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Wow, it's not too often that
you see an Atari 2600 game with a title screen. Anyway,
this is the prototype of Bugs Bunny, another prototype ROM
that a more complete version exists of out there. According to sources
that spoke to the programmer of the game, Bob Polaro, at the Classic
Gaming Expo,
the finished game would have contained a two player mode, where one
player controlled Bugs and the other controlled Elmer. Also missing
from the game is Elmer's house, which would be in the black space Elmer
is running around in at the top of the screen. Despite the absense of
those items, the game is perfectly playable. The game is a little
difficult to figure out at first, but with this page,
you shouldn't have the same difficulties that everyone
else has had in playing the game for the first time.
The basic gameplay screen is to the left. After you
pick a carrot to steal (more on this later), Elmer Fudd's
dog will come dig Bugs out of the ground. Points are
scored depending on how quickly you can get Bugs back into
his hole - the reddish dash on the same level as Bugs -
before Elmer shoots him. If the counter (directly above
the "remaining lives" counter on the left) hits zero
however, you get no points, but still need to get back in
your hole.
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As I stated before, you need
to pick which carrot you want to steal from Elmer before
you get to the main gameplay. If you look at the
screenshot to the right, you will notice the middle
platform is a different color than the other two. Use
this highlighting to choose a level to grab the carrot
from, press the fire button and the gameplay will begin.
To jump into the hole, you literally must land on it from a jump by
pressing the fire button at the correct distance. If you timed it
correctly, you'll jump into the hole and be able to pick one of the
remaining carrots. Also, if you jump at the edge of the screen, you will
appear on the other side of the screen - Apparantly this
was just a bug that was not worked out of this game at
the time this proto was made, and would not have been in
the final version.
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The game even has Pac-Man
style intermissions every few levels. The one you see here
is Bugs and a living carrot running from Elmer Fudd (who
will appear on the screen after the two leave the
screen) I've not gotten far enough in the game to see if
there are any more than this, but it would make sense if
one was implemented, the rest should be too. Bob Polaro
showed a more complete version of this game at the Classic
Gaming Expo in 1999 which contained all the changes
mentioned on this page. Perhaps one day that particular
version will be dumped as well, so we could see what the
final product would have looked like had this game made it
to stores. |
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It's really a shame that
this game wasn't released. Apparently, this was being developed
at the same time as Snoopy and the Red Baron, and Snoopy tested
better, getting the green light while Bugs Bunny got the axe. Personally,
I think this is a better game than most of the released 2600 games that we
all bought back in the day and should have been released anyway. It's
quite addicting, and who
can honestly admit that they didn't watch Bugs Bunny
cartoons as a kid? After playing this one a while, I
swear I can hear Elmer's voice coming from the
screen: "Kill the wabbit.... kill the wabbit..."
Thanks to TheRedEye for information about the CGE version of the
game.
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