Porting of Resident Evil 2

After its initial release for the PlayStation in January 1998, Resident Evil 2 was reissued and ported to other systems, often gaining new features in the process. Also, the Japanese Biohazard 2 has fewer enemies, doesn't show characters dying during Game Over, and ranks the ending from S to D (rather than A to E).

PlayStation

In the original PS1 version, players may unlock three weapons with infinite ammo: R. Launcher, S. Machine Gun, and Gatling Gun.

Dual Shock

The first re-release was the Dual Shock version on PlayStation, which incorporated support for the vibration and analog control functions of the Dual Shock controller. Other additions include a new unlockable Extreme Battle mini-game and an "Arrange Mode" sub menu with unique gameplay difficulties.

One of these is Rookie mode, which shares the same difficulty as the original Easy mode but enables the player to start the main story with the infinite SMG in the inventory, with the Gatling and RPG in the Item Box.

The "USA Version" mode, exclusive to the Japanese release, featured the gameplay additions of the RE2 North American releases. As a sidenote, The initial PlayStation version was re-released on the Japanese PlayStation Network in 2007, while the service's North American counterpart received the Dual Shock version two years later.

Saturn

A port of RE2 for the Sega Saturn was developed internally at Capcom for a time, but technical difficulties led to its cancellation in October 1998. According to Hideki Kamiya, the port was difficult to run on the console, while Shinji Mikami added it was noticeable graphically inferior to the PlayStation version.

Game Boy Advance

Sometime in 1999, Raylight Studios developed an unofficial tech demo of RE2 for the Game Boy Advance utilizing their Blue Roses engine to test its capabilities. The game starts with the full-length intro prologue and proceeds in-game, there are 2 playable rooms, a semi-working inventory and one type of zombie enemies.

GameCube

A modified port of the Dual Shock version was released for the Nintendo GameCube. The entire game was put into a single disc, and a different voice reads out the game title when starting the game. Although all ports have an unlimited ammo cheat, this is the only port where the cheat is still active after resetting the console, and must be deactivated manually.

During the end credits of scenario B, the protagonist's FMVs are showcased in the background. Players can also skip in-game scenes; all scenes except the scene where Marvin Branagh locks the player out of his room, the FMV showing the protagonists getting on the escape train, the scene showing William Birkin's final transformation, the final FMV of scenario B, and the end credits scenes.

PC

PC-CD

Like RE1, RE2 was released multiple times onto PCs. Dual Shock served as the basis for the majority of ports, such as the Windows 9x-based PC-CD release, which was titled Resident Evil 2: Platinum Edition in North America. Aside from retaining all previously-added features, the PC version can be run in higher resolutions. A "Data Gallery" was added to the main menu, allowing the player to view movies, rough sketches, illustrations and 3D models.

On top of having all content from Dual Shock, all three levels of Extreme Battle are unlocked by default, meaning all four characters are playable from the start. Players can also access a unique screen, in which Leon Scott Kennedy stands in front of a mirror, where players can test out all playable actions in the game, though auto-aim is disabled. Beating the game unlocks the new Hard mode, where enemies can deal and take far more damage than normal, and some enemies are faster. However, to compensate, the pistol has a chance to decapitate zombies, like in Advanced mode of Resident Evil: Director's Cut.

Also, although in-game scenes cannot be skipped, players can now skip door-opening scenes, the train FMV, and the credits. Also, when saving the game, pressing 'Update Data' will not change the name of the save file.

Windows 95/98, Capcom

The first port was made by Capcom, and released in February 1999 for the Windows 95 and 98, using DirectX6. At its highest settings, the game would use 32MB of RAM and needed a 200 MHz Pentium processor (166 MHz if using a graphics card); at its lowest the game ran on 24MB and needed a 166 MHz processor (133 MHz if using a graphics card).

The following graphics cards are compatible for this game version:

• Monster 3D
• PURE3D
• Righteous 3D
• Monster 3D II
• PURE3D II
• 3D Blaster Voodoo2
• GA-RUSH6
• Adrenaline Rush 3D
• Stingray 128/3D
• Monster Fusion

• WGP-FX
• GA-VDB16
• TOTAL 3D
• 3D Blaster
• Thriller 3D
• Stealth?US220 turbo
• PWR128
• Viper V330
• GA-ZX8
• Viper V330

• Graphics Blaster RIVATNT
• SPECTRA 2500
• Viper V550
• XPERT@PLAY
• XPERT@Work
• 3D RAGE LT PRO
• Graphics Blaster Exxtreme
• WHP-PS
• Fire GL 1000 Pro
• GA-P?U8

• Express 3D
• GA-7408
• WHA-IA8
• Terminater BEAST
• Nitro 3200
• Mystique
• Millennium II
• Millennium G200

Capcom continued to support for game throughout 1999. Version 1.04, released on 13 April, dealt with a compatibility problem for the RIVA 128 card where doors and items appeared white. This patch also fixed a problem where gamers with multiple CD-ROM drives could only play the game on the earliest lettered drive (e.g. a player with a D: and E: CD drive would not be able to play the game on the E: drive). Version 2.0 was released on 7 June, and added support for Creative Technology's Environmental Audio Extensions (EAX) sound cards, as well as Sound Blaster Live! series cards.

Windows XP, SourceNext

In 2006, the Japanese developer SOURCENEXT released an enhanced port of the game, using 64MB as the standard RAM usage. This version is known for its higher-quality FMVs encoded at a resolution of 640×480 pixels, running at 30 FPS. Moreover, this version, along with the GameCube port, is the only version to pack the whole game onto one disc.

Other

Capcom collaborated with the manufacturer Canopus to publish a version to be sold alongside the Canopus Spectra 2500 graphics card. PCHome also published their own PC version.

MediaKite published one PC port in 2000, followed by an "Ultra" version in 2001, which increased RAM usage to 64MB for Windows ME users, and 32MB for Windows 95/98 users.

Dreamcast

This port supported the Dreamcast's VMU, enabling the peripheral to display the current condition of the playable character.

The Dreamcast version keeps the additions from the original PC release, runs at 60 FPS during gameplay, and incorporates real-time display of ammo and health on the Visual Memory Unit (VMU) peripheral. If players have plenty health, the VMU will display 'Fine'. If players have low health, the VMU will display a flashing 'Danger'. If on yellow health, the VMU will display 'Caution' without flashing; if on orange health, the 'Caution' will flash.

However, players must use the analog stick for directional controls. For unknown reasons, the music that plays outside Raccoon Police Station (Left alone?) and in the west office (The buildup of suspense) do not play. The difficulties in Arrange mode are called Rookie, Expert, and Nightmare. Also, 4th Survivor and To-Fu are now also unlocked by default in the Japanese version. The Japanese edition of the Dreamcast port was given the subtitle Value Plus and came with a playable demo of Code Veronica.

Nintendo 64

This version of differs most from the other releases. Over the course of twelve months and with a budget of $1 million, Resident Evil 2 was ported to the console by a staff of about 20 employees from Capcom Production Studio 3, Angel Studios, and Factor 5. Since the two discs of RE2 each contain roughly 700 MB of data, the N64 port fits both scenarios onto a single cartridge using only roughly 70 MB.

This port adjusts its display resolution depending on the number of polygonal models currently on screen, and supports the console's Expansion Pak accessory for a maximum resolution of 640×480 during gameplay. Other visual enhancements include smoother character animations and sharper, perspective-corrected textures for the 3D models.

The music of the N64 version utilizes Dolby Surround, and was converted by Chris Hülsbeck, Rudolf Stember and Thomas Engel. The team reworked the sound set from the ground up to provide each instrument with a higher sample rate than on the PlayStation, thus resulting in higher-quality music.

This version also offers features that were not included on any other system; an invincibility cheat, an entire end credits section dedicated to the N64 staff, new blue-tinted results screens, Randomizer mode (which randomizes non-key items during each playthrough), the option of a more responsive first-person control scheme (thus removing tank controls), adjustable gore (high is default; medium removes amputations; low removes all blood except when enemies die), a setting for blood color (red; green; blue), and the ability to reload the SMG. There are also different alternate outfits; Leon's two outfits are still based on a cop and a biker, though his N64 cop outfit no longer lets him hold his pistol sideways.

Also, loading times are much faster, taking only a couple seconds to open doors. Although HUNK and Tofu's scenarios must be unlocked, they can also be unlocked via push-button codes on the load screen. If the player already has the SMG, they will instead find M.G. Bullets on the Umbrella Security Service operative's corpse in the B4F culture room. The code to register finger print is now 'Nemesis', rather than 'Guest'. The code for Marvin's safe is now 4542, rather than 2236, even though it's not one of the possible combinations in "Desperate Times".

Additionally, the port features 16 new in-game documents known as the "EX Files", written by Tetsuro Oyama. Hidden throughout the game, they reveal new information about the series' lore and connect the story of RE2 to those of the other installments; Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, Code Veronica, and the then-upcoming Resident Evil 0. One of these files talks about the Hunter R (from Resident Evil Outbreak and Outbreak 2), one of which lays dead in a secret room - this is NOT the corpse of a Hunter α (from RE1) or a Tick (from RE1 Saturn).

Despite these improvements, some game elements suffered due to the limited space on the cartridge which are absent from other versions of the game. Some features from the other enhanced ports do not appear on N64, such as the Data Gallery, and this is the only re-release of RE2 that lacks Extreme Battle and Arrange modes. All in-game textures and backgrounds are smaller and need to stretch, FMVs have the lowest quality of any port, and streamed sound samples (such as voice acting) have less clarity.

Also, the FMVs where Annette Birkin talks to Claire Redfield (Claire A) or Ada Wong (Leon A) always uses the FMV that has Claire's voice; the identical FMV with Ada's voice needed removing, as it took up as much space as the FMV with Claire's voice, and was far too large to fit into the game. Similarly, the end credits for scenario B uses the same music as the scenario A credits. For the FMV at the start of scenario B, the protagonist's reaction is cut, and only shows the helicopter crash.

Also, once a save file is overwritten, it cannot be deleted, and will never be blank again. Strangely, inputting infinite ammo will not display an infinite symbol next to guns' icons, though players can still shoot infinitely once the counter reaches 0. This is the only port where cheats cannot be turned off; players must reset the console.

Game.com

Tiger Electronics released a sprite-based 2.5D version for their Game.com handheld in late 1998. It included only Leon's story path, and removed several of the original game's core features. Despite the severe technical limitations of the system / having had to have been built from the ground up, the game does manage to retain many of the original screens and puzzles from the game (albeit in a completely re-drawn, monochrome color form). Perhaps the most noticeable feature missing from the game is any semblance of a story past the intro slideshow (which recounts the events of RE1). No attempt is made to recreate any of the cutscenes in the game, either the FMVs or the conversations between characters. Without a previous knowledge of the events of the full game, players are left with little context for their actions or a sense of what location they are in. All in all, while the efforts to port the game to the underpowered handheld are technically impressive for the console (similar to the Game Boy Color adaptation of RE1), it leaves for a game which only vaguely resembles the original. Like many Game.com games, critics were harsh in their reviews of it, and no other entries in the series were ever planned to be ported to the system again.