neorichieb1971 wrote:This year is a bad year for deaths. My ex wife died in June, my dad died last night at 02:15 GMT and poor Robotron's untimely death is just making me realize how lucky we are to experience another day, another shmup or another Xmas with family.
Its nice to see Robotron was appreciated so highly, it means good people appreciate good people. Glad to be in your company.
Ugh what a depressing week I lost my grandfather 5 days ago.
neorichieb1971 wrote:This year is a bad year for deaths. My ex wife died in June, my dad died last night at 02:15 GMT and poor Robotron's untimely death is just making me realize how lucky we are to experience another day, another shmup or another Xmas with family.
Its nice to see Robotron was appreciated so highly, it means good people appreciate good people. Glad to be in your company.
Ugh what a depressing week I lost my grandfather 5 days ago.
It's been a crazy year for untimely deaths. Counting you guys here I know of around 15 people that have passed this year. It's a shame but it helps you appreciate your time with others.
Looking over this thread ROBOTRON was clearly a lucky guy to have so much respect from so many people all over the world. I hope his family has a chance to see this thread at some point so they know how much love followed him around.
This thread says a lot about this community, people here would argue all night about whether Yagawa wears boxers or briefs, and then this happens.
As someone who has been a pretty close friend with Robo IRL for nearly a decade, it warms me to see this outpouring of love and support for the man. He really was a great guy in person, a class act through and through. Without a doubt one of the friendliest people I've ever met; during his Friday Night Gaming era he made it a point to never turn anyone away who was interested in coming by, even if he personally wasn't a huge fan of them. Very supportive of anyone who gamed regardless of anything else about them, and incredibly humble. While he wasn't exactly going to set the world on fire in Street Fighter, he put up a damn good fight in Last Blade or KOF, and still enjoyed playing all the games he wasn't great at with his friends. Also he was one of the top scorers on PSN in Shatter, which he enjoyed updating his friends on.
There are a literal ton of stories I could tell about the guy. The time a friend had his car stolen from the arcade and it was found right down Robo's street, or the time I made him tear up by giving him an Atari and a pile of games for his birthday, or the FNGs where over 30 people showed up to play the new KOF 2001, the list goes on. But when I call him an anchor and a legend of the SE Michigan gaming scene, I'm dead serious. He was a hardcore arcade player - and employee! - back in the 80s, and the FNG gatherings that started in the 90s and expanded in the 2000s were a real uniter for the local scene. Add that to his web presence, and you had a man that, if you had not actually met, you certainly knew of. Oh god, and the sense of humor! I've probably got more Robo-isms in regards to video games than from anyone else. Every time Amano from Last Blade or Nicotine from Samurai Shodown are taking a drag, I can still hear him go "Yup, smokin the weed..." or Marco whipping out the sign in Mark of the Wolves to "Eat at Wizzards!" which is both an obscure reference to a now-defunct Detroit arcade and its even more obscure past as a restaurant in the 60s and 70s. And good god, Luigi's one win pose in Smash Bros had me dying the first time I saw it and he went "Luigi is fucking the floor with the competition!"
As far as his health problems, it's no secret he'd been in declining health for years, though it was never great. He had a rare genetic disorder that causes his blood to clot, leading him to take blood thinners and a variety of experimental medication to try and deal with it. There was also the industrial accident that cost him a leg, which also made the clotting worse, and certainly and understandably wounded his mood. He's been in and out of the hospital for a variety of reasons, particularly in the past few years, but he still found a woman to settle down with, just moved out to a quiet place in the suburbs, and seemed genuinely happy with how things were that last night. He finally got to play Espgaluda II, DeathSmiles, Mushihime, and watch KOF Skystage, and really liked all of them. He and I ran Rip Off, an old arcade game that he used to walk to the local store to play with his friend but hadn't gotten to check out in years since the only port was on Vectrex. Once he figured out the button setup, he quickly blew past my score, just like he did in every classic game we ever went at it on. He was not a man to mess with in Mr. Do or Burgertime.
While I haven't heard yet what led to his passing, I will relay it if I find anything out. Robo being Robo, he didn't want a funeral, just a small gathering of friends and family to reminiscence on the good times. I can't think of anything more fitting to his character. I'm going to miss him, but it was good last day that I am so incredibly honored to have been a part of. One last chance to shoot the shit and play some games.I say rest in peace old friend; I think more people than you ever realized were touched by you and will carry on your sentiments and memory into the future. Throw on some Compile shooters, or some classic games, or Mario Kart, Shatter, Neo Geo games, or even some Guilty Gear, and think back to the man who so many associate with those. I already miss you, buddy.
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ubersaurus wrote:As far as his health problems, it's no secret he'd been in declining health for years, though it was never great. He had a rare genetic disorder that causes his blood to clot, leading him to take blood thinners and a variety of experimental medication to try and deal with it. There was also the industrial accident that cost him a leg, which also made the clotting worse, and certainly and understandably wounded his mood.
Thanks for sharing this. It adds a lot to his great character, living with constant medical hardship and whatnot, and still manage to be so incredibly funny.
I've not been here very long, but he certainly did make a good impression as a kind and funny guy. Sorry to hear of his passing.
Same here. He was certainly one of the 1st memorable characters to a newbie to the forums. Really had a good laugh at his responses in the introduction thread!
"The only desire the Culture could not satisfy from within itself was one common to both the descendants of its original human stock and the machines [...]: the urge not to feel useless."
Robotron was one of the coolest posters on the board and definitely had a great sense of humor. It's so hard to believe this has happened. My condolences to everyone here, and also his family.
R.I.P.
It's kind of hard to not get kind of teary eyed at work reading through this, despite not ever meeting ROBOTRON in real life or even really directly speaking to him here. Dude had a sense a humor despite living through circumstances that would usually render a person's sense of humor to null. R.I.P. sir, and my condolences to family and friends.
It's unfortunate that I just joined your forum under such circumstances, but I felt the need to say what everyone else should know at this point: That as a gamer, fellow forum member, family and friend, we really, REALLY lost one of the greats.
I've known Robo for about 10 years now, and everything that Ubersaurus said is pretty much spot on. He would frequent my job to buy fishing licenses, invited me to cookouts, and I even helped him on his BGM kick buying him an arranged soundtrack of King of Fighters 99 back in the day. The great thing about Kinn is that while he is a friend, one could argue that he treated you like family...like a cool cousin or uncle who helped you when he could if he knew you had your stuff in order. Listed in Uber's post was about a car that got stolen, which was mine. He called me up when he suspected that he saw it around his neighborhood and he watched it until I was able to get to it. He saw it through even though he didn't have to considering his condition. A true class act.
I also attended numerous Friday Night Gaming Sessions but rarely played, because while the games were fun and all, the people mattered a bit more. He knew coming in that while I'm renown for playing fighting and shooters (moreso with organizing tournaments), it was better just to see him on the up and up and getting our laughs in (I'll never forget all of the Guilty Gear X Faust bag jokes like "Yellow and Blue make Green"). Knowing him beyond gaming, he was heavily into cars, comics, action figure collecting, and robot related themes such as Terminator and Transformers.
Keep in mind that I've only known him for a decade, and he's done a lot more stuff that I don't have time to mention. So you can only imagine how many are hurt that are from his family, wife, and friends that knew him in the arcade's 80s-90s heyday.
It's unfortunate, because the last time we chatted, kccttzj and I were going to visit him within a couple of weeks and get our shooting game on. Very very sad, and I will miss him dearly. I will try all of my efforts to see him one last time...it's not under the conditions that we'd hoped, but I don't want to break my last promise.
Thanks everyone. I know for a fact that Robo appreciates all of the sentiments.
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