INSIDE THE MALL: Puri Indah Mall - The First Mall to Have Maximum Tune 4!

It's time for the third edition of the INSIDE THE MALL Series! Previously I've visited Mal Parung and Cilandak Town Square, and now it's time to write another location with an interesting story! And as the title said, it's time to gear yourself up for Puri Indah Mall! I know I should've posted this a long time ago since my first visit there but nevertheless, it's better to be late than not at all.

Outskirts of Puri Indah Mall (Image courtesy of www.direktorijakarta.com)

This is the farthest mall I've ever been, due to the fact that it is located in West Jakarta. Hell, even going there takes approximately 40 minutes from my college (which is UIN Syarif Hidayatullah State University), that is if you're not stuck in the traffic as you make your way there... And apparently, taking the Bintaro route would be the fastest route you could take, whether if you're living in the Ciputat area or not.

Located in Puri Agung Street, Puri Indah, Kembangan, it was initially a mall with a modern "Puri" concept, but such concept nowadays no longer reflects the current state of the mall. Its construction and opening years are still a mystery to be solved, but Puri is quite a hangout place. You can find myriads of fashion stores and eateries, and there's a cool Big Ben clock on the mall's roof...

Feel like British? No worries, the sky doesn't lie; Puri Indah Mall's Big Ben clock visible from the ground floor.

With the presence of a certain arcade game being a drive to visit the mall, I decided to check the condition of the game albeit it was yet activated. On my way there, I had to tackle so many turns, ride along the narrow roads, pass through the sleeping policemen, and endure it for almost an hour. In the end, as I saw the shape of Puri Indah, my mind went boggle and couldn't wait to reach the parking lot for motorcycles. If you make your trip to this mall using a car, you might face no problems as you could just take the toll roads, with motorcycles however... well.

WHAT'S IN STORE?

The underground floor is comprised of 80% parking lot and 20% stores. In fact, these stores are all electronic / gadget stores where you can buy stuffs related to gadgets / computers, such as USB and wireless mice, keyboards, laptops, laptop fans, speakers, and much more. Going up, the ground floor comprises of mostly, if not all, fashion stores (we're talking clothes store here), a coffee lounge whose brand you should know if you've gone there once or more, and several eateries outside the mall, where the eateries on the ground floor, exactly outside the mall, are given a "cafe" feel thanks to the bushes across. The first floor is pretty much the same except there are less clothes stores but in return there are a good sum of accessories store, a bookstore, and such.

To your right is the entrance to the underground floor

Finally on the top (third) floor, you can find a food court with lots of brand-name eateries, local or international, to tickle your tastebuds, and the food court is adjacent with the mall's Fun World game center. It can be considered as one of the biggest Fun World centers due to its rollercoaster and fun fair-like playgrounds. But our focus isn't that; While its Fun World center is all glitz and glamour in terms of arcade centers, having a rollercoaster and all that fun fair element you can stumble onto, all its glitters aren't gold. Its XXI cinema, however, puts one thing that crazed Indonesian arcade enthusiasts...

THE FIRST PLACE WHERE MAXIMUM TUNE 4 CABS LANDED

ALL HAIL MAXIMUM TUNE 4 BITCHESSS!!! (Image courtesy of Matthew N)

If you have read one of my previous blog posts before, Puri Indah Mall's XXI is the first location to have a set of Maximum Tune 4 cabs complete with Wangan Terminal (wait, isn't it a standard that each set of 4 cabs comes with Wangan Terminal?) and have it activated the next couple of days. Lots of MaxTune enthusiasts who are able to reach this mall would die to play games for their progression to quench their MT thirsts.

Prior to this posting, there are now eight cabs in the Puri XXI, and this is to anticipate the long queue. As for 3DX+ cabs, there were 12 cabs in XXI and four in Fun World, but that isn't enough to beat Pondok Indah Mall's record of 18 cabs (4 in Fun World, 4 in Timezone, 6 in XXI PIM1, and 4 in XXI PIM2). Unsurprisingly, both Pondok Indah and Puri Indah have same initials, so we know which one should change its callname: PurIndah. Well, the first five letters sounded like a cat's name, but it's for the sake of unique names. As MT4 cabinet sets are added until there are three sets of them (meaning that they now have 12 cabs there), there's a good reason why PurIndah's XXI played an elimination game with some of its 3DX+ cabs and a less-played arcade game too to pave a way for these MT4 cabs.

(Image courtesy of Matthew N)

SOME RANDOM PICS

 

The Map of all the three floors

I thought there would be another fashion store opening here judging by the banner used. It turned out that the mall put one of Emma Watson's pictures as a banner just for fun. The second time when I went there, the Emma Watson banner was gone and replaced by a new one.

My first visit had the mall having Mini exhibition

A French brand-name supermarket can be found across the mall, unlike most malls. Though a local brand supermarket can still be found inside.

A small Starbucks outlet can be found there on the ground floor. If you want to take some sips of coffee, they welcome you.

More eateries...

TURNING IT INTO A RACE TRACK?

Usually when I posted an "Inside The Mall" article and it involves a mall potential enough to be it, I port it to a certain game called GeneRally to signify that I visited the mall and am willing to commemorate it in a form of a race track. Here, PurIndah's circuit form is characterized as a fast, semi-technical course with 45-degree and 90-degree corners around the ground floor, and two outside sections. If you split the course section from the coffee stall (don't split the S/F section though), you will notice that this part looks like Sentul International Circuit run counter-clockwise, only with a chicane. Three long straights inside the mall (with the last one being the true high speed section due to high speed corners) are perfect places to maximize your slipstreaming technique and / or even overtaking your rivals here.

This track's construction was started in a very long time, exactly after my first visit, but, screenshot-wise, ditched due to myriads of WIPs in my mind. At the moment, it looks anything but pretty, but when I have time, I would love to remake this course and refine its object placings, like where should the tall buildings be placed WITHOUT having them to block the cars. At the same time I also thought about making more configurations where the course would also have upper (where you drive straight and go right past the coffee stall instead of crossing the third long straight, which could cross as a counter-clockwise Sentul) and lower (still counter-clockwise, but this time the S / F placing would be different than the upper and GP configs), but having such thought, I realized that I should care about how narrow the course would look if those configurations are made, and how horrible the pitstop access would be (the pitstop access is already horrible and needs a proper makeover), so I might stick to the original configuration for that matter.

USEFUL LINKS
Puri Indah Mall's Wikipedia article (in Indonesian)
PurIn's Official Site

~[R]

My First Maximum Tune 4 Tournament Foray

A week ago, exactly on Saturday, I decided to join a Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 4 tournament at Summarecon Mall Serpong, a mall located in the Serpong area of Tangerang City, which is Westwards from Jakarta. A long time ago before MT4 even existed in Indonesia, I joined a preliminary of a Zone 2000-ran tournament in the Bogor area where the preliminary took place at Mal Parung, and the winner went to the finals which was held at one of the malls in the Bogor area. Sadly, due to my place's misinformation about the finals, I was totally excluded from the finals. In other words, I missed the finals which I shouldn't have to. My tournament experience was screwed...

Fast forward to the 2014 where MT4 has already existed in most of the major malls in Jakarta. Not only Jakarta, but other cities have cab sets of MT4 too. With MT4 enthusiasts grew from the first time it arrived at Puri Indah to the present day, a tournament to determine the best MT4 players has finally come. It isn't the first time an MT4 tournament is held, but this year, it is. Popular arcade chain Timezone held an MT4 tournament at Summarecon Mall Serpong where competitors battle it out to win a total prize of millions of Rupiah in a form of cash and vouchers, and of course trophies for the top 3. It was series one of many series the MT4 tournament took place, so to speak. The tournament's rundown for January was SMS on 25th followed by Mall Taman Anggrek and Margo City on the next day. The rundown like this made me wonder why not making this a championship series instead a la Global Rallycross Championship? Why you don't give each mall an interval of minimum one week after a tournament is finished so maybe the same faces would compete once again? Probably they wanted to have a variety of winners at each venue, perhaps?

Technically, it is my first Maximum Tune tournament because the Zone 2000 is not counted due to aforementioned incident. Summarecon Mall Serpong is not a near place to reach from my home but I was still able to make my show there...

IT IS SHOWTIME!!!

Let's cut directly to the tournament's D-Day, shall we? The D-day begun with people lining up for re-registration. There are 48 competitors, most of them are pros and experienced in this very field. Hell, those from known Indonesian MT Teams such as MVi, Infamous, and SuToS, to name a few, joined the fray. These 48 competitors waited for the drawing session, and as the drawing session commenced, they were eagerly waiting to find out who they raced with. No surprise, among from those 48, there's yours truly and my friend Handi R, who is better known as Rena_KonataKanade in one of the Maximum Tune-related forums.

The competition begun as four MT4 cabs in the arcade turned into Event Mode, and then four more. The first heat gathered two drivers in separate sets, which made me wonder why the organizers didn't field all four competitors for the sake of time... Initially, the heats with two drivers were set into "Double Distance" mode where races are twice longer than usual, but then the game was changed with full field of racers, only one set of four cabs turned into Event Mode (which means the other set became back to normal), and normal distance. My heat was fourth, while my friend's was fifth. Also in the drawing the cab positions were defined by letters. This means mine was B4 and my friend's was A5.

In my heat, I was fielded against another blue R34, a camo-sticker FD3S RX7 belonged to Infamous team, and one more that I can't recall. The battle started on straights where I could hold my lead against the other R34 until the red turn where the Infamous RX7 stole my show, but I managed to score 2nd place and advanced to the next round. As we reached the red turn people were screaming hard and it was quite a mental test. Gladly, I could maintain my composure there. As for Rena KK, he used his white 180SX, but sadly he couldn't take the pressure against other drivers as he was stuck in 3rd place, thus not able to advance to the next round.

An impromptu breakdance routine in the middle of the race

Next round, I raced against yet another blue R34, and the Infamous RX7 that raced with me on the previous round, this time with a known-face competitor who advanced with the other R34 driver; an MVi member with a car named 84NK5. I don't know if the name sounds like a 1337-speak rendition of a certain supermodel or not but I'm sure he's quite senior in this field. Sadly for this round, with the fact that I was rammed early game, avoided braked-in-front technique in vain, and a series of low-key lining and speed, I had to call off my journey to the final. However, my journey didn't end just that as I followed the tournament from start to end and got to try an unorthodox antic ever done in an MT4 tournament...

#SMSMT4TOURNAMENT LIVE FEED FAILURE

This is one of the things I point out here. From my Twitter account @RebirthAY, I tweeted the live feed of the #SMSMT4Tournament. The going went smooth until when trying to tweet a live feed, where Opera Mini logged off my Twitter for NO APPARENT REASON. I have filed my complaint to the Twitter team before but apparently deleting cookies doesn't solve the problem. I guess that for this reason, never use Opera Mini for live feed purposes, use a Twitter app or even a laptop and a modem to do it. This was also one of the things that supported my desire for the next statement below:

RENDY: THE NEXT MARTIN HAVEN. Seriously?

I said to myself "If you lost a game but you have a good antic or two to show, you are yet considered as a sore loser". Martin Haven, a prolific commentator known for his commentaries in numerous racing series like Le Mans 24 Hours and World Touring Car Championship, is my idol and that I followed his path of being a race commentator for this tournament. Yup, if you attended last week's tournament at SMS, you can notice that this blog belongs to a 'nameless commentator'. (Image courtesy of uk.eurosport.yahoo.com)

One of the most memorable antics in the tournament was the fact that I become a commentator for some heats and numerous rounds I wasn't in. Commenting is a fun thing for me to do it but executing it is anything but easy. One thing for sure is that you cannot use soccer-like commentary styles when commenting MT tournaments, because everything has its own place. When commentating a racing event I had to make sure that I comment the actions not too rushed and take it slower, but not very slow, especially too slow. When I could only witness the other guys racing for advancing to the next round, I was thinking to myself about how I could become a good commentator like Martin Haven does.

And now let's see how Martin does it... :)

CHECK ANOTHER SHOWREEL OF HIS HERE (For some reason this video is unsearchable...)

I took this chance because sometimes the in-store commentator was busy on the brackets with the organizers, he couldn't able to commentate some of the actions happening, so I asked him if there was another mic for me to commentate on, but there wasn't, so I took the chance of being the commentator for some of the races. With knowledge of featured cars, courses, and drivers, as well as having an ability to know which team the competitor is on, I was happy to be a part of the competition, both being a graceful loser and a Martin Haven in the making.

But the real philosophy is that I wanted the world to treat Maximum Tune as another part of E-sports. In this world, there are many games that are considered E-sports, but only a handful that's popular, namely Defense of the Ancients (DotA) and Counter Strike series. It breaks my heart that Tekken, from its arcade roots, became a part of the internationally-known E-sports too, while MT isn't. Sure MT is internationally known, but are those in the American and European region know MT well? Do they have MT4? Not even that, Arcade scene isn't so much popular, let alone networked Arcade games. By being a commentator who has intermediate knowledge to the MT world, I wish I could par MT's competitive environment more.

FOUR ADDITIONAL RACERS AT THE LAST MINUTE! Urgh!

There were four last-minute racers joining in the tournament, which means that there were a total of 52 that competed. Because of that, the bracket had to be re-arranged so that the three winners and three runners up can be determined. This means that in select heats there was three-man heat and two-man heat too, with those heats only took one winner to advance.

THE ALL-INFAMOUS FINAL

Infamous Team clinched its one-team final after their members defeated all the competitors in the semifinals where the races were done in duel manner and each winner went to the final while the losers went to the runners up stage. The special request came from one of the members saying that they could pick any track they like for the final. Without a doubt, the final pitted three FD3S RX7s named Pxl, *Lynx, and Akina (correct me if I'm wrong) in Hanshin Expressway. Everyone rammed and sped their way to victory, until the victor was decided. I couldn't recall who was driving which, and even who the winner is, but congrats to them anyways! They make a great fight in the final! Special mention also goes to the runners up as they also served a great battle too. Sad that an MVi member didn't make the cut to the final as it is one of the greatest teams out there, but nevertheless, everyone enjoyed the tournament, as much as I and my friend Rena KK do

THE WINNERS AND THE RUNNERS UP IN A PICTURE

The runners up got Timezone vouchers with an accumulated total of IDR 450,000! Among them was a famous face whose ghost I always see when playing at Bintaro Plaza before MT4; Roy Alkaisar, better known as R-Ksr. I was rooting him for the rest of the rounds.

The winners got Timezone vouchers (total of one million), a lump sum of cash (also total of one million), and a trophy for each placer. As Infamous dominated this tournament here, they have secured ALL THE PRIZES! MUHAHAHAHA *evillaugh*. Btw, from left to right are 1st to 3rd placers: Brian Jonathan, Asen, and Brian Julian

So there you have it. A sum of what I've experienced in my first MT tournament. Tried live tweeting feeds in vain, lost in the second round, and being able to commentate the races was a superb experience for me! I just wish that I could repeat this moment albeit at a different place. All we have to do now is to wait for another MT4 tournament to come, but I prefer the tournaments to be held at a reachable place. Please don't force me to make a trip from Sawangan to Mal Kelapa Gading, okay?

~[R]

edit: Rena KK is not Handi, my mistake. -_-

What I learned from 2014 Dubai 24 Hours...

Image courtesy of Dailysportscar.com

Endurance racing has never been so exciting. Imagine witnessing a race under the night lights, with Grand Touring cars speeding down the environment at 250 kmh+, overlapping each other, testing each driver's skills under the dark skies while making sure that they drive through the night with their cars free of scratches and technical failures. The race starts from the bright skies in the afternoon, then continues as the sun gradually sets and night comes, and as the sun goes up the next day the race to the finish line is near. That is if it's a 24-hours endurance, with easy mentions such as Daytona 24 Hours, Le Mans 24 Hours, Nurburgring 24 Hours, and Dubai 24 Hours.

Image courtesy of Auto123

This year in January, the round-the-clock endurance racing season kicks off with Dubai holding its 9th edition of its Dubai 24 Hours race, where Grand Tourers and Touring cars race together and try to be consistent and have their cars failure-free throughout one day. What makes it unique is that the series pits together GT cars owned by Pro and Amateur teams, with touring cars of varied specifications, and some road cars that are eligible to race there. This allows for a big number of racers in the race, even bigger than Le Mans that pits Le Mans Prototypes and GT cars does offer, which in this year's case is seventy seven. Yup, I'm not joking, 77. But I'm pretty sure I missed out some more participants that compete on the main race, but based on what I saw in a live timing site, it's 77. You know it's a real deal when there are more competitors than all the circuit's pit garage can hold :p

An SLS AMG GT3 car driving down Dubai, driving in one of the A6 classes. A6 cars are none other than FIA GT3-spec cars with the class once again split into two subcategories of Pro and Pro-Amateur based on the driver lineups. Image courtesy of Dubai 24 by Priocept.

I knew I've posted an article of last year's Le Mans race which was notorious for Allan Simonsen's death after just 14 minutes of race if you look at the endurance racing topic, but this time it's not a recap thingy as I learned two things that are new to me: Code 60, and refueling procedure that's unique to Dubai 24 Hours...

And I thought they were retiring from the race. It turned out they weren't and were refueling their cars... *headscratch*. Image courtesy supplied.

CODE 60 - What's that?

To simply put, Code 60 is a code where all drivers drive no faster than 60 kmh prior to the time the code is given. There's a set lap time for this case, which is 5 minutes and 29 seconds. So why there's a set lap time given prior to Code 60? The answer is if any driver sets a time faster than the mentioned time while Code 60 is still in effect, that driver will be given a penalty. It is a substitute to Safety Cars for this year's Dubai 24 Hours, and would be a potential alternative Safety Car method in the upcoming Le Mans race so to say.

Image courtesy of drivemeonline.com

Here's a complete excerpt of Code 60 from Dubai 24 by Priocept:

"Creventic, the organisers of the Dubai 24 Hours, pioneered a method of neutralising their races in the event of an accident or other safety issue, without having to put a safety car on circuit. This is called “Code 60″, so named because it requires all cars on track to drive at 60km/h.

In the event of an accident or other scenario that requires marshalls or service vehicles to go on track, drivers will see purple Code 60 flags waved at all marshall posts. The Code 60 is also notified to the teams via the timing screens, and can be relayed to drivers via pit-to-car radios.

Once a Code 60 is activated, all cars must slow immediately to 60km/h from their current position and must not pass other cars. The Code 60 may last for less than a full lap, or might last for half an hour or more in the event of a large incident.

Since 60km/h is exactly 1 kilometre per minute, and the track length is 5.39 kilometres, a full Code 60 lap will take 5.39 minutes (5:24). Any cars posting a lap time under this during a Code 60 will receive a drive-through penalty.

How to Drive a Race Car Slowly

Driving a race car at a steady 60km/h is not as trivial as it sounds. Most race engines and transmissions are not the smoothest, or most efficient, at low RPM and low throttle. The top teams have special Code 60 engine maps to switch to, helping with this and reducing fuel consumption to a minimum during the Code 60 period.

The top teams will be aiming to drive each Code 60 lap at 59.9km/h. Expect to see some frustrated GT3 drivers intimidating other drivers into speeding up if they are “only” driving at 55 or 56km/h, as the cars are not allowed to pass during a Code 60 even if a car in front is driving below 60km/h.

Once a Code 60 period ends, cars are immediately free to accelerate flat out from their current position, which makes for some interesting drag racing. There is no coordinated restart at the start/finish line as there would be when a safety car pits. Drivers may struggle to maintain tyre temperature during a long Code 60, and cold tyres can lead to incidents on the restart.

Code 60 Refueling and Repair
The final consideration is refueling and car repair, both of which are allowed during a Code 60. Refuelling during a Code 60 costs about a lap to the rest of the field, compared to 2-3 laps during full race speed. So a huge advantage can be gained by doing a fuel stop under Code 60. But there’s a catch. All refueling at the Dubai 24 Hours is done at a central refueling station, not at the team garages. So this tactic can backfire if a car has to queue at the fuel station because too many other cars had the same idea and all the pumps are in use.
Teams can also use a Code 60 to perform repairs or scheduled maintenance on their cars with minimal loss of position. Many cars will need a full brake change (new discs and pads) at some point in the race, usually around the 12 hour mark, and this takes several minutes. So expect a flurry of mechanics activity and cars back in their garages if a Code 60 occurs during the night or early hours."

REFUELING METHOD

Also unique from other round-the-clock races, refueling is done on the pre-determined refueling station which resembles your everyday gas station where you refuel your car. Although for nine seasons this kind of refueling is no stranger if you follow the Dubai 24 Hours before I do, I thought it's interesting to show a different way of refueling in endurance races...

By no question this race has to be the most unique series with refueling procedure has its own place. I don't know if Nurburgring 24 Hours also do this because I haven't watched one but until I checked on Nurburgring 24 more, I can say that the refueling in Dubai is the most unique. It's like your run-of-the-mill gas station where everything is usual except the customers are race cars, grand tourers and touring cars, and refueling there is free of charge.

Glad that I caught the Dubai 24 Hours's Live Stream albeit I don't do it on frequently basis due to my limited quota (and the fact that I can't even bother to do big download antics from afternoon to 23:59 as I only have 1 GB there aside from the usual 11 GB from midnight to 11:59). While this is the first time I could catch an endurance race Indonesia cannot into (Indonesians are just into random twerks tbh -_-), I could learn new things that other endurance races don't.

Image courtesy of Dubai 24 Hours by Priocept (same link as the previous one)

Congratulations to the #20 Stadler Motorsport who managed to take their win after 603 laps throughout 24 hours, and please don't eat your heart out #2 Black Falcon Racing a.k.a the one with Jeroen Bleekemolen a.k.a the last year's victor, completing the podium behind ALL-INKL.com Munnich Motorsport isn't all bad ;)

And congratulations for all participants who survived this race albeit numerous reparations and most importantly teams that clinched their individual classes' podiums and win, especially GT Academy (yay Ordonez!) teams and Racing Divas (the Dutch all-girl racing team).

Further Readings:
Motorsports.com article
Dubai24 by Priocept's article, complete with podiums for each class
7 Reasons why this year's Dubai 24 is the best @ Crank and Piston.com
Speedhunters article from a person's PoV

~[R]

ENTERING THE NEW YEAR!

2013 has been a tough year we passed. There were many losses of figures last year, like racer Allan Simonsen whose Le Mans crash ended his life, actor Cory Monteith, and the hero who fought apartheid in South Africa Nelson Mandela, but the loss list is more than these three, but I can't list them all, but we can make sure that we lost many figures last year. Speaking of losing figures, I don't know if this is also counted but Timezone center of Cilandak Town Square?

Because of this, my visit rate to Citos is anywhere near zero. The only occasion I would go there once again sometime is to taste a certain restaurant where it serves a wooden-fired pizza

On a personal side, last year was also one of the toughest out there. With 2 semesters of 2013 went by, I've gone through a myriad of college-related assignments as well as personal matters. One of those is the city miniature project I made WHILE I had to stay at a hospital during the days where my father was treated due to Dengue. With this condition, my making city miniature and studying for the midterm tests were a bit low-key than when doing them at home. Though "Low-key", I've managed to slay them in a good manner.

But with those bombshells came great things. Personal-wise, I've got to try some activities I was dying to join; Fandom March Madness from the Livejournal fame, which is none other than annual voting for your favorite television series characters. Despite that, the strong competition and wide scope of fans (because USA is a Fandom country!) makes it worth of joining.

Other good things also came for other things, either if it came last year, or is it a development from last year and is continuing up to this moment. Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 4 has invaded Indonesia with Puri Indah as its first destination, then Mall Kelapa Gading and then sporadically distributed to most malls in Jakarta, even other malls outside of Jakarta have their fair share of MT4. Despite the lateness and the fact that it runs on the exclusive Indonesian server (which means we can't race against drivers from Singapore, Malaysia, NZ, Australia, Philippines, and Hong Kong, but we have plenty of time to transfer our 3DX+ cards to our Banapassports, something which the international server no longer able to do) everyone is excited to have it on their nearby malls.

And then there are developments of two games that I play mostly: Turbo Sliders and GeneRally. With TS's new version is still under development and another developer's blog for GeneRally came to the net we shall see how these two games try to evolve themselves...

Updates from Turbo Sliders

Yup! It's a barrage of FIVE tracks! Due to the fact that I am months late to release those first two tracks, I decided to make three more to make it a fair trade. So what are those three new tracks beside the first two?

 
Snow Complex is yet another TSE-style track like no other; the starting section, if linked with the section just after the first corner, forms an oval course, but that's not it. As you traverse the forestry road, drive above the Abu Dhabi-style pit exit, and pass through a skating rink, Snow Complex offers challenging race in a snowy and lush forest backdrop.

Download Here

Grant Heights is a remake of what could be named as the most off-topic course released on TS: Grandview. Sure Grandview can be anything, but the inclusion of a certain TV series in its description proves that because that series's Grandview is actually a town, not a winding road. Set in an autumn season where leaves fall to the road, you can experience sliding your way through sharp turns of Grant Heights while stepping your wheels to the "leaves", whose effect is faithfully simulated. Also unique for this course is the fact that it uses a different kind of Nature tiles.





Download Here

Templedore is a latest addition to the family of default tracks, both in the TS world and mine. I was going to make a separate North/South configuration in addition to the main one, but I dropped that idea and leave it as it is. The course goes from passing the nearby lake, to a hairpin which leads to a parking area of a forest recreation center. That said, Templedore is set in a road where it links to an ecological park nearby (not seen, possibly on the left side of the parking area) with a semi technical characteristic.

Download Here

Also available are the previously shown tracks from a past blog post. One with the lighthouse, and one inspired by Japanese race courses like Suzuka and Tsukuba, and both tracks bear three configurations!

Download Monsoon Here (includes GP, National, and Short courses)
Download Nippon Highlands Here (includes GP, East, and West courses)

With those tracks already released, now it's time for the news from the game. The new version is under development but Ande, the game's developer, has announced that there are new features in the game. Among them are an increase of tracks' size up to 4000x4000, drafting, and tire wear. The drafting feature will enable players to gain speed by driving behind their opponent's car, and tire wear is... well, self-explanatory. Both these features however won't work with AIs, especially with drafting; AIs would "deny" their drafting against other racers according to what I read on the forum.

Here are some features revealed via its Facebook fanpage:

19.07.2013 v2.4.1b
- Added tyre wear support (read README-tyres.txt)
- Added drafting support (read README-drafting.txt)
- Track maximum size to 4000 by default
- Increased the max spectator count to 40
- Added car parameter 'rotations' (min 64, max 360). Max image width is 16384.
- Added GhostAlphaMode to sliders.ini, values 0-6, default: 3, (0 = invisible)
- Added command /listtracks <part_of_name>
- Added command /mute <player> <time_in_sec> (use 0 to unmute)
- Added command /muteall [0|1] (use 1 to mute all non-admins for this cup)
- Added command /startfueladmin.
- Added command /reloadcars [0|1], sets whether server reloads cars after cup
- Added command /sendinterval [1..20], default: 5 (to adjust server traffic)
- Added command /sayadmin <msg>, sends a message with different color
- Added command /aicar [<index> <car>], resets when a new cup is started
- ForceRaceMissiles is now public (set it to 1 to have missiles in races).
- MaxMissilesPerPlayer option now visible in help texts
- Fixed StartPos in racestats.log.
-When you use -p <n> as a command line parameter (target line of the sliders.exe shortcut), you can set up controls for all the n players (sliders.ini loses them if you don't use it every time).
***This means that TS will be the first game we know that can handle as many local players as you want. So, instead of 4, now you 'll be able to set even the full grid. ***
- Added /sayadminmono <msg>, sends an admin message with font data/font11dm.png
***This means that TS will get a new monospaced font designed to be used for the statistics. It will make stats aligned and looking much better.***

Speaking about the forum though, until this post, something happened to the game's official site. The last time I visited the site, it got "Account Suspended" page, but not sure why. The site underwent its maintenance since this is posted...

Let's hope that Turbosliders.com will back online...

Updates from GeneRally

From GeneRally side, the developer blog for the sequel has made another post of theirs. With its Kickstarter on the horizon, Kimmo, one of the crews of the sequel, showcased the video of carmaking in the GR's sequel. Initially, the cars would have 400 polies limit, but it is then reduced to 200 and texturing (read: skinning) would make carmaking in GR more complex, and potentially lose its roots, since the essence of the sequel is to not only improve anything but also keep its roots the first one had.

"Cars are the stars in GeneRally.  So when designing the limits and parameters for the Sequel we have had to keep in mind what makes a GR car a GR car. For me, personally, that means simple yet recognisable appearance, simple colours, fun handling and spherical wheels.  The last one is the most important as it really defines a GeneRally car.

    The exterior level of detail, or polycount, is being increased (as many of you know).  The original proposition of 400 polygons raised emotions and this shows how important the cars’ looks are to the community. We’ve since then experimented with different limits ranging from 100 to 400 and decided to cut back from 400 polygons (which really was unnecessarily high) to 200 and we now feel it’s a good limit for the goals we have in mind.  We want to increase the recognisability and detail in the cars while still keeping them quite simple-looking.  We also want to enable all cars to have a floor and wheel wells, so that they can be happily flipped over/rolled, without going invisible.

    At the moment cars use a system similar to the original GeneRally’s: you can assign a material for each polygon that defines it’s color, shininess and other properties.  Texturing is still under consideration, but I personally fear that enabling detailed liveries and decals might take a too long step away from being a GR car, and increase the complexity of creating cars significantly – this is one of the ideas we’ll be gathering feedback on in the weeks and months following Kickstarter." -Kimmo

Yup! The sequel will be better without sacrificing its roots!

With how the tracks, objects, and cars will look like in the sequel, we are, not just me but you readers, surely looking forward for its Kickstarter funding to run. Go for gold, Curious Chickens!

Something I'd like to do this month...

With the NaNoWriMo community on Facebook announced that JaNoWriMo or January Novel Writing Month is in effect since its announcement on January, it is time for everyone to take the second chance of writing, revising, and publishing their stories, while I on the other hand will plan on finishing the whole draft of my crossover fan fiction project, and when I say "The Whole Draft", it means the chronology of the story, from start to end. Since what I'm making is a Super Robot Wars-esque crisis crossover and can't afford writing a pile of badly-written did-not-do-the-research crossover fic, I decided to study the fandoms I've planned to put in the story. The problem is that this is set in 2008 and thus uses fandoms that ran that year, but there's no such thing as "too late" on writing fan fictions, isn't it? I mean, look at how many people writing Buffy / Angel fan fictions on Livejournal despite their (the series) age.

While posting one post per month is much better than no posts at all, I still feel that I need more encouragement to have more blog posts. While last year's blog post count is better than another last year's, it's not pretty active at all. I remember when Mikasa Drawing Office, a Japanese MiniRacingOnline racer-run blog, always post his progresses often, and I followed his stuffs also. I've got links to my other social media and stuff networks but planned to make a button for each of them to make it more stylish. Even though this blog simple-looking, I want to keep it that way because it serves its purpose as a progress tracker of my stuffs and vents out of my Tumblr and Livejournal.

Not only this blog, [R]GARAGE site also needs a heavy goddamn update. I can't be bothered to be lazy in editing my site anymore, but somehow I dreamed of working in an environment where the PC I'm using has moderately high specs and good internet speed for such purpose. The "somehow hard" process would be on uploading the pictures as you need a reliable internet to avoid upload errors, and the fact that uploaded pictures don't render transparencies (like in some *.png files I uploaded there). And if I were to remake any of my site's elements, that would be layouts for separate track categories. i.e., My older tracks for Turbo Sliders are put below my newer tracks with an assumption they have their own slideshows beside them. And with "Other Games" tab is filled by the "Coming Soon" in the form of one of the Gundam models in a Ultimate Knight Windom XP game invading a Trackmania United Forever race between Super GT cars in a Coast environment track, I think it's time to split them, so you would get stuffs from my other games like TMUF skins and custom UKWXP pilots, not to mention others like GTR2 (SKINS!) and much more PC games that allows customization.

Lastly, updating my Tumblr and my Livejournal is totally mandatory because Fandom March Madness 2014 is on the horizon, just like twelfth-grade students with national exam (how they call it in Indonesia). The problem is I had a First World Problem moment when uploading gifs for my Tumblr where it always show "Error uploading file". However, tons of other Tumblr sites show how to make their gifs uploadable while sacrificing some colors. Livejournal-wise, I was too dependent on trying to blog a series. The last post would be my post about a certain Australian TV show featuring a strangling controversy (Got triggered yet?), and that I saw an LJ friend's post about her everyday life and the fact that I CAN post on mobile though with limited functionalities, I facepalmed myself, but this year I'll try to update myself! But with a catch that my Livejournal posts cannot be the same as this blog unless it's about Dr. Derek "McDreamy" Shepherd racing in Le Mans.

While this month would be a temporary stop for releases of TS tracks and finishing Al Dasein 2013 in exchange of drafting my fan fiction's storyline, I will write a blog post about other things in between my drafting activity. So the to-do list for this month includes releasing Turbo Sliders tracks while keeping a track of its site's maintenance (checked), finish Al Dasein 2013, and updating my site, my blog, and my social sites, with storyline drafting on the MAIN priority.

But not like they're my resolutions though as I don't want to have resolutions other than 1366x768...

~[R]

Losing Almost Every Precious Things in Hours

Recently I've been discouraged about how desperate I am. The problem is, the 13th December has reminded me that my desperate acts have led to a total devastation of my computing passion. It is because I've reinstalled Windows 7 and 8 on my HDD due to Win7's problem and that I didn't have so many time to just backup ALL the (precious downloaded) contents in my Win7 partition before I took it to the technician and have it reinstalled. I know I should've just ask the technician a solution for this problem and not reinstall everything at the same time. And eventually, it resulted in losing most of my precious files.

So how do I lose everything in one day?

THE START

It all started when suddenly, the morning of the day in question, my Windows 7 didn't start as expected. It loaded past the "Starting Windows" screen, but that's it. It takes longer than usual and eventually it loaded a lower resolution version of the Win7's welcome screen's wallpaper. Yup, there were no users accessible within that state, and it turned out that it was loading something called "Automatic Repair". Yes, instead of run-of-the-mill Win7 loading, it went to Automatic Repair rather than loading the users. Startup Repair didn't affect anything, and System Restore was... faulty, as in inaccessible. There were no System Restore points because whenever I tried to make one, the partition won't let me to. Sadness begun at this point, leading me to try Windows 8.

While I also am fond of Windows 8, the reason why I keep it hanging on my second partition out of three partitions inside my 1TB harddisk (remaining two are Windows 7 and my precious files' folder, whose capacity is half of the HDD's size) is that I'm afraid that it'll run my favorite games and that it would give me issues whenever I try to play them. However, as I test them on Windows 8... no problems. Turbo Sliders run as usual on Win 8, so does GeneRally, and tons of games, even though I hung my hopes to oldschool ones like Sega Rally 2 and Michelin Rally Masters. In other words, Win 8 feels probably the same, but with the Metro skin in place of Win 7's Aero and has Metro tiles and apps.

And this is where the going got tough; that afternoon, I left my laptop at my technician's place, and I didn't forgot to backup ALL my precious files. Since Win 7 is inaccessible, the technician prepared me a USB flash drive with MiniXP in it. There, the backup commenced. After that, I went back to college for a meeting held by my friends. Given I thought that the technician hasn't made his move of reinstalling the Win 7, I went back to the technician's to cancel the reinstall as I wanted to spare the reinstall for not only a Windows 8 run but also a double treatment where it'll have its components cleaned. However, only the storekeeper who was there, and not the technician. She, the storekeeper, said that the technician have brought my laptop to his house and the Win 7 reinstallation was complete just before I wanted to cancel the whole thing.

...

........... (img source)

And this is where the sadness commence. No, the Five Stages of Grief to be exact. I tweeted that I was angry that I was too rushed in making quick decisions that I didn't double-check, was heartbroken, bargained, and depressed, all done when I went to the barber shop to get my haircut and that I thought about  double-checking the files in those folders I backed up and I received a message from the technician saying that the reinstallation is complete. It is really annoying because most of my files weren't backed up due to TeraCopy or whatever its name inside MiniXP unable to copy some of my copied contents.

The next day I went to the technician's once more to collect my laptop. Sure it now has Windows 8 as default boot OS, but at that time I was still saddened. This sadness is carried that I don't bother to touch my laptop. Alas, the next step HAS to be taken...

MOVING ON AND RESTORATION

This phase is brought to you by Lowe Guele, the Astray / Junk Guild extraordinaire :D

While I can't recall some apps I've installed before the reinstall, those apps I couldn't recall is due because I don't use them very frequently. Fortunately, I could recall most of the apps, let's say 80%, and download most of them the day I lost everything. Granted that most of these apps' installers are still lying on my third partition, so I'm a bit relieved. Though the drivers are lost, thus I have to hunt for drivers in what can be called as every computer user's gold mine: manufacturer's website. Given that I still *am* using Satellite L740, which was initially a 32bit machine with 2GB RAM and 300GB HDD when my dad bought me and is notoriously known for its overheating tendencies, it's Toshiba's website that I see its drivers download page as a gold mine in question. Due to the fact Windows 8 is my MAIN OS, I can no longer install both its eco Utility and PC Health Monitor as it gives me errors of their own. Other than that, the going is smooth albeit the mentioned errors.

The most notorious one is where I have BSODs of IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL error caused by athrx.sys (pictured and Twitpic-ed), which turns out to be an Atheros driver. This only happens on Win 7 partition and occurs when bluetooth is active and I am browsing internet. This sure is a pain in the ass for my bluetooth driver because as soon as this happens, the bluetooth RFBUS driver will go problematic and that everytime you try to add a new BT device, the BT won't be ready even if you turned it on. Not only that, my "movement" gets slower because I won't be able to transfer my phone's content(s) via BT. Strange because things like this didn't happen before this reinstall happens...

Nevertheless, here's the history of my desktop then and now. Didn't took the desktop screenshot since my 32bit days though...

My old state of my desktop before it's reinstalled. Attack Ride! Wallpaper! Take note that since this wallpaper is posted, my installed apps and shortcuts have changed radically.

Compare it with my new desktop. Yeah, a series of Ferrari wallpapers is a placeholder for whatever my wallpaper would be... :|

WINDOWS 8 POWAAAH~!!! MY WIN 8 GOES ORANGE! *SLASH*

Though the desktops for both my Win 7 and Win 8 are different, I give both OS equality for installed apps, so the apps I normally install in Win 7 could be installed in Win 8 too, though I will be selective with the app selections so I won't drain GBs in both partitions.

So if it is included as part of that Five Stages, this IS the acceptance phase. No matter how bitter it is, as long as you have a fast, unlimited internet / wi-fi connection, you move on and try to regain yourself, recalling everything you've installed. And then you promise that the next time you're afraid that this problem happens to you, always prepare secondary partition(s) or a big external memory if you're a download addict like me. Plus, make sure that everything IS copied; double-check whenever you're going to backup your files in your "damaged" partition (and somehow I wanted to say "ONORE TERACOPY!!!" in Narutaki's voice). If you have only ONE partition, MiniXP would be your only best bet, but still, you need an external HDD.

So, will I continue being productive on both making game stuffs and some other stuffs? I don't see why not. I have Tsukasa Kadoya's blood after all...

~[R]