Marc Thorpe, Robot Wars founder, has died

Marc Thorpe, Robot Wars founder, has died(marcthorpe.com)

108 points by batguano 2 years ago | 21 comments

robviren 2 years ago |

My dad and I ended up doing a local battle bots in the early 2000s based on a lot of this and that pretty much inspired me to help join a founding FRC team in 2007. I swear that type of event started like a Cambrian explosion of robotic events which I know help kick start my career in tech. So glad for people like Marc.

That and my Robots name was "Sponge Bot Titanium Pants" so I had that going for me.

Somewhat related but if you love this stuff a gem of a game that I cannot believe was as good as it was was based on these types of events.

https://www.myabandonware.com/game/robot-arena-f6i

kneel 2 years ago |

I met Marc randomly a few years back. He was having difficulty walking while at a shop in downtown Berkeley, the shop owner needed to close and he couldn't leave. He had taken his medication for Parkinson's but it hadn't set in.

He gave me the keys to his car and drove it up to the storefront and helped him in. I drove him to a parking spot where he could wait for his legs to start moving again. Ended up chatting for a few about neuroscience and the lab I was working in at the time. He gave me his card and told me to look him up sometime.

I looked him up a few days later and was amazed that he was was intimately involved in star wars, indiana jones and robot wars.

beAbU 2 years ago | |

The cast of Mythbusters were also heavily involved in the things you list.

I wonder what other interesting circles we can add to this venn diagram.

mastazi 2 years ago |

Wow his life story is quite interesting...

Among the many highlights, there are Peruvian shamans and backyard alligators!

Rest in peace

pvaldes 2 years ago | |

Without mentioning the ultra-patient parents.

Obscurity4340 2 years ago | |

> Backyard alligators

Is there any other kind ?

smithcoin 2 years ago | | |

Front yard.

MrJagil 2 years ago |

Here’s the battlebots reddit thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/battlebots/comments/1833d56/marc_th...

The book looks interesting but i especially enjoy the linked video with the vacuum-bot that started it all.

toomuchtodo 2 years ago | |

> For those who don't know, Marc Thorpe was a brilliant special effects artist and inventor who was the original creative visionary organized the first Robot Wars events starting in 1994, created the concept of robot combat as we know it, and brought together the community of builders that makes the sport what it is. Battlebots and all other robot combat events picked up where Marc left off when he was sadly forced out of direct involvement with Robot Wars. We are all here because of Marc.

> You can read more about his life and the tumultuous early history of the sport in Gearheads, considered the definitive history of the early years of robot combat.

https://www.amazon.com/Gearheads-Turbulent-Rise-Robotic-Spor...

> Here is some footage of a watch party hosted at Marc's workshop in 2019, featuring the original robotic vacuum cleaner that inspired the concept.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=3020390768032429

(stickied comment from thread to preserve)

leotravis10 2 years ago | | |

Here's a Bookshop link for folks like myself that refuse to pick up a book from Amazon: https://bookshop.org/p/books/gearheads-the-turbulent-rise-of...

chromaton 2 years ago |

I met Marc Thorpe back in 1995 and saw some of the Robot Wars highlight videos he was using to promote the event. My life was never the same after that.

_rpxpx 2 years ago |

He has a nice little feature in The Happy Mutant Handbook: https://archive.org/details/h_20220529/page/144/mode/2up

orsenthil 2 years ago |

Is Robot Wars different from http://robogames.net/index.php - My exposure to these battling robots were through Robo games, which happens every year in my town.

aaron695 2 years ago |

Myth Busters wouldn't've existed as we know it without Robot Wars. Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage worked on Blendo and were interviewed on Robot Wars which lead to Myth Busters.

BattleBots was started among some Robot Wars competitors after a legal issue -

https://battlebots.fandom.com/wiki/Marc_Thorpe

"Following legal pressure, Marc Thorpe ultimately relinquished ownership of the Robot Wars name to Profile Records co-founder Steve Plotnicki in February 1999, who holds the name to this day. However, among the competitors in Thorpe's events were cousins Greg Munson and Trey Roski, who piloted La Machine with assistance from future championship-winning builder Gage Cauchois. In the face of adversity from legal action taken by Steve Plotnicki, Trey Roski convinced his cousin to close his company Impact Media and join him in developing their own competition in Las Vegas, BattleBots"

https://robotwars.fandom.com/wiki/Marc_Thorpe

Amazing legacy.

Denote6737 2 years ago | |

Blendo was just a beast of a fighting robot. It was more powerful than anyone expected. And was given an honourable medal and banned from competition.

adfm 2 years ago | | |

I was there and can attest to it being more powerful than anything else in the ring. Honestly, I was hoping for more of an SRL death match, but Blendo was about as close as you could get that day and they didn't even compete. You know you're about to have fun when you have to crank it with a drill just to get going.

RIP, Marc.

aaron695 2 years ago | | |

Blendo (1995) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKbE7ocZBHI How Lethal Was Blendo REALLY? - Adam Savage’s Tested https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKbE7ocZBHI

My favorite Robot Wars bot would be SPS 2 who was lighter than air - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26Y-ERX9kyI (1995)

The original videos had more of the Bloodsport feeling than the later more commercial products - https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Robot+Wars+1995... (Includes footage with Marc Thorpe)

We hoped for Bladerunner, instead they decimated global poverty and disease. Maybe there are underground tournaments out there somewhere....