Robot Arena 2: Design and Destroy
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 was relatively popular and got good reviews and communities for the game are still active today.
AceUplink and the BattleBots AI
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.
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.
The DSL Mod
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 is still "in development" and sneak previews are still being posted on the DSL Website, but the upgrade has not been released yet. 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.
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)
Havok Explosions
Due to Havok's random probabilty 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 actiated and spinning at top speed, if one were to fire the pistons, an effect not unlike the Pistion 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.