Biohazard 2 Beta 1 (Very first beta)

[Ridley W. Hayes]

I was wondering where did you get the higher quality footage of beta 1?

Those are still images from the GameInformer website.

[News Bot]

Body armor probably acted in the same way the side pack does in the final, where it isn't an inventory item and you have to select whether or not to put it on the same way you would for pressing a switch.

[doriantoki]

I think they are used to create the acid/flame/whatever rounds from normal grenades, similar to the gunpowder method in BH3.

Oh, I see. Does that mean that 1.5 just had FA sprays then and no other means of healing? I guess that would explain the antidote spray.

One thing I am curious about; was there ever any evidence that the body armor was implemented? If you look at the item list we got from Curator from 1.5, no body armor appears on there. And AFAIK, there isn't any evidence of it in screenshots either, nor any remnants of it in early RE2 builds. Was it an idea they had yet implemented? Or is it really well hidden in 1.5?

The quality is a bit bad, but here we can see that Leon's model is not from 1.5


He ain't got that yellow knife-holder. Besides, you can see clearly that Leon's face looks more updated. The 1.5 one looked fat and the hairstyle was a bit messy. Here's a comparison between both models:

http://www.the-horror.com/forums/att...8&d=1343981189

After closer inspection of the beta 1 footage you can see his knife holster in some shots and not in other shots, the easiest one to see it in is the burning lab shots, you can see it glowing on his right leg from the fire. I guess that confirms it's a mash up of the two games although I'm probably very late on that conclusion.

snip

Oh yeah, I'd forgot all about that scene. I'm looking forward to getting a new computer so I can start messing around with things again, there's a lot I want to do, especially with these Trial Edition/SourceNext hybrids.

Despite the mash up of footage it is clear that they had a working build in the early stages of Bio2. By looking at dates we can get an idea of exactly what they had done. E3 is held during summer and Directors Cut was released in September 1997 (I'm not sure on the date the build was compiled), so we could estimate beta 1 as June 1997 and the Trial Edition as September 1997. Can anyone confirm the date the Trial Edition was compiled?

Two months is actually quite a lot of time development wise, Capcom seem capable of getting a lot of work done over just a few months. We know by looking at the Trial Edition, assuming it's an accurate representation of development, just how far Capcom had got with the game. Thanks to some of the stuff Ys1 posted in his thread we can make a mini timeline and see just how much they got done in what time they had.



- April 15th 1997 is pre beta 1
- June 1997 is when E3 was held with beta 1
- July 1st 1997 is post beta 1
- September 1997 is the release of the Trial Edition

Some things I'm curious to know about the Trial Edition:

- Do any of the other Bio2 backgrounds pre-date June 1997?
- Is there a beta scene where the Licker crashes through the glass ceiling?

If there are any backgrounds that predate June 1997 then we know they are from beta 1 its self, also if a beta scene exists where the Licker crashes through the ceiling that would be further evidence to suggest it was a coherent build that featured both characters, as it's the one scene we can confirm happens to Claire in beta 1. We know the backgrounds are there for certain, and if my memory serves me correctly this does not happen to Leon in this build.

[News Bot]

Since the medicines comes in the same colors as herbs, I am guessing you could mix and match them like you could herbs in the final game. This was supposed to apparently replaced herbs in 1.5 as well.

I think they are used to create the acid/flame/whatever rounds from normal grenades, similar to the gunpowder method in BH3.

[doriantoki]

Since the medicines comes in the same colors as herbs, I am guessing you could mix and match them like you could herbs in the final game. This was supposed to apparently replaced herbs in 1.5 as well.

[News Bot]

The item in the last picture is "Chemical/Medicine AC-W24".

I can only speak from my own perspective on the matter, but I think there's a lot of evidence to suggest that beta 1 did exist in a physical form. For starters the Trial Edition contains many beta scenes, such as the Licker scene which we can absolutely confirm is a leftover remnant of beta 1. There are other scenes such as the beta Marvin scene, there's also an alternate scene with Ada where she shoots at Leon much like in the Stars Office at the end of the Trial Edition, only in a different location in the East Office, plus many more.

Another piece of evidence is that the Trial Edition only contains one selectable scenario (LeonA) but has coding for both A and B left in the game. Is the second scenario the first development of LeonB? Or perhaps it's leftovers of what was once Claire's scenario in beta 1? I think the answer to that question is a bit of both. There's no way to actually select the B scenario in the Trial Edition, you just have to warp to the other side of the streets. I think that's evidence that the behaviour of the game changed depending on where you started, Leon being on one side of the burning truck, Claire being on the other.

Beta 2 is much, much further in development, so far to the point where it was clear they were releasing the game on two discs. The reason beta 2 got leaked with only Leon playable is because the disc is only supposed to have Leon on it, it's that simple. The Leon disc got leaked, the Claire disc didn't.

I think the Trial Edition closely marks the point where Capcom stopped working on a new concept on the back end of old code and actually started developing the final build for real. This is just a guess but beta 1 was probably a proof of concept build put together with the purpose of showing what the new game was about, setting, characters, design, etc. An in house demo if you will, something higher ups could play to see where the new design was going as well as something that could be shown to the public for similar reasons. Whatever it was, the evidence is there in the Trial Edition alone that something existed before it, it's no coincidence that it has so many secrets buried inside, it's because they came closely from the same era of development.

You have some good points... and i know about all of this, when i have more time i will come back and edit my post with a responce to everything. I'v always wanted to believe beta 1 was real but the mash up videos we have of it are not enough to tell me it's a real legit thing.... of course there are more beta's for RE2 then we've ever seen, so to be numbering these beta's the way we are is silly in the first place. The one we claim as beta 2 could very well be the fifth or tenth beta in reality.

Here's a few cool pictures.

1.5 rocket launcher, code for it was on the disc. I forget who made this.



Here's a supposed ada/leon meeting beta scene. I did have the translation for the dialog but i lost it long ago. They both say different stuff (i believe this was unlocked on the trial version, same with the Marvin beta scene )















EDIT: here are the translations with an explanation.... from the guy who unlocked the scene.

Here is the english translations for each picture.

1. a sequal/continuation?
2. I'm sorry, because of the uniform, i thought you were a zombie.
3. (untranslatable)
4. Ada Wong
5. (untranslatable before certain changes. after I'm looking for a guy named Ben. He's a freelance reporter, he's a very clever guy
6. (untranslatable)
7. We can't do anything with this van.

This is what is said in the final release.

Final:
2 - I'm sorry, when I saw the uniform, I thought you were another zombie.
5 - I'm looking for a guy named Ben, he's one of those reporter types, always looking for a scoop.
7 - I've been trying to find another way, but there's a wrecked car blocking the entrance. Give me a hand here, will you?

This is the guy who did it, explaing how he found this stuff.

"Ok, let me explain. What makes beta RE/BH games beta are the .RDT files, they contain what backs to load, what and where to place enemies/items, and they contain speech data. Well knowing this, I took the .RDT for the Parking Garage (A place I knew was inaccessable in the Trial Edition) and replaced the PC version with it. Well, after finally making it there I was somewhat surprised the van wasn't skinned. Then came the good beta stuff. Everything happened as normal, but then all of a sudden the wrong speech files were played (or none at all) and Leon and Ada did different actions! But anyways, they walked torwards the van doing all kinds of different things and saying different things (I cant read Jap, and the voice files for this beta stuff simply isn't there and won't load). After it was over I decided to move the van, except Ada didn't bother to help. Then when I tried to go through the door (it had a wood one instead of metal) it started me back in the same room "stuck" in the van."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Can anyone translate?







I'v always wanted a translation for the last picture. Even when i found those on the game and was messing around with them (yes i know what they do) i could never find a legit translation on the internet.

Thanks, this is what I had suspected. Are Leon's models both the same? Can we confirm that the Leon we see in the Bio1.5 environments is the same Leon we see in the Bio2 environments?

The quality is a bit bad, but here we can see that Leon's model is not from 1.5


He ain't got that yellow knife-holder. Besides, you can see clearly that Leon's face looks more updated. The 1.5 one looked fat and the hairstyle was a bit messy. Here's a comparison between both models:

http://www.the-horror.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=6958&d=1343981189

Yes they are, actually, the footage is from 1.5. Not from RE2.

Thanks, this is what I had suspected. Are Leon's models both the same? Can we confirm that the Leon we see in the Bio1.5 environments is the same Leon we see in the Bio2 environments?

I was wondering where did you get the higher quality footage of beta 1?

Also on a side note, are the labs in the beta 1 video 1.5 labs?

Yes they are, actually, the footage is from 1.5. Not from RE2.

Here's some comparisons (with better quality) of BH2 Video from E3 1997 VS Trial Edition:



SIG. P228 / SIG Sauer P228

I was wondering where did you get the higher quality footage of beta 1?

Also on a side note, are the labs in the beta 1 video 1.5 labs?

[Vixtro]

Umm... says who?

I thought that was just common knowledge really within the Resi Evil beta community. If you must know though, it was fairly often said years ago on Bioflames whenever it was brought up in discussion. Since we've not had any new information on Beta 1 after all these years, it's probably safe to assume that it's still holds the same rarity today.

[OKeijiDragon]

Beta 1 is considered to be even rarer than 1.5 itself, so yeah, pretty much 'nuff said!

Umm... says who?

For all we know beta 1 is not even real. We are all assuming there is this beta 1 because we saw a bit of footage. Hell, they could of just made that footage of "beta 1" for promotional purpose and that's all there is. Considering we have not seen anything else besides the footage we have now i'm reallllllly heading in that direction. It doesn't make sense that they would release a beta with only Leon's scenario and have this other super rare beta with Claire and Leon's on it??? why release a clearly way more percent done beta with only one character accessible yet there's this other way less percent beta with both characters playable. It makes no sense.

I can only speak from my own perspective on the matter, but I think there's a lot of evidence to suggest that beta 1 did exist in a physical form. For starters the Trial Edition contains many beta scenes, such as the Licker scene which we can absolutely confirm is a leftover remnant of beta 1. There are other scenes such as the beta Marvin scene, there's also an alternate scene with Ada where she shoots at Leon much like in the Stars Office at the end of the Trial Edition, only in a different location in the East Office, plus many more.

Another piece of evidence is that the Trial Edition only contains one selectable scenario (LeonA) but has coding for both A and B left in the game. Is the second scenario the first development of LeonB? Or perhaps it's leftovers of what was once Claire's scenario in beta 1? I think the answer to that question is a bit of both. There's no way to actually select the B scenario in the Trial Edition, you just have to warp to the other side of the streets. I think that's evidence that the behaviour of the game changed depending on where you started, Leon being on one side of the burning truck, Claire being on the other.

Beta 2 is much, much further in development, so far to the point where it was clear they were releasing the game on two discs. The reason beta 2 got leaked with only Leon playable is because the disc is only supposed to have Leon on it, it's that simple. The Leon disc got leaked, the Claire disc didn't.

I think the Trial Edition closely marks the point where Capcom stopped working on a new concept on the back end of old code and actually started developing the final build for real. This is just a guess but beta 1 was probably a proof of concept build put together with the purpose of showing what the new game was about, setting, characters, design, etc. An in house demo if you will, something higher ups could play to see where the new design was going as well as something that could be shown to the public for similar reasons. Whatever it was, the evidence is there in the Trial Edition alone that something existed before it, it's no coincidence that it has so many secrets buried inside, it's because they came closely from the same era of development.