1. Simpsons Road Rage Vs Hit And Run
2. Simpsons Road Rage Gamecube
3. Simpsons Road Rage Cheats

Dec 05, 2003  Sega sues over Simpsons Road Rage It's a Crazy Taxi rip-off. Radical went on to work for VU Games as developer of The Simpsons Hit & Run.

This page details one or more prototype versions of The Simpsons: Hit & Run.

A late PS2 prototype of the Simpsons Hit and Run was leaked on Jan 23, 2019. Almost all of the game's content is finalized, with most of the differences being relatively minor. This version contains an odd bug if emulated where the characters appear upside down when driving vehicles.

• 2Level 1
• 3Level 2
• 4Level 3
• 5Level 6
• 6Level 7
• 8Audio differences
• 9Oddities

Map file

In the root of the game disc is SRR2.MAP, a file that maps out all of the game's backend functions. According to this file, this specific prototype of the game was a nightly build.

Level 1

Level 1 cutscene

• The level 1 cutscene still uses the earlier models. The animation is also more slapstick and comical than the final's.

S-M-R-T

• Lisa's science project is placed in front of the Family Sedan, meaning you can simply drive into it to pick it up.

Petty Theft Homer

• Barney's cooler pickup is placed further away from him in the prototype.

Simpsons Road Rage Vs Hit And Run

Flowers by Irene

• The cutscene's audio mastering is unfinished and very inconsistent. This is especially noticeable with Homer's line 'Marge, that black van is spying on us' being 9 dB louder than the rest and clearly clipping.

The Fat And The Furious

• Due to a programming mistake, Homer's initial line when talking to Mr Burns is overridden by him saying 'There he is!' (a line that goes unused in the final game) This line is likely supposed to play in the stage beforehand, when you first see Mr Burns, however one of the programmers made a mistake and put it in the wrong stage. In the final game this was never fixed, but due to some other changes to game's code, it is instead overridden by the correct line.

Stonecutters' Tunnel

• A music track (stone_cutter_spoof) unused in the final game plays around the area of the Stonecutters' Hall. It is unknown why this was changed.

Power Plant

• Unlike the final game, the power plant has a reverb effect when you are inside. Interestingly, the reverb also affects the menu sounds in the phonebooth, and this could be part of the reason it was removed.

Level 2

Better than Beef

• The location of the satellite is moved further away from the player.

Level 3

General

• The texture used on the platform near the red ramp that leads to the C-Spanker shortcut is different.

Level 6

Going To The Lu'

The circle HUD icon was changed from a kid to a bus in the final game. Interestingly, the image was the only part of the file that was replaced, and as such the bus is still named 'kids.p3d', is still located in the Objects folder (instead of the Vehicles folder) and uses a blue-purple background colour, unlike the yellow colour of any other vehicle icons.

Set To Kill

A timer was added in the final version of the mission. This was likely done to increase the difficulty of a late-game mission, as without it the mission is very easy. Maybe they overdid it a bit...

Level 7

Rigor Motors

The final objective to enter the Simpsons' house is still present. This was commented out in the final.

Text differences

Some of the text is a tad different.

Any mention of the PS2 memory card was made less verbose.

Text was made more specific.

The text that appears upon collecting all the collector cards in the game is different.

Audio differences

banjo_main

The audio mastering on this track is slightly different.

Oddities

minigamecam

A misplaced version of minigamecam.p3d is loose inside the main art folder. This model seems to use an earlier format that provides export data. With it, the following details can be found:

• Models were made in Maya.
• The game's project folder was referenced as 'Simpsons 2', the first game is likely The Simpsons:Road Rage which was Radical's previous entry.

Vehicle scripts

Simpsons Road Rage Gamecube

TT.con is missing from the prototype, despite the model assets being present.

Misc

• Handling is still called 'stability' in the Phone Booth UI as seen in some earlier screenshots.

• The sun flare effect is incomplete and can still be seen through walls.
• You do not perform a victory dance animation upon finishing a bonus race.
• Wasp AI is more aggressive to dodging attacks than in the final game.
• If your memory card is unformatted, the prototype has the option to format it for you, while the final game just displays an error.
• There are a number of differences in the startup screen videos:
  • The Fox Interactive music is different.
  • The Gracie Films video appears to be taken directly from the TV series, while in the final game it has a higher quality.
  • The Radical Entertainment video uses the same sound effects as The Simpsons: Road Rage, with the added recording of Snake's voice which is present in the final game.
• The bonus cutscene, 500 Yard Gash, has some extended sequences and certain parts were reanimated.

• Level 7 actually contains some road nodes for the area past the blocked bridge, although they are extremely limited.
• The Phone Booth Menu accessible with the Unlock All Vehicles cheat code contains entries for a set of vehicles listed as 'N/A XX' (the X's being replaced with numbers), as well another vehicle listed as 'Charred Husk'. Selecting the former will have no effect, and selecting the latter will spawn the wreck vehicle that can be driven after certain vehicles are destroyed. Driving this vehicle over a Wrench pickup does not do anything.
• If a player exits their vehicle during a stage where a 10 second time limit to re-enter the vehicle is given, and then triggers the next objective on foot, said timer disappears and the player can be out of the vehicle from then on. In the final game, the timer continues regardless of the fact the player triggers the next objective or not.

As we can read on Wikipedia, The Simpsons Hit & Run is an action-adventure game based on the animated sitcom The Simpsons. It was released for the GameCube, Xbox, PlayStation 2 on September 2003. The game’s developer, Radical Entertainment, received the rights to create games for The Simpsons franchise when they demonstrated a playable prototype. Radical released its first The Simpsons game in 2001 called The Simpsons Road Rage, a parody of the Crazy Taxi series of video games. After Road Rage was released, the development team for Hit & Run decided not to create a direct sequel to Road Rage. Instead, Radical wanted to steer the franchise’s video game series in a different direction by giving the game engine a complete overhaul.

In the game’s booklet, there are some beta images that shows the character mission mugs were in 3D too rather than animated. One has a display mode in options. In Tips & Tricks No. 105 in 2003, some character’s clothes were identified in the wrong episode. For example, Lisa’s “cool” outfit info says that it’s from the episode Little Girl In the Big Ten, but it’s actually from Summer of 4 ft. 2. Lisa didn’t wear that outfit in Little Girl In the Big Ten. Marge’s inmate outfit from Marge in Chains is originally periwinkle and short-sleeved, but the red-orange color may come from another episode. Facts say that Maggie is a playable character in the game, but for unknown reasons, she was replaced with Apu Nahasapeemapetilon in the final game.

Thanks to Luis Morales for the contribution!

Images:

Videos:

What do you think about this unseen game? Give your vote!

Would you like to add more info, screens or videos to this page?Add a comment below!

Simpsons Road Rage Cheats

• Baldur’s Gate 3: The Black Hound [Cancelled – PC] - 19-01-2020
• Colliderz (Sega Saturn) Prototype Found & Preserved - 19-01-2020
• 3 Games That Spent Years in Development Limbo - 10-01-2020