Hello everyone! 
Yes, thanks to JTK I'm finally back in the community. He made me aware of the forum and this thread. Let me use it to post a short (or maybe long) update message.
Well, after my last races in JTK's competition of 2001, I didn't have so much time any more to take part in contests. I knew that there was still an active community that considered new contests and even the implementation of a new version of Stunts, but I never thought that this community would be active for two decades - and still going strong in 2021.
Even more, I am feeling really honored that my Stunts tools are still remembered today.
The first one was Track Blaster, which made it possible to create new terrain landscapes for existing tracks by placing the water and hill elements on the grid. Then I extended it into the "Pro" version, which offered also an editor for the track elements. By the way, the idea for the name was influenced by my desktop PC's sound card, the "Sound Blaster Pro".
Over the time, I implemented new features like a previous/next track function (for browsing through a directory of tracks), a copy/cut and paste function of a selection, transformation of a selection with mirroring or 180 deg. rotation, and so on. I was too lazy to properly code the correct editing of multi-block track elements (2x1 like corkscrews and loopings or 2x2 like banked corners or curved bridges), so you had to select and place all 2 or 4 sub-elements manually. But this also made it possible to create special visual effects, like bridge curves where you could drive below, or banked corners where you could drive through. 
I'm sure you all found out how to do it - but if needed, I can also explain it in detail, of course.
The next tool, Score Blaster, was useful for cleaning up highscore files. Additionally, it could be used as a file preview plugin in the popular file manager Norton Commander, to quickly show the highscores when browsing through a directory of tracks.
Finally, I started to hack the car files. To discover the meaning of the various bytes I created a graphic visualizer of the raw car file that could also highlight the byte differences of two cars. So I was able to find the section where the torque curve of the engine was coded, for example. This evolved into Car Blaster.
Back then, I played countless races with some friends, and we also created many tracks with interesting terrain or special effects, so these tools proved to be really useful for us. Around 1995, when we started using the Internet in our University, I thought that these tools could also be useful for others. So with just some basic HTML knowledge I created some quick and dirty web pages for publishing my Stunts tools.
As JTK wrote, these tools were created with Turbo Pascal, the development environment that I also used during my study of Computer Science. I am sure I'll find the Track Blaster source code somewhere in my backups, but the real challenge will be to understand the code and logic (even for me). It started as a quick and dirty implementation for my personal use and over the time it was just enhanced with features, not with coding style cleanup or documentation.
But feel free to try, I will assist whenever my time permits.
I have already seen that there are now so many great new software tools and game enhancements, so please allow me some time to become up to date - and who knows, maybe you'll also see me back on the racing tracks in a not too distant future. After two decades it could be time to try it again.
All the best - stay safe and keep driving!
Mark Nailwood
Yes, thanks to JTK I'm finally back in the community. He made me aware of the forum and this thread. Let me use it to post a short (or maybe long) update message.
Well, after my last races in JTK's competition of 2001, I didn't have so much time any more to take part in contests. I knew that there was still an active community that considered new contests and even the implementation of a new version of Stunts, but I never thought that this community would be active for two decades - and still going strong in 2021.
Even more, I am feeling really honored that my Stunts tools are still remembered today.
The first one was Track Blaster, which made it possible to create new terrain landscapes for existing tracks by placing the water and hill elements on the grid. Then I extended it into the "Pro" version, which offered also an editor for the track elements. By the way, the idea for the name was influenced by my desktop PC's sound card, the "Sound Blaster Pro".
Over the time, I implemented new features like a previous/next track function (for browsing through a directory of tracks), a copy/cut and paste function of a selection, transformation of a selection with mirroring or 180 deg. rotation, and so on. I was too lazy to properly code the correct editing of multi-block track elements (2x1 like corkscrews and loopings or 2x2 like banked corners or curved bridges), so you had to select and place all 2 or 4 sub-elements manually. But this also made it possible to create special visual effects, like bridge curves where you could drive below, or banked corners where you could drive through. I'm sure you all found out how to do it - but if needed, I can also explain it in detail, of course.The next tool, Score Blaster, was useful for cleaning up highscore files. Additionally, it could be used as a file preview plugin in the popular file manager Norton Commander, to quickly show the highscores when browsing through a directory of tracks.
Finally, I started to hack the car files. To discover the meaning of the various bytes I created a graphic visualizer of the raw car file that could also highlight the byte differences of two cars. So I was able to find the section where the torque curve of the engine was coded, for example. This evolved into Car Blaster.
Back then, I played countless races with some friends, and we also created many tracks with interesting terrain or special effects, so these tools proved to be really useful for us. Around 1995, when we started using the Internet in our University, I thought that these tools could also be useful for others. So with just some basic HTML knowledge I created some quick and dirty web pages for publishing my Stunts tools.
As JTK wrote, these tools were created with Turbo Pascal, the development environment that I also used during my study of Computer Science. I am sure I'll find the Track Blaster source code somewhere in my backups, but the real challenge will be to understand the code and logic (even for me). It started as a quick and dirty implementation for my personal use and over the time it was just enhanced with features, not with coding style cleanup or documentation.
But feel free to try, I will assist whenever my time permits.I have already seen that there are now so many great new software tools and game enhancements, so please allow me some time to become up to date - and who knows, maybe you'll also see me back on the racing tracks in a not too distant future. After two decades it could be time to try it again.
All the best - stay safe and keep driving!
Mark Nailwood