F-ZERO X (NINTENDO 64)
Archived News 2002 2003
| Saturday [Aug-16-2003] | Sometimes ya just gotta shake your head and wonder. Thursday, just minutes before I was about to start making up for lost time on the site, the big power blackout hit. Ugh! My power was out for just over 20 hours. All is well now, and I've just completed the SNES update as a first step toward getting all the times caught up. I owe many thanks to the timekeepers, who are doing a great job despite my recent inability to show their work to the world. SNES times are updated through Thursday's 12pm Eastern USA deadline. GBA times are also now updated! It's almost the end of Saturday for me, but I have managed to get F-Zero X and Universal updated! Some times from after the deadline were included in the F-Zero X update. Now only GX remains to be updated on Sunday. Thursday [Aug-14-2003] | I know you guys are eagerly awaiting an update, and I feel terrible for not being able to provide one yet. I'm making it a top priority to get all times updated within the next few days. I may not get them all done at the exact same time as each other, but I'm sure that all games will be updated by Monday at the latest. Thursday [Aug-07-2003] | I apologize for not getting this week's news report posted. I've had a lot of personal things happening. Logan sent me his reports on time, this was entirely my doing. Due to a change in my work schedule (two jobs now), I'm going to have to move the weekly stats updates to Mondays. I'll post more here as soon as I work out a new schedule ... but I can say for sure that there won't be a stats update tomorrow because I'll be working. Friday [Aug-01-2003] | All stats updated. Many thanks to our new timekeepers, Nick Harsh (GBA) and Silas Verrinder (SNES). Welcome to the F-Zero Central team, guys!! Saturday [Jul-26-2003] | F-Zero X (N64) by Logan West New member: Luke Callaghan joins the ranks at a nice 55th place in Pawn B, hey! Welcome from all of us at F-Zero X! (Well, all of us except those you knocked down in position :) ). King/Master: Our returning second-placeman shows what he is made of by decimating the old Sector Beta record and setting a new one! Please congratulate Jim Mitchell (2nd, King A) and his 1'11"604 time! Jimmy Thai's firm grasp on the world records is beginning to weaken..... Wouter Jansen (11th, Master B) improves some of his old times and Federico Conti (14th, Master C) also makes a few improvements. Other: Our sole Expert, Tom Collopy (20th, Expert B) moves ahead a very nice 6 positions on the rankings with a very nice collection of PRs, he was very active this update! And last but not least we have Dave Crawford (65th, Pawn C) who moves up a whole position this week due to several PRs! =) Friday [Jul-25-2003] | All stats are updated! ^_^ Tuesday [Jul-22-2003] | Before you read the news, here's a repeat "broadcast" of yesterday's request: TIMEKEEPERS NEEDED F-Zero Central is in need of timekeepers! This volunteer job requires entering times into Excel and e-mailing the spreadsheet to the webmaster each week. I will need at least two volunteers, and more than two might be accepted. Please write to the webmaster to apply. F-Zero X (N64) by Logan West Two new members this week and a grand total of 13 active players! New Members: Please welcome Fabien Malaval (40th, Knight C) and Dan White (80th, Novice) to the clan! We sincerely hope that you will compete long and fruitfully. A special note to Dan: get busy and move ahead of Dave Crawford. Nearly everyone else already is! ;) King: Jim Mitchell (2nd, King A) improves steadily each week, there is rumour that Jimmy Thai is following his career quite interestedly. Master/Expert: A lot of activity from our Masters! Dave Phaneuf (9th, Master A) has his eye on that King slot and is steadily moving toward his goal. He gains a third ranked Big Blue 2 time (15"241)! Michael Houghton (10th, Master A) also improves a couple of times, tying the PAL top speed record on Rainbow Road! Stefan Schwendeler (12th, Master B) improves multiple statistics. And now we have Federico Conti (14th, Master C) who is the first on our list who actually moved in position! He gains two places. Nori (16th, Master D) unfortunately moves down a position, despite his Mute City 3 improvements. Erwan Sciaud (20th, Expert B) moves up six places with a wide assortment of times. A 6th ranked Silence lap is added to his collection! Knight/Pawn: Bernard Leclerc Jr. (36th, Knight A) improves several of his top speeds. Ryan Cassidy (44th, Pawn A) moves up three places, Olivier Holmière (49th Pawn A) moves up six, with an impressive showing, improving nearly all his times, and Silas Verrinder (54th, Pawn B) moves up a whopping eight positions with a lot of blue on his page as well! Logan West (60th, Pawn B) sends in new statistics for Red Canyon and loses a place. Dave Crawford (66th, Pawn C) improves a number of statistics yet it is not enough to prevent his slipping down slightly as well. Thank you to all of you, this report has been quite event-filled! Monday [Jul-21-2003] | All stats are updated. News report will come tomorrow or Wednesday. TIMEKEEPERS NEEDED F-Zero Central is in need of timekeepers! This volunteer job requires entering times into Excel and e-mailing the spreadsheet to the webmaster each week. I will need at least two volunteers, and more than two might be accepted. Please write to the webmaster to apply. Sunday [Jul-20-2003] | Several new F-Zero X videos have been added courtesy of Jimmy Thai (JKT). There are four new World Record vids listed directly on the F-Zero Central Videos page, and two others (RC1 and RC2 speed clips) added to the F-Zero Central N64 Movie Folder (link is on that same FZC Videos page). Saturday [Jul-19-2003] | I'm back from my trip. All times will be updated on Monday ... so get your times sent in! ^_^ Wednesday [Jul-16-2003] | OK, I'm heading out for a few days to visit family. I'll be back Saturday night. I'll be able to check e-mail and visit the message board while I'm away, so I won't be totally out of contact. Remember, the next update is Monday!! ^_^ Monday [Jul-14-2003] | As I mentioned yesterday, there may be a few bugs to work out with the new location. The biggest problem happens to be with my e-mail. If you sent times Sunday or Monday and you don't see them posted on the message board, then they got lost along the way. Please re-submit ... the problem has now been corrected. Thank you. Sunday [Jul-13-2003] | F-Zero Central has just changed webhosts! This is definitely a change for the better, but there may be temporary bugs while we complete the change. If you find any problems browsing this site, please contact the webmaster so I can fix it right away. Thanks! ^_^ Saturday [Jul-12-2003] | SCHEDULING NOTE: I'll be out of town from Wednesday, July 16th through Saturday, July 19th. The next times update will be Monday, July 21st. For this update only, times will be accepted right up to the moment of the update, so send them as soon as you can after racing them! F-Zero X (N64) by guest reporter Dave Phaneuf New Members: We have three new members joining us this week. Please welcome Erwan Sciaud of France, who begins 26th Overall and 15th PAL. His best time lies in Silence with a rank of 14th place. Next we have Ryan Cassidy of the US. He begins 47th overall and 21st NTSC. His best ranks lies in White Land with 34th place. Lastly we have Logan West's brother Beau West. He begins 61st Overall and 28th NTSC. Not far behind Logan. Well.. Good luck to you all! Seven other members were active this week: King: Jim Mitchell sends nine more PRs this week along with another speed of 3000 in Devil's Forest 2. Due to all his speed records he became the second player to get to the 60,000+ Maxspeed Total, passing World Champ Jimmy Thai in that section in the process! Master: Dave Phaneuf sends in five new PRs and gains a few points. Michael Houghton worked on his Joker Cup PRs this week, making gains on nearly all PRs, enabling him to pass Wouter Jansen for 10th overall. He also got very close to 2500 (3000 NTSC) in Rainbow Road. Federico Conti sends in 20 new PRs and earns a promotion to Master! Pawn: Olivier Holmière (Pawn B) Sends in a lot of new PRs and moves up 11 spots to 55th overall! Dave Crawford (Pawn C) sends in 11 new PRs. He doesn't gain any spots but stops himself from going down as much as he would have. Antonio Estrada (Pawn D) improves all nine of his Silence PRs and his Death Race Time. His Silence speed defenitly stands out from the rest. ;) Nice going everyone. :) Friday [Jul-11-2003] | 3:45am USA EDT ... The broken links on the GBA profiles have now been repaired. ^_^ Thursday [Jul-10-2003] | All stats are done a day early again, yay!! But don't get used to it. ;-) F-Zero GBA track ranking links from the profiles are temporarily broken. Please view the track rankings from the Records page until I can get the links fixed. Saturday [Jul-05-2003] | F-Zero X (N64) by Logan West New Member: One sole person joins the solemn ranks of quite possibly the greatest console racing game up to this time. Please welcome Joel Kumlin of Sweden. While not debuting very high due to not submitting times for all tracks, we hope that Joel will be in a more competitive position by next update. King: Jim Mitchell (2nd, King) contends for second place, passing up Dustin Andrews. Jim broke his own world record for speed at Devil's Forest (2202 NTSC)! Jimmy Thai peers down from his throne, wondering if this is his cue to get back to playing...... 131 points is still quite a deficit though :) Master: Quite a bit of activity here! First off, Dave Phaneuf (9th, Master) improves some times, the best of which is a 6th ranked Silence 2 time (1'08"872)! Wouter Jansen (10th, Master) passes up Michael Houghton. He must have not liked last weeks news update and made seven new statistics. :) Mark Hua (16th, Master) improves all three statistics for both Sector Alpha and Silence 2, his Silence 2 time being ranked 11th (5th PAL)! Expert: Federico Conti (17th, Expert) has his eye on that Master slot! He improves his Port Town best time. Knight: Bernard Leclerc Jr. (35th, Knight) improves his Death Race time. Many thanks and good luck with the sliding! Friday [Jul-04-2003] | Stats fully updated, news report comes this weekend! Wednesday [Jul-02-2003] | You may have noticed change after change to our menus over the last couple of days. I've been working on implementing a Javascript menu system, but I haven't been able to find one that's compatible with all browsers. So in the near future this existing system AND a new Javascript system will be available ... simply bookmark which system you prefer to use. In the meantime, Dick "Splash" Grinwis has provided us with a new set of images for the menu. Do you like them? Sunday [Jun-29-2003] | This week saw a record level of activity at F-Zero Central! 23 GBA players, 14 SNES players, and 43 total players are all new high-water marks for us. F-Zero X (N64) by Logan West 5 returning active players this week and 2 new members! Dave Phaneuf (9th, Master) leads the pack this week, with 9 new statistics, a couple of which place 5th world wide! Wouter Jansen (11th, Master) moves up a position. The Dutchman (almost said Swede, would have got nailed for that too!) must have his eye on Roland Pristauz in the Universal Rankings! And by the way, I hereby declare this to be national "pick on Wouter" day. Just kidding. I'm tired. Either that or I need medication ;) Mark Hua (16th, Master) also improved several times. The PAL player notably tied the Rainbow Road top speed and joins the "Magnificent Seven" for that level. Federico Conti (17th, Expert) also improved several statistics. This PAL player also placed a third ranked time on Silence! Bernard Leclerc Jr. (35th, Knight) hones several of his times to better rankings. Joining the best players for the best game of all time (I can see the flames flooding the inbox now!) are: Sugi (22nd, Expert) and Olivier Holmière (66th, Pawn D) Many blessings to all you who have competed; and a lot of dirty looks for those of you who didn't! :) Friday [Jun-27-2003] | All stats are updated. A news summary will be posted over the weekend. Tuesday [Jun-24-2003] - ALL | Put your own photo in our new Members Gallery! In the Community section, we now have a place where we can put faces with the names, our own photo gallery of our members. Send your picture to the webmaster today! ^_^ Friday [Jun-20-2003] - ALL | Kort Everett Jackson and Michael Kircher devised the SA/C 2003 Tournament, and it is now underway! This week, race for all course and lap times with Hot Violet. Post your best results in the SA/C forum of our message board by 10am (USA Eastern time) Friday, June 27th. The following week we'll be racing with Fire Ball! F-Zero X by Logan West Eight Active members, one new member. Jim Mitchell (2nd, King) of the USA tied for second place, made several 3rd ranked times, a couple 2nd ranked best laps, and set five new top speeds. Most notably he set a new site best lap record for Mute City 1, and two new top speed site records, one for Sand Ocean and the other for Big Hand. Adding to his SNES championship crown, David Van Moer (5th, King) capped off his week by crushing an F-Zero X PAL record at Devil's Forest 2 with a 2477 speed! Dave Phaneuf (9th, Master) of Canada also tied for three top speed site records and PR'd one of his times. Also active were: Michael Houghton (10th, Master), Federico Conti (17th, Expert), Bernard Leclerc Jr. (34th, Knight) who set a 7th ranked Big Blue top speed, Logan West (54th, Pawn C), and Ryan Jenning (72nd, Novice). Please also welcome the newest addition to the bunch: David Fries (41st, Pawn A) of Germany, who incidentally also joined the SNES F-Zero this week. Thanks to you all! Thursday [Jun-19-2003] - ALL In a rare stroke of efficiency, we were able to get the stats completed Thursday evening instead of Friday! All stats are now updated for the week. In an attempt to maintain the depth of player news updates we've become used to, Logan "The Shadow" West will be helping out by writing F-Zero X and SNES news updates. I'll contribute the write-up for F-Zero MV and Universal. Look for the report this weekend! Dave Crawford Wednesday [Jun-18-2003] - SNES Hey, Super Nintendo racers! Do you play Super Mario Kart too? Check it out Sami Cetin's great SMK competition site . . . ![]() Super Mario Kart Time Trialers and World Records Site Friday [Jun-13-2003] - ALL TWO YEAR ANNIVERSARY!! Yes, it was two years ago today that this site began as the F-Zero Maximum Velocity Players Site. Two players (Dave Crawford and Kris Milo) and the desire to compete in time trials on the brand new Gameboy Advance version of F-Zero. That was all we had. Now F-Zero Central has 311 members, three different competitions, and an eye to the future with F-Zero GX on the horizon and the Universal competition to start soon. We've had two great years of growth, but I promise you ... we are just getting started! For reasons of space limitations and my sanity, I'm going to have to start making these news updates shorter. We're consistently getting 30+ players each week, and the research needed to give everyone credit for their accomplishments has become too time consuming. I'll still note all active players, but in a simpler table showing rank and gains, if any. F-Zero X Dustin Andrews (King) returned to active status and set two world speed records (Silence - 1936 NTSC, Big Blue 2 - 2032)!! This was enough to move him back ahead of Jim Mitchell for second place overall. Dave Phaneuf (Master) became only the fifth player to reach max speed at Big Blue (3000 NTSC). Ryan Jenning (USA, Novice) and Stuart Rowlands (Australia, Novice) both joined our F-Zero X competition this week. Welcome and good luck, guys!!
Wednesday [Jun-11-2003] - ALL With the recent generous cash donation to F-Zero Central by Logan West, I'm reminded that I don't recall ever publicly thanking David Van Moer for his donation earlier this year. So I want to take a moment here to thank you both, your financial help is greatly appreciated!! It makes me want to do even more to make F-Zero Central the best competition site on the net! Friday [Jun-06-2003] - ALL F-Zero X Wes McKinney sent in his times (most of which are quite old). Wes joins us as a Knight (#32 overall). Thanks for submitting, Wes!! Jim Mitchell's (King) four PRs included a 32"030 (NTSC) lap at Big Hand. Sean Fleming's 10 new times and speeds pushed him past Armin Pristauz for 6th overall (King). With his nine new marks, Florian Bichler became a Master this week. Congratulations, Florian! Dave Phaneuf (9th overall) and Wouter Jansen (12th) were both active in the Master rank. Federico Conti passed Mathias Daxauer for 16th overall (Expert). Elliot Jones sent in his lap and speed PRs to propel him up to Knight status. Also a Knight, Bernard Leclerc Jr. had seven PRs. Friday [May-30-2003] - ALL Even though this update is only for three days of racing, there's lots of news! F-Zero X Jim Mitchell is making headlines again . . . this time he has passed Dustin Andrews to reach 2nd place overall! Dustin still leads Jim by seven points on the NTSC chart, so there is still more work to be done. ;) We received three "new" F-Zero X members this week. I say it that way because their times are old ... I got permission from Karl Jobst to use the times of Steven Zwartjes (Knight), Sami Cetin (Pawn B), and Karl himself (Expert) from a FAQ by Karl and our own David Van Moer at GameFAQs. Sami is now listed for all three games, qualifying him for our upcoming Universal ranking! Dave Phaneuf (Master) improved a pair of lap times (Silence 2 - 22"184, Rainbow Road - 31"872). Federico Conti (Expert) held onto his 17th position overall with a seven PR week. Scott Wilson (Pawn B) set 22 PRs and passed Kristina Potts and Logan West in the process. Tuesday [May-27-2003] - ALL We have a new affiliate, Toshida Entertainment! They're just getting started, but you can see that this site has a fantastic future! Monday [May-26-2003] - ALL We had 38 active players in the last 10 days (21 FZMV; 12 FZX; 5 FZSNES). That includes six new members, bringing our total to exactly 300! Mike Nowak became our 300th member when he joined the SNES competition. Don't forget that we're going right back to our regular Friday updating this week, with Thursday's 12pm (USA Eastern time) deadline. That means you only have about 72 hours from the time of this update to get any new times in to us!! F-Zero X Jim Mitchell (King) came through with three new speed world records!! His new world standards are at Sand Ocean (1814 NTSC), Devil's Forest (2163), and Big Hand (1683). Please welcome Australia's Scott Wilson (Pawn B) to the site. Good luck, Scott! This week's only FZX promotion goes to Federico Conti, who is now an Expert (17th overall). Federico is now 10th in PAL! Armin Pristauz (King) is now 6th overall, slipping ahead of the also active Sean Fleming (King). Master racer Michael Houghton got back into the top ten with some great new times, times that were enough to propel him to 4th in PAL!! Our other active Master was Dave Phaneuf, who's six PRs keep him solidly in 9th position. Bernard Leclerc Jr. (Knight) and Dick Grinwis (Pawn D) made positional gains (33rd and 62nd respectively). Bernard came very close to getting a win on Phaneuf (Bernard's cousin), trailing at Devil's Forest 3 speed by only 1506 to 1504 km/h (NTSC). Also active were Florian Bichler (Expert), Jose Hermida (Knight), and Logan West (Pawn B). Thursday [May-22-2003] - ALL I'm heading out of town now, and I won't have internet access until I come back Sunday afternoon. Have fun racing for faster times this weekend, and don't forget to get them submitted for Monday's big update. See you then! Dave Monday [May-19-2003] - ALL We have a new affiliate, DWI Palace, a DWI file site run by F-Zero X members Dave Phaneuf and Jamie Thompson. I helped them rework their site navigation a little, check it out! Friday [May-16-2003] - ALL IMPORTANT NOTICE I will be out of town next weekend, so next week's update will be pushed back to Monday, May 26th. You'll have three extra days to lower your times!! For this one update only, there will not be a deadline. I'll include all times that I receive right up to the moment I do the update. F-Zero X member Jamie Thompson offered us some very nice title graphics. They now appear at the top of every page throughout the site. Thanks, Jamie! This week's active player count is a healthy 32 (FZMV-16, FZX-9, SNES-7): F-Zero X F-Zero X track rankings are now coded in PHP! Please e-mail the webmaster if you find any errors in this new system. Half of our top ten players were active! ... Armin Pristauz earned a promotion to King by pulling into a tie with Erick Guillen for 7th overall! Sean Fleming (King) set 13 new marks, slipping past Guillen for 6th overall. Jim Mitchell (King) has risen to the lofty position of #3 overall in recent weeks, and shows no signs of slowing down, as he posted 16 PRs this week! Two Masters continued their battle for 9th place, as Dave Phaneuf nosed out Stefan Schwendeler for that position this week. Dave approached a world record for Big Blue 2 speed (his 2019 NTSC mark is just 9 km/h off the record), and earned his first win against world champion Jimmy Thai with his new Port Town 2 speed of 1511. Schwendeler had eight PRs to stay withing striking distance, just 16 points behind Phaneuf. Bernard Leclerc Jr. had over a dozen improvements to reach Knight status, moving up three to #35. Federico Conti (Bishop) had a busy week with 25 PRs, climbing three spots to 23rd overall. Logan West passed Olivier Thibaut for 48th (Pawn B), while Jamie Thompson was up one spot as well, moving by Terry Pugh for 68th (Novice). Friday [May-09-2003] - ALL F-Zero X Note: Since the update, we've made corrections to several players' F-Zero X stats (Mitchell, Conti, Schwendeler). All changes are now complete (and the news below reflects the corrections), so if you see anything that is still in error please let me know!! F-Zero X play was spread out, with our seven active players coming from six different ranks! Jim Mitchell (King) continues to play at an extremely high level. This week he improved 18 marks and passed Roland Pristauz for 3rd place overall! Among his PRs was a new world record for Sand Ocean 2 speed (2107 NTSC)!! Master players Stefan Schwendeler and Dave Phaneuf soard into the top 10 overall with many great new times and speeds. Mark Hua represented the Experts with improvements at Port Town 2 (1'42"492, 30"937 PAL), while Federico Conti had 26 improvements to earn Bishop status. Bernard Leclerc Jr. (Pawn A) and Jamie Thompson (Novice) had nearly 20 PRs a piece, each moving up one spot in the overall rankings. Thursday [May-08-2003] - ALL The message board is back up and running smoothly. Order is restored. :-) Your monitor is working fine, the site has indeed changed from purple to blue! Wednesday [May-07-2003] - ALL I just tested the forms, and they are back up and working. Our webhost tells me that no e-mails have been lost, only delayed, so you should be able to use the forms with confidence. But if the form ever does give you an error message, that means that the times were not sent, in which case you should use the message board to submit your new times. Again please keep in mind that the message board will be down for maintenance tonight and possibly into tomorrow morning. . . so I guess it's a good thing that the forms are working again! Tuesday [May-06-2003] - ALL The times forms are down because my e-mail account isn't receiving them properly right now. It's a problem that my host will have to fix. Please submit your times to the message board until this situation is resolved. Also, please note that the message board will be down for maintenance Wednesday night/Thursday morning for up to 12 hours. Thanks for your patience during these disturbances. Friday [May-02-2003] - ALL Three dozen players. That's right . . . 36 active players at F-Zero Central this week, a new record! They combined to send in over 750 new personal records (PRs) for our database. Our eight new members bring us very close (290) to 300 F-Zero players!! Let's meet and greet our new members:
We wish you all the best of luck, and fun have competing here at F-Zero Central! Now let's get into what our returning players were able to accomplish this week: F-Zero X (N64) Our 14 returning F-Zero X players outpaced even F-Zero MV (11). We also gained our 70th N64 member! Roland Pristauz (King) was very busy, reporting seven new PAL records!! Mark Hua's 12 PRs move him up into the Expert class. Mark is now very close to breaking into the PAL top ten. Well done! Federico Conti (#29 overall) and Mark Slight (#30) both improved their standing within the Knight level with solid efforts on many tracks. J.T. McNally broke nearly all of his course and lap times, reaching Pawn A in the process! Logan West stayed active in his second week with us, moving up three positions to claim a Pawn B slot. Kort Everett Jackson (Pawn C) passed a pair of players by getting 22 PRs. Antonio Estrada moved ahead of Scott VanCampen for 32nd place in NTSC. Others who succeeded in recording personal bests (some of them quite spectacular!): Jim Mitchell (King), Sean Fleming (King), Armin Pristauz (Master), Dave Phaneuf (Master), Bernard Leclerc Jr. (Pawn A), and Barry J. Herbert II (Pawn D). Tuesday [Apr-29-2003] - ALL VIDEOS, VIDEOS, VIDEOS!!! Today, I uploaded many of F-Zero X world champion Jimmy Thai's amazing videos to the F-Zero Central N64 Movie Folder! I will soon be placing the Divx4 codec (needed to view Jimmy's AVI movies) in the same folder as the videos, but the server's upload system is currently down. Also, Fred Just has provided us with a new Championship video (1'27"09) for F-Zero MV! You'll need the XViD codec to view it. Thanks so much to Jimmy and Fred for sharing their great skill with us!! IMPROVEMENTS, IMPROVEMENTS, IMPROVEMENTS!!! Over the last few days I've been hard at work making many upgrades to F-Zero Central. Track ranking pages for F-Zero X and F-Zero MV have been cut into smaller pieces for easier viewing and faster load times. The Submit Times forms have been improved with an entirely new script that has several new features including required name and system, and a follow-up page showing the details of your submission so it can be checked for errors. That's not all! There's a new Community page that features all the links we use to interact with each other (including our popular Member Sites page), a greatly improved Much More! page with all of F-Zero Central's features that aren't linked straight from the front page, and our affiliates now have their own page. Behind the scenes, I've upgraded my spreadsheet for the F-Zero MV competition from 200 to 400 players. There's almost always an error or two visible in the next update after I've made such a large-scale upgrade. So if you see something wrong with Friday's GBA update, just send me an e-mail or post to the message board explaining the problem . . . it'll be fixed in less time than most sites would even take to READ your message! :-) Friday [Apr-25-2003] - ALL Some improvements to the site are noticeable today. F-Zero X and SNES players have levels assigned to their overall ranking, just like F-Zero MV has had for a long time. F-Zero MV now has A-D letter tags added to the Expert, Bishop, and Knight ranks. And F-Zero X will now be in frames to match the rest of the site (except the front page, of course). F-Zero X (N64) Stefan Schwendeler (Master) improved his own PAL record at Red Canyon 2 (1'16"599). We issue a big welcome to our newest F-Zero X member, Logan West of the USA. Logan begins at Pawn C, one position ahead of that slow-as-can-be Dave Crawford chump! :) Federico Conti (Knight) was very active with 31 PRs and a two place gain to 30th. He also moved up three to #15 in PAL! Mark Hua moved up two spots within the Bishop rank (#22). Bernard Leclerc Jr. worked on Space Plant and Port Town 2 this week, and climbed ahead of Michael Mattiacci for 39th (Pawn A). With eight PRs, Jim Mitchell (King) is within 20 points of 3rd place overall! Michael Houghton's three new marks keep him in front of Schwendeler in their battle for the 10th position overall (Master). Top Canadian Dave Phaneuf set 14 PRs and holds down 12th place (Master) and 6th in NTSC. Gregory Tiaiba made big strides at Fire Field (1'23"114, 24"076, 1673 NTSC) and is closing in on a promotion to Bishop. Sunday [Apr-20-2003] - ALL Effective immediately, there will be a deadline of 12 noon (Eastern USA) each Thursday for times to be included in Friday's update. This is needed to maintain the quality of the updates. There's been too much for me to juggle all at once with times steadily flowing in Thursday night and Friday morning. I'm not going back to Mon/Wed/Fri updates because I need to have a life. I was seemingly ALWAYS preparing for the next update. 12 noon Eastern USA is 9am Pacific USA, 5pm UK time, and 2am Friday if you're in Sydney, Australia. :) Friday [Apr-18-2003] - ALL F-Zero X (N64) World and NTSC champion Jimmy Thai reclaimed the Big Hand speed world record with a 1524 NTSC mark. PAL champion Roland Pristauz broke a pair of PAL records at White Land 2 (48"506, 14"820 lap). Italy's Federico Conti is a newcomer to us this week. Federico begins 32rd overall and #18 in PAL. Good luck to you!! Jim Mitchell further cemented his world-class status by passing David Van Moer for 4th place overall. Michael Houghton fought back this week, moving back into the top ten overall, and 5th in PAL, passing Stefan Schwendeler on both charts. Bernard Leclerc Jr. made a big move, climbing 10 spots to 40th. Bernard also jumped into the top twenty in NTSC (#18). Dave Phaneuf (12th), Mark Hua (24th), and Antonio Estrada (60th) were all active, each moving up one position in the overall ranking. Gregory Tiaiba's (28th overall) 15 PRs included his best course time yet, a 1'16"194 clocking at Sand Ocean which ranks 13th overall. Friday [Apr-11-2003] - ALL F-Zero X (N64) Jim Mitchell broke the world record for speed at Big Hand with a mark of 1517 km/h (NTSC)! Jim is now only 13 points away from catching David Van Moer for 4th overall. Our newest member is Canada's Bernard Leclerc Jr. (50th overall, 26th NTSC). Bernard is Dave Phaneuf's cousin, adding yet another family rivalry to F-Zero Central. Good luck, Bernard! Sean Fleming (7th overall) moved ahead of Erick Guillen for 4th in NTSC. Stefan Schwendeler's 17 PR week earned him a spot in the top ten, passing Michael Houghton. Stefan also got by Houghton for 5th in PAL. Thomas Exenberger (12th overall) and Dave Phaneuf (13th) each moved up the overall chart, while Phaneuf also gained one position to 6th in NTSC. Dave made special note of his new Mute City 2 course PR, a very unusual 1'03"000 exactly! Mark Hua climbed four places to #25 with a solid 22 PR week. Gregory Tiaiba (28th overall) passed Graham Beard, while Barry J. Herbert II (57th) moved ahead of Scott VanCampen. Friday [Apr-04-2003] - ALL F-Zero X (N64) Jim Mitchell (5th overall) became only the fifth player to reach max speed (3000 NTSC) at Rainbow Road. Congratulations, Jim!! Dave Phaneuf (15th overall), Gregory Tiaiba (28th), and Sven Jesch (42nd) all improved their rankings with many new PRs. Daniel Hasting set eight PRs to take sole possession of 36th place. Friday [Mar-28-2003] - ALL F-Zero X (N64) Daniel Hasting (36th overall) and Paddy Johannessen (62nd) both joined our F-Zero X competition this week, bringing our total to 66 N64 players! Welcome and good luck guys!! Sean Fleming submitted his Personal Records (PRs) from the past few weeks, and they boosted him past Armin Pristauz for 7th place overall. Sean also moved up a spot on the NTSC chart, reaching 4th place there. Mark Hua passed Thomas Praschberger for 28th overall. Mark's now up to 13th in PAL. Others who set new PRs this week include Jim Mitchell (5th overall), Dave Phaneuf (16th), MAX 2000 (23rd), Jordan Stopciati (24th), and Gregory Tiaiba (30th). Friday [Mar-21-2003] - ALL First, I'd like to say that this new system of updating all three games on Fridays worked out very well in its first trial. Also, thanks for bearing with me as I gradually convert the site to frames. GBA got the treatment today, so if you see any links that don't work, or open oddly (like opening inside a frame when they shouldn't), please let me know. I temporarily deactivated the track ranking links from the GBA profiles . . . they weren't working (due to the frames conversion), and fixing them will take a little more time than I have today. OK, let's get on to the important stuff! . . . F-Zero X (N64) England's Mark Hua joins us ranked 29th overall, 19th in PAL. Welcome, Mark!! Jordan Stopciati (24th overall) passed Jason Whalls for 12th in NTSC. Dave Phaneuf, who last week reached a personal goal of breaking into the top twenty overall, had nine PRs this week and holds onto 16th place. Jim Mitchell (5th overall), Gregory Tiaiba (30th), and Jose Hermida (32nd) also set numerous new times and speeds. Tuesday [Mar-18-2003] - ALL F-Zero Central now has its own AIM Chatroom! Thanks to Dave Phaneuf for the suggestion. Monday [Mar-17-2003] - ALL Please welcome our newest affiliate, Gamecube Planet! GCP focuses on the U.K. Gamecube scene, but gamers worldwide can enjoy this great site! If you're looking for the GBA update, please note that all three F-Zero competitions are now updated each Friday. Friday [Mar-14-2003] - F-Zero X (N64) GBA member Crystal J. King is our latest player to venture into the world of F-Zero X (#60 overall). Welcome, Crystal! Dave Phaneuf (16th overall, 7th NTSC), Jordan Stopciati (24th, 13th NTSC), and Gregory Tiaiba (30th, 16th PAL) all made some nice cuts to their times this week, moving up in both overall and their system rankings. Jim Mitchell (5th overall) and Stefan Schwendeler (11th) also recorded PRs this week. Remember, until further notice all three games will be updated on FRIDAYS each week. Friday [Mar-07-2003] - F-Zero X (N64) We have three new members to announce: Grégory Tiaïba (32nd overall) and David Scott Forbes (53rd) have migrated from our GBA charts to also compete here, while Sven Jesch (47th) is completely new to F-Zero Central. Good luck to each of you!! Jim Mitchell (5th overall) continued his tireless work this week, setting 13 PRs and narrowing his deficit to 89 points behind #4 David Van Moer. Dave Phaneuf had a big week, climbing four spots to #21 with his 15 new times. With his 15 PRs, Jordan Stopciati (26th overall) is now just eight points away from gaining two valuable positions. Mark Slight completed his goal of beating all of the staff ghosts. He's up two places to 29th. Julien Holmière had 12 new marks and is 33rd overall, 19th PAL. Olivier Thibaut's 43 PRs were easily the highest of any returning player this week. He gained six places and is now 43rd. Friday [Feb-28-2003] - F-Zero X (N64) We had 11 active players this week, with PAL champion Roland Pristauz leading the way. Roland improved several PAL records, and continues to be ranked #3 overall. Our newest F-Zero X competitor is long-time GBA member Dick Grinwis. "Splash" begins ranked 53rd. Good luck! Florian Bichler (14th overall) and Dave Phaneuf (25th) eached moved up one position, while Mark Slight (31st) gained three spots. Also active were Armin Pristauz (7th overall), Sean Fleming (8th), Wouter Jansen (9th), Stefan Schwendeler (11th), Nori (12th), and Paul Forrest Harpe (33rd). Friday [Feb-21-2003] - F-Zero X (N64) We had another busy week in F-Zero X with 15 active players, including two new members to bring our total to 58 participants on the N64 version. Seven of the top 13 players were in action this week, with all seven holding steady in the overall rankings. Our newest members are Julien Holmière (31st overall) of France, and Japan's MAX 2000 (22nd overall). Good luck to you both!! Please read the "How To Join page" post in the Updates section of our Message Board for an explanation regarding an exception to the rule about using our real names. In F-Zero X player movement, Florian Bichler passed Nathan Stinson for 15th overall, while Dave Phaneuf (26th) and Mark Slight (34th) also each gained one position. Scott Ling (43rd) passed Erick McNerney. Kort Everett Jackson will be hosting a chat Saturday, February 22nd, at 10am Eastern USA (3pm UK) in the F-Zero Central chatroom. Please attend! Sunday [Feb-16-2003] - ALL F-Zero Central is proud to announce a new affiliate, M & G Inc. M & G stands for Music and Gaming, so they have a wide spectrum of topics at their disposal. Go check out their site now! Friday [Feb-14-2003] - F-Zero X (N64) We have a new record with 17 active players this week in F-Zero X!! There's far too much happening to describe in full detail, so here's the highlights (records, new members, player ranking movement): David Van Moer broke the Devil's Forest PAL speed record (1715). Recently crowned PAL champ Roland Pristauz improved his own PAL records at Big Blue 2 (1474 speed), Mute City 2 (1'26"226), and Devil's Forest 3 (1490 speed). He also passed Van Moer for 3rd place overall. We have four new members to report: Mark Slight (Sweden, 35th overall), Olivier Thibaut (France, 47th), Markus Krontahler (Austria, 53rd), and Jamie Thompson (Canada, 56th). Welcome and good luck to each of you! Mathias Daxauer (14th overall, #8 PAL) and Florian Bichler (16th, #9 PAL) continue to battle each other, both making big moves upward in the process. Dave Phaneuf jumped five spots to 27th overall and moved to 13th in NTSC. Dave Crawford is up three spots to 43rd overall (23rd NTSC). Also active were Jim Mitchell, Armin Pristauz, Sean Fleming, Michael Houghton, Nori, Stefan Mahrla, and Jordan Stopciati. Friday [Feb-07-2003] - F-Zero X (N64) NEW PAL CHAMPION!! His tireless efforts have brought Roland Pristauz to the top of the PAL ladder after many weeks of climbing. Congratulations!! He remains 4th overall, eight points behind previous PAL champ David Van Moer. Roland broke the PAL record for speed at Big Blue 2 with 1318 kph. His other PAL records this week were at Red Canyon 2 (22"302 lap), Port Town 2 (1259 speed), and Big Hand (1246 speed). Stefan Schwendeler improved his PAL record at Red Canyon 2 with a course time of 1'16"728. Graham Beard broke his own site record at Death Race with a 33"628 PAL run. That's 28"023 when converted to NTSC! Canadian Dave Phaneuf joins us at 32nd overall, 14th NTSC. Good luck, Dave! Jim Mitchell reached a big milestone that he's been working on for quite some time, passing Erick Guillen for 3rd in NTSC and 5th overall. Way to go, Jim!! Florian Bichler (21st), Jordan Stopciati (24th), Jose Hermida (27th), Bjorn Trondset (36th), and Silas Verrinder (39th) all made gains of one to three places in the overall player rankings. Michael Houghton (10th overall) had eight PRs, while Nori (12th) improved 11 of his marks. Friday [Jan-31-2003] - F-Zero X (N64) Our 14 active players ties the record for a single week of N64 activity! Our combined total of 28 active for all three versions falls just two shy of the record of 30, set last week. F-Zero Central's highest one game total for a week is 22 GBA players set on May 13, 2002. I'm documenting these records here because they'll be totally blown away by the end of the summer! ;-) Congratulations to all of this week's record-breakers: Jimmy Thai set the following world records: He went under Dustin Andrews' Silence lap record with a 17"267 NTSC clocking. He broke the 17 second barrier at Red Canyon with a 16"997 lap, and his speed PR there (2995) broke Armin Pristauz' record that was just set last week. Jimmy also improved his Big Blue 2 lap record with a 15"050 mark. Roland Pristauz bettered his own PAL records at Mute City 3 (1'27"397, 26"961 lap). He also broke a pair of records at Sand Ocean 2 (1'25"432, 25"821) that had been held by David Van Moer. Stefan Schwendeler broke the PAL record for speed at Port Town 2 (1258). Scott Ling broke the NTSC record at Death Race (31"802). Michael Houghton maxed his speed at Space Plant (2500 PAL). Mexico's Antonio Estrada becomes our 51st F-Zero X member. He begins ranked #49 (27th NTSC). Welcome and good luck, Antonio!! Player movement: Stefan Schwendeler passed Nori for 11th overall. Adam Gwatking got by Tyler Needham for 15th overall, but Tyler gained a couple places himself in NTSC, up to 7th. Florian Bichler moved up two spots on both of his charts, to 23rd overall and 12th in PAL. Silas Verrinder made a nice move up to 40th overall, 21st NTSC. Also active were Jim Mitchell, Armin Pristauz, Mathias Daxauer, and Jordan Stopciati. Friday [Jan-24-2003] - F-Zero X (N64) Competition remains strong and records continue to fall: Dustin Andrews set a World Record with a Port Town 2 speed of 1567 NTSC. Armin Pristauz set a new World Record at Red Canyon with a speed of 2206 PAL. Graham Beard joined us and is already a WR holder with a Death Race time of 34"824 PAL. Along with Beard (England), Canada's Scott Ling is our other newcomer, pushing our F-Zero X membership to an even 50 players. Welcome, guys!! Roland Pristauz had 19 PRs, including max speeds at Big Blue and Red Canyon 2. Both are new PAL records! He also set PAL records at Mute City (1340 speed), Big Blue 2 (1'01"247, 18"753 lap), Fire Field (2285 speed), and Sector Beta (26"871 lap). Thomas Exenberger's 20 PRs included a PAL record at Devil's Forest (1644 speed). Jim Mitchell had six PRs including a max speed at Red Canyon 2. Florian Bichler, Tyler Needham, and Mathias Daxauer each earned their first max speed at Sector Beta this week. Michael Houghton also reached max speed there. Jordan Stopciati improved a dozen of his times. Player movement was relatively minimal. Needham climbed three spots to 15th overall, while Daxauer gained two to 20th. Bichler moved up one to 25th. Beard starts out 24th, and Ling begins 37th best. Friday [Jan-17-2003] - F-Zero X (N64) Nintendo 64s worldwide continue to draw much electricity as we had 11 active players this week: Roland Pristauz (#2 PAL, 4th overall) set four PAL records among his 15 new times! Roland is now within 32 points of David Van Moer for the PAL championship. If today were Friday the 13th, I'd be a little freaked out right now. Thomas Exenberger had 13 PRs this week, became the 13th player to reach max speed at Sector Beta (2500 PAL), and moved up a spot to 13th place overall! His PAL rank, you ask? . . . Lucky 7! :-) Michael Houghton got past Nori to reach a personal goal of a top ten position on the overall player ranking. Tyler Needham improved his Big Blue (1354 NTSC) and Port Town 2 (1419 NTSC) speeds. That was just enough to sneak him one point ahead of Stefan Kallen for 18th overall. Florian Bichler re-wrote a whopping 62 PRs to gain six places to 26th overall. He's also up two to #14 on the PAL ledger. Mathias Daxauer (#11 PAL, 22nd overall) had a busy week with 39 PRs to pass Thomas Praschberger on both the PAL and overall charts. Jim Mitchell (6th overall) improved 10 of his times. Armin Pristauz (7th overall) continues to chase Mitchell with 10 new marks of his own. Wouter Jansen (9th) had an active week with 16 PRs. Nori (11th) beat his personal best for Big Hand speed (1323 NTSC). Silas Verrinder (43rd) set five new PRs this week. Friday [Jan-10-2003] - F-Zero X (N64) We had 13 active players this week, including our newest member, Nori. He is a Japanese player who participated at the site shown in our affiliates section. Since that competition is currently unavailable, and Nori wishes to stay active, he is here to compete with us. He begins ranked #6 in NTSC, and 10th overall. Welcome, Nori!! Jimmy Thai reclaimed a World Record at Big Hand with a 1515 speed mark. Roland Pristauz set new PAL records at Devil's Forest 2 (1741 speed), Sector Beta (1'27"601, 27"304 lap), Mute City 3 (1'27"634, 27"079 lap), and Big Hand (2'13"375). Stefan Schwendeler broke two PAL records at Red Canyon 2 (1'19"149, 23"208 lap). Michael Houghton improved his PAL record at White Land 2 (48"634). Michael overtook Schwendeler for the #5 position in PAL. Armin Pristauz reached max speed at Port Town and Space Plant (2500 PAL on each) to tie the records. He moved up to #3 in PAL and 7th place overall! Thomas Exenberger's strong week moved him up significantly to #7 PAL, 14th overall. Mathias Daxauer's new times were enough to gain him a position on each chart (#12 PAL, 23rd overall). Florian Bichler jumped ahead of Joakim Alderborn to reach #16 on the PAL list. Silas Verrinder continues to improve, moving up to 43rd overall (#23 NTSC). Also reporting new times were Dustin Andrews (2nd overall), Jim Mitchell (6th), and Jordan Stopciati (24th). Sunday [Jan-05-2003] - ALL I moved the old GBA Member Sites page to the main area so that all F-Zero Central members will be encouraged to submit their websites for that page. Also, new member sites by Kort Everett Jackson and Silas Verrinder have been added. If you have a site to submit, or if you find any broken links, please let me know! Friday [Jan-03-2003] - F-Zero X (N64) This game has by far the most intense competition of the three right now. Seven of the top 11 players were active this week, but no one could gain a place in the rankings! The tightest battle is between two highly active players, Wouter Jansen and Armin Pristauz. Wouter leads Armin by just a single point in the battle for #3 PAL, but due to NTSC meddling, Armin leads Wouter by eight points for 8th overall! Four players re-wrote the record books this week: Jimmy Thai broke Dustin Andrews' Sector Alpha speed world record with a 2428 NTSC mark. Roland Pristauz broke his own PAL record at Mute City 3 (1'28"673). Michael Houghton improved all three of his PAL records at White Land 2, becoming the first PAL player to reach max speed there! Adam Gwatking earned his first max speed, reaching 2500 PAL at Sector Beta. He's only the 12th player to reach max speed on that track. Adam moved up to #7 PAL and 14th overall. In other F-Zero X activity . . . Austria's Florian Bichler jumped into the F-Zero X pool this week, making a splash at #17 PAL, 32nd overall. Welcome and good luck, Florian! Mathias Daxauer climbed six spots to 24th overall. He now sits #13 in PAL. He has set his sights on passing Thomas Praschberger. Also, Jim Mitchell and Jordan Stopciati were active in NTSC, while Stefan Schwendeler set PAL PRs. Thursday [Jan-02-2003] - F-Zero Gamecube F-Zero Gamecube set for May release in Japan A new GameSpot article reveals Nintendo's upcoming schedule! |