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The BBC Announces Robot Wars' Return To TV (bbc.co.uk)
Blacklaw writes: The BBC has announced that Robot Wars, the classic metal-mashing amateur robotics competition, is returning for a new series. They are building an all-new battle arena — following the sale of the original for scrap in 2005. "The new series includes a raft of technological advances since the show first aired over a decade ago, and viewers can expect to see more innovative fighting machines as teams of amateur roboteers battle it out to win the coveted Robot Wars title."
The only Robot Wars I want to see is between gigantic bipedal robots piloted by cute blue-haired girls.
Didn't it get tedious towards the end with all the robots being a sort of wedge with a flipper?
What I'd like to see is more autonomous bots, rather than what are effectively RC tanks.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
I'll be curious to see this, but I hope they do a better job with the filler material than Battle Bots did. The matches were actually really good, but pretty much everything between them was a complete joke. Even the guy who counted down the match start was was over-the-top corny with his weird amalgamation of ring-side boxing presenter and the voice at the match start for Mortal Combat.
Hopefully, they bring the house robots back, as they provided a lot of character to the show
If only we could fall into a woman's arms without falling into her hands
Uh, Robot Wars first aired in the UK in 1998, two years before Battlebots first aired in the US.
Robot Wars also has the non-broadcast event history behind it dating back to 1994.
Now we just need Junkyard wars to return and I can relive my youth!
If there aren't carefully designed divisions, for example: autonomous versus wired puppet, this is doomed. If we can't somehow be assured events are unscripted, (the winner being assigned beforehand), then this is doomed just like the previous scripted (saucy?) puppet show. Final blather: if a 'win' is "smoking lump" then my solid block of titanium on a roller-skate will never lose, so a referee must be an actual agent of decision, or else, (yep) it's doomed.
I'd like to see them include quadcopter vs quadcopter battles.
[Insert pithy quote here]
Nah the Brits love to rip off 'merica.
Cricket is a cheap ripoff of Baseball.
Dr. Who is a cheap ripoff of Star Trek
They even double down by making a Red Dwarf a cheap ripoff of Voyager.
The Office is a cheap ripoff of The Office
And British football vs Football.
Facts just get in the way of a closed world view.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Dont forget House of Cards.
I entirely agree the fillers were junk - but it can be treated as adverts should be.
Letting drones compete would be a nice twist. I'm not sure how one could fairly handle letting drones compete with non-drones, though - seems like an either-or situation. Unless... hmm...
Other: Uneven floors and obstacles would be good, and could be varied, even with their own weather - a boulder-strewn badlands, a rainy forest, a post-apocalyptic hellscape, an icy barrens in a blizzard, etc. Maybe get rid of some of their old constraints, such as no fire-based or fluid weapons (although their arena would need be able to be able to handle it). Fire would not just be aesthetically pleasing but open up brand new optimization constraints on defensive techniques, and fluids like adhesives, solvents/corrosives or lubricants could also lead to rather interesting battles. Ranged weapons would be nice, within limits of course. Maybe simply replace the prohibition on ranged weapons to "no weapons that make use of an explosive charge" so that you don't just get a bunch of people mounting handguns to RC cars... maybe also set a maximum projectile velocity and/or kinetic energy too. Hmm, you know, if you allowed some degree of ranged weapons and had a realistic ceiling height, you might be able to fairly compete drones with non-drones. Otherwise you can still use weapons on a tether, but that's a lot harder.
He's the sort of person who would sell the Red Cross to Dracula.
Does 10 years worth of technology mean we can have actual robots warring? Or will it still be a bunch of pseudo-aggressive, violent affectated radio-controlled cars?
Don't get me started on that faker Shakespeare - he made his name rewriting Hollywood scripts
Accidentally modded you down, so having to post as me to burn the points. Curse these fat fingers...
"Our opponent is an alien starship packed with atomic bombs," I said. "we have a protractor"
As much as I enjoyed the show there was one thing that always bugged me. And that was the simple fact that the machines were NOT robots in the true sense of the word. They where ROVs, operated by their builders. True robots would have been autonomous, able to take offensive and defensive actions based on their current environment and the actions of their opponent. Preferable with some form of remote kill switch for safety of course. I know I'm just nit picking and I just wanted to get that off my chest for once. Thank you for your patience. That said it would be cool if they brought the show back.
The Apprentice. Isn't Dancing with the Stars based on Strictly Come Dancing. Oh, and America's Got Talent.
I seem to recall there was a US version of Sherlock too. Life on Mars.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
The X Factor too.
A guy in the US came up with Robot Wars. A US record company funded it. As it was coming together, the relationship between the guy and the record company fell apart and ended in legal acrimony. The record company licensed it to a UK production company. The folks who were going to put it on in the US put together BattleBots. It think that the US folks worked on it first, but the UK folks got it on TV first.
FWIW, I prefer BattleBots (except for that bogus rule interpretation on the prohibition of capture devices in the early rounds).
Oh, another possibility for rule relaxation: they could allow electrical weapons, but only very low voltage (no limits on current). So it'd be quite possible to protect sensitive electronics (it takes voltage to get past electrical insulation), but robots will still be able to burn through each other with electricity.
Corrosives, if allowed, would probably have to have a requirement that they can't, in reaction with common metals and plastics, outgas anything dangerous. Flammables (and robots in general) should probably have a requirement about a minimum time they would take to burn up if everything flammable was ignited at once - you don't want anything too violent going on. Any uncertainties should come down to the opinion of a judge. No chemical should be allowed that reacts violently with water (or whatever fire extinguishing system they use).
Hmm, water hazards in the battle arena... that'd be neat.
The more varied the weapons, the more difficult it'll be for a robot to defend against all possibilities. And some weapons may prove most effective in combination. Maybe a weapon that cuts small holes in a foe's armour might not be good on its own, and maybe a water gun might not be great on its own, but punch a hole on a robot and then get the robot wet, and well, your results may be quite different ;) I'd think that the most effective combinations would be like that - one to get you past the armor (spinning blades, hammers, vises, etc), and then one to damage the insides through the holes (fire, water, corrosives, etc). And wouldn't that be more satisfying to the audience, a multi-pronged attack ending with a robot frying its foe from the inside? :)
He's the sort of person who would sell the Red Cross to Dracula.
One of the Big Three networks also brought this back. It was less than memorable. I'd condense an hour show down to about 10 minutes total runtime by fast-forwarding through all the pointless yakity yakity yak and just getting down to the destruction derby -- but even that was so predictable as to be a bad joke. Even good booze couldn't save it for me. The whole concept has been completely played out, it's been made clear which designs are superior to all the others, they win reliably, and aside from random failures and flukes (which are few and far between) it's ho-hum boring as hell now.
TL,DR: Bored now, nothing to see here, move along..
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
Leave it to a show about a time traveller to rip off a series that didn't start until three years later.
I notice that the Media Centre states that there will be a purpose built area in Glasgow. You don't need one - George Square on a Saturday Night will be full of piss-heads fighting...... [Note : I was born in Glasgow and spent half my life there so I can say what I like about it].