Successful source code reconstructions and reverse-engineered ports of video games \ VOGONS

Successful source code reconstructions and reverse-engineered ports of video games

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First post, by MrFlibble

MrFlibble Offline

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In the absence of source code releases for many older games, reverse-engineering and source code reconstruction appear to have already proven themselves a viable method of achieving source-port accurate engine recreations for a good number of titles, increasing their chances for proper cross-platform functionality.

In the ideal case, the source code is a near-perfect recreation of the original, and a functional port based on it is available. But these are not as numerous as one would’ve wished I guess. There are also projects which are heavily based on reverse-engineering, but without an explicit goal to produce a reconstruction of the original code. And in some cases, the code is not available publicly at all for various reasons, only compiled binaries or a DLL.

I’ve been sort of keeping a list of such projects for a while, here’s what I’ve got so far (in alphabetical order) – this is likely pretty incomplete, so please don’t hesitate to fill in the gaps.

Beyond Castle Wolfenstein
Blood
Bio Menace
Chocolate Keen (Commander Keen 1-3)
Commander Keen 4-6
Cosmore (Cosmo’s Cosmic Adventure)
CSBWin (Dungeon Master & Chaos Straikes Back)
Dethrace (Carmageddon)
Devilution (Diablo)
Digger Remastered (Digger – original source code also available)
dRally (Death Rally)
Duke Nukem II
Fallout 2
Elite: The New Kind (Elite, BBC Micro version)
Force Engine, The
Jill of the Jungle
Jumpman
Lords of Midnight
Magic Carpet
Magic Carpet II
REternal Daughter (Eternal Daughter)
NEO-RAW (Another World)
OpenDUNE (Dune II: The Building of A Dynasty)
OpenFodder (Cannon Fodder)
OpenJKDF2 (Star Wars: Dark Forces 2 – Jedi Knight)
OpenTTD (Transport Tycoon Deluxe)
Pango
Raptor: Call of the Shadows (original source code also available)
SDLPoP (Prince of Persia for DOS – original Apple II code also available)
SkiFree
Strife
SuperZZT
TRX (Tomb Raider 1-3)
Wacky Wheels
Ambermoon.net (based on reverse-engineering, but not a full reconstruction?)

DOS Games Archive | Free open source games | RGB Classic Games

Reply 1 of 2, by Calvero

Posted on Today, 14:28

Calvero Offline

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For Commander Keen 1-3 I would have picked https://pckf.com/viewtopic.php?t=18248

Reply 2 of 2, by leileilol

Posted on Today, 15:50

leileilol Offline

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No Ultimas? VI+Worlds, VII and VIII's got some. nuvie, exult, pentagram... There's also many UO servers and clients.

There were also some Eye of the Beholders and Might & Magics, but I believe ScummVM's absorbed them of their independence by now.

Push-Over has Domino-Chain. Flashback had Reminiscence.

ReflectionHLE covers Wolf3D/SOD faithfully. I know Wolf has a bunch of ports but they've always had license, compatibility or accuracy issues and run head-first into cruft.

Bstone reimplements Aliens of Gold from the released Planet Strike! sources.

I don't like to look for more of these because this year, it's a low hanging fruit for vibecoders to get easy clout from by telling clod to make them The Game (though most of them are Nintendo console focused as that's where all the more marketed games are and I believe Nintendo sucks so). I personally prefer the human-made clean room non-decompiled reimplementation ports which are more legally clear, so i'd take Freeablo over Devilution, OpenRW over re3, etc... Short-term slopjobs are no ideal, and decompilations with license washing are on borrowed time (and distract the momentum from clean-room efforts as there's gratification, even after the repercussions of legal action).

long live PCem
FUCK "AI". It is a tool of fascism. We do not need it. We do not use it.
Debian's fucked

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