Richard Mandel

The Hunt for Resident Evil 1.5 Richard Mandel

Do you like tales of lost treasure? This is the story of a quest to find a lost treasure . . . only it wasn't your typical treasure. It wasn't a chest full of pirate gold and jewels or a cave full of riches from a long-forgotten kingdom. It wasn't some prized antique or rare collectible, or even a chance discovery made in someone's garage sale or a backroad flea market stall. The item in question was a lost video game. That's right, a lost video game, one that had almost been completed but was canceled only three months prior to its planned release date and, in the time that followed, would become something of a legend among video game fans. It was the original version of the video game that fans have come to know and love as Resident Evil 2. That original version was the treasure being sought. This is the story of the fourteen-year search by a group of dedicated fans from around the world to find a playable development build of that lost original game. This is the story of how a build was finally tracked down, incomplete and badly broken, and how those fans took it upon themselves to both finish the game and make it fully playable. This is also the story of how that effort went awry and how another group of fans had to take action in order to ensure that this original and unaltered development build, despite its incompleteness and many other flaws, finally saw the light of day. This is the story of the hunt for Resident Evil 1.5.