Yeah, I'm sorry to report that it's that time of month again: we gotta
do another CRAP poll. Don't blame me; I'm just following the CSIPGA
charter. Oh, you don't think that a monthly CRAP poll is in the CSIPGA
charter? Have you _read_ the CSIPGA charter? I mean, I haven't either
but that's besides the point! How can you argue it's not in the
charter when you haven't read the charter? ;-)

Let's get to the question.


* * * * *


Vroom! It's time to race! But before you put the pedal to the metal,
you see a little switch marked 'camera'. Which setting do you use?

1) Bumper view... because I wanna get as close to the road
as I can
2) Bonnet (hood) view... 'cause I want clear sight lines but
still want to see the car for reference
3) Inside view... because how else can you drive a car?
4) Top view... because my first experience moving cars was
playing with Hot Wheels!
5) Close Rear view... I wanna see my car!
6) Far Rear View... I wanna see as much of the road as I can!
7) Cinematic View... sure, I can't see the road ahead, but
damn if I don't look stylish!
8) Facing Backwards... it's more important to see who's
behind me than what's going on in front!
9) Rear Seat View... Jeeves, take me to the finish line!
10) Grandpa's view... blackness, as my eyes closed because
I'm asleep at the wheel!
11) Text parser's don't have discrete viewpoints
12) I've never driven a car in a video game
13) User submitted entry: ________________________________
(must fit entirely in space above ;-)


* * * * *


My answer varies depending on the type of game. If it's a pure racing
game, I tend to go with the bumper-cam. Inches above the pavement,
nothing gives me quite the sense of speed and control; I zip and zoom
around corners recklessly in the pursuit of speed. Sure, the lack of
peripheral vision means I can't see where my opponents are in relation
to me, but that should just give them more reason not to get too close
lest I 'accidentally' slam into them. Stay in the rear where you
belong!

But for more relaxed games --say, a truck-driving simulation or
tootling about in a CRPG-- I almost always opt for the in-cab view.
It's not just the immersion factor; it's also the safest. All those
mirrors means I can see where the traffic is, and it's very important
that, as a space marine behind the wheel of a 20-ton hover-tank, I
maintain proper spacing from the other vehicles! ;-)


* * * * *


So, that's me. What about you? When it comes to driving in games,
what's your viewpoint? How you vroom?






--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 1/14/2026 8:19 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

Yeah, I'm sorry to report that it's that time of month again: we gotta
do another CRAP poll. Don't blame me; I'm just following the CSIPGA
charter. Oh, you don't think that a monthly CRAP poll is in the CSIPGA charter? Have you _read_ the CSIPGA charter? I mean, I haven't either
but that's besides the point! How can you argue it's not in the
charter when you haven't read the charter? ;-)

Let's get to the question.

* * * * *

Vroom! It's time to race! But before you put the pedal to the metal,
you see a little switch marked 'camera'. Which setting do you use?

1) Bumper view... because I wanna get as close to the road
as I can
2) Bonnet (hood) view... 'cause I want clear sight lines but
still want to see the car for reference
3) Inside view... because how else can you drive a car?
4) Top view... because my first experience moving cars was
playing with Hot Wheels!
5) Close Rear view... I wanna see my car!
6) Far Rear View... I wanna see as much of the road as I can!
7) Cinematic View... sure, I can't see the road ahead, but
damn if I don't look stylish!
8) Facing Backwards... it's more important to see who's
behind me than what's going on in front!
9) Rear Seat View... Jeeves, take me to the finish line!
10) Grandpa's view... blackness, as my eyes closed because
I'm asleep at the wheel!
11) Text parser's don't have discrete viewpoints
12) I've never driven a car in a video game
13) User submitted entry: ________________________________
(must fit entirely in space above ;-)

13) Hubble Telescope Zoom View.

--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Wed, 14 Jan 2026 11:19:54 -0500, Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

1) Bumper view... because I wanna get as close to the road
as I can
2) Bonnet (hood) view... 'cause I want clear sight lines but
still want to see the car for reference
3) Inside view... because how else can you drive a car?
4) Top view... because my first experience moving cars was
playing with Hot Wheels!
5) Close Rear view... I wanna see my car!
6) Far Rear View... I wanna see as much of the road as I can!
7) Cinematic View... sure, I can't see the road ahead, but
damn if I don't look stylish!
8) Facing Backwards... it's more important to see who's
behind me than what's going on in front!
9) Rear Seat View... Jeeves, take me to the finish line!
10) Grandpa's view... blackness, as my eyes closed because
I'm asleep at the wheel!
11) Text parser's don't have discrete viewpoints
12) I've never driven a car in a video game
13) User submitted entry: ________________________________
(must fit entirely in space above ;-)

Somewhere between 12 and 13 for me. I can't say I've never driven a
car in a video game. As I did play Pole Position back in the day and a
few C-64 titles like Super Cycle and Hot Wheels. But that was 35-40
years ago by this point. The genre just isn't for me.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Wed, 14 Jan 2026 18:01:58 -0800, Dimensional Traveler
<dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:

On 1/14/2026 8:19 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

Vroom! It's time to race! But before you put the pedal to the metal,
you see a little switch marked 'camera'. Which setting do you use?

13) User submitted entry: ________________________________
(must fit entirely in space above ;-)

13) Hubble Telescope Zoom View.

Yup, I checked. That answer fits neatly into the provided space. This
is a valid answer. ;-)

Some games actually did provide a similar viewpoint. Not quite 'Hubble Telescope' distance, no, but they move the camera really high up into
the air, far beyond the usual top-down view ('helicopter view',
maybe?). I've never understood the need for that. Surely nobody played
the game like that.

Then again, people probably say the same thing about my beloved
bumper-cam view. ;-)

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Only tossers play ATS and/or ETS2 with keyboard and mouse.
WTF? Too bloody cheap to buy a decent wheel & pedals?

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote at 16:19 this Wednesday (GMT):

Yeah, I'm sorry to report that it's that time of month again: we gotta
do another CRAP poll. Don't blame me; I'm just following the CSIPGA
charter. Oh, you don't think that a monthly CRAP poll is in the CSIPGA charter? Have you _read_ the CSIPGA charter? I mean, I haven't either
but that's besides the point! How can you argue it's not in the
charter when you haven't read the charter? ;-)

Let's get to the question.

* * * * *

Vroom! It's time to race! But before you put the pedal to the metal,
you see a little switch marked 'camera'. Which setting do you use?

1) Bumper view... because I wanna get as close to the road
as I can
2) Bonnet (hood) view... 'cause I want clear sight lines but
still want to see the car for reference
3) Inside view... because how else can you drive a car?
4) Top view... because my first experience moving cars was
playing with Hot Wheels!
5) Close Rear view... I wanna see my car!
6) Far Rear View... I wanna see as much of the road as I can!
7) Cinematic View... sure, I can't see the road ahead, but
damn if I don't look stylish!
8) Facing Backwards... it's more important to see who's
behind me than what's going on in front!
9) Rear Seat View... Jeeves, take me to the finish line!
10) Grandpa's view... blackness, as my eyes closed because
I'm asleep at the wheel!
11) Text parser's don't have discrete viewpoints
12) I've never driven a car in a video game
13) User submitted entry: ________________________________
(must fit entirely in space above ;-)

* * * * *

My answer varies depending on the type of game. If it's a pure racing
game, I tend to go with the bumper-cam. Inches above the pavement,
nothing gives me quite the sense of speed and control; I zip and zoom
around corners recklessly in the pursuit of speed. Sure, the lack of peripheral vision means I can't see where my opponents are in relation
to me, but that should just give them more reason not to get too close
lest I 'accidentally' slam into them. Stay in the rear where you
belong!

But for more relaxed games --say, a truck-driving simulation or
tootling about in a CRPG-- I almost always opt for the in-cab view.
It's not just the immersion factor; it's also the safest. All those
mirrors means I can see where the traffic is, and it's very important
that, as a space marine behind the wheel of a 20-ton hover-tank, I
maintain proper spacing from the other vehicles! ;-)

* * * * *

So, that's me. What about you? When it comes to driving in games,
what's your viewpoint? How you vroom?

I'm used to Mario Kart, sooo 5/6?
--
user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote at 02:01 this Thursday (GMT):

On 1/14/2026 8:19 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

Yeah, I'm sorry to report that it's that time of month again: we gotta
do another CRAP poll. Don't blame me; I'm just following the CSIPGA
charter. Oh, you don't think that a monthly CRAP poll is in the CSIPGA
charter? Have you _read_ the CSIPGA charter? I mean, I haven't either
but that's besides the point! How can you argue it's not in the
charter when you haven't read the charter? ;-)

Let's get to the question.


* * * * *


Vroom! It's time to race! But before you put the pedal to the metal,
you see a little switch marked 'camera'. Which setting do you use?

1) Bumper view... because I wanna get as close to the road
as I can
2) Bonnet (hood) view... 'cause I want clear sight lines but
still want to see the car for reference
3) Inside view... because how else can you drive a car?
4) Top view... because my first experience moving cars was
playing with Hot Wheels!
5) Close Rear view... I wanna see my car!
6) Far Rear View... I wanna see as much of the road as I can!
7) Cinematic View... sure, I can't see the road ahead, but
damn if I don't look stylish!
8) Facing Backwards... it's more important to see who's
behind me than what's going on in front!
9) Rear Seat View... Jeeves, take me to the finish line!
10) Grandpa's view... blackness, as my eyes closed because
I'm asleep at the wheel!
11) Text parser's don't have discrete viewpoints
12) I've never driven a car in a video game
13) User submitted entry: ________________________________
(must fit entirely in space above ;-)

13) Hubble Telescope Zoom View.

So the "I like looking at pixels on my screen" mode?
--
user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 1/15/2026 6:00 PM, candycanearter07 wrote:

Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote at 02:01 this Thursday (GMT):

On 1/14/2026 8:19 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

Yeah, I'm sorry to report that it's that time of month again: we gotta
do another CRAP poll. Don't blame me; I'm just following the CSIPGA
charter. Oh, you don't think that a monthly CRAP poll is in the CSIPGA
charter? Have you _read_ the CSIPGA charter? I mean, I haven't either
but that's besides the point! How can you argue it's not in the
charter when you haven't read the charter? ;-)

Let's get to the question.


* * * * *


Vroom! It's time to race! But before you put the pedal to the metal,
you see a little switch marked 'camera'. Which setting do you use?

1) Bumper view... because I wanna get as close to the road
as I can
2) Bonnet (hood) view... 'cause I want clear sight lines but
still want to see the car for reference
3) Inside view... because how else can you drive a car?
4) Top view... because my first experience moving cars was
playing with Hot Wheels!
5) Close Rear view... I wanna see my car!
6) Far Rear View... I wanna see as much of the road as I can!
7) Cinematic View... sure, I can't see the road ahead, but
damn if I don't look stylish!
8) Facing Backwards... it's more important to see who's
behind me than what's going on in front!
9) Rear Seat View... Jeeves, take me to the finish line!
10) Grandpa's view... blackness, as my eyes closed because
I'm asleep at the wheel!
11) Text parser's don't have discrete viewpoints
12) I've never driven a car in a video game
13) User submitted entry: ________________________________
(must fit entirely in space above ;-)

13) Hubble Telescope Zoom View.

So the "I like looking at pixels on my screen" mode?

Well, to be pedantic if you are playing computer games that is the
over-riding default mode for ALL such games. ;)

--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 1/14/2026 8:19 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

Yeah, I'm sorry to report that it's that time of month again: we gotta
do another CRAP poll. Don't blame me; I'm just following the CSIPGA
charter. Oh, you don't think that a monthly CRAP poll is in the CSIPGA charter? Have you _read_ the CSIPGA charter? I mean, I haven't either
but that's besides the point! How can you argue it's not in the
charter when you haven't read the charter? ;-)

Let's get to the question.

* * * * *

Vroom! It's time to race! But before you put the pedal to the metal,
you see a little switch marked 'camera'. Which setting do you use?

1) Bumper view... because I wanna get as close to the road
as I can
2) Bonnet (hood) view... 'cause I want clear sight lines but
still want to see the car for reference
3) Inside view... because how else can you drive a car?
4) Top view... because my first experience moving cars was
playing with Hot Wheels!
5) Close Rear view... I wanna see my car!
6) Far Rear View... I wanna see as much of the road as I can!
7) Cinematic View... sure, I can't see the road ahead, but
damn if I don't look stylish!
8) Facing Backwards... it's more important to see who's
behind me than what's going on in front!
9) Rear Seat View... Jeeves, take me to the finish line!
10) Grandpa's view... blackness, as my eyes closed because
I'm asleep at the wheel!
11) Text parser's don't have discrete viewpoints
12) I've never driven a car in a video game
13) User submitted entry: ________________________________
(must fit entirely in space above ;-)

I tend to switch around a lot. I typically like kind of middle up and
behind most. I'm not sure if that's 5, 6 or something else.

I don't usually like the others as I can't see enough.


--
-Justisaur

?-?
(\_/)\
`-'\ `--.___,
?ª'\( ,_.-'
\\
^'

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 1/15/2026 6:46 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

On Wed, 14 Jan 2026 18:01:58 -0800, Dimensional Traveler
<dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:

On 1/14/2026 8:19 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

Vroom! It's time to race! But before you put the pedal to the metal,
you see a little switch marked 'camera'. Which setting do you use?

13) User submitted entry: ________________________________
(must fit entirely in space above ;-)

13) Hubble Telescope Zoom View.

Yup, I checked. That answer fits neatly into the provided space. This
is a valid answer. ;-)

Some games actually did provide a similar viewpoint. Not quite 'Hubble Telescope' distance, no, but they move the camera really high up into
the air, far beyond the usual top-down view ('helicopter view',
maybe?). I've never understood the need for that. Surely nobody played
the game like that.

There's one (or more) toy car racing games that have only that view.
One of them I actually enjoyed quite a bit.

I remember a number of old arcade games like that too.



--
-Justisaur

?-?
(\_/)\
`-'\ `--.___,
?ª'\( ,_.-'
\\
^'

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Mike S. <Mike_S@nowhere.com> writes:

Somewhere between 12 and 13 for me. I can't say I've never driven a
car in a video game. As I did play Pole Position back in the day and a
few C-64 titles like Super Cycle and Hot Wheels. But that was 35-40
years ago by this point. The genre just isn't for me.

Same here. Somehow the fun of car games went out after I got a car and a license. Although I did play some of the arcades a little after. Chase
HQ, Sega Rally, Hard Drivin', Daytona USA. That last was pretty
impressive on a big screen.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 1/16/2026 10:31 AM, Justisaur wrote:

On 1/14/2026 8:19 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

Yeah, I'm sorry to report that it's that time of month again: we gotta
do another CRAP poll. Don't blame me; I'm just following the CSIPGA
charter. Oh, you don't think that a monthly CRAP poll is in the CSIPGA
charter? Have you _read_ the CSIPGA charter? I mean, I haven't either
but that's besides the point! How can you argue it's not in the
charter when you haven't read the charter? ;-)

Let's get to the question.


ÿÿÿÿ *ÿÿÿ *ÿÿÿ *ÿÿÿ *ÿÿÿ *


Vroom! It's time to race! But before you put the pedal to the metal,
you see a little switch marked 'camera'. Which setting do you use?

ÿÿÿÿ 1) Bumper view... because I wanna get as close to the road
ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ as I can
ÿÿÿÿ 2) Bonnet (hood) view... 'cause I want clear sight lines but
ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ still want to see the car for reference
ÿÿÿÿ 3) Inside view... because how else can you drive a car?
ÿÿÿÿ 4) Top view... because my first experience moving cars was
ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ playing with Hot Wheels!
ÿÿÿÿ 5) Close Rear view... I wanna see my car!
ÿÿÿÿ 6) Far Rear View... I wanna see as much of the road as I can!
ÿÿÿÿ 7) Cinematic View... sure, I can't see the road ahead, but
ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ damn if I don't look stylish!
ÿÿÿÿ 8) Facing Backwards... it's more important to see who's
ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ behind me than what's going on in front!
ÿÿÿÿ 9) Rear Seat View... Jeeves, take me to the finish line!
ÿÿÿÿ 10) Grandpa's view... blackness, as my eyes closed because
ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ I'm asleep at the wheel!
ÿÿÿÿ 11) Text parser's don't have discrete viewpoints
ÿÿÿÿ 12) I've never driven a car in a video game
ÿÿÿÿ 13) User submitted entry: ________________________________
ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ (must fit entirely in space above ;-)

I tend to switch around a lot. I typically like kind of middle up and
behind most.ÿ I'm not sure if that's 5, 6 or something else.

I don't usually like the others as I can't see enough.

I think you like taking the bottom with PW and
the number would be 69 fagboy style.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Sat, 17 Jan 2026 14:12:37 +0200, Anssi Saari <anssi.saari@usenet.mail.kapsi.fi> wrote:

Same here. Somehow the fun of car games went out after I got a car and a >license. Although I did play some of the arcades a little after. Chase
HQ, Sega Rally, Hard Drivin', Daytona USA. That last was pretty
impressive on a big screen.

Heh. I had more fun with racing games /after/ that. Sitting in traffic
for an hour or three made the dream of zooming down the road at 150kph
all the more attractive!


Especially if my virtual car was also armed with rocket-launchers ;-)





--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> looked up from reading the entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs
say:

On Sat, 17 Jan 2026 14:12:37 +0200, Anssi Saari ><anssi.saari@usenet.mail.kapsi.fi> wrote:

Same here. Somehow the fun of car games went out after I got a car and a >>license. Although I did play some of the arcades a little after. Chase
HQ, Sega Rally, Hard Drivin', Daytona USA. That last was pretty
impressive on a big screen.

Heh. I had more fun with racing games /after/ that. Sitting in traffic
for an hour or three made the dream of zooming down the road at 150kph
all the more attractive!

Especially if my virtual car was also armed with rocket-launchers ;-)

I think the last car racing game I played and enjoyed was Hi Octane. I
think I tried some driving game more recently (IE 15+ years ago,) but I
did not care for it at all.

Of course I liked driving (more riding motorcycle when available) In
games Like GTA3:Vice City/San Andreas and of course Cyberpunk 2077. In
CP2077 I mostly use the autodrive function except when it goes full
retard. (It once drove over a cop repeatedly, and another time,
accelerated right into the back of another vehicle, got around it, and immediately rammed another and then another.)

I just imagine that the car is a Tesla at that point.

Xocyll
--
I don't particularly want you to FOAD, myself. You'll be more of
a cautionary example if you'll FO And Get Chronically, Incurably,
Painfully, Progressively, Expensively, Debilitatingly Ill. So
FOAGCIPPEDI. -- Mike Andrews responding to an idiot in asr

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Sat, 17 Jan 2026 13:10:17 -0500, Xocyll <Xocyll@gmx.com> wrote:

I think the last car racing game I played and enjoyed was Hi Octane. I >think I tried some driving game more recently (IE 15+ years ago,) but I
did not care for it at all.

Heh. Don't judge racers by Hi-Octane. That was /not/ a good game,
despite the fact that it was developed by Bullfrog. Created during the
early era of 3D, it had very rough visuals (I think it used an early
version of the "Magic Carpet" engine?) and equally rough controls.
Even for its time, it was particularly fun.

Of course I liked driving (more riding motorcycle when available) In
games Like GTA3:Vice City/San Andreas and of course Cyberpunk 2077. In >CP2077 I mostly use the autodrive function except when it goes full
retard. (It once drove over a cop repeatedly, and another time,
accelerated right into the back of another vehicle, got around it, and >immediately rammed another and then another.)

I liked the autodrive feature too; it was a relaxing way to get
through the city and absorb some of the atmosphere which you might
otherwise miss when driving yourself and driving at 200mph. I liked
using the taxis in the various GTA games for the same reason.

But you're right; the AI often easily got confused, not just handling
the traffic but sometimes figuring out where to go. This mostly
happened when I first enabled autodrive; it'd suddenly decide to ram
the guy in front, or think that the best way to go was straight into
the divider. But once it got going, it usually managed to reach the
destination without trouble. My solution, when the AI got confused,
was to just drive manually for a block or two, and then try again.

I just imagine that the car is a Tesla at that point.

That thought occured to me too. Musk and Tesla would fit in perfectly
in the no-regulation Cyberpunk environment.



--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote at 15:21 this Saturday (GMT):

On Sat, 17 Jan 2026 14:12:37 +0200, Anssi Saari
<anssi.saari@usenet.mail.kapsi.fi> wrote:

Same here. Somehow the fun of car games went out after I got a car and a >>license. Although I did play some of the arcades a little after. Chase
HQ, Sega Rally, Hard Drivin', Daytona USA. That last was pretty
impressive on a big screen.

Heh. I had more fun with racing games /after/ that. Sitting in traffic
for an hour or three made the dream of zooming down the road at 150kph
all the more attractive!

Especially if my virtual car was also armed with rocket-launchers ;-)

You also get the time travel of the Forza games.
--
user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> looked up from reading the entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs
say:

On Sat, 17 Jan 2026 13:10:17 -0500, Xocyll <Xocyll@gmx.com> wrote:

I think the last car racing game I played and enjoyed was Hi Octane. I >>think I tried some driving game more recently (IE 15+ years ago,) but I
did not care for it at all.

Heh. Don't judge racers by Hi-Octane. That was /not/ a good game,
despite the fact that it was developed by Bullfrog. Created during the
early era of 3D, it had very rough visuals (I think it used an early
version of the "Magic Carpet" engine?) and equally rough controls.
Even for its time, it was particularly fun.

I rather liked it, that's what I meant, I enjoyed that in ways I never
enjoyed any racing game since.

It was indeed made with the Magic Carpet engine.
The whole game was made in only 6-8 weeks (depending on who you ask,
Peter Molyneux (6) or Sean Cooper (8),) to get EA off Bullfrog's back so
they could do Dungeon Keeper properly and not rush it out the door.

Of course I liked driving (more riding motorcycle when available) In
games Like GTA3:Vice City/San Andreas and of course Cyberpunk 2077. In >>CP2077 I mostly use the autodrive function except when it goes full
retard. (It once drove over a cop repeatedly, and another time, >>accelerated right into the back of another vehicle, got around it, and >>immediately rammed another and then another.)

I liked the autodrive feature too; it was a relaxing way to get
through the city and absorb some of the atmosphere which you might
otherwise miss when driving yourself and driving at 200mph. I liked
using the taxis in the various GTA games for the same reason.

I don't even recall taxis in GTA games.

But you're right; the AI often easily got confused, not just handling
the traffic but sometimes figuring out where to go. This mostly
happened when I first enabled autodrive; it'd suddenly decide to ram
the guy in front, or think that the best way to go was straight into
the divider. But once it got going, it usually managed to reach the >destination without trouble. My solution, when the AI got confused,
was to just drive manually for a block or two, and then try again.

Same.

I just imagine that the car is a Tesla at that point.

That thought occured to me too. Musk and Tesla would fit in perfectly
in the no-regulation Cyberpunk environment.

There's even a Tesla Cybertruck mod on Nexusmods you can include in the
game.

It is as hideously ugly as I had imagined.

Xocyll
--
I don't particularly want you to FOAD, myself. You'll be more of
a cautionary example if you'll FO And Get Chronically, Incurably,
Painfully, Progressively, Expensively, Debilitatingly Ill. So
FOAGCIPPEDI. -- Mike Andrews responding to an idiot in asr

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Sun, 18 Jan 2026 18:16:26 -0500, Xocyll <Xocyll@gmx.com> wrote:

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> looked up from reading the >entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs
say:

I liked the autodrive feature too; it was a relaxing way to get
through the city and absorb some of the atmosphere which you might >>otherwise miss when driving yourself and driving at 200mph. I liked
using the taxis in the various GTA games for the same reason.

I don't even recall taxis in GTA games.

Taxis were in the game at least since GTA3. However, using them as
rapid transit was only added (I think?) in GTA:San Andreas. It
definitely was a feature available in GTA4, which is where I used it
most. (GTA3 did have subways, though!)

I imagine only a few people ever used the taxis that way; why bother
when it's more fun to drive or faster just to use the quick-travel
option, right? But for me, it was always a nice relaxing way to unwind
between missions, and -like I said- absorb some of the atmosphere of
the game's world-design.

Cyberpunk 2077 has a taxi too you can call at-will... but I think you
need to unlock them in a side-mission first. But I prefer the
auto-drive built into cars, because once you get into the taxi, you're
stuck there until you reach your destination. There's no way to skip-to-destination, and while the AI is much better with the taxi*,
it still can take a while to get to places. With autodrive, you can
always take back control from the game.




* I'm pretty sure it cheats by despawning a lot of traffic, so its
much less likely to hit other cars or get confused about what lane to
take


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> looked up from reading the entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs
say:

On Sun, 18 Jan 2026 18:16:26 -0500, Xocyll <Xocyll@gmx.com> wrote:

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> looked up from reading the >>entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs
say:

<snip>

Cyberpunk 2077 has a taxi too you can call at-will... but I think you
need to unlock them in a side-mission first.

Not a Taxi so much as a car service run by an AI, and yes it is unlocked
by a side mission where you gather up a group of rogue versions of the
AI that ran off.

But I prefer the
auto-drive built into cars, because once you get into the taxi, you're
stuck there until you reach your destination. There's no way to >skip-to-destination, and while the AI is much better with the taxi*,
it still can take a while to get to places. With autodrive, you can
always take back control from the game.

I tend to use the offroad motorcycle (I forget the name, since it can go anywhere and gets through traffic so much better than the cars.

Although that one bigass truck can be fun to drive since it can
basically plow through anything in the way. Especially if you have
added the mod that lets you supe-up the default vehicles giving them
better handling and higher acceleration, so it can really boogie through traffic.

Think Fast and Furious in a Dump Truck that handles like a Fiat 500
Abarth.

* I'm pretty sure it cheats by despawning a lot of traffic, so its
much less likely to hit other cars or get confused about what lane to
take

Had not really noticed if it despawns traffic or not, but it would not
surprise me.

Xocyll
--
I don't particularly want you to FOAD, myself. You'll be more of
a cautionary example if you'll FO And Get Chronically, Incurably,
Painfully, Progressively, Expensively, Debilitatingly Ill. So
FOAGCIPPEDI. -- Mike Andrews responding to an idiot in asr

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Tue, 20 Jan 2026 09:20:45 -0500, Xocyll <Xocyll@gmx.com> wrote:

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> looked up from reading the >entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs
say:

I tend to use the offroad motorcycle (I forget the name, since it can go >anywhere and gets through traffic so much better than the cars.

When I used a motorcycle I usually used the Akira-cycle. That's not
what it was called in-game, but it was pretty obvious that the design
was based off the motorcycle from the manga/anime "Akira". I completed
the look by dressing up all in red leather too ;-)

But it wasn't much fun to autodrive. Whenever I wanted that, I usually
went classic and used the Porsche.

One annoyance with autodrive was that you couldn't just lean back and
look out the side window as the car did its thing; after a few
seconds, the camera would auto re-center until you were looking at the
road again. I hated that I constantly had to be fighting the camera.
:-/

* I'm pretty sure it cheats by despawning a lot of traffic, so its
much less likely to hit other cars or get confused about what lane to
take

Had not really noticed if it despawns traffic or not, but it would not >surprise me.

You notice it more if you go into external view when taking the cab.
There's a lot less traffic on the road than were you to be doing the
driving (especially ahead of you). It doesn't clear out all the
traffic... but it is noticably less. Arguably, it even makes sense
from an in-game standpoint. Presumably the AI that controls the cabs
is also hacking the traffic system (both the road-infrastructure and
the autodrive of other cars) to keep them out of the way of its own
cabs.

However, it does NOT benefit from the same advantage V gets when
driving. Whenever V approaches a traffic light, it turns green. The AI
cab has to wait at red lights.





--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> writes:

Taxis were in the game at least since GTA3. However, using them as
rapid transit was only added (I think?) in GTA:San Andreas. It
definitely was a feature available in GTA4, which is where I used it
most. (GTA3 did have subways, though!)

I'm pretty sure ride-able taxis came with GTA4. San Andreas was still a
PS2 game after all and sometimes you could feel how small the bubble
around you really was. Seems unlikely they could've put in
auto-navigation.

I wonder if anyone had the patience to use the subways in GTA3. Long
walk down to the station, wait for train, get on, watch animation, walk
up the stairs again... Probably driving where ever was faster.

I imagine only a few people ever used the taxis that way; why bother
when it's more fun to drive or faster just to use the quick-travel
option, right? But for me, it was always a nice relaxing way to unwind between missions, and -like I said- absorb some of the atmosphere of
the game's world-design.

Yes, it took too long. And the taxis got stuck sometimes.

Cyberpunk 2077 has a taxi too you can call at-will... but I think you
need to unlock them in a side-mission first. But I prefer the
auto-drive built into cars, because once you get into the taxi, you're
stuck there until you reach your destination. There's no way to skip-to-destination, and while the AI is much better with the taxi*,
it still can take a while to get to places. With autodrive, you can
always take back control from the game.

I remember driving a little in Night City but wasn't impressed. Mostly I
just hoofed it to the nearest fast travel terminal thingy.

Actually to the topic, I did like to vroom in GTA games, my resentish experience of the modernized (definitive) editions showed driving in
GTA3 was fun. I don't remember what it was like in the original but in
this new GTA3 I was amazed. Ordinary cars behaved like race cars, great handling, just throw it into a corner any way you want and you get
through. Sports cars too except surprisingly realistically, if you went
too fast into a corner, couldn't turn...

Vice City was too slippery, not much fun. Well, sliding around the boxy ambulance doing the side missions was kind of fun but trying to go fast anywhere? Meh. San Andreas I don't remember.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Wed, 21 Jan 2026 11:11:00 +0200, Anssi Saari <anssi.saari@usenet.mail.kapsi.fi> wrote:

I'm pretty sure ride-able taxis came with GTA4. San Andreas was still a
PS2 game after all and sometimes you could feel how small the bubble
around you really was. Seems unlikely they could've put in
auto-navigation.

It could be. I thought GTA:SA had them, but I won't swear to that.
Amongst other things, I thought it used taxis to bring you back to the start-point of missions if you failed them first time ("All you had to
do was follow the damn train, CJ!" ;-). But maybe that was GTA4? The
specific mechanics of the games all tend to blur together sometimes.

I wonder if anyone had the patience to use the subways in GTA3. Long
walk down to the station, wait for train, get on, watch animation, walk
up the stairs again... Probably driving where ever was faster.

I did... but, again, not for their intended purpose. But it was a
great way to see the city and breath in its atmosphere. I don't
regularly play GTA3 anymore, but whenever I /do/ fire it up (the PS2
version, anyway), I often hop into the subway and just let it shuttle
me 'round and 'round in a giant loop.

As a form of mass transit, though... no. I don't think I bothered. At
least in GTA3, the stations were too far apart and inconvenient, and
it was just faster to do the driving yourself.

Yes, it took too long. And the taxis got stuck sometimes.

At least in GTA4 and GTA5, if they did get stuck, you had an option to
just 'skip to the end' with the click of a button. Or just pay 'em a
bit extra to speed up, which /usually/ was enough for them to break
out of any jam they'd gotten themselves into.

Cyberpunk 2077 has a taxi too you can call at-will... but I think you
need to unlock them in a side-mission first. But I prefer the
auto-drive built into cars, because once you get into the taxi, you're
stuck there until you reach your destination. There's no way to
skip-to-destination, and while the AI is much better with the taxi*,
it still can take a while to get to places. With autodrive, you can
always take back control from the game.

I remember driving a little in Night City but wasn't impressed. Mostly I
just hoofed it to the nearest fast travel terminal thingy.

Honestly, me too. Especially once I got the super-legs cyber-upgrade,
it was often easier (and more fun) just to walk, and nearly as fast. I
loved bunny hopping over people's heads! It didn't help that the city
design was so (purposefully) confusing in its layout that the driving
was a lot of stop/start and sudden turns. Generally, if my destination
was in the same or adjacent district, I walked. If it was further, I reluctantly drove/taxi'd/quick-travelled.

As I'd mentioned in an earlier post, the incredible walkability of an
American city was one of the most fantastic/unbelievable things of the
game to me ;-)

Actually to the topic, I did like to vroom in GTA games, my resentish >experience of the modernized (definitive) editions showed driving in
GTA3 was fun. I don't remember what it was like in the original but in
this new GTA3 I was amazed. Ordinary cars behaved like race cars, great >handling, just throw it into a corner any way you want and you get
through. Sports cars too except surprisingly realistically, if you went
too fast into a corner, couldn't turn...

I think this was purposeful. As I recall (but see my comment on
mechanics above) GTA3 was all heavy 70s cars with low centers of
gravity that hugged the ground. GTA:VC was 80s super-cars; fast,
manueverable and easy to lose control, especially on the narrow city
streets. GTA:SA was 90s-era cars; bland except for the weird
embellishments put into them by producers or owners.

Like you, I think I enjoyed the GTA3 driving the most. But that was
because its cars were designed for the environment they were found in;
narrow streets with short runways. You wanted fast acceleration and
quick breaking, and the ability to make sharp turns, and those heavy
cars gave you just that. Vice City's cars were made for long
straight-aways where you could get up to 150mph and not have to worry
too much about dodging traffic... which isn't something you can do too
well in a city. San Andreas was a melange of all sorts, which worked
well enough in the mixed-environment the game offered... but nothing individually stood out about the driving.

I can't remember. Did the GTA3-era games even have an in-car
viewpoint?



--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> looked up from reading the entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs
say:

On Tue, 20 Jan 2026 09:20:45 -0500, Xocyll <Xocyll@gmx.com> wrote:

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> looked up from reading the >>entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs
say:

I tend to use the offroad motorcycle (I forget the name, since it can go >>anywhere and gets through traffic so much better than the cars.

When I used a motorcycle I usually used the Akira-cycle. That's not
what it was called in-game, but it was pretty obvious that the design
was based off the motorcycle from the manga/anime "Akira". I completed
the look by dressing up all in red leather too ;-)

But it wasn't much fun to autodrive. Whenever I wanted that, I usually
went classic and used the Porsche.

I found that pretty much all the motorcycles other than the upright one
with the backseat container had issues turning, especially the stretched
out ones. They look cool, but they steer like a stegosaurus on rocket propelled roller skates on ice.

One annoyance with autodrive was that you couldn't just lean back and
look out the side window as the car did its thing; after a few
seconds, the camera would auto re-center until you were looking at the
road again. I hated that I constantly had to be fighting the camera.
:-/

I'm not sure, but I think there's a setting to not auto-center the
camera. Might have been a mod. I never used it.

* I'm pretty sure it cheats by despawning a lot of traffic, so its
much less likely to hit other cars or get confused about what lane to >>>take

Had not really noticed if it despawns traffic or not, but it would not >>surprise me.

You notice it more if you go into external view when taking the cab.
There's a lot less traffic on the road than were you to be doing the
driving (especially ahead of you). It doesn't clear out all the
traffic... but it is noticably less. Arguably, it even makes sense
from an in-game standpoint. Presumably the AI that controls the cabs
is also hacking the traffic system (both the road-infrastructure and
the autodrive of other cars) to keep them out of the way of its own
cabs.

That does make sense.

However, it does NOT benefit from the same advantage V gets when
driving. Whenever V approaches a traffic light, it turns green. The AI
cab has to wait at red lights.

Maybe the AI is reluctant to hack the city's infrastructure and perhaps antagonize the government. It is in a rather precarious position after
all.

Xocyll
--
I don't particularly want you to FOAD, myself. You'll be more of
a cautionary example if you'll FO And Get Chronically, Incurably,
Painfully, Progressively, Expensively, Debilitatingly Ill. So
FOAGCIPPEDI. -- Mike Andrews responding to an idiot in asr

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Anssi Saari <anssi.saari@usenet.mail.kapsi.fi> looked up from reading
the entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the
signs say:

<snip>

Actually to the topic, I did like to vroom in GTA games, my resentish >experience of the modernized (definitive) editions showed driving in
GTA3 was fun. I don't remember what it was like in the original but in
this new GTA3 I was amazed. Ordinary cars behaved like race cars, great >handling, just throw it into a corner any way you want and you get
through. Sports cars too except surprisingly realistically, if you went
too fast into a corner, couldn't turn...

Vice City was too slippery, not much fun. Well, sliding around the boxy >ambulance doing the side missions was kind of fun but trying to go fast >anywhere? Meh. San Andreas I don't remember.

In Vice City the motorcycles were the way to go, you could grab a couple
- one from in front of the biker bar and there was another location as
well.
I had a mod that replaced the biker one with a really well done model of
a springer forked Pan-Head Hardtail.
I used to grab it and just cruise around the city at speed.

Or just steal the helicopter from that apt complex yard.
Used that for the mission on the ship where you get ambushed by a
massive Police response when you left.
Took the chopper, managed to land it on the ship, did the mission, then
hopped in the chopper and flew away.
Made it infinitely easier to accomplish.

San Andreas was annoying since it was set up that if you strayed out of
the area where they wanted you, you instantly got a 4star wanted level.
I remember when I was adding modded cars I put in the Bugatti Veyron,
and then adjusted the stats file to have it's real life top speed and acceleration - it basically became unusable, like trying to drive a
space shuttle in traffic.

Fave modded car would have been the Cadillac Cien concept car, nice
look, good handling.

Xocyll
--
I don't particularly want you to FOAD, myself. You'll be more of
a cautionary example if you'll FO And Get Chronically, Incurably,
Painfully, Progressively, Expensively, Debilitatingly Ill. So
FOAGCIPPEDI. -- Mike Andrews responding to an idiot in asr

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> writes:

On Wed, 21 Jan 2026 11:11:00 +0200, Anssi Saari <anssi.saari@usenet.mail.kapsi.fi> wrote:

I'm pretty sure ride-able taxis came with GTA4. San Andreas was still a
PS2 game after all and sometimes you could feel how small the bubble
around you really was. Seems unlikely they could've put in
auto-navigation.

It could be. I thought GTA:SA had them, but I won't swear to that.
Amongst other things, I thought it used taxis to bring you back to the start-point of missions if you failed them first time ("All you had to
do was follow the damn train, CJ!" ;-). But maybe that was GTA4? The
specific mechanics of the games all tend to blur together sometimes.

That felt familiar, and what do you know, the "failed mission taxi" was
in Vice City. As I recall it was kind of useless since you didn't have
any weapons if you got "wasted" or "busted". There's a wiki page about
this at https://www.grandtheftwiki.com/Taxi_Rides. I remember the later
games using the Vice City engine (i.e. Liberty City Stories and Vice
City Stories) improved on this so that there was a bribe thingy outside
the hospital or police station where you could pay and get your weapons
back.

San Andreas though, I remember it prompted if you wanted to skip a long
drive but that was maybe two missions? And if you wanted to keep your
weapons you needed both the nurse and the cop girlfriends.

Vice City's cars were made for long straight-aways where you could get
up to 150mph and not have to worry too much about dodging
traffic... which isn't something you can do too well in a city.

In a way that explanation works but it also breaks down for the sports
cars and the lightweight sporty PCJ-600 motorbike since those also
suffer from the super slippery handling. Can't corner, can't power
slide, can't anything. Maybe there's just too much salty fog from the
ocean turning the roads slippery :)

I can't remember. Did the GTA3-era games even have an in-car
viewpoint?

Maybe? I feel Vice City had a lot of viewpoints anyways since flying was
a big part of it but it could've been the same in all three.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Wed, 21 Jan 2026 12:10:14 -0500, Xocyll <Xocyll@gmx.com> wrote:

In Vice City the motorcycles were the way to go, you could grab a couple
- one from in front of the biker bar and there was another location as
well.

Oh yeah, the bikes were GREAT in GTA:VC. Oh, at least, I remember that
I enjoyed using them more than driving cars (which might be more a
condemnation of the automobiles than praise for the motorcycles ;-)

But, again, I think that had as much to do with the road layout as
anything else. When you have a super-car that goes 0 to 60 in 1 second
combined with blocks that are 30m long and twenty cars on that stretch
aline, those sports cars just aren't as attractive. AT least with the motorcycle it was easier to dodge-n-weave.

(That said, I remember that "Vice City" had this /one/ stretch of road
that was relatively straight and low-traffic, and zooming down that
bit in a pseudo-Lambo was always a blast ;-)

San Andreas was annoying since it was set up that if you strayed out of
the area where they wanted you, you instantly got a 4star wanted level.

Yeah, SA was really annoying until you finally got to the part where
you could leave the downtown San Andreas area and start exploring the
rest of the world. Especially since I really disliked the LA-gangster
theme of the game to start with, being forced to spend the first third
of the game embroiled in their antics was agonizing.

Although it was fun to sometimes cross the invisible boundary on
purpose just to get the five stars, and then see how long you can
survive the onslaught.




--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> looked up from reading the entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs
say:

On Wed, 21 Jan 2026 12:10:14 -0500, Xocyll <Xocyll@gmx.com> wrote:

In Vice City the motorcycles were the way to go, you could grab a couple
- one from in front of the biker bar and there was another location as >>well.

Oh yeah, the bikes were GREAT in GTA:VC. Oh, at least, I remember that
I enjoyed using them more than driving cars (which might be more a >condemnation of the automobiles than praise for the motorcycles ;-)

Indeed. Modding helped some, but the bikes at least you could drift
round corners a bit better than in cars.

Although the FIXED trailing camera made that awkward since you couldn't
see where you were turning to, unlike the free look you have in games
like cyberpunk 2077.

But, again, I think that had as much to do with the road layout as
anything else. When you have a super-car that goes 0 to 60 in 1 second >combined with blocks that are 30m long and twenty cars on that stretch
aline, those sports cars just aren't as attractive. AT least with the >motorcycle it was easier to dodge-n-weave.

(That said, I remember that "Vice City" had this /one/ stretch of road
that was relatively straight and low-traffic, and zooming down that
bit in a pseudo-Lambo was always a blast ;-)

When I added the Veyron into SA and tweaked the stats file it
accelerated so fast it was uncontrollable if you held down the forward
key, you had to tap it only or stop every couple seconds as you slammed
into something - this was especially bad since the place you got the car
was in the San Francisco portion of the game with short and twisty
roads.

San Andreas was annoying since it was set up that if you strayed out of
the area where they wanted you, you instantly got a 4star wanted level.

Yeah, SA was really annoying until you finally got to the part where
you could leave the downtown San Andreas area and start exploring the
rest of the world. Especially since I really disliked the LA-gangster
theme of the game to start with, being forced to spend the first third
of the game embroiled in their antics was agonizing.

Although it was fun to sometimes cross the invisible boundary on
purpose just to get the five stars, and then see how long you can
survive the onslaught.

I used to jump a bike into the airport from a nearby building roof,
steal a jet, cross the line, land in a shopping center parking lot in
the top right of the map, grab the minigun and hop in a car and get back
to the start zone then do whatever it was you did to get the stars off.

That minigun helped massively during the gangster phase where you take
over all the gang areas fighting masses of enemies.

Tell me I cannot go there in the game, and I damn well will go there.

Xocyll
--
I don't particularly want you to FOAD, myself. You'll be more of
a cautionary example if you'll FO And Get Chronically, Incurably,
Painfully, Progressively, Expensively, Debilitatingly Ill. So
FOAGCIPPEDI. -- Mike Andrews responding to an idiot in asr

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 1/21/2026 9:10 AM, Xocyll wrote:

Anssi Saari <anssi.saari@usenet.mail.kapsi.fi> looked up from reading
the entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the
signs say:

In Vice City the motorcycles were the way to go, you could grab a couple
- one from in front of the biker bar and there was another location as
well.
I had a mod that replaced the biker one with a really well done model of
a springer forked Pan-Head Hardtail.
I used to grab it and just cruise around the city at speed.

Ah you're bringing back nostalgic memories. I loved the motorcycle in
VC. VC was I think the first game I ever 100%, and there's few others I
have, mostly souls.

Or just steal the helicopter from that apt complex yard.
Used that for the mission on the ship where you get ambushed by a
massive Police response when you left.
Took the chopper, managed to land it on the ship, did the mission, then hopped in the chopper and flew away.
Made it infinitely easier to accomplish.

I stole the Apache or whatever it was called in VC, and strafed them
down if I remember correctly. Most fun with a helicopter in any game
I've ever played!

San Andreas was annoying since it was set up that if you strayed out of
the area where they wanted you, you instantly got a 4star wanted level.
I remember when I was adding modded cars I put in the Bugatti Veyron,
and then adjusted the stats file to have it's real life top speed and acceleration - it basically became unusable, like trying to drive a
space shuttle in traffic.

Fave modded car would have been the Cadillac Cien concept car, nice
look, good handling.

I don't remember much about SA (well that traffic was never anywhere
near as bad as LA) but the gang territory takeover at the beginning was
my favorite part of it. Not as good as VC, which I'd have to say about
all the GTAs.

--
-Justisaur

?-?
(\_/)\
`-'\ `--.___,
?ª'\( ,_.-'
\\
^'

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> writes:

Yeah, SA was really annoying until you finally got to the part where
you could leave the downtown San Andreas area and start exploring the
rest of the world. Especially since I really disliked the LA-gangster
theme of the game to start with, being forced to spend the first third
of the game embroiled in their antics was agonizing.

Yes and it's quite annoying that the early missions aren't exactly
easy. Supposedly you're helping your gang to get weapons but you don't
get any and you don't get paid either.

Still, I remember there was a way in Vice City to reach the other island
from the start. I think I even did that once, I think it was quite eerie
since most spawning was off. No traffic, no peds? Weird.

Although it was fun to sometimes cross the invisible boundary on
purpose just to get the five stars, and then see how long you can
survive the onslaught.

Even more fun if you want the nurse girlfriend early. She really doesn't
mind small inconveniences, usually the cops spawn around and start
shooting at you and her. If you can stay alive long enough the wooing
goes successfully, bullet wounds notwithstanding. Love really conquers
all :)

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Justisaur <justisaur@yahoo.com> writes:

I don't remember much about SA (well that traffic was never anywhere
near as bad as LA) but the gang territory takeover at the beginning
was my favorite part of it.

I liked the gang wars quite a lot too. Good way to get a sizeable ammo stockpile and boost weapons skills too.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Thu, 22 Jan 2026 10:34:24 -0800, Justisaur <justisaur@yahoo.com>
wrote:

Ah you're bringing back nostalgic memories. I loved the motorcycle in
VC. VC was I think the first game I ever 100%, and there's few others I >have, mostly souls.

I don't remember if I 100%'d Vice City (or if it even measured that?)
but I seem to recall chasing after that goal in "San Andreas"
(everytime I hear "Freebird" played on the radio IRL I have flashbacks
to that time, because apparently that was the song I most-frequently
heard while playing that game). I played the /fuck/ out of that game.
It's not even that I really loved it so much; it's just that it had
such a huge, engaging world to play around in.

I stole the Apache or whatever it was called in VC, and strafed them
down if I remember correctly. Most fun with a helicopter in any game
I've ever played!

I only vaguely remember the helicopters in "Vice City". Mostly I
remember that your partner-in-crime had one and used it to assist you
in a number of heists (wasn't there a mission where you sat in the
gunner's position and mowed down a bunch of racing boats?). Other than
that, my only real 'flying' related memory from that game was that
terrible mission where you had to fly remote-controlled helicopters to
blow up a building for the Donald Trump analogue

(back when people still thought of Trump as 'funny' ;)

"San Andreas", on the other hand... it had a pseudo-Harrier jet! I
loved zooming back and forth across the map flying that thing! And the
jetpack!

(Alas, it /also/ had yet-another-remote-control plane minigame that
was as awful as the one in "Vice City")




--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

This is not a continuation of the original poll. Or it sort of is. But
I don't really want to talk about the poll itself. It's more of an
observation, and a chance to hang my head in shame. See, I want to
talk about this bit in the subject line, and how I managed to outsmart
myself:



Re: CRAP Poll # temporary_placeholder: How you vroom?
............... ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^..............


So, I don't know if you noticed, but we've been doing these CRAP polls
for a while now. I mean, asking other readers here for their thoughts
on a variety of gaming topics has been part and parcel of the
newsgroup since it's start. The general idea's been around for
decades. I've done some, but so have many, many others. But the
earliest reference these being "CRAP polls" is, I think, in 2019.
That's when I put my own personal spin on it. Maybe you like these
posts, maybe you don't (I hope more of you fall into the former camp
than the latter) but it's not really a new idea and not one I can
claim any credit for creating.

The thing is, when I started my own polls, I knew I'd have to
differentiate each poll from the last. Otherwise you'd end up with a
dozen different threads each with a subject line called "CRAP Poll"
that would all merge into one another. How boring! The easiest way to
fix this, of course, would be to assign a number to each subject line.
"CRAP Poll #1", "CRAP Poll #2", etc. Boring but effective.

Of course, then I'd have to keep track of the numbers...

So instead, I said to myself, "Why bother? Just assign a number at
random. Non-contiguous numbering; that's the way to do things. Start
with CRAP Poll #65625, the next one maybe will be CRAP Poll #291, and
then just roll along with that." It's the sort of madness that appeals
to me.

So I did that for a while. But nothing's really random (especially
people), so I worried about doubling up on a number I'd already used,
and besides... numbers were boring. So I decided to solve both
problems by using 'funny' descriptors to differentiate each post. So
we ended up with "CRAP Poll #Banana72" and "CRAP Poll DEADBEEF" and
just recently "CRAP Poll #temporary_placeholder". People would be
expecting another random number, and instead they'd get some
nonsensical non-number instead! Ohohoho, aren't I hilarious?

[You don't need to answer that.]

Again, all well and good... but after a while I was ready for another change-up. Back to the numbers, I told myself; that's what I'll do!
Still, that just gets back to the problem of figuring out what numbers
I already used.

So I did a search, just so I could rule out which digits were already
taken and I could work around them with future CRAP polls. We've done
40+ such polls since we started; surely there must be quite a few
numbered ones.

Turns out... not so much. You know how many CRAP Polls I used numbers
on before jumping to the nonsense? Go on. Make a guess. No? I'll just
tell you then.

_One._

One single post where I labeled a poll --not even a CRAP poll, this
was before I started calling them that!-- with a random number. ONE!

All this effort over the years to ensure I never re-used the same
number, all the times I went with the 'silly' differentiators like '(Infinity-6)'... and I've only made a single CRAP Poll post that used
simple number.

I outsmarted myself. My silly joke that was itself riffing off my joke
about non-contiguous numbering all of a sudden fizzled away. I'd
outsmarted myself without even trying. And probably because of that,
no one ever noticed I was even /trying/ to make a joke.

<sigh>

To quote the kids, 'Sometimes, I can't even.'







--- PyGate Linux v1.5.5
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 1/23/2026 10:52 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

On Thu, 22 Jan 2026 10:34:24 -0800, Justisaur <justisaur@yahoo.com>
wrote:

Ah you're bringing back nostalgic memories. I loved the motorcycle in
VC. VC was I think the first game I ever 100%, and there's few others I
have, mostly souls.

I don't remember if I 100%'d Vice City (or if it even measured that?)

It most definitely did, I remember the last achievement I did was get $1,000,000 in property damage by using the gunship and just destroying
all the army sent after me for quite some time.

I tried to 100% GTAIII as well, I did a whole new game because of a
glitch that prevented me, but the glitch repeated as well in my repeat
play. so 99%.

I stole the Apache or whatever it was called in VC, and strafed them
down if I remember correctly. Most fun with a helicopter in any game
I've ever played!

It was called the "Hunter"

"The Hunter is nature's little way of telling someone that they're about
to have a hundred rounds of heat-seeking freedom launched into their way
of life. With space for more mass destruction than anything in its
class, this thing has been responsible for delivering more kilotons of democracy than any other attack helicopter on the planet. "


--
-Justisaur

?-?
(\_/)\
`-'\ `--.___,
?ª'\( ,_.-'
\\
^'

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.6
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 1/24/2026 11:03 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

This is not a continuation of the original poll. Or it sort of is. But
I don't really want to talk about the poll itself. It's more of an observation, and a chance to hang my head in shame. See, I want to
talk about this bit in the subject line, and how I managed to outsmart myself:

Re: CRAP Poll # temporary_placeholder: How you vroom?
............... ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^..............

So, I don't know if you noticed, but we've been doing these CRAP polls
for a while now. I mean, asking other readers here for their thoughts
on a variety of gaming topics has been part and parcel of the
newsgroup since it's start. The general idea's been around for
decades. I've done some, but so have many, many others. But the
earliest reference these being "CRAP polls" is, I think, in 2019.
That's when I put my own personal spin on it. Maybe you like these
posts, maybe you don't (I hope more of you fall into the former camp
than the latter) but it's not really a new idea and not one I can
claim any credit for creating.

The thing is, when I started my own polls, I knew I'd have to
differentiate each poll from the last. Otherwise you'd end up with a
dozen different threads each with a subject line called "CRAP Poll"
that would all merge into one another. How boring! The easiest way to
fix this, of course, would be to assign a number to each subject line.
"CRAP Poll #1", "CRAP Poll #2", etc. Boring but effective.

Of course, then I'd have to keep track of the numbers...

So instead, I said to myself, "Why bother? Just assign a number at
random. Non-contiguous numbering; that's the way to do things. Start
with CRAP Poll #65625, the next one maybe will be CRAP Poll #291, and
then just roll along with that." It's the sort of madness that appeals
to me.

So I did that for a while. But nothing's really random (especially
people), so I worried about doubling up on a number I'd already used,
and besides... numbers were boring. So I decided to solve both
problems by using 'funny' descriptors to differentiate each post. So
we ended up with "CRAP Poll #Banana72" and "CRAP Poll DEADBEEF" and
just recently "CRAP Poll #temporary_placeholder". People would be
expecting another random number, and instead they'd get some
nonsensical non-number instead! Ohohoho, aren't I hilarious?

[You don't need to answer that.]

Again, all well and good... but after a while I was ready for another change-up. Back to the numbers, I told myself; that's what I'll do!
Still, that just gets back to the problem of figuring out what numbers
I already used.

So I did a search, just so I could rule out which digits were already
taken and I could work around them with future CRAP polls. We've done
40+ such polls since we started; surely there must be quite a few
numbered ones.

Turns out... not so much. You know how many CRAP Polls I used numbers
on before jumping to the nonsense? Go on. Make a guess. No? I'll just
tell you then.

_One._

One single post where I labeled a poll --not even a CRAP poll, this
was before I started calling them that!-- with a random number. ONE!

All this effort over the years to ensure I never re-used the same
number, all the times I went with the 'silly' differentiators like '(Infinity-6)'... and I've only made a single CRAP Poll post that used
simple number.

I outsmarted myself. My silly joke that was itself riffing off my joke
about non-contiguous numbering all of a sudden fizzled away. I'd
outsmarted myself without even trying. And probably because of that,
no one ever noticed I was even /trying/ to make a joke.

<sigh>

To quote the kids, 'Sometimes, I can't even.'

I don't think that means what you think it means.

And no, I didn't even notice the "numbers" :P

--
-Justisaur

?-?
(\_/)\
`-'\ `--.___,
?ª'\( ,_.-'
\\
^'

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.6
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Justisaur <justisaur@yahoo.com> writes:

On 1/23/2026 10:52 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

I don't remember if I 100%'d Vice City (or if it even measured
that?)

It most definitely did, I remember the last achievement I did was get $1,000,000 in property damage by using the gunship and just destroying
all the army sent after me for quite some time.

Sure, there were even some silly stats that didn't count towards 100%
like "keepie uppie beach ball" or something like that which meant
bouncing a beach ball off any body part a few times, without letting the
ball hit the ground. Harder than one would imagine, considering the
physics in the game.

I tried to 100% GTAIII as well, I did a whole new game because of a
glitch that prevented me, but the glitch repeated as well in my repeat
play. so 99%.

I remember that too, on the PS2 if you had finished the game, you
couldn't reach 100% on the same memory card even if you started over
because members of some specific gang would no longer spawn. Due to the
glitch the completion was saved in some kind of global area so it
affected all GTA3 saves on the same card. I don't know if the PC port
was bug compatible.

To be sure, I remember trying to get even close to the 100% was
extremely frustrating in GTA3 anyways, there was at least one (or more?)
of those timed rampages of the kind "kill x members of gang y in z
seconds" but then usually not enough gang members would spawn in the
time allotted. Really tedious grind.

But really, frustrating missings are a staple of the GTA games. San
Andreas had some pretty awful plot missions too and others, like the
tanker truck missions. And Zero's missions, first fly a model plane to
destroy some vans, main problem being running out of fuel! Other than
the extremely wobbly controls. At least the fuel issue was fixed on
PC. And right after that, the next mission for Zero was shooting down a
zillion model planes. Not much fun with gamepad controls but a breeze on
the PC with mouse aiming.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.10
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Anssi Saari wrote:

026 10:52 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

I don't remember if I 100%'d Vice City (or if it even measured
that?)

It most definitely did, I remember the last achievement I did was get
$1,000,000 in property damage by using the gunship and just destroying
all the army sent after me for quite some time.

Sure, there were even some silly stats that didn't count towards 100%
like "keepie up

with the moteo boat. This one is different because you can't outrun him
either - he will go back the opposite direction & run away. Hypocrisy is
at hand.

--
6iuq7JrV8XY

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.10
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)