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Subject: 
Spybotics - A great disappointment
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics
Date: 
Thu, 18 Jul 2002 02:10:46 GMT
Viewed: 
698 times
  
After much anticipation it arrived in the mail today.

I don't think I have ever been quite so disapponted by a new Lego release.

Grabbed a pack of AA first thing, gotta get it powered up. It uses two
different sizes, some AA and some AAA. Oh well, just have to run out and get
some.

What no instructions book! Nope, you think the description in the S@H catalog
is light on detail - there is no detail!

You have to sit through hours of quick time movies to find out how the parts
are intended to go together.

After that, it's a microscout all over again, except rather than choose a
program number, you have to download one of half a dozen preprogrammed ones.
That's it!

And its back to a serial port interface again - no USB, so don't try it with
any of the new breed of laptops or desktops that don't have "legacy ports"
without going out and buying one of those USB-COM converters.

No programming interface. No description of what you've just bought one of.
Just a lot of strange beeps and squeaks and two motors making noise.

I often buy sets because I want specific parts. I usually wait til they go
on some kind of a discount first. I am now the proud owner of a set of six
of the very cool new gears to be found in 3806 - Gigamesh. But at $10 each,
I think
they are also the most expensive ones I've ever bought.

I hope the representative from TLC at BrickFest has a good story to tell,
because I've got a couple of hard questions to ask.

... a very disappointed John Barnes



Message has 5 Replies:
  Re: Spybotics - A great disappointment
 
I agree with EVERYTHING you just said. Lets just hope the SDK will shed some new light on the subject... I just happen to be one of those folks with NO SERIAL PORT on my laptop. I was not aware when I placed my order (before the ads came out) that (...) (22 years ago, 18-Jul-02, to lugnet.robotics)
  RE: Spybotics - A great disappointment
 
John Wrote: (...) <deep breath> Let's all have a really good look at the outside of the box where it says 9+ for the age group :-) I have all 4 of the Spybots and I must say that after I built them and played with them with my 10 year old twins, I (...) (22 years ago, 18-Jul-02, to lugnet.robotics)
  Re: Spybotics - A great disappointment
 
(...) The Spybotics brick is actually pretty powerful and uses bytecodes quite similar to the RCX. I'm working right now on updating NQC to inculde Spybotics support. I have been able to download simple programs, now I just have to clean up the (...) (22 years ago, 20-Jul-02, to lugnet.robotics)
  Re: Spybotics - A great disappointment
 
How many teeth on these new gears (...) (22 years ago, 20-Jul-02, to lugnet.robotics)
  Re: Spybotics - A great disappointment
 
I had a perfect opportunity to speak with Brad Justus, Jake McKee and Jeff Ardis at BrickFest on the subject of Spybotics. First of all, it was pointed out that the box says its being aimed at 9 year olds and that it doesn't say its a Mindstorms (...) (22 years ago, 25-Jul-02, to lugnet.robotics)

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