RobotCombat.com News

August 2000

Search RobotCombat.com

powered by FreeFind

Navigate the Team Hercules site with ease!

Order your Team Nightmare 2000 T-Shirt TODAY!

8/28/00

BattleBots everywhere! America Online has started a BattleBots section, available at AOL Keyword: BattleBots, including it's own message board to talk about the bots on the TV show. Available only to AOL users.

8/26/00

Lots of new publicity following the start of the BattleBots T.V. show, check my media page for new stuff, including an article in People Magazine and Wired News!


8/25/00

Holy Smoke! While I expected to get some new visitors after the first BattleBots show, I didn't expect this! My hits on this site shot up almost 800% from a week ago! Wow, thanks and WELCOME to all you new visitors!

As you can imagine, my box has increased in size accordingly with potential builders asking questions. While I take the time to read and answer all my email, it does get overwhelming sometimes. Please, if you are looking for answers, look around this site first. 90% of the questions I get by email have answers somewhere around here, especially on my tips, links and history pages. If this is your first time here, and you haven't been there yet, please visit the Welcome Page.

In the coming weeks, I will be updating both the Nightmare and Backlash pages, so stay tuned!

Thanks! Enjoy your visit at RobotCombat.com!


8/24/00

And So it Begins

If you're reading this page as a result of watching the premiere of the BattleBots TV show on Comedy Central, WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF ROBOTIC COMBAT! Looks like my traffic here has quadrupled from a week ago, sparked, I'm sure, by the latest premiere of BattleBots on Comedy Central, and the discussion going on on SlashDot. Glad to see you here. This site might get a bit overwhelming with all the information you can find here, but if you have been eager to learn more about the sport, you're at the right place. First off, let me assure you that BattleBots is NOT a ripoff of Robot Wars UK. BattleBots was started to fill the void left by the legal junk going on here in the states with the original Robot Wars. You can get the full story on my history page.

Since there are over 200 pages on this site, I don't expect the average new visitor to stick around to look at everything, so let me give you a few of the highlight sections of RobotCombat.com:

My Robots - this page has all the robots I've built since 1997, including Backlash and Nightmare, both of which are currently appearing on Comedy Central's BattleBots

Tips - If you're interested in building one of these things for yourself, start here, also a good place to find out about the sport in general.

Media, letters, etc. - Where you can see some of the printed media attention BattleBots and Robot Wars has received over the last few years, as well as a section for printed announcements and legal mumbo jumbo.

Event Archives - where you can see the robots that have appeared in past BattleBots events.

Links to other robot sites - This daily-updated section can direct you to just about every other BattleBots and Robot Wars site out there.

History - I have to mention this one again for those of you just learning about this sport. We've been through a lot over the years, and a lot of people are quick to jump to conclusions, so PLEASE read this section so you know what's been going on.

BattleBots - Okay, it's not part of my site, but if you haven't been there already, make this your next stop! This is what it's all about!

Once again, WELCOME to the sport and RobotCombat.com! If you have specific questions, suggestions or gripes, please feel free to .

In other news, Backlash made it to last night's show on Comedy Central! His fight against Disposable Hero was the first match of the series, kind of makes me proud (sniff). Anyway, it was a great (although quick) match for Backlash, as Disposable Hero fell victim to the spinning wheel of death that is Backlash. Several parts went a-flying! Backlash gets to advance to the next round! Stay tuned to BatteBots-Comedy Central to see how he does in future episodes. Next week, Backlash's big brother, Nightmare is up. You won't want to miss this carnage.

If you missed this preview episode on Comedy Central, don't worry, they are re-broadcasting it several times this week:

Friday, Aug 25 8:00PM
Saturday, Aug 26 10:00AM
Saturday, Aug 26 5:00PM
Saturday, Aug 26 11:00PM
Sunday, Aug 27 11:30AM

8/23/00

Tonight is the half-hour preview of BattleBots on Comedy Central, don't miss it! 10:30 pm- right after South Park!

8/22/00

Tomorrow it begins! Wednesday, August 23 at 10:30pm on Comedy Central, don't miss the BattleBots 'Prelude to Battle'!

Yes, you can still watch your beloved 'Survivor' finale, then you can switch over to watch the start of this great new TV series!


8/18/00

Titanium for sale!!! Hey combat robot builders, I dug up a GREAT deal on high quality Titanium for your bot! The catch? We all have to chip in to buy this whole lot of 6 bars. Check out the full scoop here.

8/16/00

Items wanted: Hey fellow robot builders: I'm looking for a few items for my bots that you may have sitting around:

Futaba crystal sets

Futaba Receiver battery packs

Futaba TK-FSS Synthesized Module

Some high current power switches

Unique spare wheels/tires that you aren't going to use

If you have any of these items for sale, or other extra robot goodies you think I might like, please !


8/13/00

BattleBots just announced that the next event will be held on November 17-19 in Las Vegas! This is a good amount of notice this time, so I know a lot of builders will be happy with this news- I sure am.

Also announced is that Comedy Central will be taping this new event as well, and using it for another 13 week series on TV! This will include all 4 weight classes (Lightweight thru Super Heavyweight), this news will also be a relief to some of the builders who feared that their smaller robots wouldn't make it on TV!


8/12/00

Okay, so you regular visitors probably noticed a bit of a delay since my last update. Sorry about that, I just didn't want to have anything to do with you guys for a couple weeks (no offense). I was taking my much-needed post-BattleBots break on a two week vacation with my wife to Florida and the Bahamas. Whew! Feeling quite relaxed now, it looks as though I didn't miss much in the robot combat community while I was away, although I did notice that my script for the autolinks page failed a couple days while I was away, guess it still isn't capable of living on its own yet.

One thing I did notice worth mentioning is that it seems that BattleBots (which, as by now you should know, will begin airing it's TV series on Comedy Central on August 23), is showing a schedule of 8 broadcasts of the pilot episode in only the first week in a variety of time slots! That's a lot of air-time! If you miss it (and can get Comedy Central Channel), you have NO excuse.

If there was any more Robot Combat news, I may have missed it, as I only skimmed over the BattleBots Forum postings. If there was anything important I missed, and I should know about for this site, please let me know.

Anyway, now that you're here, you'll have to endure the obligatory vacation pictures. Well, actually, I suppose you could just click to somewhere else in cyberspace, but I'd be willing to guess you're just curious enough to check anyway. Well here you go...

I started changing around the What's New page to try to match the new look I'm attempting for this site, but stopped short after the new Update Archive, which you'll see below. I'll finish the rest later as I find the time. Check it out and see how it works for your browser & OS. if you have any problems with it. In case you didn't notice, I archived the July 2000 updates below with the rest, in order to keep this page somewhat tidy.