Learn the history of FIRST games

[Jonathan Norris]

This is the time of year where school winds down for winter break and everyone starts thinking about FIRST season in January. But its also time where everyone starts spending time dissecting this years game hint. Let me propose an alternate outlet to your time. Learn the history of all the past FIRST games, learn exactly how the game worked and what were the most successful strategies. What were unique robot designs which dominated every match. Look at old video footage to discover the successful strategies, I was able to find Einstein footage back to 2002.

When January 6th rolls around you'll have a much better understanding of how the game is meant to be played and a good history of robots you can pull design ideas from. I know one of the first things I do when my mind is racing with design ideas is to look back on previous years robots to see how they accomplished a task. You never know we may get a similar challenge this year like climbing stairs or hanging. I find it will be a better use of my time than to dissect a game hint which is designed not to be solved (even though I may take a peak once and a while ). So this is my challenge to you all!

[Dan Petrovic]

I know exactly what you mean.

This year one of my VERY early brainstormed ideas was very similar to Rage's 2002 robot. It had the pickup and storage on the arm, and instead of dumping them out the back of the storage, they would be funneled into a shooter.

Let's just say that idea didn't get too far.

I also noticed a couple teams used the same idea the TechnoTicks had in 2002. They had a spiral and a spinning column in the middle to grab up balls. I remember someone specifically asked for a picture of their machine from that year.

[Ian Curtis]

Arguably fastest ball collecting system ever was designed by 95 in 2002.
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...hlight=2002+95

But along the lines of this thread, old games are an exceptional way to teach yourself about FIRST strategy. Karthik and Grady are both really good at strategy, and they're both walking FIRST history textbooks.

[Dan Petrovic]

Originally Posted by iCurtis

Arguably fastest ball collecting system ever was designed by 95 in 2002.
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...hlight=2002+95

But along the lines of this thread, old games are an exceptional way to teach yourself about FIRST strategy. Karthik and Grady are both really good at strategy, and they're both walking FIRST history textbooks.

That thing was such a beast. I remember watching them drive across the side of the field sucking up balls so fast that the balls even flew out of the top off their storage tank.

[Donut]

I created a powerpoint just for this purpose, and spent an entire meeting 2 weeks ago going over the past 5 years games with pictures of the field, and a match for each year with some fairly good robots from that year.

I'll post it as soon as I can figure out how to get all the videos up with it.