July 12, 2026
Crash, gas, and gaming chaos
Making Crash Bandicoot (2011)
How a cross-country road trip, fast food, and “Sonic’s Ass” sparked a gaming legend
TLDR: Crash Bandicoot began as a wild 1994 idea during Naughty Dog’s move to California, with the now-infamous working title “Sonic’s Ass.” The community loves the absurd origin story, joking that this messy road-trip tale has become such internet folklore that even the comments come with reruns.
This isn’t just a sweet little origin story about Crash Bandicoot — it’s the kind of behind-the-scenes tale that makes the internet instantly split into camps. On one side: people absolutely eating up the image of two young game makers driving from Boston to Los Angeles, living on McDonald’s, dragging along a very gassy dog, and accidentally dreaming up one of the biggest mascot games of the 1990s. On the other: commenters rolling their eyes and saying, basically, of course every legendary tech story eventually becomes a mythic road-trip saga.
The biggest jaw-dropper, though, is the working title: “Sonic’s Ass.” Yes, really. The idea was simple: if old side-scrolling games became 3D, players would spend the whole game staring at the hero from behind. The community reaction practically writes itself — half delighted that famous game history is this goofy, half amazed that a billion-dollar entertainment business was once powered by vibes, cheap burgers, and pure nerve. Even the Sony gamble became part of the drama: Naughty Dog dumped serious money into an unproven machine because it looked like the hottest option, and readers can’t resist treating that as either visionary genius or reckless chaos.
The funniest part of the discussion? One commenter didn’t even try to top the story — they simply dropped a chain of old Hacker News threads like this article has become recurring internet lore. Which, honestly, only adds to the legend: Crash Bandicoot’s birth story is now famous enough to have sequels in the comments.
Key Points
- •In 1994, Naughty Dog was still a two-person company consisting of Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin, and had just completed and sold *Way of the Warrior* to Universal Studios.
- •A deal with Universal led the company to relocate from Boston to Los Angeles, and Andy Gavin left his M.I.T. PhD program during that transition.
- •During the cross-country move, Gavin and Rubin decided to pursue a 3D character platform action game, an idea they informally called the "Sonic’s Ass" game.
- •The early creative group for the project that became *Crash Bandicoot* included Andy Gavin, Jason Rubin, programmer Dave Baggett, and Universal VP Mark Cerny.
- •After evaluating several systems, Naughty Dog chose the Sony PlayStation, signed a direct developer agreement, and paid about $35,000 for a development unit.