Episode #54: konek

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.