Battletech

BattleTech: The Crescent Hawk’s Inception (often written “Crescent Hawks’
Inception”) - the 1989 role-playing for Commodore 64 from Infocom.

Survive a Kurita strike on Pacifica as cadet Jason Youngblood, train fast,
recruit allies, and reclaim lost tech to rebuild the Crescent Hawks.

Core loop
- train at the Citadel, gear up, and pass mech ID tests
- map cities and wilderness, trigger encounters and quests
- win turn-based fights, salvage, and unlock new areas

Systems and items
- ‘Mech and infantry modes - separate commands and weapon sets
- auto battle and message verbosity - let the CPU fight or read full logs
- animated outtakes - brief attack cut-ins during combat
- copy protection - ID ‘Mech parts using the manual diagrams
- party recruits - allies join with their own kit and roles

Level design and feel
Top-down city hubs feed into a sparse desert overworld, with compact
battle maps and concise animations. Clear text feedback sells the
board-game roots without bogging down play.

Why it is notable
- early BattleTech RPG on C64 from Westwood Associates and Infocom
- sequel “The Crescent Hawk’s Revenge” landed on PC only
- manual-driven mech ID doubles as in-game training

Tips
- grind a bit in Citadel training to build C-bills before heading out
- on foot, rockets and flamers can drop light ‘Mechs if you keep moving
- switch to Keypress combat speed to control pacing and read outtakes

At a glance
Year - 1989
Developer - Westwood Associates
Design and programming - Brett W. Sperry - Barry Green - Louis Castle
Graphics - Maurine Starkey - Michael Goldberg - Joseph B. Hewitt IV
Music - Paul S. Mudra
Publisher - Infocom
Genre - Role-playing
Players - 1
Controls - Joystick in port 2 + keys