Campaign to get developers to release source code for old games

Turok 3? They rereleased 1 and 2, but 3 remaines N64 exclusive.

Dark Forces and Blood ports would be good. Maybe they exist already.
Wing Commander series

Also what I plan to do is to make a list of games where any anon has requested the company to release the source code together with a copy of the email (obviously with contact details removed) and just get people aware of how companies react to such requests. Might be interesting.
>>385218129
Damn, news to me. They released 1&2s source? where?

>>385217970
Lmao entitled pc fats

>>385217970
But most of old games were made on obsolete systems with obsolete SDKs and obsolete hardware, it's much easier to remake a game from scratch, though in this case people will want a new HD assets and shit

>>385218406
Doesn't need to be PC games only, you moron. Console games are built from source code too.
>>385218649
Not always true, but the key thing is if the language it's written in is completely unknown or obsolete. Most games are written in C or C++ so there is always some chance the game can be salvaged to run on a new system.

>>385218845
>Most games are written in C or C++ so there is always some chance the game can be salvaged to run on a new system.

Really doubt it, to be honest. It's more convinient to create an emulation software, like DosBOX - but for Win32 and other platforms

>>385219108
I can point to several open source vidya projects that are keeping the games updated. But it's easier to google. Talking about projects where the original source was released btw, like Arx fatalis and Warzone 2100. Too many others to list but still so many games that should be on the list.

>>385219452
The thing is, most of old games source codes and assets are lost, lost forever. Even Squaresoft, who made millions of Final Fantasy games just lost the prerendered scene's source models, and that's why we got blocky backgrounds on FF9 release. It's a good thing if the source is available, but for most games it is not possible, so making an emulator is a better solution.

>>385217970
Good luck getting companies to let go of their property. Even if the devs would surely like seeing their games being played again it's usually not up to them to decide. Also that's not source code that's an HTML website, the fact that you don't know the difference leads me to believe you don't know much about programming, who exactly would be in charge of updating the games?

What's the best text editor?

File: unreal.jpg (194KB, 784x1024px) Image search: [Google]

194KB, 784x1024px

There was talk about Unreal 1 engine getting it's source code released. Tim Sweeney made a comment to the effect that it might be possible, but it would take some work to get things up to releasable standard.

I think that would be a fantastic gift to the Unreal community.

Games have very long lives, much longer than the creators anticipated at the time. Anything that helps them become more accessible to a modern audience is a huge boon.

>>385219805
Not to mention you better hope they have proper documentation because who knows how the devs programmed their shit.

>>385218324
Not source, but straight up remaster. Look on Steam.

>>385219805
>Thinks I don't know the difference between HTML and game source because I randomly used a picture of source code that I found while googling
Read the post again you fucking moron. Consider throwing yourself into a fire.

>>385219805
Also if you don't think HTML counts as source code, just fucking kys, do it twice just to be certain.

>>385219865
Who cares

>>385218845
>Most games are written in C or C++
Simply not true for most older games. For example, every Game Boy game had to be written using the Game Boy's version of assembly.

>>385220720
Depends on the gen 3bh

>>385220720
I get it that the game boy had its own assembly language, but surely they also developed a higher level language for it, right? They must have made up a GameBoy-C or something that compiled into their assembly, no? If not that must have been a nightmare to program, makes me appreciate those games way more.

>>385221229
Also depends on platform. Typically you will find most PC games are C/++. I can't even think of a popular PC game written in asm other than RCT.

File: 1345510221802.jpg (18KB, 244x281px) Image search: [Google]

18KB, 244x281px

>>385217970
This will never happen because:

1. Many older game companies never kept their source code after release.
2. Even when the source exists, things like middleware fuck up the licensing situation. This requires the game dev to go back and write their own implementation of said middleware if they want to avoid legal action.
3. They just won't because MUH INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

The best hope is game devs that support open source/free software from the get-go. Which are rare, because games require more time and effort than most software projects.

>>385223398
If we get even a couple, I think that would be cool

I'm guessing a studio like CDPR would be open to giving code to the community but as >>385223398
noted there's a lot of limitations, middleware licences being the biggest hurdle for anything even remotely recent.