Techno Games

Techno Games (2000-2003) was BBC Television's Olympic Games for robots. It was a spin-off from the hugely successful Robot Wars. The TV series was shown on BBC2 every weekday for a fortnight from the third Monday in March just after Science Week. The series of ten programmes was broadcast on the ten weekdays over two weeks (The first series consisted of five programmes broadcast over five consecutive weekdays). Schools, colleges, individuals and technology clubs competed to break world records, win medals and the grand series prize. For most events life-like movement was required so, for example, in the swimming event propellers were banned in favour of legs, paddles, flippers and fins. When the TV show was cancelled a number of enthusiasts kept the competition going under the banner UK Robotic Games.

Events

Not all the events appeared in all of the series.

Assault Course
Cycling
Football
Gymnastics
High Jump
Long Jump
Micromouse (Wall following)
Micromouse (Maze solving)
Relay Cars
Rocket Cars and Funny Cars
Shot Putt
Solar Challenge Cars
Tug-of-War
Rope Climbing (Natural movement-arms and legs)
Rope Climbing (Artificial movement-wheels and rollers)
Sprint (Two, three, four, six and eight legged walkers)
Sumo
Swimming
Water Polo
Outdoor Events (Penalty kick, Shot Put)

People

Most of the people on Techno Games Philippa Forrester, Noel Sharkey, Martin Smith, Julia Reed and Simon Scott also worked on Robot Wars. Philippa Forrester became the host presenter, the technical presenters and judges were Noel Sharkey and Martin Smith who were also judges on Robot Wars and Simon Scott who had built the robot Razer. The more memorable robots included Skeletron, a rope climbing robot, Phoebius, a solar powered robot and Cycler, a presentation robot, that went on to visit thousands of schools. Skeletron, the gas powered natural rope climber so impressed the NESTA award judges that his builders Matt and Ray Tait won an all expenses paid trip to NASA in Florida.

Series

Series 1 (2000)

Host: Ulrika Jonsson
Winner; shot-put event: Laura Moyser-Carr
Technical Presenters: Noel Sharkey and Martin Smith
Interviewers: Ed Hall and Sophie Blake

Series 2 (2001)

Host: Jayne Middlemiss
Technical Presenters: Noel Sharkey and Martin Smith
Interviewers: Ed Hall and Liz Bonnin

Japan reports by Julia Reed

Series 3 (2002)

Host: Philippa Forrester
Technical Presenters: Noel Sharkey and Martin Smith
Interviewers: Andy Collins, Liz Bonnin and Simon Scott

Series 4 (2003)

Host: Philippa Forrester
Technical Presenters: Noel Sharkey and Martin Smith
Interviewers: Andy Collins and Simon Scott

Commentator for all series: Barry Davies