TMarc: A faithful community member... 10000 posts!

[TMarc]

didn't see this before

thank you all for your nice and touching words!
And also thank you for your contributions, helping to make and to maintain such a nice community
Without you I wouldn't have been here this long!

P.S.: TMarc, maybe you want to share with us how you started with Trackmania, how you began as a moderator, etc?

Actually my passion for such kind of games started much earlier, even before home computers were common.
I played a lot with a wooden model railroad (Brio or similar) and with Playmobil when I was a kid.
But soon I discovered it was much more fun to construct things, and here Lego and later Fischer Technik (plastic parts mechanics) appeared to be much more interesting.
My dad had a Märklin railway, he sometimes mounted it on a huge wooden board in the largest room of the basement.
I had most of the fun "designing" circuits and placing the rails. Driving on the circuits was then less interesting.

Then the age of computers started. We had then a C-64. Among the typical and usual games, from Pacman to Winter Games, one of my favorites turned out to be the Racing Destruction Set (Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw3R-_flF4Y), and another was Stunts or Stunt Car Racer (Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMgjmIW8fd8)
Later I started to program my own railway control center with a integrated track editor, using Simon's Basic, where I could place junctions and signals, and click on the symbols to make them change. I rewrote it in Pascal and later in Visual basic, but then music was more interesting for me and I wrote a control editor for a synthesizer.
Still I did not forget to play games

Honestly I don't remember exactly anymore how I got to know about TrackMania.
I think one day in 2002 or ealry 2003 I discovered an article with screenshots, perhaps early movies, about TrackMania, still in development then, and I decided to follow this project, as it seemed to be a remake of the old known games, but with modern graphics - awesome
Suddenly in Fall of 2003 there was the demo, which was a big suprise, I played it a lot.
And as soon as the game was available, I purchased it in France (couldn't wait for a release in Germany).
So in some way I'm a TrackManiac of the first days. Not a good racer, and also not a very good trackbuilder, but what matters most is the fun everyone has with it.
In 2004 I joined the French TrackMania forum to refresh my language a bit.
Later I experienced TrackMania Power Up, Sunrise, United, Nations and both Forever versions, even Virtual Skipper. In 2011 I joined the ManiaPlanet forum.
Why I became moderator here, don't ask me, better ask Nadeo
All I can say, I like to help people if they have technical trouble, as I know from private and from work how much frustrating it can be when something is not working properly.
So I tried to help others already in the original forum, and I continue here as well.
But sometimes is not easy or not possible at all, I'm sorry if I can't help then

[Soprah]

No problem TMarc

Yes, I think everyone had a passion for building something since the early childhood.
It is just stunning that in such a short time (from the c64 to the present computers) the technical possibilites increased so drastically. I can't imagine what will await us in the next 10years. Will everyone have an oculus rift then?

Thanks again for your loyalty and helpfullness, TMarc.
Bist ein ganz Großer.
(Hopefully it is allowed to speak German for this special occasion ^.^. I don't know how to translate it because it is colloquial German. )

Greetings,
Soprah

[NJin]

Bist ein ganz Großer.

Your'e a great one

PS: 500th post LoL

[Hylis]

Thanks TMarc for your story!

Viva TMarc

[Demented]

Yea TMarc! Excellent!
Talking about your history got me reminiscing about my own beginnings in Track Construction. For me it started as a kid with electric slot car tracks. Rearranging the pieces into a seemingly endless array of shapes. TM is a lot like that but with way more pieces and you don't have to clean or replace the contacts on the cars every time you use it! I started out with a Commodore 64 as well, and learned programming basic on it and later move up to an Amiga and AMOS. I remember playing Racing Destruction Set and Stunt Car Racer. Those were so cool and fun in their day. Looking at the videos you posted made me go "Wow!", because graphics have changed so much over the years! I forgot how simple they were back then. But I still recall that feeling of anticipation on Stunt Car Racer as the crane lifted your car up onto the track.

Thanks TMarc for that flashback.
I, as you, look forward to the future.

[Citiroller]

You're awesome TMarc

[angry_duck]

Thank you again for your helpfulness and your kindness, TMarc!
And Soprah for making this topic, he deserved it

[adamkooo2]

more thanks