Prerelease:Retro City Rampage

This page details pre-release information and/or media for Retro City Rampage.

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: Everything. Extended text, because this page hasn't been updated in a whole year. Find all differences in all available trailers. Check the 2012 Teaser. (Maybe) split each trailer into its own subpage. Find clear Nintendo Power issue 256 scans. Check the website for other beta / changed content. This article mentions that a "port of RCR on the NES prototype was worked on". Is this unique from ROM City Rampage? A lot, if not all of the German dialog is identical to the dialog in the pre-release footage, which makes me believe that is was simultaneously being worked on with the English dialog, and they forgot to edit any changes to the German dialog when the game released. The other languages are correct. Example: Preview: Sneak past the guards and hide in one of their trucks. If you can get to the truck, it'll be easier than smuggling day laborers across the border. Final (English): Sneak past the guards and hide in one of their trucks. If you can get to the truck, it'll be easier than sneaking candy into a movie theater. Final (German): Schleich dich an den Wachen vorbei und versteck dich in einem ihrer Trucks. Wenn du bis zum Truck kommst, ist der Rest einfacher, als illegale Hilfsarbeiter über die Grenze zu schmuggeln. Preview: ...AND SO IN THE YEAR OF 1988, THE SUPER CRIMINAL AND HIS HENCHMEN, WENT TO MAKE THEIR WITHDRAWAL. Final (English): ...AND SO IN THE YEAR 2012, THE MOST OVERUSED PARODY SET THE SCENE, AS THE SUPER CRIMINAL'S HENCHMEN PREPARED TO MAKE THEIR WITHDRAWAL. Final (German): ...UND SO MACHTE SICH DER SUPERVERBRECHER MIT SEINEN GEFOLGSLEUTEN IM JAHR 1988, AUF DEN WEG, UM WICHTIGE BANKGESCHÄFTE ZU ERLEDIGEN. A list of event videos that have to be sorted and verified.

Retro City Rampage definitely had a development time that took longer than estimated, starting all the way back in 2002.

Development Timeline

Pre-Release

• 2002 - Development on Grand Theftendo started.
• December 15th 2003 - The domain www.grandtheftendo.com was registered.
• October 2004 - Grand Theftendo was announced. The site would go live sometime later.
• April / July 2006 - Grand Theftendo's page was changed, and the game was slated to come out in 2007.
• August 2006 / 2007 - Grand Theftendo's page was updated again, this time with the game's logo with nothing else on it. The page would remain this way until the end of 2008, where the site went offline.
• April 26th 2010 - The domain www.retrocityrampage.com was registered. The website went live sometime later, with the page telling to wait until Nintendo Power Issue #256.
• June 16th 2010 - The first playable build of the game was shown off at PAX 2010.
• July 8th 2010 - Nintendo Power Issue #256 released, which has a lenghty write-up on the game.
• August 19th 2010 - The first trailer was released. Many other short trailers and previews would be uploaded across 2010 and 2011.
• May 2011 - More details about Grand Theftendo were shown at GDC 2011, along with progress on Retro City Rampage.
• February 8th 2012 - A 2012 teaser trailer was released, showing the game was getting near completion.
• March 15th 2012 - IGN posted a preview video stating that the game would release "this May".
• June 5th 2012 - The game was playable at E3 2012.
• October 9th 2012 - Retro City Rampage was released on PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, and Xbox 360 (Xbox Live Arcade).

Post-Release

• January 25 2013 - Some unseen pre-release footage was released, dated June 14th 2009 and September 30th 2009. The latter was an internal trailer sent to outlets to describe the game.
• November 3rd 2014 - The DX update was announced, which would bring some major overhauls to the game's playability, functions, UI and more.
• November 11th 2014 - The DX update released on PC and a few other platforms. For a handful of platforms, the update released on November 13th.
• July 29th 2015 - Retro City Rampage 486 was released for MS-DOS.
• July 19th 2016 - Retro City Rampage DX released on the PlayStation Portable, a port that was, amusingly, cancelled at first.
• February 2019 - Brian Provinciano claimed he got Retro City Rampage working on Game Boy Advance with the port being 85% finished, aside from a few framerate hiccups. No footage of this port has surfaced.
• July 2nd 2020 - The DX+ update was announced and released on the spot for most platforms, with a physical Wii port being announced as well. This update includes more cutscene animations, updated visuals and elements borrowed from Shakedown: Hawaii.

Grand Theftendo

Before the game got released on every video game platform from the early 2010's, development began on the NES in the form of Grand Theftendo, a Grand Theft Auto homebrew fangame built entirely in 6502 Assembly, announced way back in October 2004 as a tribute to Grand Theft Auto III and the entire Grand Theft Auto franchise. The (now defuct) www.grandtheftendo.com site would continue to receive only a handful of updates before the page was removed with a message reading that the game should come out in 2007. Despite nothing happening in 2007, and the site being used as a placeholder until the end of 2008, the game was never released, and no in-development build of the game has ever surfaced online, aside from a heavily modified version that can be found within Retro City Rampage itself, known there as "ROM City Rampage".

The core concept that would build up for Retro City Rampage was already there, with a top-down-front view of the map and mission-based levels progressing the player through the game. At this point, it was a lot more primitive with none of the game resembling with what was eventually released. The game takes place in Grand Theft Auto III's Portland, with Brian Provinciano saying that drawing all 3 Grand Theft Auto III cities would take far too much time, so the game focused on one city that is content packed. Besides this info, a few screenshots and videos, that's all that is known about Grand Theftendo itself. Some footage of the game playing on an emulator would be shown off at GDC 2011 on the big screen, but that was the last time anyone got to see anything related to this specific part of the game's development.

These screenshots below appear to be from a build that uses the same engine used for Retro City Rampage, as it's a little more advanced than what Grand Theftendo on the NES could achieve.

(Source: www.grandtheftendo.com (archive #1), (archive #2))

Nintendo Power Issue 256

To do: Descriptions.

The 256th issue of Nintendo Power released on July 2010. Some of the screenshots seem to predate what was shown off at PAX 2010 that year.

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• The dialog was reworded.

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Videos

Trailers

On the (now defunct) www.retrocityrampage.com website, there were some preview screenshots & trailers.

Debut Trailer Very smol people.

Special Moves: The Super Stomp I think the Player has been bitten by a radioactive plumber.

Soundtrack Mixtape Perfect to bang your head to.

Rampaging the City "GgguuuUUUH! I just busted a nut..."

Biffman! It's not Batman, it's Biffman.

Splosion Man Rampage The end result of companies buying each other up...

2012 Teaser Coming close, but still far away.

Other

PAX 2010

E3 2011

E3 2012

Misc Preview Videos

Debut Trailer

Dated August 19th 2010, this is the first time the public got to see video footage from the game.

• All the character sprites are smaller and more basic.

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• The text during the character cutscenes for characters are italic, and their dialog uses a different font.
• The score counter displays 8 characters, the final 13.
• The numbers for the score counter are 1 pixel wider, or are just different entirely.
• The font for the amount of money you have is different.
• The title screen has tons of differences.

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1. The VBlank Entertainment Inc. logo is a full sprite instead of text.
2. There is no text that says "Press Enter Key".
3. The fonts for "Brian Provinciano's" is different.
4. The water reflections for the buildings are different.

• During high killing sprees, the money amount shows messages that do not appear in the final game.

1. PEOPLE POPPED (visible during Chain while driving)
2. TIRE THREAD PEDS
3. DEGREES OF CRISPIES (visible during Crispy)
4. GOOMBOUNCES (visible during Chains while stomping)
5. HUMAN BOWL STE[fades out, incomplete]
6. UP OFF YOUR GRILL
7. BODY CHECK[cuts off]

• The font for time is different, bigger and isn't boxed.
• The frog during the bank robbery escape is placed on a different location.

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• The logo for Nolan's Arcade is a reference to the Atari logo instead of being a long "N".
• In the Control Panel room, the floor was blue instead of purple, and the rocks were gray instead of blue.
• There are a bunch of differences in the underground section when robbing the bank.

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1. The brick walls are orange instead of rouge.
2. The door sign is yellow instead of red.
3. The big sign with text was replaced with a death sign.
4. The POW-brick is blue instead of brown.
5. Some off the wall pipe sprites are different.

• There is more garbage on the ground during the robbery escape scene.
• (null)'s room is different.

1. The rock walls are less darker.
2. There are no rocks on the ground.
3. (null)'s character sprite is a little bit different.
4. The table has less details and stains.

• The "A" button during the dialog is right next to the dialog instead of in the bottom right corner.
• The helicopter has no metal bars to stand on, and the propeller disappears for a few frames.
• The fighting area for the Player and the Robo-Cop is much more open. This scene also has a different texture for sand and gravel.
• At 0:47, the minimap shows the Player and the Jester driving over a black area. This is supposed to be water, indicating that this area was added later on.
• Some bushes are missing in the Doki Doki Zone.

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• The inside of Milky's is different.

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1. There's pictures hanging on the wall instead of a target.
2. The Epic Meal Time cabinet is against a wall instead of next to the bar.
3. The floor is blue and brown for the barkeeper, while it's all purple in the final.
4. There is no camera hanging from the ceiling.
5. The milk tray is smaller.
6. There are 3 stools instead of 4.
7. There's no ventilation hole.

• Grogbrush's was called Scrum Bar in the alpha.
• Near Grogbrush's, there is no fench you have to jump over through to get to the sword fighting area.
• Spray 4 Pay has a different logo, and is closed, which never happens in the final game.
• During the bank robbery police escape, the Player is in the car instead of Henchman 4, because the player actually dies.
• The continue screen is different.

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Special Moves: The Super Stomp

Dated September 28th 2010, this trailer shows the Super Stomp ability, a move that the Player obtains when he gets bitten by the Radioactive Plumber.

Soundtrack Mixtape

Dated October 29th 2010, this is a full 10-minute video meant for people who wanted to listen to the soundtrack. However, with that came a lot of early footage from this build of the game.

• The title screen alone has differences.

1. The VBlank Entertainment Inc. logo is a full sprite instead of text.
2. "Press Enter Button" is in the alpha version simply "Press Start".
3. The fonts for both "Brian Provinciano's" and "Press Start" are different.
4. The background was lower in the final version, making more of the clouds visible.

• The Player starts at a different location. Normally, he starts next to a Skate n' Buy, next to a few Mario-like bushes.

There are some differences in the soundtrack as well.

Reflections loops its main theme one more time, making it longer in the final version.

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Brewskiing's has less drums in the mixtape version, and the songs ends different (you can still hear a difference, even though KickIT overlaps).

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KickIT has a long section added in the final version.

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Toadstool Om Nom's pulses are lower pitched in the mixtape version, has more noise at 0:15, some noise removed at 0:19, is shorter than the final version, and the song ends different.

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Riff Down has more bleeps at 0:46, and an extra section was added at 0:58 in the final version.

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Do or Die are identical, but the song fades out early in the mixtape version.

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Not Mega has a section added at 1:48.

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Rampaging The City

Dated May 25th 2011, this video showcases the demo mode that plays when you press nothing for a few seconds on the main menu screen.

• The Demo Mode plays out completely different compared to the final game.
• The point screen is visible in the Demo Mode, but are not shown in the final game during Demo Mode.
• The point screen shows the text "SCORE" and "HI-SCORE", but only "HI-SCORE" is shown in the final game.
• The amount of points you need to get is lower in the footage.

Footage:

Bronze: 3000
Silver: 5000
Gold: 8000

Final:

Bronze: 5000
Silver: 12000
Gold: 20000

• The font for "Demo Mode" is slightly different, showing an outline and some letters being wider in the footage.

Biffman!

Dated October 27th 2011, a trailer was posted showing the Biffman suit and story mission.

• The dialog boxes have no blue lines between them.
• The Player slides down the pole. This never happens in the final game, as the Player just walks in with a pot in his hands.
• The car is in the basement the moment the Player enters the room. The car just spawns when the next mission starts in the final game.
• Biffman's suit doesn't have an outline.
• The text "Power-Up" reads "Power Up" in the footage, with the letters not being mashed together.
• The text "Deathtrap Factory" uses an italic font.
• The outside of the Deathtrap Factory have a few differences.

1. The airvents on the top of the roof are smaller in the footage.
2. The park benches have a more green / brown tint.
3. The fench uses an early sprite.

• The Jester has green hair in his character sprite instead of brown.
• No dust particles spawn when the Jester turns with his skateboard.
• There's no shadow visible when the Player gets near the water tank.
• The text for the Henchman catcher never says "Press [button] to CATCH them".

Splosion Man Rampage

Dated November 17th 2011, this video shows one of the original playable characters that would be playable in the overworld.

• A.T. Corporation was first titled Big Science Labs, a reference to Splosion Man.
• Splosion Man and Ms. Splosion Man were supposed to make a cameo appearance, but this was cut from the final release. This was because before the trailer went up, Microsoft bought Twisted Pixel, eventually resulting in Brian Provinciano having to remove both Splosion Man and Ms. Splosion Man from the game and renaming the characters to Sweat Bomber and Ms. Bates.
• The shadows of the building in the trailer are darker.
• There are lines on the warning signs near the building.
• The entire lab looked completely different, despite the level being the same:

1. The lab in the preview has a blue color palette. In the final game, the palette is orange.
2. The computers leave behind chips when they exploded.
3. The gear were replaced with big buttons with a big exclamation mark on them.
4. The arrows in the stages look different.
5. The small panels on the wall were replaced with iron plates.
6. The rocks beneath Splosion Man's feet are rocks instead of iron bars.
7. The entrance and exits for moving to the next screen are different.

• Instead of running into sweat bombs, Splosion Man ran into explosive barrels.
• Instead of the arrow in the boss lab saying "cake", it says "souls" in the final game.
• One of the exit door props looks more like a teleporter.
• The main teleporter in the boss lap was redesigned in the final version.
• Ms. Bates' intro text is different.

Trailer:

Ms Splosion Man
arrives!

Final:

UH OH!
Ms. Bates is here!

• There is no dialog between the arrival of Ms. Splosion Man and her attacking the Player.

2012 Teaser

Dated February 8th 2012, this trailer shows the game nearing its final development stages, but still has some differences across some scenes.

Cancelled Ports

Nintendo DS

A port of the game (with this build dated August 19th 2009) was briefly worked on for the Nintendo DS during its Retro Theftendo phase. This port went unannounced, but footage would be shown on Twitter, Vine and GDC 2016. The reason for cancellation was because the Nintendo 3DS was coming out, which was more logical to release on at the time.

The footage shown here, being from a much earlier build of the game, shares a bunch of similarities as seen in some early trailers. The biggest of which is that there is no screen zoom in, the health bar is on the bottom screen, the bottom screen shows the entire map (rather than a portion like in the Nintendo 3DS release), and a simple CRT border covers the top screen. The title screen also plays a track that isn't used in the final game, and the arcade mission theme has extra noise compared to the final.

(Source: RetroCR on Vine (archive #1), (archive #2))

PlayStation Portable

Retro City Rampage DX was at some point being ported to the PlayStation Portable, but was cancelled at first because according to Brian Provinciano, porting took too long and porting the game to the PlayStation Vita made more sense at the time. Plus, markets for the console were poor due to piracy. Despite that, the port was finished and released anyway in 2016, both in physical and digital forms.

The footage shown here shows debug prompts during the opening mission of the game. Note the in-game slowdown, though this might be because of the active debug menu.

(Source: RetroCR on Vine)