Bring Back Those Mega Man Legends 3 Project Memories with the Archived Devrooms

Once upon a time, there was a project undergone by Capcom to create a long-awaited sequel to their 2000 release, Mega Man Legends 2. This project sought to elevate a longstanding tradition of the franchise, getting fans involved in the development of certain aspects of new titles, to a new level by introducing the “Mega Man Legends 3 Devroom”. Within this space, hosted on Capcom’s websites, there would be updates regarding the game’s progression and contests in which fans could submit entries and vote on different things they would like to see in the game.

Unfortunately, it was not to last. It would instead come to pass that the game was not greenlit, and would be cancelled. As a result, the Devroom would effectively be shut down, though fans would keep its memory alive on the Capcom Unity forums with the “Neo Devroom.”

As with all good things, however (even the bittersweet ones), the time of the Devroom and Neo Devroom came to an end. Capcom shuttered Capcom*Unity, the hub of activity where Capcom’s crew and fans would come together, for good and for ill, as the company moved into a new, different phase of its history.

But wait! Not all is lost!

A pair of fellows who goes by the usernames “rabidrodent” and “LaytonPuzzle27” undertook an effort to preserve both sides of the Devroom — Japanese and Western, respectively. To that end, much of the content has been posted in the form of articles on the Mega Man Knowledge Base wiki on Fandom:

Bonne Mecha Entries • Bright Bats Mascot Entries • Easter Egg Entries • Promotional Ideas Entries • Reaverbot Entries • Townspeople Entries

There are some entries keeping the Neo Devroom’s contributions alive, too:

Neo Devroom Airship Entries • Neo Devroom Boss Breakout Entries • Neo Devroom Ruins Entries • Neo Devroom Weapon Entries • Neo Devroom Resolve the Cliffhanger Entries

Update (3/27/24): Added link to the Neo Devroom’s “Resolve the Cliffhanger” entries.

In their email to me, LaytonPuzzle27 noted that this content will be available on Mega Man Wiki in the near future.

As cool as that is, it’s not the end of it. Sure, having things archived on the wikis is great and all (to say nothing of easy to access and look through), but there’s a certain something to be said for the experience of browsing the Devroom as it once stood.

To that end, here are a few Google Drive download links that will help you relive that experience:

Japanese Devroom archive • US Devroom archive • Extra content

According to LaytonPuzzle27, “If you or your friends want to see the long lost internet pages all you have to do is open the index.html file in the root folder, you should be able to browse the sites as they originally appeared. If you’re just copy & pasting the individual blog text, it should be workable. Also be sure to have a 7-Zip File Manager or something to extract the file.”

While the experience isn’t 100% complete (most notably, the pages I checked lacked the Devroom banner — my first choice for the headline graphic on this article, actually), this seems to be about as complete as one can reasonably expect to find. At least, without plumbing the depths of the Internet Archive.

Update (3/27/24): A third archive of content has been added, in the “Extra content” link above. These files include more web pages from the Japanese and western side of things (including the fateful final posts from Capcom Unity), the English Reaverbot Revival, Bonne mecha posts, English character designer pages for the new character poll, Aero and Barrett models, YouTube videos, and fan made Flash games. Due to the shuttering of Flash, you might find it easier to view the Aero and Barrett models here, while the Flash games can be played through the Adobe Flash emulator known as Ruffle.

However, as great as all of this is, a Servbot’s (former, current, or future) work is never done! They’re looking for help translating the Japanese entries, and are looking for volunteers! Specifically, the “Bonne Mechas, Townspeople Type 1, Townspeople Type 2, Reaverbots, Easter Egg, Promotional Ideas, and Bright Bats Mascot Entries. Note: some of the entries may have an extra comment section of that Devroom entry like for example the Bonne Mecha entry Grachaft Drakun created by O.S. can be seen on entry #104 and entries #201-206. Once they are done with one of the six Devroom contest entries set they can email me a Microsoft Word file of that ready English Devroom entries.”

If you’re interested in lending a helping hand, you can reach out to jcvandiver29 (at) gmail-dot-com.

Game preservation is important, and that doesn’t just go for the bits and bytes of data that comprise the games, but everything around them: from the marketing to the manuals to the communities and the conversations surrounding them, and what they each bring to the table. I try to do my little part to keep that going in some way here, and I’m always thrilled to see others doing their part in one way or another, and this is a big one — one where all of those things effectively met, and one which we’ll never forget.

#LegendsNeverDie #WeAreRockman #WeAreMegaMan

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