With the celebrated release of the lovingly built Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2, a remake of the classic two games from 1999 and 2000 respectively, it has caused players to look in to the future about potential other remakes. But it has also made players take a retrospective look in to the past and revisit the very original Tony Hawk’s Pro skater.
There hasn’t been a decent game in the Tony Hawk series in over a decade, and that’s why the remake is even more exciting. However, the game wouldn’t be great without the source material, which was made at a time when Neversoft was on the brink of collapse and when skateboarding wasn’t as popular as it was in the early 90s, which sparked a development that sounds like a developer’s fever dream.
10 Tony Hawk Had Different Ideas About Gameplay
When discussing the initial idea with Neversoft in the very early stages of development, Hawk’s idea for the game was similar to the level Downhill Jam, which was completely downhill with various ramps and rails along the way. Neversoft didn’t entirely agree with the idea but they did create one level to that effect, and kind of like a one-off bottle episode of a sitcom, it turned out to be a fan favorite. A whole game based on that one idea was eventually created too, though it wasn’t very well received.
9 Neversoft Added The 900 After Development Was Finished
There are loads of skating games since the original THPS, and Hawk isn’t famous only for his video game series, as he is most known for being the first skater in the world to successfully land the 900, a vert trick in which skaters spin two and a half times.
The common misconception is that this trick scored him the video game deal, but in reality, the game was already finished before that historic moment. The trick was so monumental that Neversoft pulled back the completed beta version of the game just to add the 900.
8 Tony Hawk Was More Involved Than You Think
Tony Hawk wasn’t just the face of skateboarding that Neversoft could use to shift more copies of the game. Hawk was already pursuing making a skating video game before he was approached by Neversoft, so when he did start working with the developer, he was very hands on and gave precious advice that Neversoft really needed at the time. Hawk was sent so many demos of new gameplay every day that he started giving them away to his friends.
7 The Development Team Hosted Skate Nights
The team over at Neversoft were so invested in the culture of skateboarding that the pre-production involved anything from traveling the US for the best skating spots, to playing Top Skater in the bowling alley across from their offices. But the biggest part of the hands-on experience was building a full size half pipe in one of the animator’s gardens, and holding skate parties every week. The half pipe was disassembled and rebuilt at a different designer’s house every time somebody moved.
6 Loads Of Mo-Cap Footage Was Abandoned
Early in the development of the game, Neversoft decided to capture skaters’ tricks by having them perform grinds and vert tricks in a half pipe wearing a latex outfit covered in balls. On top of proving difficult, as the balls kept falling off the outfit whenever Hawk fell off his board, the skater felt embarrassed and uncomfortable in the suit. So the whole motion capture experiment was completely abandoned and was never used for anything in the future.
5 The Songs Aren’t Hawk’s Personal Choices
The skateboarding series is arguably better known for it’s soundtrack than for its skateboarding, as it made licensing music in videogames extremely popular and arguably started the archetype, and that’s why we have games with such care put in to what songs are selected. Many believe that these songs that have become synonymous with skate culture were selected by the skate champion himself.
However, except for one or two songs in the first game, it was the animators and other people who worked on the game that chose the punk rock music, and the re-licensing of all this music was the reason the game unfortunately didn’t have a place on the PlayStation Mini.
4 Rodney Mullen Was Planning On Retiring Before Being Asked To Be In The Game
In 1998, being over the age of 30 years was old for a skater. At the beginning of the year, the skater had broken his ankle and wasn’t sure about his future career in skateboarding, as the injury made him fear over potential future injuries. Mullen met with Hawk for dinner to tell him he was planning on retiring. Hawk then replied by telling Mullen that the ankle will heal and that he should continue his career.
Then, almost as an afterthought, Hawk asked his old friend if he wanted to be in the game. In an alternate reality, the game would be called Rodney Mullen’s Pro Skater, as he is often referred to The Godfather of street skating. It’s even rumored that he was the most played character in the game.
3 Andy MacDonald’s Absence
One of the very few other skaters who could have been mentioned in the same breath as Tony Hawk is Andy MacDonald, but MacDonald was absent from the game as a playable character for no apparent reason. It didn’t make any sense as there wasn’t any bad blood between the two skaters at the time. It turned out that Neversoft was working on a part of the THPS where MacDonald was going to have his very own game mode.
As the original Pro Skater was focusing on street skating, and MacDonald is strictly a vert skater, Neversoft was crafting a mode especially to suit that, but it unfortunately never came to light. MacDonald got his very own game in the end, and though it wasn’t terrible, it definitely isn’t worth playing today.
2 The Mystery Cheat Code Women
Entering a cheat code in the N64 version of the original Pro Skater generates random images of women, and for years people had different theories as to who these mystery women are. Many believed they were a range of tony Hawk’s ex girlfriends, but he was married at the time. However, it has since been revealed that one of them was a random developer’s girlfriend he secretly added in. This started what became a trope of the series, which had developers adding their own details of inside jokes so specific that no gamer could possibly understand.
1 The Secret Unlockable Character, Private Carrera
In the original Pro Skater, there was a secret unlockable character that went by the name of Private Carrera, and she was rumoured to be based on Asia Carrera, a popular pornstar at the time. There was even word that Asia was planning to sue Neversoft for using her likeness. However, it couldn’t be further from the truth as the character was created by a character designer who owned a Porsche Carrera. The pornstar found it hilarious, and she even visited the Neversoft offices in the aftermath.