,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, An interview of GuyB (kuski of month on July 2002): ''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' -= When did you start playing? =- It all started a very long time ago, in 1999. One of my friends had been at a netmeeting where someone had shown him a game. He didnīt know the name of the game, but it was something about a motorbike, apples and a flower. The folder was called "Wild Game". They created the danish homepage for across, and I got hooked on the game. Then elastomania came and Iīve been playing ever since. -= Ex-teams and why did you change teams? =- I have only been in one team. RDK, which I co-founded. Back when it was formed it was meant as a joke, because we all sucked at the game. Now all the old members (except me) have stopped playing, and new people have joined ...and somewhere along the line it became a serious team.. Today the teams active players are me, Rigger and petsen. We have own teamchannel on irc and homepage (http://213.237.35.1/acrossdk/homeOFrdk/index.htm). Its a great team where we have lots of fun and really stick together.. so Iīm not thinking of changing team 8) -= Current total? =- I havenīt played internals for a long time, and I quite suck at them so my tt isnīt very good. At the moment my tt is 45:26:68 -= Across Career briefly. Any WRs?, World Cup I and II and so on.. =- As I said I started out playing across. It was mainly for fun, I really sucked at the game. Back then we didnīt even know about the WR-table. We found the KGB replays and had own competition in beating them, we succeeded in a few 8) ... It wasnīt until elma came out that I started playing more seriously.. I have had plenty of DK-recs but never any single player WRīs We didnīt even know about the first 2 world cups, when they were held so I didnīt participate in them.. -= Do you still like Across? Why/why not =- Well I donīt play it very often, but every once in a while I open it up to take a trip down memory lane.. Its fun to see how easy my old times are to beat now. LOL, damn they are sucky. -= How did you get Across/Elma? Was it your worst mistake? or the best? =- I got across on a disk from a friend who had gotten it at a LAN. When elma came out we bought the game a few months later.. To call it a mistake would be very wrong, because these two games have brought me so much entertainment that its unbelievable. The time spent playing, the homepages #across , #elma (danish room on copenhagen.dk.quakenet.eu.org) battles, mopolauta and Elma-meetings.. I really love it all, and will continue to do so, for a long long time -= Favourite internals / most irritating internals =- When I started playing elma I really loved Sink .. The speed, and design really appeals to new players. That, and the fact that it was my first DK-rec made me love it. Now my favorite internals are Labyrinth and Tunnel terror. Both levels are extremely well designed and so much fun to höyl, at least in my opinion. .. also long haul is extremely cool The most irritating internals .. hmm.. I donīt really find any levels .. irritating .. but.. .. Haircut is properly the level that comes closest.. actually the level really sux 8) -= Your own best WRs? =- Well I havenīt really had any (very unusual for a kom-winner 8) ), so it must be my multiWR in Tunnel terror, which I have with rigger. -= Best WRs in your opinion? =- There are a bunch of really cool WRīs but If I have to mention some it would be these : 3 . Twin Peaks 19,39 Bob .. damn well höyled, as far as I can tell 17. Labyrinth 55,62 DarMoeD .. Love the level and the style.. and the time is damn fast 47. Enigma 19,75 Deadelous .. Alot faster than the second time in the world, and I really love the style 53. Hooked 17,92 Tibity .. The amount of time Rigger has höyled this level, and still not broken it .. DAMN -= 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? =- well, Wcup must count as a external contest, and I really love that one. To see so many people participate is really cool. I have also played a bit of DarMoeDīs no-brake contest.. funny idea 8) We have also a few danish guys who made some level-packs. I spent much time battling other danes in these contests. What kind of contests I like depends on my general mood. Sometimes "ordinary" external levels are what I want and sometimes I like "special" contests. An examble of such a contest is Toasters Hi-jump contest.. http://home19.inet.tele.dk/elma/elma_olympic.htm Lastly I think I should mention mopobattles. Its a really cool feeling battling and thinking about the amount of competitors.. that rocks A cool idea that I would like to see is a multi-player contest.. a cup or specifik tables for multiplayer .. besides the internal and OLP levels.. that would be cool .. The most realistic of those two is properly the table. I have spoken about a multi-player cup before, but the general interest seemed pretty low... sadly enough -= Best lgr in your mind? What lgr do you use? =- I have tried many lgrīs but my favorite is Across-skin or default. I almost always use one of those two. In the 4īth event of the current w-cup I used the bugman lgr only because the backwall would then get brighter 8) .. My screen was broken, so that everything got darker, and light from outside caused the background and foreground to almost melt together, making it impossible to play in the daytime .. LOL .. -= Mention some good things you have gotten with Across/elma? =- Endless hours of entertainment : If I was to count the hours spent on elma and elmarelated stuff I would get a chock. I donīt know how long it is, but it is definitly much. friends, both online and irl: I have spoken, and regularly speak with a large amount of people online, both nationally and internationally. Some I speak with quite alot. I have met many of the danish kuskit irl, and we meet once in a while, both at LANīs and at parties patience: I have always been pretty patient, but elma has definitly not made it worse.. 8) -= Mention some bad things you have gotten from Across/elma? =- The time I spent could have been used more productively.. but ... nah, elma is the way to go also a few broken keyboards and a few nights with "not enough rest" -= What is the most frustrating thing you have faced in your career? =- I donīt really think that elma have frustrated me.. Of course you get annoyed after playing the same level for many hours and constantly dying right before the flower, but not frustrated.. Once I was frustrated for a brief period because I thought that I had lost my state.dat ..Damn it felt frustrating .. Luckily I found an old one, so I only lost 30 secs or so in my tt at that point. -= The biggest mistake of your Elma career? =- LOL, I canīt think of any -= Cheating, what feelings? Do you use level unlocker/nitro etc? =- To answer the question in reverse order . I have the level unlocker and have used it a few times, not for any specifik purpose, I just found it and wanted to check it out. The fabled nitro patch .. I have it and use it sometimes. The main thing I have used it for is making of maps from levels. I have a oldschool contest on my site. The levels are the internals ones with a few apples added, so that you have to drive the "intended" route. For each of these levels I added a map, so that the player could easily see how the level was changed. This was done with the help of the nitro patch. For a long time now people have been talking about cheating in elma. In the ideal elma-world no one would cheat, and no one would give the issue any more thought.. alas, the world isnīt perfect. Everyone wants to be the best, and if you donīt have the talent, maybe you can cheat so that others will think that you have it. Cheating is wrong because it un-eavens the playing field, giving one or more an unfair advantage against others.. No news in this .. I really hope that people wouldnīt cheat, but you canīt always get what you want. Someone should write some cheat-checking program 8) .. Something that can be changed, however, is the paranoid comments from people.. Im very tired of hearing people brand others as cheaters, without any proof.. Its been done time and time again to different people and it really is annoying. It perfectly natural to think the thought once in a while, but itīs yelled out way to often, in my opinion -= Elma tuning, have you tested? Opinion about it? =- I have never tried it, and donīt intend to do so. Im not skilled enough so that it would matter Some people call it cheating, because it gives an unfair advantage, but I donīt regard it as cheating. If people want to do it, let them I think -= Best kuskis and teams? What are the things you value in another kuski/team? =- There are alot of skilled kuskit out there, many have done great things in the past. In my head, when I am asked who the best kuski of all time is the first person I think of is Dz (I even made a fanpage for him 8D :: http://213.237.35.1/acrossdk/DZ_fansite/DZ.htm ::) The reason is that many are skilled in certain fields in elma, but no matter what he tried he rocked at it. sadly he isnīt very active anymore Other kuskit that are worth mentioning here, in no particular order are : Abula : does so much for the community, and really rox in battles, if he played internals he would be big there also.. 8) DarMoeD : insanely skilled new russian player Karlis : Have been playing forever, and is really, really good. Will properly be the last person to stop playing Mgen : Hungarian kuski with enourmes skill, also does very good in battles Jokke : Have also been around for ages. Have always been part of the elite, and properly always will. I definitly respect him for that Finally, since im from denmark, I have to mention Raider[EMA]. He is the best danish player and have been ever since he started höyling. He is properly the one who will give denmark their first internal WR. When it comes to teams the first team I think of is PRA. Its an old team, now pretty dead, but in the early days, they were quite simply the greatest.. The best team, who is still active must be FM (flowertouching men or IC. Both are extremely good but FM is the oldest and most legendary. Of course I admire skill in a kuski.. pure skill is always admireable, but the ones that I like the best, are the ones that I talk to the most. If they are nice guys, thats enough for me 8) In a team you must first and foremost be able to trust the individual members. The thing I like the most about RDK is that we all trust eachother, completely.. If we have stuff that we donīt want out, it wonīt get out. Thats the way its supposed to be in teams and thats what is admireable.. A team which I think is that way is FM.. -= Your best achievements? =- Beating Rigger in mecup. That was fun because it was the last thing I can point to and say "Back then, little brother, back then I was better than you .. LOL" Getting the multi-WR he and I have now in tunnel terror Getting points in wcup .. In wcup 3 I couldnīt get under the timelimit in many of the rounds, so my goal in this wcup was to get at least 1 point 8) there are properly other things that are worth mentioning, but these were the ones that popped into mind first. -= Do you do any other neat finger-related stuff like playing violin, repairing watches, pick pocketing etc? Not at all, I have gigantic hands and fingers, so all things requiring finesse, is a no-no for me. -= How much did you play in your sickest period? How much these days? =- At the most it must have been every time I could get to a computer.. 10 hours a day is the most I think.. the sickest period was a period of around 2 weeks where all I did was play, play and play. These days I donīt play that much.. or actually I do right now.. but only w-cup. I have had a internal-brake for a long time, but my team-mates tell me to get back to internals.. So I guess I will after wcup -= Have you had Elma dreams? =- I myself havenīt had any elma-dreams, but I know Rigger (my brother) has.. He found a new style in hooked that actually can work.. Thats pretty lol I think -= Strengts and weaknesses as a player? What moves you like/dislike? =- Well, patience is a strengt in this game, and I am very patient, so that must be one of my biggest strenghts. My biggest weakness must be that im not very good at the game. 8D .. I have great fun with the game but I reach a point when I donīt get any better, no matter how much I play.. Its like that in all computer-games that Iīve tried and its the same in elma. I havenīt reached that point yet, but Iīve got a feeling that its not that far ahead. Im not entirely sure what is meant with moves.. if it is styles then I really love the bounce in enigma, that is, to me, the coolest looking style ever. Also zig zag, old across-style is insanely cool .. If moves means specifik movements ingame it must be bounces and brutalvolt.. I often sit and, if I mess up a ride, try to find a good place in the level to make some sort of bounce.. I really love that move.. The brutalvolt is cool solely because I saw a replay of a guy rolling over a large amount of killers. Donīt remember the name of the level, and I donīt know who made the replay, but it ROCKS.. bigtime -= Best memories with elma? =- Having around 10 dk-recs in one table.. Oh boy, those were the days. Beating rigger in mecup. Gave a very satisfying feeling Beating rigger, MGen and Dz in a battle .. I loved it Seeing myself proclaimed as winner of Kuski of month in july -= First time at #across? =- First time was really really cool. I had gotten karlisīs ICQ-number from moposite i think. He guided me through the whole process (I had never tried mirc or irc before) When I entered and looked on the list with people online.. I marvelled... It was all the big names, and one of the biggest was actually talking to me (karlis, who welcomed me) I got hold of my brother and showed him all the names there, and we quickly began to speak with people in there .. That was a big day -= Best Elma friends? =- I have many people that I talk to in #across but the ones I know most are my teammates Rigger : natural causes, he is my brother irl petsen : really really nice guy, which I have visited a few times. He is so cool, both irl and in elma From the international scene these are the people Hibernatus : French guy. Have made many cool things for elma and really is a nice guy.. Ciph : canadian guy.. Rocks in elma, and is really cool to speak with Cloud : Also as skilled as they come. this guy is great DarMoeD : He is new, but we speak all the time.. Really fun guy from the darkest of russia -= Thoughts about Elma meetings? =- My thoughts are this.. I love them.. We have had a few danish meetings, and they were so much fun. I am looking forward to the next one 8) I especially loved the last danish meeting.. We had borrowed rooms at a school in frederecia and had plenty of room, a big-screen projector to watch winning replays from battles and watch Elma-crime which was released on moposite the very day of our meeting.. All in all that meeting was the best iīve tried. The ones from other countries are also cool.. Whenever a new one has been held, I love to check out the reports and see the pictures.. I think it is a great way to expand elma from being so single-player oriented. -= What do YOU think should be improved in an eventual new version of elma? =- New levels would be a must, and something to make it impossible to cheat but other than that, I think that most of what is needed is now included in the 1.11h patch done by Hibernatus There has been talk of a online-version of the game. If done properly I would really love to see that -= Do you have a life when playing elma? =- When sitting and playing elma, it can be very hard to get my attention, sometimes its damn near impossible. The amount of time I spend on elma differs, but in the periods when I go totally bonkers I donīt have much of a life besides that.. Luckily its very rare that it happens these days 8) -= How about battles? =- I have played quite a few battles over the time, and I really love the concept. Its good practice and I like the excitement that follows. There are few elma-related things that give a better feeling than winning a battle against people you know are much more skilled than yo. I hope that mopobattles will be revived at one time, but until then, we play ordinary battles -= You've got some negative feedback about playing elma from your friends? =- Some of them are wondering wtf makes me use so much time on it, but generally they donīt say anything about it.. Most of them have tried it out at one time or another and found it fun Some of them even co-founded rdk with me. -= What games do you like beside Elma? =- I really love RPGīs.. both new ones , newerwinter nights and baldurs gate, and old ones. I have always been a fan of squaresoft, the company that made the final fantasy series and the brilliant secret of mana games.. I have a playstation with the sole purpose of playing rpgīs, alas its been a long time since I last got a fix.. I also play a bit of starcraft.. That game is brilliant -= Have you thought about if you could stop playing Elma soon, or anytime? =- The thought have crossed my mind, but I donīt feel like quitting, so I donīt see any reason to do it. It will properly happen, but that point lies far away in the future. I still have too much fun with playing, and all the stuff that goes on besides playing. -= What gets you still playing Elma =- Donīt really know what gets me playing. I just feel like it. Its fun to see how well you can do There is nothing better than the feeling you get when you see the text "Best Time" -= Are you at the top of your career now? If not, when? =- Im not on top yet, but it is properly not that far out in the future. I will soon hit the point when I canīt get any better, as I mentioned earlier -= Forecast the future of Elma. How the scene will be in five years? =- Balazs have given others permission to make the new elma. It will be named Elastomania 2.0 I will still be playing, denmark will have a few hundred players. and has surpassed sweden in ability. Iīll properly still be running my homepage. Karlis and Jokke are still active.. In fact on the last list jokke took two new WRīs and Karlis just invented a new style in 61. Super labyrinth pro which saves nearly 1 min. 8) The scene will more or less be the same, more people in the scene, but more or less the same -= 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 surprise to even be nominated. Most of the people who are nominated, and win are people with skill of the game itself. I am very involved in all the stuff besides the playing itself, but I have never done anything remarkable in the game itself. the month I won Hibernatus and DarMoeD were also nominated. Hib had done much work with patches at that time and DarMoeD was really kicking of on the WR-table, so both of them would have been more obvious choices. I am, however, very honoured to be both nominated and voted as kuski of month -= Mopolauta, thoughts? =- I check it daily and find it one of the best ways to keep informed about whatīs going on in the scene. If you want news, thats the place to go.. Its a great place, no doubt about that -= Opinions about Elma Crime, MUe's animations and stuff like that. =- Elma crime is a very cool idea. Its really fun to see how much some people are into all this elma-stuff. The movie is good and the fact that we saw it at an elma-meeting on a big projector really made it good. I have seen the animations and especially like the one with the kuski eating apples and going over a cliff.. Also the pictures he made and kuski doll (by MGen) are really sweet -= You are the updater of Danish Elma page. How it's feeling? =- I took over the site long ago, redid the entire site (twice) and made it into the site it is now. I do it because its fun, and because I know that if it wasnīt there, I would miss such a site. Also it gives me a warm feeling everytime someone writes me or signs the guestbook, saying that they appreciate the work I do and that they like the site. To know that the work you do is appreciated is what keeps me going 8) -= What's your favorite Elma website (not moposite)? =- Viper_KillerGuy have made a site where danes can upload their stat.txt. you can then compare players times, tts ect.. there is also a ranking system. All in all a very cool, and useful site I also check these sites on a regular basis http://194.251.105.75/stats/across.html : mircstats for #across by Tura http://home19.inet.tele.dk/elma/ : danish level-designer with lots and lots of stuff on his site. Often updated http://dmd-elma.narod.ru/ : DarMoeDs site. I check it out often to see how many recs I have left in no-brake-contest . LOL The different wr-tables for multi and OLP multi -= Your relation to OLP? =- I played them much in the beginning, but havenīt played them in a long period, lately they got a rennesaince due to the publication of good replays I think that the levels quality varies too much. Some of the levels are extremely cool, but others are very crappy. -= Why that nick? =- GuyB is short for Guybrush.. The name comes from the series of games called Monkey island, in this series the hero is called guybrush threepwood. I needed a nick a long time ago and wrote guybrush because I had just played the monkey island 3 game, and found it funny as hell. I shortened it because, when I had to save a replay I couldnīt write guybrush and the number of the level, due to the 8 character limit when naming stuff in elma. I wrote guyb in stead, and .. well.. It just took over.. its pronounced [guy-B] -= Your real life. Do you have it (school/work, other interests etc)? =- I go to school and have a pretty regular life besides elma. I often go to discoes and parties, in fact most of my weekends go with doing just that.. I like to read and generelly do much other stuff than elma -= Write something about the game, fellow kuskis, moposite, #across, etc =- I have been around for a long time, more than most actually, but I still love it. I love the game #across, #elma(danish), moposite (without it the scene wouldnīt be the same) homepages, battles and all the other stuff connected with elma. last, a few shoud-outs. I want to thank everyone for making the scene what it is, please keep it up and I want to thank the danish players that makes the danish scene so enjoyable: Raider, Sick_Mambo, Rigger, Petsen, H202Manden, jsim, Sprocket, Viper_KillerGuy, Gizmo, Spetzler, juk, MagicGuy, Venom, Beastie, Deisel, Magic x Bear, Monzterman, Kopaka and the rest of you guys. Thank you to all of you for making the danish scene the way it is.. you guys are great All in all, keep it up everyone, and lets continue to have fun GuyB[rdk] 18 october 2002