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11/23/99
I'm working out a few bugs in my AutoLinks page, please bear with me while I get it back up to speed, and keep sending me those links!
11/20/99
Whew! Just got back from Las Vegas (12:00am) with a truckload
of robots (NINE of them!), so forgive me if none of this update makes sense,
but I feel that I have to post SOME update here....
The event was AWESOME! I had a blast, met a bunch of great people, spent
time with several other builders, enjoyed some of Vegas outside the robot-world,
had a few minor problems with my robot, but I think Nightmare
still put on a good show. Vegas was a perfect place for this, although I
wish they had hyped it up a bit more to the tourists and locals looking
for a great, inexpensive show, but I know everyone was pressed for time
and helping hands. BattleBots has requested that the results of the event
not be made public until after the January 29 Pay-Per-View showing, so I
intend to honor their request. I took dozens of pictures of the robots,
builders, and the pit, I hope I can get permission to post them here, so
stay tuned for that. If you were a builder and do not wish your robot to
appear in my report, please e-mail
me.
I was very impressed at the selection of robots at the event. The quality
has been getting better and better each time, and I love to see all the
cool new ideas coming together, the help and encouragement between builders,
and the overall attitude of "we just do this for the fun of it".
Thanks to all the contestants who took time to intruduce themselves to me,
although I might not recognize you next time I meet you (everything turns
into a blur for me at these things), I was glad to be able to (for the most
part), leave my robot and walk around talking to everyone and watching the
goings-on in the pit and behind the scenes. The super-heavies were nicely
built, especially considering the short time they had to build to specification,
the UK robots put on an awesome show, and, without saying too much, the
big turnovers of the event, and especially the 2 year old vengeances were
SOOOO cool to watch! Absolutely loved the rumbles, although I didn't get
in again for the second event in a row- <sigh>. (Stupid electronic
failures!) I'm already going through all the mental steps to prepare Nightmare
for the next event, two MAJOR upgrades and several minor ones that I had
hoped to implement weeks ago, but ran out of time... all will be ready for
next time.
Thanks to everyone who made BattleBots-Las Vegas such a wonderful show!
Mark your calendars, tell your friends, family and co-workers about the
January 29 Pay Per View show, it will be one NOT to be missed!!
11/13/99
Well, it sure was cutting it close- this being the weekend right before BattleBots, but I finished all the changes and repairs to Nightmare today- man, am I sore. And with not a moment to spare, he goes on the truck tomorrow with all the rest of the robots that I'm driving out to Vegas for Wednesday's big event (Total of 9 going in the truck, 6 loaded already). Hope to see many of you guys out there, if you get a chance, and I don't look too busy, come on up and say "hi", I'd love to hear more of the inside story with everyone else's robot adventures, even if you haven't built one yet.
See ya in Vegas!
11/10/99
If you have e-mailed me in the past about taking your robot from the SF Bay area to the BattleBots-Las Vegas event, please contact me again, I'm trying to get a final show of hands to see how many robots will be in the truck and give you directions to drop of your 'bot this Saturday or Sunday. Thanks
11/9/99
Almost time for
BattleBots! Next Wednesday! I'm in crazy mode here, trying to finish
up Nightmare for his appearance
at the BattleBots- Las Vegas event, so my updates here may be delayed a
bit. I've run into a couple of snags while fixing up Nightmare, but finally
things are going as planned, I may be down to the wire with some of the
upgrades, but at least the basics are finished.
I finally got around to putting up a page about my Halloween
costume robot, check it out and tell
me what you think.
11/3/99 (part2)
A list
of robots confirmed to appear at the November 17 BattleBots-Las Vegas
event, has been posted on the BattleBots
website.
Quite an awesome list of 'bots!!!
11/3/99
Wow, time is flying, it's November already, so I've archived
the October updates below with the rest of them.
Just a reminder that if there are any topics you are looking for from past
updates, you can search for them with the search box at the top of this
page. This is convenient if you haven't tuned in here in a while and want
to see if certain topics have been brought up.
Well, my employer's (ILM)
big annual Halloween party was, as usual, a huge event, with literally thousands
of people showing up with some of the most elaborate costumes I have ever
seen, and deservingly so, given that the prizes, as usual were HUGE, as
to provide the most incentive to be creative and original. Prizes included
trips to Hawaii, computers, and massive entertainment equipment. As you
faithful readers here probably know, I spent the last month building a costume
for this party to take a shot at a chance for one of these awesome prizes.
My wife and I spent long weekend hours putting together our 9-foot tall
metal and wood robot costume, complete with vaccuum cleaner, headlight eyes,
motorized base, about 200 LEDs and other lights (including neon), kitchen
and other home appliances, and more, and ended up with
"HouseBot 2000". We built HouseBot so that both
of us could sit inside, back to back, with our arms out the sides, and a
control box with joystick controller (complete with Vantec speed controller)
running the drive system, which had to haul around the nearly 500lbs weight
total with all the metal, batteries, and us aboard! The thing is HUGE, and
was a big success at the party, I loved having the only motorized costume
there, and 'parting' the crowd to show off to the judges was a kick. When
it came down to it, we were invited to drive up on the stage as finalists
in the costume contest, and after an enthusiastic crowd vote, we actually
WON one of the seven fantastic prize
packages!!! We scored with a new iMac computer, a Compaq Aero color palmtop
computer, a Cellular One phone with 6 months free access, and a Y2K survival
kit! Awesome! Definietly worth the time we put into that costume. We were
so surprised and honored to be picked out of so many great costumes there.
Some other favorites were a 12 foot "Iron Giant" costume, and
a 3-person "Titanic" that actually broke in half after hitting
the 3rd person, who was the "iceberg". Crazy stuff...
I need to get my film developed from the event, I'll post some pictures
on a new page soon.
Now what the heck do I do with a 9 foot robot? Its so big, I don't have
room to store it, and I don't have the heart to disassemble it, so maybe
I'll donate it to BattleBots or something....
Oh well, Happy November! Guess I better get back to work on the "real"
robot again- Nightmare is only half-upgraded....
I've added a "How it works" page
for the Auto-Links page. If you have a robot website listed on my AutoLinks
page, you might want to check it out.