Hey guys, it's that time of the month again. This month, we have anonimzwx, who's skilled on ASM and is doing some great projects with it; and antimatterhunter, who's one of our Graphics moderator who puts a lot of work in his hacks and to the remoderation project.
With that said, here are the interviews for these two!
Congratulations, both of you!
With that said, here are the interviews for these two!
anonimzwx's Interview
1. How did you find about SMWC?
When I was a kid (around 9~12 years), I had a dream of modifying Super Mario World, but I didn't found any info about it. Two years ago I found a video on You Tube made by aj6666, where he teaches how to use Lunar Magic. After I watched the video I found Fortaleza Reznor, a Spanish SMW hacking community. In that place I met a lot of people like Masterlink, MaxodeX, LX5, Jack Kitetsu, aj6666 that are also here, and they told me about SMWC.
2. What made you interested in ASM or hacking in general?
In short: Brutal Mario.
When I started hacking, the first hack I played was Brutal Mario. I study Computer Engineering, and I programmed since 2007, so I thought I could make things like these or even better. After that I started to research about the SNES and its programming language, and it was very easy for me to learn it because I had knowledge on ASM x86.
3. Can you tell us a bit about your ASM/Hacking projects?
My biggest hacking project would be my hack, Super Mario World: Random Revolution. It's a very ambitious project. I want to make a massive crossover that immerse the player into a completely new experience for each level.
About my other projects:
- Dynamic Z: Another of my big projects. This is a patch that I hope will give the tools needed to change many things that causes big limitations in the game. The SNES doesn't have as many limitations as people thing; it's the bad programming in SMW that causes them.
- Dyzen: This is a tool that will use Dynamic Z. One of its main functions is to make graphic and collision routines for all kinds of sprites. It can also change tilemaps, GFXs (including player GFX) and palettes. Maybe with this and Dynamic Z people will start to make sprites with better graphical routines, more dynamic sprites and gimmicks that involve changing the player or any GFX.
For now, both, Dynamic Z and Dyzen, are WIP.
- I also want to help imamelia with Tessera 2.0. Hopefully this tool will make the sprite making process a lot easier because of its code library, expanded OAM, all the extra bytes, etc. I hope that someday, Tessera 2.0 will be the successor of Sprite Tool.
4. What do you think of SMWC as a community?
SMWC is a great community, but unfortunately, I don't know many people from here. Some guys, however, are very friendly, like Vitor Vilela, MarioE, ggamer77, worldpeace, Mellonpizza and others.
Sometimes I have problems because my English is very limited, and I find a bit hard to write and organize my ideas in the same way I do in Spanish, but maybe with time that will improve and I'll meet more cool people from here.
5. Do you have anything else you want to say to our userbase to end the interview?
Thank you very much for this recognition; I really wasn't expecting it. If I had to say something is that if you all want to make new projects, try to be ambitious, but also try to not overload yourself with too much stuff, like trying to learn complex ASM in a day. Go by small and continuous steps, and work very hard on it and you'll have no problem in achieving your goal. Research as much as you can and don't forget to bring enough food and a bit of coffee; it's important!
When I was a kid (around 9~12 years), I had a dream of modifying Super Mario World, but I didn't found any info about it. Two years ago I found a video on You Tube made by aj6666, where he teaches how to use Lunar Magic. After I watched the video I found Fortaleza Reznor, a Spanish SMW hacking community. In that place I met a lot of people like Masterlink, MaxodeX, LX5, Jack Kitetsu, aj6666 that are also here, and they told me about SMWC.
2. What made you interested in ASM or hacking in general?
In short: Brutal Mario.
When I started hacking, the first hack I played was Brutal Mario. I study Computer Engineering, and I programmed since 2007, so I thought I could make things like these or even better. After that I started to research about the SNES and its programming language, and it was very easy for me to learn it because I had knowledge on ASM x86.
3. Can you tell us a bit about your ASM/Hacking projects?
My biggest hacking project would be my hack, Super Mario World: Random Revolution. It's a very ambitious project. I want to make a massive crossover that immerse the player into a completely new experience for each level.
About my other projects:
- Dynamic Z: Another of my big projects. This is a patch that I hope will give the tools needed to change many things that causes big limitations in the game. The SNES doesn't have as many limitations as people thing; it's the bad programming in SMW that causes them.
- Dyzen: This is a tool that will use Dynamic Z. One of its main functions is to make graphic and collision routines for all kinds of sprites. It can also change tilemaps, GFXs (including player GFX) and palettes. Maybe with this and Dynamic Z people will start to make sprites with better graphical routines, more dynamic sprites and gimmicks that involve changing the player or any GFX.
For now, both, Dynamic Z and Dyzen, are WIP.
- I also want to help imamelia with Tessera 2.0. Hopefully this tool will make the sprite making process a lot easier because of its code library, expanded OAM, all the extra bytes, etc. I hope that someday, Tessera 2.0 will be the successor of Sprite Tool.
4. What do you think of SMWC as a community?
SMWC is a great community, but unfortunately, I don't know many people from here. Some guys, however, are very friendly, like Vitor Vilela, MarioE, ggamer77, worldpeace, Mellonpizza and others.
Sometimes I have problems because my English is very limited, and I find a bit hard to write and organize my ideas in the same way I do in Spanish, but maybe with time that will improve and I'll meet more cool people from here.
5. Do you have anything else you want to say to our userbase to end the interview?
Thank you very much for this recognition; I really wasn't expecting it. If I had to say something is that if you all want to make new projects, try to be ambitious, but also try to not overload yourself with too much stuff, like trying to learn complex ASM in a day. Go by small and continuous steps, and work very hard on it and you'll have no problem in achieving your goal. Research as much as you can and don't forget to bring enough food and a bit of coffee; it's important!
antimatterhunter's Interview
1. How did you get into SMW Hacking?
Well, thinking back the six and over a half years, I think I got involved into SMW hacking the minute my brother did. When we first discovered Lunar Magic, we were amazed to say the least. After Scorpion made his first level, consisting of hazardly placed nets and cement blocks, I got straight to work using nothing but ? - Blocks and oddly colored lava. I guess you can call it practice, and at the time, I made very short levels, I'd say around nine screens long. Before long, Scorpion stumbled onto a piece of video from the Second Reality Project 2. At the time, we were around 13 years old, we found out where to download this incredible thing we were seeing and Scorpion finished the hack (after spending a long time trying to figure out how to apply it). We got the tools from SMWC, but never bothered to join back then.
Afterwards, we decided to make our own levels, nothing fancy, but we used FPI's hack as a base. Needless to say, very new into the scene, we didn't know our right from wrong. When a level was put up to Youtube, a vid called Hunter's Fortress 1 (as in my real name fortress), the comments received were about using FPI's work as a base. By the time we learned what it was all about, you can bet we corrected that as soon as we could. It wouldn't take long for us to get the hang of LM's basics and then want to make our own hacks.
2. What has gotten your attention on making graphics?
I used to draw comics in school. They weren't small ones either, like 34 pages long or something, got around eight to ten volumes done, and then gave up on them. When we got into SMW hacking, we were amazed like I said above. It wasn't long before we wanted to make our own hack, but... we needed GFX that weren't on the website. I've always been talented in art, but never on a computer or with pixels back then. We found YY-CHR, a program that could alter or create new .bin files for SMW to read and input as extra GFX, you can imagine our stupor as we dove right in. We needed villains for our first ambitious hack, then Hunter and Scorpion were born, albeit really poor designs, but it was a major advancement for the both of us at the time.
As time went on, we improved our skills in GFX making and lo-and-behold, here we are, six years later, still doing the same thing. Improving character designs and still making GFX to use for our hacks. For a while now, I've wanted to try remaking all of NSMBWii's FG's and submit them to the site, but sadly enough, I don't have the time to do that anymore.
Nowadays, I spend most of my time making GFX for the cutscenes I work on and helping some others behind the scenes get a lead on in the GFX making thing as well, though I'm not the best teacher, in fact far from it. And to this day, I am learning new techniques in making GFX. It's a rough ride.
3. Tell us what keeps you interested on the hacking scene.
The one thing that keeps me interested in SMW hacking is my love for the Devious Four Chronicles. I'm one of those people who when I start something, I have this need to finish it to the end. I never imagined the series would go as far as it has, and it is thanks to the many people who help me out and to our loyal fans such as Gunblazer42, a couple of youtubers, and Hailcrash27. Needless to say, the series has a bad light probably due to its serious take on something that shouldn't be so serious like Mario, but I digress, my hack series, I can do what I want. Whether people play it or not, that's their choice. However, feedback is always appreciated and is taken seriously.
The only other thing that keeps me active is probably the userbase on this site. I can't imagine what would keep me here after the Devious Four Chronicles is completed and finished other than the userbase here. Being a staff member has been a fun ride and I look forward to see how things will evolve in the future.
4. How's your experience of being a staff member of the site?
This is the first forum I've been a staff member of, and after being here for six years before becoming staff, I guess it is safe to say I knew how the site worked for the most part. Understandably though, when I first came onto the staff team, I was nervous to say the least. I was worried if I couldn't make the cut or really help out in other places, but as time as gone on, the Staff team has been very nice and cooperative in helping me out, and best of all, I've gotten to know some of the staff quite well. If I had to say who I would call friends in the staff, it'd Hinalyte, Counterfeit, Lightvayne, and Mirann. I'm currently still getting to know most of the other staff and I very much look forward to it. Otherwise, moderating GFX is amazing, though I don't generally do it all the time considering I am working on my projects and several requests at a time.
5. What do you say on the site's community?
Hmm, what can I say about the site's community. Well, I haven't banned a single user yet, hahahaha. But seriously, this has to be one of the greatest communities I know. I love this community because of its very diverse userbase and the abilities we have to customize our posts. With the large number of active users and the many others who work around in loads of other areas, it is quite fun to say the least. I'm sure when the Devious Four Chronicles is finished, I'll be sticking around for a long time. This is by far the greatest online community I have ever come to know, and I hope to thrive in its even more advanced days.
Well, thinking back the six and over a half years, I think I got involved into SMW hacking the minute my brother did. When we first discovered Lunar Magic, we were amazed to say the least. After Scorpion made his first level, consisting of hazardly placed nets and cement blocks, I got straight to work using nothing but ? - Blocks and oddly colored lava. I guess you can call it practice, and at the time, I made very short levels, I'd say around nine screens long. Before long, Scorpion stumbled onto a piece of video from the Second Reality Project 2. At the time, we were around 13 years old, we found out where to download this incredible thing we were seeing and Scorpion finished the hack (after spending a long time trying to figure out how to apply it). We got the tools from SMWC, but never bothered to join back then.
Afterwards, we decided to make our own levels, nothing fancy, but we used FPI's hack as a base. Needless to say, very new into the scene, we didn't know our right from wrong. When a level was put up to Youtube, a vid called Hunter's Fortress 1 (as in my real name fortress), the comments received were about using FPI's work as a base. By the time we learned what it was all about, you can bet we corrected that as soon as we could. It wouldn't take long for us to get the hang of LM's basics and then want to make our own hacks.
2. What has gotten your attention on making graphics?
I used to draw comics in school. They weren't small ones either, like 34 pages long or something, got around eight to ten volumes done, and then gave up on them. When we got into SMW hacking, we were amazed like I said above. It wasn't long before we wanted to make our own hack, but... we needed GFX that weren't on the website. I've always been talented in art, but never on a computer or with pixels back then. We found YY-CHR, a program that could alter or create new .bin files for SMW to read and input as extra GFX, you can imagine our stupor as we dove right in. We needed villains for our first ambitious hack, then Hunter and Scorpion were born, albeit really poor designs, but it was a major advancement for the both of us at the time.
As time went on, we improved our skills in GFX making and lo-and-behold, here we are, six years later, still doing the same thing. Improving character designs and still making GFX to use for our hacks. For a while now, I've wanted to try remaking all of NSMBWii's FG's and submit them to the site, but sadly enough, I don't have the time to do that anymore.
Nowadays, I spend most of my time making GFX for the cutscenes I work on and helping some others behind the scenes get a lead on in the GFX making thing as well, though I'm not the best teacher, in fact far from it. And to this day, I am learning new techniques in making GFX. It's a rough ride.
3. Tell us what keeps you interested on the hacking scene.
The one thing that keeps me interested in SMW hacking is my love for the Devious Four Chronicles. I'm one of those people who when I start something, I have this need to finish it to the end. I never imagined the series would go as far as it has, and it is thanks to the many people who help me out and to our loyal fans such as Gunblazer42, a couple of youtubers, and Hailcrash27. Needless to say, the series has a bad light probably due to its serious take on something that shouldn't be so serious like Mario, but I digress, my hack series, I can do what I want. Whether people play it or not, that's their choice. However, feedback is always appreciated and is taken seriously.
The only other thing that keeps me active is probably the userbase on this site. I can't imagine what would keep me here after the Devious Four Chronicles is completed and finished other than the userbase here. Being a staff member has been a fun ride and I look forward to see how things will evolve in the future.
4. How's your experience of being a staff member of the site?
This is the first forum I've been a staff member of, and after being here for six years before becoming staff, I guess it is safe to say I knew how the site worked for the most part. Understandably though, when I first came onto the staff team, I was nervous to say the least. I was worried if I couldn't make the cut or really help out in other places, but as time as gone on, the Staff team has been very nice and cooperative in helping me out, and best of all, I've gotten to know some of the staff quite well. If I had to say who I would call friends in the staff, it'd Hinalyte, Counterfeit, Lightvayne, and Mirann. I'm currently still getting to know most of the other staff and I very much look forward to it. Otherwise, moderating GFX is amazing, though I don't generally do it all the time considering I am working on my projects and several requests at a time.
5. What do you say on the site's community?
Hmm, what can I say about the site's community. Well, I haven't banned a single user yet, hahahaha. But seriously, this has to be one of the greatest communities I know. I love this community because of its very diverse userbase and the abilities we have to customize our posts. With the large number of active users and the many others who work around in loads of other areas, it is quite fun to say the least. I'm sure when the Devious Four Chronicles is finished, I'll be sticking around for a long time. This is by far the greatest online community I have ever come to know, and I hope to thrive in its even more advanced days.
Congratulations, both of you!