Many older games had great concepts, but since resources like AndyMark, Vex Pro, etc. were nonexistent or were in their infancy, many teams didn’t have the help they needed to be actually competitive. This is why old game videos seem so boring- everything was built from scratch. Many members of FRC, like me, were too young to play a game like FIRST Frenzy or Aim High. Some mentors might remember them, but if they’re updated (like FIRST Frenzy was an update of several other FRC games), then they can still be interested (plus, the robots designs will still have to change if they’re updated).
Do you agree? If so, are there any games in particular you would like to see played again?
Do you disagree? If so, is there any one particular reason?
I think that they’re already doing this - 2015 was 2002 (iirc) replayed, and fuel in 2017 was the same mechanic as 2006. They reuse all the scoring mechanics pretty regularly, but they just change up the dimensions a little so designs can’t be just straight copied.
2015 and 2003 share some differences, though. For example, 2003 was insane, as you would just try to knock down alliance stacks. 2015 was 2003 with no robot to robot interaction, which was a big part of the game it seems (could be wrong, as I was a year and a half old then and wouldn’t be able to remember even if I saw it, which I didn’t).
2011 was widely noted as being very similar to 2007, which was itself quite similar to 1997.
2012 was what might be noted as an “alternative version” of 2006. I recall hearing at the time that it was 2006 but taken in a different direction.
As noted, 2015 was 2003–as it “should have been played” mixed with 2001.
Many games share “common elements”, if you will–example, 2016, 2012, and 2006 had “similar” balls; 2018 did 2010’s cooperative hanging the “right way” (with a dose of 2007’s rampbots); and I would suggest that 2016 and 2017 were close cousins with respect to protected zones and the like.
That being said… Triple Replay would be a good one. (Almighty guru points for figuring out what I’m *actually *referencing–it’s not just the 2005 game.)
Just waiting it out for that Aerial Assist reboot (Overdrive I guess too in that sense)… going nuts with a giant game piece and insane driving is always a fun time
no thanks.
We bought all 7 of them from 4 walmarts on oahu that year DURING kickoff. 3 of them were broken. I remember one team beating us to 1 of the stores, but since it was broken, they didnt want it.
It’s really a shame it didn’t get used much during most of the season, as that Fuel was an awesome game piece in a lot of ways. When I heard that it was a type of wiffle ball I thought that they’d be easily destroyed, but they were actually really robust in the face of rough gameplay.
I think it’d be really great if they got used again in another game, and I think it’s possible as long as the scoring mechanics are different enough. If you had to place it inside a very small opening (not much bigger than the ball), maybe with (dare I say it) a restriction on Launching it (so it’d be a placing-task, not a shooting-task), and did something quite different on how to collect them (maybe even a limit on how many could be controlled at once), I think it could be different enough to be a new task that didn’t give veteran teams a substantial advantage.
Flat floors and low bumpers had a lot to do with that durability. They weren’t exactly the easiest projectile/target combination for robots to use though, and that showed in the number of teams that actually attempted shooting (the relatively low point values had a lot to do with it too).
2006 auto (maybe with an option to pickup additional balls?) with teams’ current software capabilities would be amazing. Or basically any autonomous mode that allows for some alliance interaction or defense.
I think the GDC has always recycled concepts from old games. I’m sure that pattern will continue, but I think the next thing they bring back should be frisbees. They were already fun to watch in 2013, but it would be awesome to see the improvement in robot quality 6 years later.
