,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, An interview of mr (Kuski of Month on December 2003): ''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' -= When did you start playing? =- As far as I remember it was June on 1998 +-1 month. -= Ex-teams and why did you change teams? =- Tandem Crossers - TC, apple harvesters finland - ahf and Mahti Crossers - MC. When I found official web site of Across and saw WRs and teamlogos there it didn't take so long after I wanted to be part of that scene. So I asked many teams to get in but without any result. I don't remember what were teams I asked but at least Team Finlandia - FIN was one. If I remember right what px (in those times his nick was Pekka_T or PeXi) answered it was like this: "Sorey this is team of me and my friends"). After asking to join other teams I desided to make own team, TC. TC was founded by me, SoGe (my brother), Joonas (neighbour - friend of us), n0te (classmate on that time) and Henkka (classmate too). I just can't remember exactly how long TC existed but not very long though. n0te and Henkka weren't really interested in Across so they "quitted" after about a month or something. There were only 3 kuskis left and I was the most interested (addicted maybe:)) in Across of us and I desided to find new team because it was very hard to get styles without a team. And of course it much funnyer to play with someone else and compare/compete times with someone else. ahf seemed quite interesting team to join so I asked Ari_ahf what he thinks about that and he took me in. We had had co-operation with Ari_ahf before too. For example he helped me with giving replays and telling how to join IRCnet etc. (before that never heard about IRC). ahf was a big team with 8-10 members if I remember right but many of them were inactive players (list of kuskis I remember from those times in ahf: Ari, green, juha, Jukka, Devil, Kuri, vender, shorty). After some months SoGe and Joonas joined ahf too. Then came ElMa, ahf was quite active about half year after ElMa was released, nice competition with team mates, some WR's etc.. Then came that same feeling that with TC times: "I'm the only active". So, I started to find team to ask joining. If I remember right there was two teams I thought to ask, MC and FM. FM was full of pro kuskis and I was n00b, so at first asked Abula if I can join MC. And they took me (Abula, Markku and Tuska). It didn't took so long when Markku retired and Tuska was inactive, so again in same situation! At this time not alone, with Abula. Then I went to army and during my military service we discussed with Abula and Jokke if we could make new team because FM had many retired kuskis. It took some time because me, Jokke and Karlis were at army and we didn't have much time to discuss in vacations. After army in summer 2002 we had first FEM (not first Finnish meeting) and there we joined with Abula to FM. So FM was: Abula, Jokke, Karlis, me and Tisk. It has been great time to be part of this team (höyling with Karlis :*). -= Current total? =- 38:40,49 -= Top5 newest and oldest personal records? =- Newest: 37. Jaws 58,78 29-03-2006 22. Slalom 39,77 27-01-2006 49. What The Heck 40,10 25-01-2006 26. Circuitous 25,97 19-01-2006 14. Loop-de-Loop 18,31 01-01-2006 Oldest: 52. Hang Tight 25,90 30-11-2001 48. Downhill 50,80 22-06-2002 50. Expert System 57,09 22-06-2002 42. Enduro 50,85 08-07-2002 24. Ramp Frenzy 56,16 18-08-2002 -= Across Career briefly. Any WRs?, World Cup I and II and so on.. =- I've thought that I got Across about June in 1998. It was love at first sight :D After I finished the game, I found WR-list. Times felt quite impossible to beat. We höyled Across 1.0 track Fair Trial with my brother SoGe, SoGe got wr first, then I beated it. That was my first and only WR in Across. I never got WR's in Across 1.2 version (only after ElMa was released and nobody else plays it but me and BarTek :D). World Cup I: 71. World Cup 2000: 25. World Cup 3: 25. World Cup 4: 15. World Cup 5: 26. -= Elma career? =- I continued höyling that started in Across. Didn't get any WR's to first ElMa WR-list which was little dissappointment. I got my first WR in table #004, Steppes 13,86. Quite sick höyling periods have been during my ElMa career. For example Framework WR was result of about month of höyling about 6 hours per day (with Karlis :*). -= Do you still like Across? Why/why not =- Yes I like. It brings good memories. In my opinion Across WR-list should have been frozen when ElMa released. But anyway I've made WRs in Across with "ElMa styles" (shame me :)). -= How did you get Across/Elma? Was it your worst mistake? or the best? =- I got Across 1.0 from my neighbour. We were going to school and he told me -= Favourite internals / most irritating internals =- Favourite levels varies much. But if I've to list 5 those will be: The Steppes, Shelf Life, Bounce Back, Headbanger, Bowling The rest are irritating. Not really. For example Long Haul, Steep Corner and Downhill are levels I've never liked -= Your own best WRs? =- No doubt the best WR I've had is The Steppes 11,60 (tables #131-#230). The story behind this WR is far from FEM2003. These times I was höyling Steppes like hell. We had some kind of battle in that with Jalli. In FEM I höyled it many many hours and finally got 11,87 which was better then current WR those days. Unfortunately Jalli had sent better (11,86) to WR-table. It was maybe second night. Everyone else except me and Karlis were sleeping. We began to think about if there could be some other style to Steppes. Karlis found Zyntifox's 13,55 ex-WR rec from where we got idea to merge ideas of short speed and "rear wheel over pole". I didn't get any good "even near" runs during FEM. But finished it with "new style" after about week and maaaaany hours höyling and time was 11,60. I never got better though höyled it much. It was in WR table for about two and half years and hundred tables. -= Best WRs in your opinion? =- Hard to say but at least Luther's Downhill 46,35 (in table since #151) is more than good. As Karlis' Warm Up 14,05 rocks. -= What's the limit of WR times? =- Only limit is peoples interest against Elma and amout of time they can use with it. -= 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 don't play much externals. Mopobattles and World Cups are the only contests I play for sure. I've taken part to two Mopokups arranged by Zworqy. One big reason for taking part those has been Kupteam with Axxu, Ismo and jsim. ATM I don't have any great ideas to new contests. -= Best lgr in your mind? What lgr do you use? =- For both HighQ. Before HighQ I used default lgr with little mod. Number 8 from bike was changed to FM-logo. I would be happy if I could get HighQ with that mod ;) I'm noob with lgrs and too lazy to find out how to mod it (if it's even possible). -= Mention some good things you have gotten with Across/Elma? =- Only good thing really is friends that I've got with Elma. I'm not very social and mostly I need some common interest with friend to be active in communication. -= Mention some bad things you have gotten from Across/Elma? =- Bad thing that comes first my mind is losing much time with playing game. I can't know what I had made if I hadn't started to play Elma. Maybe would have played other games or made something useful.. -= What is the most frustrating thing you have faced in your career? =- Maybe cheating waves have been bad times. For me personally losing WR is frustrating situation. Nowadays it's easier because I've no WRs=nothing to lose :) -= The biggest mistake of your Elma career? =- I can't remember any. -= Cheating, what feelings? Do you use level unlocker/1.11hb/1.2 etc? =- Cheating is so wasted. In Elma you can reach "nothing" with success so no need to cheat. Anyway cheating is immortal as in real life. I used unlocker and nowadays using 1.2 which has integrated levunlock feature. You can even save and modify original Internal levels with normal editor. So I don't see any reason to lock levels and disable possibility to make training levels etc. -= Elma tuning, have you tested? Opinion about it? =- Tuning is important part of Elma in my opinion. I can compare it to adjusting sport equipmnets. Better to play with smooth moving bike. I use 1.2 final patch which fixes "XP-bug", set refresh rate to maximum that my screen supports and changing V-Sync depending on level. -= Best kuskis and teams? What are the things you value in another kuski/team? =- Karlis is best of course. He is the veteran of veterans and still hanging around with us. He has always been on top. There's also good ones like TorInge and Zweq. In externals i can name MP the best with 2 World Cup wins. Big value for me when comparing kuskis is Total time and WRs. In teams maybe more important is spirit than good TT and WRs. -= Your best achievements? =- All WRs that I've had. Also total time in top 10 I value high in my achievements. In World Cups etc. I haven't got good success. Writing this interview finally after two and half years after vote can be added one of my achievements :) -= Do you do any other neat finger-related stuff like playing violin, repairing watches, pick pocketing etc? Not. I've never played any musical instrument. -= How much did you play in your sickest period? How much these days? =- Sickest are maybe from times I played Framework WR. I think it was more than 5 hours/day for some weeks. Nowadays it varies much. Nearly every day I open Elma and play something. Average could be about 1 hour/day. -= Have you had Elma dreams? =- I think not. At least I can't remember any. -= Strengts and weaknesses as a player? What moves you like/dislike? =- My strengt must be höyling power. I'm not scared to höyl same level for months. Weakness is lack of skills. I think I don't get any results without höyling like hell. -= Tips for average players? =- Don't be scared of got beaten by someone. Because there's always people who are better than you :) -= Best memories with Elma? =- WRs, specially that Steppes episode I told earlier. Good ones are also waiting for WR-list update and World Cup results in IRC. -= First time at #across? =- I don't have exact time in my mind but with advice of Ari_ahf I joined #across first time about in 1999. -= Best Elma friends? =- Abula and Karlis -= Thoughts about Elma meetings? =- Great happenings. I've been arranging and been in FEM four times. Every time it has been fun to meet and conversate with people IRL. -= What do YOU think should be improved in an eventual new version of Elma? =- Anticheat things are important. Of course computer program can't ever be unbreakable but some improvements there should be. Another view is statistics, long file names etc. But I don't like the idea of new Elma. There's so much things to reach with current version so no need for new version. -= How about battles? =- Battles are best in meetings. But funny form of Elma contest they are via IRC also. Personally I don't play battles much. I'm trying to remember to take part of every mopobattle. -= Have you got any negative feedback about playing Elma from your mates? =- Much. "Luckily" I don't have many friends :) -= What games do you like beside Elma? =- EA Sports NHL -games I've played every year since 1998, but not much. Mostly that with my brother SoGe. -= Did you buy Elma? Why not? =- Nope. I got Registered Elma from drawing after World Cup 2000. -= Have you thought about if you could stop playing Elma soon, or anytime? =- I don't see any reason to stop Elma completely. The time I use with Elma varies much but I've never thought seriously to stop playing it completely. -= What gets you still playing Elma? =- Simply improving times. Specially Internal times. That is contest without deadline. I like that :) -= Are you at the top of your career now? If not, when? =- I think my career's top has been reached a few years ago when I had some WRs even in same table. -= Forecast the future of Elma. How the scene will be in five years? =- New version of Elma will become in two years. Old Elma dies. Some veterans stop. But there comes new people to scene with help of new version. So scene will be at least as active than now. Good Elma sites are important to keep scene active. -= Was it a surprise to be voted for the kuski of month? If it was who should have won in your opinion and why? =- Soon two and half years ago I was voted for KOM so I can't remember the situation. Maybe I was a bit surprised. -= Mopolauta, thoughts? =- It's a bit different place to conversate than IRC. Personally I don't like mopolauta much. Some times I read it but I write rarely there. More I like IRC chans. -= Opinions about Elma Crime, MUe's animations and stuff like that. =- Nice to watch everything Elma related multimedia. Also MC Studios Elma songs are in my playlist :) -= What's your favourite Elma website (not moposite)? =- (Moposite) I'm not really using others. Though ATM Zworqy's site because of Mopokup2. -= Your relation to OLP? =- Have't played those after they were released. Maybe some day.. or maybe not. -= Why that nick, mr? =- First time I joined scene I was using nick Mr_Mikko (Mikko my first name). Then it shortened to mr. Not so big story behind that. -= Your real life. Do you have it (school/work, other interests etc)? =- I'm living with my girl friend. Soon I'll finish the school in North Carelia University of Applied Sciences. I'll graduate as telecommunicatio engineer. Other hobbies are collecting different stuff like beer pints, Jope Ruonansuu records, Guinness Record Books, coins etc. -= Write something about the game, fellow kuskis, moposite, #across, etc =- This is the "world" that many people outside of that can't even imagine. It's nice that little game like Elma can have this kind of activity like meetings, battles, sites, contests.. whole community. -= How did this interview make you feel, like a moviestar? =- This interview made me sad :/ I've been suffered from bad conscience not to writing this all more than two years. I don't see this big achievement. It was only my turn to win KOM because everyone else were won it already ;) mr, 12 April 2006