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How Crash Bandicoot Hacked The Original Playstation | War Stories | Ars Technica
Ars Technica
390K subscribers • 8 videos on Hallway
- Recommended by 14 people: 13 on Hacker News and 1 on Lobsters.
- A classic. People kept recommending it from 2020 to 2026.
- Presented by Andy Gavin, co-founder of Naughty Dog
- May be out of date. Uploaded 6 years ago, in an area where tools change fast.
Intermediate. Assumes working knowledge.
5.2M views6 years ago14 recommendations
Game developmentSystems programmingGame programmingRetro games and consolesPerformance and optimization
Andy Gavin explains how Naughty Dog bypassed PlayStation hardware limitations by overwriting Sony library code in RAM and using custom compression to stream assets.
For today’s episode of War Stories, Ars Technica sat down with Naughty Dog Co-founder Andy Gavin to talk about the hurdles in bringing the original Crash Bandicoot to gamers around the world. When Andy and his partner Jason Rubin made the decision to bring the action platforming genre into three dimensions, it required living up to their company ethos of “leaving no stone unturned” in the search for memory - even if it meant hacking Sony’s library code. Directed and Produced by Sean Dacanay Edited and Graphics Animated by Jeremy Smolik Footage used in the video: LGR - SGI Indigo2 Computer System Review.mp4 youtu.be/ZDxLa6P6exc Way Of The Warrior Classic 3DO gameplay.mp4 youtu.be/JPsnkWqIfaU Super Mario World Video Walkthrough.mp4 youtu.be/j8YFxB6rYIo Donkey Kong Country Video Walkthrough.mp4 youtu.be/whp2Y_MjTXs [TAS] Donkey Kong Country 101% in 4118 by Tompa.mp4 youtu.be/lrBG_9PJJPY Atari 2600 Longplay Pitfall! (old).mp4 youtu.be/pslbO6Fddhw Sonic The Hedgehog - Full Playthrough No Commentary.mp4 youtu.be/B1FEHo_RcNw Street Fighter II Genesis - Ken Playthrough 1 3.mp4 youtu.be/cKQXc2Xupgs Mortal Kombat 1 Super Nintendo SNES Very Hard Playthrough Sub-Zero.mp4 youtu.be/exR98Lil8eU Virtua Fighter 1 Arcade - 1CC (Akira Not MAME) バーチャファイター 1 버추어 파이터 1.mp4 youtu.be/QDbn9lF7k8Y Galaga - Gameplay Arcade 1981.mp4 youtu.be/dvjapcHsqXY PSX Longplay [040] Twisted Metal 2 World Tour.mp4 youtu.be/d6mB8zlx88g Tomb Raider (PS1) 100% ALL SECRETS Walkthrough Longplay NO COMMENTARY.mp4 youtu.be/ECVAdDHDssk NES Longplay [250] Super Mario Bros (a).mp4 youtu.be/7qirrV8w5SQ SNES Longplay - Super Mario World.mp4 youtu.be/Vxg5eOPmzHI Super Mario 64 - N64 - Full Playthrough No Commentary.mp4 youtu.be/Z3G4t6i5PAc LONGPLAY Commander Keen Episode 1 Marooned on Mars (1990) [MS-DOS].mp4 youtu.be/doA3d5_zD1Q The Incredible Machine (PC) - versión Windows 3.1.mp4 youtu.be/O14FIxIF_5E Crash Bandicoot Commercials 1996-2000.mp4 youtu.be/yKXpjkNgY88 SONY PlayStation (1995).mp4 youtu.be/xsElYfwkhzE Arcade Game I, Robot (1983 Atari) (1 5).mp4 youtu.be/EHkwdvfXHJc Inside NaughtyDog - Crash Warped [Playstation Underground].mp4 youtu.be/crh-OFOLOeg History of 3D in Video Games 1974-1994.mp4 youtu.be/hTehcvSgyWI Jurassic Park Before and After.mp4 youtu.be/PgixhKfH1w4 Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Special Stage 7.mp4 youtu.be/npalmFeX9ak PSX Longplay [049] Tekken.mp4 youtu.be/n_61oi6WavA Playstation 299 (E3 1995 Keynote).mp4 youtu.be/ExaAYIKsDBI Connect with Ars Technica: Visit ArsTechnica.com: arstechnica.com Follow Ars Technica on Facebook: facebook.com/arstechnica Follow Ars Technica on Google+: plus.google.com/+ArsTechnica/videos Follow Ars Technica on Twitter: twitter.com/arstechnica How Crash BaWhy it's here
14 people recommend thisWhat people say. Highly recommended as a fascinating look into retro game development and extreme hardware optimization techniques.
lathiaton Hacker News • Recommends
On “Myst Almost Couldn't Run on CD-ROM [video]”
I'm loving this series from ARS, another great one about Crash Bandicoot where apparently they needed extra RAM so selectively overwrote the sony libraries in RAM with their own data, by experimenting which areas were needed on whether it crashed or not. link to this video
jonas21on Hacker News • Recommends
On “Myst Almost Couldn't Run on CD-ROM [video]”
This is part of a great series of interviews with the developers of some of the most influential games in history. Two of my favorites are Andy Gavin on Crash Bandicoot: link to this video and Sid Meier on Civilization: link
dzeix35wc363CzCon Hacker News • Recommends
On “Playstation Architecture: A Practical Analysis”
For anyone interested how it was developing for the original PSX (and therefore under hardware constraints) How Crash Bandicoot Hacked The Original Playstation link to this video Immensely interesting video! "Old" hardware makes me feel so humble regarding what we have now. Hardware limitations back then really pushed developers towards novel approaches and solutions.
mmm_grayonson Hacker News • Recommends
On “Amnesia is now open source”
For anyone that hasn't yet seen it, I'd highly recommend watching Ars Technica's video interview on Amnesia and how it created its unique atmosphere: link Along with the rest of their War Stories videos, for that matter. The interview with Andy Gavin on Crash Bandicoot is great, even though I never played the game: link to this video
bmitcon Hacker News • Recommends
On “OpenGOAL: Port of Jak and Daxter, written in GOAL, a custom Lisp by Naughty Dog”
…rs of Naughty Dog. He came from MIT and was a student of Rodney Brooks. link link If someone hasn't seen it, his episode on Ars Technica's War Stories was awesome. He seems to be a hacker's hacker. It's a fascinating story because it's not really how I personally work (internally), so it's fun hearing someone describe just diving in like that. link to this video link It was my understanding that Racket wasn't in use anymore at Naughty Dog. It would be cool if there was an update or someone who knows (I know Dan is no longer at Naughty Dog), because unfortunately the tale of Lisps in companies is normally that it eventually gets replaced or set aside (where new stuff is built in something else).…
zzanzon Hacker News • Recommends
On “Graphics Tricks from Boomers”
I really do miss this old regime of utilizing the entire machine in games. There is a fantastic video of one of the original Naughty Dog developers talking about the optimizations they did for the original Crash Bandicoot ( link to this video ), and some of the less conventional tricks they did to enable 3D gameplay on the PS1. I've always wondered what the true limit of performance optimizations is in games. Obviously modern systems have a lot more systems to compete and share memory between, but there have been obvious cases where performance has had low priority. Also under consideration is the constantly morphing landscape of PC hardware and software architecture. Given a fixed hardware, like the P…
mscdexon Hacker News • Recommends
On “How we made hit video game Prince of Persia”
If you haven't already seen it, I highly recommend watching the "War Stories" video on the making of Prince of Persia: link On a related note, I also highly recommend the "War Stories" video for the making of Crash Bandicoot: link to this video
eindiranon Hacker News • Recommends
On “The Polygons of Another World: Atari Jaguar”
Andy Gavin has a great interview on the technical-side of developing Crash Bandicoot 0, which they wrote in GOOL, the precursor to GOAL. In fact, they wrote GOOL explicitly for Crash Bandicoot. Later, when writing Jak & Daxter, Naughty Dog developed GOAL. Sony ended up buying ND -- among other things, they were hoping to use ND's code, and were quite surprised to discover that it was all written in a homebrewed Lisp dialect. You can see some GOAL here: link 0 link to this video
georgewsingeron Hacker News • Recommends
On “Ask HN: How were video games from the 90s so efficient?”
I recommend watching this: link to this video Naughty Dog Co-founder Andy Gavin discusses various hacks that were used on the Playstation to get Crash Bandicoot to run smoothly. The fuller version is also worth watching.
de6u99eron Hacker News • Recommends
On “Ask HN: How were video games from the 90s so efficient?”
This is a cool story on how the Crash Bandicoot developers hacked toe PlayStation to get free up more memory for their game. link to this video
hotpotamuson Hacker News • Recommends
On “Jurassic Cloud”
There's a talk by one of the developers of Crash Bandicoot of all the hacky (and brilliant) things they had to do to get the game to load quickly off the (2X?) CD-ROM into the very limited RAM of the Playstation 1. link to this video
gnatmanon Hacker News • Recommends
On “Reddit 1.0 was written in Lisp”
I'm sure the commenter above has seen this but for anyone who hasn't: Andy Gavin talking about pushing the envelope of the Playstation for Crash Bandicoot. link to this video
2600on Hacker News • Recommends
On “Playstation 2 GS emulation – the final frontier of Vulkan compute emulation”
I heard something similar with Jak and Daxter, where they took advantage of the embedded PS1 hardware on the PS2 to scrape together some extra performance. I very much enjoyed this video that Ars Technica did with Andy Gavin on the development of Crash Bandicoot: link to this video
mikepurvison Hacker News • Mentions
On “Accurate N64 emulation gets resolution upscaling powered by Vulkan (RetroArch)”
> no additional cost The additional cost was an enormous step up in seek time and read time, which for some games manifested as load times everywhere, and for others meant a herculean effort in managing asset streaming, per the fascinating Andy Gavin talk that Ars published a few months ago: link to this video
Wxc2jjJmST9XWWLon Hacker News • Mentions
On “Internal Combustion Engine”
Nope ; Motorsport is always drivers' skills coupled with engineering ingenuity. It's always about "what can I come up with, which gives me an edge, and still somehow is within the rules?" I don't know anything about Nascar, but the history of Formula 1 is full of such little tricks as well. It's just easier to regulate "other sports" than it is to regulate sports that come coupled with a lot of technological involvement. If sth gives you an edge for half a season until rules are adjusted, that might be enough to win a championship. It's a cat-and-mouse game, but it's also exciting, and important for the whole thrill of it. Decades past Gordon Murray designed a fan quite literally sucking car…