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Herr Otto Partz says you're all nothing but pipsqueaks!

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Messages - Mark Nailwood

#1
Team Zone / Re: Slowdrive
January 15, 2024, 06:14:21 PM
Quote from: Shoegazing Leo on January 15, 2024, 05:53:22 PMDo you like to, @Mark Nailwood ?
Sure, thanks for the invitation.  :)
#2
Thanks @Spoonboy, and congrats for your fastest lap of all with the Indy. 8)
Of course, also congrats to @Erik Barros for the second place on the podium. When looking at your constant performance on ZakStunts during the 2023 season, I think you will also easily keep the lead on the amateur board in 2024. :)

This race was my first participation in the CCC contest, and for me it was a great way of re-learning some of my skills from more than 2 decades ago with the fast cars. Maybe I will not have so much for perfecting my replays in the next CCC races, but I'll definitely take part in these, and also on ZakStunts, of course. Looking forward to the new season!
#3
I'm fine with the modified rules for this race. As @Cas mentioned, the issue is at the very end of the lap, and it's easy for the ones who followed the original rule to post an updated replay that should automatically replace the previous one.

Quote from: Erik Barros on December 27, 2023, 06:10:48 PMHey @Mark Nailwood , thanks for the warning, in fact I checked @Duplode replay yesterday and noticed that he slowed down at the finish line, I thought it was strange and went to confirm the rules. I have already participated in previous editions and never paid attention to passing through the banner, if there were valid laps it was due to pure luck. You did very good laps with all the cars, what did you think of this version of the modified cars? @Daniel3D did a great job with this pack.
@Erik Barros - Yes, I really like the driving experience with these cars, and I would not even be able to tell you which is my favourite one. Well, for me in my early Stunts days, it was fun to discover the PG "feature" and the things that it made possible (wide jumps, driving over grass and water, ...). And I will never call it a "bug", as there are so many other "not so realistic" driving effects which contribute to the magic of this game ;D . But in a contest like this, it's completely fine for me to have it disabled, unless there is a track specifically created for PG cars where PG would be obviously needed for passing certain segments.
#4
Hi @Daniel3D and all the others racing at the CCC! As stated in the "Rules": Finishing by passing outside the poles or over the banner is not considered a legal finish.
I just checked the fastest replays from all current drivers, and only the ones from @Duplode and @Spoonboy are clearly finishing with passing under the banner. The one from @Shoegazing Leo is a borderline case, as it just touches the top of the banner, but the ones from @Cas, @Erik Barros and @alanrotoi all finish with jumping high above the banner. Also, all of my current replays are invalid, as I was not aware of this rule when I sent them.
Sure, we could fix our replays easily by just braking at the appropriate point before the finish, but then the resulting times will be slower and will not replace the previously sent ones with the invalid finish. So, I suggest making all current and possible future pipsqueaks aware of this rule, maybe by placing an extra remark at the "Post a Replay" section, and additionally all current invalid replays should be removed so that we can send fixed ones.
#5
Competition 2023 / Re: ZCT258 - A blast from the past
February 12, 2023, 01:38:46 AM
Quote from: dreadnaut on February 05, 2023, 12:57:57 PM@Mark Nailwood — by creating a new account, you start in the "Amateur" scoreboard. If you feel you don't belong there, you can ask to be promoted immediately ;D
Well, I have to admit, position 8 in my comeback race is better than expected. And hey, I also managed to place my name at one of the car podiums!  8)

@dreadnaut - I think after more than 20 years of retirement, it's ok if I race at least my comeback season in the amateuer league (if no one of the other amateurs objects). Or is there also a league for "Resurrected professionals"?  ;)

Looking forward to the next track. Thanks to all for the warm welcome in the community!
#6
Sorry for the (again) very long delay. I tried all my old hard drives, but was not able to locate the needed packages on any of them. Apparently I never installed the development environment after having migrated from my 486 I used during my studies of computer science to my first Pentium. I could not even find any floppy discs with the packages.
Strange that it is not possible to find it in some internet archives.
#7
Unfortunately, I cannot find the power supply for the external HDD adapter.  :-[  I'm now at my weekend house, which is currently under renovation, so some items have just been packed away somewhere. But in a few days I'll visit my apartment, and there I'll have another power adapter. Then may the force be with my old hard drives (that they are still working), and let's hope that they contain the needed code packages.
#8
Sorry for the delay, I was distracted by some work in the world outside Stunts during the last weeks.

Well, I had a look into some of my current external and backup HDDs, but was not able to find anything. Not really surprising, as I didn't do any Turbo Pascal development since the last changes of my Stunts tools almost a quarter of a century ago. :-\
Guess I will have to dig into my storage of old HDDs. Let's hope they are still working. ::)

Just found the adapter to connect them to USB. This shall be the work for my next evenings. Will let you know if I found anything (or not).
#9
Of course, I take "pipsqueak legend" as a compliment! ;)

Well, it has been a very long time since I took part in contests, and when I tried to race on the default track some days ago (2 decades after my last official races), I saw that now even with replay handling I don't have any chance against current contestants without replay handling (according to the comments in the "Default" thread). ::)
But I am really planning to return to the contest race tracks - just for fun, and don't expect my times to be really challenging for you. ;)

At least it will be much easier for me to talk about my Stunts history than to return to my racing performance of the past - so feel free to ask. 8)
#10
Well, the tools didn't use db functions, but I think Topaz also provided some UI routines for text input/output.
Will have a look at it when I'm back home...
#11
I remember we had to add a package called "Topaz" to our Turbo Pascal installation, and there was something like "sayget4", but I also could not find any download so far.
Currently, I am away from home and cannot look into my backups. Will try to search again next week, unless you manage to find it until then.
#12
Ok, can you please give me an example of a function you are missing?
I could then search in my Turbo Pascal archive - as soon as I have found it.
#13
Well, as far as I remember the sayget*.tpu (with "e" suffix for english) is responsible for generating the dialog elements of the user interface, and the pic*.tpu could be somehow connected to graphics. They were included in the installation that I used for my study works, maybe as an optional package after installation. Unfortunately they are not on the hard drive where I found the source code, so I will take some time to dig them out from some other backup media. First I have to find this backup media in my collection of hard drives, DVDs, CDs and maybe also floppy discs. ::)

But have a look at this page: http://www.dcee.net/Files/Programm/Pascal/

At least you can find a sayget.arj file there, and the pic unit may be included in some other archive.
#14
Due to popular request in this forum I decided to publish the source code of my Stunts tools.

This archive contains the code for the latest versions:

TrackBlaster Pro 5.3
ScoreBlaster 7.2b
ScoreViewer 1.2
CarBlaster 3.2

Everyone may use, modify and redistribute the code and the graphics generated by the executables for any non-commercial use.
This code is provided as is, without any guarantee that it will perform in the desired way, and without any warranty against data loss or hardware destruction. ;)

To be honest, I think that any attempt to understand the logic may lead to severe despair. ::)
- Edit: Also for me, after almost 25 years.  ;D
So please try at your own risk, I will try to assist whenever my time permits.
#15
Stunts Reverse Engineering / Re: Opponent's path
June 01, 2021, 10:12:25 AM
Good news: I found the source code of my tools. :)  Where would be the best place in this forum to post it?

I also managed to install DOSBox and Stunts on my Win10 laptop and also found the DOSBox settings to improve the game performance (it feels somehow laggy with the default settings). Then I did some test runs on the Default track to check my remaining racing skills after 20 years of retirement. Current times: 1:07.60 on the right track and 1:09:95 on the left (Indy, of course). ::)
Well, don't expect me to get close to my performance of the good old days, but I'm sure it will be fun to compete again. :D