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by ryandrake 2226 days ago
Yea, I'd always wanted to make a Dungeon Keeper 2 clone. Please!

I wonder why it's not more common to open source abandonware that has exactly zero remaining commercial value. These game companies don't even have to remain as maintainers/stewards of the code. It doesn't even have to compile. Just release it, and many people will get it to work! How much expense could it be to get an intern to upload the code to GitHub, slap a license on it, and never look at it again?
3 comments
zantana 2226 days ago
War for the Overworld https://wftogame.com/ is basically DK3, down to having the original narrator from DK1/2.

I'm a big fan and played WFTO quite a bit at to the point it's hard to go back to DK2. Sadly their AI got much worse with the 2.0 patch and I gave it up.

There is a Dungeon Keeper 1 remake https://dungeonkeeper.fandom.com/wiki/Dungeon_Keeper_FX which similar to lots of these efforts uses the original artwork and sounds.

There are some other DK clones and descendants, but my second favorite would be the very late Dwelvers https://dwelvers.com/ which has been in development for an eternity and the developer shows up once or twice a year with an update. This is the most ambitious of the DK clones as it includes a much larger economy and even the long promised above ground!

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thrower123 2226 days ago
Depending on how old it is, the source code probably doesn't actually exist in a lot of cases. Game studios weren't exactly up to the latest standards of version control, by and large. Maybe there was a self-hosted CVS instance, or a dusty old version of Perforce, or a NAS that had the drives fail eons ago...
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zozbot234 2226 days ago
Even in that case, the copyright holder could still "release" the published binaries under a FLOSS license, and encourage the community to reverse-engineer a viable source code out of them. An overt legal endorsement of such community efforts may be just as compelling as an actual source release.
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clarry 2226 days ago
> I wonder why it's not more common to open source abandonware that has exactly zero remaining commercial value.

If it's actually abandoned, then there's probably nobody around who can do that.

Otherwise, what's the incentive? And there's always someone who thinks they can milk the title by selling it in a retro bundle or a cheap remastered edition. Of course, these days you don't even need a remake to milk old titles.

https://www.gog.com/game/dungeon_keeper_2

https://www.gog.com/game/dungeon_keeper

https://www.gog.com/game/magic_carpet

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