Radio F Software

Radio F Software, 2007

Justin Bardin, more commonly known online and offline under the moniker Radio F Software (frequently abbreviated as RFS), was one of the most influential personalities in the Robot Arena 2 community. He is perhaps most well known as being the first (and last) AceUplink staff member to be fired. He is also the owner of RFSHQ, a website community which outlived nearly every other Robot Arena 2 community on the Internet.

Timeline

AceUplink Era

During his time spent on AceUplink, RFS quickly adopted knowledge of the Python programming language as he played the game. RFS created all of his game modifications during this time period, including the RFS AI Pack and personalized components. He was also well known for writing tutorials on how to code AI, edit components, and how to beat AI robots; his efforts gave him the custom rank "The Tutorial Man". In December 2003, JFranco, the webmaster of AceUplink, appointed RFS to work on the AceUplink Robot Database, an online encyclopedia of robotics information. With the stiff request of 1,000 articles, RFS attempted to resign from his position and when permission was denied, he simply stopped working and filled the database with entries of his own robotic creations until his FTP permissions were stripped.

Post-AceUplink/Pre-RFSHQ Era

RFS was unceremoniously fired from AceUplink staff in January 2004. To this day his account, now in the "Pending Validation" group, is the only validating account to have several thousand forum posts and be listed with the "Super Heavyweight" post rank. For several months after being banned RFS remained the top poster on the forums.

Early RFSHQ Era

The first incarnation of RFSHQ opened on February 12th, 2004. February 12th was the day that AceUplink's domain was purchased/expired, and the intent of the site was to "beat out" AceUplink. The first version of RFSHQ was used as an outlet to host all of RFS' creations for Robot Arena 2; and while partnered with TheDisturbedOne his mods were featured and other modifications were announced but never completed. Their joint-effort production name was Radio F Disturbedware and their only credit lies in The RFS AI Pack V1.5.

Post-Robot Arena 2 RFSHQ Era

With the waining Robot Arena 2 community, RFS quickly changed the format of the website to stay afloat. RFSHQ "reopened" on May 9th, 2004 as a comedy/satire website. The first article on the website was a sarcastic review of "The Adventures of Bayou Billy" on the Nintendo NES. The community kept the subforum for Robot Arena 2 and added the category for Miniclip.com's game Robot Rage. The two subforums were listed under the forum category "The Robot Overlords".

RFSHQ Era

From May 2004 through July 2008 RFS was the lead content supervisor of RFSHQ which at the time grew to a community of over 12,000 users and several "guest writers" on the website. During this time he was currently contracted by the British game developer Miniclip as the position of Forums Administrator, supervising and coding for their vBulletin forums. During this time, his works were published in one compilation author book, he hosted a podcast for the Club Penguin computer game, and opened up several smaller websites (AceUplink.net, UpUrs.us) and production affiliates (Twilight Foundry, Channel 44, World 8-4 Entertainment). Also during this time the RFSHQ website began to compile a complete database of every episode from the television series "BattleBots".

Post-RFSHQ Era

In July 2008 RFS, now under his pseudonym "Dracophile", outed himself as a member of the furry fandom, apologized to his audiences for lying to them for four years, and retired from his position as RFSHQ's lead writer. He is still employed by Miniclip.com and rumors circulate that he is currently shooting a pilot for the 1up.com website under his new production label "Channel F Productions".

Notable Game Contributions

The RFS AI Pack

Originally slated to be an upgrade that featured non-stock components, RFS scrapped this idea in favor of a fair all stock AI pack. The first version of the RFS AI Pack was a simple 45 robot replacement and was otherwise unimportant and made no impact on the community aside from overall well reception. A month later with the help of TheDisturbedOne, a follow-up AI pack was created, but rather than overwrite the existing 45 robots from the previous version, this mod allowed 6 AI bots per team instead of the default 3, giving the user the option to fight up to 90 different robots. Two months after the release of the second version, a third version was released that allowed 30 AI teams instead of the default 15. Once again this doubled the maximum number of total AI bots, bringing the count to 180.

Personalized Components

To this day RFS hasn't created a component that wasn't based off of an existing GMF file. He was, however, the first person to take requests for personalized components. After copying the GMF for the standard Ram Plate RFS turned it into a license plate. Users were able to request one plate with the following customizable features:

• The state
• A slogan
• Up to 10 characters in the center for a message

Notable Robots

• Tha Thumperizer: A heavyweight robot with dual vertical tribar spinners. The term "Thumperized" achieved fad status on AceUplink when RFS would lock or edit out posts replacing them with "POST/THREAD THUMPERIZED".
• Rock 'N' Roller: A heavyweight robot that consisted of two middleweight robots, described as the first "multibot" robot.

Robot Combat Creations

Spanning the years 2003 - 2004 RFS was involved with real-life robot combat. His robots were entered under the team name "Newfac Robotics" and participated at five events hosted by SWARC (Southwestern Alliance of Robot Combat). Newfac Robotics was comprised of RFS, his father, Casey "kickedsomeass" Steward, and Jason "MATT DAMON!!!" Glecker, the latter two both from the RFSHQ community. Creations from Newfac Robotics were presented as various species of dragon on the team's website, their joke specie names are listed below with the robot descriptions.

Euro Antweights

• Keep Back 500 Meters: A smaller version of Keep Back 500 Feet. Featured a clamp-based weapon and in a later version the robot had anti-flip spikes. (Draco clampus-minus)
• Five-O: An invertible four wheel drive wedge robot with a titanium front end. The robot featured a police car paintjob and miniature police lights. (Draco enforsus)

Antweights

• Keep Back 500 Feet: The team's first creation. Keep Back 500 Feet utilized servos for drive, and while slow was capable of pushing Beetleweights around. The robot had two interchangeable weapons; a lifting arm created from galvanized steel, and a 12-tooth stainless steel clamping arm that was never used. (Draco clampus)
• Super Turbo Baby Puncher: A thwackbot which currently holds the Robot Fighting League record for largest wheels on an Antweight robot - 4.5" diameter. Super Turbo Baby Puncher was a joke robot made from an R/C BattleBots toy. It's weapon was a ball and chain weapon taken from a ceiling fan. (Draco bashus)
• Here Comes Trouble: A planned wedge/spike robot using salvaged parts. Never completed.
• Automatic Win: A planned full body spinner. Never completed.

Beetleweights

• Fatal Contraption: A broken Nintendo NES was used as the chassis for this plowbot. It was for show only and never competed. (Draco electronicus)
• Kill Swtich: A giant tank-tracked wedge robot that was never knocked out by damage inflicted. (Draco magnus)
• Detonator: A high-speed thwack robot that was painted to look like a dragon's face. The weapon, a spiked tongue, was dubbed The French Kiss of Death. Detonator was prone to overheating problems and was promptly destroyed in combat. (Draco carnivorous)
• Earth Quake: A 4 wheel drive plow machine that looked similar to riot control vehicles. Created using twice as many parts as Kill Switch, the robot was so heavy that it had no armor. In its only tournament it won 2nd place, the only Newfac Robotics creation to win an event. (Draco super-magnus)

Hobbyweights

• Miniclip.com: A projected sponsorship robot that would feature a pneumatic hammer as a weapon. Proper agreements were never planned out or discussed because of the dwindling audience at robot combat events.

Lightweights

• Dragon-In-Law: This robot was being built around a salvaged lawnmower frame. By this time the team had run out of funds and the robot was never completed.