Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 11/04/1701:22 PM
Thanks Lee. We had a moderator's lounge private forum where various indiscretions and violations were discussed, and well, it was a different time. Very rarely was any drastic action agreed. At most a short time-out usually. There was actually one member who I wanted to perma-ban, since I just couldn't stand him. But personal feelings can't be part of it of course. Still, I so wanted to do it. To wield my power mwuhahah and smack him hard with the ban stick. How you like me now?!
But yeah, the mod crew was a pretty sane and even-keeled group and we sure let a lot go
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 11/06/1710:35 AM
Thanks so much, DBond, for refreshing the memories... I browsed the linked pages with a tear in my eye... Good old days of Frugal's with the fora so lively, many helpful posts regarding the subject matter, but lots of fun, too. (The Pilot's Bar, rep-whoring etc.) I even found the screenshot thread I had started in the Jane's F/A-18 subforum, not archived, unfortunately. So many familiar nicknames and callsigns All I can say is pity it's gone. BMS forums are fine but the Frugal's World atmosphere is probably impossible to reproduce anywhere. Thanks again, Sir!
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 11/06/1701:26 PM
No that has to be a different Froggle/Frugal.
Mark Frugal Bush was in to civ flight sims though, so maybe he has been among us all along under the nom de guerre Froogle That would throw us off his track.
Hey TG, my pleasure. You and I used to discuss guitars didn't we?
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 11/06/1702:19 PM
Yep, guitars and the Gothic Saga we were so fond of in those days. I play quite a lot (the guitar, I mean), chiefly at home or at parties, for my friends, but I do an occasional gig, too. Currently i have a Gibson SG and a nice French made LAG acoustic. Well, here's a sample, if you care to listen to it. https://soundcloud.com/coda1953/my-inmprovisation-on-pachelbels-canon-in-d-major-chord-progression
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 11/06/1702:29 PM
No sound here at work, but I'll check it out later.
Oh yeah, Gothic. Those were the days lol. I've had my eye on Elex or whatever the new Gothic is called. Have you tried it?
I still have all of my guitars, and now I have a young son who I'm teaching which is so awesome. My current stable is two Les Pauls, two Strats, a Tele, a PRS, a Blueridge and a Fender acoustic. Plus a few others which escape me at the mo. Still have the Marshall stack, and few combo amps, Fender Blues Junior get used the most.
I bought my son a scaled-down Strat that's a spitting image of my '62 RI. Three-tone burst with rosewood 'board. He thinks it's so cool that we have the 'same' guitar.
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 11/06/1702:41 PM
This thread is slowly turning into a miniature Frugals Good times, good times.
(and no, BMS is far from Frugals - the thing with knowledge-based forums such as flight sim forums is that people enjoy showing off their superior levels an/or go mayhem over the fact someone on internet is "wrong" and things easily turn toxic, this was kept very well-contained on Frugals IMO and maybe not so much on BMS ditto - closest to Frugal Quality today is, IMO, SimHQ despite this place had not the best reputation among the Frugalites - or was that only Mower? haha)
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 11/06/1703:06 PM
There were some serious flame wars at Frugals. We did our best to both keep them contained and to also allow a good deal of latitude. It was a forum where you had to have your big boy pants on.
For me anyway, it was the forum that had the most personality, the most camaraderie. It was a lot of fun hanging out there. I used to write feature articles for Frugal's, and got lots of good sims before release to write reviews. Like Steel Beasts and Battle of Britain for example. The Frugal's World Grand Prix Legends leagues we used to run were probably the best time I've had on the internet. I loved that stuff and miss it even now.
OH, yeah, and most guys would have joined after we went to the UBB style board. Before then, we used this
Thanks to Force10 for the image. This is what Frug's looked like prior to September 1999. It used the infamous Comet Cursor and the threads were the cascading type. I hated it and was so happy when we switched. Frug asked the moderators at the time, which was only me and Ken "KC23" Cook and we both voted to change. Up until then, we were mainly known for XCom, but soon after the flight sim stuff took off.
This image shows the old style board with posts in the fall of 2000. Not sure how, because I am fairly certain we made the switch in '99, but perhaps I mis-remember or perhaps the old style board was still an option?
I came to Frug's from the Combatsim boards. In the late 90's I was posting there about flight sims, mostly MiG Alley, EAW and Flanker. My MiG Alley campaign posts got Mark's attention and he asked me join the staff at Frug's and I was only too happy to do so. I did some stuff for Combatsim too, but not much, mostly EAW articles if I recall.
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 11/07/1712:23 PM
Well Hi people, I have been offline sim wise for almost 10 years. Seeing the Frugal Memorial & several folk I remember from Frugals brought me back from the dead.
I learned enuff about flame wars to keep my opinion regarding anything other than exact sim stuff, to myself, anyway good to be back.
"Seems like it was yesterday" hell yea I will be 57 this spring 2017, and a week goes by in 2-3 days. Considering the pain that comes w/ old age consider it a blessing. If time went by like it did when i was a kid (and life was pretty fascinating) I would go nuts.
Do to health stuff I had to quit smoking cigars, drinking booze, motorcycles cars at night to local only during day i used to scuba dive, kung fu, taoist meditation/ magic almost.... any way cool stuff. m/c was a 1982 GS1100e w/ a full blown racing engine redline was 12,500 top speed 180 mph 1/4 mile 10 sec 135 mph.....it was fun to destroy new 600-750-900 sport bikes ,not for road racing though.....
Now my old g/f pal died 1.5 years ago, everyone i knew from growing up is dead or we don't get along so finding new people and things to do that are fun & good for ya is not so easy as it was when I could get on/in a vehicle & drive away........
Anyway just seeing DBOND working to make this forum thread come to life was great. Reading the AARs & everyone else gave such interesting responses, it got me to come back on line to what really appears to be a great group of simmers. What was really fun was using the way back machine to look at frugals, MiG Alley Flanker, Janes, il-2 and Falcon were all released like every few months!!! The Articles really brout me back to damn near my youth.
I had "retired" just when F4;AF was out & I never got anywhere with it. F4-1.08 i used all the time but in campaigns only dropped 500lb gp bombs or maybe a HARM that was it for ground & air to air was easy to control. Jane f15 radar and system was easy fa18 never made it anyw where w/ me, so bottom line I got a lot of time in prop planes w/o electronics so i have plenty to relearn/learn.
Lastly, i got a new gaming system, more like a gaming desktop workstation.
Really lastly the MBD is pretty nice, it is missing some reset buttons for extreme over clocking etc. Mine required 1 bios update to 0812 & 3200 ram was running in seconds. Great sound chip, best system I have ever owned in my life! The 1600x has way more cores/threads than I need, next one for Dad will have 4 core 8 thread cpu w/ built in graphics. rx 470 was left over good enuff but..........................
good to be here..............have a great day everyone.
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 05/26/1809:51 AM
Hi guys, Just stumbled upon this thread and it bought back a lot of memories. Those were happy times although keeping the site going was a huge amount of work. Thanks for all the kind words about the site it really was a labour of love and I miss those times and you guys.
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 05/26/1806:12 PM
Life is good, I’m engaged to a gorgeous and wonderful woman. I’m currently writing my second book. The first one was published almost 2 years ago and was very successful. Don’t currently have a gaming rig and haven’t flown a sim since the divorce but it’s still in the blood.
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 05/30/1803:09 PM
Somebody explain what Frugals was to someone who has never been? How is it different for SimHQ? Or was it just special because there were fewer simming forums back then and it was the golden age of flight sims?
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 05/30/1803:50 PM
Sure some part of the greatness was that it was part of the "beginning", not that I visited during the really early, green/black days was it? but it was huge with all kinds of sections (in my view back then) but pretty much same size as simHQ is today. I enjoyed the ArmA and Falcon parts in particular, DMarkwick was his name? did some kool addons for old Arma. But I think there was more "strong personalities" among the Frugalites, many I've rarley seen since. Aragorn is one character one just cannot forget and I had some dispute with RAM22, later banned at BMS - long before me but I liked him. I had one guy sending e-beer to me and I shared back, it did cost a few frug-bucks though
Dunno, really hard to put so many years and experience into a few words so I guess it ends up with the old lame "one must have been there"
Edit: Oh and did I mention Mowers thong thread? Right Boomer? haha
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 05/30/1804:31 PM
Originally Posted by - Ice
Somebody explain what Frugals was to someone who has never been? How is it different for SimHQ? Or was it just special because there were fewer simming forums back then and it was the golden age of flight sims?
First and foremost I think everyone has his own reasons.
So my take is
1) there were fewer simming forums back then - definitely. So frugs is effectively home to all kinds of simming folks. Unlike nowadays each game has its own forum and I find each crowd doesn't mix with the other. adding social media and game platforms such as steam and discord. But frugs was where everybody hang around and they all talked. Even within the F4 world the LP devs and BMS devs were all residing in the same place. Hah:p
2) and it was the golden age of flight sims - definitely. Community hall here has been over this many times so.. My experience was mostly Falcon4, but all the good sims were present as well. And the entire forum was just a huge knowledge base for Falcon. Plus sim hardware, LAN meet and all the other good stuffs were happening. My stint was when flight sims commercial dev was coming to a gradual close and community modding was starting to thrive, and personally it struck a good balance.
3) moderation. Mods were there but mostly I couldn't see them. So users are usually free to post what's on his mind. I'm finding this very rare nowadayz. Probably since forum moderation is by a 3rd party, there essentially was a speech vacuum left over for common users, much like SHQ perhaps. And probably the internet buiz world had not realized the importance of forums. And it wasn't either hosted by a community modding group where public forums are disliked. Or maybe it was frugal's personal belief that it be so, I dunno don't know Frugal personally but I guess it could well be here. But this was probably the best one for me at least. Like Oden implied, the frugalites were quite.. free, and spirited, and I think it was thanks to this. Actually I think the entire internet was different back then compared to now, a lot less regulated and monetized.
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 05/30/1804:45 PM
Good point on the moderation at Frugals, one "never" saw them (yeah DBond, you're such a meager personality hahaha) but I'm sure they did their thing in the background and just like here at simHQ I find it we have stellar mods but when forums started to show up at the producers, ED in particular, I find that <self censored> kind of moderation is just plain sad. It also breeds a special kind of members, call them brown-nose if you want, and I can't browse ED boards a single time not reacting to someone "trying to be the devs best friend" by their posting. Why the heck do they praise the 3rd party devs for fixing stuff in a pre-release? THEY ALREADY TOOK YOUR MONEY AND ARE SUPPOSED TO FINSISH WHAT THEY PROMISED, <double self censored>
But I'm getting way off topic.
I never saw that kind of mentality at Frugs nor here.
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 05/30/1805:03 PM
Originally Posted by theOden
yeah DBond, you're such a meager personality hahaha
Well the only impression I had on DBond was his FalconAF campaign AARs, a guy that enjoyed and mastered the dynamic campaign. And with a lotta forum post count. Didn't even know he was a moderator. Unthinkable nowadayz where everybody was trying to be the forum overlord or the lord's pet - but I know that ppl don't simply become bad in 10 years, but the system they reside in has changed.
And tbh I never even quite see Frugal much. Except one time where I argued with a notorious character for like 12 pages on F4AF's AIM9X flight model and frugal himself finally locked the thread. Ofc LP later did fix them and then some, and eventually a later BMS guy told me a way to hex edit the files rather easily, so it was all good!
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 05/30/1805:09 PM
Originally Posted by Schwalbe
Well the only impression I had on DBond was his FalconAF campaign AARs, a guy that enjoyed and mastered the dynamic campaign. And with a lotta forum post count. Didn't even know he was a moderator.
What?! Hrrummph
I was the only guy with six silver stars under his name. What prestige! haha
But the fact that you didn't notice might mean we were doing a good job of it. That, or I left it to the others....
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 05/30/1805:31 PM
Originally Posted by DBond
six silver stars
I thought that came with the post count. bwah!
Quote
But the fact that you didn't notice might mean we were doing a good job of it.
My point exactly.
But I'll be honest, nowadayz most of the flight sim/military themed game forums I find are all the conservative "respect authority" military types. The liberal "stick it to the man" ppl moved on to other places like social media, or their own websites like BMS, IL2 SAS or some such where it's ironically even worse. I'm more of an outlier where facebook just creeps me out especially after recent events and I like posting stuff on forums. I dunno if there's a middle ground somewhere... so that's that. Nevertheless things like frugs where the developer relies community management on a 3rd party probably is not to be seen again.
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 05/30/1805:43 PM
Not to put too fine a point on it, but 6 stars were for staff, and members could get to 5 stars with high post counts. And I requested and was granted silver stars by the Frugmeister himself. I think it was a reward for winning the Frugals World Grand Prix Legends leagues. But my memory ain't what it used to be (and even then it was bad)
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 05/30/1810:40 PM
We were one, big brawling, dysfunctional family, that when times would come, would ban together for the common good. Brothers through and through. Got me through 2 cancer operations with guys sending me well wishes and computer gear! ( I was Aragorn's proofreader for the FreeFalcon manuals. (Like herding cats. Great time!)
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 05/31/1809:32 AM
Originally Posted by Falstar
I was Aragorn's proofreader for the FreeFalcon manuals.
That was a piece of art, well still is. I remember laughing through half that book, 700 pages was it too? But I can see people that take themself very serious didn't like it.
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 06/06/1812:49 PM
Haven't heard from or of BBall in years. Hope he is doing well. Always enjoyed his stories and discussing the books we were reading.
And Ken "KC23" Cook. He wasn't with Frugals World for long as I recall, he went to the staff of a different site. But he was instrumental in the beginning of FW.
I mentioned it earlier, but the best thing I've ever done online was race Grand Prix Legends with the gang at Frugals. What a great group. I've had a great time flying Falcon 4 online, but nothing compared to the racing. I was SO in to it. I spent hundreds of hours practicing, just shaving off hundredths of a second in my Eagle. All those laps around the Nurburgring just to improve one sector by .002.
Special mention to Frank Steinbach, the best virtual race car driver I've known. I won the League title three years running, but that was only because Frank purposely chose to run in the Cooper (the slowest car in GPL) in order to give us mere mortals a chance. I've always enjoyed competition, but after high school and college I had fewer ways to find it. I played in a men's hockey league through my early 30s, but after that it was only golf. And GPL. I loved it.
Since then, sadly, there's little of this for me now. But the memories of what we did with those leagues stay with me even after all of these years. What a great crew.
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 06/20/1809:42 AM
Originally Posted by DBond
There was actually one member who I wanted to perma-ban, since I just couldn't stand him. But personal feelings can't be part of it of course. Still, I so wanted to do it.
I can only apologise
Originally Posted by theOden
Sure some part of the greatness was that it was part of the "beginning", not that I visited during the really early, green/black days was it? but it was huge with all kinds of sections (in my view back then) but pretty much same size as simHQ is today. I enjoyed the ArmA and Falcon parts in particular, DMarkwick was his name? did some kool addons for old Arma.
DMarkwick = DM and thanks for the kind words I still do addons, but for a living now.
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 06/20/1812:38 PM
Haha it wasn't you DM. I cannot say who it was as he may be a member here. Bygones be bygones.
I actually played OFP( I think it was) with you. I don't think I had tried ArmA before Frugal's went tits up. Who was the guy organizing the games? Can you name some names of the guys playing OFP/ArmA at Frugs? It's bothering me lol.
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 06/20/1812:54 PM
I remember the day I got a PM from Frugal asking if I wanted to be a mod. That was really a feeling of honor. Still have a copy of my PMs. I just looked through it. JAMF, Coolhand, Goose, etc. Good days.
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 06/20/1801:24 PM
I think some guys were running that yes. As for myself, the only racing I did with the Frug's gang was GPL (both '67 and '65 cars), NASCAR 2003 and F1 sims like F1 2002. I still recall a particularly awesome race at the A1 Ring
Edit: Oh, and I think we squeezed in some GTR and GTR2 as well.
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 06/20/1801:52 PM
Originally Posted by DBond
Haha it wasn't you DM. I cannot say who it was as he may be a member here. Bygones be bygones.
I actually played OFP( I think it was) with you. I don't think I had tried ArmA before Frugal's went tits up. Who was the guy organizing the games? Can you name some names of the guys playing OFP/ArmA at Frugs? It's bothering me lol.
So we had a small group that played together regularly, we went through a progression: Battlefield 1942/DC mod Ghost Recon Rainbow Six 3 OFP ArmA
I can remember some of the guys it was me, Panther, Coolhand, Platty, Gargoyle, Goose, Stewie, TRex, Skyfire, others who's online Frugal names I can't recall right now. I even played with ACOG on occasion
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 06/20/1808:55 PM
No, not much going on there. I registered and made some posts over the years. It is appreciated, but would always struggle to recapture the magic of FW.
I wonder, if FW had never died, what it would look like today. Bunch of old farts complaining about the kids these days I imagine
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 06/20/1811:51 PM
Originally Posted by DBond
No, not much going on there. I registered and made some posts over the years. It is appreciated, but would always struggle to recapture the magic of FW.
I wonder, if FW had never died, what it would look like today. Bunch of old farts complaining about the kids these days I imagine
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 07/11/1810:04 AM
Wow guys. Nice to see you lot again. Miss the old Frugal's world times. And yeah, I literally registered here just to say that :P
Still pick up BMS from time to time, although I'm more into P3D these days. Was also member of FW Inc. in EVE Online back in the days, but not much left there now. Still got my characters in the game though, but kinda non-active these days; too much good flying to be done in P3D...
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 08/03/1808:14 PM
Thanks to Sky for pointing me to this thread.
First, I'm kinda glad not to have been mentioned by name (or alluded to by D Bond).
Second, I've thought over the years of what made FW so special. I really do think it was just a lightning-in-a-bottle thing. Can't be replicated. Can't even really be described. It was special. One of the early examples of what became known as "social media." When I see my kids deal with stuff online, I think back to some of the same kinds of things happening on FW! (BTW, my oldest daughter was born the year Falcon 4 came out. She's almost 21 now.)
Finally, I wish nothing but the best to all those fellow former Frugalites out there. Even the ones who hated me... and that I wasn't particularly fond of back in the day.
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 08/06/1808:14 PM
Time to fire up my Realism Patch and eRazor exe.
I wonder what ever happened to THAT dude. That guy seemed like a coding genius.
ETA:
This PDF always makes me shake my head. Hard to believe I was involved - in even a small way - with something this complicated and ... kinda crazy. http://www.e-haf.org/FHistory/F4history.pdf
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 08/06/1809:07 PM
Hi, T Rex, good to see you, mate (even if it's in the virtual space only) . I do hope all is well. Most of the time I frequent the BMS fora, as I'm still a dedicated Falcon 4.0 pilot in its BMS incarnate now. Surely, I often remember good old days and the time we spent in Goose's Bar talking, arguing, replying the Trivia thread questions and... rep whoring With best wishes TommyGun (same as at Frugal's)
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 09/29/2002:28 AM
Oh Boy, the things you stumble upon.
I can't think how I never saw this thread back in 2017, but hey! what can you do?
I'd add that when I found/joined FW it was on the Delphi forums site. So that might be between the Green cascade and UBB you mentioned at the beginning of this thread DB.
Been here a few times in the past, but never managed to get the same momentum as FW. Even though I try and keep my rig up to date, getting BMS and my gear all working together is just another one of those jobs I"ll get to one day.
The Grand Prix Legends league was indeed a highlight...for the select few that showed up LOL, You mentioned Frank Steinbeck, but what about Jussix, Smok'nBob, and Jussix's partner in crime who's name escapes my ageing mind (Smeghead?). I think Coolhand even had a go.
...and I still can't forgive myself for my ill thought-out attempt to pass you in your Eagle on the inside at Ascari that day in Monza. Boy were you pissed. I'm still sorry.
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 09/30/2012:20 PM
Hey Mark, great to see you here again!
I think Jussi's partner in crime you are thinking of is Brooks? He's the guy he ran Crash Test Dummies with, although I don't think Brooks ever raced in our GPL leagues, but did race GTR with us.
Yeah, those GPL leagues were great, and as I mentioned I miss it. Along with flying Falcon 4 with the boys, the time I spent racing GPL with you and the gang was the best time I've had on the internet. I was a bit obsessive about it. I turned thousands of laps over the years looking to improve, even if by a hundredth of a second haha. That "Robot" nick was earned with some serious devotion. Running around the Nurburgring countless times, and then saying, well what if I tried this differential? And then doing it again, and then again, again
I don't recall the particular incident you describe at Monza, so even if I were bent out of shape (sounds like me yes) it didn't last. I looked forward to each and every race, and prepared for them like it was real. Hosting mid-week practice sessions, using RA to analyze each lap, comparing them to yours and Frank's to see where I was gaining or losing and approaching it all rather scientifically so I'd be as prepared as possible come Saturday night (or Sunday morning in Oz). The Robot nick came from this, a low deviation due to this approach and no lack of concentration, which is vital in GPL of course. And the debriefs, where each driver posted his thoughts and perspective after the race. Good stuff.
Ah, just thinking about it now brings it all back. I miss the camaraderie, the competition, my Eagle (battling your Lotus and whatever crap car Frank was in) and having something so enjoyable to look forward to each week. It all came to an end when Frugal's went belly-up, but the memories are great. Hope all is well with you and yours.
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 10/04/2008:35 PM
Wow awesome! I know exactly where that is, called Flugplatz? Fitting, airborne at a buck-forty one. Too bad I can't see the other side of that sign lol. Eagle was meant to fly. So cool to see that after all these years. That had to be around 2004-2006 I reckon.
8:12, not a bad run around the Ring really
And for the first timed lap of the session, wonder what I turned on this one haha? Probably spun in the Carousel. It's been a very long time but I think my Ring PB was 8:04? It's on GPL Rank for sure, but I cannot seem to log in there, forget my password I guess.
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 10/05/2007:26 PM
I successfully logged in to GPL Rank but it shows no times, nor anyone on my buddies list. Can you still get in Mark? Do I show there with submitted times/rank?
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 10/07/2012:37 PM
Oh man, so cool. That's obsession in graph form haha
Not sure why nothing shows for me. When I log in it's literally blank, not a single laptime. Maybe I had more than one registration? But I'm using the same name so I doubt that's the problem. And I wonder what the big dip is in the graph? Maybe Frank logged in on my account accidentally
Some observations....
Despite my love for the Eagle, my results show the Lotus is the fastest. We already knew that but it's interesting to see that despite spending far less time in it I managed to be six seconds ahead of the Eagle. After all these years I am still the 1124th-fastest driver on GPL rank, and 578th-fastest across all chassis.
The chassis ranks show the relative capability of each car, even if I only did enough laps in the BRM and Honda to complete the Monster. I can recall that actually going negative in the BRM was quite the challenge and I was very happy when I did it. Man I hated the BRM. That big hunk of iron on the back used to swing it around at the worst times. Relative to all drivers, my Brabby times are the best. I really liked that car, and that's what I drove in the 1965 season we ran ( a blue one to boot!). It always felt underpowered, but it was so light and nimble, a real joy to drive. I'm a little surprised that I was faster in the Brabby than the Fez, but that's down to a ton of different factors, not least of which is seat time.
It's interesting too that the Cooper is faster than either the BRM or the white whale. It had a lawnmower motor, but it was just so smooth to drive. Fun car. Of course this is ME driving, and I'm sure other drivers have the results shake out differently. Can't believe I never ran a race in the Cooper. Hotlapping only.
For anyone reading this and wondering what this is.... GPL Rank is a website where drivers can submit their laps and races to achieve a 'rank', which is that driver's personal best laptime compared to the benchmark reference laps, which were the laptimes of each of the replays Papyrus included for each track. It works like par in golf. For example the laptime in the replay for Kyalami was 1:20.861, so if you happened to run a 1:18,861 you have a -2.000 for Kyalami. GPL rank is therefore the sum total of all track replays compared to your personal best at all 11 tracks. A 'negative' rank (under par) is the goal of course, to be faster than the Papy replays. This was such a motivator for me when I was racing GPL. At Frug's I (we) would make posts just about anytime we ran a new PB and dropped the rank.
Monster Rank is the same thing, but for all 7 cars across all 11 tracks. GPL rank just considers your fastest, regardless of chassis. But Monster Rank considers all cars. There was also another rank, I think it was called Challenge Rank, for a group of add-on tracks like Solitude, Le Mans, Goodwood and the like.
Thanks a lot for posting this Mark, it's wonderful to see and bring this all back for me. If it's no trouble, could you show me what my Ring PB is?
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 10/08/2002:13 AM
Oh Boy, do I sense a re-installation of GPL about to happen?
I think you might need a new thread here DB. Perhaps one called "SimHQ GPL League"
I had a look at your driver detail from my buddy list in GPLRank but it doesn't show any email or other unique ID info for your record that I see (see below). So you might have to search the dim dark depths of that memory and drag out your alternative log-in. There are lots of ranks in GPLRank especially given the mods that were popular, custom tracks, 1965 F1 cars, CANAM etc. Frankly, I'm surprised you didn't finish them all
Name: Derek Bond Country: United States Year of Birth: 1967 Sex: Male URL: http://www.frugalsworld.com First login: 2003-06-13 Last login: 2008-07-23 Last update: 2007-07-07 19:23:32 Class: F1 Steering device: Momo Force Steering method: Wheel Brake method: Left Foot Comment:
Until you figure out your log-in, your wish is my command:
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 10/08/2011:57 AM
8:04, just as I remembered
Thanks Mark for taking the time to do this. I sent a message to GPL Rank admin so will see if I can square away my issue. It's funny you say that, because I did think about running GPL again. Not sure I will, and I'm so much older now that I doubt I could improve any of those laptimes. Then again, maybe a faster computer would translate to faster laps haha.
Two things jump out at me from that last image. It surprises me to see that my Monaco PB is in the Brabby and that my Silverstone PB is in a race.
When's the last time you ran GPL? What's your rank these days, if you care to share.
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 12/05/2006:16 AM
I miss Frugalsworld... When that Site/Forum died it took part of me with it. It was my goto site for Falcon for what seemed like forever back then... The last Microprose Patch, 1.08US... Then the Realism Patches, The PMC TFW Theaters, eRazor & the eTeam... The "High Res" 1024 x 768 pits from Paul Wilson and Aeyes... Ahhh those were the days!
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 12/05/2004:54 PM
Yes, a lot of us do. Of course you can't reply since you went and got yourself banned already. But it's not a long one
It was a different time, but if I compare it to what SimHQ is today it I miss it even more. All good things must end, or so they say.
The discussions were more spirited, had more depth, moderation was loose. At times I feel like a fish out of water here. I miss detailed AARs, ten-page discussions about missile flight profiles or the finer points of campaigns. It's all the lowest common denominator now. Falcon's old yeah, and I get it. But the forum is just so dead, and when new threads do pop it's about hardware or functionality. Bah, I've long accepted it, but every now and then you think about what a good flight sim forum was all about and it's natural to rue its demise.
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 07/08/2111:07 PM
The place was the a library of every aircraft from every nation ever built...
Every knob or switch from anything that was a combat airframe was right there in front of you, A dictionary of what the real dudes see and prolly the most knowledge i ever learned when i was a recruit to the whole thing...
Yes i was volatile and got banned more than a few times but uncle frug was ok as much as he could be,
The devs themselves caused most of the trouble though?
Just saying and in a funny way the dudes would choke each other every chance they got...
You robbed my skins or our wheels look better than yours LOL,
Then the fans from each team would go nutz and attack each other?
Then the mods would have to jump in and clean it all up.
Then their would be lawsuit threads and who robbed who and all kinds of legal krap.
Stuff that was between the devs and nobodies business but theirs?
After a while the place went ballistic and spears start flying everywhere.
The dam place was tough as it gets and i think that was a great thing in its own way.
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 07/17/2106:15 PM
<My fading FW-era memory...spelling and #'s might be incorrect>
The dance: F4 SP3/BMS#?/FF3.1 + Aeyes/Stop + HiTiles "How to engage nose wheel steering?" "In two weeks..." "LockOn sucks...AIM-120's garbage, still no DC." Mower
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 12/13/2112:56 AM
Yeah I haven't been round much. Just got back into simming (although not on Falcon--I don't have the time!). We did try to get Frugals running again with the help of some very generous people (and one in particular), but it just wasn't to be--and wouldn't have been the same without Mark anyway.
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 12/13/2108:24 PM
Just curious as it was long ago, but did you use the Wigean handle at Frug's at all? I was just thinking that folks from then might not recognize your new version of Nor'Wigean
I was also thinking about pronunciation, as I think Americans at least would read it as wig-E-an, and not wee gin. I suck at phonetics!
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 12/17/2104:47 PM
Originally Posted by DBond
Just curious as it was long ago, but did you use the Wigean handle at Frug's at all? I was just thinking that folks from then might not recognize your new version of Nor'Wigean
I was also thinking about pronunciation, as I think Americans at least would read it as wig-E-an, and not wee gin. I suck at phonetics!
How do you pronounce it?
Sorry, I deleted my last post.
I think I used the Wigean handle in the last years at Frugal`s. BBall misspelled my name in a PM once as a slang I guess, and I thought I could use it when I changed from "Norwegian". I used Norwegian in the early days when Frugal had the Comet Cursor and I felt pretty lonely as a foreigner. Then there was an airliner that decided to call themselves "Norwegian" . I worked for the competition so there was a need for change.
About pronunciation, I`m not sure. You know better than me. I wish I could ask BBall, but I don`t know how to contact him..
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 12/20/2107:02 PM
Originally Posted by theOden
But I think there was more "strong personalities" among the Frugalites, many I've rarley seen since. Aragorn is one character one just cannot forget and I had some dispute with RAM22, later banned at BMS - long before me
Huh? What? HAHAHA
I had a few disputes with people, no doubt. I-Hawk(Yoni) was probably the biggest after the breakup between FreeFalcon and BMS went down. He was ragging on FF and I had just become a developer with them. It was all good though, we've become good friends through the years. He's a great guy.
I thought I had already posted in here but, I can't find it. Oh well.
I'm sure DBond is wondering where I went after we flew a bit of Elite:D. Well, life showed back up. And I put down ED a while back.
I'm actually now building a UK Theater for Falcon. A couple pics:
Been working on it about 3 weeks now.
At some point I'll get back into ED after the New Years. SO...Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all you Frugalite cadavers!!
Truly Yours,
RAM22
EDIT: By the way, Ara(Clayton) is a pretty cool fellow. He's a ROCK STAR in Japan. He post's at BMS every now and again. His band made a cover CD of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the chap sent it to me. They're pretty good!!
EDIT2: Yeah, I got banned at BMS. So I created a new User - Cloud9, and just for good measure, I created a third User-Aces & Eights!! HAHA. They knew I was me, but they left me alone. At one point I-Hawk almost had me on the BMS team, but it didn't happen. Good thing though, I didn't want to be pinned down to having to be relied upon for an extended period of time. Too many other things going on in life. I like the role of freelance better anyhow!
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 12/20/2107:22 PM
I got banned at BMS in an instant when they released this whole "CD Check" thing and I posted how to get around having to have the CD in the drive every time you installed--practically all of us own Falcon 4.0 legitimately, anyways, so what's the harm? Who wants to put a CD in? And who wants to pay for it again on GoG?
Anyways, the mods at BMS did not like that. There was no remedy, no warning, no chance of reinstatement.
Instant, permanent ban.
Punks.
This doesn't mean I don't visit there still, but I'll never tell how.
Frugals was the best. Many of y'all I remember from there from there, RAM included.
Whatever happened with Aragorn? I ran into Mower on the DCS forums recently...
That UK theater looks really interesting, btw. I love ye olde fonte and the mighty sailing shippes.
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 01/13/2209:30 AM
Oh my so many familiar names, cool to see ya guys. I hope everyone is doing great. I'm trying to get back to flying after long absence, aiming at Falcon BMS mostly and IL21946. Il2 CLoD would be an option once I rebuild my flying rig and figure out how to make it work under WINE. As far as forums presence goes /me mostly hanging on BMS forum (https://forum.falcon-bms.com). While it's not on FW level, but it is quite alive, one still can have decent discussion up there and you can meet there some of the oldtimers. It even has this grey on navy blue color theme. So everyone is welcome there. I'm really happy to see ya all, stay safe guys, fly high and fast
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 01/17/2205:21 PM
Hehe, yep, but I found their moderating policy quite reasonable. So as long as someone is not trying to mess with legal limitations put on the team or get into politics he should be safe there. I can understand their stance. All in all it's +10 years of their unpaid hard work to get Falcon to the state it is now. Which imho is the best we ever had in history. Code itself It's feature rich, fast, stable in both singe and multiplay. And what's equally important it has cleared legal ground securing further development. Yes BMS forum might be not as relaxed as it was on Frugals board, but sill it's decent place, hell even it's possible to disagree (politely) with Mav-jp without instantly getting into the fight, which you couldn't take for granted on WF forum.
BTW Raptor One has reappared on BMS forum, asking who, from the oldtimers is still around. So you guys might show up just to say hello. Few folks up there, including old Ara'pron will be happy to hear from you, esp Rexbian he misses much.
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 02/21/2206:34 PM
Originally Posted by Phoenix54C
The place was the a library of every aircraft from every nation ever built...
Every knob or switch from anything that was a combat airframe was right there in front of you, A dictionary of what the real dudes see and prolly the most knowledge i ever learned when i was a recruit to the whole thing...
Yes i was volatile and got banned more than a few times but uncle frug was ok as much as he could be,
The devs themselves caused most of the trouble though?
Just saying and in a funny way the dudes would choke each other every chance they got...
You robbed my skins or our wheels look better than yours LOL,
Then the fans from each team would go nutz and attack each other?
Then the mods would have to jump in and clean it all up.
Then their would be lawsuit threads and who robbed who and all kinds of legal krap.
Stuff that was between the devs and nobodies business but theirs?
After a while the place went ballistic and spears start flying everywhere.
The dam place was tough as it gets and i think that was a great thing in its own way.
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 03/11/2207:24 PM
Originally Posted by MarkG
<My fading FW-era memory...spelling and #'s might be incorrect>
The dance: F4 SP3/BMS#?/FF3.1 + Aeyes/Stop + HiTiles "How to engage nose wheel steering?" "In two weeks..." "LockOn sucks...AIM-120's garbage, still no DC." Mower
Oops...poor wording on previous page.
I wasn't pretending to be Mower, just reminiscing about FW and remembering how much I enjoyed his posts. Apologies for the confusion.
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 04/07/2208:24 PM
Hello any and all; Logged into here for the first time in many years, somehow remembered my info. What a great thread. Recently retired so getting back into flying BIG TIME. Finally, have the time. Done more in the winter vs summer though. Got a new pc, waiting on a new hotas, and have AF and BMS loaded and exploring. DBond, you still around ?
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 04/08/2202:12 PM
I haven't flown Falcon in some time. A recent trip down memory lane, reading the AARs from our SimHQ online campaigns, made me nostalgic for it and gave me the itch. One of the most recent posts in the campaign thread has the links if interested.
The only flying I've been doing is in Elite Dangerous, although I have my eye on the Apache in DCS.
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 04/08/2202:57 PM
Thanks much.
I think Schnidrman still flies, of the guys here who flew regularly. I've basically been out since 4.34. Just moved on to other stuff, but history repeats and I could come round again. I bought a set of Crosswinds and these are the first pedals I've owned that weren't crap, and it makes me want to try them in Falcon, even if you don't really need pedals in Falcon aside from taxi.
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 04/08/2204:59 PM
Yes I will. I have a great time flying Falcon multi. As long as it's the campaign
Yes the Crosswinds are amazing. So tight and smooth. They had better be for that sort of money. But after twenty years of using crap it was time to take that sort of plunge and I don't regret it a bit. I figured I've dropped $1000 on one Cougar, half that again on a backup, plus Track IR, so I'm in to it for nearly two grand, so what's another 400 on top shelf pedals, ya know? I can afford it and they are light years beyond the CH Pro and Thrustmaster Elite-level pedals I had used.
I like them so much I've been thinking of expanding my simset with a new prop sim and a helo sim, two genres where rudder pedals are required, and give them a proper workout. They're nice in Elite, but not really needed. Would be the same with Falcon, which I flew for years with no pedals hooked up at all and never missed a beat. Fly by wire makes pedals less necessary.
The Crosswinds are high quality, very well made, have toe brakes and are adjustable and moddable. Not recommending them necessarily due to the price, but for anyone who wants top pedals they can't go wrong with Crosswinds.
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 04/08/2205:15 PM
Oh yeah; campaign for sure. Yes, flight sim gear is for sure an area where one gets what they pay for and quality has a price. I'm starting from scratch again so been spending my fair share too.
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 04/08/2206:35 PM
I'm still partial to the CH products stuff. I looked at Winwing, Virpil, and VKB and will get something there eventually. But the darn CH stuff never wears out ! I also live in a town that has a factory/business that still has CH gear and potentiometers in stock, so it makes that side of things easy.
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 04/21/2202:02 PM
Originally Posted by DBond
Yeah, Falcon's a serious sim for serious dudes who need serious gear. That costs serious money. [...]
Let me disagree on the money part, Falcon BMS is one of the most affordable flight sims out there. Yep, you can shell thousands on the gear/pit but BMS can also be enjoyed on quite basic PC. Let's say 12th gen i3 + 16GB DDR4 mem, 1060-1070 class GPU, 1080p 24-27" display, X52 HOTAS and el cheapo FreeTrack-like setup. That'd be less than a half of what DCS/MSFS 2020/X-Plane rig would cost. In fact only aspect where investing more money would return much better experience is game controllers.
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 04/21/2203:42 PM
Sorry kinda missed the humor dumb me.
Anyways we all know it always starts with let's build simple cheap machine for gaming/simming, ending as multi-grand mega-monster PC + home made pit BTW it seems ina about 1 to 1.5 year from now all falconeers are gonna need to beef up their systems. At least the good news is next-gen mid-range systems (although a bit more pricey than usual) are gonna be insanely powerful (both next-gen CPUs and GPUs). Still my estimate is, it's gonna be like 1.5-2 grands USD for such a rig.
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 04/21/2206:15 PM
I was just having fun justifying the absurd expense some of us spend on this hobby.
I've just gone and done it again with a racing set up.
My Cougar was $300 in 2002. I had it a month or two before I sent it off to Cali to have the Evenstrain mod installed. That's another $700, so we're in to it for a grand. Crosswind pedals are $400 and track IR is $150. I added a back up Cougar (Uber NXT mod) for another $350, so not counting the thousands I've spent on stuff I no longer use that's a cool $1900 not counting the actual PC, headset and more!
Offsetting that seemingly absurd investment is the fact that the stick I'm using is superb, perfect for me and is going in to it's 20th year of service. That's outstanding.
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 04/21/2208:48 PM
Yep good quality HOTAS comes at hefty price. I've got myself Cougar+Wartog base+TUSBA+Logitech rudders converted to standalone unit with LeoBodnars board. Once I'll get my rig sorted you I think I'm gonna look for force sensing base.
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 04/25/2206:54 PM
Wow, this place still exists! I recognize quite a few of the names in this thread (been aaages since I last played Falcon 4, easily more than a decade ).
Re: Frugal's World A moment in time - 09/29/2205:44 PM
I do enjoy seeing all the folks from back in the day, I spent alot of my time in Falcon and played with the Eve Online guys I even ended up CEO of Frugalsworlds Eve online Corp. Man i miss those days.