The old CIX F1GP2 people

Are any of the old CIX (Compulink Information Exchange) GP2 crowd still around? From memory, nicknames such as pjgtech, batchie, stownsend, and a few others come to mind. They were all in the UK. They should remember me if they are around :-) We were one of those "mad monk squadrons" that lowered the laptimes in GP2 by an amount disbelieved by those who casually played the game - a bit like what appears to have happened with GPL enthusiasts... Anyway - just wondered what happened to them all! JB Jonathan Beckett, Senior Developer Nutek Services Ltd. [email hidden] http://www.absplannner2000.co.uk

I just checked a few of the tracks out, and although I wouldn't be the fastest now, I would be in the top 5 of any of the original tracks. Are the tracks (at least the ones with the same names) the same though? There are some anomolies - Brazil being a case in point. I was way faster than any of the current qualifying times for Brazil (whole seconds) On Tue, 11 Jul 2000 14:39:13 GMT, [email hidden] (Jo Helsen) wrote:

Quoted text (21 lines)

>On Tue, 11 Jul 2000 14:00:38 GMT, [email hidden] (Jon Beckett) >wrote: > >>Are any of the old CIX (Compulink Information Exchange) GP2 crowd >>still around? >> >>From memory, nicknames such as pjgtech, batchie, stownsend, and a few >>others come to mind. They were all in the UK. They should remember me >>if they are around :-) >> >>We were one of those "mad monk squadrons" that lowered the laptimes in >>GP2 by an amount disbelieved by those who casually played the game > >Maybe interesting to compare those "incredible" times against some >current GP2 toptimes at > >www.lfrs.com > >Sit down first :-) > >JoH

Jonathan Beckett, Senior Developer Nutek Services Ltd. [email hidden] http://www.absplannner2000.co.uk

I forgot to say - the times haven't dropped as much as I expected. We were doing top five times in relation to those in 1995... with full analogue and no assistance. On Tue, 11 Jul 2000 14:58:56 GMT, [email hidden] (Jon Beckett) wrote:

Quoted text (39 lines)

>I just checked a few of the tracks out, and although I wouldn't be the >fastest now, I would be in the top 5 of any of the original tracks. > >Are the tracks (at least the ones with the same names) the same >though? There are some anomolies - Brazil being a case in point. I was >way faster than any of the current qualifying times for Brazil (whole >seconds) > > >On Tue, 11 Jul 2000 14:39:13 GMT, [email hidden] (Jo Helsen) >wrote: > >>On Tue, 11 Jul 2000 14:00:38 GMT, [email hidden] (Jon Beckett) >>wrote: >> >>>Are any of the old CIX (Compulink Information Exchange) GP2 crowd >>>still around? >>> >>>From memory, nicknames such as pjgtech, batchie, stownsend, and a few >>>others come to mind. They were all in the UK. They should remember me >>>if they are around :-) >>> >>>We were one of those "mad monk squadrons" that lowered the laptimes in >>>GP2 by an amount disbelieved by those who casually played the game >> >>Maybe interesting to compare those "incredible" times against some >>current GP2 toptimes at >> >>www.lfrs.com >> >>Sit down first :-) >> >>JoH > > >Jonathan Beckett, Senior Developer >Nutek Services Ltd. >[email hidden] >http://www.absplannner2000.co.uk

Jonathan Beckett, Senior Developer Nutek Services Ltd. [email hidden] http://www.absplannner2000.co.uk

I didn't want to shout too loudly because people would think I was an arrogant git. I should come clean though. The small group of us here in the UK brought the records tumbling down amongst ourselves - using the original tracks, and no changes to the game's parameters. It's difficult to compare because I don't know if the tracks you are using are the same or not. We were among the first to really become purists at doing quick laps in strict conditions. Somewhere on the CIX servers the hotlaps survive from those days... we did know about the qualifying power advantage, and other such "assists" :-) As to me being a beta tester - afraid not. It's been probably three years now since I played GP2! From memory, I was doing times something like the following in the original game... Monaco 1:13.8 (qualifying) Brazil 1:14.3 (qualifying) Hungary 1:15.6 (qualifying) Spa 1:37.5 (qualifying) It's been a long time... it'll be interesting to see how quickly I get up to speed in GP3. I would love to get hold of a copy of Grand Prix Legends too - see how I fair at that. On Tue, 11 Jul 2000 15:13:39 GMT, [email hidden] (Jo Helsen) wrote:

Quoted text (28 lines)

>On Tue, 11 Jul 2000 15:00:20 GMT, [email hidden] (Jon Beckett) >wrote: > >>I forgot to say - the times haven't dropped as much as I expected. >> >>We were doing top five times in relation to those in 1995... with full >>analogue and no assistance. > >So you were GP2 beta tester? <G> I think 1997 might be a better >estimate for a game that was released in the summer of '96. > >Remember also that these times are not "unlimited trial" times. They >are just driven during one session for one race. Hotlap competitions >would have even faster times (nowadays checked against slowmotion >driving) > >Make sure that you compare times to "open-setup" categories and not to >"mandatory setup" categories. > >It's true that the last 2 years, modified tracks have been used >sometimes. Some are also checked against shortcutting corners now >(Monza...) And if a track is used in another "position" than >originally, the times will differ. Don't recall the exact rules used >by LFRS lately so I don't know for the last season or so. > >But of course you might have been fast already back then :-) > >JoH

Jonathan Beckett, Senior Developer Nutek Services Ltd. [email hidden] http://www.absplannner2000.co.uk

In article <[email hidden]>, [email hidden] (Jon Beckett) wrote:

Quoted text (8 lines)

> >>Are any of the old CIX (Compulink Information Exchange) GP2 crowd > >>still around? > >> > >>From memory, nicknames such as pjgtech, batchie, stownsend, and a > few > >>others come to mind. They were all in the UK. They should remember > me > >>if they are around :-)

I *do* remember you, B*st*rd used to beat me all the time! You were normally about one or two seconds a lap faster than me. 8-) And I'm still on CIX! Most of the old faces are still here too, ajcook, batchie, djgibson, andrew_mcp, stownsend, etc, etc. Fancy coming back and joining us? 8-) *Peter* - http://www.cix.co.uk/~peterpc/home.html

In article <[email hidden]>, [email hidden] (Jon Beckett) wrote: > We were doing top five times in relation to those in 1995... with full > analogue and no assistance. Well actually, in those days, I used to use a *keyboard*, so I had to have steering and throttle help on, so I could only just about keep up with you! And I first played GP2 on a 486 dx4 100 in vga mode at about 15fps... I've learnt my lesson though, and have a shiny steering wheel and pedals now (two actually). We were fast compared to most peeps on CIX, not sure about the rest of the World though? Happy days eh? 8-) *Peter* - http://www.cix.co.uk/~peterpc/home.html

It's interesting to me because I never really rated myself as a "one lap" person - I always thought more of doing it in the race, where it really counted. On Tue, 11 Jul 2000 15:58:14 GMT, [email hidden] (Jo Helsen) wrote:

Quoted text (19 lines)

>On Tue, 11 Jul 2000 15:51:12 GMT, [email hidden] (Jon Beckett) >wrote: > >>From memory, I was doing times something like the following in the >>original game... >> Monaco 1:13.8 (qualifying) >> Brazil 1:14.3 (qualifying) >> Hungary 1:15.6 (qualifying) > >Those are very decent times for 3 years ago. The current records are >about 2.5-3s faster. > >> Spa 1:37.5 (qualifying) > >I assume this was a 1:47.5 :-) > >Hotlap competitions typically use *practice* times (less HP), BTW. > >JoH

Jonathan Beckett [email hidden]

In article <[email hidden]>, [email hidden] (Jon Beckett) wrote: > It's been a long time... it'll be interesting to see how quickly I get > up to speed in GP3. I would love to get hold of a copy of Grand Prix > Legends too - see how I fair at that. Jon, how could you? You mean you have *never* tried GPL!!!1 Theres a good UK based GPL league too, (UKGPL - link on my webpage) with some real close racing. Up to 20 people on-line racing at once, great fun! Pity it looks like GP3 will *not* have this feature, although we may get a workaround as it supports IPX? 8-) *Peter* - http://www.cix.co.uk/~peterpc/home.html

On Tue, 11 Jul 2000 14:00:38 GMT, [email hidden] (Jon Beckett) wrote:

Quoted text (9 lines)

>Are any of the old CIX (Compulink Information Exchange) GP2 crowd >still around? > >From memory, nicknames such as pjgtech, batchie, stownsend, and a few >others come to mind. They were all in the UK. They should remember me >if they are around :-) > >We were one of those "mad monk squadrons" that lowered the laptimes in >GP2 by an amount disbelieved by those who casually played the game

Maybe interesting to compare those "incredible" times against some current GP2 toptimes at www.lfrs.com Sit down first :-) JoH

On Tue, 11 Jul 2000 15:00:20 GMT, [email hidden] (Jon Beckett) wrote: >I forgot to say - the times haven't dropped as much as I expected. > >We were doing top five times in relation to those in 1995... with full >analogue and no assistance. So you were GP2 beta tester? <G> I think 1997 might be a better estimate for a game that was released in the summer of '96. Remember also that these times are not "unlimited trial" times. They are just driven during one session for one race. Hotlap competitions would have even faster times (nowadays checked against slowmotion driving) Make sure that you compare times to "open-setup" categories and not to "mandatory setup" categories. It's true that the last 2 years, modified tracks have been used sometimes. Some are also checked against shortcutting corners now (Monza...) And if a track is used in another "position" than originally, the times will differ. Don't recall the exact rules used by LFRS lately so I don't know for the last season or so. But of course you might have been fast already back then :-) JoH

On Tue, 11 Jul 2000 15:51:12 GMT, [email hidden] (Jon Beckett) wrote: >From memory, I was doing times something like the following in the >original game... > Monaco 1:13.8 (qualifying) > Brazil 1:14.3 (qualifying) > Hungary 1:15.6 (qualifying) Those are very decent times for 3 years ago. The current records are about 2.5-3s faster. > Spa 1:37.5 (qualifying) I assume this was a 1:47.5 :-) Hotlap competitions typically use *practice* times (less HP), BTW. JoH

You have no idea how tempting it is... Especially with GP3 just around the corner. On 11 Jul 2000 17:15:42 GMT, [email hidden] wrote:

Quoted text (25 lines)

>In article <[email hidden]>, >[email hidden] (Jon Beckett) wrote: > >> >>Are any of the old CIX (Compulink Information Exchange) GP2 crowd >> >>still around? >> >> >> >>From memory, nicknames such as pjgtech, batchie, stownsend, and a >> few >> >>others come to mind. They were all in the UK. They should remember >> me >> >>if they are around :-) > >I *do* remember you, B*st*rd used to beat me all the time! You were >normally about one or two seconds a lap faster than me. > >8-) > >And I'm still on CIX! > >Most of the old faces are still here too, ajcook, batchie, djgibson, >andrew_mcp, stownsend, etc, etc. Fancy coming back and joining us? > >8-) > >*Peter* - http://www.cix.co.uk/~peterpc/home.html

Jonathan Beckett, Senior Developer Nutek Services Ltd. [email hidden] http://www.absplannner2000.co.uk