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It seems I introduced a weird bug during the final revisions of the Ranger: the current car does not print its name to the scoreboard after the end of the race... Here is a corrected file - naturally, no performance data was changed, so no one that downloaded the currently available car will be harmed in competition by missing the correction. Sorry for the trouble Zak!

"Homeworld"
"Belfast"
"Twilight"

How do these names "sound"...? 

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Let's see if I got them all:
Homeworld (the one I'm most sure of  );
Belfast (there are a few more possibilities here...); and
Twilight (nice pick! nevermind I thought of a different Twilight... )
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Youtube videos, MP3 files and such are automatically embedded from now on.

Just a complementary tip: if for some reason you don't want your YouTube, LastFM, etc. links to be auto-embedded, surround the relevant portion of your post with [noembed][/noembed]. Just had to use that...

Very very complete, really useful  Hopefully that will help in having less lurkers-to-users for 2009. The only thing I'd point is about the auto-disappearing feature, as the guide does not return automatically when you logout. Maybe newbies might like to check the guide while logged for their first submissions, so perhaps it could just stay there all the time - I would not really mind having it occupying that bit of screen state while I'm logged in...

Well, what to say? First of all thanks: to Krys for the championship and to all pipsqueaks for the battles - in particular, to Mark for the knightly rivalry. Both the catch and the chase were a spectacular ride. It is a great honour to reach this far in our unique art, especially racing alongside, as Mark would put it, so devoted bishops...
Now, I shall enjoy the laurels while I can, as the new season will dawn quickly. I wonder whether we could have a fourth champion waiting to rise, next year or a bit further... 

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And as for the race: truth is, I found the main cut quite early in the race - when I made that post double-checking the rules about two weeks ago, I was pretty convinced it had to be possible somehow, and found how to pull it shortly afterwards. After that, I kept racing the "default" line for a while so I could compare my times with yours (at least on the first half of the race - if anybody found the trick, as Chulk did, I'd better have something strong in the pocket...), post intermediate times ( ) and test what the actual limit was. And BTW: Mark's 53.70 was really strong - I don't think lowering that by more than a tenth with the "default" line would be possible...

- as Chulk has just demonstrated -

I can't keep it shut for too long (easy to say with 45 minutes remaining... ). There is another twist to the plot -

It looks well balanced overall... good job indeed!  Just one thing: expect the first race to be Speedgate's showcase...

As Zak redesigns the ZakStunts UI, a thought crossed my mind... BJ has already raised the (valid, IMHO) point of how the 7.0 incarnation of the site was a bit too hard for newbies to get into, and how additional complexity can cause further trouble. What I was wondering is whether we could somehow turn that issue in our/ZakStunts' favour... I mean the possibility of putting into evidence all the cool things Zak has developed over the years (the News Board, the complex Bonus Point system, the Dynamic Scoreboards, and even the Wiki) by the means of flashy website design, so that newcomers would go like "ZOMG WHAT A COOL CONTEST!! I'll make sure to take part of this eventually!" (OK, maybe not so excited  ) instead of just getting confused by the complexity. Since my web layout/design skills are virtually null, I can't give much concrete input on implementation, but I hope my approach is not way too wild...

(One possible concrete suggestion for redesign: the "Send Replay" page could be split, so that the box for choosing the .RPL would be visible from the main page alongside with a "Submit!" button (as well as the login/password fields). That button would send to another page where the submission would be confirmed and the "advanced options" - penalty time, quiet days, messages, etc. - could be set. That way the replay sending procedure would appear more transparent to newbies)

Aburaf is having problems trying to make DOSBox work properly in Linux, maybe Duplode can help him.

AbuRaf did contact me - I just sent him a suggested and annotated dosbox.conf, hopefully it will work 

As for the race, time difference between 1st and last is barely over half a sec, so everything can happen... I guess Mark is hiding and Krys is not racing because their last replays are a week old, and only 2 days to go, so...

Only two days - time flies...

I'll give you a hint of what I do to go faster... Try using Duplode's Vodafone McLaren! (You will see it at the end of the video)

Nice you succeeded to install it finally!  Maybe a F1 Season 2009 pack would be a fun idea?

As for racing: it's quite a while since my last replay, so, an update...

In 1980, Namco released PAC-MAN, the most popular video game (or arcade game) of all time. The original name was going to be PUCK MAN (...)

...sorry, I didn't hear - PUKE-MAN?

Yes, just like that - Feliz Natal para todos! 

Something that Krys may find interesting: Trackmania Nations Forever runs virtually perfectly on Linux under Wine 1.1.9 with only a few simple tweaks. For anyone interested, the tweaks are explained here: http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=14851&iTestingId=35105 . Screenshot evidence is attached below...
This means I'll resume playing TMNF often...

Arguably the most confused scoreboard in a long while finally can be published in its final version...

1º Mark L. Rivers - 2:24.05 - +10
2º Krys TOFF - 2:28.85 - +8
3º Felipe NEMESIS - 2:30.90 - +6
4º Daniel DUPLODE - 2:22.95 - +5

Shortly after the original result publishing (and of my excited comments here and on the JACStunts forum), Mark sent his 2:24 as per Igor's request on JAC's forum (not due to any IRCness issues, but rather on a 48-hour tolerance triggered due to .RPL / .HIG mismatch). Igor watched it yesterday, and the lap was declared valid on the same basis as Krys' one. Sorry Krys... And naturally, had CTG sent his late replay he would be 4th and me 5th, but oh well.

Next round is already on, of course - T406/Andhra is a Vette track penned by this pipsqueak speaking to you. Igor re-set the deadline to 07/01 noon, a Wednesday - it could be a calendar error (07/01/08 was a Monday...) but on the other hand two extra days in this holiday period might be useful - I have not asked him... anyway, keep racing, and let's see if Mark will pull off a perfect season or not