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Comedy Central Cancels BattleBots
Rathian writes "Bad news for BattleBot lovers, I saw on the BattleBots Builder's Forum that CC is NOT going to film Phase 6.0 of BattleBots. You can see copies of the email from the BattleBots founders Trey & Greg at RobotCombat.com, and at Team DaVinci Robots
God willing, another network will pick it up and keep this sport alive!"
Not to be a troll, but the whole BattleBots concept has gone from new and fun to watch to rather dull within the span of a couple of years. That's why they had to throw Carmen Electra on, right? People weren't watching, and a little sex appeal was required?
Not that I don't think something BattleBots-ish won't survive for a while, but I doubt it'll be for long. Just a prediction.
Hi... I'm Larry... the shivering chipmunk... brrrrr!... I'm cold... I need a sweater...
How many times can you watch remote controlled scrap metal bump into each other and flip each other before it gets boring? For me.. it only took one episode. Not to mention the show has no business being on COMEDY central, since the only funny thing is watching the obviously fake "chemistry" between the hosts. Oh.. and whatshername's boobies are nice.
The show wasn't really "funny". I mean, I never laughed. If anything wresting should be on comedy central. Now people pretending to hurt eachother while young rednecks actually believe that they are hurting eachother - That's comedy!
i'm a loyal battlebots viewer.... but with the advent of 3-4 other 'bot' fighting shows, someone had to die.
battlebots is RAW, its just the bots out there with some minimal hazzards. you look at other shows like robot wars, and each individual bot makes little difference to who wins. there are like 5 huge 'house bots', and all you have to do to win is watch the house bot push the other guy in the pit. lame. shows like robotica are just glorified RC cars that race around. lame.
battlebots did everything right, no compaints here at all. i'll be watching the re-runs after back to back to back SNL marathons i'm sure.
on a side note, be sure to check out the new season of INSOMNIAC on comedy central, its fucking hilarious.
MARIJUANA, SHROOMS, X: ONLINE?! - E
It's alive and kicking.
I admit I never watched BattleBots. But I would have watched it if the show featured real live people wearing battlebot armor beating the crap out of each other. Something along the lines of the hydralic lifter suit Sigorney Weaver wore in Aliens. It would be challenging for the contestants to figure out what bodypart to 'enhance' with robotic technology, assuming that a full-body suit wouldn't be practical (do you turbo charge your shoulders, arms, torso or legs?). And controlling the suit while moving your own body would probably require some fancy physical skills. But just watching a couple of machines fight isn't too exciting to me. Who cares who wins or loses?
God willing, another network will pick it up and keep this sport alive!"
I assume this is a joke. BattleBots may be entertainment but it's no more a sport than playing a videogame.
GMD
watch this
wasn't it getting kind of old anyway? check out http://www.bestinc.org for some real robot stuff.
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I stopped watching Battlebots after season 2. It just wasn't compelling TV. Most of the matches were like watching drunk boxing--A lot of swinging, but little contact. What I think needs to happen is for them to approach it from a whole other angle. The bots must be independent.
Independent bots would force the bot makers to build navigation systems (to avoid the hazards), target acquisition systems (to find the other bots), decision making (push the bot toward the hazard, or try to flip, or run away and hide until my buzz saw starts working again?).
Additionally, they should build a better arena and allow all those weapons currently outlawed, like EMP weapons, chemical, flamethrowers, magnetic grapples, swarms of multi-bots, etc. Should be much more exciting.
---- El diablo esta en mis pantalones! Mire, mire!
Actually, I did enjoy the technical aspect of the show. Making a working battlebot would require some ingenuity and skill, and it was cool to see what people came up with.
However, I must definately agree that a self-contained/controlled bot would be way-cool. Perhaps using one of the mini-ITX boards/setups mentioned previously on slashdot, you could build some decent bot AI. If the bot needed to be controlled remotely, a wireless ethernet card would work.
Anyone on slashdot want to take a shot at a mini-ITX project that makes an AI battlebot?
No T-800's please... killing audience members is frowned upon
Every original program on basic cable with no connection to psychics is to be cancelled.
__
Do ya feel happy-go-lucky, punk?
Hmm, there was talk about this on TiVo Community (a TiVo forum) back in May. But, from that thread, it looks like the plan might be just to move BattleBots to another network (or so I would hope).
Alex Bischoff
HTML/CSS coder for hire
Even though I never watched BattleBots, I watch Robot Wars in England. I'd have though BattleBots would be more suitable on Discovery or TLC rather than Comedy Central (like Junkyard Wars/Scrapheap Challenge)?
I'd think that it should have a chance of being picked up by another network, because a series like this that sparks innovation and interest in construction is better for Joe Public rather than Big Brother X (despite the 'socialology' aspect of it), The Mole, etc.
Are you local? There's nothing for you here!
How is it not a sport?
.
Preplanning and design combined with real time action and on your feet dynamic thinking.
Sounds like a sport to me.
Assloads more entertaining then that garbage that is (american)football. Yueck. Rules rules rules more time-outs then you can shake a stick at, they spend more time waiting to play then actually playing, yeick. Not to mention all that woosy ass protective gear, WTF is up with that shit? Want to make football a worthwhile watch, get rid of all of that penalty shit and just give them some leather helmets and some basic elbow/shin/knee guards and a jockstrap and throw'em on the field. Tell them to get the ball to the opponents end of the field, and let them loose. No freakin penalties, no freakin fouls, and unless somebody goes unconscious NO FREAKING STOPPING THE GAME
Now that'd be a sport worth watching.
But until the, erhuhrm, humanitarian issues, are worked out, battle bots is the next best thing you are going to get to raw destruction in a sports arena. (well aside from Ultimate Fighting, but wasn't that canceled awhile back? Not to mention that it is pay per view any ways, bleh)
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The problem with Battlebots is that it never really grows. It might help if the competitions were geared such that certain familliar bots fight more often. Like a celebrity bot. (Anybody remember Jay Leno's bot? heh)
I don't have any immediate ideas how they could easily incorporate that into their current system. Maybe they could have teams of bots?
These cheap TNN and TNT rip-off shows where people slap a cooking pot on top of an RC car and race around a rat maze with flame-throwers scorching their tires.
:-D
Hosts, which are more than drunken, overweight ex-NASCAR commentators looking to pay for their recently upgraded mobile home.
It sickens me to see all these cheap K-Mart quality knock-off shows, which cheapen such RAD programming such as BattleBots.
This kinda crap happens with -EVERY- form of popular TV entertainment. Look at Reality TV for fucks sake. First it was Survivor, -HUGE- hit. Then came Big Brother, Temptation Island, Fear Factor, Worst Case Scenario and a slew of other knock-offs, which have watered down and sucked all the fun out of reality TV.
I guess basically it all boils down to me being pissed off my TiVo will no longer have robots ripping the crap out of one another.
1. Too many weapons restrictions
2. Carmen should never be allowed to say anything
3. Get rid of the WWF spin crap and treat it like a nascar event.
4. Battlebots started making corporate deals poisioning the rules further by restricting equipment.
Got Code?
I always thought that battlebots was kind of dumb. I mean, at first it was interesting because it was new, but after it's newness wore off, it got very boring. Most people won by flipping their opponent over. I could enter a hampster in a ball and stand a chance. (Mutated, ill-tempered hampster, of course).
All I'm saying is there really was no battle. It ought to have been last robot to move, or until surrender. I mean, where were the hydraulic crushers, or the high power lasers. Or anything really. Something that can be damaged by a good kick doesn't deserve to be called a battle bot.
This my first slashdot troll. but i must say Battlebots sucked. It didn't fit on CC either. Frankly, I thought fighting robots would be very cool, unfortunately in reality with BB and the RW's it is very boring. Maybe they can bring back Stranger's with Candy now? That was funny, battlebots is not (or even fun to watch) the show can go to tech tv or something, where it won't detract from worthwhile programming.
What about Junkyard Wars? I believe that TLC really did something original with that.
Also, didn't TNN's Robot Wars come out before battlebots? I remember when battlebots first came out, the first ad I saw for them was during watching Robot Wars on TNN. I could just be mistaken and it was an ad for a new season of Battlebots and I hadn't cared.
Still, It is a shame that they are canceling battlebots. Not to be a troll, The only thing I didn't like about it is comedy central put that dumb carmen electra slut on there for sex appeal. Why couldn't they have put some prety girl on there who actually knew something about electronics.
Erutangis ym si siht.
i loved watching the robots fight, people losing thousands upon thousands of dollars as sparks flew up and metal launched across the "battlebox"
... to ...
but the commentary gets worse and worse. the last episode i saw, they nearly had carmen electra perform soft-core porn.
i'm sure they did focus groups. but people in focus groups are going to see fire and say good and see the crap they aired and say good, just for the joke of it. there are some things that if you show them, even if they suck, people in certain age groups (even if they honestly don't like it) jokingly cheer.
to recap:
from an hour of deadly fighting
30 minutes of [you know what]
give me back my chainsaws and my mental patients!!!
and for god sakes, stop interviewing gary coldman!!!
then i'll watch again.
(since it seems relevant via demographics, i'm 15, male)
I'm root'n for Perfect Strangers personally.
"You know, Hobbes, some days even my lucky rocketship underpants don't help" -- Calvin
Battlebots is quite entertaining, but I would hardly call it a sport.
Some people have some strange ideas of what makes a sport:
Marge: Homer, Homer?Homer: Huh? Wah? Oh, How was bowling?
Marge: It's a very challenging hobby.
Homer: Heh heh, It's a sport dear. It's a sport you silly thing.
GMD
watch this
How is this a sport?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
it actually took comedy central out of my rotation when 'scanning' for something to watch. Except for South Park at 10 wed., it was nothing but decade old SNL re-runs and BattleBots. I'd be more likely to find something entertaining on QVC.
.22 cal shells to shatter things, the other had an oxygen torch. The "house bot" had big hydraulic pincers.
They weren't robotic, and hardly battled. They didn't have any 'weapons', anything interesting to see. Just oversized remote control cars smashing into each other.
The concept of robots fighting each other with crazy weapons is good, the reality a la this show, was a bore.
I saw something (didn't catch the beginning) on the Discovery Channel (?), which was a special that had two submarines 'battling' in a swimming pool. It was some university team vs. the naval academy. One of them had a 'boomstick' which used
The navy 'robot' was completely demolished. They didn't simply bonk into each other for 5 minutes. All their hard work was destroyed.
That should have been how BattleBots worked. Rather than running around bonking into each other but having no actual damage happen.
It just wasn't a very good show. Maybe ESPN2 will pick it up. I saw them run live coverage of a 'Magic: The Gathering' tourney.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
If ever there was a network born to show BattleBots, it's TechTV. Something tells me the budgets wouldn't be as high, but that might be a good thing. There wouldn't be as much impetus to tart the show up so much just to draw in the viewers required to pay back the budget.
Personally, I liked the original Robot Wars UK show the best. I did think the house robots had a little too much direct impact on the outcome, but I liked the concept of having qualifying rounds where the bots had to overcome challenges, followed by the individual combat rounds.
Maybe what's needed is some new thinking, like team robot combat. Maybe a capture-the-flag sort of thing. You could have robots optimized for offense and defense, which might add some interesting twists to a show. The problem would be that the costs to assemble an entire team of robots would be drastically more than for an individual robot or two.
One thing that is missing from this show: a variety of weapons. The weapons shouldn't be limited, this just makes the teams stagnate with their wedge or flipper or spinner designs. The truly original bots just aren't seen anymore because they get beaten to shreds by the people who make the old, tired, (albeit successful) designs. I think allowing for more weapons will add variety to the field.
We can only hope that ESPN picks this up.. then they'd have something to show on ESPN2 that's not jocks having a pissing contest.
You can't see this if you have sigs turned off.
Besides, I can hardly call those things "robots." More like RC death machines. When I think of robots, I think of more autonomous machines with some built-in intelligence. To me that would have been way more intersting to watch. Although, I guess watching some poorly programmed bot drive along the side of the ring the entire match might get boring. Oh well. Something like that.
TLC has a new show starting soon that may be intersting to see. With the original girl host from Junkyard Wars and, I think I saw him, Henry Rollins. I guess we'll see.
Maybe FX will pick it up, they seem to have lots of fighting there...
A Toughman-BattleBots crossover show would be cool to watch! Have 5 battlebots attacking some plumber or construction worker or something. While he's got his hands full with fighting one robot, two others are hammering away at his feet! So he bends over to pick up one of the machines when a third one shoves a corkscrew up his...
Actually, now that I think about it, maybe this crossover show would be more suitable for Comedy Central...
GMD
watch this
sorry for the troll, but how is this a sport?
Do we really need to be so stingy with our definition of "sport"? It seems like we should allow our broad categories ("sports", "art") to be as inclusive as possible, and then get more specific after that ("dull, lifeless sport")...
Wha .. If that's a joke, I don't get it.
Corollary to Moore's Law: The IQ of new computer owners is declining.
I'm glad they canceled the show...It wasn't funny. I go to Comedy central for shows that are funny, like standup routines, southpark, the daily show. Battlebots just didn't belong.
Celebrate the finer things in life
BattleBots does not belong on TLC ... they already tried it...it was called Robotica!!! But, what we should really be getting behind are the shows like Junkyard Wars.
As I'm sure others will point out, these were generally nothing more than glorified remote controlled cars. The truly inovative bots were few and far between, and most of them were either designed as a "wedge" or a "flipper".
I'm not saying that shows like this shouldn't exist or even that it doesn't take know-how to build them, it's just that most of the ideas have been done over-and-over again...anyhow, I'ld call 5 years a pretty good run for most any show...I mean how much longer can you really go until there's nothing new being done. I actually think we're there now, we just didn't realize it till now.
You might get something as a Saturday Morning show on one of the networks, but I wouldn't count on it.
Here's a question...why can't the contests continue without a TV Show? I mean, anything that I'ld actually term as a sport should be able to survive without prime-time television coverage. And if it honestly holds such a large "geek" audience, then companies like IBM, Dell, and Apple should be scrambling to sponsor events and bots...
On a side note, I personally enjoyed the shows, but like most ppl thought it was out of place on CC.
I never really liked BattleBots.. The hosts of the show were way too cardboard-ish (or football-ish, or something) for my tastes. I've enjoyed TNN's Robot Wars much more, even though it's hosted by an ex-wrestler (so I'm told.. I was never into wrestling, so I don't know). Even with what TNN has done, I think it could be much more entertaining.
Somehow, it just seems like this is a sport by and for regular people, so it's really weird to see clean-cut jocks and dressed-up chicks talking to Joe Blow from down the street. BattleBots has way too much cognitive dissonance going for my tastes, I guess..
Battle bots was a mole on Comedy Central, which is about the only chanel I watch, after HBO.
First of all, the robots went from beautiful works of art, to awful construction equipment:
I don't want to see a miniature tank, with an axe mounted to its top. The "robots" where
nothing more than evil looking lawnmowers.
They should not have rewarded the most destruction resistant robot, but the most technically
advanced. The idea of a "fight" is simply flawed, and reeks of testestrone driven, cheap male
entertainment.
Speaking of male entertainment, carmen electra has no business in a friken bot fight.
I would pay $$$$ to see autonomous robots, put into a "maze" and let them discover their
own exit paths. It would also be a great idea to encourage alternative robot designs, not just
wheels and tank chains, I wanna see snake like bots, flying bots, swimming bots, you could
also explore alternative sources of energy, instead of just relying on batteries; give boneses
to bots which power their onboard computer with sun lights, etc.
There is alot one could do with robot building skills, instead of investing resources on how to
build the next destructive machine. They could cut down on the weight too, some of these beasts
weight as much as 500 lbs.
that was the most boring show i have ever seen. A bunch of stupid little radio controlled buckets of steel hitting each other. Oh my the drama. I would rather sit and stare at a wall. Or watch fletch...
Battlebots was good when it was a once-a-year geek-a-thon, not a show on all the fucking time w/the same boring, old, shit.
/. and other places on the 'Net once a year. It was fun. I got to see a lot of ingenious designs, etc. On TV it was crap (especially when that fat fuck from late night TV had one w/his face on it, fan or not, it was lame).
I was excited to see the tournament on
It was all over when they got rid of Bill Nye. You gotta love the "Science Guy"
if they can call mopping a floor a sport (curling) then they can call battlebots a sport!
First of all: I don't know who 'they' are, but nobody I know considers curling to be a sport.
Curling is a game.
Secondly: curling isn't mopping, it's sweeping (brooms, not mops.)
And thirdly: like golf, curling is a practical joke played by the Scottish on the rest of the world - the rest of the world just hasn't caught on yet.
Baseball is a game.
whaaaat? Even by your rather silly and arbitrary definiton, baseeball is a sport.
You get your ass up on the mound and pitch 6 or 7 innings and see if your sweating or not.
By your definiton, a person pounding their head against a wll is participatig in a "sport".
Need help treating your acne? Come here!
The problem is that lately the comedy channel seemed to be trying to turn the show into a vehicle for Carmen Electra and the hosts and only having breaks from this for actual robot fighting.
While Carmen is nice eye candy, having commentators that are making more inane comments than Dennis Miller ever did is too annoying for most people, and this probably caused the kill off.
I know its not 100% on topic, but Farscape has also been cancelled. When the "best sci-fi show" on television on a Sci-fi only network can't make it, what hope is there for finding quality televsion anywhere?
Like you said, every robot seemed to boil down to either a wedge or a flipper. The show killed itself via restrictions that ultimately only produced these two forms. The robots rarely did much to each other because of this and the controlers had such shitty control you had to wonder if they ever tested their robots before coming on the show.
They have to start allowing projectiles and chemicals. Base the show out at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in a concrete bunker/sound stage with remote cameras and allow for some real robot wars.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
well, i guess we'll ahve to start watching robot wars or robo challenge or depth charge or...
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
Now that'd be a sport worth watching.
You've just about described Australian Rules Football. Definetly worth watching if you can find it on cable
I used to think the way you do, that RobotWars was great, and Battlebots a pale imitation. Two things changed my mind.
First, discovering something of the history behind the two. Battlebots was originally called RobotWars, but a promotion company stole the name and sold it to the Brits.
Second was watching them head to head one night. The RC "bots" on the show called RobotWars are pathetic, wimpy little things compared to the monsters on Battlebots. They have prettier paintjobs and grillwork, combined with "weapons" that can barely scratch tinfoil. If "functional" and "actually able to cause real carnage", and "shredded steel plate flying through the air" are "simple", then give me simple any day.
That said, the Comedy Central coverage of the Battlebot events is pretty bad, and getting worse. I'm a huge Craig Charles fan, and would rather listen to him than anyone who has ever worked for "Comedy Central Sports". But dismissing Battlebots because the coverage is lame is like dismissing the Olympics because NBC is lame -- it's missing the point. I think that Comedy Central dropping the show may be the best thing that could happen to the show.
The idea of making a machine to go in their to kill other machines sounds really cool. Hell, for the first two seasons, I watched it religiously, making it one of only two shows I watch regularly (the other, South Park, only having like 4 new episodes every six months anyway, so not all that time consuming).
However, by the third season, I (and I think *most* people) started realizing the choices of possible machine types, as limited by the extensive rules, made every "new" combat nothing more than a replay of something I'd already seen, with a new paint job.
Even now, I would start watching it again, if they ditch 90% of the rules. As long as a bot won't explode (and even "small" explosions, such as their 3" thick plexi cages would contain, seem alright), no holds barred. Flying bots? If someone can make them, good luck. Projectiles? Yup. Fire? Yup. Electricity? Yup. Entanglement? Again, Yup.
Make it a *real* contest of who can build the better bot, rather than who can build the better table-saw-or-jackhammer-on-wheels, and it would become interesting again.
I want to see REAL robot destruction. I don't want every match to end with one bot immobilized, mildly injured from a battery wire breaking, or its antenna clipped, or havings its wheels chopped off. I want sparking circuit boards, small explosions, the smell of ozone (well, okay, the home viewer couldn't enjoy that part), chunks of metal everywhere, etc.
Until then, I don't even care if Carmen starts hosting it nude. It has completely lost its "newness" appeal.
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
Keep battlebots alive?
Hey man, battlebots were already around before Comedy Central decided to turn it into a tv series. Battlebots is an independant organization, that will likely return to its hobbyist roots, and be better off than it was before.
The mantra is not so much "keep battlebots alive" as it should be "free battlebots".
Skiers and Riders -- http://www.snowjournal.com
How will the cancelation of one robot fighting series preclude the end of all mechanical combat sports? I think we can all agree that back-to-back-to-back-to-back battlebots episodes lead to an early death by overexposure, not a failure in the premise of the show. I'm sure as long as monster trucks hold some sort of "rally" somewhere, and giant transforming tractors spit fire, there will be exhibition competitions of remote-controlled (and autonomous) creations dueling it out. Even if they aren't always televised, they will continue to exist. And with the removal of the stagnant Battlebots from the running, maybe we will see some real innovation. Or at least someone will bring back the fun.
This Sig is a mnemonic device designed to allow you to recognize this author in the future.
The 'bots can live in peace, sing music in the sun and put flowers in their hair.
Wouldn't it be a wonderful world when every battlebot in the world would stand together in a line holding hands, grapplers, chainsaws, hammers etc and sing Kumbayaya.
Now that peace has a chance we should embrace this oppurtunity to make this planet a better place for Humans and 'Bots alike. Let the barbaric killing for amusement stop and these simple machines rove around the fields of daisys like they where meant to.
>
"Figure skating is a sport."
no, its a contest.
Ice hockey is a sport.
you need two teams in a playing area at the same time.
a team must be able to(legally) activly defend against the opposing team.
It must require hard physically excertion.
Swimming laps, contest, not a sport.
Water polo, sport.
track and field, all contests.
Football(either one) is a sport.
baseball, while it is still the only game where the defenders control the ball, is a sport
basketball is a sport.
Volleyball, a contest.
Archery is a contest.
to romote control vehicals smashing into each other, not a sport.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I like testesterone driven, expensive male entertainment.
I'm not going to spend thousands of dollars to build a cute gee-whiz "technologically advanced" robot. I am am planning to spend thousands of dollars to build (and test, and repair) a semi-autonomous fighting robot that I can pit against other similar devices.
Yeah sure -- and there is a lot one could do with automobile tuning skills, instead of investing resources to build the next rubber-burning nitrous-powered drag racing machine. Sure, I could have spent the $5K to convert my car to electric power...But you know what? For many people, big/powerful/fast/dangerous hardware is FUN.
Okay, on that point I agree with you 100%. They should have gotten Cathy Rogers (Scrapheap challenge, aka Junkyard Wars), or some other photogenic female with a three-digit IQ.I do not deploy Linux. Ever.
I've been to a battlebots show, live. Yes, fellow slashdotters. You could envy me. But you probably wouldn't want to.
It SUCKS. It takes maybe 45 minutes in between rounds to set things up, you get to see a 3 minute fight, and you don't even get to stare at the hot announcers. Plus it's not a great place to pick up chicks. No wonder it was so easy to get our robotics club tickets...
PayPal $$ if you sign up for free offers (eBay, cred cards, e
That way, you can watch a 30 minute episode in about 10 minutes, skipping all the commercials and filler.
I see a lot of comments about how it wasn't innovative and didn't evolve but I think it did. And even though more fights were boring than not, when there was a good fight, it was really cool. Even though the show had the 'feel' of Pro Wrestling, I never thought the fights were pre-determined - don't see how they could have been.
I hope some other network picks it up - I would miss it.
I've been to the last four Battlebots season events, and they were a lot of fun. It definitely ruins the TV show for you, because TV cannot come close to the live event. It's truly sad that they're having problems. I will miss it incredibly if they can't defibrillate it somehow.
That said, it was clear from the last event that Battle Bots is on its way out. The robots are getting stale, and the rules surrounding robot design and weaponry are too restrictive. There were few, if any, innovative robot designs this last time. Mostly the same old robots you see each season, or knockoffs of existing robots. They even had to cancel the customary rumbles which take place after the finals (and even had to cancel the last half of the last final), because they were shut down by the San Francisco FD after one of the robots started ripping holes in the battlebox and spewing metal projectiles into the audience. We were rather disappointed at the whole thing, and decided to only see the last day of competition next time (it takes a weekend for them to do all of the filming). Looks like there may not be a next time.
Seems like it will take a bit of work to resurrect the show. Not only will they need to get a new sponsor, but they'll have to spice it up somehow to get better robots. They will also need a better battlebox...
Having a TiVo was the main reason why it was great to watch. I'd watch the fights and only the fights, whole thing done in 10 minutes.
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
How does killing the show translate into killing robot fighting? IIRC there are several groups popping up that fight robots in the street, parking lots, a variety of locations. I know when I was in university there were a lot of people who were talking about this and building bots - there are already lots of organizations looking at other robot sports, like robot soccer and AI kart racing.
YMMV.
..don't panic
(* How many times can you watch remote controlled scrap metal bump into each other and flip each other before it gets boring? *)
That is like saying, "How many times can you watch a bunch of sweaty guys bounce a ball around a wooden floor and toss it thru a ring." Yet sports fans can never get enough.
They have to treat it more like a sport, including making the builders into celebrities. I am sure there is a Kobe Bryant of smashbotics out there.
And finally, they need *explosives*. You have to get rid of the idea of a live audience, at least a close one though. But roughly 80% of all men like explosions.
Make it a true sport with explosions and it becomes a sure winner with males.
BTW, why no Geek Channel? Or at least a Guy Channel. Then we can see the 3 Stooges too. Most females lack a gene to make them appreciate The Three Stooges and explosive hardware.
Table-ized A.I.
Hey Folks,
Cool to see that BatttleBots has made the Slashdot news :)
My name is Jon Autry, I have competed at two of the BattleBots competitions, and at several smaller regional competitions. I have been building bots now for close to two years: http://www.robot-village.com
Here are a few comments from a BUILDERS perspective: (these comments and thoughts are my own, and in no way reflect the opinion of BattleBots INC. or any other builder)
As a competitor at BattleBots, I had mixed emotions when I heard that CC had decided NOT to extend their contract.
I remember hearing the first commercial for BattleBots on Comedy Central. I thought: "Sweet! That sounds like it will ROCK!" but I was also confused as heck as to why in the world Comedy Central would be picking up the program?! Hey, I didn't really care at the time... I just thought the idea of seeing machines fight was awesome, and would take it any way I could get it.
After watching a few episodes, I was addicted to the show. All I could think about was: "What kind of bot would I build?!". I went along like this until I finally decided to try MY hand at fighting robots.
It took me nearly six months to make my first bot, and I can tell you that I learned more in those six months than I did in High School. You cannot appreciate the time, work, and research that goes into making one of these robots, until you do it yourself. The science and physics involved in engineering one of these machines needs to be focused on more, (IMHO) instead of "dumbing the show down".
After attending my first BattleBots in Spring 2001, I couldn't wait for the new season to air on CC. However, after seeing the competition live, watching it on CC only made me frustrated. Here are a few of my "gripes" with the way CC presented the show:
Those are a few of my main beefs with the way the show is presented. I have to give CC props for picking up the show in the first place though, otherwise I don't think that I would be building bots now. But I think that they will do more for the "sport" (or whatever you want to call it) by letting it go, than they ever did by picking it up in the first place.
If and when the show is picked up by another network, I hope the focus shifts more to the competition, and away from making it into a circus.
Just my opinion...
Hey man. I NEED at least five hours a day of mid-'90s SNL reruns. I NEED them.
There should be a moratorium on the use of the apostrophe.
Max V.
NeXTMail/MIME Mail welcome
Every time I turn on Comedy Central, there's either a crappy 80's movie starring a Wayans brother or that annoying news spoof (aka Dennis Miller rip) on.
I think Comedy Central kills alot of shows due to bad scheduling. I used to watch Ben Stein and then they shuffled it around. I watched Battle Bots when I was home and it was on (rarely). I certainly try with all my might to watch the Man Show, but its just on at a bad time.
They say they can't hold due to no funding from comedy central. Well how much do they need? I mean crap if its a measly 50K then that shouldnt be that hard to raise.
-THIS SPACE FOR RENT!
I'm an avid BattleBots fan. Every week a new episode airs, I'm planted in the chair with my beer and popcorn. Unfortunately, the show is losing it's appeal. I enjoy watching the fights. It was great during the second and third season when they would air back to back episodes, because I could count on seeing up to eight fights in a night. This limited the chance of seeing some wedge weenies bumping around and increased the chance of a couple of spinners knocking themselves silly.
I think the show started to go bust when they went from two commentators and an interviewer, to a team that rivals professional baseball coverage. Do we really need this many people to host the show? Season 5 is by far the worst in this respect, with plenty of Carmen dancing in tight shirt and short skirt, and Tony Rock being Chris Rock's brother. The builders do not make good interview subjects, and the interviewers are even less apt in their role.
To get more viewers, they need to show more fights, and less talk. The big attraction for me is to see machines that are not quite fully controllable ripping each other apart. Fully armored wedges are no fun to watch, but the point system can be adjusted to insure that these bots don't win. The best fights are usually the lightweights, as the power of the machine surpasses the ability of the driver to control it, and the low weight means little armor. Spinners are great fun (Ziggo!), especially when they fight each other. Spinners are even fun when they malfunction, as they tend to tear themselves apart when they become unbalanced (Mauler, Son of Whyachi). Flippers are entertaining as well(Toro!). I'm sure that the builders will continue to come up with more ideas on how best to wreck the opponent. I think the current set of limits on weapons are not hampering the builders either. In fact, I think the limits are fair. How much fun is it to watch one machine douse the other in water? About as much fun as the dunk booth at the county fair. The show needs to go back to a four fight format. Get rid of the useless interviews, prancing, and posturing.
"BattleBots may be entertainment but it's no more a sport than playing a videogame."
I resent that. My right hand is quite athletic now, thank you.
"Derp de derp."
The UCB was THE greatest show of all time! They used to put them on at like Saturday morning at 1:30 a.m. but then they finally removed it. People haved all the episodes on VHS and VCD available on ebay. The UCB has tried to make a DVD available but friggin CC wants no part of it. I hate Comedy Central. Now Kids in the Hall isn't on at 2 anymore and they cancelled Strangers with Candy. The Man Show has its moments but it has run its course. Win Ben Stein's money is the same, its dead after this season, Southpark needs to be put down. They are donkey raping shit eaters.
(* I have noticed a real growth in the types of weapons over the years. *)
I forgot to meantion shooting (in addition to granades). Why can't they have Gatland guns and the like? Toss the live audience and let them go a it.
(Then send the winner into Bin Laden's cave.)
Table-ized A.I.
I just bought a //e for $12 /me thinks back to summer long ago spent working to be able to buy a $1600 Apple //e...
$12? [SOB!]
Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
I would LOVE to see Beavis and Butthead come back - that duo provided me with so many laughs it's no even funny? Anyone else out there a big fan?
S.t.e.v.e.
I too remember the thrill of popping off the 16k button and replacing it with a shiny new 32k one! Back then 32k was seriously tuff stuff.
I don't remember which address it was, but there was a POKE on the CoCo that would throw a relay somewhere in the guttyworks - a quick 2-line basic proggy would set the computer to constantly throwing the relay, making a hella racket and eventually burning out and trashing the computer. I used to do this to all the CoCo's on display, especially at the RS Computer Center downtown.
Ahh, youth!
-72
-Those who dance are considered insane by those who can't hear the music.
Never could figure out what all the fuss was about. It wasn't like these things were *programmed* or anything like that (then I would be impressed). Effectively playing bumper-cars with glorified RC racers doesn't impress me.
"Battle Bots" is outrageously lame.
Robots fit a couple of genres
-Cool looking contraptions -- these are always too hard to control and lose.
-Doorjams with wheels. Always win
-Spinning discs
The easiest to evaluate a "sport" is to think "Could you gamble on this". Battlebots is too predictable to be called anything like a sport.
The real "geek" sport on TV is "Junkyard Wars". That is far more of an intellectual and competitive exercise than putting wheels on a metal box.
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and enemy of growth. -JFK
invunerable robots
Uh... when was the last time you actually watched BattleBots?
Sure, the wedges are hardpressed to actually hurt another bot, but wedges rarely go the distance. Spinners and bladebots destroy them. Hell, just watch any match that involves Hazard, Son of Wyachi, or Warhead and you'll get to watch the other bot running around desperately trying to keep some of its parts together.
Aside from Hazard, which ones are invulnerable? Vlad the Impaler? Biohazard? Ziggo? Toro? Minion? Backlash? All of these have both won a championship and been knocked out by an opponent, usually with lots of damage. Lots of others have been reduced to scrap (well, except for the Scrap Daddy bots, those started as junk) by their opponents. None of the other shows can match the destruction in Battlebots because of ineffective weapons and poor durability. They need house robots and pits and stuff because the contestant robots can't do the job themselves.
They never show the little guys running around trying not to catch on fire.
Maybe not, but the last episode did have a big guy sitting in a broken heap catching fire. It's much more impressive to set your opponent on fire when you don't have a flamethrower.
From the creators of Junkyard Wars, and with Cathy Rogers (and Henry Rollins) as presenters, it's like BattleBots but with full size cars. Coming to TLC in October.
Website
The real "geek" sport on TV is "Junkyard Wars". That is far more of an intellectual and competitive exercise than putting wheels on a metal box.
I whole-heartedly agree. Not to mention the fact that at least 3 of the members from each team have to be pretty good at alot of things...in all actuality, the win/lose variable is generally how good their "expert" is. They have to build everything from drag racers and hovercrafts to catapults. Those guys on BattleBots don't even have to make their own machine. Anyone remember the kid that bought a complete BattleBot on E-Bay?
The problem with Battle bots is they aren't "bots". They are remote control cars with a sledgehammer attached. Granted making this a requirement would change the participants abit (for the better if you ask me). Why don't they just televise the MIT robot wars every year?
Plus the hosts were frickin annoying...
I am not a number! I am a man! And don't you
It's pretty clear that all the studio shots are produced after the fact. They have the two guys interviewing the builders after each match. They have a few shots of Carmen Electra in front of the stands saying inane things that could be used next to just about any match. She probably cruised in, taped 20 minutes worth of gratuitous cleavage shots and breezed out.
Heck, even Mark Biro is computer generated. How else could he survive in the battlebox. THink about it.
I have discovered a truly marvelous sig, unfortunately the sig limit is too small to contain i
BattleBots was cool but Junkyard Wars was better. I'd love to see a weekly show that combined the two. You have to compete your teams robot.. but you have to build it in one day from parts on hand. That'd be more challenging and would even things up a little as you wouldn't need to invest a lot of your own money.
At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
>Any competitive event that cannot be undertaken whilst smoking.
;-)
You should check out a bowling alley in a city that doesn't ban smoking, then.
I've seen clouds in the sky less dense than the ones in bowling alleys.
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
The state, was awesome. The bit where they hunt and eat muppets was the funniest thing I ever saw.
I'm gonna dip my balls in it.