Making Crash Bandicoot – part 1 :: All Things Andy Gavin

Crash Bandicoot cover

In the summer of 1994 Naughty Dog, Inc. was still a two-man company, myself and my longtime partner Jason Rubin. Over the preceding eight years, we had published six games as a lean and mean duo, but the time had come to expand.

In 1993 and 1994 we invested our own money to develop the 3D0 fighting game, Way of the Warrior. In the summer of 1994 we finished it and sold the rights to Universal Studios. At the same time we agreed to a “housekeeping” deal with Universal, which meant moving to LA, and for me bailing out on my M.I.T. PhD halfway. It certainly didn’t turn out to be a bad decision.

Jason and I had been debating our next game for months, but the three-day drive from Boston to LA provided ample opportunity. Having studied arcade games intensely (yeah, in 1994 they were still relevant) we couldn’t help but notice that 2 or 3 of the leading genres had really begun making the transition into full 3D rendering.

Racing had, with Ridge Racer and Virtua Racing. Fighting, with Virtua Fighter. And gun games, with Virtua Cop. Racing was clearly 100% the better in 3D, and while Virtua Fighter wasn’t as playable as Street Fighter, the writing was on the wall.

Sensing opportunity, we turned to our own favorite genre, the character platform action game (CAG for short). In the 80s and early 90s the best sellers on home systems were dominated by CAGs and their cousins (like “walk to the right and punch” or “walk to the right and shoot”). Top examples were Mario, Sonic, and our personal recent favorite, Donkey Kong Country.

So on the second day of the drive, passing Chicago and traveling through America’s long flat heartland, fed on McDonalds, and accompanied by a gassy Labrador/Ridgeback mix (also fed on McDonalds), the idea came to us.

We called it the “Sonic’s Ass” game. And it was born from the question: what would a 3D CAG be like? Well, we thought, you’d spend a lot of time looking at “Sonic’s Ass.” Aside from the difficulties of identifying with a character only viewed in posterior, it seemed cool. But we worried about the camera, dizziness, and the player’s ability to judge depth – more on that later.

Jason, Andy & Morgan on arriving at Universal

Before leaving Boston we’d hired our first employee (who didn’t start full time until January 1995), a brilliant programmer and M.I.T. buddy of mine named Dave Baggett. We were also excited to work closely with Universal VP Mark Cerny, who had made the original Marble Madness and Sonic 2. In California, in 1994, this foursome of me, Jason, Dave, and Mark were the main creative contributors to the game that would become Crash Bandicoot.

We all agreed that the “Sonic’s Ass,” game was an awesome idea. As far as we knew, no one had even begun work on bringing the best-selling-but-notoriously-difficult CAG to 3D. Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Mario, was said to be working on Yoshi’s Island, his massive ode to 2D action.

But an important initial question was “which system?”

The 3D0 was DOA, but we also got our hands on specs for the upcoming Sega Saturn, the Sega 32X, and the mysterious Sony Playstation. The decision really didn’t take very long. 3D0, poor 3D power, and no sales. 32X, unholy Frankenstein’s monster – and no sales. Saturn, also a crazy hybrid design, and really clunky dev units. Then there was the Sony. Their track record in video games was null, but it was a sexy company and a sexy machine – by far the best of the lot. I won’t even bring up the Jaguar.

So we signed the mega-harsh Sony “developer agreement” (pretty much the only non-publisher to ever do so) and forked out like $35,000 for a dev unit. Gulp. But the real thing that cinched the deal in Sony’s favor though wasn’t the machine, but…

Before we continue to part 2 below, my parter and friend Jason Rubin offers the following thoughts on this section:

Andy and I always liked trying to find opportunities that others had missed. Fill holes in a sense. We had done Way of the Warrior in large part because the most popular games of the time were fighting games and the new 3DO system didn’t have a fighting game on it. Our decision to do a character action game on the PlayStation was not only based on bringing the most popular genre on consoles into the 3D, but also because Sega already had Sonic and Nintendo already had Mario. Instead of running headlong into either of these creative geniuses backyard, we decided to take our ball to a field with no competition.

Filling a hole had worked to an extent with Way of the Warrior. The press immediately used Way as a yardstick to make a comparison point against other systems and their fighting games. This gave it a presence that the game itself might never have had. And as a result, ardent fans of the system would leap to defend the title even when perfectly fair points were made against it. The diagonal moves were hard to pull off because the joypad on the 3DO sucked? No problem, said the fans, Way of the Warrior plays fantastically if you just loosen the screws on the back of the joypad.

Why couldn’t the same effect work with a character action game on PlayStation?

And remember, at the time these games were the top of the pile. It is hard to look at the video game shelves today and think that only 15 years ago childish characters dominated it. There were first person shooters on the PC, of course, but sales of even the biggest of them couldn’t compare to Mario and Sonic. Even second tier character games often outsold big “adult” games.

It’s also easy to forget how many possible alternatives there were along the way. Most of Nebraska was filled with talk of a game called “Alosaurus and Dinestein” which was to be back to the future like plot with dinosaurs in a 2d side scrolling character action game. I still like the name.

The “Sonic’s ass” nomenclature was more than a casual reference to the blue mascot turned 90 degrees into the screen. It defined the key problem in moving a 2d game into the third dimension: You would always be looking at the characters ass. This might play well (it had never been tried) but it certainly would not be the best way to present a character.

Our solution, which evolved over the next 2 years, was multi-fold. First, the character would start the game facing the screen (more on this later). Second there would be 2d levels that guaranteed quality of gameplay and a chance to see the character in a familiar pose allowing comparison against old 2d games. And third, we would attempt the reverse of a Sonic ass level – the run INTO the screen – which became the legendary boulder levels. [ NOTE from Andy, more on that in part 4 ]

It may have been this very Sonic’s ass problem that caused Naka-san to “cop out” of making a true 3D game called Nights for Saturn. I also believe, but have no proof, that he felt so unsure of the move to 3D that Sega didn’t want to risk Sonic on that first experimental title. Instead they created a new character. This lost Sega the goodwill that Sonic would have brought to the three way game comparison that eventually ensued. That ended up working to our favor.

Of course Miyamoto-san did not have this problem. He created a truly new type of character action game with Mario 64. The controls and open world allowed you to see the character from all sides. Eventually this proved to be the future of 3d Character games. But at the time it had disadvantages. More on that later.

The concept of making a mascot game for the PlayStation was easy. The odds of succeeding were next to nil. Remember, we were two 24 year olds whose biggest title to date had not reached 100,000 units sold! But if there was something we never lacked it was confidence.

NEXT PART [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13] “parts” 12-13 are brand new Jan 2012.

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The Crash Bandicoot in-game model. His only texture was the spots on his back, but every vertex was lovingly placed by Jason

http://www.urgentevoke.com/ fen

oh sure, just leave us hanging like that…
- http://mascherato.wordpress.com agavin
  
  Check back here tomorrow for part 2
  - Victor
    
    This article makes me so happy and so sad at the same time.
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http://www.janesummerpr.com jane summer

Hi Andy, I work with La Cachette Bistro and loved what you wrote. How can I send you information…

from Jane
323.547.2747
- http://mascherato.wordpress.com agavin
  
  Glad you liked it — but do you mean this post, or the ones on La Cachette? http://all-things-andy-gavin.com/2010/11/14/quick-eats-la-cachette-bistro/ and http://all-things-andy-gavin.com/2011/01/27/la-cachette-bistro-part-deux/
  
  What kind of info? You can always send me a FB or twitter message, contact links are in the righthand sidebar.
Hamish

More! I’ve finished these games more times than I can count…
- http://mascherato.wordpress.com agavin
  
  This is part 1 of 6 on just Crash 1.
Robert

I was just thinking today about why the histories behind these games were never fleshed out in detail in like a book or something. Certainly a series so popular would deserve it!

Glad to see this, can’t wait for more!
Dave

Shouldn’t that be “brilliant programmer and incredible voice acting talent behind WoW’s Konotori”? Ha… thanks for the kudos.
- http://mascherato.wordpress.com agavin
  
  Don’t forget “level completed!”
Jay

Been playing the game for ten years and I’m still learning about it. Please Papa Gavin, tell us more!
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http://mascherato.wordpress.com agavin

Part 2 has been posted HERE.
http://bluepasj.wordpress.com bluepasj

Incredible! Crash’s one of the best games and best series ever! For me, is in the same level as Sonic or Mario.
- http://mascherato.wordpress.com agavin
  
  Convincing the press of that when crash 1 launched sure was hard, but the players spoke with their controllers!
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32173

I am so god damn happy that you and Jason did this game. Back then it was a pretty nice game for a kid like me, but over the years it has aged so much better than the Mario and Sonic games. All the three series have good gameplay, but Crash is the only one that still appears cool, and I don’t even need to be embarrassed by my nostalgia for him.
- http://mascherato.wordpress.com agavin
  
  Glad you enjoyed it! It does age well. Every time I look at it — say when finding these gameplay videos — I think it still looks sweet, hardly like a 15 year old game! Every couple of years I’ll go back and play through, always cursing Jason’s name when I get to “Road to Nowhere” (he designed that level) . You should have seen it before we made it “easy.” An important lesson we learned tuning Crash in the summer of 1996, and learned more between Crash 1 and 2 was that things don’t need to be BRUTALLY hard — just varied and challenging.
Andrew

Hi Andy. Thank you for deciding to write this series — I just found out about it today!

Crash was the first game I really grew attached to as a child. Not only did it feed my love of platformers and a dream to one day ride the back of a polar bear cub, but it gave me an appetite for making games some day myself. The more I’ve studied and/or practiced game development, the more I wondered how this game got made in the first place. Looking back, it doesn’t take much effort to see how crucial it was to the landscape of videogames back then. It’s not so rare to find a retrospective on any game these days with how much games-media, blogging, and the internet have joined forces. For whatever reason though, I could never find anything on Crash in this regard. You can imagine my excitement at finally seeing a serial post-mortem on it.

During the course of my final year as a game design student at the Cleveland Institute of Art, I actually had a vinyl poster from Crash 2 hung above my desk (one of those promotional things they’d otherwise have thrown away at Gamestop). In looking for a way to relax between stressful thesis work, I hooked my PS and replayed through the entire game. It does hold up really well.

At any rate, thanks for creating Crash way back when, and for all you guys do to for the medium and industry. Truly inspirational.

By the way, I had to do vertex painting myself during an internship this past summer…I can’t believe the original Crash model was “textured” that way!! My jaw hit the floor, haha.
- http://mascherato.wordpress.com agavin
  
  Thanks so much for sharing and we are honored that we could help be that little bit of your inspiration.
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Neo Yi

I am very happy to see a “Making of” for one of my favorite game series ever. It’s such a shame Crash’s presence is so little nowadays that I can barely come across video game articles (mostly retrospects) that even mentions but a snippet of him, if at all. Yeah, his latter games aren’t exactly the cream of the crop, but his earlier games have been so influential during its hey-days and to see people ignoring that is a shameful cry.

Hopefully memories and lookback such as these will help keep the Crash Bandicoot legacy afloat. The game series will always have a special place in my heart. Thank you for giving us an in-depth look. I eagerly await for more.
- http://mascherato.wordpress.com agavin
  
  We always joked that Crash was a little like hot girl from high school who came back to the 10 year reunion looking… not so great. But it isn’t his fault. He had some rough partners after Naughty Dog.
Doug

Hey got to say this whole article is incredibly interesting, got really nostalgic while reading (Crash and Street Racer were my first games for PSX, got em’ when I was about 7). One of the things that I have always wondered was, where did you get Ripper Roos laugh? I’ve heard it in movies (Elf) and even some other games (Darkstalkers).
- http://mascherato.wordpress.com agavin
  
  I can’t remember if Roo’s laugh was recorded for us, or if it came from a sound effect library. “Sound guys,” like the awesome Mike Gollom who worked on Crash, have vast libraries of sounds that they have licensed. They often use these as starting places to create new sounds.
  - Tai
    
    I think it was a sound library because I heard it in Walt Disney’s Lady and the Tramp XD
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http://mascherato.wordpress.com agavin

Posted on Hacker News at http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2189348
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http://sonicsatam.com John Roberts

I just finished reading all six parts, and I gotta say this was a brilliant article to follow. You guys at Naughty Dog were ahead of the curve back in the day, and right now sitting very pretty with the best of the best of Developers.

You guys rock.
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Julian

Hey Gavin ,great article, just finished reading. I was wondering, do you ever think the old crash bandicoot games (1,2,3) will make their way to Xbox Live Arcade?
I would love to play a HD remake of them and i bet it would sell like a wildfire !
BRING BACK BANDICOOT

There are millions who would love to see you take the reigns for Crash Bandicoot once more.

You made games that made millions, created a icon and phenomenon

What are the chances that you can get the rights to Crash Bandicoot back? The characters and games you once made have since been destroyed by other developers, and they have even canceled their last game..
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Victor

Hi andy)) I’m from russia ) in 1996 when i was four it was my first game!)) So it still stays in my list of ALL TIME CONSOLE BEST GAMES))) It’s like John Lennon and Mercury. I’ve played Crash band. 1,2,3 and cart racing.. but I was dissapointed in crash bash… So now I know that after crash races “crash bash” was made by different studio!
Now i dont spend much time on games but sometimes i buy and play games like Jak, Ratchet and clank etc.

I almost lve you DDDDDDD Crash bandicoot reminds me my childhood)) I’ve played all four games two years ago and enjoyed it one more time)

But I ve played it with jailbreaked psp with psx emulator, it would be vary cool if you could sell these games at playstation store (not only crash bandicoot 1) and I would buy it for 50$-70$ with great pleasure)) My dream if naughty dog make a remake of these games)

With Best Wishes
Studet (Moscow Institute of International Trade and Law)
- http://mascherato.wordpress.com agavin
  
  I’m thrilled you enjoyed it so much! That’s why we made them. They might not be high art, but we wanted them to be darn fun!
  - Victor
    
    So the good game came from it. Really it might not be an art but “all ingenious is simple”(Goebbels) You should know that this game is childhood for someone))
    
    Offtop. question: Do you play games??? I met many many people like you , who do their business well but dont use the product of this activity.
  - http://mascherato.wordpress.com agavin
    
    I play lots — I’ve logged a rather obscene amount of time on WOW
  - Victor
    
    These games are too addictive) I’ve played too much time la2 and finally i overcomed this addiction) It takes too much time) But some of my friends who played la2 and then changed thair game to WoW say that WoW takes less time….
    Now I read more than play) but not the last week))) I was playing for 32 hours:D
    I changed games to snowboarding, girlfindin’ , education and etc)))
Victor

*very
Victor

But i lied… i play one-three console games a year
G–Stokes

Big fan here. I played the original three Crash Bandicoot games as a child and they had a pretty enormous effect on me. I’m glad my first console was a PlayStation – I harbour the sort of deep attachment to games like Crash, Spyro and Rayman that a lot of other people hold for Mario and Zelda, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

For me, one of the most fascinating aspects of a game is its atmosphere – in some ways, it can be even more important than the fun factor. That’s one of the things I love most about the original Crash games – they had a fantastic vibe, especially the second and third games. For example, the warp room in Crash 2 made me feel like I was in some sort of ancient, hallowed site, the air dense with unknowable histories – and when I passed through those hidden ways and found myself in the sixth chamber room, atop the ruins of Cortex’s castle and with the islands from the first game visible in the background… well, what can I say? It felt like I was entering the Holy of Holies – it’s pure magic.

Another element I found wonderfully evocative was the scenery. Crash 3 featured vast, mysterious backdrops – I always wondered what was in that distant medieval castle, pondered what might lie within the neon skyscrapers of the future. The entire game was infused with mystery and possibilities.

You get the picture (if I’m explaining myself clearly enough) – the Crash Bandicoot games are atmospheric masterpieces, and that sort of ‘feel’ stays in my mind afterwards even more than the enjoyable gameplay does. Other examples of excellent ambience include the wonderfully magical, cosmic warp room in Crash 3, the eerie, claustrophobic Generator Room in Crash 1, with Cortex’s face staring at the player across dark, unknowable voids, the floorless Great Hall with its pathway of gems… My question is this – did the developers make a deliberate effort to achieve this sort of mysterious, magical quality? It’s not as palpable in the Crash games as it is in Spyro or Rayman – some people may not even be consciously aware of it – but it’s still a very big part of what makes the series appealing to me. The post-Naughty Dog Crash games are simply lacking in this department, and neither Jak nor Uncharted achieve the same sort of feel. Do you have any thoughts regarding the early games’ atmospheric qualities? If not, that’s fine – I’m grateful simply for this opportunity to share my perspective and let you know how much I appreciate this aspect of the games. Thanks – for everything.
- http://mascherato.wordpress.com agavin
  
  Thanks! That’s an awesome post. Yes, we tried to capture exactly that kind of ambience — that we did successfully, still sometimes surprises me!
  - Victor
    
    Rly awesome post)) I don’t know english so good to speak out so )as in my native language))
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isaak merritt

i miss the lovable bandicoot
robotnik

Hey Andy, what’s your favourite level in Crash Bandicoot (2,3) and why?
- http://mascherato.wordpress.com agavin
  
  I don’t remember under which post, but somewhere in these first 6 I detailed that at length in the comments.
  - robotnik
    
    The only comment I found is in “Making Crash Bandicoot – Part 6″, where you said that >Sunset Vista< was one of your favourites. So what are your favs in Crash2/3 ?
    
    You also wrote that you played WoW. Did you pick Horde or Alliance ?
  - http://mascherato.wordpress.com agavin
    
    Horde of course. Undead warlock was my first toon, and still my main. I also have a druid and pally on the horde side. I did level a NE rogue to 60 in the old (classic) days to see what Ally was like.
  - robotnik
    
    For the Horde! Undead are cool , my main char is a Troll Shammy .
    So you never tried Cataclysm ? They rly changed a lot compared to classic. I started a Warlock (Worgen -Ally) in the new one and boy do they rock.
    
    Aside from that I’m rly looking forward to play Diablo 3 (and Rings of Power 2 ).
  - http://mascherato.wordpress.com agavin
    
    I leveled my Lock to 85 and maxed out his pre-raid gear in the heroics. I just didn’t feel like tackling a fourth round of endgame raids.
Lianna

Remember, when i was 10 and i was searching “The Making Of CB” and there’s no videos. Now, i’ll go to watch on YouTube because Charles Zembillas draws like me at watching. ^^. Can has videos?
Emil

Hi! I’m curious to find out, how did you come up with the character designs? For example, what was the inspiration behind a cross between a dingo and a crocodile? And a psychotic kangaroo (Ripper Roo, my favourite character! )? Also, what is your favourite character in any of the Crash games you were part of?
Thanks! (Are one of these coming up for Crash Team Racing? )
- http://mascherato.wordpress.com agavin
  
  Cortex and Crash are my favorite characters. Our “idea” to a large extent for Cortex’s mutants was the crossing of various Tasmanian animals, and also the sort of mad scientist theme (N. Brio, N. Gin, N. Tropy etc).
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Andrea

Ehi Andy, do you think that Activision will do something special for the Crash Bandicoot’s 15th Anniversary?
- http://mascherato.wordpress.com agavin
  
  No idea!
Max

This plays awfully but looks very nice, check it out:
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jorb

Andy, I am working on my own 3D game now and I have a lot of issues with 3D compression. For example, I really need a 3d camerasystem that does not initialise out-of-sight polygons but it is surely very hard to program.

Is there any chance you could help or send something I can use to understand good 3d camerasystems better? Because I’ve tried for months but nothing flawless comes out – i’d be a great honor.

Jorb
reed b.

I found this site and your posts on “making crash bandicoot” by accident, but I’m glad I did. I got the original crash games when I was 5 a decade ago, and I’ve loved them ever since. They are and always will be a part of my life (and I think its awesome to be able to talk to the guy who helped make them! ). I just wish that crash would’ve had a better fate after the guys at naughty dog left him – seeing that only crash’s image, not his fun and replayability, being carried through wrath of cortex and nitro kart, simply as soulless clones of earlier crash games. Thankfully, twinsanity caught my interest, with its new free roaming worlds and liveliness based around the original game’s concept, albeit not the same way old crash did. But I would’ve accepted crash’s end right there if only to save face from radical. Its obvious in their first game (tag team racing) that their influence was very obnoxious, unnecessary, and painful, but they managed to corrupt crash further through his image in the newest games. This pisses me off the most, since radical is simply selling out a staple of my childhood like it’s some new cartoon on nickelodeon (which i hope to god it doesn’t become). I’m hoping, considering the hard work you’ve put into crash in the beginning, that you’ve seen his gradual demise with these new games and that you can agree with me on any of this. Please tell me – is there any hope for crash bandicoot in the future?
- http://mascherato.wordpress.com agavin
  
  I hope for hope but I don’t really have nay control over at this point — it’s in Activision’s hands now.
reed b.

Yea – To me it seems unlikely that crash, assuming that the image of crash himself survives in the minds of developers and fans, just happens to land in the hands of a more suited develepor than he has been with (post-naughty dog) that will want to revive crash to his original goodness, rather than make a quick buck off him. I say this considering that most of the developers and fans that really care about crash most likely aren’t big, powerful, and wealthy enough (like activision) to get the tech, the team, the ads, and especially the rights to crash himself to make the game. And, unfortunately, I think it’s unlikely that crash will be returned to you and the guys at naughty dog once more, due to activision’s grip on crash’s name, and since you guys are probably more concerned with the uncharted series and future projects with sony (and hopefully wrapping up jak!). It’s obvious the best hope for crash would be for naughty dog to look into it again (although if there’s any chance of them getting him back present, it would be a while) considering it’s one of the few companies that has all the creativity and fun used in the first crash games (since they all made them), and they’re successful enough to have enough leverage in the video game industry to make another game. But, to concur with your statement, as of now I think hope is the only thing for us crash fans to look forward to. I just hope that crash’s fate in the next decade is better than it was in the last, and that you and the naughty dog team can keep an eye on him in the future
Peter

I LOOOOOVE CRASH ItS SOOO Fun!
http://youtube.com/potatoplop Daniel

Hello Andy! I’ve been playing the original Crash Bandicoot series since I was 4 years old! 11 years later and I still keep playing them! They are the best games I have ever played. They also bring back really good memories from the past. Thanks for the good times
- http://mascherato.wordpress.com agavin
  
  Awesome!
  - http://youtube.com/potatoplop Daniel
    
    Ok so I have one question. I am ordering a puzzle from Portraitpuzzles. They let you send in an image and transfer it to a 1000 piece puzzle! I decided that I should do a crash bandicoot image!
    The thing is the image that I would like to use, they wont accept.
    They said they need permission from the owner.
    
    http://crashland.elynx.fr/ressourcebonus/siteofficiel/c3-production_fichiers/crash3hintguidehut.jpg
    
    I contacted Naughty Dog but I haven’t got any response. Can I ask you, or are you no longer with Naughty Dog?
  - http://mascherato.wordpress.com agavin
    
    I’m not the owner. You can try and contact Naughty Dog, I’m not sure if they are anymore either, but probably (i.e. Sony, as they own NDI).
http://crashbandicoot.forumcommunity.net/?act=Profile&MID=6863338 Sulia1

Hello,

Nice Story about the History of Crash Bandicoot.
Gabriele

By now to me, except for the PSX games, only your posts remain of the old good Crash Bandicoot!
I Hope that in the future you will write a “Making Crash bandicoot 2/3/CTR” post.
I don’t know if Activision is making another Crash game but I know that I will love another Crash game from you and Jason .
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000307766844 Kaizer Allen

Hey Andy, I saw some of the beta levels the team had created for the first “Crash Bandicoot.” Did they ever got finished? Here they are:
1) Cliff level
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZW5yFRaQkUE&w=425&h=349

2) Cavern level
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXjvM5deHNM&w=425&h=349

3) Waterfall level
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZW5yFRaQkUE&w=425&h=349

*I really am a big fan of Crash ever since I was 5…and until now, I do play the game. Crash 2 is my favorite among the four you have created.*

P.S. I really wanna know if those levels were finished, but didn’t ship…just like Stormy Ascent. I can’t help but ask you this. I just want to know, I’m a big fan!!

Thank you so much.
And thank you for bringing Crash to this world.

Kaizer.
- http://mascherato.wordpress.com agavin
  
  Awesome!! I didn’t know there were any videos on the web floating around of those 2 levels. It’s really two, #1 and #3 are the same. #1 was what we called “level1″ (jungle) and #2 was what we called “level2″ (lava cave). Only the first half of the lava cave seems to be working in that build, it had a bigger cave past that that blew the engine to all hell.
  
  Both of those levels were failed early levels. We developed them and the gameplay didn’t work. We then retreated and made a few cortex power levels (I detailed this in the gameplay post) and made the gameplay really fun there, and then went back and redid the jungle concept from scratch. But certainly you can see the Crash aesthetic and elements at work. Those early levels suffered from having too many polys, and not enough containment. The player needed containment or he could get himself in trouble. You can also see how even very early in development (those videos are certainly from 1995) Crash looked like Crash.
  - Andrea
    
    Those are not the only videos about this early version of Crash Bandicoot that can be found on YouTube. There are also these:
    
    Mini-game:
    
    Early bonus level:
    
    It’s also interesting to see that the cavern level is very similar to that cavern from Crash Twinsanity, eh?
    
    By the way, Andy Gavin, I really would like to ask you this: have you ever seen the concept arts of the canceled “Crash Bandicoot 2010″? If yes, what do you think about them, especially the new Crash’s model (that looks like the Japanese Crash), DingoDile and those little bandicoots?
    
    - Thank you in advance
  - http://mascherato.wordpress.com agavin
    
    Haha. That isn’t a mini game. That’s a recording of “level0″ which was my programming test level. I was just testing spiders and the labass. It was always very useful to have a level that was super small (hence I could process it in 3 minutes instead of 6 hours). I’d just stick whatever creatures I was programming there first and do all the programming I could on them BEFORE putting them in a real level.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000307766844 Kaizer Allen

I mean, here’s the Cliff level: [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-chYkE0BO0&w=425&h=349

Thanks again!
Eric Wiedeke

Why don’t you talk about Jak and Daxter? and do you support the cliff hanger at the end of the main series and do you really honestly believe *shakes head* the lost frontier was a true sequel?
- http://mascherato.wordpress.com agavin
  
  Eventually I’ll do articles on the other games.
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Tonic N.Gin

I loved all the crash games by naughty dog; and they have, perhaps, had a larger influence on my life than most people can give credit to a game

One question: Since giving up the rights to crash, the back stories of many characters has been deepened and edited. One large change is that Cortex has become more of a joke villain, hiding, running away ect. If you had continued to make the games, would Cortex in particular have gone down this route? Also, what is your opinion of this personality change?
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ChaosStar

Which is runs at the highest framerate:

PAL version of Crash Bandicoot games that you made or NTSC.
- http://mascherato.wordpress.com agavin
  
  NTSC version runs at 30, and the PAL at 25. The resolution is better on the PAL one however, and the frame rate more consistent (because there is slightly more time per frame to compute everything). Overall NTSC is bit easier on the eyes.
  - ChaosStar
    
    Does this mean the NTSC version runs gameplay faster than PAL, or vice versa?
  - http://mascherato.wordpress.com agavin
    
    The game was carefully coded so that actions and animation (as best as possible) proceed at the same rate. For example if you hit the jump button and Crash is supposed to be in the air for 1 second, the parabolic arc of his jump is sampled in NTSC such that there are 30 datapoints and in PAL at 25. The jump itself is supposed to take the same amount of time and feel the same. In practice, this works like 95% of the time and there are slight differences with a few creatures or animations, usually just one more or less frames. This results mostly from rounding error in that the duration of 1/30 seconds of some animation has to be rounded off to fit the 1/25 increments.
Karen

Crash Bandicoot was my first videogame that I got when I was 7, and I STILL keep playing it over and over today and it never gets old. The entire game itself is just so fun; it’s funny, it’s entertaining, it’s addicting, and it’s not overly complicated either while still being fairly challenging. This article has been so interesting, and I’m going to continue reading the rest. This is seriously my favorite videogame- so, well, thanks for everything.
Stephen

Crash Bandicoot is my favorite game! Why the heck did you stop mmaking them?
Ciara

Dude the games of our childhood. Growing up with Crash was and still is fun. To me, knowing that so many people to have had that game deeply impact their childhoods would make me feel like I truly reached the goal. This is a fun article. I read the whole thing and now re-reading it. This really means a lot to me
- http://mascherato.wordpress.com agavin
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Samuel Simei

You guys are awesome you made one of my favorites games ever, I mean I grew up playing Sonic and Mario (first I had a Genesis then a NES), but when I bough a PS1 I was amazed by how hard and awesome Crash was (the Indiana Jones like level on the first game is one of my favorites, being chased by a giant rock is really awesome), heck, I remember playing the game again and again just to catch all the gems (and I didn’t even owned a memory card back then, good thing that game had a password system ).

Also, the death animations, I love those animations, is kinda funny when you are almost throwing the controller at the screen and then one of those scenes happens (my favorite is from the 3rd Crash, the one when the frog kisses Crash and he turn into a prince, haha).

Keep rocking guys! (and sorry if my english is kinda broken, hahah)
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  We loved the death animations. They were huge favorites of creators and players alike. Even after watching Crash die some particular way for like the 10,000th time I’d chuckle. We actually adapted them conceptually from both the Warner Bro animation style of “injury” and from the notion of fatalities that we “borrowed” from Mortal Kombat when making Way of the Warrior. It was our idea that fatalities were actually more amusing than gross, and so we played up the humor element and removed any vestigial sense of horror. Crash is not exactly what you would call a frightening game.
  - Cortex
    
    Not so frightening… Until you copy your disk to your PC to play Stormy Ascent on an emulator… As if Slippery Climb wasn’t hard enough.
    I have gone through two copies of the first game, it’s a shame. It’s hard to find nowadays, at least around were I live. At least now I have the PSN release to play. Crash Bandicoot is the best series I’ve ever played! As excited as I would be if Naughty Dog started making the games again, I think we need to stop pestering Andy. Activision owns the rights to the game, Naughty Dog can’t just make a new game without going through Activision now. (I think…)
    
    Andy, I did run across a download of the the Crash 1 prototype/beta. Is this legal to obtain, or was it leaked by someone outside of Naughty Dog? I’d like the chance to play it, but I’m wary of downloading it in case it’s illegal.
    - http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
      
      I’m sure it was leaked. It’s a kind of piracy to copy it, but I doubt very enforceable. Given the 15 years since its release, if you have legitimately paid for a copy of the game at some point in your life, I myself (non legal, non binding opinion) chalk it up to having fun and exploring the process of game making.
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Lolo

Some more prototype compilation [gooooooodness] everyone might want to see:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyvLKbdvQYY&w=420&h=315
Asldldl

Some more prototype compilation [gooooooodness] everyone might want to see: [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyvLKbdvQYY&version=3&hl=en_US
DanGameTank

Hi Andy,

These articals are utterly amazing to read after 15 years. I just spent my whole Christmas playing through Crash 1-3 again, and think I enjoyed them even more than first time around. They’ve held up very well and if anyone ever wondered why these haven’t got the HD update treatment maybe it’s because they simply don’t need it?

I’ve also just learn’t about Stormy Ascent, which must be one of the most complete and astounding finds in the hidden/unused game level pool. Was it a conscious decision to leave it on the disk or more a case of not having the time to take it out?

Also, what was the crunch period like on Crash 1. I think I read somewhere in these posts that much of the game was done by early summer ’96, so was it a fairly calm end to the schedule or were there any last minute late nights and panics?

After all these year’s of playing it’s nice to be able to directly THANK YOUfor these amazing games. They really did make my childhood a more colourful place.

All the best with the book and Happy New Year!

Dan Morris, England
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  Thanks for being such a serious fan! They were great fun to make (although a lot of work ) but we were very aware that we had something really special on our hands — and needed to treat it right!
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Birthday Cake — No’Mo

2011 — Crash’s fifteenth anniversary…and the first time in 15 years that he didn’t have a game out. Wow. I hope I can expect some announcements this coming April-July. What do you think Andy, will you be excited if ‘Crash’ ever comes back?
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  I hope so
Bee-Having

Video interview for the making of:

Crash 1 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzaaQTJYfCs (Jason Rubin)
Crash 2 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PP2kAtRjDr4&feature=related (Andy Gavin, Jason Rubin and Mark Cerny)
Crash 3 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSYlbS5vGNA&feature=related (Andy Gavin, Jason Rubin, Mark Cerny, Stephen White, Daniel Arey, Evan Wells, Bob Rafei) —– Makin’ Waves has totally different music!
CTR – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EF-xSPEqZ3Y&feature=related

Watching this is awesome. I thought you would like to see it, Andy!
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  Thanks for posting! It’s always great to get links to this kind of stuff.
  - Bmadsh
    
    (I’m not really the best at writing, but I’ll try)
    Hey. I bet hundreds of thousands have been writing that you have to do a comeback, but anyways:
    I’ve red many parts of “Making Crash Bandicoot” and it’s just so awesome. I smiled alot when i red it. Many things were really funny ^^ The story could have been a great selling book! But anyways…
    
    I love your crash games so much, they are really the best games that have been made in the history of games. I can’t really describe how good it really is! The design, the hidden levels, the way that you make something easy enough for everyone and somethings really hard, the music(by far the best game music ever) the creativity… You guys are some serious geniouses.
    The game just makes me so happy. I don’t play it all the time, but sometimes, it’s just so awesome to take up the old ps2 or 1 and just play one of the crash games. It really makes me happy every time! And I know that many others do the same.
    
    Look at the top comments of this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVFNjvpOZck
    I have to say that I agree. Almost every single person liked the Naughty Dog games waaaay more than the Radical Entertainment games. Where are the secrets that were so hard to find out? And the good music? The good old design? And sometimes I have to say that I miss the warp room too. Think about all the crash players out there that would love it so much if you made another game.
    I’m pretty sure you have seen this, but look at this fan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZelcTTo_X4
    He is making a crash game using his spear time, and he makes it for free. Pretty impressive. And it is going to be a warp room based game. The animations looks a little poor, but he is trying his best.
    
    It shows how much people miss the real games. If Naughty Dog would come back with a new game, it would have been one of the best selling in a long time probably and it would have made so many people happy! Think of it. Tell the others in Naughty Dog “Fuck it, let’s make a new Crash game just for all the fans. We can’t let them down”! …
    But really… think about it at least. I really hope that you will think about it. Maybe have a disgussion with all the people in Naughty Dog. No one can make the game like you guys did, since nobody have got the same fantasy.
    - http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
      
      Mega thanks for all that fan luving!
dingo

.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Pedro-Goncalo/100002085197646 Pedro Goncalo

Greetings!

I own a Megadrive/Genesis and a PSone (nowadays I use my computer as
a console, so I don’t own other consoles), and Megadrive has great
documentation if we want to reverse engineer it (going from building
cartidges from scratch to program Motorola 68K in C, and even build
one with a FPGA!!!), but the same can’t be said for PSone (please
correct me if I’m wrong).

I don’t have the time nor the knowledge that would be needed to
reverse engineer PSone and make some funny hobbyist games for it,
but I would love to.

What kind of development environment you used to develop Crash
Bandicoot or other games in PSone? Are such tools reachable to home
users?

Are there any examples of games that one could use to understand the
basics of PSone development? Or any company that wanted to build
some games needed to create its own tools from the scratch because
of the lack of support from Sony? If so, who developed such tools
that would require deep knowledge of the PSone’s architecture and
behavior?

Is the source code of Crash Bandicoot games released? It would be an
amazing case of study (even for academic purposes) and would mean a
lot for many addicted gamers. If not, when will it ever be? (Well
looking at Sega’s example of, after almost 20 years, not releasing
Sonic the Hedgehog source code, I would say not in my life time). It
would be amazing to be able to modify Crash games’ code, compile and
burn to play in a real PSone… I would love to be a developer of
PSone (the console of the future) as a hobby!

If there’s no chance to develop any kind of software to PSone
because of the limitations stated above, would it be considered
illegal to develop some remake of Crash Bandicoot for PC or another
platform, a fan made version of Crash Bandicoot, and distribute it
freely across the internet? I see allot of fan made games, but
sometimes they seem to be illegal, others don’t, its quite
contradictory.

Thank you for your patient!

-Pedro Domingues
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  I used the old PSX ISA boards (and before that the 50 pound dev unit). There wasn’t much other option in those days before the Playstation came out. We used Gnu GCC targeted for the PSX and the Psygnosis tools and debugger.
  I have to imagine that the whole machine has been totally reverse engineered and that there are detailed docs online. Besides there was the whole Sony official dev kit you could buy in the late 90s. You can probably even program to an emulator. The PSX was a pretty easy machine to program, one of my favorites. It had a good balance of hardware and wasn’t too complicated.
  For example, the PS2 and PS3, while incredible, are insanely complicated.
  Andy
Ty

i’m curious about who’s naming each level from the games? they sound amazing and they’re easy to remember. did you have any last minute change in the level titles? if so, examples please? thank youuu…
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  Jason, I, Dave And Taylor mostly named the Levels.
  
  Sent from my iPad
  - Ty
    
    great!! btw, Im sorry to ask you this again….but did you guys change some level titles at the last minute? if so, can you please tell me what they are? (for example, ‘sunset vista’ was once called ‘….’ , etc.) we’re doing something at crash mania (it’s like an encyclopaedia/site dedicated to crash bandicoot); updating information about the first game. thank u!
    - http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
      
      I totally don’t remember. It’s entirely possible that in the spring or summer of 1996 we did a pass of renaming on the levels.
  - Deanooo
    
    Hey in Crash Team Racing did you intend nitrous oxide to be playable?
    - http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
      
      nope
K.A.

This might be related to Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back but have you seen them? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SqYJJxGP6w&feature=g-all-u&context=G281fb0fFAAAAAAAAAAA It did amaze me.
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  That’s a state machine bug with Crash himself, probably derived from a quirk in the collision detection (with regard to telling him if he’s on the ground or not).
- its_not_a_me_mario
  
  Are you using an emulator (either opensource or those included in sony’s products)?
  While the game seems to be close to the “real thing” the truth is that its pretty far from it and certain bugs in the code may appear much easier than expected.
  
  These emulators recompile blocks of mips32 assembly directly to the target platform’s cpu architecture and a lot (and i mean a lot) can go wrong in complex expressions , and especially when they rely on results from floating point precision instructions.
T.C.

Hey Andy, big Naughty Dog fan here!

First of all, thanks for writing these! I really enjoy reading and learning a lot from them.

Secondly, those beta level videos were recorded last year; not in ’95.

Thirdly, in the comments section of the Waterfall video, it was mentioned that you can press L1+R1 for Invincibility. Did this cheat and any others carry over to the retail version in some unknown fashion? There was also mention of pressing L1+Square (really L1+Select from a forum post I saw) that resulted in a black screen showing up. What was the purpose of this combination?

Finally, I saw a making of Spyro 2 video a while back, and the interviewer asked an interesting question that I would love to know the answer to: were any of the characters based on a team member?

Happy New Year, as well!
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  The cheats are in the final game, but activating them is very difficult and secret, and I can’t remember how :-~
  - Demon
    
    will you be making more crash games ?
    - http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
      
      Not currently.
      - Rodrigo cedillo
        
        why not yall need to make a crash bandicoot classic game and yall will get a lot of hits
        people will buy it alot and youtubers that want crash back will be happy
        Just Please make one
  - T.C.
    
    I appreciate the response, Andy. I was browsing some YouTube videos and came across the History of the PlayStation video. The Bandicoot we all love makes a couple of appearances in it, and gets an honorable mention @ 16:51. See here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryi1QBA6XyI
    
    Have you seen this video about Crash 2 before? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbYdZJg15PE&feature=related
    - http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
      
      That second video is particularly funny. I forgot how cool CB2 was!
Negimap

Do you like “My Little Pony: Friendship is magic” and if so, what is your favourite pony?
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  Huh?
Anonymous

Crash was a real great game, I just dont get why it cant be like the god old days
there is got to be a way of NG to get the rights back or just participate in the making of a new crash game that is like the classic, I’m sure it would be a big success
Is it possible? I think they should really considere this possibility
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  It’s a very complex issue. I’ve covered it in some detail in the comments in here or one of the other parts (like part 6).
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Rodrigo cedillo

crash bandicoot my favorite game.radical and sierra entertainment ruined it so i want yall to make a new crash bandicoot.
Juan carlos

Its Just Great to Know that the Crash family is very United!!!
I have all 5 naughty Dog games for my ps-1 and also the games on my pc Which i play with an emulator plus the Prototype for Crash-1 which is very Cool due to the fact that it does have a lot of different fonts and to me that makes it very fun to play.
My wife is also now hooked on Crash even though at first she did not like me playing what she likes to call some kind of Wolf that jumps way to much!!! hahahahaha
Told here its not a wolf but a marsupial that is found in Australia.
Thanks For the Great Games Andy Cheers!!!!
Dafunk

Men, you just created the GAME of Playstation 1, a symbol of the 90′s, Crash Bandicoot killed my afternoons’ boredom after school. I was a big fan of Crash in my childhood. Wow men, I admire you. Thank’s for all.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Mohamed-Baraka/1461262199 Mohamed Baraka

what software did you guys used to creat it?
Alef Goulart Ribeiro

Andy,the guys of Anonim art productions are doing a mod for the cryis2.the mod is a crash bandicoot game!the mod looks amaaaaziiiiiiing.if you have the rights about the old crash bandicoot pleeeeaaaseeeee don´t cancel the mod because of “copyright” pleeaase(i will install crysis 2 just to play it.i think it will be released in the end of 2012 because they don’t have a animator)congratulation for crash’s game everytime i play crash 2 or CTR my 7 years old are remembered kkkkkk thank you guys
Alef Goulart Ribeiro

Andy,the guys of Anonim art productions are doing a mod for the cryis2.the mod is a crash bandicoot game!the mod looks amaaaaziiiiiiing.if you have the rights about the old crash bandicoot pleeeeaaaseeeee don´t cancel the mod because of “copyright” pleeaase(i will install crysis 2 just to play it.i think it will be released in the end of 2012 because they don’t have a animator)congratulation for the crash’s game if you guys want to see crash bandicoot returns click here:
http://www.moddb.com/mods/crash-bandicoot-return/news/the-official-site-of-crash-bandicoot-returns-mod
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  I have no objections, I think it’s cool. Activision however owns the copyright.
Jax

Crash Bandicoot, Jak & Daxter i really love those series But i hope we can see them in the future .
I cant accept the fact of leaving them behind .
Jax

One more thing, Jak celebration when he takes a powercell … whose idea is that?
its really awesome …. i enjoy it everytime
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  I can’t remember. But John Kim animated all those celebration dances
  - Royal Knight
    
    About Crash Bandicoot, i noticed that there was NOT A SINGLE Jungle level in CRASH BANDICOOT 3: Warped (The Core of CB)
Carbon Crash

i making a video and i NEED to know if Pura is a female or male please answeer
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  I have answered like 10 times. Basically I don’t remember. The opposite sex of Polar.
Carbonc Crash

allright.so Pura is a FEMALE(thanks. its VERY great that she is a female :^)Andy,Thanks and i REALY sorry for the inconvenience/disturb(i really sorry)^^i hope the good crash games comeback someday thanks for everything Andy^^.you just make my childhood better kkkkk thaaanks
:~(
Gabriella Bandicoot

i was so addicted in crash 3.i have sexual fantasies with Pura when i have 11 years old. LOOOOOL.
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  Twisted! And perhaps dangerous!
Alef Goulart Ribeiro

andy,you still have the rights about Crash Bandicoot1-2-3 and Crash Team Racing?
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  Nope.
Gabriella Bandicoot

have sexual fantasies with Pura? yeah,i agree this coul’d be dangerous.i already knew Pura is a female when i have 11 years (even by the fact Pura is a female, i had 11 years.
that time, I was not seeing it as a problem. I really felt something for her (today i have 13 years i don’t think in this anymore i have a boyfriend ^^)
Jax

I know you cant make any crash games but can you make a new game look like crash ?
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  I could make a cartoon game — just not violate the Crash intellectual properties
  - William Errey
    
    isn’t that odd. the creator of crash bandicoot (one of them anyway) can’t have anything to do with crash bandicoot video games anymore?? weird age we live in
    
    at least we can always revisit the classics then pray for a new crash game like the old ones =)
Jax

Would you like to hear some ideas for a new game ?
Carbon Crash

Crash Bandicoot:
poisoning the mind of the girls since 1995 kkk
TAKE CARE gabriellahave sexual fantasies with Pura? yeah,i agree this coul’d be dangerous.i already knew Pura is a female when i have 11 years (even by the fact Pura is a female, i had 11 years.
that time, I was not seeing it as a problem. I really felt something for her (today i have 13 years i don’t think in this anymore i have a boyfriend<<<<<by gabriella bandicoot.gabriella,this is weird
- Gabriella Bandicoot
  
  carbon,i allready says i had 11 years.i dont have sexual fantasies with Pura anymore.just relax ok?
Gabriella Bandicoot

carbon,i allready says i had 11 years.i dont have sexual fantasies with Pura anymore.just relax ok?
Alef Goulart Ribeiro

andy,you get angry when you see crash of the titans and mind over mutant?(you isn’t in naughty dog anymore?)
Alef Goulart Ribeiro

Carbon>>>>>”crash bandicoot: ”poisoning the mind of the girls since 1995 ”
man,shut up.let the girl(gabriella)do what her want to do.if she feel something for pura,isn’t of you business.crash s the better franchise ever.
Gabriella Bandicoot

Thanks Alef
Alef Goulart Ribeiro

you’re allways welcome gabriella ^^
Jax

hay people its not a fight or love site …. you should write your comments about the games
Alef Goulart Ribeiro

i know this site is about games jax.im sorry, but carbon is offending peoples here.^^ lets talk about the game now ok? ^^ kkkkk
Gabriella Bandicoot

one word for crash: AWESOME
Jax

My best crash game TwinSanity … if Naughtydog would have the chance to remake it … it will  be super AWESOME
                                                         I wanna play it in ND style
Googer

Question: were you ever thinking about making another Crash game for the Playstation 2 after Crash Team Racing?
- Jax
  
  No, they were busy working on jak & dax since crash team racing
Alef Goulart Ribeiro

if naughty dog buy crash again,what sierra do?ACT A FOOL! <<(luda cris kk)NAUGHTY DOG ROOOCKS
Jax

I like cartoon video games more than realistic …. people thumb up if you want Naughtydog to buy crash again
- Hunterscrashclub
  
  I love crash bandicoot
- Alef Goulart Ribeiro
  
  yeah jax i agree…twinsanity in naughty dog style will rocks ^^ imagine the warp room ^^ will be awesome kkkkk
  - Jax
    
    Yes! indeed
Gabriella Bandicoot

ANDY, YOU HAVE SOME EMAIL I CAN TALK TO YOU?????
please…i NEED your help..
hunter

I love crash good job on it
Alef Goulart Ribeiro

ANDY,its possible to get 200% easily in crash 2.JUST LOOK THIS VIDEOO
Pura♥Polar

ANDY, look this:(Pura Ending 101% crash CTR)>>>>”Pura joined the las vegas tiger show of zigfield and floyd his starring role came to a disastrouss end one day pura closed his mouth a little bit early.floyd will be sadly missed”
but Pura wasn’t a Female?
- Jax
  
  Sorry to say that but who’s the hell care if pura male or female she’s just a pet made for coco’s levels thats all so its no big deal if she exist or not
Pura♥Polar

sorru but hwo are you jax?
- Jax
  
  i’m crash fan who is really disappointed because of what crash has become
pura♥polar

sorry*
Pura♥Polar

Ah jax,you said SHE,so Pura it’s a female ^^?YEES ^^ kk crash forever
Sam98

i love Crash’s dance
- Jax
  
  you should see jak & daxter dancing
Bandicoot power

after crash twinsanity Pura e Polar dissapeared … WHYYY?????!!!!!
- Jax
  
  OMG again with the pura & polar questions …. you know not only polar & pura dissapeared there is dingodile, tiny, brio …. etc
abcdef

Hey Andy I know you didn’t work for Insomniac but I’m wondering if you know or can find anything about a cheat code I found in Spyro Year of the Dragon. Left right square circle square right left in pause menu. It makes the cheat code sound and sparks stops moving but I’m not sure what else it does. I read an interview with one of the developers where they listed every cheat code and that wasn’t one of them.
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  Sorry. No spyro cheat codes knowledge here
Alef Goulart Ribeiro

ah jax,tiny not dissapeared he just have the voice change drasticaly kkkkk and apearence(sorry for the bad english)
- Jax
  
  they call that shit tiny? even my grandma couldve make better tiny
Alef Goulart Ribeiro

why oxide isn’t a playable character in CTR?
- Jax
  
  oxide is playable in the special edition of CTR
  - MAXXX-309
    
    Whats special edition? Is it a hack? Can you link to it?
Alef Goulart Ribeiro

why ripper roo have a “hair” in crash2?
- Jax
  
  hmmm maybe cuz he get married XD
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  Just his art design
  
  Sent from my iPad
Jax

The new SPYRO isn’t bad … I actuly like it …. maybe the new CRASH will be awesome
I hope that
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Pura.s2.Polar

sincerely,this doesn’t look a male
- Priiih
  
  yeah,don’y look a male
Abir

Was there an official soundtrack ever released for any of the original 1-3 games?
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  In Japan there was something, but never here
Jax

andy why you call him NEO cortex and what new stands for ??
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  Neo Cortex is the new part of the brain, where logic and reasoning are
CRASH

any news about the new crash and when it will be released ?
Googer

Andy Gavin, I would like to ask you a question. Were you ever thinking of adding Crunch Bandicoot as a character in one of your Naughty Dog Crash games, because I would like to paste this quote from the Jason Rubin from Wikipedia. “Jason Rubin (Creator of the 1st Crash Bandicoot) Quoted that Crunch was rather sketchy and didn’t fit in the universe.” but he did eventually appear in The Wrath Of Cortex, which is the sequel to the third Crash game Warped. So you and Jason weren’t so sure about Crunch Bandicoot being a fitting character in the series?
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  Crunch is purely an invention go the post Naughty Dog teams. We would have stuck more to mutated animals and “scientific” friends of Cortex.
  - Googer12
    
    Thanks for replying. I was just wondering why Crunch Bandicoot wasn’t introduced earlier in the series. but I like the scientific friends of Cortex.
Crunch

I think Crunch is cool character and the bandicoots need to be more than just crash and coco
Jack

I realize that the contract between Naughty Dog and Universal had expired and that is the reason that Naughty Dog dropped Crash Bandicoot. Maybe if Naughty Dog found a different publisher you could continue the series! You would make millions upon millions of dollars from all the Crash fans who are desparate for a new Crash game! I know if I saw a Crash Bandicoot game with Naughty Dog on it… I would go crazy! The other owners have left the poor Bandicoot to rot away… Please take the series back! If Naughty Dog won’t help this poor Bandicoot, who will?
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  Activision owns the rights to Crash. It’s all in their court and control.
- andrea.n.n
  
  Don’t you think the original series(first 4 games) got closure before they went wrong.
  I mean Andy, Jason and the ND team made a series and FINISHED IT the way they wanted, I’m really glad they stopped in time and didn’t just keep making games for money. If money would have been a reason to continue the games would have gone horribly. I believe they made those games because it was fun.
  I love Crash bandicoot, the original trilogy of games and CTR(the first video game i played at 6) but I moved on.
Deanooo

Hey in Crash team racing did you intend nitrous oxide to be a playable character?
Crash4evA

Hello Andy,
Another HUGE fan of Crash Bandicoot here!

I’ve just duscovered that a single level of the game is packed into one .NSF file. The file is named by the level’s ID. There’a a list of them. However, I found a file S00000002.nsf file in the beta disc which means such a level exists. But trying to access this level leads to a hang. Could you please explain what is the problem or at least tell me what was that level?
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  That’s the old lava cave level. It doesn’t run on the production code. You can find videos of it on the web
  - Crash4evA
    
    Thanks a lot for your answer, Andy. Sorry for being impolite.
    But I can’t find those videos. I can only find “Cavern level” which is totally different (ID 04). Another interesting fact is that S00000004.nsf is in the final version too, however it freezes just like the 02 level from the beta. So, PLEASE!!!, tell me what is the level 02 AND is it actually possible to get it to work???
    Thanx in advance.
    - http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
      
      You’ll never get it to work. You just might find footage from an alpha disk
Ahmed

make one more please, just one more time, just to prove crash has still really got it
Alef Goulart Ribeiro

andy,what is the name of the crash ctr who haves oxide as a playable character? pls answer(sorry for the bad english kkkkk)
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  I don’t know. I only made the original CTR
- Royal Knight
  
  That would be Crash Nitro Kart (CNK) on the PlayStation 2
Crash4evA

Hello again, Andy.
I’ve got 2 questions for you.
1. You’ve COMPRESSED the files for each level into a .NSF file. Is there a way to DECOMPRESS them? Or is there a DECOMPRESSOR for them?
2. What .NSD file is for?
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  I can’t remember, but the level files can’t be “decompressed”. They are packaged, but inside each file is a bunch of 64k “pages” containing various already compressed “chunks” of game data.
Bandikart

I wanna Smell Pura’s Bad Breath soooooooo mutch
ALISSSA

I WANNA SMELL PURA’S BAD BREATH TOO!!!!!THUMB UP IF YOU WANT FEEL HER BAD BREATH TOO ^^
- Jax
  
  Wow … how did you got 23 likes in one day …. have you asked your whole school to vote to you ?
  - ALISSSA
    
    nope.i made the question and turn off the pc.
    honestly, I never thought I could get it all…KKKKKKK
    A LOT OF FANS WANT THIS KKKKK
  - ALISSSA
    
    and was 23 likes now its 24 …you give me a like too????? ^^
    - Jax
      
      Nope cuz i have a crush on nina cortex
      - ALISSSA
        
        kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
    - The Blue Blur
      
      My name is close to yours. Guess what it is.
Zidanetribal

Any chance we will see our Crash in the upcoming PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale
- Jax
  
  Unfortunately no crash nor spyro
Alef Goulart Ribeiro

andy,why some level have been removed from crash 1?
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  A couple levels weren’t good enough or were too hard
Alef Goulart Ribeiro

andy,wich crash bandicoot works on psp?(playstation portable)crash bandicoot 1,2,3 and ctr works?
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  The early ones, in emulation. There may also be some Activision/Vivendi later ones.
  - Royal Knight
    
    There is, like Crash Tag Team Racing, Crash of the Titans, and Crash Mind over Mutant.
tai

Hello, I just want to say I’m a big fan of Crash Bandicoot. I have a friend, who goes by the name ruLPH on deviantART and he’s trying to replicate the 2nd Crash model in 3D http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNj7yjBUnW4&feature=youtu.be As you can see, some of the proportions are a little off, this is because we can’t find a clear profile shot of him [anywhere]. The best one we have http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/9149/crashbmodelprogress1.jpg Isn’t a very clear one.

If it’s no trouble, do you know where a good profile shot is available? We can’t find a decent one on Google images or any other site. Again, I hope it’s no trouble asking you ^^; thanks
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  I’m sure if you google you can find one. There was some image I remember on the web of Crash in maybe from 3 angles.
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Gae-cancro93

I found this on the internet, how it’s possible to extract other models from the game?

[IMG]http://i50.tinypic.com/25ftuhc.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i46.tinypic.com/anc1eh.jpg[/IMG]
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  You could write a tool to extract them.
  - chekwob
    
    You wouldn’t happen to know more specifics on the model format, would you? There are definitely capable tools and programmers out there for extracting this stuff, but nobody knows enough of the format to do anything beyond resizing and recoloring.
Alef Goulart Ribeiro

man,if crash bandicoot returns project gonna die i gonna die too kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk.i hope we can play it soon kk
Gaspher

Hey Andy! Im a fan of crash and look my page, I did. But in spanish

http://www.CrashMundo.es.tl/

I hope you like. :3
Jason

Give Crash back to Naughty Dog!
http://www.facebook.com/isaac.morales.9028 Isaac Morales

I miss Crash bandicoot so much. Stupid Activi$ion hasn’t done anything with that franchise for 3 years! Seriously? Why do they even have the rights to it, if they’re not doing anything with it?
I hope someone buys the rights to Crash and does the franchise justice. Activi$ion killed off the franchise for no reason, and raped the Spyro franchise for no reason. They must be stopped!
http://www.facebook.com/people/Tyler-Jason-Milne/100000760885873 Tyler Jason Milne

Out of question (and I’m sorry if I could find the answer elsewhere) around about when did you and Jason Rubin really first talk about Crash (or, as it would have been then, Sonic’s Ass Game?)
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  August 1994. The answer is in this article!
Carlo6869

Mr.Gavin,I have a little Idea to tell you. I would Create a Fan Made Comics for Crash Bandicoot….the adventures are the sequels of Crash 1,2,3 and Crash Team Racing. I think that the Character Daxter From “Jak and Daxter” can help Crash to do the adventures….after that the marsupial see his counterpart of Crash Mind Over Mutant.
What you think for this?
- Carlo Sabia
  
  I’m carlo6869 again…i don’t know if he can understand my word before….I’m Italian and I study English very well but not much
Crash’n'burn

You know what? They should make Crash Bandicoot 1,2,3 and CTR remake. Change nothing at all, just make it look better.

Sonic is actually better than Crash but I love them both.
steve

Hi Andy,

What was your opinion on the N64? Was it more powerful than the PS1? (I’ve never given it thought until now)

Do you think if you had developed Crash for N64, you would have been able to do more? I read somewhere that the N64 had bad texture memory or something? (pardon my ignorance)

It would have been interesting to see how far you and the team could have pushed the hardware.

A good example of a game pushing the limits of the N64 is Banjo Tooie in my opinion. Did you ever play it? What was your opinion of Rareware and their games?

Thanks for your time.
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  In short, the N64 was similar in processing power to the PS1. It had less custom hardware though (sound was mostly done in software) and the graphics hardware could handle less polygons, but the texture engine was much smoother looking as it had a real Z-buffer and proper mip mapping. This gave games a different look and led to different problems. And of course, given that it was cartridge based, had much less storage.
  - steve
    
    Very interesting. Did you ever manage to play the Banjo games at the time? I’ve read that they used the Mario 64 engine but modified?
    - http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
      
      Loved those games
Steve

Hi Andy,

This has probably been asked before, but how come you ended up using the Crash 1 burnt animation in Crash 2?

Also, any possibility of a future Crash 2 making of?

Thanks.
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  We just didn’t want to redo the burnt anim
Wilma Akari

Andy,Pura is a female, right?
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  I never remember
Ray

How to make an Crash game like the 1st Crash?
Crash

…………ugh I love Crash and I just don’t know what to say….the best Crash games were “Crash Bandicoot-”Crash Tag Team”….I wouldn’t put the newer ones as “Crap” since I’m a huge fan….I would rather have a new version like Mind over mutants then nothing. I contacted Sierra and radical entertainment THEY HAVE NO F**CKING PLANS! so I asked if they sold Crash to a deifferent company all I got was “……No….” F**cking …….No….. What? I bet they’re hiding something
Crash Bandicoot 1# fan

I LOVE YOU SO MUCH BECAUSE YOU CREATED CRASH BANDICOOT AND YES I AM A GUY!
Crash Bandicoot #1 fan

hey, what happened to Tawna? why did she get out of the game, I LOVE HER ORIGINAL DESIGN
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  Read thru the comments on these posts. That story is in there
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002499938277 Nicholas Silvia

naughty dog absolutely needs positively needs to remake crash bandicoot it’s just not the same game without them please please please consider remaking the original crash bandicoot series please
Carson

So, Andy, how did the prototype version of Crash Bandicoot we’ve all recently discovered “get out”? Like, where did it originate, and how did it get on the internet for people to download? Thanks.
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  Not sure what that is. I might have forgotten
  - Carson
    
    Here it is. Somehow it got on the internet to download and use on emulators or CDs. It’s a lot different from the final version, yet also very interesting.
    
    By the way, I’m a HUGE fan of Crash games. The Naughty Dog ones really capture a great experience! And thanks to your “Making of”, I now know why PS1 Crash games don’t “flicker” and look so much better than other ps1 games. Thanks!
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Tori Meadows

lol. what girl would want to smell Pura’s bad breath? ^.^
Lua Ichiko

Girls like me ^^ i’d love to smeel Pura’s bad breath ^^ and i bet a lot of fans wants it too ^.^
- Angela
  
  which girl want to smell smell Pura’s bad breath? ^.^ this is kinda strange ^.^
Alef Goulart Ribeiro

Andy,are you thinking about a new game or project *.*?
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  I’m working on 2 new novels!
  - Alef Goulart Ribeiro
    
    Cool ^.^
    sad notice : crash bandicoot returns project is temporally dead.they dont have a c++ config.(something like this)hahahahahaha and sorry for the bad english
Alef Goulart Ribeiro

Andy,you know where i can buy Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex No Gyakushuu? (japanese version of cb2) ^.^
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Brian G

One question Mr. Gavin; About how many units did the original 4 Crash Bandicoot games sell?
Eric DeMarco

crash 1 was the first game i played and i loved it i have it on my psp and 2 and 3 and ctr and spyro games too
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Dumpsterknight

I am huuuuge fan! I never knew this site existed! Crash 1 was the first game I ever played. I was wondering if you have ever heard of speed runner’s. There is somebody working on getting crash 1 world record right now(100% in a single sitting).

Some people have figured out how to platform around and get the gem on Jungle Rollers and The Great Gate without needing the colored gems. How do you feel about people that have learned to glitch your game(not with a gameshark or any external device, but only with the disc and a controller)?
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  At this point, any fun anyone has with the game is cool!
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Stefan

Nice Main Heading font change
Tom

Crash Pls Come Back in your Home all the world is miss you :’c
BadBandicoot

what was the first game to come to the PS1? Are you a Nintendo FanBoy?
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  No on Nintendo. Games like twisted metal and war hawk were in the launch lineup if I remember