Info about Resident Evil 1.5

You got a copyright infringement? Think of all the people in that book who never asked to be a part of it. I'm surprised that nobody made a legal statement that they don't want to be in a nonsensical book.

 

So you go to jail?!

 

I never really got to know RMandel back when I was active in the Resident Evil community but he seems to be a reasonable person.
I have acted in good faith without ill intent, I don't think he's going to hunt me down for that.

Sometimes I find myself acting childish or careless (when my Asperger's syndrome get's the better of me), but I think I'm a fairly reasonable person myself. Well, at least the link I put up was an old (formerly free) copy of his work and not the reworked text that will eventually be published.

I can't do much to make up for it, but I'll buy a copy of his book when it's available, that's the least I should do.

I pretty much lost interest in RE after the fabled 1.5 that I had been curious about for so many years finally leaked. I'll be sure to keep an eye on the RE2Remake and on IGAS' restoration when it's eventually finished, but other than that I'm glad to leave all this behind.
I have other interests now, although I still enjoy playing videogames and reading about prototypes and version differences occasionally...

Being obsessed about an unreleased piece of entertainment software is not good for your health...

 

Don't punish yourself too much over it, you just did a slip-up, it was freely distributed for a while so it's not the same as buying the book, scanning all pages and then releasing a PDF file.

I was very into 1.5 in the past (it was me who created that now-bloated thread on THIA after all) but all the drama made me lose interest... we could've had a clean release in the first place but I guess the fame of the game was too much for the "IGAS" group to just drop it into the community for free, and the fool's errand of "completing" the game ruined all excitement I had for it. "reeeeee entitlement reee" incoming but that's my opinion. You can't fault people believing RMandel's text wholesale since it's not like the "other side" isn't an autistic cabal releasing info through an eye dropper.

edit: come to think about it, it's funny how much I and others in Assemblergames and other forums got out of the GBC Resident Evil releases, compared to the mighty 1.5.

 

I got a semi-threaten reply too, being accused to be sued and so on.
And that because he publicly upload and distributed his own book a while ago.
http://www.the-horror.com/forums/sh...8f2a1369472f69&p=259389&viewfull=1#post259389

 

Thank you, upaluppa. I appreciate you saying what you did.

Here's the deal, folks. Yes, I did have my RE1.5 book available for free, in various draft forms for several years. Early drafts of the current form of the book were available for several months back in late 2016 and early 2017. All of that changed when I both got a commercial publisher and received statutory copyright on my book. Anybody can declare a copyright (that's implied copyright) but statutory copyright can only be granted by the Copyright Office of your respective country. In other words, my book is no longer free, since copyright is retroactive -- and like any published author, I have the right to do that. It would hurt book sales if I left any copies of the old drafts up for free, just as it would hurt sales if anybody posted public download links to the older drafts. Try to see it from my publisher's point-of-view, okay? That's why this book isn't free anymore, folks. You gotta buy it if you want it. If you got the older drafts before it got statutory copyright, when it quit being free, then consider yourselves lucky. What you do with those older (and now dated) drafts for your own private purposes is your own business -- so long as you don't post public download links. Copyright again.

I never expected that I would get a publishing offer for this book. Resident Evil: Exodus (my RE1.5-inspired novel) was the one I wanted published, but Capcom wouldn't grant permission. I asked them, you see. I didn't want to skulk and lurk around in dark corners playing with Frankenbuilds and replacing their content wholesale with stuff of my own devising without them knowing about it beforehand. I've been completely up front and honest with Capcom regarding all of the various RE1.5 related projects in which I've been involved over the past three years, and it's been a rather curious relationship. I don't know why they wouldn't grant permission regarding the retail publication of Exodus, unless it might have had something to do with the RE1.5 direct and inspired content that's going to be in RE2 REvamp, perhaps. Anyway, they didn't object to the 3D model collection that is the RE1.5 REvisited project. In fact, they encouraged me to "continue with my creative efforts" while at the same time declining to officially endorse it. I've got correspondence from them on that, and that's why DXP and I were able to bring that particular project to completion just in time to celebrate Resident Evil 1.5's 20th anniversary -- three years after we started. All of DXP's RE1.5 REvisited recreated room and location models are now freely available on ShareCG for everyone to enjoy. No, they're not as slick as what SonicBlue can do, and I deliberately had DXP limit the poly count so they couldn't be used for retail-level recreations, but they're available and free to all, thanks to Capcom not objecting -- and that includes all of you, too. Do with them whatever you want. They also didn't object to my making Exodus available for free despite declining my commercial publishing request, and that's why it's available online today from both WattPad® and ArchiveOfOurOwn for your reading enjoyment. It never got professionally proofread due to the publishing deal falling apart, but I've made my last draft available for free all the same -- just like I originally did with the earlier versions of The Hunt for Resident Evil 1.5.

What happened after Capcom torpedoed the publishing deal I had lined up for Exodus is that my publisher came back to me and asked me, "Do you have anything else we can publish?" I had two things: The Hunt for Resident Evil 1.5 and a 75% complete Resident Evil fanfic I was working on set in the World War II era called Projekt Regenschirm. I offered both of them to my publisher. Since Hunt for RE1.5 is a history book, then I didn't need any kind of permissions to have it published (other than for use of imagery, and I don't use any). That's the basic rule of history books, Gemini -- and I both already have one history book to my credit (under my real name) and have had this conversation with several other people who raised eyebrows on that very issue with this book. The subject of history is one of the few writing genres where you don't have to have permissions from the people involved in the events you're describing in order to talk about them in your work. If history writers were required to have such permission, then nobody could write a history book of any kind. That issue aside, The Hunt for Resident Evil 1.5 had to pass all sorts of other legal hoops before my publisher would accept it. Not only did they accept it, they loved it, and they've been working with me to bring it to the regular retail market as fast as possible. The only thing that's slowed it down is the proofreading process, which made it get behind that other book I sent to them, Projekt Regenschirm. The retail version should be coming out in November of this year (2018) -- and I hope all of you will at least consider buying a copy, even if you don't agree with everything I wrote. As someone else has aptly said, this is all "ancient history" now -- but it's nice to have it all in one place, as opposed to having to look up everything on a dozen different forums and forum threads.

I went through something very similar legalwise with Projekt Regenschirm. I had to remove ALL Resident Evil content and completely rewrite it as a standalone original novel before my publisher would even look at it. It's coming out this month (September 2018), and should be hitting stores any day now. It's inspired by CODE: Veronica, and you can read my discussion of the original Resident Evil fanfic and what I had to do to change it for commercial publication on my deviantArt site. Those of you who know the Resident Evil franchise and know CODE: Veronica will be able to spot certain similarites, -- but it's not the same story, and I don't develop my own original characters the same way as Capcom did in the video game that inspired it. Furthermore, I play more by the rules of the WW2 action-adventure story in developing Regenschirm's plot than I do your typical plot-less "Nazi zombie" story, and it makes a big difference. That's all I'll say about Regenschirm here, since this is supposed to be a forum about video games, and I hope those of you who get a copy of Hunt for RE1.5 will also pick up a copy of Regenschirm too. That way, you'll have lots to read as you wait for the retail version of RE2 REvamp to be released early next year.

Something else you might like to know. I'm revealing my true identity with the publishing of both of these books. You'll find a short bio on me in the back of each, and discovering who I am is going to surprise a lot of you. At least two people in this forum already know who I am, and I I'd like to thank you both for keeping my identity a secret until now. I'm doing this because I have nothing to hide. I've been as honest with you as I can with this book. With The Hunt for Resident Evil 1.5, I'm giving you guys 99% of everything I ever found out about how the real game (i.e the 40% build, the PVB, the "raw" build, whatever you want to call it) went from being sent to Capcom USA back in late 1996 to winding up being leaked by EvilMarshy and the Mortician in late September of 2013. The only thing I've held back are the real names of most of the players involved, as well as obscuring the identities of certain people at certain points in the story (such as the RE123 Forum data drops) -- and yes, I know them. I could have revealed every real name I knew but I didn't, because I'm not going to sink down to the level of behavior of some of the people I wrote about. I'll let those in the story who so choose reveal their own true identities in their own good time, as some of them already have. With regards to the tale of Resident Evil 1.5 proper, I'll again be honest. I don't know it all, and I may not have it all connected quite right, as I tell you right at the start of the book -- but the tale of Resident Evil 1.5 is too good a story not to be told. It's one of the true legends of video game history, as I told the EGM reporter who interviewed me last week, and it deserved to be told. I'm fortunate enough to have become the first person who's going to get to tell at least the basic outlines of its full story to the general public. I also get to tell the story of everyone who was involved that I know of in both recovering and releasing the real game -- as opposed to blowing my own horn as loud as I can and as long as I can about what I'm doing with it (nudge-nudge). Why? Because I was the only one who had a book ready on the subject when a publisher came knocking. That's why.

Before I go, let me encourage both my supporters and my critics here to consider writing your own book on Resident Evil 1.5 -- and get it published, too. That's the catch, you know -- getting it published. I know I'm inviting my own obsolescence on the subject (and for some of you that can't be soon enough), but I won't be offended. You can consider my book, imperfect as it is, as a springboard from which future and hopefully better efforts can launch themselves. I've officially moved on to other things as of last year, and I am thoroughly enjoying working on both writing and creative projects on which I've long held back due to ten years of running with the zombies (heh-heh). The door's wide open in the field of Resident Evil 1.5 specific commercial works, because for now mine is going to be the only commercial work available on the subject. Write and publish your own! Do one better than mine! I encourage you, and I won't be offended. Really! I'll be happy just to have kickstarted the effort in this unique sub-genre of video game history. Let me warn you in advance, however, that just doing a simple hack job on me and everything that's wrong with my book won't make for a very good retail-level book about Resident Evil 1.5. It might make for a fire-breathing FAQqy that the "in-crowd" here will love, but it won't sell worth a damn out there as a retail effort. You've got to have your own angle, your own pitch, your own perspective and insight if you're going to do a retail level effort. You've also got to present it to the average Joe or Jane Doe out there in a way that's going to get them involved with reading your book. That's why I wrote it the way I did. You're going to have your own take, of course -- and who am I to say that yours isn't as good or even better than mine? So get your unique angle on Resident Evil 1.5, do your research (as I did; there's four years worth of research in my book), actually write the thing, get it peer-reviewed by some of your friends and/or supporters, and then see if you can get a publisher to publish it for you. There's plenty of them out there, and they're always looking for new and unique titles to publish. The Hunt for Resident Evil 1.5 is definitely unique. Maybe your own Resident Evil 1.5 book will be too ... provided you ever start on it.

All in all, my time with the old RE1.5 scene, and my (extremely) small part in getting the real game released, is one of those periods in my life I'm never going to forget. I'm glad to have been able to share this with everyone out there, and in the way that I did. I made friends, made enemies, made one or two small contributions to reconstructing its gameplay, and wound up with my own unique (and unintended) part in that wild and woolly release. That's all behind me now. I've moved on ... but I know that for some of you, the "hunt" still continues. I wish all of you well, even my fiercest critics. May you someday find what you seek.

In closing, I'd just like to mention that I'm again patronizing DXP with the RE3 REvisited project. Yep, that's just as the name says. I'm not directly involved this time -- I'm just providing the funding for his efforts. Those recreated 3D models can also be downloaded at ShareCG at your leisure. As long as Capcom doesn't object, we'll keep going until the whole unique set is done -- just like we did with RE1.5 REvisited. Share and enjoy.

See you in the funny papers, folks.
- Richard Mandel

 

Not to knock on your book and your publishing deals but isn't Page Publishing a pay-upfront vanity press kind of thing? Your post feels kinda odd with the publishing brag.

Aside from that, I look forward for the 1.5 book. I don't recall the early draft very well so reading it should be a fresh experience.

 

Pretty sure you do when you're ignoring (or omitting, it seems) some vital details, making unrelated people sound like they're at fault for the 1.5 fiasco when it was, as a matter of fact, some other unspoken individual (I'm not even talking about Colvin here, despite him doing nasty damage to the release). You basically go from "history" to biased defamation, which does make you liable to legal action if one sought to drag you and your vanity press publisher into that.

 

Gemini and Alzaire would be the ideal people to go to for a truthful book. Lol

-GMAN

 

I'll buy your book when I'm out of toilet paper.

 

https://www.deviantart.com/digitale...y-RE1-5-eBay-buyer-revealed-at-last-764959249

Richard you haven't half changed since I knew you, I literally found out about this a day ago. You always told me that your book would be available for free, and that you believed the prototype should be available for free to all people. Yet here you are using Capcom's IP as a platform to sell your own book, conveniently timed to launch coinciding with the 20th Anniversary Remake, over the 6 years you've been writing this book.

But not only that, you intend on making money based on people's avatar and online personas, representing and misrepresenting people's actions and financial investments, with and without their permission, branding their names and portraying them in ways they probably don't want to be portrayed, effecting their real life, and you have the audacity to throw copyright infringements against good people who unknowingly and accidentally released your free-platform drafts (that are already in the public domain written in forum posts under your user name), against your distribution rights?

And you stand there like a god send, while at the same time you publicly out people, personally attack them and insult them, and tell us we can read even more about them in your book, criticising them for their views of what this game should be, when all you're doing is the exact same thing with the Magic Zombie Door. That's bigotry at it's finest, not even Capcom know what this broken game was, is or is supposed to be.

I look back and I'm glad that I didn't tell you anything, so that my name isn't in this book, so that I didn't implicate people and exacerbate the situation for others more than it already is, because I want no involvement in this book what so ever. I'm also glad I've read all of the drafts, so that I don't have to buy this book that's full of hearsay, gossip, slander and hypocrisy. You're setting your self up for a big world of hurt with this Richard, you might have the right to sell fiction, but you can't personally attack people and make money off illfounded opinions that effect people's real life. That's just warped.

 

...and now for something familiar, but improved.



I uploaded higher quality footage of the RE1.5 V-Jump press conference circa summer 1996 that featured the earliest publicly known design of Leon S. Kennedy right after he renamed from Grant Bitman. I always figured it couldn't hurt to have better quality video of the earliest known build of Resident Evil 2 available. Enjoy.

 

That's great, Keiji Dragon! Your restoration work is excellent, a shame that the actual gameplay footage is so brief!
Watching this again sure brings back some memories!

I've always preferred the look of the police station in this early build over the later "finalized" (perhaps an ill-fitting term in a cancelled game) design.

 

So, the huge RE1.5 thread on the-horror seems to have been deleted. Anybody know why?, i hope nothing bad has happened

 

You had me worried there for a moment, but the discussion about 1.5 has just been inactive for over 30 days, so you're now required to change the forum's settings to display older threads. In one of his recent dev streams, Gemini suggested that we shouldn't expect any further news about the restoration project he's involved with until after Capcom's own upcoming remake of Resident Evil 2 has come and gone - the potential for negative attention and the risk of its creators being served with a C&D order doesn't have to ruin the happy ending of yet another high quality fan effort that's been years in the making! I'm confident that our patience will be rewarded...

 

Strongly agree there. Gemini and the fellas are making the right call. We can all enjoy Capcom's exciting remake, them included! May give them more ideas for 1.5 too. Even if we don't get any news for a fair while... it's not like most of us have already been waiting over a decade. In this tricky, grey-area ridden obscure hobby, patience is always the key.

 

Ahhh, that's ok then. I was a tad worried, sorry for the stress lol

 

I'm feeling a little conflicted about the new DF Retro video on Resident Evil 2 that arrived earlier today... Sure, it's great to see the history of 1.5 getting wider attention, and I was very surprised to see Gemini's recent work for the PC described as the best way to experience this game in anticipation of the imminent remake, but I'm also worried this will draw Capcom's eye further in the direction of Team IGAS, particularly as 1.5 was given quite the amount of screen time. As someone who grew up with SSM* (and might just be using this as the template for my own upcoming Saturn-related project), it's fair to say that I'm a massive fan of Digital Foundry. However, their focus on several fan efforts has been followed by these being shut down by the original IP owners, so I just hope the current "radio silence" of sorts from Gemini regarding all things 1.5 will mean he's able to avoid a similar fate. On the other hand, it would be great if Capcom was to give the official blessing to his Classic REbirth 2 patch or even use this to port over the Sourcenext version to consoles, since it really is the definitive treatment - the fact we're stuck playing an emulated PS1 version of RE2 for contemporary PlayStation hardware two decades after its release is a joke, especially when there's been so much progress to improve the game even without access to its raw assets. Of course, much of the gaming world is going to be concentrating on the remake by this time next month, so maybe it's not really that much of a problem?

*Let's not forget MAXIMUM, which was perhaps Richard Leadbetter's other great '90s publication. If anything, perhaps this was too ambitious for its own good, managing to put the similarly high quality EDGE to shame over its small seven-issue run.

P.S. I'd just like to congratulate Gemini for beating Angel's impressive Nintendo 64 conversion of RE2, or at least that's according to such discerning journalists and those of us who've been following his progress! Also, I nearly forgot to embed the episode I've spent part of this post discussing: