Info about Resident Evil 1.5

Thank you guys for the help much appreciated.

What is the current situation of 1.5? Is the 80% already out there or still lost?

 

My understanding is that a collector with the so-called 80% build (which isn't an entirely accurate figure) was providing Team IGAS with assets, but not a full copy of the prototype. However, it's believed this person has since gone quiet again, though it's also possible there was nothing more that could be of use for the restoration project. At the very least, I recall one of the group's members speaking about how the official Complete Disc footage was compiled from various late period discs as opposed to all those clips being sourced from a single version.

 

Well that 80% version was actually about 60% finalized, according to Mikami's reply on twitter. It hasn't been released as of today.

 

I suspect that Shinji Mikami's figure of 60% is a little off the mark, since it's also been claimed the last-known build of 1.5 was fully playable from start to finish as Leon, with only Elza's scenario conclusion yet to be implemented plus FMV sequences and some last minute bug testing. If my understanding is correct, the decision wasn't made to drastically overhaul the project until around February '97, so I'd be curious to know when exactly the final test disc was burned. I've seen December '96 as a cut-off date for new file creation, but it's been suggested that Capcom would produce monthly builds for Mikami's approval - perhaps something was run off during January? Whatever the case, it's known the Complete Disc footage wasn't edited together from a single disc, but shows multiple different late period builds, much like the E3 1997 video, where 1.5 leftovers and eventual retail code (or at least the so-called "beta 1" era) appeared together in the same clip. Apart from voice files, more of the RPD building's upper floors and perhaps finished sewer backgrounds, what else could the so-called 80% disc offer that Team IGAS doesn't already have just by extracting data from the BH2 Trial Edition? They've supposedly got the whole game's script, and my guess is that they've been provided files to help fill in gaps when it comes to puzzles, item placement or bug fixes. Then again, when you consider that Gemini's Squeeze Bomb engine is now being used, doesn't it make a lot more sense for them to simply recreate any problem areas instead of forcing broken data into their work, especially when the quality of IGAS' own output is clearly to a professional standard.

 

I managed to get the RMandel book PDF before it was removed, there are some interesting info from what i've read so far:

RE1.5 was scrapped officially by february 97 but no news about this came at the time, it was planned to be released in May 97. To my knowledge over the years, most of the game was finished and the plausible mark was around 75-80%, cutscenes were already done. Because they only started to make the RE2 final game in january according to test concepts CGs of the Raccoon streets, people were surprised to see a sudden change in the game content by the following months.

There was indeed build discs related to the game progress and evaluation, the 40% build that we got was actually sent to Capcom USA, one of the employees there made copies and years later his stuff was auctioned, that's were GoroMacida got it. Capcom Europe never had one build. Not to forget the Bioflames pictures, those are actually one of the latest, if not, the last build of the game, in fact, there is a story that BH2 Beta 2 was leaked by a employee that almost got fired, not true, but a employee was the one who send Bioflames pictures of the game in MSN back in 99, but he suddenly disappeared, Capcom had found out and he was almost fired.

BH2 Beta 2 was actually a leak made by one of the GamePro writer friend, dude lend the original disc so his friend could make a copy for himself, but he actually made multiple and started to sell, apparently there was some kind of ID in the files and Capcom discovered that it was the magazine disc, GamePro dude almost got arrested and this tarnished their relationship with Capcom. Over the years the discs were passing in hands and new copies were made, until WhiteUmbrella owner bought it from a pirate game seller in an italian beach and released on the internet.

And now, with the 80% stuff, RMandel says that there was a source who made contact with team Igas and provided information and proof, but as someone started to post those first screenshots in an italian gaming group in facebook, he went away.

 

Cutscenes being done doesn't really mean a whole lot, since that sort of thing is outsourced, and it's not like you can wait until the end and say "Here, make this." It gets done months, if not more, prior.

 

Pretty sure most of the info about the fabled 80% build(s) is incorrect, made up, based on false rumors, or plain misleading. Also the dude disappearing from IGAS' radar was due to other kinds of leaks involving sales of the currently released build, not just for a few screenshots appearing on some page. It's funny how the person behind said leaks has never been outed, despite contributing in some way to da book, while other people were "called out" for unrelated aspects which, in reality, turned out to be a favor to the whole community.
And you know why nobody from IGAS or the other people behind build acquisition never said a word about it? Because whoever put all this information together was never considered a reliable "authority" in the field and as such was disregarded from even getting a proper reply.

 

RMandel indeed has not a "good" reputation, i'm just passing the information from his book, where or not is true is something that I don't know.

 

Considering the book has biased nonsense such as "the good guys and the bad guys", you can probably imagine what kind of brick wall it's trying to smack its head against. Going from memory, most of this book is a huge jigsaw puzzle of copy & paste from various forum boards (which nobody asked to be part of), while the rest contains information from some "unspecified / undisclosed sources".
tl;dr: it sounds a lot like a RE-themed UFO conspiracy kind of book.

 

One of the few things that I did think was somewhat credible in RMandel's book was the section about the cancelled Saturn version of Resident Evil 2, though most of his information came from fellow THIA forum member News Bot and an article (that has since been pulled) by someone who claimed to be a former employee of Nextech. I don't remember much from the latter source, but even now we have very little understanding of how such companies as Genki, Nextech and especially Tose assisted with the development of various projects for clients like Sega or Capcom. My understanding is that Capcom was handing assets to Nextech for the Saturn port of RE2 as these were still being reworked, since the PlayStation was always considered the lead platform. Unlike the first game in this series, where the Saturn conversion only went into production after the PS edition was already on shelves, RE2 was different in that Nextech's work was to launch simultaneously - along with the Saturn logo appearing in an early teaser trailer, I saw plenty of magazine articles mentioning that RE2 would appear for both the PS and Saturn in the spring of 1997, or at least that was until the initial concept we'd later call 1.5 was scrapped. From what I can tell, Nextech was instructed not to even bother with porting eventual retail code for RE2 to the Saturn, but to instead create an entirely new game that was originally going to be a direct sequel. Of course, the spin-off also in development for the PS ended up becoming the numbered successor, while Nextech's project was later announced as Code: Veronica, intended as an early Dreamcast title. From what I can recall of that article I mentioned before, Nextech came up with most of the ideas for what became RECV, including its very different graphical style built around a fully polygonal engine.

P.S. Does anyone know if there's any truth to the rumour that the retail version of RE2 recycled the insect and plant enemies from the abandoned RE: Dash, which was meant to have been an all-new variation of the original game exclusive to the Saturn before Capcom requested that Nextech keep this much closer to the PS version, adding just the Tick as a modified Hunter in the underground sections? I'm fairly sure it was reported in a few Japanese publications that "RED" was going to feature two new characters in the now-overgrown mansion three years after this was destroyed by STARS, but I've never been able to find out much regarding this. At the very least, I can be sure that Capcom really liked putting out upgrades to older games with Dash at the end of their titles, as they also produced Rockman DASH and Street Fighter Zero 2 Dash around the same period. Also, I don't remember there being any evidence of insects or plants in 1.5, with both types appearing to have replaced monkeys in the laboratory area.

 

What's interesting of this book is some of the copy paste information that I never saw before, such as the origin o RE2 Beta 2.

The Saturn version according to one of the Imac Wesker videos was just at 15% completition, I wouldn't be surprised that barely anything was being developed at all, but...

If I'm correct, the final RE2 as we know was being ported by Nextech until they cancelled at the Sega New Challenge conference in October 98 where they revealed RECV and thus ended the job for obvious reasons, I never heard anything about Nextech actually developing a sequel for Saturn/PS1, maybe Dino Crisis and Gun Survivor got the 3D engine?

 

From what I can tell from extensive disassembling, Dino Crisis 1 and Gun Survivor run on two completely different engines, the formed reworked from RE2 while the other is a brand new one made by TOSE with extensive use of Sony's 3D libraries (HMD everywhere, which also caused some stuff to be cut, mainly animations, and general lag). Not sure how far along Nextech got with that rumored RE2 engine, but it definitively was never used for Code Veronica, since that one also runs on a totally different and less polished engine.

 

Of the three companies perhaps best known for handling outsourced projects I named before, I forgot that Tose also worked on the Resident Evil series. As for the Saturn conversion of RE2, I've also seen 15% listed as completion figure when this was cancelled. However, development on this can't possibly have continued until October 1998 because of Code: Veronica already being in a highly advanced state when it was unveiled that month at the second New Challenge event held by Sega, the first being where the Dreamcast name and console's appearance was originally revealed. I'm fairly sure that Capcom staged its own much smaller press conference in February '98 to announce that Saturn RE2 was no longer going to happen, though I've yet to follow up on my initial research into this game...

One myth that absolutely needs to be laid to rest concerning RE2 for the Saturn was its frequently (mis)reported use of the 4MB RAM upgrade Capcom asked Sega to develop as a way of making ports much easier. Capcom then supposedly designed the CPS3 with a Hitachi SH2 as its main CPU in order to facilitate higher quality conversions to the Saturn, but the planned console treatment of Street Fighter III ended up being moved over to the Dreamcast along with such later CPS2 titles as Marvel VS Capcom. Although the US-created Final Fight Revenge used the aforementioned memory expansion cartridge, its performance is hardly indicative of what RE2 might have done with this. Speaking of that game, just what did the 4MB cart do - or not - for this? Either way, it wasn't necessary for RE2, and I'm curious to know what state its last Saturn prototype was in. To my knowledge, nothing substantial has ever leaked from Nextech, perhaps due to its overall secretive nature when handling projects for external clients, at least back during this period.

 

Gun Survivor on PC has a few of those 3D modelling software polygonal objects, a bust and a Helicopter I think, plus the subtitles and graphics were all non packaged images, which means that you can edit it freely, that's where I've discovered that unused magnum, there is also unused sprites for a machine gun.

It's not impossible that both were being developer, RE2 was a porting project, plus they already had RE1 on Saturn which could make things a bit easier, I do think that they decided to cancell it a bit before the announcement, but not that far away, since Capcom had a big chunk of the Saturn market in Japan, it was probably developed for it.

But CV, MvsC and SF3 were the high end titles from Capcom that also got their Saturn conversions cancelled, which maybe indicates that this big decision also affected RE2, capcom likely deemed that the Saturn was going to be killed in a matter of months worldwide, or even SEGA may had a input in this, making all these games getting a DC port for the sake of improving the image of it for the west.

Another possibility is that Capcom still believed in a west release of RE2, but with the releases of House of the Dead and Rayearth being the final ones for NA in April 98 and Deep Fear for Europe in June, with the planned localization of X-Men vs Street Fighter along with the 4MB being cancelled in Europe, this killed any chance of hope in a west release, and finally, with Japan receiving the Dreamcast by November, this could wane potential buyers, meaning that only the fighting games got the ports there because they are more popular there than in the west, while Resident Evil was always oriented to the later.

While Code Veronica retained 90% of the stuff in the final game, it wasn't released until a year and half later after its announcement, and interesting enough, it was planned to be released by mid 99, which means that it could have been another of the launch titles for the west releases of the DC, but delays caused it being released by February 2000.

 

Hey @pato , is it possible to publicly share that PDF? I can't get it online anywhere.
Also thank you for your very enlighten posts!

 

There you go:
https://mega.nz/#!ir5iwY4J!nBkDpeT8HBJnIXY24BqnkXctO503p7U89DAagedYkDg

The book is filled with biased rambling and guesswork, it's best to take it with a pinch of salt.
According to the book it was RMandel who released the unaltered Nov 6, 1996 build of 1.5, for what it's worth...

 

Much obliged for sharing!
Well, that's a lot of drama and information right there. I'm not aware of the situation around RMAndel, but he sure is a decent writer. That stuff he wrote could made into a book.

 

So, it's been around 5 years since any new 1.5 infos ... still hoping something will surface in the near future.

 

I wouldn't say it's been five years without any news, as Team IGAS (or more specifically Gemini in recent times) has been keeping the Resident Evil fan community up to speed with progress of the ongoing restoration effort, while other like-minded enthusiasts have made great discoveries through deep examination of the circulating prototype. I can only hope that later build also known to be out there finds it way online at some point, along with more information about the cancelled Saturn conversion...

 

The book is gone now. It is a copyrighted item and the author requested it be taken down.

If you are interested in obtaining a legal copy:
https://www.deviantart.com/digitale...or-Resident-Evil-1-5-Richard-Mandel-747776129

The Hunt for Resident Evil 1.5
by Richard Mandel

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-64424-124-0
Ebook ISBN: 978-1-64424-125-7

Publisher: Page Publishing Inc., New York, NY, USA

Release date: November 2018 (tentative)


To RMandel:
In case you are reading this.
If I had known that you were going to publish your book I wouldn't have uploaded it.

I have removed it from my mega account. I wish I could also change my original post with the link and unnecessary insult, but that's no longer possible.
I rarely visit assemblergames these days, I would have reacted earlier but I didn't get to see your message until now.

I downloaded the book off the Resident Evil modding forums back then, I didn't think I'd cause any trouble in sharing it with Getta Roboto when I saw him asking for it here on assemblergames.

I apologize for being harsh with your work, that was uncalled for and I should have thought twice before writing that.
I had read so much controversy about the 1.5 leak and about various people involved that I took you for another one of the evil "conspiracy theorists" without even reading most of the book...

I'll be more thoughtful with the things I write about other people and their work from now on.

Sometimes in our lives we are having bad days and are making stupid decisions.
I can't undo what I did, but I sincerely hope that you'll accept my apology.

I didn't mean to cause you any harm.

Regards,
Kevin


I really messed up this time, didn't I? I'm sorry...
I can't believe I got into a case of copyright infringement...
I actually think of myself as a person of high moral standards...