Stack Smash Website, Their Team, and the huge roster of custom Brawlers

Updated 4/23:  Download the Raw, unedited version ; )

The guys over at Stack Smash and I had a good ol’ fashioned IM Interview about Nintendo, Brawl Editing, and just about everything!  Be sure to read the full interview and check out their website for more info!  Just a preview, the guys at Stack Smash are responsible for creating some really cool mods for Smash Bros. Brawl.  One of the latest on the site deals with Jack from MadWorld and it’s pretty sweet!

4:53:34 PM justin: 1. What are your gaming loyalties? Are all of you lifetime Nintendo fans? just smash bros?

4:53:58 PM Androu1: Well sir, the Wii is actually the first Nintendo game system I cared about

4:54:00 PM PZT: I’ve been a lifetime Nintendo fan, but recently I’ve became disallusioned.  Like many.

4:54:05 PM Androu1: I’m more of a PS2 man.

4:54:14 PM Warchamp7: 1. I’ve been a long time Nintendo fan and always loved Smash Bros. but as of recently, Nintendo has really been rejecting the gamers in favor of soccer mom’s and little girls

4:54:15 PM Androu1: PS2 and PSP for the win.

4:54:22 PM CaptainJim: 1. I’m a lifetime Nintendo fan, yar. I mean, not die-hard.


4:54:25 PM PZT: Warchamp pretty much summed it up.

4:54:32 PM Leon2457: I’m a Hardcore Nintendo Fan, but I do play other consoles, well, I’ve been playing Nintendo for a good majority in my life

4:54:32 PM CaptainJim: I’m multi-console.

4:54:48 PM CaptainJim: I own a Wii, PS2, PSP, and a 360.

4:54:53 PM Warchamp7: Aside from Smash Bros, I’m mainly involved with PC gaming

4:55:02 PM Leon2457: I play other consoles, but I’m more attracted to Nintendo consoles

4:55:41 PM CaptainJim: They gotta do what they gotta do to get money.

4:55:44 PM PZT: I own a Wii, PS2, PSP, SNES Model 2, NES signed by Thor Aackerlund (NWC 1990), Genesis 2, the list goes on.

4:55:57 PM Leon2457: I has, NES, SNES, GB,. GBC,. GBA, DS (lite), GCN, N64, Wii, Xbox, Xbox360, PSone, PS2 and I recently got a PSP

4:56:12 PM Androu1: I play the PS2 and PSP more than the Wii

4:56:16 PM CaptainJim: I am a bit…unhappy with Nintendo, but I’m not gonna abandon ship.

4:56:19 PM Leon2457: Wii FTW

4:56:22 PM justin: 2. What are your all-time favorite Nintendo-games?

4:56:26 PM PZT: I got my SNES Model 2 at a thrift for 3 american dollars :D

4:56:32 PM Leon2457: oh geez, this is tough

4:56:33 PM Androu1: 2. Too hard to choose!

4:56:37 PM CaptainJim: Hrm.

4:56:43 PM Androu1: My favorite series is Metal Gear, tho

4:56:43 PM PZT: Well, my favorite game ever is Paper Mario on the good old N64.

4:56:47 PM Androu1: I’m sad that I will never play MGS4. Because I don’t have a PS3 and I don’t want a PS3

4:56:48 PM CaptainJim: …I’m gonna have to go with Pokemon games.

4:56:53 PM PZT: I feel PM2 was trying too hard and SPM raped the series.

4:57:02 PM CaptainJim: Blue Version was the first game I ever owned.

4:57:05 PM PZT: My favorite series however.

4:57:07 PM Androu1: The Shin Megami Tensei was a recent addition to my life too :-D

4:57:09 PM PZT: Is Wario Land.

4:57:14 PM PZT: Specifically, 2 and 3.

4:57:19 PM Warchamp7: All-time games are probably Melee and Brawl. Outside of Smash Bros, I’d probably say Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

4:57:20 PM Leon2457: My top 5 series are

4:57:22 PM PZT: Those games are pretty much the best platformers ever.

4:57:33 PM CaptainJim: My favorite Nintendo titles…

4:57:35 PM Androu1: Yes. Wario Land 2 and 3 are great.

4:57:38 PM PZT: I even own a Wario Land hat, custom-made.

4:57:42 PM Androu1: Awwwwwwwww, good ol’ times.

4:57:57 PM Leon2457: Smash Bros, Legend of Zelda (3d), Pokemon (all handheld)  ……. uh …… oh, I LOVE Star Fox games ….. and ……

4:58:01 PM Androu1: Yeah, I remember that PZT.

4:58:08 PM Androu1: When the team was only 3 guys…

4:58:22 PM PZT: Yeah, times were pretty good then.

4:58:26 PM CaptainJim: Pokemon games, Wario Ware, Paper Mario: TTYD, Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (I like it more than OoT, sue me).

4:58:32 PM Androu1: Oh! Also! To my favorite games, KOEI’s Warriors series.

4:58:35 PM PZT: I really dislike WarioWare.

4:58:36 PM Androu1: Like, Dynasty Warriors and such.

4:58:38 PM PZT: Reaaaaally.

4:58:38 PM CaptainJim: I was rather fond of Wario Land Four.

4:58:39 PM Leon2457: Twilight Princess was my favorite

4:58:50 PM justin: 3. Who’s your favorite Smash Bros. character? Brawl or otherwise.

4:58:55 PM Androu1: Snake!

4:58:56 PM Leon2457: Link

4:58:57 PM Warchamp7: Falco

4:59:03 PM CaptainJim: POKEMONNNN TRAINEEEER

4:59:05 PM PZT: Fox!

4:59:06 PM Androu1: Not even need to ask since I said MGS is my favorite series.

4:59:08 PM PZT: FOXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

4:59:15 PM Leon2457: for the pure Fact I AM a UBER SUPER DUPER ULTRA HARCORE Zelda Fanboy

4:59:29 PM CaptainJim: Pokemon Trainer, due to him tweakin’ my nostalgia cord.

4:59:32 PM Warchamp7: Definitely Falco, he’s fast but still packs a punch

4:59:45 PM justin: i’m a Bowser fan myself :)

4:59:46 PM CaptainJim: And a moment of silence for Mewtwo

4:59:55 PM Androu1: Bowser is awesome, but too slow for me.

4:59:59 PM Warchamp7: Bowser’s cool, I’ve seen a really good Bowser before

5:00:02 PM Androu1: My mains are Snake, Sonic, Ness and Lucas.

5:00:04 PM Leon2457: My others are … Toon Link, Ike, Sonic, Ganondorf and Wolf

5:00:05 PM CaptainJim: Mewtwo was my Melee main.

5:00:13 PM Leon2457: (those are my mains and favorites)

5:00:19 PM Androu1: Roy was my Melee main

5:00:37 PM PZT: Fox owns.

5:00:38 PM CaptainJim: But in Brawl, I stick with Pokemon Trainer, Toon Link, and Ice Climbers.

5:00:45 PM PZT: I mained him in Melee, I mained him in Brawl.

5:01:00 PM Androu1: I never cared about PKMN Trainer

5:01:05 PM Androu1: Until I finished FireRed

5:01:16 PM PZT: FRIEND COOOOOOODES

5:01:18 PM Leon2457: PKMN Trainer is really fun to play as

5:01:47 PM Leon2457: Charmander <3 …. Warttortle and Venusaur would’ve been LOL

5:01:53 PM PZT: I got stuck with Zelda and got owned, first round

5:01:59 PM CaptainJim: Charizard plz.

5:02:04 PM Androu1: The PKMN Trainer needed an evolving gimmick

5:02:15 PM Androu1: It would be so weird and…weird

5:02:16 PM Leon2457: PZT, sounds like your life story doesnt it?

5:02:30 PM Leon2457: tee hee hee

5:02:33 PM CaptainJim: PKMN Trainer needed an ACTUAL Gameboy Color style costume.

5:03:46 PM justin: 4. Is the Smash Bros. Brawl texture editing based on a specific hack? or does it leverage the Homebrew channel?  How does the process work in other words?

5:03:58 PM PZT: Well, there’s two methods.

5:04:04 PM PZT: Disc burning.

5:04:08 PM PZT: And SD card loader.

5:04:15 PM Leon2457: SD loader is very new though

5:04:18 PM Warchamp7: And there were a lot of steps involved

5:04:23 PM Androu1: Even tho SD Card Loader doesn’t support music, and other stuff

5:04:39 PM Leon2457: Make PCS, Insert onto the image, burn Disc, play it

5:04:44 PM Leon2457: hope it works

5:04:47 PM PZT: SD loader is basically putting a set of codes on the SD card telling the game to dynamically replace certain files.

5:04:56 PM Androu1: Gee Leon2457, you make it sound easy and fast

5:04:58 PM CaptainJim: Haaa, we’re kidding. It all relies on Smash Fairies.

5:04:58 PM Warchamp7: With disc burning, all textures had to be manually hexxed into the ISO, then burnt to a DVD just to see if it even worked

5:05:10 PM Warchamp7: And hexxing was a monotonous and tedious process

5:05:22 PM PZT: Hexing was easy but long and BORING.

5:05:23 PM Leon2457: you use Wiiscrubber

5:05:32 PM Warchamp7: I can’t imagine how many DVDs some of our members went through

5:05:35 PM Leon2457: it does it automatically after you’ve hexxed up the PAC and PCS

5:05:44 PM Androu1: I have 2 50 stacks

5:05:44 PM Warchamp7: That’s what I’m referring to Leon2457

5:05:50 PM Androu1: I even threw away some that didn’t even work.

5:05:54 PM Warchamp7: Hexxing the PAC and PCS files

5:05:58 PM Androu1: So…

5:05:59 PM Androu1: A lot of discs.

5:05:56 PM justin: 5. So was the SD loader possible before the newest Wii 4.0 update?

5:06:08 PM PZT: 4.0 breaks it.

5:06:15 PM PZT: 4.0 crushes dreams and hopes.

5:06:47 PM Leon2457: although some users DID make a way top use Homebrew with 4.0

5:06:56 PM Androu1: I have Starfall installed to prevent updates anyway

5:07:26 PM CaptainJim: I think I’m still running 3.6

5:07:34 PM Androu1: Whatever Nintendo does won’t be enough

5:07:41 PM Androu1: The hackers will just own them

5:08:00 PM Leon2457: Androu is very true in that

5:09:37 PM Leon2457: just a couple of Japan only games

5:09:45 PM Warchamp7: Piracy is only made out as bad by greedy corporations and the media

5:09:52 PM CaptainJim: I imported Tatsunoko vs. Capcom

5:10:07 PM CaptainJim: And I imported it.

5:10:57 PM Leon2457: may I just say something to everyone who will be reading this?

5:11:24 PM Leon2457: BUY/DOWNLOAD TAIKO NO TATSUJIN WII NOW ITS MUCH BETTER THAN GUITAR HERO

5:11:39 PM Leon2457: Im done

5:12:09 PM PZT: Fun fact: Donkey Konga was a rebranded version of Taiko no Tatsujin.

5:12:25 PM justin: 6. Who’s involved on the team? And all you all graphics guys? programmers? In other words, what does it take to do what you guys do?

5:12:36 PM PZT: I think up ideas and update the site.

5:12:43 PM PZT: I also make sure the server doesn’t explode.

5:12:51 PM Androu1: I was the main artist and hexed a lot of stuff back in the day

5:12:55 PM Warchamp7: I originally came on board as a hexer and did a costume or two. Hexing is pretty much gone now, I’m more here for ideas and feedback now

5:12:59 PM Leon2457: But I’m mainly a Graphics guy

5:13:22 PM justin: ok, define hexing for those that don’t know…

5:13:48 PM PZT: Hexing, hexing…

5:14:04 PM Androu1: Hexing is when you use a hex editor to put the edited texture files onto a PAC file

5:14:37 PM Warchamp7: Hexing basically comprised of converting the edited textures into a text form and pasting it back into the original character texture

5:14:43 PM Warchamp7: It was a slow and boring process

5:15:53 PM Warchamp7: There’s tools now that do the hexing part for you

5:16:06 PM PZT: Now that ASH has came out (Automatic Smash Hexer) anyone can do it and it’s a lot easier.

5:16:34 PM Leon2457: ASH has brought forth the spree of noob texture artists

5:16:52 PM CaptainJim: ASH is responsible for the 5000 Naruto Ikes.

5:17:09 PM justin: 7. What are the future plans for customizing Brawl?  Sound editing? Custom game modes?

5:17:20 PM PZT: Sound editing is already done.

5:17:20 PM Leon2457: Models

5:17:23 PM Androu1: My future plans are making BRSTMs

5:17:25 PM PZT: Well, music editing anyway.

5:17:34 PM PZT: BRSTM is Brawl’s music formats.

5:17:36 PM Androu1: And waiting for a SD Music Loader

5:17:40 PM PZT: Yes, model hacking is in the cards.

5:17:41 PM Leon2457: Yeah

5:17:44 PM CaptainJim: Models….we’d like to.

5:17:50 PM PZT: Our new member is working on making a Mewtwo model for Lucario.

5:17:52 PM CaptainJim: It won’t be easy.

5:17:57 PM Warchamp7: Model hacking is definitely on the horizon

5:17:59 PM Leon2457: Pharrox I THINK is making a model convertor ….

5:18:14 PM Leon2457: So … hopefully you’ll see Mewtwo return soon

5:18:15 PM Warchamp7: Pharrox is basically the guy we can thank for texture hacking

5:18:21 PM Warchamp7: Pharrox was the first and spread the word

5:19:07 PM Warchamp7: Don’t get us wrong, it’s great seeing others taking a crack at texture editing

5:19:15 PM Warchamp7: Theres some pretty great stuff now and then

5:19:26 PM Warchamp7: But the same ideas over and over, done badly, get old fast

5:19:29 PM CaptainJim: Same.

5:19:38 PM Leon2457: I agree with WarChamp on this

5:19:51 PM CaptainJim: You know how many Shadow the Hedgehogs we see?

5:19:58 PM Leon2457: Im sick of all the dupes of things people are making

5:19:58 PM PZT: OVER NINE THOUSAAAAAAAND

5:20:07 PM PZT: I agree with Leon2457.

5:20:10 PM Warchamp7: SOO MANY

5:20:20 PM CaptainJim: Here a Shadow, there a Shadow

5:20:23 PM CaptainJim: And another little Shadow

5:20:38 PM Leon2457: Next thing you know people will remake my Majora’s Mask for the pure sake of them wanting it to look OFFICIAL

5:21:30 PM justin: 8. What are your favorite texture mod characters?

5:21:46 PM PZT: Zombie Wario.

5:21:47 PM Warchamp7: I’m just going to say that mIRC Falcon is better than KVIRC Falcon

5:21:49 PM Androu1: Shadowchu, maybe?

5:21:58 PM PZT: President Olimar.

5:21:58 PM CaptainJim: Yeah, Warchamp!

5:21:58 PM Androu1: Shadowchu for the lulz factor

5:21:58 PM PZT: Shadowchu.

5:21:58 PM CaptainJim: *Highfive*

5:22:02 PM Warchamp7: As for my favorite texture, probably Dhragen’s Zero and Sigma

5:22:05 PM Androu1: No! KVIrc is better than mIRC!

5:22:16 PM Warchamp7: Nope, mIRC is way better

5:22:17 PM Leon2457: I like ……..

5:22:29 PM PZT: We need Chatzilla Falcon.

5:22:30 PM Androu1: The best is beard Ness

5:22:39 PM PZT: Yeah, Beardness too.

5:22:41 PM CaptainJim: Hold on, lemme take a look at the Roster

5:22:54 PM CaptainJim: Dhragen’s recent Masked Man

5:23:02 PM PZT: Anyone who doesn’t agree that President Olimar was one of the best things ever needs to go die in a ditch.

5:23:04 PM Androu1: Vile’s Jack (Mad World) is just plain out GREAT, IMO

5:23:05 PM PZT: SHACHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

5:23:09 PM CaptainJim: Bird Person’s Hero’s New Clothes

5:23:11 PM justin: Are there any cool bowser mods?

5:23:16 PM PZT: Yes.

5:23:18 PM PZT: Zombie Bowser.

5:23:22 PM Androu1: Oh! Lemme say a fun fact

5:23:27 PM PZT: Tubba Blubba (Paper Mario)

5:23:38 PM Androu1: Thy Elder Bowser was supossed to be that King Dododongo!

5:23:40 PM PZT: One for every Koopaling.

5:23:56 PM CaptainJim: As for the favorite hacks I made myself…

5:24:05 PM PZT: I think S’ Morton looks pretty sweet.

5:24:09 PM Leon2457: Androu’s Roy …. S’s Mewtwo ……. Jim’s Mike Jones

5:24:13 PM CaptainJim: Gameboy Pokemon Trainer and Pappychu.

5:24:22 PM Androu1: Oh Pappychu is a piece of art :O

5:24:23 PM PZT: Gameboy Trainer was awesome.

5:24:33 PM PZT: Mammypuff soon.

5:24:34 PM Warchamp7: Syntax Error’s Giga Dry Bowser is awesome

5:24:36 PM Leon2457: I like a LOT of the stuff the team have made, its too difficult to choose a “few”

5:25:10 PM CaptainJim: Ohhh, I also like Bird Person’s  Johnny Turbo

5:25:37 PM Leon2457: Glacata Knight and Sir Kibble

5:26:04 PM Leon2457: I like most of everyones work

5:26:15 PM justin: 9. Is it possible to use the texture hacking methods for other games besides Brawl? Mario Kart? Zelda?

5:26:28 PM Androu1: Yes it is possible

5:26:32 PM Leon2457: Mario Kart has already been done

5:26:36 PM Androu1: Captain Rainbow, for example

5:26:41 PM Leon2457: and so has Animal Crossing City Folk

5:26:55 PM Androu1: Maybe Super Paper Mario and PM:TTYD

5:26:57 PM Leon2457: I want to do Mario Kart

5:27:07 PM Androu1: They both can be edited with similar methods.

5:27:13 PM CaptainJim: Brawl is pretty much our focus.

5:27:27 PM Leon2457: we should make a sub-site for MK hacks

5:27:41 PM PZT: We should make a sub-site for Air Ride hacks.

5:27:53 PM PZT: I’ve also been trying desperately to crack Star Fox Assault.

5:28:00 PM Leon2457: I’ve grown off of it due to my prolonged exposure to it

5:28:06 PM PZT: That game has an awesome multiplayer mode.

5:28:20 PM Warchamp7: I don’t blame Androu for getting bored of Brawl, he was one of our main testers

5:29:51 PM justin: 10. Any closing thoughts?  How can people get involved with texture hacking? Do you even want more people to get involved :)?

5:30:28 PM PZT: We have enough Shadows thanks.

5:30:29 PM Androu1: People can go to Smash Costume Hacking Community

5:30:42 PM CaptainJim: http://stacksmash.cultnet.net/communitycostumes/123forum/phpBB3/index.php

5:30:45 PM CaptainJim: Go there!

5:30:50 PM CaptainJim: That is the SCHC!

5:30:53 PM CaptainJim: Meet other people!

5:30:54 PM PZT: That site is the definitive Smash community.

5:32:39 PM Androu1: Good stuff :-D

5:32:51 PM PZT: EEGRA: The official webcomic of Stack Smash.

5:32:53 PM Warchamp7: Sounds good Justin, thanks for your time

5:34:11 PM CaptainJim: Right on

5:34:49 PM justin: ok, cool, thanks guys!  thanks for all the great input!