The 1994 engineering task involved designing a machine to catch Bumble
Balls, those jiggly, cute, and annoying little things that kids just can't
seem to get enough of. Once caught, the balls had to be deposited at the
team's home base before the buzzer sounded to score. Teams could also plot to
keep their opponents from scoring. The team with the most points at the end of
each two-minute round won, until knocked out of the double-elimination
tournament.
The Playing Field
The game was played in a 12-by-24-foot arena. Two humps at each end of the
field kept the Bumble Balls in the center, and two raised platforms lined the
center of each side wall.
Scoring
Four teams competed in each round, with each team assigned a home base and
platform identified by a color. At the end of each round, the number of Bumble
Balls in the colored scoring areas were counted and the points were totaled.
Teams earned one point per ball by dropping them off at home base or three
points per ball by placing them on the platform before the buzzer sounded.
Each round used 24 Bumble Balls, including one tie-breaking "Bumble Buddy"
that counted double. Bumbles that quit moving, "Humble Bumbles," or Bumbles
that left the carpeted playing area, "Bumble Fumbles," didn't count.
The Rules
Machines could push, capture, and steal balls from other machines or
scoring areas, block opponents from scoring, upset other machines, or do
anything else that didn't damage the playing field or another machine.
