the cutting room mirror

Early Development

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This is a sub-page of Prerelease:The Simpsons: Hit & Run.

Much of the location concepts in the PR Disc date to mid-April 2003, except for a few select pieces.

2001#

Earliest Concept Art#

This concept art of the 70s Sports Car (called young homer's car.jpg) appears to be the earliest, dating all the way back to November 14, 2001 for some reason.

SHAR_young_homer's_car.jpg

2002#

Spring-Summer#

Vehicle Concepts#

Concepts of the vehicles, appearing cartoonier than in the final. The concept art of The WWII Vehicle dates back to April 8, 2002 on the PR Disc, and the other vehicles are likely from around that time period.

Pink Sedan

WWII Vehicle

Clown Car

Pickup Truck

Canyonero

70s Sports Car

Location Concepts#

These concept arts appear to be from the location planning stages. Some of them are traced over from existing The Simpsons episodes, likely to get a feel of the world's aesthetics and color tones.

Neighborhood

Concept art of the suburban neighborhood.

suburbs_day_colour_concept.jpg

suburbs_night_colour_concept.jpg

The first image is likely production art, where the second shows a mockup of how the house would look in Level 7. Interestingly, it closely resembles this graphic found in the Scrapbook.

simp_house.tga

Halloween_simp_house.jpg

Concept art for the Burns Mansion and Trailer Park.

Burns Mansion.TIF

Trailer Park.tif

Concept art for various locations.

Cemetery.tif

Stonecutters_Tunnel.tga

Concept art for the Springfield Elementary School in Level 7.

Concept art for Cletus and Nelson's house. In the final, those houses are separate.

Downtown

The second was likely made later in development, due to Level 5 having a different time of day in earlier builds.

DT_concept.jpg

consturction_site.tga

DT_wrongside_concept.tif

seaside_colourconcept2.tga
Squidport

An early concept of the mountainous part of the Squidport area, with an earlier sunset effect, and appearing to resemble the Springfield Mountains from Road Rage.

First draft concept art of the Squidport.

Visual color palettes for Level 3.

seaside_colourconcept1.tga

seaside_colourconcept2.tga

Source Code Screenshots#

To do:
there are more images of this build in the source code that are not listed here.

Images found in documents and folders in the leaked Simpsons Hit & Run source code. These appear to be dated circa 2002/Early 2003.

Level 1#

Prerelease

Final
  • The asphalt and grass textures are different, more blue tinted. Curiously, it resembles its appearance in Level 2.
  • The parking lot was larger and was slightly rearranged.
  • Pedestrians and street cars seem to be absent.
  • The Kwik-E-Mart sign texture is different.
  • An early design for the radar seen in other prerelease screenshots is present.
  • The buildings seen in the background are completely different.
  • Homer has a different model, and his lighting is different, more glossy and dark.
  • The road layout is different.
  • The minimap layout is near-identical to the final with some interesting observations:
    • The minimap covered shortcuts.
    • The area around the Springfield Church appears to be different.
    • The bridge ramp leading to the Rich Side is present, paling in comparison to a leaked development image being a generic bridge.

Prerelease

Final
  • The Duff logo on the truck is more reminiscent of the one seen in the show.
  • The red flash on the Duff trucks elevator button is absent.
  • The Duff trucks texture is different.
  • The vent on top of the Duff truck is untextured and missing smoke.
  • The power line is not present in the final game.
  • The Kwik-E-Mart sign on the building is not present in the background.

2003#

March#

Found in the PR Disc is a slightly later story draft called Mission Outline REVISED short ver.doc, dating to March 28, 2003. Though leaked script from October 30, 2002 in the source code leak is pretty much finalized, this draft seems to be from a much earlier, but still later point in development;

Storyline Changes#

  • Originally, the newspapers displayed on a loading screen contained a second variation instead of one. Some actually went through slight changes.
    • Level 1's second headline was "First Day of Spring - Ants, Nitpickers reach last minute accord" along with a screenshot from "Trilogy of Error". This implies that the story was going to take place in the spring rather than in fall, specifically on the week of October 24-31.
    • Level 2's original first headline was either "Nameless Assailant Harasses Burns - Says Burns" or "Local Man Chased By Dogs - Mistakes Harmless Pizza Van for Sinister Surveillance Van".
    • Level 3's original headlines were "Slow News Day Grips Springfield" and "Local Truant Gone Truant - Honor Student Searches for Dumber Brother".
    • Level 4's headlines were "Mysterious Shape Found In Farmer's Field - Scientists Perplexed; Some Say Signs Of Rapture - Flights Booked", which was later shortened down, and "Missing Boy Found Safe - Has No Memory of Abduction".
    • Level 5's original headlines were "Springfield Goes Crazy for Crazy New Cola" and "Boring Housewife Unpopular - Marge Simpson Attacks Another Fun Fad".
    • Level 6's original headline was "Local Crackpots Warn of "Alien Cola Plot"" with a picture of Apu and Bart shocked.
    • Level 7's original headline was "Local Housewife Says "I Told You So"" with a picture of Marge.

Mission Changes#

  • Bonus missions did not exist originally and were part of the storyline.
  • "Petty Theft Homer" had an unused lose-the-tail segment.
  • "The Fat And Furious" originally involved driving to the Power Plant's parking lot to find Smithers, who was parked next to a Surveillance Van.
  • Originally, Bart needed a toilet plunger instead of a satellite dish and hemorrhoid cream for the Truckasaurus. "Dial B for Blood" was originally part of the storyline in order to get the cream.
  • There was originally a mission where Bart escaped in a Ferrini from the Truckasaurus in a boss fight.
  • "Bonfire of the Manatees" originally ended with Apu talking to Lisa and Lisa making her own way to the Observatory.
  • "...For A Few Donuts More" involved destroying the Donut Truck. The mission stage dialogue still exists for this in the script.
  • "The Return Of The Nearly Dead" involved racing Grampa to Jasper instead of racing Chief Wiggum to the Retirement Castle.
  • "Wolves Stole My Pills" was given by Jasper originally and involved him explaining the crop circle.
  • "Incriminating Caffeine" took place near the Monorail Station and involved avoiding black sedans while chasing the Cola Truck.
  • "Duff For Me, Duff For You" involved avoiding black sedans while getting to the Duff Brewery.
  • Much like Level 2, the t-rex fossil was originally a boss fight in addition to a cutscene.
  • Originally, in "Alien Autopsy Part I", Mr. Burns sold the remaining nuclear waste to the Black Ferrini driver.
  • The final cutscene of Level 7 was much different - When the UFO crashed, a tentacle came out of the hatch, before shriveling up (In the script leak, Kang and Kodos were off-screen but said their mostly-final dialogues.), with Homer mocking Lisa's belief of nuclear waste. It cut to Kent Brockman interviewing Homer, who tells him he has "big plans" for the future. Two weeks later, Homer's house is surrounded by Rigelians, some of whom are stealing from the house, while he naps.

Miscellaneous Changes#

  • There was originally an option to watch the credits in the Options menu.
  • The HUD icons for characters were originally in the same CGI seen in manuals.