track element renaming suggestion.

[Daniel3D]

At the moment, we identify two very different track elements with the term corkscrew.
Corkscrew l/r
and
Corkscrew u/d

For the first use it is a very good name because it is a stunt and in other fields (airplane acrobatics or rollercoasters) the same term is used
For the latter, I don't think it suits the track element very well.
It is a more normal road element that exists in real life. Its shape is a helix (a corkscrew technically as well, but that is not the point).
I think the term helix would fit better. You can also more easily clarify what type orientated from driving direction, like; Down left or up left. Down right or Up right,
In the attached image, I used a chicane /L with a helix u/l and a helix d/r ..

I think it helps in describing things.

If we ever create a track element that lets you ride the wall up or down, then the corkscrew would be appropriate again 

Any opinions?

[dukeofurl]

My family always called the object in your picture a spiral. That seems to be what the Stunts manual calls it as well.

[Daniel3D]

Spiral is a good option to

[dreadnaut]

I think the names we commonly use are those from the Stunts track editor. We could get used to different ones, but anyone outside would probably still call them corkscrew up/down.

[Daniel3D]

Really? I have no conscious memory of names for track elements in the built-in editor...   

[dreadnaut]

I also don't remember them from when I first played the game, I wonder if they were not there in the (I think Mindscape) version that I had.

In BB1.1 they are in the bottom left corner though.

[Daniel3D]

I can check. I have 'all' versions installed.
But I see why I missed it.
It's outside my field of focus. I rarely notice things there.

[dukeofurl]

Here's a picture of my manual that designates names for some pieces, including the spiral. 

I just  checked the track editors in stunts 1.0 and 1.1 and they both call the piece a corkscrew though.

[dreadnaut]

Here's a picture of my manual that designates names for some pieces, including the spiral. 

Those pages are very interesting! Not only we have "spirals", but the scenery section mentions "factories", and omits boats. Similar to the box screenshots, maybe the manual was printed before the game completion, so some bits refer to previous features.

[dukeofurl]

I like how the manual says it is possible to put the loop and corkscrew in series, but if that is done, it is "highly unlikely that a course so designed could be successfully completed"

I'm sure that's amateur hour for us folks playing Stunts 30+ years on 

Do folks not have the manual? I can photograph the entire thing if people want.

[Daniel3D]

I have them both digital. There are links to them on the forum as well. So no need to photograph. 

Dukeofurl. How long have you got the physical copy of the game?
I have never ever seen a real copy in my life 

[dukeofurl]

I've had the physical copy of the game since around 1991 or 1992.  My dad came home from work one evening with surprise presents for my brother and me.  My brother got Stunts and I got Papyrus's Indy 500 (1989).  At the time, I thought I got the better end of the deal because the box art for Indy 500 looked more exciting than Stunts, but needless to say, I still have and play my copy of Stunts while my copy of Indy 500 has long been lost to the dustbin of history.

It couldn't have been that hard to find in my area at the time (northeastern USA), as two of my brother's friends bought Stunts in the early 1990s after seeing it at our house.


Here's a photo of my copy, I think I still have all the bits it came with. There was a gold sticker on the front of the box but it fell off a long time ago. Bonus, I had the disks for a few other games of the early 90s inside the Stunts box. 
https://i.imgur.com/2x4DsHC.jpg

[alanrotoi]

Here in Argentina I think it was 90% impossible to find an original box. In the beggining of the 90's there were stores selling pirate copies of all games available. Those were full of kids like me and now I think they make a lot of money. Also there was a "legal void" (I mean a hole in the legislation because it wasn't expected a business like that. Maybe until 1994).

By the way in october 1993 a friend of mine brought me a copy of stunts BB 1.0 in one 5 1/4 diskette. It was awesome of course but some files were missing: helen's track, bernie's track, cherry's track and some Jaguar XJR-9 files (I could watch it in the showroom but couldn't race with it). The first time I played with this car was in Zct14 on May 2002 in competition

[Daniel3D]

I got the red sector illegal copy of a friend in the early nineties. Don't remember exactly who or when.
Just know I played the game a lot..
Made a lot of tracks and lost it all..

It took years to get internet and find it again (thanks to JTK)

[Cas]

I remember very well when Stunts was brought to me. Like Alan Rotoi said, here original copies were virtually non-existing back then, in 1993 when I had my new 386. It was brand new and I only had DOS 5.0 and QuickBasic 4.5 on it. A friend of mine, whom I'd talked with about my new PC, had offered to come to my house to bring some games, so he came with a big box full of 5.25" floppies. One of the games he copied to me was Stunts and it definitely is one of my favourite ones of that set, if not "the" one. I still call that set of games "the first wave" and they are special to me. Even my friend had a copy of the game that had had some modifications.