Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

Wild guess - A diamond plated Lazy Susan (free spinning disk for the 80's & 90's children) in the center of the playing field five feet in diameter, or perhaps only big enough for 5 kit robots fit on. The robots need to get up on the platform to score. The swirls in the blue are to simulate taking the image while on the spinning platform.

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

If you turn the image upside down and sharpen it:



You can see something at the bottom left corner. Looks like darth vader or some time of monster to me. Sticking with the star wars them the object at the right looks lto me like Nute Gunray.

Maybe, I've just watched star wars too many times.

Re: I believe I figured out part of the clue.
 

I think it means only drivers with red/greed color blindness will be able to compete effectively in this year's game.

Don

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

Check out the pics at these links. It has the image reversed in every direction, including colors, and each stresses the pic differently.

http://www.geocities.com/spbeckett/possibly.JPG
http://www.geocities.com/spbeckett/i...d_possibly.JPG
http://www.geocities.com/spbeckett/Background.JPG
http://www.geocities.com/spbeckett/backgroun_2.JPG
http://www.geocities.com/spbeckett/i...Background.JPG
http://www.geocities.com/spbeckett/i...ackgroun_2.JPG

EDIT: If they don't work right away, try back later and they should.

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

I like it as well. This would be a very nice field layout and would make for some pretty good gameplay. It reminds me of 2005, just with half the goals removed.

Re: I believe I figured out part of the clue.
 

ya... i think u might be on to somthing.

just a random thought here...

what if there are several goals with lights above each that change for each different period, that shows where an alliance can score.
it could also show whos deffending and scoring(like aim high)

~Alex~

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

I googled "number 5 is alive" and got

Hm... perhaps multi-layered surfaces on the playing field?

I've never seen Short Circuit, but the plot description I found on imdb.com here...
http://imdb.com/title/tt0091949/plotsummary
...makes me think that there will either be emphasis on the autonomous period (perhaps one at the end to signify the robot coming "alive"?) or else more emphasis on the programming aspect in general (i.e. tracking via camera?). That stop light idea we spotted, oh, 200 posts or so ago, would probably go to support that.

I like the "5 of diamonds" idea a lot. I like the idea of the lazy Susan even better, and I'm thinking maybe something that looks like this:


For a little while I was convinced that I saw two hands reaching for the diamond plate in the blue, in the lower right- and left-hand corners, but I guess I'm wrong. It would give the human players something to do, though, if they had to pick up the tube objects and place them on their robots' arms to take to the revolving lazy Susan and place on goals like this: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...&postcount=252

That's about all I've got. Lastly, I like the idea of there being five "safe" spaces for robots to get to in the end, and there being one "odd man out". The only reason that I don't like this idea is also the reason I don't like the "free for all" idea--where's the gracious professionalism? I think we have to think of this game in terms of how teams can work together to accomplish goals. In Stack Attack it was all about coordinating which robots placed which tetras where to get the best combination; last year it was all about which robot would guard/score in which goal the best. If this game were to have a lazy Susan, or some sort of high-altitude stacking, I think a nice "teamwork" element would be to see if you could have a robot to grab onto the lazy Susan and rotate the goals away from other teams.

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

Nah. Team 842 (who beat MIT at underwater robotics in another competition) has issued an open challenge. This is not specifically FIRST related, and is not the official game.

You're right. Sometimes, however, the two robots would combine in an "alliance" to beat on the third robot. This kept happening, and it was decided to add another robot and make alliances official.

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

Elgin brought up the idea that the lazy susan that has been talked about may be refering to vex influences in this years game. I feel that this should be brought a step further due to the diamond plate present in this picture and that we may want to consider the Diamond State Vex Challenge that will be in Delaware later this january.

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

The Great Figure
by William Carlos Williams

Among the rain
and lights
I saw the figure 5
in gold
on a red
firetruck
moving
tense
unheeded
to gong clangs
siren howls
and wheels rumbling
through the dark city.

Perhaps something to do with the Imagist movement?

Re: Serious the Real hint
 

Prediction:

Stoplights found in both images will tell robots when to stop and go. 6 robots will have to fight for 5 diamond plate bases, like musical chairs, for bonus points.

Other than that...sorry GDC, this is too obtuse a hint for me to spend Christmas wondering about :)

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

This image is definitely from this year's animation. If you look to the right side just above halfway, you can see one of the audience members from previous year's animations. (should look like a blue blob with yellow hair, you can sort of see the hand too)

I don't think that it's a coincidence that we see a stoplight in both images either. Combined with the hint about multiple colors at last year's championships, I think that having the stoplight in the game is a reasonable assumption.

As for the diamond plate with the 5. Your guess is as good as mine.

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

Well, we've reached 500 posts and most of you have forgotten that the clue is supposed to lead us to the name of the game as well as hint at how the game is played. So far very few FIRSTers have taken a shot at guessing the name of the game.

I also think that the GDC dropped a few more clues in this thread that you missed. Go back and read who posted what. I don't have all the answers yet, but I'm working on it.

My take on the infamous picture, yes it's a clip from the game animation showing part of the scoring summary. In this case 5 points to the blue alliance. The question I'm still working on, is that a goal (mobil goal?) or a scoring object shown. The blue isn't, I think, a background. I think the view is looking down a blue hued lexan tube with the plate at the bottom of the tube. The concentric rings and other things people are seeing are reflections of what's outside this object, being distorted by the curved lexan. I think I see part of a white field line.

The hockey theme might be something. Is the picture a scoring puck. Is the game name "Power Play"? A power play leaves one team at a numerical disadvantage. Is the game 3 vs. 3 with a back bot again?

Then again if I seeing other clues correctly, the game could be named "Disk Duel"

Just a few thoughts to get people working on the game name. Like I said I'm still working on it..... hmmm The Book of Five Rings.... the fifth book is.... the fifth element is.... ;)

Re: Serious the Real hint
 

I saw the lower half of a face on one of the clue images someone messed with. I couldn't help thinking of Darth Sidious from Star Wars. Maybe there are two alliances with two bots each and one bot playing bot angles, or a different game entirely?

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

+

+

the number 5

=

You know, Borat says "High Five'ah!" a lot. Perhaps it's called "High Five" :p

Yes, how obvious. It was in front of us all along. Nice'ah.

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

Since everyone is enjoying their XMas, I guess I'll be one of those non XMas celebraters to take a stab at the game.

GAME TITLE: Cross Check

OBJECT:

To get as many nerf hockey pucks as possible inside the goals in 5:00 of game time.

GAME FORMAT:

3 vs. 3 (like last year) with a backbot
Penatlies such as (ramming) will be assessed like in hockey: the violating robot has to sit, disabled in a penalty box for 20 seconds for a minor violation (10 point penalty in Aim High) and 45 seconds for a major penalty (30 point penalty in Aim High). Ramming, since it is a part of hockey, will be allowed. Hence the yellow banana as an indicator for bumpers. You cannot--however--ram the heck out of your opponents (a 45-second Cheap Shot penalty (a major))

60-second autonomous period where each alliance can score into their goals
Winner goes on defense and collects 50 point autonomous bonus, loser goes on offense. (10-second grace period not a part of the official time)
Three 80-second periods. (auto loser on offense first, then auto winner, then free-for-all; with 5-second grace periods in between not a part of the official time)

If a robot receives a penalty, the other team automatically goes on offense on a power play for the amount of time the penalty is assessed.

If one robot is on its platform the alliance gets a 5 point bonus; 2 its a 10 point bonus, if all 3, 25 points.

GAME ELEMENTS:
Corner targets elevated at 2" above the ground (and measuring 24"x12"x3"

Three middle targets:
+2 targets located about 5' left or right of center and 18" above ground, circular, with a diameter of 20" worth 3 points for each puck that goes trough them. These will have yellow lights for teams wanting to go for them.
+1 center diamond-shaped target elevated at 30" (bottom) with diagonal length (top-to-bottom) of 30" worth 5 points per puck. These will have a green light above them.

12"-high platform at home bases of teams, but 4"drop and then 40-degree ramp up. (Platform will be 20' wide x 1' wide)

WHAT DOES THE HUMAN PLAYER DO:

Take slapshots of pucks into the side goals. (There will be a ramp going up to allow this) or throw pucks onto the field or into the robot. (a few hockey sticks will be included as a part of the KOP)

OTHER NOTES:

Bumpers will be necessary to do well in the game to not only protect against projectile pucks and slapshots, but also to protect against other robots. Robustness will be so important here.

EDIT: You can challenge for a penalty at any time during the human-controlled phase (last 240 seconds) of the game.

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

HIGH FIVE !?
:)

Ooops, sorry PO-SER didn't see your posting.

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

King Kong was a monster. In fact a giant gorilla. This would help the banana idea out a bit.

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

anyone know the font of the 5? that may be a clue as well.

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

It's Arial, but I don't think it really matters.

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

Just pointing this out. I don't know which one it is, but I remembered the second post from page 4. Yay searching.

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

The hope diamond? "In a blue diamond, a few carbon atoms out of a million have been replaced by nitrogen atoms, each containing five valence electrons." The background is blue, there is diamond plating, and a big five. The hope diamond is "circular."

Diamond point cut (combining the diamond plate with the darn dot in dlavery's recent posts):


Maybe that (^--) is the shape of this year's object?

"A rhombus in the plane has five degrees of freedom: one for the shape, one for the size, one for the orientation, and two for the position."

Going along with the baseball references, there is a coalition of philadelphia college baseball teams called the Philadelphia Diamond 5 ( http://www.diamondfive.com/ ). The teams: La Salle Explorers, Penn Quakers, Saint Joseph's Hawks, Temple Owls, Villanova Wildcats. Not sure of the relevance..

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

HM..
Considering previous year's hints we surely know dave is a hippy.
SO, that picture gives us diamonds, with a shiny background.
There's a PinkFloyd very famous song named:" shine on you Crazy Diamond", might be it....
the song also has 2 parts, 1 to 5, and 6 to 9...might also be a clue...
here's the lyrics of 1 to 5:
Remember when you were young, you shone like the sun.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Now theres a look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
You were caught on the crossfire of childhood and stardom, blown on the
Steel breeze.
Come on you target for faraway laughter, come on you stranger, you legend,
You martyr, and shine!

You reached for the secret too soon, you cried for the moon.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Threatened by shadows at night, and exposed in the light.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Well you wore out your welcome with random precision, rode on the
Steel breeze.
Come on you raver, you seer of visions, come on you painter, you piper,
You prisoner, and shine!


Lyrics of 6-9:
Nobody knows where you are, how near or how far.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Pile on many more layers and Ill be joining you there.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
And well bask in the shadow of yesterdays triumph, and sail
On the steel breeze.
Come on you boy child, you winner and loser, come on you miner
For truth and delusion, and shine!

EDIT: i thought of it a bit, and found some really interesting stuff in that lyrics...
Diamonds are actually the srtongest substance ever found, so maybe it will be a really aggresive game with ramming allowed..
Someone has already mentioned hockey..i say Football is also an option, a very exsiting one as well...
ALso' a diamond is beeing mind from under the ground, so maybe it also has something to do wiht the hint...
another thing, a diamond is a very special Optical object wich refleccts light in many interesting ways...im thinking CMUcam2 will be here again thi year?

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

The 5 on the diamond plate

+

Bananas are rich in potassium
The atomic symbol for potassium is K

=

The robots are going to have to "run" 5K's!
That means that either the matches are going to be really long, or the robots will have car engines.

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

I like the connection, but with more teams than ever would they really allow longer matches? It just wouldn't be reasonable.

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

5 kilometers in 2 minutes and 20 seconds! With autonomous for the first 20 seconds! So the robots will have to average just a little under 80 miles per hour, with faster peak speeds! And they could follow some very interesting trajectories if their autonomous modes are even a little bit off!

I guess it doesn't seem very safe.:eek:

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

The banana reference is more wide spread than we thought. :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

A past preffered supplier of the tape on the carpet defining areas of play is tapemonster.com:

http://www.tapemonster.com/framesetu...ainbinmain.cfm

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

If they did it like a real 5K, they could get all the teams in one or two matches. The matches would still take a long time though, and where would they hold it?

Autonomous might be a problem...

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

True, I guess they'd only need a few. But how exciting would a simple speed contest be? FIRST is leaning towards more specator-friendliness, and that's kind of squashing most of my ideas. Some would be fun to play and design for, but horribly boring to watch.

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

They'd watch it for the was reason they watch NASCAR...
:ahh:
Then again, that's probably not a good idea.:o

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

Hehehe...
If FRC takes the road of speed competitions we might even find ourselves in 2008's Beijing Olymic games;)

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

Now that I think about it, if they decided that they wanted it to be more of a 5K than a NASCAR race, one of the requirements might be for a huminoid robot. That would probably make the robots slower, so it might be cool build, but it would get boring to watch after about 5 minutes.

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

Given the "2007Clue1" in the URL of the image, that it looks like a clip from a movie, and that it makes little to no sense on the whole, I'm inclined to say that it's nothing but a clip of the countdown played at the beginning of the kickoff broadcast, and a complete red-herring to boot.

I wouldn't put it past FIRST to give us a hint solely with the intent of messing with our heads. My theory is that after we've argued about it for a little too long, they'll post another still from the kickoff broadcast, and hopefully a more useful one!

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

i found another clue!!!!
http://img308.imageshack.us/my.php?image=lolej7.jpg

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

Maybe we'll get another clue every 520 posts!
We only need 519 more posts of speculation, random guesses, and nonsense to get another clue!
Now how long is that going to take...

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

so your saying we should continue to argue? i like that theory.

my idea is that the game hint refers to terrain, and possibly the game piece. The banana may be a clue to terrain as well, given Dave's famous "slip up" post. the way I see it, pool lining, diamond plte surface and a slippery surface(where the banana comes in) are some of the possibilities. there may even be 5 types of surfaces for the game. I'm tired of carpet anyway.

As for 5K, that's for the human players.;)

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

I think you're on to something there...the human players have to run on treadmills the entire match or else the bot stops moving.

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

Somewhere down the line, somebody proposed the "5" having do to something with "Take Five". Take Five was recorded by the The Dave Brubeck Quartet in '59 on "Time Out". If you don't know jazz, I just totally confused you. If you do, you should know what I'm talking about.

Here's the Wikipedia link to it.

Take Five was special in that it was done in a 3-2 meter, with the driving piano rhythm going "1-2-3 1-2" the whole way through the song, rather than a 1-2-3-4-5 pattern. Hmmm, sounds remarkably like a backbot, does it not? Perhaps the asymmetry of the "manhole" also represents this unbalance.

"Time Out" could mean anything, from "no time left" to "sitting out for a bit". Perhaps the backbot this year really is crippled (stranded in water!), unlike last year where it could gather ammunition? What about rolling disables, where instead of all robots being disabled at once at the end of the match, each team has one robot disabled in the order of their choice 5 seconds apart?

I didn't bother to search it, but perhaps this 1-2-3 1-2 rhythm could tie into the red, green and blue lights? (I'm the programmer, and I've been losing sleep over that since Atlanta).

mmmmm... I could go for a banana....

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

Ok I looked through the forum and didn’t find anything about what I came up with.

So I looked up "5 diamond plate" on Google and I clicked the 2nd link on there and came up with this site http://www.biorust.com/tutorials/detail/206/en/ . I wish I have photoshop on this computer so that I can test my theory. And my theory is that this "step 5" to the picture, I think it might do something so if any of you guys have photoshop would like to test my theory please reply. Thank You!!!:D :D :D

Goober!!!

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

I think this is the slip-up clue he's talking about.

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

That is most definatly a clue towards bananas. The question is did he do it to mess with us. Or does it really have something to do with the game.

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

If someone can answer that question, I will personally make them a chrome crown with little nuts in place of gems to commemorate their status as my official Hero.

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

banana turn (n)
a wide arc a batter makes when approaching first base after hitting a base hit to the outfield.

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

That's it! Such a great connection between fruit and an obscure fruit reference...I love it. It's just crazy enough to be from the GDC.

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

perhaps the diamond plate represents part of the field and the 5 is the different places that it occurs, center and corners are most probable

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

maybe they are just trying to get teams ready for the golden ball pass which will happen after the season is over.

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

BY George I've think you've got it! 3(or more!) rights always make a safe guess!

Further speculation can be made from the song titles on this page:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm...dID=823 27097

"Take 5" - Obvious Link

"Blue Rondo A La Turk" - I don't speak any other languages than English, but Blue and (if Rondo = round) is kind of a dead on match to the hint pic.
(Anyone wanna translate that song title btw?)

"Pick Up Sticks" - Am I reminded about all the speculation about last year and the majorette sticks???

I'm thinking less Bananas and more sticks... or at least sticks in curved shapes if we want to stay with the banana clue.
(Boomerangs as game objects anyone?)


As for me, I'm changing my song on my Myspace from Europe's Final Countdown to Take 5 by this band.

<And crossing my fingers that Boomerangs are easy things to get ahold of in America in the middle of January> :ahh:

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

Considering pervious hints' it has to do with music...
i hope we are awaiting another clue...cause this is absolutleu clueless.:)

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

The clues have also been related to sports, and with all the stop and go, the banana turn, the diamond, the 5 sided home plate, the layout of the 5 of diamonds, and etc, I wouldn't be surprised to see a baseball inspired game. The rings also make sense, or maybe its a human gyroscope?

Clueless, myself.

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

Some of the past clues had a number that was related to a "speed constraint". I believe that 10 m/s was used a few years ago for shooting or throwing (when the robots hung on the bar?). Maybe the 5 is indicative of a speed or some other constraint, rather than a quantity of a field component.

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

I think you're on to something...

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

Don't forget scoring. A previous hint was, IIRC, something about the equation for a parabola, which was explained at kickoff as having to so with the scoring.

There is, I think, only one rule on the hint: It must refer to the game somehow, but in such a way that nobody gets it.

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

Since there haven't been many fish biting the bait lately, I'll try to fish out a clue.

While at the DMV earlier today, I was watching one of those scrolling LED marquees that had random facts on it. And as you can guess, random facts about none other than bananas came up. ;)

A group of 10-20 bananas is called a "hand" by the banana growers, and each of the bananas a "finger". A human hand has five fingers. Also, bananas are picked while they are still green, so that they turn yellow just as they reach store shelves.

Or if you really want some good sleuthing, one of the street names for a $5 bill is a 'fin'. Both the banana and fish appeared in Dave's 2007 game hint picture.

:p
Just playing along. ;-)

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

Perhaps, the 5 is related to the musical group "Five for Fighting", whose 2006 album was titled "Two Lights"?
Could it be that there will be 5 robots, playing against each other?
Could it be that there will be 2 stop lights, 3 colors that control when you can stop or go?
I expect that the diamond plate is refering to diamond plate pattern, but it might not be metal - this pattern is also available in 4x4 rubber mats that interconnect to create a rubber floor. It's used for protection against dropped weights when weight lifting. It comes in red and blue, and can be found at www.ivanko.com, or then again, it could be aluminum like the ramp was last year.
The disc/round shape is obviously NOT a disc at all, the top is flat where it connects to something. It could be either a flat platform or a ramped platform. I wonder if the 5 is the # of points for getting on this elevated almost round platform. Maybe there are other platforms with others #'s - 4, 3, 2, 1.
The blue color surrounding the platform would give one the impression of being liquid, but it is only the "perception" that it is water - it isn't really water. The game piece probably has something to do with water - something from water, or something for the water.
That's my guesses, excellent clue, as it leaves alot to the imagination.
I'm okay now to wait and see.

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

Could this clue possibly hint to five robots on the blue alliance? Just a theory

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

5 vs how many though?

We better not be making a return of X vs 0 like in 2001.

Worst game to understand and play ever.

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

well its possible it could be a 5 0n 1 but that seems a little unreasonable to me. Maybe they added two teams and its a 5 on 3? Like I said before its a theory.
There is however one problem the grief caused by the slant of a game setup towards one alliance. I don't think that the officials would want to deal with it.

There has also been a recently recorded trend of the game pieces where they follow the pattern of the first logo: triangle=tetra, ball=circle, square= ?

there are a few things we do know. one the playing field is going to be about the same size due to venue. Chances are the floor is going to be carpeted aside from ramps and such thr floor will also probably be relatively flat. Raising the playing field would be extremely hard based on the materials costs.

Also does anyone know if the fish picture was a real clue or not if so I have some additonal theories about that.

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

I am surprised no one mentioned this or i missed it in the 15 page madness...

that 5 looks like something on the side of a racecar.....

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

You have a point there that brings a totally new aspect. A speed challenge. The only problem I see is that it looks like a run of the mill presentation background. Still it is a possibility

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

Someone did mention a 5K in connection with the clue a few pages back...eek, I don't quite want to think about that.

Re: Serious the Real hint
 

Okay, here we go. You have to drive you robot up a Stairway to Heaven, and slide back down on a manhole cover all within 5 minutes. how does that sound?
:p

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

As a metter of fact, our last year's regional organizer said that he has heared that this year's competition will include stairs-climbing robots..
=]

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

Are they going to climb 5 kilometers of stairs? :D

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

=]
i think not, and if in a more cercastic way ill take it seriously, i actually think that there is no 5k stairs anywhere in Israel =]

and now serioulsy..
one of my team members has seen a smiling face and a lock above it in the hint's right side, refer to it as you wish' i ofound no head, and even if i did, i cant see what it gives us..
On the other hand' this Diamon plate might also looks like a number "5" pool ball, wich is a yellow ball..hm, yellow, like a bannana... and - pool' hm like a pool with WATER...

it might also be a Golf ball, adn you gt 5 shots to put it in the hole or something, i dont know =\

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

Of course there is...
:D

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

Okay my sister came up with paranoid ideas. or weird or whatever. I printed out the picture and my sister looked at it upside down, she said "hey it's a 'g'". That's about it from her, I would go on but her guess is a bit out there. My guess for the blue background, maybe instead of carpet there'll be new terrain. My co-captain's been making the this guess for the past three years,"my guess would be some terrain", probaly because he loves 4-wheeling though. My sister says maybe there are five golden rings that to retrieved in water with islands made of diamond plate. another team member took a guess at maybe there are a seris of objectives we have to complete before time runs out(he was looking at the lego league pictures). That last guess one of us have is, it's only the first clue because of when I saved the picture, the files name was '2007Clue1'.:confused:

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

maybe they'll have 5 individual platforms for the robots to go on instead of one one big one on each end like past years.

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

anyone else see the audience in the background of the pic???

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

Maybe the banana should be taken more literally :D

I like the rings, and the field like a five of diamonds card
...with a platform in the center instead, and the diamond's are towers.

Then in four places (similarly placed to the diamond's but closer to the center) are four banana shaped towers with rings on the stem.

The goal is to get the rings off the bananas onto the diamond's, or get rings from your hp and do the same. Then end up on the platform in the middle.

Now the bananas are incorporated, the diamond plate and the five are explained, and so are the rings around the diamond plate :D

On the other hand, maybe the human players need to run on a treadmill while the robots go. In that case, I volunteer to be human player :)

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

I just read (re-read in parts) all 38 pages.
There's some good stuff:
puns, jokes, ideas, poetry - neato...

I did not see this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_Plate_%28Mars%29

In a lot of the thread, esp. the first 15 pages, there are references to levels and baseball suggestions like home plate.

I thought this interesting anyway.

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

That has been said a thousand times before you.

And I don't think that's true. The FIRST logo goes Triange, Circle Square.

2000 - Circle
2001 - Circle
2002 - Circle
2003 - Square! :ahh:
2004 - Circle
2005 - Triangle! :ahh:
2006 - Circle

Frankly I don't see much of a trend here. If it does follow a trend, the trend would be part of the FIRST logo every other year in succession following the Triangle Circle Square (bolded), and in between those years it would involve circles.

So... if it did follow that trend, the next game peice would be circular, which has already been suggested by many many people. I think the most likely theory to be true would be the game peice being innertubes or hoops.

Yeah, that's just what I think.

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

Hmm...130 lbs. @ 15 fps + inner tubes = ? Seems like massive carnage of game pieces and not a logical candidate for speculation, right? Can anyone think of a similar/analagous more durable game piece to serve the same function in the ever popular "water themed" fantasy?

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

It's been done before... ;)


http://www.firstwiki.org/index.php/Toroid_Terror

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

i really think Jane is on to something here
especailly consideriing Daves signature:
What do u say?

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

Thats been his signature for a long time...

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

i think pool...its fun game, the first "hint" that people were sending around was water over a robot...a type of "pool", and now we have a number on a circular white background...and yes while the five in pool is orange, the two is not and a two is a mirror image of the five....course this is just totally random speculation

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

That certainly wouldn't be the first time that there's been a Mars rover/FIRST connection. :p

JVN (JVN) on Mars:

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

I recently watched the 2006 game animation. At the end it says it is produced by Havna (not sure on spelling) Banana. Maybe that is where the banana comes from.

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

Does anyone know if the innertubes used in pic were standard, inflatable ones? If so, how did they avoid constant puncturing or slicing? Fair to suppose the GDC wouldn't use exactly the same game pieces?

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

I think Dave puts that at the end of every animation. Hava Banana productions is like his signature for animations.

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

I bet the power(s) that be who actually know the game are getting a kick out of this thread.

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

Believe it or not, they actually look at these. Sometimes enough guesses may actually influence the Gaming committee.

Someone on ChiefDelphi usually guesses the game almost exactly. Last year, they (I think) mentioned the user who guessed it.

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

I still think that there are absolutely NO patterns in FIRST games. I have a theory that when the GDC (or maybe Dean alone) has their first "meeting" they come up with a new(or old) concept in engineering, technology, etc... And then they build a game around that concept in order to teach/introduce students, and even mentors, about this idea.

This has absolutely nothing to do with any theories about what means, but that is my idea on the thinking of the GDC...


Maybe the 5 has something to do with the number of periods in each match. Or maybe the time interval between colors changing for the CMUCam...

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

I think I may have it figured out. Putting all 3 things together. The light display at the championships, the official picture, and dave's new hint.

I think its about different terrain on the field.

On the image the background looked ripply, like water. But when I thought about one of dave's previous posts I thought about ice. That would lead to the blue light on that part of the field.
Then this talk about fire made me think of volcanoes and all the rough terrain around them. That would lead to the red light.

The green light could be one of 2 things depending on what the game may be. I haven't fully made up my mind as to what it may be.

The green light could be for grass, a 3rd, normal part of the field. If this is so then the game, i would guess would be a time trial like we had in the past. 5 robots would be going around. the diamond plate discs could be like slalom gates or obstacles.

My other thought was that the field would just be split in half and the green light would highlight game pieces. The diamond plate discs could be the places where you put the game pieces to score.

I haven't paying much attention to the speculation so please don't get mad if I took your idea. please let me know what you think.

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

but what was the game piece shape in 1999, if it was a triangle, than it would have a pattern.

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

The 1999 piece was floppies according to FIRSTWiki. So I guess thats a circle. After reading all of these posts I like the idea of five goals. One in each corner and one in the center. To make the game 3 vs. 2 or 4 vs 1 would make the competition just that much harder to administrate. I have no real idea but I'm just going to try and wait the 6 days 5 hours and 39 mins and rest up for the build season. :D

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

I believe 2003 was the first year that didn't involve circular game peices.

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

1999 was floppy disks. So, no, they were circular.

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

Sorry, it looks like you're out of luck. ;) The 1999 paying field piece was a "floppy", which resembled a beanbag coated with rings of Velcro on it. Here's the "pattern" - or lack thereof - of all playing field objects going back to the original year of 1992:

1992: Ball
1993: Ball
1994: Ball
1995: Ball
1996: Ball
1997: Torus (inner tube)
1998: Ball
1999: Floppy (beanbag thingamajig)
2000: Ball
2001: Ball
2002: Ball
2003: Boxes
2004: Ball
2005: Tetra
2006: Ball

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

Well.. the past aside, I think FIRST might now be into switching things up, which suggests balls may show up every other year, or so..

I don't know what the game is going to be, but I'll make the bold-stupid prediction that balls will not be the primary scoring object of 2007.

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

my best guess, taken from part of theories i really liked from this thread, is that the field will be layed out like the 5 of diamonds, some sort of tower or scoring device on each corner, and in the center a free spinning circle (made of diamond aluminum) on a platform. points for being on the platform at the end. possibly a hanoi tower type game with innertubes on the 4 towers? this clue really cant get you to do anything but throw out a crazy guess based on what your subconcious would like to see the game as.

one week to kickoff!! woot!

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

now there is some ground to stand on. I would agree that the pattern theory has been blown away. I have been in first for three years and I hadn't taken the time to look back on the challenges it was jsut a rumor I had heard sorry. So if its not a ball/circle what shape is it? Banana? Pentagon? Those are the two distinctive possiblilities based on the fish picture clue and the "5" clue.

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

With all these hints to water and fish, and now the diamond plate with a blue background, it made me think of my aunt's aquarium. She's got this fish that she says is called a blue diamond. I looked it up on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discus_...lour_Varieties

The fish is a variation of the Discus fish. Maybe the peices are going to be discs? This kinda fits with the idea of inner tubes that have been mentioned. They're the same shape!

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

oooo i like that idea.

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

Which fish picture clue? At least one of those is a fake by my guess, and probably both. The one by Dave is most likely a red herring (although no herring is shown).

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

I think that there are going to be five different poles that we will need to stack inflatable pool tubes on, two for each team as well as one wild one that either team can stack on. They would be positioned two at each end and one in the dead center.

As far as the whole diamond idea goes, I'm kind of confused as to where that came from. Somebody said the five of diamonds might have something to do with it, but aren't there also fives of hearts, spades, and clubs? Clarification would be great thanks.

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

I think they were refering to the 5 of diamonds because the 5 is on diamond plate.

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

oh ok. well, going into more depth, this is what I think the game will be, but it is most likely entirely wrong.

The field would be the same size as last year and be divided into two sides, red and blue alliances. It will be 3 v 3 and the field will have 5 poles on it set up like the 5 of diamonds card. Each team would have two poles that would represent their goals and the middle goal would be a wild goal that either team could score on. The goals would be on the opposing team's side (red's on blue side, blue's on red side) while the wild one would be in the dead center. To score, team's would need to stack pool tubes on the poles, each tube representing an amount of points. Also, the match would be split into quarter's like last year's game, red can score, then blue, then both.

The middle pole would be set up on a raised platform that is made of diamond plate. There would be steep ramps leading up to the platform that are also made up of diamond plate. the platform would be big enough for, say, 4 robots to fit on. If a team has all three of their robots on the platform by the end of the match, they get bonus points.

I would say that there would be some sort of tic-tac-toe element carried over from the 2005 game, but I don't think FIRST would carry over something that has been used so recently.

What do you guys think?

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

I believe they were also refering to the layout of the diamonds on the playing card one at each corner and then a centered one. My personal theory/hope is that there is a layout like the five of diamonds. At each of the five postitions there would be a raised platform. The goal is to all three of the robots on your alliance onto the platform. I don't know the idea seems a little simple to me still but it would make for very easy driving scoring and building. Your alliance has three on you win. The part that would be bad about this is is you have a dead robot on your alliance you would automatically lose. I guess the problems with this clue are 1: Way too vague and 2: Its a picture way so it is easy to interpret as you see it, where as a textual clue is up for interpretation, but it says what is says theres no changing that.

Re: 2007 Official FRC Game Hint / Email Blast
 

Turn it 90 degrees one way from the 5, and it looks like a fancy connected 07. w00t for 2007 shorthand. :cool: