I used to think that dynamite had no real application in multiplayer Outlaws, other than getting a rare lucky kill on a slow player. Half the time I tried to use it I blew myself up, which didn't encourage me to keep on tryin' ta use it much. Havin' ta light th' fuse, hold down the button for range and then release to throw this slow stick a short distance didn't seem ta be worth the effort. Usually by the time the TNT left my hand my target had left my sights. The audible hissing of the fuse gave everyone plenty of warning to clear out. Yeah, dynamite sucks, thought I.

Then I met Da Beast

in what ended up bein' a one-on-one match. He was usin' Sanchez (who starts with dynamite) and I wuz usin' my old favorite Chief Two Feathers. So I'd start to chase him with my big knife, and he'd run. Now that wasn't fair, I thought. Then I'd hear a little hissing sound. Then I'd hear a BOOM and I'd get a nice close up view of the sky as the explosion of his TNT hurled me through the air. Then I'd die.

Now that wasn't too fun after a while. So I thought I'd get tricky and use a rifle on him at long range, thinkin' ta stay out of his throwing radius. So I grab a rifle and sit off a ways from the main building, waitin' for him to make an appearance. Well, there he is, jumpin' right up onto that fence in clear view. Easy pickins... I carefully drew a bead and just as I got my first shot off, a stick of dynamite smacked me right in the face. This was outside of pistol range, and he'd hit me dead-on with a stick of TNT! I died in awe.

Needless to say

I didn't belittle dynamite after that. We went on to have a great knife vs TNT match, probably the most fun I've had in a one-on-one deathmatch. I learned to respect those boom sticks. And they taught me how to fly...

The coolest kill I've ever witnessed

came from dynamite, and lots of it. It was a 4 or 5 player deathmatch in the Fort, me usin' Heap Big Chief again. A guy named Perrard, an Anderson, kept killin' me; he was smart enough to keep away from my knife. There was a fella named Caspur playin' as Bob Graham, a big yella boy who'd hide most of the time and occasionally try to ambush people. He wasn't doin' too well.

Now it so happened that I got on Perrard's tail. I don't think he knew I was there as my Indian gradually bore down on him from behind. He was movin' towards the fort entrance, mebbe plannin' on gettin' some easy kills outside the walls with his rifle.

Whatever he meant to do, he was crossin' the entrance just as I rounded the gatehouse corner in pursuit. I saw him, and I glimpsed somethin' else outta the corner of my eye that made me hesitate and instinctively shy back.

That instinct saved my hide.

A split second later multiple explosions ripped the air, blowing me backwards as fireballs engulfed the gatehouse, Perrard and all. When the smoke cleared Perrard was nowhere to be seen. "Caspur blew up Perrard!" explained the screen text, to which the late Perrard added "I flew all the way across the level!"

What had happened was this: Caspur, in his devious cunning, had strung a line of dynamite sticks all the way across the fort's entrance. This was what I saw out of the corner of my eye, although I only glimpsed multiple small dark SOMETHINGS near Perrard's feet. Caspur must have then stood off to the side of the entrance, shotgun in hand, aiming at the TNT and waiting for someone to come by. That someone was the unfortunate Perrard. Caspur then shot the dynamite stick at the end of the line closest to him, unleashing a chain of destruction that made an astronaut out of Perrard's Anderson. The sheer patience, confidence and timing needed to pull off such a gambit still boggles my mind. Caspur, you may be no great shakes in a gunfight, but yer my deathtrap-layin' GOD!