May 12. It's been a long and arduous task but we've finally come up with the winning decisions. This has been the third contest we've hosted and, despite the extremely rigid constraints as well as the game limitations, it has produced some of the finest work we've seen yet. Congratulations to everybody who has taken part. In our eyes, everyone is a winner. However, no contest is complete without a designation for top spot. So, here goes. The winner for the screenshot competition is:

For the Straight-a-way competition, we would like to extend honorable mention to two tracks (both received votes for top spot). They are:

The first runner up goes to the incredible rookie debut:

And, may we have the envelope please. The winner for the straight-a-way track competition is:

Way to go!!! I think you have all proven that no mtm2 addon track needs to be bland or uncreative. When we find track makers who struggle for ideas, I think we can confidently refer them to these tracks time and again for inspiration. You've helped establish a new standard that should influence new tracks for a long time to come.

Here's a summary of what we've gotten out of the straight track contest.

• We saw some good variety, even though the rules really constricted the tracks.
• It was amazing how short the tracks seemed. None of them were boring in the least.
• The Screenshot contest really brought more people into it - which only goes to show that the MTM community is far larger than just track makers.
• The contest really brought a focus onto this one element of a good track. The discussions and examples that the tracks themselves illustrated were sort of like a "Hands-On Straight Track Seminar".
• We all had fun making a track weeeee.

And finally, I'll let our new mtm friend, EmceeMart, sign off for us:

Sir James has put together some really fantastic screen savers to enhance your windows desktop experience. Choose from one of the downloads above or try all three. Included are all the screenshots entered in the Expo2000 as well as the excellent track shots created by veteran mtm pic-miester Malibu350. For a full list of credits, see the readme that's accessible from the setup options. To see the pics before you download, go to the expo screenshot and track pages. These screen savers are fully configurable. They allow actual size or stretch-to-fit slide show presentation of all shots. You can choose between plain transitions or special effects between shot changes. And you can choose to show the shots in order or shuffled around, as well as how long each shot remains on the screen. And you can listen to some pretty funky midi music while it's on, or keep it silent if you prefer. Each saver is in it's own self-installing file that will even allow you to set it up without the hassle of going to display properties. And best of all: it's free. Try it, you'll like it =)

May 2. All tracks and screenshots are in, and a fine bunch we have too. Forty-six screenshots in all, and eleven tracks for entry and six for non-entry. WTG! Please allow us about a week to check them out, and then we'll announce the results. We hope to have the track descriptions in place somewhere in this time period. Thank you everyone for sending in your work, and thanks to everyone else for following along. This truly is a fun community. Oh, and with any luck we'll have a couple new configurable screensavers for you too.

April 25.  Boy oh boy, we've had a time with re-uploaded tracks, but everything should be in good working order now.  Both Straight Shooter and Straight on have been re-named.  And, Nrrivas called his back after a brief stint on the download page.  If you downloaded any of these tracks before the changes, please be sure to get them again.  On other news, there are two judge participation tracks available.  I hope you enjoy those too.  Lastly, just a reminder, there is only one week left to get your track in.  But, please, be sure to triple check before uploading.  Thanks.

April 16. The name conflict has been resolved. Wildcat sue renamed Straight Shooter to Wildcat's Straight Shooter. Now all tracks can be mounted together. Thanks WS for making this easy.

April 15. The first problem has arisen. Two tracks that have been submitted have a naming conflict. I'm working on a fix for this right now. As you know, the mtm2 game reads only the first eight letters in the track name. Anything else podded lower in the pod.ini list and uses the same first eight letters will not show up or run in the game. The first track takes priority over everything below it. Please keep this in mind when naming your new track. It is no longer a good idea to start the track name with the word "straight." This is not really a big deal, but keeping it in mind will mean that all tracks can be mounted at the same time.

It's time again for another friendly bit of fun. This time around our competition will be more on the participation side of the ring as opposed to fiercely vying for prizes.

Again, there will be two parts for entry. The first is a screenshot competioin in which you'll take pics of your favorite tracks and send them in. Everyone's pics will be on display and honors will be awarded to best pic of the bunch. The second leg is for tracks. For this part, the idea is to make a straight-a-way track. Hopefully, after racing a couple of these entries, new track makers will learn that straights don't have to be flat or boring. A cd or magazine prize "may" be given for top spot.

I will post news and updates on this page as stuff happens.

P.S. It's been discovered that the mtm2 map is not as cooperative with our expo as we had hoped. Please see some notes here. I'm sure all can be well if we want it to be.