Robot Arena 2: Design and Destroy

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Robot Arena 2: Design and Destroy is a computer game made by Infogrames. It is the sequel to Robot Arena. It has many new features, such as the Havok physics engine, fully 3-D environments (This includes being able to flip over other robots), and total customization of your robot. This includes chassis design, weapon placement, mechanics, and even paint. The "cheatbot" code from the original returns, this time offering a Hovercraft Engine, a Magnet, a Flamethrower, and a Cannon (Though an upgrade patch is required for the cheat to take effect). Weapons are completely customizable, including things such as mounting weapons on various attachments, such as poles, disks, and tri-bars. Although the original was not received well by players, this game has a very small (but dedicated) fanbase and small communities for the game are still active today.

Contents

[edit] Official Patches

Developers Infogrames and Gabriel Interactive have released a total of two official upgrades for the Robot Arena 2 game. These patches offered upgrades ranging from simple AI fixes to new components.

[edit] Version 1.2

The official upgrade to Version 1.2 was released in March 2003, and was a "required" upgrade as online play between 1.0 and 1.2 games would not work. Version 1.2 featured minor fixes to several AI controlled robots (most notably EMERGENCY) along with adding four secret weapons to the game. These weapons, the Cannon, Flamethrower, Hover Pad, and Magnet, could be unlocked by entering "cheatbot2" as your robot's name and pressing Enter (an evil laugh would signal the trick worked).

[edit] Version 1.3

On October 29th, 2006 a mysterious release for the game surfaced on the official website as "Version 1.3". Several veteran players analyzed the patch only to be confused by the contents of it. Version 1.3 updated the executable game launcher, and also some seemingly random images in the UI folders. Further exploration reveals that the patch fixes the "nVidia glitch", a problem on newer nVidia cards which garbles the UI. It also removes the CD check. In the Credits screen of the game, "Version 1.20" is still displayed.

[edit] The Community

For a sequel to a game that received low ratings, Robot Arena 2 had a massive community and following. Although the original "pioneers" of Robot Arena 2 have long since moved on and the websites have gone offline or stagnant, their works are still shared among users in the communities new and old alike.

[edit] AceUplink

The original AI of Robot Arena 2 was less than impressive (Although arguably better than the original's), save for the exception of one Heavyweight: The dreaded flipper EMERGENCY. This led many members of AceUplink, a popular site and haven for many Robot Arena 2 fans, to create a special AI pack featuring some famous robots from BattleBots to increase the challenge. Over a period of months, some of the more industrious AceUplink members created custom components, weapons, motors, and chassis that, in the end, looked stunningly like their real-life counterparts. Some of the robot's featured included Nightmare, Warhead, Minion, Son of Whyachi, Killerhurtz, Ziggo, Mechavore, Diesector, Hazard, Toro, Mauler 5150, Atomic Wedgie, and M.O.E., among others. The pack of robots was extremely difficult, many could not even be harmed save for a tiny chassis housing the Robot Control Board, which was nearly completely encompassed by very durable parts. Nevertheless, the pack livened up the game considerably. AceUplink no longer exists now, and a copy of the pack would most likely have to be found through various fansites.

[edit] RA-Reborn

A group of banned users from AceUplink ("HackerX" and "grawss") banded together to create a Robot Arena 2 fansite where all upgrades and mods could be found. The RA-Reborn site was very successful but was notorious for its harsh and unforgiving staff, who constantly gave novelty ranks and insulting titles/avatars to problem users and forum newbies.

The host of RA-Reborn was its downfall, though. When the site's host fouled up and went offline, RA-Reborn went with it. The host did not restore the files to the server, and the staff was incredibly busy at the time. Even with its huge assortment of mods available (even the mods that no one liked), RA-Reborn closed its doors forever in 2005. Their domain has since be taken up by domain sharks.

[edit] Bots4Battle

Formed by Jimxorb along with other game modders, Bots4Battle (aka B4B), was a predecessor to the RA-Reborn website. Bots4Battle attempted to compile a list of every single mod and patch released for the game, they also created many of their own, some of which were never released fully. For the most part the website succeeded in keeping up with the released upgrades, but the website was notoriously unorganized using only basic html to form the download page.

Bots4Battle was a popular website in its time and had its own forum community and hosted its own Robot Arena 2 tournament which was won by a member called 'Disem', the community suffered due to friction between various moderators and members and after many rules were broken Jimxorb had had enough and closed the forum with hope of one day re-opening it, this was never to be. With the opening of RA-Reborn's much more organized database and new community run by some of the other ex B4B members/staff, Bots4Battle faded into obscurity.

[edit] RFSHQ

A disgruntled ex-AceUplink staff user, "Radio F Software", claimed he could "out-do" AceUplink by making his own website. He created the first version of "Radio F Software Headquarters (RFSHQ)" in February 2004 as a website to host his "RFS AI Pack" mod that expanded the limits of the game to allow 6 AI bots per team instead of 3, and 30 AI teams instead of 15. He also moved his tutorials from AceUplink to his webspace on Geocities.

Originally RFSHQ was meant to make fun of AceUplink, and it did. Early articles on the site's "TXT Dumpster" reveal "frauds" done by the staff. However over time webmaster Radio F Software saw that people were more interested in his jokes than the Robot Arena 2 content, so he hired a staff of banned/angry AceUplink users and went live as a comedy site. "Goose", a talented component designer sponsored RFSHQ with a domain and hosting in November 2004. The site adopted the remains of RA-Reborn as part of their website, and RA-Reborn webmaster "HackerX" joined the RFSHQ staff.

RFSHQ still hosts the mod database, but has since moved to comedy content, and "Radio F Software" and "Goose" started their own company in the process: RFS Media Productions.

[edit] DSL

The DSL Mod is what is considered a "total conversion" for Robot Arena 2. It has since knocked the RFS AI Pack off of the list of most downloads according to download counts on the DSL and RA-Reborn websites. "DSL" is an abbreviation for the three main programmers of the mod, not DSL internet. The three top programmers were "DarkRat", "Starcore", and the late "Lu-Tze". Other notable users in the DSL Team were "Vincent", "Rejected, "Goose", "ACAMS", "Clickbeetle", and "Firebeetle".

DSL includes an entire set of new AI and also uses a modified version of a file from the RFS AI Pack to add a sixteenth team onto the mod. DSL features over 300 new parts to the game (most for replica use) and replicas of popular robots from BattleBots and Robot Wars. Aside from AI upgrades, DSL added in many new areas including an Obstacle Course, a Monopoly gameboard, a Robot Wars arena complete with all of the hazards, and a redone Practice Arena that offers many ways to test the durability of your robots.

DSL 2.0, the long awaited update, was recently released as a total overhaul to the older v1.2. During the development process, a light-hearted "April Fools" joke on the front page spooked many users, but when they realized the date it gave them hope that the team was still hard at work. DSL 2.0 adds several new components and totally refurbishes the GUI.

[edit] Online Tournaments

Several websites mentioned in the Communities section also ran tournaments of their own that would be played online betwween two or more users. Lag or latency in connections frequently posed problems, along with various connection issues that would prevent users from battling each other, but the majority of these negatives did not stop players from simply enjoying the spirit of the sport.

[edit] Official Robot Arena 2 Tournaments - RA2T#1 + RA2T#2

The official tournament was started by Jimxorb and being the 'Robot Arena 2 Champion' was obviously the most prestigious award you could win from playing the game. There have been 2 Middle Weight tournaments set up by Jimxorb (Who had previous tournament arranging experience from his Bots4Battle days) on the official website, many people entered and the robot that won the first tournament was a robot designed by Jimxorb and Be0t, using a popup spike inside a wedge design capable of 1-3 hit KOs, power that was at the time unheard of, it was called Death Port 2.

For the second and final tournament Lu-Tze made a new arena that Jimxorb designed, it had corner grinders and low walls, to allow pushers and flippers a chance of success against spinners and axe robots. The well-built arena is still the favourite arena of many players even to this day, it also had an image of Be0t's winning robot printed on the floor of the arena (Part of the prize in the original official tournament. RA2T#2 was won by Be0t again, this time with Death Port 3 who was solely made and designed by Jimxorb this time to fit Be0t's driving style, although the robot was well built and very powerful it was now a common design. It was the legendary driving skills of Be0t that allowed Death Port 3 to win his second official tournament. No more tournaments after the second one were ever made.

[edit] AceUplink Onslaught

AceUplink was the home of arguably some of the most successful tournaments in terms of registration numbers. Because of their links with the official Robot Arena 2 website, AceUplink had their foot in the door early on in the life of the game. Four tournaments were played out, and the fifth (labeled "The Onslaught") did not finish. The meticulous organization of AceUplink's rules and brackets would later end up being a centerpiece of future tournaments from many other websites. AceUplink was also the first to feature a special custom-made arena for their tournaments; something else that would later be copied in the community.

[edit] Other AceUplink Tournaments

"AW", an Administrator from AceUplink, was in the middle of trying to create unique arenas to inspire the building of robots that would perform other functions besides fighting. One such arena that was being developed was similar to many FIRST Robotics events where robots would pick up coloured balls and put them into baskets. In theory, successfully putting a ball in a basket would grant you points in the game and the ball(s) would respawn.

[edit] DSL Mod Tournaments

The DSL Mod included several strange arenas in its upgrade. One such arena was built off of the AceUplink ball idea; a soccer arena. The idea of the arena was similar. Robots would try and push a single soccer ball into either the Red or Blue goal to score 2000 points. Points for damage were disabled in this arena, and attacking your opponents was discouraged, and subject to disqualification. Unlike the AceUplink arena, the DSL arena was completed with minimal programming bugs. The soccer ball would respawn in the middle of the arena after a goal was scored. Entrants for the first and only soccer tournament were required to follow a strict "No Weapons" policy and instead used various sheet metal plates to design their own kickers or punters for their robots.

[edit] AON & BBEANS

AON (managed by "Alphasim") and BBEANS (managed by the Beetle Brothers) are two unique forms of tournaments that the creators claim "eliminates lag". This is accomplished by giving AI code to every robot that is entered and running the fights on the "official" computer. Fights are then taped and displayed online for the contenders to see how their autonomous creations did in combat. Most fights are done in a "best 2 out of 3" format in the event of an accident caused due to the various physics problems in the game. With a lack of online human players in recent months, the majority of tournaments now have shifted to this simpler form of fighting as there is no need to set up convenient times for each player.

[edit] Robots

The default robots are as follows. Many of the robots have real-life counterparts, usually (But not always) BattleBots. These are listed in (parenthesis).

  • Team Red Zone
    • Lightweight: Scout (None)
    • Middleweight: ALARM (None)
    • Heavyweight: Sentinel (Vlad the Impaler)
  • Team PREHISTORIC
    • Lightweight: Roly Poly (None)
    • Middleweight: SaberTooth (None)
    • Heavyweight: Grog, the Warrior (None)
  • Team The Good Ol' Boys
    • Lightweight: Catfish (None)
    • Middleweight: Mud Runner (None)
    • Heavyweight: Bear (None)
  • Team Dragon
    • Lightweight: Ninja (None)
    • Middleweight: Bushido (None)
    • Heavyweight: Ronin (Alien 2)
  • Team BLACK STORM
    • Lightweight: BOT-204 (Ankle Biter)
    • Middleweight: Devil (Timmy)
    • Heavyweight: Coal Miner (BOB)
  • Team SPARK
    • Lightweight: JACKPOT! (None)
    • Middleweight: The Boxer (Cassius Chrome)
    • Heavyweight: EMERGENCY (Vlad the Impaler)
  • Team SpikeHeads
    • Lightweight: M.A.D. (None)
    • Middleweight: Dementia (None)
    • Heavyweight: Little Metal Friend (Jaws Of Death)
  • Team North Polers
    • Lightweight: MiniBerg (Hammertime)
    • Middleweight: IceBerg (Hammertime)
    • Heavyweight: Snowjob (Frostbite)
  • Team HIGH VOLTAGE
    • Lightweight: Flapjack (Hexy Jr)
    • Middleweight: BackSlash (Biohazard)
    • Heavyweight: Wide Load (None)
  • Team HEX
    • Lightweight: Flame Chopper (Skrike)
    • Middleweight: LugNut (Jack Rabbit)
    • Hanky Panky (Bacchus)
  • Team Z
    • Lightweight: Berserker (Ziggo)
    • Middleweight: Razor (None)
    • Heavyweight: Eye Poker (Monster)
  • Team SteelYard Dog
    • Lightweight: Lil' Dog (Double Agent)
    • Middleweight: Da Dog (None)
    • Heavyweight: Big Dog (Doom Of Babylon)
  • Team RIOT
    • Lightweight: Civil Disobedience (None)
    • Middleweight: REVENGE (M.O.E.)
    • Heavyweight: Raptor (None)
  • Team MEGATON
    • Lightweight: Stinger (None)
    • Middleweight: Tornado (Mauler)
    • Heavyweight: DEADBEAT (None)
  • Team The Scrappers
    • Lightweight: Arc Pounder (Herr Gepounded)
    • Middleweight: Ripblade (Backlash & Nightmare)
    • Heavyweight: Backyard Ripper (Afterthought)

There are also six example robots for the player to experiment with when they start the game:

  • Team Rookies
    • Middleweight: C.R.U.S.H. (None)
    • Lightweight: Sting Ray (None)
    • Middleweight: BOT-CHOY (Diesector)
    • Middleweight: Forkie (None)
    • Middleweight: Atom Smasher (None)
    • Heavyweight: Walrus (None)

There are also three "secret" example bots that can only be seen with the "Import Robot" command.

  • Team n/a
    • Heavyweight: BarberShop Chop (Heavy Metal Noise)
    • Middleweight: Spin Bonker (Ziggo)
    • Middleweight: Tailwhip (Blade Runner)

[edit] "Havok Explosions"

Due to Havok's random probability factor, there are several glitches in the physics engine (Called Havok Explosions), most famously the Mines. A Mine occurs when an external motor or piston is knocked off, and sometimes when a flipper is. A Mine works basically like the opposite of a Black Hole. It is completely invisible and creates a tremendous force around it that fires anything that comes near it away. There are also many other Havok Explosions in the game, such as the (in)famous piston glitch that occurs when a great number of pistons are placed on one robot (The result is a seizure-like flailing of the chassis). Another one, perhaps the least known, is dubbed Project Trinity Effect. To activate it, one must mount a disc on a powerful motor [Most likely the Z-Tek (HP) motor], mount four burst pistons on the disc, and mount a heavy object such as a sledge hammer on each piston. When the disc is activated and spinning at top speed, if one were to fire the pistons, an effect not unlike the piston Glitch will occur, only that Project Trinity Effect wears off after about a minute, where as the Piston Glitch continues until the fight ends. It should be noted that it is very possible for a Piston-Glitch to actually cause the robot to kill itself by ramming into walls continuously or falling into pits. Project Trinity Effect generally only causes the latter, as it takes an amount of time greater than that of PTE, though activating it multiple times may cause self-destruction. The heavy objects on Project Trinity Effect may get randomly disconnected and fly at tremendous speeds capable of killing (Or at least doing massive damage to) any robot.

[edit] External links

[edit] See also

Robot Arena

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