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Proto:The Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout

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This page details one or more prototype versions of The Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout.

The prototype of The Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout is a pretty early build. Layouts for the first four worlds have been worked on, though it isn't possible to complete any of the stages at this point.

The ROM image that had been circulating the internet for many years unfortunately had a number of corrupted bytes, which largely affected tilemaps and level layouts. A clean ROM was finally made available in June 2022.

Download.png Download The Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout (prototype)
File: The_Bugs_Bunny_Birthday_Blowout_(Prototype).zip (96 KB) (info)
Hmmm...
To do:
Make a NSF file for the prototype of The Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout to listen to all of the tracks.

Sub-Pages

Miscellaneous tidbits that are interesting enough to point out here.
Notes
BugsBDayFlower.png
Stage 1
The most complete stage, but that's not saying much.
BugsBDayPalm.png
Stage 2
The obligatory desert stage.
BugsBDayLava.png
Stage 3
The volcanic stage. Watch out for lava!
Stage 4
The barely started cave areas.

General Differences

  • There are no copyright, title, or story screens. The game throws the player to stage 1-1 immediately.
  • All objects, including Bugs, move at about half the speed they do in the final. This also means that the floating platforms have their ranges halved, making some sections impossible to cross.
  • There are no giant carrot objects present, meaning levels cannot be completed.
    • The code for the object is present and partially functional: touching it will cause Bugs to float off the screen in a balloon as in the final version, but the level still does not end, and the music loops indefinitely.
  • There is no lives system in the prototype, so it's not possible to get a game over. Code-wise, the basic framework for the system is in place, but it is hard-coded to jump to the same code path regardless of the life counter's value.
  • Enemies and other objects do not display properly, as the game loads an empty bank into the second half of the sprite pattern table.
  • Carrot icons do not make a sound when collected.
  • Powerup icons do not make a sound or disappear when collected, though they do still set their corresponding flags at $430 in RAM:
    • Speed up (01): This functions as a high jump in the final game.
    • Hammer (02): This would kill more powerful enemies and bosses in one hit, if there were any to actually use it against.
    • Unknown (04): This was replaced with the heart in the final game (see below). There is no code in either the prototype or final game that reads its associated flag, so its intended functionality is unknown.
  • Powerup flags are not reset after taking damage or losing a life.
  • Crumbling rock platforms are marked with different palettes to identify their type (delayed or immediate).
  • Bugs does not dive in and out of tunnels in the prototype. The tunnels behave much more like the pipes in Super Mario Bros.
  • There are four debugging functions available: hold Start when starting the game to get a stage select menu, B to start on stage 2-2, or A to go to a preliminary version of the Mole Game. You can also moon-jump by pressing Select if you are in a stage.
  • The Mole Game is more of a graphical demo than an actual game at this point. The moles cannot be hit, Bugs' sprites are glitched (due to a mismatch between his tilemap and the actual CHR layout), and both the music and the game loop indefinitely. It is possible to "end" the game before it starts, though it isn't programmed to simply restart from the beginning when this happens.
    • Lives and carrots are set to placeholder values of 11 and 56, respectively.
  • Stages 5 and 6 do not yet exist. Their respective slots load the correct music and graphics, but no tilemaps, level data, or palettes exist in the ROM.

Graphical Differences

General

For graphics that appear in multiple levels.

Prototype Final
Spin me around. Where'd it go?

The disappearing platform in the final was a more complicated spinning platform at this point. The design was simplified to make room for Bugs' diving animation, but while the platform "disappears" it still spins.

So if you were ever wondering why those platforms had weird collision...now you know.

Prototype Final
Needs improvement. Better.

The graphics of Bugs and the balloon's basket were improved for the final.

Prototype Final
What? The universal symbol for health.

The heart was originally a bunny head next to some odd-looking waves in the prototype. This item sets a flag in RAM in both the prototype and final versions, but no code seems to actually read it; it's possible the item originally served a different purpose, and the heart functionality was tacked on later in development.

Prototype Final
Who's got the bomb?More bombs than Don Bluth in the 90s. Alarm clocks have been known to explode.It's Explode o'clock.

This bomb enemy was changed to an alarm clock. Same function, though, and the clock makes more sense thematically.

Prototype Final
Elmer Fudd is after dolphins now. Nets work better in cartoons than reality.

Elmer's nets were given more detail in the final.

Title Screen

Prototype Final
Happy Early Birthday Bugs! Now it looks empty.

Although the prototype normally bypasses the title screen, it is in fact present in the ROM, and can be seen by changing ROM address 0x1E752 to $40 and holding A as you power on/reset the game. The code to actually start the game is incomplete, and pressing a button here merely causes the screen to fade out and back in.

In the prototype version, the chains are larger, the letters of the title have some shading that was removed in the final, and there are little squares around the border. The stage 4 music is used here, possibly as a placeholder, though the proper track does exist in the ROM.

Mole Game

Prototype Final
Isn't it cute? Remember him? Of course you don't.

The mole game has actual moles in the prototype. The graphics were altered into Willy the Weasel.

Prototype Final
Puffy clouds. Woo.

This change altered the title graphics as well, replacing the unique graphics of the prototype with a rather plain-looking text box in the final.

Level 4

Prototype Final
Through thin. And thick.

The pipes in this stage are thinner in the prototype.

Level 5

Prototype Final
Free-roaming. Caged.

The level 5 tileset is seemingly older than the rest, as it does not yet contain any powerup icons, only a single carrot graphic in a completely different style from the final icons. This was likely changed because, being a background object, it could not be placed on anything but an empty sky background without creating a big, ugly hole.

Prototype Final
Awfully plain. I guess you could say it was trunkated. If you were a jerk.

The inclusion of powerup icons meant that some graphics had to be removed, so the second tile for the tree trunks in the prototype was overwritten in the final. The trunk was also given some additional shading.

Prototype Final
Neat. Pink?!

Another victim of tile overwriting: the unique spike graphics were changed to the simpler 8×16 spike tiles used in other levels.

Level 6

Prototype Final
It sure is a vase. Exciting stuff.

The lip of the vase was changed slightly in the final.

Prototype Final
Your beach ball deflated. "But that's not a football!", you say.

The (American) football was redrawn to look more like a...well, football.

Ending

Again, there's no ending in the prototype, but the graphics are there.

Prototype Final
A chilling glimpse into a future without teachers' dirty looks. He's reading the ending dialogue.

Bugs' eyes were redrawn to remove the cross-eyed look of the prototype.

Prototype Final
I surrender! Trying to kill Bugs does not count as a "funny trick", guys.

And again.

Prototype Final
That bright shade of blue didn't help either. No rabbit ears, guys.

Road Runner and Pussyfoot were removed from the photo in the final, probably because they don't actually show up anywhere in the game. Taz's oddly proportioned stomach was fixed in the final.

Unused Graphics

Graphics that are mostly absent from the final.

Mole Game
It's okay.
Various tiles from the Mole Game. Most of these are still present in the final version; only the normal mole head and the first three letters of "SORRY" were removed.

Speedy Gonzales
Pulled over by the P.C. police.
Yep, it's him. His sprite only appears in the prototype, though there doesn't seem to be an object associated with these graphics.

Spiked Ball
You know, like in the movies.
Just a simple spiked ball.

???
Uhh??
These odd tiles take up a character bank in the prototype. It's unknown what they would have been used for, or if they were even intended for this game, though it's possible that the letters were originally intended to be powerup icons before the final icons were implemented as background objects. These were replaced with the Game Over and copyright tiles in the final.

Audio Differences

Music

While the majority of the music is present (if unused), the game over and powerup tracks do not yet exist. In the final game, these tracks appear near the very end of the valid track ID list, after the majority of the game's sound effects, possibly indicating that they were a fairly late addition.

There's an extra piece of music in the prototype which is used while Bugs walks into frame. Normally, this cuts off after about one second, but the rest can be heard by changing ROM address 0x1950B to $60. The final game still has a slot reserved for this tune, but it has been replaced with silence.

Prototype
Final

The death jingle is 20% faster in the final.

Prototype
Final

The World 3 song has a 2.5-second intro which was removed from the final track.

Prototype
Final

The bonus stage song is about five seconds longer than the final, and has a different ending. The final version added a second variant of the track that does not loop, which was used in the Willy the Weasel bonus game.

Sound

Several sound effects have yet to be added, including the pause jingle and the alarm bell that signals the end of the Mole/Willy the Weasel bonus game.

Prototype
Final

Bugs' hammer sound in the final has a second pulse channel component, which is not the case in the prototype.

(Source: Original TCRF research)