Pre-E3 2003

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

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On the PR Disc and several prerelease gaming sites, there are over a dozen of images that date to April before the game was fully unveiled at E3 2003 the following month. They appear to be completely different from the three dates listed on this article.

(Source: Donut Team Community)

April#

Earlier Pre-E3 2003 Build Screenshots#

Bundled with the PR disc was a number of screenshots dating as early as 2 April 2003; these predate even the public announcements of the game.

April 2#

These sets of images with that date appears to be the earliest build out of the batch, due to the even earlier development images having the same purple minimap.

Level 1

Prerelease	Final

The colors of Mr. Burns' Mansion's fence and gate were originally lighter.
The shadows of the trees were reduced in size.

Level 2

Prerelease	Final

Moe's appears to be mostly identical to the final game besides missing the clothing booth.
The Designated Driver pickled egg jar was rotated.

Level 3

Prerelease	Final

Prerelease	Final

The buildings' window lights were orange.
The billboard was changed to a "500 Yard Gash" one in the final game. The original one was cut completely.
An additional phone booth was added in the final game.
There is a streetlight near the entrance to the beach that is missing in the final game.

Prerelease	Final

The lights are brighter in the prerelease than in the final game.
The phonebooth icon is missing in the prerelease.
The island in the distance is missing in the prerelease.

Level 5

Prerelease	Final

The Springfield General Hospital sign is smaller and has a slightly different font.
The Springfield Park sign was originally textured. It's blank in the final game.

While most of the screenshots are HUD-less captures, a number of Level 7 images depict Homer in front of the Springfield Elementary School on a vastly different rendition of the seventh level.

Level 7

Prerelease	Final

A completely different radar/minimap can be seen. The texture for the blue circle is still present in early copies of the retail Windows release.
The building itself is textured with more varied colors instead of the mostly light-brown and yellow palette found in the final. The windows that are lit are completely different to that of the final game as well. The signage of the building appears to be an earlier one not seen anywhere in the final game. The jack-o-lantern placement is slightly different.
The giant spider is missing in the prerelease screenshot.
The grass is brighter in color compared to the final game, the evergreen tree uses an earlier texture, and the school walkway and roads have slightly different textures.
A "Springfield Downs" billboard from Level 2 can be seen in the distance. This was replaced in the final game with a KZMB billboard.
Ralph Wiggum can be seen sporting a 2D sprite over his head indicating he handles one of the racing sub-missions. In the retail version, zombies are the NPC who prompt you to race in line with the whole Halloween aesthetic of the level.
In the final product, the level is blocked off by a construction site following the Elementary School and a closed gate in the Power Plant on the other end of the map, essentially leaving Homer with half-a-level to explore. The illustration on the minimap suggests that level 7 was not intended to be this way, a fact which appears to be substantiated by some of the unused content. The floodlights are also missing in the prerelease screenshot.
The skybox was changed, originally having different clouds and a slightly darker sky. This design can still be found in-game, where it's used as the texture for the window of Mr. Burns' office.

Prerelease	Final

The skeleton car uses a flat unlit billboard texture for the driver's head.
The trunk of the 70s Sports Car contains vinyl records. The textures for these still exist in the final game.
The phonebooth is to the east in the prerelease rather than west like in the final game.
The sign at the front of the school is completely different in the prerelease.
The moon is placed differently in the skybox.

Prerelease	Final

April 8#

Level 2

Prerelease	Final

A screenshot of Bart standing near Snake's hideout.

The unused green radar can be seen in action.
The sky in Level 2 is cloudier and has rays of light shining from the sky. This skybox made it into the Level 2 bonus track.
The middle of the crossroads appears to have an entirely different texture.
The building in the distance's roof colors are dark yellow instead of black.
The neon sign appears to be slightly different, having text below the "N" and having lime green lines instead of orange.
The Lexicon Bookstore's east side has a raised extension/wall removed entirely from the final game.

Level 3

Prerelease	Final

The vats in the Duff brewery were taller, and the Duff pipes were connected directly to them. In addition, the front of the main brewery building is much closer to the vats, and the chimneys are taller. The Level 6 cutscene uses the earlier design.
There's an additional trailer near the main brewery building that is missing in the final game. This is consistent with the Level 6 cutscene.
The mascot objects and the wrench pick-up were not yet added.
Grampa can be seen driving the WWII Vehicle with Lisa in the prerelease. In the final game, he does not drive the vehicle in Level 3 as he is the mission-giver for "Operation Hellfish".

Prerelease	Final

The streetlights originally had a clover-leaf design with three lights, used in Level 2 for the final game.

Prerelease	Final

Prerelease	Final

The broken bridge appears to be missing the railings in the prerelease, although this might be an unfinished background model.
The stone bridge appears to be grey in the prerelease rather than purple. There is a bush near the railings that is missing in the final game.
There are additional trees in the background that are missing from the final game.

Level 6

Level 7

April 15#

Some of the images date to April 15, 2003. The two images dated April 28 are repeats of the Level 7 (Homer in front of Springfield Elementary School) and Level 2 (Bart in Moe's Tavern) images from earlier on this page, in a different quality.

Level 1

Prerelease	Final

Prerelease	Final

Prerelease	Final

The ! icon above Marge's head was a darker shade of red.
The flowers in the house's garden are missing.
The chimney of Flanders' house is white instead of peach. This is consistent with several early in-game screenshots.

Prerelease	Final

The trees were changed to be billboard textures. The tree model can still be found in Level 1's bonus track.
The sign for the World's Largest Toilet is missing.
The unused Station Wagon intended to spawn in Level 1's traffic can be seen in front of Homer's car.

Prerelease	Final

Jasper as Frostillicus is obscured slightly in the prerelease screenshot. The banner above the glass door is also missing.

Prerelease	Final

Gil is missing in the prerelease screenshot.

Prerelease	Final

The telephone pole's position is different.
The windows for the houses and one of the trailers is different.
One of the trees on the path is missing.
Milhouse's position was changed.

Prerelease	Final
	320px

The base of the telephone booth is smaller in size.

Level 3

Prerelease	Final

This final Level 3 image is dated 15th April, placing it a week after the previous screens. During that time, the Duff Brewery's vats had been modified to their final form of shorter vats, showing the beer flow openly into them.
The palm trees designs are different in the prerelease.
There is a curb on the grass to the right of Lisa that is missing in the final game.
The lights from the Krustylu globe and the cones from the traffic lights are missing in the final game.
The water tower on top of Krustylu Studios is missing.

Level 4

Prerelease	Final

A forklift not seen in the final game can be found where the vent is at the far end of the room.
There are two wasp cameras in this section of the Power Plant, both of which have shields. In the final game, only one wasp is present and wasps don't gain shields until Level 5.
There are two cubes where the lifts are on the platforming section on the right.
The textures of the vent on the left were changed. The final texture is seemingly the same texture used on the aforementioned cubes.
The buttons in the platform section are facing different directions in the prerelease.

Prerelease	Final

There is a ramp leading up to the platforming section. This was subsequently replaced with a vent.
Smithers' hair is grey. In the final game, it's brown.

Announcement#

The earliest report of a "mission-based driving game" starring the Simpsons can be traced back to a brief article published by GameSpot on April 24, 2003. Not many details are revealed aside from the cast, the gist of gameplay and the platforms it will be released on. Given the short length and the "As part of its release of pre-E3 information [...]" portion of the text, it is likely that this information was simply relayed from a press release document.

Later Pre-E3 Build Screenshots#

April 24-30#

The following images are marked as "GameCube Request" in the file, while the first three images are dated to April 24, and the other two dating to April 30. Though, they are incredibly low in resolution.

Prerelease	Final

Apu is seen as a driver in the Longhorn in Level 2, which doesn't happen in the final game.

Prerelease	Final

Prerelease	Final

Prerelease	Final

Prerelease	Final

May#

UI Mockup Images#

The following images Seem to be dated from Pre-E3, due to the latest save date from being May 10, 2003. It's also likely that those images were mockups due to the button graphics being edited in, as there are alternate variants for different controllers.

The same images can be found in the Hit & Run User Manual.doc in the PR Disc, dated June 12, 2003.

PR Disc	Final

The room was a lot less dark.
Homer was using his model from Road Rage in this image.
The Text font for "NEW GAME" was different.
The Television "border" covered the screen more.
The Simpsons family picture frame was simpler and showed a full body render of the characters.
The destroyed Wasp Camera isn't in the earlier image, with the newspaper present instead.
Nothing is highlighted in the room when options are selected.

PR Disc	Final

There was originally a collection for movies. It was likely removed due to being semi-redundant as there are only one movie per Level.
- Curiously, this image only shows one movie for Level 1, compared to two in the final.
The Cards graphic uses the earlier light-blue "?" design than the Buzz Cola logo.
The graphic for vehicles was different.

PR Disc	Final

PR Disc	Final

PR Disc	Final

PR Disc	Final