FIRST 101 [3/22/06]

[Andy Grady]

Hello class!

Finally after an extended vacation due to catching up to life after build season, the professor is back and ready to teach again. With the competition season upon us, now would be a good time to dive into the history of those who are behind the glass.

Drivers, Operators, and Human Players...oh my!

One of the most difficult positions to carry at a competition is that of a member of your average team's drive crew. Today most drive crews have a plethora of controls to work with. Everything from your average, run of the mill set of flight sticks, to project boxes, to heads up displays, to power gloves, to dashboard ports, to virtual reality retna scans, to...well...you get the idea. Back in the early days, you had to use what FIRST gave you. The primitive robot control had a small metal box with an Atari-like joystick for the control. Seeing many people here have no clue what the Atari 2600 was, imagine a Playstation 2 controler...make it more boxy, and give it a long joystick and a single button...thats all you have to work with...well with the exception that the FIRST joystick didn't even have the button! Pretty tough job for your driver if you ask me!

Another fun little tidbit about the drivecrew...in the real early days, every driver was required to wear the same shirt. US FIRST had a sponsor, Russel Athletics, and they provided t-shirts for all the drive teams. Really bright, yellow, god awful t-shirts with that big ugly Russel "R" on it! Aren't you glad they allow you to wear your own team shirt?

Here is another fun fact for all the newbies...did you know that you used to be allowed 2 coaches? Its true! Oh...and that human player you have grown to love so much? Never even exsisted before Hexagon Havoc!

Speaking of the human player, its time for a short history on the human player's job.

1996 - Human Player is added to the US FIRST competition. Hexagon Havoc allowed for a human player to be strapped down sitting on the outside of the field. Human had to shoot balls over a bar in order to take shots at the goal.

1997 - FIRST got a little more daring and allowed the human player to stand up for Torroid Terror. Still had to wear the goofy helmet and face mask though.

1998 - FIRST decides to let human players throw massive inflatable balls directly into the goal. Crowd watches in amazement as the whole ladder logic playingfield jumps at each throw through the bars.

1999 - FIRST decided that massive inflatable balls were bad for humans to be throwing...gives them pillows instead.

2000 - Human Player now gets to join the drive crew directly behind the glass! Has a little chute to get balls from robots...robots rarely use the chute.

2001 - See 2000

2002 - Coach is elminated, human player becomes second coach.

2003 - Pad sensors invented...human players now required to be sprinters.

2004 - Human Players get jealous, take over scoring from robots.

2005 - Numerous human players get bonked in the head from flying tetras...more of those sensor pads everyone loves so much.

As you can see...the human player has had a glorious yet roller coaster-ish history!

Did you know that your professor was the first human player in the Yellow position? Did you also know that he was the first human player to ever miss a match due to injury?

Did you know that your professor lives a sad life and states that as his only true claim to fame?

Ahem...anyhow...so now here we are. Drive crews are more complicated, smarter, louder, crazier....its an interesting turn of events...

Still waiting for the human player to be the game object though...that hasn't happened yet.

Glass dismissed.

Professor Grady

[LightWaves1636]

cool, I love looking at FIRST History, took me awhile to figure out the 2003 game. sprinting?oh yeah stack attack, I remember.

[Dan Petrovic]

Originally Posted by Andy Grady

Glass dismissed.

Whoops!

[Andy Grady]

Originally Posted by InfernoX14

Whoops!

When on vacation, a professor tends to forget things...like...spelling!

[Tim Delles]

Originally Posted by Andy Grady

2003 - Pad sensors invented...human players now required to be sprinters.

What a great year for human players. I loved it, especially when the refs were telling you to stand on the pad even though you didn't want to go into auto mode.

[dk5sm5luigi]

Originally Posted by Andy Grady

Here is another fun fact for all the newbies...did you know that you used to be allowed 2 coaches?

I completely forgot that there used to be two coaches. I can't even imagine the logistics for having two coaches and I was there.

[Andy Grady]

Originally Posted by dk5sm5luigi

I completely forgot that there used to be two coaches. I can't even imagine the logistics for having two coaches and I was there.

Actually the dynamics were pretty interesting. I know that when I coached there were two different functions for the coaches. One coach would stand in and communicate to the drive crew, the other coach would act as a relay man/woman to your alliance partner. Before alliances, we used to quite simply have one coach for the driver, and one for the operator. Now...that one coach pretty much does everything. Communicating with the drive crew, communicating with the other alliance partners, jumping up and down screaming, etc...

[Peter Matteson]

Did you know know that we didn't always have lexan barriers in front of the drive team? It only happened after we nearly took a team out in hexagon havoc I believe it was.

I'm still trying to get the list of rules caused by my team but we lost track.

[Dillon Compton]

y'all know those guards above the drivers heads last year? The ones they put in mid season?

That happened after one of our drivers almost dropped a tetra on the opposing alliance's drivers at Drexel.

We still maintain that it was an accident. No, seriously, it was...

[Peter Matteson]

Originally Posted by Dillon Compton

y'all know those guards above the drivers heads last year? The ones they put in mid season?

That happened after one of our drivers almost dropped a tetra on the opposing alliance's drivers at Drexel.

We still maintain that it was an accident. No, seriously, it was...

I saw watched that happen from about 20 feet behind the drivers station. That was actually pretty scary to watch.

[Dillon Compton]

Yea We had some discussions regarding NOT ever doing that again.

[Clark Gilbert]

Another fun little tidbit about the drivecrew...in the real early days, every driver was required to wear the same shirt. US FIRST had a sponsor, Russel Athletics, and they provided t-shirts for all the drive teams. Really bright, yellow, god awful t-shirts with that big ugly Russel "R" on it! Aren't you glad they allow you to wear your own team shirt?

[Peter Matteson]

Wow Maize Craze. For those of us who weren't around back then when did the wired controllers get dropped?

[AmyPrib]

Originally Posted by Dzdconfusd

Wow Maize Craze. For those of us who weren't around back then when did the wired controllers get dropped?

You mean the tethers? They weren't there in 1993.

btw - still trying to get all our history stuff in decent shape and eventually posted on technokats website. So much, so much, but so close.