Today, during my daily internet search, I came across an interesting gameplay video, of what could be called "Resident Evil 3.5". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=223zDelxjDs&fmt=18 Basically, this is the gameplay of early development stages of Resident Evil 4. Resident Evil 3.5 was supposed to be the Resident Evil 4 that we all know, but it was canceled for reasons that we will get into details below, and the game mechanics were completly overhauled, and it became what we currently have. So lets makes some comparisions from the beta to the final version. The graphical aspect of the game is pretty impressive, concidering the time when it was in development, and concidering that it was supposed to be released as a Nintendo Gamecube exclusive, it was certainly very well made, enough to be inpair even with our next-gen games, with it's beautiful illumination, (high?)quality textures, lots of details, shaddings in Leon's cloth (as well as the rest of the scenaries), realtime shadows, effects and flashlight illumination. Well, while Leon's 3D model remained the same, apparently all the graphical quality of the beta stages of development were lost in the final version of Resident Evil 4, where we can clearly see the insanely amount of low-quality, with not-so-much detailed, unfiltered textures. We can notice that the Leon voice actor is still the same from RE4, the sound files used when he gets hurt remained the same. The animation in were very well done, and they flows very nicely. The movements theirselves are insanely good, even the zombies movements, or rather, ghosts. Since in this video we only see Leon, it is uncertain if this game was supposed to have more playable characters. But we are safe to assume that, at that point of development, he was the only playable character, considering that, in the original RE4, released in 2005 for the Nintendo Gamecube, the entire game was played with Leon only (aside the one section where you had to control Ashley in the main story, and the other three characters that you could control in the Mercenaries mode, after completing the game). The gameplay is absolutely different from what we have in RE4. Instead of the trademark over-the-shoulder, "pirate's parrot" gameplay camera, the game featured a more dinamic, behind look camera (similar to the one seem in Silent Hill: Homecoming), with ocasional environmental re-positioning, relative to the player's position in the scenary, like the classic camera format used in the previous Resident Evil games. The game has an "auto-aim" function, that automatically looks the gun's aim to the nearest target, just like in the classic Resident Evil games, but the game also features a "free-aim" function, which is nothing more but the gun aimming mode used in the relased RE4. We can also notice that Leon holds a flashlight in his left hand. Whenever a pickable object is lit by Leon's flashlight, it starts to glow, (very similar to what happens in Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare) indicating that it can be picked. Instead of the current, continuation to the Resident Evil saga, in the early development stages, this Resident Evil was supposed to follow a paranormal, more science-fiction oriented plot (much like the afore-mentioned Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare reference), completly unrelated to the original series, and is very focused in the psychological horror rather than in the fast-paced action, that the series is widely known for, aspects that are very well illustrated in the video, with it's atmosphere of tension, mood, as well as the (needless) sudden scares. Different from what we have in RE4, where Leon has to venture himself through many lands, in the early developments, the plot of the game was supposed to fully explore a haunted massion, and, the enemies, instead of the common zombies, or villagers, for that matter, were ghost-zombies (that are aesthetically like and whose the moviments are like the ones seem in the movie Thir13en Ghosts) and babie-dolls (threats with similarities to the Gray Children, monters found in the original Silent Hill game). The conclusion is that Resident Evil 3.5 was completly overhauled (or better, canceled, since this and it's released, final counterpart, are completly opposite products) due to the game's "abnormal" nature, "supernatural" horror, "out-of-place" plot, since it had nothing to do with the Resident Evil's original story, even though the gameplay itself was pretty good. While Resident Evil 4 is the polar-opposite case: the story continues, but much of the horror and tension that it had were sacrificed, and substituted with intense action, a game that, eventually, become the harbinger of a genre that is now very popular (the action-horror game), and was the restart of the series, that lately got it's new installment of the series, it's continuation: Resident Evil 5.
From what I recall, when the BioHazard 4 demo was released, I believe we found what my have been the old room listing from this version, which has a ton of room names and what not. Nothing that I recall really corresponds with the final. I think it also listed the final boss room as well, but I'd have to double check this. This really suggusted that this version was relatively far along in devlepment before it was scrapped and redone. Kinda makes me sad we may not see much more of what could have become for this version. Reportly, there were also some other versions of this that they worked on before finalizing what we got. It's another similar case of what occured with Resident Evil 2 in which development was scrapped at a very late stage of the development. One of the things though that we have is that we have more solid knowledge of "1.5", than we do with "3.5". As in, we have a pretty solid idea how far the game was in development and that it was playable from start to finish (or atleast that it was possible to fight the final boss anyways). I just hope some day we'll see more of this version of 3.5, and perhaps even a day where someone leaks the game or posts more videos of it. It'd be quite a facinating build to play, examine, and check out.
There's actually a copy of the Resident Evil 2 beta ("RE1.5") out there, but the guy who has it refuses to do anything with it because he has the only known copy in the world and he doesn't want to devalue it. He has a whole Youtube channel dedicated to Playstation games, I forget what it is now. I remember hearing about what a childish douche he was to some Resident Evil fansite.
Yeah, having a douche bag like that around ruins everything. I wish people like that would just .....die. Its as simple as that. I'm sorry I said it but they don't realize what awesome stuff lurks on those games. I want to troll him saying he doesn't own the beta just to piss him off and harass him the way he did that poor RE fanbase. I hope someone puts him in his place. RE and Dino Crisis franchises are the only Capcom Franchises I actually can tolerate and happen to like. All other Capcom shit is gay IMO. To see someone do this with a said beta of either of these franchises' games is absolutely insulting and absurd.
I hope at the very least he's ripped it to his own HDD. If that disc were to ever get destroyed the game goes with it.
I hope it does get destroyed. Not because I don't care the game goes with it though because I actually do care. The reason why I hope it gets destroyed is because he'll deserve it. It will teach him not to hoard shit that is valuable towards research. The same goes for any stingy fuckers everywhere else that have something that should be made public. Its all about money. That beta isn't going to last forever and money will only give you so much satisfaction. I wonder how much this fucker would sell it for if he intended to sell it right now. probably over 1000 dollars. Speaking of fags waving prototypes in people's faces, I posted a Sonic 2 Beta video a while back and some fucktard claimed to have beta 3 of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 I was on guard but he eventually persuaded me into believing he had it. of course if he does have it as well as "claiming" to have betas of Sonic '06 and Sonic Unleashed, he's one of those snot nosed colloectors. Finally NoNameAtAll saw this fucktards comments and unconvinced me that he had the prototypes he was claiming to have. NoNameAtAll saved me from doing something stupid (although I never intended to share it with the Sonic community) until it was determined if he was bull shitting. His lack of proof and the fact he was trying to be like that RE 1.5 fucker, prooves that he was either that dork or just some fucking bullshitter. Here's the video if you would like to see this bull shitter in action. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALB1dAnJiSE
(I'll fix up some spelling and grammar issues here and there later, took a long while to type this out and dead beat, so hope it makes sense) I know other topics have existed, I know this stuff is years old, but I am surprised I have never seen a thorough examination of this game done. at least to the extent I am hoping to bring to light here. For one I don't want to delve so much into areas that have been done to death, I want to examine the side of Resident Evil 3.5 that either has been overlooked for too long or simply and correctly has been lost in the magazine articles and scans of time and memory. I had to talk with a lot of people, had to do a lot of research, and had to do a lot of examination to get to this point, some of my sources I don't have on-hand online, but I will try to provide as much as I can as I explain this as a whole. Noting I am examining Resident Evil 3.5, not Resident Evil 4 Beta, but the Fog and Hookman Versions of this game. Which means I have to start off with the most overdone part of this whole section, the three videos of gameplay we have of the game. I want to break it into time slots for notable explanations and things people even after all of these years may have missed. Yes we all know there's dolls, a hookman, shadow stuff, and an airship, but lets go beyond that. Fog Trailer: 0:14: Right at the start we have something to talk about. This is the Curtain Hallway, or as I will get to, the "Drape" Hall. According to Cube Magazine which had the unveil for the game, they had a six page article on this game which took place from Leon's perspective to tell it instead of a traditional article writing style. In it, they cite that there is a scene where a curtain wraps itself around Leon's throat trying to strangle them. We're going to have to take a break off here even so soon to explain why a curtain would be strangling Leon. You see, Leon has been infected with the Progenitor Virus, which according to the same Cube ongoing saga that spanned several issues is turning Leon into a Tyrant. Whenever they actually mean that or it was some type of mistake is to be determined, if anyone has exact scans they can provide of the Cube issues that would be fantastic since I am working off cached collections of info from them from years ago, a friend who owns the issues of the long forgotten Cube Europe Magazine, and collections from others who once read it or it's scans for recollection to proof what I have. But the scans no longer exist, which is a shame they were likely our biggest insight into Resident Evil 3.5. Anyways, the Progenitor Virus is turning Leon into a Tyrant and causing him to hallucinate and see horrible images. However, the difference between what's real and not wears thin in the horrific world Leon must survive in. He is in a castle in Europe near the games start searching for a kidnapped Sherry Birkin (once again, this is totally working off the Cube Europe magazine 6 page exclusive though it also goes with the information left here http://resident-evil-beta.de/re3.5.html which is another recollection of what it said besides the caches). The Castle though was littered with barrels and crates with the Biohazard symbol on them, and in the dark of the castle within the first horror of the game Leon gets exposed to a strange black and gooey, leech-like foggy virus which consumes him and... Wait, is that Uroboros? Well, likely the Fog Virus which is related to the Progenitor Virus inspired Uroboros in Resident Evil 5, take it as a plot point in Resident Evil 3.5 that carried on since there's no denying that thing looks just like Uroboros. Anyways, Leon was consumed by the Fog Virus and that is where his transformation and hallucinations began. In the castle he reads files about a man named Mr. Hook (yes, Cube magazine called him that... I am not joking.) Mr. Hook was the caretaker of the Castle. Now with the outbreak of the Fog-Progenitor Virus, he has "gained life" as a spirit, with the ability that whatever he touched would come alive thanks to the progenitor virus. Yes, the dolls, the moose heads, the suits in armor are all being brought to life since Mr. Hook is... Touching them. HOWEVER, Leon is not right in the head. Sure the T-Virus brings to life dead people as Zombies but could the Progenitor Virus really bring back spirits? Or was this all conducted in Leon's head since he's a little crazy? Whatever the case, it was really real to Leon, so bringing us back to the Curtain Case the Curtain would be alive since Mr. Hook... Touched it. Now back to that trailer analysis, we'll get back to Cube Magazine in a bit. 0:17: We see the long spinning staircase, BUT notice what's around the Staircase? Chains~ Something our dear old Mr. Hook loves very much, in fact, if I can speculate from fact a bit this does sort of look like a dungeon of sorts... 0:20: Yes, it's an airship. Everyone knows. However, did you know that the Airship may in fact be a flashback? What is this madness you ask, well now lets take another break from the Fog Trailer and go to another area with some evidence. When Resident Evil 4 Trial Version was hacked one of the greatest overall finds was a list of "rooms" for Resident Evil 3.5. However, they weren't in English and due to some massive help from the the-horror.com we received a fairly fine list. However no one ever went any deeper with the list. Which is where I come in and have to ruin everything. But first we must link this to an interview. See, everything interlocks? Long lost in the tides of time is an interview about this early Resident Evil 4 version. In it, Niroshi Shibata talks about some key focuses in the game. He talks about several interesting things, like how the Paris Facility in Code Veronica Claire infiltrates at the beginning was going to play a role in 3.5 with Sherry. More so, he talks about returning BOWs in Resident Evil 4, to which he cites Cerebus and Tyrant specifically though he says others would return too but he didn't want to ruin the surprise. An interesting thing he notes is that the Tyrants have become more mass produced and there is a cutscene of Leon witnessing a group of Tyrants carrying off one of their descendants to, you guessed it, eat him. Wait, what!? I'll just give you all the footnotes finally. This following is conducted from a translation from Japanese to German to English, so some things may be slightly wrong, however compared and think this should be about right. The Story of Resident Evil 3.5 The game takes place a few days before Code Veronica. Leon was going to the Paris base to rescue a kidnapped Sherry Birkin from the facility, the government agent while infiltrates the outer castle that is a lead to the base's location when a sudden outbreak of the Progenitor Virus in the castle and conducted it as it spread. The virus acted quickly as it spread through Leon and began to consume him. Barely escaping, Leon starts finding himself in a twisted world, with living dolls, spirits, and a special Umbrella agent sent out to the castle. According to interviews, the character was a character we already knew and was not Wesker, making the possibilities either Ada or HUNK, but based on the role and the fact HUNK already had a model for Resident Evil 4 Mercenaries, people guess it's him and he originally was supposed to play a bigger role in the story in 3.5. Leon would find himself in a world where he was unsure if he was just going mad or if the world was really as dark and consumed by Umbrella as he see's, tearing the line between reality and hallucination. Areas known to be in the game included an old castle, the Umbrella lab from Code Veronica, and an Air Ship. The Gameplay of Resident Evil 3.5 The game aimed to be somewhat of a departure for elements from the series but still be distinctively Resident Evil. The game would have fixed camera angles like all of the other Resident Evils, but the environments were fully rendered in 3D and the screens wouldn't be static but instead move in a cinematic way like a horror movie, switching to a behind the shoulder view whenever Leon went to aim his gun. The foreground of this game was exploration and horror, the developers say they wanted to create a world that only progressively got darker and more twisted as the game progressed, having the player second guessing themselves if what they see was real or just a hallucination. The hallucinations would twist the environments, but unfortunately how it would get darker and more twisted to affect gameplay and it's impact on the story is left unknown. There also would be sections in the style of Resident Evil Zero where Leon would have a partner, able to switch between the two with some special abilities of each, for those who played Zero it was going to be like that but only in certain parts of the game. switching to a partners view could also discern what madness Leon was conjuring up in his mind away from the true horror in the world they must survive. However beyond this we don't know much more or for that matter who Leon's partner would even be, though we do know of Ashley in a beta costume leftover on the Trial disk from 3.5 (discovered by Enrico Marini on THIA) it might have been Ashley or the guessed HUNK, or maybe even Ada, though there is no way for us to know. The only other thing noted is that the game would have more than one scenario, a bonus is how it's worded. Here is a pic of Ashley's beta model, it is stylized kind of like a pilot so that would make sense for the Airship. The Monsters of Resident Evil 3.5 Besides the already mentioned Dolls, there were a few other monsters that were talked about and found through hacking. They said a few well-known monsters from the Resident Evil series would return, with Zombie Dogs and the Tyrant as given examples. The Tyrant had gone to become a mass produced species that had turned dark and grisly with Umbrella's continual twisted methods. Cited in an interview is that in a cutscene the player would witness an old Resident Evil 1 styled Tyrant being torn apart and eaten alive by it's futuristic mass produced Tyrant race. He said there was more but he didn't want to ruin the surprise. He also said, not including bosses, there were also 4 new BOWs in the game. One was probably Hookman, which is a spirit-like being that attacks Leon, however we are not sure if this is a real BOW for it could be a hallucination from Leon so it might not count. Resident Evil 3.5 was to be the Definite End of Resident Evil According to GamePro in March, 2003 the game was over 50% finished though in January 2004 Capcom announced officially that all we had seen in trailers had been scrapped, leading Resident Evil 4 as it is now to be made. However, in a 2010 interview, the inventor of Resident Evil Shinjia Mikami confirmed more about 3.5 in an interview as at the time the Resident Evil series was dying in popularity and he wanted to finish the series with a bang, but Capcom took some control over the project in the final direction Resident Evil 4 would go and he quit shortly after, now a part of Platinum Games. His last directed Resident Evil game was RE4, and if it had been 3.5 he confirms that 3.5 was his way of concluding the series NOW that we're done with that long bit I have one more bit up before we continue with the trailer, the stage list. This was thought over, translated, and worked with carefully. Upon examination also with several characteristics in how it pops up, where it's set, translated fully, etc we have reason to believe the Airship in Resident Evil 3.5 was played through flashbacks though we're unsure of their importance. Either they are a part of Leon's past which the Hallucinations are striking up, something immediately before this game he's recalling, or just a nightmare, though it is uncertain but the Airship is not it's own individual stage rather than a part Leon goes to in "flashes" as the game progresses. With that in mind, here is the full room list and thus stage list that we have, though likely doesn't go to the ending. Unused (not actually used in the game, for testing purposes) 02 - ATARI TEST ROOM 02 - HIT TEST ROOM 03 - ANIMATION TEST ROOM 04 - GUN TEST ROOM 05 - BLOCK TEST 06 - *BLANK* 07 - AI TEST 08 - MORI-test 08 - FOREST-test 0a - *BLANK* 15 - EFFECT TEST 16 - *BLANK* 44 - SOUND TEST 00 - AIRSHIP FLASHBACK 0b - CHAPEL 0c - WATERWHEEL 0d - UNDERGROUND PASSAGE 0e - MOUNTAIN SIDE 0f - COURT YARD 01 - CASTLE DRAPE HALL 04 - OUTSIDE CASTLE ROOM 07 - STORM 09 - SPIRAL STAIRCASE 10 - DINING ROOM 11 - WINE CELLAR 12 - TOILET 13 - FOOD CELLAR 14 - KITCHEN 14 - STORAGE ROOM 17 - DINING HALL 18 - DOLL ROOM 19 - BATHROOM 1a - TAXIDERMY CORRIDOR 1c - EXPERIMENT LAB 1e - TUTORIAL (note I don't know what it's a tutorial for) 1e - INSIDE MOUNTAIN 1f - MOUNTAIN FOREST 20 - AIRSHIP FLASHBACK II 21 - AIRSHIP CORRIDOR 22 - AIRSHIP STUDY 23 - FOREST DAY 24 - FOREST NIGHT 25 - CASTLE ROOM 27 - ABANDONED TOWN 28 - CASTLE RUINS 29 - BASE 1 30 - BASE 2 2b - TOWN 2c - STUDY 1F 2d - STUDY 2F 2e- STUDY 3F 2f - OPENING ROOM 30 - HALL 3F 31 - MAIN HALL 32 - ARMOR PASSAGE 33 - ELEVATOR 34 - MINAMI GALLERY 34 - SOUTH GALLERY 35 - KITA GALLERY 35 - NORTH GALLERY 36 - GLASS PASSAGE 37 - PREPARATION ROOM 38 - DOLL ROOM 1 39 - THE PAST PASSAGE 3a - DOLL ROOM 2 3b - FRONT OF STAIRS 3c - WATER SUPPLY 3d - RECEPTION DESK & GARDEN 3e - LV2 ROOM 3f - KITCHEN 40 - PORTRAIT ROOM 41 - AIRSHIP RIGHT WING 42 - AIRSHIP LEFT WING OK, time for me to see what I can make out of this... Well the Unused stuff seems like a bunch of test rooms and empty things so that's skipable. The Airship seems to play some important role in the game, it appears several times and seems to be a memory sequence...? I guess something must have happened to Leon on an Airship before this game happened, THEN AGAIN Resident Evil 4 originally was supposed to be the final Resident Evil game and had to do with Leon fighting a fog virus-thing and also being exposed to the Progenitor Virus and having hallucinations so maybe the Airship is hallucination? So then I guess the game starts off in a Chapel after the initial Airship...? A church I guess. Then it seems he went past a water wheel to a cave... Actually, that kind of sounds like the final game, you know that area where you first meet the Las Plagas, then the water area, which leads to a cave... EXCEPT that's going to a church and not from a church... BUT it seems the Castle is on a Mountain side since they go to a Mountain side and enter a Castle. Since stuff about a Doll Room, a Dining Hall, a Taxidermist Corridor, I think this may be the Castle we saw in the Hookman gameplay. Since labeled as 1e, 1a, etc maybe that means it's an area you go around in circles in until you find the way out or solve the puzzle or something? Make sense with the gameplay clip and all wit ha more Resident Evil styled around-in-circles style. There's also a lot of food areas and some type of experimentation area...? Then it seems like some type of tutorial though that might also be entitled to the Unused areas BUT since it goes with the 1d number, it might be something more, like teaching you something area just named Tutorial. After that they escape back to the mountain, suggesting the castle is indeed carved into a mountain or something then enter into a Mountain Forest only for another flashback to the Airship. However, after the Airship it seems they are back to the forest ,which has a day and night section. Then they seem to get to some ruins and an abandoned town and stumble across a base? But the base leads to a town and some type of museum I guess since it has a whole bunch of galleries and studies. Doll Rooms, a Kitchen. THE PORTRAIT ROOM! That might be important, since in the Hookman gameplay we see the Hookman come out of a portrait! Then another Airship flashback then that's it... End of the game? Don't think so since the game wasn't completed, but interesting... Now after that REALLY long delay lets get back to the Fog Trailer, skipping all the stuff we already know since we know the Progenitor Virus rests in the castle apparently silly. That's another Resident Evil 5 carry over, they moved the "cradle" over to Africa though. If you go to the Spiral Staircase above, it seems that's when the Progenitor Virus starts acting up in the game and it haunts him until it consumes him as we see in the Fog Trailer. A few areas you can name off, like the gear area with the lightning is likely the Storm area, etc. Besides that there's not really much to say about it except it's a good visualization of how Leon is taken over. Which takes us to the second trailer, the Hookman Trailer: 0:20: This is likely the Outside Room right before the Storm area and the Staircase. Leon just got out of the Drape Hall and it's raining now, about to grow into a storm. Plus it's outside so see~ Next few scenes is stuff people already know, deer heads, dolls, knights... 0:36: The blue effect here is just added visual effects. The screen goes blue but what's about to happen is the fire will burst our of the fire place =, when the scene switches fire embers are outside of the fireplace showing that it indeed did happen. 0:37: Hmn? Notice the Hookman is shrouded in Shadows here? Let me explain... Resident Evil 4 was Alan Wake/Obscure before they even existed! Black, shadowy, moody, can teleport... Then Leon flashes his flashlight on him... Poof! The shadow all goes away and now he's just a tough guy zombie with a hook, no supernatural powers and likely no longer invincible. That would explain the shadow/zombiefied look of our Mr. Hook. Back to the Hookman Trailer... 0:43: If you pause right away you get to see a rather odd but cool room with stone steps, a pillar, sofas,and as the camera shifts a weird statue. 0:47: Pause quickly for Mannequins! This is likely the first doll room we see in the trailer. 0:48: Now this guy is interesting. He is most definitely a zombie, however he just flashed out of nowhere, in fact you can see if you pay attention he literally just appeared out of nowhere, suggesting this Zombie is Leon's Hallucination. Though want to know what's really strange? This room is a bathroom! There's a toilet to the left, why the hell is there a window showing into the bathroom? Is Leon imagining it...? 0:51: This is also interesting, it looks like the backset of the stage with all the wood and such. In fact, it might be related to this piece of concept art you can see on the bottom left of this scan. 0:55: This is a different area for sure than the one we saw earlier and in the gameplay video, yet the Hookman comes back! It might either be another one or the same guy coming back. Dr. Salvador is supposed to be the same each time and just won't die, who's to say Mr. Hook isn't the same and just disappears when beaten? 1:05: You can see a cow skull hanging on the ceiling, and next to it another stand. This is likely the Taxidermist Corridor, 1:07: Most definitely the Taxidermist Corridor, look at all of those heads and weapons! And we're done with that trailer. Won't do Hookman Gameplay since that has been examined to death. So what more exciting Resident Evil 3.5 stuff do we have yet to explore? Just a few more things, nothing much. This is a very lost Resident Evil Monster, it's fate whenever originally for the Village version or the Hookman version is unknown: Why is this concept art of the Illuminados showing a design for a KKK member? And finally, with the earlier Ashley Beta model there was a beta Ada model. Except since apparently all RE female models are based off Jill REmake model... Well it wasn't finished yet. There is a lot more we could get if we could manage to obtain the Cube Europe scans, and at that there's a lot more on Resident Evil 4 Beta, but for 3.5 at this time I think this is about all we can cover on it that has not been covered thoroughly before. Well with one last thing, apparently some of the Resident Evil 3.5 stuff was used in Haunting Grounds for the PS2. Food for thought. Any questions?
Both the RE 1.5 and 3.5 betas hold huge interest for me, I hope one day we find out more some way or another. As for the dude who says he has a copy of 1.5, how annoying is that! he could at least play a bit and record some new footage as "proof"
What's absurd is you saying that said people should die over a video game. =P Don't be ridiculous. Question. Is there any evidence that suggest that that is actually Ashley? I must admit every time I see her, I frequently reminded of an older Sherry Birkin. Yes, he did.
It's up to him, really. According to RetroGamer magazine (forget the issue number, but it's somewhere in my hugeass stack of about 6 years worth of RG magazines), he claims that Capcom made him sign an NDA as soon as he obtained this beta, which would explain why he deleted the footage and review of the beta from his own site. I'd email him to find out, but I'm certain I'd get LA LA LA I'm NOT LISTENING THERE IS NO BIOHAZARD 2 BETA or some other similarly useless reply. Edito - http://www.the-horror.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5756 this thread has a LOT of Resident Evil 1.5 information. Amongst the information I found- -The PS Museum curator apparently no longer owns the prototype copy of the beta. -There is more than one copy of the beta "in the wild", all owned by private collectors. Therefore, the curator's assertion that he own(ed) the only copy was a bunch of bull. -Also, the curator still claims the disc was not his own copy (possibly loaned?), and he never had any intention of leaking it. -Aforementioned other owners -have- considered leaking or selling their prototypes, but whenever their ownership of the disc is made public, it never comes to fruition (sometimes because "fans" of RE harass the collectors), though sometimes for other reasons undisclosed in this thread. -Some copies of the beta are actually discs that were sent to Japanese game magazines for review, prior to the cancellation of 1.5, thus meaning Capcom obviously had plans to publish it for general release prior to the cancellation, also opening the possibility that some retail copies may have -been- published. If they were, however, chances are they've either been destroyed, or are possessed by Capcom employees.
Very interesting, that's the most news I have heard on the beta since small screenshots and clips years ago. I hope one day capcom look at 1.5 and think about sticking it in a CE or even finding a way to release it if it's finished enough to play start to end, until then I'll keep dreaming about it. *edit* first thing in that thread gives me huge doubts
Anything by the OP of that thread is very... sketchy, at best. The idea that Mikami has no plans to go back to 1.5 -is- true, sadly, but the majority of stuff posted by fujin should be taken with a grain of salt. While -official- efforts regarding 1.5 have long since stopped (the Capcom employee put it best when he said Dino Crisis is the closest thing to Resi 1.5 that Capcom will ever release), it's likely that even more prototypes of 1.5 will pop up (again, there is more than one -known- disc in circulation, and an undisclosed number of preview discs shipped off to magazines). The majority of its value can be, in fact, attributed to the fact nobody knows exactly -how- rare it is. Collectors are discouraged from mentioning it (especially considering how the PS Museum Curator still gets hate to this day for not leaking the game while he had the chance), so there's no exact number of working prototypes in circulation. While I hate to speculate to this extent, it's perfectly possible that collectors have made their own backup copies of the prototypes they -do- own, too, therefore reducing the rarity of Resi 1.5 even further. Either way, it's likely we'll only see a leaked copy of 1.5 turn up if a fan (or a collector who has no objection with degrading the value of his game, but that's even less likely) somehow obtains a copy of it.
