Crash Bandicoot

Crash Bandicoot
Developer: Naughty Dog Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment Platform: PlayStation Released in JP: December 6, 1996 Released in US: September 9, 1996 Released in EU: November 8, 1996 This game has unused animations. This game has unused areas. This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused enemies. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused models. 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

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

Stormy Ascent is one of the most well known levels in the Crash Bandicoot series to get cut. 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. Long, a bit brutal, but it looked great, and had a real rhythm to it.

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. 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. However, it 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

To do: The first image is from a VRAM dump. Replace it with proper palette.

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.

While this texture is in fact used in "Cortex Power", it is also grouped in with the files for "Toxic Waste", which the level does not use.

Unused Objects

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 (using the name Dog_C for its code and GD10 for its animation/model data) and was supposed to move down a path. However, much to everyone's dismay, it's incomplete as it only has one 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.

Unused sections

At one point in development, the level Castle Machinery was supposed to fork into 2 paths: one that goes down and uses springs to go back up, and a faster one that goes straight forward (to the right).

The level Sunset Vista still has data for the last portion of the level that was cut after the prototype was made. It only contains the background scenery and the camera paths, however.

Unused ruins platforms

To do: Add purpose (it's a pressure platform) and image.

The 2D ruins levels The Lost City and Sunset Vista both contain data for a ruins-themed platform that never gets used anywhere.

Unused Animation

Present in an unused bonus level and the level completion screen in all versions of the game is an idle animation for Crash that is only used exclusively in the NTSC-J version. It is simply an extension of Crash's victory animation when he gets a gem.

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. 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 [1])

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.
• 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.
• Crash has an extra idle animations that involves him spinning in victory (much like after being rewarded a gem), turning his head around a couple times and getting back up while embarassed.

While the European version is nearly identical to the US version, there were a few changes made:

• The boss Ripper Roo was slowed down.
• The countdown on TNT crates is faster.
• At the very beginning of the level the Lost City, two Crates can be found behind an iron crate stack. In the US and Japanese version, it's impossible to jump over it because it's 3-crates tall, and Crash can only jump as high as 2 crates. For some reason, it's actually possible in the European version to jump over it from the right (and, even more oddly, not from the left).

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 streams/ 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.