Rabid's Video of the Week #13 - Silk Road by Ram Tzu

Welcome to video of the week, where I pick a random video from my exceptional playlist and talk about it in depth

This week I'm trying out bolding key phrases in the post. tell me if you like it

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THIS WEEK'S VIDEO: #31

Silk Road by Ram Tzu


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-1bscxQPCE

Unfortunately, I was reminded that this track is extremely laggy on youtube. So I took this opportunity to import/export/reupload and it is now on IRTLTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gt3Wr-O8_WI
(I should have done this years ago lol)

Despite the lag, this is one of the few videos on my list that are "mainstream" (which I define as >100,000 views on youtube). The reason is super-smooth curves. Near-perfect manuals on near-perfect curves were very much impressive in November 2007, not just to the hardcore community but to anyone who had attempted to make a smooth curve in Line Rider. Hence over a million views.

This track also probably wins the award for being scened the most times. Ram Tzu offered a download link to the .sol and a free opportunity to anyone who wanted to scene it to go ahead, and lots of people jumped at the idea. There were many plans, but only three major versions were actually released.

• x612nt13's "Pillars the Second": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfFrc_T7A74 - February 2008
  Was part of his 8-video day
  
• LineRiderGjert's "Silk Road Scened (SRS)": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgwoiFwb05g - May 2008
  Won MOTW #49
  Did very well in round 1 and 2 of ToCC (though there is no way of knowing how well it did for the rest of it)
  
• Georgio_jc's "Silk Road Armageddon": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfuq5zOJ7RY - November 2008
  Georg slightly extended the track for this release
  Also did great in round 1 of ToCC, dunno about after that
  Got 3rd place in MOTW #75, after Amplitude by Bing and STP and Book of Revelation by Devray and Nirobi

It also prompted many spin-offs (much like TechDawg Labs), two of the most notable of which are:

• Glass Route by DaPoe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYcrXZFyJlc - May 2008
  Heavily inspired by Silk Road, but includes scenery
  Got 3rd place in MOTW #50, behind Goliath and Strange Quark
  
• Silk Road 2 by Georgio_jc and Summoning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyXk78P-5BU - December 2008
  Extremely similar, parts of it are almost an exact replica of moments in the original

It was not entered in ToC2 - which is a real shame, especially since the brackets had to be filled up at the last minute with random tracks like Movie Mania and The Neighborhood. Why Silk Road and Goliath were overlooked I'll never know. /blames Chih

Something I find really interesting is that Ram Tzu is predominantly known as an XYer. Where, then, did this track some from? Well, If we go waaaay back (before my time even) we can find Loopland, which may shed some light on why he randomly stopped making XYs and made a track with ridiculously smooth curves: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEnnjIky6V4 (*coughthisiswhyoldpeopleisgeniuscough*)
back before TechDawg, and before Gravity Wells (Even I can't remember back that far. Beast could probably help us though ) loops were all the rage, and Loopland was, in some ways, the pinnacle of that movement. Silk Road was, then, a return to this style during the age of ZNF, after it had been long forgotten, reminding people of the power of smoothness. In this way it's similar to Halcyon except less sophisticated and more mainstream.

Most of you probably have memories involving Silk Road. I kind of missed its release, so I don't really have any. But if you do, please share!

This is the track that inspired my smooth circular curve style (although I haxxed ). That, and it fitted my name. <3 Ram Tzu

thank you so much for re-uploading it! <3 Haven't watched this track for quite a while now, but I have to say it never gets old!

Ha, thanks for reuploading this.