ABOUT ME

Sup homies,

Thanks for checking out my site :). 

Back in '97, when Command and Conquer Red Alert (RA) hit the shelves in Europe, a mate was teaching me how to DJ and then showed me his new game RA. He didn't really get into it so hardcore, preferring to DJ and snakeboard, but others I showed became hooked playing LAN games over a 56K modem. It spread throughout our school and area fast.

The highlights for me were playing in an Internet Cafe, where the speed of the game was so much better either online or with mates on a LAN. Back when saying "Hi ASL" and receiving a response from a stranger on their age, sex and location was super new and exciting to us. Or messing around with the text to speech function to make a robotic voice say obscene things. The cafe was futuristic looking with lava lamps, funky lighting and exotic teas. We tended to switch between playing RA and Quake, which were the top 2 games at the time.

I started to get relatively good at RA beating all who faced me locally, often with massive tank armies too big for our modems to handle. The old 10 minute no rush rule was often enforced, kinda like how the War Tank crew these days enforce "No Air".  So I ventured into the online world of Westwood Chat and Cases Ladder, working out the quickest way to win points. It turned out that a build order of Small power >>> Ore Refinery >>> War Factory x2 was the way to do it, spamming light tanks ASAP to their base, killing their small power and construction yard. This worked very well, as I copied it after suffering a loss in the same way. It got me to around 80 in the rankings which I was happy with, not bad out of 60K active players. I was like, how the hell do you stop this?

The answer came as players in the top 50 were clearly doing something very powerful.

Cases Ladder May 1997

Their tanks were shooting and moving at the same time! I would send my light tanks as usual, but they would die slightly on the way, and quickly whilst trying to kill buildings. Being the stubborn and determined teenager, I never reached out to ask anyone and just assumed it was the X key. So I tried it, but the effect was not on par.

Cases Ladder July 1997

They were doing something to make their tanks shoot and move in the direction they desired. There was nothing in the instruction manual which explained how this was done. I tried many things but gave up. Then DJing, drinking and partying took over! 

I checked in at Cases a couple of years later, but someone had taken my name "Larry" so I had to change it to *Larry:

I found the standard much higher in '99, and couldn't be bothered to grind away at it again. So these were my last 3 games. Up until around 15 years later in 2014 I discovered CnCNet and was surprised to see that the game was still active. I had no clue about Mplayer, TEN, Heat, Global Dominance, Kali and all the other servers which had sprung up and died over time.

The skill level now is much higher, with a wide variety of styles and map types. I agree with 1998 world champion DeepBlue, that the internet has allowed the new school players to quickly copy and learn how to the play game via tools such as youtube. This is an advantage we didn't have back then. I have certainly improved as a player by receiving advice from other pros such as Hrvatska, NastyNate, Kicknass, Milo234, Claus and studying youtube videos and player's blogs. So don't be shy to ask any pro for advice such as use "Q" to move and shoot. 

My claim to fame in this game was discovering the powerful tanking technique SGQ, which keeps your tank density and so your firepower high, making me unbeatable in big tank fights.

In the summer of 2020 my hands started becoming painful whilst executing repetitive actions, such as shifting tanks or Tesla's. Probably a mix of QMax and old age. I've tried multiple remedies, but nothing has helped. So I'm resigned to enjoying the game casually and helping to give back to the community, instead of fighting for top spot.

You can find us playing at cncnet.org.