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Robot Wars 1994

The inaugural Robot Wars event took place on August 20th, 1994 at the Fort Mason Center, Herbst Pavillion in San Francisco. There were three classes:

  • Lightweight : 10-40 lbs.
  • Middleweight : 41-70 lbs.
  • Heavyweight : 71-100 lbs.
Three events were featured within each weight class:
  • A standard 'Face-Off' tournament with a 5 or maybe 10 minute time limit (results below).
  • Two 'Melee' fights - there was a lightweight melee with about 6 competitors and a never-repeated all weight-class melee with about 8. Phil Putman's 'Bloodletter' won lightweight and 'South Bay Mauler' took the open event.
  • An unusual and never repeated 'Escort' event where 'bots attempted to protect a defenseless R/C drone from an attacking 'House Robot'. Winners were 'Zomo' (light), 'Omega Ex Machina' (middle), and 'Ramfire 2000' (heavy).
Other prize winners were:
  • Best Design : 'The Master'
  • Best Engineering : 'Ramfire 2000'
  • Strangest Robot : 'Andy Roid'
The original tournament records for the 1994 event are apparently lost. The tournament trees below are the result of my on-going research and reconstruction effort. Red text represents an area of uncertainty.

Note that there were two different competitors named Will Wright. Both are very nice people. One (The Julie Bot) co-founded Maxis Software (Sim City, The Sims) and became rich and famous.

1994 Robot Wars tournament tree.

Run Amok Combat Robotics homepage Ramfire 2000 - Michael Sorensen, Dolittle - Scott LaValley, The Master - Mark Setrakian, TMZ - Patrick Campbell, The Beetle - Caleb Chung, Bloodletter - Phillip Putman, X1 - Dennis Adams, South Bay Mauler - S.C. Tilford, Andy Roid - Scott McNamara, Satoru Special - James Strauss, Spiny Norman - Will Wright, Zomo - Samuel Addison-Muncy, Pain Mower - Tommy Van Gelder, The Julie-Bot - Will Wright, Slow-Mo - Klass Langhout"