Tony Hawk's Pro Skater Trivia & Easter Eggs

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater Development Trivia

Tony Hawk Did the 900 Three Months Before the Game Shipped

Tony Hawk’s famous first completion of a 900 (two full aerial rotations on a halfpipe) occurred at the 1999 X Games Best Trick event on June 27, 1999 — approximately three months before Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater shipped in September 1999. The game already had the 900 coded as Hawk’s special trick. The real-world achievement made the game’s inclusion of the move prophetically accurate and generated enormous press coverage that benefited the game’s launch.

Neversoft Had 10 Months to Make the Game

Developer Neversoft Entertainment had approximately 10 months from project start to the game’s September 1999 ship date. The rapid development was driven by Activision’s market window concerns about missing the holiday season. The team worked extraordinary hours; lead programmer Mick West has described the final months of development as among the most intense of his career. The game shipped with rough edges but was still exceptional.

The Soundtrack Was Chosen by the Skaters

Tony Hawk and the professional skaters who appeared in the game had significant input on the music selection. Hawk wanted the music to reflect what was actually being listened to in skate culture in 1998-1999 — punk, metal, and hip-hop crossover. The resulting soundtrack (Dead Kennedys, Suicidal Tendencies, Goldfinger, NOFX, Dead Prez, Primus) was a genuine cultural artifact of late-1990s American skateboarding and was cited in contemporary reviews as unusually authentic.

Activision Initially Passed on the Project

Activision had been approached by multiple parties about making a skateboarding game and had passed. When Neversoft (who had previously made Doom ports and a Spider-Man game prototype) pitched a fully 3D skateboarding game with professional skater involvement, Activision’s initial reaction was cautious. The project was greenlit largely due to the personal advocacy of Tony Hawk’s business manager and a very convincing early demo. Activision went on to publish 19 games in the franchise.

The Game Popularized a Specific Cropped Camera Angle

The behind-and-above third-person camera in THPS1 — tight to the skater, emphasizing the tricks — was new for the genre and became the template for virtually all subsequent skateboarding games. The angle was chosen because it made tricks most visually legible: the player could see what their feet were doing while maintaining spatial awareness of the terrain. Previous skating games had used wider, more cinematic camera angles that made trick performance harder to read.

Grind Tricks Were the Hardest to Implement

Neversoft’s programmers describe grind tricks (50-50, nosegrind, etc.) as the most technically challenging element to implement correctly. Grind physics require the character to attach to an edge while maintaining momentum, calculate the angle dynamically, and allow the player to steer along the edge — all while keeping gameplay feel satisfying. The final grind system was rewritten multiple times before the team felt it was “fun” rather than merely technically correct.

The First Game Sold 3 Million Copies Without Mainstream Marketing

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater did not have a mainstream advertising campaign at launch — Activision’s marketing budget was modest and focused on gaming press and skating culture outlets. The game’s extraordinary commercial success (3 million copies in its first year) was driven almost entirely by word of mouth and gaming magazine coverage. It became one of the most successful examples of organic game marketing in the late 1990s.

Officer Dick Was Based on a Real Neversoft Employee

The unlockable character Officer Dick — a police officer in full uniform who skates — was modeled after a Neversoft employee who often showed up to work dressed in formal attire while everyone else wore casual clothes. The character was a team in-joke that made it into the final game. His name is a reference to that employee’s first name.

The Game Revived Street Skateboarding in America

The late 1990s were a down period for professional skateboarding in America — prize money had dropped, magazine coverage had contracted, and the X Games had not yet established skateboarding’s mainstream profile. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater directly helped revive the sport’s commercial standing: merchandise sales, board sales, and event attendance all increased measurably in the years after the game’s release. Tony Hawk himself credits the game with introducing an entirely new generation to skateboarding.