Member of the month: July - Talk

Originally posted by Giant Shy Guy's interview

Sorry if I go off-topic at times - it's a habit of mine.

1. How did you learn about SMW hacking, and why did you decide to join SWM Central?

From what I recall, I learned about SMW hacking through another day of video hopping. You know how on YouTube, you can jump from watching a video, say, on math problems, and somehow end up on...kittens fighting off a bear? Well, it was like that when I found about SMW Hacking. I don't recall what I searched for then, but I somehow ended up on LPs by chainfire9001 (who unfortunately had to delete his videos) of Super Mario World Hacks, the YouTube kinds. During that time, I was into playing Super Mario Advance 2: Super Mario World. I didn't know then that the advance series are actually remakes, so I thought I was watching mods of SMA2. chainfire also has video tutorials of how these "hacks" were made - those videos introduced me to Lunar Magic and how it works. I remember my first visit on this site was through this video, which linked to this site to get YY-CHR. That' pretty much what I did here - that was in mid 2010 I think?

A lot later on, after I deleted all my Lunar Magic stuff when I was trying to wrap around my head on why everything didn't look the same as SMA2, I stumbled upon AzureBlade49's LPs. I remember thinking he was the guy who introduced me to Lunar Magic - so I was there, watching in awe with these "awesome looking hacks" (hey, I was in the realm of YouTube hacks, I though cheap difficulty was awesome), and got back into SMW hacking to make my own hack (which would eventually turn in this). So I was having a lot fun making these (horrible) levels, while watching LPs by Azure and chainfire (by that time I knew they were separate people), when I got to an LP of Ball of Revenge by chainfire. I was really intrigued by this hack - it wasn't like the others. It had fair levels, new graphics (especially for the player), and what got me jump of my chair was an SMB3 hammer bro in one of the levels. I was trying to figure how in the world all of this, especially that non-existent-in-the-original-game Hammer Bro., got into this hack. So someway or another, I ended up here, on SMW Central.

I think I joined because I was having some problems - don't know what - and I wanted to know how to get that Hammer Bro. into my hack. I went by the name "Giant Shy Guy" since, well, I loved those critters when I first saw them in SMA:SMB2. I am actually really surprised that the name hasn't been used yet. My first post is restricted, and it bugs me so much since I don't know what was my first post.

I have to mention though - I wasn't active a lot due to my interest in SMW hacking slowly degrading, until I got the the LP of ASMT by raocow, which got me active a LOT, both in hacking and in this forum.

2. Tell us a little about your experience with Lunar Magic and your current hacking projects.

Before I got into SMW hacking, I was actually already adding mods to the Sims 2 game. It also had a program like Lunar Magic, called SimPE, to create new objects and new interactions for the game. I mentioned earlier about chainfire's Lunar Magic tutorials introducing me to this hacking scene, so I knew the basics of SMW hacking before I even joined this site. When I found Lunar Magic for SMW (or SMA2 as I thought), I was really excited that I can mod, or "hack", another favorite game of mine; but not to the point of being excited about the idea that it's actually possible to hack games, because of my previous work on SimPE. I remember being really proud making conveyor belts that uses the yellow log graphics during my an early level of mine.

My current hacking projects are my own hack, tentatively named A Super Mario Project, and a bunch of SMWCP2 stuff. Ever since I really got into hacking when I joined the the Super Mario Secret Santa thing, I've been really interested in starting from scratch to make my own full-fledged hack. During that time, I was a bit discourage with SMW hacking since I was really new to this community, I was having a lot of problems with my first hack, and the fact that I gave up on my level in the MLTF collab. When I felt the excitement and satisfaction of managing to create a level for someone to play during the Secret Santa event, I became a lot more encourage with creating a hack of my own...but not until I lurked into the SMWCP2 forums.

Skipping ahead, since I'll talk about my SMWCP2 experience a little later on, I am aiming to make a hack that feels like a real Mario game. Recently, I realized how I was making another NSMB game - which I realized isn't something I wanted to do. I want to make a unique Mario game, like the first four Super Mario games and the Mario Land games. I've wrote down, went over, raped the search button on Google, and lurked through various websites of what I could make with this hack. I don't know how many text files, ASM and CFG files, bin files, and ROM files I have lying around my literally named Hack folder. Unfortunately, my hack is in a current stand still while I port to a new ROM, which is what that discouraged me to finish my other hack in the first place; only this time, I don't have any plans on giving up. ;D

3. Right now, which areas of SMW hacking would you consider to be your strongest points?

Currently, the area in SMW hacking that I consider as my strongest point is level design. I'm starting to create good graphics and learning ASM, but I can confidently say that level design is my forte right now. Though I am a bit afraid of the future knowing about how "accurate" this chart is.

4. You seem to be very devoted to the SMWCP2 collab, can you describe your experience with the project?

Ahh this question. During my early lurking days, I found myself in SMWCP2 forums reading almost every level thread at that time. I remember my first post there at the W3 boss thread. Oh god - let's just say I went on a frantic frenzy on how an evil Shinto religion sign isn't really a nice idea for a boss. A little bit later on, I started posting a lot in discussion threads, immersing myself in the community because I was excited to see the hack done, and eventually watching Raocow's LP of SMWCP (which got me more into Raocow but that's another story). Though, I made more trouble than help now that I think of it. :/

I wasn't planning to actually make a level for the hack, with 8th grade nagging me since the start of the year, and the idea of how much time I spent on making my Secret Santa level itself. But, when a bunch of levels got passed on, including the Blue Switch Palace, I thought to myself "Why the hell not? I like this hack a lot, why shouldn't I take this chance?" So I asked for the level, not knowing what in the world to do with it.

Yes, I asked for a World 6 puzzle-ish level, with my little experience, not knowing what to make of it. I'm like that - I take something, and see what I can do with it as I go. Around that time, I somehow got found a bunch of Japanese hackers websites. One of them housed what became the main focus of the Blue Switch Palace for SMWCP2: the SMB3 rotational lifts and seesaw lift. I just knew I had to use this. Everything just clicked together by that time: having Mario ride this vehicle to this beautiful palace, breaking its gates. This Palace is a treasure trove - bringing out the greediness out of Mario. In the end, I made something I am really proud of: a level called Dynamic Disarray. I learned a lot from my level designing time in SMWCP2, and it's what really got me dedicated to hacking SMW in what could be for a long time.

Currently, I'm helping out with bugs and graphics. I am going through the latest base rom right now fixing palettes, fixing bugs, and putting backgrounds. Recently, I made a teaser trailer for SMWCP2, which turned out better than I expected. I'm really glad I took the time to make it, since shortly after I finished the trailer a bunch of video projects came up. Believe it or not I made video mainly using the god-awful WLMM, ZSNES, and powerpoint. A bunch of other tools, but that's pretty much the main ones.

It's funny though, how the SMWCP2 collab really got a lot people together.

5. As a quite recent member, are there any events in the community you wish you would have seen, or any inactive members you wish you could have met?

Well, I would particularly would loved to have been around during all the C3s, that eggdemic thing, SNN's 5000(?) post, and only as a history lesson, the ArBe incident. This is quite a interesting question to me, actually. I have occasionally mentioned about my me being an avid reader and an aspiring writer (you wouldn't really guess it from the way I post), and I am really interested in the history of a forum, for some odd reason. Before this site, I've been active in a bunch of other forums since I was...11? But anyways, with SMWC being around for quite a while now, I'm really interested on the things I find here: I found a swf movie of a milestone post by SNN, the Maxwell guy incident, secret forums like the Justice League(?) one (it's pretty broken though), a lot of post swimming in banned accounts, System quitting, and a bunch of others ones that I can't think off the top of my head.

The users I would like to have met are mikeyk, Kristian, dotsaresomething, Spade, and some other interesting people who's privacy I have violated (well, at least their posts...and their websites). I'm really surprised on how former staff members there were - it seems so much has happened in this site. It's weird though - a lot of the people who were staff feels like they're still staff. O.o

6. Again as a recent member, how do you feel inside the community right now?

I love this community. Though it's way stricter and scarier at first experience than any other forum I am a member of, I came to love this community when I got to know the members. Sure, I have my times, but who hasn't? This is the first real melting pot forum I have ever been part of, so that's another thing I like about this community. The staff here is just charming - they balance responsibility with having fun. I'm always here, and rarely logs-out (usually, when I'm not online, that means my laptop lid is closed). I'll probably be here for a long time, so that giant variation of a Shy Guy wouldn't disappear any time soon.

Originally posted by Iceguy's interview

1. What first led you to SMW Central, and what prompted you to stay?

My brother downloaded ZSNES and some SMW hacks from Zophar's Domain in May 2008 and introduced me to them. I was amazed when I played these hacks because I didn't know modding one of my favourite SNES games was even possible. Later, I searched for videos of hacks on YouTube and eventually discovered Lunar Magic. After playing with LM for a while and designing a few levels with it (which I think were pretty good by the way ), I ran into a few problems so I just googled for "SMW hacking help" or something like that. SMWCentral was the first hit and I decided to register right away.

I think what made me stay was the fact that every problem I had with SMW hacking back then was solved here and the userbase was pretty friendly. There were also tons of resources from here which I wanted to use in my hack. Eventually I made a lot of friends here and this became one of my favourite sites. Apart from one 2-3 month break in 2010, I've been actively visiting this site since I joined.

2. Aside from being on staff, what do you think has been your greatest acoomplishment on SMW Central?

Honestly, I don't really know. I don't really think I've done anything big since I've joined this site. Maybe it was coding the Ultimate n00b boss or writing a spriting tutorial? Not really sure.

3. On a more personal note, who would you consider to be some of your friends on SMW Central?

A lot of people. The entire staff, pretty much the whole of #serioushax and a lot of other people on the site. Some people I'd like to mention in no particular order are:

Roy - awesome guy, introduced me to IRC, helped me with countless ASM problems and is generally c00l even though we don't talk much anymore.

Alcaro/p4plus2/Ersanio - fun guys to talk to, help me with ASM problems, make IRC worth visiting lol

Patgangster/Riolu180/Slash_Man - c00l guys to talk to

SWR - helped me learn C# which eventually led to me making a few useful SMW hacking tools (where are you dude?)

There's probably many other users who I'm forgetting.

4. What have been some of your fondest memories of your time here?

2009 was probably my best, most productive and most memorable SMW hacking year. It was when I started to join IRC, learn ASM, make a ton of sprites, blocks and patches, made many friends and became a staff member. Some of my memorable moments at SMWC are:

- When I became a staff member. When the results of the hack moderator applications came out in late 2009, I was kind of disappointed when I realised I didn't get a position because I was really expecting to get one. To my surprise though, a day or two later after the results were announced I got a promotion PM from Supertails. It felt great reading that.

- Having fun times with Superyoshi (he left the site for good ages ago though). We made a lot of awesome drawings, cool ASM hacks together and posted crap on other SMW hacking boards, heh. He kinda took it too far in the end, though.

- The beginning of my SMW hacking career when I played all of the classic awesome hacks, like Keytastrophe, TSRPR and TSRP2. Buried Treasure and SMW2+3 were also some memorable hacks.

5. Finally, what does the future hold for you here at SMW Central? Are there goals you still want to accomplish? In general, where do you see yourself a year from now?

I think I'll actively visit this site for around 1 or 2 more years. Eventually I'll have to leave because University and RL stuff will get in the way but that's not to say I'll completely leave this place. My biggest goal right now is to actually finish a Paper Mario style hack before I become inactive. I initially started with this in mid 2009 after completing Paper Mario for the first time but due to various reasons such as hard-drive crashes, lack of motivation and lack of time, I've barely made any progress since then. I've learnt a lot in SMW hacking over the past 4 years and I don't want my skills to completely go to waste by not making a hack. Also, I'd like to hold a spriting workshop as well someday but I'm not sure if that'll happen.