Wrapping up Week Four for this WCW ROM hack project.
This week was mostly spent on the Steiner Brothers’ unique singlets and some progress with the Road Warriors. To offer a quick preview of the progress, I uploaded a YouTube Short highlighting several of the new designs.
Graphic Updates
I went into this week hoping to blitz through tag team wrestling, but then the Steiner Brothers happened. Modding their unique singlets proved to be a major task. I had to align graphics across four to five different textures, work within the ROM’s limit of eight colors, and still make the designs customizable through the Color Change options.
The Steiners. Two wrestlers, four attire slots, PLUS a fifth throwback attire for each. Ten costume slots. Hundreds of different palettes and images to create. And it was rough.
Despite looking nice at the start, some attires just didn’t work out. I started on Rick Steiner’s “Numbers” attire and had a solid alignment, but ran into blurring issues on the upper leg, which threw the simple design off balance.
I considered converting some World Tour attires into Revenge, but they didn’t look quite right. I could have used his default “Confetti” attire, but I wanted to create fresh takes for the hack. These are the four designs I settled on for Rick Steiner.
Attire 1 and 2 were pulled from WCW Magazine references. Attire 3 is inspired by his World Tour “Spots” attire, just edited to look more like his real version. Attire 4 is a generic “Zebra print” style which can also double as a solid. He wasn’t so “round” during this era, so I am leaving him with the Thick body shape for now. These are also just default heads/faces, that will be expanded on later.
I had the same blurring issue with Scott Steiner’s “Rainbow Squares” singlet, the one he mostly wore in WWF, so I decided to drop it. These were the four designs I settled on with Scott.
Attire 1 is a basic solid singlet. Attire 2 was his split zebra pattern. Attire 3 is a take on their gradient stripes. And the final Attire 4 is a split paint splatter style. They really leaned into the 90s Memphis abstract art style, but many of those didn’t translate well to ROM hacking graphic limitations.
And lastly with the Steiners, I included two “throwback” 80s attires. Scott with the yellow trunks and boots. Rick with the University of Michigan singlet from the Varsity Club. I didn’t add “Dogface Gremlin” on the back though. It wouldn’t fit.
Later in the week, I made more progress by completing several Road Warriors attires. They were basic variants of their WARRIORS/LOD tights. Might favorite was creating the one with the skull/bones/cross logo.
I don’t really want to do the leather chaps or jean shorts from the early years. Though, I want to add their “Legion of Doom” attire that was introduced in 1990 when they went to the WWF. While not WCW, it feels too iconic to be ignored for this time period.
I also have the textures for Anderson and Zybyzko complete, but they haven’t been converted to the ROM yet. On paper, 16 new attires have been added this week, but because it was only 4 wrestlers, it didn’t feel like much progress.
Roster Updates
The more I looked at my first roster, the more I realized I was drifting into 1993–94 territory instead of staying true to my original 1990–91 focus. When I play this game, I want to be transported back to the days of Impel trading cards and Galoob figures.
I cut some wrestlers (ex. Bulldog, Patriot), rearranged a few others (Muta-> Group 2), reduced the Japan stables to one, expanded the NWA “Legends” stables to two, and added a few more managers (J.J. Dillon + Gary Hart). I don’t want to lean into joke gimmicks, deep cuts, one-offs, or even female slots. My vision for this ROM hack is to create a fun, engaging experience where classic NWA and WCW fans can relive and recreate the wrestling of the 1980s and early 1990s.
(Nothing is final until the coding goes into the ROM, which will happen after all the attires and heads are complete.)
Wrap Up
It didn’t feel like a successful week, but looking back, the Steiner Brothers have the most complex attires on the roster. Completing them was a major hurdle, and now progress should flow more smoothly with the upcoming wrestlers. I’m still not advertising or promoting this project anywhere, and all interaction has been organic, but I hope to have more content to share in the future. I’m really looking forward to simulating some old-school matches.