#tux racer

[uluthrek]

getting extreme tux racer on my dad’s shitty old pc this is what life is supposed to be

[ferrstappen]

Everybody wants a taste l LN4

a/n: i am in an urgent need of writing ideas I've had for MONTHS so brace yourselves I guess?? also the title ofc is from pop anthem jealous by nick Jonas.

i am also very very very stressed waiting for the standing start.

pairing: Lando Norris x actress!reader

this is angst. and some tom holland after this poll results <3

summary: Lando had never been the jealous kind, but after seeing you with many co-stars, he reaches his limit. and his girlfriend doesn't like it.

No one would ever know Lando Norris' was reaching his limit as he stood on the sidelines of another press junket for his girlfriend's new movie: a coming of age movie that already was creating awards season buzz, and God was he proud of her, having witnessed the ten minute standing ovation she received during Cannes.

But of course the limelight wasn't only on her. No, it was on him.

Lando remembers when he was asked who he'd want to portray him if they ever did a biopic and he didn't hesitate: Tom Holland. There could be some similarities between the two, both British, chestnut curls, but now Lando's skin crawled just from hearing the name.

He had dealt with different co-stars during the almost two years of relationship; he'd seen her kiss them, fight with them, fall in love with them, but this was different, he never had to witness her naked skin pressed against someone else, placing her body on top of his, pretended noises he knew weren't real and authentic, but still, they were supposed to be just for him. All for the sake of making a point of her character being an adult now, some shit about an epiphany of being able to take control of her own life, make decisions about her body, and whatever the screenwriters wanted to portray.

And of course Lando didn't help himself.

user1: God has favorites, just check y/n having fake sex w tom holland and real sex w lando norris

user2: no but y/n and tom??? such a hot couple I NEED it to happen

user3: and what are you gonna do with lando and zendaya? lol user2: idc I just want y/n and tom to be a thing

And that was just the beginning, before the movie had even dropped, because the day of the premiere? Everything went wrong.

Sunny Los Angeles had welcomed you and Lando after landing from London, paparazzi eagerly waiting for the arrival at LAX, catching the perfect pictures of Lando placing you in front of him, holding your hand tightly and doing his best to shield your body from prying eyes who just wanted a couple of dollars.

Despite being jet lagged after spending a couple of days in your home in Monaco, there wasn't much time to catch a break because the moment the two of you set foot on the Beverly Hills Hotel, they barely let you take a shower before giving some nice, fluffy robes. Lando was first, out of nowhere two people were working on his hair while the other was applying some kind of serums and creams on his face, but he didn't care when it was time for another team to start working on you; Lando was mesmerized by the way your hair perfectly framed your face, the natural glow of your skin, the deep red of your lips.

"I don't like being so separated," Lando pouted, walking towards your seat, earning a giggle from you because he looked so funny and cozy with the big robe.

"There's not much we can do, baby. I can barely move," You searched for his eyes and that was when Lando got the idea. The hair stylists gasped when the racer sat down on the floor, circling his arms around one of your legs and resting his cheek on your thigh. "Oh, you're willing to be told off by the make up artists as well?" You asked him but your insides were dancing all over the place, your fingers quickly finding their place on his curls.

Neither of you noticed a Vogue photographer capturing the scene, with Lando's eyes closed and cheek smushed, with his arms secured around your leg, but neither realized representatives for Armani had walked in carrying Lando's tux and your body-hugging black velvet gown.

So far so good. A picture perfect young couple who loved each other very much and had photographers swooning by the way Lando fixes your earring and checks for lipstick on your teeth, and how you make sure his bow tie is leveled.

But then, they get to the red carpet.

It was an elegant affair, but still full of people and before he realized, the red carpet manager was separating you from him for an alone photo call before the one and only Tom Holland got there, cheerfully greeting you in front of the cameras, throwing a couple of jokes to make you laugh as he placed his hand on your back.

This was a nightmare, having to listen to people say how cute the two of you looked, a perfect on and off screen pair, chemistry on and off the screen, both your names already on the shortlist for the Oscars.

Lando's skin was starting to crawl, and it didn't help that he had to re watch the scenes haunting his mind, but this time it was out for the entire world to see, and it didn't take long for his latest instagram post to be flooded of vile comments.

when are you getting replaced by tom holland??

now tom holland can play you in movie and y/n plays herself, nothing changes lmao

lando control ur woman!!!

lucky man, she sounds so pretty I almost had to leave the theatre

lando honey you can leave her I'd never do that to you

And Lando knows he shouldn't, but when your hand reaches for his when the night ends, he pretends to look for his phone; when you try to fix a messy curl, he moves his head out of your reach.

and you know your boyfriend too well.

"Baby, are you okay?" You ask him once you reach the shared hotel room.

Lando lets out a dry chuckle, but too aware of his throat closing. "Why wouldn't I be?"

But you weren't having it, not today, not on your big day, not when you just wanted rest your head on his chest and fall asleep with his arms wrapped around your frame.

"I don't know, you tell me, you're the one acting weird,"

"I am not," Lando argued, trying to take deeper breath, but failing miserably.

"Okay Lando, whatever, I don't care. You can be selfish during a very important day for me for all I care,"

Those words struck a nerve: "Me? Selfish? Are you fucking kidding me?" Now you could see his cheeks flushing, maybe even his neck gaining some red color.

You wanted to be scared, to walk away and let him cool off any unwanted feeling or thought on his head, but you couldn't.

"No, I'm not. Please illustrate me as to what happened to put you in this insufferable mood," You argued back and watched as Lando's mouth opened and closed as he undid the cuffs from his shirt, threw the suit jacket on the leather sofa and threw away the bow tie, all in just a couple of seconds.

"Am I not allowed to be upset to watch him all over you, having to look at the both of you acting like the best of friends or lovers for all I care, and then have to watch on this fucking enormous screen how you kiss him and touch him," Lando spat the words as if they were venom; he could feel his throat closing

Your eyes widened in disbelief, your brain not processing Lando's words. "Lando, you are not making any sense. Are you listening to yourself?" You were careful not to raise your voice, knowing he wasn't in a clear space of mind, but you blood was running hot too after processing what he was implying.

"Yes, I am. (Y/N), baby, I'm tired of having to watch you making out with a different guy every a couple of months, it is so tiring, and I understand that this is your job, but..." Lando was about to continue but was stopped by you, messily taking off the heavy velvet dress and heels, putting on the first pair of jeans and oversized sweater you found. "What are you doing?"

"I don't want to listen to you anymore. You are ridiculous, Lando. You're talking about my job, my career, that I've worked my ass off, and never in a million years I thought you'd be telling me this bullshit! I'm not going to entertain this, so if you can't deal with this anymore, please let me know so that I can move on," this time your throat tightened, the last words coming out broken and choked, emotions fighting to make their way; from anger to utter sadness.

"Where are you going?" Lando didn't know if he was angry with you, disappointed in himself, maybe a mix of both as he watched you grab the Chanel black backpack.

"I don't know, but let me know if you can do this or what,"

You were sure those were the last words of the unforeseen argument, but as you were grabbing the card key of the room, Lando opened his mouth.

"Maybe you can go with Tom, everyone wants you two together anyway."

Of course he needed to get the last words.

[clovermarigold]

Could you do a one shot of MK1 Johnny with a street racer reader?

Johhny Cage x Street Racer Reader

Johnny was in peak of his career, every movie he was in earning award after award. He was practically expected in every action movie of the decade, along with the occasional rom com. So here he is, looking over the long list of films his agent had procured for him to star in. Most had been by the request of their directors, but a few were movies his agent went out of his way to look into.

Being that films took years of work to film and edit, reshoots and last second voice overs, Johnny could only really commit to one, and the occasional small series or backup role. Looking through the list his attention was caught by a high pace action movie where he would star as the lead; an undercover cop trying to crack down on Los Angeles' street racing epidemic, only to be drawn into numerous hijinks.

It seemed like an interesting concept, the script was good, and he did have experience with this studio and director. But the real draw was the warning that was attached with the script.

Due to the risk factor involved in numerous stunts, scenes, as well as for realisms purposes. All cast members will be required to take safety courses as well as in constant supervision of professional consultant at all times.

He was going to be doing his own stunts and working with a real street racer. If that didn't have 'Cage Flick' written all over it in bold he didn't know what did.

He of course got the part, he still questioned why the audition was even necessary.

His first day on set was simple enough, meeting the cast and crew, as well as a few brief investors for the movie. That was until he met you.

You had grown up in LA and gotten into street racing fairly young, so naturally you were the best pick for this job. And the producers were willing to pay a fuck ton to be able to advertise that extra layer of 'authenticity'.

You were an instant hit with the cast, getting along with nearly all of them instantly. Johnny in particular was rather captivated. It was your first time meeting such a high-profile celebrity, even as a born and raised LA resident.

The attraction on Johnny's part was immediate. Confident, hot, and looked damn good in the driver seat.

Throughout shooting, you had coached Johnny on safety guidelines and how to do complex drifts and turns.

That wasn't to say the attraction was one-sided. Hell, you had thirsted over this man with your friends when you binged his movies. So, when you heard the director making fun over him about his less than hidden attraction towards you, you took your chances.

A hand guiding his when instructing him how to use the gear shift, giving him pats on the back when he figured out how to pull off the reversed driving sequence, and being extra sure he was behind you when you decided to bend over to inspect the hood of the car. (there was nothing wrong with it)

Despite what media would have you think, being an actor is a very busy and grueling job. Johnny had wanted to ask you out a number of times, but by the point he had enough courage and confidence that you were also interested, filming had wrapped up.

So here he was, sitting in an Italian tux, surrounded by some of the most talented minds in the filming industry, with an Oscar nomination, wondering where the hell it all went wrong.

"Johnny" he looked to his co-star sitting to his left. Looking down to see the small bound together papers with the word 'draft' on it.

"It's soon, but, by the looks of it.... It's been greenlit" A sequel?

Well, seeing as he was the main lead, it was no doubt they'd need him to come back. And if they did?

He knew the condition he was going to demand if they wanted him.

Maybe he could finally ask you out for that drink.

[blackthorn-legion-irl]

nyanonifies you

i'm the ps5 talking inside your mind nya. or whatever that meme is

well i guess i'm in my system now. cool i'mma play tux racer in VR B)

[screampied]

vesicular cancer, my love, i honest to god would marry you i would not think twice about it😍 and i also just have to say that i am salivating, barking, and biting on the bars of my enclosure bc of your new street racer geto fic👹👹 also hope you are healthy and doing well pookie🫶🫶🫶

~ 🧃

vesicular cancer oh wow !!!! 🤔🧿 omg i'll wear the tux js for you, gorgeous hehe <3 THANK YOU FOR READING MWWUUUAAHHH i appreciate you sm juicy juice 💓. i'm doing okay, i hope you're doing amazing, have a lovely day okay? xx

[tamara-kama]

It's interesting to me how Tux Racer has an arcade cabinet out.. This is an older open source game based on the Linux penguin.. I used to play it on my old PC

from the late 90's!

I wonder if the cabinet runs Linux..

I know all my current cabinets run that or Android 😅

[the-nya-anon]

hey i heard you were worried about me. sorry it took so long to get back to you, had a meeting and had to go urgent post something, so only just got online

i'm okay - honestly that actually gave me a much-needed break 'cause the system don't got fibro heckers~ i do see your point about being stuck in there the whole time. it gave me ideas for some more QOL features for the. uh. walking cooling pad which has a lot of cool attachments but can't actually walk yet. whoops lol gotta work on that part it's sort of the most important

[attached file: the windows version of tux racer]

I'm glad you're alright.

[daemonhxckergrrl]

Favorite Video game?

games i have the most hours in would be minecraft, skyrim, cyberpunk 2077 or the outer worlds, and i would stand by minecraft and the outer worlds as fantastic games. i would also stand by the nexusmods community as doing such a service for all bethesda games.

some of the games i've had the most fun in include supertuxkart, neverball, enigma, tux racer, whatever the penguin-based lemmings clone was, code 7, the outer worlds, one of the halo games idk i was drunk at a mate's house and we played co-op campaign and i mostly kited the enemies in some vehicle i had and fucked around w/ the needle gun thingy.

i think based on what it did for gaming on xbox (not that i've ever owned a console except a DS Lite) and open worlds and lore, i think morrowind would have to take it. i fucking LOVE that game even though i have way fewer hours in it than some of the others

[kreetzel]

GUYS I PUT WRONG SCREEN RESOLUTION IN EXTREME TUX RACER AND NOW I CANT EVEN CONFIRM CONFIG CHANGES

[helenaheissner]

Love During Robot Fighting Time: Chapter 20

Zeke

The morning of our fight with Gregson, I woke up to find Faith making pancakes, singing along to a Brandi Carlisle song as she flipped a flapjack over, swaying her hips back and forth in a way I found difficult to describe with a word other than ‘tantalizing.’

I nearly slapped myself on the spot. I resisted the urge, both urges, and simply said, “Hey. You’re in a good mood.”

“Yes indeedy,” Faith said, shining that bright smile of hers. She wore nothing but a miniskirt and a tank top, her hair up in a messy bun, no makeup, no jewelry, utterly freaking beautiful as the morning light shined on her and refracted off her big brown eyes. 

“Photoshoot yesterday go well?” I asked. 

“Oh yes, very much so,” she said. Practically sang. 

The microwave dinged, and she chirped as she opened it and retrieved a glass measuring cup filled with real maple syrup, the pure stuff from Maine, and poured it over a plate adorned with three pancakes all topped with pallets of butter. 

She carried the plate over to me and put it in my hands, then tousled my hair and spun back around on her heel and went back to the stove. I cringed when I realized I was staring at her butt as she went back to work cooking. 

“Thanks,” I managed to choke out as I sat down. A glass of orange juice and an equally tall glass of cold brew coffee awaited me at the table. “You didn’t have to do all this, though.”

“I wanted to,” she said. “How did your date with Katie go last night?”

“Good,” I said, holding the image of her cuddled up to me in the darkened movie theater in my mind, trying not to think sinful thoughts about anyone besides the girl I was currently dating. I won’t be like Dad, I won’t be like Dad, I won’t be like Dad. 

“Good,” she said, soon coming over with her own plate of pancakes. She stared at me, smiling a crooked smile and tilting her head to the side. “She say anything to you?”

“Uh… About what?”

“Oh, you know, stuff.”

“Y… Yes, Faith, she did in fact say things to me about stuff at various points, though not so much when the film was playing,” I deadpanned. “Did something happen with you two yesterday?”

She shrugged. 

OH COME ON! 

“Sh-should I be concerned?” I asked. 

“Not at all, big guy, not at all,” Faith said. She dug into her pancakes and devoured them, and I decided the best thing to do was let this one be for the time being. 

***

“You guys ready for this?” Kate asked, sitting in the back seat of the Star-Rocket Racer. She’d gotten herself dressed up in a pink floral blouse with ruffled sleeves and a light blue skirt, done her makeup and hair. Faith and I, meanwhile, were going for a look Faith described as ‘a night at the opera’- she was even wearing long white gloves to go with her stark black gown. I, in contribution, had agreed to don a monocle to accompany my tuxedo. 

Mrs. Calloway- Miranda, as she kept insisting I call her- had even done a bit of tailoring on my tux to make it fit better. Honestly, she was a miracle worker- suddenly the thing was a perfect match for my giant body, not pinching at the crotch or hanging too loose around the ankles like it had before. 

“Not remotely,” I laughed. 

“Oh c’mon, don’t be like that,” Faith said as she unbuckled herself and opened the car door. 

I followed suit. “You know I love the confidence, but I’m trying to keep my expectations in check.”

“I just don’t think that’s productive,” she said, cracking her knuckles as she opened the trunk of the car while Kate helped me lower DG out onto the sledge. “We have to believe that we can do this, otherwise, we’ve no chance.”

“She raises a good point,” Kate said. Then she grabbed a fistful of my lapel and pulled me in for a kiss, white hot lust sparking inside my chest and nether-regions at the contact and… Brazenness. “Stud,” she whispered, blatant desire shooting out her eyes and going deep into my soul. 

I chuckled, “Let’s not get carried away, babe.”

“No, please do, I encourage it,” Faith said with a wink, putting her arm around Kate and nuzzling her neck, damn near purring with affection. 

I struggled not to picture certain… Bedroom activities the two girls I cared most about in this world might do together. It was a losing battle, and all I could do was pray I wouldn’t display any… Physical evidence of this. 

Kate stroking Faith’s hair certainly didn’t help. 

Seriously, what had gotten into these two lately? I knew they were friends now but it constantly looked like they were undressing each other with their eyes and giggling at their mutual proximity to both each other and to me. 

It had to be my imagination. Had to be. 

Just my overactive imagination, trying to make me be like Dad. But I won’t be like Dad. I can’t be like Dad. I won’t be like Dad.

We entered the Pits and got ourselves situated, only for the competition to come up to greet us amidst the roar of engines and saws and blowtorches. 

George Gregson was, in a word, unassuming. Middle-aged, gray-haired, barrel-chested, average height, clean shaven, whiter than printer paper, bespectacled, clad in a black and silver Johnny Cash t-shirt and a pair of blue jeans and workman’s boots, he was not, at first glance, in any way intimidating. And yet, as he walked towards us, everyone stopped what they were doing and looked up. And looked at him. Some, like Team Forest Fire, were in awe; others, like Team Flipper, were terrified; others, like Jolly Roger’s crew, just looked furious. And plenty of others, Ultimate Frisbee and Ax-Grinder and Damage Control and Rotator Cuff and Power Play, were just embarrassed, probably because Gregson had kicked their asses at various points over the years. Ax-Grinder in particular had gotten systematically dismantled by Gregson within forty-five seconds not two weeks erstwhile; the odds of them having a functional bot again by the time of their next match hovering the hazy line between slim and none.

He ignored every single one of them, and simply walked forward in the deafening silence. He stopped in front of the three of us and looked Faith square in the eyes. For her part, Faith planted her feet and didn’t flinch. 

“Good luck tonight,” Gregson said, extending a hand towards Faith. 

Faith exhaled softly, and returned the handshake. “Same to you, sir.”

He threw his head back and laughed. “Please, just call me George, I’m begging you. Feel old enough as is.” Then he offered me the same handshake, and I returned it as well. Holy shit, that was a tight grip! “Good luck tonight, young man.”

“Thank you, s… George.”

Finally, he turned to Katie, who I then realized was one step short of quivering. “As for you, young lady. I’m looking forward to our rematch. And I like your new look. Suits you better than the old one.”

Kate gulped, and finally shook his hand as well. 

“See you kids in the ring!” he said jovially as he walked off, literally everyone in the room still staring at him as he waved good-bye to us. “And remember- it isn’t personal, when I wreck your shit! It’s just business!”

A few moments passed, and auditory stimulus slowly but surely began to permeate the pits once more as everyone finished drinking in the presence of a living legend/creature of pure nightmare.

“You okay, Kate?” I asked. 

“I just… I used to want to be him, you know?” she said, turning around and putting her arms around both of us. “I think based a lot of who I used to be on who I thought he was. But I didn’t even know him, so it… It wasn’t really him, and it wasn’t really me either. Does that make sense?”

“Yeah, it does,” Faith said, still smiling at her, then smiling at me as well. 

I returned their shared looks of affection. At the end of the day, Gregson was just a guy. And he had a reputation to protect, so he sure as hell wasn’t gonna go easy on us because we were the young bucks trying to prove something.

But Faith and I had a reputation to protect as well. We were the defending champions, Goddammit, and we needed this win to have a shot at making a repeat title run. 

And I had something else to defend as well. I didn’t want to see Faith cry again, not after the fight with Olivia, and not after everything that had happened. Regardless of how I felt about her, and about myself, on my honor as a man, I wouldn’t let that happen. And as for Kate… That look she’d given me before, the one that told me how much she was proud of me, how much she admired me, how happy she was to be mine… I’d defend that with all I had. 

She’d used to want to be Gregson, because she wanted to be nothing less than the best there ever was. So the nicest thing I could do for her was show her that Gregson wasn’t the best. 

Faith and I were the best. 

Time to fucking prove it.

***

“AND IN THE RED SQUARE: THIS BOT WILL BRING YOU TO THE BOTTOM OF THE PIT! IT’LL SWING YOU BACK AND FORTH ALL OVER THE BOX! IT’LL TAKE YOU THERE AND BACK AGAIN! IT’S… PENDULUM!!!!” bellowed our glorious hype man while the cameras focused on Gregson and his companions, Ben Yancy and Marjorie Hennessy. 

Gregson just roared with malice and delight, his mannerisms shifting to a cackling supervillain working the crowd before he did something very messed up but very, very cool. I think I understood what Kate meant now- she’d practically been emulating this guy from the moment she’d walked on stage last season.

“Gregson is a long-standing presence in this league, Marty- do you think he’s got anything to worry about in fighting the defending champions?” Derek Benes said. 

“Well, I asked him about it earlier,” Marty said, “All George Gregson had to say was ‘not a chance. My victory is assured like always.’”

“Hard to argue with logic like that,” Derek responded. 

And then it was our turn. 

“AND IN THE BLUE SQUARE: HOPE YOU’RE READY TO RUN SOME DRILLS! BECAUSE THIS BOT ALWAYS GETS RIGHT TO THE POINT! IT’LL MAKE YOU DO A MULTI-PRONGED ASSAULT! IT’S… DAI GURREN!!!!”

The crowd cheered, and the cameras turned towards us, and through all the noise, I heard Kate and her parents screaming louder than anybody. I noticed Faith’s hands shaking just a little bit- that confidence was evidently something she’d been practicing for all of our benefits- and I put a hand on her shoulder while my free hand punched the sky and cheered. 

After a second’s hesitation, Faith did the same. 

“Faith Watanabe and Zeke Underhill have… Not been having the best season so far, all things considered,” Marty said. “With a tied record halfway into the regular season, and one of those matches frequently being called a ‘fluke-’”

“Say what now?” Faith growled under her breath.

“Many are wondering if Dai Gurren is just a flash in the pan,” Weston continued. 

“Well, I think that’s a little unfair to Watanabe and Underhill- as a former heavyweight champion of the world, I can tell you first hand that defending a title is a massive amount of pressure for anyone, let alone two young people barely a year out of college.”

“Well, then only time will tell,” Marty said. “Let’s get ready to fight.”

My heartbeat soared, and I concentrated on breathing, in and out, in and out, in and out, as we led our bot into the battle box. Dai Gurren and Gurren were situated in our square while we climbed into our control zone. 

“ROBOTS! ACTIVATE!” intoned the mechanical overhead voice.

Just like we practiced, Faith and I had DG and G scramble, DG bearing left and G to the right. Pendulum went directly after DG, and Faith twisted DG out of the way of the first swing of the upper-cut hammer. 

She delivered the first blow, puncturing Pendulum’s armor on its left hand side and pushing against it. Unfortunately, the damn thing was just plain heavier than DG and would not budge. Gregson laughed raucously as his bot pivoted at a sharp angle and broke free of DG and launched its uppercut again. DG barely made it out of the way while I had G take Pendulum from behind and leave an incision in the back of it. 

Gregson proceeded to completely ignore me, and continued chasing after DG. Slow and steady, he chased after DG as Faith slowly led him toward the rotating screws. She had DG sit stationary in front of the screws, waiting, waiting, waiting ‘till Pendulum was right in front of her and launching its uppercut. 

DG drove out of the way at the last possible second, sustaining a slight clip on its side that made one of the wheels wobble. The uppercut collided with the screws and stopped them entirely as the rotators were torn loose and a giant cylinder of serrated metal fell onto the arena floor. 

“WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT! WHAT A DISPLAY OF PENDULUM’S RAW POWER! UNBELIEVABLE!” Marty screamed. Seriously, how much cocaine was that man on?

I drove G into Pendulum’s tract again, chipping away at it as he drove away from me yet again. “Don’t you freaking ignore me!” I grunted. 

“Hm? What was that?” Gregson said, an evil chuckle lacing his words. 

“Son of a-”

“Stay calm, Zeke,” Faith said evenly. “Just do it like we practiced. Like we planned for.”

I exhaled. “Right.”

I flanked across the side of the box while Faith led Gregson towards the overhead hammer at the other end and tried the same trick as last time, dodging more successfully. The hope was that the impact of Gregson’s uppercut against the vertical hammer’s downward assault would disable Pendulum’s primary weapon, but unfortunately it had the opposite effect of tearing the overhead hammer off of its hinges and sending it flying into the glass surrounding the box. It landed in front of the announcers and buried itself in the shield, leaving both men screaming. 

Faith turned and went at Pendulum’s left side again, perfectly matching the holes she’d already drilled, while I did some more damage to his left tread. 

Pendulum rotated. 

DG and G both rotated as well, trying to avoid the line of fire. 

That was when DG’s wheel broke off. 

“NO!” Faith screamed as DG stumbled onto its side. 

“Oh HELL! LOOKS LIKE THAT WING-CLIP DID MORE DAMAGE THAN WE THOUGHT!” Derek screamed. 

“MWAHAHAHAHAHA!” Gregson cackled. He wasted no time and aimed his weapon. 

He fired. 

DG took the hit directly to its face plate, and all of our drills shattered as its front was caved in and sent flying back. It went careening to the other end and impacted against the glass on the audience side of the box, falling in a crushed heap onto the rafters. 

I wanted to scream, to lose it as well, but I had a job to do. 

Faith looked ready to cry. 

Me? I couldn’t take that lying down. 

Pendulum’s uppercut hadn’t returned to its station yet, so I drove Gurren directly into the slot and plunged the titanium drill into the magnet propellant. I dove out as soon as I was in, finding, mercifully, that the uppercut wasn’t returning to its home. It couldn’t. The similarly-charged magnets on both ends wouldn’t let it get any closer than it already was, reducing it to a blunt instrument stuck at a forty-five degree angle. 

“OH HELL NO! The mini-bot Gurren has disabled Pendulum’s primary weapon! Without that, it’s just a mighty glacier!”

I couldn’t stop there. I went back to the point on Pendulum’s tread I’d been working on plunged back in, my hands sweating as I held the button down on my control pad, ripping apart the opposing bot’s mobility. 

It tried to move after me, but I went on the retreat. Gregson’s left tread was totally disabled, meaning it had to rely entirely on its right to haul its massive bulk. It tried to rotate to get a decent angle on me, and Gregson grunted as he poured all the power into the right tread… 

… Only for the poor balance of the stuck weapon to work against it as it turned. 

Pendulum fell onto its side, remaining stationary as it rested on its broken tread. 

“HOLY FUCKING SHIT!” Marty screamed. I wonder if the live-bleepers got that one on time. “ARE YOU SEEING THIS, DEREK?!”

“OH I’M SEEING IT MARTY!” Derek screamed. “I’M JUST NOT SURE MY AGED EYES CAN BELIEVE IT!”

I could have cried. I could have laughed. But honestly… I was too stunned to do anything besides stand there with my jaw in pieces on the floor. I can’t believe that worked. I CAN’T BELIEVE THAT FUCKING WORKED! HOLY SHIT ON A DICK THAT ACTUALLY FUCKING WORKED!!

“Gonna need to see some movement,” the referee said to Gregson. 

“Yeah, that’s a tall order right now,” Gregson said, laughing bitterly as he spun the right tread that hung above his broken bot. 

“10! 9! 8!”

The countdown continued, and elation bubbled through me as I drove G around the box for a victory lap, still incapable of closing my mouth. 

“1! That’s game!” the referee said. “Team Dai Gurren wins!”

“LET’S HEAR IT FOR THE DEFENDING CHAMPIONS!” Marty roared.

The crowd went crazy, so loud I couldn’t make out Katie’s voice amidst all the disparate sounds. Next to me, Faith held her hands over her mouth, tears streaming out her eyes, too stunned to move. I’d sworn I wouldn’t let her cry again, and I suppose I’d failed at that particular endeavor, but… From where I was standing, those looked an awful lot like happy tears. 

There was only one thing I could think to do.

I gave a bow and a flourish of my arm and said, “Fair lady. May I have this dance?”

She gulped, looking up at me like she was the happiest woman in the world. And I’d made that happen. I’d done that for her. The impossible. I’d killed a fucking giant for her. 

The post-fight interview was a blur, as was Gregson coming up and giving us both big old bear hugs, congratulating us on the win, saying we’d given him a helluva fight and that we were worthy opponents and he was looking forward to seeing us in the playoffs. Under the hammy exterior, he really was a good dude. 

We brought the obliterated remains of DG back into the pits. I held G in my hands, stroking like a damn bunny. I knew it was an inanimate object- that both of them were- but at that moment it felt like as much Gurren’s victory as mine. The little guy had really come through for us. We had a lot of work to do on repairs, and we could have stayed for the rest of the matches, but without even having to say a word to each other, we knew we were done for the night. So we put our equipment on a sledge and hauled it out to the Star-Rocket Racer. Kate leaned against the car waiting for us, and she ran over and planted a kiss on my lips, long and passionate. 

“I am so freaking proud of you,” Kate said to me, her arms around my neck, mine around her waist. She tilted her head and looked at Faith and said, “And you, too!”

Faith chuckled. “Does that mean I get a kiss as well?”

Kate gulped, and I expected her to laugh, but then she said, “Only if Zeke says it’s okay.”

I blanched. “Um… What?”

“Is it okay?

“W-what is happening right now?” I said, my head spinning, my heart racing, elicit images sparking in my mind, of the two of them, of all three of us. 

Faith gave Kate a shallow nod and a thumbs’ up.

“I… Faith and I talked the other day,” Kate said, pulling herself off of me but not breaking off eye contact. “And she-”

“I like Kate,” Faith said. “And I like you, Zeke. I like you both. And I know that’s true for you as well.”

For a moment, I thought my heart would stop. I wouldn’t be like my dad, couldn’t be like him, shouldn’t be-

“If you’re not comfortable with it,” Kate said, “We can forget about all this.”

“I can’t be like him,” I said, barely more than a whisper. 

“You won’t be,” Kate said, putting a reassuring arm on my shoulder. “Because… I like Faith, too.”

For once, I noticed myself crying. It wasn’t sad, though, and it wasn’t shameful, and it wasn’t envious. They were tears of relief. She… They both… They both liked me, and each other, and we all… 

The possibility had never even occurred that they could feel the same way about each other as they did about me. I don’t know why, it made perfect sense; they were both amazing, beautiful, intelligent, and so damn sweet. I didn’t want to be like my dad, but I was pretty damn sure my dad had never even talked about the possibility of this with my mom. Not that she’d have ever agreed- she was old fashioned and close-minded. They both were. 

And I didn’t want to be like either of them. 

We all liked each other. And that was okay. More than okay, that was beautiful. And I wanted it. I wanted both of them, and I wanted them both to have each other as well as me. 

“Ladies first,” I said, gesturing to Faith.  Faith gasped, “You mean-” She didn’t get to finish, because Kate was already locking lips with her within a second.

It was the most heartening sight I’d ever seen, the two girls I cared about more than anything else in the world sharing mutual affection for each other, and letting me have this moment with them. And when it was over, Kate pushed Faith, the nervous, shaking girl that I’d loved for so damn long, towards me. 

“You know this is gonna be complicated, right?” I said. “Lotta work from all three of us to make something like this function.”

“I know,” Faith nodded bashfully, blushing bright red. “I’m up for it if you are, though. I’m not scared anymore.”

“You know what?” I said. “Neither am I.”

She stood on her tip-toes, and I leaned over, and our lips met. She was soft and sweet, her body pressing against mine, the curve of her hips glorious as my hands ran over them. Her lipstick was thicker and waxier than Kate’s… No, no that wasn’t right. Some of Kate’s had gotten onto Faith’s lips, leaving it thicker than when she’d started. An aftermath of her grace and affection, evidence of her having been there and an extra treat for me to taste and a reminder of the affection we both had for Faith. 

That just made it better. 

I picked Faith up into my arms and held her tight, slipping tongue into her mouth as she did the same with me. Kate hugged us both, taking turns kissing us on the cheeks, and then we broke off and started kissing her as well. 

When that had run its course, we found ourselves dancing once again, all three of us together, keeping time and rhythm, delighting in each other’s company. 

Tonight, I had slain a giant. 

Tonight, I was with the two most beautiful women in the world, and they cared for each other just as much as they cared for me. 

Tonight, I was the luckiest man in the world. 

Hello, lovelies! Hope y'all are doing well :)

Don't forget you can read three chapters ahead on this story, two chapters ahead on "Magical Girl Exorcist Squad", and the entirety of "A Dream of Summer Rain," by becoming a paid subscriber on my Substack or my Patreon!

If that's too steep for you but you'd still like to support my work, consider making a one-time donation via Ko-Fi:

[pangeasoftware]

Touch me while your bros play Tux Racer

[archiveosorg]

Extreme Tux Racer

Extreme Tux Racer – a high speed arctic racing game based on Tux Racer https://archivegame.org/extreme-tux-racer/

[not-radioshack]

Writeup: The Great(?) OpenGL Wrapper Race

Somehow, I always find myself gravitating back to the S3 ViRGE/DX.

This time around, rather than placing total focus on the ViRGE itself, we'll be taking a look at some OpenGL wrappers!

This writeup will be updated along the way as more videos release.

The setup is as follows:

Matsonic MS7102C

Windows 98SE RTM with the following patches/update: KernelEX 4.5.2, NUSB v3.3e, Windows Installer 2.0, DirectX 9.0c

Intel Pentium III (Coppermine) @ 750MHz

S3 ViRGE/DX @50MHz w/4MB EDO DRAM (using the S3 Virge "SuperUni" drivers)

256MB PC-133 SDRAM (Kingston KVR133X64C3/512) (System can only handle 256MB per DIMM)

Sound Blaster AWE32 CT2760

Some random 5GB Hitachi 2.5" HDD that I "borrowed" from a very dead laptop

Java 6 (1.6.0) build 105/Java 6u0

Wrappers to be tested:

S3Mesa - a wrapper based on the Mesa project. It's a full OpenGL implementation sitting on top of S3D and Direct3D, but from the available source code appears to be missing some functionality and is quite unstable.

AltOGL - also a wrapper based on the Mesa project, but relies solely on Direct3D. It is similarly missing some functionality, but is much more widely compatible with cards beyond the Virge thanks to its lack of reliance on S3's proprietary API.

Techland S3D - one of the many wrappers made by Techland for their Quake II engine-based "Crime Cities" game. Although it like S3's own GLQuake wrappers only implements as much of the API as is needed by the engine, it still implements far more features than S3's DX5 and DX6-based wrappers, of which are not tested in this wrapper race.

Techland D3D - like AltOGL, Techland's D3D counterpart to their S3D wrapper implements a subset of the OpenGL spec, but still enough to be compatible with a number of titles beyond Quake II engine games.

GLDirect 1.x - A very early version of GLDirect. There exists a license code for this version floating around on the internet that appears to have been used for internal testing by Shuttle, a PC manufacturer that's largely fallen out of relevance and mainly does industrial PCs nowadays.

GLDirect 3.0.0 - One of the last versions of GLDirect to support hardware acceleration on DX6-class graphics cards.

Things tested

WGLGears

ClassiCube 1.3.5 and 1.3.6

Minecraft: Indev in-20091223-1459, Alpha 1.0.4, Beta 1.7.3 (with and without Optifine), Release 1.5.2

Tux Racer

GL Excess benchmark

Half Life 1 v1.1.1.1 KingSoft NoSteam edition

Findings

GLDirect 1.01

OpenGL Version String

Vendor: SciTech Software, Inc. Renderer: GLDirect S3 Inc. ViRGE/DX/GX Version: 1.2 Mesa 3.1

Textures do not work at all in every test case besides Half Life.

ClassiCube 1.3.5 and 1.3.6 both fail to render any terrain beyond a greyish horizon and the outlines of blocks. All blocks, items, and text that are able to be rendered are pure white in color and have no textures applied.

Minecraft Indev in-20091223-1459 and Beta 1.7.3 with Optifine crash upon world-load

Minecraft Alpha 1.0.4, Beta 1.7.3, and Release 1.5.2 all crash upon launch.

Tux Racer is able to render 2D textures such as text and graphics, but flickers INTENSELY and is a seizure risk. Beyond this, however, the game will only render a solid white screen.

Half Life launches and runs, but at a terrible 4 FPS. The game lags hard enough that the tram in the opening area of the game is frozen where it is, preventing the player from accessing anything beyond the intro cutscene.

GL Excess crashes instantly.

Performance

GLGears: ~76 FPS

ClassiCube 1.3.5/1.3.6: Unknown; game fails to render

Minecraft in-20091223-1459: Unknown; world crash

Minecraft Alpha 1.0.4: Unknown; crash on game launch

Minecraft Beta 1.7.3: Unknown; crash on game launch

Minecraft Beta 1.7.3 w/Optifine: Unknown; world crash

Minecraft Release 1.5.2: Unknown; crash on game launch

Tux Racer: Unknown; game fails to render in a VERY seizure-inducing way

Half Life: ~4 FPS; gameplay outside of training room is broken

GL Excess: Unknown; instant crash

GLDirect 2.00

From here on, GLDirect is split between "Game" and "CAD" wrappers, denoted by either a "G" or a "C" after the version number where written in this writeup.

OpenGL Version String (2.00C)

Vendor: SciTech Software, Inc. Renderer: GLDirect S3 Inc. ViRGE/DX/GX Version: 1.2 Mesa 3.1

OpenGL Version String (2.00G)

Vendor: SciTech Software, Inc. Renderer: GLDirect Version: 1.1

GLDirect 2.00C likes to complain about insufficient color precision.

Changing the color precision from 24-bit up to the maximum 32-bit color does absolutely nothing.

The CAD wrapper very clearly is intended for non-gaming workloads given how easily it crashes things. However, it is strange that it is labeled as a "maximum compatibility" wrapper/driver.

I am not using the SciTech GLDirect 3.0 driver beta seen in the video because it requires a card capable of higher DirectX versions than 6, which is what the S3 ViRGE supports. I may revisit this video idea with a later graphics card in a future video for more thorough testing.

Using the 2.00G wrapper, Minecraft Alpha and Beta have many visual bugs. Text is not rendered at all, for example, and the world selection screen is eerily dim compared to what it should be. Beta in particular extends this darkness to the title screen as well.

Under 2.00G, Minecraft Beta 1.7.3 with Optifine no longer has this darkness.

Under 2.00G, Minecraft Release 1.5.2... inverts the colors of the Mojang logo?

Did you know that if you fall out of the Half Life intro tram in just the right place, you get to see the multiverse?

The framerate starts to rise when this happens, as it appears that the tram after becoming unstuck will trigger the next loading screen. Unfortunately, this loading screen appears to be what seals your fate. Once the tram stops though you at least get to meet biblically-accurate Half Life rendering in a smooth double-digit framerate!

Performance (2.00C)

GLGears: 63 FPS

ClassiCube 1.3.5/1.3.6: Unknown; game fails to render

Minecraft in-20091223-1459: Unknown; crash on game launch

Minecraft Alpha 1.0.4: Unknown; crash on game launch

Minecraft Beta 1.7.3: Unknown; crash on game launch

Minecraft Beta 1.7.3 w/Optifine: Unknown; crash on game launch

Minecraft Release 1.5.2: Unknown; assumed crash on game launch based on previous versions' behavior

Tux Racer: Unknown; game fails to render (no longer seizure inducing at least)

Half Life: Unknown; crash on game launch

GL Excess: Unknown; instant crash

Performance (2.00G)

GLGears: 390 FPS; only a black screen was rendered.

ClassiCube 1.3.5/1.3.6: 10-30 FPS range, ~12-15 FPS on average; most of the game still does not render, but text, the hotbar, hand items, and very occasional flickers of geometry do render. Seizure warning.

Minecraft in-20091223-1459: Unknown; crash on world load

Minecraft Alpha 1.0.4: Unknown; crash on world load

Minecraft Beta 1.7.3: Unknown; crash on world load

Minecraft Beta 1.7.3 w/Optifine: Unknown; crash on world load

Minecraft Release 1.5.2: Unknown; crash on game launch

Tux Racer: Unknown; crash on game launch

Half Life: 4-5 FPS; game physics are almost entirely broken down and I'm pretty sure you end up phasing into a higher plane of existence along the way. Trying to enter the training room crashed the entire PC afterwards.

GL Excess: Unknown; instant crash

GLDirect 3.00

OpenGL Version String (3.00G)

Vendor: SciTech Software, Inc. Renderer: GLDirect Version: 1.1

OpenGL Version String (3.00C)

Vendor: SciTech Software, Inc. Renderer: GLDirect S3 Inc. ViRGE/DX/GX Version: 1.2 Mesa 3.1

GLDirect 3.00, both the CAD and Game versions, appears to behave identically to GLDirect 2.00 in almost all cases unless stated otherwise.

Performance (3.00G)

GLGears: 249 FPS; gears are rendered completely incorrectly

ClassiCube 1.3.5: 15-20 FPS on average; most of the game fails to render and the system hard-crashes after a few seconds.

ClassiCube 1.3.6: Insta-crash.

Minecraft: Crash on world load across all versions. Didn't bother testing Release 1.5.2.

Tux Racer: Unknown; crash on game launch

Half Life: ~4 FPS; extremely choppy audio in tutorial level.

GL Excess: Unknown; instant crash

Performance (3.00C)

GLGears: 80 FPS; Perfectly rendered

ClassiCube 1.3.5/1.3.6: Unknown; renders a white screen

Minecraft: Crashes on game launch. The game may also complain about color depth here.

Tux Racer: Unknown; renders a white screen

Half Life: Unknown; renders a white screen and then crashes on game launch

GL Excess: Unknown; instant crash

Techland S3D

We've now moved on from GLDirect! From here on out, each wrapper is instead a discrete opengl32.dll file that must be dropped into the folder of whatever program you'd like to run it with.

OpenGL Version String

Vendor: Techland Renderer: S3 Virge 3093KB texmem KNI Version: 1.1 beta 6

Right off the bat, things appear to be taking a turn for the interesting as GLGears fails to render anything.

Performance

GLGears: 60 FPS, but only because a black screen is rendered.

ClassiCube 1.3.5/1.3.6: Crashes on game launch but renders a solid blue screen.

Minecraft in-20091223-1459: We load into a world! Have fun trying to play it though. Rendering is very flickery and broken. It may be possible that there's an issue of some kind with z-buffering. 12-15 fps if that matters at all in this case.

Minecraft Alpha 1.0.4: Crashes on game launch.

Minecraft Beta 1.7.3: Renders an inverted vignette that slowly grows darker.

Minecraft Beta 1.7.3 w/Optifine: Crashes on world load.

Minecraft Release 1.5.2: Rendered the title screen with many errors for a brief moment before turning to a black screen and crashing.

Tux Racer: Unknown; renders mostly a white screen. The game does respond to user inputs, and the rendered scene changes based on those inputs, but no textures or complex objects are ever rendered. Instead, you only get the white "floor" plane, a solid blue skybox, and translucent boxes where text, objects, and particles should've been.

Half Life: Crash on game launch; absolutely RAVAGES the title screen in ways I thought only the Alliance AT3D could.

GL Excess: Actually loads! But renders only solid black or white screens after the initial loading screen.

Techland D3D

Two more wrappers left after this one! This wrapper and the Techland S3D wrapper that came before it were both created by Techland originally for their "Crime Cities" game, which, being an OpenGL title during an era where support was spotty at best across the dozens of vendors that existed at the time, necessitated the creation of a set of OpenGL wrappers that could translate calls to other APIs.

Anyway, I originally thought that there wasn't going to be much that'd be interesting about this wrapper based on how Minecraft (didn't) work, but I was quickly proven wrong in the things I tested afterwards!

Vendor: Techland Renderer: Direct3D (display, Primary Display Driver) KNI Version: 1.1 beta 6

Performance

GLGears: ~290 FPS, but only because a black screen is rendered.

ClassiCube 1.3.5/1.3.6: 2-5 FPS. Runs with z-buffering issues. Faster than software rendering, but not by much (SW rendering was roughly 1-3 FPS)

Minecraft: Renders only a black screen and (usually) crashes.

Tux Racer: Unknown; renders a mostly-white screen. However, shading works well enough that you can just barely distinguish what is what.

Half Life: Crash on game loading after the title screen; absolutely RAVAGES the title screen in ways I thought only the Alliance AT3D could.

GL Excess: Actually runs! Performance is alright in some parts but generally remains low. Also, it erroneously uses the exact same texture for every single rendered object.

S3Mesa/AltOGL

So, it turns out that there may or may not be some level of bugginess involved with S3Mesa and AltOGL on my current testing setup. Whereas both wrappers were (somewhat) stable and able to load into both Minecraft and Half Life with relatively little trouble in previous experiments with AltOGL/S3Mesa and the Virge, this time around it doesn't appear to be working as expected. There may be something that got screwed up thanks to having installed and used multiple different versions of GLDirect prior to using S3Mesa and AltOGL.

The best-case scenario would have been to start off with a fresh install of Windows 98 with every test run with a different wrapper, but in this case I didn't do that. As a result, the findings for S3Mesa and AltOGL here should be considered with a grain of salt.

Vendor: Brian Paul Renderer: Mesa S3GL V0.1 Version: 1.1 Mesa 2.6

Vendor: Brian Paul Renderer: altD3D Version: 1.2 Mesa 3.0

Performance - AltOGL

GLGears: 125 fps

ClassiCube 1.3.5/1.3.6: crash + system lockup

Minecraft in-20091223-1459: crashes on world load (normally it's much more stable according to previous videos. See here for reference: Indev on S3 ViRGE using AltOGL

Minecraft: Aside from Beta 1.7.3 with Optifine which crashes on world load, all versions of the game crash instantly.

Tux Racer: Freezes on main menu

Half Life: Instacrash

GL Excess: Instacrash

Performance - S3Mesa

GLGears: i forgor to run it 💀

ClassiCube 1.3.5/1.3.6: no crash but everything is rendered in solid white rather than with textures. performance is likely in the single digits.

Minecraft in-20091223-1459: crashes on world load (normally it's much more stable according to previous videos. See here for reference: Indev on S3 ViRGE using S3Mesa

Minecraft: Aside from Beta 1.7.3 with Optifine which crashes on world load, all versions of the game crash instantly.

Tux Racer: Renders just about everything except for the game terrain and player character. Performance seems to just barely reach double-digits.

Half Life: Instacrash; textures missing on main menu (similarly to Minecraft indev, this is an unexpected result as the game normally is able to play.)

GL Excess: Instacrash

Misc Notes

Running HWinfo32 crashes the system regardless of if KernelEX is enabled or not.

GLDirect 5 refuses to do anything other than software rendering due to the lack of higher DirectX support by the Virge.

GLDirect 3 can "run", but crashes the entire system after a few seconds in Classicube using the "game" wrapper.

GLDirect 3, unlike 5, has no license code available for free use.

I didn't have the opportunity to record during the time GLDirect 3's trial was active, and it expired already so to avoid having to reinstall everything to get a new trial (I've already tried to roll back the system calendar), I will instead be using GLDirect 2, which I have in fact found a license code for.

GLDirect 2 has a fourth option for OpenGL acceleration beyond the CAD/Game DirectX hardware acceleration and the CPU software acceleration, which is a DX8-based wrapper that appears to have later debuted fully in GLDirect 3.x and up. I think it's safe to assume that the CAD/Game DX6-based wrappers were then deprecated and received no further development after GLDirect 2.x given the pivot to a newer DirectX API.

There are a number of other wrappers available for the S3 ViRGE, and even an OpenGL MCD for Windows 2000. However, I'm sticking with the five that were listed here as they implement enough of the OpenGL spec to be (more) widely compatible with a number of games. The S3Quake wrapper, for example, implements only enough of the spec to run GLQuake, and I have never gotten it to even launch any other titles.

I really, sincerely didn't expect MC Beta 1.7.3 to launch at all even with Optifine, given how from prior testing I found that the game would instantly crash on anything higher than Classi--nevermind, it just crashed on world-load. (S3Mesa, AltOGL, TechlandD3D, TechlandS3D, GLDirect 1.x)

Non-Optifine Beta 1.7.3 crashes before even hitting the Mojang splash screen. (S3Mesa, AltOGL, TechlandD3D, GLDirect 1.x)

Non-Optifine Beta 1.7.3 gets into a world! All text is missing though as are the blocks. Performance is expectedly horrendous. (TechlandS3D)

Making batch files to handle version-switching instead of doing it by hand is nice.

Alongside the system setup for testing apparently no longer being ideal for using S3Mesa and AltOGL, comparison against some test runs done on an Athlon XP 1.1GHz system also reveal that the Virge performs far better with a faster CPU like the aforementioned Athlon XP than the 750MHz Pentium that this series of experiments is built upon. This experiment as a result may be eventually redone in the future using that faster CPU.

[linuxgames]

Extreme Tux Racer 0.7.1: mantenendo la tradizione del pinguino volante http://dlvr.it/ScwsJG

[lowpolyanimals]

Tux from Tux Racer

[chinbiz]

Did anyone else have a crush on Linux Tux when they were a kid in the late 2000s /early 2010s?

This guy. Him.