ZakStunts

Argammon, a historical reparation

In the first and second seasons of ZakStunts there was a racer who stood out and belonged, along with Bonzai Joe, to the small elite of racers who dared to beat in a race the undisputed champion of that time: Roy Wiegerinck. Argammon, the mysterious racer who carried a double flag of Germany and Sweden, began his career in the community in September 2001 by achieving bronze. After several races he decided to abandon the competition, being a serious candidate to challenge Roy for the kingdom, although at the end of the second season he would make a stellar return, finding a new generation of racers.

Then came more twists and turns. His itinerant characteristic in the competition didn’t allow him to win any title, simply focusing on specific races. Therefore, when he returned for the 2023 season and effectively became the champion, we say that he was justly deserving of the championship, not only for the effort and achievements in the season but for his history, for being one of the best racers who had not yet achieved the champion title in ZakStunts until then.

Let's ask him what his thoughts are about his early years.¹

1) How was your "Stunts life" before learning about online competitions?

In my youth, I was sharing a computer together with my brother. One of the games we liked to play was 4D Sports Driving, we had the Mindscape version. Our favorite activity was trying to build long and difficult tracks with the sole purpose of being impossible for the brother to finish! I remember one particular instance, where I was finally approaching the finishing line after about 10 minutes of high concentration only to drive against the pole of the finishing line – BOOM. :)

2) How did you find the online competitions and what impression did they give you?

I found the Kalpen competition first, around 2001. I guess I just googled (erm, wrong altavistad!) some of the games I liked. I raced on one of the tracks to test the waters but did not submit my time. When the race was finished, I looked upon the top times in disbelief. They seemed to be way beyond my abilities. If only I had known these guys were using replay handling!

In 2002, I found Zakstunts and immediately liked the fact all cars were driven and not just the Indy. On the forum, I finally learned about replay handling (actually very basic replay handling, but that is a different story) and suddenly the Kalpen times made much more sense to me. :)

3) What is the origin of your nick and what does it mean?

In my youth, I played the role-playing games AD&D and "das schwarze Auge". Needless to say, many characters were created and developed a life of their own. My only concern when naming my characters was to create names that fit the fantasy setting, Argammon was one of these.

The first games I played online were Uniball and Age of Wonders. Since I could not think of a better alias, I just used the name of one of my role-playing characters - Argammon. To my surprise, Argammon competed in both games with great success, most notably obtaining second place in the 1vs1 Uniball world cup, after a narrow 9-10 loss against ElRollo24 in the final, and winning the AOW Starlance league, the premier AOW competition. Since then, Argammon is my lucky charm and symbol of confidence when playing online games.

4) What did you think about the community and their skills? Who impressed you the most?

I guess most readers expect the obvious answer, Ayrton. After all, Ayrton won all races in 2008 and has the highest ever Folyami rating. However, I feel Duplode is the best replay-handling pipsqueak I ever competed against. With all the other top pipsqueaks I had the feeling I could beat them if only I was determined enough and invested enough time, not so with Duplode ². I am hoping to win a track in 2023 when the combination of track and car suits me well ³, but the big favorite to win the championship is Duplode.

The best no-rh pipsqueak I ever competed against is Bonzai Joe. We had many fierce battles in the "golden years" of stunts, when we frequently met in the chatroom for live races and other business.

5) How did you live your first stage in ZakStunts?

I joined Zakstunts in September 2001. The car of the month was the Audi, one of my favorite cars in the game. The other drivers were more experienced than me, so I did what I always do, try to find tricks to even the playing field. I started experimenting with manual transmission and even though I found it very difficult, I quickly realized I could actually improve my time by using it. Proud of my result, I submitted my time to the scoreboard, which was a rookie mistake. The top drivers correctly suspected that the only reason I was so fast was the fact I was using manual transmission and followed suit. Before that race everybody but JTK and KHR used automatic transmission in Zakstunts. People thought the only purpose of manual transmission was to reach power gear faster with the Indy, but otherwise it is not of much use. I ended in third place, which I considered a big success for my first race.

My next race, ZCT07, was not so successful. I ended fifth, nearly 4 seconds behind Roy Wiegerinck in a Porsche 962 IMSA race. Ever since then have I struggled with the IMSA cars. I left out ZCT08, but came back for ZCT09, which was a fierce Carrera battle. I placed second only behind Bismarck, with who I later joined forces in "EuroTeam MasterStunts". I have fond memories of ZCT10, my first Stunts victory on a Corvette power gear track. I successfully applied the fence-sliding trick to drive over water which allowed me to keep power gear for the rest of the track. I told the trick to my teammate Bismarck, but the other drivers where totally flabbergasted by the times they saw on the scoreboard. The only other driver who eventually found our trick was the Dutch champion Roy Wiegerinck.

6) What happened that you stopped racing for half a year?

Whereas some of the drivers where gazing at the awesomeness that was the ZCT10 winning replay, others were not less happy. They felt, the winning driver should be the one who is fastest on the road. An unskilled driver winning with the help of a silly trick was considered blasphemy! ⁴ There were some heated discussions about "shortcuts" which contributed to the birth of the first OWOOT competition. The discussions did not subside the following months. In April 2002, the ghost "Shortcutfinder" was created, and I left the competition.

From today's viewpoint this controversy feels strange. The community loves to see tricks and shortcuts - the crazier the better. This interviewer, Alan Rotoi, is a master at them. Those who prefer staying on the road do not complain but drive in OWOOT competitions like Race for Kicks. It was not like this back then.

7) How did you find the community when you returned in November 2002?

I still liked the game, so I came back in November 2002. And boy, was the community active! There were many new faces like Alain, Mingva, Akoss Poo, CTG, Usrin and others. The old champion Roy Wiegerinck had retired and Alan Rotoi and Bonzai Joe were battling for the top spot on the scoreboard. Alain was impressed by my old results and invited me to join his Orion team for the 2003 season, to topple the giants from the top of the scoreboard! This time was perhaps the cradle of the golden generation of Stunts.