6/29/99
I have scanned and OCR'ed the recent letter Marc Thorpe sent out to all 1997 Robot Wars competitors. This letter arrived the other day with a self-addressed stamped envelope, in hopes that Robot Wars LLC would receive enough of these back to begin exploiting the video, pictures, etc. taken at that event.
Remember, if you don't sign it, they don't get to exploit you or your robot! (Oh, and, 'exploit' is their own word, not mine!)
The new, improved Society of Robotic Combat (SORC) website has gone online today. Check it out! Looks pretty good!
Got Nightmare's frame back from the welding shop yesterday and I am VERY pleased. Now I can finish mounting the electronics and weapon. This will not take too long. It's been designed to a simple assembly, so just line up the parts and in they go! I was planning on taking a couple days off work this week to get this done, and what do you know but I end up sick in bed with a blasted virus! Well, hopefully I'll shake this before the weekend so I can get crankin'! Oh yeah, this will be the 4th of July weekend, and I get a bonus paid-day off work (Monday). WooHoo!
I'll try to get some more pics and video up soon.
6/25/99
Rats! The welding shop didn't get to Nightmare's frame in time for the weekend, so I cannot work on him at all this weekend. That sets me back at least a week now. However, I can still work on his weapon, and this does give me the much-needed opportunity of upgrading Junior and Herc (and, it gives my back some time to heal). I should get everything for Nightmare back on Monday and I can work on him evenings thru next week. I really want to have this guy ready to run in a couple weeks! Stay tuned for more updates and pics soon.
Added a new item to the media section- a quick article on robot combat events from geeknews.net! Please e-mail me if you find any other such articles.
6/23/99
I just added a new, very cool and useful tool to this website! Now you can navigate around the site quick and easily by clicking on thebutton wherever you see it! Try it out, there may be areas of the site that you never knew existed! Hope you like it!
I also added a countdown timer on the main page for number of days til BattleBots! Getting excited yet?
6/22/99 (p.m.)
BattleBots has just announced over $25,000 in cash and prizes will be given away this August! Read their prize page! WOW! Now we're talking!
They have also posted some new video footage to promote BattleBots and the builders involved. These latest clips feature Mark Setrakian, Mike Winters, and none other than Dick Van Dyke telling the world that he will be at BattleBots!
I hope everyone out there has finalized their travel plans for August! If you haven't, it will be hard to find rooms that week with all kinds of other shows and stuff going on in the Long Beach area! Get crackin'! BattleBots has put together a great list of contact numbers for anything you may need for your trip to the event, you can read it here.
Also, only a few more days to register for Bot Bash!
6/22/99 (a.m.)
Took Nightmare in for his final welding job today (er.... yesterday- it's after 12am now). This will complete the drivetrain section. This next weekend I should be mounting the electronics and possibly doing a test-drive with the new frame in place. This, of course is if I'm feeling up to it- I must've pulled something in my back on Sunday lifting stuff, because ever since, it hurts to do just about anything besides lay in bed. Owie!
Updated a few new links on the links page. Make sure you check out Donald Hutson's new TazBot for '99!
Several of you have expressed concerns about me and my opinions on Robot Combat with Robot Wars in particular. It doesn't take a lot of research and reading around on this site to find out which event(s) I favor. However, although I may favor one event over another does not mean I wish to damage the reputation of any other. Robot Wars was not the first Robot Combat event, but it was fundamental in advancing and expanding the concept of Robotic Combat, and I acknowlege that fact with great honor. However, the person who was the main factor in the success of Robot Wars is absolutely no longer involved in the process, and the fact is that the event will never be the same without him. This is something I simply cannot understand, nor can I morally let someone enter the Robot Combat world for the first time without knowing the full history of what has been happenning over the years.
I have mentioned it before- Although my first priority for events is to make it to BattleBots '99, I will also attend Robot Wars '99. I honestly don't know if I will compete at RW, this would completely depend on what happens in the coming weeks from the organizers of that event. So far to date there has been little for me to be assured that their intentions for the competitors themselves are good. If I do compete, I would bring Hercules, as he is my second-newest robot, and has been untested in battle. Besides, what else can I do with him since I cannot enter two Gigabots at BattleBots? : )
Thank you all for your fantastic supporting emails and contributions to this website. I am very proud of what we have made the Team Hercules site into, it has become a beacon of information and collective spirit for the Robot Competition world! I couldn't have done it without all you faithful readers!
As always, please continue to e-mail me with comments, suggestions, site problems, corrections, links and any information you would like to see covered in this website.
-Jim
6/19/99
The written decision from the courts that shot down Robot Wars feeble attempt at stopping BattleBots is available in a PDF document. For your reading pleasure, you may download it here.
Ever have one of those days working on your robot and you are absolutely amazed that you were able to get done everything you set out to do and more? I had one of those days today. I nearly completed Nightmare's drive system, (final touch will be taking it in again to get some spot-welding done next week), and finished two components of the weapon system! I also constructed my own new power tool to add to my arsenal, it basically is a large 110v motor with cutting wheel and an adjustable vise attachment on a hinged arm that I can put excessively large pieces of metal on to cut through with ease and accuracy with no more assistance than the material's own gravity angled against the cutting wheel. I was able to cut through a solid 25lb chunk of 6x13x1 inch stainless steel in a matter of minutes just by setting up the machine and sitting back and watching it do its work. Heck, I remember in '97 when I had to get a 1/4 inch steel plate cut for Herc, I had to take it around to 3 local shops until I found one with a huge bandsaw that could cut it, and even that took 25 minutes to cut through that thinner stuff! Pretty cool if I do say so myself! It's definitely not a pretty tool, but hey, it does the job!
Tomorrow (Sunday) should bring me even further along in the construction, and I think I can still make my goal of driving the near-complete robot by theis time next weekend.
6/16/99
Not much time left to register for BotBash '99! Check out their website for some new info, including agenda and registered contestants so far. I wish I was able to go to this event, perhaps things will be better for me schedule-wise next year that I can build a smaller robot to get into this event.
Got the frame for Nightmare back from the welding shop today! Man, what a perfect job. I'm very glad I didn't try that myself....Now I can proceed to mounting the components and drivetrain this weekend! Should be driveable again by next week. (I'm getting REALLY excited about this, can you tell?)
I made a new banner page with a collection of different banners to link back to this website. If you link with one of these, let me know if you have a banner to your site and I'll add you to my own links page!
6/15/99
Just finished updating my Links page. Cleaned up all the old, dead links and added in a bunch of new ones, as well as re-rated many of them! Check it out! Please let me know if you see anything wrong, or if you have new links to add to the page. Thanks!
6/14/99
Happy June! Sorry so late here- as you can guess, I've been pretty busy since the last update and haven't had a chance to get the site up-to-date. I have once again archived the May 1999 update page with the rest of them below, if you haven't been keeping up, please check the previous updates below.
Well, the best news of the month so far is that the lawsuit that Robot Wars filed against BattleBots has been declared null by the judge in the case! This means that there is NO way for Robot Wars to stop BattleBots from happening! Finally a victory in the best interest of the competitors!
In other news, a new robot combat event has surfaced! Robot Rumbles, based out of Canada, this event shows promise already! Check out their website, and if you like, you can post their banner on your own site too:
