The Game So what exactly is Robot Arena? Well, Robot Arena is a new computer game for the PC developed by Gabriel Interactive and published by Infogrames. It is based on the popular hobby/event of robot combat, where competitors build robots and use radio controllers to drive them and fight against other robots in an enclosed battle arena. Some of the contests you may have heard of include BattleBots and Robot Wars. Both have regular television shows following the competitions. Yes, those are REAL robots with REAL weapons and motors and batteries that attack and chop, saw or otherwise mutilate one another. Robot Arena, the game, is not a real life event, but instead allows common folks like you and me who have no engineering skills whatsoever (and don't want to spend thousands on robotics parts) to build robots and fight them in a simulated enviroment. Here's briefly how it works. You can do two main things in the game: build robots and fight with the robots you have made. You can only work with one robot at a time, but you can build and save as many bots as you like. In the Bot Lab, you choose from various chassis types, armor, mobility, weaponry, and accessories to assemble your robot. Each component has various properties such as weight, energy required, strength, and damage abilities. Once you've built your robot, you can take it into the arena to fight against an opponent. The game allows you to play several types of matches: a practice session, which is to help you learn to play without risking damage to your newly created bot; a tournament match, in which you fight against a series of computer opponents for the championship title; a custom challenge, where you can make wagers against computer players in non-tournament matches; and multiplayer mode, where you can fight against your brother, friend, uncle, dentist, etc. over a local network or the Internet. You can play to the death, or pick a flag match, where the first player to destroy their opponent's competition flag wins. The flag can be attached anywhere on your robot and must be guarded well. You can also specify time limits for the match. In the event that neither player destroys the opponent or their flag, a judge will decide who inflicted more mayhem on their foe. Some techie junk: we recommend a Pentium 450, 64 MB RAM, and a 3D video card, though it will run on slower systems, too. Sorry, Mac users, this one's for Windows only.