Long before Tony Hawk's Pro Skater became a cultural phenomenon, the Birdman was running an underground operation to get the game into skaters' hands. During a panel at iicon, an industry conference for gaming professionals, Hawk revealed how he modified hardware and distributed early builds to test feedback from the people who mattered most: real skateboarders.
In 1998, while working with Neversoft on the original THPS, Hawk received weekly CD burns of early game versions. The skateboarding legend would provide notes, get updated discs in the mail, and repeat. But he grew restless being the sole skater in the development loop.
"I was really excited about it, but I was also kind of isolated in my excitement because I was the only real skater working on it," Hawk explained at the panel. He started making copies of the burned discs and sending them to hardcore gamer skaters in his circle.
That's when Hawk decided to take a bigger step. He modified the PlayStation 1 of his friend Atiba, a skater and photographer who would later appear in THPS 4, so the device could play the burned game discs. Atiba's modified console became a testing ground, and word spread through the skate community.
"He really did have valuable feedback, and he started letting people come over to play the game. I mean, we were going rogue," Hawk said, chuckling at the audacity of what he'd done more than two decades earlier.
The underground testing paid off. Whispers began circulating in hardcore skating circles. People started asking each other: have you guys played "the game?" The fact that skateboarders were referring to THPS with such reverence, without needing to name it, told Hawk everything he needed to know.
"That's when I knew we did something right, and that the skateboarders were going to enjoy this. And to me, that was the mark of success. I had no idea that it would ever transcend just the skateboard world, but the fact that they just referred to it as 'the game' gave me a sense of pride."
During the same panel, Hawk also weighed in on what comes next for the franchise. As remasters and remakes work through the series, he's been hearing constant fan requests for one title in particular.
"The most noise that I hear about remastering the game is for Underground, and has been for the last few years," Hawk said. "I don't know who I'm pitching this to, but that's the one, if we get to do it."
Author Emily Chen: "The image of Tony Hawk hot-rodding PS1s and bootlegging game discs to get real feedback is delightfully punk rock, and it explains why THPS resonated with skaters in a way few games ever have."
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