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.

  • jrubal1462@mander.xyz
    2·
    2 days ago

    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    I learned about this, probably 15 years ago, and I never played, so a lot of this might be outdated or just plain wrong.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.

  • TurboWafflz@lemmy.world
    58·
    5 days ago

    The developer of Terraria promised to open source the canceled sequel if a petition could get enough signatures but then it did and he didn’t release the code

  • uxellodunum@lemmy.mlEnglish
    14·
    4 days ago

    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.

    • jws_shadotak@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      3·
      3 days ago

      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.

    • jws_shadotak@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1·
      3 days ago

      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

      • uxellodunum@lemmy.mlEnglish
        1·
        22 hours ago

        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.

        • jws_shadotak@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          1·
          21 hours ago

          Sorry - I wasn’t clear. I can’t seem to join any servers. Some comments mention changing the default server to “hex41.de” so I changed that but I can’t connect.

          Maybe it’s since been taken down or something.

    • turtle [he/him]@lemm.eeOPEnglish
      5·
      4 days ago

      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.

  • otp@sh.itjust.works
    10·
    5 days ago

    Ur-Quan Masters (aka. Star Control 2)

    But, it’s not really abandoned anymore. The developers are FINALLY making an official sequel!

    The 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!”

  • vortexal@lemmy.ml
    8·
    5 days ago

    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.