[Al Skierkiewicz]

1999 Floppies and Puck. "Double Trouble" Play 4 robots, two against two, first year of alliances. Pick up 2' diameter nylon disks filled with styrofoam from floor or human, maneuver to grab 8' goal called a "puck" get extra points if you get on the puck without touching floor, multiplier if you get the floppies above 8', extra if you get the puck on your side of the playing field.
1998 "Ladder Logic". Three scoring ladders at a 15 degree angle from the floor attached to a central circular 8' or 10' high cage. Get the balls into the cage for points and position balls on one of the ladder positions. The ladder had three separate scores, you received the score for where you color was on the ladder as a multiplier for the number of balls in the central cage. The highest position was a three multiplier, then two, then one.
1997 Inner Tubes onto a triangular (pyramid)central goal. "Toroid Terror" Points differ for where tubes are set on side pegs (one of three separate scoring pegs on each side) Multipliers for how many tubes were held over the top of the pyramid and extra points if you were above all the others. The pyramid rotated and some teams actually turned the device as a defensive move. Our robot could hold four tubes at 14' above the floor. The judges had to get a ladder from the janitors at Midwest to check that all our tubes were centered over the goal. This year also was on the old controllers and the small speed controllers. (which burned out on a regular basis!)
1996 "Hexagon Havoc" Involved running a maze and depositing one large and several small balls in a hexagonal goal that had vertical dowels. The large ball had to fall through a hole in the goal. I don't remember exactly how the score went. someone else should be able to fill in the details. I joined the team to help with video documentation late in the season and never saw the game played.

My favorite game was 2000, "Co-Opertition FIRST". It involved the right mix of human player, field obstacles, robot manipulation and excitement. It was also the first year where participants used game specific terms. i.e. "can you chinup, limbo, ramp, steal?" It also played to the need to give points to the opposition as your score was determined when you won as three times the losers score. Win by 30 to 0 and get zero qualifying points.