This is an old Crash Bandicoot 20 questions that used to be on Naughty Dog‘s site a long time ago. I’ve gotten a lot of messages looking for them, so I dug them up, but I haven’t done any editing except for trivial formatting. They are served up “as is.” Additionally, the links in here are ancient and might not work.
| 1) Q: | Are you all insane? |
| A: | Technically…yes. |
 |
|
| 2) Q: | Help! I’m stuck in Crash! Can you give me some help? |
| A: | No. But GameSpot has a full walkthrough of Crash 2 online. Game Informer Online also has good ones for Crash 1, 2, and Warped. Or you can pony up a few more shekels and buy the hint guides to Crash 1 and Crash 2 from Dimension Publishing, or the strategy guides to Crash Bandicoot: Warped and CTR (Crash Team Racing) from Prima. They are the only ones with pictures of Crash on the cover. Don’t be taken in by one of the unofficial hack jobs out there, though. They all have errors. (ed. note: Links to sites mentioned above were removed because they are no longer active… sorry, that’s the web for ya.) |
|
|
| 3) Q: | In Crash Bandicoot: Warped, what times are needed to earn each relic? |
| A: |
|
|
|
| 4) Q: | (a) What is a Bandicoot? (b) Why is Crash a Bandicoot? (c) Why is he named “Crash?” |
| A: | (a) Crash is a Perameles gunnii, of the order POLYPROTODONTA, family Peramelidae, commonly known as the Eastern Barred Bandicoot. He is a marsupial, which means that he is born with a built in fanny pack. They live in Tasmania, a small island south of Australia, as well as on the Australian mainland. The Parameles gunnii is, on average, 320mm from head to rump, and has a 80mm tail. They weigh about 950g. Crash’s family, on the other hand, tend to be about a meter tall, orange, walk on their hind legs, and wear big shoes. They have, therefore, earned a good living in the Parameles gunnii circus sideshow spinning real fast and the like.(b)Because both of his parents were.(c) Because that is the name his parents gave him. |
|
|
| 5) Q: | We want toys and stuff. When will we get them? |
| A: | Where have you been? A toy company named Resaurus recently released their second series of Crash Bandicoot posable action figures! They made the Duke Nukem and Quake toys, so you know they are good. Other stuff is in the works as well. Check ’em out! |
|
|
| 6) Q: | (a) Why did you choose to make Crash Bandicoot for the PlayStation? (b) Are there plans to port any of the Crash games, or make original Crash games for other systems? |
| A: | (a) Picking a game system, or “platform”, at the beginning of a project is like picking horses before a horse race. It is more of an art than a science. When we began Crash 1, the only 32 bit systems available were the 3DO and the Atari Jagauar. There were rumors about the coming PlayStation game console and the Sega Saturn, and distant rumblings about the N64. It was easy to toss the 3DO and Jaguar, neither had the power. And the fact that the N64 wasn’t going to have a CD ROM drive made it ineligible. In the end, we chose the PlayStation game console because it had the best mix of power and storage. Based on its worldwide sales, game players have picked the PlayStaton game console as well. Looks like we picked the winning horse!(b) Until recently, PlayStation has been the only system capable of handling the sophisticated graphics and gameplay of the Crash Bandicoot games. The Saturn doesn’t have the power. N64 cartridges cannot hold the data. Also, Crash likes the PlayStation. Naughty Dog has no idea what Crash’s future holds. We do not control his destiny. You’ll have to ask him.CTR (Crash Team Racing) is our last game working with Crash (and our last title for the first generation PlayStation). Naughty Dog’s future lies with completely new characters on PlayStation 2. |
|
|
| 7) Q: | What are Naughty Dog’s favorite games? |
| A: | We wish the following games had never come out. They have killed our productivity:Goldeneye(N64)Gran Turismo(PlayStation)Command & Conquer(PlayStation & PC)Tekken 3 (PlayStation) Mario Kart 64 (N64) Spyro (PlayStation) Point Blank (PlayStation) Beatmania (PlayStation) Metal Gear Solid (PlayStation) Banjo & Kazooie (N64) |
|
|
| 8 ) Q: | What other developers do you respect? |
| A: | We don’t sleep well because we know that Rare, Miyamoto san, the Gran Turismo team, and the Gex 2 team are out there. So we’ve hired the lead programmer and lead designers from the Gex 2 team (Dan Arey, Daniel Chan, Evan Wells.) They don’t frighten us anymore. Miyamoto san, on the other hand, keeps turning our offers down! |
|
|
| 9) Q: | Does Dr. Neo Cortex use Rogaine? |
| A: | Yes, but only on the sides of his head. |
|
|
| 10) Q: | (a) What is it like to work at Naughty Dog? (b) Are you hiring? (c) What is it like to work with Sony? |
| A: | (a)We don’t know. Nobody here considers what we do to be work.(b) Check our job opportunities page.(c) We don’t know. The people we interact with at Sony are so good that we don’t have to work at it. Seriously, we just make the game, they take care of the rest. |
|
|
| 11) Q: | Naughty Dog created the first software z-buffer for the PlayStation. How did you do it? |
| A: | Greg coded it. We don’t know how it works. It just does. |
|
|
| 12) Q: | Where do the Naughty Dog artists come up with their ideas? |
| A: | The Naughty Dog artists are so used to Crash’s world now that it doesn’t seem like designing, so much as just making 3D models of a world that already exists. Still, there is a lot of exploration on paper, as well as on the computer before the final locations and characters exist. Take a look in our Art Gallery for some samples. |
|
|
| 13) Q: | (a) How many polygons is Crash? (b) How many frames of animation does he have? (c) How do you animate him? |
| A: | (a)532 triangles.(b) In Crash 2, Crash had over 9000 individual frames of animation @ 30 frames per second. In Warped, Crash had around 30,000 frames! We believe this to be more than any other console game character. If we are wrong, e-mail usand we will change this answer.(c) We attach motion capture equipment to Crash and ask him to do the moves we need for the game. |
|
|
| 14) Q: | What is your favorite food? |
| A: | The artists like sushi and Chinese, as well as Mexican. The programmers are on the “flat diet”. We lock them in their room until they finish a project and only give them whatever food fits under the door. Pizza – yes. Pancakes – Yes. Hamburgers – Yes, one layer at a time. Chicken – Yes, but it tastes horrible after all of the shoving. They are very thristy. |
|
|
| 15) Q: | Crash doesn’t have any graphic violence. Are you against graphic violence? |
| A: | No, and if you ask us that question another #$@! time we’ll kick your @#X* and rip your !@% off! Crash doesn’t need violence. It’s that simple. |
|
|
| 16) Q: | How do I become a video game programmer? |
| A: | All of the Naughty Dog programmers started programming when they were very young. They all had computers at home, and they would all spend a good deal of time in the basement doing what was called “hacking”. Some of them took computer-related courses in High School, but at that time you didn’t need to know that much about computers to teach the computer lab teacher a thing or three. Andy got a post graduate degree in Artificial Intelligence, but one of the biggest arguments in Artificial Intelligence is whether or not it even exists. All the Naughty Dog programmers work very hard, keep long hours, and have the ability to say things that make you confused. |
|
|
| 17) Q: | What percentage of the PlayStation’s power are you using for each Crash game? |
| A: | All of it. 110 volts. Exactly what is in your wall socket. But there is a lot more that we can do with the 110 volts in the future. Look for the next PlayStation games we work on to look better and better. |
|
|
| 18) Q: | Is Crash related to the Tasmanian Devil? |
| A: | The Tasmanian Devil refuses to do blood tests, so we may never know. |
|
|
| 19) Q: | What kind of shoes does Crash Bandicoot wear? |
| A: | Big red ones. Though if Nike would like to sponsor Crash and start a line of shoes like “Air Jordans” called “Spin Crashes,” we are open to offers. |
|
|
| 20) Q: | Are there only twenty questions? |
| A: | Yes, so far. |
|
|
| 21) Q: | I thought there were only 20 questions. Why is there a 21? |
| A: | Because Naughty Dog is firmly AGAINST antidisestablishmentarianism. Go look it up. |
The Making Crash series: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12]
If you liked this post, follow me at:
    My novels: The Darkening Dream and Untimed |
