[KingMike]

Feeling kinda bored today, so I played through that TTA6 ROM and the GB original to compare (loved that game back in the day, so I thought I might as well replay the original to refresh my memory).

(no RedEye, you can't run in either version.)

Okay, here's what I found:

GENERAL
-----------
-Jewel box contents seem randomized in pirate.
-Start each life with 4 hearts / 6 maximum in pirate. Fill of maximum of 3 hearts each stage in GB.
-Small hearts refill one heart. Big hearts refill all hearts in pirate, refills all hearts and increases maximum in GB (one per stage?).
-Extra life in GB at 10,000 points and every additional 20,000. Extra points in GB at the end of each level for fruit held and filled hearts. Neither in the pirate.
-As expected, control is kinda poor in the pirate (though it's a lot better than most pirate semi-originals).
-US GB release gives 2 Continues. Japanese GB release gives unlimited continues and passwords (though by the time I found out, I didn't need 'em, because I could just blow through the game in like half an hour).
-The pirates didn't copy and paste the US GB script. They made a few Engrish mistakes.

OPENING
------------
-Obviously, the pirates did not credit Konami for designing the game, nor did they credit Warner Bros. for the characters.
-Also, the first piece of opening that appears after the title screen in the pirate (with Babs jumping around in the spotlight), appeared before the title in the original.

STAGE 1, PART 1
---------------------
-No major differences.

STAGE 1, PART 2
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-As said before, Dizzy just passes through the mountain, instead of underground in the pirate. He also doesn't hit enemies (for some extra points in the GB).

STAGE 1, PART 3 (hallway)
---------------------
-This is the beginning of stage 2 in the pirate. In the pirate, you go on to stage 2, part 2.
-A good part of this section gave you an invincibility powerup in the GB version.
-GB had a strobe light effect in the basement, and an attic with a crushing ceiling (and a lot of gems).

STAGE 1 BOSS (feeding Dizzy)
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-Not in pirate.

STAGE 2, PART 1 (pipe maze)
--------------------
-Not in pirate.

STAGE 2, PART 2
---------------------
-Because of the cheap coding, the boxes dropped by the birds are almost impossible to dodge. I guess you can try jumping the moment the boxes fall.
-In the sewers (above ground??), the pipes would try to crush you in the original. But in the pirate, you've got the somewhat slippery controls to contend with.
-In the original release, only Furball pops out of a trashcan (this may be a difference between the Japanese and US GB releases).
-Pirate: after clearing Furrball's part, "FURRBALL IS GOING HOME TO RESET"

STAGE 2, PART 3 (train)
---------------------
-Inside the train, some of the jewel boxes would come to life in the original, when jumped on.
-Also, there's a period where the train goes in a tunnel, leaving a pretty dark screen on the actual GB. This doesn't happen in the pirate.

STAGE 2 BOSS (Arnold the Pit-bull)
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-No notable differences.

STAGE 3, PART 1
---------------------
-No notable differences.

STAGE 3, PART 2 (spooky forest)
---------------------
-The platforms were attached to chains coming from the pits.
-No invincibility here in the pirate.
-Fifi makes the trees dissolve in the pirate, they sink into the ground in the GB.

STAGE 3, PART 3 (castle)
--------------------
-Originally, the horizontal platforms with eyes would try to smash you (instant death). They don't move in the pirate.
-The same can be said of the platforms connected by Megaman 2-like ladders. They'd try to crush you in the original, do nothing in the pirate.

STAGE 3 BOSS (ghost knight)
------------------
-In the pirate, this boss will randomly do one of three things: bounce it's head around the room (which you jump on many times to kill it), march its legs across the room, or shoot its bionic arm.
In the original, it would always shoot the bionic arm (which was a solid platform, assuming you dodged the pointy end). Then it would do one of other two depending on which side of the arm you ended up on. On the bottom? Duck into the hold in the ground (flat in the pirate). On top? Jump on its head.

STAGE 4, PART 1
---------------------
-In the pirate, repeat stage 1-3.
-In the original, you'd enter Calamity Coyote's lab. He sends you speeding on a motorcycle, trying to dodge Elmyra (just hold Right the entire time and jump pits).
-Actually, Calamity I don't think was mentioned in the pirate.

STAGE 4, PART 2
---------------------
-(maybe this section came first in the pirate?)
-Wolverine's stack doesn't shrink in the pirate (possibly a limitation of the NES?) Also, the platform above him eventually falls and smashes him in the original. In the pirate, he just throws a block straight up that comes down and kills him (another graphic limitation?)

STAGE 4, PART 3 (Monty's mansion)
---------------------
-The pits you hide in to avoid Montana's car are bigger in the pirate, 2 Busters wide.

FINAL BOSS
---------------
-In the pirate, Montana bounces around continously, only pausing between bounces when he's close to stopping to shake (which is when you bop him). In the original, he makes brief pauses after every bounce. Not a big change in strategy, though.

CREDITS
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-Ending was left intact.
-They left out the cast, but the pirates did credit themselves.
(the pirate was made in 1997 by J.Y. COMPANY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.) (pirate I believe ends here).
-The original game allowed you to press START at THE END screen.
-This would take you back to the start of the game, only now you'd only get a single heart (one hit death). You can collect a Big Heart to get a second heart, though I think the last stage doesn't have a big heart. Same ending though, I think it just loops indefinitely.

[TheRedEye]

Fun fact: the Game Boy version's manual mentions a couple bosses that aren't actually in the game (I think they were both Montana Max, using different vehicles).

[merp]

Anybody try out Cah4e3's JY Easter Egg codes on that?

[TheRedEye]

Did you try to give Max the ransom money at the end? You could actually do that in the original, but it took forever to collect enough.

[KingMike]

Doesn't change anything, though (except a few lines of text). You still have to fight him.
Oh, and another difference. Losing a life will cost half your gems in the original.