Info about Resident Evil 1.5

Discussion in 'Unreleased Games Discussion' started by santo_reska, Jan 5, 2008.

  1. RMandel

    RMandel Active Member

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    Internet myth. It had enough horsepower in raw CPU power alone. RE2 for Saturn never had RAM cart support, no matter which version (RE15 or RE2 retail) you're talking about. No feature required it, no feature needed it, and no feature was planned that was going to make use of it. I have this direct from my Capcom sources. End of myth.
     
  2. EETFUK

    EETFUK EETFUK

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    Thanks for clarifying that RMandel.
     
  3. RMandel

    RMandel Active Member

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    You welcome ... but let me be fair to those who still want to believe. I have no idea what Nextech was going to do with RE2 for Saturn once Capcom passed it to them. I mean, you can say anything you want about a port that winded up being vaporware. Maybe they were going to use the RAM cart as an alternate location for game saves, or to cache stage/room data and thus speed up load times a bit. Not really necessary - I mean, look at how well the original RE for Saturn plays without one - but it's possible. Anything's possible. Just not very likely.

    You know, I got in touch with one of the authors of that Sega book. He shared with me a very funny story they didn't use about, uhm, a "wild-eyed Sega fan" who swears up and down he saw RE2 for Saturn in a Hong Kong bootleg side stall back in '99 or so. He says it was in "special white packaging," came with a RAM cart inside, and he about freaked when he saw it. Claims to have ran all the way back to his hotel room to get more money so he could buy it ... but it was gone when he got back, of course. Make of that what you will. (grin)

    Maybe the fact that RE2 for Saturn and Capcom's planned release of their RAM cart in the West were cancelled on the same day helped get that particular myth started ....
     
  4. RMandel

    RMandel Active Member

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    <accidental double post deleted>
     
    Last edited: Dec 10, 2013
  5. Anthaemia.

    Anthaemia. The Original VF3 Fangirl™

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    RMandel, what else you do know about the abandoned Saturn conversion? I've read that Capcom (or at least Nextech) were in the process of carrying over the 1.5 content, switching development focus to what ultimately became Code: Veronica on the Dreamcast while the game was still in the pre-production phase as opposed to continuing with bringing over the retail vision for 2, though I'd love to have some kind of confirmation at long last - if this is even possible...
     
  6. Gemini

    Gemini Retro developer

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    Pretty sure Nextech was going to work from the finished product rather than from a prototype build of the engine, so that they would have carried on in a similar manner to what happened with the first title in the series. The conversion was more than likely canned because it would have required them way too much time for optimizing the assets and the rest of the API for the Saturn. Moving on to a different platform with way less hardware restrains was simply the most convenient choice for them and CAPCOM, and that's how the Code Veronica engine was born; in other words, it's extremely difficult Nextech had anything coming straight from 1.5, even if the engine looks way less refined than RE1's.
     
  7. Anthaemia.

    Anthaemia. The Original VF3 Fangirl™

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    Sorry, I really have phrased my earlier post a little better...

    What I meant to say is that it seems as if Nextech was basing the Saturn conversion of Biohazard 2 on the "1.5" prototype's direction as opposed to the retail game, which they would have only started looking at once the PlayStation code had been completed by Capcom. Looking at the overall timeline and how that one Saturn promotional video for Biohazard 2 was indeed (PlayStation) prototype footage, I'm guessing development was cancelled in favour of Code: Veronica for the Dreamcast, which is known to run on a heavily modified variation of the same engine. On the other hand, it's not as if Capcom gave up on the Saturn in early 1998, so the final version of Biohazard 2 could very easily have still been on the cards for Sega's console had they not pursued the next generation alternative so early - just look at how late into the system's life Final Fight Revenge turned up, even if it wasn't any good!

    RMandel, in the discussion over at THIA's forum it was recently mentioned that Saturn Biohazard 2 was being directed by Hiroki Katoh. I've literally spent years researching this subject as part of my own Saturn related project, and if my understanding is correct then all converting of data was indeed being handled through Nextech, with only coding assistance plus raw assets provided from Capcom. Additionally, there may have been some help via Sega's in-house audio teams yet again, since they were credited in the Saturn version of the first Biohazard. Can you perhaps confirm any of this, or maybe shed further light on the abandoned conversion? With the upgrade RAM cartridge rumour finally laid to rest, I'm curious to know if we can accurately determine the percentage figure of completion when this particular version of the game was cancelled, as I've heard 15% most quoted in the past.
     
    Last edited: Dec 10, 2013
  8. RMandel

    RMandel Active Member

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    What Gemini said - and he's the coding authority here, not I. When RE15 got canned, that was that. They were going to have to start all over again porting retail RE2 to Saturn instead of RE15 ... but that put them another year out on the port, and that's where Nextech comes in. Also, without anything already done for RE15 on Saturn (unlike the nearly completed RE15 for PlayStation), Capcom didn't have anything from which to work up, much less start, a Saturn port of retail RE2. They had the RE1 game engine already ported, yes, but as Gemini will tell you the RE2 game engine has some rather significant ... "differences?" As for available development time? Two months, tops, and that's stretching it. You can do a lot in two months, but RE15 was in development hell at that point and all work on it (including the planned Saturn port) was basically on hold until Mikami decided what to do with it. In the end, it was back to the drawing board - and that included the Saturn port, too.

    No port of any kind of RE2 for Saturn - either the early RE15 version or the later planned port of retail RE2 - exists in any form, insofar as I know. I think that's just another unfounded Internet myth. There simply wasn't enough time even for an alpha build, if you honestly look at what time they had and everything that was happening back then. Some ported assets (like what was done for Dash) might be - I say MIGHT BE - all that exists for Saturn, but most likely nothing more. No code, playable or not, AFAIK.
     
    Last edited: Dec 10, 2013
  9. Xeauron

    Xeauron Intrepid Member

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    Any word on where they are with this? Everything seems to have gone quiet at the moment...
     
  10. Gemini

    Gemini Retro developer

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    Well, with outsourcing you don't really work on prototypes, but rather handle over the finished product. There were cases of multiplatform games for both the PlayStation and the Saturn at the time, but they were all programmed in a specific manner (abstraction layer, heavily used in Megaman 8 and Megaman X 4) and the development was almost never outsourced in order to better coordinate release steps. With a game complex such as RE2 this wasn't really the case, as Nextech (or whoever ported RE1 to the Saturn) ended up rewriting a good lot of the engine and remade all the 3D assets almost from scratch.
     
    Last edited: Dec 11, 2013
  11. RMandel

    RMandel Active Member

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    'Tis the end of the year. All trails have gone cold in the hunt, and just about everyone who's working on anything has pretty much taken off for the holidays, I guess
     
  12. Zombie250

    Zombie250 <B>Site Supporter 2013</B><BR><B>Site Supporter 20

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    You mean IAGS? They have been silent. D.Birkin has gone silent and so has BZork. I wonder what's going on. I'm probably freaking myself out but I hope they don't quit.

    So no luck finding the 80% build then? I hope you find something.
     
  13. RMandel

    RMandel Active Member

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    Which reminds me ... I wrote up a little something that I hope will let us in the hunt end 2013 on a positive note:

    https://www.mediafire.com/?rssujbdzjn3dnrd

    Hats off to everyone. I'm leaving for the holidays, but I'll see you next year.
     
  14. rewak

    rewak Peppy Member

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  15. shane7951

    shane7951 Spirited Member

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    Nice to see an update
     
  16. Zombie250

    Zombie250 <B>Site Supporter 2013</B><BR><B>Site Supporter 20

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    Gents, here's something for you to display your vanilla build in:

    [​IMG]
     
  17. kuze

    kuze Peppy Member

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    Wow that looks great! Awesome work.

    One suggestion: make the slps id on the side match the one on the back.
     
  18. Maxus

    Maxus Active Member

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    not translated in english?
     
  19. shane7951

    shane7951 Spirited Member

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  20. pato

    pato Resolute Member

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    The reminds me of the supposed cancelled saturn RE2 spin off, which the main character was meant to be a journalist during Raccoon chaos, maybe it was Ben, and the game could be later a inspiration for Dead Rising, or Alyssa from RE Outbreak.

    Well, the Beta 2 of RE2 was found because a guy was selling pirate games in a Italian beach, now here is the question

    How this guy managed to get? Also didn't the beta of other games were found because they were sold in pirate game stands?
     
    Last edited: Dec 23, 2013
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