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by madez 3250 days ago
This reminds that we need more open source games. There are old games I would love to play again, especially after the community has fixed the biggest pain points.

Why can't we have open and free games? Why not atleast after commercialization has ended? The current situation feels like stealing from mankinds heritage.
3 comments
Pica_soO 3250 days ago
There is 0AD and the various games of Spring RTS.

The problem is often that the infrastructure around such open source games is bad/crumbles. Everyone wants to write shiny gamedesign code, nobody wants to work on tools or server-software.

Another issue is, that people who felt the pain, dont have a way of knowing when the pain is fixed. If you could have a github-trigger, as in "send me notification, if the following issues are fixed" and the devs could see that there is a potential crowd waiting - that would be awesome.

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danbolt 3250 days ago
Especially when the source code isn't exactly an asset at that point. The code behind most old games is probably too brittle/clunky/coupled to be reused in new works, but enthusiastic fans would gladly breathe life into them, even non-commercially.

The sources for big things like Starcraft and Age of Empires II gives you a monopoly on the new content though, so I understand why publishers keep those hits close to their chest. It's a shame they're not more liberal about the ones they aren't actively keeping up.

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roobunya 3250 days ago
Check this out: http://openage.sft.mx/
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madez 3250 days ago
Thanks for pointing this out. I like projects of this sort, but imagine they could start with the original source code.
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Trundle 3250 days ago
Microsoft tried that with aoe2hd, start with the original source code, and it's been worse than the original since release.
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yukinon 3250 days ago
Could you elaborate on things you found worse in AoE2 HD vs the original?

I've never played the original, but I'm a huge fan of the HD release and all of it expansions.

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Trundle 3249 days ago
It's laggier and has desync issues. Not just me but commonly experienced by streamers I watch and frequently discussed on /r/aoe2. Voobly has a much better experience. Worth checking out, particularly if you're any good.
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