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General discussionSource code for old games(7 posts)(7 posts)
(7 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted January 31, 2025
I really wish GOG could add the source code for the games along with the game itself. Or at least for some of the games.

That would be interesting to see for me as a developer. Many of these old games used all kinds of tricks. But it would also allow for community enhancement, porting to new platforms and whatnot.

I get that this is a big ask of publishers. But many games are basically abandoned. Have no current IP associated with them. The publishers/developers loose little. And it would help with long term preservation.
Posted January 31, 2025
Well I wish the only obstacle would be to convince the publishers to release said source code of abandoned IP, but in most cases the source code for these old games would be lost anyway. Fun, isn't it?
Posted January 31, 2025
Sure, it would be nice. But A: Many of the programmers involved are long gone.
B: Many of the companies don't even have the source code.
C: Companies can be weirdly protectionist of their code.
D: What exactly are you going to do with a bunch of Haskell 89'/Turbo Pascal/Visual Basic code anyway?

Decompilation are quite possible, but there's the big, "And then what" that comes to mind. Because with a lot of games, you'd not only be left with a lot of uninitalized code, but you'd also have to do a lot of conversion for fun things like floating point operations, or byte word sizes. Or running on hardware orders of magnitude faster.
Posted Yesterday
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PookaMustard: Well I wish the only obstacle would be to convince the publishers to release said source code of abandoned IP, but in most cases the source code for these old games would be lost anyway. Fun, isn't it?
A suprising amount is still locked away on floppies in vaults and personal developer archives.
But I'm not asking for what is lost, I'm asking for what is still there.
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dnovraD: Sure, it would be nice. But A: Many of the programmers involved are long gone.
B: Many of the companies don't even have the source code.
C: Companies can be weirdly protectionist of their code.
D: What exactly are you going to do with a bunch of Haskell 89'/Turbo Pascal/Visual Basic code anyway?

Decompilation are quite possible, but there's the big, "And then what" that comes to mind. Because with a lot of games, you'd not only be left with a lot of uninitalized code, but you'd also have to do a lot of conversion for fun things like floating point operations, or byte word sizes. Or running on hardware orders of magnitude faster.
A. And many are still arround, many still have personal backups. Like the programmer of raptor call of the shadows, who released his code.
Also the programmer of several commander keen and such found his source code. Is willing to share it, but still waiting for approval of his old boss (which does lean into your point C)

B The companies are long gone, but many developers remain that have their own copies.

C yes, but it would be usefull to gog to make fixes, so gog as a company is in the position to convince them otherwise. It's not like there is super advanced stuff in that code.

D Does it matter? I don't see it as any different then archiving books and paintings or stamps. It's a historical artifact full of weird stuff to work around the limitations of past hardware. A look into the programming culture and much more.
It would also enable source ports much more easily than any reverse engineering could.
Even now decompilation effort for popular games are underway. Commander keen has been done, diablo and quite a few others. Hiding source just makes things difficult not impossible.
Post edited Yesterday by bzuidgeest
Posted Yesterday
I take no credit or responsibility about any of these files or do they provide what they are described as. Use at your own risk.

Have you checked archive.org. There you can find code for some games (that I suppose are shared on other platforms also): https://archive.org/details/gamesourcecode
Posted 15 hours ago
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bzuidgeest: A suprising amount is still locked away on floppies in vaults and personal developer archives.
But I'm not asking for what is lost, I'm asking for what is still there. A. And many are still arround, many still have personal backups. Like the programmer of raptor call of the shadows, who released his code.
Also the programmer of several commander keen and such found his source code. Is willing to share it, but still waiting for approval of his old boss (which does lean into your point C)

B The companies are long gone, but many developers remain that have their own copies.

C yes, but it would be usefull to gog to make fixes, so gog as a company is in the position to convince them otherwise. It's not like there is super advanced stuff in that code.

D Does it matter? I don't see it as any different then archiving books and paintings or stamps. It's a historical artifact full of weird stuff to work around the limitations of past hardware. A look into the programming culture and much more.
It would also enable source ports much more easily than any reverse engineering could.
Even now decompilation effort for popular games are underway. Commander keen has been done, diablo and quite a few others. Hiding source just makes things difficult not impossible.
A) Sure. Many are still around, but how exactly would you get in contact with the proprietor of Worldwide Microtronics; a company of which was folded in a tax forfeiture back in 2004? (Does the State of Texas own that code now?) Or Steve Moraff, whom I'm not even works at Software Diversions anymore? William Soleau? The only active shareware developer I know of from back in the day that is receptive to contact is already there: Jeff Vogel.

B) And who don't legally own the code/publishing rights because it was sold to a holding company in Kowloon.

C) GOG is rarely even in the position to ask developers they already have on board to keep their games updated.

D) Fair enough. But it certainly takes a while to untangle uncommentated Asc or Fortran; there's a reason why maintainers are often posted listings.
Post edited 15 hours ago by dnovraD
Posted 12 hours ago
wish the masters came with the albums I've bought, but that's not how intellectual properties work.


In fact, in most cases, the work people do go unnoticed in favor of the company they work for. I don't see why helping you specifically would be mutually beneficial. That doesn't sound like a video game developer to me.

Not only that, but this happens already. It's just not a common practice. And I don't think it should be. But hey SEGA unsuccessfully tried to copyright game mechanics. It's their hard work to preserve and protect. Especially with independent game developers.
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionSource code for old games(7 posts)(7 posts)
(7 posts)