I am the author of that Crash Bandicoot Zone article. I thank you immensely for the huge discovery you have brought to the both Crash and Spyro fan bases. We finally have some more information about what was supposed to be the first real crossover of the two franchises!

Makes you think how many lost prototypes demos we've lost over the years

This almost feels like an april fool's joke. what a find

1:02 Actually, Spyro never had his own kart racing title. But, he does crossover into Crash Nitro Kart GBA port (2003) as a guest character and eventually became a guest character again in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled (the remake of CTR) in 2019. The kart engine sound do sound similar from Crash Team Racing (PS1). but if this was developed in 2004, it was already a year after Crash Nitro Kart was released, on Xbox too!

The LT Demo was actually something that had gameplay posted to KZfaq in the past as being a “crash nitro kart prototype”.

As a massive Crash AND Spyro fan, this would've absolutely been the coolest game of all time if it actually came to the fruition

Seems like the test course was based on the Dragonfly Dojo level from Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly. It also looks like the Crash Bandicoot model from the FMV was based the ReSaurus toy, just like that infamous Pakistani McDonalds ad.

Malice on it's own had a very troubled development history. Went from PS to Xbox exclusive in early 2000, publisher changed to Sierra, cancellation, random resurrection, publisher change again, now on PS2 and Xbox, and all of that for it to come out when the developer goes bankrupt. I wonder what it's early prototypes may be like, I hope one of the Sierra versions or maybe even a PS1 version is found.

I would have played this to death! Especially for the time, it would have sold SO well

Hello - great article! My name is Andrew Parsons and I ran LT Studios. I have in my hand the Xbox demo disk of the single seaside track for Crash vs Spyro Racing. The version in your video was a slightly later version that was created to produce a promotional video and to show off some of ideas for the game (such as deformable tracks). The seaside track was created in under a month from scratch including all Crash and Spyro assets as we could not obtain any of these from the Publisher (this was also true of the later materials). A PS2 and Xbox version was built - unfortunately I only have the Xbox disk. The demo showed off the basic game dynamics with two versions of kart physics. I hope that helps - it was a great little game and we always regretted that it didn't progress. Unfortunately the collapse of Argonaut took LT Studios with it so we closed up shop and went our separate ways. All the best, Andrew

This would’ve been insane to see as a kid and a fan of both crash and spyro. Sad to see it never left prototype build, but to see it today is quite a surprise and amazing to see

Outstanding work man!

THIS IS SO COOL. As a kid I would have FLIPPED over a Crash vs Spyro kart racer. Ahhh I wish this game came out!!

Thanks to all the information uncovered here, as a Spyro fan from the late 2000's this would of been a legendary game. I wonder if anyone can make this a reality! Someone get to me with information on that!

I think that Universal Interactive Studios (before they were renamed to Vivendi Universal Games)wanted a racing game that had Crash and Spyro in a racing game so they went to LT Studios to work on this game but when Argonaut Software bought them they were in bad shape and both LT Studios and Argonaut Software closed their doors. But now Spyro is in CTR Nitro Fueled

A crossover like this is less unheard of when you remeber they started putting demos of Crash on Spyro disks and demos of Spyro on Crahses disks

Appreciate the effort. I know this is ALOT of time spent. Your love for the OG Xbox will never die! Thanks for making the video and for sharing with all of us as well. I quite enjoyed it.

Feels like over the last decade or so, there has been an accelerated amount of beta or unreleased content found. What a time to be a nerd over this stuff!

As a huge fan of both Crash and Spyro, I gotta say that this is an awesome find!

The opening movie is gloriously janky. It reminds me of those pakistani McDonald's commercials from that time period.

Always love your discoveries mate

Thank you MVG for continuing to speak up for and support game preservation! This is so sick!

I love these kinda finds

Agreed, incredible find. It's crazy how a lot of these unreleased games will just disappear

Interesting that they were going to make a crossover racing game between Spyro and Crash. It’s indeed a very good discovery here.

The FMV song is "Drugs and Girls" - by Grand Theft Audio

Graphic design is my passion

Then what could have been if it's actually released... seems to be a fairly detailed Alpha. A real shame that the team behind this game never got to see it get fully realized and release. But it's better to have this it's confirmation that it existed, even in its most basic form nice job MVG.

Its looks so early in development that probably was just and idea that managed to reach basic generic modeling and physics. This is so crazy but so cool at the same time. Its a wonderful discovery!

0:28 "Which is mostly known for the NASCAR racing titles" I'd say they're more infamously known for Ride to Hell: Retribution

This is absolutely amazing… massive kudos to you for not only digging deeper and getting this insight as to why it wasn’t seen, but to preserve it and share it is such an awesome thing to see. Great find, great video.

Hey MVG, I recently found around 30 discs in my house, all from the early 2000s era. They contained everything from flash games, game demos to forgotten software and Intel socket 370 drivers. I dumped all of them (except for 3 due to CD Rot issues) using Alcohol 120. So how do I preserve them? Should I upload them to internet archive? Also amongst there was a copy of "Oxford Advanced learner's compass", but unfortunately it had DRM, i.e. the software would only launch with the original disc, not with the disc image, so is there any way I can remove the DRM, as the disc can't be preserved unless the DRM is removed. Although I made a copy, the copy is useless with the DRM intact.

MVG absolutely killing it at the moment with this content. Wow!

I wish we could get a devkit of Project ego before it became Fable or an advance prototype of BC. It would be pretty cool.

Thanks for the shoutout to our forum! I kind of love this build, I wish the crossover racing game with Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon was a thing, especially after the success of CTR Nitro-Fueled in relatively recent years

Given how game development works. It was probably more like they was working towards a build and got ordered to start over in different direction.

This is incredible! Thanks for sharing.

This is insane but a few days ago I was thinking that it would have been cool if Crash and Spyro had a kart game or a party game made back in the day.....and then we get this reveal. I better play the lottery

2:33 I would like to point out that the engine sound either really resembles the Crash Team Racing PS1 engine sound or it's the exact same sound effect but in a higher pitch (due to the velocity of the kart).

Thank you for preserving these and putting them up on the archive, MVG 😊. What a great find!

A piece of history uncovered and preserved. Love to see it!

Wow! I scored an argonaut debug kit some years ago with a debug build of powerdrome. Now I wonder if there was more on it

Not what I expected to see when I opened KZfaq. Absolutely awesome finding here!

Imagine how many Crash prototypes have been made in those crazy years 😮

As someone who's been with the Crash and Spyro fan community for many years now, this is honestly a dope find for a project I knew very little about, but thanks to your video we've learnt what the original crossover between Crash and Spyro would have been, way before Crash Purple and Spyro Orange were a thing.

Found your channel because of the dump video you did on this. This is an awesome snapshot of the wild 2000s games industry 😅 Thank you for your efforts to preserve it ❤

When I read the title, I didn't expect it to be a video from MVG! Thanks for this news!

Did u notice this was built on the BIG RIGS engine? Compare the little details like the GO! sign, the HUD, etc. What a bizarre find lol.

Never stop the incredible work, I really appreciate having these videos around to preserve this stuff

Love the fact you left this image up. Preserving legends like a legend!

Awesome find!! I wish games would released prototypes or early demos years later just like how bands release demos or b sides on anniversary’s

Great video as always!

Another fascinating look into game development. Great video.

4:10 that neck turn with the nose bounce is everything

the black impact font italicized with the white border reading "press start" goes hard

the fact that "Racing" is in Comic Sans, definitely early 2000s vibe lol

Too many lost possible games.... so sad...Thanks for sharing...

Better add this to the ever growing list of canned games & unsuccessful pitches related to the Crash Bandicoot & Spyro the Dragon franchises. Maybe someday someone will find more info about the various failed attempts to reboot Crash & Spyro in the 2010s, as well as that Crash Bandicoot MMO (yes, really).

Great video fella. Amazing the details u managed to un earth

What a cool find, this will maybe be the find of the year in the OG XBOX's preservation history. Despite the fact of how cool this is I feel sad about all those hidden gems being hoarded by greedy collectors who only care about money rather than preservation, I hope more kind hearted people like that absolute legend who sent you that dev kit's HDD approaches to you with more hidden goodies in the future.

That's some Clouseau levels of detective work on this. Looking at a video file for evidence, contacting people then deciding to look at the second file.

Bro, if this would have been released, I would have played this till my disc wouldn't work anymore.

This is a really cool and interesting find

Wow, that would be incredible to finish and release 😮

There's no way stuff like this is still getting discovered. Incredible ahaha!

What a time to be alive.

Wonder if a Donkey Kong Racing prototype will ever surface

This is awesome. Your neverending passion led you to this moment. Thank you !

The track in the demo looks like its based upon the first level of spyro enter the dragonfly

The X Files game that came out for PS2 it was going to be released for Xbox, I wonder if there is a prototype somewhere, that's a good game

that intro omg, i'm in tears. spyro's expressions look like kermit the frog. The title has "racing" in comic sans looking font. fun to see

Now we just need to figure out how this morphed into Spyro Orange and Crash Purple

That opening cinematic lol It looks so 90s 3D

MVG is going to be the ultimate "Video Games Historian", way to go!!!

Xbox Dev Kits always have the best stuff. Sonic Extreme, South Park, and now this!

Therapist: Crack Bandicoot isn't real, he can't hurt you. Crack Bandicoot: 4:00

Wow, loved this video. Ty for everything you do for the community, brother!

Also never heard anything about this game. Honestly, sounds like it could have been dope just based on the name alone.

What an amazing find! MVG you are the MVP!

Amazing discovery, thank you for the legwork and trying to pin point origins. Up to the community if they want to know more, you laid great groundwork. Thanks for the in depth look!

Not only did they take I-Ninja 2 away from me but now a Crash vs Spyro game.

Great work and much appreciated!

Amazing discovery! Excellent digital archeology, mate.

This is one of those, “things we never knew we needed”situations. So buckwild.

Completely unrelated but want to say a big thanks for getting the Mega Drive Jurassic Park games into the collection ❤ Absolute legend!

That race track looks like that one level from Enter The Dragonfly

Thanks mvg you are doing great work just like hard4games etc youtubers showing unreleased games demos

can we just take a moment and appreciate the "racing" part of Crash vs Spyro racing is written in Comic Sans?

loved the comic sans in the FMV intro movie

yo this is AWESOME. great content man

I find it mildly ironic Crash vs Spyro was being developed on an Xbox SDK. I say "mildly" since by this point in time, both Crash and Spyro had long since stopped being PlayStation exclusives; even Universal gave them up around this time, if I recall correctly. Of course, it'll be more ironic if a future Crash or Spyro game releases exclusively on Xbox with no PlayStation or Nintendo release ever.

i absolutely love the intro movie, it looks like a tim and eric skit

A true hero of our hobby, the modern vintage gamer

You're a g for this video. And for uploading the contents. Seriously, thank you for preserving this technological footprint. I'm kinda shocked there's not a museum of sorts for this kinda stuff.

Anyone else trying to identify the other racers in the intro video? Besides Crash and Spyro, I can only make out Cortex and Ripto.

I like the sequence of evidence here. As you can see, the boxes in this game make the same sound as the crates in Crash Bandicoot. Also beyond that evidence there's a whole cinematic that says THIS IS A CRASH AND SPYRO GAME. That fact comes AFTER the crate sound

Worth the wait for the follow up. Great story.

I think this is still a dope idea for a game Maybe moreso now than back when this prototype was made

There was a crossover between Crash and Spyro. I played those Game Boy Advance games called Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage and Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy. Yes those two games are crossover plot of each others situation to deal with. They even promoted a crash and spyro super pack for the game boy advance. Do I'm not suprise this was going to be the next step.

It’s very cool how you dump the files for anyone to look at