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Last Updated 6/05/98 1207am Pacific Time

Name: Andy "LAUNDA" Launspach
Email: Launda@aol.com
Birthdate: March 15, 1977 - Beware the Ides of March!!!
Location: Indianola, Iowa
Occupation: Menards Associate, College Student, MK64 Webmaster.
Rank: Kart Elite A (4th established)
Favorite Driver: Yoshi (The Mean Green Dino Machine)
Unique Tactic: "I play with a pillow in my lap."
Accomplishments: Owns LAUNDA points record with 298!!!

The Very Beginning
My video game experience started with the Keleko Vision. Venture was my favorite game of the early 1980's. All my friends had Atari but I stuck true to my Keleko. I had a great time playing classic video games such as Pittfall, Smurfs, Joust, and Carnival.

Nintendo
I think I was 10, the year was 1987, and all I wanted for Christmas was a Nintendo Entertainment System. Christmas morning I was given my NES and with it, 8 new games!!! I played Kung Foo for 8 hours straight and couldn't move my hands the next day. It was my first real experience with Nintendo Gaming, and it was just the beginning of my hand/eye cordination training for strength and conditioning for future play.

Mike Tyson's Punch Out
I don't know about any of you Nintendo players out there, but this is my favorite NES game of all time!!! Try and beat my elite record of going through the ENTIRE game getting hit only 4 times and beating everyone but Sand Man and Tyson in the First Round!!! I also hold the bragging rights of beating Mike Tyson looking into the window of a microwave!!! Talk about a challenge, beating Tyson reverse style baby!!!

Super Nintendo
It was another Christmas and yet another system. The Super Nintendo Entertainment System was in my stocking this year and another plethera of games came with. On this day I played Super Mario World all day and was not hindered because my hands and fingers had been conditioned by my countless hours of NES playing time. This was also the era of my sports game craze. Madden, EA Sports, FIFA, you name it, I had it. My favorite sports games of SNES by far are NBA Live '96 and Tecmo Bowl the Final Edition. Gotta give credit to Dan Peso for playing me the best games of all time in NBA Live '96!!!

Nintendo 64
Christmas 1996, could this be another system year, it certainly was. Accompainied with my new N64 System were Super Mario 64, Killer Instinct, and Shadows of the Empire. I hated Shadows, KI was okay, and Mario was awesome. I've beaten SM64 several times, and all four saved players have 120 stars.

Best Buy - Mario Kart 64
One day I went to Best Buy to look at some CD's. They had just put a new game game in the display case for people to play called Mario Kart 64. I couldn't believe how awesome the graphics were and how well the controller complimented the game play. Best Buy sold all of their MK64 copies so I couldn't get the game that day. A flood in Seatle, WA delayed the delivery of all N64 games and accessories for two weeks so it was a time of waiting that seemed like years. I just had to have Mario Kart 64. I went back every once in a while to see if the famous shipment had come in and every time I was disappointed to see that it hadn't. Approximately 2 weeks later the shipment finally came and they had about 40 copies of Mario Kart 64. I quickly snatched up a game and headed for the check out counter.

Cup Mode => Quiting => 100cc Time Trials
At first, my college roommate and I mostly enjoyed battling each other in the four different cups. After about a week the game started to get old, and we stopped playing. I gave the game a little rest and decided to start a new venture in Super Mario 64. That quickly got old and so it was back to the track. I started playing time trials because my roommate never wanted to play cup mode. I began with Luigi Raceway and didn't even think of playing any other course. I used Wario because he was my favorite. I remember breaking the 2'00"00 barrier then getting down in the 1'56's still with no powersliding. I finally got down into the 1'55's with Wario still not knowing how to powerslide. I then found out that hoping was faster than just turning so I made another drop...

The Discovery of Powersliding
After about a week of playing time trials I busted out the instruction manual and decided to read through. I found this section with pictures of yellow and red smoke coming out the back of Mario's kart. I said to myself, what the hell is that. I then found out there was a way to screech around corners not loosing speed but actually picking up speed as you did these back and forth movements with the analog stick on the controller. This was the day that I became a true player of Mario Kart 64!!!

Chuck Teschke’s site - Luigi Raceway
One day I was browsing the net looking for MK64 times and I found this amazing site. When I found this webpage my time on Luigi Raceway was down in the 1'46's and I thought there was no bettering this amazing trial. This was the day that my heart sank and I saw Rocky Griffith's Luigi Raceway time of 1'42"20. I e-mailed Mr. Teschke and asked him for Griffith's e-mail address. I got his reply and put his advice to work. I started to see more and more improvement and my time dropped daily. 1'45's, 1'44's, 1'43's and finally I broke into the 1'42's. After this point I began to Plateau and I couldn't improve anymore. I didn't give up and continued to play until one evening it happened, 1'42"19!!! I had finally broken his record. All of my hardwork had finally paid off and I ended that night with 1'42"11. From that night forward, I never relinquished my Luigi Raceway records of 1'39"88* & 31"85* with Yoshi.

Team Indianola - Launspach & Engel
During the late part of April Jason Engel and myself were taking direct aim at one of the most elusive goals in all of Mario Kart 64. We were trying to get all 32 of the non-shortcut reocrds on Chuck Teschke’s site. One night I got a call from Jason nearly 300 miles away in Indianola and he gave me the news that he finally broke 2’07”00 on DK’s Jungle Parkway to cause another Engel/Launspach cup sweep. The only record we didn’t own was the Mario Raceway 3-lap. In the end we finally got the Mario Raceway record but it was too late because a guy by the name of Kevin Booth emerged on the internet and started submitting times. His times knocked out a lot of Engel’s records and we could never recover to get the 32/32 sweep.

Future Goals
As for the future of Mario Kart 64, who knows??? I don't think I will ever stop playing because playing 4 player Mario Grand Prix mode is just too much fun. Some of my time trial goals are to go sub 1'40"00 on Luigi Raceway, sub 2'00"00 on DK's Jungle Parkway, and sub 5'08"00 on Rainbow Road. I would also love to organize a Mario Kart 64 World Championship Tournament held somewhere in the Midwest United States. A good sponser for the Tournament could be Nintendo Power!!!!!

Words from Kevin Booth
On 10/21/97 2:00pm, Andy Launspach announced his retirement from competitive Mario Kart 64 Time Trials.... It's truly a sad thing, but we must all go sometime... Later I will post comments on his retirement and many other things in another page, but for now, Here's the recap on it all:

To Everyone:

Today I sat down and finished where I started Mario Kart 64 time trials, on Luigi Raceway. I posted 2 new World Records en route to my retirement. I'm sorry but I just don't have the patients I used to have. Jonathan Bernier really hit my records hard with his latest submissions and I just don't want to try and get them back. The drive and desire just isn't there like it used to be.

I hope everyone has enjoyed my competition because I really have enjoyed receiving everyone's submissions. THIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT I'M GOING TO STOP POSTING TIMES!!! Keep those submissions coming in because you never know, maybe they will drive me back into the running someday.

Farewell, Andy Launspach

On 12/16/97, Andy Launspach set a new personal record, and catapulted himself back into the Mario Kart 64 running! WELCOME BACK ANDY! =)

As of 12/20/97, Andy Launsapch reached 2 of his 3 Legendary marks that no Karter had reached in the history of Kart! Under 2 minutes in the Jungle, and under 1’40”00 on Luigi Raceway. He still hasn’t been able to get under 5’08”00 Riding the Rainbow.

Sometime during Kevin's 3rd Comeback, Andy set a new time in Choco Mountain

History at it's best: On 5/26/98, exactly a year and one day since the first upload of Andy's Mario Kart 64 Time Trial Site, Kevin Booth went 1'39"77 & 31"82 on Luigi Raceway taking away the oldest and longest held records in Mario Karting History!!!

A Month Later, Andy Comes back to get some new PR's. He promises this time to finish business in DK jungle and many other tracks where he knows he can improve.

Track	Driver	3 Lap	1 Lap	SC Driver	3 Lap SC	1 Lap SC
Luigi Raceway	Yoshi	1'39"88	31"85	Yoshi	1'35"35	26"21
Moo Moo Farm	Toad	1'17"02	24"81	ND	NA	NA
Koopa Beach	Yoshi	1'23"53	26"71	ND	NA	NA
Kalimari Desert	Yoshi/Toad	1'48"15	33"93	ND	NT	NT
Toads Turnpike	Toad	2'34"70	50"93	ND	NT	NT
Frappe Snowland	Peach	1'45"58	34"16	Peach	36"66	5"96
Choco Mountain	Yoshi/Toad	1'40"49	32"83	Yoshi	1'28"79	28"89
Mario Raceway	Toad/Peach	1'16"81	23"93	ND	NT	NT
Wario Stadium	Toad	3'49"82	1'15"80	Toad	1'10"??	6"60
Sherbet Land	Yoshi/Toad	1'40"92	33"12	ND	NA	NA
Royal Raceway	Yoshi	2'29"59	48"30	Toad	1'54"07	35"85
Bowsers Castle	Yoshi/Toad	1'54"38	37"45	ND	NA	NA
D.K. Jungle Park	Yoshi/Toad	1'59"00	37"20	ND	NT	NT
Yoshi Valley	Yoshi	1'32"77	27"92	Yoshi	NT	9"63
Banshee Boardwalk	Toad/Yoshi	1'47"85	35"25	ND	NA	NA
Rainbow Road	Yoshi	5'08"03	1'41"64	ND	NT	NT

*-Believed To Be World Records

Words From The Time Keeper:

?Mystery?

Will Andy be back? Stay Tuned!