Checkpoints

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A checkpoint is an essential part of any track in each TrackMania game. In every game, the checkpoint is used to prevent short cuts and designate the route the driver should take. In TrackMania Original and TrackMania Sunrise, the checkpoint serves the additional function of being a point at which the driver can respawn.

1 Basic Use
2 As Obstacles
3 The Multi-Lap Block
4 Aerial Checkpoints
5 Screenshoot

Basic Use

A checkpoint is essentially a normal piece of road with a special property: before the player is able to finish, he/she must first pass through all the checkpoints on the track.

In Trackmania Original and Trackmania Sunrise, checkpoints also serve as a means to recover from a particularly bad crash or otherwise debilitating incident. By pressing the Enter key, the player is instantly transported to the last checkpoint they passed through. This is used extensively in Platform mode.

In TrackMania Nations, the respawn function of checkpoints was disposed of, to the chagrin of many fans. However, this started a new use of checkpoints.

As Obstacles

In both Trackmania Original and Trackmania Sunrise, it was considered essential that a driver restarting at a checkpoint (presumably with greatly lowered speed). This meant very careful design and shrewd placement of boosts. Since Trackmania Nations did away with that function of checkpoints, they have been freely used as obstacles and in ways not thought of under the Sunrise and Original constraints. Some of this creativity has moved back into the first two games, however.

The Multi-Lap Block

A piece of track which might be considered a checkpoint is the Multi-Lap block. Placed instead of a start and finish, the Multi-Lap block acts as both and must be passed through multiple times in order to finish the track. After a driver passes through all checkpoints and the multi-lap block, the checkpoints are reset and must be passed through again. The number of times this occurs before the player is allowed to finish (the number of laps) is determined by the builder.