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Asayyeah
24th September 2005, 11:47 PM
My XL trip
It all started 6 months ago when I organized a 2097 I-link tournament with a bunch of my fellow French wipeout addicts. When this amazing weekend has come to an end, I had decided to lend my XL copy ( which wouldn't run with my non-modded playstation ) to Del-stpho ( Stéphane Cellier, a young wipeout talent ) with his promise to be invited by him if my copy worked on his modded Playstation. Unfortunately I was obliged to decline his previous invitation due to personal problems I was having, but last week I phoned him explaining I would be around the north of France, and asked him if I could drop in. His answer was - ‘ c’mon dude , of course you’re welcome!! “
It's immposible to describe my excitement concerning that kind of adventure: “ Exploration of XL : the new Graal is coming up soon “ I was like a little boy who couldn't wait to open his presents !! During all my way to Steph's place I was thinking about all the tips and comments I received from Al, Mano, Steph, Shem & Stevie about huge differences between XL and 2097 ( my Fav Luv Wipeout ) : floatiness of the ships was to be different, shortcuts, that seemed to be impossible because of the ships, that 'sticked' to the track, the difference between the speed of XL and 2097, and many other details of that kind. But of course, it's always better to experiment on your own, to work out your own analysis, or in other words : to get the Answers.
I'll try to get you familiar with the circumstances of our experiment : we've spent 15 delirious hours playing Wipeout XL ( + 3 or 4 multiplayer tournaments in Pure but that’s not important at the moment, Steph and me will talk about that in the Pure forum later ). Most of the time we were playing inside his college room ( 9 m² ! lol ) , listening to Techno/Trance from his laptop built-in speakers, sitting on his bed, staring into a small portable TV ( around 17" wide ) and playing XL in B&W : Goshh it was a really oldschool, 'back to the roots' feeling for me. I simply went back in time to 1996, the time when I discovered my 'preciooouuuussss' game, that changed my life for ever.
I will let Stéphane give you other details about our meeting, but IMO it was just marvellous and fantastic!! This experiance was also too short for me: even though I managed to do a quick adaptation to XL, I still thought of challanging Al's, Mano's and Steph's records.....and the final result was very satisfying!! My aim was to perform 3 attempts in a row in TT ( Phantom only..... Lance should feel lucky ;) ) then switch to SR ( 3 attempts as well ) and move onto another track. With few tracks it felt like a hallucination : I thought, that it's unbelivable, that I can fly all the flying paths, that I just couldn't in 2097!!!! It was like a lucid dream for me!!. After getting rid of the feeling of not being able to move much around the track ( just like I couldn't move much in the cramped room that I was in at that time ) I have started to improve my times massively ( you can check the update from me and Steph on XL tables in a few moments )
Just to give you few examples :
Talon’s tt lap time : 14.6
Valpa sr race time : 2.06.8
Phénitia sr lap time : 23.4
Odessa tt race time : 2.03.1 / sr lap time : 23.9

All the race times can be under 2 min …, it's a future challenge for me when I get a modded ps …why not?!

And now Steph's part of the story… :D

EDIT : Many thx about Shem's help for correcting my english mistakes :wink:

Del Stepho
24th September 2005, 11:51 PM
Hi mates
Last week, I’ve been glad to meet Arnaud who happened to travel around the north of France. He decided to spend 2 days there. He couldn't miss this visit not only because he has never played XL before, but also because I was proud to have his Wipeout XL copy.
Arnaud started to play just a few moments after he came over : it was just amazing how he adapted himself to XL's flight engine, despite the fact, that he was playing on a B&W TV (Pal TV) and that the game was different from 2097. He started off by making a perfect laps on Talon’s TT ( his favorite track ) using my brand new white Negcon. After only 3 attempts the result was there : 14.8 !! / 1.16.3. Insane, lol . From me - I wasn’t just looking : I wanted to take an advantage from that individual home lessons by Asayyeah, and so I have ended up with a ‘ not-a-bad’ 14.9 , my new Personal Best .
We moved to SR then and spent some time on Valparaiso. The start of the evening was kind of ‘ Aperitif ‘. We traveled from Duinkerque ( where my parents live) to my college flat after the dinner, to let Asayyeah extend his experience.
But suddenly - panic and stress in the car : I forgot to take the TV remote control from my parent’s house (which is typical for French wipers!!) …but no worries - we managed to select the AV channel right from the TV and we started our ‘insane’ Wipeout XL session : with some heavy sounds of Techno/Trance & Psychedelic mix which fitted perfectly to the rhythm of the races!!
Our meeting was rich about humour and also high scores, for instance 25.9 Gare d’europa, 23.8 phénitia, 24.1 vostok , done by the big boss. It was the time to sleep a little bit but I wanna take my revenge : I wiped his ass ( yeah really! :twisted: :lol: !) during 3 phantom Pure tournaments ( by multiplayer ad hoc)… We will talk about that later héhéhé. We stopped it about 5 am . Morning coming I went to my Maths courses letting Arnaud fighting against the Chrono , 2 hours later I did see on his face with a large smile talking to me as fast as he pilots !! blablabla new record, sagar, valpa, phenitia ( his best feeling I suppose), blablabla I cut like that yeaaah!! , blabla 20.9 spyl ! Amazing how he was happy and of course I was too excited to myself and performed on Vostok showing to Arnaud, 450 kph :rock_on just after the first big cut : result 24.2 ( more than 2 secs from my previous PB
Unfortunately even the best thing ended someday and he needed to go back to his town .
See you next time my friend. :wink:

Lance
24th September 2005, 11:54 PM
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'' that I can fly all the flying paths, that I just couldn't in 2097''
er... are you saying that XL is actually flOatier than 2097? all these past few years we have collectively thought that it's the other way about.
?
.

Asayyeah
25th September 2005, 12:07 AM
Not exactly i mean by that XL is easier to run without the bumps you have always with 2097 so i can get new trajectories , finding new higher speed .
I must add XL is a way faster in term of lap & racetime but my feeling when i compare the 2 version is 2097 seems to be faster if you look at the screen ( not the racetime or the speed o meter but the speed sensation )and harder to master than xl .
I spent one hour with 2097 just when i come back from my trip and done a 15.0 which felt to me i was doing at least an under 14.6 that was so strange.

Lance
25th September 2005, 12:33 AM
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btw, reading the tale of the racing sessions you two had just leaves me grinning from ear to ear. :D
.

Hyper Shadow
25th September 2005, 09:46 AM
I just wish I had some Wiper friends around now after reading that, i'd love to just kick back and play WipEout all day in serach of that lower time.

You have inspired me you two, I guess I'll put pure on and go for faster times....well at least until my eyes bleed.