Talk:List of commercial video games with available source code

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inclusion criteria[edit]

Many games on this list don't really belong here, like Gothic3 or Unreal. "Making the Source available to someone from the Community (most probably under NDA)" is not "releasing source code".— Preceding unsigned comment added by 31.18.61.119 (talk • contribs) 15:19, 17 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I agree, then there's Dark Reign 2 with obviously stolen source code being referred to as "Open source" and it's wiki's page linking directly to the dame repo! Dark_reign_2 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bumblebritches57 (talk • contribs) 20:59, 6 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Dark reign was released under a open source license, which is fact. It is unclear if the developer(?) who did that had the right for doing so (and made just an mistake with the bink headers etc). So, DR2 is released as open source, legal status unclear. Shaddim (talk) 08:58, 7 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

- Would it be possible to add the "specific platform" for each game(s) first release ? (F.e. "Super Mario 64) Platform: N64 (of course, here it is obvious, but that doesn't go for all games...) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.180.126.208 (talk) 08:43, 7 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Falcon 4.0[edit]

The Falcon 4.0 flight simulator has been added to this page, but its source code has never been officially released by the legal owner. Instead, the code was leaked to the public in early 2000, and the source code of one of the community branch that originated from this leak was released on Github under free license (BSD), despite not having any contact with the legal owner of the code. Shouldn't Falcon 4.0 be removed from this page as its "public" code is simply illegal? Spyhawk (talk) 18:14, 22 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

renamed according to our discussion Shaddim (talk) 16:42, 1 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Lemmings[edit]

What about the lix implementation of Lemmings? https://github.com/SimonN/Lix

Thanks, but this seems to be an engine reimplementation, not an accurate source code reconstruction. cheers Shaddim (talk) 18:07, 29 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Push Over[edit]

http://pushover.sourceforge.net/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.33.96.66 (talk) 10:28, 29 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not sure if this aims for being an accurate engine reconstruction?... currently I tend to guess it is a non-accurate reimplementation. cheers Shaddim (talk) 18:07, 29 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Rick Dangerous[edit]

And xrick? http://www.bigorno.net/xrick/

Hi, I think also this one aims not for pixel-accurate or clock-cycle-accurate reconstrcution of source code. but, all three would fit here : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_game_engine_recreations cheers

Half-life 1[edit]

Valve put the source code for half-life one (or at least the engine) on their github. --82.30.222.194 (talk) 12:01, 24 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Hmmm, how complete is the source code? (https://github.com/ValveSoftware/halflife) As far as I understand it is only the SDK. on reddit it was claimed that the engine is missing (http://www.reddit.com/r/HalfLife/comments/26dlo4/was_reading_through_the_original_halflifes_source/chq0qsu) and the original id software Quake source code (https://github.com/id-Software/Quake) is not the modified GoldSrc. 16:29, 24 August 2014 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Shaddim (talk • contribs)
At least partly released, together with restored part added to the "restored source code" section. Shaddim (talk) 12:39, 28 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

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CryEngine first release is 1989?[edit]

Just why? The first release seems to be around 2004, but I can't find exact sources. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A01:110F:EB9:9E00:5062:6365:3ADC:3062 (talk) 19:46, 25 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, fixed. Shaddim (talk) 14:32, 17 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Material to add[edit]

very interesting : http://assemblergames.com/l/threads/game-source-code-dump.64554/#post-923795 turok 1 source code found, will be sold via ebay: http://motherboard.vice.com/read/turok-source-code-ebay http://www.pcgamesn.com/turok/turok-source-code-found let's see what happens here...

List of URLs

-— Preceding unsigned comment added by Shaddim (talk • contribs) 20:30, 22 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]

note - section and content above was added by Shaddim in these diffs starting 17 November 2014 and ending 22 January 2016‎. and this set of diffs starting starting April 2016 and ending 17:33, 26 June 2016. I added a signature for the last diff in the first series Jytdog (talk) 21:05, 16 December 2016 (UTC) [reply]

I found these apparent potential sources haphazardly scattered around this Talk page, all from the same user, it looks like. Seemed like a list would be more helpful to everyone. Feel free to edit it at will. —67.14.236.50 (talk) 03:44, 15 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

thanks for the clean up but I'mn ot sure if it was worth the time. Shaddim (talk) 02:03, 16 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]
It was that or delete them. I don’t know if there’s a project page about not using Talk pages as a link dump, but it seemed like the pile was just growing unmanaged. I strongly suggest deleting the links that have already been used or will never be used, which should help make the list reasonable. —67.14.236.50 (talk) 03:44, 16 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]
It is fine. Shaddim was just listing refs here for future use by them or others - valid use of a talk page. thanks for cleaning it up; nothing more to do here. Jytdog (talk) 21:09, 16 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Colossal Cave Adventure confusion[edit]

Browsing through the list, interested by the empty "Additional information" table, I researched the article linked under the engine license. The year of source code retrieval is listed as 2007, which is the year of posting the article and file retrieval from ifarchive website. The article states the files were retrieved in 2005:

Crowther's original source code, which had been presumed lost for decades, was recovered in 2005 from a backup of Don Woods's student account at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab (SAIL).

However, upon googling for adv350-pdp10.tar.gz file, I found that it was apparently available as far as 2000. I originally wanted to fill in the Additional Information table, but now I'm kinda confused and gave it up. If anyone can research the matter more thoughtfully, please fill in the Additional information and update sources and years if necessary. Thanks! Faalagorn☎/✓ 15:25, 25 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you very much for digging into this, I will take a look later if I have time. On the other hand, it seems fine for me if you would just step forward and add your researched information carefully worded, I will review / adapt it later on. regards Shaddim (talk) 12:39, 28 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

"Open source" is not the contrary of "commercial"[edit]

See also: commercial software

I suggest the title List of proprietary video games with available source code and to correct this paragraph: 

Commercial video games, unlike open-source video games, are typically developed as proprietary closed source software products [..]

To something as: 

Proprietary video games, unlike open source video games, [..]

This because of even if it's true that "commercial" videogames are often not "open source" (/ proprietary software), it's not true that "open source" (/ free software) video games are also "non-commercial". If a software doesn't allow you to sell it, that is an unwanted restriction in your freedom of use, and so it's not accepted by the Open Source Definition (/ Free Software Definition). --Valerio Bozzolan (talk) 14:42, 28 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Several of them are not proprietary (in fact that the point of this page: the gray area between FOSS and proprietary/closed source software): see Jason Rohrers' games, while being commercially developed, meaning targeting a commercial market. Most FOSS games target not the commercial market. I'm well aware that the FSF reiterates that free software is not the opposite of commercial. While on theoreticla level true, practical the overlapp is small. See for instance the list of FOSS games. On the other hand, I'm currently contemplating about the introduction of a fourth table with the games having their source code available while being meant for the commercial market: around 20 titles would be in there, many old pulbic domain one.Shaddim (talk) 20:04, 29 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
I reordered the sentence which should make it somewhat clearer Shaddim (talk) 20:12, 29 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

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Split[edit]

This article is way too long. I propose that we split it into three, one for each of the three major sections. Feedback encouraged. Lfstevens (talk) 05:33, 21 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, thnaks for this initative. Currently I'm hesitating as I consider still alternative layouts and cuts of the tables. For instance, separating the first table in 2 table: one for games with source code available with release and a second with source later after binary release. cheers Shaddim (talk) 08:26, 21 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I am in favor of splitting not only the article but also the tables themselves. The "later released source code" for example is hulking with 260 entries! Editing it is a major pain, with the browser taking a couple seconds to respond with each key press! Besides the pain to edit, the browser can also not render the table properly - it was absolutely broken on 1366x768 until I spent some good half an hour figuring out an arbitrary CSS layout for it. The question that remains then is: how do we split the tables themselves - by the original release decade, by game genre or what? It would be nice to find another article with similar problems so we can use the same solution instead of figuring it all out again. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2804:431:F705:9B39:A62:66FF:FE99:6A71 (talk) 00:50, 25 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, I appreciate your input (thanks also for star rulers 2). But we should not hurry, and taking the page apart in too small / undefendable pieces. Therefore let's discuss all options. cheers Shaddim (talk) 01:24, 25 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]
PS. about the unresponsive browser, which one do you use? I'm using Firefox and while it takes some seconds to load, editing is without delay and painless. cheers Shaddim (talk) 01:26, 25 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Source code at The Gremlin Graphics Archive[edit]

Thought this might be of interest to add to this article?: https://www.gremlinarchive.com/index.php/category/games/source-code/ They have the Actua Soccer source code for example, which seems to be missing here: https://www.gremlinarchive.com/index.php/2017/03/08/actua-soccer-source-code/ 217.211.37.78 (talk) 21:44, 9 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

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Merger proposal from List of open-source video games#Source-available games[edit]

I'm proposing a merger from List of open-source video games#Source-available games. Source-available software isn't always classified as open-source software, since source code availability isn't the only requirement for a piece of software to be considered open-source. However, a list of source-available games is a perfect fit to be merged into List of source-available video games. — Newslinger talk 13:25, 26 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Withdrawn. — Newslinger talk 10:44, 27 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Unreal Engine Source[edit]

The list mentions all Unreal (+ Tournament) games. I cannot find any info about this on the net. The only thing I could find were headers and SDKs as well as the code to Unreal Script (the in-game scripting engine). Also Tim Sweeney said that the code to UE2 and 3 will probably never be released because of "dependencies on a large number of external closed-source middleware packages with complex licensing requirements":

https://www.dsogaming.com/news/epics-tim-sweeney-says-that-unreal-engine-1-may-one-day-go-open-source/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:4CA0:0:F234:1C2B:9683:E275:3C6E (talk) 09:41, 4 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

A short peer review on notability[edit]

As of Special:Permalink/943970273, I reviewed the non-linked entries from top to Cytadela and removed some unnotable ones with Special:Diff/943532694/943970273. Some 34 video game titles after that remain unreviewed by me. 84.250.17.211 (talk) 22:41, 4 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

While I agree with most changes, I think Asylum is well-known. It used to be popular and was one of the first ever relatively successful commercial games to be open-sourced. I won't deny or revert your change but I think a follow-up survey should show it to be notable. 2804:431:C7CE:7A73:A62:66FF:FE99:6A71 (talk) 14:14, 10 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

ZZT (Epic MegaGames, 1991, DOS) source code has been reconstructed & released with blessing of Tim Sweeney under MIT license[edit]

ZZT's (1991, Epic MegaGames now Epic Games) source code has now been reconstructed to a byte-accurate reconstruction and released with the blessing of Tim Sweeney under MIT license . This might be worth including on both the ZZT page and the List of commercial games with freely available source code. It definitely seems to meet notability since it helped start Sweeney's career and Epic Games, and, well, there's a ZZT Wikipedia article.

Supporting links: Twitter announcement: https://twitter.com/worldsofzzt/status/1239325308123148288 (note the retweet by Sweeney) Github: https://github.com/asiekierka/reconstruction-of-zzt Secondary source, retronauts: https://retronauts.com/article/1480/zzts-source-code-has-been-reconstructed

I'd actually try to add it myself already, but I'll mess up the tables if I try! KKairos (talk) 03:49, 18 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Massive Nintendo Leak[edit]

In 2020 July 24, The source code for many Nintendo games was made available on 4Chan. The leak contains source codes of games such as "Pokémon Diamond and Pearl" for the Nintendo DS System, "Star Fox", "Star Fox 2", "Yoshi's Island", "Mario Kart", "F-Zero", "The Legend of Zelda - A Link to the Past", "Super Mario All-Stars" and others for the Super Nintendo, and "Link's Awakening DX" for the Game Boy Color, as well as many other debugging software, bios, roms, prototypes and development documents.

Source: 4chan board, subforum /v/, thread 518363794

Leak Document, being updated as stuff gets analyzed: https://docs.google.com/document/d/176d5yx2GtWDudFNQW4mJC8QYE1B4uJdhk0HD45nandU/preview?pru=AAABc6YRz_8*0lrgaxUmNfTndUFfkP5BYA#

Minecraft?[edit]

Minecraft has publicly available obfuscation maps from which one could decipher the source code, which section would that go under (if any)? 208.118.175.250 (talk) 16:34, 7 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

StarCraft[edit]

Why is StarCraft on this list, when the source code is NOT available, unless anyone can prove the contrary? This page even states that the code was returned to Blizzard and not shared with anyone. So, why is it on this list?? Pulseczar (talk) 03:29, 11 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Good question. I've removed that entry from the list. Iritscen (talk) 16:50, 11 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The Witcher 3[edit]

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was never made public. It was allegedly "sold" at shady forum by who-knows-who. I've removed it. AXONOV (talk) ⚑ 20:02, 1 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

But not cyberpunk, which you removed to. It`s source code can be tracked on the web. Dmitry Seleznev (talk) 08:41, 12 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]
You sure? Just bring it back then. AXONOV (talk) ⚑ 08:44, 12 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Descent[edit]

As far as I know, Descent was made available to the public by Parallax Software, the git repo is here: https://github.com/videogamepreservation/descent Should this be included? 204.186.55.108 (talk) 18:40, 26 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

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