How GOG Helped Capcom restore the Thrilogy Resident Evil

GOG, also known as good old games, is a company that restores and preserves video game history. Although this is not the first selection of gamers to acquire digital games thanks to hippos that are Steam and The Epic Games Store, the subsidiary CD Projekt has gone a long way after almost two decades of classical headlines, with thousands of games in their library.

Last year, GOG surprised us with the exit of three classic names that promoted and helped create a survival horror genre: the first three resident evil games. Originally published on PlayStation, the original versions of these games have never been available to buy online on PC.

Although you can play the Re2 and Re3 Remakes, they are completely different games from the originals. Remake Resident Evil HD 2015 is closer to the first game, but it's still a whole new experience.

GOG not only made these games available for purchase again, but also improved them with the help of modern controller support and solved several technical problems. It was one of the longest projects that the company worked on, taking a couple of years. I talked to the senior manager for business development Marsin Stamin and technical engineer Adam Syolakovsky to find out more about the process and problems of the resurrection of these survival horror classics.

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Pavinsky says the recovery process usually begins with his team to turn to the developer or the publisher and sending them an offer. Once both sides agree, they sign the contract for the agreement, solving any copyright and licensing problems on the way, and then the technical part of the work begins. However, sometimes the first part is the most difficult.

“The first step was to actually convince Capcom that we are the right people to trust such projects,” Pachinsky explains. “It took a long time. We signed an agreement with Capcom, which himself took a couple of years. From my experience, mostly every Japanese company really wants the release to be perfect in every way.”

This is what Capcom is well known, whether with its own designed combat games or other classical game collections that it collaborates with other companies. They always feel that high-quality premium issues, restored content and supplements similar to conceptual art galleries.

For example, Frank Cifaldi Digital Eclipse spoke about the process of creating a Mega Man Legacy collection and working with Capcom in a GDC 2016 conversation.

“Capcom wanted to have the whole level of participation,” Ziolkovsky explains. “They mostly viewed our release as new, so that would it be [need to pass] All quality checks they make for all their new names.

Ziółkowski continues to explain that Capcom has sent a list of instructions with all the expectations that the company had for the project. Fortunately for Ziolkovsky and his team, Capcom also told him that it would do “a few full passes through all languages.” Even on that day, video games would have different versions for each language, with their own bugs.

Ziolkowski tells me that it took the team for about six months to deliver the final restored version of the Resident Evil. Although they are always working on multiple projects at the same time, it will be much longer than the other two games in the series from all fixes and technical settings they added.

The team sent about 50 different Capcom games, making every small settings he asked on the way. Sometimes the team is instructed to correct the problems that were present in the original issue.

“For example,” Oh, there is a video -cartridge that is not chosen, “says Ziolkovsky.” It has never been chosen because there was always a game. We fixed as many strange things as, for example, music is not the right cycle or traces that have not heard at some levels. “

GOG also added some features and made adjustments to make sure the launch and game game was smooth. This version of Resident Evil has complete compatibility with Windows 10 and Windows 11, as well as new rendering options, including window milling mode, anti-assimilation and gamma correction.

Although this was an intensive project with several reviews, Ziolkovsky and Beginsky agreed that Capcom did not feel pressure. Rather, it was a “co -op” project, and Staminsky is grateful for the help of Capcom in areas such as age rating, testing the Japanese version and determination of errors and technical problems.

“It has been a while, but we are pleased that we were able to reach here,” Pachinsky explains. “This has created a new standard for all our future releases and how we also work with our preservation program.”

You can buy a Resident Evil package for $ 12.49 at the GOG store and try a remastered version of the first three games for yourself.