,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, An interview of Crazy (Kuski of Month on April 2005) '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' -= When did you start playing? =- I think I first encountered Elma when it was newly released. I don't know the exact date or even the year. There was this friend of mine who introduced me to the game at his place. He had got it from a friend of his whose name is "Joni". Quite amazing, huh?! Anyway, he made a copy for me and I brought the game with me home. I remember playing just a little, having HUGE problems getting past downhill and What The Heck. I think I had skipped 5 levels (or what ever the limit is) so I had to pass them. Somehow we both lost for interest in Elma and it was forgotten. Then, about a year later we had our own computer-classroom in school. Some guys in my class brought their computers and one of them had elma on his desktop. I couldn't keep my mouth shut so I began bragging about my skills and having finished almost all the levels.. As it turned out he was very good and even claimed he had had some swedish records in the beginning, though I'm not sure whether it was Across or Elma recs, he had played both. As we talked with some other guys in my class I got to know that they all knew that "stupid game", and they were all using much better styles than I had made up in my short period of elma. So that day I went home and opened elma again (it was still on the computer) for the first time in more than a year. I began hoyling, both in school and at home, bringing my stats to school and even states, just to lay them in every elma folder so my times would be on every computer. I especially remember a guy who made 34.0x in pipe, that was OMG time back then, I think it was better than current mopo rec. I also drove Bumpey 38.3x which was better than mopo rec. My best time ever was when I made 14.78 on Hangman at home. I remember having my mum in the same room and I told her to watch my freaking run. I thought it was a Swedish record. But the same week Jeppe drove his WR and I was devastated... Oops, looks like I went a bit too far, keep reading please :) -= Ex-teams and why did you change teams? I've never been in any team. I don't know whether it's regretable or not. I know that I had been among good fellows if.. But it really doesn't matter. I've made some friends anyway :] -= Current total? =- 54:14:27 -= Top5 newest and oldest personal records? =- Oldest: 38. Curvaceus 34,88 (2002-01-19) 30. Pipe 34,12 (2002-02-02) 29. Headbanger 1:13,79 (2002-03-08) 20. Upside DOwn 1:14.34 (2002-03-24) 37. Jaws 1:10,99 (2002-04-13) Newest: 10. The Steppes 12,66 (2005-07-12) 04. Over and Under 31,05 (2005-07-12) 09. Tunnel Terror 1:07,17 (2005-10-12) 05. Uphill Battle 21,32 (2005-11-15) 08. Tag 21,64 (2005-11-15) -= Across Career briefly. Any WRs?, World Cup I and II and so on.. =- non existing -= Elma career? =- I rised.. haven't fallen yet but I'm slowly fading.. My best year must have been 2003 when I participated in quite many contests on different pages. Most were hoyla contests though so not much attention for that :] -= Do you still like Across? Why/why not =- DOH -= How did you get Across/Elma? Was it your worst mistake? or the best? =- As said in introduction. By a friend, still haven't bought it. But I probably will, no reason to rush it though. It was a mistake of course, I spent more time with Elma than I did with my Girlfriend for a while, luckily she doesn't know about that. I also broke three keyboards during my sickest hoyling-period in -03. BUT, I really do feel comfortable with Elma. It's fun to play and I really like the feeling of having the best time on a level or winning a battle etc. -= Favourite internals / most irritating internals? =- Favourite? I used to like Tricks Abound, I had the second best avg among swe kuskis ages ago, and Hangman which I thought I had the Swedish record on.. Oh, I did almost forgot, I used to like Enduro too. I uploaded style after first apple in lauta, then jokke uploaded his WRs which had the same style after some weeks. That was cool (though he wasn't influenced by me I guess..) :/ Worst is probably Apple Harvest since it is still unfinished.. -= Your own best WRs? =- Never had any in an internal level. I guess my imaginary 9.xx on The Steppes would be best :P But my tt on Höylä Mission is my best "WR" I think. -= Best WRs in your opinion? =- They all look impossible to me. But since I've seen Tor's Apple Harvest.. That's one of the sickest recs I've seen. -= What's the limit of WR times? =- Since I'm not in to internals it's hard to say. I would never had guessed under 37 when I started so I better shut up. I depends how far the hoylas are willing to go. "someone said the sky is the limit.." -= 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? =- I happen to like shorter levels, which is bad since I miss a lot of awesome levels for sure. I have some records on the Kinglist, and especially on the Höylä Mission. Unfortunatelly it's updated very rarely and not that popular :/ This new trend with knock-out tournatments is nice. Keep up the good work guys, I do understand that it takes a lot of time but it is REALLY appreciated. -= Best lgr in your mind? What lgr do you use? =- High Q is the one I use, I don't use pictures or animated objects, all for max hoyling. High Q is for the sky of course. Though I think Horror is one of the best lgrs ever made. -= Mention some good things you have gotten with Across/Elma? =- Contacts on ircnet at #across, and almost IRL contacts :] And the feeling of having a WR is amazing ;P -= Mention some bad things you have gotten from Across/Elma? =- I almost never slept during my sickest hoyling periods.. -= What is the most frustrating thing you have faced in your career? =- First time I made enigma bounce (old style to the platform) and missed the flower because I started to rotate just before the flower.. After that accident I quitted the internal business.. -= The biggest mistake of your Elma career? =- Not playing more externals during -04. Maybe I could have given axxu some competion for best externalist at GAA04 if I had put some energy into cups etc. -= Cheating, what feelings? Do you use level unlocker/1.11hb/1.2 etc? How many cheaters do you think there are in the top100? =- I use 1.2, with alo-key and brake-key as featured options. I don't even know half of the names in top-100 but I hope none of them have cheated their way there. But since Milagros has developed such great tools I doubt there are any cheaters in the WR table at least. Except for the old ones who gave up cheating, as Karlis and such.. :P -= Elma tuning, have you tested? Opinion about it? =- Yeah, tested last year for the first time. But as for default I drive with v-sync [off], though I sometimes switch if there is a mongo short level where I can't improve that last hundreds. But I don't really know the difference between [on] and [off]. If I think that it will affect my driving I ask someone in #across and mostly people there are kind enough to advise me. -= Map on/off, timer on/off, resolution, centered camera on/off, sounds on/off, animations on/off, high/low details? =- Map off, timer on, resolution is default I guess, non-centered cam, sound off, animation off and low details. All this for maximum feeling when hoyling. Though it's sad that I do drive like this because there must be 1000s of great levels that I've played and I've never seen the grass. I remember as I first found the external levels that I really loved the environments created. So I usually play levels because they are playable, not because nice grass and pics.. -= Best kuskis and teams? What are the things you value in another kuski/team? =- Teams: ICE, WNO, PRA, MAN, FM and KFS.. sickest teams there are. Kuskis: The best kuskis are so hard to pick. I non-particular order skilled kuskis would be: axxu, Luther, john, Toringe, jalli, Stikkybear, ramone, zweq, karlis, jeppe, TUa, cloud, markku, daemon.. Gah, I can go on forever. There are so many extreme kuskis out there. You are all good :) I value skill above everything else and I don’t vote for anything but skill when KOM-poll is up. Of course I value other things as well, as in any normal friendship/relationship , but for a kuski I value skill.. -= Your best achievements? =- Well, I hoyled Höylä Mission quite hard and was the first to get a tt under 11 minutes. Except for that I have managed to "quit" Elma each summer the last 2 years. That is quite an achievment imo.. -= Do you do any other neat finger-related stuff like playing violin, repairing watches, pick pocketing etc? =- Actually I've played both the violin and the guitars. But I hope my Elma fingers will give me a reputation when it's time to hit the market, doing something "real". I'm studying for Physiotherapist so I will work a lot with my hands/fingers.. Oh, there was this thing with a girl, but as minors will read this I better keep quiet :P -= How much did you play in your sickest period? How much these days? =- During my sickest hoyling period, which must have been during 2003, I played like 8-10 hours during the days (that is getting up at 07.00 just to play an hour or two before breakfast) then I played the whole day till my parents got home. I was unemployed and was just staying at home for 6-8 months before I decided to improve my grades for future studies. Then, after I had said nitez to mum and dad (often around 22.00) I went to bed with my mum's laptop and played till 03-04 in the morning. So as you see I didn't sleep very much during this period, but I improved my höylä mission times every night :) Nowadays I can play the same amount of time but that happens like once every second month, else I play half an hour a day, perhaps less or nothing at all.. -= Have you had Elma dreams? =- I made WR in The Steppes with my frontwheel/"brutal" style, 9.xx. That style was created in my dream actually, quite cool. There has been some more too but I don't remember.. -= Strengts and weaknesses as a player? What moves you like/dislike? =- Strenght is that I can play the same level, even if it's just 2-3 secs long, for weeks without getting tired. Weakness, I don't play internals and beacause of that there are a lot of good moves and tricks that I never practise. So there are plenty of tricks I do not master. My favourite move must be “esc – enter”. I use it more than space I guess.. -= Tips for average players? =- First you hoyl, then you hoyl even more. Then you check other recs, try to learn from them and then you keep hoyling.. Honestly! There are no shortcuts if you want to make good time. Of course you can be lucky and make a good time within a short space of time. But don't feel satisfied with an unhoyled top-10. Hoyl till the end of the world.. -= Best memories with Elma? =- Beating Luther at his place in a level made by Skint0r (who sat behind us in a sofa..) :) Driving 14.78 on Hangman back in the days was also a nice feeling. I think that is the only time I've made mum look at me playing at the computer and smile at the same time. Also When I beat Ziutek's Höylä Mission tt, that was the greatest of feelings :D -= First time at #across? =- I'm not really sure, I registered at the lauta 2002-08-20 but didn't make my first post until 2003-05-18. The second post came 2003-07-31 and was about Höylä Mission times actually. So I guess I first appeared on #across about this time. I remember that it didn't feel that good because Karlis was mongo. But I guess I have forgot about that because I do join some now and then.. -= Best Elma friends? =- - axxu and Schizmo -= Thoughts about Elma meetings? =- I have never visited a "real" meet as I write this. I met oizo, Luther, Xtc and Skint0r in Gothenburg this summer, but it was not an elma meet. well, we played some elma but I was mostly there because of Iron Maiden concert, and Luther was kind and offered us some shelter for the night :D Hopefully I will go to Ramone next week and meet up with some Swe kuskis. I also have plans of visiting FEM once in my life. It's a great opportunity to get to know people and see some crazy skills :> -= What do YOU think should be improved in an eventual new version of Elma? How are your feelings towards there coming a new version? =- A device that count your total amount of playing time.. or not. I would probably become crazy if I did see that huge amount of hours connecting me to this bizarre game. The game itself should be kept just as it is today. No other alo-volts or keys. The difference should be tuning in the game and I guess there are plenty of tools that can be added to the editor. Maybe imporoved graphics and new levels of course but NO change in gameplay. -= How about battles? =- I sometimes join battle (as often as I visit #across). Then I play a battle some now and then, if I win I keep battling but if I lose I usually leave because then I have a bad day ;) I had a period when I played quite much back in -03 or -04. Battle is a great idea and you can learn pretty much from battling. Loose, check the winner rec and hoyl that style till you beat it, that's fun :) edit: I had to battle tonight (2005-12-06) just to see what I think about battles today. I won 2 out of 3 so I guess I think it's fun. -= Tell us something about your relation to höylä mission and other höylä contests. =- As I started playing and found the external levels (which was totally unknown to me for a year perhaps) I somehow managed to download a lot of levels from elastomania.com in school. We started battling these external levels, and especially three levels that I remember being named somthing like JuuSpeed, Juulimbo and some more. Though I soon forgot about that page because we found that moposite did the real updates and hosted the sickest records. So when I got home I downloaded some levels from mopo and it turned out to be the höylä mission. Since the levels were pretty short and easy to finish I brought them to school, though not before I had decent times on every level. Now I found my hoyla skill because the other guys just gave up if they couldn't beat the time within a coffe break. I just kept playing, even ignoring coffe for making a good run before the next lesson. Then I found there was a recordlist on mopo. And as I checked my times I found that I had made one WR. I was quite amazed and I wanted to tell the scene about this. I remembered being registered on some forum so I rediscovered the lauta and went there, my second post told these times. I was quite close on some other levels as well so what choice was there but start hoyling. I didn't hoyled hardcore in the beginning but I made some ok times. When I had 2 or 3 WRs I also noticed the total time table. So I made my own stats and realised that my times were not as good as I had thought from the beginning. I kept hoyling, I asked for recs on lauta, I started to spam some mongo named Bartek who had plenty of WRs. He was kinda tough to deal with but I found freak's replay-pack on a polish website and a lot of new styles entered my book of skill. I can't possible imagine the number of days/weeks/months that I've actually spent on that contest. I guess you guys know what I'm talking about, some times you just can't get enough, right?! If I had spent all those hours in killing birds I guess there had been a silent spring of 2004, deadsilent.. I don't know why I've played so much short levels really.. Someone must play them, right? Some of the external packs I've played the most, though not even 1% of the time spent on hoyla mission, is The Tutorial Levelpack by Bob (God, those levels weren't longer than 3-4 secs :S) , the 1337-contest by Kopaka, Crazy Hoyla by Xhomas and Hoyla Contest by Are. I guess have a reputation to live up to, my name says I must be a freak in some way ;) -= Have you got any negative feedback about playing Elma from your mates? =- Well, some think I'm really stupid, but these comments usually come from those who play CS, WOW or Quake in some form, so I guess I don't care. For my other friends, I use to show them my sickest recs each time we are in front of my computer. If they play tough it usually ends up with me showing some of jalli's pipe-recs and they all are amazed :) It has become like a sort of opening phrase for many of my geek-friends that they ask me if I had many any new recs on Elma.. gah, I guess most of my friends ask me if I still play Elma actually. A guy who was in my Spec-ops team in Army, after haven't spoken with eachother for more than a year said this: "Hi, how's life" and then he asked me if I still played Elma. Crazy :) -= What games do you like beside Elma? =- Football and Love -= Did you buy Elma? Why not? =- No, I got it from my friend so I didn't see no reason to buy it, at least not in the past. Though I feel that I have a responsibility towards the community so I will buy it some day.. Maybe I'll wish for it till Christmas ;) -= Have you thought about if you could stop playing Elma soon, or anytime? =- As I said earlier, I stop playing each summer beacause there are so many other things that have to be done. Like strotting the beach, sunbathing in general makes me happy, at least when there are pretty girls around ;P Then I play football and excercise very much over all so some times I have to take a breake from elma. Though I can't see no reason for giving up elma completely today. Maybe I some day grow up or come to see that I don't need it no more. But as for now I can play just to get relaxed. -= What gets you still playing Elma? =- I rarely play JUST for fun. When I play I want to beat someones record. And as I mentioned, I get relaxed with elma. Just me and Elma alone leaves me a lot of time to think about past, present and future, and I think we need some time alone. Why don't spend it with elma then.. Hmm, as a sum up: addiction -= Are you at the top of your career now? If not, when? =- I've reached some sort of peak, I don't think I've improved much this last year, but that's because I'm not playing as much as is needed. But I wouldn't say that I've been better than I am today. If I find a teleport or Warp I guess I will go back in time and battle myself.. -= How high would you rate yourself as an Elma player? Top100? Top10? Honestly. =- Top X0 -= What are your goals in elma these days? Coming Wcup5 or 24h tt? Or driving WRs and improving tt? =- I would like to get into the "Most points at the same time" on the Kinglist. But since I can't get enough points from the Hoyla Mission I donät know how that will happen. Maybe I'll try for an internal-WR one day but I need to practise some before that, and I don't have time for that nowadays.. -= Forecast the future of Elma. How the scene will be in five years? =- As long as the veterans act serious and are nice with newcomers the scene will live on. Elma is such a strange game and has quite a big community even though. Most people can play it because of its sick concept and non-violent gameplay. Unfortunatelly there is this "attitude" among some people in the scene today which might frighten new kuskis. It really pisses me off when people harass newcomers who make good times or start offending them in public, just because they are new and good. Even new kuskis that lack every single skill needed are treated very unfair by a small group of kuskis. What I do appreciate is all those fellow kuskis who take there time, both on lauta and IRC and other places. You make the scene stay alive. I remember the first time I visited across, not the exact moment but the feeling. I was anxious and felt extremely afraid to say something which wouldn't be correct. And guess what happened, as soon as I talked there was a mongo (veteran) who I had seen in the WR-list who opened his mouth and said something stupid. As I replied I was kicked!? That made me stay away from IRC for a long time. Such things are so stupid. The moporators and Ops on #across often make an extremely good work with guiding people and helping lost kuskis. I just wish that everyone could be as polite as most of these guys are. THOUGH, I don't say that I don't laugh when certain people make stupid comments in some topics. But please leave the topics related to the gameplay clean. -= 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.. dunno. As I was in the same poll as Abula, the power which keep a big part of the scene alive and connected, I was quite suprised, yes. I think all the people in my poll where players which had done something which was worth voting for so I am very happy that I won among such great kuskis :D -= Mopolauta, thoughts? =- As said before, there is this attitude growing which has a negative influence on the scene, I don't remember it being like that when I first joined. But that is only for a very little part of the scene, most guys seems great in every way. My wish is that the moporators could be even more strict when ruling the topics which are about the game, Elma. What the other topics do say I don't care about. But as you view a topic like "New Internal Times" you don't want to read about whether a guy is gay or not.. Mopolauta connects a big part of the community but we should not forget that there are plenty of other forums which might be just as important. Moporators, I bow for thee.. -= Opinions about Elma Crime, MUe's animations and stuff like that. =- I found "Elma Crime" awesome. I don't know what more to say.. Bartek has made some really sick and funny animations too which I have seen. My favourite must be "Elma Picnic" ( is that the name?). I remember downloading it in school and laughing quite hard, not sure who made that one though.. -= What's your favourite Elma website (not moposite)? =- Elastomania.com who lead me to moposite.. :P Nah, unfortunatelly moposite isn't updated as often as is needed nowadays. But I don't blame px or Abula for that. They are doing a great job and things will change I guess ;) Other sites that I visit frequently aren't that many. I do like Kopaka's site with the "1337-contest" and Xhomas' site with "Crazy Hoyla". In the past I used to visit elastosite, a polish elma site that was really serious when it came to hoyla mission. Very sad that it died. I know there is a new site but all the "good" times are lost :( -= Your relation to OLP? =- What? -= Why that nick, Crazy? =- I wanted a cool name.. From the beginning I named myself "krazy", which I think had been cooler. But that spelling was because of my english teacher not teaching me good enough :) When I look at the name now I really don't have any good reason for choosing "crazy" as my nick. Quite cool though that I took this nick, I feel like Crazy because I have quite a normal life and I have no problems at all with being social and stuff, so I must be crazy for playing Elma. I can reveal some secrets. I used to play in battle under a some other nicks during 03-04. "any2" and "guext" though they are not cool either :P -= How much do your parents know about you/elma/the scene? =- They know I've spent a great deal of time playing elma. Luckily for me that is. Because if they hadn't threatened me and the computer I would probably have been a WC player today, and then I had not been sitting here in Uppsala writing this interview! My parents' were impressed by Luther being willing to have me and my friend at his plays, even though I had never met him or even spoken with him except for "chats" on internet. DOH -= Your real life. Do you have it (school/work, other interests etc)? =- I'm studying Physiotherapy in Uppsala. I will do that for the next 3 years so I'm quite sure what to do these coming years. I excercise a lot: Gym, running, spinning and football because I need a functional body for my elma-playing :P I have quite many lovely friends. Both boys and girls actually. Since I moved to Uppsala I have got a lot of new friends, unfortunatelly no Elma friends yet. But I'm working on Jonas at the moment.. :) -= Write something about the game, fellow kuskis, moposite, #across, etc =- I've had great fun. I will appear at some meets and I probably will be the number one on hoyla mission forever :P Thanks abula and px for running moposite. Without it I hadn't been playing for sure.. (so maybe I'll beat you when I meet you, I hate you) jk :* -= How did this interview make you feel, like a moviestar? =- I felt very proud and I was keen to write it as I had won. Then it took SveinR like 2 month to create all these tricky questions and by then my sparkling flame was dying. Now I've written for 3 nights in a row and I feel that I ought to finish it :) It has been fun trying to recollect fragments of my Elma life. I came to think about things that I didn't know I remembered. If there had been a max-pose picture of me playing elma attached with this interview I had felt like a moviestart for sure ;P As a final touch I went to #across and asked if there were any questions that people wanted me to answear. I have to admit that I do love the attitude in #across a lot after all.. :) " anyone who wants to ask me something, I think I'm done with my KOM-interview soon?!? omg like any question.. :P my time for teh warm upper is 14.xx so then you must have received it some time yay crasy o/ how many straws of hair do you have per cm^2 on the left side on your chin? höh :P i know: tell us something about your sexy body! :] <_8-ball_> do you play with one hand :P~ ...elma?? :P <_8-ball_> did i meantion elma" So, I'm working hard to get just one black straw below that part of my head that is generally thought of as being my hair. I'm quite fit, might be because I do excercise alot to keep my hoyling powers alive. I've also spoken some with Bartek in the past about excercising, so I don't want to feel ashamed if I meet him. And when it comes to Elma, I play with one hand. For other games I let her decide.. ;p Cheers and Merry Christmas! Crazy 7th of December 2005