Fans of Capcom’s Resident Evil series have known for a long time about the ambitious but ultimately cancelled Game Boy Color version of the original game. Developed by British studio HotGen, cramming a version of the 32-bit survival horror classic onto a Game Boy cart unfortunately seemed to be too great a feat, and the project was scrapped in 2000. However, thanks to lost media website Games That Weren’t, fans can now see just what HotGen was up to, as a final build of the game has now been recovered!
Resident Evil for the Game Boy Color had made appearances in 1999, leading up to a planned Christmas release of that year. However, programming challenges had the game slipping to 2000 before Capcom pulled the plug, feeling that the game wasn’t up to snuff. Two early builds of the game had surfaced back in 2011, with one being around 90% complete. However, this latest version is closer to 98% complete, according to the game’s assistant programmer, Pete Frith.
Per the website, compared to the previous builds, this version of the game has more content, and is potentially able to be completed by players. The team at Games That Weren’t were able to trigger the end sequence, and have built a hack that jumps players close to the end of the game. You can find out more of the programming via the link above.
The cancellation of Resident Evil did however lead to Capcom going with British studio M4 Limited on their non-canon Game Boy Color title Resident Evil Gaiden, which was released back in 2001.
Thanks to Time Extension for the find!
