I can tell you the problem I found with Mindstorm was it wasn’t able to tack down what its target audiance is. It tried to be a learning and exploration tool for young teens, using a custom GUI programing environment. It should (also and additionally) have gone for a more sophisticated, more powerfull programming language like C, C++, or Java. There actually a 3rd party program for your computer that uses modified Java as the control language.

As it stands, using C, and a few custom parts like motors, servomotors, and photo sensors, its a great setup for a low cost, customizable platform for building self contained robots.

We use them to make 2 teams of 2 robots that go around collecting easter eggs, and dropping them off in a nest. pastel eggs are worth 1, black eggs are worth -4, and there are 4 times as many pastel as black. The nests have offset polarized light.

Check it out at http://www.eecs.cwru.edu/courses/lego375/, past videos can be found at http://www.eecs.cwru.edu/courses/lego375/video/, and photos of the robots can be found here: http://www.eecs.cwru.edu/courses/lego375/robots/

importantly you established a context so clear that your stated year of 1988 has to be a typo.

Fix it! Make perfect!

It’s more erector-set oriented than lego oriented.