FRC Hint video

[dellagd]

I havent been around for very long, but I did notice that FIRST put out a hint video about the Kinect around this time last year.

Do they usually put out a hint?
Have they hinted at game elements in the past?

[CalTran]

As far as I can remember, that Kinect video was a big surprise. Usually the game hints come out like December-ish.

[akoscielski3]

Originally Posted by CalTran

As far as I can remember, that Kinect video was a big surprise. Usually the game hints come out like December-ish.

You are correct. In forever long I have been apart of FIRST there has never been a video for a game hint. The Kinect was more of a "You better start programming and learning how to use this to your advantage" thing. Unless they are going to throw another curve ball at us, don't expect a video.

You will expect a hint around early to late December, and possibly a second hint. The reason i believe we never got a second hint last year was because we already predicted the game after the first hint, ball shooting game of some sort. Not giving us a second hint in itself is a great hint!

[dellagd]

How would they hint at something? What did they do in the past?

[CalTran]

Usually a picture of some sort. 2010 it was pieces of the field, drafted and isolated. 2011 it was some lady hugging a column (I think that hint signified locomotion?) and idr any hints for this year (2012) besides the kinect

[Peck]

Originally Posted by CalTran

Usually a picture of some sort. 2010 it was pieces of the field, drafted and isolated. 2011 it was some lady hugging a column (I think that hint signified locomotion?) and idr any hints for this year (2012) besides the kinect

the ya, the album was titled locomotion. second hint that year was the FIRST logo. lunacy's first hint was a fish on a green background

[dellagd]

Originally Posted by Peck

lunacy's first hint was a fish on a green background

Care to explain what that meant in regards to lunacy? Seems a large bit obscure to me.

[kjohnson]

Originally Posted by dellagd

Care to explain what that meant in regards to lunacy? Seems a large bit obscure to me.

The hint was an Opah, AKA "moon" fish. The image was scanned from a magazine and the background text threw off quite a few people.

[Tommy F.]

Last year's hint was a bill of materials for the field.

[Ravage457]

Does anyone have the link for this video?

[Team 4057]

Originally Posted by nukemknight

The hint was an Opah, AKA "moon" fish. The image was scanned from a magazine and the background text threw off quite a few people.

this is a moon fish i believe. and the game had 1/6 gravity same as the moon

[EricH]

Originally Posted by CalTran

Usually a picture of some sort. 2010 it was pieces of the field, drafted and isolated. 2011 it was some lady hugging a column (I think that hint signified locomotion?) and idr any hints for this year (2012) besides the kinect

Back in my day, we didn't get any of these pictures, and certainly not more than one in the same year. You young whippersnappers have everything handed to you! We figured the answers, going uphill both ways, with slide rules and 4-function calculators....


In all seriousness, you're missing multiple hints. In 2011, the first hint was the cover of the album that Locomotion was on and the second hint was the FIRST logo. In 2012, the Rockwell donation list made a pretty puzzling hint...

Now, back to some of the classics:
2003: y=ax^2+bx+c, a reference to the scoring system
2004: Some lines from Stairway to Heaven, by Led Zeppelin, referring to the stairs and the bar on the field.
2005: a riddle, involving Pi, amethyst, two players to make unassisted triple plays, and other references to 3, pointing to the game name, Triple Play
2006: "Five 'bots tangling with pasta, A game piece obsessed with a shovel's show, And seeing Montana's green heights." In shape, that was a roundish riddle; in hindsight, it covered what you'd do with the game piece, the offense/defense periods, and the CMUCam vision targets.
2007: Image from the game animation, showing a scored game piece on the #5 column, top peg.
2008: The doozy of doozies. Hint season opened with every team getting hint #1, an IR receiver that would work with a standard remote, in the mail. Hint #2, a couple weeks later, was GPS coordinates leading to a statue of the tortoise and the hare in Boston. Hint #3, "Vets hurdling FIRST tetras", was most of the password to the encrypted manual--scrambled, of course, and without punctuation.
2009: First the opah. Then, a riddle that lead from the Zamboni plant to the maker of the game piece to a couple other places.
2010: As noted, pictures of field pieces/areas.
2011: See above.
2012: See above.

You know you've been in FIRST way too long when you can remember all those hints... even down to exact wording... and only have to look up the most recent.