Since you mentioned software, I'll tell you the tale of Mission Mayhem 2006.
Mike Walker had created a
program to display the score in real-time and at the end of the match. He used a
hacked-up keyboard with switches to do the job of feeding data from the RTS people into the computer. When a
little sprinkle of rain turned Aim High into
Aim, well, Kinda High, the combination of the altered game and our lack of desire to fuss any further with the notoriously finicky Hatch Technology-built field controller led us to use Mike's system along with a surge strip to cut power to all four OIs at the end of the match to disable the robots. Worked great.