How Did you Get Into the Series?

[Henry Spencer]

Well, I was wondering what lead everybody here to start following the series in the first place?

Just interested in hearing your stories.

For me, I actually got into the series by a game which many of the old time fans hate - RE4. Let me explain.

Back in the mid 90s I used to watch my friends when I was really only about five or six, play the originals on the PSX console. I can still remember first watching them play RE1 and RE2, it terrified me so much, I never wanted to play the games for myself. Really scarred me for life.

Jump forward to 2000, after putting off the series for too long, I finally decided to give the series a go, so I rented RE: Survivor, which was the latest title in the series. Bit of a bad mistake, eh? I was right away put off by the series by this game, and still dredge up the thoughts of how bad it really was. It put me right off the series for a long time. I played the game not too long ago, and to me, it's still as a bad as I remember it being.

Jump forward again to 2005 and I heard a lot of good things about RE4 from both my friends and on the internet, so I decided to try it out for myself to see what the ruckus was all about. I played through it and loved the experience. I thought to myself, so this is what Resident Evil is all about and what an experience I have been missing all of this time. How silly of me, now I could play the older titles in the series and be blown away again. Brilliant. How wrong was I... Without a single breathe taken, I immediately went about buying the old RE titles from the PSX and those titles found on the GC. What an experience. In the end up, I actually liked the old RE games even more than what I liked RE4. How ironic. I hold up REmake and RE2 as among my very favourite games of all time now.

Just goes to show that the old RE titles hold up very well indeed, even to those of us who played RE4 beforehand. Says a lot, really.

What about yourselves? Got any stories to share? Good experiences to share? Bad experiences (like I had with Survivor)?

[Dark_Chris]

my first resident evil was resident evil 1 on PSone in 1997

[Wesker's Shadow]

My first game was the original RE way back in 96. I picked it up because I thought it looked intense and quite a lot of fun.

I'm definately glad I did though. I've been a fan ever since.

[Bertha]

Played it when my brother and I got our Sega Saturn...been following the series ever since.

[aris13]

My first RE game was RE 1 for the PS1. It was my 1996 christmas present. I've been following the series since then.

[Neoblast]

I saw resident evil one but I was too young and preferred watching, by the time re2 got out I cleared and since then I've been following the series.

[LVL100 Merchant]

Got my first video game console, the Playstation, in Christmas of 1997. Got into Resident Evil 2 in January of 1998. Was obsessed at first sight, and went back to play the original/Director's Cut. Followed the series like a hawk ever since.

[Enigma_632]

Saw an advertisement in a magazine back in 97, noticed the zombies and I've been hooked ever since.

So many memories.

[REmaster]

my first resident evil was resident evil 1 on PSone in 1997

Same here, loved it ever since. I like how 99 percent of all the post have ended with since

[riderkid]

i was bored and rented RE2

it took a second renting to enjoy due to a damaged disc

[xfactor]

My friend lended me the first RE on the PS. I remember getting to the left wing stairs hallway (near Rebecca's hiding place) and ran out of bullet against the zombies before I turned off the console, and told my friend that this game sucks due to the lack of bullets, and was too proud to admit that i was too afraid to carry on, lol.

i played through RE2 and it was instantly my favorite game of all time, then go ahead and purchase RE1, this time I completed it. I imported Biohazard 3 as I was running out of patience for the English release, then RE3 again when it was released. This was the period when I started going to forum and talk about the series with fellow fans.

I didn't have a DC nor a PS2 when code: veronica released, so I shuffle my time with Gun Survivor for a while till I have enough money for a PS2 and Code: Veronica (by then Code: veronica was really old news). I think it was probably this period that I started posting on fans forum and side projects with some of the biohazardfrance guys.

Meanwhile, the GC RE era started and I followed the series, but I didn't participate in fans activity as much due to a lack of motivation as a certain site stealing the stuffs I made and not giving credit.

And then time passes.

[Skunky]

Story 1: I was holidaying in Japan when a man with thick glasses approached me on the street. He said they were looking for a "Western perspective" of a product in development. Some sort of video game called 'Biohazard'...
I was quite the pinball wizard, so I figured "Yeah, I could do that".
I was paid 100yen an hour (I thought it was pretty sweet at the time) to be shut in a darkened room and play through the game. After a few days, a meeting was called where I gave a heap of suggestions. My words were translated, while a bunch of Japanese nerds nodded vigorously and took notes.
As a further reward for my help, I was sent a Japanese Playstation and one of the first pressings of the finished game.
I've been a fan ever since...

Story 2: I bought a Playstation and rented some games from the video store, to find some worth buying. 2 of those games were Resident Evil and Grand Theft Auto (I bought them both).
Later my brother got me the just released RE2 for my birthday. He knew I loved zombies and Dawn & Day of the Dead and thought that "I had to have this game". He was right, I loved it. I loved both of those games but it wasn't actually until RE3 that I became a total FANATIC. It was after playing RE3 that I went back and unlocked everything on the previous 2 games, started collecting all the RE/Bio merchandise I could find and also buying the Bio versions of the games etc...

I'll let you decide which story is true.

[CubedSphere]

I happened to get the very first one on PS1 the same week it came out, though I didn't know that I got it that soon after release until a few years later. Basically, I went to a mom and pop game/video rental store on a Fri. and just randomly looked for action adventure games. I came across City of Lost Children and Resident Evil and by looking at the back covers (and going by the game names) I went with RE (even at 10 years old). I got home, played it about 15 minutes and while I liked it, I put it down and went to bed (don't remember why, must have been tired and figured I'd play it in the morning on Sat. or maybe it scared me at nighttime). Well, Saturday morning came and my dad told me he played it after I went to bed and he screamed like a little girl when the dogs jumped out of the windows (a part I didn't get to the night before).

Long story short, I rented the game three weekends in a row to beat it. I declared it the best thing since the orgasm and haven't missed a main game in the series since. Sure, I skipped the Outbreak games and Dead Aim, but I've played every other game put out (except Gaiden, but I watched a quick run of it on Youtube, so whatever).

[Vector]

I watched my uncle play RE1 when I was about 7 years old. It had a lasting impact on me. I pretty much shit my pants when the dogs jumped through the window in that one corridor. Chris Redfield became my first gaming hero(not counting Sonic the Hedgehog) because my uncle always picked Jill JUST so he could see Barry blow the zombie's head off at the beginning of the game...it was then I knew that picking Jill was the easy way out...so whenever I played, I picked Chris. I never got really far, but, he was the man. Also, he wore green, which was my favorite color at the time.

For my 9th birthday I got a PS1 and only wanted one game -- RE2. To this day, RE2 is still my favorite game in the whole series. I remember buying an old copy of RE3 a couple years later...it was on the 'used' rack at some Blockbuster, and I was like 'holy balls, it's Resident Evil.' So I got it. And I beat it.

I knew about RE4, I was pumped about it, but it came out on GameCube and I had a PS2. Bummer. It pissed me off but there wasn't much I could do...after all, I had already seen REmake and RE0 come out for the GameCube, so I felt helpless. But then, as luck would have it, it was ported to the PS2...and I got back into the series. Same thing with Code: Veronica a few years before RE4. It was on the Dreamcast. I was like WTF...then Code: Veronica X came out and I rent it and beat it and really didn't like it, despite Chris's appearance. Wayyy too much backtracking.

That's pretty much it, I guess.

[Rakkoon]

Played RE2 in a PlayStation club in my hometown, back in 1998.

At first I saw someone play it, thinking it was some kind of a movie or something. I wasn't really sure what I was seeing. Then, a few weeks later I wanted to play Alien vs. Predator, but they gave me the wrong disc by mistake. It was RE2's Claire's Scenario. I remember I was totally disgusted with the zombie in the intro (the one from RE1), then I just sat and watched in awe as the intros unfolded. I didn't even know the game had begun until I realized Claire wasn't moving around, and those zombies kept biting her.

I kept going to that PS club to play RE2, but soon I got a PS myself. Then RE3 came out. It's still my all-time favorite game.