Proto:The Blues Brothers (SNES)

This page details one or more prototype versions of The Blues Brothers (SNES).

General Differences

Proto	Final

The copyright screen has different text formatting and uses a different font.

Proto	Final

The title screen remains in high res mode (a feature retained from the copyright screen). This gives the music notes in the background a sort of blurry effect, though it's not clear if this was intentional.

Two-Player mode has an extra option: "Beginner" and "Master". Neither seem to have any outright visible effect on gameplay.

Gameplay Differences

Proto	Final

• The character select in the final displays text telling the player to press Select to switch characters. This doesn't exist in the prototype, so the image of the brothers and the jukebox is lower.
• Another "rock" was added to the Dan Aykroyd "rock and roll" clip when choosing characters. Weird.
• There is actual flavor text between levels where the venues change:

Proto	Final

Stage	Proto Name
1	Detroit Concert
2	Montreal Concert
3	Buffalo Concert
4	Fresno Concert
5	Oakland Concert
6	Wichita Concert
7	Boston Concert
8	Miami Concert
9	Seattle Concert
10	Toledo Concert
11	Akron Concert
12	Tulsa Concert
13	Dallas Concert
14	Austin Concert
15	Houstin Concert
16	Duluth Concert
17	Calgary Concert
18	Omaha Concert
19	Jackson Concert
20	St Paul Concert
21	Lincoln Concert
22	Ottawa Concert
23	Denver Concert
24	Orlando Concert
25	El Paso Concert
26	Phoenix Concert
27	Tampa Concert
28	Quebec Concert
29	London Concert
30	Paris Concert
31	Albany Concert
32	Atlanta Concert
33	Memphis Concert
34	Chicago Concert

This was probably changed because a two-player game starts on Stage 2 (Montreal Concert) but labels it as Stage 1 (Detroit Concert) and labels the further levels as the previous one (in other words, Stage 5 is labeled as Stage 4, etc).

Proto	Final

• When playing single-player, the other player's HUD remains onscreen in the proto.
• Some starting record counts are different between the proto and final.
• Spikes instantly kill you. This can make some situations incredibly frustrating, especially in the first single-player level. The final changed this to instead deal four hearts worth of damage.
• Enemies respawn the instant they're off screen in the proto. This was thankfully eased up in the final.
• The scrolling is slightly different and more centered on the player in the final.

Proto	Final

• Stage 2 (Toronto Concert) has a different sky gradient.
• Holding down and pressing B while holding Y makes your character stand in the proto, and actually jump in the final.
• In a two-player game, Jake is Player 1 and Elwood is Player 2. The final reversed this to match the HUD alignment.
• The jukebox in Stage 30 (Paris Concert) is clearly visible in the proto. In the final you must shoot the boxes to reveal it, though you still have to shoot the boxes to access the jukebox.
• Stage 31 (Albany Concert) starts you off with no records in the proto, which means you must travel to the end of the first corridor to collect some in order to break the blocks and lower the jukebox.
• Stage 33 (Memphis Concert) is much easier to beat in the proto due to the aforementioned different scrolling. At one point you must break blocks to continue to release the jukebox (similar to Stage 31). In the proto this is no problem, but in the final you must hold L while doing so.

Proto	Final

• The copyright was updated in the end credits.

Developer Credit

Present at SNES address $808006, almost at the very beginning of the ROM. This is not present in the final.

BLUES BROTHERS SUPER NINTENDO 1.0 Designed by Flynn, Eric, Rob, Florent, Fred, Francis & Bob.

Debug Text

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page.

Programming for a debug menu begins at SNES address $82006, and a level editor at SNES address $828BF4. Unfortunately, the long jumps to $828000 and $828003 that lead to these addresses along with initialization code for the menus appear to be missing. It's currently unknown if it's possible to get these menus working with what's available. Debugging code seems to occupy most of bank $82.

Cheat Code

Hold Down + Left + B + X + L + R on Controller 1 and Up + Right + L + A on Controller 2 to activate the cheat (similar to the button combination used in the the NES game). It can be entered at any time as it's part of the controller read routine. On menu screens (Titus logo, title screen, character select screen, etc.) it will set the background palette to index $08, the same palette set used on the license text screen. This code also includes a level skip cheat which was disabled in the final game: Press Start on Controller 2 during gameplay to advance.

Level skip programming:

Proto                                                                                               Final
$80/9C85 AF 00 01 7F LDA $7F0100[$7F:0100]   //Cheat mode status                                    $80/9C2E AF 00 01 7F LDA $7F0100[$7F:0100]
$80/9C89 C9 66 EC    CMP #$EC66              //Cheat enabled flag                                   $80/9C32 C9 66 EC    CMP #$EC66
$80/9C8C D0 09       BNE $09    [$9C97]      //Skip to $9C97 if cheat mode off                      $80/9C35 D0 07       BNE $07    [$9C3E]
$80/9C8E A5 18       LDA $18    [$00:0018]   //Controller 2                                         $80/9C37 A5 18       LDA $18    [$00:0018]
$80/9C90 89 00 10    BIT #$1000              //Start button                                         $80/9C39 89 00 10    BIT #$1000
$80/9C93 F0 02       BEQ $02    [$9C97]      //Skip to $9C97 if Start not pressed                   $80/9C3C F0 00       BEQ $00    [$9C3E]      //Branch distance zero, level skip gone!
$80/9C95 80 10       BRA $10    [$9CA7]      //Skip to level cleared programming