

[BATTLEMASTER]

Even better: Battletech on the floor, magnetic aerospace on the ceiling!

The ceiling could be the space map - use streamers from the warships to denote ortillery 

[klarg1]

The ceiling could be the space map - use streamers from the warships to denote ortillery 

I like the cut of your jib.

[General308]

This is the forum of the table top version of BattleTech. So I would say any table will do. Sometimes even the floor 

Although a Table with Legs is preferable over a table with no legs.   Then again I have also used the floor as well before.    Floor can give you some big battlefields

[Prospernia]

The ceiling could be the space map - use streamers from the warships to denote ortillery 

My ceiling is way too high. 

[Nerroth]

2. There is an official BattleTech computer game published by Hare Brained Schemes that is compatible with Windows and (IIRC) Mac computers. It's available on Steam and GOG, and maybe as physical software (if that's still a thing)

It's also listed as "Playable" on this Linux device:



There are a few caveats, however.

Firstly - SteamOS does let you manually set certain mouse functions to the analogue sticks and/or to the track pads, and there is a way to bring up an on-screen keyboard. it's still best to play the game with an external keyboard and mouse, however.

Secondly - the screen on the OLED model in particular is very nice, and it is possible to pay the game on it... if you don't mind the small font size. It is quite possible to use a dock (either Valve's official dock, or one from a third party) to connect to an external monitor.

Thirdly - if you try to play the game in Gaming Mode, it defaults to the device's own screen resolution, even if you are outputting video to an external monitor. If you set the system over to Desktop Mode first, however, higher external resolutions can be set as normal.

And fourthly - if you are outputting to an external monitor, note that the device's own speakers are quite good. So if you find them to be of higher quality than the ones in your monitor, it's possible (again, in Desktop Mode) to set things so that you are using the device's speakers, even if you have set the default screen to the monitor.

[Arkansas Warrior]

My ceiling is way too high. 

Wait until you find out how high space is.