F-ZERO (SUPER NINTENDO)
Archived News

2002      2003

Thursday [Dec-26-2002] - ALL

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season!! Many of you are finding more time to play F-Zero, that much I know. Those of you who follow the SNES competition will be glad to finally get your combined track rankings. They'll be here New Year's Day!

A very important development is happening behind the scenes . . . I'm getting some help! Kort Everett Jackson and Michael Houghton are poised to begin as timekeepers, while Barry J. Herbert II will ba added as a message board moderator. These staff additions will hopefully allow me to spend more time adding new features and promoting F-Zero Central around the web, bringing more great racers from all over the world!!

Don't forget to check out Kort's chat in the F-Zero Central chatroom this Saturday (December 28). It will begin at 9am Eastern USA (2pm Great Britain), lasting for five hours. With that much time to chat, you'll have no excuse to miss it!

We have six active SNES players for the second straight week! Here's the breakdown:

Nathan Hahn set 22 Personal Records (PRs) and moved up from #12 to 9th overall. He's now very close to taking over 3rd in NTSC!

With his 14 new marks, Daniel Yavitz passed a pair of players to reach #15 overall. He also climbed a place to 7th in NTSC.

Nicholai Main broke all but one of his PRs to make a huge 15 place jump to 19th overall. His 11 place gain in NTSC lands him the #10 position on that chart.

Olivier Thibaut (5th overall) improved seven of his times and is beginning to threaten some of the PAL records. He's now within 14 points of catching Sami Cetin for 2nd place in PAL.

Nicholas Harvey sent in 13 PRs, and narrowed his deficit to his nearest rival, Barry J. Herbert II.

Trevor Moe (#6 NTSC, 14th overall) improved his Mute City I time (2'00"42).


Wednesday [Dec-18-2002] - F-Zero (SNES)

NEW OVERALL CHAMPION!!

Leandro Ribeiro improved five of his NTSC Records, four of which became new overall Site Records. This was enough to make Leandro our new overall SNES champion! Congratulations, Leandro!!

This version of F-Zero is following the trend set by F-Zero X and is gaining in popularity quickly! We have three new members this week: Frenchman Olivier Thibaut (#3 PAL, 5th overall), Canada's Trevor Moe (#6 NTSC, 14th overall), and American Jeremy Wright (a partial set of times starts him out at #28 NTSC, 42nd overall). Welcome and good luck to all of you!

Kort Everett Jackson improved most of his times, slipping past Sami Cetin for 3rd place overall.

Nicholai Main also broke most of his Personal Records (PRs), improving to #21 NTSC, 34th overall.

Next Wednesday is Christmas, so the next SNES update has been moved back a day to Thursday, December 26. And look for the all-new combined SNES track rankings to appear on New Year's Day, 2003!!


Wednesday [Dec-11-2002] - F-Zero (SNES)

SNES was a pleasant surprise this week with four active players, including two new members!

Sami Cetin made a big return with 21 PRs, the best of which is a new PAL record at Death Wind I (2'19"46)! Sami passed Roland Pristauz for #2 in PAL, and gains two spots to 3rd overall.

Newcomers Nathan Hahn (#5 NTSC, 11th overall) and Nicholai Main (#23 NTSC, 35th overall) give us a total of 42 competitors in SNES. Welcome to you both!

Daniel Yavitz sent in eight new times to jump ahead of a pair of players, reaching 14th overall.


Sunday [Dec-08-2002] - ALL

The F-Zero Central redesign is complete! There will ALWAYS be minor tweaks of course, but the main work is done.

I've reinstated the link to our Japanese affiliate, they are at a temporary location, but they have found a new server and are in the process of transferring all of their data to it! Hopefully their time and ranking charts will be back online soon.

An interesting article at Gamespot tells us that the upcoming Action Replay for Gamecube will allow us to play imported games! I presume that means North American NTSC gamers will be able to play Japanese games, which would mean that North America can begin playing F-Zero Gamecube when it is released in Japan!! The full story: Action Replay for Gamecube


Wednesday [Dec-04-2002] - F-Zero (SNES)

Kort Everett Jackson sent us the results of his hard work on the SNES: 23 PRs to move him up from 5th to 3rd overall!

Kort will be hosting a chat this Saturday at 10am Eastern USA (3pm Great Britain) in the F-Zero Central chatroom. Be there if you can!


Tuesday [Dec-03-2002] - ALL

NEW LOOK

Yes, it's true, four months after re-organizing and re-designing F-Zero Central to bring all of the news to one main page and create a primary navigation point, I'm at it again. This new, more modern look should serve us well for a long time. The competition sites will be integrated into this style in the coming days and weeks.

I'm also making another noticeable change today. The GBA site will be moved into its own directory, meaning all GBA pages will have (slightly) new URLs. This is necessary to correct a file organization problem that was created back when we expanded from one competition into three (eight months ago). Any F-Zero Central GBA competition pages that you have bookmarked will need to be updated. I apologize for the inconvenience.

Please report any broken links so that I can repair them as soon as possible. Thanks!


Wednesday [Nov-27-2002] - F-Zero (SNES)

This week we gained our 40th member for our Super Nintendo F-Zero competition. France's Mickael Milhorne begins ranked 10th in PAL and tied for #20 overall. Good luck, Mickael!!


Wednesday [Nov-20-2002] - F-Zero (SNES)

Kort's having a chat this Saturday at 10am (3pm Great Britain) in the F-Zero Central chatroom. Don't miss it!

NO SUPER NINTENDO F-ZERO ACTIVITY THIS WEEK


Saturday [Nov-16-2002] - ALL

Everything is going well in my rebuilding of lost data. The F-Zero X update will definitely happen tomorrow, so if you have new times to submit, get them in ASAP!

I can now very confidently say that the regular updating schedule will resume on Monday. The timetable for the new combined rankings and improved profiles for F-Zero X is still unknown. Friday, Nov. 29 is probably a realistic goal for that project.


Friday [Nov-15-2002] - ALL

GOOD NEWS / BAD NEWS

The good news first . . . Tomorrow is Kort's chat in the F-Zero Central chatroom! As usual, it will begin at 9am Eastern USA (2pm Great Britain) and last at least four hours. Stop in whenever you can!!

Now to the bad news. My system crashed and I lost a significant amount of data. I lost a full week of updates and all of my work on the combined rankings for F-Zero X. I WILL be able to rebuild everything, but not in one day. So I am delaying the F-Zero X update until Sunday. And even then, the combined rankings won't be ready. That feature will have to wait at least a week. The F-Zero MV update should still be on schedule for Monday. If that changes, I'll let you know right here. If you've ever been through a computer crash like this, you know how frustrating it is. Thanks for your patience.


Wednesday [Nov-13-2002] - F-Zero (SNES)

Barry J. Herbert II set 14 new times to gain three places to 25th (tied) overall. His best new mark was a 20"73 lap at Port Town I . . . it ranks 9th in NTSC and #16 overall.


Wednesday [Nov-6-2002] - F-Zero (SNES)

Austrian and veteran F-Zero racer Roland Pristauz shattered 29 out of a possible 30 PRs this week, soaring to #2 PAL and 3rd overall!!


Wednesday [Oct-30-2002] - F-Zero (SNES)

Mark Jones improved his Mute City II lap (23"47) and his Port Town I times (1'47"34, 20"77).


Wednesday [Oct-23-2002] - F-Zero (SNES)

Mark Jones has center stage all to himself for this SNES update. His five PRs were enough to vault him two spots in the NTSC race (up to #5), and also gain a place to 12th in the overall competition. He turned in a nifty 23"66 Mute City II lap which is 5th best in NTSC and 9th overall.

If you missed last Saturday's chat (and even if you didn't!), I encourage you to visit Kort Everett Jackson's second F-Zero chat this Saturday in the F-Zero Central chatroom. It will be held from 9am to noon Eastern USA (2pm to 5pm Great Britain).


Wednesday [Oct-16-2002] - F-Zero (SNES)

NO SUPER NINTENDO ACTIVITY THIS WEEK

Only three days until the chat in our chatroom being hosted by Kort Everett Jackson this Saturday, October 19th. The chat will begin at 9am Eastern USA (2pm Great Britain), and will last at least four hours! Please drop in whenever you can make it.


Wednesday [Oct-9-2002] - F-Zero (SNES)

Our system champs had another busy week of setting new PRs. PAL champ David Van Moer (1st overall) set many new times, including breaking four of NTSC champ Leandro Ribeiro's (2nd overall) overall site records. Leandro countered by also breaking four of David's records!! Leandro gained a point in the overall race, and is now trailing David by only five points.

Dave Crawford (#14 NTSC, 22nd overall) improved his Death Wind I times (1'48"66, 20"63).


Wednesday [Oct-2-2002] - F-Zero (SNES)

The combined SNES ranking went online over the weekend. Leandro Ribeiro stood #1, with David Van Moer at #2, trailing by 13 points. With a new challenge before him, Van Moer set a stunning 15 unique PRs, including eight overall Site Records, to take the overall crown from Ribeiro. Leandro had 6 PRs of his own, including a pair of overall Site Records, but now is six points behind DVM. This will be quite a battle to watch in the coming weeks!


Sunday [Sep-29-2002] - F-Zero (SNES)

The overall SNES rankings and records pages are now online, using a 4/3 conversion factor.


Wednesday [Sep-25-2002] - F-Zero (SNES)

The champs continue to run away from the rest of the field. I hope to have a combined ranking in place next week, so these two guys can at least compete with each other!

Leandro Ribeiro had four new times:

MC1: 1'58"96
MC2: 2'02"01 (NTSC Site Record)
PT1: 1'37"47 (NTSC Site Record)
RC1: 1'45"24 (NTSC Site Record)

David Van Moer had a pair of PAL World Records:

MC1: 2'38"78
BB: 2'50"32


Saturday [Sep-21-2002] - ALL

On the F-Zero Links page, there is now a link to our new F-Zero Videos page. Please contact the Webmaster if you have any videos to submit for the page.


Wednesday [Sep-18-2002] - F-Zero (SNES)

The biggest news in SNES this week was that the webmaster of the Japanese site kindly provided us with a video of a Mute City I race that's faster than any we've achieved!

http://f-zero.cun.jp/movie/sfcmute1.mpg

This video helped our champions (see below) set numerous new records.

PAL champ David Van Moer broke the PAL WRs for Mute City I (2'38"96) and Big Blue (2'50"62).

NTSC crown holder Leandro Ribeiro had seven new times, all NTSC Site Records!

Kort Everett Jackson had another strong week, passing Stanley Jeram for #2 in NTSC . . . and then announced his retirement. Good luck in the other versions, KEJ!

Track rankings for all three competitions are now accessed through the records pages for added convenience. A future project will be to also have access to the track rankings from each profile page.

Friday: F-Zero X update


Wednesday [Sep-11-2002] - F-Zero (SNES)

Once again, this week's action was exclusively in NTSC. Site Champion Leandro Ribeiro improved five of his times, all new Site Records!!

Long-time SNES player Kort Everett Jackson took a serious stab at regaining his peak form, breaking most of his PRs and jumping to #3 in NTSC.

Friday: F-Zero X update


Saturday [Sep-7-2002] - ALL

IMPORTANT NOTICE

I have deactivated the F-Zero MV and F-Zero SNES Yahoo Groups . . . they will no longer allow posts (you can still view the existing posts). From now on, please use the F-Zero Central Message Board to post new times and discuss your favorite game! :-) Also remember that our Time Submission forms are always available to use for sending in new times as well.


Wednesday [Sep-4-2002] - F-Zero (SNES)

Times fully updated

All of the action was in NTSC this week, with three active players. Champion Leandro Ribeiro broke numerous Site Records to further tighten his grip on the NTSC crown. Barry J. Herbert II set many PRs to come within 24 points of catching his nearest rival, Nicholas Harvey. And newcomer Daniel Yavitz joins us at #4 in NTSC. Welcome, Daniel!!

Friday: F-Zero X update


Thursday [Aug-29-2002] - ALL

Helpful Tip

The only way to guarantee that your times will be included in an update is to submit them no later than THE NIGHT BEFORE the update: send Thursday night for a Friday update, for example. The update could happen AT ANY TIME throughout the day, depending on my personal schedule. I've been known to do updates as early as shortly after midnight at the start of the day, or even wait until shortly before midnight at the end of the day. I include ALL times I have received up to the minute, so if you have new times on the day of an update, please still send them in, they may be included. But keep in mind that they may also have to wait a week if the update is already done.


Wednesday [Aug-28-2002] - F-Zero (SNES)

Times fully updated

Leandro Ribeiro (#1 NTSC) and David Van Moer (#1 PAL) each set several Site Records this week, extending their leads.

Roland Pristauz gained two places to #6 in PAL, while Barry J. Herbert II climbed four spots to land at 17th in NTSC.

I added a small new feature where you can now see the home country of each player, in its three letter Olympic abbreviation. Click on the column header at any time for the list of all Olympic abbreviations.

Friday: F-Zero X (N64) update


Wednesday [Aug-21-2002] - F-Zero (SNES)

Times fully updated

David Van Moer completed his sweep of the PAL side, now owning all 30 records!
Leandro Ribeiro is only five records away from doing the same in NTSC, and raced a Death Wind I time (1'44"67) that is only 0"71 from the World Record!

I am very pleased to welcome two new members, Barry J. Herbert II (#21 NTSC), and Roland Pristauz (#8 PAL). Both players have joined multiple F-Zero Central competitions. It is very exciting to know that we're continuing to draw dedicated F-Zero fans from all over the world!

I'm testing a set weekly updating schedule for all games:

Monday - F-Zero MV
Wednesday - F-Zero SNES
Friday - F-Zero X

This should make it easier for you to get the latest info on your favorite F-Zero!

Friday: F-Zero X update


Sunday [Aug-18-2002] - ALL

Great news, the convenient form to submit your F-Zero MV times is BACK, and there's MORE . . .

Not only is the GBA form back, but I've added forms for the SNES and N64 games as well!! You can now submit times for ANY of the games with an easy to use form. Please contact me if you have a problem with any of the forms.

Also, David Van Moer has updated his strats for F-Zero SNES Port Town I and Port Town II. They're found in the Tips & Strategies section of the F-Zero SNES Time Trialers area.

Tomorrow: F-Zero MV update


Friday [Aug-16-2002] - F-Zero (SNES)

Staffer and double World Champion (PAL F-Zero SNES and PAL F-Zero X) David Van Moer has written us a fantastic strats page for F-Zero SNES. It includes both general tips and specific strategies for each track. Please check it out, it WILL help your times!!


Thursday [Aug-15-2002] - F-Zero (SNES)
Stats fully updated

Wow. Our champions continue to rewrite the record books! Both David Van Moer and Leandro Ribeiro are testing the limits of the game. Let's get some more players going to give them some competition. These guys need to be challenged! :-)

Tests are underway to determine a possible NTSC/PAL conversion factor to allow us to have a combined SNES competition. As always, check back here for updates on this.

Monday: F-Zero MV update


Sunday [Aug-11-2002] - ALL
We had a great time at the chat yesterday. Participants included K. Everett Jackson (SNES/GBA), Mike Kircher (GBA), Leandro Ribeiro (SNES), Richard Corrigan (GBA), and host Dave Crawford. It's great to talk live about the games that we love to play. More than one of the guys were even playing F-Zero during the chat! We want to see more of you come to the next chat, which will be scheduled in September. Look here for the announcement. Thanks to all who participated!!


August 8, 2002 - F-Zero (SNES)
Wow, both #1s have been heavily active, showing us that we can all still improve greatly!

NTSC champ Leandro Ribeiro (SR = Site Record):
Silence - 1'53"55 (SR) - 21"59 (SR) DW1 - 1'45"33 RC1 - 1'46"06
MC3 - 2'00"67 (SR) - 22"79 DW2 - 1'57"54 (SR) - 22"24 (SR) FF - 3'23"13 (SR) - 37"68
 
PAL champ David Van Moer (All are PAL World Records):
MC1 - 2'39"16 - 30"16 BB - 2'51"42 SO - 3'10"14
DW1 - 2'19"66 MC2 - 30"94 lap MC3 - 30"18 lap
DW2 - 2'38"12 - 29"96 PT2 - 3'05"84 - 35"52

Also, K. Everett Jackson improved numerous times to move up a place to #13 (NTSC):

MC1 - 2'06"83 - 23"97 BB - 26"49 lap DW1 - 21"36 lap
MC2 - 25"00 lap RC1 - 23"26 lap WL1 - 25"44 lap
PT2 - 29"59 lap

Only two days until our F-Zero Central chat! Be in our chatroom Saturday, August 10, at 11am Eastern US (4pm England). We've done these before, they're a lot of fun, and sometimes even educational (about F-Zero, that is!).


August 5, 2002 - ALL
The message board is currently down. It is system-wide, not just our board. We just have to wait patiently while Sudden Launch fixes the problem.

The GBA update will come late this evening, which will be early Tuesday morning for Europe.


August 2, 2002 - ALL
The main page for the upcoming Gamecube version is now in place, please check it out, there are links to some F-Zero Gamecube movies and screenshots. We will be ready to accept times and begin the competition the VERY DAY that this game is released!

The F-Zero X Time Attack (N64) main page has been updated to fit the new design as well. I still have much work to do on the rest of the FZX site, as well as the entire FZMV (GBA) site. But the gains we'll see in easier navigation will be well worth it!

I've said it before, but it bears repeating: If there's a page you can't find during this construction, please let me know right away. I WILL fix it. Thanks!

All you Zelda fans, make sure to check out The Lost Realms, our new affiliate! It's run by Dick Grinwis, who is a member of our staff as well as our GBA competition.


August 2, 2002 - F-Zero (SNES)
David Van Moer set two more PAL records!

Silence: 2'32"50
MC3: 2'39"92

Also, the new look / new navigation of the SNES site is finished. Come to the Message Board and tell me what you think!


August 1, 2002 - ALL
The rebuild is starting to take shape. This front page is now fully reorganized, and our brand new Message Board is a big improvement over the old FZMV Players Site board.

Also, the FZMV (GBA) strats page has been reworked and updated to include some new strats from Frederick Johnson.

Another happy personal announcement from your webmaster: This week I get to celebrate not only my 35th birthday (Tuesday), but also my 4th Wedding anniversary (today!). :-) OK, I won't bother you with any more of that stuff for another 363 days. LOL


July 31, 2002 - F-Zero (SNES)
PAL champion David Van Moer improved several times, include some new PAL world records! His times:

MC1 - 2'39"60
BB - 2'51"70
SO - 3'11"56 (WR)
DW1 - 2'20"38, 26"78 (WR)
Silence - 2'33"04 (WR)
DW2 - 2'41"70
FF - 4'30"58


July 30, 2002 - ALL
"Redesign" is the word of the day. Well, that and "birthday," considering I am turning 35 today. :-) The new layout of F-Zero Central will put the news for each site right here, on the main page. This will improve the flow of the site greatly and put more focus on the F-Zero Central concept instead of each individual competition site separately.

Look for minor design changes at each competition site in the coming days and weeks. This should in NO WAY hinder your ability to browse the sites at any time. If there's any page or info that you can't find, please contact me, and I'll fix it ASAP.


July 30, 2002
Look for all future F-Zero SNES news on the F-Zero Central home page, due to site layout changes. The competition itself will not change at all, just where you get your news is changing. F-Zero Central will simply become the new "front door" for this competition.


July 26, 2002
The champions extend their leads . .

The best are getting better as we have many new times from NTSC #1 Leandro Ribeiro, plus new White Land I marks from PAL #1 David Van Moer!!


July 22, 2002
Leandro Ribeiro from Brazil joins us in style . . . at the top! Our newly #1 ranked NTSC player, he's been playing for many years, and has graciously agreed to provide us with some proof (pics and possibly video).
 
K. Everett Jackson also has some great times to report, but due to some inconsistencies, I've requested proof before they can be included in our charts. He has agreed to provide such proof.


July 6, 2002
Things are starting to pick up around here! There are two more new members to report. K. Everett Jackson has joined the NTSC side (ranked 12th), while Jensa Andersson has entered the PAL competition at #9. We've now had seven new members since this site launched three months ago, bringing our total membership to 35!
 
Also, Edgar Moncisvais improved most of his times to jump to #6 in NTSC.


July 1, 2002
We have another new NTSC member, this time it's F-Zero GBA star Edgar Moncisvais. Welcome, Edgar!! Edgar has established times for the first ten tracks and enters the rankings at #14. Good luck!
 
A quick look at all of the charts tells me that Edgar is one of eight players entered in more than one of the F-Zero Central competitions. Eventually I hope to have an F-Zero All-Around competition where players will be ranked based on participation in all FOUR versions of the game, including the upcoming Gamecube version. At that time we will be able to crown an F-Zero Universal Champion!!


June 20, 2002
Welcome to our newest member, Chris Malina!! Chris is an NTSC player who joins us ranked 15th overall. He has a very impressive lap time of 28"25 at Sand Ocean, it ranks 4th!!


May 26, 2002
We have more improvements from our top three active players. Stanley Jeram set his 9th Site Record with a Red Canyon II lap of 25"93. Greg Woll made big cuts at White Land I and Mute City II to hold onto 3rd overall in NTSC. And Mark Jones moved up to #4 in NTSC with seven nice PRs of his own.

These three are dominating the activity right now, let's see some new faces here! :-)


May 17, 2002
We have lots of NTSC action to report these days. Top ranked Stanley Jeram continues to set site records and now has more records than anyone (eight). Greg Woll moved up a spot to #3, while red hot Mark Jones is a rising star at #5. Dave Crawford has also been setting some new times.

We also have another new player! Let's all welcome Erick Guillen, a top flight F-Zero X player and our 31st member! Erick sent his full set of times, placing him 8th in the NTSC competition.

Jeram, Jones, and Crawford all went under 2'00 NTSC at Silence on the same day!! Previously only two site members had broken that barrier.


May 13, 2002
A few new times again from Stanley Jeram and Greg Woll, plus we have a new member, Mark Jones. Mark is an experienced racer and has high expectations in this competition. Welcome, Mark, and good luck!
 
Track Rankings are now online! Now you can easily see how much you need to improve on any individual time to gain ranking points.

I've also added the Japanese records (which are currently all NTSC World Records) to the NTSC Records page.
 
And we now have our own Yahoo Group! Whew, big day. :-)


May 11, 2002
Stanley Jeram improved six marks, with four of them being new site records. This was enough to move Stanley into the #1 spot in NTSC!! Congratulations!

Dave Crawford has now raced all of the tracks at least once and is ranked 8th in NTSC.


May 6, 2002
All of the action continues to be on the NTSC side. Stanley Jeram set a new record at Mute City I with a 22"63 lap, and Greg Woll posted #2 ranked times at Death Wind II. Those two players also submitted numerous other times, with Stanley taking over the top spot for 1-lap total at 6'12"46. Webmaster Dave Crawford joined by submitting times for the first six tracks. He begins at #13 in NTSC.


May 2, 2002
Greg Woll submitted 15 new Personal Records to take sole possession of #4 in NTSC and Stanley Jeram improved both Red Canyon I times.


April 26, 2002
Today I added a page briefly explaining our point system, as well as the How To Join page. Also, Stanley Jeram sent in a time correction, and that is now fixed.


April 11, 2002
Thanks to Sami Cetin and his F-Zero Players Site, we are able to launch this site with some members already on board. Sami's site is no longer being updated, so he provided us with all of his stats. Thanks, Sami!

Currently the only pages are the two rankings pages, the player profiles, and the two records pages. In the coming weeks we will be filling out the site by adding a rankings page for each track, a strategy page, a form to make submitting times easier, F-Zero related links, as well as community features such as a message board and chatroom.

I encourage anyone who owns F-Zero to join us by submitting all of their times. We're going to build a great community here, be part of the fun!