Free Mechwarrior 4 Workarounds: Getting It and Playing It

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
45,698
1
0
Free Mechwarrior 4 Workarounds: Getting It and Playing It


Demand for the free release of Mechwarrior 4 [http://www.microsoft.com/games/mw4mercs/] has brought the Mektek website crashing down, but the game is still available via BitTorrent and instructions to get it all working have been posted online.

The planned free release of Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries has not gone smoothly. First, the whole process was hung up by Microsoft, which had the unfortunate side effect of putting serious financial strain on Mektek, the group behind the giveaway. When the release finally did go ahead, the Mektek website was able to keep up with demand for, oh, about a half-hour or so.

"Within 4 hours of the launch MekTek.net had received more than a 100,000 unique hits from around the globe," according to a message posted on Battletech.com [http://battletech.catalystgamelabs.com/2010/05/01/mechwarrior-is-back/]. "As the demand reached 10,000 simultaneously downloads, even the heavy-duty server couldn't stand up to the demand and it, along with the website, have crashed. Through several reboots the server continues to crash as the demand still remains in the stratosphere." The Mektek crew is working to get the site back up, but at the time of writing it was still unavailable.

Fortunately for fans of giant fighting robots, there's a Plan B: here [http://dwellonit.taterunino.net] and read the rest of the instructions. Okay, maybe it's not quite that simple, but if you're serious about playing Mechwarrior 4 then you probably won't find it too intimidating.

On the other hand, if this kind of dicking around doesn't really appeal to you, patience will eventually get you where you want to go: This process is simply a method of manually performing the tasks that the MTX distribution system does automatically, so once Mektek comes back online it'll handle most of the grunt work for you. Cross your fingers and keep an eye on Mektek.net [http://www.mektek.net] for signs of life.



Permalink
 

Jack and Calumon

Digimon are cool.
Dec 29, 2008
4,190
0
41
Andy Chalk said:
Cross your fingers and keep an eye on Mektek.net [http://www.mektek.net] for signs of life.
Wow! The website works already!

Calumon: Better late than never.

EDIT:
Jack: Ah, but the download link appears to be a tad slow, working but slow.
 

VitusPrime

New member
Sep 26, 2008
438
0
0
Never knew this went free.
SWEET! Good there working on alternative means to get it
 

ben---neb

No duckies...only drowning
Apr 22, 2009
932
0
0
And just after Mektek got their server running again this article sent another 100,000 hits their way causing it to crash again and the deaths of some of their more sucidially inclined IT personnel.
 

GodKlown

New member
Dec 16, 2009
514
0
0
Nice of them to give away the game, but not surprising that MS was the hold-up. I was surprised that 10k people were trying to download it all at once... been quite a while since that game was out and I'd have thought everyone would have forgotten it by now if it weren't for the news of the upcoming new release.
 

Jared

The British Paladin
Jul 14, 2009
5,630
0
0
Ill likely give it a little while before I dive in, but, I am looking forward to playing it thats for sure!
 

Sevre

Old Hands
Apr 6, 2009
4,886
0
0
Luckily by the times my exams are over the demand will (hopefully) have died down and I can get down to some serious business via massive guns.
 

Tom Phoenix

New member
Mar 28, 2009
1,161
0
0
Thank you for the link! It doesn't seem like a too complicated of a process, so I will try to download it via this method. Sadly, there does not seem to be a lot of active seeders yet, so the download is slow. But I guess it is better then nothing.

I am looking forward to trying this game, even though I usually do not have the patience for simulation games. For some reason, I have started to grow fond of the mecha genre and I am interested in seeing how they are depicted in this game. Plus, freeware games are always nice.
 

sniperworm

New member
Apr 16, 2009
97
0
0
I'll be downloading that tomorrow during the day, as long as the site hasn't died by then again that is :D
 

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
45,698
1
0
GodKlown said:
I was surprised that 10k people were trying to download it all at once... been quite a while since that game was out and I'd have thought everyone would have forgotten it by now if it weren't for the news of the upcoming new release.
I think the time since the last release may have caused the memory to fade for some, but for Mechwarrior fans it's just cranked up the hunger for something new. And you have to bear in mind that the Mechwarrior franchise is a pretty big one, both for tabletop and videogaming. Now that there's hope for something new (have you seen the info about the reboot [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/94468-New-Mechwarrior-Game-Faces-Legal-Threat]?) I think you'll see a lot of renewed interest in the games.

(Now we just pray that Harmony Gold doesn't fuck it up for everyone.)
 

spinFX

New member
Aug 18, 2008
490
0
0
Haha it's funny, I was digging around my game book case and found a copy of MW4:M that I bought on release, played to death then forgot about. Awesome game.
 

Xersues

DRM-free or give me death!
Dec 11, 2009
220
0
0
Catkid906 said:
Andy Chalk said:
Cross your fingers and keep an eye on Mektek.net [http://www.mektek.net] for signs of life.
Wow! The website works already!

Calumon: Better late than never.

EDIT:
Jack: Ah, but the download link appears to be a tad slow, working but slow.
Jack!? Jack!? Who the hell is Jack!? Jack is a lie and Calumon is the only true speaker.

Somewhere in the forum rules there has to be a limit on the number of personalities you can post as... It's in here somewhere.... Its not? Well hell. ;)

Back on topic: Free Mechwarrior is freaking awesome. I hope the next one in the series doesn't get mucked up by legal issues...

Thanks for bringing this link to light Andy!
 

SangRahl

New member
Feb 11, 2009
290
0
0
Never played any of the MW games, but I have had the experience of sitting in on a tabletop session, and did enjoy the heck out of playing MechCommander, back in the day.

The sit-in was a bit boring, until all four players got into the thick of it... System overheats, devestating alpha strikes, and even a textbook DFA kill... Made me consider trying, until I saw the player reading materials. Yeesh.

With MechCommander, my biggest disappointment was that my favorite Warrior had the most annoying voice... I came to dread selecting him, "This is Rooster." in a screechy squeak. Anyone who's heard AiC's song would know that anybody called 'Rooster' should be a bad-*ss mofo, and should sound like it.

As soon as I have a computer to play on reliably, I'll be getting ahold of MW4, and giving it a go... Sadly, my desktop is stuck in a BSOD-on-Startup loop, and I don't have the time/desire to go through a wipe/reinstall and all the troubleshooting that that entails. My wife's computer is out of reach during the day, and the laptop is with her most days for her MBA work... ::sigh:: Soon though... Someday soon.
 

Tom Phoenix

New member
Mar 28, 2009
1,161
0
0
Anyone know which download goes faster?

EDIT: Nevermind, the torrent is doing preety well right now. 150 kB/s, not too shabby. ;)
 

Nightfalke

Just this guy, you know?
Sep 10, 2008
195
0
0
Andy Chalk said:
(Now we just pray that Harmony Gold doesn't fuck it up for everyone.)
But you know they will.

Bastards.

All I want is my Warhammer... Is that too much to ask?
 

Hurr Durr Derp

New member
Apr 8, 2009
2,558
0
0
I already own MW4, is there any way to get all the new mechs and patches and whatever without having to download the whole thing?