So, I spent some time messing around with this thing called ‘madison races’ recently. Heard about it and thought, why not give it a shot, see what it’s all about. Didn’t really know what to expect, just jumped in.
Getting Started
First thing, I had to figure out what it even was. Looked like some kind of simulation or maybe a simple game setup. Found some basic files, seemed straightforward enough. My initial goal was just to get it running, see the ‘races’ in action.
I grabbed the files I found. Didn’t seem to need much special software, which was good. Just needed to put them in a folder and see if there was an instruction file or something obvious to run.
The Process
Okay, found a starting script. Tried running it. Of course, it didn’t work right off the bat. Got some error message, something about a missing configuration. Classic stuff.
So, I went digging through the files again. Found a sample config file. Had to rename it and then open it up to see what was inside. Looked like settings for the racers – maybe speed, number of laps, stuff like that. I just used the default settings first, didn’t want to get fancy yet.
- Located the sample config.
- Renamed it to the required name.
- Ran the start script again.
This time, it kicked off! Saw some text scrolling, looked like a race was happening in the console. Pretty basic, just lines of text showing progress, but hey, it was running. That felt like a decent first step.
Tweaking and Finishing Up
Watching the text scroll was okay, but I wanted to see if I could change things. Went back to that config file. Decided to increase the number of racers and maybe make the race a bit longer, more laps.
Made those changes, saved the file. Ran the script one more time. Yep, this time there were more participants listed, and the simulation took longer to finish. It wasn’t super exciting visually, just text, but I understood the basic loop: change settings, run, see results.
Played around with a few other parameters, like adjusting speeds randomly. Some settings crashed it, had to backtrack. Took a bit of trial and error, just poking around really.
In the end, I got a feel for how it worked. It was a simple exercise, nothing too complex. Just followed the steps: get the stuff, figure out the config, run it, tweak it, run it again. Managed to get it running with my own custom settings. That was the main thing I wanted to achieve today.
