Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (THPS) wasn’t the first skateboarding video game, but it was the most important. It wasn’t just a digital take on the sport, it was also a window into a burgeoning subculture. In September, two decades after the series debuted, the first two games will be remastered, bringing the experience to a whole new audience.
Rodney Mullen still remembers the first time he went on tour after appearing in a Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater game. Mullen is widely regarded as one of the most influential skaters of all time, credited with creating many of the tricks - like the kickflip and 360 flip - that are now integral components of the sport. He turned pro when he was 13, and is now 53, which means he’s spent four decades perfecting his craft and elevating skateboarding.
“They had to put me on top of a van because it was so intense,” Mullen says. “It was a sea of people - around me. And although I had a strong name from all of those years prior, this was unlike anything I had ever seen. That was my first taste of it, and it just went on. I could not believe the exposure the game gave to me.”
“It’s a bit of a time capsule,” says Mullen. “The essence of what makes skateboarding special is still the same as depicted in the game.”
The first THPS debuted in 1999 on the PlayStation and was developed by a then largely unknown (and since shuttered) studio called Neversoft. It felt like an instant smash hit; it went on to sell millions of copies and was ported to the Nintendo 64 and Dreamcast a year later. It’s unlikely that anyone working on the game imagined it becoming the pop culture phenomenon it turned out to be. But for the skaters involved, it was an exciting opportunity from the very beginning.
Read also: The Life of Chad Everett Harris
“I just remember initially it sounding surreal to me, especially then, that skateboarding was going to be in a video game that would be available on consoles across the world,” says skater Chad Muska. “It was just a crazy idea. I remember thinking, ‘Let’s go. Let’s do this.’” For Bucky Lasek, it didn’t take long before he realized the project was turning into something special. “I can’t say I imagined it blowing up as big as it did,” he says. “But I could definitely see that we were on to something. If it’s something that I’m stoked on, I would imagine other people would be stoked, too.”
Muska believes that one of the key factors behind the game’s success was timing. In the early 1990s, skateboarding was largely dying, with even the biggest names struggling to get by. That changed later in the decade, thanks in large part to the X Games. The extreme sports showcase kicked off in 1994, was broadcast on ESPN, and created a mainstream appetite for skateboarding. Five years later, Tony Hawk landed a mythical 900 - a trick that involves spinning around two and a half times - during the X Games after 10 failed attempts. The stage was set for THPS.
“Along comes this video game that brings that underground culture of the streets into the households of every person in the world, pretty much, who had a video game console,” says Muska. “Overnight, it was a household name. I was a household name. And everybody else in that game became household names because of that.”
Despite being one of the most influential people in skateboarding history, Rodney Mullen didn’t feature in the first game. But Mullen and Hawk have a long history together. The two skated together as teens in a group called Bones Brigade, which featured many of the top pros of the 1980s. In 1989, Mullen left the group to sign with World Industries, and he was able to witness Hawk’s ascent to superstardom from afar. He says he felt like an outsider at times, worried the other members of the team, Hawk included, would judge him for leaving. He kept in touch, but there was a distance.
“Then out of nowhere, I was on tour and I broke my ankle. And I was thinking that this happened for no reason, and I needed a friend,” Mullen recalls. “And so few could relate the way Tony related. I overcame all of that weirdness and reached out. ‘Hey man, I wanted to meet you because I don’t know if I’m going to keep going. I don’t know if this is a sign. I don’t know what’s up.’ He was like, ‘Sure, let’s meet up.’ So I met him on crutches in a restaurant, saying, ‘Tony, what do you think this means?’ And he said: ‘It means you got hurt. It doesn’t mean anything. Heal up, and get skating again. And by the way: do you want to be in my game?’ I was just blown away that he would even take the time to hang out with me, much less bring me into the game. That’s how it started.”
Read also: "Married to Evil": Chad Graves
For those who were featured in those early THPS games, the impact was immediate and long-lasting. Muska says he remembers being recognized while out skating on the street, and fans would come up to Mullen at airports to talk about the game. Even now, if you check out skate videos on YouTube or Instagram, many of the top comments reference THPS.
Lasek says that recognition continues to this day. “They don’t know me for being an X Games gold medalist, or for being a professional skateboarder for 30-plus years, or being a rally car driver,” he says of some fans. “They know me as a video game character. I’m still blown away by it.”
Looking back on it now, the skaters I spoke to say they remain proud of how those early THPS games represented skate culture for a mainstream audience, whether it was using the complex linguistics of trick names, re-creating the ingenuity necessary for street skating, or having a kick-ass soundtrack featuring the likes of Goldfinger and The Dead Kennedys. “It was a pure representation of what we were about,” says Mullen. “And it gave a real sense of what we do in the world and why it’s so addictive to be a skater once you start. Even if you’re not good, you can still become addicted to the mindset. It’s a way of looking at the world.” Muska adds, “There’s some embarrassing, funny, ridiculous stuff about the game, but I wouldn’t change any of it.”
Today, the production of a new video game can be a massive undertaking. In the lead-up to the remaster, the original cast of THPS was scanned so that their current likenesses could be featured in the game, and the process involved massive rigs with high-end DSLRs capturing them from all angles. But with those original games, things were much more low-tech. There were basic motion capture suits, and developers would film the skaters performing tricks from multiple angles before picking their brains about how things worked.
Mullen remembers there were times when he didn’t want to stop performing tricks for these sessions, and so the developers would stay at the studio alongside him for some very late nights. Occasionally, kegs were involved. What struck him most, though, was the care the developers took. “They dug into the nuance of everything I did,” he says. “The amount of attention to detail, and wanting to do it with fidelity and be true to skateboarding, and showing that respect, that’s the part that blew me away.”
Read also: Vallow-Daybell Trial: Key Evidence
For the most part, the upcoming remaster looks to remain true to the original games. It features updated graphics and some online features, but otherwise, the core of the experience remains intact. (That said, the franchise’s disappointing recent history, including THPS5, means fans should still be cautious.) One of the big changes, though, is the addition of a fresh crop of skaters: modern superstars like Tyshawn Jones, Nyjah Huston, Leo Baker, Leticia Bufoni, Aori Nishimura, Lizzie Armanto, and Shane O’Neill will all be featured alongside the original cast. Even Tony’s son Riley - who was seven when the original THPS came out and is now a seasoned pro - will be playable. Many of these skaters grew up playing the games.
Muska says he’s particularly proud at the range of people the games helped inspire, as evidenced by the new cast of skaters. “It’s really cool to see the diversity of people, to see more girls in it, to see just everybody,” he says. Mullen adds that there’s a mutual respect across generations that makes this new feature particularly special. “You can see it in their eyes,” he says. “I’m amazed by what they do, and they’re looking at me like, ‘Oh my god, you were in the game!’ Are you kidding? I can’t believe where you’ve taken skateboarding, and now we’re in the game together. This connection over 20 years, in such a seamless way, I hardly have words for how awesome it is.”
The remastered collection of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 and 2 is coming to the Xbox One, PS4, and PC on September 4th, more than 20 years after the series first debuted. A lot has happened in that time. Skate videos on VHS tapes have given way to clips on Instagram, while video games have only become more ingrained in pop culture. On an individual level, Lasek expanded his horizons by becoming a professional rally car driver, while Muska continues to explore art and fashion through the lens of skate culture. Meanwhile, Mullen still goes out skating most nights, but he’s also a fellow at the MIT Media Lab and has done multiple TED talks.
Despite all of these changes and the amount of time that has passed, Mullen believes that those early games still represent skateboarding culture in a way that has yet to be replicated.
“As time goes on, nothing makes me prouder than to know how I’ve devoted my talent and time and focus. I am more proud to be a skateboarder than anything else,” he says. “The Tony Hawk games captured the essence of skating in a way that is pure and that stands the test of time, and they’re putting it out there now when the world has a bigger window into skateboarding."
Тони Хоук выполняет трюк на скейтборде
Neversoft's Culture: More Than Just a Game Studio
Over the years, Neversoft became famous for its antics. It was something it put front and center of its games, which usually shipped with home movies of the team's parties, skating, and overall bad behavior. Somehow, throughout it all, they didn't get kicked out of their office.
Cody Pierson (animator): He was leaving town in the not too distant future, and he had a car that wasn't worth a lot or worth selling. So he was like, "Hey. Let's do something with this for the credits movie." It was the end of the project, so they were like, "F**k it.
Jim Jagger (animator): You know, you'd hear about rock stars doing it, so it's like, "F**k it. We'll do it. We'll film it.
Aaron Skillman (environment artist): He had one chance to throw that TV off the [roof]. He nailed it.
Chad Findley (lead designer): It was very loud.
Cody Pierson (animator): Man, I don't know how they got away with a lot of stuff like that.
Mick West (co-founder): We'd often break things. I remember we were playing escape from the box games where we would tie people up in a box and [they would] try to get out of it. I used a joystick extension cable, back then there were these 9 Pin D joysticks which were used for the PlayStation 2 development kit. We tied up one of the programmers … in a box and he had to escape from it. He did, he kind of smashed his way out.
The next day I used that same cable, plugged it into a PlayStation 2 development kit and it basically started smoking and nearly caught fire because we had broken the cable. I didn't realize it was the cable at the time, so I plugged it into a second one and that started smoking, too.
Jason Greenberg (animator): We had a couple guys who, you know, were young guys who couldn't really afford much in terms of apartments and stuff that ended up living in the office.
Jim Jagger (animator): Sometimes it'd just get late and we'd start drinking in the office and try to do tricks. I was hopeless. I remember trying to kickflip the conference table in flip flops.
Nolan Nelson (lead character artist): [We were skating on the conference tables] when all the sudden we just hear someone banging on the door.
Dan Nelson (programmer): Our work hours, they were pretty hard hours Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, but we would always get off at five o'clock on Fridays like clockwork. The rumor always was because our boss, Joel, needed to go to the strip club at five on Fridays. It needed to happen.
Scott Pease (producer): The Candy Cat. Oh, yeah, I [went there] a few times.
Joel Jewett (co-founder): At one of the trade shows we got in trouble from Sony. We had about 1,000 Neversoft stickers so we thought it'd be a good idea to go stick them on anything at E3 that we could. My guys found whatever competing skateboarding game was coming out and covered that with Neversoft stickers. … Sony called me up and told me that wasn't cool.
Alan Flores (senior designer): Chris [Ward, co-founder of Neversoft] came in one time and he was like all yellow because he drank too much, he got jaundice.
Tony Hawk's Underground: A Cult Classic
Tony Hawk's Underground was released on October 28, 2003. At the time, it sold well and was received positively by critics. However these days, 14 years removed, Underground is a bit of a cult classic in the shadows of other Tony Hawk games like Pro Skater and Pro Skater 3-both considered among some of the best games ever made. But for a lot of the developers that worked on it, Underground still remains their favorite.
Tony Hawk's Underground
Aaron Skillman (environment artist): Man, it's funny because it's gotta be the story or the cutscenes or something like that. Sometimes I'll be on Reddit and I'll see a Tony Hawk [thread and] at least a few times I've seen someone link the cutscene of Chad Muska [with] his Escalade bouncing up and down. Do you know what I'm talking about? … And I'm like, "Oh man.
Chad Findley (lead designer): I think when people talk about the Tony Hawk games, they usually mean [the first Pro Skater]. I'm fine with that because, one, I got to be a part of the THPS series, which is cool. This game was financially successful, I think it sold more than the others had up to that point, so I was happy with it financially. The performance of it, it got rated really well. [But these days] it's a cult classic. And yeah, like, f**k, that's cool.
Jason Greenberg (animator): You know, that's an interesting one, because I worry that people have such fond memories of the Pro Skater series and I think some people see THUG as a turning point, and that may not always be a positive thing. But, from my perspective, I think THUG was the peak of the franchise. I think it made a good balance between innovating and giving you something different without moving too far from the core that made Pro Skater great. It wasn't old yet.
Chad Findley (lead designer): This was our own retake on it, our recreation on Tony Hawk. To be able to be part of it, to take it seriously and deliver something that is inspired by the pros and truth, [by] what's really out there and the punk side of it, [to] really show what we felt. I think the fact that we could actually deliver it and [were able to] recreate Tony Hawk games in this way, that's why I enjoyed it. We took something that was already f**king good and made something that I think people really enjoyed out of it. … I'll say, I think Underground is [my] favorite game I've ever worked on.
Cody Pierson (animator): There's a lot of times I'm on Reddit, just reading different video game forums and things like that just because you get some exposure to what gamers are looking for, but I still run into people that were stoked about THUG. And they're like, "Ah, I'd love to see another THUG!" So, I don't think it was the pinnacle of the series, but I think it was a cult classic to a lot of gamers that still hold it near and dear to their hearts.
Dana MacKenzie (UI artist): To this day, I look back [at the game manual] and I see the screenshots of the game or I fire the game up [and] everything I see I don't question. I don't go, "Ah, damn. I wish I had changed that." Or, "Uh, that looks kinda crappy." It's so easy to scrutinize things after it goes out the door, but I look at Underground and every element that I helped out with I'm just insanely proud of. … There's no regrets that I have on that game. There's nothing, honestly, that I would go back and change.
Mick West (co-founder): The first game we only had, like, ten people working on it and I think when [we] got to Underground it was more like 70 people working on it. So, for some people it was their first game. [As] we were saying earlier, it was kind of a chance for people to refine what they were doing-especially the level designers-so they would get a lot more time to work on things and they would see them going into the game straight away.
Jim Jagger (animator): I don't want to be harsh on everyone else, but, you know, it was kind of the end of the great Tony Hawk games in my opinion. [After Underground,] they started going downhill a little bit. They still do really well, they're still successful, but I think most of the mechanics were in place. I guess it just was almost like it was the last of the good ideas. I sound horrible, I don't mean to be disrespectful to any of the other games.
Scott Pease (producer): It's funny. Every time a game would come out, it would be like, "Yay! We're done." But we'd already moved on in a way, you know? Having to do a game every year meant that there was literally no downtime. We would ship a game, and then we'd go right into brainstorming the next game. So that by the time the previous game came out, we were already well underway with the next game. I remember reading the reviews, and enjoying the good ones, and then it was just kind of like, "Back to work!
Joel Jewett (co-founder): For me, all of our games were about having fun and I'd like to believe that's the legacy of this game. I think it was just super fun. I think a lot of people enjoyed it, and a lot of people played it. [Then] a lot of people played it over and over. … People remember it. If you look at the YouTube videos of all the cutscenes and read the comments, it's pretty awesome, man. People remember it. We had a lot of fun making it and hopefully that bled into the video game and then people had fun playing it and they all remember it. That's a cool thing.
The Legacy of Neversoft
Neversoft officially closed its doors in 2014, but the echoes of its influence can still be heard today. Everyone we talked to for this project talked about their love for that company, their love for their co-workers, their love for the games they helped make. Some even think it's something that will never be replicated in the AAA space again, as if Neversoft was lightning in a bottle. A perfect storm of the right amount of passionate people making passionate games.
Alan Flores (senior designer): Hopefully I'm not putting rose-colored glasses on it, right? Because those were some of the greatest times I've ever had in my life. Certainly development wise. I met with Joel Jewett probably two weeks ago at E3 [2017] and we were talking about the good ol' days or whatever. I was telling him there's this knife-fight concept. You want to be in business with a guy who's got your back in a knife fight, and I never really had that with any other company I've worked with ever since. They're not the same thing. You have an idea and then you present your idea and everybody's left the room. They've left you standing there. Joel would never do that, the whole company would never do that.
Jason Greenberg (animator): We definitely knew how have fun; I'd put it that way. But the thing that stands out to me even more was Neversoft was like a family. With Joel and his wife Sandy, when you joined Neversoft, you joined this group that was more about [family] than just making money or being a company. We all knew each other, we all hung out together and we all cared about each other.
Popular articles:
tags: #Chad
