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Description

Intro follows; skip down past the line if you're already familiar with the RE1.5 REvisited project.

The RE1.5 REvisited project was a three-year effort by darksaviour_DXP (DXP for short) and myself to recreate in low-end 3D model form all of the locations that are seen in the cancelled Capcom video game known as Resident Evil 1.5 (RE1.5), which was the original form of what you know today as the original Resident Evil 2. Long story there, best told elsewhere. I came up with the idea because I was sick and tired of the antics of certain people on the old RE1.5 scene at the time who like to hoard their "exclusives" and only share little drips and drabs after months and months of begging by their many fans at the time. When I first approached DXP back then about what I had in mind, not long after both of us had left that particular dog-and-pony show behind, he thought I was nuts but went along with it anyway. He eventually warmed to it (along with my funding, wink), we got our "little" project done long before that other bunch eventually announced the cancellation of theirs, and for several years the full RE1.5 REvisited recreated locations model set was available to one and all without charge of any kind, so long as proper credit was given. They're not retail quality because I never intended for them to be so, although they were and can still be used for posing 3D concept art and images and such. Rather, they were meant to serve two chief purposes: as a ready 3D reference for RE1.5 fans, and as a good base or starting point for people who want make better and possibly even retail quality models. Sadly the RE1.5 REvisited model set is no longer available online as I write this (winter 2021), due to my having pulled it for the same reasons DXP and I were forced to pull what of the RE3 REvisited model set had been done up to a point a few months ago and make everything private. All the same the RE1.5 REvisited set for the most part got used as I has first intended during the original time that it was available (2018-2021). I can think of at least three fan projects that used them either in part, in whole, or as references for their own better models. Both I and several others used them for posing purposes, I myself in particular as a very handy resource for posing concept scenes from my novel Resident Evil: Exodus - The Tale of Elza Walker. Perhaps I'll start reposting Exodus concept art in the future too. (chuckle). Who knows? Maybe the RE1.5 REvisited model set might make a comeback someday, or someone will do even better free models ... although it won't be me doing it. I've moved on to other things.

I found a copy of my original high quality image for this one, folks. XD

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Here we are at the end of the RE1.5 Virtual Tour and the end of the recreated RE1.5 REvisited room and location models. There's only a few things to say about the Lab Stage's Train Bay, because like certain other areas of RE1.5's Lab Stage this was largely transferred over to RE2 retail virtually intact -- save for relocating and redoing certain things, updated backgrounds to match those changes and other alterations/additions, and altered camera angles to match. One of those additions for RE2 was the small platform in the back area of the Train Bay where Ada is standing when she throws down the rocket launcher to Leon in his game, to help him battle the Tyrant in there. There are others, such as changing the design of the fuel control panel at the back of the Train Bay and relocating the manual control for the tunnel gates, but adding Ada's platform was the most significant one.

One significant alteration was made to the front part of the Train Bay and also involved a small change to the Escape Train itself. In the RE1.5 original once you get to the door of the Escape Train, the matching background in the game shows a large square hole in the wall with what appears to be a matching large plug of some kind on the Escape Train itself. In RE2 retail that hole in the wall is covered by the door for the re-routed "magic" Freight Elevator and the matching plug on the train has been covered over by a plate. That hole in the wall in RE1.5 was for I came to call the refueling probe, which would extend out and lock into that plug on the Escape Train once the player activated the refueling procedure at the back of the Train Bay. It was this extended probe and not locked gates that blocked access back to the Escape Train's side door in RE1.5, which in turn forced the player to go the long way around and completely circle the train itself in order to get back to its side door. All of this was greatly simplified in RE2 retail. Both the refueling probe and its nearby control panel were removed and the plug on the train plated over in order to enable RE2's "magic" Freight Elevator to have direct access to the Train Bay in Leon's game so he could carry the wounded Marvin down there by the quickest and shortest route. This also kept the way back to the Escape Train side door from being blocked, so in turn Capcom both removed the route around the other side of the train and had all of the gates automatically lock once the refueling began and subsequently automatically unlock once it was done.

Another significant alteration was to the Escape Train itself. In RE1.5 it is made up of an engine and three cars, with each car having a fair amount of contents. In RE2 retail it's an engine and only two cars, once of which is practically empty and the other only with stuff at the back. I should also add that RE2's cars are longer and take up the same space on the game map as RE1.5's three smaller ones. Why the change? Well, RE1.5's final form of G-Birkin was smaller and far more mobile than the giant slow-moving slug it became in RE2 retail. The shorter cars worked fine for RE1.5, with their extra content making them more realistic and in some cases providing ready-made barricades behind which the player could take temporary shelter during the final boss battle with G-Birkin. Capcom needed more room inside each car for RE2's larger and slower sluglike final form of G-Birkin, so it stretched the cars and removed their contents so as not to get into the revised G-Birkin's way. This also affected the way G-Birkin broke into the train (through the floor in RE1.5, through the roof in RE2), so it was easier to just remove the final car where this happened in the RE1.5 original and stretch the other two cars to cover the same amount of space than remake RE1.5's final train car accordingly.

It was believed for the longest time that the reason there were two Escape Trains in the Train Bay was that one each was originally intended for each game, Elza's and Leon's, with the player characters taking the appropriate train as gameplay dictated. This early theory has been largely discredited over the years given subsequent discoveries about RE1.5 and the way gameplay was supposed to go in the Train Bay. It appears that only the one train was intended for use by both player characters all along, with the other being merely set dressing, and that players would have never been allowed access to it at any time. Perhaps that's why it was retextured in RE2 retail, swapping out its red-orange for faded grey with patches of rust, suggesting that it consisted entirely of old cars that had been removed from use and more or less permanently "sided," to use railroad slang.

That's all there is, folks. I'm Richard Mandel. Thanks for tuning in, and I hope you enjoyed the RE1.5 Virtual Tour!

TRIVIA - Have you ever noticed that in both RE1.5 and the original RE2 retail the Escape Train engine doesn't have an actual engine?! That's because it was originally intended to be an electric train, with power coming from large batteries under the floor plates and possibly in its walls and in all the attached cars too, given the amount of power that would be required. That's why you have both the "refueling probe" (actually it should more properly be recharging probe) and the large plug on the side of the train. That's for recharging the Escape Train's batteries. Somewhere during the RE1.5 development process this got changed so the Escape Train engine was going to be diesel-powered, but this has not yet been implemented when RE1.5 was cancelled. Furthermore, Capcom's development people got under such a crunch during the RE1.5-to-RE2 transition process that they appear to have simply forgot to make the necessary changes. That's why there's all this talk near the end of each game in RE2 about refueling the train when there's no obvious physical engine inside the back of the engine compartment to refuel! (long laugh). This didn't get fixed until RE2 REmake, BTW, which is why the Escape Train engine in both the RE Outbreak series and Darkside Chronicles still doesn't have a diesel engine inside the engine compartment! (another long laugh).

Description

Intro follows; skip down past the line if you're already familiar with the RE1.5 REvisited project.

The RE1.5 REvisited project was a three-year effort by darksaviour_DXP (DXP for short) and myself to recreate in low-end 3D model form all of the locations that are seen in the cancelled Capcom video game known as Resident Evil 1.5 (RE1.5), which was the original form of what you know today as the original Resident Evil 2. Long story there, best told elsewhere. I came up with the idea because I was sick and tired of the antics of certain people on the old RE1.5 scene at the time who like to hoard their "exclusives" and only share little drips and drabs after months and months of begging by their many fans at the time. When I first approached DXP back then about what I had in mind, not long after both of us had left that particular dog-and-pony show behind, he thought I was nuts but went along with it anyway. He eventually warmed to it (along with my funding, wink), we got our "little" project done long before that other bunch eventually announced the cancellation of theirs, and for several years the full RE1.5 REvisited recreated locations model set was available to one and all without charge of any kind, so long as proper credit was given. They're not retail quality because I never intended for them to be so, although they were and can still be used for posing 3D concept art and images and such. Rather, they were meant to serve two chief purposes: as a ready 3D reference for RE1.5 fans, and as a good base or starting point for people who want make better and possibly even retail quality models. Sadly the RE1.5 REvisited model set is no longer available online as I write this (winter 2021), due to my having pulled it for the same reasons DXP and I were forced to pull what of the RE3 REvisited model set had been done up to a point a few months ago and make everything private. All the same the RE1.5 REvisited set for the most part got used as I has first intended during the original time that it was available (2018-2021). I can think of at least three fan projects that used them either in part, in whole, or as references for their own better models. Both I and several others used them for posing purposes, I myself in particular as a very handy resource for posing concept scenes from my novel Resident Evil: Exodus - The Tale of Elza Walker. Perhaps I'll start reposting Exodus concept art in the future too. (chuckle). Who knows? Maybe the RE1.5 REvisited model set might make a comeback someday, or someone will do even better free models ... although it won't be me doing it. I've moved on to other things.

I found a copy of my original high quality image for this one, folks. XD

--------------------

Here we are at the end of the RE1.5 Virtual Tour and the end of the recreated RE1.5 REvisited room and location models. There's only a few things to say about the Lab Stage's Train Bay, because like certain other areas of RE1.5's Lab Stage this was largely transferred over to RE2 retail virtually intact -- save for relocating and redoing certain things, updated backgrounds to match those changes and other alterations/additions, and altered camera angles to match. One of those additions for RE2 was the small platform in the back area of the Train Bay where Ada is standing when she throws down the rocket launcher to Leon in his game, to help him battle the Tyrant in there. There are others, such as changing the design of the fuel control panel at the back of the Train Bay and relocating the manual control for the tunnel gates, but adding Ada's platform was the most significant one.

One significant alteration was made to the front part of the Train Bay and also involved a small change to the Escape Train itself. In the RE1.5 original once you get to the door of the Escape Train, the matching background in the game shows a large square hole in the wall with what appears to be a matching large plug of some kind on the Escape Train itself. In RE2 retail that hole in the wall is covered by the door for the re-routed "magic" Freight Elevator and the matching plug on the train has been covered over by a plate. That hole in the wall in RE1.5 was for I came to call the refueling probe, which would extend out and lock into that plug on the Escape Train once the player activated the refueling procedure at the back of the Train Bay. It was this extended probe and not locked gates that blocked access back to the Escape Train's side door in RE1.5, which in turn forced the player to go the long way around and completely circle the train itself in order to get back to its side door. All of this was greatly simplified in RE2 retail. Both the refueling probe and its nearby control panel were removed and the plug on the train plated over in order to enable RE2's "magic" Freight Elevator to have direct access to the Train Bay in Leon's game so he could carry the wounded Marvin down there by the quickest and shortest route. This also kept the way back to the Escape Train side door from being blocked, so in turn Capcom both removed the route around the other side of the train and had all of the gates automatically lock once the refueling began and subsequently automatically unlock once it was done.

Another significant alteration was to the Escape Train itself. In RE1.5 it is made up of an engine and three cars, with each car having a fair amount of contents. In RE2 retail it's an engine and only two cars, once of which is practically empty and the other only with stuff at the back. I should also add that RE2's cars are longer and take up the same space on the game map as RE1.5's three smaller ones. Why the change? Well, RE1.5's final form of G-Birkin was smaller and far more mobile than the giant slow-moving slug it became in RE2 retail. The shorter cars worked fine for RE1.5, with their extra content making them more realistic and in some cases providing ready-made barricades behind which the player could take temporary shelter during the final boss battle with G-Birkin. Capcom needed more room inside each car for RE2's larger and slower sluglike final form of G-Birkin, so it stretched the cars and removed their contents so as not to get into the revised G-Birkin's way. This also affected the way G-Birkin broke into the train (through the floor in RE1.5, through the roof in RE2), so it was easier to just remove the final car where this happened in the RE1.5 original and stretch the other two cars to cover the same amount of space than remake RE1.5's final train car accordingly.

It was believed for the longest time that the reason there were two Escape Trains in the Train Bay was that one each was originally intended for each game, Elza's and Leon's, with the player characters taking the appropriate train as gameplay dictated. This early theory has been largely discredited over the years given subsequent discoveries about RE1.5 and the way gameplay was supposed to go in the Train Bay. It appears that only the one train was intended for use by both player characters all along, with the other being merely set dressing, and that players would have never been allowed access to it at any time. Perhaps that's why it was retextured in RE2 retail, swapping out its red-orange for faded grey with patches of rust, suggesting that it consisted entirely of old cars that had been removed from use and more or less permanently "sided," to use railroad slang.

That's all there is, folks. I'm Richard Mandel. Thanks for tuning in, and I hope you enjoyed the RE1.5 Virtual Tour!

TRIVIA - Have you ever noticed that in both RE1.5 and the original RE2 retail the Escape Train engine doesn't have an actual engine?! That's because it was originally intended to be an electric train, with power coming from large batteries under the floor plates and possibly in its walls and in all the attached cars too, given the amount of power that would be required. That's why you have both the "refueling probe" (actually it should more properly be recharging probe) and the large plug on the side of the train. That's for recharging the Escape Train's batteries. Somewhere during the RE1.5 development process this got changed so the Escape Train engine was going to be diesel-powered, but this has not yet been implemented when RE1.5 was cancelled. Furthermore, Capcom's development people got under such a crunch during the RE1.5-to-RE2 transition process that they appear to have simply forgot to make the necessary changes. That's why there's all this talk near the end of each game in RE2 about refueling the train when there's no obvious physical engine inside the back of the engine compartment to refuel! (long laugh). This didn't get fixed until RE2 REmake, BTW, which is why the Escape Train engine in both the RE Outbreak series and Darkside Chronicles still doesn't have a diesel engine inside the engine compartment! (another long laugh).