2011 Game Hint #1

[SteveGPage]

Another possible implication in this clue - Little "EVA" - referring to Extra-vehicular activity - a space walk. Maybe we have to locomote in 3 "Dimension" (the agency label on the picture).

[Jon Stratis]

I bet they mirrored it just to prevent the first post on CD saying "Game hint #1: Little Eva" I mean seriously... they need to at least make us work a little for it!

[robodude03]

Originally Posted by pandamonium

things from bill's blogs:

picture of design committee on stairs for bill's birthday

Title: The view from 3000 feet - discussing dean flying - plains use a technique known as stepping, when they lose fuel they get lighter and need to maintain a new optimal altitude.

Title: Two steps forward one step back.

he made bold STAND by in the last entry

Now we add locomotion

Conclusion: Either we are not allowed to use wheels this year and or their are stairs we need to climb

Perhaps there is also a link to the lyrics in the locomotion song:

You gotta swing your hips, now.
Come on, baby, jump up, jump back.
Well, now, I think you've got the knack.

[Robert Cawthon]

Originally Posted by SteveGPage

Another possible implication in this clue - Little "EVA" - referring to Extra-vehicular activity - a space walk. Maybe we have to locomote in 3 "Dimension" (the agency label on the picture).

How about a cheap little remote control vehicle carried by the bot which is released sometime during the game to perform a given task, perhaps controlled by what was the human player?

[dodar]

Ok my first thought when i saw stand by was the pressure pads used in 2005 for tetra loading.
And my thought on the stairs and his 30,000ft comment was maybe you have to climb stairs to a 2nd level of the competition field.
Something is also just telling me that the vertical lines in both the beam and her shirt have some significance along with that shirt having 5 buttons also in a vertical pattern.
And a hint towards climbing is also present because she is wrapping her arms around the beam.

[Team#2057-Vegas]

Originally Posted by Robert Cawthon

How about a cheap little remote control vehicle carried by the bot which is released sometime during the game to perform a given task, perhaps controlled by what was the human player?

great thought robert! that would be insane! Did you notice in FIRST Choice we could choose a ftc extras kit? That makes this sound twice as plausible! programming 2 robots.. 1 to carry the other?

at the same time.. this sounds like a lot to do in near 2 minutes..

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by eagle33199

Well, the Loco-motion was released in 1962. Other notable happenings in 1962:
- An extremely rare grand conjunction occurred during the new moon and solar eclipse, including the sun, moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the Earth.
- John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth
- the debut of the Hulk and of Spider-man
- The AT&T Telstar, the first commercial communications satellite, was launched
- JFK's speech at Rice (oddly, this is the 4th time that speech has come up for me in the past few months...)
- the first James Bond film
- Cuban Missile Crisis

I wonder if there is anything here. One of Dave Lavery's heroes is John Glenn.

Grand conjunction sounds interesting...

[GGCO]

I initially thought that this clue tells us something about the end game. Perhaps the robots must push/pull other robots up a pole or something like that?

At this point I can't decide whether or not to take the lyrics of Loco-motion more seriously than the column in the picture.

[GGCO]

Originally Posted by JaneYoung

I wonder if there is anything here. One of Dave Lavery's heroes is John Glenn.

Grand conjunction sounds interesting...

Conjunction is a word associated with trains. I am reminded of the "Conjunction junction" video all of our elementary grammar teachers showed us!

[Team#2057-Vegas]

Originally Posted by JaneYoung

I wonder if there is anything here. One of Dave Lavery's heroes is John Glenn.

Grand conjunction sounds interesting...

interesting as well.. but at the same time we had a space thing 2 years ago and we know USFirst isn't going to repeat that soon, are they? Let's all start researching that list a little more..

[Kimmeh]

Originally Posted by GGCO

At this point I can't decide whether or not to take the lyrics of Loco-motion more seriously than the column in the picture.

Take neither of them seriously! Or both of them! Or assign one of them heads and the other tails, and flip a coin! It's not like it makes much of a difference...

18 days...

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by Team#2057-Vegas

interesting as well.. but at the same time we had a space thing 2 years ago and we know USFirst isn't going to repeat that soon, are they? Let's all start researching that list a little more..

They would if games were combined or interconnected in some way.

[pfreivald]

Grand conjunction = planets = spherical game pieces.

(Note: When it comes to figuring out hints, I'm 0/6.)

[dodar]

Guessing games I'm 2/3 but my brother is 1/1.

[Greg Young]

My wife may be right because you folks certainly have a lot more imagination than I do.

It's all very straightforward. It is well known that the GDC uses people as stand-ins for robots when developing the game. We just need to consider Little Eva as a robot stand-in. What is she doing? Hanging onto a column. So we have a robot hanging onto a column.

Now let's go back to what we thought was a red herring from Dave back in November, a tennis ball. This new information makes it obvious.

My official game prediction:
The scoring object this year will be tennis balls. It could be the oversize tennis balls some mentioned in the red herring thread. On the field will be a four inch diameter pipe (column), probably eight to ten feet tall. Or maybe two pipes, one for each alliance. The GDC is good with these details. The top of the pipe will be covered with a spring loaded cover attached to a sleeve around the top 18 inches of the pipe. Scoring is accomplished by dropping the tennis balls down the pipe. But before you can do this a robot has to climb the pipe, grab the sleeve and put enough weight on the sleeve to open the cover.

I've been waiting for this game for years. This'll be awesome.

Greg

P.S. Humor has been attempted in this post. Sometimes my attempts at humor don't work so well.