When the first Tony Hawk's Pro Skater game was released on the PlayStation 25 years ago today, no one could have known the impact it would have on skate culture and music culture.
What started as low expectations for an extreme skateboarding game went on to become one of the best-selling video game franchises at the time, with estimated sales of more than 30 million.
In an era where there was no YouTube and no Spotify, the soundtracks in the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater games introduced a generation of young and impressionable kids to ska, punk-rock, rap, hip-hop, heavy metal and hardcore, while catapulting the careers of bands that featured in those soundtracks such as Goldfinger and Suicide Machine to new heights.
To celebrate the series' epic milestone, I spoke to Scott Pease, who spent 15 years at Neversoft as Studio Development Director, overseeing the development of nine THPS games.
We talk about Pease's epic career journey, the foundations of the THPS series, the relationship between music and skate culture, and how the series' soundtracks shaped the music tastes of an entire generation.
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