A few months back I found a PS1 demo disc at a car boot sale and it claimed it held a copy of Tony Hawk's Skateboarding (known as Tony Hawk's Pro Skater in the US, and for the rest of the series/sequels it was that in the UK and elsewhere. Unsure why the naming difference, much less that it was apparent at this stage -- more curiously is Neversoft were a US based company). Disc 49 of the official uk playstation magazine (SCED-01823). Disc does not mention what month it was but https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Official...with-disc-issue-49-Speed-Freaks-/183674645492 appears to be September 1999 and would be about right if doing a once a month thing since the PS1's September 95 EU launch, and has a 1999 copyright message on the inside.
I have spoken about it at times but did not have a copy and online video failed me as well. I will note it is very different to the pizza hut demo people usually speak about here as this appears to be a way earlier build as that appeared near complete. Many many years earlier I had played said same demo round a friend's house when the game was still new but later searching did not reveal that much of anything on the matter and basically no chance my friend would still have had anything here.
Anyway got around to installing a PS1 emulator when I redid my OS the other night and gave it a spin. Was more or less what I remembered.
Chicago was the level though it was not a contest and instead just a scored run (no tapes). Can't get to the "hidden" section above the half pipe. Maybe not quite the "floaty" feeling I remembered from my friend's copy but definitely a different feel and play experience, though at this point it has been so long since I did the first I can't make a clear comparison.
No special bar (not even the simplified one some other demos have). Scores were a bit different. Moves were as well (some grabs on the same button as flips) but I was playing on a keyboard just now. No gaps I could find.
411VM video playing in the background as per the final game, Primus' Jerry was a racecar driver was the song playing and also featured in the final game.
Way different character selection screen and their "stats" were all nothing like the final game (toughness, speed, air, balance). No Elissa Steamer but the others were there (have not bothered to see if bonus characters are there, though neither them nor Elissa Steamer are mentioned in the ASCII stuff in the files). Only Tony Hawk and Bob Burnquist are playable and modelled in the viewer (everything else a not playable placeholder).
2 player mode just dumps you with the two above (Tony Hawk for player 1) with a vertical split and possibly some simplified textures/models/level poly count.
No blood on bails that I can recall.
No bonus point collects, though I am not sure any were on the level. Some mention of it in the exe file though.
Emulator reckoned it was running at 50 fps/Hz.
Edit. Compared the shots below to the footage above. Appears to lack the etnies logo/sponsorship as well.
Runs a bit slow on my junk laptop with PCSXR, at least until the video "finishes" and then it runs fine for the last "minute". This might be a disc issue as copying the 411.str file seems to error out but that might also be something like protection. Might see about making a cheat later, especially as it seems to want to dump me back in the menu afterwards which I don't recall happening with my friend's copy. Probably should have played with savestates but oh well.
While someone will probably tell me now that this was all well documented elsewhere on the internet I will say anybody that knows or knocks about with the various ultimate version of Tony Hawk projects I will happily have a chat with -- PS1 hacking is not really my thing but I know my way around a hex editor. Quite content to poke around files as well if people want. I did have a quick scan and the .exe and .hed files and there were some interesting ASCII strings including mention of tapes and gaps, as well as compression people will likely have to cut through if you want to go too much further. Some of those attached. Most interesting to me was
"Checkpoint bzzt! wrong tape Extra Life Flamethrower Rapid Laser Particle Beam Rip Laser" and possibly Downhill Jam as well (a name for a way later sequel/spinoff, though technically a mode within the game).
In the sequels see some shooting minigames for multiplayer. Extra lives is an odd one to see, wrong tape also.
Cheating today and screens from PCSXR rather than hardware as I don't feel like setting up the capture machine. When it says press start you do indeed have to press start.
Save people a search here is some normal gameplay of that level if you want to compare shots.
For whatever reason in the character screen the age, town, years pro... thing was not loading on the run I took the shots. In an earlier one it did show them for everybody.
Proskate.exe was on the disc root, the others were in proskate.
Date wise it would be late September 2000 before we saw the final release in PAL and NA territories.
As mentioned above I will likely find out someone did all this already and more besides but it is fun to play around with things.
I have spoken about it at times but did not have a copy and online video failed me as well. I will note it is very different to the pizza hut demo people usually speak about here as this appears to be a way earlier build as that appeared near complete. Many many years earlier I had played said same demo round a friend's house when the game was still new but later searching did not reveal that much of anything on the matter and basically no chance my friend would still have had anything here.
Anyway got around to installing a PS1 emulator when I redid my OS the other night and gave it a spin. Was more or less what I remembered.
Chicago was the level though it was not a contest and instead just a scored run (no tapes). Can't get to the "hidden" section above the half pipe. Maybe not quite the "floaty" feeling I remembered from my friend's copy but definitely a different feel and play experience, though at this point it has been so long since I did the first I can't make a clear comparison.
No special bar (not even the simplified one some other demos have). Scores were a bit different. Moves were as well (some grabs on the same button as flips) but I was playing on a keyboard just now. No gaps I could find.
411VM video playing in the background as per the final game, Primus' Jerry was a racecar driver was the song playing and also featured in the final game.
Way different character selection screen and their "stats" were all nothing like the final game (toughness, speed, air, balance). No Elissa Steamer but the others were there (have not bothered to see if bonus characters are there, though neither them nor Elissa Steamer are mentioned in the ASCII stuff in the files). Only Tony Hawk and Bob Burnquist are playable and modelled in the viewer (everything else a not playable placeholder).
2 player mode just dumps you with the two above (Tony Hawk for player 1) with a vertical split and possibly some simplified textures/models/level poly count.
No blood on bails that I can recall.
No bonus point collects, though I am not sure any were on the level. Some mention of it in the exe file though.
Emulator reckoned it was running at 50 fps/Hz.
Edit. Compared the shots below to the footage above. Appears to lack the etnies logo/sponsorship as well.
Runs a bit slow on my junk laptop with PCSXR, at least until the video "finishes" and then it runs fine for the last "minute". This might be a disc issue as copying the 411.str file seems to error out but that might also be something like protection. Might see about making a cheat later, especially as it seems to want to dump me back in the menu afterwards which I don't recall happening with my friend's copy. Probably should have played with savestates but oh well.
While someone will probably tell me now that this was all well documented elsewhere on the internet I will say anybody that knows or knocks about with the various ultimate version of Tony Hawk projects I will happily have a chat with -- PS1 hacking is not really my thing but I know my way around a hex editor. Quite content to poke around files as well if people want. I did have a quick scan and the .exe and .hed files and there were some interesting ASCII strings including mention of tapes and gaps, as well as compression people will likely have to cut through if you want to go too much further. Some of those attached. Most interesting to me was
"Checkpoint bzzt! wrong tape Extra Life Flamethrower Rapid Laser Particle Beam Rip Laser" and possibly Downhill Jam as well (a name for a way later sequel/spinoff, though technically a mode within the game).
In the sequels see some shooting minigames for multiplayer. Extra lives is an odd one to see, wrong tape also.
Cheating today and screens from PCSXR rather than hardware as I don't feel like setting up the capture machine. When it says press start you do indeed have to press start.
Save people a search here is some normal gameplay of that level if you want to compare shots.
For whatever reason in the character screen the age, town, years pro... thing was not loading on the run I took the shots. In an earlier one it did show them for everybody.
Proskate.exe was on the disc root, the others were in proskate.
Date wise it would be late September 2000 before we saw the final release in PAL and NA territories.
As mentioned above I will likely find out someone did all this already and more besides but it is fun to play around with things.
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