the cutting room mirror

Robot Arena

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Specifically:

  • Find out how to reenable the Wood Armor.

Robot Arena is basically Robot Wars minus a physics engine. No, really.

Unused Graphics#

Armored Forklift/Wood Armor#

Artwork and info graphics for an Armored Forklift and Wood Armor, present in Robot Arena/Graphics/Botlab. The former probably didn't make it because the game doesn't have a physics engine (although it was present in early screenshots), but the latter's removal is a mystery.

The textures for said parts, found in Robot Arena/Models/Bots/Maps.

Hazards#

Present in Robot Arena/Gaphics/select arena, it seems there was supposed to be an option to change the hazards, which would've been quite fun.

Red Giant#

Found in Robot Arena/Models/Bot/Enemies. Red Giant, a bot in Practice mode (a Tournament bot in the original pre-patched game) was supposed to use M220 Mini Tank Treads. In the final game, he sported 12" Rubber Wheels instead. However, only the texture for the sides of Red Giant's early M220 Mini Tank Treads exists in the files, as there's no tread texture to correspond to it. Well, there was early in development, but the texture for the Red Giant Treads was omitted from the files.

The sides of Red Giant's M220 Mini Tank Treads.
The sides of Red Giant's M220 Mini Tank Treads.
This custom texture for Red Giant's treads was created in 2015 by 77Pacer in an attempt to recreate the early version of Red Giant in Robot Arena.
This custom texture for Red Giant's treads was created in 2015 by 77Pacer in an attempt to recreate the early version of Red Giant in Robot Arena.
How Red Giant would've appeared with the M220 Mini Tank Treads in the game.
How Red Giant would've appeared with the M220 Mini Tank Treads in the game.

Urban Menace#

Present in Robot Arena/Models/Bots/Maps, the Tournament mode bot Urban Menace was supposed to use 12" Alloy Wheels. In the final, he sported BadBoy Tires. It is worth questioning why the developers left the custom texture in the Maps folder, for normal textures.

Unused Texts#

In attachment_descriptions.txt, which houses the descriptions where someone clicked on the ? tab showing it on the respective part, is the following:

  • Wood Armor: "Relatively lightweight, wooden armor is fairly resistant to bashing attacks due to its cushioning effect. Don't let a sawblade sink its teeth into your wooden armor, however. For the naturalist."
  • Armored Forklift: "Often considered more a utility attachment than weapon, the Armored Forklift is very useful in lifting your opponent and dropping him onto a hazard. The hydraulic platform raises most average weight robots with ease."
  • Digital Insignia: "An enhanced version of the personalized badge plate, the Digital Insignia is an illuminated display that rotates above your robot. Opponents often target this component for destruction as a desecration to the owner." This would appear to be an old leftover, as there is no remnant of this part.

Unused Models#

Yes, Wood Armor and Armored Forklift again. Robot Arena/Models/Bots, which has the .gmf files, also holds the files wp_forklift_bin.gmf and ui_armor_wood_bin.