RCT Discussion / Interview with cBass

Ok im back to interviewing after a year and a half of going after extremly recloseive parkmakers and getting no real luck.

With the PT2 underway who better to interview then the raining champ, cBass!

Enjoy
_________________________________________________________________

Kumba: My first question for you has to do with 2 of your nicknames. I know your real name is Jon, but how did you come to go by the nickname cBass? Also what is the meaning behind your member title at NE of “Ghish Ghry”?

cBass: (sea bass) was my DJ name when my friends and I did a weekly radio show in college: The Dash Blasterburn and Sea Bass Show featuring The Continental. Soon after that the name became my internet handle and when I had to spell it I decided to be clever and wrote "cBass". It's been with me ever since.

One day last year I asked Adix to give me a member title and he chose "Phish Phry" (like "fish fry", a reference to the delectable Wisconsin Friday night tradition consisting of something like deep fried perch or walleye with melted butter, potato salad, cole slaw, rye bread, and a Pabst. Oh man, my mouth is watering just typing this). Anyway, I told him I didn't like the unintended reference to the band Phish and mentioned that the letters 'gh' also make an F sound in certain words. So he changed it to "Ghish Ghry". It seems to confuse people, so it's perfect.

Kumba: Now you seemed to have fallen off the face of the Earth for a few months earlier this year without saying anymore then kthxbye if I recall correctly. Was this really because you were on tour with your band Dallas Orbiter as rumor had it and if so how was touring? It sounds really cool.

cBass: I guess it was late summer last year, I decided to hang it up for a while. At the time I thought it might have been a permanent retirement but I didn't want to say anything. The reason was that I'd seen so many melodramatic, self-serving "farewell" topics that had all left a bad taste in my mouth. Plus I figured it'd be kind of cool and mysterious if I just dropped off the face of the RCT earth, so I just changed my IM name and stopped reading/posting at the sites. I had a few reasons, one of which was, yes, the anticipation of more activity with the band (Dallas Orbiter, no "the" please thank you). We finished up our latest CD in the early winter and released it in January, playing lots of shows in the area to promote it. We didn't really tour per se, unless you count such exotic locales as Saint Cloud, Minnesota or Oshkosh, Wisconsin. We were never out of town for more than a weekend. But yes, it was all fun as hell.

Another reason I gave up the game for a while was to get myself a woman. I'm not saying you can't do both, but at my age it really doesn't help. The same day I stopped coming to NE I registered at an online personals site. I had fun "browsing" for a while, then had a few dates with a couple different people, and then on December 8 I met Jolene, who is awesome. Since then we've been apart like 3 nights, and 2 of those were to spend Christmas with our families. We moved in together in March and we'll probably get married some day. So yeah, mission accomplished.

Kumba: In May you went with your girlfriend on a trip to Six Flags Great America and managed to meet up with Adix, the guy who manages all the really tricky stuff at NE. How did you plan that? And what was it like hanging out with him? And did the night end with a 3 way or him watching and pointing?

cBass: That trip was a birthday surprise from Jolene. I found out the day before and posted at NE that we'd be at the park for 2 days. Adix read that and decided to come look for us and halfway through the second day he finally tracked us down ("Is your name Jon?"). It took me a few seconds to recognize him as we'd never actually met face to face before. We were about to go grab some cheese fries so he came along and we chatted. After that we rode Raging Bull together and got that hilarious on-ride photo taken, which was too good not to buy. We hung out for a little while after that, but Jo and I were getting pretty tired after 2 solid days of coaster riding. She thought Adix was cute for having tracked us down like that but to answer your question, the night ended with a cheerful goodbye before her and I crashed out in our hotel.

Andrew, if you're reading this, thanks again and it was great hanging out with you.

Kumba: I still can remember seeing a “Screenshot of the day” at TycoonPlanet years ago. The screen was of a re-creation of lambeau field, home of the Green Bay Packers. A few days later I saw a very nice Capitol building and thought “Damn this cBass guy is pretty good” soon after Wisconsin was released as RCT2.com’s first ever VP. How hard was it making that type of park? What are some of your favorite parts of it?

cBass: Making Wisconsin wasn't hard at all. I had a blast recreating my home state and researching different things to add for all the different cities and stuff. Every single attraction in that park is based on something real, and there are around 76 of them. It did take 8 months to put it all together, though, and I can assure you I'll never attempt to fill a 256x256 map again. My favorite parts include the 2 things you mentioned (which were the first things I built for it), along with the Downtown Milwaukee section, which just surpassed my expectations totally. I think it helped that most of those buildings are recreations of actual skyscrapers. I have lots of other favorites: the World's Largest Six Pack, the Forevertron, the Barneveld Twister, Black Ice, the Tribes of Menominee, Taliesin, the Harley Davidson factory, Mice Love Colby... I could go on and on.

Kumba: Soon pictures of your M.C. Escher theme from an RCTM project popped up and I still can’t figure out how you did all the optic tricks in RCT like he is known for in his paintings. How did you manage that? And when mite it be released?

cBass: Man, that was fun to make! It's the kind of thing that could only be done with RCT2: LL doesn't have the proper scenery or stacking, and RCT3 gives you too many viewing options. The illusions are all fairly easy to figure out if you go through it with the bulldozer, but putting them together in the first place was a little tricky. I made sure that the illusions are not betrayed if you view it from different angles. That was really the hard part. The "waterfall" illusion is actually mostly below the ground level, and it's surrounded by mountains of Escheresque scenery on the other 3 sides. It's simply not there if you rotate the view.

But my favorite illusion is the location of cBass the gorilla entertainer. I placed four identical 1-tile gazebos near the corners of the area, and then made a fifth one in the exact middle of them, only floating way high above the park so that it always lines up exactly with one of the first four, and in that 5th gazebo there is a gorilla named cBass. The result is that if you view any individual gazebo from all four angles there is one view in which it will contain a gorilla, and the apparent location of the gorilla changes depending on which view you're on. There, I spoiled it!

The project that this is part of is called The Masters Palette, an RCTM endeavor that is spearheaded by the lovely and talented Mama Bear. As of last month she assured me that it "will be released some time soon!". It's at least 2 and a half years old now so a lot of it will appear a little dated (including Escher), but the whole thing really is quite beautiful and fun. All four maps of it!

Kumba: After the Alien themed PT1 Perlim where you split with Phatage you were on your way into NE’s First Pro Tour where you went on to beat 21 highly skilled parkmakers and myself to take home first place. The park was no doubt amazing with the theme being your own brain and what you think about. How hard was it to make? I remember you told me that the slide track you used to make up the outer layer took 10+ hours alone! Also if you had to add another area/thought section, what would it be?

cBass: BOMB was certainly a challenge. To be honest, I had no idea how I was going to pull it off, and if you remember my "construction journal" series of screen shots you know that the actual brain material was the last thing I added. I thought for a while that I would complete it with 1/4 tiles, but that just didn't look right. It was actually DJ, my PT confidant, who suggested the slide tubes. It would have been a hell of a lot easier to do that first and then cut away at it for the various sections, but as it was I had to piece together the grid of pipes around the other park parts that I had already made. It did take a long time, but I am very happy with the results.

If I had to make another section of my brain, I think it would be dedicated to Jolene. I'm not sure what rides would be there since cuddling on the couch watching TV, while definitely enjoyable, isn't really conventionally "thrilling".

Kumba: Once you won the PT over Mala who placed second, after winning NE’s last contest, I remember you saying something like “Beating Mala is like kicking Jesus in the nuts” From that I take it you were a bit surprised to have won? Do you think you won fairly? Also how would you have ranked the PT parks?

cBass: Sure, I was surprised to have won since that wasn't really my primary goal in making the park. Did I win fairly? I'm not sure what that means. I didn't cheat. I can't really evaluate my park against the others in the competition because I'm not able to look at it objectively. I do feel that I succeeded in realizing my vision for the brain idea, and that's really what matters the most.

I don't really remember a lot of the other PT parks, honestly. For me the mark of a great park is whether it makes enough of an impression to register in my long term memory. Looking back at the standings confirms this as I'm noticing that the parks I remember are the ones that placed the highest: mantis's Divine Comedy, natelox's The Three Villages, Butterfinger's hilarious entry, even Phatage's Epica, even though I don't claim to know what the thing was all about (sorry, if you need a readme to explain your park you should try a different idea). And of course Rift Valley by Mala. This park is easily my favorite of the bunch. This may be an unoriginal sentiment but Mala is my favorite parkmaker. I'm known for my crazy ideas, but my ideas are mostly global in scope. Mala's parks are filled with dozens of incredible ideas all woven together in harmony, and executed flawlessly.

In all I thought nearly all of the entries were well done. No one really phoned it in, and it was great to see a cross section of the community's talent building what they love to build.

Kumba: So after you won the PT and received the $100 prize money what did you do with it? And was the money a motivator when you built your entry, or did you not focus on it?

cBass: The money was not a consideration at all when building my entry. I never claimed my prize and I hope it was put toward the upkeep of New Element.

Kumba: We don’t see to much work from you, but when you do release something it is always very solid and worth the wait. Other then NE’s second Pro Tour (Contest rules state no info can be released) do you have anything in the works? And if so, what if anything, can you tell us about it?

cBass: The only reason I'm playing the game again is because Iris invited me to defend my PT title and it felt like a good time to do it. My RCT time is limited nowadays as my priorities have shifted. I still enjoy the game very much, but my playing time consists mostly of those nights when Jolene falls asleep before me and I have an hour or two to pull out the laptop.

As it was when I quit last summer, I will always resist the temptation to say "never again", since I know you can never rule it out. I have at least one commitment to produce a themed ride in a project that I probably shouldn't mention. Other than that, I can see myself getting into RCT3 eventually, but don't expect my Spotlight any time soon.

Kumba: Who are some of your favorite parkmakers around and why do you enjoy their work? Also when building, do you ever get influences from anyone? And if you do can you please give an example?

cBass: Other than the aforementioned Mala I have a few favorites, although some of them are no longer active. I hate to attempt to name names because I'll definitely forget some, but here's a try. I'll stick to those I suspect might still play the game. I admire Ed for his adventurous spirit and big thinking, Phatage for his tireless dedication to conceptualism and/or realism, Blitz because the like 2 things I've seen from him are really first rate, Meretrix for somehow making Disney parks appealing to me, RCTNW for always thinking geometrically first, rwadams for producing the most realistic buildings I've ever seen in RCT, SuperTrooper for having creative park ideas and mostly pulling them off, Jacko Shanty for refusing to conform, d4rkj4nu5 for reminding me of me, X250 for his creative atmosphere, SA for making a park so good that half the community is still trying to copy it, posix for being everybody's favorite curmudgeon, and Kumba for never ever giving up or backing down, no matter how much shit he takes.

That's a great interview. Those gorillas are still inspired.

Enjoyable interview...

I guess I'm out of the loop; what "gorillas" are you guys referring to?

Enjoyable interview...

I guess I'm out of the loop; what "gorillas" are you guys referring to?

But my favorite illusion is the location of cBass the gorilla entertainer. I placed four identical 1-tile gazebos near the corners of the area, and then made a fifth one in the exact middle of them, only floating way high above the park so that it always lines up exactly with one of the first four, and in that 5th gazebo there is a gorilla named cBass. The result is that if you view any individual gazebo from all four angles there is one view in which it will contain a gorilla, and the apparent location of the gorilla changes depending on which view you're on. There, I spoiled it!

Anyways, very interesting. I'm looking forward to seeing Master's Palette someday.

That was a great interview. I hope you do more of these, Kumba.

Well, of course I read that- I just don't see any gorillas.

Well, of course I read that- I just don't see any gorillas.

Happy now?

Yes, thanks.

(I was thinking it was somewhere in the Escher screens...)

I didn't think the member title confused that much. Good interview, though. Do me next!

To Valp:

Kumba posted a random gorilla...that's not from Escher.

Well not 100% random, cBass did add that one to his sandcastle from BP.

raining champ

Better get your umbrellas out.

Seriously, great interview, Kumba. And Jon, why did you have to spoil it??? Most people have never even seen the effect. Heck, it took me a good 15 to 30 seconds to figure out exactly what happened and then how you did it, so it would have been an amazing illusion.

Kumba, this was a great interview, really enjoyed this.

And CBass, you were a great one to be interviewed and having interesting answers to all the questions (which probably led to new good questions of Kumba. etc.).

Thanks to you both!!

Kumba, I really hope you go on with these !
Looking forward to the next one.

Thanx, but there is no great interview without feedback like cBass what gave.

Thank you cBass

Wow, what a pleasant surprise this was.

It's always good to hear that old friends are doing well. I haven't really talked to cBass in awhile or seen him around much, so that explains half of it. (Of course the flipside is that I'm not around much myself, so that explains the other half) Anyway, thanks for tracking him down Kumba and posting his responses. I should check out that new Dallas Orbiter CD.

Oh and I was going to pick on the "raining champ" comment too, but Cork beat me to it. It's still funny though.

Thanx, but there is no great interview without feedback like cBass what gave.

^ That is exactly what I tried to say, and that is why I thanked you as well as Cbass for this interview (so no "but...."is needed)

Awesome interview.

I've been wondering what had happened to these. Oh well, can't wait to see more great interviews Kumba.

Well what happened was half me being lazy and the other half was waiting on replys from Mala (respectfully declined) and Nevis (still a maybe...)

I got one prepared for Phatage, but atm im tired after typeing my battle vs. nate

Good read. Can't wait for the Phatage one.

Nice thing with the gorillas, too.