Favorite FIRST Game

[Doug G]

Aim High seemed to have the best mix of what everyone likes...

Great and meaningful autonomous play
Robot vs Robot action (though some of us don't want it to turn out like that other competition - it still provides some appeal)
You could tell who was winning for the most part
You could easily explain the jist of the game to the casual observer
Balls flying everywhere is always great fun.

The 2004 and 2005 games come in tied for second...
In the 2004 game, First Frenzy, there were a great variety of robots and the human players actually scored significantly, but the lack of robot interaction and auto modes really sucked. In the regionals we attended, the robots that could hang did well and in the end, most everyone just wanted to see robots hang on a bar.

The 2005 game involved so much strategy it was great - but the audience rarely knew who one - expecially with those darn penalties. Auto mode sounded neat - but really made no difference in many of the matches.

I've been involved since 2001, and so 2001, 2002, and 2003 just don't seem to compare much to the last 3 years.

[Bongle]

Originally Posted by Jake177

My old high school's team has pretty good summaries of all the games up to 2005
http://www.swindsor.k12.ct.us/Highsc.../history.shtml

My favorite game was 2004, with 2001 in a close second. I may be a little biased because my high school team did very well in both of these games. I really enjoyed the diverse robot designs that they yielded. With the diversity of designs came a diversity of strategies, which made every match different and exciting.

Alright, I used that as a copy-paste source for all the other pages. Now every single game has a page! They still all need introductions and pictures though.

[Mark Pierce]

There are things I liked and disliked about each game, so it's hard to pick one. Here's my decision chart, in order by category (kind of):

>Most fun to watch -Triple Play, Co-opertition, Aim High, Zone Zeal
>Most fun to play/operate - Triple Play, Double Trouble, Diabolical Dynamics
>Had the best autonomous mode -Aim High, First Frenzy
>Sufficiently challenging - Double Trouble, Aim High, Stack Attack, Zone Zeal
>Had the best challenge - Double Trouble, Aim High, Triple Play, Diabolical Dynamics
>Generated a wide variety of diverse designs - Co-opertition, Double Trouble, First Frenzy, Diabolical Dynamics

Note that these are all since I started. I saw a little of three earlier games as a spectator, but can't really judge them. I voted for 1999, although not as spectator friendly, it had a lot of cool features on a small field. From an engineering and drivers standpoint it was great, from a scorers and audience level, not as good. With all those who haven't seen it, I figured it deserved the vote.

[pyroslev]

Raising the Bar has to be my favorite. The task were so numerous and diversified (a combination year as I put it when I'm talking to others) that Super Robots were hard to find. Aim High was the second on my list due to the complexity and lack of friendliness to the uninformed. (I had to explain it so many times.)

[dk5sm5luigi]

Toroid Terror was my favorite year. Having to find a way to manipulate a tube and change its orientation to score was very interesting. Also having to pick out the proper color to score. I personally liked all the games when the scoring objects were Red, White, or Blue based on which station you had. It made the field have a look that you don't see anymore. Also 1997 was the second year of Rumble at the Rock and that competition was just awesome.

For those interested in seeing the rules from old games you can go to http://www.first-a-holics.com/competitions/

[techtiger1]

2004 raising the bar gets my vote for my favorite game. I like the playing field, the different robots, ball grabbers, hangers and the many different mechanisms teams used. I think that none of the other games compare 2003 was who could built the best drive train and that was about it, 05 well 05 was way too easy. Finally, 2006 was the opposite of 05 too many things going on, maybe a bit too relent on technology, and just very complex. Just my opinion on the subject, I think that the game design committee does a great job every year I was just voicing my opinion on some things.

my two and a half cents,
Drew

[Ian Mackenzie]

1999 by far - there's never been anything quite like the puck. The Chief Delphi vs. Wildstang swerve drive puck tug-of-war at Great Lakes is still one of my favourite matches ever...

Aim High was good, but I think it was a little too simple - there needed to be one more thing to do (like a goal to drag around the field or something). I think two main game tasks is about right; 2004 had too many (still lots of fun, though), and 2005 and 2006 had too few. 2002 would have been fantastic if the balls had been worth 2 points each instead of 1; as it was, picking up balls wasn't all that effective. (Before anybody jumps on me, yes, the very final match at the championship was decided on balls, but that was the exception instead of the rule.)

[Bill Beatty]

2001 for sure

No penalties. No rough play. No tipping. No pinning. No high hitting. No disqualifications. No box with wheels canceling out a well designed robot. Rookie teams could participate at whatever level they wanted.

Only one referee needed and he didn't have anything to do except count the score at the end. Many subtle aspects too numerous to go into here.

Mr. Bill