## Welcome, Racer!

Welcome, Racer!  (Or as we tend to say it here: Welcome, Pipsqueak!)

This site is called Zak's Stunts Site. Two questions may pop in yourmind after
hearing this:

### Who is Zak?

I am, the site manager. My nickname is Zak McKracken, but nowadays I rather
just use "zaqrack".  I started this site back in 2001, because I wanted to
organize a competition for everyone who loves my all-time favourite computer
game: Stunts.

### What is Stunts?

Stunts is a computer game, released in 1990. Yes, 1990.  Crappy graphics,
stupid sounds. Why do people still play with this game? Because it has a really
unique atmosphere. It gives you freedom, fun and thrill.  If you would like to
read more about this game, I recommend you reading its Wikipedia entry. There
is an almost decade-old >Mini-FAQ available on the site which I wrote. 

So what can this site offer for you? A competition. A race, where you can race
on different tracks each month and fight for the yearly champions title against
other Stunts fans from all over the globe. You may not only play and have fun,
but also find new friends. We have a small, but strong community, a lively
forum, and believe it or not, up to the date of writing this entry, there were
already four World Stunts Meetings, where the biggest fans could meet face to
face.

Why should you choose ZakStunts? Because it is considered to be the most
prestigious Stunts competition. That also means it is not easy to achieve good
results for the first time, if you are a newcomer. Online Stunts racing
requires some skills and techniques which you have to learn, and the
competition site may also be a little confusing at the first glance.  That's
why this guide was born: to teach you the basic knowledge needed for successful
racing. So if you feel interested, continue to the >second part of the guide!
The guide is divided into 8 short parts.

 
## Install The Game

### Install Stunts

If you already know how to run DOS games, you can go on and download Stunts
from this site.  If you do not know how run DOS games, read the section on this
page below the line for a short explanation.  Even if you have your own copy, I
highly recommend downloading the game from here, as Stunts exists in some
different versions which differ a bit, and also here at ZakStunts we use some
additional cars (explained later) originally not included in the game, plus my
version is validated virus and spyware free.  Last but not least, the version
downloadable here comes wiht a handful of 3rd party applications (track editor,
replay info viewer), and winner's replays, which will help you improving your
skills. 

You may start the game with stunts_k.exe. So you don't have to bother with the
game validity check, it'll be cracked. Stunts is freeware, so feel free to do
so without a bad thought.

Explore the game if you have not played it before (but I find that really
unlikely, so won't describe here, how to use the game, it's pretty
straightforward anyway). Refresh your skills, jump through some houses, and
crash your car several times hard. :) Don't forget to check some of the
previous ZakStunts 2009 winning replays. Simply press "Load replay" from the ,
and enter "ZSC" as a directory and press enter. Voila!

Do you feel ready to try the actual competition track? >Jump to the third part
of the guide!  (Read the part below only if you need to know how to run DOS
games)

### Create a DOS environment

We are really lucky, because even though Stunts is a quite old game, it runs on
every modern computer. It was designed to run in native DOS mode, but most
modern operating system don't support this. What are youre options then, if you
would like to play?

A.  Make a bootable pendrive with DOS installed.

    This way Stunts runs just fine and dandy, but you have to reboot your
    computer in order to use it.  A similar solution is to put together an old
    computer, with DOS or Windows 95/98 installed on it and play Stunts there.
    If there is no internet connection on this machine, you can use a pendrive
    to transfer your files on your main rig and to the internet. 


B.  You use Windows 95, 98, Me, or XP

    You are lucky. Windows 95 and 98 have native DOS mode. You can just
    download Stunts and play.  XP has a built-in DOS emulator. Depending on
    your hardware configuration you may experience som glitches in the game.
    Remember to run setup after downloading Stunts (see later) and select PC
    Speaker as your sound device. You may also play without sound, but that'll
    hinder you a lot in racing.


C.  You use Win Xp,Vista,7, Linux, MacOS, or anything else

    You have to use a DOS emulator called DosBox, or a different DOS emulator.
    I recommend DosBox.  DosBox requires some initial configuration which may
    be difficult. Luckily, there is already a handy FAQ accessible in the
    Stunts Wiki, which will guide you through the configuration steps and you
    may also find some sample configurations helping your way.  Dosbox runs on
    every modern OS, and will allow you to play Stunts flawlessly with superb
    sounds.


## Download Tracks

Each and every month there is a different competition track. Usually a track
lasts appears on the first day of the month and you can race until the last day
of the month. Exceptions are always noted on the main screen of the website.

So if you click on >Tracks in the menu, you'll jump to the Tracks screen. The
first thing you'll notice is an overview of a track. This is the actual
competition track. Click on it, and a download will be offered.  The track
always comes in a zip file. Inside you can find the track itself (.trk
extension, copy it to your Stunts directory), some information files and in a
subdirectory all the final replays sent for the previous month's track.  You
may check some of them - this is the best way to learn and improve skills.

Drive around on the track you just downloaded. If you check some replays, you
may see that competition driving doesn't really follow the "stick to the road"
rule. Due to the nature of the game, you get penalty time for leaving the track
only if you skip bigger sections. So the aim of the competition driving is to
find the shortest and fastest driving line without earning penalty. 

This is at least as much fun as driving on the road, even if it seems strange
first.  Most newbies call us cheaters, because we skip corkscrews and jump out
of loops. Try to do these tricks.  It's not as easy as it seems! And how can
you find out where to make shortcuts? Load the track and glare on the overview
look! And I can't stress it enough: check some winning replays. This helps the
most.

On the same page below the track overview picture you'll also see lots of small
colorful cars with certain values shown next to them. These numbers' meaning is
very important to know before you start racing seriously. Check out what they
mean in the >next part of the guide!


## Select your Car

Stunts originally has 11 cars included you can choose from. In the first 7
years of ZakStunts there was always a given car selected from the 11 available,
which was the "car of the month", and that car had to be used by all the
racers. However, since 2008 it is slightly different: you can choose ANY car.

How is this possible, when there are faster and slower cars? By the help of the
car coefficients.  These are the numbers under the track picture. The way how
car bonuses work is quite simple. Whenever you submit a replay, your finishing
time is corrected with the coefficient. If the bonus is positive, your actual
time, which counts in the classification will be lower, if the bonus is
negative, it will be higher.

Let's see an example, to make it clear: (check the >rules page for more details
on the system)A racer drove with the fast Jaguar XJR-9, and his time achieved
is 1:00.00.  The bonus for the Jaguar is +10%. Ten percent of a minute is 6
seconds, so the result on scoreboard will be 0:54.00 You raced with the much
slower Audi Quattro. You finished in 1:40.00. But the bonus for the Audi is a
huge 50%. So your result is 0:50.00.  You are leading, even though your driven
time was slower. 

How can you select the suitable car for racing? You'll quickly recognise the
differences after some test drives.  If you are totally unable to choose, it is
always wise to use the same as the faster drivers.  You don't have to choose a
car and race with that one throughout the whole race.  You may switch anytime.
Also, in addition to the 11 original cars, in 2009 you may also choose from 3
other racer-made cars. These are included in the Stunts pack downloadable from
the site.   

You can stick to your favourite car in every race if you want to, but it is
wiser to choose your car accoring to the track - as each track has different
properties suitable for different cars. One more reason for the change is, that
the coefficients change over time race by race.

Now you know almost everything required for being successful. One very
important thing is left: Replay Handling. See what this is in the >next part of
the guide!


## Replay Handling

Stunts is an old game and has its limitations. The main problem is, that even
though we managed to decode the resource file format, and so allow such stuff
as online replay uploading or car editing, we could not yet get the original
source code.  That means the game behaviour can not be changed. 

Mainly this is a good thing. But there are some drawbacks, and the main
drawback is called replay handling. What does replay handling mean? It means,
that there is NO WAY to know whether a replay was interrupted, stopped or
rewinded after a crash in the game. Sure, if you crash, rewind and want to
continue driving from there, you get a warning that you won't be able to reach
a high score - but there is no sign of this in the replay file. And actually it
is pretty easy to let yourself make an entry into the track high score table as
well. 

This means, that in online competitions such as ZakStunts, as it can not be
checked or verified, it is allowed to simply rewind your replay after crashing
and continuing your race from there.

Replay handling makes competition racing a completely different experience Most
importantly it will save you a lot of time, so you don't have to spend hours
each month to achieve a decent result, and it allows you to do tricks you have
never dreamed about before. 

If it is still unclear for you, how to use replay handling, check the tutorial
available here. You may also find some other basic tricks in similar animated
form at the >Driving School section of the website. 

If you simply can not agree with replay handling, you can race anytime without
using it - but it'll be close to impossible reaching the top drivers this way.
There is also another competition where replay handling is forbidden - you have
to prove it by capturing your driving on video.

But I hope you'll stay with us here at ZakStunts. You'll see, it is a lot of
fun this way as well.  So if you decided to race, >go on to the next chapter
and see how to submit your achieved time!


## Sending Replays

So you already raced through the month's track with your selected car, took
your first journey into the world of Replay Handling (a.k.a. RH) usage, and
made a replay which you are ready to show the world and send to the scoreboard.
Great! Let's do so!

The only thing you have to do is to >register yourself on the site, if you have
not done so earlier. Actually it is pretty straightforward, just enter all the
required data and press the button.  After your successful regsitration, you
are able to login - you can do it at the bottom part of the left side menu.

You can send your replay or you can post news after logging in.  Your posted
news will appear under on the right side of the site, under the freshly sent
times, so you can leave short messages to others.

You may also edit your profile extending the basic information shown on the
>racers list.  You can upload a picture, or enter some extra details, so when
people click on your name, will get you known better. 

Let's return to the replay sending page. Click it!  By default you'll send your
replay for the actual competition track.  The message box is the same as news
posting. The message will be shown on the site in public.  You can also see a
checkbox: "Send to scoreboard". On the last two days of a race (Quiet Days) you
may uncheck this box. This way your replay will be sent in secret until the
track deadline.  So you can keep your opponents in the dark, not letting them
know that you improved.

There is also the penalty box. If you earned penalty, enter it here. All the
replays are checked by me after being sent, so there is no reason for you to
cheat. It is rare anyway that you earn penalty.  Last, but not least click on
the Browse button to upload your replay file and then click on Send.  You'll
see a summary page, and your time will instantly show up on the scoreboard, and
your replay file will land in my inbox. If you accidentally sent a wrong
replay, don't worry.  Let me know, and I'll correct it.   

You may send as many replay a month as much you would like to. You can also try
out the various cars by your wish, always your best result will be shown. Time
to >jump to the next part! 


## Achieving Points

On every race, the top 12 racers receive points in a linear system.  There are
12 tracks in a season. So maximally you can earn 12x12=144 points? No. Every
racer deserves some rest. So every season only your best 10 races count. This
way you don't have to worry if you go away on a longer holiday or arrived only
in March to the competition.  This is it in a nutshell. You can always review
the most important rules and the point system on the >rules page.  

In order to encourage newly arrived racers, their scores are shown on a
separate scoreboard.  When a racer joined the competition less than 18 months
ago, he is no longer a newbie and his result won't be shown in the newbie
league. In order to allow "late arrivals" the worst 4 results don't count in
the newbie season scoring.

Let's review briefly what can you see on the scoreboard:

* Name: Racer's name if you click on it, you get to see the racer profile.  *
Country: The flag of the racer's homeland.  * Time: The result modified by the
car coefficient. In brackets: improvement from the previous sent time.  * Diff:
Difference calculated from the current leader.  * Car: The car used for the
result.  * Transm: Transmission used. Pro drivers use manual transmission, and
it is not hard to learn it.  * Driven: The result driven without the car
coefficient's modification.  * Sent: The date and time of the replay submitted
to the scoreboard.  * Points: Points earned by the current position.

Below the scoreboard you can see the summary of the leading hours required for
the Leading Time Bonus calculation. This won't affect you for a while, read
about this on the >rules page.  You can also review the results of previous
track sby selecting its code from the dropdown box above the board.

The Seasonal results and Team results tables are automatically regenerated
every 10th minute.  You can sort it according to your taste by clicking on the
wanted header cell.  Two fields require explanation:

* SUM: The summary of the points including the currently running race as well.
* REAL: The summary of the points NOT including the two worst results (default
sorting parameter)

This conludes almost everything. Read about the rest in the >last chapter of
this guide. 


## Teams & Various

### Teams

You have not heard about teams much yet. Racers can not only race alone - they
can race in teams as well. This is useful, as team members can share their
replays with eachother throughout the race, and so they can achieve better
results by combining their tricks.  A team can consist of 4 members officially,
and teams battle against eachother in the team championship. As some teams have
less members, only the points of the two best racer each month are delegated to
the teams points. Team points are calculated each and every month.  You can
develop faster, if you are member of a team including some more experienced
racers. Simply check the >teams page for teams with less than 4 members and
contact any member for application.

### Community The community interaction does not stop at the scoreboard and the
shoutbox on the right side.  We have a very lively forum, where you may
interact with the other racers and discuss current tracks and results - or
anything else out of the bounds of the Stunts world. Feel free to join!  

So much information gathered throughout the years scattered in the forum and on
various Stunts sites, that it was a logical step to collect them all in a Wiki.
You can learn a lot here!

### Statistics and Articles Several longer funny or statistical articles were
born since the existence of ZakStunts.  If you have some time, read some of the
old >articles, including an interview with the original lead programmer of
Stunts.  You may also check the statistics of the current or past seasons
>here. 

----

If you have read through all this stuff I wrote - thank you.  If you have any
other questions, feel free to ask them in the forum or by private mail.
Nothing is left, but my usual way of goodbye:

See you on the scoreboard!  -Zak McKracken