What got you hooked on TM ?

[SiH13]

My irl friend bought trackmania (yes trackmania, not trackmania original) in 2004 (I was 9 and he was 11) and he played it all summer while i watched. I dont know why we liked it so much, but we kept playing it. I borrowed it sometimes and we heard that TMS was released, but he said it sucked. I didnt try it, so I lost interest in the game because we never played online.
In 2006I found this game corner at an sports event. They had some computers in a room and all of them had trackmania nations installed. I was shocked because I remembered the logo. I tried the game and I was in love with the gameplay and me and my friends played in a LAN party before we had to travel home.
I later found the game online and played it since. Bought Sunrise, United and Trackmania, from my friend, aswell.

2007 i created my first video and my first trackmania video. I didnt like it, but i have no idea why I continued.
I joined WTF in november that year and has been a member since. Got Vegas for chistmas and continued on my videomaking.
These two are the main reasons why I never want to quit playing this game.

[AlexKF]

Tbh SiH that does sound like the best story so far, in terms of being involved and seeing TM roleout infront of you Keep it going, for the videos too

[Trackmaniack]

In 2007 I was at a book fair that we have at our local university--and occasionally we'll have some PC games mixed in with the books (It's a Scholastic fair, for those in the US that know). Anyhow, I saw TMS in one of the boxes, and looked it over. "Hmm...this is a pretty cool game...race, design...holy crap is that a picture of a car flying off a jump ramp?!" Sold! And, needless to say, I've been hooked ever since.

[Alter-Fox]

My story really starts long before TM, in 1999 (when I was 9 :gasp:) I got a bunch of LEGO games from my uncle and one of them was Lego Racers. I loved how you could construct your own car out of lego bricks but I remember I thought it was so stupid that you couldn't build tracks the same way... it was Lego after all.

Fast-forward to 2004, I'd played a bunch of other racing games but they all tended to come with 20 or 30 tracks and that was it. And because it was laps racing the tracks weren't exactly long either. There was no replay value unless you waited ten years until you forgot everything and then replayed the entire game again.
I know this was in 2004 because I remember I was 14 and had just changed schools. I had gone to grades 7 and 8 in a different school but this school does have grades 7 and 8 -- the last grades in this province where students recieve the "book order" forms which occasionally also contain video games. I was lucky enough that my homeroom was the room that distributed the book orders to the grade 7 and 8 classes; and since I loved to read more than anyone else in my class (there was a very anti-reading mentality going on in high school about then) I got first pick of the book orders if there were any leftovers.
One of those leftover order forms included an order for TrackMania -- Whichever update of TrackMania introduced the underground tunnels and survival mode. I was hooked right about where the description said "build your own tracks". It's worth noting at this point that I wasn't allowed to play games online until I was almost 18 (which was in 2008).

In 2006, I was looking at Wal-Mart for a different racing game when I stumbled upon a copy of TrackMania Sunrise. I changed my mind about what I was looking for instantly . There had been some packaging mistake in the box that I got though so instead of a CD and a CD key for trackmania sunrise I got... two CDs and two CD keys for trackmania sunrise . I gave one to a friend and got him hooked on the game too. But I still couldn't play online.

I knew about TMU soon after but by the time I was able to go out and buy it all the stores in Winnipeg had stopped selling it and I didn't have the means or the persuasive powers to buy it online. I got TM Nations Forever but having one environment wasn't the same as having the six I'd had before; plus I discovered that the car handling in Stadium was boringly generic. The same friend who I'd given TM Sunrise had bought a copy of TMU but he couldn't install it; and for the same reason I couldn't buy United he couldn't return it. The store refused to acknowledge its existence.
So I bought it from him instead . And I told him to try buying it online, since he still wanted to play it. But by the time I bought TMU and upgraded to TMUF (and could finally play TM online!) I was so sick of stadium that I still rarely ever play it or build tracks for it.

I was gifted a TM2 Canyon beta key later; but even though by this time I already had some beta testing experience with Miner Wars I was far too excited about getting to actually play Canyon to actually be very useful as a beta tester Unlike a lot of nations people, it seems, I love Canyon's handling model even if it makes the game hard -- in fact that's part of the reason I love it. Today's games need to be harder; getting stuck at a boss fight or a race for a few days isn't a bad thing.

Anyway that's my complete TrackMania story. A little bit more than you asked for, eh?

[SlamDunk]

Downloaded the leaked Beta Desert demo back in October 2003. Played it a bit, didn't like it that much and almost uninstalled.

Then, after a couple of days, decided to give the demo a second chance, got a firm grasp of the gameplay and fell in love. Been a huge Nadeo fan ever since.

[MatheusKS]

In 2009, I bought a gaming magazine. I had no internet at the time so had to content myself with magazines.
The CD accompanying the magazine contained TrackMania Sunrise Demo (TmSunriseDemoMag).
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-00VcjQhHLxE/T ... MSdemo.jpg

When I finally was able to play, I was impressed! It was the best racing game played until the moment!
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HSZSQfivS3A/T ... nShot1.bmp

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aey0PZ--o2I/T ... -57-42.bmp

On the same day, I experience the editor. I created my first track (or at least tried to create). Then I turned fan of the game. A few weeks later, I installed an Internet service. I downloaded and installed TM Nations ESWC. My first experience online. Great game!
I also tried TMNF, but had problems with connection. I downloaded months later.
Also downloaded the demo TMSX (but not liked - it was too limited, the Sunrise Demo was not so much). I also tried downloading the TMO Demo several times, but every time the setup file was corrupted.
Some months later, my computer screwed (damned video card). Months I was unable to play. I could only return in September last year, with a new computer.
I, today, I could never buy a paid version (TMSX, or TMUF TM2C), because my mother never allowed me to (she is afraid, the computer belongs to her and I have not my own money).
I can only buy next year, when we finally be free and with my own money.

[zootie]

Alter Fox , ever considering writing a book ?

Joking,, but your post was good , I read all of it.

[Mandark]

My story is simple

I was around 10 years old I think, and I went to a market and saw a magazine about cars (something like Top Gear, but different... I was really interested in cars at that time ) And it contained a movie and TrackMania Original Demo. I installed the game, and I entered solo mode and played the first track. It contained some loops and crazy jumps, and I was like "OMG"! The saddest part was when I beat all the tracks on gold medal. I didn't knew what to do. But then I discovered that the game actually had a Track Editor! I enjoyed it a lot and build a lot of tracks with huge jumps and stuff (They were bad, but they felt so awesome to me). Then I decided to check the official site and I saw there TrackMania Sunrise and TrackMania Nations. I decided to give a shot to TrackMania Nations too and it rocked hard! The online made my jaw drop because it was huge fun and the editor was even funner and with more posibilities. And then I saw TrackMania Sunrise, looked at some screens, gameplay videos and it looked awesome. The bad thing is that it costed money, I couldn't find it in any stores, and my parents were (and still are ) Against credit-card purchases. A little time later, I saw that TrackMania United was coming, but It was the same story with Sunrise Then the Forever Update was released and I saw that there was a new Nations coming. I downloaded, played and played until I asked some familly friends to buy me United Forever. Also, some time later I saw the TrackMania 2 Valley Trailer (I thought is fake at the beginning, since there were many fakes, until I saw a huge jump, and I know that's Typical Trackmania I waited 2 years, for Canyon to come out, and bought it! (I promised my father to give him all his money he would loose on his card.

Okay, not that simple story... I bet no one will read this

[zootie]

My story is simple

I was around 10 years old I think, and I went to a market and saw a magazine about cars (something like Top Gear, but different... I was really interested in cars at that time ) And it contained a movie and TrackMania Original Demo. I installed the game, and I entered solo mode and played the first track. It contained some loops and crazy jumps, and I was like "OMG"! The saddest part was when I beat all the tracks on gold medal. I didn't knew what to do. But then I discovered that the game actually had a Track Editor! I enjoyed it a lot and build a lot of tracks with huge jumps and stuff (They were bad, but they felt so awesome to me). Then I decided to check the official site and I saw there TrackMania Sunrise and TrackMania Nations. I decided to give a shot to TrackMania Nations too and it rocked hard! The online made my jaw drop because it was huge fun and the editor was even funner and with more posibilities. And then I saw TrackMania Sunrise, looked at some screens, gameplay videos and it looked awesome. The bad thing is that it costed money, I couldn't find it in any stores, and my parents were (and still are ) Against credit-card purchases. A little time later, I saw that TrackMania United was coming, but It was the same story with Sunrise Then the Forever Update was released and I saw that there was a new Nations coming. I downloaded, played and played until I asked some familly friends to buy me United Forever. Also, some time later I saw the TrackMania 2 Valley Trailer (I thought is fake at the beginning, since there were many fakes, until I saw a huge jump, and I know that's Typical Trackmania I waited 2 years, for Canyon to come out, and bought it! (I promised my father to give him all his money he would loose on his card.

Okay, not that simple story... I bet no one will read this

I read it

[haenry]

read it, too.
You lost your bet, sorry crazydriver