Robot Wars

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This article is about British game show. For other uses, see Robot Wars (disambiguation).
Robot Wars

The Robot Wars logo, as used in the title sequence.
Format Game show
Starring Jeremy Clarkson
(Series 1)
Craig Charles
(Series 2 - 7)
Philippa Forrester
(Series 1 - 3 & 5 - 6)
Julia Reed
(Series 4)
Jayne Middlemiss
(Series 7)
Narrated by Jonathan Pearce
Country of origin Flag of the United Kingdom United Kingdom
No. of episodes 151 (List of episodes)
Production
Camera setup Multi-camera
Running time 30 minutes (Series 1-2)

45 minutes (Series 3-6, Extreme 1-2)

60 minutes (Series 7)
Broadcast
Original channel BBC Two
Five
Picture format PAL (576i)
Original run January 16, 1998 – April 24, 2004
External links
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Robot Wars was a US based robot competition from 1994-1997, and is a British game show broadcast on BBC Two from 1997 until 2002, with a final series broadcast on Five in 2003. The show ran for 12 series, including two 'Extreme' series & 3 World Championships. There were additional series filmed for specific sectors of the global market, including two seasons of Robot Wars Extreme Warriors with U.S. competitors for the TNN network (hosted by Mick Foley), and two seasons of Dutch Robot Wars for distribution in the Netherlands.

Robot Wars was shown on BBC Two at 6:45PM on Friday evenings then repeated on Sunday Mornings. The Seventh series seen on Five was shown on Sunday evenings. The UK Sci Fi channel shows double repeats of Robot Wars every Saturday and Sunday at 6am, and Challenge has recently (September, 2007) shown Series 3, with Series 4 due to have started in December, 2007.

In 2003, the roboteers themselves formed The Fighting Robot Association and, with their associated event organisers, carry on participating in competitions for new audiences.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Origins

Robot Wars was the brainchild of Marc Thorpe, a designer working for the LucasToys division of Lucasfilm.[1] In 1992, Thorpe had the initial idea for robot combat sport after unsuccessfully attempting to create a radio controlled vacuum cleaner.[2] In 1994, Marc Thorpe created Robot Wars and held the first competition at the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco. Approximately one month prior to the event, Thorpe formed a partnership with New York based record company Sm:)e Communications, later Profile Records, who provided additional funding.[1]

Between 1995 and 1997, three further Robot Wars events took place in America and, in 1995, Profile Records partnered with production company Mentorn to produce and televise a Robot Wars event in the UK. Mentorn acquired the worldwide television rights from Profile in 1995, and Tom Gutteridge and Steve Carsey created the television format from the original Robot Wars concept. Profile sought no input or consent from Thorpe before doing this, and this aggravated the already troubled relationship between Thorpe and Profile Records and indirectly spurred legal disagreements surrounding the ownership of the Robot Wars concept. The legal proceedings surrounding these would last until February 6, 2002.[2] Mentorn used Thorpe as a Consultant on the series, however, and the initial series of Robot Wars in the UK was broadcast over six weeks in February and March 1998. It was an immediate hit, with more than 2 million viewers, and a further 27 episodes were commissioned by the BBC that year. 155 episodes were produced in total, and the show was seen in 26 countries. Two series were produced in the US for the TNN (now Spike) network, and a version was also shown on Nickelodeon. Series were also produced in many European countries. All were produced in London by Mentorn, and executive produced by Tom Gutteridge and Steve Carsey.

[edit] Presenters

The first series of Robot Wars was presented by Jeremy Clarkson and co-hosted by Philippa Forrester.[3] In keeping with his edgy persona established on Top Gear, Clarkson frequently made tongue-in-cheek jokes about competitors and their robots, such as remarking that a contestant robot called "Scarab" looked like "cheese on toast".[4] Clarkson left Robot Wars after the first series and was replaced with Craig Charles.[5] Charles, well known as playing the character Dave Lister in the science fiction themed situation comedy Red Dwarf,[6] was seen as taking the programme and its contestants more seriously than Clarkson, and was visibly enthusiastic whilst presenting.[4] Charles would close each episode with a four line poem ending with the words "on Robot Wars".[3] Charles presented Robot Wars until its demise in 2004.

In comparison to Charles' background in science fiction, Philippa Forrester was best known as co-host of the science and technology programme Tomorrow's World.[7] Her role on Robot Wars was as the pit reporter[8] who would speak to contestants about their robots before and after battles. Forrester was pit reporter for six of the show's nine series; Julia Reed took the role for Series 4 and Extreme since Forrester was unable to participate in the programme due to pregnancy, and when the programme moved to Five for the seventh series was replaced with Jayne Middlemiss.[5]

[edit] Format

[edit] Competition: U.S. Robot Wars: 1994-1997

The 1994 Robot Wars in San Francisco, California featured three different 'games' for each of three robot weight classes:

  • The FACE-OFF paired robots to battle through an elimination tournament. A robot won a match by immobilizing its opponent, either by damage or by pinning. If both robots were still mobile at the end of ten minutes, they both advanced to the next round of the tournament.
  • The MOB SCENE was a free-for-all melee fight amongst multiple robots. There were two Mob Scene fights: one for lightweight robots, and a never-repeated 'all weight classes' melee.
  • The ESCORT event had a single competitor robot escort a defenseless "drone" robot across the arena while a "house robot" attempted to attack the drone. The successful escort with the lowest time was declared the winner. The Escort event was contested only in 1994.

Weight classes for this first event were:

  • Lightweight: 10 to 40 pounds
  • Middleweight: 41 to 70 pounds
  • Heavyweight: 71 to 100 pounds

The competition format remained much the same through 1997. Additional safety regulations were implemented each year, match length was trimmed to 5 minutes, a 'featherweight' weight class was added, and weight allowances crept upward; by 1997 the heavyweight maximum was 170 pounds.

The 1997 judging criteria removed pinning an opponent for 30 seconds as an automatic win and required such immobilization techniques to be limited to one minute. The 1997 judging criteria also removed 'audience applause' for selection of a winner when a match ended with both robots still mobile. Robots were judged by a panel based on a scoring system of damage, aggression, and control.

[edit] Competition: U.K Robot Wars: 1997-2003

The format for the first and second televised U.K. Robot Wars differed radically from the earlier U.S. events. In each heat, a group of six robots would compete through a series of three challenges:

  • The first challenge: ‘The Gauntlet’ -- an obstacle filled maze defended by house robots. Competitor robots pushed as far down the course as possible in the time allowed. The robot covering the least ground was eliminated, leaving five robots to continue.
  • The second challenge: ‘The Trial’. This event varied from heat to heat with games like, 'Sumo', 'British Bulldog', 'Stock Car', 'Labyrinth', 'Snooker', and 'Football'. The Second Wars added 'Skittles', 'Tug of War', 'King of the Castle', 'Joust', and 'Pinball'. Again, the lowest scoring 'bot was eliminated.
  • The third challenge: 'The Arena' - the familiar combat event that dominated the later wars. The four remaining robots paired off and fought head-to head in the enclosed arena patrolled by the house robots. The two victorious robots then fought for the heat championship.

In the First Wars, the six heat champions met in a single melee fight to determine the overall winner. The Second Wars had two semifinal shows, each with six heat finalists reprising the heats with a Gauntlet and a Trial, followed by arena combat. The two semifinal winners met for a final arena match to determine the champion.

This basic format continued throughout the remainder of the Wars -- a main knockout tournament with special contests as side attractions. The side events included Tag Team, Annihilator, Rebellion, and regional championship events.

A robot could lose a match in several ways:

  • A robot immobile for 30 seconds could be counted 'out' and turned over to the house robots for further ‘punishment’. Beginning with Robot Wars Extreme 1, the Refbot counted down the final 10 seconds;
  • A robot flipped out over the arena railing into the space between the arena and the enclosure box was ‘out’.
  • A robot that fell or was pushed into the open ‘Pit of Oblivion’ was instantly ‘out’;
  • If none of the above conditions were satisfied, a panel of three judges scored the competitors on style, control, damage, and aggression.

[edit] Arena and hazards

The arena and mechanical hazards for the early non-televised Robot Wars in the U.S. (1994 through 1997) were rudimentary. The arena itself was a 30 by 54 foot rectangle with an asphalt surface. The 1994 arena was defined only by 2-foot high plywood walls -- there was no bulletproof plastic enclosure. The following year saw the addition of braced 1/4" thick clear plastic panels extending four feet upward from the plywood panels to enhance audience protection. By 1997 the arena walls had grown to eight feet plus two feet of netting at the top.

Early hazards included a wide ram that could push a robot away from the side railing, nets on hinged arms that could descend to entangle robots that ventured too close, large horizontal pivoting arms to swat passing robots, and a bowling ball pendulum swinging across the arena.

The arena was completely re-done for the televised UK Robot Wars. The arena was approximately 32 feet by 48 feet and was enclosed in a huge clear plastic box 20 feet high. There were assorted hazards in the arena that changed from one series the next:

  • The Pit of Oblivion -- a 4-foot square hole in the arena floor into which a robot might fall or be pushed. Originally this hole was open constantly during any battles, and was just a plain black hole in the arena filed with old tyres. In Series 3, it was open during the first two rounds of a heat and then blocked during the heat final and any rounds thereafter. In Series 4, it was completely redesigned. it was now a square pannel with black and yellow diagonal strips on it, and had a red line around the perimeter. From series 4 onwards the pit would be in the closed position at the start of a battle, allowing robots to drive over it; it would open (The pannel would descend) during the battle, heralded by a siren. From Extreme/Series 5, the Pit had a tire (Extreme/Series 5), then a metal bumper (Series 6), then a tire again (Series 7)) that competitors could touch to open the pit. When a robot falls into the pit, a small pyrotechnic "explosion" would ignite.
  • The Floor Flipper -- a powerful pneumatic flipper that can toss a robot across the arena. This device made its debut in Series 3, where it just looked like a part of the arena floor. In series 4, it was redesigned, and resembled the pit.
  • The Disc of Doom -- a spinning panel set into the arena floor activated by a button similar to the pit release. It appeared in series 6 but did not appear in Series 7.
  • The Drop Zone -- a spot on the arena floor where heavy objects (television sets, ocean buoys, refrigerators, washing machines, etc.) fell from the top of the arena. It first appeared in series 6; although the spot where the object would fall, a black square with a yellow 'X' shape across it first appeared in Extreme, not serving any clear purpose at the time.
  • The Perimeter Patrol Zone/PPZ (Series 1-2) – a narrow band around the perimeter of the arena where competitor robots were open to attack by four house robots.
  • The Corner Patrol Zones/CPZ(s) (Series 3 onwards) - In series 3, the house robots were confined to the four corners of the arena and moved in a rota system through Shunt, Matilda, Sgt.Bash, and Dead Metal. Sir Killalot consistently appeared every round. From Extreme/Series 5 onwards, only two house robots were allowed in the arena at a time, and this moved in a rota through all of the machines.
  • Several propane powered flame spouts, capable of roasting electronics or setting flammable robots, or the occasional unlucky house robot, on fire.
  • Angle Grinders, abrasive grinding wheels built into the arena railings. (replaced with spikes in series 4, but brought back from extreme 1 onwards)
  • CO2 geysers, actually useful for putting out flames.
  • Early hazards included spikes that came up from the ground (removed in Series 4 after many upsets were caused by these flipping and immobilising robots that were on top.), arena sidebars and grilles that could immobilise robots crossing them (Series 1 only), and hanging spike balls that were more atmospheric than damaging.

In early 2004 the Robot Wars arena was purchased from the television production firm who produce the show (Mentorn) by a company called Robot Arenas Ltd based in the UK. They are an organisation set up by a past competitor of Robot Wars to continue the sport of robot combat in the UK.

[edit] Nickelodeon Robot Wars: 2002

Main article: Nickelodeon Robot Wars

In 2002, the Nickelodeon American television network created Nickelodeon Robot Wars where kids operated combat robots provided by American teams.

[edit] Competitors and results

UK Championship results

Series Winner Grand Finalists
The First Wars Roadblock Bodyhammer, Cunning Plan, Recylopse, Robot The Bruce, T.R.A.C.I.E.
Series Winner Runner-up Third Place Fourth Place
The Second Wars Panic Attack Cassius Roadblock Killertron
The Third Wars Chaos 2 Hypno-Disc Firestorm Steg-O-Saw-Us
The Fourth Wars Chaos 2 Pussycat Stinger Hypno-Disc**
The Fifth Wars Razer Bigger Brother Firestorm 3 Hypno-Disc
The Sixth Wars Tornado Razer Firestorm 4 Terrorhurtz
The Seventh Wars Typhoon 2 Storm II Tornado X-Terminator
    • Even though Hypno Disc finished fourth (as it was unable to prepare in time for the play-off) it was seeded third for the next series

World Championship results

Championship Winner Runner-up Semi-Finalists
The First World Championship Razer Behemoth 101, Diotoir
The Second World Championship Razer Drillzilla Manta, Tornado
The Third World Championship Storm II Supernova Crushtacean, Tough As Nails

[edit] House robots

The Robot Wars arena was also patrolled by the house robots, created as part of the television format. The house robots were a huge success, and particularly popular with younger viewers. Scale models of the house robots were sold as toys, and in 2002 these became the number one boys' toy in the UK. The original house robots were designed and constructed by BBC Visual Effects and did not have to conform to the same rules as contestant robots; for example, they were allowed to be considerably heavier, and were allowed weaponry prohibited in the competitor robots.

Series One
In series one there were four house robots:

  • Matilda, designed to resemble a mutant robotic dinosaur, and armed with pneumatic lifting tusks and a chainsaw tail;[9]
  • Shunt, centered around pushing power, was equipped with a plough, lifting scoop and 'diamond-edged' pickaxe;[10]
  • Sgt. Bash, a military themed robot with a ramming blade, circular saw and flamethrower Gun turret
  • Dead Metal, a scorpion-like robot with pneumatic pincers and a circular saw mounted on an overhead arm.

Series Two
The original four house robots were joined by,

  • Sir Killalot,[9] a semi-humanoid robot with a drill mounted on a lance and pincers formed from a set of emergency services Hydraulic Rescue Tools nicknamed the jaws of life.
  • The Sentinel (first appeared in episode seven) was a modified, immobile JCB digger which pushed competitors toward one of two pits on either side in 'The Gauntlet'. It was the only house robot to have an operator inside the arena.

Series Three
No new house robots were introduced, The Sentinal disappeared, and the remaining five were improved.

  • Matilda's tusks and chainsaw were strengthened.
  • Shunt was given a larger and more powerful axe.
  • Sgt. Bash's ramming blade was replaced by a pair of hydraulically powered pincers and lighter fibreglass armour to replace his original steel hide.
  • Dead Metal had the biggest makeover. He was given a larger saw and the arm was completely redesigned so that it essentially came out of the robot.
  • Sir Killalot's weapons were enlarged.

Series Four
One new robot joined the team.

  • Refbot, this robot, like Sir Killalot, was designed as a semi-humanoid robot, but much taller and with ploughs at the front and rear, a pincer and a fire extinguisher. As his name suggests, his role was to be the referee of the matches, although his role never really advanced until the next season.

Most of the original house robots were fine-tuned, most noticeably Sir Killalot and Sgt. Bash, who both had their pincers enlarged and made stronger than before.

Series Five and Extreme Series One
No new house robots were introduced, but two robots were changed:

  • Refbot had a new electronic counter installed into his chest, which counted from 00 to 10, to declare that another robot had been immobilized. If the robot was not moving by the time the counter hit ten, then it was technically out. The pincer also held a 'Light Indicator System' (as described by the Robot Wars Extreme official guide), which had a variety of purposes.
    • A green light signalled the beginning of a fight.
    • A yellow light acted as the equivalent of a yellow card. If a House Robot attacked a robot who wasn't in the CPZ (Corner Patrol Zone), or a Contestant robot got a bit overaggresive with the House Robots, Refbot would display the yellow card as a warning.
    • A red light acted as the equivalent of a red card If a House Robot (or occasionally a contestant robot) continued to attack illegally, Refbot would issue the robot the red card. In the case of the House Robots, it would then have to return to the CPZ and would not be allowed out for the remainder of the fight. The red card was also displayed to a contestant robot who had just been counted out, to show it was out of the match.
  • Matilda's chainsaw was replaced with a 27 kilogram vertical flywheel, which proved to be much more destructive than her chainsaw. Although designed to be interchangeable with the flywheel, the chainsaw was never used again.

Series Six
Two new house robots were added:

  • Mr. Psycho - An even larger Killalot based robot that ran on tracks, with a gigantic claw for picking up competitors, and a 30 kilogram pneumatic hammer for causing percussive damage. Mr. Psycho was reported to weigh 650 kilograms, but some esitimates place that higher.
  • Growler - A dog like robot with four tonne pressure hydraulic jaws, and a flame jet built into the back. This house robots main weapon was its speed and power, which it used to ram and drag competitors around the arena. Growler weighed in at 375KG.

Series Seven The last series to be filmed, a final House Robot was added

  • Cassius Chrome was a robot equipped with two punching arms. Although it didn't have much in the way of weaponry, it was still rather effective in the capacity of pushing other robots.

See also: House robots.

[edit] See also

Robotics Portal

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Robot Wars History. Marc Thorpe. Retrieved on 2006-11-19.
  2. ^ a b Robot Wars History. RobotCombat.com. Retrieved on 2006-11-19.
  3. ^ a b Robot Wars. UKGameshows. Retrieved on 2006-11-18.
  4. ^ a b Robot Wars. SphereTV. Retrieved on 2006-11-18.
  5. ^ a b The Presenters. Robots Rule. Retrieved on 2006-11-18.
  6. ^ Dave Lister Biography. The SadGeezers Guide. Retrieved on 2006-11-19.
  7. ^ Philippa Forrester. BBC Radio Bristol. Retrieved on 2006-11-19.
  8. ^ Philippa Forrester. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved on 2006-11-19.
  9. ^ a b House Robots. Southampton University - Robot Wars 1999/2000. Retrieved on 2006-11-26.
  10. ^ (2001) Robot Wars - The Official Robot Guide. Penguin. ISBN 0-141-31319-6. 

[edit] External links

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Robot Wars