FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Q: I don’t have the Mediakite version or I’m not sure that mine is Mediakite. Can I still use the patch?
A: Yes, all data of the Japanese versions is compatible, even the PowerVR edition. Simply replace the executable with patch 1.01 provided in the main page.

Q: Where can I find a copy of the game?
A: Even though brand new copies aren’t officially on sale anymore, this site won’t tell you where to download the game from. However, you can still find second-hand copies sometimes very easily on eBay or similar market places.

Q: Will you add other languages to the patch?
A: No, but users can provide them as mods. As a matter of fact, Spanish and Russian mods already exist for this.

Q: Is it normal that Windows 10 reports this as a high-power usage application?
A: Yes, it’s perfectly normal. These old games technically stagger one core of the CPU while looping constantly for Windows messages, but in reality their CPU usage is very low, even on processors with few cores.

Q: Does this patch support Windows XP?
A: No, for a number of technical and practical reasons. These patches are intended for Windows 7 and more recent versions, possibly Vista as well. Having Windows XP supported is just a hassle, plus you can always play the originals on that OS or Windows 95/98 with no real issues.

Q: How do I stretch the whole image to fill my screen?
A: You can’t, unless you use a stretch shader with dgvoodoo + Reshade. The patch is designed to keep a correct 4:3 aspect ratio and will never support stretched.

Q: Can I play this on Linux?
A: Unfortunately Wine is not capable of running this game due to incorrect palette capability detection.

Q: Does this patch have support for HD backgrounds and textures?
A: Not currently. There is a DirectX9 version in development, which will add support for HD textures.

Q: My game is registering weird input and the characters keep turning to the left! What’s wrong?
A: This bug has been observed in three exact instances: while using bluetooth controllers in Raw Input (temp fix: use DirectInput or switch to wired), when Steam is interfering in some way (just turn Steam off, it’s not necessary in the slightest unless you’re using a special gamepad like the Switch Pro Controller), or in some rare cases it’s an interference caused by Windows Defender (fix: disable it or add an exception for Classic REbirth).

Q: My game says some file is missing but it’s all there!
A: If you installed the game through the setup instead of copying files, chances are the Install_Flag registry value is wrong. Open config.ini, go to the line with Install_Flag and set its value to 59.

Q: I have an AMD graphics card and my game displays all sorts of visual glitches. How can I fix?
A: The short answer would be: ask AMD to fix their drivers. AMD cards have been having trouble managing this game and other games using Direct3D3 unless some older drivers are used. The longer answer is: wait for the Direct3D9 version.

HOW TO INSTALL WITHOUT AN INSTALLER

The original Resident Evil, being the bugged mess that it is, has issues even with regular installation through its setup. If you are having issues with this specific problem, follow these steps to be able to make the game run by bypassing the setup entirely.

• First of all, create a folder that will contain all the game’s data and executable (we’ll call it “Biohazard PC” for simplicity’s sake).
• Open your CD-Rom of the game, you’ll have something that looks like this:

  

• If you are using the Mediakite print of the game, copy Biohazard.exe to your Biohazard PC folder, otherwise ignore this step.
• Enter the horr folder and copy the other folder inside it, called JPN, to our Biohazard PC folder. It’s important that you copy JPN, not horr.
• Grab the Classic REbirth DLL and copy it to the Biohazard PC folder.
• [Optional step] In case you don’t have the Mediakite copy of the game, you can get its executable from an official patch (click here). Download it and copy the executable to the Biohazard PC folder.
• If everything has been copied correctly, this is what your Biohazard PC folder will look like:

  

• Run Biohazard.exe and you will be welcomed with a message that says that you don’t have a configuration. A default one will be created, so just press OK and you will be presented a configuration  dialog window.
• Change settings to your liking and press OK again.
• You’re done, the game has been successfully installed without really installing a thing.

HOW TO USE ON A PREVIOUS INSTALL

If you already have the game installed, you only need to drop the Classic REbirth DLL into your game folder, along with the Biohazard.exe; a configuration file will be created by using Windows Registry settings. If you have an old conf.ini from a previous patch version,  it won’t be used and a new config.ini will be created to ensure that everything works correctly.

HOW TO CONFIGURE AFTER THE FIRST BOOT

The configuration dialog that shows up on first boot can be called again if you need to change any settings, which is especially useful if you need to quickly reconfigure a controller or resolution option. This is how you make the configuration dialog show up after the first boot:

• Create a shortcut to Biohazard.exe (drag the file with the mouse button pressed, then select “Create shortcuts here”).
• Go to the shortcut properties, select the “Shortcut” tab if it’s not selected automatically, in “Target” add -config after the long string.
• Double click the shortcut and the configuration dialog will show up.

I CAN’T FIND MY CONFIG.INI

This case happens mostly on Windows 10 if you install the game the regular way throught it setup or under some weird conditions with User Account Control (UAC) being set to strict control. If your situation falls under either condition, the config file, along with save data, will end up being stored under %appdata%\VirtualStore\CAPCOM\Biohazard or a similar path. Just go to %appdata%\VirtualStore\ and search inside that, once located all files can be easily copied to the game’s actual folder and it should keep updating that config.ini instead of the one in VirtualStore. If the game keeps ignoring the local config.ini, enable the game to run in admin mode.

MY GAME SAYS I’M MISSING ITEM_ALL.PIX

There have been reports of this error causing the game to quit before it can even get to the CAPCOM logo. This is caused by the original installer not copying correctly all the game data. Copying the contents of the JPN folder to the installation path will fix this issue. If that doesn’t work, open config.ini and set Install_Flag to 59.

I HAVE VISUAL GLITCHES

If you’re experiencing funny artifacts in game, no matter if it’s working correctly or not under the hood, it’s probably an issue of incompatibility with DirectX 3.0c and your graphics card. This solution will help you alleviate or fix the issue entirely. Beware tho, as this solution is not 100% stable on all computers and can lead to some unexpected crashes. There have been reports of crashes in some specific instances where the game refuses to work in Plant 42’s room and wherever there is an enemy that uses alpha transparency on textures.

• Go to the official dgVoodoo page and grab a copy of it (click here).
• Open dgVoodoo’s executable, add Biohazard.exe from the Add button, and change settings to be like the following (ignore the Glide tab, it’s useless with these settings):

  

• Click on OK and dgVoodoo will create a configuration file inside your Biohazard PC folder.
• From the dgVoodoo folder, enter MS\x86\ and copy D3DImm.dll to your Biohazard PC folder.
• From the dgVoodoo folder, enter MS\x86\ again, take ddraw.dll, rename it to re_ddraw.dll, and copy if to your Biohazard PC folder.
• If you have done everything correctly, this is what your folder will look like:

  

• Run the game and it will now internally work with DirectX11.
• [Optional step] You can also improve visuals with ReShade when the game runs wrapped with dgVoodoo.

INSTALL THE IMPROVED MOVIE PACKAGE

The first thing you’ll notice once the game starts is how bad the video files in this PC port look and sound. They are compressed with Cinepak and audio is a lousy lossless PCM at 16 bits. Fortunately Classic REbirth introduces a new video player that can take advantage of MP4, a way better format. For this purpose, a movie package was created that makes videos look smoother, less compressed, and with crisp audio quality. Here’s how you can install this movie package:

• Download the movie package from the main Classic REbirth page or by clicking on this link.
• Once it’s finished downloading, extract the archive to the main folder (i.e. our usual “Biohazard PC”). If you have done it correctly, your folder will look something like this:

  

• Run the game as usual and you will see the new movies playing instead of the default ones. This also provides English videos for a few sequences, instead of the default Japanese ones.
• [Optional step] If you’re low on hard drive space, you can safely delete the JPN\movie folder, since the game now defaults to the new movie package.