RayKoopa: The remaining two people who were known to have the source code seemingly lost it many years ago due to storage failure. We're still trying to dig it out from some archives, but right now it looks like it's gone.
Ray,
Thank you for your dedication to this old game. It's unfortunate to hear about the loss of the source code, and it's a real shame that this seems to be the last chance to recover it. I would have loved to take a look at the source code purely for informational purposes, without any commercial intent.
I greatly appreciate the work of the people back then. When I think about how much time I spent with the game in the early to mid-2000s, it makes this situation doubly regrettable. I would have given anything just to take a peek at it, to see how development was done back then. The source code is also a document of its time, and my appreciation would only increase if I could see all of that. I have great respect for these achievements.
My admiration goes out to the original developers who achieved so much with the limited resources and tools available at the time (there were no ready-made game engines that could be used as a base). It seems that this last hope has now died due to storage errors and failures.
It's a pity, but hopefully, the game will be kept alive for a few more years thanks to the efforts of some people. We can only hope that Microsoft will maintain all old compatibility layers until then, so that we can continue to play the game for a few more years. Otherwise, the game is unfortunately really doomed, and looking back, it was a great time with it.