2006 Official Game Hint Discussion

[Kyle Love]

In that case 4 teams already know how to play on wierd stuff

[Bill Moore]

Definitions for the term "show":

http://www.answers.com/topic/show

Specifically, definition Noun 6c:

"A usually competitive exhibition of domestic animals"

Okay, who's willing to admit they treat their robot as a pet?

[CmptrGk]

Originally Posted by ViKiNg_1083

i've got it!! this year's game is going to be just like "Maize Craze" except instead of corn kernels its going to be a bunch of ziti and spaghetti!

sorry for the off topic but,

Andy Brockway jokingly said this at our last meeting.

[Safarley2901]

Some one has already mentioned this to me, but did you guys know that Montana Green is a power company? It researches in ecofrendly power sources, ex: wind, solar.

[nalbonec]

The purpose of a shovel is to dig a hole, it's show is the hole. Maybe a game piece that has to fit into a certain shape hole, like the game Perfection?

[phrontist]

Originally Posted by Alex469

"and seeing Montana's green heights"

well, green was the unofficial color of the CMU, so this might suggest it's comeback. Montana is a rather large state, this + the word heights seems like it points to there being a large object in the middle of the field, like a huge green goal or whatnot.

Montana is also an extremely popular brand of spraypaint, particularly amongst graffiti artists. My brother has several nice hues of green...

5 Makes me think that perhaps we'll be going back to two on two matches, with the "placebo" coming back, perhaps this time in a way essential to the game. It could be a target of some sort.

Does anyone have the exact wording of the VCU "snow" hint? I was there, but I can't remember...

[Mike AA]

I don't believe the game pieces will be noodles at-all. Mainly because this isn't an item which any team in the northern states will have an easy time finding due to the fact we don't swim much during the winter. I do however believe there will be something stored which gets dumped like the balls got dumped a few years back from above the human player. Then the item, easiest item to make is baton shaped, gets picked up and stored into a "goal", likely a box?

-Mike

[Vince lau]

Originally Posted by aztech75

if i had to make a guess about the shovel part of the clue i would go back to some of the previous theory's. Every1 was talkin abou the new traction wheels from IFI so it could have something 2 do with a slick surface (when it snow it gets slipery and shovels remove snow) on the field. Deffinently not ice or snow, but some kind of plastic like on the ramp in 03.

but im prolly way off

Maybe an playing field, the the surface is all HDPE

[Alex Burman]

Originally Posted by nalbonec

The purpose of a shovel is to dig a hole, it's show is the hole. Maybe a game piece that has to fit into a certain shape hole, like the game Perfection?

that could bring in the hoola-hoop idea, that there would be raised up hoolahoops and they have to drop the baton into hoop. 10x multiplier for having the baton rest on hoola hoop

[Bill Moore]

Originally Posted by Mike AA

I don't believe the game pieces will be noodles at-all. Mainly because this isn't an item which any team in the northern states will have an easy time finding due to the fact we don't swim much during the winter.

Pool noodles can be ordered online at any season. Just as bins were ordered in 2003, and balls in 2004.

Repeat after me: "The Internet is my friend."

[sburro]

Originally Posted by Bill Moore

Pool noodles can be ordered online at any season. Just as bins were ordered in 2003, and balls in 2004.

Repeat after me: "The Internet is my friend."

Imagine all noodles in the US and Canada all sold out in minutes. I better buy stock in a noodle company

[ZZII 527]

Being a die-hard 49ers fan, I want to believe that the hint does refer to Joe Montana and that "Montana's green heights" refers to things which are 3 feet high. To venture a guess: a central structure with 3-foot, 6-foot, and 9-foot levels to be reached either by robots or by game pieces.

I also like the line of thought that "a shovel's show" refers to a TV show. Another show that has a shovel character is Bob the Builder. Perhaps several different shapes of game pieces will be available and robots must use them to build something to score points.

I don't know what to make of the pasta. Pool noodles fall apart too easily to be used as game pieces, I think.

[Swan217]

Originally Posted by sburro

Imagine all noodles in the US and Canada all sold out in minutes. I better buy stock in a noodle company

In that case, you better start now and buy up all of the noodles before the season starts and everyone else rushes to buy them.

In terms of the original clue, I've got a song stuck in my head:
On top of Mount Pasta
All covered with Cheese
I lost my poor meatball
Because somebody's robot went berzerk in autonomous mode

Or something like that...

[Andrew Blair]

Alright, I ahve a couple possibly importent things to bring to the table. I was interested by the thought that all pasta is not spaggetti shaped. Very important. However, assuming the pasta is long and thing, this would fit in well with a long PVC baton type object. Pasta is also typically not made fresh in America, aka dried! The PVC would be far, far more durable than a pool toy.

Secondly, the 5 robots tangling is probably not to be taken literally, but consider this for the strategy people: What if the format was 3 vs 3, and 1 robot from either alliance had to voluntarily agree to sacrifice their driving ability (i.e., stay on a pressure pad), in order for either alliance to play. So, for example, for 15 seconds into the gameplay after autonomous, if noone had gotten onto the pressure pad, noone would play till like the last 25 seconds, or not at all. If nothing could be worked out between opposing alliances, the best autonomous would win the day. Man, I hope thats not it though. Bit too evil for my liking...

[sburro]

Does five robots equal bigger field?