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Junkyard Wars: The Next Generation
A reader writes: "The makers of Junkyard Wars are starting up a new series called Ultimate Machine Combat. 30 teams and 30 days each to build "ultimate fighting vehicle" to battle in a "secret arena". This is attracting gear heads of all genres, including my local Jeep Club."
Wow, that is ultimate.
I'm all for junkyeard wars and all, but i don't think they should let people spend more on the machine that what they are allocated. This just means that someone will probably go and get some rich sponsor to give them a wack load of money, then hire some nasa engineers to design and build the machine.
On the other hand, I can't wait to see the competition, should be really intresting.
Will they get the idiots from Comedy Central to do "insightful" interviews like on Battle bots?
;)
Interviewer: "So, what possessed you to build this thing?"
Interviewee: "Carmen Electra. I am a geek, and there's no chance of me getting close to her otherwise."
Speaking of Carmen Electra...ahhh..nevermind, I'm finished
Sent from your iPad.
And if so, there have to be some pretty strict regulations. Is this going to be a demolition derby or a large-scale battlebots war with pneumatic spikes and huge sawblades ripping cars apart? Obviously any humans in the ring would be in serious danger. So I have to imagine these things are unmanned.
This is probably then 1 of 3 possibilities:
- Manned cars, but the safety regulations will turn this into a glorified demolition derby... *yawn*
- Unmanned cars, so a huge-scale battlebots thing.... pretty cool, and very expensive... cool to watch I'm sure. But I doubt this is the format.
- Unmanned, small remote control cars.... so, Battlebots. But why would they re-do Battlebots???
My thoughts are, that this will be a really cool, dangerous show, or a boring Battlebots ripoff... hard to tell from the website.Mark
Although I don't watch them very often... once or twice a month... I really like shows like Battlebots, Robotica, and Junkyard wars because they trigger the same emotional response in children as pro-sports, and even faux-sports like Professional Wrestling.
Rather than be encouraged to spend all their time getting their bodies in peak/steroid-enhanced condition for the sport of their choice and then being completely burned out and unable to pursue any other line of work by the time they're an adult, kids are encouraged to learn mechanics, engineering, coding, and other tech skills that will benifit them later in life in professional or technical careers.
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Bah, it'd be a lot more cool if they have ten hours to build the machine in the junkyard.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
I'd love to see a "fighting vehicle" with EMP capabilities. WHAM, all computer components and electronics, like fuel injection, in the other vehicles are disabled. I win. Well, it would probably be silent, not WHAM. And it wouldn't make for great tv viewing, since it would melt all the equipment recording the scene. Still, that would rock. Wonder if the rules specifically prohibit such genius.
Light cup, beer drink, thin so chain, neck turtle fat, man I won't say it again
Enough of this panzy safety stuff :).
www.lonseidman.com
maybe i'll submit my stone vehicle with no moving parts. it's virtually indestructable!
2. Will an M1 Abrams fit in an 8'x8'x20' container?
Can't wait, should be a wild show.
Sink like a rock. If some damn fool forgets to put the drain plugs back in before the river crossing.
Best Slashdot Co
Yar!
Wooden armaments to battle your imaginary foes!
It seems like if you stick the average soccer mom behind the wheel of a jeep grand cherokee, give her some eye makeup, a cell phone, and a few boxes of mcnuggets she would destroy the competition.
For the sake of Patriotism I say that Colin Powell should enter. The rules did state that they will allow you to spend MORE than the money that they give you, and nothing would be greater than to see the looks on the MIT entrants faces when the Area 51 entry enters the arena.
That address and deadline is for Junkyard Wars (which has been running on both sides of the pond for years). The new program, Ultimate Machine Combat, has a Fed 15 application deadline and is a brand new show.
For better or for worse, this doesn't sound like a battlebots-style "destroy the competition" demolition derby. Rather, it's a massive obstacle course (details to be disclosed), although the vehicle is supposed to be able to survive small collisions. The idea is not to build a massively destructive machine, but rather one that is as versatile as possible with respect to handling terrain, towing things, etc...
The makers of Junkyard Wars are starting up a new series called Clock Speed Wars. 2 dorks each build an "ultimate computing device" to battle in a "secret porn downloading race". This is attracting fellow pocket-protector devotees of all genres, including my local Taped Glasses Club
These people at http://www.srl.org/ have
been building massive destructive machines
since 1978, staging large outdoor events
generally involving shows akin to "let's shake them in a jar, and see if they'll fight".
Flames, jet engines, crushers, all the things this new program would want.
The LAST thing we need on TV is another faux-WWF show. Gah!!!
Come on, we already have Battlebots, Robotica, etc...
Do we REALLY need ANOTHER?
We need more CONSTRUCTIVE shows like Junkyard Wars / Scrapheap Challenge.
We don't need another idiot 'bang contestants machines against each other till the audience falls asleep from utter boredom'.
I can see it now. A scantily clad cathy rogers draping herself over the contestants machines while robert llewelyn growls and grunts like an idiot white trash WWF announcer.
If you honestly think that a silicone-inflated Carmen Electra-like bubblehead is sexier than Cathy Rogers, I feel sorry for you.
"Seven Deadly Sins? I thought it was a to-do list!"
I'm sick of seeing two small wedges on wheels roll around like they were being driven by drunk mice, with matches only lasting 60 seconds, usually ended by some kind of mysterious mechanical failure. I'm sick of seeing "house robots" and "obstacle courses".
I want to see two robots fight one another, nothing else.
I want to see a plain empty gravel pit, with no crowds. I want to see two robots go in, and only one come out. I want to see four class systems. Weight classes, cost classes, power classes, and armaments classes.
Power Classes:
- Batteries
- Unlimited
Armaments Classes:
- Mechanical weapons only
- liquid/flamable-fuel/sub-cm-projectile based weapons allowed*
- Unlimited class, large caliber projectiles, explosives and shaped charges, and EMP weapons allowed.
The weight and costs classes will have to be set depending on just how many people are willing to compete in them, and considering that now most people have to face the real possibility of having their bot totalled in-game.
May the best team win.
And this time, the losers really do go to the scrapheap!
(*) go-go-gadget sand-blaster!
Dude (dudette), the definition of "working" is really relative. I've spent plenty of time in junkyards in my youth, and I can tell you that many of the vehicles that go there aren't completely shot at all. In fact, many cars (that weren't stripped down for parts) that ended up there "worked" as well as any of the vehicles they find on JYW. They just have irrepairable body/frame damage (no worry when you're building a street sweeper but big problems for highway safety), expensive-to-fix mechanical problems (bodging up a transmission is easy if you don't need it to run more than 20 miles, and one of my co-workers got rid of his old car (perfectly workable) because of a big hole in the gas tank that cost too much to fix) or other problems (flood damage or major rust). So, in answer to your question, the last time I found a "complete working car" (by the standards of JYW) was the last time I was in a junkyard.
Virg
unitl the machines on these shows get so destructive that DARPA starts to fund them? :).