Back
Here is how Nightmare did for each fight at San Francisco November 2001 BattleBots:
Fight 1: vs. Junkyard Offspring Nightmare's first fight was against Junkyard Offspring, a treaded robot with a strong chromolly frame and Lexan armor, featuring a mean set of reciprocating spikes out the front. Nightmare and Junkyard Offspring slammed together only a few seconds into the fight, and Nightmare's spinning disc tore off a large chunk of Lexan from the top of Junkyard Offspring and sent it flying. The bots circled each other and came together a few more times, each time Junkyard Offspring lost a little more Lexan. One particular hit, I found out later, sent a piece of Lexan flying into the camera at the roof ot the BattleBox, severing some of the wires leading to it. The video feed instantly went dead from that camera for the rest of the match. The bots continued circling, and Junkyard Offspring got a couple good shots in with his spikes on Nightmare's right wheel, but Nightmare was unphased. Nightmare turned, slamming Junkyard Offspring hard enough to bind up the drive motors on one side, it wasn't long before the stalled motor started smoking. With JYO's defenses down, Nightmare came in for one last hit, squarely in the front, which, it turns out, jarred loose the receiver battery pack, and JYO was out. Nightmare wins by Knockout Total time: 1 minute 37 seconds This match was televised on Comedy Central's BattleBots, episode 406
Fight 2: vs. BattleRat Nightmare's next fight was versus BattleRat, all the way from New Jersey. BattleRat is a very low to the ground sloping wedge with a powerful lifting arm. I wasn't sure what I'd be able to do against him, so I just figured I'd just go for it. The bots came together in the middle of the arena, and BattleRat slipped under Nightmare from the front and started raising the lifter. The lifter immediately came in contact with Nightmare's disc, and because of the low and forward angle, Nightmare kicked himself backward several feet, BattleRat came back with a very bent lifter arm. The bots came together again, Nightamre chewing up the sides of BattleRat, but not finding much to grab, but then the spinning disc came in contact with the pivot of BattleRat's arm, and Nightmare actually lodged his tooth in the gap so deep that the match had to be stopped and they had to separate the bots with a crowbar. The match was underway again in a few moments, and BattleRat once again rushed Nightmare, this time pushing him back against the arena Screws, but because the disc was still spinning, the moment it came in contact with BattleRat's lifter again, it was ripped in half. The rest of the match was a lot of clumsy pushing, mostly by BattleRat, but try and try again, he was unable to push Nightmare into any arena hazard. Nightmare spent much of the rest of the time trying to get off of the top of BattleRat, but neither bot could do much to each other. Time ran out and it went to the judges. Judge's score: 27-18 This match was televised on Comedy Central's BattleBots, episode 408
Fight 2: vs. Biohazard Nightmare's final fight in Season 4.0 was against Biohazard, which made it my first-ever rematch in the history of my involvement in this sport. The last time Biohazard and I fought back in Season 2.0, he ended up taking me to the pulverizer, where Nightmare got a severe pounding. This time, I made it a point to stay away from the pulverizers... In the first few seconds of the fight, the two bots met in the middle of the arena, and in a tremendous shower of Titanium sparks, Nightmare smashed the front of Biohazard, an impact, that I learned later, damaged the lifting mechanism on Biohazard. His lifter didn't work right for the remainder of the match. The bots came back together, and Nightmare struck the front of Bio once again, sending more sparks flying. Biohazard, seemingly dazed, skidded over the killsaws, even more sparks. It looked great for Nightmare, but something was going wrong. I could tell that Nightmare's disc was coming to a stop, and the weapon motor started belching a bit of smoke. Arrgh. Only two good hits, and the disc slowly spun down. So, with my weapon disabled, I just did what comes next- try to push. Well, that's easier said than done, mainly because of Biohazard's low profile, I would just end up riding up on top of him nearly every time I tried. The match continued with both bots trying to achieve position against each other and shove each other around. I didn't find out until later that the damage to Biohazard's lifter made it very difficult to try to do what comes natural for Biohazard, flipping the opponent. To make matters worse, it appeared that I was losing power to my right side drive motor, it turned out the gears had stripped out inside the gearbox, which left Nightmare fumbling around on one good drive motor, trying to avoid the killsaws. I think I did a pretty good job at it, even managed to get Nightmare's big tail end around on top of Biohazard, using his arm as leverage to push Bio over the killsaws one last time. But it wasn't enough. Three minutes ended and it went to the judges. Judge's score: 13-32 I still kick myself for not listening to that little voice in the back of my head that was yelling at me to swap out my weapon motor to my spare one after the previous fight. Who knows what would have happened if Nightmare's weapon was spinning the whole time? Hmmmm This match was televised on Comedy Central's BattleBots, episode 409
Heavyweight Rumble This one was a lot of fun. Nightmare started off with a bang in the first few seconds after the buzzer. As rumbles always are, this was pretty chaotic, so I don't know exactly how things went for everyone else, but I do know that Nightmare smacked a heavyweight called Botulizer (now known as Aces and Eights), sending him flying in a shower of sparks (lots of sparks this season!). The next victim, and no, I didn't plan it this way, was Slam Job (remember him from Season 3.0?). I sent him flying upside down too, but somehow in the minutes following, he made it back on his wheels. After that, Nightmare seemed to be out in the open, and the first bot that came in close was one I had feared most- M.O.E. MOE zipped in and without a delay, knocked off one of Nightmare's tires, peeled it right off the rim. Seemingly without thinking about it, he came back around and took out the other wheel too, smacking it so hard that the gearbox broke, leaving Nightmare with almost no mobility on one bare steel rim. That was pretty much it, Nightmare was stuck, but at least the weapon was still going, and I was facing outwards, into the arena, with the wall behind me, so I just stayed there, disc spinning wildly. No other bots approached the rest of the match and time ran out. The replacement weapon motor had worked like a charm. (I sure wish I had that one in the last fight)	A "MOE'd" wheel and tire