Crash Bandicoot

Crash Bandicoot
Developer: Naughty Dog Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment Platform: PlayStation Released in JP: December 6, 1996 Released in US: August 31, 1996 Released in EU: November 1996 This game has unused areas. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused sounds. This game has regional differences. This game has a notes page This game has a prototype article This game has a prerelease article

This page is rather stubbly and could use some expansion. Are you a bad enough dude to rescue this article?

Crash Bandicoot is more or less one of the killer apps for the PlayStation. It also features the girlfriend that rarely appears in any other Crash game.

Stormy Ascent

The only unused level in the game. According to developer Andy Gavin, "it was too hard and we didn't have time to make it easier. This was my homage to the castle wall in Wizards and Warriors one of the most brutal and fun levels ever to grace platforming. I wish we had put it in as some kind of easter egg, as it was an awesome level, one of my favorite in the game."

Use GameShark code D0011DB2 3404 30011DB0 0022 (US), D0011DD2 3404 30011DD0 0022 (Europe), or D0011DFA 3404 30011DF8 0022 (Japan) to access it.

(Source: http://hpzr.proboards.com/thread/1031/prototypes?page=35)

Unused Sounds

While this particular sound clip is used, it's always cut off partway through, and so you never get the luxury of hearing an extra two seconds of a door opening up in-game... What a travesty.

This generic "warp" sound effect is totally unused in retail versions, but was used in the April 1996 build as the sound effect for the Checkpoint Crate, which underwent rather significant changes in both animation and sound.

300px While this sound is in fact used in the Koala Kong boss fight, it is also grouped with the sounds for the N.Brio boss fight. It likely would have accompanied the debris which falls from the roof when Brio hulks out and starts smashing his lab to the ground. The battle only uses the typical "slab falling to the ground" sound effect, rendering this particular sound unused in this boss fight.

Grouped in with the files for Pinstripe's boss battle, this sound may have been intended for a post-defeat cutscene where the power plant in the background shuts down. In the final game, Pinstripe shoots holes in the glass structure behind him after getting defeated, but nothing else happens.

Unused Graphics

This image is loaded into VRAM at the main menu. It doesn't draw anywhere in the game, but it was used in the E3 demo version of the game.

Unused Boulder Obstacles

High, higher, and low small fences.

Low wide fence.

The boulder levels used to contain 4 extra types of obstacles at some point. As shown in the images, these obstacles were a small yellow fence that covers 1/3 of the path, a slightly wider yellow fence that covers 2/3 of the path, a high fence that prevents you from jumping, and a higher version of that same fence.

Unused Guard Dog enemy

Using a level viewer

This enemy is present in the files for Heavy Machinery and Castle Machinery and was supposed to move down a path. Much to everyone's dismay however, it's incomplete as it only has 1 frame of animation. In Heavy Machinery, it was originally going to appear in the area with the 3rd Tawna token and after the mask from the bouncy platform. Note that these were placed before the March prototype was built, so the second dog path intersects with some falling platforms.

Regional Differences

Japan-Exclusive Music

To do: Upload the tracks.

The Japanese version contains five exclusive music tracks that replaced some themes of the US version: the themes for the Tawna Bonus Round, Koala Kong, Pinstripe Potoroo, Dr. Nitrus Brio, and Dr. Neo Cortex, respectively. The original Dr. Neo Cortex theme is still heard in the intro of the Japanese version and in his bonus rounds – only the final battle is replaced.

According to Josh Mancell, the game's music composer, the replaced tracks for the Japanese release were "an 11th hour decision made by the Sony people in Japan. They felt that the boss rounds needed to sound more "video game-like." The only reference they gave was music from the Main Street Electrical Parade at Disneyland. I only had a day or so to write all those themes. My favorite comment was about the original Tawna bonus round music [1]. It roughly translated into 'the sound of the guitar mixed with the tree imagery is too nostalgic-sounding'. I'm still scratching my head on that one."

(Source: Courtesy of OKeijiDragon at Crash Mania.net [2])

Miscellaneous Changes

To do: Add pictures/videos of Aku Aku's hints, and pictures of the Japanese bomb crates.

The Japanese version also made quite a few other changes:

• All the voices were replaced, but Crash himself is given unique lines and is much more expressive in his speech.
• The password system was removed, so the only option is to save.
• TNT Crates have been changed to have bomb icons on them.
• Aku Aku provides hints upon collecting certain masks (both of which extend to subsequent Japanese localizations).
• Crash automatically begins the first level with an Aku Aku mask, so the box was removed.
• Tawna vanishes whenever Crash approaches her in bonus rounds, and only one crate will smack Crash if he missed any in the level rather than all the ones he missed.
• Papu Papu (the first boss) swings his club faster and takes five hits to defeat as opposed to three.
• Some of the level order and colored gems were changed around. Most famously, Sunset Vista was swapped with Slippery Climb, likely due to the former's high difficulty (ironically, some consider Slippery Climb to be on par with or harder than Sunset Vista, making this intent backfire).
• Rotating the level map uses L1/R1 instead of Square/Circle.

In the PAL version, most of the differences compared to the US one amount to timing alterations and minor glitches.

Executable Text

%s%ss%07x.nsd

c:/src/willie/target/

streams/

%s%ss%07x.nsf

This text is from the executable, and is not used in the PlayStation version of the game, but rather the SGI/OpenGL version. "willie" is a reference to the game's old working title, Willie the Wombat.

The folder <hex>streams/</hex> is a folder that often contains full-motion video, as can be seen in many other PS1 games. It's possibly just a leftover from the cut animated intro for this game.