How Trackmania Players Conquered Bugs

this is the map D6 released in January

of 2006 as an official campaign track in

TR Mania Nations at a first glance a

very simple looking track consisting of

only a wall ride turn up to the finish

and it didn't take very long for players

to optimize it after only a few months

the world record list on D6 included a

triple tie at 946 and the rest of the

top 10 were all within 200s of a second

perhaps this is to be expected for such

a short track but in a game as complex

as trach Mania you'd be surprised how

far the records can be pushed a few

weeks later something incredible

happened with the entire top 10 having

four second runs and the world record

Being A 3.99 by Smokey for the first

time in the game's history a map had

been shortcut using a combination of two

ridiculous bugs and in the 18 years

since this event players have only

gotten better at harnessing the floss in

the game to optimize their runs to

Perfection this is the story of how

trackmania players conquered

[Music]

bugs the D6 shortcut is truly historic

it was done for the first time in the

summer of 2006 and it opened most

people's eyes to how broken a game Tre

Mania could be the idea of the shortcut

is obvious enough but getting up to the

Finish looked impossible no matter how

you climb the wall you just wouldn't get

the height required to fly through the

Finish but perhaps that wouldn't be a

problem because already on the second

day of the game being out a big

Discovery was made on another campaign

track on the 28th of January in the same

year the player hanu was driving age

three and attempting to get a good time

it's another very simple map with just a

quarter pipe jump up to a few different

finishes since he was aiming for the top

finish he flipped out late and high from

the quarterpipe but he still undershot

The Jump by a lot fortunately though he

managed to hit the exact area just below

the finish line and his run

counted in the days following hundreds

of players copied the strange bug to get

their own 4-second time on the

leaderboards but for a while it didn't

see much use beyond that one map copying

a strategy you've seen someone do on a

track and having the foresight to

attempt it on other Maps is two quite

different things it would take 2 months

before another use case of it was found

on the track G2 where the world record

strategy used to be threading the needle

in a precise Gap but where now with the

knowledge of the bug finish being

possible alore 38 dropped off the side

of the railing early hitting the finish

line from the side and improving the

world record by a huge margin for such a

short track the reason this works is due

to an oversight from the developers that

has the Finish Line hitbox extending out

to the side of a block and it can also

be hit from underneath exactly below the

road border a few months later and in

the case of D6 it's likely that some

players knew the bug finishes existed

and it's natural to set up on the left

side to try to fly up into it but

without getting the wheel lift the

shortcut wouldn't work and what exactly

was that thing nobody really why it

happened but when crossing the green

border enough times this weird

phenomenon would eventually happen and

if it did you could beat D6 in just 3.9

seconds in Broad terms this was the

trach Mania equivalent of a caveman

striking two rocks together and

accidentally making a fire a stunning

coincidence that if it could be properly

understood and harnessed would have

massive implications for other tracks

too though before trying to understand

the bugs players wanted to know whether

or not they would be patched out of the

game as they were frustrating in regular

game playay and even in competitions

where many great runs would fall victims

to crossing the side edges and getting a

huge wheel lift instantly resulting in a

crash and for the devs it must have been

a difficult situation on the physic side

of things it's likely they didn't know

how to easily fix these bugs without

making changes to the car or blocks

which would come with a new set of

problems

invalidating past records and breaking

old Maps but the biggest issue was

likely Financial in 2008 noo revamped

all their past games into two titles

trackmania Nations forever and

trackmania United forever Nations

forever was completely free to play and

featured the formula race car where

United had the formula race car plus six

other vehicles that you could compete on

nao's business model was banking on that

people would discover Nations forever

and then later up upgrade to United to

play the other cars but almost nobody

did in Nations you could play endless

hours of content in online lobbies

official campaigns and user main Maps

you could also make your own maps and

skins as well with so many things being

offered for free it made very little

sense to upgrade and this almost caused

noo to go bankrupt before they were

bought by Ubisoft in late 2009 and for

nadeo it made no sense to focus their

efforts on improving the free game when

they wanted to get players over to the

paid version and so shortly after its

release TR Mania Nations forever was

considered a finished product no further

updates would be pushed and everything

that existed in the game was there to

stay bug finishes Landing bugs wheel

lift bugs and many more would all live

on unpatched

forever it's easy to think that the

existence of bugs automatically make a

game worse after all they are mistak

akes and oversights so they should be

fixed until everything is perfect but

perfect can sometimes be boring and

predictable and in the case of

trackmania the bugs provided a unique

gameplay experience that no other racing

game had and maybe that wasn't such a

bad thing because even the most annoying

bugs like the wheel lift could have its

moments on the official track bo4

acrobatic the world record seemed

completely maxed out in 2009 the track

itself is again simple featuring only a

downhill a wall ride and a straight line

to the finish and the leaderboard looks

just like you'd expect with the entire

top 10 being within a few hundreds of a

second and the world record Being A 1256

by caran but then one small accident led

to a big spark in the community a

completely unknown player called Zombie

uploaded his one and only ever replay to

the leaderboards a run on bo4 acrobatic

where he unfortunately got the wheel

lift bug in the start which on a map as

precise as this would make most players

instantly hit the restart key but he

decided to keep driving and it resulted

in a world record tie as wonky as that

run looked zombie inexplicably gained

time from the bug and whatever it was it

opened the possibility for a new world

record on an otherwise optimized map

several top players took note of this

and rushed to B4 to be the first to do

it and in May of 2009 the player Barta

eventually got this

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run a

1254 beating the world record by 200s of

a second This Record has since been

improved many times and it was only in

recent years understood that the reason

the bug gains time is because at high

speed sliding on one front tire is

extremely fast which might be an

explanation that makes you even more

confused but that's TR Mania for you the

wheel lift bug would later become known

as the Ramstein bug and it wouldn't only

be useful on bo4 acrobatic because the

next year a similar accident happened on

the track A3 race the world record at

the time was 1845 Tied by three people

and the rest of the top 10 all had

1846 yeah it's another map that mostly

had basic turns where players aimed for

ultimate precision and the one key

feature on the track is a jump in the

middle the main strategy was to release

the acceleration on this jump in

combination with driving diagonally so

that you would reduce as much air time

as possible and carry maximum speed on

the last straight towards the finish in

2010 the player enex was driving AO3 on

an online server when he got the

luckiest bug of his

life

[Music]

1844 beating the triple world record

high by just 100th of a second the

Ramstein bug Eno SC caused his front

wheel to lift at just the right time to

dive over the top of the hill Landing in

the downhill on the other side at full

speed and though his Landing was shaky

he kept his cool and kept enough speed

to beat the world record the community

was just stunned at this nobody had seen

anything like it an attempt to recreate

it were unsuccessful nobody else could

get the bug that Eno got but

impressively in 2011 damager managed to

beat the world record without using the

bug achieving at

1843 and since then the idea of the AO3

bug was kind of forgotten about

something else in the tmania world had

been stealing in the spotlight and that

thing was yet another bug which

fundamentally changed how several Maps

were

[Applause]

played late in 2009 it was discovered

that when Landing 90° sideways you could

perform a fast and Powerful drift on

grass preserving way more speed and grip

than if you tried to drive the turn as

normal at first this was called grass

riding then grass lights

and afterwards it was named after a

certain plant for whatever reason before

the community finally landed on the

mostly agreed upon bug slide as the term

many tracks were built with bug slides

in mind and they became very popular on

online servers for most players bug

slides were just casual fun but one

player realized there was more potential

in this trick than just playing in

online lobbies early in 2010 the player

J&B would completely re illusionize many

maps in the game when he went on a world

record spree it started in April when he

completely crushed the world record on

the track d11 acrobatic the old record

from Aon of 12 seconds did two very

clean jumps without any real wild things

going on J&B though realized that with a

precise jump he could do

this a bug slide on the ramp going

through the ring in a 360 spin and

Landing up on the last platform saving 1

second but he didn't stop there 2 weeks

later he went onto another campaign map

B12 race where the last turn is a long

grass Corner traditionally the best

strategy was to jump out all the way to

the right side so that you could carry

as much speed as possible with a smooth

line towards the Finish j& B how however

did the complete opposite going fully on

the inside and using the pool border to

get air time to set up sideways and then

he bug slid through the last Corner

again using the pool boarders to

straighten his car towards the booster

and the finish beating the world record

by 3/10 of a second at first but later

improving down to a

4045 over 1 second faster this was the

first time bug slides had been used to

beat the world record on such a s this

map and many community members outright

couldn't believe it this bug had existed

in the game ever since tmania nations in

2006 and it took 4 years for it to be

discovered and properly harnessed but

now the floodgates were wide open and a

new era of TR Mania world record hunting

had

begun the player Bliss who had the world

record on a similar track bo7 race

claimed that the trick wouldn't be

possible there but less than one year

later it too got completely destroyed by

bug slides then there was A9 race a

short map with a lot of tricks where in

the last turn you could skip across the

pool and land in a small bug slide

perhaps not as flashy as some of the

other ones but still another one on the

list bug slides are really difficult to

control you really just hold accelerate

break and steering hoping it will take

you through the turn nicely but they

often result in crashes and in 2011 and

2012 when some players crashed while bug

sliding their car inexplicably went

flying getting launched across the

stadium at Mac 5 speed what on Earth is

going on

here why this bug works is not fully

understood but the best theory is that

the game sometimes misinterprets your

speed values when bug sliding and if you

crash in the state it gives you more

speed rather than reducing it send in

the car

flying players at the time didn't know

any of this they just tried to replicate

what they'd seen in the liftoff videos

and sure enough bug sliding towards a

road border with the car pitched

slightly upwards could every now and

then ye you across the

map 4 years after being left to their

own devices by noo kmania players had

just discovered how to make a formula

race car fly a site that to the

developers must have been totally

hilarious and absurd the game they

designed to be a regular Formula racing

game was turning into so much more and

though it seemed crazy it was now only

more competitive than ever this bug was

coined the Uber bug derived from German

and meaning the biggest bug players

scoured the official maps to find

somewhere it could be used eventually

realizing there was at least one map

which had all the factors

required this track is quite literally

Al perfectly designed for the Uber bug

to work it has speed in the start a drop

down to set up the car in a bug slide a

road Edge to lift off from and several

finishes pointing in that direction

exactly where you'd fly to you had no

control over but since this Skips a huge

right turn if you landed anywhere near

the finishes it would save several

seconds I've made an entire video

detailing the world record history on

a12 speed which I will link in the

description and hey if you're interested

in more videos like this then subscribe

looking at the series of events in a

broader picture it's fascinating to see

the evolution of trach mania's world

record strategies over time going from

Mostly precise racing lines in the early

days to more and more complex quirks in

the game's code being understood and

exploited as a player the goal has

always been the same to go as fast as

possible the only difference was that

now players knew of more ways to gain

time than before regardless L of how

weird these tricks were these events

were still over one decade ago and since

then things have escalated to even

greater levels in 2013 is where the true

Golden Era of trach Mania shortcuts

began that year the player Nino created

the team fastest way only a shortcutting

team of dedicated players trying to

break as many Maps as possible one of

the tracks they'd set their sights on

was G1 a unique map with a road

spiraling upwards and a pretty absurd

shortcut idea that if it could be pulled

off would look pretty stunning the team

hunted the map for several weeks and

eventually it would be the team's leader

Nino who pulled off this

[Music]

run

a beautiful Yuber buug near the top of

the map skipping two layers of roads and

ultimately saving over 4 seconds against

the world record but the team didn't

stop there on the map D3 a platforming

track with tight turns they discovered

it was faster to drop off onto the grass

before the last corners and crash

sideways into a pillar below the Finish

to bounce up into the hit box

saving 2 seconds there really was no

limit to the creativity and invention at

play during this time and it was all

enabled by the bugs not being patched

out years prior instead of becoming

another indistinguishable racing game

trach Mania had become known for having

these incredible tricks available and

players were far from done

exploring in 2015 fastest way only were

hunting age for one lap and going for a

ridiculous shortcut from the first to

the second checkpoint the Gap you would

have to cross looks so absurdly far with

a proper wheel lift you can actually

soar all the way across and this

shortcut was pulled off by both Nitro

and toml during this time some players

finally understood how the Ramin bug

Works maps in TR Mania are built with

blocks and the road pieces all have this

elevated gray border running along the

sides called the Ramstein border at the

connection point between blocks this

border doesn't connect perfectly and if

you precisely cross the border at this

exact point your wheel can crash into

the start of the next Block's border

making the wheel lift into the air as it

turns out this bug wasn't random at all

it only required Precision after age4

fell sold did the track C9 where several

fastest way only members hunted for

weeks to try to get a Ramstein bug

skipping the last Corner as eventually

it was finally pulled off in a beautiful

fashion by the then somewhat unknown

player Pablo

[Applause]

[Music]

GD when Pablo drove the record everyone

was freaking out in the in-game chat and

in a legendary move he just responded

with a

simple thank you these Ramstein bug

shortcuts were the the snowflakes that

would cause an avalanche in trach Mania

once players open their eyes to using

the most annoying bug in the game as a

weapon countless World Records would

fall anywhere a huge bounce was needed

or spots where a bug could reduce

airtime players would grind for the

perfect wheel lift and so the era of the

Ramin bugs

[Music]

began the map A7 saw a new world record

after 14 years where it was thought to

be maxed at 10.11 in

2006 but in

2020 Tero managed to shave off 100th

with a tiny Ramin bug at the jump and in

2016 I myself even used a Ramstein bug

to join fastest way only with this

[Music]

shortcut one of the most spectacular

shortcuts that were performed was on e0

seen from above a pretty simple track

with just two checkpoints and a long

road to the finish in

2017 players started trying to shortcut

up to the first one and then following

the road until the ending the theory for

how this would work is you would climb

over the wall at the start and then um

bug up through the roadblock and from

there you'd continue driving as normal

I won't even try to explain this one it

just works but mostly doesn't but if it

does the problem is you won't have as

much speed for the uphills and so the

normal wave would get dangerously close

to catching up but it was eventually

pulled off and pl Rex managed to get the

world record on this map with that

strategy driving a 3610 in

2017 in

2021 this map would see a new Revolution

when MEC pulled off off this

shortcut a huge Ram lift directly up to

the checkpoint saving another second

over plaster AIS run I feel at this

point it's necessary to say that the

majority of TR Mania maps are completely

normal where only clean racing lines

will get you a better time but the

handful of tracks I've featured are the

ones where bugs have added a huge spark

of magic and wonder to the game giving

players so much creativity to think out

outside the box to improve their times

and what's cool is that the developers

at nadeo have now embraced some of the

bugs as official features in 2020 they

released the newest track Mania game and

in it they finally got rid of annoying

Landing bugs and actually the Ramstein

bugs too but surprisingly they decided

to keep bug slides in the game as well

as Uber bugs and a handful more showing

that they too recognized how their

original mistakes turn into something

unique and this goes hand inand with one

of the biggest community events in the

game called khaki where players build

the most ridiculous bug Rd track they

can think of and grind them for a month

straight one final map I want to mention

A9 race briefly mentioned earlier during

the discovery of the bug slides and

since that time the strategy had

remained mostly the same and got

optimized all the way down to 2446 by

race hunts his run was so far ahead of

the competition that it was thought it

wouldn't be beaten for a long time race

hunts had driven a fast start up to the

checkpoint getting the maximum speed out

of the grass wiggle and doing a tiny

release of the acceleration at the top

of the hill to carry speed onto the

engine off part did a tight turn and

followed that up with a clean downhill

drop he did another precise turn onto

the grass and closed it out with a

perfect bug slide into the Finish

and even though it looked completely

absurd some players like Trinity and

Hest still tried to beat it when

comparing the segment times of the top

30 records they noticed an anomaly on

the second segment Ray hunt had a 553

and while most people were in close

proximity to that the player prag had

mysteriously gotten a

547 for maps as optimized as A9 that's a

huge time save but what had he done

exactly well since this was an online

list of Records there was no way to know

for sure the record was from 2012 and

could have simply been bugged or perhaps

even cheated the segment it had happened

in was the drop down from checkpoint 1

to checkpoint 2 and players immediately

began thinking it could in fact be a

Ramstein bug some preliminary attempts

were made to get a bug with only

moderate levels of success without a

recipe to follow it's hard to come up

with with a perfect dish but all of that

changed when an ancient YouTube video

was discovered by a Community member

street style Clan the movie the video is

a 2012 Montage of trach Mania records

from the clan street style where one of

the maps featured is A9 race and in it

you can see a car get a huge wobble

followed by a nose dive on the drop that

is prags run and this is the only

surviving footage of it happening

it's likely prag had gotten this by

complete accident upon seeing this and

analyzing the line he drove players now

had a blueprint to follow for the

approach to try to get a similar dive

over the edge of the Hill which could

save huge amounts of time in April of

2020 fastest way only members gathered

like they usually do to try to bring

this one home and after many promising

attempts that night Trinity finally got

this run

[Music]

[Music]

holy 308 should start as well right

yeah

[Music]

really what

what no

way what the

and the aend

it to me personally this is one of the

most beautiful runs in track Mania

history it combines everything I love

about this game as it requires Precision

in performing a great grass speed slide

in the start and getting a precise no

airtime flick up the hill as well as a

tight turn to build up so much speed

that with a huge wheel lift Ramstein bug

the nose of the car can in an extremely

rare case dip perfectly into the

downhill at full speed reducing air time

and having a huge speed advantage to the

last checkpoint and then you can finish

in style with a bug

slide if it wasn't for TR mania's huge

floss I think it would become boring and

fall flat as just another racing game

instead of one that's known for its

incredible complexity and I for one know

I wouldn't have gotten hooked on the

game without that element of wonder that

Anything Can Happen part and I think it

was as true in 2006 as it is now in

2024 anyways that's all for now guys I

really hope you found it entertaining

and perhaps learned a thing or two about

TR Mania history until next time

have a good

[Music]

one