Today's subject is none other than Battle Tech, an Alex Drelick creation from the mid 90s of considerable scope. This was a patron selected game that I knew really nothing about going in. While we've seen the works of Alex's brother Luke in titles like Overflow, the massive Chrono Trigger inspired action game as well as Final Fantasy Xtreme, in which he and his buddies are the stars in a battle against alien forces that has remarkably little to do with Final Fantasy is anything beyond name, Alex has so far been the overlooked brother until now. With only Battle Tech and a lone Super ZZT world Web Killers to his name, this makes his first appearance on the Museum in stream or article form.
And, just as with his brother, he pretty much nails it. Overflow is undoubtedly the game to compare this one to, and it is a game that I absolutely fell in love with when I first played it in 2021. The game stood out with its very clean looking rooms constructed form line walls that featured remarkable placement of ZZT's built-ins for fighting, with some stunning background art to keep the boards from being centered in a void. Chronologically, Battle Tech predates Overflow, and the two worlds definitely share the same design language. This too is a game that predominantly consists of fighting built-ins in line wall constructed rooms. I'm not here to play up any sibling rivalry (I'm already the younger brother myself). Trying to decide who was influencing who (especially given Luke's credit on the title screen as having "fixed up" the game) is a fool's errand. Both games are excellent, with Battle Tech's earlier release date being accompanied by a bit rougher delivery.
Overflow while not shy about its Chrono Trigger influence, files the serial numbers off a bit, using a fresh cast of characters and reshaping the world to suit its author's whims. Battle Tech well, is named for the wargame Battle Tech, and features a number of shared clan names, and likely more of its universe. I know Chrono Trigger well enough. BattleTech is a complete blind spot to me, taking some time before it even occurred to me that this wasn't an original universe.
But ZZT fan games, be they adoringly faithful, or comedically out of touch never require the players to go in with knowledge of the source material. Thanks to the incredibly limited storytelling early on, its accuracy is hard to really grasp. If you'd like to read about the enemy faction "Clan Wolf" on the BattleTech wiki, well, it's going to be a longer read than this article, so sorry in advance.
On its own, Battle Tech for ZZT (with an important space in the name) is still an exciting adventure with betrayals, defeats, and unexpected alliances. Once it gets to that part at least. In terms of size, this one is even larger than Overflow, weighing in at close to 200 total boards across its four files, one for the backstory, one for the first adventure, and two for the second. This is a definite two parter, and for the time being we're going to stick to focusing on the intro and first adventure. Prepare yourself for part of the game that's weakest in story, but fullest in action and spectacle. Prepare for Battle Tech.
Story Mode
Battle Tech fits the shame misshapen mold of other mid-90s would-be epics like Legend of Brandonia or the Yoshi series . There's a story that drives the action forward, at least in the same way that a small child would drag a parent by the arm towards an ice cream truck. It wants to be a sweeping epic story featuring betrayal, heartbreak, glory that players can find themselves awe-struck by, only to be unable to express those ideas in a way likely to resonate with players. Alex clearly has big ideas in his head that he just can't figure out how to convey in the game. This leads to a somewhat hard to follow adventure, particularly in the first chapter where it takes some time before you get to talk with anyone about anything. Characters are introduced only to be quickly discarded with the expectation that you'll feel sorrow over their fates. Instead, you're more likely to wonder why they even bothered to show up.
The story is such a key component to the game, that an entire world is dedicated to setting up the background. This is nice for those who like to play their favorite ZZT games again and again, something more common in the 90s when your options for gaming were more limited. You can dive into the game and get directly to the action, which ends up being the best part of the experience. This opening picks some unusual points in time to jump between, starting off with an explanation that the earth suffered an apocalyptic event in the year 2000. Society as we know it is gone, and it's hard to say exactly what replaced it. Definitely something more militaristic.
The key to humanity's survival: discovering how to harness the energy of crystals, which ushered in a new era for mankind. And just in time too! Not long after, space pirates begin an attack on Earth to take the planet and make it a new home. Humanity responds with the creation of the Mech Warrior, a mobile combat unit that you've seen in all kinds of media I'm sure. These are used to give humanity a fighting chance.
ONE THOUSAND years pass. The war is not over. You (our unnamed protagonist) are born in 3047, orphaned when your father dies in combat, and grow up wishing to follow in his footsteps, joining the Jade Falcon clan at the age of twelve in hopes of one day avenging your father's death. Pretty typical stuff outside of the wild disparity in dates. Certainly enough motivation to get a game underway.
However, your first mission against the space pirates goes horribly wrong. You are thrown into combat with no real training, eventually struck with a missile and forced to eject, launching yourself all the way to the southern isles. You land hard, and when you come to, you awaken in a prison complex run by the Wolf Clan. I think they're the space pirates. Still not sure. Thus ends the story world, with the first file of the game beginning with your escape from prison and the long journey back home.
The goal of getting home caught me off guard. With an opening setup of war machines, humanity versus extraterrestrial invaders, and revenge, the expectation would be for the game to use a mission structure for a military campaign akin to that of P.D.S. Enhanced or perhaps focus on our hero's small squadron as they make their way into the enemy territory to strike something critical as in Invasion ZZT. This is a game that initially is about retreating from a strange land and finding your way back to the home you know.
The entire first file is about that journey home. The later files tell a new story that continues where this one ends, making the game essentially split into two episodes spread across four files. Files zero and one play as a sort of pilot episode for what seems like it could be a lengthy sci-fi series. Files two and three are almost a fresh start. It's really like you're getting two games in one with Battle Tech, something noted in a review of the game by Commodore.
For this first episode, Alex introduces a few characters of little note, but what does persist between the two halves are the factions at war with one another. Malthus, the leader of the Wolf Clan and main antagonist in the beginning is brushed aside, while the Jade Falcons whom the player is a part of, get to play a major role in the second episode.
Oh The Places You'll Go
The actual game begins with the player stuck in a cell in an enemy prison. The mix of a line wall bordered foreground that separates it from a disconnected background shows up from board one. Predating Overflow, this is a more likely originator for the style, and it's equally effective here. The mixed presentation of boards like this give Alex a chance to show off via art while designing boards for gameplay first.
Your obligatory ZZT prison escape begins with the discovery of a secret tunnel behind the toilet that kicks off the game's first level.
Danger is at its highest in this very first moment. Players making their way out are immediately besieged by a pack of lions. Alex never themes the enemies, who are presumably meant to be enemy soldiers of various rank. For the player, they're bad news regardless of whether they're under attack by their fellow man or animals. With no ammo to start, the first thing you do is run. The lack of ammo doesn't last long, as there's plenty to be had in every nook and cranny of the board, but for a rare moment in ZZT, the player is powerless. You're just a confused little P.O.W. with little training whose only combat experience is what got them in this situation to begin with.
The game offers plenty to pull players in different direction. A pile of strange glyphs in one corner are revealed to be bones. More supplies can be grabbed by heading into empty hallways, and multiple passages out of the room require a bit of faith to find the door that leads forward rather than to a neighboring cell in the starting room.
It's really strong start that for those new to the Drelick bros. puts its best foot forward, suggesting right away that the game will at the very least, be competently designed. As someone who found Overflow to be one of the best ZZT games of its time, the feeling this this was going to be more of that meant that my interest was immediate piqued. A second cake to enjoy!
As tall as the prison tower's cloudy background may lead you believe, it's more of a quick rundown of what to expect from the game rather than a prolonged stage. The correct passage from the toilet tunnels brings the player outside where the guards' habit of falling asleep on the job continues. It's a bit of a running gag for the series for every guard to be utterly incapable of staying awake. Even if players press their luck and touch them, they receive only a warning to not wake them up.
Shooting is on the table though if you want to be cruel.
After escaping the prison, the game's world map is presented. Battle Tech establishes a straightforward design of self-contained levels. You move to a location, beat up any resistance inside, perhaps solving a puzzle along the way, then take your leave and soldier onward.
The layout sometimes gives players more than one location to choose from as is the case post-prison. I would hesitate to call this one a non-linear game though. Locked doors or password prompts discourage players from deviating from a specific order. Technically the passwords can be brute forced by reloading if you guess wrong, but the inclusion of other key items makes it unwise to actually try to skip anything. Besides, this is a fun game. Cherish the 30 year old ZZT games that still hold up.
Your first destination as a free man is The Odyssey. A cool name that goes unstated in the game, making it one of many buildings depicted on the world map whose purpose is unknown until you're inside.
And in this case, even when you're inside it's unclear what its deal is. Three portals are open to a forest, mountain, and desert boards, each with a key to collect to open up the boss area and pick up the first star.
What are the stars? We'll get to that. Alex also doesn't bother explaining, preferring to keep them as mysterious artifacts that the player collects solely because they're there, up until the time they become necessary.
The first two portals each house a pair of boards with a gentle starting board lacking in enemies, and then a more shooting intensive second board where the key can be collected. These boards deviate from the Overflow style seen in the prison (though again, this game predates Overflow so really the style is Battle Tech's.) They go for a more typical design, using STK to provide grassy/icy floors, and using natural environments of densely packed trees or snow piles to define the space players move through.
As a starting area, they enemy counts are kind to the player. When routes are wide open, players can safely run from fights. When routes are tight, they're tight to the point that natural choke points emerge where players can shoot without the risk of enemies approaching from other angles. All the while, generous, yet not excessive amounts of pickups can be collected, easily ensuring a net gain of health and ammo. It's a nice gentle build up for the challenges to come.
The desert is the odd portal out replacing shooting with puzzle solving. It's a basic Sokoban-style room. Of note is the lack of any instructions. There are plenty more puzzles to come, and they all tell players up front what they need to accomplish to complete them.
Once all the portals have been completed, players can fight the boss, claim a star, and get the password needed for the next location: the mech factory.
Things in the factory start off a tad shaky as the first board features enemies that will never threaten the player unless they player approaches them. And why would they? There's no reward save for a few scant points that awaits them.
This gives way to some boards that showcase smart enemy placement that's better suited to the rooms they're placed in. The short repeated turns required to move through a diagonal space are where ruffians are there most dangerous. They can strike at any moment, while the close quarters make it risky to move towards them to shoot first.
On the puzzle side of things, there's also something a little more engaging. Toxic waste fills the screen, including a river of sludge players need to find a way past. A number of barrels need to be dropped in to build a bridge, which means unraveling sliders in a way to reach them safely without accidentally blocking your path or the other barrels.
It's solid. There are some definite spots one a misstep can ruin your chances, so the stakes are real. Alex's slider puzzles are functional at the very least, which is more than can be said for some games, though you can find more impressive (and difficult) examples in other older titles by Janson or Barjesse.
The instructions are welcome. On boards like these where mistakes require reloading (and being careful not to save in a failed state), being told up front what the objects are and what needs to be done with them clears up any ambiguity and lets players focus on solving the puzzle.
The fight here is a great demonstration of picking the right enemies for the job. The slight bend to the tiger hallway makes it difficult to stay safe in one particular spot, and ensures that the tigers' approach is staggered as they have to head in a diagonal direction, keeping them from bunching up since seeking the player is divided into two possible directions.
The more easy to track movement of centipedes makes them an appropriate enemy to put in a room that can only be entered via transporter. Unlike other enemies which tend to camp exits, centipedes are forced to keep moving, and in this instance reaching one of the transporters will force the 'pede to immediately make a U-turn. A lot of going through transporters with enemies on the other side amounts to a test of incredible patience, hoping they all decide to go away, or just saying a quick prayer and rushing in, hoping to well... be quick or get lucky.
I can't praise the enemy placement enough. We've got bears that players are forced to engage with at close range, firing quickly as they move forward without it being a "Sweeney's Gambit" situation. The ruffians on the left meanwhile fan out and take multiple potential paths, attacking players who enter their turf from multiple angles at once. Unsure which will approach first or continue to rest, your reactions are tested when fighting them.
The last few boards shift from the line wall corridor mode of action to open arenas once more. The fighting dulls, but it's a price paid so that the majority of the board can be used to depict a factory assembly line. Over the next few boards players get to watch a mech be assembled before their eyes!
A body is constructed and weapons are added are you follow the conveyor. Though the construction happens frame-by-frame, Alex came up with a clever way to convince players that movement down the line is happening. He includes with a series of tiny windows after the first board. These show clouds and trees passing by in the background as the player moves down the line. It's a tough sell, but the author's confidence is unmistakable.
The/pier bridge is next, which opens with a token toll. Interestingly, the player can just cross the bridge afterwards and proceed to the next area. There's still a proper level, it's just accessed from the side passage. While it sounds skippable, the boss and the reward for its defeat ensure players have to play it eventually.
It's still very smart the way the level is tucked to the side like this. Backtracking is going to be a thing soon enough, and this lets players cross the bridge on the return trip without having to retread the entire level again.
Despite the line wall borders, this level is an open one, letting enemies roam freely rather than focus on tighter encounters. It does a nice job of integrating the playable area with the background. I dig the way the level is able to include obstructions by putting holes in the pier that you have to go around. It's a rare fusion where the background art gets to encroach into the foreground play space.
Though the dark blue solids are indeed solid, rather than water, preventing players from shooting over some of the hole. A small oversight resulting in a few wasted shots, though nothing serious.
From the bridge, it's off to the Jade Falcon building. The people here are your own, but it's still a dangerous place on the lower levels, with some security and a live-fire training room that have to be traversed before reaching the upper levels where players finally get to interact with people that aren't actively trying to kill them.
The puzzle the level opens with is more Sokoban, only now a little more challenging. This time, the goal is placed right at the beginning, with the boulder buried in the back. Various sliders littering the path need to be pushed taking into consideration that a path a player can fit through isn't the same as a path a boulder can be pushed through. This adds a little complexity to managing the sliders, and there's an extra layer to it where a side room filled with gems can be blocked off if you're not careful. (Which I wasn't.)
This is a welcome twist on a common puzzle design. Certainly nicer than just repeating the same style of puzzle as the desert board had back in the Odyssey building.
There are some minor issues despite the praise. The second door is past the boulder's starting point, so no consideration for the boulder is needed when clearing a path. The doors also appear to be solid walls. This led me to believe that I'd complete the puzzle, and then they'd disappear, allowing access to the goodies inside if I had made a path to them properly. They're in fact not tied to the puzzle at all, opening when touched at any time.
Lastly, it turns out the puzzle doesn't consider if the fake wall is covered by the player rather than the boulder. If you try to stand on it to skip the puzzle, you will. In the desert, a second sensor required the player to stand on it to prevent exactly this. A second sensor can be avoided even in cramped rooms like this by just having the object next to the fake wall that checks if it's blocked also check for #IF CONTACT to be able to tell if it's the player or something else obstructing it.
The training room is a really fun design. A natural environment complete with its own river on the second story!
On floor three players finally get to find people that aren't trying to kill him. For all you've been through, having to eject from battle and hike your way back to base while fighting off enemies left and right, neither the protagonist nor the NPCs seem particularly interested in swapping stories. Conversations are simple one line messages about being worried about going to war, or being excited for missile launches. One guy spills the beans on a secret robot factory that players have already passed by the time they reach this point, so there's at least something to get from running up to everyone to say hello.
Through everything, your character remains silent. There's no relief at finally being in friendly territory, or urge to speak to a commander to figure out how he can return to his home and/or unit. The scene strikes me as one the author was a little bored making compared to the detailed scenes and impressive combat scenarios that preceded it. I suppose it wouldn't be a mech war without prioritizing the cool mechs rather than the effect such war has on humanity.
The doorway to the stairs up are blocked by a robot that only allows those with permission to pass. It's a weird roadblock because the solution isn't to find someone you haven't talked to, or head to this so-called robot factory. What you're supposed to do is shoot them in a room filled with fellow soldiers.
Nobody seems to mind when you do. Tough luck robot.
The cafeteria above features some furnishings to keep it from being as empty as the last floor. The NPCs are extremely excited about fruit, with each of the cafe's offerings being praised by someone. Players are given an opportunity to buy some food here to restore any health. With only healing items available, there's no real decision on what to purchase, just how much.
It's a bit of a mystery how much each item will heal, so I helped myself to a dinner of an entire watermelon with a side of grapes and an apple for dessert. This regiment is gonna get their vitamins!
The exchange is such that three gems spent equals ten health gained, with watermelon rounding that cost up an extra gem. The different foods are more for flavor than a need for multiple tiers of health restoration, as the game continues to provide players with plenty. With nothing else to buy though, you could opt to stuff yourself and coast for the rest of the game.
It's important not to spend every last gem though! One of two exits is blocked by someone who wants you pay for their jet ticket. Shooting won't work here. The donation is mandatory to proceed.
The other room is a giant screen giving you a new mission, to figure out what these weird stars are that have been dropped after each boss fight. Then to find some sort of power source and destroy it. This confusing mission briefing brought to you by Gateway.
The game's struggles with delivering information to the player are on full display here. The stars have been mysterious, but only in the sense that they haven't been explained in universe. Defeating a boss and getting some trinket as a reward is just kind of assumed to be a measure of progress. They could be leaving keys, triforce pieces, crystals, orbs, or whatever, and it would be understood all the same.
Given that the protagonist themselves has made not a single remark about these stars, I didn't even realize that's what the game was talking about when I made it here. The lack of back and forth conversation means no questions are ever asked, and so no answers are ever received.
And then there's another locked door here that also provides no concrete information on what's needed to open it. Any keys or key-like objects collected after this point are a potential excuse to return to base, climbing the building again, in hopes that the door opens. It's a good way to deter players from trying until they see no other options.
Purchasing that dude his ticket lets you enter a bonus room, though I feel like I was mostly swindled since again, there's no indication that what's behind the passage is optional. You get this board that's rather out of place to the rest of the game. The bonus collectibles are pushed out with each press of a button, turning the ticket purchase into a transaction for some useful supplies. The gems make up half the cost of admission. The ammo makes the rest of the fee feel worthwhile. The keys are exciting in the moment. Eventually though, the game will end and you'll realize that not a single one was any use. (Save for the dark gray one that counts as a black key and gives 255 gems when collected.)
Next stop, the village of Maradea. Why? Because!
