,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, An interview of Jokke (kuski of month on November 2002): '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' -= When did you start playing? =- I downloaded Across 1.0 in 1997 from a Finnish BBS called MBnet. I tried the game at home with a couple of friends and didn't like it at all at first, but after seeing my friends playing for a while, I started to like the game too. I had a quite long period of time when I didn't play very seriously and didn't even see the WR list on the official website until some point after 1.2 version was released. The turning point of my 'career' came when my friend, who was still better than me at the time, was quite close getting the WR in Headbanger. I started to play the level too. and finally got the WR, the time was something like 1:12. The drive would probably look like a mediocre run by an intermediate player by current standards. -= Ex-teams and why did you change teams? =- Shortly after I got my first Across WR in Headbanger, I received an e-mail from Toble, a Finnish guy who was the leader of a team called NC (Nalle Crossers). He wanted me to join his team. The team's other members included Karlis and Mikko_T (px's little brother, nowadays Fulgore) among others. I decided to join the team mainly because I wanted to see replays of some other levels than Headbanger, because that was basically the only level I knew how to get a good time in (there was no moposite replay section or similar at the time). I won't go to all the details why and how these things happened, but NC merged with team KDF and Karlis was left out, then after some time I decided to form a new team, because I didn't like the current situation, and HC (Helsinki Crossers) was born. The team's members were Karlis, Onni, Conny, Eppu (a guy I knew from school) and me. At some point, the team became inactive except for me and Karlis and after we were invited to join a new team (FM) we decided to leave HC. There has been quite many changes of team members in FM but I'm really happy with the current situation. Except for the KDF episode I've been in the same team with Karlis all time. -= Current total? =- 39:31:51 -= Top5 newest and oldest personal records? =- (check the last modified times of your replays) Top-5 newest Jaws 57:62 3.10. 2004 Curvaceous 32:89 Enigma 20:07 Circuitous 25:01 Labyrinth 56:46 5.9. 2004 Top-5 oldest Slalom 40:63 18.2. 2001 Labyrinth Pro 2:35:11 Serpents Tale 01:04:79 Fruit in the Den 1:00:50 Bowling 1:05:27 18.8. 2002 -= Across Career briefly. Any WRs?, World Cup I and II and so on.. =- As said on the first question, first WR was Headbanger 1:12:xx. I took that one back a few times, last time I had that WR was shortly after the pipe trick had been discovered. second WR was Slalom with an improvement of a few hundreths and third one was Quick Round, which I improved about 6 seconds by inventing the killer jump (made a bit different in Across) and the shortcut after that. I also was the first to make the shortcut in Precarious at the last apple and got that WR quite easily but lost it after the style spreaded. I had some other WRs too with smaller improvements (Serpents Tale, Loop-de-Loop, Ramp Frenzy, Fruit in the Den, Labyrinth) but there's not much to tell about them. The WR I'm probably most proud of is the first Labyrinth Pro WR with the shortcut in the end. I first succeeded in the trick in a training level and started playing the whole level after that. I didn't know of anyone else going for the same shortcut (at least not seriously) so I drove a few runs every now and then for a quite long period of time knowing that I would succeed eventually. The first time I made the trick in the actual level I died shortly after the shortcut because of some stupid mistake, so maybe because of that, the second time I made the shortcut I drove the end very carefully just to be sure I would make it to the flower. I think there's still a link to the replay in Mopolauta in case you want to see it. The next WRs with the shortcut were over 15 seconds better than my drive and used a different (bounce) style than the one I had come up with (no bounce, just jump). I finished second in the first Wcup and eighth in the second one. Bobbo was only 6 points ahead of me in the final standings of the first world cup, so I was quite close winning the whole thing. Second Wcup was much tougher and I aimed for a spot in the top-10 (and thus ElastoMania for free after it was released) and managed to get it. I also won two events in the first Wcup and one event in the second Wcup. We also got a double victory in the tenth event of the second Wcup with Karlis (Karlis first and me second) at a time when were the only active players of HC, which was nice :P. -= Elma career? =- Internalwise my best WR probably was Ramp Frenzy 58:16 which lasted for quite many tables and was the first one driven with the shortcut. I also managed to hold some WRs for quite a long time (well, if somebody took them I took them back after some WR tables) in levels like Fruit in the Den, Serpents Tale, Slalom, Quick Round, Ramp Frenzy, Circuitous, Enduro and What the Heck. Enduro was probably the last WR I'll ever have, at least in this version of Elma. I also played in both Elma wcups and finished fourth in the Wcup3 and sixth at Wcup4 one in the final standings. I won three events in Wcup3 and two events in Wcup4. The first event that I won in Wcup3 was a level that was already used once as the first level of the first wcup, so I was already familiar with the level. I was placed second the first time this level was used, so this was a great chance to change that second position to first position. Since it was already the 14th level of the cup and not a particularly great level the chances of getting a win became even bigger. I think I drove my best time early on sunday morning and thanks for that, I avoided finishing second again in the same level, because my teammate Luni had driven also a better time after we had exchanged words the last time. The second event win I got came right after the last one, the level seemed really playable and somehow I managed to get the best time in our team and FM scored a triple victory in this one :P. The last event I won in Wcup3 was a long roller coaster, which equalled for a low amount of participants and a high chance for victory. There were such a small amount of participants that you could get points by just finishing the level. There was some harder trick at the end of the level, which I made only once and luckily it was a good run in also other parts of the level and thus I won this event also. I could have also won event 13 if I hadn't banged my head in a part of the level where it was tough to get enough speed to stretch the bike from a hanging part so that you also get the apple. It was even tougher to get too much speed and bang your head into the wall, but I did that once :P. Well, Luni was the only one to make the trick and I finished 13th with a slower style. The first event victory I got in Wcup4 was the one I least could expect to get, so it felt really great to get it, especially with such a short margin. During the whole event I tried to keep my playing time quite minimum compared to others, because it was the first event and because of that everyone would höyl this level much more than the other levels (and maybe because Abula kept a diary with the times we used on each level still then :P). I had 30:03 before sunday morning and was quite satisfied with the time I had, but decided to still give it a shot on sunday morning. I had some good drives and knew I could drive maybe just under 30 seconds with a good run, but all of a sudden I got 29:76! I knew it was a good run, but I thought it would probably be like a 29:9x run at best so needless to say, I was quite excited. I won by a 0:02 margin so this was maybe the luckiest drive of my Elma career. The second event I won was quite overlooked by many players because there was also another (pipe) event running at the same time. I'm not that skilled in pipes and don't like to play them much, so after I got 47 apples in the pipe level which seemed to me as the maximum amount I could get, I switched to the other level. The level seemed like (and probably was) something anyone could've made in 15 minutes but despite the ugly outlook, I thought the level was quite fun. I höyled the level as much as any other level but seemed to be ahead of both my teammates and the times I heard elsewhere and finally won with over second margin to MP who was 2nd (because DarMoeD cheated). -= Do you still like Across? Why/why not =- I like Across for nostalgic reasons, but don't play it anymore. In retrospect, it's strange how well we put up with the 'wheel getting stuck to corners' bug. -= How did you get Across/Elma? Was it your worst mistake? or the best? =- I got it from Mikrobitti's MBnet BBS. I have a love-hate relationship with Elma. However, I think the positive things from Elma weigh out the negative ones. -= Favourite internals / most irritating internals =- My all-time favorites are Headbanger, Enduro, Fruit in the Den, Ramp Frenzy and Quick Round, and except for Headbanger, I've held the WR in these for quite many tables. Some of these I don't like that much anymore however because of the newer and more annoying styles invented. Most irritating ones would be probably the speed loop levels (Pipe, Bumpy Journey, Steep Corner), although I like Sink for some weird reason. Levels like Downhill, Bowling and Animal Farm are irritating to play, but they're still great levels. -= Your own best WRs? =- All the ones that had a new style in them. Precarious, Quick Round and Labyrinth Pro from Across WRs and Ramp Frenzy from Elma WRs. -= Best WRs in your opinion? =- Psy's Apple Harvest, Stini's Enigma, and Luther's Downhill of the current table. All-time best probably Champion's first Across Zig Zag WR with the end shortcut and Zeth's WR in the same level later, IRK's Apple Harvest WR, Joni's Upside Down WR, Magicman's Bowling and some others that I don't remember right now. -= What's the limit of WR times? =- I guess I would have said the same a few years ago when WR total time was still much worse, but I still say think the limit is quite close now. There are not many major shortcuts anymore even theoretically possible. I don't think it will go under 36 minutes, maybe not even close. -= 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? =- Besides Wcups, I haven't played externals nearly as much as internals. I höyled ALPs once and now the only external records I still have are on Ville_J's Inc levels. I don't know why I started playing them, but I've tried to get some records on them every now and then. I had almost all the records at one point. -= Best lgr in your mind? What lgr do you use? =- Default. I used HighQ for some time but switched back to default later on. -= Mention some good things you have gotten with Across/Elma? =- I've met some nice people from Elma scene. The feeling of getting your first WR is also quite tough to beat. -= Mention some bad things you have gotten from Across/Elma? =- All the wasted time. But I would have probably wasted all that time some other equally useless way anyway. -= What is the most frustrating thing you have faced in your career? =- From the WR development statistics: 42. Enduro 1. #001 55,04 YeeS [FM] 2. #002 52,61 Zamppa 3. #003 52,45 Jokke [FM] 4. #004 51,71 Mandel [PRA] 5. #005 51,68 Jokke [FM] 6. #007 51,59 Mandel [PRA] 7. #010 51,45 Jokke [FM] 8. #022 51,33 Mandel [PRA] 9. #049 51,06 Jokke [FM] 10. #050 50,88 Jokke [FM] 11. #052 50,84 Jeppe [SSC] 12. #053 50,75 Jokke [FM] 13. #056 50,68 Jeppe [TER] 14. #057 50,49 Jokke [FM] 15. #078 50,40 Jeppe [IHT] 16. #085 50,27 Jokke [FM] 17. #086 50,26 Jeppe [TB] 18. #087 50,18 Jokke [FM] 19. #088 49,95 Jeppe [TB] 20. #089 49,75 Jokke [FM] 21. #098 49,38 Jokke [FM] 22. #127 49,24 TorInge [IC] 23. #128 49,21 Jokke [FM] 24. #129 48,83 Jokke [FM] 25. #140 48,79 TorInge [IC] 26. #142 48,36 Jokke [FM] 27. #155 48,16 TorInge [ICE] 28. #162 47,60 TorInge [ICE] 'Nuff said. -= The biggest mistake of your Elma career? =- I don't I have made any major ones.. I once published all my WR replays in the Across days because I thought I would quit but didn't regret that much even though later I started playing some internals again. Maybe should have tried more to win the Wcup when I still had the chance (Wcup1). -= Cheating, what feelings? Do you use level unlocker/nitro etc? =- I don't have much to add to what other people have answered to the question about cheating. I've used level unlocker in Wcups and tried nitro patch for fun. -= Elma tuning, have you tested? Opinion about it? =- I've turned vsync off/on and changed my monitor's refresh rate. Last time I played internals more I had just noticed that turning vsync off/on really changes the gameplay and makes some internal tricks much easier, so I drove some new personal records on these kind of levels. It was really frustrating to know that I had spent a lot of time trying all those impossible seeming tricks for nothing. I hope that the new version of Elma runs the same regardless of what computer hardware you have and what settings you're using. -= Best kuskis and teams? What are the things you value in another kuski/team? (In no particular order) Kuskis: Nikke, Mazor, Joni, Champion, Zeth, Kingkong, pajen, zyntifox, TorInge, Zweq, Jeppe, Karlis, dz, Markku, Dr_Luni and psy. Teams: Well, at least EMT, ASC, T98 and PRA. Maybe also some of the later teams, but they've been more like groups of top players gathered together rather than teams. -= Your best achievements? =- All the best WRs I've already mentioned and the Wcup event victories. Being quite high on the list of WR owners. (http://www.moposite.com/lists/wr_stats/wr_owners_player.txt) -= Do you do any other neat finger-related stuff like playing violin, repairing watches, pick pocketing etc? I play guitar, but I don't think it has helped me in Elma. -= How much did you play in your sickest period? How much these days? =- There have been some days I've spent almost the whole day playing (for example some saturdays just before Wcup deadline). Nowadays I play one hour per week maybe. -= Have you had Elma dreams? =- I've had some, in most of them I've driven a WR with a cool new style nobody had thought of earlier. I think I've even checked one or two times whether the style could be possible or not after waking up :P. -= Strengts and weaknesses as a player? What moves you like/dislike? =- I don't like hard bounces or pipe driving mainly because I'm not very good at them. Strengths hmm.. well I'm quite stubborn in some things and when it comes to Elma and höyling some level I guess it's a good thing. I like medium length levels the most (something like from 40 seconds to a bit over 1min) and because of that maybe I might be at my best at those. -= Tips for average players? =- If there's some trick you can't do and always die the same way trying it, analyze what you're doing wrong rather than just playing the part over and over again the same (wrong) way. Oh, and play more. -= Best memories with Elma? =- Getting WRs (especially the first ones), winning World Cup events and of course Elma meetings. -= First time at #across? =- Don't remember, maybe 1998? Didn't talk there that much then (as always), but I remember that there was much more replay trading than these days, because there was no site to get replays from, just a few WR replay links on the WR list. -= Best Elma friends? =- I don't want to make a list, because I would probably forget a name or two. You know who you are. -= Thoughts about Elma meetings? =- Great. I will most likely be in FEM05 too if I can. -= What do YOU think should be improved in an eventual new version of Elma? =- First of all, it should work the same with all computers regardless of graphic card settings etc, cheating should be more difficult, and of course, all new internal levels. I think the current internals should also be in the game as some sort of bonus pack or something after you've completed all the basic levels (in case the new levels suck as much as OLP or Lost Internals :P). The basic game physics shouldn't change (at least not more than they changed from Across to Elma), but I would definitely like to see left alovolt in addition to right alovolt, because there's simply no logic (except for historical reasons) having that kind of turning available only to the other side. Some small changes like water traps and different terrains would also be nice. The worst thing that could happen is that Balazs makes the new version without knowing or paying attention to what the Elma scene really wants. I know there's a list on Moposite of wanted improvements for the next version and I agree mostly with the suggestions there, hopefully Balazs has read the list and takes them into account if there will be a new version. Mopolauta's New Versions -section is also a good thing to exist, maybe polls for voting should be possible also in that section to see how badly some suggested new feature is wanted, or is it wanted at all. -= How about battles? =- I hung out and played some battles at #battle for some time and it was fun, but haven't played them lately. If I played Elma more, I would probably play mostly battles. Judging from my FEM experiences, IRL battles and other similar competitions is the most fun way of playing Elma, although I didn't feel like playing that much at last FEM compared to others. -= Have you got any negative feedback about playing Elma from your mates? =- They just wonder how I still can play the same little 2D motorbike game I've already played for years, but I haven't got any actual negative feedback from them. My parents have tried to get me off the computer in the course of some longer höyling sessions. -= What games do you like beside Elma? =- Currently the only game I've been playing is Madden NFL 2005 (much better than previous versions I've tried), but my alltime favorites would probably be all the games from the Final Fantasy series, all Jagged Alliance games, some NES/SNES classics (Zelda, Megaman, Super Mario etc.) and EA's NHL Hockey games until the year '97. -= Did you buy Elma? Why not? =- I didn't buy Across nor Elma, but I got Elma legally from World Cup II. If there will be a new version, I'll buy it. -= Have you thought about if you could stop playing Elma soon, or anytime? =- I've already quit serious Elma playing, but I don't think I'll quit playing completely at least for a couple of years because I like to follow what's happening in the scene and play a few runs or watch some replays every now and then. -= What gets you still playing Elma? =- The addicteveness of it. -= Are you at the top of your career now? If not, when? =- At one point, I had 6 or 7 WRs at the same WR-table in Across, and I think it was more than anyone else had at that time. I might have had a similar situation in Elma in the earlier days, but I'm not 100% sure. Other than that, I think I've been for a quite long time constantly at the same level compared to others. I never was clearly the best player at a given time, but I was one of the top players for quite a long time. -= Forecast the future of Elma. How the scene will be in five years? =- Hopefully a new version of Elma has been published by then. If not, at least the internal level playing scene must be quite dead. But if people keep on playing and arranging cups and battles, I think the scene will be alive for a long long time. -= Was it a surprise to be voted for the kuski of month? If it was who should have won in your opinion and why? =- To be honest, it wasn't a big surprise, because I've been in the scene for quite long and had quite many WRs and other achievements. I don't think I had done anything particular in the month I was voted KOM (can't remember because it was 2 years ago :P), so the month I was voted KOM was somewhat of a surprise. -= Mopolauta, thoughts? =- I check replays sharing and new styles topics and vote on polls every now and then, other than that I don't use it much. -= Opinions about Elma Crime, MUe's animations and stuff like that. =- Great. -= You are the updater of Moposite Replays section. How's that feeling? =- Well I'm not anymore, the interview has become old because it took so much time for me to write it. Anyway, it was cool although it required also some boring work that had to be done. Especially watching all those replays sent to the slesk section, most of them were just incredibly bad. I tried to select only the better ones, hopefully other people agree with my choices. I quit the job because I got less and less interested in Elma, I was in a internal playing mood when I started. Looking back, I should have made the different styles section ready or at least almost complete. -= What's your favourite Elma website (not moposite)? =- I check Mopo Corner and the multi WR site from time to time. -= Your relation to OLP? =- Good idea, bad levels. I don't blame Mue though, I guess he didn't have much to choose from. I took Headbanger Remix WR for a few times but ribot always took it back. -= Why that nick, Jokke? =- Because it's my first name in real life. In the very beginning (in the first WR table I was in) I used J.R. (my initials). -= Your real life. Do you have it (school/work, other interests etc)? =- I study telecommunications technology in Helsinki University of Technology for the third year and I spend a lot of my freetime with music. I've played guitar for about five years and also play in a non-serious band at the moment. I also go to concerts quite often, I've seen about 80 bands play live in the last 2 years. I listen to many kinds of music but heavy metal is definitely the genre I listen to the most and progressive metal is probably my favourite sub-genre of heavy metal if I have to name one (bands like Opeth, Dream Theater, Symphony X, Pain of Salvation etc). Of course I have some other interests too besides music but I wouldn't count them as hobbies. -= Write something about the game, fellow kuskis, moposite, #across, etc =- Thanks to everybody who voted me. Big thanks also to Abula and px for all their work with Moposite, The scene wouldn't be the same without it (if there was any). Jokke 2. Jan 2005