Rendy's Car Skinning Life

A skin is defined as "a texture for a 3D object / model". A skin is also what makes an object look good and real, which depends on the skin's quality. Usually, skins come in variety types: JPEG, PNG, TGA, and, even to an extent, DDS. The process of making the texture for an object is called skinning, and for every skinning for your object requires an image-editing program. For DDS, this would take up to eleven as you would need a special tool for your image-editing program to be able to open those types.

"In computing, a skin is a custom graphical appearance preset package achieved by the use of a graphical user interface (GUI) that can be applied to specific computer software, operating system, and websites to suit the purpose, topic, or tastes of different users. As such a skin can completely change look and feel and navigation interface of a piece of application software or operating system. A skin may also be associated with themes, which usually only implies part changes and smaller differences, such as colors and similar." -Wikipedia (Image source)

As expected, the scope of this Skinning talk is skins for racing games, and this post has been planned months back, but never realized. Now that this post is finally online, here goes my saga of car skinning... :D

SKINNING LIFE: THE ORIGINS

I remember that I make skins for a game called Live For Speed but they are never posted online; I just did it just for fun, and it was years back, exactly in 2008 where I still use PC and I had LFS there. If you'd like to know, skinning in Live For Speed is simple; there's no shading in every car's skins, and all you have to do is to just skin to your heart's content. Skinning in this game is pretty straightforward due to this, and there's no need for extra tools because the skins aren't even DDSs. The game even comes with a Livery Preview program (forgot the name) that can preview your skin and see how good it looks.

As the time goes by, I don't play LFS anymore. All I was doing is just mindlessly driving the only demo track: Blackwood (both Circuit and Rallycross configurations), and my selection of cars weren't varied enough. Talk about transitioning, I started again my interest of skinning, this time in a better and cooler environment: TrackMania United Forever.

ATTACK ON TRACKMANIA UNITED FOREVER MODELS

Mazda RX-7 FD LM Edition livery, inspired by the same car from PSX installments of Gran Turismo series with slight changes skin-wise. (Model by Codemasters, converted to TMUF by MinituX - page)

As you could see on my previous blog post, I'm recreating the Mazda RX-7 FD LM Edition shown in early installments of Gran Turismo, all for PSX. I chose to do this because of its simplicity; it doesn't need to be all flashy with all those lines, and only needs one color. However, in the game, there's a variety: The FD3S LM also comes in Green and Black in conjunction with Red. Later installments (the PS2 ones) has FD3S LM depicted as Super GT FD3S-lookalike with all-new looks livery-wise, and not to forget putting the shiny Gran Turismo and Polyphony Digital logos, and has more colors like Yellow and Dark blue to name a few in addition to the three aformentioned colors. Oh, and did I mention that this is TrackMania United Forever?

Yup, this is one of the RX-7 FD models you can play as on TMUF simply by downloading the model via the Carpark. In TrackMania Carpark, you can choose your desired car model to be download and for most models there's also a template download too. Not only the 3D, there are lots of skins as well for certain cars you desire. Thanks to creativity and Photoshop, there are now 1000+ skins in total, and that includes skins for all default cars in TMUF, ranging from Drift car-inspired skins, to well-known-in-motorsport livery depictions, and finally shameless energy drink skins!

Debenhams AMR DBR9 for TrackMania United Forever. This was the first skin whose progress I publicized, but then its progress was halted due to no shading and ultimately died. See below for the reason

Sadly, speaking of skinning in TMUF, I had to swallow the stupidest and most unfair decision Trackmania Carpark forum moderators have done: deleting an account for spamming while the account in question DOES NOT do it. A long time ago, I had an intention to skin an Aston Martin DBR9 (by Chupa) and found out that there's no Templates link available (usually there is), and the link to the Templates download (provided in the model's thread) is dead already. This was where I decided to do the extreme action: To open the thread titled "The Lost Templates Thread" where its purpose was obvious: to have someone upload lost Templates link on some models' download page. The next day the thread was made, I couldn't find my thread and all of the sudden all of my posts were gone, even on the model request section where I requested vast number of cars like Toyota Corolla WRC and Porsche 911 GT1. To make things worse, I cannot log in even though my login credentials were right. Even if it was right, it redirected me to the log in page again and again until I saw a staggering warning said "This IP has been permanently banned". The worst part of all is, when I e-mailed the admin regarding to my reason why my account is deleted, the only words that he asked me about "Who are you?". But, didn't I registered my account with the same e-mail I used for doing the mentioned action?

It´s quite a while ago that this happens, and as far i can see this was for spamming. Not for a thread that is said for templates or things like that. But as said, i can´t remember to that. it´s quite a while ago..

I was totally enraged knowing that I cannot freely post my progress of my skins due to that. I blamed the moderators for doing the action without even investigating further whether I spammed or not (or perhaps gave me a first warning instead so I can let them know that I didn't do the spamming thing). And no, it was not because the Lost Templates thread, as you saw it...

Fast forward to the time of this blog post, I created another account via a Wi-Fi connection (because my modem connection is already hated by Carpark mods) but not yet post a progress. But one thing's for sure, I continued skinning TMUF cars. One of my projects is to create a skin for Mooncraft Shiden (by GKRacer), but that's not the only car I focus too. There's still the FD, and the JGTC-kit R34 (by QtoR) in queue. Other than the three, there are lots more to skin. (read: moving on)

Yet, I feel Carpark yet has so much variety of available models. I can understand that making 3D isn't an easy job, not to forget converting another game's car to be playable on TMUF is also this. So, there's a second option to this skinning biz...

FINDING A FORTUNE IN GTR 2

BPR Global Series mod for GTR 2 - 90s Grand Touring Goodness! + My first target mod

At first, I bought GTR 2 at a game shop for the sake of trying the BPR mod. As time progresses, I've been digging mods that interests me, most recently the EEC GT3 mod where it includes all FIA GT3 cars, and the best thing is that it also comes with skins based on Blancpain Endurance Series 2012 as a separate download! Also worth a download is the WSGT mod for GTR 2, which is a convert of the rFactor mod of the same name (and the original WSGT). This way, the DBR9 skinning work originally planned to be made on TMUF was transitioned to GTR2 with newer look, same main sponsorship.

GT3 Goodness: Shephard Racing Team Pretty Little Liars F430  at Mount Panorama Circuit. It's just a matter of redoing the striping and the numberplate... Didn't I also said that Anime promotions in motorsport are too mainstream? This is the answer for such question

Both EEC GT3 and WSGT mods are the ones I recommend to skin for everyone, the BPR mod skins are also worth to try in case if 90s GT runners are your thing, and you have interests in making their skins. There are lots of other race cars out there, but you should find them by yourself as most cars cannot be mentioned here due to a couple of reasons. Other than that, NoGripRacing and e-Sport Racing can be your first choices :).

WSGT saved my life: even better version of Debenhams AMR DBR9. Now that's more like it :)

Overall, GTR 2 skinning workaround is much different than in TMUF. While in TMUF you simply skin the "diffuse" of the car (or you can do the same for the "details") while not forgetting the Alpha layer and put them in your custom car's zip file, GTR 2 has you dealing with *.gtr files which are series of *.dds files of the car's skin comprising of the skin's "Body" and "Windows", among other things. You don't need to make their Alpha layer but you need a special tool to view *.gtr files like GEditor. The work doesn't stop there; the *.car file in your skin's folder defines your car's properties, from parts used (via Genstring options) to the skin's team name and the skin's drivers' name. Mind you, there are some tutorials for that. :D

TMUF x GTR2 Project: SUPREME CHALLENGE

It took me long enough to make a logo for this series. There were lots of drafts, and I tried too hard in making a logo that can conceive the "racing" message for this series. It's yet finished as it needs colors

There are TMUF models not available in GTR2 (either the model in general or just the templates for skinning's sake) and vice versa. SUPREME CHALLENGE is basically just a fictional "racing" series showcasing different cars. The cars in SUPREME CHALLENGE will utilize several tuning cars such as Lancer Evolution IX, Mazda RX-7 (third generation a.k.a the FD), and Mazda RX-8 to name a few, to a series of GT3 cars like Nissan GT-R, McLaren MP4-12C, and Mercedes Benz SLS AMG. Think of it as Super GT, Super Taikyu, and any FIA GT3-spec endurance series you can imagine set to "liquefy".

Specialized numberplate for the SUPREME CHALLENGE skins. Skins without this numberplate is not part of the series. I took the Super GT approach for this numberplate, and is actually a different take to my previous numberplate (see illustrations below). Shameless promotion included in it.

While I've made several skins, I've yet to share the world how they look like. The plan was to be finished in 2013 but then it's 2014 already and that I had to follow the 2014 "standards". Confirmed entries are, including the Team Pretty Little Liars...

Drafted for many times: TRESemme Team Taisan 911 GT3. Owned by the racing team "Team Luxe", whose drivers are all working fashion models. Let's say that they do this as a hobby...

Taking inspiration from a team from another game: Croatia Racing Team Z4 GT3 Coupe. To be honest I was a little short on finding a perfect title sponsor for the team until I thought that "promoting Croatia" is a good thing.

Why you shouldn't be idoling: Taylor Swift Racing 911 GT3. I knew Juan Pablo Montoya in NASCAR had Taylor Swift livery on his car, and this is the TaySwift livery taken up to eleven.

One of the returning Indonesian teams: DRTV Racing Team Solite MP4-12C. It's uncommon to see a TV Shopping brand become a sponsor in motorsport, but one can dream, right? Last year they used GT300-spec NSX as their weapon, but this year... The regulations have changed.

...and these are the "Recurring" entries (they're not technically 'recurring' entries as this is the first time I share these skins. However, let's imagine that SUPREME CHALLENGE already started long before this blog post). These entries use the old numberplate whose template I lost prior to my re-installation of my Windows 7 OS (damn you TetraCopy for skipping my backups when I try to copy them -_-).

Some of the recurring ones are Team Luxe, Team Pretty Little Liars, Croatia Racing Team, and DRTS, plus...:

Champions of the past: George Richards Racing entered SUPREME CHALLENGE since its 2009 season, won two years after joining, and used this car until 2013: GRC Giordano Supra (with adjustments to match FIA GT3/JAF GT300 cars). This year, they're rumored to use a Gallardo due to the change of regulations.

Inspired by an e-Sport team: STP Frantic.Intl Viper SRT GT3. By the looks of it, it emulates Fnatic. Other e-Sports team-inspired skins I would make would be those inspired by Natus Vincere, Alliance, and mousesports to name a few.

French counterpart: TOTAL Frantic France Viper SRT GT3. Compared to its SUPREME CHALLENGE counterpart, Fnatic has no French counterpart whatsoever...

Older drafts, old skins, and not-going-to-compete skins are:

Older look of the GRC Giordano Supra. Compared to this, this has more lines and a British flag but not the frog logo (which is a brand logo for Giordano btw)

Buffy Racing Team LiveJournal 911 GT1. For obvious reasons, this car doesn't make the cut.

Older draft of Taylor Swift Racing. This RX-8 version of Taylor Swift Racing follows the style of JPM's Taylor Swift livery although this car's main sponsor is iTunes and his was Target.

Pirtletech ULTA Beauty Z4 Coupe. One of the cars that utilize the older nameplate layout. They won't be returning this year...

Honda Racing x DRTS NSX GT300. This is DRTS's contender last year.

One of my TMUF creations: Desigual Silvia GT300. Another JAF GT300-spec car and is owned by a Spanish team called "Colores". This year, they're going to use the GT3-spec GT-R.

While there are more skins than what you can see here, I still have to think the concepts for each competing team's livery, and the number of the teams competing in the SUPREME CHALLENGE is still in the question mark. Other than that, skinning in GTR2 and TMUF has their own ways, but enjoy doing it is part of the process. Whether you try to replicate your favorite racing team or create an original skin of yours, it sharpens your creativity and Graphic Designing skills altogether.

Neither is the car mine nor is the skin. I just toy the Mediatracker a little bit...

~[R]

GENERALLY 2 Kickstarter Demo Finally Online!

Everyone's been waiting to test out GeneRally 2, the successor of GeneRally. And on April 1st, they proved that their Kickstarter Demo is no April Fools' by getting the demo playable online for everyone, regardless if they're new to GR or veterans who are no strangers to the game.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

GeneRally 2 has the same simple premise like the first one has: you drive your car from start to finish as fast as possible. However, in the demo, you can have either an unlimited lap time trial or a race with up to six friends: Two keyboard players and four who use controllers.

As you're done choosing your car for your time trial / race, the game will load its only playable track, somehow Brunel Park by James Burgess. The race is done in a usual manner except the fact that you drive unlimited number of laps when driving alone. As expected, there are notable new features such as new cars, split times, new object shapes, and most importantly, day/night cycle! Reenacting round-the-clock endurance racing will be possible as soon as this game is finished!

THE CARS

The GR2 fam. You can notice which ones are newcomers here... :)

There are two new cars in the sequel, among the selection of five other returnees like Mini, Monster Truck, Yankee, Rallycar, and Formula (although it's named Formula GR09). These cars are Buggy and Group C! While Buggy is fun to drive due to its drifty physics, Group C is... well, a disappointment. Once you drive the Group C car, you'll realize that it brakes too quick and its handling is equal to trying to steer a rock, for a car that's too fast. Other than that, the rest feel the same as their first GR counterparts. Still, we're dying for a modern-day 200-poly take of General, Onewheeler, Truck, et al.

Take note that you should also notice how Rallycar is fun to be driven on dirt, how hard Yankee's physics is for you, how you shouldn't stuck yourself when driving Monster Truck, how fragile Formula is when bumping into walls and its behavior of "flying" when you run the sunken tires. Other than that, every car has their own distinctive sounds, with certain cars sounded like a buzzing bee and also certain ones that sound like a truck. Others retain their original engine sound from GR.

THE DRIVE

The best part of this game has always been racing. Here, you drive, depending on how many players you have, alone or with your rivals for a predetermined number of laps (only apply to the latter, the former has unlimited laps). As you drive the track, you'll notice that there are new shapes for objects, and new objects too. Notice how big office buildings create smoke from top, concrete walls have an option with fencing, a garage object, and how every stand has a roof. Also worth noting is that the hay bales are now movable as you bump them, among other things.

Also visible are more realistic smoke and dust effects. Taking up to eleven from the first game, the smoke now looks realistic than they were, even when you drive the sand run offs, it generates realistic dust effects too. So, if anyone were to make a drift car or a rally track when this game is released, BE. MESMERIZED.

Split times are also not exempt from GR2. Everytime you pass certain points on this demo track, you will notice that above you is a gap from your best time of your car. There are three sections where the gap will be shown, and that includes the start/finish line. If you are aiming for a fast time, let this gap above your car "motivate" you so that you know if you do well in certain sections.

But the most awaited feature of GR2 is this one:

As the night comes via predefined time scale, the lights from light posts illuminate as the track goes dark, adding a challenge to the racers of driving in the dark. Your car will also light its headlights automatically as the race enters its night time, and not only that, your car will also shine even if it's dark on the track for visibility's sake. This is what everyone has been waiting for; an addictive game with simple premise and a day/night cycle, so that everyone can consider having an endurance race, either with AIs or in a conventional login competition way.

THE VERDICT

Even though that the game is not bug-free due to it being an Alpha, we knew that this is yet perfect, but it gives enough sneak peek of what's going to come in GR2. The gameplay doesn't change from its predecessor, the 200-poly take on cars look amazing, and the day/night cycle succeed to deliver. It is a game worth the wait for its full release and is a perfect time waster if you'd like to set up a race with friends, although you have warn them that the steering is a bit delayed, the FPS is a little bit slow, and that they don't need to drive a Group C car due to its disappointing physics.

We're looking forward for the Kickstarter campaign! Remember! Check out GeneRally 2's developer blog, GeneRally International Forums, and while you're at it, try the Kickstarter demo now, alone or with friends with four controllers and another keyboard player using another part of keyboard!

~[R]

[R]GARAGE site unmaintained... D'Oh!

Believe it or not, it's been awhile since I updated my site with new stuffs, but not including newer stuffs you've seen in this blog. I've been very busy in real life and it pretty much dumps my time to maintain my site and update all sections with new downloads. Yup, you don't see Grupard on my site yet... I've been showing disinterest in updating the site because I have no idea when I can update the site. The only thing that grows my disinterest is how my internet load the Site Editor and time constraints. Even my 1GB midday quota always run out for less than one week, and Wi-Fi connections... Well, they don't do justice for me, even if they're fast. :(

[R]GARAGE still in its natrual life form... Not really updated -_-

I also don't feel good with the site's style. Sure that HTML5 is the best, but somehow the way my site looks and the interaction overall somehow doesn't fully suit me 100%. It's not that I hate my own site, but somehow I need something which design and interaction overall suit me. Plus, I'm still thinking of how to put a picture without it being a gallery. If there's such option on Wix, I can work it out and that means it'll undergo a total revamp.

One thing that I want to have in my site is the same layout like this official site of Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune series. From its first installment to the most recent WMMT5 (in Japan and some parts of Asia. Indonesia still has MT4), it keeps its layout like that, and I'm considering my site to follow such layout. But didn't my old site RendyTUNED also had such layout? I thought this will go down as a consistency to-die-for, especially when I found out that each brand has a consistency of layouts between its print ads and its websites (if they have one).

But there were things that have been past prior to this post, and I've experienced them all. There were also projects and some to-bes that are in their WIP phase.

SINCE I'VE BEEN GONE, ish...

Despite all the bombshell, the Kickstarter Alpha demo of GeneRally 2 is out already! Now you can taste all the sweets GR2 has promised, including cars with more polies, day/night cycle, and new looks on objects. I can say that the team has done great job in doing this game, and am really looking forward for the finished product. Or, if I have a mean to "Pledge" this game, I could pledge as many as 20+ plays of Maximum Tune 4, Indonesian server, where a game is worth IDR 8.750 the cheapest.

Ladies and GENEtlemen, the moment you've been waiting for has arrived!

Although the demo they served a long time ago isn't perfect, they have an all-out effort to perfect the game to not only give a new life to a game with humble beginnings in the hands of Rabina brothers, but also retain what the first GR had: simple, no-nonsense, in-your-face, gameplay. There's no need for car setups yet you could make your own car and model it by yourself, and trackmaking in this game is progressively addictive as you play with Landmaps first and then Objects, Height maps, and to some extent, Landmap arts. You could even make your own object just by combining several objects at once, just like how the Track of Month-winning authors!

My own review for the GR2 should come soon after this blog!

Winners of the Karawaci Tourney on 22nd March. Once again, Infamous dominated, yet MVI's Aulia broke their dominance by placing second. (Image courtesy of Indonesian WMMT Community @ FB)

Days back, I've also participated in another Maximum Tune 4 tournament, this time held at Supermall Karawaci. The result is pretty much the same; me being phased out in the second round and Infamous once again took the domination. No surprise indeed, except that one of the Infamous guys handled the commentary duty instead of myself. I guess he handled it well even though one of his friends said that my way of commentary is still better, and the part that he funnily counted down the final meters of every race he commentated (read: wrong counts) was very hilarious and entertaining.

Yet there's another catch to be happening at Supermall Karawaci: tag team tournament. Yup, there's a plan about an MT4 tag team tournament in works, and now they are seeking sponsors, collecting prize pools, etc. Malaysia also had their own MT4 tag team tournament that claimed to be a "Tournament that concludes all tournaments".

Taken from an MT4-related FB page: Hi everyone! KL , Malaysia will be having a tag team competition on June 7 and 8.
64 teams draw lots to 4 teams per group. Play C1 against each other. Top 2 advances to stage 32.
32 teams draw again and play same format as 64.
Best of 16 onwards will play knockout on C1 , Osaka , Hakone until finals
Finals will play 5 maps
Prizes:
1st - RM 3000 (Cash) + Trophy + Cert + Other goodies TBD
2nd - RM 1000 (cash) + Trophy + Cert + Other Goodies TBD
3rd - RM 200 (In game credits) + Cert + Other Goodies TBD

Registration:RM50

GAH! Why can't Maximum Tune 4 be an international e-sport already and spread the game around the world now? How about a The International-styled MT tournament between teams from around the world? Seeing Asia-Pacific competitors is sure exciting, but more exciting with more parts of the world able to enjoy MT4, but is it really possible? I don't think so; will they accept the way of... *cough* Networked Arcade?

STUFFS PROGRESS

While I have dumped Al Dasein 2013 due to the fact that I disliked how the Height map made one of the corners "bumpy" and that I can't think of the decent parking space at the bottom of the track, plus the fact that GRHmEdie (GR Hmap Editor by Mlynki) hates tracks version 1.20 above, PLUS I'm too lazy to do it all over again, I'm working on a WS 120 temporary street course, with finally a rapid WIP progress never achieved by any WIP of mine! I've never, ever, enjoyed playing with environments for this track \\:D//

The course you're seeing here is set in a park which has a circuit section of its own. The course traverses from the circuit to the streets, which actually are one-way roads. There's a chicane when you drive the second road and left hairpin follows after. The rest of the track is full of hairpins.

One thing I enjoyed from making this track however is the fact that I emphasized the environment on the right side before I can further my progress. You see, the buildings are inspired by buildings you'll be familiar with if you're living in New York, and so does the park. But does that mean that it's set in New York? Hmm...

Things left to do are persons on the paddock area and the road lines, with everything done except for AI lines. Learning to what Haruna did with the AI line to my Grupard via Skype, I will also try to make the decent AI line so that racers will be given a tough time trying to overtake a full field of cars! Hopefully this track will be finished if the condition permits me :)

From above to below: Okayama Circuit, Nippon Highlands V2, and a Sarthe-Inspired track

Meanwhile there's more Japanese goodness for Turbo Sliders as I have planned on making two more tracks set in Japan; the second version of Nippon Highlands, and Okayama Circuit. As I disliked the flow of the first Highlands, I decided to create another one that would have a better flow than the first version had, having experienced helping Lanz on making the Show Event course for PTM's second season. Despite not using my version, at least he knew how the checkpoints for this Show Even work, the same for Okayama. Only this time, as Okayama is a real-life track, I think it's safe to say that it's going to be my second real-life circuit after Tsukuba. I thought I could do Circuit of The Americas for SCARTS races but, well...

Under the two Japanese tracks is yet another track: a TSE-styled track inspired by Circuit de la Sarthe! I guess that the TSE style will be the standard for most tracks whose layouts are done in Photoshop. Other than that, the tracks are still WIP, with all of their kerbs are being worked by the time of this post.

Also, take note that I still owe myself a blog post about how I make skins for various games, including for TrackMania United Forever and GTR 2. I've been making so many skins yet I haven't show the world how they look like. The one you're seeing here is a TMUF representation of an FD RX-7 made by ..., with a skin that you should recognize from Gran Turismo series, especially first two installments. Know what that is? Yup! RX-7 FD LM Edition! Even though that they might won't be totally following the actual livery, I guess this should be a good representation of the old style LM Edition livery. :D

Until next time, folks! Will be posting about my GR2 experience after this! :)


~[R]

First (?) Indonesian MT-related Violence (No, this ISN'T an April Fool's joke)

So I browsed the internet yesterday, and I found this... (Take note this IS NOT an April Fool's joke)

An Indonesian MT4-related violence just happened days ago... (From an Indonesian WMMT community, shared to other international communities as well)

Seriously?

Loose Translation: There was a child abuse case that happened in a Timezone arcade in Surabaya, IDN, where a father's child was playing MT4 alone when a man damaged the machine the child was playing because the man claimed that the boy overexceeded the recommended number of times you can play MT4 in a full day that is set by TZ (newspaper says 2x, actually 3x in most arcades), and wanted the child to get out. The boy only played one time and naturally resisted to leave the game as he didn't have enough turns yet. However the man yelled angrily at him back, then pulled the kid out from the chair and went on to break the boy's glasses into two pieces and punched the boy in the stomach. 

The father went to Timezone the next day to report this case by asking the management but the manager was away without reason, which is why the open article about this was published to attract attention from Timezone.

If you see any violent occurence while playing in the arcade, report to the police and the management at the arcade. Reason with the perpetrator if possible. If the perp is dangerous, do not do this and instead go out to inform the police as soon as possible. Arcades should be a place for amusement and not violence. In arcade history, these places have been known to attract crooks, we should not make this again at all.

If you are supposed to be a role model for the kids, why are you doing this crap? Does this mean that the "R.I.P Patience" era is getting stronger? -_-

However, Maximum Tune-related violence doesn't happen only in Indonesia; there's one in Singapore too, although it's a long time ago. 

Man fined $5,000 for slamming teenager's head against arcade game machine

An engineer was fined $5,000 on Thursday for punching and slamming a teenager's head against the steering wheel of a racing game machine.

Lau Teck Guan, 34, had admitted to causing hurt to the 15-year-old student at TKA Virtualand Arcade at Parco Bugis Junction at Victoria Street on May 26, 2011.

The court heard that at about 9pm that day, the victim's friend, then 16, was playing the racing game with Lau.

When his friend lost a game, the victim decided to take over the steering wheel. The victim then won subsequent games against Lau. (X)

Why is there even a violence involved when queuing or for this game or when losing this game? Be reminded that THIS IS JUST A GAME, and there's no need to insert violence in the game...

BUT WHAT SHOULD BE DONE TO PREVENT THESE FROM HAPPENING?

Just two things here...

Sometimes putting a security person or two around the machine can be a good solution. This way, when the queue gets crowded, they can keep track of how many games the occupying player has played. It is an outright first choice indeed, and should work 100%. If it doesn't work, one or two queuing players can volunteer themselves into one. They need to remind players if their 3-game limit when playing is over, yet this would be rendered useless when the machines are very vacant.

DON'T CARE SOMEONE'S TITLE! Even if the one in question is a son / daughter (rare case) of an honored soldier or not, the securities must not be biased of someone's predicate. Everyone's the same and everyone has the right to play the game even if they're young or old, or experienced or new, or even an honored soldier or just a casual gamer. It is everyone's game. Period.

We hope that any game center around the world, whether they have Maximum Tune 4 or not, can learn from these horrific violent "tragedies". Make the arcade scene a friendly place to be for everyone...

~[R]