The efforts of the old mobile phones gaming community for preservation are without a doubt one of the most impressive out there, with dedicated and passionate people working on buying bulks of old phones in hopes of finding a needle in a haystack, and sometimes, it pays off.

Not only does the preservation community buy phones by bulks, but they also have to go through the painstaking efforts of finding an actual working phone that still retains those games from the 2000s installed on their internal memory, and then work on decrypting the access to the phone and dump the proper data related to the game.

Yuvi is one of those passionate people involved in preserving old titles from that era, and this week, he managed to preserve yet another title from the Resident Evil franchise lost to time, with the title being "Biohazard: The Episodes".

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This title was one of 4 released for old mobile phones back in the late 2000s, back in 2007, with the game itself being based on Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. This dump in particular seems to be the full game, with only the extra characters being missing.

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With this dump, all 4 Resident Evil titles for mobile phones from the era have now been dumped and preserved, albeit, to some extend, as in some cases the full game was not installed on the device found with the game. The preservation status for the Resident Evil titles on mobile according to RockmanCosmo is the following:

• The Stories (trial version)
• The Episodes (full game minus extra characters)
• The Operations (partial, pieced together)

There's still the full version of Biohazard: The Stories yet to be found, and as for The Episodes and The Operations, the remaining data for characters and other assets (respectively) still remains to be found as well.

Yuvi X profile

 

[SDA]

The real question is: who is going to translate these mobile phone games into English?

 

[Exnor]

The real question is: who is going to translate these mobile phone games into English?

• The real question is How can the community help on this endeavor .

 

[Robert Newbie]

We already got word that two remakes are underway, and now, another Resident Evil mobile game has been preserved. Today's a good day to be an RE fan.

There may be portions still missing, but it's great that The Episodes can be played in full. If only I had the time to try it.

Kudos to the devs.

 

[HideoKojima]

The real question is: who is going to translate these mobile phone games into English?

Learn Japanese

 

[eriols]

Capcom executives: but why??

 

[LoggerMan]

The running animation is ridiculous. No love went into the making of mobile games back then.

 

[ASSASSIN-Z]

Learn Japanese

If we start now, how long should it take to learn how to read Japanese?

 

[HideoKojima]

If we start now, how long should it take to learn how to read Japanese?

How long to learn Japanese? Same as playing Death Stranding without skipping cutscenes

 

[Robert Newbie]

How long to learn Japanese? Same as playing Death Stranding without skipping cutscenes

I genuinely cannot tell if you like your own games, Mr. Kojima.

 

[jimkage]

It's mostly a non game, story doesnt matter you just shoot zomboes.

 

[Robert Newbie]

It's mostly a non game, story doesnt matter you just shoot zomboes.

It's true, you need a certain mindset for the preserved mobile games of yesteryear. If you're expecting an experience equivalent to console, you won't really appreciate the wonder and jank of a 2000's mobile phone game.

I think I said it best in the Ratchet & Clank thread:

The audience is definitely limited. Most people probably don't want to venture outside the most mainstream handhelds. For years, I wanted the Seiken Densetsu i-MODE remake to be found and preserved. This year, I discovered that someone had done just that, and I'm glad it exists in a way that can still be enjoyed. I'm probably one of only a handful that even remembered its existence.

It's true, these mobile games don't mean much in the grand scheme of things, but I'm happy they're still available somewhere. If someone really wanted them, they're not lost forever.

Prototypes to be seized,
Relegated to screens,
Alive in fantasies,
In our ultimate wheeze,
Do we have right to see,
What gameplay could be,
Let betas become free!


TL;DR: Better to exist than not, I say.

 

[auntnadia]

I translated part of the menu screen for anyone interested. “Biohazard” means “Resident Evil” in English. You’re very welcome.

 

[ClaudeGilford]

It will be very hard to play this.

Edit: Wow, I really liked it.