Proto:Rock Band 3

This page details one or more prototype versions of Rock Band 3.

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.

On February 16th, 2024, the Rock Band preservation and modding group Milohax discovered two debug builds of the Wii version of Rock Band 3, one being a debug build shortly before the game's release, and the other being a much earlier prototype dated to February 24th, 2009, on an RVT-H Reader that originated from Backbone Entertainment, the developer responsible for porting Rock Band 3 to Wii.

Pre-Release Build

This build seems to be when the game was just about completed, and was a testing and debugging build for the Wii version, with all the songs in the final game in the setlist, along with several DLC tracks that were installed on the RVT-H's NAND:

Lady Gaga - Bad Romance
Duran Duran - Girls on Film
Alice in Chains - Grind
Alanis Morissette - Head Over Feet
Alice in Chains - Heaven Beside You
Alanis Morissette - Ironic
3 Doors Down - It's Not My Time
Pearl Jam - Just Breathe
Eric Cartman - Lady Gaga's Poker Face (South Park Version)
Lenny Kravitz - Mr. Cab Driver
Alice Cooper - School's Out (Live)
Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit

None of the DLC tracks have album art, just using the default "Rock Band" art.

February 24th, 2009 Prototype

This being a prototype from February 24th, 2009, it seems to be fairly early in development, with it being very buggy and looking almost completely different to the final game.

Title Screen

Prototype	Final

Song List

The February 24th build contains the following songs, along with many placeholders.

Ozzy Osbourne - Crazy Train
Blood, Sweat & Tears - Spinning Wheel
The White Stripes - The Hardest Button to Button
Marylin Manson - The Beautiful People
Blink-182 - Dammit (w/ Pro Guitar)
Night Ranger - Sister Christian
Traffic - Feelin' Alright
The Band - The Weight
Journey - Don't Stop Believing (w/ Keys)
Jefferson Airplane - Somebody To Love
Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody
Beastie Boys (listed as Boyz 2 Boyz in-game) - So What'cha Want
Abnormality (labeled as The Abnorms) - Visions (Talky Test)
Santana - Black Magic Woman (includes Gypsy Queen)

There also exists a strum test song for "Real Bass" as the last song listed. These songs have proper charts attached to them, although some don't have proper animations or are messed up, as Feelin' Alright doesn't have proper lip sync and Black Magic Woman has the animations play too fast.

Storyboards/Concept Art

The transition animations for the music store (albeit it's used for choosing songs, unlike in the final) is just a rough series of sketches instead of proper animations, and there also exists concept art for the title screen.

Harmonies Indicator

The number of harmonies a song has is just listed as a number by the microphone icon, instead of having individual icons indicating if a song has 2 or 3 harmonies.

In-Game Models and Venues

The models for characters in-game still use the Rock Band 1/2 style instead of the new one used in the final game, with similar animations. The venues in this version are very buggy and have a tendency to make the game lag or crash, while the music video venues aren't properly in yet, so it just makes the background turn black.

Pro Guitar Chart

The charts for Pro Guitar don't have number indicators yet, just the chord shapes.

"7 Player Mode"

All-Instruments Mode is marked as 7 Player Mode in the player menu.