Sunday, October 28, 2012
Photos: Break of Dawn X2
Back in the Summer I was lucky enough to catch two quite specular dawn skies. I'm not sure if the above pics really do them justice, but it was like 4:30 in the morning. Under the circumstances I think I did an okay job. :D
Cooking: Backlog Edition
I've been so busy over the last few months that I've got quite a backlog of posts to get through now, not to mention a big-ass box of candy. ;) Let's get things rolling with a couple of culinary adventures I never got around to posting from a few months ago.
Lemon Tart
When life handed me a lemons, that had previously been de-rinded for a cheesecake, I opted for a lemon cake rather than the obvious. After a little research though, it became apparent that it was the rind, rather than the juice that I needed to make a cake, so I decided on this lemon tart instead. I only had a carton of single cream at my disposal (one that turned out to be out of date on later inspection. Oops.), but everything turned out fine. The filling was nice and creamy, with a good lemoney flavour, and the crust was just right.
Tomato Soup
A month later, in early July, I made some tomato soup based on this recipe. I didn't stray too far from this recipe either, only adding a couple of red peppers and a bit of garlic that I wanted to use up, and replacing the fresh bay leaves with dried ones. The resulting soup was pretty great, much tastier than any tomato soup I had before from a tin or a packet and not at all over-sweet like most of those are. I'll definitely be making this one again.
Lemon Tart
When life handed me a lemons, that had previously been de-rinded for a cheesecake, I opted for a lemon cake rather than the obvious. After a little research though, it became apparent that it was the rind, rather than the juice that I needed to make a cake, so I decided on this lemon tart instead. I only had a carton of single cream at my disposal (one that turned out to be out of date on later inspection. Oops.), but everything turned out fine. The filling was nice and creamy, with a good lemoney flavour, and the crust was just right.
Tomato Soup
A month later, in early July, I made some tomato soup based on this recipe. I didn't stray too far from this recipe either, only adding a couple of red peppers and a bit of garlic that I wanted to use up, and replacing the fresh bay leaves with dried ones. The resulting soup was pretty great, much tastier than any tomato soup I had before from a tin or a packet and not at all over-sweet like most of those are. I'll definitely be making this one again.
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Clearoutageddon Part One: The Analogue Purge
Since 2008 I've been on a bit of quest to replace my small collection of analogue media with disc-based counterparts. Around this time last year, with my mission nearing completion, the question of what on earth I was going to do with this mounting pile of obsolete cassettes and VHS tapes finally came up.
Although it was pretty unclear if they'd even take this kind of stuff anymore, I decided to chance my arm and try dropping it off at one of the local charity shops. And while I was making the trip, I thought I might as well take a look around and round up any other old junk I could. Thus began The Clearoutageddon - a much needed purge of all the useless shit I've been holding onto for one reason or another over the last fifteen years or so.
And having recently wrapped things up on that front, I thought we'd take a a retroactive poke through a bunch of my former stuff, stating off with the pile of tapes that brought about the clutter end days in the first place.
Although I've often claimed in the past that The Masterplan by Oasis was the first album I ever bought, that's not entirely true. Actually, the first purchase I ever made in a record store, in December of 1998, consisted of that and Now 41, which I would have gotten a world of shit from my mates about if they ever found out I'd picked up such a naff pop compilation. But, to be honest, I really enjoyed it. :D
Having access to only a Walkman at the time, of course I grabbed both on cassette, something I continued to do for the next two and a half years until I finally upgraded to a portable CD player. Before then I'd picked up all but the last three tapes above, which wasn't a whole lot of material to listen to over such an long span, but unfortunately I didn't have the cash for much more. As a result of that, I played most of these albums to death, to the point where the print on the cassettes themselves had worn off almost completely from sliding them into and out of my trusty Walkman. I give you exhibit A:
Still, even after all that repeat play I can still pop one of these on today and enjoy it, which is exactly why I went about replacing them. Mostly with used CDs off eBay mind (sorry, record industry). The last couple of cassettes I bought were Driving Rain, Paul McCartney's 2001 album and Standing on the Shoulder (ugh) of Giants by Oasis, which I picked out of the last handful of tapes they had, in the last record shop around that had them in July/August 2004. Not too long before the Panasonic personal stereo I bought to replace my old Walkman also gave out on me, definitively putting an end to my cassette-listening days.
Another (double) cassette I got rid of, which, technically, I only partially owned was an audiobook version of an early Oasis biography by Paul Mathur. Me and a buddy went halves on this, picking it up on a school tour in 1996, thinking it was some kind Oasis anthology we'd never heard about. We were both fans at the time, but he was definitely the bigger one, blowing through this in no time. On the other hand, I really couldn't summon the interest get through it and spent many, many weeks doing so, much to his disbelief. After fifteen years though, I kind of doubted he'd be back for it, so into the junk box it went.
Two years after I bought my first couple of albums, I also started picking new(ish) movie releases I really wanted to see here and there, starting off with The World is Not Enough in December 2000. As you might have guessed, a VCR was the only playback mechanism I had access to back then, so of course it had to be on VHS. Much to my surprise I also ended up with a copy of Diamonds are Forever out of this transaction. Apparently there was a buy one, get one free promotion running at the time for Bond movies and I guess anyone who didn't pick up an extra tape got a random one chucked at them at the counter. I ended up watching most of it on Christmas night in 2000, right after my N64 died a few hours into playing Perfect Dark. What a fucking depressing night that was. :D
The next tapes I got were the Fellowship of the Ring in September '02 and freakin' Attack of the Clones in December '02. Ugh! At the time I had actually just seen the pre-Clones Star Wars movies for the first time at age 18. (How crazy is that?) The verdict? I really enjoyed the original trilogy for the most part (fuck those ewoks though). And The Phantom Menace? Well, after two viewings I think I knew deep down that it was bad, but riding on the high of seeing the original movies, I'd convinced myself that, yeah, it was alright, that I probably just needed to watch it a few more times and I'd finally get it. Watching Clones initially, I thought it was a big improvement, but even after several viewings I still couldn't make sense of the plot and I never managed to get through the entirety of any of those fucking awful love scenes without reaching for the fast-forward button.
Now I think they're both bloody terrible. :D
The last two tapes I bought at full price were Die Another Day and The Two Towers, both in 2003. Man, Die Another Day I enjoyed quite a bit at the time for how over the top it was, but any clip of I see of it now just makes me cringe, so I'm kind of doubtful it holds up in any way, shape or form. The Two Towers I still love though, but it wasn't long after I bought it that we finally picked up a DVD player, at which point I immediately regretted shelling out €20 for this over the identically-priced DVD copy.
The Ali G and the Ash concert tape, on the other hand, were both cheap pick-ups from one of the local record shops ever dwindling stock of cut-price VHS tapes in 2004. And yes, I did actually replace the Ali G movie with a VHS copy. What can I say, I have terrible tastes. :D And speaking of which...
Although it was pretty unclear if they'd even take this kind of stuff anymore, I decided to chance my arm and try dropping it off at one of the local charity shops. And while I was making the trip, I thought I might as well take a look around and round up any other old junk I could. Thus began The Clearoutageddon - a much needed purge of all the useless shit I've been holding onto for one reason or another over the last fifteen years or so.
And having recently wrapped things up on that front, I thought we'd take a a retroactive poke through a bunch of my former stuff, stating off with the pile of tapes that brought about the clutter end days in the first place.
Although I've often claimed in the past that The Masterplan by Oasis was the first album I ever bought, that's not entirely true. Actually, the first purchase I ever made in a record store, in December of 1998, consisted of that and Now 41, which I would have gotten a world of shit from my mates about if they ever found out I'd picked up such a naff pop compilation. But, to be honest, I really enjoyed it. :D
Having access to only a Walkman at the time, of course I grabbed both on cassette, something I continued to do for the next two and a half years until I finally upgraded to a portable CD player. Before then I'd picked up all but the last three tapes above, which wasn't a whole lot of material to listen to over such an long span, but unfortunately I didn't have the cash for much more. As a result of that, I played most of these albums to death, to the point where the print on the cassettes themselves had worn off almost completely from sliding them into and out of my trusty Walkman. I give you exhibit A:
Still, even after all that repeat play I can still pop one of these on today and enjoy it, which is exactly why I went about replacing them. Mostly with used CDs off eBay mind (sorry, record industry). The last couple of cassettes I bought were Driving Rain, Paul McCartney's 2001 album and Standing on the Shoulder (ugh) of Giants by Oasis, which I picked out of the last handful of tapes they had, in the last record shop around that had them in July/August 2004. Not too long before the Panasonic personal stereo I bought to replace my old Walkman also gave out on me, definitively putting an end to my cassette-listening days.
Another (double) cassette I got rid of, which, technically, I only partially owned was an audiobook version of an early Oasis biography by Paul Mathur. Me and a buddy went halves on this, picking it up on a school tour in 1996, thinking it was some kind Oasis anthology we'd never heard about. We were both fans at the time, but he was definitely the bigger one, blowing through this in no time. On the other hand, I really couldn't summon the interest get through it and spent many, many weeks doing so, much to his disbelief. After fifteen years though, I kind of doubted he'd be back for it, so into the junk box it went.
Two years after I bought my first couple of albums, I also started picking new(ish) movie releases I really wanted to see here and there, starting off with The World is Not Enough in December 2000. As you might have guessed, a VCR was the only playback mechanism I had access to back then, so of course it had to be on VHS. Much to my surprise I also ended up with a copy of Diamonds are Forever out of this transaction. Apparently there was a buy one, get one free promotion running at the time for Bond movies and I guess anyone who didn't pick up an extra tape got a random one chucked at them at the counter. I ended up watching most of it on Christmas night in 2000, right after my N64 died a few hours into playing Perfect Dark. What a fucking depressing night that was. :D
The next tapes I got were the Fellowship of the Ring in September '02 and freakin' Attack of the Clones in December '02. Ugh! At the time I had actually just seen the pre-Clones Star Wars movies for the first time at age 18. (How crazy is that?) The verdict? I really enjoyed the original trilogy for the most part (fuck those ewoks though). And The Phantom Menace? Well, after two viewings I think I knew deep down that it was bad, but riding on the high of seeing the original movies, I'd convinced myself that, yeah, it was alright, that I probably just needed to watch it a few more times and I'd finally get it. Watching Clones initially, I thought it was a big improvement, but even after several viewings I still couldn't make sense of the plot and I never managed to get through the entirety of any of those fucking awful love scenes without reaching for the fast-forward button.
Now I think they're both bloody terrible. :D
The last two tapes I bought at full price were Die Another Day and The Two Towers, both in 2003. Man, Die Another Day I enjoyed quite a bit at the time for how over the top it was, but any clip of I see of it now just makes me cringe, so I'm kind of doubtful it holds up in any way, shape or form. The Two Towers I still love though, but it wasn't long after I bought it that we finally picked up a DVD player, at which point I immediately regretted shelling out €20 for this over the identically-priced DVD copy.
The Ali G and the Ash concert tape, on the other hand, were both cheap pick-ups from one of the local record shops ever dwindling stock of cut-price VHS tapes in 2004. And yes, I did actually replace the Ali G movie with a VHS copy. What can I say, I have terrible tastes. :D And speaking of which...
Friday, September 21, 2012
Retromags Release (Sort of): NOM Issue 79
Retromags may be having some problems at the moment, but that hasn't stopped me scanning some more old magazines (at a sub-glacial pace). Freshly uploaded is the April 1999 issue of Nintendo Official Magazine- as the name would suggest, the official UK Nintendo magazine at the time. This one features reviews of Beetle Adventure Racing, Monaco Grand Prix and Castlevania 64, as well as previews of Hey You, Pikachu!, Pokémon Pinball and Quake II.
It's also pretty terrible, with the writing coming off as desperate attempt to appeal to the young teen audience it seems to be aimed at. Something that could apparently be accomplished by replacing every instance of "your" with "yer", "loads of" with "loadsa", and sticking an apostrophe anywhere it'd possibly fit.
If that sounds like a good time to you, I've put the full 100-page scan up here on MediaFire.
Oh, and if you're wondering what I ordered, it was Pilotwings and Super Street Fighter II for the SNES from Excitement Direct and Doom 64 from Gameplay. Unfortunately, Pilotwings was the only game Excitement Direct had in stock and Gameplay wouldn't take the cheque I sent them. Ah! The joys of mail order.
Also, I wonder if Excitement Direct could have come up with a more porn company sounding name if they tried. Always made getting a sterling draft down at the post office a dodgy prospect. :D
Friday, August 10, 2012
Archive Raiding: Just Pants
In the Summer of 1999, after messing around with Cool Edit for a bit and hearing about the likes of eJay, I was on the lookout for something that would be a cross between the two, and preferably at a fraction of the cost. A tall order perhaps, but without even trying I came across a bit of mixing software that did just that, on the budget PC rack of my local supermarket of all places. With a 20-track mixing program, a library of samples and a sound editor, it was exactly what I wanted for messing around with at the time. Over the following three years I got quite a bit of use out of it, and while I can't say I cranked out anything amazing during that time, I certainly had a lot of fun trying to. :) As promised/threatened back in January, below is the complete set of surviving tracks, and more!
2015
Year: 1999 | Last Modified: 15 November 2005, 17:21:58 | Download
Once again exploiting SimCity 2000's rich sound effects library, the original version of this would be the oldest thing here, dating back to the Summer of '99, but I lost it in a botched system restore the following year. This is a remake from 2000, now with extra dolphins, for some fucking reason. Named after the time of day I originally finished it, this appeared for a while on my old web site as the equally generic sounding Liberation. A release I even slapped together some janky, low-res cover art for. Behold!
Hairy Ass
Year: 1999 | Last Modified: 15 November 2005, 17:25:52 | Download
This is the tune featuring my mate that I mentioned back in January. One Saturday when he was over I jammed a microphone in his face, to which he delivered an impressive stream of obscenities. The next time he was over I surprised him with the unpleasantly-named, cacophonous mess that I'd turned it into. I think we were both pretty pleased with the outcome. :D
Sitar and Synth
Year: 2000 | Last Modified: 04 July 2000, 22:00:36 | Download
A riff on the name of the 1999 Yomanda track, this does indeed feature samples of both the sitar and synth varieties. Probably one of the better tracks I came up with I think. It''s still extremely short though, and just like the others, it still jumps around from sample to sample like a kid hopped up on industrial-grade Pixy Stix. :D
Trigger Happy
Year: 2000 | Last Modified: 15 November 2005, 17:23:40 | Download
Oh dear. Another dark chapter in my war against learning French, this starts off with a sample of someone from a Learn to Speak French CD-ROM getting gunned down, before turning into a trance-y orgy of violence. Having also appeared on my old web site, this also had some amazing cover art accompanying it at the time; this time made from a magazine screen shot of GTA2.
Ladies and Gentlemen
Year: 2000 | Last Modified: 15 November 2005, 17:23:40 | Download
This one I remember starting work on the Sunday before I returned to school after the Summer of '99, the ticking clock representing the inevitability of said return. :D Somewhere along the way I added a generic talk show host sample to the mix. I don't know; I'm sure it made sense at the time. :D
Damage
Year: 2002 | Last Modified: 03 May 2002, 18:44:16 | Download
And just like that we've pretty much come to the end of my glittering array of floor-fillers. Like all my other dumb endeavours of the late 90's / year 2000, working on my crappy little web site at the time drew me away from messing around with this stuff almost entirely. And this was the last tune that I was aware of, at least until now. One that I remember tinkering around with ages to try and get it exactly to my liking. Something I'm not sure if I actually managed to do or not in the end.
Master archive raider that I am though, I did actually find another rough, but complete track buried in a zip file from ten years ago. One that I never finished back in March 2002 and that I'd completely forgotten about since. Rather than going to the bother of inventing a name for this one I'll just go with the bad-ass codename I was using for it at time. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Song X:
Song X
Year: 2002 | Last Modified: 10 March 2002, 21:44:14 | Download
Obviously an attempt to go for a longer track here. I don't think it quite succeeds in that respect and it's a bit messy in general, but still, I kind of like this; it's got an interesting sound to it. Unfortunately one that was a bit overpowered by some of the samples I had chosen at the time, so I had to dial some of them back a little before I put the finishing touches to this. And while I'm delving into some deep cuts, I thought I'd close things out with a selection of drum samples I made with the limited, but neat drum beat generator that came with the other programs. Most of these I don't think ever got used used in my illustrious mixing career for one reason or another. I'm guessing because of the terrible names. :D
D
Last Modified: 22 April 2000, 23:04:20 | Download
Drum Beat 1
Last Modified: 22 April 2000, 23:24:04 | Download
Close Hi Hat
Last Modified: 29 April 2000, 19:51:26 | Download
Ogg
Last Modified: 04 July 2000, 20:02:16 | Download
Turbo Beat
Last Modified: 10 July 2000, 22:25:20 | Download
Drum Beat 2
Last Modified: 24 November 2001, 18:40:12 | Download
DJ JiliK out!
2015
Year: 1999 | Last Modified: 15 November 2005, 17:21:58 | Download
Once again exploiting SimCity 2000's rich sound effects library, the original version of this would be the oldest thing here, dating back to the Summer of '99, but I lost it in a botched system restore the following year. This is a remake from 2000, now with extra dolphins, for some fucking reason. Named after the time of day I originally finished it, this appeared for a while on my old web site as the equally generic sounding Liberation. A release I even slapped together some janky, low-res cover art for. Behold!
Hairy Ass
Year: 1999 | Last Modified: 15 November 2005, 17:25:52 | Download
This is the tune featuring my mate that I mentioned back in January. One Saturday when he was over I jammed a microphone in his face, to which he delivered an impressive stream of obscenities. The next time he was over I surprised him with the unpleasantly-named, cacophonous mess that I'd turned it into. I think we were both pretty pleased with the outcome. :D
Sitar and Synth
Year: 2000 | Last Modified: 04 July 2000, 22:00:36 | Download
A riff on the name of the 1999 Yomanda track, this does indeed feature samples of both the sitar and synth varieties. Probably one of the better tracks I came up with I think. It''s still extremely short though, and just like the others, it still jumps around from sample to sample like a kid hopped up on industrial-grade Pixy Stix. :D
Trigger Happy
Year: 2000 | Last Modified: 15 November 2005, 17:23:40 | Download
Oh dear. Another dark chapter in my war against learning French, this starts off with a sample of someone from a Learn to Speak French CD-ROM getting gunned down, before turning into a trance-y orgy of violence. Having also appeared on my old web site, this also had some amazing cover art accompanying it at the time; this time made from a magazine screen shot of GTA2.
Slick!
Ladies and Gentlemen
Year: 2000 | Last Modified: 15 November 2005, 17:23:40 | Download
This one I remember starting work on the Sunday before I returned to school after the Summer of '99, the ticking clock representing the inevitability of said return. :D Somewhere along the way I added a generic talk show host sample to the mix. I don't know; I'm sure it made sense at the time. :D
Damage
Year: 2002 | Last Modified: 03 May 2002, 18:44:16 | Download
And just like that we've pretty much come to the end of my glittering array of floor-fillers. Like all my other dumb endeavours of the late 90's / year 2000, working on my crappy little web site at the time drew me away from messing around with this stuff almost entirely. And this was the last tune that I was aware of, at least until now. One that I remember tinkering around with ages to try and get it exactly to my liking. Something I'm not sure if I actually managed to do or not in the end.
Graphics I made to accompany the tracks I put on my site in 2008. The more things change, eh?
Master archive raider that I am though, I did actually find another rough, but complete track buried in a zip file from ten years ago. One that I never finished back in March 2002 and that I'd completely forgotten about since. Rather than going to the bother of inventing a name for this one I'll just go with the bad-ass codename I was using for it at time. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Song X:
Song X
Year: 2002 | Last Modified: 10 March 2002, 21:44:14 | Download
Obviously an attempt to go for a longer track here. I don't think it quite succeeds in that respect and it's a bit messy in general, but still, I kind of like this; it's got an interesting sound to it. Unfortunately one that was a bit overpowered by some of the samples I had chosen at the time, so I had to dial some of them back a little before I put the finishing touches to this. And while I'm delving into some deep cuts, I thought I'd close things out with a selection of drum samples I made with the limited, but neat drum beat generator that came with the other programs. Most of these I don't think ever got used used in my illustrious mixing career for one reason or another. I'm guessing because of the terrible names. :D
D
Last Modified: 22 April 2000, 23:04:20 | Download
Drum Beat 1
Last Modified: 22 April 2000, 23:24:04 | Download
Close Hi Hat
Last Modified: 29 April 2000, 19:51:26 | Download
Ogg
Last Modified: 04 July 2000, 20:02:16 | Download
Turbo Beat
Last Modified: 10 July 2000, 22:25:20 | Download
Drum Beat 2
Last Modified: 24 November 2001, 18:40:12 | Download
DJ JiliK out!
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Let's Get Battle for Naboo Running on Windows 7
Like a number of games I've tried since I switched to Windows 7 64-bit, Battle for Naboo itself runs perfectly on it, but its 16-bit installer doesn't. To get it up and running with only the game's CD-ROM to hand, we need to both create an installation directory for it and add an entry for it to the Windows registry. So let's get started.
1. First we need to go to C:\Program Files [not C:\Program Files (x86)] and create a folder called Battle for Naboo.
2. Now go to the Battle for Naboo CD-ROM and copy BattleforNaboo.exe from the root directory (D:\) and paste it into C:\Program Files\Battle for Naboo.
3. Next we need to build the rest of the installation directory by copying files from the Install folder on the CD-ROM and pasting them into C:\Program Files\Battle for Naboo. Here's what your finished installation directory is going to look like (folders are bolded):
- C:\Program Files\Battle for Naboo\
- BattleforNaboo.exe
- data_pc\
- saves\
- bfn.exe
- data.bin
- data.hdr
- Install\
- back.wav
- click.WAV
- doc.exe
- launch.bmp
- LecSetup.dll
- license.txt
- messages.tab
- open.WAV
- Product.tab
- readme.rtf
- readme.txt
- setup.ini
- Setup.tab
- start.WAV
- syscheck.exe
- trouble.rtf
- trouble.txt
- url.exe
4. With the game's directory created, we now need to add an entry for the game to the registry. Normally this wouldn't be necessary, but unless the Battle for Naboo launcher detects that the game is installed on your machine, you'll get an "Install" option instead of a "Start Game" one, which is of course totally useless to us.
This is what we need to see.
5. So, open Notepad and paste the following into it:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC\Battle for Naboo\Retail]
"Analyze Path"="D:\\Install\\SysCheck.exe"
"CD Path"="D:"
"Executable"="C:\\Program Files\\Battle for Naboo\\data_pc\\BFN.exe"
"Install Path"="C:\\Program Files\\Battle for Naboo"
"Launcher"="C:\\Program Files\\Battle for Naboo\\BattleForNaboo.exe"
"Source Dir"="D:\\"
"Source Path"="D:"
"UninstallString"="C:\\WINDOWS\\uninst.exe -f\"C:\\Program Files\\Battle for Naboo\\Install\\DeIsL1.isu\" -c\"C:\\Program Files\\Battle for Naboo\\Install\\LecSetup.dll\""
"InstallType"=dword:00000001
"Installed"=dword:00000002
"Registration"=dword:00000002
6. Save the file as something
7. Next we need to open the Registry Editor.
- If you're using the 32-bit version of Windows 7: Go to the Start Menu, type regedit into the search box and hit enter.
- If you're using the 64-bit version of Windows 7: Go to the Start Menu, type %SystemRoot%\SysWOW64\regedit.exe into the search box and hit enter. Just typing "regedit" here won't work for this. (The 64-bit version of Windows 7 has two different versions of the Registry Editor. Just typing in "regedit" here will only open the 64-bit one. It's the 32-bit version we need to use for this.)
8. Drag and drop your .reg file into the Registry Editor window and that should be it.
9. Launching C:\Program Files\Battle for Naboo\BattleforNaboo.exe show now present you with a "Start Game" option. Hooray! It's probably a good idea to make a shortcut to this now so you don't need to go poking around in Program Files every time you want to play the game.
And we're off. You'll probably need to switch the controls from inverted too. Who on earth thought that was a good default for Mouse and Keyboard?
Well, hopefully that should do the trick. Bear in mind though that I've only tested this out on Windows 7 Service Pack 1. Who knows what will and won't work on Windows 8 and beyond.
Thursday, August 2, 2012
World Rally Fever: The Road to Victory Finale
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
31/08/11 - Currently banging my head against Kyoto in the Pro Cup. If I don't make some progress soon, I think I'm going to throw in the towel here. - JiliK's Backloggery
I'll level with you guys here. A few days after I scrawled this on my Backloggery, with no progress to show, I did throw in the towel. When I started writing this feature up, I hadn't actually touched this game in almost nine months, and as much I saw the need to finish it now that I'd started this, I really didn't think I was up to the task. The Hawaii tracks aside, this cup started off with easily the two most insane courses I'd encountered in the game up to that point, and as much experience as I had playing this game, I just wasn't able to crack them.
I planned to take on the Pro Cup again at some point before I finished this feature, but then something happened that not only got me back playing the game immediately, but also kept me motivated all the way to the final chequered flag: someone beat me to the punch. Out of the blue, another YouTube user started, and finished the game over the span of like, a week, handily beating my efforts and leaving my precious nerd cred in tatters. :D There was only way to redeem myself now: I needed to beat this fucking game for once and for all, no matter what it took.
France (Pro)
Remember how I mentioned this game's love for putting walls where they just don't belong? Well, this track's the poster child for that. The four interlocking walls halfway around the track are the main culprit in this respect, requiring some very tight, careful manoeuvring to take at speed; something that only came to me after a lot of trial and error. The sets of walls jutting out from the side of the track look harmless enough in the video above, but I found myself being rammed between them much more than I'd like by the the AI, loosing precious acceleration in the process.
Being the first track in the cup and as such, the first one I managed to master, it was pretty much vital to grab first place here before proceeding in order to have any hope of winning
Kyoto (Pro)
The Pro-Am version was bad, but this is that on crack. As if the tricky area with the indoor wall wasn't difficult enough to squeeze through the first time, in fine Human Centipede fashion they grafted another identical area onto it, giving you twice the walls to weave around and exponentially more opportunities for the even more aggressive AI to ram you into them. If I came out of the starting grid anywhere in the top three, I could be guaranteed to be slammed into the first wall by the cavalcade of turds behind me, coming to a dead halt and spending the next half a lap in seventh or eight place if I was lucky and a distant eight place if I wasn't. Eventually I adopted a strategy of stopping outside the area and waiting for the AI horde to pass me by before going in. It might have left me in eight, but at least I wasn't so far behind the pack that I wouldn't make any progress for half a lap.
The sliding doors also returned from the Pro-Am track, this time in greater numbers. But after racing on the track a few times, I noticed something interesting that helped me negate a lot of the frustration they previously caused: I noticed that every time an AI racer passed through them, they immediately flung open for them. Rather than setting the disc on fire after learning the game was even more cheap than I had previously imagined, I used my new-found knowledge to piggy back on my adversaries through the freshly-opened doors as much as I could. Something I couldn't do if I got left behind after that first bloody indoor area.
New York (Pro)
16/06/12 - Time to take this one home. Feeling pretty good about the France and Tokyo Pro tracks now. Working on New York at the moment. - JiliK's Backloggery
As a returning area from the Rookie Cup, I was hoping that this track wouldn't be too bad and really it isn't. The trickiest section is by far the the one with the three gaps in quick succession. I had a lot of trouble here trying to nail down the timing of the jumps here. After a lot more trial and error, I managed to finally suss it out, even discovering that if if I ignored the final gap, my momentum at that point would take me across it. With the AI's penchant for leaving that bullshit confusion power-up (that only they have access to btw) right in the path of my jump, that was quite a helpful discovery.
Other than that section, the only problem with this track is its relatively short length. Without long laps to catch up after making a mistake, there really isn't much room for error here.
Himalayas (Pro)
22/06/12 - Still working on the Pro Cup. I'm pretty close to beating it now, if only I could avoid being constantly screwed over by the AI characters. - JiliK's Backloggery
And here it is, folks: the end of my winning run through the Pro Cup. A run I only discovered I wasn't recording a few seconds after this race started. Eleven and a half years after my only glimpse of this track on the back of box, I was finally hurtling towards victory on it.
For the last track in the game, this is an astonishingly straightforward one. With the Himalayan setting too, you could easily see them cramming all sorts of bullshit into this one from falling rocks to avalanches to narrow, twisty paths with falling rocks and avalanches collapsing onto them. That's what I was expecting anyway. In reality though, the obstacles here come in the form of trio of jumps more generously spaced out than in the previous track, and a cave area that may be narrow and may have some rocks to manoeuvre around around, but it's in no way as insane to get through as sections of the first two tracks in this cup.
The gaps early on do take a little practice to get around successfully, with rocks placed in some quite evil positions within their vicinity and a cliff on the left side of the track, but once you don't screw up there, it's not too hard to grab at least second on this track. Whether that gives you enough points to wrap things up is another matter of course. I'm not sure if it's noticeable, but I cut out a part here where I paused just before the finish line to try and figure out just that. Even though I'd had a blistering run through the previous tracks, and I was pretty convinced second place would be enough, I had to be sure; I was too close to finally beating this to screw up now.
26/06/12 - Done and dusted. In your face, Chuckie J!
Indeed, second place was more than enough; I had a whole extra point to spare! Having crossed that finish line, I'd finally laid the first entry in my backlog to rest. Almost a year after starting this campaign, having spent a solid week of playing this for hours, night after night after night, I couldn't have been more excited about that fact. Who ever thought an obscure racing game I picked up at random a decade ago would turn into such an ordeal? :D
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