To start with, how about Crimson Hawks Inception, MechWarrior 1, MechWarrior 2: 31st century combat, Crimson Hawks Revenge, Netmech, MechWarrior 2: Ghost Bear Legacy, & MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries.

Or how about MechWarrior 3, MechCommander 1/Gold, MechWarrior 3: Pirates Moon, MechWarrior 4: Vengance, MechCommander 2, MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries, and the MekTek MechWarrior 4 compilation.

Let's not forget about the console Battletech games: Mech Assault 1, Mech Assault 2, and a few nintendo snes/gameboy/DS games that I half remember.

What about Multiplayer Battletech games?
Well there is the already mentioned Netmech, the Crysis mod MechWarrior: Living Legends, MegaMech and the arena MMO/P2W MechWarrior Online (offline mode not supported).

Finally, for modern game fans, "Battletech", Harebrained Scheme's Battletech universe game scheduled for 2017 release looks interesting.
(mech art assets are being carried over from MechWarrior Online).

============================
GOG TEAM

I plan on talking about how to get the PC compatible games running on modern systems.
I will not be talking about how to find & get warez or torrent copies of these games.
The best way to get copies of these games is Ebay or amazon.

The only direct links I plan on making in this thread will be about:
DOSBOx configurations, mech2.org, MechVM, Wine, and pcgamingwiki.com fixes.

MechWarrior: Living Legends & the MekTek compilation are a grey area.

If any of this is breaks the GOG User Agreement, please let me know & I will modify my posts in this thread accordingly.
==========================

Let's talk about it. I have no hope that the old games will be released DRM-free in my lifetime. Maybe a new game will be released, but I've heard there is a lot dispute over the ownership of the IP, so who knows what will happen.

Sure would be nice to see the games here on GoG, though. They'd all be an insta-buy for me.

Which era Battletech games did you play?

Mechwarrior Online feels like a bad mistake.
It is sad when a game released in 1996 has more game modes, maps, higher player count, mech selection, and server host options than MechWarrior Online. What game am I talking about?

....Netmech.

Mechwarrior 2 and Mechwarrior 3, mostly.

Each of the MechWarrior 2 games is pretty special. Ghost Bear Legacy has VR google support.

The other two Mechwarrior 2 games have working in 2016 multiplayer, via IPX emulation.
MW2: Mercs can only multiplayer connect to other MW2:Mercs players.
MechWarrior 2: 31st century can connect to Netmech, and vica versa.

MechWarrior 3 series is pretty good too.

The only Battletech PC compatible games I do not own physical copies of are the Mechwarrior 4 series.

You're lucky. Ah, the days when you could buy PC games at the store. Good times...

Not that lucky really.
I had to search ebay & amazon for non-gimped versions of the MechWarrior 2 games, and the MechWarrior 3 expansion was really hard to find.

Buying the CDROM version ofactivision Battletech Powerhits years ago was pure luck.

Aren't the MechCommander games free these days? They're availlable on mechcommander.co.uk

i believe the whole mech series battletech and all belongs to microsoft these days

ms did release the partial source code and most game assets of mech commander 2 in 2006
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MechCommander_2#Development_history

>> In 2006, Microsoft released a portion of the source code along with most game assets (i.e. everything needed to compile the game without networking support and without all the art) under a Shared Source licence in order to demonstrate its XNA Build system.[1] The source release documentation warns developers that not all code necessary to produce a complete build has been included.
Currently, the game is under mod by several projects and on a GitHub repository<<

I would estimate Mechwarrior 4 to be in my top twenty favorite videogames of all time list. I am deeply distraught every time it ends.

I'm especially fond of my Argus, it's heavy enough to be really annoying, and also maneuverable y'know. I guess you wouldn't want to go fighting hundred ton mechs in it but still, I like it.

I like smaller tonage mech engagements with a Shadowcat, a Catapult loaded with missiles is always great backup I think.

Should I want to start with the series what would you recommend ? I'm not afraid of early 3d graphics.

My answer to that question would be one post above your post.

Interesting. I wonder what the legal state of those games are. Those are the complete games on mechcommander.co.uk. The actual disc iso's of both

There is a opensource project that recreates the MechCommander game engine.
It is called MechCommander OmniTech and works on all modern operating systems.
Campaign data from MechCommander God & MechCommander 2 can be imported into it.

Yeah I agree, and even mentioned it in the OP.
The only Battletech game I refuse to play is MechWarrior Online.

MechWarrior Online is why the earlier MechWarrior 1 - 4 are likely to never appear on GOG or steam.
MechWarrior Online is also responsible for killing off the MechWarrior:Living Legends mod which
has features USER-PLAYABLE mechs, tanks, hovercraft, elemental suits, vtol aircraft, & aerospace fighters


It all depends on what Battletech game you manage to get legally/are able to get running.

The earlier MechWarrior games need some additional work to get running.
And there is way too many versions of MechWarrior 2 + standalone expansions that are gimped/refuse to run without the original hardware.

Regardless, in any MechWarrior game: LEG EVERYTHING POSSIBLE.