First Videogame Experience
I don't remember much, but one of the earliest videogames I've ever played was Gorilla.bas (on qbasic). I loved that game. It was heaps of fun for it's time!

SNES
I got my SNES after I convinced my dad that videogames are not bad for you (some doctor actually said this on TV). One of my favourites was Mario All Stars. The Super Mario games were all to easy though ... I used to finish Super Mario 3 and Super Mario Brothers 2 without dying once! I also had played SMK, but now the SNES and the games are hidden somewhere gathering dust.

N64
I was excited like any other video game fan. I didn't by PlayStation because I thought it sucked (32bit, 2 players, all these games you never heard from or are dull and boring), so I had to wait for the 64 to come out. It finally came out, but I waited a while because Nintendo makes the introductionary price $700. I could wait a month ... anyway, the only great game out at the time was Mario64. I got the N64 about a month after it came out, and surprisingly, I got MarioKart64 before I bought Mario64. Mario64 was the best game out at that time, and it was a must-have, but I quickly finished it and got bored. It was like the other Mario games ... a lot of fun too.

Mario Kart 64
I had played Kart 64 as soon as I got it. I had the gold trophies in 150cc on the first day, and got Extra Mode. Now I only ever play Grand Prix at 150cc because I like the speed. My times were not bad for their time. I remember Luigi Raceway at 1'41'97 and 33'08 at May 98. I hadn't even know the best strat then! I just did MTs on the turns. My other times were also good, but I've forgotten them.

The Internet
I had the net already, but never though there would be kart 64 sites that you could post your time to. The search began ... I had only gone to N64.com (now ign64.com), but that site wasn't too rich with info on kart. Then I had found some other site which posted time like Luigi Raceaway 1'40s and other obsurd times. I had to find out how it done. I asked many poeple but they just told me that they didn't know why my times were so slow ... I was very good at sliding in the second week of kart, and had mastered it within a month of buying the game. Then I was informed by Rob Eisler about conversions ... this Kevin Booth character was on his site and was 1st in every race. Then I converted my times, and hey presto ... I made it 2nd in nearly every race, and 1st a couple of times. Beleive it or not, some of my PAL unconverted times beat many other NTSC times on most of the Kart64 sites I found.

Andy's page
I had submitted my times to Andy Launspach because I knew they were good enough to make it in at least half the tables. I was honest, and told Andy that my times were PAL, so they didn't get posted. Anyway, he refered me to Rene Elsaesser's PAL page. I made it in 3rd with my first submissions. I had also discovered Dave Hines' PAL and NTSC site, and had give him some times. Now the PAL challenge before me was Steven Zwartjes and Peter Elsaesser. With some hard work, I passed Steven, but Peter was quite a way ahead. I also found Daniel's Strats page and got some good startegies from there. I started to improve most of my times.

"Veni, Vidi, Vici", and all I did was laugh
Time came for me to do some major karting! I had, in one week, improved every single one of my times except for Luigi Raceway and some SCs. I send the LONG list to Rene and Dave. I had received some startegies from Jonathan Bernier, Dave Hines, and some of Peter's strats from his older brother, Rene. That made me improve some courses as well. Then I hit Luigi hard ... from 1'40'93, to 1'40'42, to 1'40'03. Soon after that, sub 1'40! I was hot on fire!!! I had no WRs yet, but I had about 10 times that made it in 2nd place (on Andy Launspach's page). Then I started developing my own startegies!!! This was about two months ago, and now I use my own strategies for Moo Moo Farm 3-lap, Kalimari Desert fastlap (can go under 33"00 with perfection), Toad's Turnpike, Frappe Snowland (fastlap and 3-lap), Choco Mountain, Wario Stadium, Sherbet Land, DK's JP, and Rainbow Road (can go sub 5'01 with luck!). Now some people know my stategies, but they still don't know the full versions! Thus I still have secret weapon!!!

I'm On Top
I finally took over 1st place in PAL, but Peter soon took it back. Then I pressured him and he improved many of his times, which would be better than his NTSC WRs if converted. I then started achieved excellent times, but now that Peter is in the military, I think I'm not giving him a chance to fight back. When he returns he will surely get many 1st places again, and he may end up 1st in PAL again. After Rene and Dave had both asked me to submit my times to Kevin Booth, I though why not. Obviously my times would not be accepted as NTSC times since they were converted, and I knew that, but I had sent the mail so the he knows that there are great karters in PAL too! He replied and I was happy. Now he's posting my times on his (great) site, and making me this page too. Nice guy!!!

The WRs keep coming
After setting some damn good times and WRs I though I was through. That's where I was wrong ... I had never stopped improving!!! And I still am!!! I keep a record of consistent improvment on all my times. My oldest surving times were Valley SC and Wario SC. A week ago (when this was written) I smashed both of them ... 8'68, 28'69, and 4'04, 16'63 respectively. I now have some WRs in SC, but none in SC 3-laps, and that's one of my goals ... get at least 1 WR on SC 3-lap (in fact, I now have 2!!). I know it's hard because I'm up against some excellent karters, but if I could do it in Non-SC, I should be able to do it in SC.

Now I'm slowing down with the improvements ... I don't get nearly as much as I did before. My goal is to get all the WRs ... impossible task you say ... I know it is too! It's one of those goals that could take years to achieve, but I'm absolutely NOT getting tired of Kart64. I should be around for quite some time!!! So that's all I could think of about myself in an hour ... now you know me well enough!

If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or just want to drop a line or two, write to spenev@yahoo.com.

I play on a PAL Nintendo64 because that's what's sold here in Australia. PAL TVs run at 50 frames per second, and NTSC TVs at 60. This makes the speed of the PAL version of Mario Kart 64 slightly slower, and the clock's speed too, so PAL times look slower than NSTC. Conversions are used to see what the PAL time would be in NSTC, and what the NTSC time would be in PAL. There are some factors which are impossible to calculate, so conversions are only 99% accurate. My NTSC converted times don't have to beleived because they're not "real", and have not been set on an NTSC machine. They are, however, somewhat accurate representations of what my times could be like on an NTSC machine. Ok, that's about it really.