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Resident Evil on GBC?
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DavidDurica



Joined: 02 Dec 2003
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Location: Boynton Beach, FL

PostPosted: Thu Dec 11, 2003 12:36 pm    Post subject: Resident Evil on GBC? Reply with quote

Seeing that bootleg RE for the Famicom reminded me of the aborted Resident Evil port for the Game Boy Color... Whatever happened to that? I remember reading on IGNpocket how it was almost finished, but scrapped at the last minute for Resident Evil Gaiden. Any known/dumped protos, etc?
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Johnny Undaunted



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PostPosted: Thu Dec 11, 2003 2:04 pm    Post subject: Re: Resident Evil on GBC? Reply with quote

DavidDurica wrote:
Seeing that bootleg RE for the Famicom reminded me of the aborted Resident Evil port for the Game Boy Color... Whatever happened to that? I remember reading on IGNpocket how it was almost finished, but scrapped at the last minute for Resident Evil Gaiden. Any known/dumped protos, etc?


From what I remember, one of Capcom's producers (probably Shinji Mikami himself) playtested and ordered the game to be cancelled, saying that the game did not met his standards. Of course, this is the same company that produced Resident Evil Gaiden and Survivor, so....

Anyway, that are more interesting canned RE games like RE1.5 and RE0 for the N64. I'm hoping someone will get ahold of either of them someday, so we could get a ROM or ISO.
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DavidDurica



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PostPosted: Mon Dec 15, 2003 12:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I saw a screen from RE0 N64 once. It was on a site documenting a bunch of early GC games being taken from the N64 and such. Never heard of a RE 1.5, though. Then again, I'm not that big on the series. To Google! [readreadread] Wow, this looks cool...
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Kitsune
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 15, 2003 1:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think RE Survivor was developed by Capcom, but wasn't Gaiden developed by an European company?
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Johnny Undaunted



Joined: 08 Sep 2003
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 15, 2003 4:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

DavidDurica wrote:
I saw a screen from RE0 N64 once. It was on a site documenting a bunch of early GC games being taken from the N64 and such. Never heard of a RE 1.5, though. Then again, I'm not that big on the series. To Google! [readreadread] Wow, this looks cool...


I know about RE0 on the N64. I just curious to see how it played compared to the finished GameCube version.

Resident Evil 1.5 was an early version of RE2 that Capcom scrapped in favor of the RE2 we all know and love. The main difference is that instead of Claire Redfield, the main heroine was a blonde named Elza Walker, who was completely unrelated to anyone from the first game. Also, many of the characters from RE2 played different roles in RE1.5 (Marvin, the injured black cop from the beginning of RE2 actually survives in RE1.5). The RPD building also had a more contemporary appearance instead of the Arklay rehash it was in RE2 (it even had a shooting hall to test your aim).

Apparently Mikami was unhappy at how the story turned out, so he ordered the game to be redone from scratch.

http://www.geocities.com/bioflames/

Quote:
I think RE Survivor was developed by Capcom


I know that. It's just that Survivor was a pretty crappy spinoff that didn't need to exist.

Quote:
but wasn't Gaiden developed by an European company?


It was done by M4 studios, the makers of several Mary-Kate & Ashley games.
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lugnut
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 15, 2003 3:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I found some information in the December 2000 issue of EGM regarding both games. First, the GBC version...

Quote:

In fall 1999, Capcom decided to port some of its classic console/coin-op titles to the Game Boy Color. The games announced were Street Fighter Alpha, 1942, Ghosts 'n Goblins and...Resident Evil!? It sounded implausible. After all, how could any developer squeeze a game that had utilized everything the 32-Bit consoles had to offer into an 8-Bit Game Boy Color? Skepticism abounded. Capcom went with English developer HotGen (who's now bringing the card game Uno to the GBC) to transfer the game, and amazingly, HotGen succeeded. It looked a little blocky - imagine playing RE on a Commodore 64 - and sounded a little tinny, but the entire game was there. Using a huge 4-Meg cartridge (supposedly backward compatible with older versions of the Game Boy), the game even had a few new enemies included.

Street Fighter Alpha, 1942, and Ghosts 'n Goblins were all released to varying degrees of success. But Resident Evil, initially slated for a January 2000 release, was pushed back to September of this year to give developers more time to work on it. By March, it was all over. Capcom of Japan felt that it didn't do justice to the series, and summarily cancelled the game. Why? Perhaps the folks who posted this message on the French fansite www.survivhor.com put it best: "How can anyone be frightened by a heap of pixels that's supposed to represent a zombie?" The claustrophobic environments of the game translated well, but the smaller, less-detailed zombies simply weren't scary.

So, as survival/horror goes, Resident Evil for the Game Boy Color gets an A-plus for Survival and an F-minus for Horror. The only real question is, why didn't this occur to anyone at Capcom sooner? A third-grader could tell you that the tiny Game Boy Color simply isn't able to replicate the immersive experience of games like Resident Evil. Still, it's hard to fault Capcom's firm commitment to delivering a consistent standard of excellence with their Resident Evil titles. Bravo to HotGen for pulling off this amazing technical achievement, and bravo to Capcom for having the cojones to pull the plug on it. If only they'd done the same thing to Resident Evil: Survivor.


And here's what they had to say about 1.5...

Quote:

OK, so this aborted sequel to the original Resident Evil wasn't really going to be called Resident Evil 1.5, but that's how Capcom R&D now refers to the 70-percent-complete project. It packed a few features that eventually showed up in the final version of RE2, including rookie cop Leon Kennedy as one of the main characters. But instead of Claire Redfield, RE1.5 starred a spunky motocross racer named Elza Walker as the second protagonist. Set in and around the Raccoon City Police Department, the game's steel-and-concrete environments were sterile and bright - not nearly as spooky as RE2's less modern look.
RE1.5 did feature a more elaborate costume-change system than the hidden-outfit extras of the revamped sequel. Leon and Elza could find and don new outfits, as well as items like bulletproof vests, that would change their appearance and offer extra protection or more inventory slots. The outfits would become tattered and blood-soaked as the duo traveled through Raccoon City.

Capcom completely scrapped the project and essentially started RE2 over from scratch. Don't expect to see RE1.5 pop up in any future RE director's cut or side-story, either. But don't despair - according to the series' creator, you wouldn't wanna play this thing anyway. "The gameplay was not fun at all and there were so many holes in the storyline," Shinji Mikami, the producer of the Resident Evil series, tells us. "Because of those two reasons, I don't think it will resurface in the future." Still, if you're determined to snag a look at The-Game-That-Coulda-Been-RE2, import yourself a copy of the Japanese Biohazard: Director's Cut. It packs footage of the infamous RE1.5.
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Johnny Undaunted



Joined: 08 Sep 2003
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 15, 2003 6:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yeah, I knew about that EGM issue. The same exact text are availble on GameSpot in their Videogame Graveyard feature. I just want a hands-on account of the game itself. Most of the info seems to consist of Shinji Mikami saying "Don't Bother! The game wasn't that great". Was the game really that horrible?
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Ancient Oldie



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PostPosted: Mon Dec 15, 2003 9:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It probably wasn't horrible, just plain mediocre. I'm glad that Mikami had the common sense (and business savvy) to know that he had a potentially huge franchise on hand and that for it to to take off, he would need to have a sequal that would be superior to the old one in every way and then some. Obviously he made the right choice. Maybe they'll release it in some sort of future collector's pack. It can't be any worse than Survivor... I hope.
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ICEknight



Joined: 15 Dec 2003
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 16, 2003 10:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Not sure if it has something to do with this cancelled project, but some time after it was announced that it woudn't be released, another company released a Moomin game for the GBC that featured some rooms with a fixed perspective (a lĂ  Resident), where your character would show a different size depending on how far he was from the "camera".

When I played this game for the first time, this neat effect reminded me a lot of how I imagined the GBC port of Resident Evil would look like (only technically speaking, of course). Maybe the developers reused the RE engine to make this game? I'm sorry I can't remember the complete title or the company/development group that was in charge of it.



If it had the same amounts of action as the Moomin game (almost unexistant), then I can understand why it was canned...


Last edited by ICEknight on Tue Dec 16, 2003 11:47 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Kitsune
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 16, 2003 11:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think there may be more behind the cancellation of RE 1.5 and RE GBC.

Especially because there's a Game.com version of Resident Evil.
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kap
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 17, 2003 12:09 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I would suspect, with more big names for the Game.com than just RE, that Tiger paid big money to have those games made. There just isn't any other reason for Sonic Jam to exist.

Mortal Kombat Trilogy, though.. ;)
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Kitsune
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 17, 2003 8:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

If that's the case, then I wonder just how much did Tiger pay Capcom for the license.

The failed, useless license.

Fun fact: Resident Evil Gaiden seems to fit into the storyline somewhat - in the ending [spoiler] Leon gets infected with something. In the next Resident Evil, he's supposed to be fighting off a T-Virus infection as he goes through the game.

Which makes me wonder just how much influence did the original RE scriptwriters have in RE Gaiden...
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Johnny Undaunted



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PostPosted: Thu Dec 18, 2003 5:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Kitsune wrote:
If that's the case, then I wonder just how much did Tiger pay Capcom for the license.

The failed, useless license.

Fun fact: Resident Evil Gaiden seems to fit into the storyline somewhat - in the ending [spoiler] Leon gets infected with something. In the next Resident Evil, he's supposed to be fighting off a T-Virus infection as he goes through the game.

Which makes me wonder just how much influence did the original RE scriptwriters have in RE Gaiden...


Tiger pretty much produced the Game.com's entire library of games. Many third parties companies didn't have much to with the system aside from licensing their games to Tiger. I know there were plans to release a "port" of Metal Gear Solid for the Game.com, as well as a second Resident Evil game (starring Claire), but the Game.com bombed before any of those games could be released.

If I recall correctly, Shinji Mikami supervise the script for Resident Evil Gaiden. He's even credited in the game.
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Exploding-Man



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PostPosted: Wed Dec 24, 2003 5:21 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I remember waiting for this and then being disappointed to find out it was dead. Especially because I thought it would be neat to see a miniture version of RE even if it sucked.
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DavidDurica



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PostPosted: Wed Dec 24, 2003 12:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
I remember waiting for this and then being disappointed to find out it was dead. Especially because I thought it would be neat to see a miniture version of RE even if it sucked.

Yeah, that's what grabbed my interest. I've always been keen on the "Things That Should Not Be" for the GBC, like the Dragons Lair port, or Alone In The Dark's popping up and saying "Oh, you mean N didn't tell you that the GBC had 16 million color support?"
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Rukes



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PostPosted: Sun Feb 01, 2004 12:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I remember playing Resident Evil - GBC at E3 2000. Horrible controls and pretty confusing to boot. It was definately a stretch. I didn't play much of it at all, sadly. I wish I did, seeing how it got canned.
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TheRedEye
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 01, 2004 1:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Exploding-Man wrote:
I remember waiting for this and then being disappointed to find out it was dead. Especially because I thought it would be neat to see a miniture version of RE even if it sucked.


Take like three bucks to eBay and get yourself a Game.com.
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Kitsune
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 01, 2004 6:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Five bucks can get you five copies!
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Richter Belmont



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PostPosted: Tue Feb 03, 2004 6:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

DavidDurica wrote:
I've always been keen on the "Things That Should Not Be" for the GBC...


Yeah, same here. I'd love to play GBC RE, whether it sucks or not. I remember looking forward to it, then being disappointed when it was canceled.
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DavidDurica



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PostPosted: Tue Feb 03, 2004 8:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
I remember playing Resident Evil - GBC at E3 2000. Horrible controls and pretty confusing to boot.

So it was a perfect port then! (rimshot)
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