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4/28/99
Trey Roski's response to Robot Wars' frivolous lawsuit has been posted to the BattleBots Forum. You can read it here too.
Sincerest apologies to Gary Cline (robot freedom fighter and unfortunate victim of the legal entanglement from last year's Robotica) for my mistaken slip on yesterday's update here. I didn't mean to put his last name there, it was late... Gary Pini is the one I was targeting, Gary Cline has nothing to do with Robot Wars, sorry about that, Gary! Interesting that I actually heard from 5 different people of this mistake today, guess people do read this stuff after all! Thanks to everyone for catching it!
4/27/99
Here we go again.....
It looks like Robot Wars LLC (a.k.a. Steve Plotnicki, Gary Pini) are suing Battlebots for what they call an attempt to "cause Robot Wars enormous economic harm" due to the fact that "BattleBots would not voluntarily move to a date that did not conflict with Robot Wars".
Okay, to those of you out there that may need it, here is a side-by-side comparison of these "conflicting dates" as shown on each website's main page:
Here is Robot Wars' schedule date. Here is Battlebots' "conflicting" date.
Hmm. looks different to me!
Anyway, you can take a look at the letter they sent out today if you like.
Don't count on Battlebots going away folks, from what I gather, the organizers were more than prepared for this and this time around it might be a lot more fun to watch!
On other (more personal) news, I'd first like to apologize for being so busy and not updating this site for a while, I've been very busy with my Car Audio competitions over the last two weeks, and it definitely paid off! The previous weekend saw me and my newly-finished system in Carson City, Nevada, where I somehow managed to get out with a third-place trophy in IDBL (that's basically the LOUDNESS category) and a first-place trophy in Sound Quality for my division! That was a very pleasant surprise, and if that wasn't enough, this last weekend, my wife and I drove to Las Vegas for yet another competition and I got to drive home with another first-place trophy in IDBL! I am ecstatic about these awards, I could never have guessed things would have turned out so well! And YES, once again I promise I will get some pictures up here for you to see, I only wish I could demo the system for you guys! From what I see by the national standings, at 142.5dB, I currently have one of the 200 loudest car stereos in the United States!!!
So, with that (mostly) out of the way, I can get back to the serious robot-building. I have started to actively pursue sponsorship so that I can start collecting all the parts I have spec'ed out for Nightmare. I want to have most of the parts purchased or on the way in a month.
That's about it for now, I'll get some more links and photos up later this week. Thanks for your patience!
4/13/99
The BattleBots website has been updated to include some video clips on different subjects (Intro, Tools, Design). These are some very cool videos that show exclusive interviews with previous Robot Combat competitors alonside their creations. Check 'em out- I'm happy to say you can see ME featured in them!!! WooHoo! I'm famous!
I noticed this comic strip in this Sunday's Paper- it is 'Sally Forth' by Greg Howard and shows that other people out there know about robot competition- this was about the F.I.R.S.T. competion (that I was involved in this year-read more about it on my FIRST page). Kudos to Greg Howard for this! By the way, I've just gotten some new pictures back from that event that I will be scanning and posting to that page soon.
For those of you who have been sending me links and other info, rest assured I will be adding them soon, I've just been rather busy with all kinds of other stuff going on and haven't had the chance yet. (Less than 2 weeks to my IASCA car audio competition!)
4/7/99
The new, updated Robot Wars website is now online. Not much there yet, but they've obviously been busy editing and uploading a lot of (long and somewhat low quality) video from previous Robot Wars events....If you've got a lot of time and a fast modem, check it out.
There is also a form to fill out for more information.
The BattleBots website now has a revised entry form and a few more new goodies, make sure to check it out to get the most current info!
Things sure have been slow around here lately, by the looks of recent hits on this site in the last week or so... I dunno if you guys are just busy building your robots or if I'm doing something wrong.
Please make sure to keep sending me any info you find for robotic combat. I no longer have access to browse the web as much from work, so I need to rely on you guys more and more for new information, news, links, etc. Please keep with stuff as you find it so I can keep adding it here for everyone else to enjoy!
4/1/99
Whew! What a month March was for Robot News! I've archived it in the previous updates below, so if you missed it, make sure you go back and catch up!
It's been a little quieter in the last week or so, at least it has for me... I got a knock-down killer cold that put me out for four days, so I got little of anything done, and now I feel behind on my projects, so I'll do my best to catch up. Just a few more weeks to finish my mobile audio/multimedia setup in my truck to be ready for competition in Vegas! I really gotta get some pics scanned in and get a page up for you guys to see what the heck I'm talking about- you won't believe it when you see/hear it!
I've slowly been accumulating some more parts for Nightmare. This thing is going to be sick, sick, sick! I sure hope I have enough time this summer to finish construction to be ready for BattleBots! If all goes well I should have all the parts within the next two months and he shouldn't be too hard to assemble. The weapon is the main focus, (heck, it's most of the robot!) and I may end up recruiting some help from a few people to get this thing constructed just right. The rest of the robot should come together in only a few weeks.
Oh by the way, I was hoping to get some funny unbelievable story up here for April Fool's Day, but I failed to get online all day and here it is almost over, so it'll have to wait til next year I guess...
I was really suprised to not see any good April Fool's jokes on the BattleBots Forum or the RW Forum. Guess people are too busy for that kind of nonsense anymore, huh? Oh well...Happy April everybody!