THPS Podcast

konek is a well known style/improv player who has been playing the series for an extended period of time. He has won multiple tournaments: SoS1, SoS2 and most recently the prestigious i5 Tourney. He has been a finalist in multiple other tournaments as well. konek was the leader of the flo clan at one point, was in the tLT Clan, and has resurrected the dormant jh00 clan. With the new jh00 clan the group has helped make fashionable once again non-glitch/old school type transfers.

bAstimc is the dev on the amazing mod: THPSPro for THPS 1+2. He started his journey by playing THPS1 at a friend's place and then delved into THPS2 PC Demo in 2000. He was an active member of the THPSWorld forum community. Eventually, he ventured into online play with THUG2 on PC, where he met buRn and discovered Muhcrew. Over time, he gained access to early builds of THAW and THP8, while also diving into modding alongside MuddaFuQ, Reh, blub, defeat0r, chc, bio, kamer, chad, reaper, and others. Around March 2020 he explored the warehouse demo for THPS 1+2 but decided not to mod it extensively, expecting updates. In February 2022 he started learning UE4 basics and delved into modding THPS 1+2, with invaluable guidance from Ghfear and demo project files for level creation. He would then port the Los Angeles level when Tony Hawk confirmed THPS 3+4 was not going to be released at that time. Since then bAstimc has finished all of the THPS3 levels and and all of the THPS4 levels for THPSPro. He continues working on various other projects and updating THPSPro.

Part 2 w/ andyTHPS: we finish our talk about his career with Neversoft, work on Epic Skater, working at Vicarious Visions, and beyond. We finish with questions from the THPS Community for andyTHPS. andyTHPS is cited by many as one of the greatest THPS players of all time. He is well-known as one of the earliest players to be exceptional at the game. He was recognized for his skill by Neversoft and then invited to test on the series and later was hired by the studio to be part of the development team. He became a level designer in later titles, putting his touch on East LA, High School, and parts of Washington DC, among others. He worked on several of the Guitar Hero games and was with Neversoft all the way through them merging with Infinity Ward. He would then go on to develop his own skateboarding games in Epic Skater 1 and 2. Later he started as a consultant for Vicarious Visions on Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 then became a full-fledged member of their development team! Andy also has a super successful channel on Twitch where he plays multiple THPS titles, other “extreme” sports games, and the drums.

andyTHPS is cited by many as one of the greatest THPS players of all time. He is well-known as one of the earliest players to be exceptional at the game. He was recognized for his skill by Neversoft and then invited to test on the series and later was hired by the studio to be part of the development team. He became a level designer in later titles, putting his touch on East LA, High School, and parts of Washington DC, among others. He worked on several of the Guitar Hero games and was with Neversoft all the way through them merging with Infinity Ward. He would then go on to develop his own skateboarding games in Epic Skater 1 and 2. Later he started as a consultant for Vicarious Visions on Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 then became a full-fledged member of their development team! Andy also has a super successful channel on Twitch where he plays multiple THPS titles, other “extreme” sports games, and the drums.

Krad is a great veteran player of the series who has an impressive resume. He's well known for his amazing talent as a speedrunner, and holds the world record for his amazing speedrun on THPS4. He is one of the founders of the long-standing community website: THPSX which holds the largest known library of custom content available for THUGPro. Krad is skilled across many disciplines in THPS, including King of the Hill, Capture the Flag and is an exceptional glitch finder: we often joke that Krad can corner glitch on a flat wall! He further helps with the OpenSpy project which allows players to play online together on THUGPro as well as many other games outside of THPS.

CS, or CSRH is a newer player known for his rapid improvement and knowledge on the game's physics (and being a local trash poster). Beginning in late 2019 and quickly picking up the game by joining the eSt team very early on he focused on transfers. Eventually beginning to learn improv in 2020, he quickly picked up the game and found his edge in his rapid movement. Upon joining the eX team, he found his niche in very glitch heavy transfers that utilized pushing the game to its limits that eventually found multiple new techs, but began finding solace in very old school A to B style transfers. Nowadays he resides in a "team" he founded called .png with 4 other people he holds very closely. One of which helped him lead the cult following that SFF garnered and continues to host it once a month to this day.

Redbull is a well known improv player in the current THPS community: and is still considered one of the best improvers during the THAW era. He started playing THPS on PS2 first playing THUG2 and then started his online career with the release of THAW in 2005. First doing high scoring, tag whoring and sometimes glitch finding. It wasn't until he saw improv videos and watched experienced players online from clans like OaS and tS that really got him into improv and taking the game more seriously. His style, which he defines as the combination between Drizzt's movement and Jens's speed, has gotten him invitations into some of the best clans in the THPS Community: DOC, nnC, OaS, nG and now the mythic tLT. He is also co-founder of Inc. with a desire to contribute to the Hispanic THPS community, created in 2010 an interactive website that would help over 100 players improve their game-play with tech tutorials, basic improv and whore tips all explained in Spanish. Even though he states that he lacks knowledge in video editing, he loves making videos and has released several across his career. In 2016, he started playing THUGPRO after the decay of the THAW online community, and has been an active participant ever since.

Bungle is well-known within the old-school THPS Community for his ability and creativity. He created dozens of unique, interesting and just flat fun Create-A-Parks for THPS4-THAW. Bungle was a member of the tXo clan and then later was one of the leaders of the CAR Clan. Bungle helped maintain and contribute to the tXo Hosted site: Create-A-Review, which he would continue to host, administer and support when the primary tXo site closed its doors. He created and facilitated multiple contests and was a strong influence in the community for many years.

Mick co-founded the video game development company Neversoft Entertainment in July 1994 with Joel Jewett and Chris Ward. Working at Neversoft for nine years as Technical Director: he was heavily involved in programming the first five games of the Tony Hawk's series. His favorite contributions were doing the initial player control for THPS. He was responsible for general technological developments at Neversoft during those first nine years, which was quite a bit of stuff! He also worked on Apocalypse and Spider Man for Neversoft. As we have heard from other THPS Podcast guests: Mick is largely responsible for creating the famous gameplay “feel” in THPS.  Since retiring as a video game programmer, Mick has created the websites Contrail Science and Metabunk, and he investigates and debunks pseudoscientific claims and conspiracy theories such as chemtrails and UFOs. His first book is Escaping the Rabbit Hole. How to Debunk Conspiracy Theories Using Facts, Logic, and Respect. He further hosts a podcast Tales from the Rabbit Hole where he interviews “conspiracy culture” guests.

Shame started playing the series during THPS3, but he didn't start playing online until THUG1 in 2005. He calls himself a “Midwest 1 noob” during that time and stayed there for a good while. He would eventually start playing and enjoying improv. He was part of the PrO clan in late 2006. He took a long break from the series from 2008-2011. He enjoyed playing in a very small but active PS2 community in 2011-12. After taking another extended hiatus he would start playing once again in 2017, he joined the iA clan and then most recently became a part of the tLT clan. He is part of the great tLT2020 video and has a doubles video with Dragon. He is also known for housing multiple THPS players in real life at his various apartments in the Chicago area.

Green started playing THPS on THPS4 in 2005. Back then he was best known for being the leader of kS, and co-leader of iSL following the kS and jT0 merger. kS released two well-received transfer videos, and iSL produced one as well. He took 1st place during the SoS3 improv tournament on both THPS4 and THUG1. He continued to stay pretty active in the community participating in the Get There challenges, tallying a total of 15 GT wins on thlive.net. He took a long hiatus and returned to the scene on THUGPro. Since then he has joined the tLT clan, he won the Baltimore improv tournament, and has produced and been involved with multiple video projects including: a few improv videos, No Manual videos, and most recently was in tLTV 2020. He earned the top seed in the preliminary round of the i5 Improv Tournament.

sk8ace is a veteran player of the series and started playing THPS online during the Pro Skater 3 era. He became competitive in the King of the Hill and Capture the Flag scene during Pro Skater 4. He is one of the founders of the Super Noobs (SN) clan. He is still one of the top KOTH players in the community today. He was asked by Krad and FreddY to create one of the first custom versions of the THPSX.com website, and he's been involved with that site and efforts since. THPSX is one of the few community websites that was around through some of the series “dark years” and has provided forums, information, and more...plus it currently has the largest known vault of custom content for THUGPro anywhere.

ghost is an incredibly talented player who started playing casually when the series first came out and only got into the online scene, and the world of improv and transfers in 2016. He was the founder and leader of the $MG clan, which released two of the most critically acclaimed team transfer videos ever, and later became a member of Runs In Vain. During his cross country travels, Ghost has actually met up with 9 fellow THPS players, and has become extremely well versed in the meta of THPS with regards to improv and transfer techniques, we conduct a very interesting discussion on the current state of improv and all things THPS.

Chris Rausch worked for Neversoft as a Game Designer for Pro Skater 1 through Underground 1. Many will recognize him by one of his nicknames: Team Chicken: think: TC's Roof Gap in School 2. Chris is currently the Creative Director for Nicalis, and previous co-founder of Supervillain Studios. He is a longstanding vet of the games industry, starting as a teenager with Virgin Interactive and 21holding his first lead design role at the age of 19. He played a massive role in the work that brought the Tony Hawk franchise to life with Neversoft. Chris has seen the entire scope of the games industry from high successes of massive triple-a games, to the rough and trying times of a scrappy start-up. Chris also was involved with and interviewed for the Pretending I'm A Superman THPS documentary.

Raoul Duke is a long-standing player of the series faithfully representing the European community for many years. He acted as a “lighthouse” for the european community. A member of the famous theot clan which was formed during THPS3- he was one of the first members to get invited at the onset of THPS4. He has never quite considered himself as a pro, but wouldn't call himself casual either. He starred in the infamous THUG1 Video: THUG - Televizzle, along with multiple other great style lines videos, improv videos and was a great Create A Park creator.

Jess3 is an amazing player that started playing THPS Online on PS2 in the summer of 2005 and played continually through 2012. After a hiatus he returned to the scene in 2017 and began playing THUGPro and has been ever since. He is a proud member of the PHUN clan, since 2011, and is an alumni of the ,.SN. clan, since 2008. He was recently featured in the latest PHUN team video: PUREPHUN 5. He has made multiple gameplay videos including 2 current ongoing series: Everlasting: a long combo improv series, and Hot Sauce: an improvTV series. He is well known for doing weird Teleplants in improv runs and is one of the best King of the Hill players around.

prevzzy is one of today's top players achieving amazing high scores. He started this journey of being a top scorer in THAW around 2007, although it wasn't until 2018 when he played THUG PRO where he really became active and came to life. Since then he has achieved over a billion point combos on 29 different maps and 2 billion point combos on 9 of these. He's played a huge role in discovering various THUG2 engine mechanics that eventually lead to high scoring elevating to a level never seen before. He is the creator of in depth balance analysis videos, but he is the best known for his complex and creative lines that allowed him to get scores like 491 million on Practice, 1052 million on New Orleans with no balance meters or 2358 million on Pro Skater. He was the winner of OaS high scoring tournament, tHL graffiti tournament and most recently - andyTHPS' graffiti tournament. He has recently joined the SiN clan along with other top tier high scoring players who are now seeking to dominate THPS1+2 leader-boards.

FreddY and TheDodeman have a candid conversation taking an in-depth look at the new game: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2!

Ralph D'Amato was a Producer and member of the original development team of the Tony Hawk's games at Neversoft from the beginning of the series up to Tony Hawk's Project 8. He was also the producer for the Neversoft game: Gun. Ralph has also worked as Director of New Media for Tony Hawk Incorporated. He is currently a production director and has been producing apps since the start of the app store. He has worked with a number of celebrities and brands to successfully launch over 20 titles. He has worked with teams all over the globe. Ralph now heads up D'Amato Productions, Inc. and just released the documentary: Pretending I'm a Superman: The Tony Hawk Video Game Story via Video on Demand on all major streaming providers.

This episode features a very special roundtable discussion on all things THPS 1+2 Warehouse demo! Our guest panel features: Mike, tyler, Guy2K, and George! We slice and dissect all aspects of the demo in a very different format from previous episodes. Showing and featuring gameplay from the demo and talking in depth about it.

Thugg is credited as being the first to discover three techs used in modern gameplay: finding BHRA and Air Buttslap(ABS) as well as THOP's(thugghops). He further had an influence in the findings of regular hops as well, most of this was all during the “dark ages” of the THPS franchise from 2010-2012. He is always looking to find even more new techniques. Most recently he participated in the Baltimore improv competition and took 2nd place. He has been a member of the PHUN clan since its birth in 2009. His THPS career started on THUG1 in 2004 on PS2 and he has always been interested in all playstyles such as provs, transfers, koth, ctf, whoring and tagging. He has further been in 8 team transfer videos with the Phun clan.

Slim is a longtime THPS player, lifelong SiN member and recent returnee to THUG Pro. He has been around the community for many years and has helped reignite the SiN Clan in modern day. He is very well known and highly respected for his exceptional gameplay and improv skill. He also is known for creating the user-created variant of firefight on THUG1 known as "slim firefight".

Maxfli is a very well-known player of the series, whose history stretches back to the days of THPS4 online. He has just recently returned to the community this February after a very long hiatus, yet his name was already known by many who have never met him. He was ahead of his time in 2003 to record candid gameplay from THPS4 days, which includes classic THPS4 whore lines, improv, as well as gameplay from other THPS legends. He is also known for his double videos with Brazbox, as well as his recent graffiti tag video in Carnival. Likewise, he intends on producing more graffiti tag videos in the near future. Maxfli was part of the elite aSS clan on THPS4 in 2003, and he has just recently rejoined the team this past month upon its revival. This was a fitting decision for him, as the aSS clan represents the style of gameplay Maxfli has always pursued. Recently, we have also seen Maxfli transition from THPS' biggest posing victim, to the victim of Evil Nacho in the Nachomania series.

Draco is an amazing player of the series, cited by many as one of their favorites of all time. His skill and play-style is incredible: he was playing at a level beyond most others back as early as THPS3. His videos are the stuff of legend, and multiple people declare those as being their top old school videos of all-time. As an example: his Carnival level no manual is absolutely fabulous and holds up even by today's standards! Draco played in two of the most elite clans of all-time: tXo and tLT. And for good reason based on his skill. He has recently re-emerged on the scene after a very long hiatus.

Dana was the Senior User Interface Artist/Designer at Neversoft and worked on Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4, Tony Hawk's Underground, Tony Hawk's Underground 2, and Tony Hawk's American Wasteland. He also has been commissioned for his amazing talent as an artist by Tony Hawk himself, doing artwork for Birdhouse skateboards as well as the Tony Hawk Huck Jam Series. He further has done artwork for the upcoming Pretending I'm A Superman documentary on the history of the THPS franchise. Dana currently works for Infinity Ward as the Senior UI Artist/UI Art Lead. Their most recently shipped game is Call of Duty: Warzone.

Tyler is a super fun and highly active member of the current THPS Community. Here are some highlights from his THPS Community involvement: Is a well respected speedrunner, he held the World Record for ‘Story Mode Normal' on Tony Hawk's American Wasteland for several months Is a moderator for the THPSX Discord as well as /r/THPS: the primary sub-Reddit devoted to THPS Has a highly successful YouTube channel with over 4,000 subscribers with over 920 videos including his great ‘Let's Play' series specific to the THPS series Has one of the most comprehensive collections of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater physical memorabilia in the world: including games, swag, skateboard decks and more.

Invisbleman was one of the founders of the tXo Hosted Site: the Glitch Vault- a site focused on exposing the various glitches in each game with a comprehensive database of the glitches complete with screenshots and detailed instructions. He was very known and highly respected for being a master at glitching and he was one of the first people to get into the modding scene. He played around with hex editing, and released tools for modding very early in the series. You could often expect to see him show up online with a monster Create-A-Skater, or a heavily modified CAS of some variety with all sorts of craziness. He was part of the tXo clan and was always sought out by people to have him share his secrets of how he did certain glitches or modified Create-A-Parks, or Skaters.

Nacho is a well-known and highly respect member of the THPS Online Community...a few notable accolades of his involvement: He was the leader and creator of Team .tHO., possibly the most prominent THPS clan aside from tLT in the later 2000's. Creator of the NachoMania video series. Editor of the tHOTV video series, which featured professional-grade video editing and changed the way players thought THPS videos could be presented. Founder of THPS-Online.net, which became the primary hub for the online community after tXo and THLiVE went offline. Videos Featured in this Episode: tHO TV 1: https://youtu.be/pu5fZz1uKns Nachomania Volume 7: https://youtu.be/8kPoODyrrOc tHO TV - The Reunion - Trailer: https://youtu.be/C7K5xE2lOlU

MistaFreeze is an exceptional and formidable player with fantastic videos and content produced back when the games were released, spanning all the way through to today. The THPS Podcast is his brainchild and he conducted 19 great episodes for the community to enjoy. He is one of the only, if not THE only, player known to score over a billion points on every level on Pro Skater 4. Super well-rounded in his play-style, humble attitude, and just a fun guy to hang out with...his accolades and contributions to the THPS Community go on for days.

If there is one player in the THPS community who embodies the term 'consistency', it's Guy2K. For over 15 years, Guy2K has shown what it means to push the envelope, whether it's scoring a billion points, tagging an entire level, landing sick transfers or collaborating with other players, this avid Boston Bruins fan and creator of the 'Air Born Addiction' video series has done it all with an infectious attitude that makes him fun to play with.

magicsummer is considered by many to be one of the greatest THPS players of all time. He has some of the most well known and well respected videos of gameplay from the THPS4 era, including his famous Alcatraz No Manual line. He is the winner of the very first improv tournament: The Improverty Stricken Tournament (i1)- and then turns around and wins i2 as well: cementing him as a pioneer in the improvisational style of gameplay for the series. His videos of improv and no manuals are absolutely legendary, still watched and referenced today by modern players. He was one of the earliest members of the tXo clan, and highly revered as an elite player from the era by all. Alcatraz No Manual: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKAObU1yz_0 London No Manual: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8dlT_BuIjw

Ludvig (aka Icebears4ever) has a highly successful YouTube channel with almost 9,000 subscribers. He has produced and released over 300 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater related videos including multiple game reviews, game walkthroughs, and much more. Ludvig is also the director of Pretending I'm A Superman: The Tony Hawk Video Game Story: a full-length documentary which tells the story of how skateboarding became a part of the mainstream (where it has stayed ever since), the development of the first Tony Hawk's Pro Skater game, its future titles and where skateboarding is at today. The story is told through brand new interviews with skaters such as Tony Hawk, Eric Koston, Steve Caballero, Rodney Mullen and many more. The World Premiere of the film happened this past weekend at the Mammoth Film Festival and won two awards at the festival: Best Action Sports Feature and Best Documentary Feature. Ludvig's YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/Icebears4ever/ Pretending I'm A Superman website: https://thpsfilm.com/

Sattan is a skilled custom content creator for the THUGPro mod. He has released dozens of original custom levels and various other pieces of custom content over the past few years. Sattan is one of the few custom level creators that produces levels entirely from scratch, 100% original concepts and designs. He has also created a written tutorial on how anyone can create custom content using the application: Blender. Sattan's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/weeze_juice/ Sattan's Custom Creations on thpsx.com: http://thpsx.com/community-upload-list/?queries[search]=sattan Sattan's Blender Tutorial: http://thpsx.com/forums/index.php?topic=694.0  

Part 2 of our interview with slateman. slateman is the founder and primary admin of one of the most well-known and influential Tony Hawk's Pro Skater community websites of all time: Planet Tony Hawk. He is also the author of Tony Hawk's Gaming Domination: The Rise and Fall of the Hawk Gaming Franchise: a book that covers the story of every version of every game: from the multi-million selling THPS to the universally-panned THPS5 16 years later. Grab a copy of slateman's book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1543127290/ or eBook: https://sellfy.com/p/0Uvp/ Check out Planet Tony Hawk here: http://planettonyhawk.gamespy.com/

slateman is the founder and primary admin of one of the most well-known and influential Tony Hawk's Pro Skater community websites of all time: Planet Tony Hawk. He is also the author of Tony Hawk's Gaming Domination: The Rise and Fall of the Hawk Gaming Franchise: a book that covers the story of every version of every game: from the multi-million selling THPS to the universally-panned THPS5 16 years later. Grab a copy of slateman's book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1543127290/ or eBook: https://sellfy.com/p/0Uvp/ Check out Planet Tony Hawk here: http://planettonyhawk.gamespy.com/

Hosted by MistaFreeze on December 14, 2019. Grand has helped the developers of THUGPro through feedback and has made tutorials / discovered various techniques.

Hosted by MistaFreeze on December 8, 2019. Behemoth created the No Fun Allowed server on Discord which is geared more towards the improv community.

Hosted by MistaFreeze on November 28, 2019. GMI was a part of the x3o clan and has maintained a reputation of playing well despite not being in many videos or projects.

Hosted by MistaFreeze on November 22, 2019. morten is one of the primary developers of the THUGPro mod, since it's inception. Some of his primary coding focuses are: fixing bugs and level importing.

Hosted by MistaFreeze on November 17, 2019. George has held numerous speed running records in the THPS series and has helped other speed runners.

Hosted by MistaFreeze on November 9, 2019. quazz is one of the primary developers of the THUGPro Mod with a strong focus on scripting.

Hosted by MistaFreeze on October 31, 2019. vega is a newer player who progressed quickly and has been featured in numerous team videos.

Hosted by MistaFreeze on October 26, 2019. buck has been in numerous team and solo videos with content ranging from transfers (triple wrb in Alcatraz) to hectic improv.

Hosted by MistaFreeze and TheDodeman on October 20, 2019 bens0nn is the founder of the tXo Clan, administrator of thpsXonline.com and thugXonline.com.

Hosted by MistaFreeze on October 14, 2019. Drizzt is known for low grounds unpredictable improv that has been evolved over years of playing.

Hosted by MistaFreeze on October 12, 2019. BadAce was a part of the tLTV series of videos and is regarded as a top player during the THPS4-THAW days.

Hosted by MistaFreeze on October 6, 2019. elec has been in multiple video projects, primo clans, and is accepted as one of the finest players in the community.

Hosted by MistaFreeze on September 29, 2019. Doodoo is a member of tLT who's known for creative transfers and making the infamous THUG Poo video.

Hosted by MistaFreeze on September 21, 2019. Mike is the creator of the clan tLT and ran the website thelinetub.com which eventually turned into thlive.net.

Hosted by MistaFreeze on September 14, 2019. pRoToCoL has created multiple entertaining videos and made numerous tutorial videos.

Hosted by MistaFreeze on September 8, 2019. FreddY is known as a one of the best King of the Hill (KOTH) players on THPS4 and is the owner of the THPS Fan Site: thpsx.com