Proto:Crash Bash
This page details one or more prototype versions of Crash Bash.
At least seven playable demos of the game were made available during development. In addition, three prototypes of the game were released.
The demo versions of Crash Bash have become rather infamous due to the fact that, via a simple button input code, nearly every single level of the game can be accessed via a cheat menu, which could have had disastrous results on the game's sales had this been discovered back in 2000.
Producer Jon Williams explained that the cheat menu was supposed to be disabled in any gold master submission. However, a bug in the Spyro: Year of the Dragon demos allowed the cheat menu to remain accessible, possibly due to the demo being delivered as an executable instead of a CD image. Despite the demo being tested by multiple teams internally, this issue went unnoticed.
“Oops! I did become aware of it a few years ago, but don't recall it being raised at the time. Our build process ensured that the cheats menu was disabled on any gold master submission, but the demos were always special cases. We had to create lots of special demos during development alongside the regular builds for Universal and Sony. The cheats menu was supposed to be disabled for the Spyro demo, but there must have been a bug—probably to do with the fact the demo code was delivered as an executable rather than a CD image. Bear in mind that the Spyro demo was tested by our QA and Universal's before being sent to Insomniac—it would also have been tested by Sony prior to approval. It just goes to show how things can slip through the net.
I did see some online comments wondering why on Earth so much of the game was present in the demo. The answer to that is simply that we would have found it very time consuming to remove data specifically for the Spyro demo. Many levels shared code, textures, animations etc. We were given a size budget and our demo fitted. If it wasn't for the cheats menu bug nobody would have noticed.”[1]— Jon Williams
In fact, the cheat menu was accessible via a button combo not only in the demos included in both regions of Spyro: Year of the Dragon, but also in the late European demo version included on various compilation discs - despite this, this demo has a feature that exits the game when Select is pressed, rendering the menu unusable as it requires this button to access the other levels. In all other demos, while the menu exists and is fully functional, it can only be unlocked through hacking.
Sub-Pages
 | July 26th, 2000 demo The earliest publicly playable demo of the game, as part of the Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine 38 Demo Disc. Built at 16:58:47, July 26, 2000. |
| August 2nd, 2000 demos Featured as a standalone demo and found on many demo compilation discs, two versions of this demo were available; an North American demo with a build time of 15:05:44 and a European demo with a build time of 15:22:16. |
| August 23rd, 2000 build A preview version dated around a month and a half before the final North American build. It is the first of two pre-release builds distributed by SCEE, from the pink "Preview Version" disc. |
| August 25th, 2000 demo The demo hidden in North American versions of Spyro: Year of the Dragon. Built at 15:13:55, August 25, 2000. |
| August 30th, 2000 demo The demo hidden in European versions of Spyro: Year of the Dragon. Built at 18:37:26, August 30, 2000. |
| September 1st, 2000 demo The second demo featured on demo compilation discs released in Europe. Built at 17:07:27, September 1st, 2000. |
| September 14th, 2000 build A preview version dated around a month before the final North American build. |
| October 7th, 2000 demo A Japanese demo disc and also the last known demo. Built at 10:35:55, October 7th, 2000. |
| October 9th, 2000 build A European review version dated a day before the final North American build. It is the last pre-release build distributed by SCEE, from the red "Review Version" disc. |
