Mark II is a rideable and user-operated robot built by the American company MegaBots Inc. The robot made its debut in May 2015 at Maker Faire San Mateo. An updated version of the robot, Mk.III, was scheduled in August 2017 to engage in a head-to-head fight with Kuratas, a robot built by Suidobashi Heavy Industry of Japan. [1] [2] [3] MegaBots announced plans in August 2015 to upgrade Mark II with melee capabilities in order to confront Kuratas, using funds from a Kickstarter campaign. [4] [5] [6]
In science fiction, mecha or mechs are giant robots or machines typically depicted as piloted and as humanoid walking vehicles. The term was first used in Japanese after shortening the English loanword 'mechanism' or 'mechanical', but the meaning in Japanese is more inclusive, and 'robot' or 'giant robot' is the narrower term.
BattleBots is an American robot combat television series and company. The show is an adaptation of the American Robot Wars competitions hosted in the mid–late 1990s by Marc Thorpe, in which competitors design and operate remote-controlled armed and armored machines designed to fight in an arena combat elimination tournament. The same competitions inspired the British TV program Robot Wars, which acquired the name in 1995.
Megas XLR is an American animated television series created by Jody Schaeffer and George Krstic for Cartoon Network. The series revolves around two teenage slackers: mechanic Coop and his best friend Jamie, who find a mecha robot from the future called Megas in a New Jersey junkyard. Coop modifies Megas and replaces his head, the control center, with a classic muscle car, and names him XLR. Together with Megas's original pilot Kiva, they must defend Earth from the evil alien race called "the Glorft". The series is an homage and parody of mecha anime. Krstic was originally one of the co-creators of MTV's Downtown.
The RX-78-2 Gundam is a fictional manned robot (mecha), introduced in 1979 in Yoshiyuki Tomino's and Sunrise's anime series Mobile Suit Gundam. In the series, it is a prototype weapon for the Earth Federation when it falls into the hands of Amuro Ray, the son of its designer in story, who goes on to pilot it in the Earth Federation's war against the Principality of Zeon.
Mega Man Battle Network is a tactical role-playing video game series created by Masahiro Yasuma and developed and published by Capcom as a spin-off of the Mega Man series; it premiered in 2001 on the Game Boy Advance and takes place in an alternate continuity where computers and networking technology was the main focus on scientific advancement, rather than robotics. There are a total of six mainline games, alongside several spin-offs.
20XX is an indie action platform video game developed by American indie studio Batterystaple Games. The early access version was released for Microsoft Windows on Steam on October 12, 2016, and in full on August 16, 2017. It later launched on the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch on July 10, 2018, and on Xbox One on July 11, 2018.
Robot combat is a type of robot competition in which custom-built machines fight using various methods to incapacitate each other. The machines have generally been remote-controlled vehicles rather than autonomous robots.
Mega Man, known as Rockman in Japan, is a platform game developed and published by Capcom in 1987 for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was directed by Akira Kitamura, with Nobuyuki Matsushima as lead programmer, and is the first game of the Mega Man franchise and the original video game series. Mega Man was produced by a small team specifically for the home console market, a first for Capcom, which previously focused on arcade video games.
Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters is a fighting game in the Mega Man series released as an arcade video game in Japan in 1996. It is the direct sequel to Mega Man: The Power Battle released the previous year. Both games were ported to home consoles in North America in 2004 as part of the Mega Man Anniversary Collection for PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube and in Japan during the same year as part of two game compilation titled Rockman: Power Battle Fighters, also for the PlayStation 2. An adaptation of both games for the Neo Geo Pocket Color, titled Rockman Battle & Fighters, was also made. Both games were later re-released as part of the Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium compilation in 2022.
Grant Masaru Imahara was an American electrical engineer, roboticist, and television host. He was best known for his work on the television series MythBusters, on which he designed, built and operated numerous robots and machines to test myths over the course of the show.
Mark II or Mark 2 often refers to the second version of a product, frequently military hardware. "Mark", meaning "model" or "variant", can be abbreviated "Mk."
Mega Man, known as Rockman in Japan, is the title character and the protagonist of the Mega Man series by Capcom. He was created by Akira Kitamura for the first Mega Man game released in 1987, with artist Keiji Inafune providing detailed character artwork based on Kitamura's pixel art design.
Kuratas is a rideable and user-operated mecha built by the Japanese company Suidobashi Heavy Industry. Billed as "the world's first giant boarding robot", the Kuratas was unveiled when the website was opened in 2012. It was demonstrated at Wonder Festival. In June 2015, MegaBots challenged Suidobashi Heavy Industry to its first robot duel confronting Kuratas versus their Mark II.
Mighty No. 9 is a 2016 action platform video game developed by Comcept, in conjunction with Inti Creates, and published by Deep Silver. The game was crowdfunded through Kickstarter and incorporated heavy input from the public. Mighty No. 9 closely resembles the early Mega Man series in both gameplay and character design, on which project lead Keiji Inafune worked, and is considered a spiritual successor.
Level-5 Comcept, formerly known as Comcept Inc., is a Japanese video game developer based in Osaka, founded on December 1, 2010 by Keiji Inafune, formerly of Capcom.
MegaBots Inc. was an American startup company headquartered in Hayward, California that created giant robots and real-world mecha for robotic sports competitions.
Mazinger Z is a Japanese super robot manga written and illustrated by Go Nagai. It was originally serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump from October 1972 to August 1973, and it later was reissued in Kodansha TV Magazine from October 1973 to September 1974.
Compressorhead is an animatronic robot band created by Berlin-based artist Frank Barnes and collaborators Markus Kolb, Stock Plum, and John and Rob Wright, formerly of NoMeansNo, as musical directors, songwriters and vocalists.
Artisans Asylum is a non-profit community workshop in Allston, Massachusetts. Artisans Asylum was founded in 2010 by an engineer, an artist, and friends who needed an affordable place to build and make things. Artisans was the first makerspace to incorporate in the U.S. in 2012 and today is 40,000 square feet of fabrication space.
Gui Cavalcanti is a robotics engineer who co-founded Open Source Medical Supplies, Artisan's Asylum, and MegaBots Inc.