Proto:The Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout

The prototype of The Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout, then known as The Bugs Bunny Birthday Bash, 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.

Unfortunately, the only available release of this prototype is a bad dump, though efforts have been made to repair the ROM.

Sub-Pages
NOTE: Stage 4 is badly corrupted, so it can't be compared to the final's Stage 4 easily.

Gameplay Differences

 * There is no title screen, although the graphics are present. The game throws the player to Level 1-1 immediately.
 * All objects, including Bugs, are about half the speed they are in the final. This also means that the floating platforms have their ranges halved, making some sections impossible to cross.
 * There is no lives system in the prototype, so it's not possible to get a Game Over.
 * The only icons that work at this point are the carrots. Bugs cannot interact with any other icon.
 * 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 two debug functions available: hold Start when starting the game to get a stage select menu, or hold A to go to a preliminary version of the Mole Game.
 * Speaking of the Mole Game, the moles cannot be hit, and as such the game will continue indefinitely.
 * You can moonjump by pressing Select.

General
For graphics that appear in multiple levels.

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.

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

The...whatever that is...in the prototype was changed to a heart in the final. Since Bugs can't interact with this in the prototype, it's not known if it would have served the same function.

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

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

Title Screen
While there is no title screen in the prototype, the graphics are present.

Applying these graphics to the final gives the image on the left. The chains are larger in the prototype, the letters of the title have some shading that was removed in the final, and there are little squares around the border.

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

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
The pipes in this stage are thinner in the prototype.

Level 5
The titleset for Level 5 has no powerup icons at this point. The inclusion of those 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.

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

Level 6
The lip of the vase was changed slightly in the final.

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.

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

And again.

Roadrunner 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

Various tiles from the Mole Game. Some of these are still present in the final, while others were overwritten. The "SORRY" message doesn't appear in the final.

Speedy Gonzales

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

Just a simple spiked ball.

???

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. These were replaced with the Game Over and copyright tiles in the final.

Music
There's an extra piece of music in the prototype which is used while Bugs walks into frame.

The death jingle is 20% faster in the final.

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

The bonus stage song is about five seconds longer than the final, and has a different ending.

Sound
Bugs' hammer sound in the final has a Square2 component, which is not the case in the prototype.