,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, An interview of Markku (Kuski of Month on September 2003): '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' -= When did you start playing? =- I first played Across 1.0 around December 1997, me and my brother competed with each other every now and then. It wasn't very regular playing back then, but I began to play more when my brother showed me Across 1.2 in August or September 1998. The new version was great since it had some new levels, a level editor and hundreds of extra levels made by other people. Later on, probably when I first time got to the last level with the URL to the official homepage, I found out that there were even more levels than those ~400 I had. The page also had a list of the world records, and another page had a total time list too. So I began following my total time and trying to improve my times more actively than before. In March 1999 I got my first WR (in Circuitous), which was something incredible. A few months later my tt was good enough to get to the 3rd place in the tt list and I sent my times there. Bit by bit I got more acquainted with the scene and kept playing Across until Elma was published in February 2000. -= Ex-teams and why did you change teams? =- I joined team MC in January 2000. About one year later, after World Cup 3 ended, I left the team because I decided to stop playing. Two years after that I started playing again, but haven't joined any team so far. -= Current total? =- 39:47,06. -= Top5 newest and oldest personal records? =- (check the last modified times of your replays) Newest: 22. Slalom 40,38 (December 22nd 2004) 28. Bounce Back 53,41 (December 11th 2004) 12. Islands in the Sky 21,89 (November 13th 2004) 39. Haircut 42,10 (November 12th 2004) 07. Hi Flyer 34,21 (November 12th 2004) Oldest: 25. Precarious 25,69 (March 15th 2000) 06. Long Haul 33,41 (March 22nd 2000) 13. Hill Legend 18,15 (March 24th 2000) 53. Hooked 18,44 (March 26th 2000) 34. Bumpy Journey 38,13 (May 16th 2000) -= Across Career briefly. Any WRs?, World Cup I and II and so on.. =- See also the first question. I managed to get two Across WRs, in Circuitous and The Enigma (older version), and I almost got a WR in Double Trouble, but it was beaten before the update. I was 29th in World Cup 2000, with a third place as my best event result (event 13). I think the first WC2k event I took part in was event 3, an Apple Harvest lookalike. I didn't get any points though, PRA totally dominated that event with seven players in top8. :) -= Elma career? =- I began to play Elma right when it came out, got a couple of WRs and kept improving my total. In August 2000 a dream came true: Kingkong had the best total time in the world at that time (42.59.high) and I wasn't too far behind him, so I thought I had a chance to beat him if I played enough. Finally I got 42.59.low (Tricks Abound was the level that eventually took me under) and took the first place in the tt list. It's probably my best memory ever with Elma. (I also made the freefall shortcut for the first time shortly after that, which dropped my tt down to 42.40 or 42.41, but it didn't make to that update.) Our team played also World Cup 3, I won one event (event 10) and was 10th in the overall standings. As I said, after WC3 ended I stopped playing for two years, but when my military service ended in January 2003, I felt like playing again and returned to the scene. Many new styles had been invented while I was gone, so I could "easily" improve my tt just by doing those styles. In February -03 I went under 41 minutes and in June -03 I got my most recent WR (Pipe 33,22). My university studies began that autumn, which reduced my free time considerably, so my tt stayed at 40.26 for a year. Another reason why I didn't play internals during that time was simply getting bored with them, so instead I played a lot of battles. In autumn/early winter -04 I finally played some internals again, because I wanted to get under that magical limit of 40 minutes. It wasn't going to be that big an achievement as it was 1-2 years ago, but still it was something I wanted to do. So when I broke the limit in October -04, it was a great achievement at least for myself, despite that much better tt is possible and about 25 people had broken the limit before me. -= Do you still like Across? Why/why not =- I haven't played Across after Elma was published, but I have good memories of it. -= How did you get Across/Elma? Was it your worst mistake? or the best? =- My brother showed me it as I told before. It was definitely one of my best "mistakes"; even though it sometimes takes time from other things, it's amazing how much fun it is to play such a little and simple game, year after year. -= Favourite internals / most irritating internals =- I tend to both like and dislike the level I'm currently playing... When I keep playing the level I begin to do the needed tricks more often, which makes the playing fun. On the other hand, the better time I get, the harder it is to improve, and I need to take into account much more little details than before. But in general, there are of course some levels I like more than others. It doesn't necessarily mean I'd play them more, but it means the levels are in my opinion good and somehow inventive. Anyway, I listed a few good/irritating levels here: Favourite internals: 03. Twin Peaks 47. Enigma 50. Expert System 51. Tricks Abound Most irritating internals: 31. Animal Farm 33. Zig-Zag 46. Bowling -= Your own best WRs? =- Maybe Bumpy Journey 38,13 (my longest-standing WR, #017-#050) or Pipe 33,22 (my newest WR, #130-#146). -= Best WRs in your opinion? =- 15. Serpents Tale: 52,44 Zweq (#181) 36. Fruit in the Den: 57,94 TorInge (#147) 42. Enduro: 47,60 TorInge (#162) 48. Downhill: 46,35 Luther (#151) 54. Apple Harvest: 1:29,55 psy (#133) -= What's the limit of WR times? =- It's pretty impossible to tell, but at the moment I can't see how the WR total could go under 35 minutes. -= Are there some kind of external contests you like? What kind of contests do you like? Are there any new competitions you would like to see? =- I like to play some levelpacks, but I don't usually play the same pack for months, I drive some times on every level and then move on to some other levs. Ramone's Fake levels were excellent (and still are even though I haven't played them for a long time), too bad his site isn't up anymore. Other good similar contests are for example all skint0r's levels (normal skint levs, skinternals, battle levels) and Antz's BLP (battle level pack). I prefer levpacks to most cups because they aren't time-dependent; I can play them when I have time and feel like it, but cups require quite much time every week in order to do well. Of course I like battles too, there was another question about it later on... -= Best lgr in your mind? What lgr do you use? =- I use default.lgr and I would say it's the best one, even though HighQ is also pretty nice. I haven't tested too many other lgrs, I'm used to playing in low video detail, so I wouldn't see any pictures anyway. -= Mention some good things you have gotten with Across/Elma? =- I've gotten a long-lasting hobby and an excellent timekiller, met lots of nice people, and I've had lots of enjoyable and memorable moments. -= Mention some bad things you have gotten from Across/Elma? =- Surprise surprise, I find myself playing when I should be doing something else. But it's not that serious after all, I won't leave the other things undone, I'll just do them later. Sometimes I get frustrated when trying to improve a time with no success, but luckily it often changes to joy when I'm patient enough to make it. -= What is the most frustrating thing you have faced in your career? =- It was summer or autumn in 1999, loX had the Double Trouble WR with a time of 1:38,92 (in Across of course, Elma wasn't out yet). I was playing the lev too, getting some times relatively close to it (under 1:39,50), until I got the ride where everything went just as I wished, and there it was: 1:38,87, my second WR ever. So I sent it to Csaba and the waiting began. One week went by, but there was no update. Another week went by, and finally the new table came... and what do I see? I see loX's new Double Trouble WR: 1:38,54. I never tried to take it back because his time was so good. Not getting that WR was frustrating for a while, but I think the feeling went by pretty quickly. -= The biggest mistake of your Elma career? =- Gladly I can't think of any big mistakes. -= Cheating, what feelings? Do you use level unlocker/1.11hb/1.2 etc? =- Cheating sucks. What else can I say? I don't see what the point of cheating is, since for me the sense of achievement comes by doing a time I'm satisfied with, in many cases after a lot of playing. So cheating would only give you a good time, but nothing else. I appreciate the work milagros and others have done to develop new and better anti-cheating tools. I've tested the 1.2 patch, but I use 1.11hb, since none of the new features in 1.2 were so significant that I would necessarily need them. The default sky/background option and the fast search in editor are handy though, but 1.11hb has been enough for me so far. -= Elma tuning, have you tested? Opinion about it? =- After I got under 40 minutes I wanted to try the difference between different vsync settings, and to my surprise the difference was noticeable; things like Hi Flyer bounce, Haircut start and the new uphill style were much easier to do with vsync off than on. I wish Elma would work similarly in every computer regardless of its properties and settings, but since that isn't the case, it's good that people who know more about these things are generally helpful if someone wants to try some new settings but needs advice. -= Best kuskis and teams? What are the things you value in another kuski/team? =- At the moment TorInge and Zweq seem to be better than anyone else, but when talking about other skilled players, names like Cloud, dz, Jeppe, John, Jokke, Karlis, LazY, MP, psy and ramone come to my mind. A good team is a team whose players know and trust each other, and I think a good example of that is FM. -= Your best achievements? =- Getting the best total time in the world, being 10th in World Cup 3 overall standings and winning the 10th event, and getting some WRs. -= Do you do any other neat finger-related stuff like playing violin, repairing watches, pick pocketing etc? I have played the piano for about 15 years. I only have a synthesizer in my own apartment though, so nowadays I can play the piano just when I visit my parents. A few years ago I used to play around with Rubik's cube quite much, I guess that counts as finger-related stuff, especially speedcubing. Lately I haven't been so much into it though... I couldn't beat my old times now without revising some useful algorithms I've forgotten. -= How much did you play in your sickest period? How much these days? =- Sometimes I could play like 8-10 hours a day, but I don't remember any period when I would've played that much every day. On one day I might play much, but a lot less on the next day, and that's pretty much how my playing is now too. It varies between 0-5 hours, maybe 1-1½ hours on average. -= Have you had Elma dreams? =- I've had dreams where I've been playing some internal and found a new style in it, but in the dream the level is completely different than normally, so the style couldn't be used in the real level. I don't think I dream about Elma very often, I only vaguely remember those I mentioned. -= Strengts and weaknesses as a player? What moves you like/dislike? =- I suppose one strength of mine is that in battles I often find a fast style quickly. On the other hand I lack the extreme höyling power, which is why some internals feel boring from time to time. If I set a goal to myself, I'm determined to play until I reach it, but it can be hard to begin the playing knowing that it will take a long time. I'm not sure if there are any specific moves I like or dislike, it depends on a level where you need to do the move. So it can be annoying in one level, maybe because it's too hard or too random in that particular place, but in another level the very same move can be purely fun. -= A great many people regard you as the ultimately best battler in the elma scene. How do you think about that, people saying "Markku wins" right when a battle has started, etc. =- Well in a way it's of course nice if people think like that, I really appreciate it. But depending on who others are playing it also gives me pressure, since to me it's never obvious that I would win. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't, it's not like I could tell it beforehand. Especially when people like Jeppe, John or Zweq are playing it's extremely hard to win and I'm always happy if I manage to beat any of them. That's because they can't be beaten with just a decent time or style, it needs a good style and a very good ride, and it might still not be enough. :P -= Tips for average players? =- Practise a lot. Try to invent some own styles instead of trying to copy every movement in some professional rec. Don't be too obsessed about how you're doing against other people, but rather concentrate on improving your own times and bit by bit succeeding in styles you haven't managed to do before (of course you can compare your times with other people too, but that shouldn't be the main target when you're playing). Learn how little things affect the bike, for example accelerating/braking/spacing in the air. Oh, and practise a lot. ;) -= Best memories with Elma? =- Those things I listed at the best achievements question are really memorable moments. I had four WRs in table #001 and I of course didn't know they were WRs when I made them, only after Csaba sent me mail and asked for those recs. That's why I can't recall the situations when driving them, but it's funny how I remember some details about all my other WRs, like what time of the day it was and what was the general situation, what I had been doing before, what was on TV if I had it on, and so on. Also I can't forget things like finishing Headbanger with the pipe for the first time (it was in Across though), doing the bounce in Enigma, seeing an awesome WR rec or a rec with some totally new style... Besides them, the moment when I made my first WR (Circuitous 29,27, in Across of course) probably beats all the other memories. I can't describe it, but all those people who have made a WR must know the feeling. -= First time at #across? =- It was probably sometime in 1999, I don't remember when exactly. However, I've been regularly at #across only since 2003 (when I got a broadband connection). -= Best Elma friends? =- This is a hard question to answer... Abula, mr and terb0, since they are the only kuskis I've met in real life (also Abula and mr are old team MC members). Then the guys at our riddle channel: Dariuz, djacosmo, iob, Jalli, Nostrada and all others who are or have been active there. -= Thoughts about Elma meetings? =- I've never been in any of the "big" Elma meetings, but it would be nice to take part in one some day. On one hand it must be great to actually meet those people you see almost every day on IRC, but on the other hand it's not good if there are too many people participating. At least I imagine that a 50 people meeting wouldn't feel quite the same as a 10-15 people meeting. -= What do YOU think should be improved in an eventual new version of Elma? =- I'd like it to have more statistics and a better encryption (to prevent cheating), also those things that are included in 1.11hb and 1.2 should be in the new version. The gameplay and physics are currently so good that I wouldn't want them to be changed in any way. Right now I don't see any urgent need for a new version, but I guess it will be done eventually. -= How about battles? =- I think battling is a really good way to enjoy playing even if you disliked internals. The playing is mostly about finding a good style in a short time, as opposed to plain höyling needed in almost every internal. That's why I find battling quite refreshing. Due to the growing number of people at #battle there are so many battles every day that you don't usually have to wait for too long if you want to play one. Of course, with about 10-25 battles being held daily, you can't expect all levels to be quality ones, but I guess that's unavoidable. Still there are some gems among them, some of which I could keep on playing for hours (for example most of Jonsta's levels). Of other good designers I'd like to mention insane guy, Jeppe, Juble, skint0r, Undiente and Zebra. -= Have you got any negative feedback about playing Elma from your mates? =- When I lived with my parents, they used to mention about it every now and then: "Pretty hard to guess which game you're playing...", "Oh, you're playing that bike game again..." and so on. But I didn't see the comments as negative and I don't think they meant them to be either, obviously they saw that I really liked playing it. So I wouldn't say I've gotten any really negative feedback from anyone. -= What games do you like beside Elma? =- Elma is the only game I play regularly, but in general I like braintwisters and logic/puzzle games, such as Sokoban, Minesweeper, Supaplex, TIM etc. -= Did you buy Elma? Why not? =- I haven't bought it, because Regsoft.com doesn't accept cash payments, and the shipment fee in sending a check or a money order is much bigger than the price itself, so there's no sense in ordering it that way, and I don't have a credit card. -= Have you thought about if you could stop playing Elma soon, or anytime? =- I guess I could, but I don't want to. Nowadays I'm not even thinking about it. -= What gets you still playing Elma? =- The scene around it; most of us probably wouldn't be playing anymore without it. As for the game itself, it's nice to keep beating my own records and see how good times I can get, both in internals and externals. And when I have nothing else to do, it's easy to open Elma and just cruise some random levels or play battles. -= Are you at the top of your career now? If not, when? =- Yes, I think so. As I see it, I have now more skills than a month ago, but in a month I'll be again slightly better than now. It all comes down to getting more experience; when you constantly keep on playing, your skills will inevitably grow. -= Forecast the future of Elma. How the scene will be in five years? =- Hopefully the scene will be pretty much the same as it is now. Naturally many players will quit playing and many new ones will join the scene, but I still think some of the current players will be around also in five years. Also it's likely that a new version, possibly with new levels and an online mode, will be out in the next five years, which will definitely affect the scene in a way or another, but who knows... -= Was it a surprise to be voted for the kuski of month? If it was who should have won in your opinion and why? =- It was a bit of a surprise, because TomCat was also nominated and I thought it would be a tight call between us (both of us had one WR when the poll was up, but his TT was clearly under 40 minutes while mine was around 40.30, I was mostly playing battles instead of internals). But hey, I'm not complaining, so thanks to all those people who voted for me back then. :* -= Mopolauta, thoughts? =- It's a nice place for us to exchange thoughts about Elma. I think it's also good for those people who aren't daily at #across, since together with Moposite it keeps them up-to-date on things happening in the scene. -= Opinions about Elma Crime, MUe's animations and stuff like that. =- I've seen Elma Crime and I enjoyed watching it, it's great that people have energy and patience to do these kind of Elma-related things that enliven the scene. -= What's your favourite Elma website (not moposite)? =- Moposite is pretty much the only site I check on a daily basis, but if I had to pick some other page, it would be skint0r's site because of the excellent outlook and quality levels. -= Your relation to OLP? =- Umm, I have finished most of the levels... ;) As we all know, unfortunately OLP never panned out as expected. It was supposed to be an official levelpack, something like new internals to compete with the old ones that people were getting bored with. But now it's just one levpack among others, some people play it but many people probably haven't touched those levels after playing them for a short while when the pack was published. Why didn't the levels appeal to the majority then? Obviously they weren't good enough. I think a few of the levels are in fact nice, but certainly not all of them. Just look at Mountain Lakes (#21), enough said. :P -= Why that nick, Markku? =- It's my real name. When I played Across for the very first time I of course entered my own name when the game asked for it, and I've been using it ever since. There's no reason for me to begin using some other nick. -= Your real life. Do you have it (school/work, other interests etc)? =- I study maths and physics at the university of Joensuu for the second year, maths as a major. That keeps me quite busy and entertained, so I'm not working anywhere. It would probably be too stressful to study and work at the same time, since I want to do well in my studies, which understandably takes time. -= Write something about the game, fellow kuskis, moposite, #across, etc =- Some Finnish anagrams that describe the deep essence of Elma... Elasto mania = omenista ala = alista omena. -= How did this interview make you feel, like a moviestar? =- Well not really like a moviestar, but it's a bit strange to know that quite a few people will read this. Sometimes writing this felt more of a chore than a pleasure, but all in all, I'm honoured that I was chosen as a KOM, so I was happy to write this interview. Markku 23rd December 2004