Radio F Software
André Bardin, more commonly known in the Robot Arena 2 community under the moniker Radio F Software (frequently abbreviated as RFS and now known as Dracophile), is one of the most influential personalities in the Robot Arena 2 AI development community. He is credited with creating the eponymous RFS AI Pack which secured him a place in the game's legacy of notable AI modders by expanding upon the game's stock AI limitations.
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| Rank | Old World Veteran | |
| Political Stance | Innovationalist, Informationalist, Forum Master, Manipulator | |
| Grudge / Ally Status | ||
| Fear Rating |  30/100
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| Respect Rating |  70/100
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| Trivia | ||
| > Wrote a book called Nintendon't. | ||
| Memorable Quote | ||
| "Post thumperized." | ||
Additionally, RFS is also known as being the first (and last) AceUplink staff member to be fired from their position. He was a moderator at Technex's Forums, and was later banned there for defecting against Technex's style of management and advertising. More notably, RFS was the webmaster of RFSHQ, a website which outlived nearly every other Robot Arena 2 community on the Internet (February 12th, 2004 - June 22, 2008).
He quietly left the Robot Arena 2 community some time in 2008 to pursue personal interests.
History
AceUplink
During his time spent on AceUplink RFS quickly learned the basics of the Python programming language. All of his game modifications were created during the time he spent on AceUplink, including the RFS AI Pack and Personalized Components. He was well known for writing tutorials on how to code AI, edit components, how to beat AI robots, and various other topics; his efforts earned him the custom community rank "The Tutorial Man".
In December 2003 JFranco, webmaster of AceUplink, appointed RFS to work on the AceUplink Robot Database, a comprehensive online encyclopedia of robotics information. With the stiff request of one thousand articles, RFS attempted to resign from his position immediately. When permission was denied, he simply stopped working on the project and filled the database with entries of his own creations until his FTP permissions were stripped.
RFS was unceremoniously fired from AceUplink staff in January 2004. His account, banished to the "Pending Validation" group, was the only such 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 only to eventually be surpassed by AW.
RFSHQ
The first incarnation of RFSHQ opened officially on February 12th, 2004. February 12th was significant in that it was the day AceUplink's domain was up for renewal; the original 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 as he had them delisted from AceUplink's servers. Shortly after the establishment of the new website RFS partnered with TheDisturbedOne to create a variety of unique game-altering mods; their joint-effort production name was Radio F Disturbedware.
When the Robot Arena 2 community began to falter RFS quickly changed the format of his 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. From May 2004 through July 2008 RFS was the content supervisor of the website which at the time grew to a community of over 12,000 users and several "guest writers".
Post-RFSHQ
In July 2008 RFS, then under the pseudonym "Dracophile", retired from his position as RFSHQ's lead writer. In his departure post he expressed regret for the manner in which he chose to handle himself during conflicts with other communities and their members. Shortly after his departure from RFSHQ he re-established Twilight Foundry, a multimedia and gaming troupe he was affiliated with from 2001 - 2004.
In January 2010 he made a surprise announcement detailing plans to complete the final "V1.7" installment of the RFS AI Pack. There is no official word on the total number of teams being added to the pack, but it is confirmed that stronger versions of both the original Robot Arena and Robot Arena 2 AI will make appearances as well as a "second chance" team devoted to decent designs that never made it to the previous packs. The 1.7 update to the AI pack was eventually renamed "2.0" as it will supposedly retool and rebuild older designs that were unbalanced, broken, or simply bad.
In mid-2010 RFS was the co-host of The Godmode: On 2 Project, a web series focused around video game commentary. In September 2011 his first book, Nintendon't: 25 of the Worst Video Games Ever, was released via Amazon KDP. Throughout 2011 he was a columnist at GatorAIDS, a comedy website similar to RFSHQ. His work was occasionally showcased on the gaming industry blog Bitmob.
Presently, RFS maintains a relatively low profile online. He had formerly expressed via Facebook frustration with his social life and a lack of advancement in his professional life as well. He now lives in San Antonio, TX and works in the IT industry. He mostly keeps to himself, working behind the scenes on various writing projects and occasionally assisting in the production of a Twilight Foundry venture.
Notable Game Contributions
The RFS AI Pack
The RFS AI Pack was originally slated to be an upgrade that featured various non-stock components. This idea was scrapped in favor of a more fair all-stock AI pack with the intent to showcase creative, modern, and realistic designs that could be taken out of the Robot Arena 2 game and built in real life if desired. The original installment of the pack featured the standard fare of 45 robots and was otherwise unmentionable. Through some creative code-editing with the help of TheDisturbedOne, two follow up packs were made that expanded the limits of the original AI from 3 bots per team to 6 and 15 teams to 30, making the final tally of AI-controlled robots 180 by the V1.5 release.
Despite the simplistic and often whimsical designs the massive expansion marked a turning point in the customization of the game's AI, allowing future AI pack creators (such as Starcore) to further explore and cultivate the new found "territory".
Personalized Components
RFS never made a 100% original component because he lacked the required modeling software. Despite this, he was the first to take requests on "personalized" components. After copying the GMF for the standard Ram Plate RFS turned it into a decorative 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
An example of the license plate component is included in the RFS "Component Pack" and is modeled after a Texas plate with "BORN 2 BOT" as the lettering. Other reskinned and modified components include: RoboUplink ram plate, a Fire Extinguisher CO2 tank, and a CD-RW disc for antweights.
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". The robot was named after a Lego Mindstorms model built in 2002.
- Rock 'N' Roller: A heavyweight robot that consisted of two middleweight robots, described as the first "multibot" robot. It required a team match to be set up with both middleweights ("Rock" and "Roller" specifically) to be on the same team.
Robot Combat Creations
Spanning several years in the early 00's RFS was involved with real-life robot combat both in the form of novelty scrapped remote controlled cars and "serious" competitions. His robots were entered under the team name Newfac Robotics although today his classic team name of Twilight Foundry Robotics is used to encompass all of his creations. Creations from the team were presented as various species of dragon on their website, their joke species names are listed below with the robot descriptions. (Only robots from official weight classes are listed.)
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 side 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 working 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)
Beetleweights
- Fatal Contraption: A broken Nintendo NES was used as the chassis for this plowbot. Early information of the robot listed it as having razor blades for weapons. 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. Was formerly the #3 seed in its class at the North Texas SWARC tournament. (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 Twilight Foundry Robotics creation to place at an event. (Draco super-magnus)
As of 2013, all of Twilight Foundry Robotics creations are retired.