Oh is that where Crash 4 got the not dying idea.
I only bothered getting the colored gems for Crash 3 since it's the easiest one.
The remaster trilogy was the only time I'd ever beaten Crash 1, it was too ridiculous to do on the original BS ps1 version with no saving and limited lives. So that was fun.
Also beat Crash 4 recently, overall pretty good game, if super frustrating.
http://i.imgur.com/0UFI0T9.jpg