https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/DaveBaggett/20131031/203788/...
I really enjoyed that story.
I had a random question about this: I remember Crash 1 had a password-based "save" system where the player could skip ahead to a level if they entered the password for it.
Was the creation of that system motivated by the as-of-yet-unsolved memory card bug? Or was it just standard practice to support players that didn't buy the memory card? I can't remember many games using something like that, but it was a long time ago.
Fun fact: the code to convert the bits of saved game state to PS controller buttons used modular exponentiation, as in the RSA algorithm. Carl de Marcken suggested this method; I asked him to recommend something because at the time I really didn't know anything about hashing or crypto. There's an HN post somewhere from a guy who reversed engineered it.
After Crash I joined Carl at ITA Software (now Google Flights), where he was Chief Scientist.
This brought back so many memories, including heroic stuff Andy and Mark did on the character animation that I had completely forgotten about. I also personally postdated the discussions about how to deal with an extra dimension -- I joined soon after work on Crash (then "Willy") began -- but that part was super interesting.
(For those wondering: I worked on Crash 1 and 2 with Andy, Jason, and the other mid 90s Naughty Dogs.)