Battletech and Cassette Futurism

posted: *14 feb 2022*

Giant stompy robots powered by insanely complex fusion reactors and computer

systems doggedly persist in an interstellar feudal melting pot that has all but

forgotten how to even create such things. The same vapid self-interest that

causes so much anger and divison in politics today is magnified to a scale

of billions and trillions of souls across planets in every concievable

condition and technological level. Now, instead of knights in armor and grizzly

mercenaries a la the Swiss Guard, you've got people from every walk of life

who have spent their days and years helping propel a hulking mass of metal,

lasers, guns, and missiles forward into explosive combat with other similarly

sized marvels of engineering.

I'll never forget the dropship commander's one-liner from the Mechwarrior 2:

Mercenaries intro after you watch your own commander get left behind and blown

up by an advancing enemy force.

"Look at it this way kid: now you get to keep all the money."

It's interesting to see how these almost dystopian values and concepts presented

in Battletech (especially the original 3025 era) clash and coexist with the

art style the property hails from: 1980's line art, chunky Vietnam-style

data connectors, and just-barely-futuristic weapons designs that might as

well come out at R&D expo's in the defense sector in the 1990's.