Jet Moto чит-файл №1

JET MOTO


Remy Gibson
aweberman@yahoo.com
Version 1.0
03/11/01

========================
1.0 CONTENTS
========================

1.0 Contents
2.0 Versions
3.0 About
4.0 Controls
5.0 Menus
6.0 The Jet Moto
7.0 Riders
8.0 Rider Analysis
9.0 Races
10.0 Tracks
11.0 Advanced
12.0 Music
13.0 Codes
14.0 Copyright



========================
2.0 VERSIONS
========================

Date Version
03/11/01 1.0 initial version



========================
3.0 ABOUT
========================

-------------------
3.1 ABOUT JET MOTO
-------------------

Jet Moto was released in late 1996 for the Sony PlayStation. Due to the timing
of its release, Jet Moto was often compared (unfavorably) with Wave Race for the
Nintendo 64. However, with just a small amount of playtime it becomes evident
that the two games are mostly dissimilar, with the only viable comparisons being
the presence of water in three of Jet Moto's tracks and the slight similarity in
vehicles between the two games.

There are many things about Jet Moto that make it stand out from the rest of the
racing pack. One of these is the nature of the Jet Moto bike itself. It's kind
of like a JetSki, except that it can go over all kinds of terrain: water, beach,
swamp, mud, snow, even metal. This allows the introduction of an effective
physics system whereby each of the different surfaces reacts differently to the
bike.

The control of the Jet Moto is also important. It is spot-on. There were many
complaints regarding the control around the time of the game's release; a lot of
people felt that the control was very loose. Personally, I don't understand
this complaint. Perhaps those complaining just didn't spend enough time with
the game. In point of fact, your control over the bike is incredibly tight and
responsive. You can spin the bike through every conceivable dimension with the
use of the directional pad and shoulder buttons, always able to place it at the
optimum position for race speed.

Though the graphics don't really stand out, even from other second-generation
PlayStation games, they serve their purpose ably and don't distract
unnecessarily from the solid game engine.

The sound, on the other hand, is something else entirely. Jet Moto sports one
of the most acclaimed non-RPG soundtracks in the history of videogames. Many
have commented that the soundtrack is entirely listenable on its own, from the
comfort of your home or car stereo. And it is. From the oft-referenced Pulp
Fiction-esque sound of "Joyride," to the hard-driving guitar of "Hammerhead," to
the opening guitar riff in "Willpower," to the heart-pounding orchestral sounds
of "Ice Crusher" and everything in between, the soundtrack never lets up. It is
truly one of the shining hallmarks of this game.

The characters themselves also add a lot of life to this game. Each of the
twenty different riders has his or her own backstory, which makes you care a
little bit more for the racers than you do in typical racing games.

Another important feature of Jet Moto is the AI. For one thing, when competing
in a championship, you're never forced to win every single race, which is more
like real-life racing circuits. In addition, the competition in this game is
literally second-to-none; in my opinion, the AI in Jet Moto makes this a serious
competitor for the best racing game ever, despite its graphical limitations.
With twenty competitors ontrack at the same time, jostling for position, each
programmed with his or her own racing style, it's a constant fight for position
in each race and in the overall championship. This makes for an incredibly deep
game, one that can be played for weeks and months on end.

-------------------
3.2 ABOUT THIS FAQ
-------------------

The reason I've decided to write this FAQ for Jet Moto now, over four years
after its initial release, is really fairly simple. There isn't one.

Jet Moto stands tall as probably my favorite videogame ever; even now, I can
still pop it in and enjoy playing it. While cruising GameFAQs a few weeks ago,
I checked out Jet Moto and its brethren on a lark. I figured that since every
other game under the sun has a FAQ for it, Jet Moto must too, and I wanted to
see what insights the writer of such a FAQ might have into this phenomenal game.
There was only one problem.

No FAQ.

I couldn't believe it. In fact, not only did Jet Moto not get a FAQ for itself,
but neither did either of its sequels, good games in their own right, though not
quite living up to the standard set by the original.

For this reason, I decided to write my own FAQ.

But I didn't want this to be just a cookie-cutter recitation of things you can
find at any other resource on the Internet. Of course, I have to include the
basics, like controls for the game, as well as codes, because everybody seems to
want those. So these things are included for the sake of completion. The real
heart of the FAQ, however, is the strategy sections. I really have never had
any peers with which to share my insights regarding this game, accomplishments
that I've had, advice that I can give. This FAQ gives me the opportunity.

Considering all of the time that I've spent playing my game, I consider myself
something of an expert. But I'm always on the lookout for other solid
suggestions on the game; not necessarily tricks that can be performed, but
something new with regard to the actual championship itself. I'm hoping another
expert will stumble across this FAQ. All comments are welcome.



========================
4.0 CONTROLS
========================

----------
4.1 D-PAD
----------
Left and right on the Directional Pad is pretty basic. Up and down, however, is
something else. Pushing up causes the rider to push the nose of the bike toward
the ground, standing up on it. Pressing down causes the rider to pull the nose
of the bike up, and this is very important when going over jumps as catching the
nose of your bike on the lip of a ledge will cause your rider to take quite a
spill.

-------------
4.2 X BUTTON
-------------

Acceleration. You'll pretty much want to hold this one down all the time.

------------------
4.3 SQUARE BUTTON
------------------

Brake. Typically you won't need this button, but there are a few spots in the
harder levels that require some judicious braking. These will be noted in the
track descriptions.

--------------------
4.4 TRIANGLE BUTTON
--------------------

Turbo. Provides a burst of speed for a couple of seconds. You get four of
these to start the race and they are replenished each lap, so it's to your
advantage to use all four each lap. The number of turbos you have remaining is
displayed directly underneath the speedometer in the lower lefthand portion of
the screen.

------------------
4.5 CIRCLE BUTTON
------------------

Grapple. Spread throughout the various tracks, normally on tight turns, are
tall poles that make a humming noise. These are magnetic grappling poles.
Activating the grapple on your bike causes a lance of energy to connect your
bike with the pole, enabling you to stay on target and, usually, corner tighter.
The length of time you can grapple is limited to the status of your grapple
meter. The grapple meter replenishes slowly whenever the grapple is not in use.
The grapple meter is displayed underneath the speedometer and turbos in the
lower lefthand portion of the screen.

It has often been stated that grappling is the most important skill that you can
learn in Jet Moto. This isn't quite true. Grappling is a very important skill
on several of the tracks; occasionally, it is indispensable for victory.
However, there is another ability that outweighs the grapple in usefulness--it
is considered in section 4.8.

----------------------
4.6 L1 and R1 BUTTONS
----------------------

Sharp turn. Grappling is great, but the sharp turns will get you through a lot
of turns with a minimum of lost speed.

----------------------
4.7 L2 and R2 BUTTONS
----------------------

Roll. Really these two buttons are the complement of up and down on the D-Pad.
The rider basically leans to one side or the other, just as with the D-Pad, the
rider leans forward or backward. One effect of these shoulder buttons is to
facilitate midair stunts, enabling quick and easy rolls in the air. A more
important use is detailed in the next section.

-----------------------------
4.8 KEEPING THE BIKE UPRIGHT
-----------------------------

The most important skill in Jet Moto is not grappling, it is using the various
buttons in order to keep your bike on an even keel. When going over jumps or
sideswiping other riders, your bike (especially the lighter ones) may have a
tendency to become unbalanced and you'll be riding almost on your side. It's at
these times that the shoulder buttons really come into play in an important way,
to right yourself. In many places the course is not level; by using the D-pad
and shoulder buttons, it's possible to land your bike well after a jump and
thereby lose a minimum amount of speed. Remember, keep your bike perpendicular
to the racing surface.



========================
5.0 MENUS
========================

The Main Menu, the first screen you see, gives you four choices: 1 Player, Head
to Head, Load Game, and Options.

-------------
5.1 1 PLAYER
-------------

You play by yourself in your choice of a variety of different competitions,
competing in a twenty-player field.

------------------
5.1.1 SELECT RIDER
------------------

There are twenty riders to choose from, divided up into four teams of five each:
Butterfinger, Axiom, K2, and Mountain Dew. Each rider is rated in four
categories (discussed below): Handling, Acceleration, Mass, and Lift. In the
upper lefthand corner of the screen is a snapshot of the rider. The upper
righthand portion gives a brief insight into the rider's history and
personality. Select one by pressing X.

----------------------
5.1.2 CHOOSE RACE TYPE
----------------------

After selecting a rider there will be four race types to choose from: Single
Race, Custom Circuit, Full Season, and Practice. They will be discussed in
detail in section 9.0-Races.

---------------------
5.1.3 TRACK SELECTION
---------------------

If you choose anything but Full Season, you will end up at this screen. There
are a total of ten tracks, their difficulty designated by an icon.

Green circle - Amateur
Blue square - Intermediate
Black diamond - Professional
Double black diamond - Master

Only the tracks you have opened up will be available. At this point, you choose
which track(s) you would like to race on. You will then proceed to the loading
screen for the first one.

-----------------
5.2 HEAD TO HEAD
-----------------

Two players against each other one-on-one. The screen can be split horizontally
or vertically; I've always preferred the latter. Most of the options for head
to head racing are the same as 1 player, with some minor exceptions, like
Elimination being unavailable in Custom Circuit (for obvious reasons). The
biggest downside in head to head is the inability to play against the full
field.

--------------
5.3 LOAD GAME
--------------

Your progress through a Season or Custom Circuit can be saved following each
race. This screen is where you get back into your season. Each save takes up
one block of memory.

------------
5.4 OPTIONS
------------

There are several items that are customizable from this menu.

----------------
5.4.1 DIFFICULTY
----------------

There are three difficulty levels initially: Amateur, Intermediate, and
Professional. A fourth level is available upon winning on Professional: Master.
These difficulty levels are a way of telling you how good your opposition is
going to be. Amateur is the initial default.

-------------------
5.4.2 LAPS PER RACE
-------------------

Five settings are available here: anywhere from two to six laps. Two seems too
short to really get going, whereas five and six laps starts to get a little
tedious. For maximum excitement, it's best to stick with the default, which is
three laps.

-----------
5.4.3 TURBO
-----------

This option can be set to on or off. When it is set to off, the turbos are
turned off on all the bikes, including the computer-controlled ones. Default is
"on".

-------------
5.4.4 GRAPPLE
-------------

This option can be set to on or off. When it is set to off, the magnetic
grapple is turned off on all the bikes, including the computer-controlled ones.
Default is "on".

----------------------
5.4.5 TROPHY PRESENTER
----------------------

There are three settings for this option: male, female, or rider's choice. At
the end of each race, the winner of the race is awarded a trophy. This option
dictates what gender the presenter will be. Interestingly enough, when set to
"rider's choice", a couple of the riders will choose a presenter from their own
gender, and this is the default.

--------------
5.4.6 BIKE HUD
--------------

The HUD (Heads-Up Display) is located in the lower lefthand corner of the racing
screen. It contains the following information: speedometer, turbos remaining,
grapple meter, and stunt points. It can be left on or turned off. Default is
"on".

----------------------
5.4.7 CINEMATIC CAMERA
----------------------

This view tries to put you in the rider's seat, as it were, tilting the screen
as if you were actually banking into turns. In all honesty, I found this option
distracting and slightly nauseating; I left it off.

----------------
5.4.8 STUNT RACE
----------------

This option can be activated or left inactive. However, it remains unavailable
until you have won a Full Season on Professional difficulty on all ten tracks.
When activated, stunts earn you rewards. They are scored on a scale from 1 to
99, though enhancements don't start figuring in until you score at least a 20.

Turbos are the bonus of choice for scores up to 60 or so; after that, you
receive rewards in the form of higher top speed, better acceleration, and the
like. For me, the turbos were always the better reward, so it was hardly worth
doing the harder tricks. The easiest way for me to pick up an extra four turbos
was to hit a jump, then to a roll by holding the D-Pad DOWN and LEFT while
simultaneously pressing L1 and L2. Your rider will do a very quick reverse
barrel roll and, if landed, receive an ovation from the crowd (wherever that
is).

--------------------------
5.4.9 KEYPAD CONFIGURATION
--------------------------

The default configuration has always worked best for me and is the one covered
in this FAQ.

----------------------
5.4.10 MUSIC AND SOUND
----------------------

Default has always worked well for me here; I've never felt much need to play
around with the controls. I suppose if one were to get sick of the
music...though I don't understand how that would be possible.

--------------
5.4.11 CREDITS
--------------

The Singletrac team that made this excellent game.

------------
5.4.12 TIMES
------------

One final note as to the settings in the Options menu. In places in this FAQ,
there are times referred to as course records that I have set and recorded. In
each of these instances, the options were set to the following:

LAPS - 3
TURBO - ON
GRAPPLE - ON
STUNT RACE - OFF



========================
6.0 THE JET MOTO
========================

The Jet Moto is an interesting vehicle. You can see the word "moto" in its
name. There are ways in which the vehicle is similar to a motorcycle, and many
ways in which the game is similar to motocross. But the key word in the name is
"jet". Think JetSki. The difference between a Jet Moto and a JetSki, though,
is the Jet Moto's ability to leave the water; hence the word "moto" in its name.
When leaving the water, the Jet Moto rides on a suspension field, allowing it to
traverse all kinds of terrain.

Yes, this is a futuristic game.

Each Jet Moto has its own unique characteristics. Some are quick to turn and
light, some are heavy and ponderous, some are in-between. At the "Select Rider"
screen, each rider's Jet Moto is displayed, along with a graphic analysis of how
it performs, on a scale of one to ten, in each of four performance categories:
handling, acceleration, mass, and lift.

-------------
6.1 HANDLING
-------------

Exactly what it sounds like. Handling is the equivalent of responsiveness and
is usually directly tied in with the mass of a bike, as you might expect.

-----------------
6.2 ACCELERATION
-----------------

Acceleration is rated from a standing start to top speed. Of course, the other
categories come into play, as well: a high-mass Jet Moto will accelerate more
slowly than a low-mass bike, even if both of them carry identical acceleration
ratings.

---------
6.3 MASS
---------

Weight of the bike. A heavier bike is more stable and less likely to throw a
rider when colliding with an obstacle, whether said obstacle is a tree or
another rider. At the same time, a heavier bike is more likely to win a battle
with a lighter bike. High-mass Jet Motos allow you to play fast and loose with
the obstacles to a certain extent, though you generally pay for this in
maneuverability.

---------
6.4 LIFT
---------

This is the rating of the suspension field that supports the bike. When going
over bumps and ramps, a bike with a higher lift rating will catch more air,
especially if you lift the nose of the bike up my pressing DOWN on the D-Pad.
Is this good? Sometimes....



========================
7.0 RIDERS
========================

There are twenty different riders (twelve unique) in Jet Moto, both male and
female. The differences between the riders lie in their choice of bikes, not in
the riders.

At the "Select Rider" screen, you can choose which of the twenty riders you
would like to control. They are divided up into four teams of five riders each:
Butterfinger, Axiom, K2, and Mountain Dew. The teams are only useful so far as
they make scrolling through twenty characters a little simpler, as well as
adding a little character to the game. They are not, though, actually
functional in any way. Therefore, when listing each rider, I will not list them
in order by team.

Notes:
-an asterisk (*) next to a rider's gender indicates that when that
rider is chosen and the Trophy Presenter is set to "Rider's Choice,"
the rider will choose someone of his or her own gender
-some of the ratings are "9.5", indicating that rider is nearly rated a
ten,only just missing it. On the "Select Rider" screen, you can see
this by noticing a small gap near the end of the bar; it is most
obvious on Stone, where you can compare a 10 bar to a 9.5 bar. There
is a noticeable difference between the two ratings.

-----------
7.1 ARROYO
-----------

Team: Butterfinger
Number: 8
Gender: Male
Name: Macon Arroyo
Handling: 5
Acceleration: 3
Mass: 4
Lift: 5

Overall: 17

--------------
7.2 BLACKJACK
--------------

Team: Axiom
Number: 21
Gender: Male
Name: Garth Richter
Handling: 1
Acceleration: 9
Mass: 10
Lift: 1

Overall: 21

-----------
7.3 BOMBER
-----------

Team: Butterfinger
Number: 96
Gender: Female
Name: Dayna Hogan
Handling: 2
Acceleration: 10
Mass: 10
Lift: 2

Overall: 24

----------
7.4 CHIEN
----------

Team: K2
Number: 99
Gender: Male
Name: Jackson Chien
Handling: 10
Acceleration: 3
Mass: 1
Lift: 7

Overall: 21

-----------
7.5 DAKOTA
-----------

Team: Mountain Dew
Number: 7
Gender: Female
Name: Dakota Jade
Handling: 10
Acceleration: 3
Mass: 1
Lift: 7

Overall: 21

-----------
7.6 GUNNER
-----------

Team: K2
Number: 6
Gender: Male
Name: unknown
Handling: 7
Acceleration: 8
Mass: 1
Lift: 10

Overall: 26

-----------
7.7 HARRIS
-----------

Team: K2
Number: 44
Gender: Female*
Name: Harris
Handling: 10
Acceleration: 4
Mass: 1
Lift: 2

Overall: 17

----------
7.8 IRONS
----------

Team: Mountain Dew
Number: 9
Gender: Female
Name: Shane Irons
Handling: 6
Acceleration: 1
Mass: 4
Lift: 6

Overall: 17

---------
7.9 MACE
---------

Team: Butterfinger
Number: 77
Gender: Male
Name: unknown
Handling: 1
Acceleration: 9
Mass: 10
Lift: 1

Overall: 21

------------
7.10 MASALA
------------

Team: Butterfinger
Number: 5
Gender: Male
Name: Masala
Handling: 6
Acceleration: 1
Mass: 4
Lift: 6

Overall: 17

----------
7.11 MIKO
----------

Team: Mountain Dew
Number: 69
Gender: Female
Name: Miko
Handling: 10
Acceleration: 3
Mass: 1
Lift: 4

Overall: 18

------------------
7.12 QUICK JESSIE
------------------

Team: K2
Number: 23
Gender: Female
Name: Jessie West
Handling: 9.5
Acceleration: 5
Mass: 1
Lift: 6

Overall: 21.5

-----------
7.13 RHINO
-----------

Team: Butterfinger
Number: 59
Gender: Male*
Name: Andre Makarczyk
Handling: 8
Acceleration: 1
Mass: 4
Lift: 6

Overall: 19

--------------
7.14 SHANNARA
--------------

Team: Mountain Dew
Number: 48
Gender: Female
Name: Shannara Jackson
Handling: 8
Acceleration: 1
Mass: 4
Lift: 6

Overall: 19

------------
7.15 SHIROW
------------

Team: Axiom
Number: 66
Gender: Female
Name: Shirow
Handling: 5
Acceleration: 3
Mass: 4
Lift: 5

Overall: 17

-----------
7.16 STONE
-----------

Team: Axiom
Number: 19
Gender: Male
Name: Wyatt Stone
Handling: 3
Acceleration: 9.5
Mass: 10
Lift: 2

Overall: 24.5

----------------
7.17 TECHNICIAN
----------------

Team: Axiom
Number: 3
Gender: Male
Name: Otomo
Handling: 9.5
Acceleration: 9
Mass: 1
Lift: 6

Overall: 25.5

--------------
7.18 TETSUJIN
--------------

Team: Axiom
Number: 4
Gender: Male
Name: Tetsuo Hibara
Handling: 9.5
Acceleration: 5
Mass: 1
Lift: 6

Overall: 21.5

-------------
7.19 THE MAX
-------------

Team: K2
Number: 2
Gender: Male
Name: Mark Corri
Handling: 9.5
Acceleration: 9
Mass: 1
Lift: 6

Overall: 25.5

---------------
7.20 WILD RIDE
---------------

Team: Mountain Dew
Number: 13
Gender: Female
Name: Kari Kelley
Handling: 7
Acceleration: 8
Mass: 1
Lift: 10

Overall: 26



========================
8.0 RIDER ANALYSIS
========================

For this section, we will analyze various statistics in an effort to determine
which of the twenty Jet Moto riders is the best. To do this, we will check not
only the ratings from section 7.0 (above), but also some actual race statistics.

-------------------
8.1 WEIGHT CLASSES
-------------------

Jet Moto appears to be very much weighted toward one size of bike.

Weight class Mass rating Number of Jet Motos
------------ ----------- -------------------
Light 1 10
Medium 4 6
Heavy 10 4

------------
8.2 RATINGS
------------

Following is a list of the riders' abilities when based strictly on their
ratings. I arrived at these totals by simply adding up the individual ratings
of each of the four categories, weighting each one equally. I also grouped
those with identical ratings together; two riders with identical ratings will
race identically.

1. Gunner/Wild Ride 26
2. Technician/The Max 25.5
3. Stone 24.5
4. Bomber 24
5. Quick Jessie/Tetsujin 21.5
6. Blackjack/Mace 21
Chien/Dakota 21
8. Rhino/Shannara 19
9. Miko 18
10. Arroyo/Shirow 17
Harris 17
Irons/Masala 17


While we're at it, let's go ahead and rate the teams, too.

Weight Class
Team Rating Light Medium Heavy
------------ ------ --------------------
1. K2 115.0 5 0 0
2. Axiom 109.5 2 1 2
3. Mountain Dew 101.0 3 2 0
4. Butterfinger 98.0 0 3 2

From this information we can infer the following:

- Gunner and Wild Ride are the two best riders in the game
- The Heavy bikes, ranking third, fourth, and sixth and averaging a
rating of 22.625, are consistently better, though the light bikes,
taking first and second spots and averaging 20.600, are usually also
good choices
- Medium bikes are flat out no good, averaging a rating 17.667 with none
ranked higher than eighth, though four fill out the bottom five
- K2 is the best team, due to its five light bikes
- Axiom is better than Mountain Dew, since they carry more heavy and
fewer light and medium bikes
- Butterfinger is a team in trouble, with a disproportionate number of
medium bikes


It will become apparent that this isn't the most exact system of rating which
riders are better than others.

---------------------
8.3 SIMULATED SEASON
---------------------

I had two objectives when I decided to simulate a full season with all twenty
racers:
1) to determine once and for all which of the racers were best and which
were best on each track
2) to extend the life of the game

On both of these levels, my venture succeeded. What I did was simple, really.
I took practice with each of the twenty riders on each of the ten tracks, then
compiled the times as if they had each raced.

There is a certain degree of inaccuracy in this method, I admit. For one thing,
it's quite different racing in practice compared to racing against a full field
of competitors. There's no jostling for position in practice. Especially is
this true in view of the fact that "I" was racing for each rider, meaning that I
took an exceedingly similar racing line for each one, which obviously wouldn't
work under true race conditions.

Another way in which this method is inaccurate is this: While I can routinely
beat the computer in a Full Season on Master difficulty, usually winning eight
or nine of the ten races, I do occasionally make mistakes (or else I'd win all
ten every time, wouldn't I?). These mistakes cropped up and made some minor
alterations to the statistics. In retrospect, I probably should have gone for
total accuracy and reraced the ones that I did badly instead of treating it like
an "actual" race and leaving the bad times in. But that's in hindsight.

There are some definite advantages to this method, though. Since I did control
every racer, racing all twenty times back to back, each racer got the chance to
react the same way to the same set of circumstances, producing a truer result.

Further, I tried to take into account the fact that running a race twenty
consecutive times is bound to improve one's time steadily no matter how bad the
bike you're using is. For this reason, the rider that finished first on
"Joyride" had to take first crack at "Cliffdiver", to keep any one rider from
racking up a huge lead predicated solely on the fact that he or she was allowed
to benefit from the lessons learned by previous riders. This served as an
effective leveling tool.

Presented in the next several sections are the results of that simulated season,
looked at from several different perspectives.

------------------
8.3.1 CHAMPIONSHIP
------------------

Here are the standings after all ten races as if it had been an actual Full
Season.

1. Gunner 133
2. Wild Ride 119
3. Shannara 114
4. Rhino 105
Irons 105
6. Masala 100
7. Dakota 85
Chien 85
9. Arroyo 59
The Max 59
11. Mace 54
Harris 54
13. Miko 52
Stone 52
15. Technician 48
16. Bomber 45
17. Quick Jessie 43
18. Blackjack 36
19. Tetsujin 34
20. Shirow 21

We can see that typically the riders with the same bikes have similar scores:
Gunner and Wild Ride are 1-2; Dakota and Chien actually tied for seventh.

There are some large discrepancies, though: Arroyo and Shirow are separated by
38 points; Mace and Blackjack have 18 between them. In both instances, the
problems came in when I managed to do very well on a particular track with one
rider and abysmally with the other. With Mace and Blackjack, that happened
twice. Even though this will be discussed later, in the Tracks section (10.0),
I'd like to touch on these specific examples here.

In the case of the most dramatic example, Arroyo and Shirow, the simple fact is
that I managed to do incredibly well with Arroyo on Hammerhead, placing first on
the track and setting the course record, while with Shirow, I had a spill
(falling off the bike) and finished back of Arroyo by over eight seconds, which
ranked her eighteenth for the race. As you can see, that accounts for most of
the discrepancy.

As for Mace and Blackjack, something similar happened on Hammerhead, though not
quite as drastic. With Mace, I placed third. And even though Blackjack
finished only 3.7 seconds behind Mace, he still only managed to place
thirteenth. Then on Ice Crusher, I fell of the track five times with Blackjack,
which allowed Mace to pick up another nine points on him.

-----------
8.3.2 RALLY
-----------

Here are the standings after all ten races if they had been run in Rally
Scoring:

1. Wild Ride 31.53.4
2. Gunner 31.54.1
3. Rhino 31.59.6
4. Shannara 32.02.0
5. Masala 32.03.3
6. Dakota 32.17.8
7. Chien 32.32.2
8. The Max 32.35.0
9. Harris 32.44.0
10. Irons 32.55.6
11. Miko 32.56.9
12. Quick Jessie 33.01.3
13. Arroyo 33.03.6
14. Tetsujin 33.08.2
15. Mace 33.12.7
16. Bomber 33.23.4
17. Stone 33.25.0
18. Technician 33.25.5
19. Blackjack 33.35.2
20. Shirow 33.47.1

Examples of the differences between Championship Scoring and Rally Scoring
abound when comparing the two tables. The most obvious one is who's on top.
Wild Ride squeaks out a victory of seven-tenths of a second over Gunner in the
Rally; Gunner won three of the races to Wild Ride's one win, but since those
wins were not blowouts, he wasn't able to open up a lead as large as he did in
the Championship Scoring.

There are still some sizable discrepancies, though. For every Gunner/Wild Ride
0.7 seconds margin, you have one like The Max/Technician 50.5 seconds gap. Let
me explain how this happened.

One big gap opened up on Blackwater Falls, when Technician took four spills off
his bike and dropped over twelve seconds to The Max (and even more to most of
the rest of the field). But the killer was again on Ice Crusher. I took four
falls off the track with Technician compared to none with The Max and
consequently lost thirty-five seconds. This is the type of thing I was talking
about when I said that I wished I'd gone back and reraced it for accuracy. So
Technician is actually better than he's letting on in this particular season, as
The Max proves.

Arroyo and Shirow sport a 44-second gap. Ice Crusher claimed another victim in
Shirow, who had two massive falls; she lost over eighteen seconds on that track.
She dropped another twelve on Nightmare.

Masala and Irons, though, have the worst gap: 52.3 seconds. And yet Irons
finished ahead of Masala by five points in the Championship Scoring. How did
this happen? Irons' first problem came on Willpower. She spilled three times
and fell once, losing over twenty-five seconds to Masala, who only finished
eighth. Then she turned around on the very next track, you guessed it, Ice
Crusher, and lost over thirty-six seconds due to three more spills and three
falls. Yet Masala only finished tenth this time.

That's why Irons was able to beat him in the Championship. Masala couldn't
capitalize on her mishaps, though he won twice and placed fourth on another
occasion. Irons, though, stayed close to Masala in the Championship by
finishing second to both of his firsts, third to his fourth, then thoroughly
pasting him on Nightmare, placing first while he finished a lowly tenth.
Looking back at the Championship Scoring, it's not hard to imagine Irons
snagging third, or even second, if it hadn't been for those two dismal races in
the second half of the season.

--------------
8.3.3 COMBINED
--------------

Since sixteen of the riders have "mates", so to speak, here's a listing of the
combined scores. To derive these statistics, I averaged the times from each
race (adding together, then dividing by two). This gave me the Rally time.
From the times, I then resequenced the finish, assigning the points in this
fashion: 25-20-13-11-9-7-6-5-3-1-0-0. In hindsight, I probably should have
altered the points for second place, making it sixteen or eighteen, but it's too
late now and I'm not about to recalculate the figures.

Championship Rally
------------ -----

1. Gunner/Wild Ride 141 1. Gunner/Wild Ride 31.53.75
2. Rhino/Shannara 117 2. Rhino/Shannara 32.00.80
3. Chien/Dakota 102 3. Chien/Dakota 32.25.00
4. Irons/Masala 98 4. Irons/Masala 32.29.45
5. Miko 75 5. Harris 32.44.00
6. Harris 71 6. Miko 32.56.90
7. Bomber 61 7. Technician/The Max 33.00.25
Technician/The Max 61 8. Quick Jessie/Tetsujin 33.04.75
9. Stone 55 9. Bomber 33.23.40
10. Blackjack/Mace 45 10. Blackjack/Mace 33.23.95
11. Quick Jessie/Tetsujin 38 11. Stone 33.25.00
12. Arroyo/Shirow 28 12. Arroyo/Shirow 33.25.35

----------
8.3.4 TEAM
----------

One element missing from Jet Moto is team accountability in the races. In
Formula 1 racing, for instance, there is a drivers championship, wherein it's
every man for himself, and there's a constructors championship, where the points
from teammates are added together and the teams compete. Below is a ranking
based on this simulated season for a sort of "constructors championship." To
achieve these statistics, I simply added together the points and times for each
of the five racers in each of the four teams.

Championship Rally
------------ -----
1. Mountain Dew 475 1. Mountain Dew 162.05.7
2. K2 374 2. K2 162.56.6
3. Butterfinger 363 3. Butterfinger 163.42.6
4. Axiom 191 4. Axiom 167.20.4

--------------
8.3.5 ANALYSIS
--------------

It is clear that a person can't take any one particular set of figures and
determine which rider is better than which other rider. Well, except for Gunner
and Wild Ride. No matter which way you slice it, those two always come out on
top. They are the two best racers in the game.

Many people like Technician and he is one of the most often selected characters.
Due to this, many people feel that Technician is the best character in the game.
In all fairness, Technician is one of the top two or three when controlled by
the computer. Of course, the computer can assign each rider a skill level,
being able to rely on more than just the abilities of the bike itself. As we
can see from the simulated season I did, though, Technician simply rides an
average bike, as does The Max. This being the case, one could speculate that
the character himself has a much higher skill level, since he wins such a high
percentage of races; either way, though, as far as human-controlled riders go,
Technician is not the best.

To me, one of the most interesting results that came from this simulated season
was the revelation about the medium bikes. I originally felt about them the
same as many people: they're not light, so they're tougher to control, and
they're not heavy, so they're not as fast. In actuality, as it turns out,
rather than possessing the worst of both worlds, they possess the best of both
worlds.

Here's one of the areas where the method used to calculate ability as
demonstrated in section 8.2 (Ratings) is flawed. The Overall rating placed
Rhino and Shannara at eighth, meaning that by that particular method of rating,
these two racers have below-average bikes. But look at the stats from the
simulated season.

In the Championship, Shannara finished just five points behind Wild Ride, in
third place. In the Rally, Gunner holds his second position by a scant five-
second lead over Rhino, with Shannara just three seconds back of Rhino. When
combining the racers, in the Championship, Gunner and Wild Ride take the title
in a cakewalk. But look at how narrow the margin is in the Rally--just a hair
over seven seconds. The gap back to third place is three times that amount.

Not all of the medium bikes fared so well, of course. Arroyo and Shirow bring
up the rear in every category. What is the difference between their bikes and
the other four medium-class bikes? Primarily, handling. Arroyo and Shirow only
have a handling of 5, whereas Irons and Masala have a 6 and Rhino and Shannara
hold an 8. It makes a big difference. A secondary reason is lift: Arroyo and
Shirow hold only a 5 while the other four all have 6.

The light bikes are the next best contenders. But why are certain ones better
than others? Recall that I said earlier that the Overall rating was a
combination of each of the four categories, each of them weighted the same.
Obviously, though, the categories are not weighted the same. How so?

The best examples to look at are our best two riders: Gunner and Wild Ride.
Interestingly, though they both are light bikes, they are different than all of
the other light bikes. Typically, a light bike has a high handling, a low-to-
moderate acceleration, and a moderate-to-high lift ratio. These two are
different in that they have a moderate-to-high handling, a slightly higher
acceleration, and a high lift. Basically, they trade handling ability for lift.
And it works. It seems odd that the ones that are best should spend the least
amount of time on the ground, and yet it's true. It held true for the medium
bikes, too; the top four mediums traded acceleration for lift, with devastating
effect.

The other light bikes have slight variances between them, each with its own
positives and negatives. Chien and Dakota have perfect (10-rated) handling and
trade acceleration for a bit more lift; Miko has the perfect handling and low
accel, but below-average lift; Harris retains the perfect handling but goes for
a low lift attack; Quick Jessie and Tetsujin have very high (9.5-rated)
handling, but only moderate acceleration; and Technician and The Max have a
setup just like Quick Jessie/Tetsujin, but with much better acceleration.

The heavy bikes come out the losers, all of them falling in the bottom third of
the combined ratings and the bottom quarter or so of the individual rally,
though Mace managed eleventh overall in the championship, mostly due to a
stunning third place on Hammerhead. Despite their high accelerations and high-
end top speed, their incredibly low handling really kills the heavy bikes on
anything but wide open runs.


It's interesting to note relative ability between the different riders. Looking
at the individual Championship rankings, for instance, we see that the gap from
second to seventh is only thirty-four points, but the gap from seventh back to
ninth, just one position, is twenty-six. There's almost a clear dividing line
between the top eight and the rest of the pack.

The Rally is somewhat similar, though not quite as dramatic. Here, the top five
are all bunched together, separated by less than ten seconds, then it's a
fourteen-and-a-half second gap back to sixth, then fourteen-point-six more back
to seventh. Irons, ranked tenth here, probably should have been included with
the top six. Again we see the delineation, though this time it's the top five
(or six) and the rest of the pack, with Chien and Dakota on their own.

The combined Rally scores are interesting, too. Note the bottom four.
Positions nine through twelve are spanned by less than two seconds. A strong
argument could be made that Arroyo and Shirow don't really belong down quite
that far, which means that it's the four heavy bikes that are separated by 1.60
seconds. Basically, it really doesn't matter which of those you pick; they're
all bad.


It's a shame that human error had to enter into the equation in such a
convincing way on several occasions. Some of the riders are better than their
times show; some are worse.

In the combined scores, Irons and Masala are ranked fourth both times, but if
Irons hadn't had those two bad races....

I'm still not sure what exactly happened with Technician and The Max. They
certainly didn't live up to the power numbers of their bike ratings. At the
same time, though, they're not as bad as their times suggest. Or at least
Technician isn't. He's six spots back of The Max in the individual Championship
and ten spots down in the individual Rally, both of which pulled their combined
scores back further than they should have been.

Arroyo and Shirow really demonstrated two disparate scores. But should Shirow
have done better, or was it Arroyo performing above his station? Either way,
one would think that they should have at least beat out the heavy bikes.


So we have all of this data. We have each individual Jet Moto bike rated in
four categories and then given an overall score; we have a simulated season run
and totaled by both Championship scoring and Rally scoring; then we have the
times of that season combined for the duplicate riders and rescored by
Championship and Rally. Each of these gives a different idea of who goes where.

I present, then, my definitive list of Jet Motos in descending order from best
to worst, taking into account all of the above data and factoring in the human
error that caused discrepancies. First place gets 10 points and each other
position receives the percentage of that which I feel they deserve.

1. Gunner/Wild Ride 10.0
2. Rhino/Shannara 9.7
3. Irons/Masala 9.5
4. Chien/Dakota 9.0
5. Technician/The Max 8.0
6. Harris 7.5
7. Miko 7.3
8. Quick Jessie/Tetsujin 6.2
9. Arroyo/Shirow 5.5
10. Bomber 5.3
11. Stone 5.2
12. Blackjack/Mace 5.0

---------------
8.4 CPU RACERS
---------------

Against all indications from the individual ratings, certain riders are better
than others when raced by the computer. This reflects a real point of view: the
best rider isn't always on the best bike. With regularity, there are seven
riders that will consistently perform well, filling the first column on the
results screen (unless you are there, of course).

These are "the top seven" and are listed below. They way in which they are
ordered is based on ten recorded seasons, averaged together. Their average
finishing position follows each name. It should be noted that these aren't
"pure" figures; my own finishes affect the numbers, but the deviance shouldn't
be large.

1. Technician 1.7
2. Wild Ride 2.0
3. Dakota 4.6
4. Miko 5.0
5. Quick Jessie 5.9
6. Tetsujin 6.7
7. The Max 7.2

As far as the computer is concerned, Technician and Wild Ride are far and away
the best in the game. In fact, Technician can reel off victories like nobody's
business, making him your number one competitor.

Unlike other games, however, Jet Moto doesn't sacrifice realism for the sake of
offering you competition. In many games, one person will repeatedly finish
first (maybe second) in order to give you a run for your money should you manage
to place first or second on every track.

That doesn't happen here. Technician will win more often than anybody else, but
I've seen him finish a season out of the top seven. The competition is fair.
The programmers seemed to realize that in actual racing competitions, a person
doesn't have to win every race to win a season. In fact, it's possible to win a
season without ever winning a race.


========================
9.0 RACES
========================

There are four different options available from the screen "Choose Race Type"
and they are detailed in the sections below.

----------------
9.1 SINGLE RACE
----------------

One track against the field of twenty.

-------------------
9.2 CUSTOM CIRCUIT
-------------------

There are three different types of customizable circuits available:
Championship, Rally, and Elimination. In each of these three types, you get to
choose which tracks you want to race on as well as the order in which you want
to race them, allowing for a high degree of customization.

------------------
9.2.1 CHAMPIONSHIP
------------------

Scoring: The position in which you finish earns you points, with better
finishes earning more points. The winner is whoever has scored the
most points at the end of the circuit. (as described in the game)

This is nearly the same as playing through a full season, the differences being
that you can choose which order the races come in and whether you even want to
race on all of them, meaning that you can leave off stuff like Ice Crusher and
Nightmare if you want.

The scoring method is as follows:

1st - 25 points
2nd - 20
3rd - 16
4th - 13
5th - 11
6th - 10
7th - 9
8th - 8
9th - 7
10th - 6
11th - 5
12th - 4
13th - 3
14th - 2
15th - 1
16th-20th - 0 points

Note: this is the same scoring method as used in the Full Season.

-----------
9.2.2 RALLY
-----------

Scoring: The time it takes to finish each race will be added together. The
winner is whoever has the lowest total time at the end of the
circuit.

This custom circuit is the hardest type of competition in the game because Rally
emphasizes consistency over occasional brilliance. All of your errors become
glaringly obvious when you race in Rally mode, because every single mistake
hurts you. This isn't true in Championship mode or Full Season because the
point system tends to smooth over big mistakes and reward close calls. This
isn't true in Rally. Here are some examples:

- Let's suppose that you win a race by the narrowest of margins: 0.1
seconds. In Championship mode, you receive 25 points for first place
while your competitor receives only 20 points for second place. A
tenth of a second can make a big difference. If this were Rally mode,
however, all you've managed to do is pull out a tiny margin on your
opponent.

- Assume that you have started doing very badly on a particular track,
Nightmare, for example, and you've fallen off the track a few times
and lost a minute of time. In Championship mode, you're hurt because
you receive zero points. But in Rally, you're hurt even more because
a minute is a huge amount of time to try to make up when much of the
competition is measured in seconds.

If you were to win the first nine tracks and then have the above
example happen to you in Championship mode, you would still come off
the winner, because you would have acquired 225 points from the wins
and no other competitor could have scored more than 205 (nine second-
place finishes and one win).

If you were to win the first nine tracks and then have the above
example happen to you in Rally mode, however, you would likely lose
and might even end up out of the first column (out of the top seven).

From the above examples, it's clear that Rally is much tougher than
Championship. If you really want to test how good you are, Rally is the place
to do it.

For the ultimate Jet Moto test, try this: Turn off your turbos and grapples
(which also turns off everybody else's), then race ten tracks on Rally. This is
the most difficult thing in the game to win, because you lose the cushioning
effect of the Championship scoring method as well as the fallback assistance of
your turbos. Try it.

-----------------
9.2.3 ELIMINATION
-----------------

Scoring: After each race the losers are eliminated, narrowing the field until
only a few riders remain for the final race. The winner of the
circuit is whoever finishes first in the final race.

This is an interesting little challenge, with the side effect of unintentionally
preparing you for the next two games in the series (which I'm sure was
unintended). You have to, basically, make the cut every race, which starts out
pretty easy but progressively gets more and more difficult.

Below is the elimination schedule:

Race Riders remaining
---- ----------------
1st - 15
2nd - 12
3rd - 10
4th - 8
5th - 7
6th - 6
7th - 5
8th - 4
9th - 3
10th - 3

Things get a little tense when you get up to the last race, especially if you've
left the normal track order in place and you're racing Nightmare and you're up
against Technician and Wild Ride.

----------------
9.3 FULL SEASON
----------------

A Championship Circuit raced in a predetermined order using all the available
tracks.

To win a season, simply finish first in points at the end of the season. The
scoring method is as follows:

1st - 25 points
2nd - 20
3rd - 16
4th - 13
5th - 11
6th - 10
7th - 9
8th - 8
9th - 7
10th - 6
11th - 5
12th - 4
13th - 3
14th - 2
15th - 1
16th-20th - 0 points

You'll notice that this is the same scoring method as is used in the
Championship scoring in the Custom Circuit.

This is the mode you'll spend the most time in because this is where you have to
come to unlock all the tracks, to unlock the Stunt Mode, and to get all of the
special codes. Well, unless you cheat. But where's the fun in that?

To unlock additional tracks, you have to win a season at the highest difficulty
level currently available. There are ten tracks total.

NOTE: It is not necessary to actually win on every track in order to progress
through the season; you can finish dead last every race and still be able to
finish the season (a welcome change from many racing games). It is also not
necessary to win on every track in order to win the season. In fact, it's
possible to win a season without winning on any tracks.

To unlock Stunt Mode, you have to win a season at the Professional difficulty
level. To access all of the secret codes, you have to win a season at the
Professional difficulty level with two riders from each team (which will unlock
eight of the codes) and then win again with any rider from any team (which will
unlock the final code).

IMPORTANT: Once you unlock any special feature, you must save your game to a
Memory Card and then reload it when you play again.

-------------
9.4 PRACTICE
-------------

Any track, all by yourself.



========================
10.0 TRACKS
========================

There are a total of ten tracks in Jet Moto, divided into four classes of
difficulty. In the game, though, they aren't referred to in this way. Instead,
at the track wheel each track is designated with a symbol designed to indicate
its difficulty. Either way, here are the four classes and their symbol
designations:

Amateur - Green Circle
Intermediate - Blue Square
Professional - Black Diamond
Master - Double Black Diamonds

This section will discuss all of the tracks in the game, offering suggestions
for improving your times on each track and thereby improving your chances of
winning. Before doing that, however, I want to expand on the concept of
unlocking the tracks.

---------------------------
10.0.1 UNLOCKING THE TRACKS
---------------------------

At the start of the game, you have access to only three tracks, the Amateur
tracks. These tracks are raced in the following order in a Full Season:

Joyride
Blackwater Falls
Suicide Swamp

By finishing in first place for the season on these three tracks, you gain
access to the Intermediate tracks. An Intermediate-difficulty Full Season is
raced as follows:

Joyride
* Cliffdiver
* Hammerhead
* Cypress Run
Blackwater Falls
Suicide Swamp
* Ice Crusher

In order to unlock the next set of tracks, you must win a season on Intermediate
difficulty on these seven tracks. If you do so, you get two more tracks, and
these nine tracks are raced in the following order:

Joyride
Cliffdiver
Hammerhead
Cypress Run
Blackwater Falls
Suicide Swamp
* Willpower
Ice Crusher
* Snow Blind

If you can win on these nine tracks on Professional difficulty, you will gain
access to the final track, Nightmare, which is raced as the last track in a
season.

Some comments on the tracks in general:

- There is a definite pattern in the way the season is run. The tracks
are organized in a themed way, i.e., all three island tracks are raced
first, followed by the three swamp tracks, and then the three alpine
tracks. Further, the last race in each group of three is always a
suicide course, a course that has you doubling back on yourself and
racing head-on into the pack.

- Though the difficulty level at which each track is opened is generally
indicative of its difficulty, this doesn't hold true on every
occasion. For example, Hammerhead is one of the easiest tracks in the
game and, in my opinion, should have been substituted for Suicide
Swamp as an Amateur track. On the other hand, Ice Crusher is one of
the toughest in the game and could easily have been swapped for Snow
Blind. The relative difficulty of the tracks, though, is discussed
later.

------------------
10.0.2 CHECKPOINTS
------------------

Each track in the game is divided up into a series of checkpoints. Some tracks
have only a few; some have a dozen or more. There are three primary purposes
for the checkpoints:

- The checkpoints serve as a way of checking three things about your
status in the race: your position, your time, and the amount of
distance between you and the leader. It is only at the checkpoints
that you are given your race position and your lapse time, so by
keeping an eye on these items, you can get an idea of which parts of
the track you excel at.

- A more important use of the checkpoints comes into play in the last
four tracks. The alpine tracks all take place on a mountainside (or
glacierside), whereas Nightmare is suspended in mid-air. Each of
these courses offers you the distinct possibility of actually falling
off the course, especially Ice Crusher and Nightmare. Instead of
receiving a DNF (did not finish) rating, though, the game simply
places you back on the track at the last checkpoint you passed.

- It is essential that you pass each checkpoint. It is not necessarily
crucial that you actually go _through_ the checkpoint; being in the
general vicinity of the marker is usually enough. It's even possible
to pass a checkpoint while falling off a cliff. Interesting, but
true.

The reason not to skip any checkpoints is that a lap is not considered
complete until each checkpoint has been passed. If you somehow manage
to circumvent a checkpoint, perhaps by means of a shortcut, you will
have to either retrace your path or go all the way around the track
again before your lap will register. It should be noted that for the
most part it's very difficult to actually miss checkpoints. The
easiest places to do this are on Willpower, Nightmare, and suicide
courses, though even then it takes some effort to accomplish.

------------------
10.0.3 SUBSECTIONS
------------------

Contained in this portion is an explanation of the remainder of section 10.0.
Each track is assigned its own section. Joyride, for example, is section 10.1.
Within each section are several subsections. Their purposes are described
below.

subsection 1 Course Statistics - contains technical data on each of the
tracks in the following categories:
- best times
[all best times are derived with:
3 laps, Grapples ON, Turbos ON,
Stunt Race OFF, and NO codes used]
- general length
[very short, short,
moderate, long, very long]
- relative technical difficulty
- relative AI difficulty
[the above two categories are ranked:
very easy, easy, moderate, hard, very hard]
subsection 2 Description - the blurb as contained on the track loading
screen
subsection 3 Layout - a general walkthrough of the pitfalls and
challenges of each track
subsection 4 Racing Line - the optimum path to take for the best time,
as well as suggestions and strategies for
mastering the course
subsection 5 Turbos - the best portions of each track on which to use
your allocation of four turbo boosts
subsection 6 Competition - what you'll have to face from the computer
and which computer racers tend to do well on each
particular track
subsection 7 Simulated Season - the times for each of the twenty riders
from my simulated season, enabling a clear
picture of which bikes are best on which tracks,
along with the standings for the racers (both
points and rally scoring systems are included)
and the standings for the teams


-------------
10.1 JOYRIDE
-------------

------------------------
10.1.1 COURSE STATISTICS
------------------------

Top 5 Times
-----------
1 3.11.9 Bomber
2 3.13.1 Shannara
3 3.13.4 Bomber
4 3.14.0 Rhino
5 3.14.6 Stone

Length - moderate
Technical Difficulty - very easy
AI Difficulty - easy

------------------
10.1.2 DESCRIPTION
------------------

A wide-open run. If you get turned around, keep the red buoys on your right.
The secret to winning is not necessarily the shortest path, but the rhythm of
the waves.

-------------
10.1.3 LAYOUT
-------------

After the start, you'll head under the resort through a tunnel before dropping
off the back and heading for a stretch of sand dunes. Following that is a
technical section of three grapple-assisted turns (Turns 1-3). After Turn 3,
it's an open stretch across the water, over or past a ramp, along some sand
bars, through checkpoint 5, then across two sections of broken freeway before
returning to the resort.

------------------
10.1.4 RACING LINE
------------------

After the start, move to the left in the opening tunnel and try to exit on the
extreme righthand side, pointing to the right side of the dunes.

Stay to the right of the sand dunes; jumping them may be fun, but keeping your
bike on a flat surface is the best way to keep your speed up.

TURNS 1-3
{Turn 1} Try to stay relatively close to the right side of the checkpoint,
since the turn is to the right, and use your grapple.
{Turn 2} Stay very close to the left, by the grapple, and use your grapple. A
nice trick to use in order to keep your speed is to use the waves while turning.
The waves will be going right to left as you race between Turns 1 and 2; if you
can let a wave "push" you through the turn, you can save a couple of seconds, as
opposed to trying to jump the wave while grappling, which will slow you down for
sure.
{Turn 3} Shoot for the center of the righthand portion and grapple around the
turn.

Pull your nose up when hopping waves. If you can get enough air, sometimes you
can jump fewer waves when approaching land.

Go to the left side of the ramp. The ramp is fun, but you lose speed when you
land and you lose a lot of speed if you smash into one of the trees.

Ride the sand bars on the left side of the course. The sand bars will help you
keep your speed up more than hopping the waves will.

Stay on the broken freeway, as opposed to the water on either side. It's not
perfectly level, but it's better than the waves. Each of the two sections of
freeway is broken into five sections. When going onto the third one (the
highest one), stay to the left side in order to avoid the large lip on the right
side.

-------------
10.1.5 TURBOS
-------------

Best places to turbo:
at the start (lap 1 only)
* along sand dunes [*(alternate)]
after Turn 1
after Turn 2
after Turn 3
through the final tunnel

It's usually a good idea to wait for a split second before turboing at the start
of the race, in order to keep you out of the pack.

Even though it's in a relatively small section of the track, it's best to turbo
after each of the three turns since those are the only places on the track that
you really have to slow down. Further, turboing on any of the open stretches of
water is really a waste, since the waves force you to spend so much of your time
in the air.

When turboing after Turn 2, the lefthander (which is the toughest turn, by far,
on this track), watch for the "edges" of the waves on the right side. If you
plow into one of these, you can be thrown from your bike quite easily. This is
the most important place to turbo on the track.

Using a turbo at the end of the lap is good because it lends a sense of routine
to the laps, using your turbos at the same place every lap. It's also one of
the few flat spots on the track. Another possibility is the edge of the sand
dunes, before Turn 1, but I prefer to hold onto one turbo until the end of the
lap, in case something goes awry. NOTE: make sure you don't wait until you get
close to the finish line to use your turbo on the last lap, as this will waste
it.

------------------
10.1.6 COMPETITION
------------------

Top CPU finisher: 3.21-3.24
Field: 15-25 seconds
Best CPU racer: Technician

For the most part, the blurb on the loading screen accurately describes this
track: a wide open run. You won't have to worry about running into computer
racers too often, due to the wide track. The danger areas are around the three
turns, since getting nudged while turning is an excellent way to get thrown from
your bike.

Technician is your biggest threat here. Over the course of ten recorded
seasons, the computer won on this track five times (I was using a variety of
riders, mostly from out of the top seven, so as not to distort the ratings). Of
those five wins, Technician had four; Wild Ride had the other.

The field will cover about 15 to 25 seconds; in other words, from the computer
racer that places highest to the computer racer that places furthest back is a
time of 15-25 seconds, leaving plenty of wiggle room in case you make some
mistakes.

-----------------------
10.1.7 SIMULATED SEASON
-----------------------
----------------
10.1.7.1 RESULTS
----------------

Pos. Rider Time Spills
---- ------------ ------ ------
1. Shannara 3.13.1 0
2. Bomber 3.13.4 0
3. Rhino 3.14.0 0
4. Stone 3.14.6 0
5. Blackjack 3.15.6 0
6. Arroyo 3.16.5 0
7. Shirow 3.16.6 0
8. Miko 3.17.0 0
9. Harris 3.17.3 0
Mace 3.17.3 0
11. Masala 3.19.5 1
12. Irons 3.20.1 1
13. Dakota 3.21.8 0
14. Chien 3.24.0 1
15. The Max 3.25.0 0
16. Wild Ride 3.25.1 0
17. Gunner 3.26.1 0
18. Quick Jessie 3.26.7 0
19. Technician 3.27.4 1
20. Tetsujin 3.30.7 0

Average number of spills: 0.2

Without a doubt, the bikes to use here are the heavier ones. Not a single light
bike managed to break the top seven and both of the high-scoring light bikes
(Miko and Harris) have very low lift (4 and 2, respectively).

The question is: Why did the light bikes perform so poorly here? Well, the
biggest obstacles on this track are the waves. Since the lighter bikes usually
with higher lift ratings, when they hit these waves they pop into the air, just
like they're supposed to. This is the clearest proof that it's important to
keep your bike on the ground whenever possible.

The incredibly good performance of the heavy bikes is the inverse of this
principle. One and all, the heavy bikes have low lift ratings. Because of
this, the waves barely caused a bobble for them; they basically plowed right
through them. This had the effect of turning the whole water section into a
modified straightaway, and there's no doubting that the heavy bikes naturally
have a higher straightline speed. Couple that with the fact that there are a
small number of turns and you have a winning combination. (Well, almost;
Shannara won, after all.)

Masala and Irons both placed out of the top ten, despite being on midrange
bikes. If I hadn't spilled with each of them, though, we can be sure that they
would have finished in or near the top five instead.

Comparing these times to the best times that the computer can post, we can see
that if you're riding a medium or heavy bike, you own this track; you should be
able to dust off competitors by several seconds. If you've decided to race with
the best bike in the game (Wild Ride/Gunner), you'll probably have to resign
yourself to the fact that you won't win this one. It's still possible, of
course; just bump the leaders out of the way when you get the chance.

------------------------
10.1.7.2 RIDER STANDINGS
------------------------

Championship
------------------
1. Shannara 25
2. Bomber 20
3. Rhino 16
4. Stone 13
5. Blackjack 11
6. Arroyo 10
7. Shirow 9
8. Miko 8
9. Harris 7
Mace 7
11. Masala 5
12. Irons 4
13. Dakota 3
14. Chien 2
15. The Max 1
16. Wild Ride 0
Gunner 0
Quick Jessie 0
Technician 0
Tetsujin 0

In scoring the second-best race time ever, Shannara grabs the first victory of
the season and twenty-five points. Bomber, only three-tenths of a second back
takes second and Rhino, seven-tenths of a second out of first, takes the third
spot on the podium.

Unfortunate spills for Masala and Irons seriously handicap them both on this
medium-favorite track; both of them surely wanted to walk away with double-digit
points for this race.

At the bottom, The Max narrowly edged Wild Ride for fifteenth place and the
final point, beating her by only a tenth of a second.

-----------------------
10.1.7.3 TEAM STANDINGS
-----------------------

Championship Rally
------------------ -----------------------
1. Butterfinger 58 1. Butterfinger 16.20.7
2. Mountain Dew 40 2. Mountain Dew -16.4
3. Axiom 33 3. Axiom -21.6
4. K2 10 4. K2 -38.4


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

----------------
10.2 CLIFFDIVER
----------------

------------------------
10.2.1 COURSE STATISTICS
------------------------

Top 5 Times
-----------
1. 2.30.2 Wild Ride
2. 2.31.1 Gunner
3. 2.32.3 Shirow
4. 2.32.4 Wild Ride
5. 2.32.9 Dakota

Length - short
Technical Difficulty - very hard
AI Difficulty - very hard

------------------
10.2.2 DESCRIPTION
------------------

This is a winding, treacherous course, arguably one of the toughest on the
circuit. Use the grapple posts provided to take on the nasty switchbacks and
passing areas.

-------------
10.2.3 LAYOUT
-------------

The start shoots you onto a dirt track, which you follow through a series of
turns. You'll pass Gem Bay on your right shortly before entering one of the
most difficult segments in the game: the switchbacks. The switchbacks consist
of five tight, uphill turns in opposite directions. Following the switchbacks,
you'll head downhill through Turns 11 and 12, through checkpoint 5, then start
heading back uphill, ultimately reaching the Lookout. Turn 16, the cliff, will
drop you back down to the water, where you must dodge some rocks before crossing
the finish line.

------------------
10.2.4 RACING LINE
------------------

Welcome to the most difficult track in Jet Moto.

You'll need to rely heavily on your shoulder buttons throughout this track just
to keep your bike upright.

Follow the dirt road until you get to Gem Bay, making sure you don't run too
close to the edge of the track--the signs have the ability to throw you from
your bike.

Cut through Gem Bay. This will be one of the few opportunities to go straight
on this track, if only for a short while.

SWITCHBACKS
You'll find few segments of this game that will challenge your ability as
much as this.
Each of the five turns in the switchbacks goes the opposite direction of the
one before it. Fortunately, each of the turns also comes equipped with a
grapple post. Due to the proximity of the turns to each other, though, if you
grapple too heavily around the first couple of turns, you'll run out of energy
before you reach the end.
To avoid this problem, it will probably be necessary to brake or at the very
least lift off the acceleration.
With the lighter bikes, it's possible to take the turns at reduced speed
without using the grapples; with somebody like Chien or Miko, you may not even
have to reduce speed much.
With the heavier bikes, you're going to have problems. The grapples will
help, but due to the stable nature of the bikes, if you start leaning to one
side, it's very hard to correct before reaching the next turn. For this reason,
it's important to go through these turns as slowly as you can. Even going slow
is better than crashing into walls repeatedly. Keep in mind, too, that the
heavy bikes all have high accelerations, making it very easy to lose control
quickly.

Turn 10, the last of the switchbacks, goes to the right. It's good to have
grapple energy available here, because if you grapple around the turn, aim
yourself correctly, and turbo you can totally vault over Turns 11 and 12. The
computer racers will pass you on the switchbacks; you can pass some of them back
with this little maneuver.

When you reach the Lookout (there's a little sign on the side of the track
telling you that you've done so), try to be positioned on the right side of the
track. Then hard turn left off the cliff. This will drop you along the left
side of the track when you reach the water, avoiding all of the rocks that
populate the middle and right side of the track.

-------------
10.2.5 TURBOS
-------------

at the start of the race (lap 1 only)
* through Gem Bay
after the switchbacks
after the cliff
again in the water before the finish

The opening turbo again serves you in good stead here, even more so since you'll
be going straight for awhile. It's good to start your second and third laps
with a turbo, too, by using your fourth turbo from the previous lap.

It's important to turbo after the switchbacks, because cutting out Turns 11 and
12 will not only save you time, but also catch you up to the other racers.

It's crucial to turbo after dropping off the cliff since the long fall into the
water will kill your momentum.

The fourth turbo is somewhat problematic, since there are so few places to use
it. Going through Gem Bay with a turbo is a good alternative, though it has the
downside of rocketing you into the switchbacks. If you think you can take the
first switchback on a turbo, this is a good place to use it. Otherwise, you
might as well use it on the homestretch (especially on the last lap), since
going through water always slows you down.

------------------
10.2.6 COMPETITION
------------------

Top CPU finisher: 2.33-2.34
Field: 20-25 seconds
Best CPU racer: Dakota

I'll say it again: Cliffdiver is the hardest track in the game. Some may
disagree with me on that, and I'll admit that Nightmare gives it a run for its
money. But the fact is that it's a lot harder to run this track cleanly,
without messing up, and the competition is harsh. I honestly don't know why
this is considered an Intermediate track; the only thing that you have going for
you is the inability to fall of the edge of the track.

As if the track itself wasn't hard enough, you'll keep getting rearended by
computer racers. They'll bump you on the dirt road at the start; they'll mess
up your line through the switchbacks; and they'll get in your way at just about
every other point on the track. It's very difficult to pad any kind of lead on
this track, especially because of Dakota.

If ever there was a track that a computer racer has aced, it's this one. You
can bank on the fact that Dakota will win this track if you don't. Over my ten
recorded seasons, Dakota won this track every single time--ten out of ten. I
wasn't able to beat her. You have to be at your best to win this track against
Dakota.


-----------------------
10.2.7 SIMULATED SEASON
-----------------------
----------------
10.2.7.1 RESULTS
----------------


Pos. Rider Time Spills
---- ------------ ------ ------
1. Wild Ride 2.32.4 1
2. Dakota 2.32.9 0
3. Irons 2.35.5 1
4. Masala 2.36.9 0
5. Chien 2.37.2 2
6. Tetsujin 2.37.8 1
7. Quick Jessie 2.38.5 2
8. Gunner 2.39.3 4
9. Rhino 2.40.5 2
10. Technician 2.40.6 2
11. Harris 2.41.6 2
12. Miko 2.42.4 3
13. Arroyo 2.45.9 0
14. Shannara 2.47.1 2
15. Stone 2.47.4 0
16. Shirow 2.47.8 3
17. Blackjack 2.49.9 1
18. Mace 2.50.7 1
19. The Max 2.52.6 5
20. Bomber 2.56.1 1

Average number of spills: 1.65

The light bikes get their revenge. After getting pasted on Joyride, the order
is nearly inverted here, with the heavy bikes all finishing on the bottom. Only
a poor performance by The Max keeps the light bikes casts a shadow on the
overall performance of the light bikes.

It's worth noting, too, that Dakota and Chien finished second and fifth--both of
them have the supertight handling (a ten rating) and good lift (7), which is
obviously a good combination on this track.

Interestingly, Wild Ride managed the best time despite a spill and Gunner
finished only seven seconds back after falling off his bike four times. You
have to wonder how good their times could have been if they'd run perfect races.

Obviously, it's almost certain death to bring a heavy bike into this track. The
heavy bikes took up four of the bottom six positions and none of them got any
closer than Stone, who finished fifteen seconds back of first despite no spills.
The problem is clearly evident. The switchbacks are the primary killers of the
heavy bike, but all of the dirt road around the course winds back and forth,
especially on the run up to the Lookout. The lesson? If you choose a heavy
bike, prepare to run near the bottom.

As noted above, you'll really have to be on your toes to take this race away
from Dakota. She is very consistent with her times on this track. In the last
section, I gave for her typical finish a time of 2.33 or 2.34. The fact is,
though, that I've seen her push 2.30; if she does that, you don't have much
hope. In this simulated season, I only bested her average time with my top two
racers--and one of them was Dakota. To win this track, she would be your best
pick, because she not only performs well, but you also eliminate your stiffest
competition.

------------------------
10.2.7.2 RIDER STANDINGS
------------------------

Championship Rally
-------------------- -------------------------
1 1 Shannara 27 3 1 Rhino 5.54.5
16 2 Wild Ride 25 13 2 Dakota 5.54.7
3 3 Rhino 23 12 3 Irons 5.55.6
13 Dakota 23 11 4 Masala 5.56.4
2 5 Bomber 20 16 5 Wild Ride 5.57.5
12 Irons 20 9 6 Harris 5.58.9
11 7 Masala 18 8 7 Miko 5.59.4
4 8 Stone 14 1 8 Shannara 6.00.2
6 9 Arroyo 13 14 9 Chien 6.01.2
14 Chien 13 4 10 Stone 6.02.0
8 11 Miko 12 6 11 Arroyo 6.02.4
9 Harris 12 7 12 Shirow 6.04.4
5 13 Blackjack 11 18 13 Quick Jessie 6.05.2
16 14 Tetsujin 10 17 14 Gunner 6.05.4
7 15 Shirow 9 5 15 Blackjack 6.05.5
16 Quick Jessie 9 9 16 Mace 6.08.0
16 17 Gunner 8 19 Technician 6.08.0
9 18 Mace 7 20 18 Tetsujin 6.08.5
16 19 Technician 6 2 19 Bomber 6.09.5
15 20 The Max 1 15 20 The Max 6.17.6

The second race of the season accomplished its purpose: evening out the playing
field. As Joyride plays to the strengths of the heavy bike, so Cliffdiver plays
to the strengths of the light bike, with corresponding results in the standings.

The biggest winner in this race was actually the winner--Wild Ride, who picked
up fourteen places in the championship (points) standings and eleven in the
rally. Most others moved around a little bit, balancing out their performance
in the previous race, with a couple of notable exceptions.

Bomber, who placed second in the first race of the season but twentieth here,
takes a nosedive in the rally. She actually would be further back but for two
consecutive poor showings from the old master of the circuit, The Max, who now
ranks at the bottom in both standings.

Interestingly enough, the spread from first to nineteenth in the rally(excluding
The Max) is fifteen seconds, which is actually down a couple of seconds from the
standings after one race. This is further testament to the power of Cliffdiver
as the Great Equalizer.

Don't worry, kids. It only gets easier after this.

-----------------------
10.2.7.3 TEAM STANDINGS
-----------------------

Championship Rally
-------------------- -----------------------
2 1 Mountain Dew 107 2 1 Mountain Dew 29.47.4
1 2 Butterfinger 81 1 2 Butterfinger -23.4
3 3 Axiom 50 3 3 Axiom -40.4
4 4 K2 43 4 4 K2 -41.7


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

----------------
10.3 HAMMERHEAD
----------------

------------------------
10.3.1 COURSE STATISTICS
------------------------

Top 5 Times
-----------
1. 1.27.8 Arroyo
2. 1.28.1 Shannara
3. 1.28.3 Wild Ride
4. 1.29.0 Mace
5. 1.29.2 Chien

Length - very short
Technical Difficulty - very easy
AI Difficulty - very easy

------------------
10.3.2 DESCRIPTION
------------------

This suicide course can be confusing due to the multiple routes across the
bridges and water. Just be careful at the turns--that's where Jet Moto racers
are likely to collide!

-------------
10.3.3 LAYOUT
-------------

You start on top of a broken bridge and rocket toward the edge of it. You have
the option of going down a ramp (on the left side) or going off the edge (to the
right). You'll go around another bridge segment, then head into Turn 2--the
first suicide turn of the circuit.

At this point, you can head up the section of bridge you just dodged and take
the bridge, or stay on the water. If you stay on the water, you can take either
the left side of the bridge or the right, passing another onramp to the bridge
(the one you used or passed at the start). After recrossing the start, the
bridge breaks off again, forcing you to take to the water around Turn 4--the
second suicide turn.

Again, you have the option of hopping onto a broken section of bridge or keeping
to the water, with another onramp to the bridge available closer to the finish
line. Shortly after that, you'll cross the finish.

------------------
10.3.4 RACING LINE
------------------

As a fitting rejoinder to Cliffdiver, this is the easiest track in the game.

After the start, duck down the first ramp, to the left (watch your head), and
stay to the left side of the track to the suicide turn.

Grapple the suicide turn (always).

Stay on the left of the first broken bridge segment, then switch to the right
side as you go toward the main part of the bridge (watch your head).

Stay on the water. Do not use the bridge. Ever.

Stay along the right side of the course and take the suicide turn from the
right.

Recross the track to the left. It's best to cross the section of highway if
you've taken the suicide turn tight enough. Otherwise, go around the back of
the first broken section.

Stay on the water.

Stay on the left side of the bridge as you cross the finish line.

-------------
10.3.5 TURBOS
-------------

at the start (lap 1 only)
after first suicide turn (Turn 2)
as you recross start/finish line (laps 2 and 3)
after second suicide turn (Turn 4)
heading for finish line

Since you really only have two turns in this track where you'll lose any speed
(the suicide turns), it's common sense to burn two of your turbos there.

I've made some suggestions for where to use the other two, but really anywhere
on the water where you're going straight for awhile is good. It's best to use
them on the water, though, because like in Joyride there are waves to contend
with, and they get very choppy around the second suicide turn, so it's good to
have a head of steam as you head that way.

------------------
10.3.6 COMPETITION
------------------

Top CPU finisher: 1.37-1.40
Field: 15-20 seconds
Best CPU racer: Tetsujin

Nearly the mirror image of the preceding track, the first of the three suicide
track carries the honor of being the easiest track in the game to win.
Primarily this is because the programmers decided to send the pack across the
bridge after the suicide turns instead of the quick way: across the water. If
you stay on the water, the only thing you need worry about after about half a
lap is running head-on into somebody.

I can only give a hazy idea of which racer is the best for the computer due to
the fact that I win on this track so often. Over my ten recorded seasons, I
only lost on this track twice, the fewest of any track. Once I lost to The Max;
the other time I lost to Tetsujin. However, Tetsujin will more consistently
rank near the top, though Technician is always lurking in the background to take
a high position.

-----------------------
10.3.7 SIMULATED SEASON
-----------------------

----------------
10.3.7.1 RESULTS
----------------

Pos. Rider Time Spills
---- ------------ ------ ------
1. Arroyo 1.27.8 0
2. Shannara 1.28.1 0
3. Mace 1.29.0 0
4. Chien 1.29.2 0
5. Miko 1.29.4 0
6. Harris 1.29.5 0
7. Bomber 1.30.6 0
8. The Max 1.30.7 0
9. Gunner 1.31.5 0
Technician 1.31.5 0
11. Wild Ride 1.31.7 1
12. Dakota 1.32.4 0
13. Blackjack 1.32.7 0
14. Tetsujin 1.33.0 0
15. Masala 1.34.2 1
16. Irons 1.34.4 0
17. Stone 1.34.9 0
18. Shirow 1.36.2 1
19. Quick Jessie 1.37.3 0
20. Rhino 1.38.0 2

Average number of spills: 0.25

There's a bit of a mixed bag here, but we can still glean some important details
about which bikes are best on this track.

A certain advantage has to go to the heavier bikes, since three of them took the
podium. However, that clearly doesn't hold true across the board since most of
the rest of them filled in the back half of the field.

The light bikes fill in the middle of the field (except for Quick Jessie, who
finished in nineteenth--seven spots back of the next lowest light bike). A
clear advantage has to go to the light bikes with the 10 in handling, though:
three of the four filled in the spots behind the podium, with a bad race from
Dakota being the only exception.

Interestingly, all it takes is a slight mistake here or missing the apex of a
turn there to slide you back several spots. Only about ten seconds covers the
entire field, which you'd expect for the shortest and easiest race in the game.
If you take out the bottom three finishers, though, you're left with a spread of
only 7.1 seconds. Just over seven seconds marks the difference between winning
and scoring 25 points and finishing seventeenth and scoring none.

A large anomaly is also present in this race, which might lend a certain skew to
the overall results. The bikes that Arroyo and Shirow ride have the same
properties, yet Arroyo finished in first, 8.2 seconds over Shirow, who placed
eighteenth. The time discrepancy may not be a big factor, but the points
discrepancy certainly is. Something to keep in mind.

Comparing my times here to the typical CPU times gives further evidence of the
ease of competition on this track. On the average, any of the twenty riders in
my simulated season would capture the trophy against a field of computer racers.

------------------------
10.3.7.2 RIDER STANDINGS
------------------------

Championship Rally
-------------------- -------------------------
1 1 Shannara [1] 47 2 1 Dakota 7.27.1
9 2 Arroyo [1] 38 8 2 Shannara [1] 7.28.3
2 3 Wild Ride[1] 30 6 3 Harris 7.28.4
5 4 Bomber 29 7 4 Miko 7.28.8
3 5 Dakota 27 5 5 Wild Ride[1] 7.29.2
9 6 Chien 26 3 6 Irons 7.30.0
3 7 Rhino 23 11 7 Arroyo [1] 7.30.2
11 Miko 23 9 8 Chien 7.30.4
18 Mace 23 4 9 Masala 7.30.6
11 10 Harris 22 1 10 Rhino 7.32.5
5 11 Irons 20 10 11 Stone 7.36.9
7 12 Masala 19 14 Gunner 7.36.9
17 13 Gunner 15 16 13 Mace 7.37.0
8 14 Stone 14 15 14 Blackjack 7.38.2
13 Blackjack 14 16 15 Technician 7.39.5
19 16 Technician 13 19 16 Bomber 7.40.1
14 17 Tetsujin 12 12 17 Shirow 7.40.6
15 18 Shirow 9 18 18 Tetsujin 7.41.5
15 Quick Jessie 9 13 19 Quick Jessie 7.42.5
20 The Max 9 20 20 The Max 7.48.3

As promised, it has gotten easier. Hammerhead always produces a tight race, and
yet it still managed to have profound effects on the rider standings.

In the points, Shannara maintains and lengthens her lead, while Arroyo's win
vaults him up the standings to within nine points of the leader, which is the
same distance that separates fourth from eleventh. At the back is a three-way
tie for last (eighteenth), with The Max finally making a relatively strong
showing, picking up eight points this race.

Over in the rally--the top finishers from the last race each performed poorly
here, leaving the field wide open. Despite a twelfth place finish in the race,
Dakota nabs first place and holds it by 1.2 seconds--the widest margin yet this
season. The top ten remains tight, but the leader after the last race--Rhino--
has plummeted nine spots with a poor finish on Hammerhead. The field has opened
somewhat, from 17.1 seconds last race to 21.2 seconds now. (Just think how tight
it would be if The Max could get his act in gear!)

We leave behind the island leg of the season now with the races in both
championships wide open. On to the swamp!

-----------------------
10.3.7.3 TEAM STANDINGS
-----------------------

Championship Rally
-------------------- -----------------------
1 1 Mountain Dew 148 1 1 Mountain Dew 37.23.4
2 2 Butterfinger 133 2 2 Butterfinger -27.0
4 3 K2 81 4 3 K2 -43.1
3 4 Axiom 60 3 4 Axiom -52.7


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

-----------------
10.4 CYPRESS RUN
-----------------

------------------------
10.4.1 COURSE STATISTICS
------------------------

Top 5 Times
-----------
1. 3.05.7 Masala
2. 3.07.6 Wild Ride
3. 3.09.1 Masala
4. 3.09.3 Irons
5. 3.10.0 Irons

Length - moderate
Technical Difficulty - hard
AI Difficulty - moderate

------------------
10.4.2 DESCRIPTION
------------------

Cypress Run, a congested nightmare, is full of innumerable obstacles within
backwater swamps. If the thick reeds in the serpentine cut can't slow you down,
the trees and stumps will.

-------------
10.4.3 LAYOUT
-------------

Following the start, you'll be on a dirt road with a couple of lazy turns.
There will then be two ramps and the first checkpoint before you hit the open
water. Scattered throughout most of the rest of the track is a profusion of
trees and stumps, seemingly at random. You'll pass by or through a covered
bridge and denser trees before you reach a very long Turn 3.

Turn 3 has three choices of paths to take through the reeds. On the other side
is another tree and stump section, followed by checkpoint 2, three earthen
mounds, and then a relatively clear run to the Serpentine Cut, which is probably
the second-toughest segment of the game. On the other side of the Cut is a
particularly dense section of trees and stumps, followed by a short dirt road
back to the finish.

------------------
10.4.4 RACING LINE
------------------

Cypress Run is widely considered to be the most difficult track in the game. It
can be tricky, though in my experience Cliffdiver and Ice Crusher (and maybe
Nightmare) are more so.

Both here and in the swamp's suicide track, Suicide Swamp, are a proliferation
of trees and stumps. Smack into one of these with a light bike and you are all
but guaranteed to be unseated; heavy bikes are nearly immune to these obstacles.

The first two turns present little difficulty. Try to get near the front of the
pack as you head for the water.

Jump the left ramp. The right one will probably smash you into the checkpoint,
while dodging the ramps will usually end up throwing you if you judge it
slightly wrong.

Veer left around a reversed ramp sitting in the middle of the track, then veer
back to the center to go through the covered bridge, which has a little section
of road on the far end of it. If you have trouble with this, then stay on the
water to the right of the bridge.

After the bridge, veer generally to the right. There's something of a path
through the trees there, with the added benefit of being on the inside portion
of the track.

TURN 3
This is an extremely long righthander with three options.
-The left route is the easiest, certainly. It not only is devoid of
obstacles, but it's also the widest path. The downside is that it's definitely
longer than the other two and leaves you rejoining the track at an inopportune
position--away from the next turn.
-The center route is also easy since it has no obstacles in it, though the
path is slightly narrower than the leftmost route. It is shorter, however,
though it too leaves you in a less than ideal track position.
-The right route is the best to take, though it's also the hardest. It's the
only one of the three that isn't a gentle righthand curve; it consists of a
right, a left, then another right, all of which are fairly tight. The
advantages are that it's the shortest route and that it leaves you pointed
almost directly at the next checkpoint along the best route through the next
batch of stumps.
I advise taking the right path.

There are two entrances to the Serpentine Cut. One is straight ahead of the
three earthen mounds; the other comes in from the right side. The first option
is quicker and more direct; the second option is easier. As always, quicker is
better, so go straight.

SERPENTINE CUT
This section is reminiscent of the switchbacks from Cliffdiver, though not
quite as hard. There are several reasons for this:
-the water offers a little more resistance, making it harder to lose control
-the track is flat, rather than having a steep, uphill grade
-there are fewer turns (three instead of five)
-there is more space to set up the next turn
-there is more space to make the turns
This doesn't mean that the Cut is easy, however. It does lend itself well to
a little bit of skill, though. By dropping your speed slightly and swinging
wide around the turn, it's not impossible to take these without the aid of the
grapples, though if you choose to grapple, you can grapple every turn
confidently.

The last section of water is packed with trees, stumps, and hedges. The best
routes seems to be to follow the left side of the track as well as possible
until you cross the final checkpoint.

-------------
10.4.5 TURBOS
-------------

start
after Turn 3
over mounds
* after Turn 10
on dirt road after Turn 11

Considering the amount of trees and stumps you have to avoid, there really
aren't a lot of good places to turbo on this track. Certainly it's important to
turbo at the beginning of the race and it's probably a good idea to use one or
two per lap on the dirt track around the start/finish line since that's the only
stretch of ground on this course.

Turn 3 is the long righthander with three routes. Especially if you've chosen
the shorter rightmost route you'll want to burn a turbo. This is because you'll
have shed some speed with the tight turns through the reeds.

The earthen mounds after checkpoint 2 are another good place to use one or two
turbos since they suck so much of your forward momentum away when you jump.
Furthermore, the section of track directly following the mounds is relatively
clear of obstacles, meaning you can vault the mounds with impunity.

Turn 10 is the last bit of the Serpentine Cut. The only reason I offer this as
a possibility is because of the fact that you will have lost some speed going
through the tight turns. The downside to using a turbo here is that this is the
densest portion of the track, as far as obstacles go, and you'll be in a world
of hurt unless you've got a good path through the foliage memorized.


------------------
10.4.6 COMPETITION
------------------

Top CPU finisher: 3.19-3.21
Field: 25-40 seconds
Best CPU racer: Tetsujin/The Max

Generally speaking, the other racers aren't in your way too much here. Every
once in a while somebody will bump into you and slow you down (or on rare
occasions knock you from your bike), but usually there isn't a "pack" in the
typical sense. The reason for this lies in the fact that for about half of the
length of the track, it's so wide as to lessen contact with other racers.

An important note: Despite the fact that my top 5 race times (which range from
3.05-3.10) are so much higher than the average computer finisher, it's not
necessarily easy to win this race. This point will be explored a little more in
the next section, when we take a look at my simulated season times, but those
top 5 times are a result of a lot of practice in a short period of time; I don't
expect to be able to match those ever again.

Six times through ten recorded seasons the computer won on this track, spreading
the wealth among four different riders: The Max (twice), Tetsujin (twice), Quick
Jessie, and Chien. Of those four, Chien seems to be the only real anomaly.
Replace his name with Technician and you have the typical top four finishers on
this track.

-----------------------
10.4.7 SIMULATED SEASON
-----------------------

----------------
10.4.7.1 RESULTS
----------------


Pos. Rider Time Spills
---- ------------ ------ ------
1. Masala 3.05.7 0
2. Irons 3.10.0 0
3. Gunner 3.10.8 1
4. Rhino 3.14.1 3
5. Miko 3.17.0 0
6. Wild Ride 3.17.4 2
7. Shannara 3.18.7 4
8. The Max 3.20.4 1
9. Arroyo 3.24.6 3
10. Mace 3.25.4 1
11. Blackjack 3.25.5 1
12. Chien 3.25.9 2
13. Bomber 3.26.2 0
14. Shirow 3.27.9 5
15. Technician 3.28.4 2
16. Stone 3.29.4 0
17. Tetsujin 3.31.2 2
18. Dakota 3.31.6 3
19. Harris 3.32.1 4
20. Quick Jessie 3.33.6 3

Average number of spills: 1.95

This track will rough you up. Only a quarter of the racers managed to make it
through without getting tossed from their bikes at least once; only one of those
was on a light bike (Miko--who was appropriately rewarded with fifth place).
The most a heavy rider was thrown was once (Mace and Blackjack), whereas a
medium rider was not necessarily shielded (Shirow spilled five times).

Despite that, the track does seem to slightly favor the medium bikes. Running
perfect races, Masala and Irons nabbed the top two spots, with Masala on an
incredible tear. One has to assume that Rhino and Shannara would have been
right there too, had it not been for their spills (three and four,
respectively).

Gunner and Wild Ride also excel here, though for the life of me I can't figure
out why. Their handling is lower than other light bikes, their lift is higher,
and their acceleration is average; so why were they within sight of the win?
Either one of them could have overhauled Irons with a perfect race, though
neither could likely have caught Masala, who was raced perfectly.

Outside of those observations, it appears to be a mixed bag as to which bike is
better. More often than not, it simply came down to whether or not the rider
spilled (repeatedly).

A large spread from first to last again bears out the difficulty of this track
in keeping a consistent time. For once, the racers' times are all bunched
toward the middle and back, with large gaps between racers near the front of the
grid.

A simple comparison with the typical time of the computer racer in first place
will show how difficult it is to beat this track, especially if you've saddled
yourself with the wrong bike. Even with one of the top bikes, though, you'll
have a hard time taking first; like I said before, these times came as a result
of intensive practice in a short period of time.

------------------------
10.4.7.2 RIDER STANDINGS
------------------------

Championship Rally
-------------------- -------------------------
1 1 Shannara [1] 56 4 1 Masala [1] 10.36.3
2 2 Arroyo [1] 45 6 2 Irons - 3.7
12 3 Masala [1] 44 4 3 Miko - 9.5
3 4 Wild Ride[1] 40 5 4 Wild Ride[1] -10.3
11 Irons 40 10 Rhino -10.3
7 6 Rhino 36 2 6 Shannara [1] -10.7
7 7 Miko 34 11 7 Gunner -11.4
4 8 Bomber 32 7 8 Arroyo [1] -18.5
13 9 Gunner 31 8 9 Chien -20.0
6 10 Chien 30 1 10 Dakota -22.4
7 11 Mace 29 3 11 Harris -24.2
5 12 Dakota 27 13 12 Mace -26.1
10 13 Harris 22 14 13 Blackjack -27.4
14 14 Blackjack 19 11 14 Stone -30.0
18 15 The Max 17 16 Bomber -30.0
14 16 Stone 14 15 16 Technician -31.6
16 Technician 14 17 17 Shirow -32.2
17 18 Tetsujin 12 20 18 The Max -32.4
18 19 Shirow 11 18 19 Tetsujin -36.4
18 20 Quick Jessie 9 19 20 Quick Jessie -39.8

In the points, Shannara maintains her hold on the top spot for the fourth
consecutive race, actually extending her lead from nine points to eleven. The
power of a victory is clearly seen here with the top four spots all held by race
winners.

In the rally, the curse of number one continues to hold on. After Cliffdiver,
Shannara dropped from first to eighth (currently sixth); after Hammerhead, Rhino
plummeted from first to tenth (but has rebounded to a tie for fourth); and now
after Cypress Run, Dakota likewise plummets from first to tenth.

Will the same befall our fourth rally leader, Masala? He has opened up the
largest lead yet this season: 3.7 seconds over Irons, who rides an identical
bike. The field has opened considerably due to the difficult nature of this
track, nearly doubling the distance from first place to last, from just over 21
seconds to just under 40. And we'll be watching the top ten closely, as only
two seconds spread from third to seventh.

-----------------------
10.4.7.3 TEAM STANDINGS
-----------------------

Championship Rally
-------------------- ------------------------
1 1 Mountain Dew 198 1 1 Mountain Dew 53.58.1
2 2 Butterfinger 187 2 2 Butterfinger -28.3 [- 1.3]
3 3 K2 109 3 3 K2 -1.11.2 [-29.1]
4 4 Axiom 68 4 4 Axiom -1.40.4 [-43.7]


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

----------------------
10.5 BLACKWATER FALLS
----------------------

------------------------
10.5.1 COURSE STATISTICS
------------------------

Top 5 Times
-----------
1. 2.34.2 Gunner
2. 2.34.5 Masala
3. 2.35.3 Masala
4. 2.36.7 Irons
5. 2.37.3 Rhino

Length - short
Technical Difficulty - easy
AI Difficulty - hard

------------------
10.5.2 DESCRIPTION
------------------

Most of this winding track is inside a quick-moving river. Don't get too
comfortable though--it's not called Blackwater Falls for nothing!

-------------
10.5.3 LAYOUT
-------------

Following the start you'll be on a dirt track for awhile, through three sharp
turns, before hitting the water. Soon after reaching the water, you'll pass an
island, then checkpoint 1. The track narrows through the Marsh Lands, swings
widely around a Plantation House, then narrows again to checkpoint 3, the Drop
Off. Almost immediately after that, you'll head over the Falls and around turn
8.

After the river plunges over the Falls, it moves a lot slower. After a very
long left (Turn 10), you'll head up a dam and cross checkpoint 4. A gentle
right for Turn 11 takes you through some logs and trees before returning you
back to the dirt road for the final two turns and the finish line.

------------------
10.5.4 RACING LINE
------------------

The start will dump you right into a series of three tight turns. Ease off the
acceleration a little bit to make things easier.

When you reach the island before checkpoint 1, go around the left side.

At the Plantation House, you can save several seconds by going through it; just
drive into the front door of the house.

Be sure to grapple as you go over the Falls to orient yourself correctly upon
landing.

Don't miss the grapple at the end of Turn 10 (just before the dam). Due to the
relative stillness of the water, it's easy to go wide around this bend and lose
precious time.

DAM
Take the rightmost opening in the dam wall.
Notice that there is water streaming down from each of the openings in the
wall. If you attempt to drive straight up that water, you'll be slowed down
considerably, which isn't good considering that you're already going uphill.
Come at your chosen opening from an angle.
Use a turbo to go up the dam. This sounds like an insane idea, since
checkpoint 4 hangs very low on the other side of the dam. And you will crash
into the checkpoint and be unseated from your bike. But due to a glitch (or
something), you will be placed back on your bike on the other side of the dam.
This method is actually faster than if you slowed down and avoided collision
with the checkpoint.

-------------
10.5.5 TURBOS
-------------

* start [1]
after falls
* between falls and dam [2]
before dam
after dam
* dirt road [3]

Even though you'll have to shed some speed to take Turns 1-3 effectively, you'll
still want the added boost of the initial turbo to keep with the pack, as
they'll likely pass you on the dirt road, anyway.

Blackwater Falls saps a lot of your momentum when you go over it, so it just
makes sense to turbo after you hit bottom. And despite what common sense may
dictate, be sure to turbo up the dam and smash into the checkpoint sign; it will
save you time. Of course, after you've fallen you'll want a turbo in reserve to
recover from your spill.

As far as the fourth turbo goes, it's kind of a tossup as to whether you should
use it at the dirt road (near the end) or on the long, slow stretch after the
Falls (leaving no turbo for the end).

This is probably the best way to use your turbos:
Laps 1-3 after falls before dam after dam
Lap 1 start
Lap 2 between falls and dam
Lap 3 dirt road before finish

------------------
10.5.6 COMPETITION
------------------

Top CPU finisher: 2.40-2.42
Field: 12-18 seconds
Best CPU racer: Technician

The competition is tough on this track. You'll probably get bumped around a
little bit, especially on the first half of the first lap. Be careful of the
other riders in the areas just before the Falls and around the dam. Just try to
hang with the front of the pack and hope to make a go of it on the last lap. No
lead is safe on this track.

There is very much a pack mentality in effect on this track. You'll notice the
lower-than-average spread for the field. That's right. The spread from first
to last can be as low as twelve seconds; the top seven can span as few as three.
Even one mistake can drastically affect the amount of points you gain on this
track.

Here's another course that Technician rules. Over the ten recorded seasons, the
computer won eight. Technician won five of those. The other three were split
between Wild Ride (2) and Bomber(!). The top four racers on this track are
Technician, Wild Ride, Tetsujin, and Dakota. Watch out for Quick Jessie, Miko,
and Rhino while you're at it.

-----------------------
10.5.7 SIMULATED SEASON
-----------------------

----------------
10.5.7.1 RESULTS
----------------

Pos. Rider Time Spills
---- ------------ ------ ------
1. Masala 2.35.3 3
2. Irons 2.36.7 2
3. Rhino 2.37.3 2
4. Wild Ride 2.37.4 1
5. Harris 2.39.0 1
6. Shannara 2.40.1 3
7. Shirow 2.40.3 2
8. Blackjack 2.41.3 2
9. Stone 2.41.7 2
10. Arroyo 2.42.0 0
11. Gunner 2.42.2 2
12. Dakota 2.43.3 0
13. Miko 2.43.5 2
14. Quick Jessie 2.43.7 2
15. Bomber 2.44.5 2
16. The Max 2.45.6 1
17. Chien 2.46.8 1
18. Mace 2.46.9 3
19. Tetsujin 2.50.5 2
20. Technician 2.57.9 4

Average number of spills: 1.85
not counting dam: 0.95

There are some interesting contradictions on this track. Most evident is the
fact that all but one of the top ten spilled at least once. Even if you take
into consideration the intentional spill at the top of the dam, still seven out
of the top ten took at least one tumble.

You'll notice, though, that the podium finishers are all riding midweight bikes.
Apparently, the excess speed caused them to spill more often, yet also managed
to give them enough of a speed boost to keep a lead over their pursuers.

This is the domain of the heavier bike, though. Only two of the top ten (Wild
Ride and Harris) are riding light bikes. The reason for this heavy-leaning
tendency has to do with the wide open spaces over still water. A prime example
would be the portion of the track between the falls and the dam. The water
there is very still and the track is very wide. One turbo is enough to propel
the heavier bikes through and due to their mass, they don't slide around as
much. The lighter bikes, though, quickly lose momentum whenever they need to
make a course adjustment, making them lose valuable time.

This track also manages to produce results that are incredibly tight, similar to
Hammerhead's. At least it does if you ignore the bottom two finishers.
Technician, The Max's bike double, managed to balance the scales somewhat here
with his abysmal performance, spilling from his bike four times and finishing
over seven seconds behind the racer in nineteenth.

The biggest discrepancy between two racers is that between Blackjack (8) and
Mace (18), who ride identical bikes. However, the time difference is only five
seconds and Mace had one more spill; it's not hard to imagine the detrimental
effect of a heavy bike spilling near the end of a lap with no more turbos with
which to recover.

The average number of spills (1.85) is very misleading, since so many of the
spills were intentional. Subtracting these intentional mishaps leaves a figure
of under 1, about average for a Jet Moto course; you can usually expect to get
tossed from your bike about once a race.

------------------------
10.5.7.2 RIDER STANDINGS
------------------------

Championship Rally
-------------------- -------------------------
3 1 Masala [2] 69 1 1 Masala [2] 13.11.6
1 2 Shannara [1] 66 2 2 Irons - 5.1
4 3 Irons 60 4 3 Rhino -12.3
4 4 Wild Ride[1] 53 4 4 Wild Ride[1] -12.4
6 5 Rhino 52 6 5 Shannara [1] -15.5
2 6 Arroyo [1] 51 3 6 Miko -17.7
7 7 Miko 37 7 7 Gunner -18.3
9 8 Gunner 36 8 8 Arroyo [1] -25.2
8 9 Bomber 33 11 9 Harris -27.9
13 Harris 33 10 10 Dakota -30.4
12 11 Dakota 31 9 11 Chien -31.5
10 12 Chien 30 13 12 Blackjack -33.4
11 13 Mace 29 14 13 Stone -36.4
14 14 Blackjack 27 17 14 Shirow -37.2
16 15 Stone 21 12 15 Mace -37.7
19 16 Shirow 20 14 16 Bomber -39.2
15 17 The Max 17 18 17 The Max -42.7
16 18 Technician 14 20 18 Quick Jessie -48.2
18 19 Tetsujin 12 19 19 Tetsujin -51.6
20 20 Quick Jessie 11 16 20 Technician -54.2

After leading for four consecutive races, Shannara takes a backward step as a
powerful rival, Masala, steps up two spots to claim the mantle of leadership.
Two consecutive victories for Masala give him a three-point lead over his
nearest rival.

Meanwhile, we can see a definite line dividing the top six from everybody else--
fourteen points separate Arroyo from Miko. And yet inside that top six are two
riders that have yet to register a win. Irons has managed third place on the
strength of two second-place finishes, whereas Rhino has moved up a notch to
fifth due to two podium finishes and a fourth. If you're not going to win a
race, stringing together top-5 finishes isn't a bad way to go about things.

Over in the rally, things have calmed down considerably. Of course, this is
mostly due to the small spread in the race itself, but Masala's back-to-back
victories haven't hurt his cause. They have hurt Technician's, though, as he
regresses four places and finds himself fifty-four seconds out of the lead.

Masala also holds the largest rally lead so far this season. Irons, who has
placed second, trails him by just over five seconds. This is by no means