How Crash Bandicoot hacked the original Playstation (2020) [video]
Report a link problem
Submission timeline
2007–2026One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.
First comments on top threads
HN comment orderAnybody who did PS1 dev back in the day will have had to do some crazy hacking stuff to get performance or memory. The first project [1] I worked on I had a C version of my graphics engine and animation system, and in parallel I'd have a MIPS assembly version which was super optimised (the C version was effectively a reference). I made the whole engine and animation system fit in 4K so it would fit into the instruction…
Admittedly way less thorough/cool than the YouTube video, but we created a limited pre-emptive multi-tasking system on the original Playstation to run our physics engine at a constant frequency. Sony US and Sony Japan said it couldn't be done. We eventually figured out how to use the vertical blank interrupt to save all the registers, modify the return addres to return from the interrupt to our physics code, then our physics code would run (not in the interrupt context), then…
Duplicate of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22439752 from 4 days ago.
The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.
- Breakout years
- 2
- Total points
- 608
- Total comments
- 150
100+ points or 50+ comments
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
Every submission
| Date | Title as submitted | By | Points | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-02-28 | How Crash Bandicoot hacked the original Playstation [video]First breakout | zdw | 265 | 77 |
| 2020-03-02 | Andy Gavin (Naughty Dog) – How Crash Bandicoot Hacked the Original PlayStation | nikofeyn | 1 | 1 |
| 2020-04-01 | How Crash Bandicoot Hacked the Original Playstation [video] | vo2maxer | 3 | 0 |
| 2021-09-04 | Crash Bandicoot Hacked The Original Playstation | kamphey | 1 | 0 |
| 2021-12-13 | How Crash Bandicoot Hacked The Original Playstation (2020) | tosh | 5 | 0 |
| 2021-12-17 | Crash Bandicoot Hacked the Original Playstation | f154hfds | 1 | 0 |
| 2021-12-21 | Crash Bandicoot Hacked the Original Playstation | prossercj | 1 | 0 |
| 2022-08-31 | How Crash Bandicoot hacked the original Playstation (2020) [video]Hall induction · Best thread · Latest 20+ point return | agomez314 | 325 | 71 |
| 2024-12-01 | Crash Bandicoot Hacked the Original Playstation (2020) [video] | jc_811 | 6 | 1 |