I was able to go a step forward (without the memory error) but now I get this: "Failed to initialize the graphic hardware device (3)"

Can virtual Pc be the problem?

Thks

I've use Virtual Pc to setup a true win 95b Os but still it failed and give me the message "Failed to initialize the graphic hardware device (3)" as stated earlier on the Xp compatible Os.

Never played Resident Evil on the PC but it probably uses Direct3D.....if so then you cannot play it under Microsoft Virtual PC because the emulated video card does not support Direct3D, so unless the game has software emulation then your SOL.

Options:

1. Try the game on your host.
2. Buy a PS1 or PS2/PS Resident Evil and play it.
3. Buy Resident Evil...download EPSX. Play Resident Evil.

Yes it does indeed need directX version 3a.

So this will correct my problem? Not using virtual Pc

Yeah It work very well now, I've use it off Virtual Pc on the host and I've used the compatibility wizard to make it work properly.

Thanks for the answer, time and patience.

Can't really help because I've never gotten it to work, but VPC is definetly not the answer....unless it can run in software mode under VPC. Hopefully someone on this forum has the game and knows how to get it to work.

Read this: http://www.ntcompatible.com/Resident_Evil_c1247.html

My video card is a radeon 8500 with catalyst 5.5
For some cards it may not work because when installing you must specifying the video card you want to use thus the game only support a few one.

I guess thoses who can install it but isn't able to play with are getting this kind of problem.

Here's what I've (general steps) make:

1- Insert the Cd (I've the original, so I didn't patch anything)
2- Put the file "setup.exe" in the win95 compatibility mode from the compatibility tab from the properties popup menu
3- Launch "setup.exe"
4- Close the error message (you will get 2 task with the same icon, one for the setup, the other for the error message)
5- Choose your video card (Mine was the Creative Blaster something)
6- After you'll be prompt to install the game
7- Once install goto the compatibility tab (from the properties popup) for the file "residentevil.exe" or "launch.exe" (i don't remember which one) and then use the link at the bottom of the page to call the help center which contain the compatibility wizard link
8- Ask for a win95 game, check play in 640*480, check disable themes and everything was working for me.

I was able to launch the game, be in the mansion and access menus and etc.

After tyring to get this working under VMWARE 5.5 running a win98 guest I found you don't need a 3d card to play resident evil!!

The readme says that you can launch resident evil
with the "/nocard1" or "/nocard2" parameter if you don't have a 3d card.
It didn't work with my Resident evil cd, but I downloaded
the patch and am happily playing resident evil by launching it with
"neweur.exe /nocard2"

You do need a fast cpu to run it w/ software render though but it helps the game from running to fast

Nice. What happens when you try these options without Vmware?

This setup helped on my computer with Radeon 9200 card + WinXP SP2:
1) launch setup.exe on CD in Win 95 compatibility mode
2) press space (a window for a card selection will appear) and choose any of the rendition cards (Creative, Intergraph, Canopus)
3) do not install DirectX
4) put the file repatch.exe (a patch from http://www.patches-scrolls.de) into the game directory and run it in Win 95 compatibility mode

I was able to play Resident Evil on my blazing fast XP machine, but I encountered two problems. First, in Jill's game, the game freezes during the cutscene where Barry shoots the zombie chasing Jill into the dinning room. I used a save game at the earliest point past that scene to continue. Second, I noticed that the game sometimes runs at a normal speed, but runs too fast far too often. I couldn't replicate the conditions for either.

I know a workaround to stop the game from freezing in the dining room:

(1) Once Jill enters the dining room with Barry, turn around and return to the main hallway.
(2) Once in the hallway, Wesker will say something to you, then you will return to Barry in the dining room.
(3) Turn around and try to leave for the hallway again. Barry will say something and you will stop.
(4) Walk towards Barry. Just after you pass the clock, a zombie will enter the room.
(5) The game will now proceed as normal.

I'm having a weird problem with this game. I can play it fine in XP, but, for some reason, can only play it in Windows 98 with 320x240 resolution. I can select any Rendition video card before starting the game, but I cannot get it to run at 640x480 resolution no matter what I do. The weird thing is that this same video card CAN play at 640x480 in XP. Anyone know why I can't get this to run right in both operating systems? I'm using an Nvidia Geforce 7800 GS.

I've been trieng to get Resident Evil to work properly for some time now and finaly found a way (rather odd but it works for some weird reason) to play it withought it looking like its beeing fast forwarded.

You need the REPATCH.zip also known as the voodoo2 patch.
You will also need Microsoft Virtual PC, alhtough you wont be playing Resident evil in it.

This is what i did and it works great, some of the animations in the cut scenes are a bit too fast but as for the game play its perfect.
I installed Microsoft Virtual PC and set up windows 98 on it.

Then i installed resident evil from the CD on the HOST computer, NOT THE VIRTUAL ONE!! When you install it and it seems that the instalation is hanging just press space bar, there is a dialog box in the background that gives some error, this is normal dont worry about it.
When asked to select a GFX card i chose the default creative card although i have a Geforce 6200.
After its been installed extract the REPATCH.exe into the game directory and make a shortcut to that exe since you will be starting up the game from it every time you want to play.

Now this is where the wierd bit comes in. I origenaly set up the windows 98 virtual pc just to be able to play some old classics and after realising that it emulates the s3 trio gfx i gave up hope on playing any 3d game on the virtual machine. So i installed it on XP and forgot that my virtual pc was running in the background. For some reason virtual pc keeps your memory and cpu so busy that when you play resident evil on xp it slowes down to the right frames. In theory any program running in the back ground while you are playing resident evil that is memory and cpu hungry should have the same result. It works for me and i hope this will help someone else.

Good Luck!
For questions mail me at meepo2000@yahoo.com and make your topic Resident Evil.
PS. When you play as Jill the game does hang when you come back into the dining room after killing the zombie so before you go in there, go out to the main hall, then to the room with the zombie, run out of that room back to the dining room where Barry is and he`'ll blow its head off

Why so complicated? 😉
There are programs out there, for exactly doing only this (slowing down your computer), without the need to install extra (and maybe useless) software.
Furthermore you can set the rate of slowing down your computer to the optimal level.

I made the best experience with Slowup, which you can get here:
http://www.louis-xiv.de/gf/patches/SlowUp2.zip

i have a geforce 5600 and i'm running windows xp SP2
when i run resident evil e get an error "Failed to initialize the graphic hardware device (3)"

i dont understand how did you correct the problem

Did you try any compatibility modes?

yes. i set it to windows95.

i'm trying to emulate 3dfx (glide wrapper - dgVoodoo1.50Beta) but i dont have any resultes.

i'm now ussing a geforce 5200 ultra and resident evil is working! 😀

I just got RE1 working on WinXP SP2, Athlon XP 2800+, Geforce 6600GT following the instructions here.

The minute I saw that I had to set the compatibility mode to "Windows 95". I started checking for an application compatibility fix from Microsoft and sure enough there is one in their database. It didn't work for me because it relies on a file called retheme.zip to verify the correct program and it can't find it. I edited the entries and removed this file dependancy. I named the new compatibility database RE1full.sdb. I also created RE1minimal.sdb that will only fix ResidentEvil.exe and leaves out checker.exe, launch.exe, and setup.exe.

I suggest using this fix before installing the game. Download the attached file RE1.zip, extract, and install from command prompt or run box with the command: sdbinst re1full.sdb (or) sdbinst re1minimal.sdb .

I ripped my Resident Evil CD to hard drive with Nero Burning Rom using the filename RE1.NRG and mounted it into Daemon tools.

From there on out the program installed fine except for having to hit the ESCAPE key when the blank red screen came up. I installed nothing to the hard drive since the entire game is already running from a virtual CD-ROM image. I selected Rendition as the video driver.

The game runs way too fast and the only slowdown program I found to work well was Mo'Slo 4Biz's Slo'Win EZ component with speed set for 12.98 method 3 and interval 1. Using Mo'Slo the game does not crash during the initial Jill/Barry sequence when they run into the very first zombie in the dining room. You can collect the clips from Kenneth's body.

I found a command line file on the net that will setup all of the video modes for the game including the software modes. It is called setup.exe and is included in RE1.zip.

I had fun fooling around with this but realistically running the PSX version in either psxemu or ePSXe is a much better option.

EDIT: Major edits to the entire text of message and final change to RE1.zip attachment.