Resident Evil’s Big Nintendo Swing and a Miss

In a franchise arsenic dense and prolific arsenic Resident Evil, there’s bound to beryllium a buffet congealing connected the cutting country floor. The series’ abandoned games person go the worldly of legend; a discarded drafts folder that includes ports that pushed classical hardware past its limits and phantom prototypes for consoles that ne'er made it to the West.

While the sanction Resident Evil is often considered synonymous with PlayStation, acknowledgment to the bid getting its commencement connected Sony hardware, Capcom’s endurance fearfulness has had a comfy narration with Nintendo crossed the years. While that collaboration is beloved for birthing the erstwhile GameCube-exclusive Resident Evil 4, determination person been a mates of less-successful ventures connected Nintendo consoles.

Resident Evil has ne'er been a alien to handheld hardware, though its aboriginal way grounds came with casualties. The series’ portable debut connected Tiger’s doomed, ignominious Game.com instrumentality successful 1998 bode sick for Resi’s viability successful one’s pocket, but Capcom wasn’t astir to springiness up connected the thought of carrying endurance fearfulness astir successful your shorts.

The hardware wasn’t making it easy, though. Handheld gaming was successful its AA artillery and magnifying lens era, a clip of chunky underpowered devices with atrocious screens and inadequate backlights. None were evident candidates to big 1 of the PlayStation’s astir atmospheric games.

Resident Evil's iconic archetypal zombie encounter, ported to Game Boy Color. | Image credit: Capcom

In 1999, Capcom hired a tiny London-based workplace called HotGen to shrink Resident Evil down to the Game Boy Color’s 2.3-inch screen. Such a feat could, theoretically, beryllium accomplished 2 ways:

1. Create a bespoke larboard that plays to the GBC’s strengths, possibly a top-down acquisition akin to its 8-bit ancestor, Sweet Home.
2. Attempt to cram a 514 MB CD-ROM into an 8 MB Game Pak.

HotGen chose the latter, and they precise astir pulled it off. The squad recreated hundreds of Capcom’s pre-rendered backgrounds for the GBC’s 160x144 pixel, 56-color display. Characters scaled dynamically with extent and region connected a CPU that was designed successful 1974. The results were disfigured by immoderate tenable modular and astonishing by each other– it truly was the full PSX crippled squeezed wrong a translucent integrative slab the size of a matchbook.

The task reached near-completion earlier Capcom pulled the plug, citing concerns astir the last product’s appeal. One developer has hinted that 1 of Resident Evil’s “original creators” didn’t deliberation the larboard was worthy of their achievement. Whatever the reason, whoever made the call, they failed to support the crippled buried forever.

An incomplete physique leaked successful 2011, functional but rough. In December of 2025, preservation tract Games That Weren’t surfaced a 98% content-complete physique provided by adjunct programmer Pete Frith. It’s missing a fewer months of polish, but it’s wholly imaginable to wide Jill Valentine’s implicit campaign, from the Spencer Mansion’s invited mat to scraping Tyrant guts disconnected her boots.

One developer has hinted that 1 of Resident Evil’s “original creators” didn’t deliberation the larboard was worthy of their achievement.“

Capcom softly replaced the cancelled larboard with Resident Evil Gaiden successful 2001, an archetypal GBC rubric developed by M4, acceptable connected a cruise vessel and built from the crushed up for the aging portable hardware. Gaiden feels similar a stopgap and is mostly forgotten, overshadowed arsenic it was by the motorboat of the Game Boy Advance.

The GBA ne'er received a Resi game, though immoderate Italian developers pitched a larboard of Resident Evil 2 for the platform. Capcom passed connected their demo and decided to tackle Resident Evil’s handheld aboriginal connected its own. It was the close call.

Resident Evil: Deadly Silence delivered the archetypal acquisition successful a convenient clamshell case, utilizing each loveable gimmick of Nintendo’s DS successful a caller Rebirth mode alongside the untouched 1996 classic. Later, Resident Evil: Revelations connected 3DS would fulfill the franchise’s committedness of full-blooded endurance fearfulness experiences connected the go. The modern RE Engine takes it adjacent further, with today’s flagship Resi titles moving beautifully connected almighty PC hardware similar the Steam Deck. You tin adjacent get the modern trilogy of games – Biohazard, Village, and this year’s Requiem – connected Switch 2. We’re a agelong mode from squinting astatine a worm-light successful the backmost spot of grandpa’s car.

Resident Evil, it turns out, tin tally connected astir anything. Even the Nintendo 64. Capcom contractor Angel Studios miraculously compressed 1.2 GB of Resident Evil 2 onto a 64 MB cartridge, including its CG cutscenes – unheard of connected the N64 – with other features and high-res graphics courtesy of the almighty Expansion Pak.

The archetypal N64DD mentation of Resident Evil 0. | Image credit: Capcom

Capcom’s interior unit had a harder clip realizing their imaginativeness connected the platform, though. As the millennium drew near, the improvement squad began enactment connected a prequel for the Nintendo 64 called Resident Evil 0. Envisioned arsenic an exclusive for Nintendo’s ill-fated disc thrust add-on, the “64DD”, it was primitively intended to usage the peripheral’s read/write capabilities to grow RE2’s “zapping system” and bash each kinds of neat worldly with dual protagonists. The crippled would beryllium much difficult, with nary bottomless point boxes, alternatively paying homage to the pioneering “drop your worldly connected the crushed and anticipation idiosyncratic other finds it” crippled mechanic of bid progenitor Sweet Home. Local co-op allowed protagonists Rebecca Chambers and Billy Coen to past from the aforesaid couch, each without a loading surface successful sight.

Despite the champion efforts of Doshin the Giant, the 64DD sank quickly. Development astatine Capcom Studio 3 switched to the basal N64 system, and each the size limitations that came with it. While the squad astatine Studio 4 had 2 full GD-Roms for their simultaneously-developed Dreamcast project, Code: Veronica, the RE0 unit had to marque bash with conscionable a fewer twelve megabytes of ROM astatine their disposal. They designed the crippled accordingly, avoiding abstraction hogs similar cutscenes successful favour of a leaner, harder acquisition with faster zombies and on-the-fly, instant quality switching.

The crippled was real. Footage was shown disconnected astatine E3 and screenshots were wide disposable to the press. Living, breathing quality beings played a demo astatine Tokyo Game Show 2000 and a Japanese assortment amusement adjacent did a conception showcasing the aboriginal physique connected a large bulky prototype cartridge. Resident Evil 0 was astir 10% implicit and increasing progressively unfeasible connected the N64 level erstwhile the task was saved by the involution of a marine mammal.

Capcom’s narration with Nintendo’s Project: Dolphin, aboriginal known arsenic the GameCube, is the worldly of legend, a concern that produced truthful galore bangers that a fistful of them person a chill sanction and their ain Wikipedia page. The past and aboriginal of Resident Evil was astir to beryllium written connected that purple, behandled box, and it was the cleanable location for RE0.

The last mentation of Resident Evil 0, released successful 2002. | Image credit: Capcom

After switching hardware twice, Studio 3 was capable to onshore the level successful 2002 with the Resident Evil 0 we person today, a flawed gem with chill ideas. The script and characters survived the modulation and were expanded for the GameCube’s generous optical discs that gave the squad immoderate breathing country and brought backmost loading screens. The moving zombies conception was softly snatched up for the 2002 REmake, but it’s mostly the earthy progression of what we saw successful that N64 footage. It’s not dissimilar the travel of Mother 3, different rubric orphaned by the 64DD and yet realized connected a level better-suited for its strengths.

Unlike the Game Boy Color mentation of Resident Evil, oregon the legendary Resident Evil 1.5, determination is nary codification of the N64 RE0 successful the chaotic – not that it’s stopped fans from looking, and adjacent coming tantalizingly close. In 2018, a funny collector peeled backmost the statement connected their N64 developer cartridge containing a prototype of Mega Man 64 to uncover a “BIOHAZARD 0” statement underneath. At 1 constituent the EEPROM wrong held a physique of RE0, written implicit agelong agone for the adventures of Rock Volnutt. RE0’s N64 prototype mightiness beryllium gone, but astatine slightest we cognize it existed.