Proto:The Simpsons Game (PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Wii)

This page details one or more prototype versions of The Simpsons Game (PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Wii).

This article is a work in progress. ...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes.

To do: Graphics; Early levels, Debugging, EVERYTHING!

July 6, 2007 (Wii)

Title screen

A build of The Simpsons Game for the Nintendo Wii was found and recovered from an EA RVT-H hard drive. It is dated July 6, 2007, which is around 3 months before final. Some aspects of this build are closer to the colloquially called New Generation (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360) version, and some are closer to the final Old Generation version, which means comparisons in this page will be drawn towards both releases. There are plenty of things to unpack here.

General Differences

Debug Screen

This build by default loads into a debug screen, letting you choose whether you want to "Enable proper menu flow" or not. Choosing No Way will proceed you into a 2nd debug screen, which allows selecting a level to load on the spot.

Episode Names

Some episodes use a different name that only survived into the final build through filenames and nothing else. Some episode names only differ in capitalisation or spelling changes.

Early name	Final name
Land of Chocolate	The Land of Chocolate
BartMan Begins	Bartman Begins
Around the world in 80 bytes	Around The World in 80 Bites
The TreeHugger	Lisa the Tree Hugger
Cheater Cheater	Enter the Cheatrix
Day of the Dolphins	The Day of the Dolphin
The day Springfield stood still	Invasion of the Yokel-Snatchers
Big Super Happy Fun Fun	Big Super Happy Fun Fun Game
Rhymes with Complaining	Five Characters in Search of an Author
Meet Thy Player	Game Over

Unused Map & Interiors

This build has a bunch of interiors and an early design of Springfield in the form of a cut and unused bowling minigame. The interiors can at least still be found in the New Generation release.

Test Map

There are two similar test maps named Metrics.wii and M_and_L.wii. They differ in some objects and characters that get spawned and the characters you get to control. Metrics is played with Homer and Bart, and M_and_L lets you play as Marge and Lisa.

Metrics.wii	M_and_L.wii

Church Interior

The church looks mostly the same, the main difference being a missing desk by the main door, different floor color and there being only one staircase in the main room. Chur_Int.wii

Early interior	Final interior

Krusty Burger Interior

Similar to final, but lacking the 2nd fryer behind the counter. It also has Jimbo Jones in the building, whereas in the final New gen version only the Squeaky-Voiced Teen. KRUS_INT.wii

Early interior	Final interior

Kwik-E-Mart Interior

The main difference in the Kwik-E-Mart is a missing shelf and some other objects. KWIK_INT.wii

Early interior	Final interior

Moe's Interior

Objects on the tables such as glasses have actual transparency in this build. In the final version they're opaque. Moes_Int.wii

Early interior	Final interior

Police Station Interior

There are no buttons to open the jail cells. Using the Player > FlyPlayerWithoutCollisions option through the debug menu shows that there is no collision inside those cells yet. POL_INT.wii

Early interior	Final interior

Heartburn/Springfield

Heartburn, also known as Homer Bowling, is a cut minigame where you play with the Homerball, go through a track and end by crashing into a pile of Springfield citizens. It also happens to use an early layout of open-world Springfield. There are many changes found here, but this will just show some of the main recognisable buildings.

Note: Since this map also has a bunch of stuff like barriers meant for the bowling minigame, the Wii screenshots are taken using the Player > FlyCamera debug option inside the game, to get a better view.

Hospital Location

Near the Simpsons house there's an extra road that leads to the Springfield General Hospital which doesn't exist in the final game. It is fully removed and replaced by the Springfield Retirement Castle.

Early location	Final location

Moe's Location

Early location	Final location

Kwik-E-Mart Location

Early location	Final location

Early Videos

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: Find out who are the placeholder voice actors, if possible.

This build only has one cutscene, which is an early draft of the Around The World in 80 Bites (80b_01.bik) cutscene.

Early cutscene	Final cutscene

Every other cutscene uses the Rebellion logo as a placeholder. It can also be found in the final build as rebel.bik.

Early/Unused Graphics

Episode Replay

The in-game level select uses early Xbox 360 screenshots as preview images, and some of them remained somewhat similar to what the retail New Generation release had. Five of these survived hidden in the final game, but the rest didn't. They're stored in Frontend.wii\graphics\ui\menus\levels\ as single 512x256 textures, but in the final game they are stored in Frontend.wii\graphics\frontend\ as 256x256 textures, with two of the preview textures combined together. They have been split apart for this.

Early texture	Final texture (New gen)	Final texture (Old gen)
loc.tga	episode_loc.png	lvl_locnbmb.bmp
bartmanbegins.tga	episode_bartman_begins.png	lvl_locnbmb.bmp
80bites.tga	episode_80_bites.png	lvl_mtp.bmp
treehugger.tga	episode_tree_hugger.png	lvl_thnmob.bmp
mobrules.tga	episode_mob_rules.png	lvl_thnmob.bmp
cheatercheater.tga	episode_cheater.png	lvl_ccndod.bmp
dod.tga	episode_dolphin.png	lvl_ccndod.bmp
colossaldonut.tga	episode_colossal_donut.png	lvl_shdndds.bmp
dsss.tga	episode_spr_stood_still.png	lvl_shdndds.bmp
bargainbin.tga	episode_bargain_bin.png	lvl_bargnnvq.bmp
neverquest.tga	episode_neverquest.png	lvl_bargnnvq.bmp
gts.tga	episode_grand_theft.png	lvl_gtsnmoh.bmp
moh.tga	episode_moh.png	lvl_gtsnmoh.bmp
bshff.tga	episode_bshff.png	lvl_bshnrwc.bmp
rhymes.tga	episode_rhymes.png	lvl_bshnrwc.bmp
meetthyplayer.tga	episode_thy_player.png	lvl_mtp.bmp