This is a list of commercial video games with available source code. The source code of these commercially developed and distributed video games is available to the public or the games' communities.
In several of the cases listed here, the game's developers released the source code expressly to prevent their work from becoming lost. Such source code is often released under varying (free and non-free, commercial and non-commercial) software licenses to the games' communities or the public; artwork and data are often released under a different license than the source code, as the copyright situation is different or more complicated. The source code may be pushed by the developers to public repositories (e.g. SourceForge or GitHub), or given to selected game community members, or sold with the game, or become available by other means. The game may be written in an interpreted language such as BASIC or Python, and distributed as raw source code without being compiled; early software was often distributed in text form, as in the book BASIC Computer Games. In some cases when a game's source code is not available by other means, the game's community "reconstructs" source code from compiled binary files through time-demanding reverse engineering techniques.
The game was released in 2017 commercially on Steam by independent developer Undertow Games (Joonas "Regalis" Rikkonen). Source code was released on 4 June 2017 on GitHub under a restrictive mods allowing license.[5][6] His previous game, SCP – Containment Breach, is also available as free and open-source software under CC BY-SA license.
ELIZA is an influential video game predecessor written at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory by Joseph Weizenbaum between 1964 and 1966.[14] Weizenbaum's original MAD-SLIP implementation was re-written in Lisp by Bernie Cosell.[15][16] A BASIC version appeared in Creative Computing in 1977, written in 1973 by Jeff Shrager.[17] This version, which was ported to many of the earliest personal computers, appears to have been subsequently translated into many other versions in many other languages.[18] On May 28, 2021, the original MAD-Slip source code for ELIZA was discovered and released under the CC0free-software license with permission of Weizenbaum's estate.[19][20][21]
The game was developed open-source on GitHub with an own open-source game engine[22] by several The Battle for Wesnoth developers and released in July 2010 for several platforms. The game was for purchase on the MacOS' app store,[23][24]iPhoneApp Store[25] and BlackBerryApp World[26] as the game assets were kept proprietary.[27]
Ion Fury is based on the EDuke32 source port of Duke Nukem 3D, which is under the GNU General Public License. It is possible to compile Ion Fury by downloading the latest version of EDuke32 and compile it with the flag FURY set to 1.[30]
Originally created in 1985 on a MZ-700 home computer by Yutaka Isokawa. The BASIClisting was published in the August 1985 issue of the magazine "Oh!MZ Publications".[38][39][40] In 1990 the game was commercially converted for the Game Boy. In 2011, the game community restored a faithful as possible version from the available variants.[41]
The game by George Blank[44] first appeared in the December 1978 issue of SoftSide magazine as BASIC listing.[45] It was published for sale on tape cassette as a computer game by Instant Software for the Radio ShackTRS-80, the Apple II, TI-99/4A, and PET.[46] It has been translated into many programming languages, such as ANSI C,[47] and has been ported to the Palm Pilot.
A comedic, adult-oriented text adventure game produced for the Apple II in 1981. Softporn Adventure was originally written and released for the Apple II as Applesoft BASIC source code in 1981 by programmer Chuck Benton.[48] The game was released by On-Line Systems and became later the base for Leisure Suit Larry 1.[49] The PC version was also released later as freeware by Al Lowe.[50][51][52]
In December 2014, Night Dive Studios coordinated the re-release of the 1996 first-person shooter role playing hybrid game Strife as Strife: Veteran Edition, after acquiring rights to the game. Because the game's source code had been lost, a derivative of the Chocolate Doom subproject Chocolate Strife was used as the game's engine, with its original programmers being contracted to do additional coding for the re-release. The source code of Strife: Veteran Edition has been made available under GPLv3 on GitHub by Samuel Villarreal and Night Dive Studios on December 12, 2014.[53] While this was the first source code opened for a Night Dive Studios Studio's game, it was announced more will follow,[54] for instance for System Shock 1.[55]
First publicly released in 1975 in BASIC, as was the updated 1978 version which was more widely published in Creative Computing, May/June 1978.[61] Source rediscovered in 2011.[62]
The table below with available source code resulted not from official releases by companies or IP holders but from unclear release situations, like lost and found games, and leaks of unclear legality (e.g. by an individual developer on end-of-product-life) or undeleted content.[75]
In November 2016 the source code for the Atari 8-bit and Apple II versions of Adventure in Time and Birth of the Phoenix were released by Kevin Savetz, along with partial code of The Queen of Phobos for Apple II.[79]
Source code of Asteroids in the Atari 7800 version was released in physical form by AtariSunnyvale on their closure 1996. Together with Ms. Pac-Man, Dig Dug, Robotron: 2084 and eight further games reconstructed by the Atari-Museum and published later.[86][87] Ports for modern FPGAs were made later.[88]
In 2000, partial source code of an alpha version was leaked. In 2010, the complete alpha source code was leaked.[97] Using the code as reference, a reverse engineered build of the final version was created by Alexander Makarov for source ports around 2017.[98] A later alpha draft from July 1996 was leaked in January 2023 by "x0r_jmp".[99]
On May 17, 2018, Kevin Savetz uploaded scans of the complete source code of the Atari 8-bit conversion of Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom donated by Charlie Kulas.[102]
Passworded source code was released by a ransomware group in 2020, but went largely unnoticed until 2024 when the password was discovered and made available on archive.org.[112]
In 2009, a complete copy of the Dark Engine source code was discovered in the possession of an ex-Looking Glass Studios employee who was at the time continuing his work for Eidos Interactive.[116] In late April 2010, a user on the Dreamcast Talk forum disassembled the contents of a Dreamcast development kit he had purchased.[117] Later, significant updates for the Dark Engine-based games were published.[118][119][120]
In August 2008 the 6502 assembly language source code of Donkey Kong was published at the AtariAge forum by Curt Vendel,[125] and was discussed there by the original developer, Landon Dyer.[126]
Doom's Macintosh and DOS source code appeared on eBay in two different lots, and once purchased later found its contents online: the first on September 19, 2023 and the second on March 19, 2024.[127]
At some point, someone broke through the security systems at Caltech, and took a copy of the source code for the FORTRAN/PDP-10 version of the game.[133] This code was continually modified, being passed around from person to person and ported to other system e.g. to VAX/VMS OS.[134]
On 20 May 2011, someone released the EVE Online source code on a GitHub repository.[135] After the source code was online four days, CCP issued a DMCA take-down request which was followed by GitHub.[136]
A 2000 source codeleak[139] by a former developer allowed unofficial community development, including upgrades, improved graphics, and bug fixes. In 2013 the source code of one of the community development branches was released to a GitHub repository under a questionable BSD license.[140]
Inadvertently made available when Fate and its sequel Fate: Undiscovered Realms were offered through a May 2015 Humble Bundle. The download link provided to purchasers for the DRM-Free copy lead to an apparently current dump of the source code. This was available for several days before it was corrected.[141]
In 2007, nine years after the first release, the source code became available to the public.[146] The game's community took up the game and kept updating and porting the game via a GitHub repository under a GPL license.[147][148]
While the exact date and source of the leak isn't commonly known, There are two versions of leaked source code for gears of war 1, both of which contain a playable build while only one contains uncompiled map sources in addition to the build and source code. The first version is just a 2006 English build with xbox 360 controller icons in-place of pc one's. And the other version is a 2007 Chinese localized build with regular pc mouse and keyboard icons.
Source code obtained as part of the September 2022 Grand Theft Auto VI leaks. Released publicly on 25 December 2023, as a form of protest against the sentencing of the perpetrator of the leaks.[152][153]
An alpha version of Half-Life 2's source code was leaked in 2003, a year before the game's release.[157] A complete snapshot of the game from 2017 also became public in the 2020 Source Engine leak.[158]
On January 25, 2024, the source code for the Atari ST conversion of Hard Drivin', the Sega Genesis conversion of RoadBlasters and the Sega Genesis version of R.B.I. Baseball '94 was uploaded to the Internet Archive.[160]
On a CD-ROM containing Doom's Macintosh source code that appeared on eBay was also some of the original DOS source code for Hexen. Once purchased, it later found its contents online on March 19, 2024.[127]
Source code, artwork and builds from the Game Boy Advance version were anonymously leaked on 4chan on 8 November 2022. Among these are various character models and assets used in the production of the film Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius.[165]
During October 25–27, 2022, Jason Scott uploaded to GitHub 13 repositories containing source code for a variety of video games. Both the original and the VGA remake were included.[96]
During October 25–27, 2022, Jason Scott uploaded to GitHub 13 repositories containing source code for a variety of video games. Both the original and the VGA remake were included.[96]
In 2003 a Chinese Hacker acquired the Lineage II source code, and sold it to someone who set up alternative servers. Shutdown by FBI in 2007.[170][171]
The source of the leak is unknown for certain, it is said that an ex employee at Ymir Entertainment leaked the source code for revenge after he was fired.
In the copies of Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 source code which leaked back in 2004, there are 32-bit versions of Cruel, Golf, Pegged, Reversi, Snake (Rattler Race), Taipei and TicTactics.[175]
During October 25–27, 2022, Jason Scott uploaded to GitHub 13 repositories containing source code for a variety of video games, including the arcade version of Mortal Kombat II.[96]
In February 2017 the source code was discovered on an archival CD liquidated by Acclaim Entertainment during their bankruptcy sale.[185] It was subsequently sold on eBay for $500.
During October 18–19, 2023, Jason Scott uploaded to GitHub 7 repositories containing source code for a variety of video games and in-house development utilities, including the arcade version of NFL Blitz 2000 and San Francisco Rush: The Rock.[187]
Throughout 2020, the source code for several games by Nintendo (as well as console firmware) was leaked by anonymous users on 4chan. These include the first four (and seventh) generations of the Pokémon series and the firmware for the Nintendo 64, GameCube, and 3DS. In 2024, Game Freak was breached for more Pokemon games. See Nintendo data leak for more information.
On January 2, 2021, Forest of Illusion uploaded a .zip file recovered from a hard drive of Data Design Interactive containing the entire source code for the Windows, Xbox and GameCube versions of the game.[193]
Source code of an alpha platformer build of Rayman Raving Rabbids was obtained through unknown means and released on December 12, 2022. It also contains the tools and the source code from Ubisoft's Jade Engine.
Source code for Nintendo DS version was obtained through unknown means and released on February 3, 2022.[205] It also contains assets from the Nintendo 64 version of Donald Duck: Goin' Quackers.[206]
During October 18–19, 2023, Jason Scott uploaded to GitHub 7 repositories containing source code for a variety of video games and in-house development utilities, including the arcade version of NFL Blitz 2000 and San Francisco Rush: The Rock (an updated version of San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing).[187]
The PlayStation version's development repository was released on GitHub in 2018, converted from an old Microsoft Visual SourceSafe repository.[221] Curiously, it was discovered that the game contained code from the Linux kernel (specifically the vsprintf function, presumably used for debugging), and therefore violates the GNU General Public License. Source code from a very early build of the GBA version was also found.[222]
In 2013, a former Sony Online Entertainment employee leaked a copy of the 2010 production source code for the Star Wars Galaxies client, server, 3rd party libraries and development tools to a group of former players. The code was later leaked beyond its intended recipients and made available online.[230] Live, free to play public servers and public development groups have since come into existence. The source code is centrally maintained by the open-source project SWG Source and is available on GitHub.
A 2008 version of the game's source code was leaked alongside several other Orange Box games in 2012.[109] In 2020, an additional 2017 build of the game was leaked.[233]
On 24 August 2008, the source code of Tempest 2000 was released by the defunct Jaguar Sector II website under a CD compilation for Windows titled Jaguar Source Code Collection.[234][235]
In February 2017 the source code of the N64 version was sold on eBay for $2551.99 on a SGI Silicon GraphicsIndy development machine which came from the Acclaim Entertainment liquidation. This source code was later released August 26, 2018, then reuploaded, non-encrypted to 4chan the following day.[241][242][243]
In November 2014 the Ultima Codex Community was able to acquire the Ultima 9source code from a former developer for offline archival to prevent permanent loss.[248]
In 2021 source code for the original release & an early version of the "next generation" update was sold for ransom online, with a passworded archive made available publicly. The group responsible later resurfaced in 2024 and released the password for the archive.[261]
In 2008 a back-up with the source code of all Infocom's video games appeared from an anonymous Infocom source and was archived by the Internet Archive's Jason Scott.[263][264][265] On May 5, 2020, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology uploaded to GitHub the source code for 1977–1978 versions and 1977/1989 binaries of Zork.[266] On 12 February 2018, the source code for the original Z-machine interpreter for TRS-80 Color Computer by Infocom was leaked by Brian Moriarty.[267] On November 16, 2023, the source code for the original Infocom intepreter for a wide variety of platforms was uploaded to GitHub. On November 19, the source code for the IBM PC interpreter was uploaded by David Fillmore.[268]
Once games, or software in general, become an obsolete product for a company, the tools and source code required to re-create the game are often lost or even actively destroyed and deleted.[269][270][271][272][273][274][275] For instance, with the closure of Atari in Sunnyvale, California, in 1996, the original source codes of several milestones of video game history such as Asteroids and Centipede were all thrown out as trash.[276][277]
When much time and manual work is invested, it is still possible to recover or restore a source code variant which replicates the program's functions accurately from the binary program. Techniques used to accomplish this are decompiling, disassembling, and reverse engineering the binary executable. This approach typically does not result in the exact original source code but rather a divergent version, as a binary program does not contain all of the information originally carried in the source code. For example, comments and function names cannot be restored if the program was compiled without additional debug information.
Using the techniques listed above within a "bottom-up" development methodology process, the re-created source-code of a game is able to replicate the behavior of the original game exactly, often being "clock-cycle accurate", and/or "pixel-per-pixel accurate". This approach is in contrast to that used by game engine recreations, which are often made using a "top-down" development methodology, and which can result in duplicating the general features provided by a game engine, but not necessarily an accurate representation of the original game.
In 2011, via static recompilation from the original x86 binary executable a port for the ARM architecture of the Pandorahandheld was created by fans.[278][279] The community still updates this recompiled version and released also Windows and Linux builds in 2015,[280] source code available on GitHub under MIT.[281]
In 2011, Fabien Sanglard analysed Another World by reverse engineering and reconstructed, based on an earlier approach, a complete C++ source code variant of the internal virtual machine.[282][283]
Robert Crossfield worked on a faithful engine for the game since 2010.[292] The remake/reconstructed version got released for PC on Steam by Edward R. Hobbs & Robert Crossfield in September 2016.
In December 2015, Robert Crossfield released version 1.0 of the reverse engineered DOS CD Cannon Fodder version, under the name "OpenFodder" on GitHub under GPL.[293][294]
Buildable, reverse-engineered assembler source for the BBC Microcomputer Model B version of the game was released on the Stardot forums in October 2018, by a user known as Diminished.[296]
Between 2019 and 2021 K1n9_Duk3 recreated the source code of Commander Keen 4, 5 and 6, based on the already released source code of Catacomb 3-D, Wolfenstein 3-D and Keen Dreams. When compiled with the Borland C++ v3.0 compiler, compressing the newly created executables with LZEXE 100% identical copies of the original v1.4 executables are achievable.
Before that, in 2017 a pixel-accuracy aiming engine re-implementation, based on several disassembly/decompilation efforts, became available by David Gow.[297] C99 source code is hosted on GitHub under GPLv2. Originally only meant for Keen 5, it now supports Keen 4, 5 and 6.[298]
In 2018 a reverse engineered version was released, based on previously accidentally released debug information and builds by Diablo developers.[299] Builds and compiles successfully for modern OSes.
In 2009 a group started reverse engineering Dune II under the name OpenDUNE.[304] The resulting code was released under GPLv2 and ported to other platforms like the Pandora.[305]
Tomasz Lis reverse engineered a version called KeeperFX, the resulting source code is released as GPLv3.[306] After developer Lis stopped working on KeeperFX around 2016 the community took up the work in 2019 and continues the project as KeeperFX Unofficial.[307]
In 2001, Dungeon Master (and its successor CSB) was released by Paul R. Stevens in a portable reverse engineered version called CSBwin. CSBwin was reverse engineered from the game's Atari assembler code to a pure C version in months of work.[308][309] In 2014 Christophe Fontanel released another reverse engineering project which tries to recreate all existing versions.[310][311]
Christian Pinder created Elite: The New Kind as faithful PC version by reverse-engineering platform-neutral C code from the original BBC Micro version of Elite. This version was withdrawn from the main distribution at David Braben's request in 2003.[316] In September 2014, on Elite's 30th birthday, Ian Bell blessed Elite: The New Kind and re-released it for free on his website.[317][318][319] Source code of the 1.0 version is available on a GitHub repository.[320]
Around 2012 the assembly source code of the BBC Micro version was reconstructed and commented.[323] Later author Peter Irvin blessed also the non-commercial redistribution of the Amiga version of the game.[324]
Frontier Developments announced in 2000 that FFE would be open-sourced under a GPL-similar license,[328] but this never happened.[329] In response, in October 2005 the game was reverse engineered by John Jordan and builds for modern operation systems were provided.[330] Updated until December 1, 2009, and later continued by other programmers with builds like "FFE_D3D".[331]
Reverse engineered C++ source code, with support for multiple platforms based on GLFW, including the Nintendo Switch.[332] Source code available at GitHub.[333] It was hit with a DMCA takedown on 20 February 2021.[334]
Reverse engineering started in early May 2020 and finished in December, being based on the decompiled Grand Theft Auto III code.[335][336][333] It was hit with a DMCA takedown on February 20.[334]
Since 2002 Valve has released the source code of the game client and the game (server) in its SDK for modder use.[337] The Goldsrc engine and its other components were reverse engineered in context of the Xash3d project.[338] Ports to other systems became available, for instance Android or the OpenPandora.[339]
After Heart of the Alien became unsupported and unavailable, Gil Megidish took up 2004 the effort of extracting a source code variant from the binary game by reverse engineering to make the game available again on modern platforms.[344] The extracted source code was made open-source and is hosted freely available on SourceForge.
Naughty Dog coded the first three Jak and Daxter games in GOAL, a modified version of Lisp. A group of programmers created a program that could read and decompile GOAL code, which allowed them to reconstruct the game's source code. While all three Jak games are currently planned, the first has the most work done on it - including a port to modern PCs.[345]
A computer scientist fan reverse engineered all of the game engines and created a clone of the complete game series.[356] Source for MDDClone isn't publicly available.
The NES game was disassembled by the collaborative work of several developers over the course of years and modified to run on the more powerful MMC3 chip.[357][358]
The Mod Coder Pack (MCP)[360] offered scripts for de-obfuscation/decompilation of the Java-based version of Minecraft starting in 2010. The Mod Coder Pack was discontinued after Mojang began releasing deobfuscation mappings with each update in 2019.[361]
Reverse-engineered by Gregory Montoir and open-sourced in March 2006 with version 0.1.5. The engine reached with v0.2.0 playable status when development and distribution of the source code was stopped.[362] The source code was made in 2017 available on GitHub for some time, before the repository was set to private.[363]
Since around 2009[367] a game enthusiast worked on decompiling source code of Out Run. In 2012 a truthful engine, called "Canon Ball", was released on GitHub. To run the game, the original game's assets are required.[368] Ports to many systems followed, like OpenPandora.[369]
The available schematics ("source code") was reconstructed and adapted for modern and available electronic parts to a new PCB design in 2012.[377][378][379]
In April 2014, a project to reverse engineerRoller Coaster Tycoon 2 into platform independent Csource code, was started under the name OpenRCT2 by Ted 'IntelOrca' John.[380] Hosted as GPLv3 licensed open-source software on GitHub, it requires the original game's graphics and sound assets.[381]
In November 2019 a reverse engineered port of the DOS version of Powerslave was released.[387] The source code was released under the GPLv2 license.[388]
In July 2016, a faithful port by reverse engineering the original game became available. Permission was granted by original authors Drew Major and Kyle Powell[389] to make it public. The full C/C++ source code is available at GitHub.[390]
Reverse engineered assembly of the Sega Genesis game by Sonic fan site Sonic Retro, hosted on GitHub.[391] Also includes a reverse engineered assembly of Sonic the Hedgehog 3.
Former Atari engineer D. Scott Williamson re-created in three years work Star Castle faithfully for the Atari 2600. After a successful crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter, he released everything for free on his website, including source code.[400][401][402]
Reverse engineering of the code since 2017.[406] Currently only a small part of the source code is reverse engineered, it is partly emulation. The main functionality is still coming from the original binary where newly created replacement parts are spliced-in in runtime.
In 2013 a SCreverse engineering project by Fabien Sanglard with a reconstructed source code variant became available on GitHub as the original source code was most probably lost in the take over of Origin by EA.[408][409]
Reverse engineered assembly and build system of Super Bomberman by Lior Helphon on GitHub. Rebuilds several different versions of the game, and can restore some disabled debug features.[413]
Commented disassembly of SMB on GitHub.[414] A statically reverse engineered version, compiling and running with SDL was developed around 2017–2018.[415]
In 2016,[417][irrelevant citation] enthusiasts began to rewrite every function by hand, referencing a MIPSdisassembly, then compile the code with the game's original compiler in qemu-irix, resulting in an identical copy of the game. This took advantage of the fact that Nintendo didn't turn on any compiler optimizations for the first Japanese and US releases.[418] Their work was leaked on 4chan in June 2019 but it was finally released in late August of the same year.[419]
In January 2010 a reverse engineering project of the MS-DOS-based Syndicate Wars was finished by two developers and builds for Windows, Mac and Linux were released.[420] It is complete beside networking and joystick code.[421]
David Thomas started in 2012 a reverse engineering project to create portable Csource code from the ZX Spectrum version's binary, which reached in January 2016 compiling state.[422][423]
Robert Crossfield reverse engineered[citation needed] a faithful engine[dubious – discuss] from the Amiga version of the game[424] since 2009[citation needed] (inactive from 2014). First two levels were partially completed.[425]
Reverse-engineered assembly of the original Japanese Super Famicom version, allowing for a port to the PC written in C. The code is hosted on GitHub.[426]
Reverse-engineered over the span of two years, users decompiled the PALdebug ROM of the Master Quest release for speedrunners to more deeply understand the game.[427][428]
PyTouhou is a free and open-source reimplementation of Touhou 6 engine in Python and now Rust by three French programmers: Emmanuel Gil Peyrot, Thibaut Girka and Gauvain Roussel-Tarbouriech. While the Python branch is mostly complete, albeit for a few bugs, the Rust branch is still a work-in-progress. Other Touhou Project engine reimplementations after the 5th installment are a work-in-progress.[433]
In 2003, Ludvig Strigeus started to reverse engineerTransport Tycoon Deluxe and convert the game to C. In 2004, this re-engineered Transport Tycoon Deluxe was released and christened OpenTTD and is still under active development by the community.[434][435]
Jean-François Fabre created binary translation libraries for Oric BASIC and assembly code to portable C and used it for nine games.[438] Source code re-created and released for: House of Death, L'Aigle d'Or, Le Manoir du Dr Genius, Le Retour du Dr Genius, Rendez-vous de la Terreur, Xenon 1, Strip 21, Zebbie, Zorgons' Revenge.[439] Build available for the OpenPandora.[440]
^paperjack (11 June 2021). "The future of Barkley 2". itch.io. Tales of Game's Studios. Archived from the original on 12 June 2021. Retrieved 12 June 2021. As more time passed without me or anyone touching the project, I realized that B2 had no future as it is right now. We finally arrive at today, where after a long discussion, I finally decided to release all the files as open source.
^Shrager, Jeff (28 May 2021). "Joseph Weizenbaum's Original ELIZA". elizagen.org. Archived from the original on 29 May 2021. Retrieved 31 May 2021. I contacted Dr. Weizenbaum's estate for permission to open-source this code, and they granted this permission under a Creative Commons CC0 public domain license.
^Al Lowe. "Softporn". allowe.com. Archived from the original on 11 August 2015. Retrieved 14 August 2015. Before there was a Leisure Suit Larry, Chuck Benton created the only non-graphic game Sierra ever sold, Softporn for the Apple ][. I later used its puzzles as the basis for LSL1: Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards. Still later, Gary Thompson reprogrammed it for the IBM PC. Here's your chance to see whether the changes I made to this classic game were improvements or not! Click here to download "Softporn" and see 1981 for yourself!
^Rawitsch, Dan (May–June 1978). "Oregon Trail". Creative Computing. pp. 132–139. Archived from the original on 10 April 2016. Retrieved 22 January 2015.
^"7800 Games & Development". atari-museum.com. 2009. Archived from the original on 6 July 2009. Retrieved 9 January 2012. These games were rescued from Atari ST format diskettes that were thrown out behind 1196 Borregas when Atari closed up in 1996. The Atari Museum rescued these important treasures and recovered them from the diskettes.
^Callis, Matthew (12 September 2008). "Space Funky B.O.B. - Space Funky B.O.B. Source Code". superfamicom.org. Archived from the original on 28 January 2013. Retrieved 14 January 2013. This was originally posted on eludevisibility.org when I (Matthew Callis) originally bought these disks off eBay
^Smith, Quintin (14 December 2010). "Dark Engine Source Code Found In A Bag". Rock Paper Shotgun. Archived from the original on 26 April 2011. Retrieved 15 April 2011. As of this weekend, Christmas has come early for the Through the Looking Glass community. A CD's been discovered containing the source code for the Dark Engine, aka the engine used by Thief, Thief II and System Shock 2 (not to mention Irrational and Looking Glass' cancelled cold war spy game Deep Cover).
^Humphries, Matthew (14 December 2010). "Game engine used for Thief/System Shock 2 found with Dreamcast dev kitGames". Rock Paper Shotgun. Archived from the original on 5 July 2015. Retrieved 4 July 2015. If you asked me which is my favorite all time video game, my number one would be Thief II. So it's with more than a little excitement that I report the source code for the Dark Engine, used to create Thief, Thief II, and System Shock 2, has been found.
^Le Corbeau (25 September 2012). "Thief 2 V1.19 & System Shock 2 V2.4". ttlg.com. Archived from the original on 10 November 2012. Retrieved 10 November 2012. This is an unofficial patch for Thief II: The Metal Age (T2) which updates the game from v1.18 to v1.19, providing improved support for modern hardware and correcting many known bugs.
^Pearson, Craig (7 February 2012). "Thief 2 Is Now On Good Old Games". Rock Paper Shotgun. Archived from the original on 11 November 2012. Retrieved 10 November 2012. [...]discovered that it suffers much of the same resolution and widescreen based trouble from the previous release, but this utility [Tafferpatch] fixed all my troubles [...]
^"Tafferpatcher: unofficial complete patch for Thief 2". www.ttlg.com. 10 November 2012. Archived from the original on 9 November 2012. Retrieved 10 November 2012. Included patches: - Patch 1.19 which eliminates all issues with modern hardware, widescreen resolutions, multi-core systems, etc.- Various mission, gamesys, model and texture fixes.[...]
^Donkey Kong source codeArchived 2015-09-28 at the Wayback Machine "I think it's pretty cool that this is finally released. Have fun. (Curt should find Super Pac-Man and do that one, too...)"
^Humphries, Matthew (25 May 2011). "Eve Online source code posted online, DMCA takedown quickly follows". geek.com. Archived from the original on 18 November 2015. Retrieved 7 November 2015. It looks as though someone has posted the source code for the space MMO Eve Online there. As you'd imagine, developer CCP isn't too happy about this and was quick to issue the takedown request.
^Bertolone, Giorgio (12 March 2011). "Interview with Kevin Klemmick – Lead Software Engineer for Falcon 4.0". Cleared-To-Engage. Archived from the original on 18 March 2011. Retrieved 31 August 2014. [C2E] In 2000 the source code of Falcon 4.0 leaked out and after that groups of volunteers were able to make fixes and enhancements that assured the longevity of this sim. Do you see the source code leak as a good or bad event? [Klemmick] "Absolutely a good event. In fact I wish I'd known who did it so I could thank them. I honestly think this should be standard procedure for companies that decide not to continue to support a code base."
^"FreeFalcon". GitHub. 24 January 2013. Archived from the original on 25 October 2015. Retrieved 11 September 2013. Legal - FreeFalcon doesn't have the cleanest history regarding its terms of use, but that all ends here. The code is now licensed under the rather liberal BSD 2-clause license; for the first time in its history, FreeFalcon is truly free. See the LICENSE.md file for the full text of the license.
^"Pac-Man Atari 800 Source Code". 27 August 2019. Retrieved 27 December 2019. Hello from Fujiama! Here's something amazing that's turned up: the original, commented source code for the Atari 8-bit version of Pac Man.
^WtF Dragon (26 November 2014). "Ultima 9: The Source Code". Ultima Codex. Archived from the original on 25 November 2015. Retrieved 28 October 2015. As we continue to mark the occasion of Ultima 9's fifteenth anniversary, I'm pleased to announced that the seemingly dormant Ultima Source Code Offline Archival Project (USCOAP) has finally borne some fruit: the Ultima Codex has added the source code for Ultima 9 to its offline archive.
^"BIG NEWS: Wing Commander I Source Code Archived!". wcnews.com. 26 August 2011. Archived from the original on 9 November 2013. Retrieved 14 January 2013. Thanks to an extremely kind donation from an anonymous former EA/Origin developer, the source code to the PC version of Wing Commander I is now preserved in our offline archive! Because of our agreement with Electronic Arts, we're not allowed to post recovered source code for download--but rest easy knowing that the C files that started it all are being kept safe for future reference. Our offline archive contains material that has been preserved but which can't be posted, including other source code and budget data from several of the games.
^"Wing Commander III – The Source Code". wcnews.com. 13 September 2011. Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 14 January 2013. As we celebrate Wing Commander III's first widespread retail availability since the late 1990s, we would like to mention for anyone that we have the game's source code in our offline archive. We know it's frustrating for fans, who could do amazing things with this, to read these updates... but it's also in everyone's best interests to remind EA that we have the raw material from which they could port Wing Commander III to a modern computer or console. Just let us know!
^"Wing Commander IV: Source Code". wcnews.com. 3 April 2012. Archived from the original on 9 November 2013. Retrieved 14 January 2013. As with Wing Commander I and Wing Commander III, we are pleased to announced that an extremely kind former EA/Origin employee has provided a copy of the Wing Commander IV source code for our preservation efforts! We can't offer it for download at this time, but it is now preserved for future use.
^Kohler, Chris (18 April 2008). "'Infocom Drive' Turns Up Long-Lost Hitchhiker Sequel". wired.com. Archived from the original on 27 January 2016. Retrieved 26 January 2016. Remnants of the unreleased sequel to Infocom's text adventure version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy have been made available to the public by Waxy.org. Playable prototypes, design docs, source code and a string of e-mails between Infocom designers and management provide a fascinating look at the game's turbulent, if aborted, development process. Among the assets included: design documents, e-mail archives, employee phone numbers, sales figures, internal meeting notes, corporate newsletters, and the source code and game files for every released and unreleased game Infocom made."
^Baio, Andy (17 April 2008). "Milliways: Infocom's Unreleased Sequel to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". waxy.org. Archived from the original on 26 January 2016. Retrieved 26 January 2016. From an anonymous source close to the company, I've found myself in possession of the "Infocom Drive" — a complete backup of Infocom's shared network drive from 1989.[...] Among the assets included: design documents, email archives, employee phone numbers, sales figures, internal meeting notes, corporate newsletters, and the source code and game files for every released and unreleased game Infocom made
^Andersen, John (27 January 2011). "Where Games Go To Sleep: The Game Preservation Crisis, Part 1". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on 22 April 2013. Retrieved 10 January 2013. The existence of decaying technology, disorganization, and poor storage could in theory put a video game to sleep permanently -- never to be played again. Troubling admissions have surfaced over the years concerning video game preservation. When questions concerning re-releases of certain game titles are brought up during interviews with developers, for example, these developers would reveal issues of game production material being lost or destroyed. Certain game titles could not see a re-release due to various issues. One story began to circulate of source code being lost altogether for a well-known RPG, preventing its re-release on a new console.
^"Bubble Bobble". Arcade History. 11 September 2012. Archived from the original on 30 September 2012. Retrieved 10 January 2013. In 1996, Taito announced that they lost the original source code program to Bubble Bobble following a reorganization - when it came to the recent ports and sequels, they had to work from program disassembly, playing the game and (mainly) the various home computer ports.
^"7800 Games & Development". atari-museum.com. 2009. Archived from the original on 6 July 2009. Retrieved 9 January 2012. These games were rescued from Atari ST format diskettes that were thrown out behind 1196 Borregas when Atari closed up in 1996. The Atari Museum rescued these important treasures and recovered them from the diskettes.
^M-HT (6 November 2011). "Albion". openpandora.org. Archived from the original on 7 April 2014. Retrieved 3 April 2014.
^M-HT (11 June 2011). "Albion". repo.openpandora.org. Archived from the original on 31 March 2014. Retrieved 2 April 2014. This is a port of the game's executable for Pandora (using static recompilation/binary translation).
^M-HT (16 March 2015). "Albion". boards.openpandora.org. Archived from the original on 23 April 2015. Retrieved 24 April 2015. Here is a version for Windows, in case anyone is interested. Unpack it into the directory where Albion is installed - read the Readme for more information (use Albion.cmd to run the game).
^Sanglard, Fabien (23 December 2011). ""Another World" Code Review". fabiensanglard.net. Archived from the original on 15 January 2013. Retrieved 14 January 2013. I spent two weeks reading and reverse engineering further the source code of Another World ("Out Of This World" in North America). I based my work on Gregory Montoir's "binary to C++" initial reverse engineering from the DOS executable. I was amazed to discover an elegant system based on a virtual machine interpreting bytecode in realtime and generating fullscreen vectorial cinematic in order to produce one of the best game of all time.
^notaz (22 November 2015). "Diablo II". openpandora.org. Archived from the original on 20 December 2015. Retrieved 4 December 2015. This is statically recompiled Windows executable, that was recompiled to ARM and bundled with ARM version of wine.
^Walker, John (29 March 2012). "You Could Be Playing Dungeon Master Right Now". Rock Paper Shotgun. Archived from the original on 29 July 2015. Retrieved 3 August 2015. There is a version that just works, without an emulator, and it's free. [...] A madman by the name of Paul Stevens spent six months, eight hours a day, writing 120,000 lines of what he calls "pseudo-assembly language" to rebuild it in C++. And then released the game and source code for free. Can he do that? I've decided that yes, he can, which legitimises my promoting it to you.
^Johnson, Phil (6 May 2014). "Digging up E.T.'s source code". ITworld. Archived from the original on 7 April 2016. The code, written in assembly language for the MOS Technology 6502 8-bit processor, has been around for a while, having been reconstructed by Dennis Debro in 2006.
^Martin, Matt (17 September 2014). "Classic space sim Elite goes free this weekend". vg247. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 6 November 2015. "A superior remake of the original space trading game Elite will be released for free this weekend, 30 years after the original game launched"
^Bell, Ian (20 September 2014). "Elite 30th Anniversary". elitehomepage.org. Archived from the original on 2 September 2015. "Today, 20th September 2014 is the 30th anniversary of the day the world first experienced Elite, the 3D space trading and combat game written by Ian Bell and David Braben in conjunction with Acornsoft. From that beginning on the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron, the game went on to be released for most home computers of the time. Celebrate by playing Elite again, for free. Thanks to Matt Goldbolt, the original BBC Micro version now runs direct in the Google Chrome browser if you click here. Or for Windows PCs, download Christian Pinder's Elite: The New Kind by clicking here."
^"Exile disassembly". level7.org.uk. 2012. Archived from the original on 13 April 2013. Retrieved 14 January 2013. Published by Superior Software in 1988, Exile is widely regarded as the most technically advanced game released for the BBC Micro. Featuring an enormous procedurally generated landscape, a complete physics engine and a host of game elements to interact with, it remains unsurpassed in pushing the capabilities of the system to their limits.
^ExileArchived 2016-05-07 at the Wayback Machine on thunderpeel2001.com/exile "Email from Peter Irvin (creator of Exile): Yes I've recently decided to allow old versions of Exile to be downloaded for emulation under certain conditions: [...]"
^Paul Robson's SDL GamesArchived 2016-06-23 at the Wayback Machine"Football Manager - A remake of the (in)famous Sinclair Spectrum Football Manager game, complete with stick-man graphics. This is reverse engineered, so it should play identically. Finished. fm-0.99.tar.gz" (May 2004)
^GLFrontier Project Page!!!1Archived 2015-11-10 at the Wayback Machine on noflag.org.uk "This WAS the Atari ST version of the game Frontier: Elite 2 by the great man mentioned previously. It was disassembled, OS calls and hardware access removed, and originally run on a stripped down ST emulator (Hatari). Now it is compiled to C or native x86, and run much faster without 68K emulation. Most recently it has been modified to draw stuff with OpenGL at any shiny resolution with 8xAA, etc. A dandy evolution for a crappy old Atari ST game."
^News on eliteclub.co.uk "8th November 2000 - Following much discussion on the subject of open-source by the Elite community, we have decided to make some alterations to our previous plans for the Elite Club - we are going to relax some of the restrictions we were intending to put on the distribution of the source code. The source code will now be distributable more freely, under a licence agreement similar to the GPL (GNU Public Licence)."
^Welcome Commander, to the AmigaFFE ProjectArchived 2016-03-05 at the Wayback Machine"after I have seen the announcement of a release of the Sources of Frontier Elite II and Frontier First Encounters on the Eliteclub I was very happy with it. Now it is 2001 (around 2 years since the announcement) and they still haven't released it"
^Jordan, John (1 December 2009). "JJFFE Central". jaj22.org.uk. Archived from the original on 3 March 2011. Retrieved 6 November 2015. What is JJFFE? JJFFE is set of recompiled replacement executables for the 1995 Frontier Developments game Frontier: First Encounters. There are currently versions that run under Windows 95/98/ME, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows NT4, OS/2, Linux and Mac. As well as running on many more operating systems than the original, JJFFE also includes minor improvements and bugfixes.
^"The Mercenary Site (MDDClone Section)". 9 April 2002. Archived from the original on 9 April 2002. Retrieved 14 June 2022. I decided, with MDDClone author, to distribute it after several years (...)
^"OpenRCT2 project – Open-Source adaption of RollerCoaster Tycoon 2, gets a beta release". indieretronews.com. 8 September 2015. Retrieved 15 November 2015. I'm sure many of you remember the awesome game that is RollerCoaster Tycoon 2; a game by Chris Sawyer and published by Infograms in which you manage your very own theme park, with all its rides, shops, guests and economic fortune. Well that same game is now being given a much needed adjustment with the latest release of OpenRCT2 Project. An open source development which improves the game even further with new features, original bug fixes, raised game limits and much more! [...] Development started on April 2nd 2014 by Ted 'IntelOrca' John and thanks to numerous contributions from others
^Turok: The Dinosaur Hunter PC remake to resume development this yearArchived 2016-07-10 at the Wayback Machine on VideoGamer.com by James Orry "The news comes from PC dev Samuel "Kaiser" Villarreal, who leaked the news speaking to Tech Raptor. Kaiser is currently remaking '96 shooter PowerSlave, and was asked about giving the same treatment to Turok." (8th May, 2015)
^Release: StarCraftArchived 2016-01-28 at the Wayback Machine on pyra-handheld.com "As you can see it doesn't look much different from x86 disassembly, the only difference is that you can compile it for other 32bit archs (there is no way it would work on 64bit.."
^Sanglard, Fabien (22 January 2014). "Reverse Engineering Strike Commander". Archived from the original on 23 January 2014. Retrieved 23 January 2014. Most people assume the source codes and gold versions of all finished games were stored in a Vault somewhere at EA. But after getting in touch with people at Wing Commander CIC, it appeared that all the source code was lost when the company closed.[...] On his first day one developer managed to delete the full 900MB of Strike Commander source tree.
^AboutArchived 2015-11-05 at the Wayback Machine"Syndicate Wars Port is a port of the 1996 DOS game Syndicate Wars to modern operating systems. In particular, it runs on GNU, Mac OS and Windows, but it should also work on any system supported by the SDL library on the i386 architecture."
^Oric Game remakesArchived 2016-07-21 at the Wayback Machine on jotd.pagesperso-orange.fr "I have written a set of tools to convert BASIC and asm code to C and assemble them together. I have used them over the years to convert a few games. Some conversions get some enhancements, some not."
^From The Past To The Future: Tim Sweeney Talks by Benj Edwards on Gamasutra"[...]if you still have those disks. TS: Sadly, I don't. It just didn't seem important. Yeah, that's the tragedy. I don't have the ZZT source code either. I wish I'd saved it all." (May 25, 2009)
^zzt on epicgames.com "Please don't ask for the source; if I had it, I'd release it, but I lost it in a crash a long time ago." (1997)
^license.txt on github.com/asiekierka/reconstruction-of-zzt
