Yeah, i remember playing this aged 14 and that mission and realising the walls shut down so you could escape.. brilliant little game advancer.. problem was when the techs wouldn't upgrade nor repair damaged actuators.. so i found two things..
1) you could easily "upgrade" by hacking the save game (make a copy first).. (i had no idea of programming but did have pctools-original) if you are still playing try it.. open using any hex/ascii editor and look for your mech name - the only thing you will recognise (can change BRING ON THE ATLAS!!) ... weapon codes are all numbers in the range 01-20something from memory.. internal/external armour codes are there to.. body parts all deliniated by 0000 OR FFFF or something for layout.. just watch out as the armour tends to go nuts in the visual layout and actual use senses - funny thing is Infocom built in suport for ALL the battletech weapons.. including PPCs and LRMs .. it makes it very fun.. till the techs wont replace ammo anyway..
2) with the original disk version (and i guess if you could virtual disk it somehow) i made two copies of each disk.. each time you entered a "insert other disk map" you could do the event (and gain weapons etc) multiple times by swapping which disk you used.
oh and theres a 3) but this is just abusing the game play - when you find the comstar trading building invest 1/2 your c-bills into the risky shares, half into the safe shares and then go back to the world map, walk to a remote spot and go mow the lawn or something.. when you get back you are either a millionaire or broke in the risky and relatively wealthy in the safe shares.. repeat.. the share values seem alter every 3 minutes or so (on an cga, Amstrad 512, 4mhz 086 beast (unfortunately no turbo button...))
haha the memories.. thats it.. im going back... wheres my vibroblade for when i wake up in that kurita invasion?
(just found this so good -
http://sarna.net/wiki/Crescent_Hawks.../Hacking_Guide)