This is the reason Co-op was taken out of Biohazard (original)

[Enigmatism415]

The system link idea might have been cool though (but the game would have been too easy in its current form). Perhaps someone with a good deal of modding skills can make this happen?

(btw, it would probably be awkward to watch your partner "enter" a door)

[P.I.M.P.]

who did this?

[MeganGrass]

Well, most of the BH1 team sans Mikami were people who had just joined the company and were working on their first game... so probably lack of experience, yeah. He could just mean they couldn't do it, not that it functionally couldn't be done (which, as we know, it could and they had it at one point). Actually programming it wasn't the problem. And how many PS1 owners had link cables, really?

There's also the matter that BH1's development was... troublesome, to say the least. In the end, the game is only about 50% of what was actually planned. Most of that due to time and budget limits.

Also Twitter has character limits and Kamiya gets assaulted with hundreds of messages a day. I think he earned the right to be blunt long ago.

Ah, well, I guess that would partially explain that.

Depending on who you ask, the link cable is hit or miss. Those who didn't own one nor have a use for it will say that nobody owned one. Yet, those who did use it can't even imagine what their 'PSone days' would have been like without it.

...and considering that special gun-cons, memory cards and such were packaged with certain titles, I'm sure it wouldn't be much of a hassle to include a link cable.

Overall, I agree that it was the best business decision they could make - Bio/RE probably wouldn't be what it is today... but I certainly don't agree with the "Cuz it was impossible" excuse.

The system link idea might have been cool though (but the game would have been too easy in its current form). Perhaps someone with a good deal of modding skills can make this happen?

(btw, it would probably be awkward to watch your partner "enter" a door)

It may seem weird to us, now, but using low-poly models for the doors would have been a simple solution for that. If I'm not mistaken, I think this was the case for the door leading to the shot gun/ceiling area in the mansion. Also, this strategy was used for several areas of Bio3, including the opening sequence. It would have worked.

As for a mod, it'd probably have to work like this (with the PSone limitations in-mind):

1 - Do some asm hacking to get two character models loaded at once. This would decrease the overall max capacity of how many enemy-type entities can be in a single room at once, however. IIRC, it's currently maxed out at around 7-8. So, it would be 2 characters + 6 enemies in a room = max.

With proper memory management, items/objects shouldn't be effected.

2 - Further asm hacking to enable i/o from the system link cable. This could be tricky, but only because the bandwidth is extremely limited. Therefore, only a very minimal amount of data should be sent, in real-time - character position, animation ID, room ID, etc.

3 - Extensive planning for event scripting, so that the story/gameplay is fluid... and most of all, fun. This would be the easiest task, really.

4 - Debug, debug and then, debug some more.

[J0shuaKane]

as long as something done in one room doesn't affect something in another room. scripted events like bodies disappearing after the hunters appear would also have to be eliminated. or being able to pick up the antidote for richard or not, i dont think it would work unless the gameplay was bland and one-directional.

[shanemurphy]

The truth is a lot more close to home then you may realize, it's called Resident Evil 5 and 6.

When the characters are both required to activate a door for example it's designed for optimization and pacing. It's not always about the technology side, simply it comes down to design that works on most occasions.

[B.Zork]

local co-op in resident evil is garbage on playstation. network structure for link cable is possible but i think with struggle modern japan have with online and network play and limitation of game with link cable play, they probably not able to pull off good experience. just look at deadly silence extra mode

i can write in theory how it can work. execution is tricky part.

[90s Gamer]

Never forget: