Archive of Questions and Answers about Combat Robotics
from Team Run Amok: Robot Combat Events
Team Run Amok receives a lot of email asking about the design and operation of combat robots. In 2002 my son and team member Aaron Joerger (now 18) requested a question and answer page to document our responses. Aaron answers most of the questions, but I'll step in if it gets very technical.
To see the most recent questions or to ask a new question, go to the Ask Aaron home page.
Robot Combat Events
Q: If Battlebots actually broadcast a show, will you write about it again?
A: Mark J. here: on the Team Run Amok page I announced that there would be no further mention of BattleBots due to the long history of faulty and misleading information from the company. That prohibition applies to the activities of BattleBots Inc. and not to the efforts of participants in their events. The participants have my sympathies but they really should know better than to associate themselves with BattleBots, IMHO.
If a show airs, it will be open for discussion here.
Q: When will you start accepting Robot Wars questions again?
A: Mark J. here: don't hold your breath. We have very little interest in the types of Robot Wars questions we received in recent months.
Q: But will you accept questions about behind the scenes and really notable competitor bots like Razer?
A: If we answer any Robot Wars questions we'll be constantly arguing with submitters about the relevance of their questions.
Sorry to disappoint, but no Robot Wars questions.
Q: Were there ever 'house bots' in a US tournament? Not counting Robot Wars Extreme Warriors, of course.
A: Yes, but not in quite the same role. The 1994 Robot Wars in San Francisco had three events:
- a standard 'Face-Off' combat tournament with arena hazards;
- a pair of 'Mob Scene' fights with multiple robots; and
- a never repeated event called 'Escort' where contestants attempted to protect a small R/C robot from an attacking 'House Robot'.
The second and third seasons of 'Robotica' also had a type of 'House Robot'. A pair of robot 'Rats' (maybe 60 pounds each) were roaming the 'Labyrinth' section of the competition. These house-operated robots would impede the competitors, or sometimes assist if a robot became stuck.
Q: [Chinese Forum] A little question: Why does RFL tournaments couldn't be seen on TV? Someone in our place thinks that they don't have the economic or the other power to do that because the new BB can present its own official video and try to broadcast it on TV while RFL couldn't (Or they didn't try)...
A: Mark J. here: anyone can put a show on TV -- all it takes is money. Money to stage, money to film, money to edit, and money to buy time on some cable TV network. Then you have to sell commercial time to make your money back. BattleBots is well financed. They can afford to pile money into a risky television project that may or may not make their money back. The RFL is a loose organization of event organizers who can barely afford to build fighting arenas.
Q: But why BB organised so few matches in the recent years while RFL did? And what is the biggest robot combat association in US nowadays?
A: Robot combat events do not make money -- quite the opposite. Unless you have major sponsors they lose a whole lot of money. The RFL is a group of individuals who put on events because they love robot combat. BattleBots is a for-profit business which has been putting on a very few events in an effort to keep their corporate image alive while waiting for the time when they can return to profitable operations.
The RFL continues to put on more combat events in the US than all other sources combined.
Q: Why are you not accepting [questions about] rw competitors?
A: Mark J. here: as previously stated, our main focus is to support builders of combat robots with information, design tools, and opinions based on our competition experience. As a secondary service we are pleased to share our knowledge about what goes on 'behind the scenes' and 'in the pits' at competitions, our views on issues important to the sport, and information we have uncovered while researching the history of robot combat.
In the past Aaron and I have done our best to answer any and all questions on the broad topic of robot combat. Recently we have found ourselves answering a large volume of Robot Wars trivia which lies well outside the focus of this website. We are not interested in investing more of our time in this area. There are plenty of fanboy sites out there that can provide this information.
Q: Is the DVD of new Battlebots available?
A: Nope. Don't expect it anytime soon - the results haven't even been officially released yet [as of January, 2010].
Q: [Chinese Forum] Another question about TSN:Why did Shrederator turned into a totally different shape while facing to Megabyte in the HW Final?
A: Shrederator has been very badly damaged in an earlier match. Team Logicom punted and put the pieces that still worked together to make a bar-spinner for the final. I admire their resourcefulness.
Q: [Chinese Forum] Pretty much people in youtube believe that Tekka Maki beating Shrederator during TSN 03 was pure of luck, but I think Tekka did a great job and that KO is reasonable, could you tell me your opinion abuout that fight, Aaron?
A: I'm with the majority - 'Tekka Maki' got lucky, IMHO. Full body spinners are often their own worst enemy. 'Shrederator' was taking him apart and something just came loose inside the big spinner. It happens from time to time with a full-budy spinner -- they take as much of a beating as they dish out.
Q: Do you know when we can see the Battlebots 6.0?
A: A BattleBots tweet claims that something will be aired December 10th, 2009 on the difficult to find 'CBS College Sports Network'. Information from BattleBots has proven to be incredibly unreliable, so don't bet on it.
| UPDATE: December 7th - a new BattleBots tweet now says that their 2009 tournament will not be broadcast on the CBS College Sports Network after all, once again proving them to be a source of incredibly unreliable information. Remember this if you decide to have dealings with them. |
Q: As there are some videos of Battlebots 6.0 in Youtube, do you think we can see all the matches in Youtube one day?
A: I have no way of knowing.
Q: What is wrong with the ax touching the flipper, like on Project One?
Q: What is the concept of 3 part clusterbots like V3?
Q: How much it took you to compete in UK?
Q: Why did Joe Murawski replace Buzz, which I thought was a very origional robot, with the unreliable fliper?
Q: Was the alllignment of Nijitsu horizotal or vertical?
Q: What was Dragbot's weapon?
A: Mark J. here: we are not currently accepting any questions about Robot Wars tournaments or competitors.
Q: Can you upload RWEW 2 fights in heats A, B, E, F and G, and also the USA vs UK, the annihilator & the house robot rebellion onto youtube?
A: See #29.
Q: Why were nets allowed in early robot combat, even though they were cheating and were eventually banned?
A: Mark J. here: you may believe that nets had some unfair advantage, but they were allowed by the rules so they clearly weren't 'cheating'. Nets and other 'entanglement devices' were allowed as recently as the 'Robotica' series.
In early robot combat nobody knew what types of weapons would provide the most entertaining battles so a lot of freedom was allowed within the rules. The 'damage is fun' crowd was disgusted by the lack of violence in a net-throwing victory and they eventually pushed thru rules against them. Robot combat used to be more fun than it is now.
Q: But Brutus Maximus was disqualified from a series 7 qualifier for use of a net, even though he was given a discretionary place, eventually, but told not to use the net. Bulldog Breed was nearly disqualified for leaving a Mesh trailing from it's flipper, however, it wasn't meant to be used as a weapon, and so, it was merely warned about use of the mesh again, and got as far as the last 8.
A: Robot Wars could choose to enforce the rules however they liked and they often did so in inconsistant ways - rather like you use commas.
Q: In a number of matches in RWEW1 Shunt was mentioned as a house bot on the battleboards, but wasn't involved. Why?
A: The 'Battleboard' was added when the video from the tournament was edited into the format for the show. The editors made a few mistakes.
Q: What would've happened if Rosie was given the win over Snake bite in the RWEW2 house robot rebellion qualifier? If rosie and Buzz both won their round 2 games, would they have beaten the house robots?
A: We don't speculate on fantasy matches.
Q: Was the loaner bot Hoot- Given to teams in America and Holland for Robot Wars- based on an owl?
A: It does look a bit like an owl...
Q: I'm not asking for the whole fight. All i am asking for is what caused the Termite's defeat to Dragbot?
A: Only because it is instructive: Dave forgot to charge Termite's main battery before the match. Make a pit checklist and follow it!
Q: Was dredbot turned into drillzilla?
A: Same robot.
Q: Did Chris Harriman buy Tut Tut or was it a gift or prize?
A: None of the above. 'TutTut' was one of several loanerbots built by the Robot Wars tech crew. Chris was loaned the robot for use at Robot Wars Extreme Warriors 1 after 'Cyclone' was damaged beyond field repair. Like all other loanerbots, 'Tut Tut' was returned to Robot Wars at the end of the show. It went on to compete - again as a loanerbot - at Nickelodeon Robot Wars with another team.
Q: Who fought with Tut Tut in Nickelodeon Robot Wars? I heard it was Chris Harriman, thats why I asked whether he bought it.
A: There is an error at TV.com that indicates Chris had 'Tut Tut' at Nickelodeon. I don't recall the name of the kid who drove (kids drove all the 'bots at the Nickeodeon Robot Wars), but 'Tut Tut' was operating under the supervision of Mike Morrow and Team JuggerBot.
Q: Do you know what seed Dominator 2 was in Series 7 before dropping out?
A: 'Dominator 2' would certainly have been seeded highly in the Seventh Wars if the team had competed. Based on their Sixth Wars performance and the other teams that dropped out, they would have been about 3rd seed. No official 'woulda-been' ranking is available.
Q: Are you sure about Dominator 2 being seeded 3? It would have been 5, right?
A: That was off the top of my head, which is why I said 'about'. I looked at the tournament tree and this is how I see it:
- 'Tornado' was the defending champion - first seed.
- 'Razer' was runner-up, but did not compete in the Seventh Wars - no seeding.
- 'Firestorm IV' lost to the eventual champion in the semi-finals - second seed.
- 'Terrorhurtz' lost to the eventual runner-up in the semi-finals - third seed.
- 'Dominator 2' lost to the eventual champion in the quarter finals. If he had shown up - fourth seed.
Q: What was the greatest RW shock to you? Was it Aggrobot beating Razer (in Series 3), Iron Awe beating Bigger Brother (Series 7), Dantomkia beating Choas 2 (series 6), Raging Nightmare Beating Spawn Again(Series 7) or any other?
A: My biggest shock was 'Terrorhurtz' being a no-show for its opening round match in Series 7. Anything can happen in combat, but I never expected a seeded team to default.
Q: How many appearences, in total, did each House robot make in RWEW2? Who was alongside Sir Killalot the most times?
A: Sorry - I don't have a list of house robot appearances for Robot Wars Extreme Warriors or Nickelodeon Robot Wars, and I'm not going to sit thru a series again to run a tally.
Q: Were Mr psycho and growler in the German series of Rw?
A: I've never seen the German Robot Wars and have no info on the House Robots that appeared in that series.
Q: What's it with robot's being trashed by the house robots? Micro-mute, Vortex Inducer, Paul Bunyan and Major Tom are 4 examples of robots who broke down routinely, and were thrashed by the house bots.
Q: In RWEW2, heat D, in the other first round melle( the one not involving the Gap), why were the house robots allowed to attack Psycho chicken outside his CPZ?
A: There was a reason why Robot Wars Extreme Warriors was hosted by professional wrestlers. As previously discussed in this archive, Robot Wars was less a combat tournament than it was a television entertainment. Serious competitors were treated with a bit more respect than 'novelty' entrants, but even that broke down from time to time for the sake of 'entertainment'.
A good part of the dissatisfaction that resulted in many teams 'sitting out' tournaments late in the series had to do with the destructive actions of the house robots.
Q: Do you know if there will be merchandise for the '09 Battlebots?
A: BattleBots has gone from a multi-season cultural phenomenon to a poorly attended tournament that can't even pay to get itself aired on a backwater cable network. I'd bet against merchandise.
Q: What happened when your robots Zanzara and Run Away met Bigger Brother and Kat 3 in the international Tag Team Championship in Nickelodeon RW? What was your opinion on those 2? It was obvious why Bigger Brother would be in such a tournament, but why was Kat 3?
A: Mark J. here: two clarifications. First, 'Zanzara' (latin for 'mosquito') was a Robot Wars lonerbot -- not really 'our' robot. It was loaned to us when 'Propeller-Head' destroyed a drive gearbox on 'The Gap' and it could not be repaired.
Second, 'Run Away' was not in the Tag Team playoff match and neither was 'Kat 3'. Neither robot survived the first round eliminator. We had already pieced 'Run Away' back together once from scrap pieces after the damage it sustained from 'Destructive Criticism' in the RWEW2 main tournament and a second scrap rebuild was not possible. The playof was 'Zanzara' versus 'Bigger Brother' head-to-head.
The match was no contest. 'Bigger Brother' repeatedly flipped the loanerbot 'Zanzara', who had broken its meager weapon in the first round. 'Bigger Brother' was fast, controlled, and packed considerable offense.
All of the UK robots that appeared at the Nickelodeon Robot Wars were simply experienced teams that were invited in for the day. It was just a matter of who the producers found that would be ready and willing to show up.
Q: Why did Ref Bot stop counting Maximus when only its weapon was moving and count out Nite rider after both it and Maximus lost drive at the same time? Terror Bull and Mekaniac were deamt Immobile even though their weapons were moving so why wasnt Maximus?
A: Mark J. here: As previously mentioned, the Robot Wars matches were edited for television. The editors were more interested in making the matches exciting than in getting all the details right. It's possible that a key bit was cut out. You cannot assume that you saw the entire match. I wasn't there, so cannot say for sure what actually happened.
Q: I argue the use of Killalot and Bash as house bots in Tornado's match with Bigger Brother (in all stars) yieled Conspiricies, as I claim on youtube. I need to know it isn't.
A: Mark J. here: it's difficult to disprove a conspiracy theory. I have no information that would sway a believer.
Q: How did Root Canal do in Battlebots 6.0?
A: BattleBots prefers to keep results from their most recent tournament 'secret' until they are broadcast. We will comply with their wishes -- assuming they ever do get broadcast.
Q: When did The American RWEW air, and do you remember watching matches with other teams?
A: The first series filmed in June/July of 2001 and aired starting in late August 2001. The second series filmed in January, 2002 and started airing in late February or March of the same year. We did attend a couple of public viewing parties with Team JuggerBot and Rosie the Riveter, but the other teams were scattered across the country.
Q: Why didn't Rick, 8645T, Mega Morg, Steel Advenger, Atomic, Velocirippa (but it's team-mate competed), King B or Big nipper, participate in Series 6, even though they all participated in Series 5 and 7 and were better than robots which did qualify?
A: There were hard feelings between many of the teams and the event producers that came to a head late in the run of Robot Wars. Many teams sat out the 6th Wars. Many others sat out the 7th Wars. Ask around at the FRA Forum to get the first-hand info.
Q: Was Sir K.-Bash at least once in every show in RWEW2? If it was, was it due to conspiricies (it raises a negative atmosphere in my opinion)?
A: As mentioned previously, the Robot Wars technical crews just pulled out whatever house robots were handy and functioning for any given match. No real plan, no conspiracies, just luck of the draw.
Q: When did Bash Crumple Paul Bunyan's 230 RPM disk?
A: 'Paul Bunyan' had what may have been the world's slowest disk weapon. I believe the weapon was destroyed in the first round qualifier for the RWEW2 Robot Rebellion.
Q: Did Matilda have chainsaw or flywheel in Nickelodeon RW? What pictures of her were there?
A: As I recall, housebot 'Matilda' had the flywheel weapon at the Nickelodeon Robot Wars. You'll have to find your own pictures.
Q: Why wasn't Matilda involved in the first 4 shows in Series 7?
A: Luck of the draw.
Q: How come 'Humdrum' immobilized 'Spawn Again' on first contact?
A: 'Joker' (AKA 'Humdrum') defeated Spawn Again in the first round eliminator for the War of Independence at Robot Wars Extreme Warriors 1. I believe 'Spawn Again' had a faulty kill switch -- any impact would have disabled it.
Q: Why were Tricerabot, Rosie the Riveter, Tut Tut, Drillzilla, and even Killalot & Matilda breaking the rules in the first match of the tag team in Robot Wars Extreme Warriors 1?
A: Have you never seen a wrestling tag team match? They always start out following the rules and then it falls apart into chaos. That makes for good entertainment, and it was made clear to the competitors that this same pattern would be used in the tag team matches.
Q: How did you feel when the judges awarded your team the victory in the other tag team match, because the judges thought Killalot was out of order again, even though this was no reason to change the result of a tie in which the other pair were seemingly superior (no offence meant)? How do you feel when your team benefits from wrongful judges desicions like this? Do you have Sympathy for the opponents?
A: Mark J. here: Robot Wars matches were edited for broadcast and it is unwise to call a match based on what you saw on television. I saw several matches that had 'controversial' outcomes when broadcast that were clearly correctly judged when viewed in person. The matches were edited to make them entertaining - not to make the outcome clear.
In the Tag Team match you mention, 'General Chompsalot' and 'Run Away' had been dominating 'Falcon' and 'Joker' (the renamed loanerbot 'Humdrum'). Joker became stuck on an arena hazard at one point and had to be 'rescued' by a house robot, just to keep the match going.
I had tagged 'General Chompsalot' and moved 'Run Away' off away from the action. Busy watching the match, I did not notice that Sir K. had violated the rules by leaving the patrol zone and venturing into the middle of the arena. He picked up 'Run Away', tried to throw her out of the arena, put her on the 'flipper' upside-down and launched her back onto her wheels! Somewhere in this abuse 'Run Away' lost the chain drive to the rear axle and was immobile.
The judges elected to score the match based entirely on action up to the time of Sir K's infraction. They correctly awarded the match to us. There was no 'tie' that had to be broken, and there was no dissention from the audience or the other teams. I have never disagreed with the decision of the Robot Wars judges in any match that I had the opportunity to see in person.
Q: Was the worst self inflicted immobilization in robot combat Cyclone, Blendo, War Hog, Mauler, or Fluffy? Or is there any other bad self inflicted spinner immobilization in any robot event?
A: There have been so many! 'The worst' has to be a matter of opinion. I am personally very fond of 'Mauler' flipping itself over onto it's own back in a wild demonstration of spin instability.
Q: Why do you think [the Robot Wars] loaners are not destructive? Whilst loanerbots like Hoot, and Green mouse/squirmin Vermin were average, but ones like Tut Tut and Vertigo were good. Which team drove Vertigo?
A: The loanerbots were built with rugged chassis and reasonable drive trains, but their weaponry was dismal. They were designed to simply fill-in spots in events where no suitable 'real' competitor could be found.
I cannot think of a single example of a loanerbot causing any weapon damage to another able competitor. The rotary blade on 'Silver Box'/'Zanzara' was comical. The full-body spinner 'Humdrum' (AKA 'Joker') spun at about 200 RPM and would not have damaged a sturdy cardboard box. 'Rott Box' had a pnumatic mace that would not crack a walnut. 'Hoot' had rotary bars that had almost no power and would fall off on impact. Any success that a loanerbot may have had was based entirely on their basic drivetrain. None of the teams feared the loanerbots.
We have previously mentioned one exception to this rule. When Chris Harriman was given 'Tut Tut' for use in RWEW1 he examined the pneumatics used for the overhead axe, opened his parts box, and reworked the system on his own to provide more power. It was still not a 'killer' axe, but when combined with the pyramidial body design it was a reasonable competitor.
'Vert-I-Go' was loaned for use in the Nickelodeon Robot Wars, but I don't recall to which team.
Q: What were the house bot combinations for every [match] in RWEW 2?
A: If you're interested in specific fights, you'll have to watch the tapes yourself.
Q: Is it true that the reason why Tartarus claimed their robot was built by a secret agent in Series 7 was because the driver didn't turn up and the replacement team didn't know about the robot? Or was it a wind up to shock Jayne Middlemiss?
A: Roboteers were encouraged to make exaggerated claims and to come up with outrageous stories in their interviews. Why specific claims were made about secret agents, I have no idea.
Q: Why do robots drive in the pit? Not just 'The Gap', but 'Basenji', 'Disconstructor', 'Brute', 'Major Tom', 'Killerhurtz', 'Meshuggah', and even 'Panic Attack', 'Chaos 2' and 'Firestorm'. Why do they do that?
A: At Robot Wars, the drivers were in an enclosed, second-story room looking out onto an arena larger than a basketball court with The Pit down near the far end. Many drivers had never tried to operate their robots under similar conditions. The TV cameras had a much better view of the area around The Pit, but the drivers had no access to the camera views.
Often landing in The Pit was a matter of miss-judging the position of your robot. You may have been trying to shove your opponent in and just missed, or you may just not be able to tell where the edge of the pit is from your driving viewpoint.
Sometimes the robot was handling poorly due to damage. In the case of 'The Gap', 'Propeller-Head' had scored a direct hit on one of the gearboxes and the robot was only capable of driving in a circle - a circle that happened to intersect The Pit.
Once in a while it was deliberate. If your robot was damaged to the extent that the House Robots were about to come out and tear it apart, The Pit can be your friend. Driving into The Pit could save your robot to fight another day.
Q: why was Cassius chrome never alongside Dead metal or Matilda as house robots?
A: 'Cassius Chrome' appeared in fewer than 20 matches in the Seventh Wars. That didn't give it much time to change dance partners. The backstage technical guys just pulled whatever house robot was handy and functional for the next match. No conspiracy involved, just luck of the draw.
Q: If Rammstein was a Super-Heavyweight robot, how did it get to fight in the Heavyweight division in the Robot War of Independence tournament?
A: 'Rammstein' was a superheavyweight, but more by choice than design. For BattleBots 'Rammstein' tipped the scales at 270 pounds - very light for a superheavy. Pull out one of the heavy batteries, remove an armor plate, install a smaller CO2 tank and presto -- instant heavyweight.
Q: What robots had hair/fur that was set on fire?
A: Seriously?
Q: How many heavyweight bots still compete in the US?
A: The BotRank.com 'current rankings' keep a running list of robots by weight class that have fought in the last 18 months. That list (as of November, 2009) shows 16 heavyweight robots -- but that does not include the 25 robots that registered to fight in the heavyweight division at the 2009 BattleBots competition because results from that tournament are still 'secret'.
Q: Hmmm,well i do like to know which bot has the most wins that is a heavyweight.
A: Go browse the heavyweight 'History Score' section at BotRank.com. They have win/loss records for all robots from traditional one-on-one combat tournaments. Click on the green 'Score' for a complete fight-by-fight combat record for any specific robot. Hours of fun!
Q: Have there been any robots in Robot Wars to never lose a battle that debuted in Series 4 or onwards?
A: Mark J. here: think about that question for a minute and you can probably answer it yourself.
The robot would have had to win the first tournament it ever entered and then win every subsequent tournament. Assuming that you're talking about the main Robot Wars tournament, only one robot has done that. Not difficult to figure out. [Answer: 'Typhoon']
Q: What are the 5 robots that appeared in every Battlebots? I know Blade Runner and Nightmare but who else?
A: According to Jim Smentowski the five robots that competed in all seven BattleBots tournaments from Long Beach '99 thru Comedy Central Season 5.0 were:
- BioHazard
- frenZy
- Nightmare
- Tazbot
- Voltronic
Q: Is this [left] a photo of 'Medusa Oblongata' or 'Ninjitsu'?
A: The photo you found is a Team-X-Bots shot of 'Medusa Oblongata' from Robot Wars Extreme Warriors 2 before it got its war paint and decorations added. I found a photo [right] on the Team Truly Unruly site of their robot after it got decorated. 'Ninjitsu' did have a similar square rotary blade, but it was mounted horizontally. 'Medusa Oblongata' from RWEW1 looked completely different.
Q: Is there a picture of Ninjitsu anywhere?
A: I don't have one.
Q: What did Team Vicious enter in RWEW?
A: Mike Regan showed up at Robot Wars Extreme Warriors 1 with his first heavyweight robot -- 'The Brute'. For RWEW2 'The Brute returned with a spinning drum weapon.
Mike also drove one of the Robot Wars 'loanerbots' at RWEW1. The 'bot was called 'Silver Box' and it competed in the Robot Rebellion.
Q: Was Sugar Plum Fairy from Technogames a modified robot wars competitor?
A: Many teams did compete at Techno Games with renamed and thinly disguised Robot Wars entries, but I didn't keep track of who renamed what for Techno Games.
Q: What is this? (Team Litewav photo taken at Robot Wars Extreme Warriors 1).
A: We've discussed that photo before. Search this archive for 'Eubank'.
Q: I know there is a list of the six loanerbots in the archives, but which teams were they assigned to and why?
A: As previously mentioned, the 'loanerbots' were loaned to teams at Robot Wars Extreme Warriors who's own robots were lost in transit, damaged beyond repair in the main tournament, or failed to pass technical inspection. Why specific teams were selected over others to receive a loanerbot I can't say.
Tracking the loanerbots isn't easy. Some of the names changed between seasons ('Joker' became 'Humdrum', 'Green House' became 'Vert-I-Go', 'Green Mouse' became 'Squirmin Vermin'), some got a makeover ('Silver Box' got a fur coating to become 'Zanzara'), and some new ones (like 'Hoot') appeared for the second season. I don't have a full list of teams who used the loaners, and it will take more time to sort out than I have right now.
Q: Were there any walkers in Robot Wars Extreme Warriors?
A: You have to be either a masochist or an evil genius to build a walker. No walkers at RWEW 1 or 2.
Q: Hi Aaron, I've got some questions about Robot Wars Extreme Warriors Season 2.
A: Probophobia was a wheeled robot, but it did have a pair of very long lifting arms sprouting from the sides of the machine that could rotate continuously in either direction. They could be used to drag/crawl forward in an emergency. These long lifting arms were able to get a grip on the edge of The Pit and lever Probophobia back onto the main arena surface during the Nickelodeon Robot Wars - the first and only time that a competitor escaped. Unfortunately, the rules say that once you're in The Pit you're out of the match - no reprieve possible.
A: I believe it was 'Hyperactive' in the second round of the Annihilator, but I'll have to check the tape to be sure. 'Cyclone' was the first spinner to throw an opponent out of the Robot Wars arena.
Q: I previously asked about Probophobia, thanks for the answers. Do you know which battle in Nickelodeon that it got out of the Pit?
A: I recall that it was in the 'Challenge Belt' competition against eventual champion 'TutTut'.
Q: in the first series of Robot Wars USA Championships Final, why didn't panzer mk 2 flip the Revolutionist out of the arena when it was on the arena wall in a CPZ?
A: 'Panzer Mk 2' had a pneumatically adjustable front plow. It could raise or lower over about an 8" range. Although it could be used to provide a little 'boost' to an opponent, it was never intended to be an effective flipper.
Q: Were all the loanerbots in Robot Wars Extreme Warriors and in Nickelodeon Robot Wars made from the same parts like the UK competitors? Because I'm just wondering that's all.
A: Not sure what you mean by "same parts like the UK competitors." The loanerbots had square-tube steel chassis' and were powered by Bosch GPA 750 motors. These were common components used by the Robot Wars tech crew on the House Robots.
Q: Do you think Bill Nye is awsome? I do. (Nice website)
A: Bill Nye is great at what he does. I didn't think he was a good match for BattleBots.
Q: I'm impressed with [old robot #1]'s two heavyweight title win like in 1999 after beating [old robot #2] earlier and 2000 beating [old robot #3], [old robot #4] and [old robot #5]. Are you impressed as well with his career?
A: Mark J. here: we all know that [old robot #1] rocked, but that was eight or ten years ago. It's time to move on and show a little love for the accomplishments of current robot builders that don't have a world-wide TV audience.
Q: Do you know which website I can give a e-mail about robot fights in each events of BattleBots?
A: There isn't much interest in details of each individual fight from BattleBots. We maintain the most complete record of tournament trees and individual match winners: Who Won. You can try to start a discussion at the old BattleBots Forum, but there isn't much action there anymore.
Q: If there were a robot competition for UK and USA, how many robots from USA would be flipped out of the arena and would it possible for british robots to flip american robots out of the arena? I know that's what british robots with pneumatic flippers are known to do.
A: I don't predict the outcome of fantasy matches, but if the event took place in the BattleBots arena no one would be flipped out as the arena floor extends out to the wall. US robots did compete at the Robot Wars world championships and UK flippers have competed at BattleBots.
Q: There's going to be a BB09 tournament!?!? No way!! When is it airing? What network?
A: The BattleBots '09 tournament took place in April at Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, California. It wasn't much like the old tournaments - few classes, few robots. The date of the event slipped several times, and the airing date and network have changed as well.
According to the BattleBots website (September '09) the college student middleweight competition will air sometime in December, 2009 on the hard-to-find CBS College Sports Network.
No plans have been announced to air the Pro Heavyweight tournament, so don't get your hopes up.
Q: I have a question about Robot wars competitor 'The Stag'. How come he failed to compete in series 5?
A: Team Bodgeit tried to qualify for a spot in series 5, but they were just not impressive enough to make the show. The robot went thru an extensive redesign and rebuild to successfully qualify for Series 6 and 7. Trivia: 'The Stag' was originally entered for the series 5 qualifier under the name 'Mr. Hyde'.
Q: [Chinese Forum] Sorry for asking another fight decision that seems 'controversial': 'Nightmare' vs 'Battlerat' in BattleBots 4.0. What's your opinion,Aaron?
A: I agreed with the BattleBots judges (I usually did). 'Battlerat' did no consequential damage while 'Nightmare' tore Battlerat's weapon in half. Both 'bots were equally aggressive: never backing away, always advancing. Battlerat's strategy did allow it to control the match, but there was no 'control' scoring at BattleBots.
Q: Have you ever been on Botrank.com to send questions about what happen of these robot events fights?
A: Team Run Amok provided BotRank with most of their information about the early tournaments. The BotRank database has information only on individual match winners - they have no judges scores or event details.
Q: [Chinese Forum] Some people think that the result of the fight between 'Stealth Terminator' and 'M.O.E.' at BattleBots 5.0 was unfair, but I think the Judges' decision is right because ST showed a lot of agression and pretty good strategy there. Do you think this decision is controversial or not? And in your opinion, who should've won that battle?
A: I went back and watched the match again. In my book, this was no contest - 'Stealth Terminator' clearly won. The judging criteria for BattleBots was damage, aggression, and strategy.
- The damage done by 'M.O.E.' was limited to tearing away a non-critical drop skirt from 'Stealth Terminator'. A 'hit', no matter how hard, only counts if it does damage.
- 'Stealth Terminator' was much more aggressive, constantly moving forward on attack. Their aggressive ramming knocked out MOE's weapon for most of the match - a bigger deficit than loss of a drop skirt.
- Who's strategy worked better? 'Stealth Terminator' was able to control the majority of the match and really took the fight to 'M.O.E.'.
Q: Razer have broke downs in Robot Wars I see. But does he have broke downs in Battlebots as well?
A: 'Razer' is a complicated robot. Early in its career it suffered a number of mechanical failures that took it out of tournaments. Team Razer attributed their loss to 'Tazbot' at BattleBots Long Beach 1999 to a failure in their self-righting mechanism, and their second loss at Long Beach against 'Rhino' to a radio switch that flipped off on heavy impact. They made no comment on the cause of their loss to 'Voltarc' in Las Vegas.
Q: [Chinese Forum] A question that has been discussed in our forum for a long time: what caused KillaHurtz's success in Battlebots and what caused its bad fighting results in Robot Wars? I think it's only about luck, because in my opinion KHZ is a powerful, well-driven, and creative bot. What's your opinion, Aaron?
A: Robot Wars and BattleBots were very different competitions. The arenas were different, the judging expectations were different, and the type of competitors were different. I suspect that a good part of KillerHurtz's success at BattleBots was the relative novelty of a pneumatic overhead axe at the time coupled with their aggressive driving style.
Q: Do you think Vlad The Impaler's forklift weren't low enough to get underneath Biohazard's skirts like in 1999?
A: Mark J. here: we've had more than enough discussion of the 1999 Vlad/BioHazard match -- no more.
Q: How on earth did Voltarc beat Razer in 1999 Las Vegas I thought Razer beat him again like he did in Long Beach event.
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Q: [Chinese Forum] Are there any differences between Surgeon General (BB 5.0 version) and Surgeon General (BB 09 version)?
A: I'm not going to discuss specifics of BattleBots '09 matches or competitors until after the tournament is broadcast. Given the delays in the broadcast already, that may be a while.
Q: [Chinese Forum] Has Devil's Plunger ever lost to a drummer? It's fighting record is so hard to check out in detail so I wanna send this question to you...
A: What's so hard about checking out the record? Go to BotRank.com, find 'Devils Plunger' in the middleweight historic listing, click on the score, and it will show every match. You can click on an opponent and follow a link to the Builder's DB to get details on their weaponry.
If you do that, you'll find that 'Devils Plunger' did lose a match to the drum spinner 'Falcon' at the 2005 Robotic Revolution in New Orleans. Now, go do your own research.
Q: I really desperate to see that 1999 BioHazard/Vlad fight, a thing is I live in England. Is anyway I can get that DVD?
A: If you're sure you can view NTSC video, you could arrange for someone in the US to buy a copy and forward it to you.
Q: How can I buy a DVD of the 1999 Las Vegas tournament from BattleBots and send it to England? I only need some Dollars but I didn't have Dollars.
A: Dollars talk, my man.
Q: Is Karcas 2 a sucessful robot? I think it is! Why didn't Don Hudson take it to Battlebots 09?
A: With a record of 8 wins, 2 losses I think most people would consider Karcas 2 a successful robot. Don didn't take it to BB 6.0 because he had something better ; ^ )
Q: How on earth did Vlad The Impaler beat Biohazard in 1999 Las Vegas because I thought Biohazard too good for Vlad but so easy to beat?
A: Everybody wants to know about that fight. Vlad was a very serious competitor at the time and not at all easy to beat - the fight was the heavyweight final. See a brief description of the fight further down in this archive.
Q: What do you think of Huggy Bear?
A: Unique design, continued development, good fight record (17-5). Last fought in 2003 and likely not competitive against current middleweights. I hear that an updated heavyweight version fought at the spring 2009 BattleBots event.
Q: [Chinese Forum] In Biohazard Combat robot website, robot battles only shown the 1997 battles so is anyway that another battles shown like 1999 Battlebots Las Vegas Pay-per view?
A: You're really desperate to see that 1999 BioHazard/Vlad fight, aren't you? As previously stated, the only source I know for detailed info on that fight is the previously mentioned DVD from the 1999 BattleBots event in Las Vegas.
Q: Many teams (Team Mutant, Inertia Labs, Plumb Crazy...) have made special changes between matches when confronted with a special opponent. Team Tornado was neither the first nor the last to do it, but their match against 'Razer' was the most controversial. Why is that?
A: Tornado's 'anti-crusher web' was designed solely for use against Razer. Team Tornado had deployed a similar chassis extension in the 'International Championships' at RWEW2 months earlier, so the device did not come as a surprise to either the fans or the judges. Razer was ready with a countermeasure - a hook extension for their weapon.
The controversy came when Razer was able to hook Tornado's extension and carry them to 'The Pit'. The chassis extension was so large that Razer could not orient Tornado in a way to fit it into the hole. The best Razer could do was set Tornado down on top of the opening, and there Tornado sat while the last few seconds ran out on the match.
This is the source of the controversy. The judges were in a pickle. They had already ruled that the chassis extension was legal - it was exactly the maximum length and width allowed by the rules (2 meters by 1.4 meters). After deliberating for 45 minutes, they decided that Razer had not succeeded in placing Tornado 'in the pit' and awarded the match decision and the UK Championship to Tornado. Razer fans still hate that decision!
Q: [Chinese Forum] some people in our forum think that there MUST be something wrong with 'Warhead' when it was facing 'Overkill' in the BB 5.0 quarterfinals. Was that true?
A: Warhead certainly didn't look right and wasn't moving well. Team Razer never commented on the fight, so I can't do more than guess.
Q: Were you at RG09? Who did 'The Mortician' lose to beside 'VD5'? What do you think of 'Professor Chaos'?
A: We weren't at the event , but results from RoboGames '09 are up at BotRank.com. 'The Mortician' lost to 'VD5' and 'TSA Inspected'.
WPI Combat Robotics have put together one of the most terrifying middleweights in the history of the sport. 'Professor Chaos' dominates the middleweight class with a record of 10 wins and no losses, defeating the number 2 and 3 ranked robots along the way. I don't know who has the capability to stop them!
Q: Does some Battlebot battles have 23-22 split decisions and does 23-22 split decision always what Mark Beiro says on Judges scorecards?
A: Yes, and yes.
Q: Does the SECR still exist? Their site has changed and I can't find a new one.
A: To the best of my knowledge, South Eastern Combat Robotics no longer exists. Their website has been down for a couple of years and they are no longer listed in the Robot Fighting League membership roster.
Q: I have a Dutch Robot Wars question. Do you know what 'Beaverbot' and 'Impact' look like?
A: Photo of 'Beaverbot' here. Try a sarch for video of the Dutch Robot Wars series 2 heat B where 'Beaverbot' and 'Impact' fought each other.
Q: Is that right that Vlad the Impaler drove in deep under the skirt, lifted, and rammed Biohazard into a wall who nearly flipped over, Vlad grip Biohazard on his back and push it backwards and a killsaws does Vlad a favour and Biohazard was flipped over and lost the ability to self-right. Vlad won by KO went on to win the 1999 Las Vegas Pay-per-view event? [Chinese Forum]
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We also do not confirm the accounts of others.
Q: Does Jonathon Ridder knows about Season 3.0 lightweight rumble which he won alongside three lightweight titles? Ziggo is my favourite bot.
A: I'm sure Jonathan knows all about it. Maybe you should ask him?
Q: I know 'Beta' failed to compete in Battlebots, but has it involed in any other fight, no matter official or not? [Chinese Forum]
A: Not that I know of.
Q: Has Vlad II improved since it appeared in RoboGames 2008? It did pretty crap there and I don't know what happened. [Chinese Forum]
A: You can find 'Vlad the Impaler II's current and complete record at BotRank.com.
Q: Which is the oldest UK team that is still competing? Team Hurtz @ 11 years? What do you think of this "team of axe"? [Chinese Forum]
A: Mark J. here: I'm having trouble obtaining competitor lists and results from UK events, so it's difficult for me to define or determine exactly who is 'still competing' there.
John Reid was kind enough to correspond with us while we were building our first combat robot. He gave us some very helpful information. I think that John and Team Hurtz have done a great deal to promote robot combat and that they are key to the continuing success of robot combat in the UK.
Q: Has Voltronic been damaged badly by MOE at BattleBots 4.0? Because I see Stephen rebuild an all new Voltronic in 5.0. [Chinese Forum]
A: Lots of reasons to build a new version of a robot. I don't know why Stephen Felk chose to build new rather than rebuild.
Q: Is 'Frenzy' the oldest axe in Robot Wars US? Is Patrick Campell one of the most experienced drivers/builders in Battlebots? [Chinese Forum]
A: I think 'Thor' was the first robot with a vertical 'hammer' attack (Robot Wars 1995). 'TerMinal frenZy' first appeared at the 1996 Robot Wars. As I'm sure you already know, Patrick has enormous experience - he competed for a long time in a variety of events.
Q: Does Carlo Bettocchini knows what happened and won by a that 23-22 decision? Poor Center Punch's Ann Beaver. [Chinese Forum]
A: I'll be sure to ask the next time I run into Carlo.
Q: What caused some robots like 'X-Terminator S7 version' and 'TerrorHurtz" become 'flipper killer'? [Chinese Forum]
A: Mostly a matter of luck. They each had a run of good fortune against flippers, but they could have equally likely have had a good run against any other weapon type.
Q: What do you think of Team Sharpnel and Team Raptor? [Chinese Forum]
A: I'm not going to give an opinion on every team in combat robotics. I don't think that would be of interest to the intended users of this website.
Q: In RobotCombat.com. Each robots in 1999 battlebots Las Vegas and 2000 San Franciso didn't how they won like knockouts or a judges. So is anywhere how can I find out how those bots won by knockouts or Judges?
A: I suppose you could dig around in an archived copy of the old BattleBots website but for me, a win is a win however it comes.
Q: Where can I find all of the fights in 1999 Battlebots Las Vegas instead of that DVD?
A: The DVD is the only source I know, and I don't believe that all 26 fights are recorded there.
Q: In Battlebots.com is anywhere I can find 1999 Las Vegas Pay-per-view, I been on that website but I can not find it?
A: Try archives of the site from different times at The Wayback Machine. You may have to search thru records for each competitor to get specific match scores. Do you really care that much about knockouts versus judges decisions?
Q: 'Biohazard' and 'Center Punch' fight is not televised. But are you got lucky that 'Biohazard' beat 'Center Punch' by 23-22 decision?
A: I didn't see the match, but in my experience BioHazard never 'got lucky' with judging. BioHazard was simply good.
Q: Chinese Forum: who is the most successful team [at BattleBots] that isn't from US: Team Hurtz or Team Automatum?
A: Depends on how you define 'success'. Both teams have 2 'Giant Nut' trophies:
- Team Automatum won the middleweight class at the 1999 Long Beach event (Son of Smashy) and was the middleweight 'runner-up' at BB 4.0 (Complete Control).
- Team Hurtz was the heavyweight 'runner up' (KillerHurtz) and John Reid won 'Best Driver' at the 1999 Long Beach event.
Q: Is 'Son Of Smashy' the only robot win a Battlebots championship that isn't from US?
A: 'Son of Smashy' from the Canadian 'Team Automatum Technologies' based in Vancouver, B.C. won the middleweight championship at the 1999 BattleBots Long Beach tournament and is the only tournament class winner from outside the US. However, other 'Giant Nuts' have been awarded to non-US robots:
There is a more interesting trend amongst the tournament class winners a BattleBots: with a single exception, all of the tournament winners in all of the weight classes lived within 50 miles of the Pacific ocean on the west coast of North America. The exception: BB 3.0 heavyweight winner 'Son of Whyachi' was from Wisconsin, about 120 miles from Lake Michigan. The winner of both Robot Wars Extreme Warriors tournaments (Team Panzer) and 2 of the 3 Robotica tournaments (Team Run Amok and Team Panzer) are also inside the 50 mile pacific limit. Robotica 2 champions 'Robot Dojo' are landlocked in Colorado.
Q: Who is the greatest children driver of Battlebots in your mind? Maybe Andy Sauro? [Chinese Forum]
A: Andy has been very successful, but I'm not sure how to separate his driving skill from other factors that contribute to his success. There is also the question of who qualifies as a 'child'. I don't think I'll comment further on this topic.
Q: Was Team Robot Action League the first team won the MW championship in Robot Wars? [Chinese Forum]
A: Team Robot Action League's 'Tentomushi' won the first UK Robot Wars middleweight title at the Third Wars in 1999, but the middleweight tournament there was just a few robots thrown together to accommodate the filming of a Robot Wars pilot episode for MTV. The focus at the UK Robot Wars has always been on the heavyweights.
The early US Robot Wars competitions had middleweight classes, but the weight limit varied. The winners there were 'X1' (1994, 70 pounds), 'La Machine' (1995, 80 pounds), 'The Agamemnon' (1996, 100 pounds), and 'Vicious-1' (1997, 100 pounds).
Q: Instead Voltronic couldn't self right against Biohazard but is it three times that Voltarc couldn't self-right against Vlad The Impaler? [Chinese Forum]
A: BotRank.com lists 25,966 robot fights from North America. For some odd reason I cannot remember the details of how each one of those fights went ; ^ ) Your count of losses to Vlad is correct.
Q: I noticed that in the Nick. robot wars, Joker was a totally different bot than the loaner from Extreme 1. Was that their real bot, or was it another loaner?
A: Team Joker's 'bot for Robot Wars Extreme Warriors 1 was lost in transit, so they fought with a loaned robot. The second time to England they had better luck with shipping and they fought with their own robot at Extreme Warriors 2.
Q: Do you have some video of 'Mortis'? If you do, could you send me some? I really love him! [Chinese Forum]
A: Sorry, we don't distribute video. Your best bet is YouTube.
Q: What happened during the fight between 'Deb Bot' and 'The Killa Gorilla' in Robotica Season 2? [Chinese Forum]
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Q: Who built the first self-spinner? Jamie "Mythbuster" Hyneman (Blendo), the Tilfords (Mauler), or both of them? [Chinese Forum]
A: The Tilford Clan showed up at the 1994 Robot Wars event with 'South Bay Mauler', the first recorded full-body spinner to compete at an organized robot combat event. 'Blendo' first competed at the 1995 Robot Wars event.
It should be noted that the early records from the Critter Crunch competition which dates back to the 1980's have been lost - if they ever even had records (the 'Mad Scientists' are a loosely organized group) - so it is possible that an earlier 'tuna-can' spinner existed.
Q: Is 'Deadblow' the only middleweight axe? What caused it's failure since BattleBots 2.0? [Chinese Forum]
A: I wouldn't call 'Deadblow' an overhead axe, exactly. The weapon was weak and could do no damage -- it was there to show aggression. Evolution of more powerful weaponry rendered this 'peckerbot' less impressive to the judges.
Overhead axe weapons have never had a lot of favor in North America, but there have been many middleweights. 'BattleDog', 'El Spooky', 'Fusion', and 'Major Punishment' all competed at BattleBots 5.0. None were successful enough to appear on TV.
Q: Who are the most successful bot in HW and SHW? I think Team Diginati's 'Tekka Maki' is pretty good in HW and 'Redrum' is really awesome too. But in SHW, I don't know - maybe Code Breaker? [Chinese Forum]
A: Tekka Maki's record of 5 wins and 2 losses certainly does not qualify it as 'most successful'. Tekka Maki last fought in 2004. 'REDRUM' is also out of the running at 11 wins and 7 losses. Go look thru the fight records at BotRank.com to check on who the 'top dogs' are.
Q: In 'Alien Raptor' vs. 'Smashbox', who will have more possibility to win? I know 'Gamma Raptor' has beaten 'Wedge Of Doom' in BB 3.0 once, but WOD/Smashbox has improved a lot since then. [Chinese Forum]
A: Sorry, we don't predict fantasy matches.
Q: Are there only Panzer series, Juggerbot series, and Jawbreaker had all competed in Robot Wars, BattleBots, and Robotica? [Chinese Forum]
A: I looked this up a while back for a previous question in this archive. By my count, there were eleven teams that competed at all three events:
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Q: I've heard that Team Shrapnel's Capitan Robert Lawrence Matzinske said that they are going to get a HW nut in BB 5.0. Do you think it's possible according to Mechavore's ability? [Chinese Forum]
A: I'm starting to catch on. You're just now seeing the BattleBots tournaments in China and haven't seen BB 5.0 yet, right? I'm not sure how much information to give you -- the last BattleBots show aired on TV in the US more than seven years ago. I don't want to spoil your fun.
Q: What is the difference between KO and TKO? What is meaning of FF in the BattleBots fight record at robotcombat.com?
A: A knock-out (KO)occurs when a robot is disabled and 'counted out'. A technical knock-out (TKO) is scored when a robot 'throws in the towel' and concedes the loss to end the match and prevent additional damage. The 'FF' match result indicates a forfeit -- one robot did not show up for the match.
Q: In Robot Wars, who the winner is depends on Damage, Control, Style and Aggression - but what is the exact meaning of Control and Style here?
A: The four categories are not defined in the Robot Wars Rules. Here is what the rules for the Second Wars say:
- DAMAGE. (Weight of 4) 1-5 points x 4 = Score for Damage.
- AGGRESSION. (Weight of 3) 1-5 points x 3 = Score for Aggression.
- CONTROL. (Weight of 2) 1-5 points x 2 = Score for Control.
- STYLE. (Weight of 1) 1-5 points x 1 = Score for Style.
The winner will be the robot who has scored the highest number of points if there has been no clear winners. This scoring system gives a fair and unbiased chance for every robot- irrespective of size, weight or power- to win!
Q: Is 'Nasty Attitute' the fastest bot in MW? What do you think of Thomas Petrucelli and his bots? Are they some of the best wedges in this planet? [Chinese Forum]
A: 'Nasty Attitude' is fast, but I think it has more to do with the aggressive driving style adopted by Thomas than the absolute speed of the 'bot. Most drivers will pause and pick their target, but Thomas just keeps the throttle down and slews the 'bot around the arena in big power slides. Team Attitude's robots are always well prepared and thoughtfully designed.
Their winning records qualify 'Nasty Attitude' (14 wins - 5 losses) and smaller sibling 'New Attitude' (17-8) as top rank wedges, although I'd have to give top honors to Team Rotordesign's middleweight 'Max Wedge' (39-8) and the unbelievable lightweight 'Wedge of Doom' (43-5).
Q: It seems that Battlebots is the only contest where roboteers can put advertisement on their bots, am I right?
A: The only widely televised contest, yes. Robotica allowed sponsor banners in the pit area, which received considerable air time, but not on the robots. The BBC was quite sensitive about commercial endorsements on Robot Wars and allowed no sponsor banners anywhere.
Q: Do you know anywhere abouts where I can find that DVD of the 1999 Las Vegas tournament from BattleBots?
A: Createspace sells DVDs of the 1999 BattleBots Las Vegas Pay-Per-View tournament and the 1999 BattleBots Long Beach tournament for $24.95 each.
Q: What happened in the fight between 'Vlad The Impaler' and 'BioHazard' at the 1999 BattleBots event in Las Vegas?
A: Story short: Vlad got under BioHazard's drop skirts and flipped him. BioHazard lost the ability to self-right when Carlo B. added the drop skirts in 1997.
Q: After Vlad The Impaler got under Biohazard's skirts how does he flipped him with his forklift because I thought his forklift weren't strength enough and too slip to flip Biohazard because those skirts?
A: Vlad's forklift was plenty strong enough to lift BioHazard, just not high enough for an unassisted turn-over. Vlad got lucky, drove in deep under the skirt, lifted, and rammed BioHazard into a wall to complete the flip.
Q: In 1999 Battlebots Las Vegas which side did Vlad got under BioHazard's drop skirts and flipped him, is it a front, left or right or a back skirts?
Did Biohazard got any flip before Vlad got under Biohazard's skirts and flipped him or Vlad immedially got underneath and flipped him after that fight starts?
Is Vlad in a red and BioHazard in a blue square in that fight?
After Vlad The Impaler beat BioHazard, who you think who might win before that fight begins?
A: Don't make me go looking for my old tape of the event. We generally don't provide blow-by-blow commentary for fights not involving our own team. I will say that BioHazard was the strong favorite before the fight.
Q: In 1999 Battlebots Long Beach how did 'Rhino' beat 'Vlad The Impaler' by a knockout?
'Ziggo' is my favourite bot. Did you see his fight against 'Defiant' in 1999 Long Beach where he lost in fight 4 and won in a final by a crowd vote? If you did how does Ziggo lost in a fight 4 and won in a final against Defiant by a crowd vote?
A: As previously noted, we generally don't provide blow-by-blow commentary for random fights not involving our own team. There is a short description of the Rhino-Vlad fight as written by Michael Kaplan for 'Unlimited' magazine posted at the Team Coolrobots website.
We were not at the Long Beach tournament. The tournament trees for all of the BattleBots tournaments are available at the Team Run Amok tournament winners website.
Q: Three questions in 1999 Battlebots Las Vegas
1. What happened in the fight between Biohazard and Frenzy?
2. What are Biohazard's oppenents after he won a heavyweight rumble?
3. What happened in the fight between Vlad The Impaler and Rhino in the semis and also Vlad The Impaler and Voltarc in a final?
A: Mark J. here: listen very closely this time:
| We do not provide detailed commentary for random fights not involving our own team. |
We will provide details of specific fights only if they were controversial, particularly important to the history of the sport, or offer an example useful in answering a design question.
The tournament trees for all of the BattleBots tournaments are available at the Team Run Amok tournament winners website. A DVD of the 1999 Las Vegas tournament is available from BattleBots.
Q: Did Biohazard flipped upside down or against the wall after Vlad The Impaler gets under his skirt, lifted and rammed it to the wall?
| A: You aren't paying attention. |
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Q: Did 'Razer' got beaten in the Season 2 Robot Wars Extreme Warriors 'War of Independence' by 'Kat3' in round 1 or by 'Tornado' in round 2?
A: Razer lose to Kat III? Not likely. Tornado fought Razer in the second round, revealing their 'anti crusher' defensive web for the first time. There is a discussion thread for that tournament (known in Europe as the 'International Championship') at the Team Tornado Robot Wars Forum.
Q: How on earth did 'Ziggo' lose by a knockout against 'Sallad' at BattleBots 3.0? I thought Ziggo would beat Sallad very easily and go on to win another lightweight title like he did in 1999 and 2000.
A: The lightweight quarter-final fight between Ziggo and Sallad was not televised, so this is something of a mystery. I'm trying to contact people who were at the event and I'll update this post when I have more information. Until then I can only comment that when a fight goes wrong for a full-body spinner it can go very, very wrong.
Ziggo won 3 BattleBots lightweight championships: 1999 Long Beach, 2000 Season 2.0, and 2001 Season 4.0. Ziggo also won the lightweight rumble at the 2002 BattleBots 3.0 event and is a member of the Combat Robot Hall of Fame.
UPDATE - my dad wrote to Jonathan Ridder of Team Ziggy and asked him what happened. Here is Jonathan's reply:
Thank you, Jonathan!
Q: Where can I get 'Robotica' clips?
A: I have no current source for clips, tapes, or DVDs from any of the three seasons of 'Robotica'.
Q: Do you know why 'Beta' didn't compete in any match?
A: Mark J. here: Team Hurtz is famous for their overhead axe robots (KillerHurtz, TerrorHurtz) with which they competed in Robot Wars and BattleBots. Attempting to rapidly accelerate an overhead exe weapon causes an equal and opposite reaction which can actually flip the robot itself over.
Team Hurtz experimented with several methods of generating downforce to hold the body of the robot steady. 'Beta' attempted to use large electromagnets to hold the robot down to the steel BattleBots arena floor when the weapon was fired. Unfortunately the steel arena plates are held down only by their own weight; when 'Beta' energized the electromagnets it pulled the arena flooring up and disrupted its own movement.
BattleBots reasonably forbade the use of the electromagnets, and without them Beta was not able to use the overhead weapon. Team Hurtz withdrew from the tournament without fighting a single match at BattleBots 5.0.
Q: In the Robot Wars 'Robot Rampage' event (Robot Wars Extreme II) were there any featherweight qualifiers?
A: The Robot Rampage event had middeweight, lightweight, featherweight, and antweight divisions. The two featherweight qualifying rounds were not shown and I haven't been able to track down the competitors. The televised featherweight final featured 'Aargh', 'Bernard', 'Cutlet', 'Gladiator', 'Katnip', and 'Micromute'.
Q: How far did new Hexy D go in RG06? Is it retired? Are 'Smashbox' (aka 'Wedge Of Doom') and 'Nasty Attitude' retired since RG05?
A: You can find full combat records for North and South American robots at BotRank.com. Look up the robot and click on its score. Complete tournament match results are at the BotRank events listing.
- Heavyweight 'Hexadecimator' made it to the semifinals in the losers bracket at RoboGames 2006 where it lost to 'SJ'. Hexy D has not fought since.
- 'Wedge of Doom' last fought at RoboGames 2005 as 'Smashbox', where it won the lightweight class.
- Middleweight 'Nasty Attitude' last fought at the 2005 RFL Nationals.
Q: From what I have seen and heard at RoboGames 2009 I think that the problem with robot combat is spinners, because beginners don't want to have their robot shredded in its first fight. So do you think making the sportsman class more prevalent would be a good Idea to increase the size of robotic combat?
A: Mark J. here: this is the hottest, most divisive topic in robot combat. Partisan groups each have their own arguments:
IMHO, the solution to the problem is not in additional restrictions or special classes; you have to change the underlying structure of the competition to make mega-destruction unworkable and boring wedges unthinkable. No one dared to enter a high-energy spinner at Robotica, and wedges simply had no advantage at BotBash.
The time for putting two robots in a flat-floored plastic box and having them fight for three minutes has passed. Take a look at some alternative ideas I put together: Questioning Robot Combat Paradigms.
Where does that leave us? Spinner weapons are more destructive than ever, but crowds are not flocking to watch combat robot tournaments. The judging guidelines established by the RFL that reward damage are also not adding to the popularity of the sport. The sportsman class is an interesting experiment, but popularity amongst the builders has been limited by design constraints and reliance on the subjective discretion of the event organizer to interpret the rules.
Q: Here's a Robot Wars question I thought of: were all six loaner bots given to the teams that built their own robots?
A: I'm not sure I understand the question. All of the loanerbots were used by teams whose own robots were destroyed in early combat, were lost in transit, or were unable to pass technical inspection. The loaner robots were returned to the Robot Wars technical staff at the end of the tournament.
Search this archive for more information on the loanerbots.
Q: Is it true that the BattleBots competition happened a month ago?
A: A BattleBots tournament took place April 20-26, 2009 at Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, California. It wasn't much like the old tournaments. There were three classes: a 120-pound class for college teams, another 120-pound class for high school teams, and a 220-pound class open to everyone. There weren't a lot of robots.
BattleBots says the college tournament will be shown on the hard-to-find CBS College Sports Network sometime in autumn, 2009.
Q: How come none of the loner bots were in the US championship in RWEWS1?
A: Loaners were used to 'fill' the side events at RWEW. The Championship was restricted to real competitors.
Q: Was 'Shuriken' one of the loaner bots in Robot Wars Extreme Warriors?
A: There is a complete list and explanation of the loaner robots from RWEW 1 in this archive: search for 'loanerbots'.
None of the robots in the main tournament were loaners. 'Shuriken' was a real competitor robot built by Evan White. After 'Shuriken' was destroyed in the main tournament, Evan was loaned 'The Green Mouse' to compete in the 'Robot Rebellion' event.
Q: Was there a special event in Heat I of Robot Wars Series 7?
A: There was no 'special event' in the Seventh Wars Heat I broadcast, but something interesting did happen. In the first round, 'Storm II' teamed up with a disabled 'Supernova' to rip the right-side track completely off 'Sir Killalot'. Details are at the Team Storm webpage.
Q: Would you think that the intervention by Mentorn in the Robot Wars Seventh Wars as described by Team Storm would happen at events? I'm not sure if producers just want money or if Storm is embellishing a little.
A: Mark J. here: the job of the television producer is to make entertaining television. The job of the tournament director is to assure a fair tournament. The Robot Wars tournaments had a panel of independent judges, but Mentorn both produced the television show and ran the tournaments. This created a conflict of interest.
I wasn't at the Seventh Wars, but I have seen Robot Wars fights that were edited for television in a way that masked the actual events of the match, much as described by Team Storm. I tend to believe their story.
Production interference is not confined to Robot Wars. The producers of BattleBots tampered with events by having well-known robots from previous competitions 'skip over' the first several rounds of the tournament. This gave these 'seeded' robots a great advantage and assured the producers of fan favorites in the final rounds. Only 4 of the 63 televised fights in Season 5.0 were between two non-seeded robots.
I have also personally seen strong favoritism and tampering at non-televised robot combat events. At one melee event where the audience was acting as the judge, the event organizer refused to put forward one of the robots for consideration even though it may well have won the decision. The builder had flown 2000 miles to participate in the event and support the tournament, but the organizer apparently wanted a local robot to win.
Q: In Robot Wars, couldn't anyone flip 'Sir Killalot'?
A: Sir K was the only house bot that avoided being flipped. His 'official' weight was listed at 616 pounds, but his true weight was nearly twice that. Even so, many of the high-powered flippers had the capacity to toss Sir K but they were never in the right place at the right time.
'Mr. Psycho', considerably heavier than Sir K, was toppled by 'Firestorm 4' in Robot Wars Extreme Series 2.
Q: Did you knew that Bill Nye the science guy was a technical expert in battlebots?
A: Yes, Bill Nye was the on-screen 'technical expert' for the show. He had a short segment in the show where he would explaine some aspect of robot combat. Best I can tell, Bill Nye never built a combat robot.
Q: How old was Nancy Rodriguez when she was on Nickelodeon Robot Wars?
A: I don't know, and I don't know why you would want to know.
Q: Do you know why 'Shunt' And 'Dead Metal' keep being with each other in every Robot Wars battle?
A: You exaggerate. I checked the episode guide for Robot Wars Season 5 at TV.com and got the following number of appearances for the House Robots:
- Sir Killalot: 16
- Dead Metal: 15
- Matilda: 15
- Shunt: 14
- Sgt. Bash: 10
- 5 were with Sir Killalot
- 5 were with Shunt
- 4 were with Matilda
- 1 was with Sgt. Bash
Q: Haven't you seen dutch robot wars in england? And do you even know the dutch robots?
A: As mentioned previously, I do not live in England. I have only seen internet clips of the Dutch Robot Wars, yet my knowledge of the Dutch robots appears to exceed your knowledge of courtesy and good manners.
Q: Was the US Series of Robot Wars scripted?
A: None of the robot competitions were scripted.
Q: Who built 'Thor's Hammer'? And who built 'Spectre's Revenge' in the second Robot Wars Extreme Warriors 'Annihilator'? Do you know what 'Thunder Pants' looked like when he broke down?
A: I stopped answering generic 'who built' and 'where from' questions about a year ago, and I'm not going to start in on 'describe the damage' questions. If you're interested in builders of lesser-known robots, buy a copy of Fighting Robots by Michael Benson.
Mark J. here: I'll take part of that question. 'Thor's Hammer' was built by Team Truly Unruly who also campaigned 'Medusa Oblongata' at both Robot Wars Extreme Warriors events, and who ran middleweight 'Timmy' and lightweight 'Ack-Ack' at BattleBots.
'Spectre's Revenge' was built by the Hollywood special effects pro Valek Sykes who also campaigned 'Darkness' in the main tournament at Robot Wars Extreme Warriors 2 and who deployed heavyweight 'License to Kill' at BattleBots.
Q: What were those clusterbots on either side of the replica of 'Eubank the Mouse' in the Team Litewav RWEW pictures?
A: I'm not so sure I should tell you to whom those chassis belonged. I'll give you a couple of hints: they aren't clusterbots and that isn't a replica of Eubank. I'll check with Chris Hannold at Litewav before I say any more...
UPDATE: I checked with Chris. He can't verify my identification of those chassis, so I'll just tell you what I know for sure. The photo was taken in the Robot Wars technical area, used by the backstage crew. That's the real 'Eubank' ('Skeletron' was nearby) and there were plenty of spares for the house robots lying around.
Q: How did 'Snake Bite' and 'Snookums' fair against 'Dead Metal', 'Shunt' and 'Sir Killalot' in the Robot Wars Extreme Warriors Season 2 'House Robot Rebellion'? I know they lost, but did they put up any fight whatsoever?
A: The house robots were still afraid of the US 'bots after 'Tricerabot' shoved 'Sir Killalot' into The Pit in RWEW Season 1. They would only take on two robots at Season 2, and certainly not the most powerful amongst those who were willing to fight. It was no fight at all. 'Snake Bite' ended up disabled in the 'Drop Zone' and had (I think) a piano dropped on him.
Q: How did 'Snake Bite' and 'Snookums' lose so terribly in the house robot rebellion? Please tell me the story.
A: There is very little story to tell. Neither 'Snake Bite' nor 'Snookums' had any particularly strong offense. They were simply overpowered by the larger robots and diabled. Quite dull, except for the 'Drop Zone'.
Q: I am thinking about starting my own event, and I was wondering what the safety requirements are for a 30 pound arena? Thanks.
A: Mark J. here: unfortunately there are no simple requirements or guidelines for assuring that an arena is safe for a particular weightclass. The Robot Fighting League arena 'standards' are simply a consistent nomenclature to describe arena capability. They leave the determination of this capability to the event organizer's "knowledge and experience".
From an engineering perspective, there are a lot of variables involved in determining arena strength: thickness of polycarbonate, attachment method, framing material, spacing of supports, height of internal curbing, distance of internal curbing to arena wall, ect.
Building a 30 pound arena from scratch is going to eat thru several thousand dollars. Your best bet for design guidance is to talk with event organizers who work with a 30 pound rated arena. Try asking at the Western Allied Robotics forum. The Robot Fighting League forum is another possible source.
Q: I read in a book that many UK Robot Wars competitors were overweight. Can you confirm this? Thanks for answering some questions that have been nagging at me.
A: No, I can't confirm. At the events we attended the weigh-in happened in an area adjacent to the pits and could be witnessed by any interested competitor. I saw one U.S. competitor who was considerably overweight and who was not allowed to compete until the excess weight was shed. I suppose additional weight could have been added following the technical inspection, but I would not question the sportsmanship of any of the teams -- US or UK.
Q: I looked at the Roaming Robots website the other day, and I was wondering if their house robots are related to Mr. Psycho or Growler?
A: The Roaming Robots housebots 'Major Damage' and 'Gripper' certainly do resemble the Robot Wars housebots 'Mr. Psycho' and 'Growler', but the relationship ends with the resemblance.
Q: Where did Zanzara come from?
A: 'Zanzara' was one of several 'loaner' robots supplied by the Robot Wars production company and loaned out to teams having trouble with their own robot. They were all built by the Robot Wars technical crew.
Q: Do you have any Dutch Robot Wars photos?
A: Dozens: Robot Wars Netherlands. There are also several videos on YouTube.
Q: What did 'The Lethal Swan', 'Reflex', 'Namuzu', 'Project Two:Hex Em', 'The Black Beast', 'Trazmaniac' and 'Shapeshifter' look like?
A: I'm not interested in describing robots you can find with a Google search. Here's a start: Lethal Swan photos.
Q: Did the winners of a BattleBots event get to keep the giant nut trophys? Did the runners-up get any trophys?
A: Yes, BattleBots winners in each weight class were awarded their own personal 'giant nut' trophies to keep. Other 'giant nuts' were awarded to runners-up, winners of the rumbles, and for several other categories that sometimes changed from event to event: 'Best Driver', 'Most Aggressive', 'Coolest Robot', 'Funniest Robot', and 'Best Newcomer'. I show a total of 94 giant nuts awarded.
Q: With BattleBots possibly returning, do you think some of the old Battlebot teams will also return?
A: I would be surprised if the old crews are not well represented.
Q: Do you think BattleBots will go down as scheduled this April [2009]? I hope the event becomes a success.
A: Mark J. here: beats me. I've stopped believing any information that comes out of BattleBots because so much of it proves false. Their actions over the last several years have not, in my opinion, been good for the sport. I wish them well, but will not become involved.
Q: I read that Razer, Panic Attack, and Mortis competed at BattleBots. How did they do?
A: Six UK Robot Wars teams entered a total of eight heavyweight robots in BattleBots competitions:
- Long Beach 1999: Killerhurtz and Razer
- 1999 Pay-per-view: Killerhurtz, Razer, and Mortis
- BattleBots 1.0: Suicidal Tendancies and Killerhurtz
- BattleBots 2.0: Bigger Brother, Suicidal Tendancies, Panic Attack, and Killerhurtz
- BattleBots 3.0: Little Sister and Killerhurtz
- BattleBots 4.0: Little Sister and Killerhurtz
- BattleBots 5.0: Little Sister and Warhead
Q: Why did Son of Whyachi do so poorly in the SHW division?
A: Beating up a 220 pound robot is a lot easier than beating up a 340 pound robot. Most people don't remember that at the same tournament where 'Son of Whyachi' won the heavyweight championship, stablemate 'Whyachi' competed in the superheavyweight division and had only a 1 win 1 loss record in spite of it's 'shufflebot' weight advantage. Spinners never did all that well in the SHW BattleBots class.
Mark J. here: the following set of questions was sent to me in a personal email. I think the answers might be of general interest so I've reprinted my responses here, with permission from the author of the questions:
Q: First off, I got to say you have nice website. Do you know of any pictures of Scott LaValley's 'Dolittle'? I know it competed in US Robot Wars 1994.
A: Thanks for the appreciation. I did a lot of research on the early robot wars, and photos of the robots from the 1994 event are hard to come by. I don't have a photo of 'Dolittle', but I do have a photo of Scott's 1995 entry 'Domore'.
Q: On YouTube there are several videos from the early Robot Wars events. Do you wish the UK version stayed truer to the original US version?
A: The very early UK Robot Wars really were pretty close to the spirit of the US Robot Wars. The show producers had to adapt to what their television audience wanted, and they seem to have wanted direct combat. Some of the Techno Games events went back toward the original Robot Wars idea, but that show just wasn't as popular as the all-combat format. Personally, I really enjoy some of the non-combat events. I tried to emphasize that in the Antbotica events that Team Run Amok put on.
Q: Did any teams that competed in Robot Wars: Extreme Warriors compete in the early US Robot Wars? The only one I think did was Mike Regan.
A: There were three US Robot Wars competitors at RWEW:
There were some other interesting tie-ins between US Robot Wars and later UK Robot Wars events:
That's all I can think of, but I may have missed someone.
Q: Why did the Bigger Brother team change the bot's name for BattleBots? 'Killerhurtz' was still competing with it's original name until season 5.0 when he entered his new robot 'Beta'.
A: There was considerable confusion about legal rights to robot names between events. The contracts signed by competitors at BattleBots and Robot Wars events appeared to transfer certain rights to use of the names to the producers of the shows. Some competitors chose to avoid any possible conflicts by changing robot names and appearances when competing in different events, and some chose to ignore the whole issue.
Q: What UK Robot Wars team would have done good in Battlebots?
A: Robot Wars and BattleBots were very different events. Many Robot Wars competitors built flippers designed to throw their competitors out of the arena -- something not possible at BattleBots. Other Robot Wars competitors would suffer badly if they went up against destructive spinner weapons -- odd how 'Razer' never had to fight such a robot, isn't it? I don't like to play 'fantasy match prediction' with robots, but I suppose 'Tornado' would be a good pick to have done well at BattleBots.
Q: BattleBots registration is open on Builders DB What do you think? Are you gonna enter 'Run Amok'?
A:Mark J. here: I'm always pleased to see another robot combat competition added to the calendar. However, there have been many false starts and a great deal of misinformation circulated about the return of BattleBots, and many builders have been alienated by the actions of the organizers. I wish the event well, but we will not be entering a robot.
Q: If Robotica came back, what would be the best Robot Wars full-body spinner to enter?
A: Terrible idea! 'Robotica' and 'Full-body Spinner' go together like 'Ice Cream' and 'Anchovies'. In three seasons of 'Robotica' nobody entered a full-body spinner and no sane competitor would. Even die-hard spinner builders like Brian Nave and Terry Ewert built non-spinners for 'Robotica'.
Q: What were the most controversial robot battles?
A: Two pop to mind:
- Tornado vs. Razer in the Sixth Wars final: Tornado won by use of a special 'anti-crusher' framework added to their robot to keep Razer's piercing crusher away from vital parts. The device was pre-cleared with the technical crew, but many fans were outraged.
- Biohazard vs. Son of Whyachi in the BattleBots 3.0 heavyweight final: SoW used a rule-shaving 'shufflebot' propusion system to gain the additional 'walker' weight allowance for their monster spinner. The fight was tremendously destructive with both robots taking major damage. The judges' decision went to SoW, but a lot of fans saw it differently.
Q: I remember watching the USA Robot Wars series and seeing 'Matilda' with her chainsaw tail that she stopped using after UK 4. I understand that it is interchangable, but how come she kept using it in parts of the US series and never in the later British series?
A: Once Matilda switched to the very effective flywheel weapon in the late summer of 2001, the weapon was never changed out for the old chainsaw.
The first series of 'Robot Wars Extreme Warriors' for US competitors was filmed in June/July, 2001 and Matilda was still using the chainsaw tail. This was after the UK 'Fourth Wars' and before the 'Fifth Wars' filming in August 2001 where Matilda appeared with the flywheel weapon.
The second series of 'Robot Wars Extreme Warriors' for US competitors was filmed in January, 2002. Matilda was still using the chainsaw weapon here, so the chainsaw was used in RWES series 1 and the flywheel was used in RWEW series 2.
Q: Is there any pictures of the 'Robotica Rats' I could look up?
A: I can't find any and don't have any.
Q: How long (hours, days, weeks, months) did Robot Wars, Battlebots and Robotica last?
A: The first US Robot Wars was held in August, 1994. The last UK Robot Wars was filmed in August, 2003. In between came all the BattleBots and Robotica events, so the 'golden age' of robot combat lasted just about an even nine years.
Q: Is Robot Wars house robot 'Sir Killalot' famous for his Sir Killalot vs Robo Babe CD?
A: No, he's famous for kicking butt in the Robot Wars arena. The CD is just a novelty.
| Quick tip: if you haven't seen the video on the Northeast Robotics Club (NERC) homepage, turn up the volume and go have a look! |
Q: Why did't anyone show Stefan Frank, announcer for Robot Wars Extreme Warriors?
A: Announcers don't generally get their face on the show. Usually they aren't even at the filming. They do their work in a studio, 'post-production'.
Q: Aaron, I've been watching the Robot Wars Extreme Warriors 'House Robot Rebellion' and I'm confused here. Why does 'Green House' look like 'Vert-I-Go'? Is he his Twin?
A: As I recall, 'Green House' was a loaner robot built by the Robot Wars tech staff for use by teams having trouble with their own robots. The full list of 'loaner' robots from RWEW1 is in this archive: search for 'loanerbots'. It was a simple design with a pneumatic lifter.
'Vert-I-Go' fought in the Nickelodeon Robot Wars 'Mayhem' event. I don't recall the robot, but I do know that several loanerbots were used there. It may have simply been a re-named version of 'Green House'.
Q: I've got a crazy Robot Wars question. Were there two different UFO robots and teams in Robot Wars series 6 and 7, or was it just the same team?
A: Officially, they were the same team. They had the same name, the same logo, and they were from Wales -- but the robot and the team members who appeared on camera were different for the Seventh Wars.
Q: What was the Robot Wars University Challenge?
A: The 'University Challenge' was a tournament within the second series of Robot Wars Extreme (2003). Six robots loosely associated with specific universities fought in a special tournament -- any excuse for a tournament in the Extreme shows. The robots were Behemoth, Infernal Contraption, CV, Tiberius III, Fluffy, and Infinity. Tiberius III was the winner.
Q: I'm really interested in combat robots but the last time I checked the nearest competion was a several hour drive that my parents didn't want to do. Help?
A: It only takes two robots for combat -- so build two robots, get some friends over, and have at it! Team JuggerBot got their start as a few guys who modified R/C cars and fought in a back yard. Your friends will get hooked, they'll start building their own robots, and you're on your way.
Stay away from crazy rotary weapons and dangerously sharp edges and you can have real fun and learn about combat robots without leaving your house. We've had some great antweight fights on the round coffee table in our own living room. Search this archive for 'informal tournament' to get some tips on organizing your own small event.
Q: Was the 'British Bulldogs' trial event at the first UK Robot Wars like a 'House Robot Challenge' from the later Wars?
A: Only a little. British Bulldogs is a schoolyard game where a line of players try to run past two 'bulldog' players without being caught. It's a bit like 'Red Rover'. The Robot Wars version had the competitors line up at one end of the arena and try to dash past the four House Robots and reach the other end. Last robot thru was eliminated.
You can see video of the British Bulldogs trial on YouTube.
Q: What was the biggest bot ever built for a competition?
A: Combat robots compete in weight classes that range from the 150 gram 'fairyweight' class to the special 390 pound 'superheavyweight' class at the MechWars events. More than thirty robots have competed at this highest weight level.
Q: On the new BattleBots website there is no section that shows you the bots. Is there anyway I can find that section?
A: Try the Wayback Machine for BattleBots.com for older versions of their website.
Q: What would be the best UK Robot Wars robot 'Psycho Chicken' could easily damage up?
A: Sorry, we don't predict 'fantasy matches' here.
Q: Are you a fan of the Critter Crunch tournament? What makes a good remote controlled sumo bot?
A: I admire the Critter Crunch for their long history and pioneering efforts on behalf of robot combat. I also think it's great that they have been able to keep the tournament so informal and not wring all the fun out of it with complicated rules.
See previous Q&A in the archive for R/C sumo tips.
Q: Is there a picture of 'The Sentinel' anywhere?
A: There's a picture of this short-lived Robot Wars house robot at Robots Rule, but it's not very good.
Q: Are you mad about how the dates for the televised BattleBots event was changed from November 2008 to spring 2009?
A: Mark J. here: Aaron doesn't like to say negative things about people, so I'll take this one.
The BattleBots organizers are a continuing disappointment to the combat robot community. There is a long history of false starts, withheld information, and fumbled opportunities on their part. Their interests appear to me to be entirely focused on their own promotion with no sign of respect or concern for the builders. I am long past being angered by the actions of the BattleBots organization -- I am now simply disgusted.
Q: Thank you for the heads up about the BattleBots organizers. If the tournament does work out, what do you think about the 'no rules' class?
A: The 'no rules' class is a sham. There may be no official rules, but each individual 'bot must be approved by the organizers. I doubt that the class will happen, but if it does there will be very few competitors.
Q: Dear Aaron, I am British and over here, only Season 1 of Robotica has ever been aired. Although most of Season 3 is now on YouTube, I cannot find any clips and/or episodes of Season 2, despite searching everywhere on the internet. Do you know of any sites where I can find Season 2 clips and/or episodes?
A: Season 2 has largely been ignored. It aired only once in the US, which is a pity because it had some interesting robots. Sorry to say that I don't have an on-line source for Season 2 video.
Q: Do combat robot weight classes have maximum dimensions in the U.S.?
A: Not in the U.S. -- if you can fit it thru the arena door it's legal. Sumo robots are the exception.
Q: Can you get the Robot Wars 'House Robot' theme songs on CD?
A: Nope -- but you can get a wav of the main theme song online.
Q: Were there really obstacle courses and little mazes in Robot Wars Extreme Warriors?
A: Not in RWEW -- "The Gauntlet" and "The Trial" were elimination rounds leading up to "The Arena" in the first two UK Robot Wars. See our 'Second Wars' results page for more information on these events.
Q: Was 'The Sentinel' a House Robot in Robot Wars or was it just a hazard in 'The Gauntlet'?
A: 'The Sentinel' was a converted backhoe that appeared in a few episodes in the Second Wars. It was not mobile -- it sat near 'The Pit' in 'The Gauntlet' and blocked or shoved robots that came near. It is considered to be one of the House Robots even though it had a very limited role.
Q: Sorry to interrupt but I have another Robot Wars question. Who was that black robot that had two saws and two wheels in Robot Wars Extreme Warriors? And who was that weird crazy robot that mad look was that Spike? Was that Sobek in the pits of Robot Wars? What was that tall robot that almost looked like a building in Robot Wars Extreme Warriors? What is that weird robot in Robot Wars? Was that Drillzilla in Robot Wars? Was that wierd green bot Medusa Oblongotta? In case if your wondering I'm looking at the team litewav robotics robot pictures.
A: Questions like this make me wish I was old enough to drink hard liquor. I did my best to match up your descriptions to the Team Litewav RWEW pictures and identify the robots:
- I think the black robot with twin saws was 'Bot-Ugly', but I'll have to check that the next time I watch the tapes.
- Spike
- Sobek
- The tall robot was the bare-bones chassis for The Wife. Very complex -- they never got it working and campaigned one of the 'loaner' robots.
- Lots of weird robots. I'm guessing you're looking at Rippa Raptor.
- Drillzilla
- Medusa Oblongata
Q: In Robot Wars did the pit trigger and the disc trigger got places on each wall?
A: There was one wall trigger for The Pit of Oblivion (series 5 onward) and one wall trigger for the spinning Disc of Doom (series 6 only).
Q: Is their a way to get Robot Wars Extreme Warriors back on TV or isn't there?
A: Sure - buy your own TV network and you can put on anything you like.
Q: What was that robot with the claws near Mechadroid's pit?
A: You've got to give me more info than that -- I haven't seen the show lately.
Q: What did 'King Of Diamonds' look like?
A: 'King of Diamonds' fought at the second Robot Wars Extreme Warriors event in England and went on to compete at the 2003 Robocide and Battle Beach 1 events. It was a diamond-shaped robot with a spinning blade weapon at the leading point. Photo at buildersdb.com.
Q: What do you think 'Corkscrew' looked like? I thought he looked like a hammerhead shark.
A: I hate to say it, but I think the Scottish Robot Wars spinner looked like a corkscrew sticking out of a cork.
Q: Was there a German Robot Wars filmed in Germany?
A: Germany didn't have it's own televised Robot Wars production like Holland did, but they did stage non-televised tournaments with the winners going to the world championships in England. Many European countries saw Robot Wars dubbed in their own language.
Q: Hey, why did Chris Harriman fight against 'Probophobia', and 'Spin Doctor' with 'Cyclone' instead of 'Tut Tut'?
A: At the first Robot Wars Extreme Warriors event in London (2001), Chris showed up with his fearsome vertical spinner 'Cyclone'. The robot was damaged beyond on-site repair in the first round of the main knock-out tournament. The production company had several 'loaner' robots on hand that were available to teams with robot problems. Chris drove one those loaners ('Tut Tut') in the Tag Team tournament.
At the second Robot Wars Extreme Warriors event (2002), Chris brought an improved version of 'Cyclone'. Although defeated by 'Probophobia' and 'Spin Doctor' in the opening round of the main knock-out tournament, Chris was able to win 'The Annihilator' tournament later in the event with 'Cyclone'. No need for a loaner that year!
Q: What was that terrible noise coming out of the SHW 'Black Knight'?
A: That wasn't a terrible noise. 'The Black Knight' was powered by an internal combustion engine -- that was the exhaust note! See the video.
Q: Did the house robot Shunt realy use a cold-fusion engine? Or was it an ICE?
A: You shouldn't believe any of the info broadcast about the Robot Wars house robots. Shunt weighed a good bit more than 105 kg, the axe was not 'diamond edged', and there is no such thing as a cold-fusion engine. The axe was pneumatic and motive power came from a pair of Bosch GPA 750 electric motors.
Q: Three questions:
- How did the seeds work in Robot Wars?
- What Robot Combat video games do you recommend, beside Robot Arena 2?
- What happened to the arena after each battle of Robot Wars? Did they exchange the House Robots? Did someone clean up the pieces of the bots?
A: Three answers:
- The seeds were the top-ranked robots based on their performance at the previous Wars. The seeds were each assigned to their own heat so that they would not face another top-ranked robot in the first or second rounds of the tournament.
- The only robot combat video game I play beside RA2 is 'Robot Wars Advanced Destruction' for the Game Boy Advance.
- People didn't normally enter the Robot Wars arena between matches. The house robots and competitors left via the main entrance. Broken robots were pushed out by Refbot, who also rounded up stray pieces.
Q: Which was the coolest robot you saw at Robot Wars?
A: I really liked 'Pussycat'. It didn't even look like a combat robot, but it could sure fight!
Q: Has any robot taken on the Robotica Rats in the Ladyrinth? Also, what were the weapons 'Fat Boy Tin' had? [Nate Franklin]
A: There wasn't much time to waste on the Rats, Nate. I believe that 'Ultra Violence' did spin up its rotary weapon and turn to face a Rat, but the Rat ran for it.
What's with all the interest in obscure Robot Wars entrants lately? 'Fat Boy Tin' lost its only fight in the first round of the Fourth Wars against 'Vercingetorix' and 'Plunderbird'. It had a pair of pneumatic spikes for weaponry.
Q: Alright what do you think of this idea for a robot combat battle type, I thought of this from playing this Robot Wars game on the GBA (Gameboy advance). So one robot (the target bot) starts fighting a number of bots, one comes in after another is immobilized (like 10 or more) if the targets bot is immobilized, the bot that immobilized that bot is now the target bot. this goes on until all the bots are immobilized. the bot who immobilized the most bots wins or the last one standing. What do you think?
A: I've got that same GBA game: Robot Wars Advanced Destruction. They actually had that event at Robot Wars Extreme Warriors and Robot Wars Extreme. They called it the 'Challenge Belt'. The winner was the last 'bot standing. Never seemed quite fair to me; if you're the first 'bot up, you have to beat everybody, but if you're last up you only have to beat one 'bot that's probably already kinda beat up.
Q: Where is 'Direct Action' from again?
A: What is this -- test the robot geek? That's the only reason I can see for a question about the utterly obscure 'Direct Action'. Best I can tell, 'Direct Action' fought only once: in the Robot Wars Extreme Series 2 New Blood tournament. It was badly beaten up, then opened The Pit and drove itself in. I'll assume that it was from the UK, like most other New Blood robots.
No more "where is [insert robot name here] from" questions. If you're that interested, buy a copy of "Fighting Robots" by Michael Benson.
Q: What home country was 'Tiger Cat' from?
A: 'Tiger Cat' fought in the Robot Wars Extreme Warriors series for a team based in New York, USA.
Q: Where in New York was 'Tiger Cat' from? If you say Syracuse I swear I'm gonna explode.
A: You're safe. The 'Tiger Cat' team was from Shirley, New York -- on Long Island.
Q: What was the difference between Robot Wars Extreme and Nickelodeon Robot Wars? [Nate Franklin]
A: Thanks, Nate. The different Robot Wars competitions can be tough to keep straight:
- Robot Wars Extreme: two seasons of shows filmed in England featuring special challenges and tournaments outside the scope of the regular Robot Wars tournament. Most of the robots were from Europe. Craig Charles hosted. Events included the the All-Stars Tournament, Tag Team Terror, Annihilator, and Challenge Belt.
- Robot Wars Extreme Warriors: two seasons of shows filmed in England in mid 2001 and early 2002 for American television. The robots and teams were Americans who were flown to England for the tournament. Retired professional wrestler Mick Foley hosted. Events included the U.S. Championship, Tag Team Terror, Annihilator, and House Robot Rebellion.
- Nickelodeon Robot Wars: a single short season of six half-hour shows with kids behind the controls of the robots. This was filmed in England in early 2002 -- at the same time as the second season of Robot Wars Extreme Warriors. Most of the kids were American. Dave Aizer hosted. No flame hazards were used in the arena and aggressive language was toned down.
Q: For a beetle weight, how many spare parts should you have? I'm thinking around 30 of each part plus 5 chassis.
A: At our last national beetle event our spares box held:
We fought thru seven rounds and didn't need any of the spares. We also carried plenty of emergency repair supplies (wire, epoxy, various tapes, solder, screws, bolts, nuts) plus the usual tools, chargers, and test equipment. In the insect classes you don't have a lot of time between matches, so major rebuilds are generally not an option. If you build your 'bot well you won't need a truck full of spares.
Q: Who was that strange black robot near Hannibal in the Robot Wars Extreme Warriors pits... or was that a just a black coat? Was there another robot behind the Bunny Attack bench in the pits as well? What was that robot that was near Sir Killalot that looked like a six wheel robot... was it Snake Bite?
A: Sorry, I'll have to save these questions until the next time I watch the tapes. It would help if you could tell me which episode you were watching. Just guessing, the strange black robot could be Patrick Campbell's 'The Bat'.
Q: What weapon did 'The Bat' have? Do you have any links to more pictures of 'The Bat'?
A: I guess it's a little hard to see in the photo, but that's a huge rotary blade hanging off the front of the robot. The weapon was powered by four EV Warrior motors and spun at 2500 RPM. The photo came from an archived Team Minus Zero website and is the only one I could find.
Q: How much did the 'Robotica Rats' weigh?
A: The Robotica Labyrinth had two 'rat' robots roaming the maze to annoy or sometimes help the competitor robots if they got stuck. I'd guess the rats were about 70 pounds.
Q: What was that pink robot in the Robot Wars Extreme Warriors pits?
A: If it was season 1, probably 'Diotoir'. The first season of RWEW filmed at the same time as the second world championships and many British robots can be seen in the pits.
Q: Where can we acquire video of the 1994 and 1995 Robot Wars competition in San Francisco? We're Phil and Sam -- our robot was 'ZOMO', which was luckily featured in the September 1994 Newsweek magazine.
A: Mark J. here: Nice to hear from you guys! The official video from the 1994 event disappeared in all the litigation and has not re-surfaced. There is video of the 1995 event, shot from the stands by competitor Al Kindle ('Dawn Patrol'). I've seen a several-generation removed copy of the original tape and it's great! Send me your contact info and I'll bug Al to transfer the tape to DVD so it can be distributed.
Do you have a scan of the Newsweek article you'd be willing to share?
Q: Why didn't 'Jawbreakers Revenge' have a glass breaker in the Robotica season three 'Labryinth'? He would have lost if he hadn't 'eaten' Panzer.
A: 'The Labyrinth' event required Robotica season 2 and 3 competitors to get past various obstacles and break an elevated strip of glass to score points. Most competitors fitted some type of vertical rod to strike and break the glass strip, but several invertible robots left off the 'glass breaker' to remain invertible.
Jawbreaker's Revenge was capable of lifting the nose of the 'bot in a 'wheelie'. They planned to use that technique to shatter the glass strips. Early in the first round Labyrinth, they managed to grip their much smaller opponent 'Buzz Bomb' (not 'Panzer') in their powerful jaws. They dragged 'Buzz Bomb' thru the course and used its glass breaker to score 85 points for the win.
In the second round, 'Panzer' disabled 'Jawbreaker' at the start of 'The Labyrinth', so we never got to see how successful the 'wheelie' technique would have been.
Q: Was 'Hoot' from Nickelodeon Robot Wars the same robot that was in the Dutch Robot Wars?
A: Yes. 'Hoot' was one of the robots built by the Robot Wars technical crew to loan out to teams having trouble with their own robot. They were used to fill in empty tournament slots when there were not enough 'real' competitors. The teams at Nick Robot Wars and the Dutch Robot Wars were different.
Q: What is your favorite fight of all time? One of my favorites was the 'Big Bee' vs 'Texas Heat' (RoboGames 2008), or the super heavyweight rumble of Battlebots 2.0 were 'Toro' flips everyone.
A: See previous post in this archive. Search for 'best robot fight'.
I'm certain that our good friend Dan Danknick will appreciate it if I point out that 'Toro' flipped everyone in that BattleBots rumble except Dan's 'War Machine'.
Q: What was that yellow and black striped robot that Sergeant Bash was grabbing in Robot Wars Extreme Warriors?
A: Mark J. here: that was no robot, that was my wife.
Q: Is there a Robot Wars Extreme Warriors DVD set?
A: No DVDs, no VHS.
Q: Did 'Mad Cow Bot' look like the same design in Robot Wars Extreme Warriors season 2? If he isn't, can you show me a photo?
A: All of the Team Boltz robots ('Psycho Chicken', 'Mad Cow', 'Boltz') were of the same basic design. You can find some photos at their archived website.
Q: Where does SozBots take place?
A: SozBots organized many antweight competitions in California and Arizona, but there has not been a Sozbots event for several years.
Q: Would the robotica rats be house robots guard the corner patrol zones in robot wars?
A: The Robotica Rats were there more to assist or annoy competitors than to tear them into chunks like the Robot Wars House Robots.
Q: What's up with the Robotica Rats?
A: The Rats were cool. The second event at Robotica 2 and 3 was 'The Labyrinth', a multi-path maze wherein both 'bots could roam to choose from six scoring obstacles. Also roaming the labyrinth were two small 'Rat' robots that could interfere with or help the competitors. If a competitor got stuck in one of the obstacles, one or both of the Rats could provide a little help getting them unstuck and keep the event moving. The Rats had small rotary saws for weapons, but couldn't do any real damage. I'd guess that the Rats weighed about 40 pounds each.
Q: Where is 'Green Mouse' from again?
A: The Robot Wars production company had several 'loaner' robots available to teams who's own robots were destroyed in combat, got lost in transit, or suffered some other major breakdown. These loanerbots were built by the technical support team at Robot Wars. They were there as insurance, to make sure they had enough robots available to complete the full schedule of events. For Robot Wars Extreme Warriors Season 1 there were six loaners:
These robots were all functional but -- with the exception of 'Tut Tut' -- not competitive. 'The Green Mouse' was driven by Evan White after his own robot 'Shuriken' was destroyed in the brutal U.S Championships.
Q: And where does 'The Bat' live?
A: Robot Wars Extreme Warriors competitor 'The Bat' was from Patrick Cambell's Team Minus Zero. Patrick built many successful and well-known robots, including BattleBots veteran 'frenZy' and Robotica competitor 'Wendingo'. Team Minus Zero is based in California.
Q: When 'Bunny Attack' took on 'Tyranabot', were the house bots getting yellow cards for destroying 'Tyranabot'? Did any one used the drop zone in Robot Wars Extreme Warriors? Is Robot Wars Extreme Warriors gonna be on this summer? Where can I find the Robot Wars Extreme Warriors recordings? Wasn't 'Tornado' like 'Tricerabot 3.0', and 'Rosie The Riveter 2'? Would 'Storm 2' ram 'Run Away' out? Could 'Tut Tut' destroy 'Diotoir' or 'Ruf Ruf Dougal'? Do any of the US Robot Wars Robots got SRiMech's? Has 'G-Force' look like 'The Tick'? Is there gonna be any Robot Wars Extreme Warriors recordings on The Science Channel this summer? Does 'Sobek' have a saw? Did 'Tiger Cat's axe go the same as 'Terrorhurtz's axe? Would 'Xylon' flip out 'Major Tom'? In Robot Wars, did the battling songs came from a live rock and roll band? What were the songs called?
A: No; yes - several; not that I know of; none are commerically available; kinda; maybe; unlikely; yes - our own 'The Gap' could self-right; sorta; don't think so; not that I remember; not at all - Tiger Cat's was electric and ineffective; possibly; no; I have no idea.
Q: If there was a Robot Wars American civil war, would it feature: Sir Forcealot, Joker, NightStalker, Ninjitsu, Green Mouse, Squirmin Vermin, The Bat, and Probophobia?
If there was a Robot Wars US Annihilator in England, would it feature Rosie The Riveter, Spin Doctor, Bunny Attack, Brute, Trackzilla and Snookums?
A: There was an American Civil War event at the first Robot Wars Extreme Warriors, and there were Annihilator events at both RWEW events and at the Nickelodeon Robot Wars. Competitor lists and results can be found at tv.com RWEW and tv.com Nickelodeon Robot Wars.
Q: Was Will Tatman with the Manta guys (Team Suspect) at Robot Wars Extreme Warriors?
A: Will Tatman and Team In-Theory are from Virginia, not far from Team Suspect's HQ. Will was at RWEW and hung out with Team Suspect, but he was there to compete in the Nickelodeon Robot Wars with his own robot 'Hannibal'. Will and Bill Tatman won 'The Annihilator' competition, defeating 'Bunny Attack" in the final round.
Q: If you could pick any two robots for a Robotica 'Fight to the Finish' who would they be? Why?
A: There are several fantasy 'Fight to the Finish' pairings I'd like to see:
- JuggerBot 3.0 vs. Whyatica -- big power versus too much power.
- Jaw Breaker's Revenge vs. Ram Force -- it was Team Force upon whom JBR sought revenge.
- Viper vs. Armorgeddon -- would Armorgeddon's suction fan hold up to the best pusher from season 1?
- Mechacidal Maniac vs. Ultra Violence -- a big tower of aluminum for UV's weapon to dig into.
Q: Two Questions about the Robotica re-runs on the Science Channel:
- How long is the finale; one hour or two?
- About the 'Mystery Bot' at the bottom of the Robotica series 3 photo gallery -- have you asked the Ultraviolence team? Their robot is in the background.
A: The schedule for reruns of Robotica series 3 on The Science Channel has been kinda spotty. One or two shows ran in the US in May, 2008 and more appeared in the schedule, but have now dropped off. I don't know what the deal is, but keep an eye out for more showings.
The finale for each of the three seasons was a two-hour program. The extra time was needed for the six robots in the finals, compared to the four robots in each of the preliminary one-hour shows.
Yes, that is Team Suspect with Ultraviolence in the background, but neither they nor any other team I've questioned can remember anything specific about the Mystery Bot. The qualifying rounds for Robotica went on for several days, with new teams arriving each day and attempting to qualify while production of the show was already underway. The process was chaotic, and teams were just too busy to pay much attention to robots that were still trying to qualify.
Q: Have you saw the uk robot wars? If you were in the robot wars world championships qualifier, would you take out 'Spartacus' (which you fought against) along with 'Flippa'? Was 'Lightning Tracks' made from scrap? Did 'Psycho Chicken' cought fire from 'The Revolutionist' and 'Sgt. Bash' in robot wars extreme warriors heat D, battle 2? When 'Psycho Chicken' fought against 'Snookums' and 'Propeller Head' at Robot Wars Extreme Warriors, was there weapons on the side backs of the crazy hen? Would 'Zanzara' take revenge on you if robot wars was back? Weren't 'Rotbox'and 'Bang' alike? Wasn't 'Marauder' a body spinner? Was the fight to the finish like a Sumo Basho? Wasn't Dan Danknick with you in robot wars extreme warriors season 1? Do you miss Robot Wars?
A: In order:
- Every episode, many times.
- 'Flippa' was built by a friend here in Oregon, so we'd go after someone else.
- 'Lightning Tracks' was very noisy and kept me from taking a nap in the pits, but was not made of scrap.
- Yes. The scorched fur was torn up and thrown out to fans in the audience.
- No, not that I recall.
- 'Zanzara' was our team mate for the Tag Team Challenge at RWEW2. Why would they want revenge?
- Yes, they were the same robot. -- one of several 'loaner' robots ('Glass House', 'Green Mouse', "Zanzara', 'Tut Tut') supplied by the production company to teams having trouble with their own.
- Yes, Marauder was a full-body spinner at Robot Wars Extreme Warriors 2, but not a powerful one.
- Yes, but higher up and with flames.
- Our very good friend Dan Danknick worked for the Robot Wars technical staff at both RWEW events, but not for our team.
- No, not after these questions.
We're gonna take a break from Robot Wars questions for a while.
Q: Did the Robot Wars teams built other robots instead of the same ones?
A: Would you like to re-word that question?
Q: I'll ask the question again and i'll ask it pacificlly. Did the robot wars extreme warriors teams built other robots instead of the same ones?
A: I didn't understand the question the first time, but now that you've asked it again I understand it perfectly.
Most of the teams ate two and saved the third one for later. Some ate one and saved two. A few didn't even know it was lunch time.
Q: if you were in g4 tech tv robot wars uk couldn't Psycho Chicken be a replacement for Terror hurtz and your robot Run Away be a replacement for Thunder pants?
A: See answer to previous question.
Q: What were some of the Robot Wars Extreme Warriors season 1 and 2 looked like?
A: I don't know of any photo collections from RWEW on the web. I'll consider putting some of my own photos up. Quite a few of the robots were simply disguised versions of robots recycled from Robotica and BattleBots, but many were built from scratch for the event.
Q: Did you saw what happened to 'Psycho Chicken' and 'Propeller Head' when 'The Revolutionist' was being like 'Typhoon 2' the Robot Wars grand final champion from Endinburgh, Scotland?
A: Yes, but take a deep breath first -- you're already way too excited about the whole thing.
Psycho Chicken laid an egg that hatched into a small independent robot (I'm not making this up). The Revolutionist trashed the minibot, then entirely destroyed Psycho Chicken -- wheels ripped away and feathers everywhere.
Propeller Head was more maneuverable and more powerful than The Revolutionist and was able to stay on top of the fill-body spinner to keep him from getting the weapon fully up to speed. Late in the match Propeller Head ejected it's own spinning weapon like a helicopter blade, but continued to push The Revolutionist around the arena and took the win.
Q: Did 'The Revolutionist' get disqualified in Robot Wars Extreme Warriors?
A: Nope, just got beat.
Q: Was 'Psycho Chicken' and his robotic egg kind of like a cluster-bot?
A: Technically yes, I suppose that qualifies as a cluster-bot.
Q: Have you ever thought of being in the Robot Wars international inferno?
A: If you were invited to compete at Robot Wars, the producers picked the events in which you would compete. You could ask to be considered for an event, but the decision was theirs. We were ready and willing able to compete in any event they would throw at us.
Q: What happened to 'Lightning Tracks', 'Trackzilla', and the other robots you faced at Robot Wars Extreme Warriors?
A: Full tournament tree results of Robot Wars Extreme Warriors, as well as all other televised tournaments and U.S. national championships are available thru our Who Won page. Click on the purple 'Full Results' button for the event.
Q: Would you be suprise to see 'Mr.Psycho', 'Growler', and 'Cassius Chrome' in Robot Wars Extreme Warriors and Nickelodeon Robot Wars? I saw 'Mr.Psycho' and 'Growler' in Robot Wars series 6, and I saw 'Cassius Chrome' in series 7.
A: I'd be very surprised, because they were not built at the time RWEW and Nick RW were filmed.
Q: Why are featherweights seemingly unpopular in the US combat robot scene? In other countries like the UK and Australia they seem to be the most popular weight class.
A: The 12 KG class (about 26 pounds) in the UK is very popular, and 30 pound 'bots are the elite class in Australia. In Brazil all they fight are 12 and 120 pound 'bots.
The main reason for their lack of popularity in the US is that the number of arenas rated for 30 pound and heavier robots is pretty small compared to the number of arenas available to fight 12 pound hobbyweights. You'll get more and better fights building for the hobbywight class than you will building a featherweight.
Q: This is more informational than a question, but I think the FRA UK featherweight rules now specify a 30 pound (13.6kg) weight limit in the UK, since January 2008.
A: Thanks. I still get questions from the UK about 12 kilo 'bots and assumed they were still sticking to that weightclass. Here are the current Fighting Robot Association weightclasses:
- Antweight: 0 to 150 grams
- Featherweight: 1kg to 13.6kgs [2.2lbs to 30lbs]
- Lightweight: 12kgs to 27.5kgs [26lbs to 60lbs]
- Middleweight: 27.5kgs to 55kgs [60lbs to 120lbs]
- Heavyweight: 55kgs to 100kgs [120lbs to 220lbs]
- Super heavyweight: 100kgs to 145kgs [220Ibs to 320Ibs]
Q: What did 'Lightning Tracks' and 'Snookums' look like at Robot Wars Extreme Warriors 2?
A: The Robot Wars event in England filmed just a couple of months after Robotica seqasons 2 and 3 filmed in California. Many of the robots at RWEW2 were Robotica robots with just a few quick changes to alter their appearance.
Russ Barrow's 'Lightning Tracks' was a redressed version of his Robotica series 3 robot 'Dark Track'. The only visible change was the addition of a decorative tank turret to the top of the 'bot.
Ed Robinson's 'Snookums' was likewise a cosmetic update of his Robotica series 2 robot 'Fintastic'. The major visible change was a different paint scheme.
Q: On battlebots.com it says that ESPN will be showing a BattleBots tournament!!!
A: Announcements like this have been on their site for years.
Q: BattleBots announced this only a few days ago (February, 2008). This is what all the talk on the RFL forum is about now.
A: Mark J. here: about once a year BattleBots announces some new television deal, usually involving Disney/ABC/ESPN. None of these have gone anywhere.
You have to read these announcements carefully. The current BattleBots announcement describes a "Collegiate BattleBots Championship" competition limited to a single 160 pound (??) weightclass that may be shown on ESPN2 and ESPNU. A heavyweight "professional" class will also potentially be staged and filmed, but the proposed broadcast deal is for the college teams only. It also doesn't say anywhere that BattleBots has accepted, only that ESPN has offered.
Q: Which 'bot has the most wins in robot history?
A: According to Botrank.com (February, 2008), antweight 'Jimmy Crack Corn' has won 85 of 123 fights, making it the 'bot with the most wins and the greatest number of fights. In the classic weight classes, middleweight 'Devil's Plunger' has won 53 of 68 fights for most wins.
The best record of all 'bots with more than 30 fights belongs to lightweight 'Wedge of Doom' -- 43 wins, 5 losses.
Q: Has there ever been a combat robot class bigger than 340 pound super heavyweight?
A: Not much bigger. The MechWars tournaments have fought 390 pound robots since 2001. The class is not recognized by the Robot Fighting League.
Q: Has enyone ever built a bot bigger than the 390 pound MechWars class other than Jay Leno's exhibition 'bot "ChinKilla"?
A: Some of the Robot Wars house robots were very heavy. 'Sir Killalot' weighed about 1100 pounds, although the show claimed he was lighter. 'Mr. Psycho' may have been even heavier!
Also, there was an episode of 'Junkyard Wars' where the teams converted automobiles into jumbo R/C combat machines that fought each other. Those could qualify as 'bots.
Q: What advice do you have for starting your own tournament?
A: Running your own tournament is a lot of work, even for insect-class robots. I'd suggest that you volunteer to work at someone else's tournament to gain knowledge about what all is involved. The next thing to do is to find out if there are enough competitors willing to attend your proposed event. It isn't much of a tournament if nobody shows up.
See our comments in two previous posts in the archive -- search the page for 'enthusiasm'.
Q: Will Robotica have a fourth season?
A: The 2nd and 3rd seasons were made in late 2001 -- a 4th season seems unlikely at this point.
Q: Can you post some videos of 'bot fights here?
A: No -- not enough server space. There are plenty of 'bot fights on 'You Tube' and other video warehouses.
Q: Where can I find pictures of the arena Robogames uses?
A: For large 'bots, Robogames uses the Combots/Steel Conflict arena. I don't have links to good photos, but full specifications are at the archived Steel Conflict
site.
Correction: Oops, I forgot -- Combots sold the Steel Conflict arena after they purchased the MMER 'MechWars' arena in 2007. You can find pictures and specs for the new arena at the MechWars website.
Q: Do you know much about Australian robot combat competitions? What can you tell me about them?
A: Everything you need to know about robot combat in Australia can be found at www.robowars.com. There are robot photos, video, rankings, event reports, a wiki, and a chat forum. I've chatted with a number of Australian competitors and they're having a great time with their robots. They use the RFL ruleset and 30-pound featherweights seem to be the elite weightclass.
There is also some interesting robot combat going on in Brazil. They also use the RFL rules, but they fight mostly 12-pound hobbyweights and 120-pound middleweights. The central website is www.robocore.net.
Q: I saw an older question in the Robot Events archive that said the house bots were given to charity. I also saw that someone on YouTube said they have Dead Metal in their garage. Is that true?
A: I have no idea what happened to the HouseBots following their donation to charity. I suppose they must be stored somewhere -- just like I store the Holy Grail and the Mona Lisa under my bed.
Q: What happened to Robot Wars?
A: As eventually happens to all television shows, it was cancelled. Scroll down to the third question from the bottom of this page.
Q: Are there any battles with HouseBots going on today?
A: Mark J. here: HouseBots were for the benefit of the television audience. They were there to prolong a match that was over too quickly or to add excitement to a dull match. Few of the competitors liked the idea of HouseBots or exotic arena hazards that could interfere with combat. Since most current tournaments are run by and for the competitors, HouseBots are extinct.
Q: Who won the 'JuggerBot 3.0' versus 'The Gap' match at the Oregon Clandestine Street Fight?
A: The Gap had a good day, defeating both 'JuggerBot 3.0' and 'SJ'. Video of JuggerBot vs. The Gap.
Q: What were the results of the 2007 RFL Nationals?
A: There was no 2007 RFL national championship event. No one with a suitable arena was willing to stage the tournament.
Q: Are there any robot battles in CA?
A: Yes. Please read the for info on how to find robot combat events.
Q: OK, can you point out WHERE in the 'Frequently Asked Questions' I can find robot battles in CA?
A: There are 21 questions in the FAQ. Start reading at the top; it won't take you long to find it and you might learn something useful along the way.
Q: What happened to the robot 'Whyatica' at Robotica 2?
A: Mark J. here: Robotica was all about a balance between power and control. Team Whyachi built a robot with huge power (24 horsepower to the wheels) and very little control. Whyatica flipped itself onto its back in a power-mad charge thru 'The Gauntlet', and then barely showed any motion at all before stalling completely right in the starting gate of 'The Labyrinth'.
I got out my tape of the show and took a careful look. Whyatica's behavior in 'The Labyrinth' looks like a classic discharged battery array. The word from other teams in the pits was that Terry Ewert wasn't happy with the slow pace in filming Robotica: too much sitting around while the sets were changed. When you get bored you start making mistakes, like forgetting to charge your batteries. Still, the 4 big Hawker batteries should have had some juice left from 'The Gauntlet'.
'Whyatica' was later renamed 'Warrior' and had an 8 win / 7 loss career as a combat heavyweight.
Q: When is the BattleBots Online Store open?
A: They were last open in mid 2005, so I wouldn't hold my breath.
Q: Are the 'Marin Ant Wars' still happening?
A: The last 'Marin Ant War' I know about was held in the summer of 2006. They had been hosting events twice a year, but nothing in 2007. You could drop a line to Bill Sauro to get the full story.
Q: Do you know who the team was for a bot named 'Green Mouse' that competed in Robot Wars Extreme Warriors season 1? I think they also entered Robot Wars Extreme Warriors season 2, but the mouse was orange.
A: Mark J. here: Robot Wars staff had several 'loaner robots' available to teams that had trouble with their own 'bots at the Extreme Warriors series. 'Green Mouse' was one of those robots. I don't recall the team that used it at RWEW1. Other loaner robots that I remember were 'Tut Tut', 'Glass House', 'Joker', and 'Zanzara'. There may have been one or two more. I don't know what happened to them after the series ended.
The orange robot you recall from RWEW2 was a different robot: 'The Six Million Dollar Mouse' from Chris Hannold's Team Litewav. They also competed at Robotica season 1 [Hands Off], season 3 [Mini Rip], and BattleBots 2.0 [RipOff 2000].
Q: Is 'Rambot' from Robotica series 3 a 'Run Amok 2'? [Fan from Poland]
A. Team Run Amok had no connection to Tom Sweeney's Rambot, but it's obvious that he was paying attention to our design from Robotica series 1. It has a similar graphic design, the tall front wedge, and the high ground clearance that made our 'Run Amok' distinctive and successful. It paid off for him -- his was the only non-veteran robot to make the series 3 finals.
I'd heard that 'Robotica' was still showing on television in Europe. I'm glad to know the show is still being enjoyed.
Q: Was JuggerBot the winner of Robotica season 3?
A. Panzer Mk. 3 was the winner, defeating JuggerBot in the final match. Full results here.
Q: Who is the oldest active bot?
A: Combat robots 'evolve' and names get re-used, so it can be tricky to figure out a specific robot's history. Using the botrank.com criteria for 'active' [fought in the last 18 months], there are five robots from BattleBots 3.0 [May, 2001] on the active list as of October '07:
- Death by Monkeys - lightweight
- Ice Cube - middleweight
- Hexadecimator - heavyweight
- SJ (formerly Slam Job) - heavyweight
- Vladiator - superheavyweight
Who is the oldest continuously active 'bot? John Neilson's 'AGSMA' has fought in at least one tournament every year since its debut as a lightweight at BattleBots 4.0 [November, 2001] and has never fallen off the active list. The current version of AGSMA retains only the general layout of the 'bot that fought in '01 -- I don't think many pieces of the original remain.
Who is the oldest 'bot to ever fight? 'BioHazard' at the 2005 ComBots Cup: 9 years, 2 months, 27 days after its first fight at the 1996 Robot Wars.
Q: Which is the oldest active team?
A. Depends on what you call 'active'. November 2007: I can't find any teams that fought in the last 18 months that pre-date the teams from BattleBots 3.0 (May, 2001) mentioned in the question above. Of those five teams, three still fight under the same name and with the same core members:
- Team Blackroot (SJ)
- Team Toad (Ice Cube)
- Team WhoopAss (Hexadecimator)
Q: Who is the fastest true walker?
A: Using the current definition, you could count all the 'true walker' combat robots on the fingers of one hand -- and none of them are active. They were all agonizingly slow.
Q: OK, who was the fastest true walker?
A: Mark J. here: rules keep changing about what makes a 'true walker'. If you want to use a strict deffinition (independent control of vertical and horizontal motion for each leg, no rolling or dragging parts in contact with the floor, no continuous rotary motion in the drive train) then I suppose the only 'true walker' ever to compete as a combat robot was 'Mechadon'. With nothing to compare him to, you can't really call him 'fastest', just 'only'.
Q: What happened to the robot 'Noll' in Series 1 of Robotica?
A: Noll was the Robotica entry from students at California State Polytechnic University at San Louis Obispo (Cal Poly SLO). They showed up with a big pile of parts and an unfinished robot. Their design was very complex with an overhead spike and adjustable pneumatic suspension, all crammed very tightly under enclosing armor.
The team got the robot together and qualified for the competition, but in their first match against 'JuggerBot' a bolt backed out and jammed the drive train on one side, frying the motor. While hurrying to install their spare motor, two of their team were injured by slipping tools and sharp metal and were sent for medical attention. Remaining team members did get the new motor installed but failed to notice that the bolt holding the wheel onto the drive shaft was too long to allow free rotation. That fried their only spare motor while testing in the pits. The robot was never seen again in competition.
Lessons: keep your 'bot simple, finish and test early, work safely.
Q: Can you point me to an antweight competition in Charlotte, N.C.?
A: As mentioned in the , the best places to look for U.S. combat robot event notices are the Robot Fighting League event calendar and the Builders Database. There are no combat robot events currently scheduled for the Carolinas -- feel free to start one.
Q: I love the idea of starting a competition in Charlotte, but I could use some help (lots) in designing an antweight arena. I would like to style it after Robot Wars with house 'bots and a pit and flames, but it sounds kinda complicated to build. Any suggestions?
A: You have ambitious plans! I do have a few suggestions:
- The best arena is useless without people willing to build robots and compete. Find those people first. Get their input and their help to build the arena. Think about starting with a simple arena and adding new 'features' that your builders can agree upon. Many robot builders prefer a simple enclosure without 'hazards'.
- Arena flames are a no-go. Many places you might like to hold your event (shopping malls, conference halls, technology fairs) are going to balk at anything involving flames because of fire codes and insurance restrictions. You'd also have extra expenses for fireproof arena materials and commercial fire extinguishers.
- The standard enclosure material for an antweight arena is 1/8" thick polycarbonate (Lexan) plastic. You can find polycarbonate at many glass and window shops, or on the internet. Do not substitute acrylic plastic that is commonly available at hardware and home centers -- it is brittle and nowhere near as strong as polycarbonate.
- A typical antweight arena is 4' by 4' by 3' tall. Budget $300 for the polycarbonate needed to enclose the sides and top of an arena this size.
- Browse the Delphi Antweight Forum. You'll be able to ask for specific advice from people who have built and maintained small arenas, and you can publicize your event.
- Most of the member organizations of the Robot Fighting League have antweight arenas. Get in touch with them for tips on arena construction and running events. Consider joining the RFL.
Q: Is there any relationship between the 'bots 'Polly Pushy Pants' and 'New Cruelty'? They seem very similar.
A: Both 'bots were built and fought by team Killerbotics and have many common features.
- The 8-wheeled superheavyweight 'New Cruelty' last fought in May of 2002 at BattleBots 5.0.
- The 4-wheeled heavyweight 'Polly Prissy Pants' (also known as 'Polly Pushy Pants' and 'Corporal Punishment') first fought in August of 2003 at Robot Assault.
Q: Were there any teams that competed at all three of the big televised events: BattleBots, Robotica, and Robot Wars?
A: By my count, there were eleven teams that competed at all three events:
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Q: What's the difference between a 'featherweight' and a 'sportsman'?
A: In 2006 the Northeast Robotics Club (NERC) came up with a 30-pound combat robot class with a set of restrictions on weapons to limit the amount of damage done to the competitors and to encourage creative designs. This 'sportsman' class prohibits wedges and high-power spinners but does require some active weapon like a lifter, clamper, or flipper.
Section 2.2 of the 2007 Robot Fighting League Rules include specifications for this 30-pound sportsman class. There is still some vague wording to the class rules, but the idea seems to be catching on.
Q: Who do you think would win a BattleBots fight between 'Slam Job' and 'Son of Whyachi'?
A: If it were five years ago I'd care.
Under current rules, Son of Whyachi would be a superheavyweight since shufflebots no longer get a weight bonus. SOW won all of it's fights as a heavyweight and won the BB 3.0 heavyweight tournament, but had only a 1 win/2 loss record as a superheavy.
Team Blackroot has kept active in the sport and has continued to upgrade 'Slam Job', now renamed 'SJ'. They won the 2004 RFL National Championships, and hold the current #7 and historic #5 heavyweight rankings at botrank.com.
Q: Did 'Ziggo' ever loose a battle?
A: BattleBots uber-spinner and Combat Robot Hall of Fame member Ziggo has a great record. I count 17 head-to-head wins (16 by knockout), one rumble win, three lightweight championships, and four losses. The losses were to:
- 'Defiant' - Long Beach '99 (Ziggo came back to defeat Defiant in double-elimination)
- 'Das Bot' - BB 1.0
- 'Sallad' - BB 3.0
- 'Code Black' - BB 5.0
Q: Do you think Antbotica could be any more lame? (Doofus Wannabe in rural Michigan)
A: Gosh, Doofus -- we've put on three successful Antbotica competitions, but I'm sure the robot competition you put on in Michigan is ever so much better. Oh, wait - there aren't any robot competitions in Michigan, are there? Write back after you've done something constructive.
Q: I built a 'bot but there aren't any tournaments nearby. What should I do?
A: Double points for enthusiasm, but no points for planning ahead.
Think about running your own informal tournament. Team Juggerbot started out as a group of friends building small robots and fighting them at each other's homes. Show your 'bot to your friends and get them interested in building their own. You might talk to a 'local interest' reporter at your newspaper to get some more interest thru publicity.
Most important: keep your tournament safe! You must provide suitable protection for your drivers and spectators. The level of protection depends on the size of your robots and the types of weapons you will allow. Get creative -- you probably don't need a bulletproof plastic box. You might fight insect-class 'bots in your back yard with the drivers inside the house looking out thru a sliding glass door or window. Consult the Robot Fighting League standards for guidance.
Q: Do you need insurance for a tournament?
A: Mark J. here: If you put on a real tournament with entry fees and prizes and all -- yes, you will need insurance. If you have an informal tournament that's just a group of friends having some fun with their small robots under safe conditions, standard homeowner insurance will likely cover your liability. If you're worried, check with your insurance agent.
Q: What advice do you have for someone who wants to have their own 'bot tournament?
A: Mark J. here: I've learned a few things about small-scale events from organizing three Antbotica events:
The most important thing is safety. Make sure your arena and rules provide a safe environment for spectators and participants. The event organizer is going to be very busy, so assign a safety monitor in the pit area to enforce regulations and keep spectators out.
The second most important thing is fun. If everybody, including you, is having fun then it's a successful event. Don't get so hung-up on event details and regulations that you squash the fun.
Finally, make sure that full information on rules, schedule, and event details are available to participants well in advance of the event. Event turn-out will likely be less than you expect -- don't be disappointed.
Q: What happened in the fight between Ginsu and Mechadon at the 1999 BattleBots event in Las Vegas?
A: I've misplaced my tape of the 1999 pay-per-view event, but I remember that at the end of the match, the true-walker Mechadon had a couple of it's six legs inoperative and it was tangled up against the rail. The saw-wheeled Ginsu was tipped over on it's side and couldn't move. Ginsu had done a lot of damage, but the judges apparently decided that it was incapacitated at the end of the match while Mechadon could still kinda move a little.
The match decision went to Mechadon, but Team Sinister couldn't repair the damage in time for the next match and they had to forfeit.
Q: Does the Central Illinois Robot Club (CIRC) let you use AM R/C radios?
A: CIRC is a member of the Robot Fighting League, and there is a table of RFL minimum radio requirements in the archive FAQ. However, the event organizer has the final call on variations to the RFL rules. Try asking CIRC president Bruce Stott: brucestott@yahoo.com.
Q: In your opinion, what was the most destructive robot fight of all time?
A: I'm not a big fan of destruction for its own sake. I think destruction is an over-rated factor in robot combat. I'd rather see a fight won by crafty driving and strategy any day. Wouldn't you rather ask about the 'best' fight of all time?
That said, there are plenty of 'bot fights where one machine tears the other a new oil hole (like 'Ultra Violence' vs. 'Tiger Wood' at Robotica III), but not many where both 'bots get really well shredded.
For being both mega destructive and a great overall battle, I'd nominate the heavyweight final of BattleBots 3.0 at Treasure Island. 'Son of Whyachi' and 'Biohazard' beat the bolts out of each other! Armor is ripped away, weaponry is mangled and snapped, systems fail and recover, and still the fight goes the distance.
As an aside, I don't agree with the judges' decision in this fight -- I score it in favor of Biohazard.
Q: OK, so what do you think was the best robot fight of all time?
A: San Francisco, Robot Wars 1995, heavyweight final: 'Thor' vs. 'The Master'. There is a video of the '95 event shot from the stands that circulates in the combat robot underground. Find a copy if you can!
Q: Are reruns of Robot Wars still on?
A: Nickelodeon GAS sometimes reruns the Nickelodeon Robot Wars series with kids driving the robots. That's the only current showing of Robot Wars I know about. Check their website for times.
Q: I saw the daVinci Days tournament video, but I didn't see your 'Mini Maxbot'. Why not?
A: There were more than 20 matches at that tournament and they didn't all get recorded. I think you can spot 'Mini Maxbot' in the 'rumble' footage if you look carefully. Most of the 'Rat Amok' fights are included.
Q: My bot is a modified R/C car that has a manual switch that turns off the car. I'm thinking of putting on a saw on the front. Will they let me turn off the saw with my switch or do I have to get another switch?
A: Active weapons must be turned on and off remotely -- no 'turn it on and set it in the arena' allowed. Further, an active weapon must turn itself off automatically if the radio transmitter is turned off. Finally, active weapons are not allowed with toy/AM radios. Sounds like you'd better stick to a passive weapon with your 'bot, or upgrade to a failsafe FM R/C system.
Q: Did you see the Second Robot Wars World Championship final match? I thought it was rigged so that 'Razer' would win. Sir Killalot only went after the American 'Drillzilla'.
A: We were at that match in London. By the time Sir K got involved, Drillzilla had already lost the match. The housebot operators are carefully instructed to not influence the results of any 'final' match. None of the teams we talked with thought the match was less than fair.
Q: Who is 'General Chompsalot' fighting in the pictures on the Team Toad Stickers in London page?
A: Those pics are from the first round of the Tag Team Terror match: 'Run Away' and 'General Chompsalot' vs. 'Falcon' and 'Joker'. General C. is shown fighting Falcon, and you can see Run Away in the background of picture #3. Joker was a full-body 'tuna can' spinner.
Q: What happend when there was a tie on the Robotica Speedway?
A: 'The Speedway' challenge used in the first season of Robotica was a figure-8 race with two robots traveling in opposite directions. Robots scored 10 points for each lap (up to 8) completed within the time limit with a 20 point bonus to the winner of the race.
There never was a tie in 'The Speedway'. If two 'bots had completed the same number of laps, the winner would have been the 'bot that completed their final lap first. The closest finish was between Run Amok and Kritical Mass. Run Amok crossed the line to finish her 6th lap just feet ahead of Kritical Mass and defended the line long enough for the clock to run out, holding Kritical Mass to 5 laps.
Q: Will there be an Oregon Clandestine Street Fight this year?
A: If I told you, it wouldn't be 'clandestine'.
Q: Will you be adding BattleBots IQ tournament trees to your on-line library? How about Robot Fighting League Nationals trees?
A: Our library of tournament trees contains major televised tournaments (Robot Wars, BattleBots, Robotica) that developed big followings, and the earlier versions of those same tournaments that weren't televised. Those tournament trees are the most popular feature of our website!
We have recently added the RFL National Championship trees to the site, but there just isn't enough interest in the BBIQ tournaments to justify digging up the data needed for the trees.
Q: How long did it take to do a 'Fight to the Finish' at Robotica?
A: About ten o'clock on each of the first three mornings of the competition, all of the robots on hand would gather and go thru the qualifying tests. The top eight qualifying teams would divide into two groups of four 'bots and film two shows that day.
All eight teams would compete in 'The Speedway', then the big 'Maze' set had to be moved into place. After 'The Maze', that set had to be moved out and and 'The Gauntlet' moved into position. Finally, 'The Gauntlet' could be cleaned up and moved out and the platform for the 'Fight to the Finish' could be rolled in. Every set change took a couple of hours -- longer if there was a mechanical problem. Each day wrapped up about three in the morning.
For the 'Fight to the Finish', each 'bot had to be lifted up onto the entry gantry to drive onto the platform. After the match, the winner had to be lowered back down, if they were still on the platform! Each 'Fight to the Finish' took about 40 minutes, once the platform was ready to go.
Q: Are the BattleBots summaries at the 'Robotic Combat Fan Site' accurate?
A: Opinion: the summaries I sampled were not good reading. I'd rather not check them all against the tapes for accuracy.
Q: Could you post your video library on the internet?
A: Last time - NO! We don't hold copyright to the material and cannot legally do anything with it but watch it in our own home. We'd get seriously sued!
Q: Some of the 'bots at Robotica were very light. Why didn't all the teams build to the 210 pound weight limit?
A: Robotica presented a number of different challenges. For some of those challenges, weight and bulk were a disadvantage. It was much easier to slip thru the barrier walls in 'The Gauntlet' with a small 'bot than by banging a big 'bot against all those bricks and blocks, and you didn't need to be big to be fast in 'The Speedway'. Run Amok herself was almost 40 pounds under the weight limit to get an edge in maneuverability.
Q: Was there a 'Fight to the Finish' for the 4th, 5th, and 6th place robots at Robotica?
A: No. It was 3:00 AM when we finished the 'Fight to the Finish". Nobody wanted to load up the other 'bots for another fight.
Q: Who do you think would have won the consolation 'Fight to the Finish' at Robotica if it had happened?
A: The 'bots involved would have been 'Kritical Mass', 'Jawbreaker', and 'Viper'. Of the three, Viper had by far the best traction and pushing power. They took 'Panzer Mk I' off the platform in the preliminaries in an incredible pushing match. My vote would go to Viper.
The consolation match in Robotica II would have had 'Deb Bot' against 'Ill Tempered Mutt'. Deb Bot was quick and powerful, but much lighter than ITM. My vote goes to the Mutt.
The third-place fight at Robotica III would have been 'Ultra Violence' (an evolved version of Kritical Mass) versus 'Jawbreaker's Revenge'. Two experienced teams, crushing jaws versus a powerful spinning weapon, too close to call!
Q: What event offered a prize bigger than the $12,000 Robotica grand prize?
A: The Robot Wars Second World Championship in England paid $25,000 to the winner. We were there, but 'Panzer' took us out in the qualifying round.
Q: Ticket prices for the 2006 RFL national championships in Minneapolis this August haven't been released yet. How much have they been in the past?
A: The 2005 event had 3-day adult tickets for $50, kids 7-17 for $40, 6 and under free. Single day tickets were $20/$15/free.
Update: spectator admission to the 2006 national championships in Minneapolis was free!
Q: Do you have any pictures of the Steel Conflict / Combots arena?
A: Try the archived Steel Conflict site.
Q: Wasn't Robotica scripted? [Alex Udanis]
A: Mark J. here: Very funny, Alex.
Technically, Robotica may have been the fairest and least-scripted of all the televised competitions. Competitors went thru a qualifying trial to test their maneuverability, precision, and power. The preliminary round match-ups were based entirely on the scores from the qualifying trial, and matches in the championship were based on tournament scores from the preliminary round. Nobody got a 'bye' for the early rounds, and the show producers had no hand in the tournament matches.
The outcome of the first Robotica competition certainly played like a Hollywood script, but none of the interviews or matches were coached or scripted. I once joked that we had to film the final 'Fight to the Finish" three times before it came out right, but I was kidding!
Q: Are there any Robot Fighting League tournaments that happen twice a year?
A: Yes, some more than twice. Check the RFL Events Calendar.
Q: Do you have the tournament trees for the 'War of Independence' and 'American Civil War' competitons at Robot Wars Extreme Warriors?
A: Sorry - our collection of tournament trees doesn't include the 'extra' events at RWEW. The Robots Rule site lists the robots that fought in the extra events and notes the winners. Both of the events you mention were simple single elimination tournaments with eight 'bots.
Q: Have you ever posted videos on youtube or Google video?
A: Yep. Search Google Video for "Robot Combat" and you'll find the first half of the match between 'The Gap' and 'JuggerBot 3.0' at the Oregon Clandestine Street Fight.
Q: Is it true that you get a free kit from BattleKits.com if you win a Robot Fighting League tournament?
A: Not exactly. If you win an RFL sanctioned tournament using a full BattleKit within one year of purchase from an authorized dealer, you are eligible for a refund of the cost of the basic BattleKit you purchased. Details are at the BattleKits website.
[Note: the BattleKit refund offer is no longer available]
Q: Where can I download 'BattleBots' videos?
A: The official BattleBots webpage has battle clips, but I don't know of any source for full episodes.
Q: Can projectile weapons like paintball guns be used in robot battles?
A: Some events allow projectile weapons if they have a restraining device to stop the projectile in 8 feet or less. Untethered projectiles are prohibited, so paintball guns are right out. Projectile weapons have never been popular.
Check the current Robot Fighting League rules for details on allowable weapons.
Q: Do any tournaments give out Robot Marketplace gift cards for prizes?
A: Gift certificates from various robotics suppliers are common prizes at tournaments. Robot Marketplace has been a prize sponsor at the BattleBots IQ competitions.
Q: Have you considered having your own tournament?
A: We have our own tournament: see Antbotica.
Q: What was the prize at Robotica? How about daVinci Days?
A: Robotica paid the largest top prize in American robot combat: $12,000 cash. Second thru sixth paid $2000 each. DaVinci Days paid out quite a bit less -- about $100.
Q: Did you tape any of the BattleBots episodes?
A: The Run Amok video library has tapes of all five seasons of Comedy Central 'BattleBots', all three seasons of TLC 'Robotica', both seasons of TNN 'Robot Wars Extreme Warriors', and the BBC 'Robot Wars' episodes from the 4th Wars onward. Wish I had the earlier Robot Wars!
Q: Is there any way I can buy stuff from the video library?
A: Sorry - we don't have rights to sell any of those commercial videos.
Q: Where did you get the robot combat videos for your library?
A: They were recorded off-air, for personal use only.
Q: Where did the heavyweight spinner 'Tillah' come from?
A: Tillah was built by Oregon's 'Team Tillah', headed by Team JuggerBot weapon designer Ron Ender. The design is essentially the back half of the basic JuggerBot chassis with a large and nasty square drum spinner weapon hanging off the front. The robot was 'entropically retired' at the 'Steel Conflict 4' tournament by the combat robot hall of fame spinner 'Megabyte'.
You can see Tillah in action on the Oregon Clandestine Street Fight video CD.
Q: Why do builders make robots flammable if they know there will be fire traps?
A: Part of competing at Robot Wars was the challenge of putting on exciting matches. If you had an entertaining 'bot you would be invited to participate in some of the 'extra' events like the House Robot Challenge, the Annihilator, and Tag Team Terror.
As mentioned in a previous post, the American competitor 'Tricerabot' was 'JuggerBot 3.0' in a cardboard disguise. The team had several replacement costumes. The burning costume did no harm to the titanium armor underneath, but added excitement to their matches.
Q: The Wikipedia page on Housebots says that Growler's tail could shoot fire. The 'Robots Rule' page says nothing about that! Is it true?
A: The Wikipedia is correct; Growler did have a rear-mounted flamethrower. The flame didn't come from the end of the tail, but from underneath -- more like a flame farter.
Q: How much is the shipping on the Robotica video? Does it have combat matches? Do you have all of the episodes?
A: Mark J. here: I have no connection to the sale of the Robotica videos. They are sold by InetVideo.com. The link appears on our Run Amok webpage only as a service to fans.
I'm told that the video they offer has episodes five and six, plus the double-length final episode. Please contact InetVideo with any further questions. For info on the Robotica competition format, see the Robotica Wikipedia page.
Q: Do you have any photos of the robot wars house bots?
A: Sorry, no. Try Robots Rule - Housebot page for photos and stats.
Q: Are there any American multi-bots?
A: I don't know of any purpose-built American multi-bots, but it is not uncommon for a couple of 'bots from one weight class to 'team up' and enter a higher weight class just to get more arena time. In general, multi-bots don't do very well.
Q: Is there any relationship between 'Logoseye' from Robotica and 'Rosie the Riveter 2' from Robot Wars? How about 'Juggerbot 3.0' and 'Tricerabot' from those same series?
A: Very observant! The TV robot shows didn't want 'bots with the same name or appearance as other shows, so builders often disguised and re-named their 'bots to compete in different televised events. There is actually a relationship between all four of the 'bots you mentioned:
- Tricerabot actually was JuggerBot 3.0 in a cardboard costume.
- Rosie the Riveter 2 was a disguised Logoseye.
- Team Logoseye was a group of builders that split-off from Team JuggerBot after the first Robotica season -- the underlying designs of 'bots from both teams were very similar.
Q: In your opinon, which was the best 'bot ever at BattleBots?
A: Biohazard, hands down. Ziggo and Hazard are tied for second, in my opinion.
Q: Where can you buy BattleBot videos?
A: BattleBots.com has DVDs from the pre-Comedy Central tournaments.
Q: How did 'Voltarc' defeat 'Biohazard' in BattleBots season 1.0?
A: Best I remember, the match went to the judges. Voltarc got under the skirts of Biohazard and managed to look more aggressive all thru the match.
Q: Can Carlo Bertocchini's heavyweight champion 'Biohazard' self-right?
A: The very early versions of Biohazard could self-right, but that ability was lost in 1997 when Carlo added the large titanium side skirts. 'Vlad the Impaler' managed to get under those skirts and flip Biohazard at the 1999 BattleBots 'Pay-Per-View' event in Las Vegas and Biohazard couldn't recover. Vlad went on to win the championship at that event.
Q: Did 'Toro' and 'Diesector' ever fight each other?
A: They may have bounced off each other in one or more of the superheavyweight 'rumbles', but they never met 'head-to-head'. Toro and Diesector somehow always ended up on opposite ends of the BattleBots superheavyweight tournament tree and never met in the final:
- Season 2.0 - Toro lost to 'Atomic Wedgie' in a quarter-final match. Diesector beat Atomic Wedgie in the final.
- Season 3.0 - Both 'bots lost in the quarter-finals: Toro to 'Minion', and Diesector to eventual champion 'Vladiator'.
- Season 4.0 - 'New Cruelty' defeated Diesector in the semi-finals, then lost to Toro in the final.
- Season 5.0 - 'Phrizbee Ultimate' took out Toro in the third round. Diesector won the championship.
Q: What happened to robots that weigh more than 30 pounds?
A: Arenas built to contain heavier robots are very expensive to build, costly to transport and assemble, and big bucks to maintain. Without major sponsorship, big arenas just aren't cost effective. Without big arenas, there isn't anyplace to fight big 'bots.
Q: I'm new to the building combat robots thing. What weightclass do you recommend? [Chris Marnati]
A: Find out what weight classes are popular at the tournaments you plan to enter. It won't do much good to build a 'bot for a class that isn't supported. Beyond that, it's largely a matter of your budget and level of mechanical experience. Start simple.
Q: Do you know of any robot tournaments that allow AM radio systems?
A: The standard Robot Fighting League rules allow AM radios in weight classes up to the 12-pound 'hobbyweight' class, with some restrictions on weaponry. Most RFL member tournaments follow these guidelines.
Q: I am thinking about entering the MechWars tournament. I'd like to enter the antweight class with a 'Fly Wheels' toy with armor and a wedge. Can I use the R/C gear that comes with the toy?
A: MechWars is a member of the Robot Fighting League, but they have modified the RFL rule set for their events. Section 4.4.6 of the MechWars ruleset has been altered to require FM radio systems for all weight classes and weapon types. The AM radio in your 'Fly Wheels' wouldn't comply.
I'd suggest emailing Jon Vandervelde (jon@tcmechwars.com) to make sure this applies to antweights. At big events it's common for another organization to handle the insect class competition -- they might have different rules.
Q: Did 'Rat Amok' fight 'Robo Rat' at the da Vinci Days tournament? That would be a cool match!
A: I think 'Robo Rat' (picture here - scroll down the page) was built just to fight 'Rat Amok', but the match never happened. Rat versus Rat Trap -- who do you think would'a won?
Q: Where is 'da Vinci Days' held?
A: The da Vinci Days technology festival happens each July on the campus of Oregon State University in in Corvallis, Oregon. No robot tournament there this year (2006).
Q: What was the biggest 'bot tournament you've been to?
A: We've been to a few 'big' competitions like Robotica and Robot Wars. Robotica had the biggest prize of any robot combat event ever held in the US. Robot Wars Extreme Warriors 2 had more than 50 heavyweights from the U.S. plus quite a few from Europe.
Q: How much was the grand prize at Robotica?
A: $12,000 -- we won!
Q: Where did 'Robotica' take place?
A: All three seasons of Robotica were filmed on a large sound stage at the old ABC studios in Hollywood, California.
Q: Are the Robot Wars 'House Bots' self controlled?
A: The show gave the impression that the housebots were autonomous, but each of them had a R/C operator down at arena level that you never got to see.
Q: Do you know of any robot tournament games that people play online?
A: Yep, see www.roboforge.net.
Q: What is the most popular weight class?
A: For builders, antweights. For spectators, heavyweights.
Q: What is the least popular weight class?
A: The 6-pound 'mantisweight' class is not popular with builders, and the 50-gram 'fleaweight' class isn't getting much action, either.
Q: Where can I find inexpensive robot combat videos?
A: Try the Robot Marketplace Video Store -- I don't think any of the videos there are over $20, and some are under $15.
Q: Were there robot matches at the "Robotica" competition, or was it just races?
A: There were races, obstacle courses, barrier destructions, head-to-head push-offs -- all sorts of matches. Take a look at the Robotica page at Wikipedia for a full listing of events in all three seasons of Robotica.
Q: Aaron, how old do you have to be to do combat robots?
A: I drove my dad's 'bot at Robot Wars when I was ten. Most events don't have an age limit, but they may require adult supervision in the pits. Check with the event organizer.
Q: Aaron, What TV channels are still showing robot combat?
A: I think the Nickelodeon version of Robot Wars with kids driving the 'bots is still on the Nick Games & Sports network -- watch for me driving 'Run Away' in that series!
Q: Dear Aaron, my friend told me about a robot from Robot Wars, doesn't remember the season. He said it was a multibot that was held together by magnets and could connect and disconnect at will. The name was something along the line of twin something. Do you know what he is talking about? [Ted J.]
A: Yes, Ted. The robot's name was 'Gemini'. It competed in the Fourth and Fifth Wars. It won the 'Best Design' and 'Most Original Entry' awards at the Forth Wars. I think I remember that both halves of the multibot were identical CO2 flippers. It did OK, winning the first round fight both times, but didn't get any farther.
Robot Wars rules said a multibot had to enter the arena as a single unit. Gemini used magnets, but broke apart prior to fighting.
Q: Dear Aaron -- I've heard about autonomous ant-weight combat tournaments. What do you think about fully autonomous robot combat? [Ted J.]
A: Building a robot that can fight and win without an operator is quite a challenge. This is real 'cutting edge' stuff, and you're pretty much on your own trying to build an autonomous navigation and attack system. You might get some help from robotics publications like Servo magazine.
Some tournaments give a weight advantage to autonomous 'bots and let them fight the R/C 'bots. I like to drive my 'bots. Letting them fight with me just standing there sounds like less fun. Besides, the autonomous 'bots I've seen fight weren't very good at it. My dad has offered a $100 prize to the first autonomous 'bot to take him out of a tournament. I think his money is safe.
Q: Did I see you at Combots last weekend? (November, 2005)
A: Nope - I was at the RFL nationals last year, but not this time. Must be an impersonator.
Q: Do you know of any in-depth books on the history of the robots that fought in the early U.S. Robot Wars -- besides "Gearheads"?
A: Literary question - Mark J. here: Brad Stone's Gearheads is a great book on the history and politics of the early days of robot combat. Unfortunately, it is also the only book published on the subject. If you have an interest in the topic, you might enjoy reading thru the archive of the original U.S. Robot Wars forum on the Delphi site: http://forums.delphiforums.com/RobotWars/start
Q: Which of the house robots on robot wars is your favorite?
A: I've always liked Dead Metal. His design is cool and the weapon is very effective.
Q: Do girls build robots?
A: Heck yea! I don't know of a competition that hasn't had at least one female competitor. Robotica, Robot Wars, and BattleBots all had female teams, and the local competitions I go to have plenty. Don't let anyone tell you that girls don't build 'bots.
Mark J. here: Team Run Amok is back from the 2004 Robot Fighting League national championships in San Francisco. Aaron drove his beetleweight to third place overall! His loss in the semi-final was due to an electronics failure in the 'bot -- Aaron's driving was great! Nice job, Aaron.
Q: Aaron, when is Robot Wars going to be this year?
A: I'm sorry to be the one to give you the bad news, but the final season of Robot Wars -- the Seventh Wars -- was filmed in late 2003. The house robots were given to charity, and the arena was sold to the Fighting Robot Association in England. No more Robot Wars.
The good news is that there are plenty of robot combat tournaments both in the U.S. and England. For information on U.S. events, try The Robot Fighting League. For British events, try The Fighting Robot Association.
I wrote a free-verse poem for my English class today:
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ROBOT WARS
not like TV, being there
the pits, machines laid out
crowds in stands, shouting
smoke and ozone |
Mark J. here: I wanted to take a second and congratulate Aaron for his great robot driving at the daVinci Days robot competition (July 17th & 18th, 2004). Aaron won the first ever Antbotica competition with his veteran robot 'Mini Max Bot' and came back the next day to win the beetleweight combat competition with his new robot 'Zpatula'! He has qualified for the Robot Fighting League national championships in San Francisco in October. Great work, Aaron!
Q: What is a robot war competition? How do you win?
A: Never seen Robot Wars? It's pretty simple -- two big (220 pound) remote controlled robots enter a sealed box about the size of a basketball court. Destroy the other robot and you win. You can crush, smash, pierce, saw, or flip the other 'bot. You can throw them over the arena rail. You can push them into the pit, or roast them over the flames. Just do NOT turn your back on the 'house robots' that patrol the edges of the arena.
Q: What were the best parts about being in the pit area at Robot Wars? (Lance D. - Azusa, CA)
A: I liked being able to see all the other robots close-up. I especially liked the British robots "Tornado" and "Razer". The American robot "Tricerabot" was very impressive at the first Robot Wars Extreme Warriors -- he almost pushed Sir Killalot into the pit! My friend Jerome had an impressive robot named "Unibite" that was pretty strong. It was the first robot to go into the "drop zone". Being in the pits was awesome!
Copyright 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 by Mark Joerger -- all rights reserved.