And if so, what tactics did they use? Pester the devs? Crowdfunding to buy the rights to the game from the devs? Something else?
Edit: I’m more looking for instances of the actual original game being open-sourced through fan efforts or outright purchase, like how Blender was originally open-sourced as a result of a crowdfunding campaign. The open-source rewrites of games are awesome, but I don’t have the skills to build a relatively elaborate game on my own. It’s also not a popular game, more niche, really, so I’m just wondering what are the possibilities.
As I understand it, something like that happened with the game, Alliance. It was a RTS where humans had to control all the units that the commander build and ordered around.
I learned about this, probably 15 years ago, and I never played, so a lot of this might be outdated or just plain wrong.
I think Microsoft published the game, and eventually abandoned it. It still had a thriving mod community but they were struggling due to the lack of source code and support. Apparently, years after working on the game, one of the designers happened across an Internet forum talking about the struggles they were having. The designer then went back to his bosses and said, “We abandoned this years ago, can I just give them the source code?” I guess they did and since then the mod started making HUGE fundamental changes to the game.
Magewars had a brief revival
The history of city of heroes might interest you.
Came here to point out CoH!
Thank you!
Not strictly the same, but one of the most amazing feats to me in this topic was done by the Sacred community over at DarkMatters.
Apoligies for the wall of text, but I consider it worth a read.
Sacred 2 in particular never had its server code open sourced, leaked, or anything of the like as the studio went bankrupt before anything could happen, this was around 2010.
Over the course of a decade a few volunteer devs would pick up a project where using tools like wireshark etc they’d essentially sniff traffic sent by a client attempting connection to a server that didn’t exist, and using this, devs would literally try to GUESS what a server would respond, and what a client expected, essentially trying to build out the backend infrastructure from SCRATCH.
Fast forward to 2020 or so and progress was still being made, not only that but things were beginning to actually take shape. In 2021 (IIRC) one dev in particular had the general frame of a working server and continued to work on it. Fast-forward and since 2022-23, you’re able to run both a LOBBY for multiple servers and an actual GAME SERVER yourself, self-hosted and code is open.
I’ve ran a couple servers using docker since, where I played with friends, and being able to replay that childhood game, with friends, one I thought I’d never be able to share the experience for, is a dream come true.
Another neat thing is that it was reverse-engineered in windows, but the docker containers literally run WINE to translate windows calls to Linux and it just works.
Knowing I’m able to in 2,5,10,30 years pick this up, and not only that, but replay with friends means this work of art has a great chance at preservation.
If you’re into power metal, there’s a band called Blind Guardian, they not only did they the main theme for the game, but the band’s members have an entire quest-line in-game that culminates with an in-game concert. Again, a work of art worth preserving, and now, it can be shared.
I tried looking into this and I’m having trouble setting it up, although I’m on linux so that might be my doing.
I followed the guide on Darkmatters
I’m also on Linux. Ensure you have docker and docker-compose installed. IIRC you also need the windows server files# . I’ll get back to you with my server compose file.
I loved Sacred 2! I remember save scumming to preserve my 0 deaths streak. I’d hit the power button on the Xbox before it could save, risking corrupting my character every time.
Awesome achievement, thanks for telling the story!
Star Wars Galaxies.
Thank you!
Does rewriting the game count? https://2009scape.org/
The server is a rewrite from scratch and the client is a decompiled and deobfuscated binary from January 2009
oh wow, uh, my IP is blocked from accessing that website
Must be in the UK
Yeah, but… why?
Legal reasons, Jagex being a UK company
Thanks! Not quite. The idea I have in mind is to avoid having to rewrite it, if possible. Besides, I don’t think I’d have the wherewithal to do it.
One that I’m aware of is Re-Volt. The source code for both the base game and some addons can be found here.
There was another one that I remember using years ago but I can’t find it anymore. It was for another racing game called 4x4 Evo. There is the 4x4 Evolution Revival project but it’s not the one I used and there doesn’t seem to be any source code available.
Thank you!
holy shit, very cool to learn about re-volt! i loved playing that game with my brother on n64
Ur-Quan Masters (aka. Star Control 2)
But, it’s not really abandoned anymore. The developers are FINALLY making an official sequel!
The sequel is not open source, but UQM/SC2 is.
This happened in the early 2000s, but I think they found the source code to a port of the game and said “We haven’t earned any money from sales of this game in a decade [and buying digital games wasn’t really a thing yet, as people generally believed that anything digital shouldn’t have a price], so let’s release this to the community to open source as long as they do all the reverse porting and support!”
This was my favorite game as a kid. Doing fan-art and a D&D campaign about it for years got me hired on as an artist for the new one! It’s gonna be wild.
Congrats!! As I’m sure you can imagine, I am incredibly excited for COI!
Thank you!
Early Dooms and Quakes https://github.com/id-Software/DOOM but they aren’t open source for the reasons you wanted.
No problem, thanks!
Does the Unity release of Daggerfall count?
What’s the story with that one? Was the original game open-sourced, or is it a rewrite?
Edit: never mind, I just saw the other reply that it was reverse engineered.
Not at all. The reverse engineering they had to do is insane
!principia@sopuli.xyz was developed as a commercial title a few years back. I believe, @ROllerozxa@sopuli.xyz contacted the devs to get it open-sourced.
Cool, thank you for the reference! If I decide to pursue something like this, I will know someone to ask questions to.
While not open source, OldUnreal has taken over Unreal and Unreal Tournament with access to the source code and they release patches. The OldUnreal team has an agreement with Epic to do this.
Good to know, thanks!
Any idea how that happened?
Not for sure exactly, maybe there are some details on the forums?
That’s awesome. I had no idea.
Warzone 2100 is an RTS that fans petitioned a company to release as FLOSS, after support had ended.
Thank you!
And it’s fun. I still play it when I have time.
OpenTTD or OpenRTC possibly could qualify here?
Thanks! Those sound more like rewrites though?
Yeah I think technically they did re-write them, but the actual gameplay, graphics, and music is identical to the original
That’s cool. That would be something to consider if the developer will absolutely not entertain the idea.
Not quite the same, but Total Annihilation and Beyond All Reason. It wasn’t abandonware, but more like after Total Annihilation hit success, rights were sold and resold and Atari as the final owner squandered every opportunity to do more with the engine and the franchise.
The tactics were essentially receating a better engine with Spring, as the sort of newly open source upgraded version of the engine the same people built 10 years earlier. Taylor Swift did the same thing.
Thanks! That sounds more like a rewriting of the engine though?
It is, but that’s the workaround they went for, and it worked just fine in a legal sense. It was probably faster and less expensive than trying to engage in anything thats going to even risk involving a copyright attorney.
Makes sense, thanks.
