It’s Throwback Tuesday! Anyone interested in FRC from the way-way-way back? Crowd-o-tron got me thinking about a PBS documentary that 57 participated in back in 2001. And I discovered that Houston PBS actually posted it on Youtube back in 2009. And it’s only gotten 250 views in 8 years. That’s shameful people. So here you are: Wit, Grit and Robot Games, Part 1 Wit, Grit and Robot Games, Part 2
Highlights include:
Robots without bumpers! (Hey that was astonishing until 2015)
Robots without CIMs!!?!
Disco lights! (Stone age Robot Signal Light were rotating dome lights.)
Real time scoring? You’ll get a match clock and you’ll LIKE IT.
Regionals and Nationals(!) played in tents! Why? Good question!
Cameos of old school teams like 118, 231, 21, and 57.
Even more embarrassing cameos of mentors 16 years younger than they are now: John Gray (4587), Steve Alaniz (2848), Me!(57, natch). (Yes, I was doing this before many of you were born.)
If you’re trying to figure out what’s going on, here’s the Game Manual. Briefest summary I can manage:
Field was split by a fence with 3-positionable bridge crossing the fence. 4 team alliance vs the clock, teams start with the bridge flipped the wrong way. Two rather tall and tippy PVC goals on casters. Balls score points in/on goals. 4 Big (team colored) balls for 10 points, lots of kick balls for 1 point. 10 points for robots in the end zone on the opposite side of the field. 10 points for the “stretcher” (that you could put a robot on, but WHY) in the endzone. Each goal on a balanced doubles the score. 2 goals = x4 points.
Oh, and you could ALSO multiply your score by ending the match early by everyone hitting E-Stop. >90 = x3, >60 = x2.5, >30 = 2, >15 = 1.5.
Ranking was by average score of your matches. For an added twist, if you team’s color ball was capping a goal, your team’s score for the match was x1.1. It’s like a little anti-coopertition twist in a socialist’s dream game.
Honest, that really is the briefest possible description. Also, teams were called to matches in groups of 8 and your partners weren’t revealed until 2 minutes before you actual match because Surprise!
All that stuff about the “team mom” and “head cheerleader” was a bit awkward. It’s also interesting to see a team who sends off “ideas” to be fabricated elsewhere, and not CAD, treated like they did. I feel like most current shows would immediately bring up the mentor-student debate. It’s pretty great to see a brand new team get to participate at a higher level.
Edit: Okay nevermind, people running onto the field while matches are being played is by FAR the weirdest thing. I started in 2004 and never saw that. Was it common before then?
I don’t know exactly why they framed it like that. For reference, Lucia was at that point already the regional director for the Lone Star Regional. Soooo… yeah. I blame those unenlightened folks back in the early aught’s.
I think those were practice matches, maybe? I recall that practice matches were a little more… free-form back in those days. More like what could do, cautiously, on a tethered full-practice field today for testing autos.
On the other hand, you’ll note the leopard suited limbo bar somewhere in Part 2. That was probably over astroturf over concrete. Safety was… less of a concern back then, I think. I was a sophomore back then, so my judgement is somewhat suspect, I’m sure.
In 2003 there was a pre-auto period where human players put stacks of totes on the field. Not exactly the same thing, but close. That’s the only time other than 2017 with humans on the field.
I think those were practice matches, maybe?
yeah that makes more sense. Interesting to see the change in the safety culture. I wonder if any particular instances prompted it, or if more publicity made organizers more worried.
BTW, the fields back then were easier for the robots to escape from. Wasn’t until about '04 that the lexan on the rails became common (after a robot or two left under the wire the year before).
Robots were slower, too–theoretically easier to dodge…
I do recall at a scrimmage a couple years back we’d sometimes reset one side of the field while letting the other run–admittedly, 2015. Generally that was “there isn’t a line, play all you want until the field gets cluttered” rules. But the ground rule was that if the robot was live, you weren’t on that side of the field!
Although much newer there is also the 4-part series that appeared in 2009 on PBS - Gearing Up. It’s on youtube and part I is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vytVIv-Rbx4
I was involved because one of the teams was from Baltimore.
I love the 2001 A&E Documentary! I think I might have a VHS copy of it somewhere. I don’t think I have it digitized, but I definitely have a clip from the first 15 minutes or so on a DVD.
You gotta love the teams they covered and you gotta love the Terry Bradshaw intro.
