Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

There clearly IS a "v" in the Latin alphabet, e.g. veni, vidi, vici.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veni,_vidi,_vici There, is however, no "v" sound in Latin. You have to use "u" instead when you see the letter "v". Remember the double-u "W"!

Also remember the schoolboy lament:
Latin is a language, as dead as it can be.
First, it killed the Romans. Now it's killing me!

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

We just stocked up ;) Wally World had a sale in August

So is trying to guess this years game latin? It's killing me :eek: just kidding

But really..

We all really are thinking too deep.. there was a great post put like 15 pages back that made a lot of sense.. there were 3 levels.. (ill post a picture) with a robot on each level and the top one had a pillar.. there were plenty of balls on the top middle and bottom all worth different ammounts with lower ones being worth more.. they could be shot up too (like aim high) any thoughts?



remember to keep this simple but yet complex everyone

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

^ok that would be a pretty sick game, for all its simplicity

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

(It's spelled "WALL*E")

EVA == Extra Vehicular Activity

We need a "mini-me" robot to do some "outside of the box" activity (like so many did in 2002).

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

That looks like a Festivus pole to me.

Jane

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

Does that mean 2 control systems? That could get expensive ::rtm::

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

Nah, the bonus points are for keeping the tilting mechanism with neither end on the floor. Whoever or whatever is on top of it is worth double points as well (and trapping Chuck Norris is worth infinity, Dave, Dean, and Woodie are 500 apiece, and trapping Andy Baker is worth double infinity).

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

Not necessarily ... the mini-me could be tethered.

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

Doesn't OCCRA have mini-robots that play along side the big robots in their games?

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

The woman in the picture is American Pop Singer "Little Eva." Her number one song was in the year 1962. The song is "Loco-Motion." Now if you look up the definition of Locomotion, it means movement or the ability to move from one place to another. This relates to the column that she is holding onto in the picture. It seems that this years game is going to have to do with crane work. I think we are going to have to move objects to different places on the field.

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

I have read the majority of the thread (I have perhaps missed a few hundred posts since the last time I was on yesterday...) and have come to a few conclusions, some more relevant than others.

We know who is in the picture, and we know what she is with. Little Eva with an unknown, generic, column.

We know that she sang the big shot song "Locomotion." If I was going to put money on anything, there would be some kind of theme this year involving "Locomotion"... no whether that is the name of the game or a game element, I do not know.

The column is unspecific, not having a top of bottom. This depicts a tall cylinder. Something to climb vertically?

We know the image is reversed from its original version. The relevancy of this is... questionable.

We know after many long years (20 years infact) the GDC will most likely make the game pieces something easy to acquire, as last year they got soccer balls. Some theories say tennis balls, I do not know the accuracy of this "Red Herring."

Many people are emphasizing on the simplicity of the game. Complex games are not something a new spectating crowd can keep up with.

I dont think that they will have a tethered robot... thats a whole nother system teams and programmers have to deal with. (This is more of an opinion now that I think about it...)


At this point I have a few questions. Did anyone find the original version of this picture, and if so what is different? I am wondering if there is anything different in the column or other primary pieces of the picture.

I think they picked this picture for a reason, for the two things in said picture. Eva, and the column. They could have picked any picture with her, but the picked the one with the column.

My opinion: This picture has two big points, Locomotion and Column.

My guess: A game themed around railway systems with some kind of end game column climb.

My $0.02
Happy Holidays!

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

First Hint


Real image:

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

OK here is my idea after reading all of this thread. A lot of this is completely conjecture but it would be a fun game anyway.

The 2011 FIRST game will be called Locomotion. It is the 20th anniversary so I expect some recycled game dynamics.

- Played on the standard sized field. (too expensive to change that now, too many regionals, and too many teams have practice fields setup)

- Scoring objects are big and little balls. (i.e. 1996, 2001, 2004 and etc). The large balls can be used to cap the goals, to gain more points or as a multiplier and defensively to stop the other team from scoring in a goal.

- There will be 5-8 movable towers similar in dimension to the 2001 game (10 year anniversary). The towers may have some sort of device that allows for them to be linked together, possibly magnets, so you are able to build a train of the goals. Either way you will be able to hold multiple towers and drive around like a train. possibly using your alliance partners to assist in making it longer. The number of goals that are in the train will be a multiplier for the points in the goals at the end of the match.

- There will be 2 stationary scoring goals (made of steal pipe) that robots can score balls into and also can climb at the end of the match. These goals will be shorter and wider than the mobile goals so robots can shoot into them. The goals will be located on raised platforms that robots must climb to reach the goal. Points will be awarded for being on the platform and not touching the ground and more points will be awarded for being in the air hanging on to the scoring goal. Potentially even more points for a certain height above the platform.

- Vision targets of some kind will be on each goal

- Human players will be able shoot the balls into the goals.

- This makes the field easy and cheap to build. A couple of the mobile goals and one of the stationary goal platforms is all a team would need to practice.

- Line tracking is going to be useful in autonomous (just throwing that out there on a complete guess but it is an easier challenge for teams that don't want to try vision)

The biggest problem with this is that it is the old style game where there is a limited number of scoring objects and balls must be counted at the end of the match. I am trying to figure out a way to eliminate the problem but so far not much luck. Perhaps the stationary gaols will be built with a funnel and hose that feeds the balls out after they are digitally counted.

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

Sorry if this has been posted already...
Here is some analysis:

First look at the two zoomed in. You can see photoshoping lines in the hint version around the pole. Also the pole is only a portion. The original is a marble poll.


GIF animations generator gifup.com

However, there is this image to contend with from last.fm It is the same, but reversed.



The image is also used as an album cover:

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

Analysis: There are two different pictures This set

and this set:

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

that isn't the real image the real image is a mirror of our clue.

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

It is about time for another compilation game. The last one was in 2004. FIRST Frenzy had elements from the previous four years: The hanging bar from 2000, the large multiplier balls from 2001, the mobile goals from 2002 and the slick HDPE surface from 2003.

There have now been six games since that game, all with unique scoring objects: tetras, poof balls, inflated tubes, trackballs, orbit balls, and soccer balls. Some aspects of previous games, such as orbit balls, they know to stay away from now, but several of those elements could make a return.

It has been a while since they have had a game that requires a big pick-and-place arm so I think we might see that coming up. That may just be wishful thinking more than anything else, though.

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

Picture is reversed. Collum is reversed. Whats the opposite of climbing?

Getting lower. Never been done in FIRST. Maybe the end game is a "get lower than 12 inches" competition.

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

except it isn't Wilma Rudolph...

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

i'm pretty sure that's little eva, the singer. reseach i've done leads me to many paths that are resonable for FRC to do. also, the research i did on john penn, from the tenis ball, also led me to locomotives and trains. getting more specific, i researched oscillating engines which are the bar things on the sides of train wheels that are usually found on older trains. and the column, i researched the column and it is a replica of columns found in ancient egypt, later copied by the romans. i'm not sure yet how that relates to trains yet, but think about it, the egyptians brought marble from luxor all the way to memphis, then to cairo. then they pulled giant rock slabs up the sides of the pyramids. there may be some theories out there.

more to come

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

Little Eva
Singer famous for the song LOCO-MOTION (not locomotion) with associated dance (doing the loco-motion)

Loco means crazy in spanish. Crazy motion?

song lyrics has possible suggestions of trains, connecting together.

Found image on Google images. one used is a horizontal flipped image of one on google.

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

I'm no longer going to follow this thread. There are now too many people posting already-noted information here as their first Chief Delphi message. Someone wake me when another hint comes out, okay?

Happy New Year, everyone.

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

Alright forgive me if this is wrong or has already been said, but I vaguely remember someone talking about stepping it up and making the game more interactive. I may be messing things up in my mind, but I thought Dean has mentioned it somewhere. If teams had to use more interactive robots that would definitely add some intensity to the game, but I feel like it would still be pretty user-friendly. I definitely like this observation.

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

I know 28 pages seems like a lot to those who are just now joining the discussion, but try to get through as much of it as you can before posting. The only thing more tedious than following a super-long thread is following a super-long thread with the same observations on every page.

This hint may be completely exhausted of pertinent information until we get something more.

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

Found the album on Amazon not much on there other than glowing customer reviews.

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

anyone notice dave's avatar of a train? from the looks of it same time period and it looks like it from Creedence Clearwater Revival - Midnight Special hmmm

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

Hello Every

After reading the majority of this thread, there are a lot of interesting ideas being throw out. I don't have any to add at the moment, But I did find a video
of the first FIRST competition in 1992, the game was called Maize Craze: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-m1QBOxsfg

It was interesting to watch and the robots collecting tennis ball to score, another video I find was of the second year game 1993 Rug Rage had me
thinking could some elements of this game be in next seasons game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rZyU...eature=related

This is all I have for now, also for loco-motion idea. Maybe are controlling the robots differently, maybe using the Xbox Kinect.

-Antron-

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

Ok, finally finished reading 28 pages, and yes, most of it past the first 5 or 6 pages starts being repeats, or IMHO twisting the possible meaning of the the picture way too far...

So far, I think the only accurate bit of info we can count on is the "locomotion" bit.

Anyway, forgive me if this has already been mentioned, but has anybody suggested that the game pieces may be on tracks of some sort instead of the robot?

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

You might be on to something. That was changed within the last day or so.

Game Name: Locomotion.
Game field: Standard size and shape.
Game itself: ?????????? (Hint 2 might have this "info")

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

(I deleted the IMG tags for the sanity of my computer screen)

The image that FIRST gave us was a flipped version of what appears to be the pre-cropped image of one of Little Eva's CD covers. I don't know what the second picture was used for, but that it exists doesn't mean that FIRST made up a similar image :/

Trapping Billfred is worth negative infinity, right?

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

CD cover lol, so young :)

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

Nah, it's worth a caption contest. Trapping JVN (or any other IFI employee) is negative infinity and a caption contest. Trapping 1114 is a measly 50 points, unless you trap Karthik, which multiplies your entire score by -1.

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

Could the reversed image refer to the B side of the Album?:rolleyes:

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

FINE. Record cover. Note that I did say "record cover" in an earlier post...

:)

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

I have a feeling trapping Andy Baker would be harder than a double suspention. No teams would be able to pull it off, Mike Copioli would make a bunch of money in bets with the GDC, and in the end we'd have to fake it during an offseason compitition.

Edit: So by trapping Billfred and Karthik you could get infinity points? I call dibs on that stratigy!

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

The song on the B side was titled "He is the Boy".

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

how about just for non-simplicity, we go by multiplying it by i

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

Not a big enough number, though I could go for pi*i*e^1.

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

I'm with Alan. We've finally reached the "repeat point" (though later than usual, if I recall correctly).

Peace out until #2 (if any).

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

Oh man i cant wait for this years game, IM EXCITED!!!! and i have a wierd feeling its going to include everything from the past 20 seasons. CANT WAIT!!!!

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

Really?

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

Very interesting find! Well, I think we have the locomotion thing down. We just have to find out how it connects to the 2011 game. . .

I also found this by a quick Google Definition lookup of Midnight special. It was the name of one of the trains in the The Gulf, Mobile and Ohio railroad carrier, and guess where it's main voyages were? St Louis to Chicago.

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/top..._Ohio_Railroad

Connection!!!!

Other Definitions found on Google:

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

And... anything about Creedence Clearwater Revival ...? John Fogerty, maybe? Lead Belly maybe?

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

Yeah I did, could a micro hint he is give. Or messing with us. But keep that in mind, yesterday it was a man climbing.

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

But it has been that man (Which I believe is Dave himself) climbing for as long as I can remember (I think) :rolleyes: . I think this has some significance.

By Jane:
Was it a paisley shirt?!

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

No, I honestly can't remember that avatar...

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

OMG! An locomotive track over a huge pool, but that wouldn't allow teams to move as freely... hoever "Locomotion" seems like a great name for the game. Teams being forced to make chains seems great, but different teams might have different ideas on how to hook up to other robots. Unless FIRST regulates the ways you can hook up, it won't be very creative. I looked up the invention of the locomotive (1781) so IDK if 229 or 230 means anything. I LOVE this time of year! :P

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

I'm going to bet that the game involves two zones or two zones per alliance. One is elevated. You need to be able to either climb some stairs or drive on a thin mono-rail track between the two. Your starting position lets you start low or high, so there will be mono-rail teams or stair teams.

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

the only thing about he two-floor system is safety. How would you safely get robots off if they are on the top of the field? Everyone remembers the rule last year where you had to roll the robot over the bump and couldn't step over it. If GDC is that picky about safety, then I don't think they could really do a multi-level field unless it is just a single platform or something.

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

Simple, the robot start position must be touching an edge of the second level, making it so peopl never have to step onto the level.

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

If they let us roll the bots over the humps, I am pretty sure they would be ok with us bringing the robots to the edge of the step and then removing them from the field. If safety is a large concern, the GDC would probably make a ramp or 2 so teams could safely take their robots off the field. Or maybe a ramp is included on the field to the ramps. :rolleyes:

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

OK, what about the end of the match? Somebody ends up on top. Now what?

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

What if the second level was only a foot and a half higher than the first? If kids can take down robots that were hanging from the very top of the tower this year, I don't see why they couldn't take a robot off of a platform that's not too high off of the ground. I think that the issue with the bumps this year was that they were very wide and hard to step over easily while carrying something.

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

I guess it depends on how the second level is built. If the 2nd level is shaped like a model runway or something where two people can safely roll the robot to the end and take it off, that would be fine. However if it is a big open space there really isn't anywhere safe for two people to lift a robot.

*EDIT
Unless of course, the GDC provides a ramp in each field - Cyberphil's idea

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

I've cracked it! Little Eva's second album was released in 1989, the same year that FIRST was founded. The album was called "Back on Track." Another album with the same name was released that year. The first track in that album is called "Big River to Cross." :D

Welllllll, obviously.......

We either have to get on a track or cross a river.

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

Now Back On track sounds like a game name...

edit: Track + Locomotion = trains... Something about trains...

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

OK I think those two clues are pretty plausible. The track reference has been going back and forth on here for quite sometime. Along with crossing the river assumption, maybe there could be a bridge into play. Who knows?

Off Topic: Is anyone actually more scared than excited for this game? :eek:

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

That does sound like a good name, and that is a nice find! Of course again that could just be a stand in for the actual idea. Like they could mean something related to what it says.

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

I'm more than ready, I took the last year's robot into my house and I am currently working on the vision system. Im ready for anything.

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

Be sure to release all of that pre-season developed code online if you intend to use any of it!

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

Haha I'm really just nervous about the game and how it's going to turn out. The GDC is so unpredictable! :confused:

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

Sure thing, it turns out WPI students already coded 90% of the code I needed... I just need to put it all together in a nice package and make them work... I mean they make it so easy that they already have code for blob tracking

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

I'm so excited. It's my senior year and i'm ready to build the most amazing thing in the club's history!

We had huge potential last year in theory... but not so in practice :rolleyes:
However, that's in the past! new game new start. only a few more weeks. hopefully Christmas can distract me...

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

It won't be so easy soon ;) Multiple blobs in one picture, blobs in different light / reflecting light... It's just the beginning.

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

The pole is a pole, like a football pole. Soccer last year, football this year. In OCCRA we sent footballs through a field goal to score points.

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

famous last words..

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

I can remember my favorite movie when I was a kid was "Honey I Blew up the Kid". But the loco-motion song is performed in that movie (kind of had a weird flashback to sitting and eating mac and cheese, watching that movie when I heard the song). And it is about one crazy engineer that makes a big mistake. So perhaps it is where the song has been used. So going along the lines of that perhaps something has changed in size from the game field, or perhaps the objects make the robots appear either larger or smaller. Maybe a nano-tech game where the bots work with microscopic game pieces like moving one molecule to another.

Also that movie came out in 1992 when the first FRC game was played.
And it is the sequel to the 1989 movie "Honey I Shrunk the Kids".

Just a thought :)

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

So all we have to do to beat 589 is make a shiny robot? Or be two different blobs?

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

Or have an alliance partner...

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

I'm always afraid of what the GDC will come up with... Their sanity is often questioned... :D

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

seems to me that Little EVA would be a space guy term for Extra Vehicular Activity- maybe a short trip outside the field

maybe on a track like a train between the two field gates



of course I could be wrong....

:cool: WC

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

maybe we missed the boat with locomotion I think back on track would be a good game name

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

Just to mix things up...

http://www.acronymfinder.com/EVA.html

my favorite one might be the english volleyball association ;)
but that would be similar to overdrive...

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

From Wikipeadia

"St. Louis Union Station, a National Historic Landmark, is a passenger train terminal in St. Louis, Missouri. Once the world's largest and busiest train station, "

We assume that when you hear locomaotion you think of trains but some times it is just movement.

If the game is about trains it sure worked out that St. Louis is well known for trains.

Maybe we are pushing goals on tracks that we have to fill and move to different locations, or we have to hook on to objects and connect them into train type segments and than move the train to the finish line.

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

Did you know they sell HAAGEN DAZ at PENN station where LOCOMOTION also occurs and according to Twitter, Chris HERRING has also been at PENN station. There is too much convergence for it to be just coincidence....

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

The picture may be old, but perhaps the conception of the game is equally old. Nothing says that the upcoming game was originated in the preceding year. Perhaps the boxcar/locomotion idea has been percolating for some time, waiting for a finishing touch or refinement.

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

my guess:
The picture is a hint to the game nature but not the game it self.
my guess to the game:
there will be poles as bumpers and: big boxes and big cookies
the purpose is to put the cookie in the box; every cookie in the box reward us with a song of Eva, but there will be mirrors around the field

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

i also think that our bots and drivers may have to deal with mirrors. it seems realistic.

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

Reverse image...

Push me-pull me engines. Forward and reverse in order to get the cars (or themselves) where they want them to be for whatever purpose they are working towards.

Midnight Special - the beam of light. Communicating through light/beams/signals?

Edit: Here's something interesting that keeps coming up when I do searches: Australia.

Lead Belly had a sister named, Australia.
Sean Williams is an Australian writer who wrote The Grand Conjunction in 2009, a book in the Astropolis series.
That's right, mate - Australia.

And here's something really fun - Dave Lavery spent part of his life growing up in Australia. To hear him talk about it, he has very fond memories of Australia. He was in Alice Springs, Northern Territory. And in remembering about some of Dave's adventures, I remembered this thread that was posted by Beth Sweet. It was so cool. It's about a book.

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

I think you have something here. The hint would be too easy with just locomotion. But if the song was played in a movie, then we have a second degree of seperation. The thought process for creating a clue about making things larger during the game. Thus the movie about "Honey I Blew up the Kid". Movie reference is too simple. Thus a connection to a song in that movie would make it difficult to interpret right away. So clue makers have to ask who sang that song. Then find a photo of the singer.

The conclusion to reach here is that we will be inflating some object. We will be "Blowing-up the game piece".

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

Nope, it never is. We all know they don't have much left; it's just a question of how much.

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

This hint explains a lot, but it can be interpreted many different ways. Some might say that the robots are going to hang off of this "column", i don't think the design committing is going to have the robots hang again this year. All of the game hints mean a lot, but you can really start designing, and think strategy wise, unless you see the actually game is. We'll all see what this hint means, on Jan. 8. :D

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

That would mean clowns.

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

I was thinking unwanted Lebron James merchandise myself. Oh, wrong connotation of "blowing up". My bad!

I really enjoyed "blowing up" the wall of bins in 2003. We haven't really had a game since then where robots get to contribute to the entropy of the game pieces in such a dramatic fashion. 2004 had a bit of it with the ability to release the balls in the overhead bins early, but it wasn't THE centerpiece of the game. That kind of dynamic is always a crowd-pleaser, too.

Blowing up a wall of inflatable clowns - with trains - I could deal with that. Bring it on.

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

We also know that bumpers are involved, and if Bill annouced them that "early", we can assume there is a good deal of contact or at least multiple elements on the field they are trying to protect.

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

Hmm... What about instead of locomotives we think of locomotion... like climbing up the stairs / steps that have been hinted about in every other hint ever?!?!?!

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

So legged robots? Elaborate on the stairs more please.

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

good to have you on board the Circus Train Jane

:cool: WC

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

Wayne,
I'm still recovering from 'loco-motive' - this one is going to require CPR.

Good luck to 25 this upcoming season. :)
Jane

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

Chris and I talked about this a little while ago.

What he means is locomotion, as in the type of motion used to climb stairs. The up and forward motion that your legs make as you climb stairs, or the "chug" that a train makes to move the wheels.

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

Some elaboration on different "stair" ideas can be found many pages back... :)

(I've read every single post in this thread... :cool:)

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

But, if Chuck Norris is infinity, what happends if you trap Chuck Norris AND Billfred? Undefined score?:confused:

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

could be a long shot here, but with all the "EVA" discussion earlier i thought "What about the Eva's from the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion"? they are "robots" (mechas, http://evangelion.wikia.com/wiki/Evangelion_%28mecha%29) with legs. maybe robots will need to have legs. aslo since the Eva's from noen genesis are also part biological creature that could point towards something like the hybrid mode in '08
--->maybe a 2 min 15 sec tele-op to start, with 15 sec hybrid @ end to climb object for bonus points

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

It would be interesting to see the stairs as a strategic decision that teams could make, as in thats where the bonus points are.

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

So here goes my one, deeply researched, wild shot at the ecology of 2011's game. Never mind how old the Lavery reference is to Boxcar Willie in his picture post. The boxcar reference merely pulls us further away from the "truth" to Little Eva's Locomotion song. (I also like the "Back on Track" album title as the name of the game this year.)

Instead, delve backwards from the location of Willie's overpass memorial in Red Oak, Texas, part of Ellis county. It's a bridge over Interstate 35E for non-rail vehicles. Prominent in Ellis county history is a relatively recent underground, technological phenomenon. Construction work on it was begun about the time of FIRST's startup in 1991, only to be starved of funding by Congress in 1993. If I mentioned Waxahatchie, would your atoms begin to quiver? Only about a third of the 54-mile circumference was tunneled even though there were 17 access shafts excavated.

Yes, that's right. I'm talking about the Superconducting Super Collider project. My guess is that the six, on-field robots will be engaging in a series of super collisions.

Scoring? Maybe we'll be carrying accelerometers?

Crowd-pleasing? You BETCHA!

Loco-motion? Crazy, man, crazy! Ever hear of demolition derby? on a figure-8 track? We are going to have a pool-noodle flattening, aluminum bending, tire-spinning, full-bore crunch-fest that will be the absolute talk of FIRST's NEXT twenty years!

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

Since "Little Eva" picture is backwards...
"Little Eva" backwards - "ave elttil"

AVE is a high-speed train connecting cities in Spain

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

Now thats interesting! Great connection! Hmm, high-speed tracks on the field? :rolleyes:

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

The train references just keep on popping up. However, it may just be because we are looking for them.

Re: 2011 Game Hint #1
 

I did some research on all the past years' game hints starting from 2003 (when they began giving hints)... they are really quite arbitrary ...
Here is a baseless brain dump...

2001 is the 10th anniversary of frc ... 1991 is when the best of little eva album was released, 20 years ago when frc began
if 2001 was as diabolical as it seems to be to me ... the 20th anniversary is gonna be worse. coming from the chairman's point of view ... somehow it might incorporate some unusual degree of cooperation as i guess they would want to celebrate their message too ... 2001 was kind of like that

one of my first thoughts was ...
since the image has to be reversed and it marks the 10th anniversary of little eva's work ... maybe it's a "reflection of the past" ... strictly from the a standpoint about the nature of the game ... well suited for the 20th anniversary...

Some keywords from getty images, which holds the image from the gems/redferns collection ... according to them the image was created 01 Jan 1960 ...Referring to style ... vertical | Referring to subject matter ... small, music, arts culture and entertainment, eva
...interpreting the pillar, something with height...they seem to like racks or tower-like goals for game pieces ... as in 1996, 2001, 2007 etc...
the height reference might also mean game pieces on rails or ladders like 1998
...could also just mean robots attaching vertically for bonus...

her hit is locomotion which implies crazy motion I guess ... maybe something weird with the robots' motions like 2009 ... that was real fun to watch ... or reflecting a new type of robot motion ... or movable goals like 2004 ...
it was released in 1962 ... 8 planets were in conjunction, some really rare thing or whatever....might relate to the lunar eclipse that happened the morning the clue was posted...about the reversal and all...
compact cars developed, united stated rocket ranger IV landed on the moon, marilyn monroe was found dead, the first american orbited the earth on the friendship 7 mission/exploration, brazil won the world cup in chile, release of the beatles first hit, first trans-atlantic tv signal was relayed ....
don't think this is getting anywhere ...
or it could be tied to something coming up this year ... maybe the cricket world cup .... just throwing that out there. XD

and just a personal sidetrack comment since they started giving out hints in 2003 ... they have alternated between balls as game pieces (though I think they should stay away from storage bins for a while...) and other things as game pieces ... if they keep that going ... guess there's a possibility of a weird piece this year since they did soccer balls last year.

mkay. i'm done.
thanks for reading...

can't wait till kickoff. :)

P.S. and yes ... i have read all 33 pages of this forum ...