Battlezone 1

So, I found this (Battlezone 1.8 Patch by Radigator) a couple of places on line. I did a search here but couldn't find anything on it, the search engine kicks the "1.8" parameter and returns anything with "Battlezone" or "patch" ...which is a lot. It seems to be a home grown patch/mod for the game. Has anyone here tried it? Impressions?

There's a 1.8 patch? I've never heard of of such a patch.

apparently 1.5 already exists too, it was Activision's DVD version of Battlezone. it came free with my original PC in 1999. It was a four game disc with Asteroids, Shanghai Dynasty and Heretic 2. So all our wishing for a BZ 1.5 is wrong. we need BZ 1.6 or BZ 1.9!

First of all "1.8 patch" isn't a patch at all, it's a mod, and a very crappy mod at that.

Second, what do you mean by "DVD version" being "1.5"? Unless it has bug fixes, it isn't Bz 1.5 patch.

I didn't call it that, Activision did. I found it yesterday in my readme files in the original battlezone folder I have. I got them all from an xplosiv version of the game. it says the following:

"Battlezone 1.5 DVD

January 19, 1999

This document contains additional information about Battlezone as well as supplemental technical information about any hardware conflicts and compatibility problems that came to our attention after the completion of the manual and the help file."

Only other difference I can find in the document is the description of the MAS grenade:

"The following weapons were not listed in the manual:
Phantom VIR-This weapon makes you invisible, however you can still be seen on radar and targeted.
MAS Grenade-This weapon scrambles the IFF system of the unit so that it is identified as a foe and attacked by its friendly units."


So what happened to the MAS grenade? Is it found in multiplayer anywhere? as it's not available in SP. It sounds like an awesome weapon to have, would make some of the IA missions a tad easier.

"Battlezone 1.5 DVD", interesting. It could have been a typo, who knows. If it's compatible in multiplayer with BZ 1.4, then nothing is different and it's in fact 1.4.

As for the MAS Grenade, I think they removed it from the armories because they didn't want it to be used in multiplayer strat. The original BZ off the CD had MAS Grenade available in the armories.

By the way, I have tried the 1.8 mod, and it's not worth downloading. Also, it crashed when I tried to play the 1st mission in the CCA campaign.

If I remember right, Radigator's 1.8 patch was an attempt to make it harder for hackers and tweakers - there was a push by a few people to get it installed and for a while it was around and games were played, but there wasn't enough support from all the clans and it excluded new players as it wasn't compatible with 1.4. Was a worthy attempt though.

Only 1 problem with that "harder to hack" claim...

The 1.8 "patch" (mod) does not in any way modify bzone.exe, it simply installs modifications to the game's assets. Making BZ harder to hack would involve the code.

Theoretically, if the 1.8 mod is indeed harder to hack, why can't we apply that fix to regular BZ then without being stuck in a crappy mod? The answer is that you cannot, because it doesn't exist.

Mr Unusual-spoon-and-fork-combo,

This was ten years ago, I'm an old fogey now and my memory is shot, so I may be thinking about another community generated patch - though it does ring a bell as I remember at the time wondering what happened to 1.5, 1.6 and 1.7

Yeah, when I first heard/read of "1.8 patch", I was like...

"Funny how nobody can remember a 1.5, 1.6, or 1.7 patch and we're all still playing 1.4. There's obviously a reason for that."

In 1.8 mod, something is changed about how pilots move and then there's that weird messed up plasma rifle, and I noticed Grizzly having more AT Stabber shots. Aside from being a bad mod, I don't understand why it crashes in any SP mission. This "Radigator" guy obviously forgot to test his mod to make sure it works and he named it "1.8 patch" to confuse people.

I remember what the 1.8 patch was now - it wasn't the attempt at making BZ more difficult to hack (someone did make one but as I said, it never reached critical mass) it was a shit mod that 'enhanced' the 1.4 game with ridiculously sized explosions. I remember because the guy was running around spamming all the forums and download sites trying to get everyone to use it...despite the fact that no one seemed to appreciate BZ looking like a champagne factory everytime the smallest unit exploded. Sadly enough, download.com still have the 1.8 mod, despite the fact that they've dropped the 1.4 patch.

i used to ask the same question. the MAS grendade does exist in some of the custome IA missions, and i think in some of the Red Oddessy Black Dog campaign. its somewhat useful; makes the unit attack its own allies for a lil less than a min, then goes away. its firing effects are similar to a sandbag, and its a special hardpoint weapon

I remember that grenade on one of the DM maps, it is one of the maps with the new installer. I can't remember which one off hand, but me and another player were confused about it at first. Imagine the new set of tactics you can use if that sucker was in strat games!

If you play the Black Dogs in MP in TRO, you have MAS Grenade available. I played the Black Dogs a few times in TRO strat, but I never used the MAS Grenade because I didn't realize I had it available to me.

I first discovered it playing the stock CCA campaign...