We (Team 190) just recently located the dusty but largely intact 1992 WPI/Doherty HS FIRST robot! As runner-up in the very first “National” competition, we felt this robot was worth being displayed and restored. Even better, it ought to have a second chance to compete! According to a 1992 eye witness, it lost to Clinton/NYPRO in the final round by the rarest of circumstances–failing to retain a ball via a system that had been 100% effective in previous matches.
So…how about a rematch of any of the surviving '92 robots? We plan on converting Gompei '92 to RC controls (from the original tethered ops) and propose to rebuild the original Maize Craze field as an added feature of BattleCry@WPI 5 (18-19 Jun). Might even convince a few of the original FIRST staffers to officiate!
If any of the original 28 teams (especially the 5 that have been continuously around: 45, 126, 190, 191, 250) are interested let me know ASAP. Obviously, we would have to think out some modifications to the 'bot (probably hobby-style speed controllers and R/T, batteries, etc), but we’re convinced it’s quite doable. I think it would be a wonderful photo-op. In any event we will try to get this feature on the webcast.
Reminder, open reg for BattleCry@WPI 5 starts at 0800EDT 30 Apr!
Our robot is still in tact, and we were also in that final round. I bet that we would be game for a re-match, but I don’t think that any TechnoKats are planning on getting to Battlecry this year.
Maybe this is something that we could do at kickoff, or at next year’s Championships also?
Oh wow, I don’t know anything about any of the games before 2001, and that’d be really cool to see. I think you should do it, if you can get enough people with intact robots.
It might be interesting to re-run an old year every year or something. Such as doing '92 next year like you mentioned, and '93 the year after?
Does anyone know how to find out about all the old games? PM me, please.
FIRST considers team 20 the original team, not 250. ((as of this year))
I have a feeling team 20 will not be able to make it, as we need to get back on our feet in terms of finances and just in general. I don’t think we’ve ever gone to an off-season competition and who knows if we’d be able to find our old bot. ((Probably, though…our advisor keeps everything!))
The only one I was aware of being on display is the Gael Force (126) robot, the first national champion. Im assuming the x-cats have theirs on display too since you assumed this. (Chairmans award winner as a possible reason?)
Sounds logical.
Maybe if we get FIRST on board they’ll let both us and Gael Force have our robots back for this . I think it would be way cool to do it in the middle of the Hall of Fame display since the middle was kinda empty ( I think FIRST should display the clock personally).
OMG, I was reading the game rules etc of the 92’ game. I would love to see a re-match. If you ever do play the game, with even one robot running on it, please video tape it for me.
For those of you who have not seen the 1992 game played before I do have some video clips of it from the X-CATS video documentary which we donated to FIRST as a new team recruiting tool. The 1992 X-CATS robot is at FIRST Place (FIRST museum in NH). It’s the very first robot you’ll see as you walk in.
I don’t have any video editing tools personally so I’d have to get someone to convert it digital from VHS. It’s not exactly a whole match either. But I know we have tons of tapes from each year’s competition at our site if people are really interested. Possibly we can show it at the new Finger lakes Regional we are hosting next year in Rochester, NY.
What were the old team numbers then? I think they did a re-numbering in 1997 (I think it’s also the same year the game got bigger, and used the 52’ x 24’ field) I know some old numbers…Wildstang (111) was 81, Chief (47) was 32, and i heard that the Technokats (45) were 6. it seems like the 1992 teams are pretty randomized. (Technokats - 45, X-Cats - 191, Gael Force - 126).
the numbers were re-assigned every year till 97 and at which point they were done alphabeticaly by sponsor ie. team 1 the juggernots were sponsored by 3d systems…and 191 is sponsored by xerox hence the high number
My $.02: The numbers stabilized in '98. Apparently at the decision time there were 191 teams arranged alphabetically by sponsor. Xerox was the last team (191), WPI was the penultimate team (190). Sometime after, more teams joined and were put randomly after 191, also some teams dropped and were removed from the 1-191 sequence. By our records, team numbers were not particularly significant in '92 (you find no mention on any of the robots), in fact, the first WPI robot that had a number on it was in '97 (team 153–just ahead on Xerox at 154).
