" YOU HACK "

      I get this all the time. After spending literally years working at this game,

     only to hear some guy who "thinks" he's fast, call me a hack, is a big 

     bummer... So here it is. Every thing I know about flying around the track

     If you think someone's hacking,  record a race or two. Then watch him

      later. If you KNOW the game, and he's hacking, then you will know.

Getting fast 1.01

"It's not what you got, it's what you do with it. Right?...WRONG !

     I'm talking about your computer. Just for example, I have a DELL 700, with 512 mgs ram, TNT video card at my home.

I also have a Celeron 300 cranked to 450, with the same video card at my work. I have MCM2 on both machines. I can play the same tracks with the same bike settings and such, but at home, I am WAY faster. I notice this mostly with

pre-loading. Some how the processor and the hardware interpret the input functions better, and dramatize the actions. Don't ask me how it works, I aint no computer genius. However my point being simple. If you are playing on a bogger system, then don't expect to beat similar opponent on a faster system.

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HANDS ON

     Now for the input device (your controller). I can't believe how often I hear guys say that they are racing with the keyboard !  I've almost tried every possible controller. Game pads, generic joysticks, key board. you name it, I've tried it. I've found (and you may be different), that the Microsoft Precision Pro to be the best. I personally hate the Force Feedback model. But, to each his own. 

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SETTINGS ETC..

     THE CONTROLLER:

     I like my controller super sensitive. I like it to respond to the input as rapidly as possible. And turn as tight as I can get it to. Once you become one with your controller, you can then out maneuver your opponent. Again, the PC's performance will inhibit your ability if it can't process the rapidly spinning graphics fast enough. When this happens it can make you run right into stuff , or go flying off the track.

     THE BIKE:

     First off, if you are going to take part in an open cc race, why would you want to race a 250? Unless you don't want to win. The 600 is the fastest machine in the game hands down. If  I enter an open cc race, I will ALWAYS choose the 600.

     After countless hours of racing and practice, I've found the preset # 2 to be the best. It doesn't get up and go as quickly as some of the other presets, but after you start to gain momentum, it is the best!  I also like the settings maxed. And employ the 'brake gyro". It's just like a real bike. (lot's of hints concerning rear brake usage in the hint's section). JFYI= When building a track, I practice the track (after compiling it) on the 400. 

     GRAPHICS:

     Even though my pc will handle the graphics maxed out, when I race, I want to win! So I do every thing I can to stack the deck in my favor. I set the graphics all the way down on the slider. I race with only the stats graphic in the upper left corner. I turn off every thing else, dust, sky, shadows, radar thingy, map, rider highlight, you name it.. These things all make a difference when it comes to being familiar how your game is going to react to your input. Did you know that Jeremy McGrath raced with the same frame design from his 92 CR 250 all the way up until he left Honda? He tried all the new models, but preferred what he was comfortable with. That played a part in his dominance. At least in those years. So I set the graphics , and the bike up exactly the same every time I race. 

HINTS

     STARTS:

     I don't think that I've ever seen anyone do this, but read on.. The control key on your keyboard acts as a clutch. So as you sit there waiting for the gate to drop, hold down the control key and rev that sucker! You want to release a fraction before the gate drops. And, you want to release on the up-rev. That way you can simply hold the gas wide open all the way to the turn. This WILL give you an advantage. I can hole shot 99% of the time by doing that, if no one else does it on the start. It works.. It was programmed into the game.. It only works in a multi-player game.

     PRELOADING:( If you play with the key board, or a game pad pass this section up)

     There are many handling attributes that make it easier to win. One of those is preloading. Preloading you ask..? Yes, preloading. That's a small maneuver done with your body just as you go up the face of a jump, or hit a small bump to gain altitude, or height, in order to clear the approaching obstacle. I was riding in Beaumont Ca one afternoon, when my bro found a crack in the earth. It was about 35 to 40 feet wide, and about 20 feet deep. There were no mounds of dirt to pop over it any where. The take off was about 2 feet higher than the landing (the other side!). I was on a 125, so I went about 200 feet back and wound up through the gears going as fast as I thought was needed. Just as I was about to leave the ground, I gave the suspension a quick and deliberate slam towards the ground, followed quickly with an un-weighting of the bike,. The suspension, in effect, pushed me and the bike upwards.  That, combined with speed, equaled distance. Speed + Height = Distance... In this case enough to keep me 3 dimensional. Yes, I made it. The crack is there to this day. There are some new objects at the bottom that look a lot like bike parts, and human debris... LOL . That's preloading. MCM2 does let you preload. There are two ways.. The first is like I described. All you do is jog the joystick up/forward just before you take off a jump. The second is when you are landing into a whoop or a tightly placed set of doubles. If you are landing  from a jump, and it appears that your wheels will make contact on the back of the whoop/jump, pull back on the stick slightly so as to let the rear wheel roll down the ramp, and jog the stick forward right when you start back up the front of the whoop/jump. This will send you sailing!.. Take time to practice this. You will be able to clear sections of whoops in one or two bounces.

Preload illustration.

JUMPING  

Isn't that really all you're interested in?

     PREPARE FOR TAKE OFF:

     Since we are on the subject of preloading, let's cover the flight topic. First off, jumping farther than your opponent isn't always the fastest way around the track, or a certain section. Unless you can "Low-jump".. For instance, at week blah,  the last triple on the track is often over jumped by rookies, and they splat into the face of the rounding berm. There is a line that you can take, that allows you to be almost full throttle, but it only tosses you up a couple feet. Therefore, you shave about 1 second off your lap, which is a ton of time to a serious racer. So keep that in mind when jumping. Take different lines and find the fastest, and lowest. Remember, a bike, on the ground, under power, is way faster than one in the air!. One of the ways to ensure a low flight, is to scrub the rear brake just as the front wheel leaves the lip. You must be familiar with the jump, or you will land on your patootie. What that does is brings your front end down, and points the bike back to earth for a quicker landing. So you can actually travel up the jump faster than necessary (where you'll save time), and scrub the brake to slow your speed and keep you from over jumping, also you'll fly lower., and get back to the ground with a good landing speed.

     HOUSTON WE HAVE A PROBLEM!:

     Once you're airborne, you will notice one of three things. "Cool, I'm going to make it" - "Crap, I over jumped it" - "Wow, this is going to hurt"..

     ENDO: If you realize that you have short jumped a triple, or double for instance, there are certain measures you can take that will increase your chances of staying one with your bike, and not taking a dirt nap.. Just after take off, if you can tell that you going to come up short (story of my life), try leaning the bike to one side,  SLAMMING on the rear brake, and pushing the stick forward, all in one quick action.. The energy stored up in a rotating wheel will be transferred to the frame and cause the bike to pitch forward. But,  if you are still gaining altitude you can actually get the bike to continue to rise more than it was committed to before the brake was applied. If it's a huge jump, I will do this several times in the air and some times save my butt..  So the rear whip thing didn't work, and you're plummeting back to earth pointed right at this side of the very tip of the landing. Where in real life, you would have soiled your laundry, said several quick prayers, and wondered where your change was, from your buddy, who went to get lunch for you, earlier in the day. Anyhow, you get the idea. The only way to possibly save it, is to land just a hair nose down with the front tire touching the impact point, as it makes contact gas it, and pull back to let the rear wheel bounce off it . You want both wheels to act like rocks skipping across your Grandpa's back 40 pond. Doesn't always work, but when it works, you may still win your race, instead of having a 5 second set back from bailing in mid air.. 

     OVER JUMP:

     This technique will also work in an over jump situation. If you over jump too far you will usually loose your trajectory speed, and start to build up splat speed (your trip back to the ground). If you are landing on a flat surface, try landing slightly nose first, gas it, and pull back. I am amazed at how many times that I'm ready to hit the eject button, but just for the heck of it, stay on the bike, and I end up landing and taking off to the next turn. If you are positive that you will not pull off the landing, hit the eject button. I set my space bar up to be the bail key. It's big and easy to hit in a panic situation. You will save time by bailing as soon as possible. The game won't take as long to remount you back on your ride.

     PERFECT LANDING:

     The absolute perfect landing is one way to gain a lot of momentum. If you can line up your tires perfectly with the landing, where there's no interruption in the speed, you can gas it, pull back and be on your way to light speed. One of the ways people assume I hack is when I take off a jump behind some one, and after landing I SHOOT by them. He would have flat landed or bounced down the ramp, when I sling down into turbo mode, from the landing momentum.  If you can make it a habit to land in this fashion, you will have so much speed that you can jump huge sections of  4 and 5 jumps.. It works!

     GASSING IT:

     Pulling back as you apply the gas increases your speed. This works on straights and corners. If you are rounding a turn and it's flat (no bumps), slightly start pulling back at the apex, and gradually increase the pull until you are going straight, then you should be pulling all the way back.

    TURNS:

     Two kinds of turns, smooth and bumpy. If the turn is bumpy, see if you can cross jump, or corner cut it. I have no moral dilemma about cross jumping or corner cutting turns. When the tracks were made, they were made with a spline that won't allow you to cheat. I don't see this as cheating, I see it as smart racing. A few years back, I watched Jeff "The Chicken" Matasavich actually jump off a mound before the 1st turn and launch over the corner bails, through the turn, and land on the down side of another bump. He completely squared off the turn, leaving the entire pack in the dust. The track designers put a steel pole inside the turn. But, it was pulled back about 5 feet. When Jeff went by it, He had to pull his right shoulder in.. He still grazed it in mid air..! So there you go. Pittsburgh has a corner that can be cross jumped to death.. Most of the fast guys know about it.  

     Ok now for the flat turns. There are tight ones, and loose ones. On the loose ones (ones you can go wide open through), I do the pull back trick. If your PC is graphically  impaired, then you want to round the turn evenly. If you have a fast PC, gas it  into the apex of the turn and crank the tightest turn you can and release when you are perfectly lined up for the next straight, and pull back immediately.. On the tight ones, I gas it as far as I can, then I slam the brake with the gas still on, and push forward on the stick, and crank off the turn. At Kansas just after you jump through the start/finish that next corner, if you crank off the tightest turn you can , near the inside bails, and preload, you can clear past the big hump into the double, and preload again over turn two, almost all the way to the next turn on a 600cc..I do it all the time. If some one sees me, I'm instantly called a hack!.. But, I'm not.

     THE KEY!  LINE CHOICE + MOMENTUM:

     This quite possibly the most important paragraph !You can't be fast with out mastering the following!. You can't be fast with out knowing the correct, or the best lines. With out knowing the lines, you can't maintain momentum! That's the key.. So first? lines! Yes, after you master the above stuff, you MUST learn line choice little grass hoper! Every track has lines that can be off to the side, or a different jump combination than what looks to be intended ones. I still take time to learn new lines on the stock tracks. And I know a bunch. I would love to share these line secrets with you, but they are for team members only.. Just take my word for it and try different stuff. Ask your self,   How do I clear all five after the 1st turn at Seattle? How do I clear the final four at Detroit? How do I clear the entire fourth straight at Pitts, with only two jump? Some of you already know how. But most of you are scratching your noggins. They are do-able on a stock 600cc..

Nothing is a substitute for time on the bike. I've found that ghost racing will make you a fast rider. I ghost race all the time. You can push your self harder and harder, until you create a lap time that's virtually unbeatable. Then a few months later you try to beat that ghost, and wonder how come it's so slow. If you read this page and retain the info, that, along with time on the game will make you fast.. 

Oh, by the way, go out and get some ram, a good video card, a decent controller, and a real processor. !.

If you just read this entire page, then your a nut like me. You won't be happy until you do..

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If you would like to contribute to the information here, or just a question,

Feel free to EMAIL me.