Freedom to HACK.

November 21st, 2001.
The game’s first release in Japan.

October 30th, 2006.
First known texture hack was made public; progress seemed to halt.

July 4th, 2009.
First known release of textures to the public, outside of Japanese forums.

Nearly 8 years after its initial conception, arguably the most popular Nintendo Gamecube title to date… has finally been hacked.
Today, I give to you some of the first-ever publicly released textures to one of Brawl’s older siblings: Super Smash Bros. Melee.

From the top, we have starting Mewtwo Pack 1/2, containing Brawl-trophy Mewtwo, Mew, [proper] Shiny Mewtwo, and Giygas/Giegue/Gyiyg. (Mewtwo Pack 2/2 will likely be released tomorrow… for those looking forward to more thorough hacks on the psychic cat. 😉 )

As an added bonus to coincide with Gyiyg’s release, from EarthBound ZERO/MOTHER, it’s Ninten for Ness!

A Word for the Wise.
If you have never installed the Homebrew Channel before, take this at your own risk. On certain rare occasions (likely if you don’t read instructions properly), you have a chance at bricking your Wii. We take no responsibility for said bricking; you’ll hear this message multiple times throughout the process.
Now, then…

DIRECTIONS!

!!!!What you will need to play these hacks properly!!!!

ROUTE #1
~Super Smash Bros. Melee (GALE) ISO
~Homebrew Channel for Wii (if you’re on this site, you’ve probably got it)
~Special MIOS patch for your Wii (you will need Homebrew appliance WAD Manager to activate it)
~GC-Tool
~GC-Backup (directions on how to install can be found here)
~IMGBurn
~A pack of DVD-Rs (I personally go with Sony brand)

OR

ROUTE #2
~Super Smash Bros. Melee (GALE) ISO
~Dolphin-emulator

~FOR THOSE TAKING ROUTE #1~
:::For those of you who remember the traditional way of Brawl hacking… this should sound/look familiar.:::
1.) Get your Melee ISO at hand.
2.) Have the Homebrew Channel installed on your Wii. (If you don’t already have it… I’d recommending looking through our forums or Google; there’re a LOT of guides out there!)
3.) Once you have the HBC installed… install the special GCN-oriented MIOS [run with WAD Manager], and GC-Backup cIOS onto your Wii. (The download links, as well as directions to follow, are supplied above!)
4.) Download IMGBurn. (Above!)
5.) Download GC-Tool. (Above!)
6.) Under the RELEASED CONTENT of this site will be a new set of folders designated for Smash Bros. Melee releases, marked “SSBM”. Look under the proper folders (ergo, “Mewtwo” and “Ness” in this case), and download the .DAT files (the equivalent of Brawl’s .PAC / .PCS files).
7.) After you’ve downloaded the character’s .DAT file, open up your Melee ISO with the GC-Tool. GC-Tool -> File -> Open GC-Iso… [If you don’t see your Melee ISO anywhere, make sure to check the file type “All files” instead!]
8.) Now click the + sign beside “GCMRoot”. The root of the Melee ISO is large and messy, but don’t fret. There IS some order to this madness. Seek where the files begin at “Pl” (about halfway through). Look for the character you are going to replace. (In this case, “PlMt–.dat” or “PlNs–.dat”, being Mewtwo and Ness respectively.)
9.) Right-click on the file you are going to replace, click “Replace File…”

!!NOTE!! You can ONLY replace custom textured .DAT files over their originals — meaning if you downloaded Ninten-Ness, his file is called “Ninten-2][PlNsBu.dat”, meaning you replace his “PlNsBu.dat” [Blue] costume ONLY. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work like Brawl where you can replace any color file with another’s. !!NOTE!!

10.) After clicking “Replace File…”, seek the .DAT file you downloaded from here. Once you’ve found it, double-click on it.
11.) A message box should pop up, saying “Do you also want to change the old filesize to the new one in TOC? (You know hat you are doing, don’t you?)”. Click “NO”.
~~Rinse and repeat steps 9 – 11 for any individual characters you may have gotten.~~
12.) Exit GC-Tool.
13.) Now have a DVD-R handy! Open IMGBurn -> Write image file to disc -> “Browse for a file…” Find your Melee ISO, double-click on it. Set the write speed to “1x”, and copies to “1”.
14.) Burn, baby, Burn!!
15.) Wait about 5 or so minutes… and after that, you should have your Melee disc ready to go. Start up your Wii, put in your disc, go to Homebrew Channel. Look for the GC-Backup Launcher on your Homebrew Channel’s listing; Load it.
16.) Large “GC-BACKUP” screen should appear; wait for it to read your disc. Plug in your GCN Controller into 1st player slot, and click appropriate button according to Launcher. (If you don’t know what to go with, press “A”.)
17.) Enjoy the hacks!

~FOR THOSE TAKING ROUTE #2~
1.) Have your Melee ISO handy.
2.) Follow steps 5-12 for GC-Tool instructions, if need be.
3.) Have Dolphin emulator handy; open Dolphin… open Melee… Voila. 😉

~~For those who still need guidance as to what goes where:
Brawl-trophy Mewtwo goes on: PlMtNr.dat
Mew goes on: PlMtRe.dat
Shiny Mewtwo goes on: PlMtGr.dat
Gyiyg goes on: PlMtBu.dat
Ninten goes on: PlNsBu.dat

~A mini-guide on how to make texture hacks for this game will be made in the near future! So… stay tuned!~