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Due to recent events, and the fact that the community was so heavily involved in this project, a lot of you have been asking what went wrong with it. I've finally had time to sit down and write up a long explanation about why we will probably never see 1.5 at a reasonable price from the "Curator".
What follows is a basic timeline of the events leading to today, where we are left with someone who doesn't appreciate Resident Evil 1.5 buying it for $300 from under the community, then giving peoples hopes up for a release, and finally attempting to sell it for $125,000. Links are underlined and bolded for better reading.
What follows is a basic timeline of the events leading to today, where we are left with someone who doesn't appreciate Resident Evil 1.5 buying it for $300 from under the community, then giving peoples hopes up for a release, and finally attempting to sell it for $125,000. Links are underlined and bolded for better reading.
I was contacted by a friend in the Assembler community around late September who started asking me if I would be interested in Biohazard 1.5. Naturally I was curious, so I asked for more details. He said that an old contact who has it was recently making suggestions that he may be interested in selling it. Not wanting to lose it, but unable to afford the asking price myself, I enlisted the help of a few "figureheads" of the Re communities. We all pooled our money together and waited for word from my friend.
All was going as planned, and we were waiting on video proof from the seller. This dragged on for a while until on October 10th, I was told that the disc was already sold, for a measly $300. (We had been offering a bit over $4000 for it). Once I informed the group we were pretty disheartened, but held out hope that whoever bought it would hopefully release more information on it, or even release it since it was such a low amount that was paid. Over the next few weeks my friend informed me that it was sold because it was offered to this person first. Apparently the buyer hadn't contacted the seller until he had already moved on to us as the possible buyers.
A few more weeks pass and were into October. This is when the Playstation Museum site launches a "review" of Resident Evil 1.5. Checking into his open directories, we see that his images were uploaded 10/04 (long before his page went up about 1.5 and just after we were told it was sold already), so he obviously was the original purchaser of the disc.
Throughout the time on his boards, he kept posting that a secret surprise would come on Halloween, and also kept saying that he doesn't want to spoil the plot of the game. When asked why this was, users speculated that he would release the game on Halloween (It turned out it was only an update of pictures with the characters with blood on them)
I attempted to make contact with him, but didn't receive a response. So along with a few others from Bioflames, we joined the PSM forums and began helping people out by answering questions. Soon, the Curator put special status titles on a few of us and even made Alzaire a moderator. The Curator began asking folks for any codes that might be in the game. He emailed Inflames and Inflames sent him a list of all the debug codes that are present in the BH2 Beta 2. He obviously got them working then, as in later videos/showings he was using them.
Also around this time he made a post declaring that because of death threats hes received, no new information would be given out to the public. He still contacted us via email, though.
It was around this time that I received an email back from the Curator, asking various questions about 1.5. Eventually he had asked me to translate a number of things in the game, including a full item list. After doing so, he asked what the items might be used on. I complied and sent him a list. Doing all these favors, I figured it was only a matter of time until he warmed up to the idea of selling it. He asked me how to rip all the text in the game, and after speaking with Mark about it, he sent me a nicely written guide on how to rip all the text. I passed that along as well.
At the same time, over at the Lost Levels boards, a user called tithin began teaming up with Programming Ace in an attempt to also see if he would trade or sell the prototype. In the 1.5 topic there, tithin posted an email from the Curator. After finding out about this, the Curator emailed me in an attempt to get me to implore the moderators at Lost Levels to delete the topic, and to say that he would no longer be contacting anyone but Inflames (Bioflames admin) about the prototype.
Email(s):
Soon after, another followed:
(Side Note: Its around this time I was contacted by tithin and ProgrammingAce, who were both trying to get the disc off him as well. Apparently they were preparing a trade of some prototypes, but when the deal was about to go through, the Curator denied owning the disc and cut off all contact).
Confused, I sent a message to him asking why he was doing this, but I never got a reply. Its assumed that someone posted a false message on his boards saying that they contacted Capcom about it, and that Capcom told this person they would look into how he got the prototype. I guess that spooked the Curator, since he deleted the 1.5 topic on his boards which was around 60 some pages at the time. There was no "Forum abuse" as he stated in the "new" topic.
Now into late November, no new news surfaced, and the curator still denied owning the disc. On the Assembler boards, a user named PS_Monitor posted a link to a "Japanese" man showing 1.5 running on an American PSone. The film had a badly faked Japanese room, and Assembler even pointed this out. The Youtube account had also posted a bulletin, saying 1 Million Yen for Biohazard 1.5. So he was trolling for reactions, and trying to get $10k for the disc. If you check the user ID now, it contains favorites of old Playstation games and a Thrill Kill video.
Its then, when Randomwab noticed that PS_Monitor has a high resolution picture of 1.5 as his avatar that is the same as a low res shot on the Curators site. I PM'ed him but received no response back. Checking out the email address of this user and IP, it matches the Curators. This marks the second account of his on Assembler (The first being Benedict_Arnold).
Soon after the PM, a user WeskerWalker registers on THIA and posts that an auction will be held soon, and that people should pool their money together. He also attempts to quell the discussion that the video is an American pretending to be Japanese. Link is here. The IP matches PS_Monitor's.
I attempted to organize a donation drive, which "WeskerWalker" thought was a great idea. We had raised nearly $6000 before I ended the donations and sent an offer ($4000) in to the Curator. Again, nothing was heard.
In late December, the Curator opens up a new 1.5 topic. In it, he asks people to discuss their impressions of 1.5. Unable to do that, users instead ask him if he will tell them any more information about the disc. They get a cold "No." On page 2, he asks for a free PSP to be sent to him. On page 3, his requests get even more bizarre, with him asking users to find a photograph of someone who looks like Elza Walker.
Nothing else is heard until later in December, when when his youtube account GoroMacida posts "My enlgish is bad. If views go to 1000000 will think about releasing more." Also in late December, an auction crops up while ebay is running a 1 penny listing promotion.
Besides the disgusting price, and the slimy text:
" Will you reproduce it?
No. I don't have the capability to reproduce and would never consider it. This is the only version around and I know I run the risk of losing it forever from CD deterioration if it doesn't sell."
We were able to check his user ID history. The account was registered with the name bioplhames (an obvious dig at the bioflames community) and recently changed to lord.fugu. Soon after it appeared the auction was ended. Seeing the obvious dig at Bioflames we can only assume this is the Curator. Indeed, after checking with some people in the dev community, this user was going around asking a seller to buy his PSX Dev equipment on ebay. Also note the heavy reliance on things Playstation in the auction.
In addition, Here is a photograph thats hosted on the auction:
Now here is a photograph thats hosted on the Playstation Museum site:
Check the camera ID tags "EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY - KODAK DX3900 ZOOM DIGITAL CAMERA" The same camera.
So where are we now?
Curator scoops the disc from under the community for $300, and states his intentions soon after:
"I believe I have said this already and I don't mean to throw fuel in the fire, but I personally have never had the urge to play RE 1.5 and I never understood why everyone was so interested in the game. I volunteered to test the game based on the fact that it's an important piece of PlayStation history."
and in his "review" he states hes played 1.5 more than Biohazard 2 itself, which couldn't have been very long considering he only had the disc for a few days when it went up.
Then tries to get as much information from the community as possible about the game (translations, item locations etc) before giving them a big fuck you and cutting off all contact.
He then registers youtube, and forum accounts attempting to conceal his identity, goading people into paying exorbitant amounts of money for the disc while simultaneously ignoring real offers from the community to purchase it for a healthy sum.
Finally in late December, he puts it on ebay for $125,000 with an ebay name "Bioplhames", an obvious insult thrown at the community.
Hes shown that he is nothing but a child throughout all this, trying to get peoples hopes up that a real sale will come, while saying hes interested in selling it, and then ignoring real offers from the community.
All was going as planned, and we were waiting on video proof from the seller. This dragged on for a while until on October 10th, I was told that the disc was already sold, for a measly $300. (We had been offering a bit over $4000 for it). Once I informed the group we were pretty disheartened, but held out hope that whoever bought it would hopefully release more information on it, or even release it since it was such a low amount that was paid. Over the next few weeks my friend informed me that it was sold because it was offered to this person first. Apparently the buyer hadn't contacted the seller until he had already moved on to us as the possible buyers.
A few more weeks pass and were into October. This is when the Playstation Museum site launches a "review" of Resident Evil 1.5. Checking into his open directories, we see that his images were uploaded 10/04 (long before his page went up about 1.5 and just after we were told it was sold already), so he obviously was the original purchaser of the disc.
Throughout the time on his boards, he kept posting that a secret surprise would come on Halloween, and also kept saying that he doesn't want to spoil the plot of the game. When asked why this was, users speculated that he would release the game on Halloween (It turned out it was only an update of pictures with the characters with blood on them)
I attempted to make contact with him, but didn't receive a response. So along with a few others from Bioflames, we joined the PSM forums and began helping people out by answering questions. Soon, the Curator put special status titles on a few of us and even made Alzaire a moderator. The Curator began asking folks for any codes that might be in the game. He emailed Inflames and Inflames sent him a list of all the debug codes that are present in the BH2 Beta 2. He obviously got them working then, as in later videos/showings he was using them.
Also around this time he made a post declaring that because of death threats hes received, no new information would be given out to the public. He still contacted us via email, though.
It was around this time that I received an email back from the Curator, asking various questions about 1.5. Eventually he had asked me to translate a number of things in the game, including a full item list. After doing so, he asked what the items might be used on. I complied and sent him a list. Doing all these favors, I figured it was only a matter of time until he warmed up to the idea of selling it. He asked me how to rip all the text in the game, and after speaking with Mark about it, he sent me a nicely written guide on how to rip all the text. I passed that along as well.
At the same time, over at the Lost Levels boards, a user called tithin began teaming up with Programming Ace in an attempt to also see if he would trade or sell the prototype. In the 1.5 topic there, tithin posted an email from the Curator. After finding out about this, the Curator emailed me in an attempt to get me to implore the moderators at Lost Levels to delete the topic, and to say that he would no longer be contacting anyone but Inflames (Bioflames admin) about the prototype.
Email(s):
BTW, if you ever want more information in the future, I would have the moderators at lostlevels remove my private email messages that were posted publicly. Because of that no more correspondence will be read from you or anyone else (except for Kim, the webmaster of Bioflames). I would tell the mods there but can’t.
In fact, after reading more of the posting, please see if you can urge the thread to be deleted or make it private please.
http://forums.lostlevels.org/viewtop...=1540&start=40
http://forums.lostlevels.org/viewtop...=1540&start=40
Confused, I sent a message to him asking why he was doing this, but I never got a reply. Its assumed that someone posted a false message on his boards saying that they contacted Capcom about it, and that Capcom told this person they would look into how he got the prototype. I guess that spooked the Curator, since he deleted the 1.5 topic on his boards which was around 60 some pages at the time. There was no "Forum abuse" as he stated in the "new" topic.
Now into late November, no new news surfaced, and the curator still denied owning the disc. On the Assembler boards, a user named PS_Monitor posted a link to a "Japanese" man showing 1.5 running on an American PSone. The film had a badly faked Japanese room, and Assembler even pointed this out. The Youtube account had also posted a bulletin, saying 1 Million Yen for Biohazard 1.5. So he was trolling for reactions, and trying to get $10k for the disc. If you check the user ID now, it contains favorites of old Playstation games and a Thrill Kill video.
Its then, when Randomwab noticed that PS_Monitor has a high resolution picture of 1.5 as his avatar that is the same as a low res shot on the Curators site. I PM'ed him but received no response back. Checking out the email address of this user and IP, it matches the Curators. This marks the second account of his on Assembler (The first being Benedict_Arnold).
Soon after the PM, a user WeskerWalker registers on THIA and posts that an auction will be held soon, and that people should pool their money together. He also attempts to quell the discussion that the video is an American pretending to be Japanese. Link is here. The IP matches PS_Monitor's.
I attempted to organize a donation drive, which "WeskerWalker" thought was a great idea. We had raised nearly $6000 before I ended the donations and sent an offer ($4000) in to the Curator. Again, nothing was heard.
In late December, the Curator opens up a new 1.5 topic. In it, he asks people to discuss their impressions of 1.5. Unable to do that, users instead ask him if he will tell them any more information about the disc. They get a cold "No." On page 2, he asks for a free PSP to be sent to him. On page 3, his requests get even more bizarre, with him asking users to find a photograph of someone who looks like Elza Walker.
Nothing else is heard until later in December, when when his youtube account GoroMacida posts "My enlgish is bad. If views go to 1000000 will think about releasing more." Also in late December, an auction crops up while ebay is running a 1 penny listing promotion.
Besides the disgusting price, and the slimy text:
" Will you reproduce it?
No. I don't have the capability to reproduce and would never consider it. This is the only version around and I know I run the risk of losing it forever from CD deterioration if it doesn't sell."
We were able to check his user ID history. The account was registered with the name bioplhames (an obvious dig at the bioflames community) and recently changed to lord.fugu. Soon after it appeared the auction was ended. Seeing the obvious dig at Bioflames we can only assume this is the Curator. Indeed, after checking with some people in the dev community, this user was going around asking a seller to buy his PSX Dev equipment on ebay. Also note the heavy reliance on things Playstation in the auction.
In addition, Here is a photograph thats hosted on the auction:
Now here is a photograph thats hosted on the Playstation Museum site:
Check the camera ID tags "EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY - KODAK DX3900 ZOOM DIGITAL CAMERA" The same camera.
So where are we now?
Curator scoops the disc from under the community for $300, and states his intentions soon after:
"I believe I have said this already and I don't mean to throw fuel in the fire, but I personally have never had the urge to play RE 1.5 and I never understood why everyone was so interested in the game. I volunteered to test the game based on the fact that it's an important piece of PlayStation history."
and in his "review" he states hes played 1.5 more than Biohazard 2 itself, which couldn't have been very long considering he only had the disc for a few days when it went up.
Then tries to get as much information from the community as possible about the game (translations, item locations etc) before giving them a big fuck you and cutting off all contact.
He then registers youtube, and forum accounts attempting to conceal his identity, goading people into paying exorbitant amounts of money for the disc while simultaneously ignoring real offers from the community to purchase it for a healthy sum.
Finally in late December, he puts it on ebay for $125,000 with an ebay name "Bioplhames", an obvious insult thrown at the community.
Hes shown that he is nothing but a child throughout all this, trying to get peoples hopes up that a real sale will come, while saying hes interested in selling it, and then ignoring real offers from the community.
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