This is a list of commercial video games with later released 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.
Source code availability in whatever form allows the games' communities to study how the game works, make modifications, and provide technical support themselves when the official support has ended,[2] e.g. with unofficial patches to fix bugs or source ports to make the game compatible with new platforms.
Some developers that have released their source code have concluded that, in general terms, such action has not been harmful and even beneficial, among them Alec Holowka (Aquaria), Adam Saltsman (Canabalt),[3]John Carmack (Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake),[4] Brian Hook (Quake II),[5] and Terry Cavanagh (VVVVVV).[6]Wolfire Games also noted (along with Saltsman) that releasing the source code didn't reduce sales.[3][7] However, releasing the source code may and has led to clones using the original proprietary assets from the game, with two notable examples of games having clones thanks to the source release being Canabalt and Lugaru HD. Although Saltsman has noted that those clones can be removed from storefronts with a DMCA takedown notice,[3] Jeff Rosen, co-founder of Wolfire Games, has recognized that such practices may discourage game developers from releasing their code.[8]
Game source code was released as public domain along with the shareware-released media files.[9] Only shareware data, excluding the sound effects, is in the public domain; the rest is proprietary. In 2016 a community developer released a "20th anniversary source port"[10][11] which enabled custom resolutions, OpenGL rendering, Xbox 360 controller support and fixed the music.
Scott Adams Adventureland's[12]source code was published in SoftSide magazine in 1980[13] and the database format was subsequently used in other interpreters such as Brian Howarth's Mysterious Adventures series.[14]
Glen Cumming provided media and material of his Amiga games AlienBash and AlienBash II to the fan community, who was able to restore source code in 2014.[16][independent source needed]
On March 30, 2021, Kay Savetz uploaded the source code for Ant-Eater (a Dig Dug clone), Princess and Frog (a Frogger clone), Sea Chase, and two unreleased video games by Ed Fries (of Halo 2600 fame) to GitHub under the MIT license with permission of Fries.[17]
Based on AstroMenace which was released in February 2007 as shareware for Windows and freeware for Linux.[18] Also the source code of another Viewizard game, the puzzle collection Memonix, was released.[19]
On June 20, 2021, the source code for Bird Strike for the BBC Micro (one of the first releases by Firebird Software) was uploaded to GitHub under the GPLv3 by Andy Frigaard, the original developer.[21]
For the series (Clonk 1, Clonk 2 Debakel, Clonk 3 Radikal, Clonk 4 World, Clonk Planet, Clonk Endeavor and Clonk Rage) the C++ source code was released under the "Clonk Source Code License (ISC license)".[23] The content of the original game series was released under the CC BY-NC.[24] Based on Clonk Rage code base the community continues the development as OpenClonk under ISC license and content as CC BY-SA.
Source code variants are at least available as far back as 2000.[29] An authentic version was retrieved in 2005 "from a backup of Don Woods's student account at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab (SAIL)".[26] In February 2017 Eric S. Raymond was involved in the release of version 2.5 under the BSD license, the last release by the original author alone.[30][31][32]
Upon its retail release, Cytadela received generally favorable reviews.[35] In early 2006 the original Cytadela developer offered the Amiga source code of the FPS game to the community, which started a conversion project hosted on SourceForge.[36][37][38] Ported to several platforms, latest version released in 2013.
In March 2018 the source code for the Atari 8-bit version was released by Kevin Savetz with permission of Palevich.[39] It was also uploaded to Palevich's own GitHub repository for Dandy which uses the Apache License 2.0, where he also maintains reverse engineered ports to a variety of programming languages.[40]
Source code of this Imagic Atari 2600 game was released by developer Bob Smith on May 24, 2003, into the public domain.[41][42][43] Many more Atari games got disassembled and commented by the Atari community.[44]
Almost three years later after the servers were shut down,[45] Counterplay Games released the entire game (source code and assets), built on top of Backbone.js, to the public domain under the CC0 license on GitHub.[46]
The France 98footballSimulation video game was released for the Amiga in 1998. Around 2004 Eat the Whistle was released under the GPL-2.0-only on SourceForge.[48] Later ported to many other platforms.[49]
Around 2004 Escape Towards The Unknown was released under the GPL-2.0-only on SourceForge, together with the Eat The Whistle.[51][52] Later ported to many other platforms.
Released in 1995 as DOS shareware game,[54] in 2002 the game's source code was released under GPL by the developers. Development and porting by the game's community continued on SourceForge under the name OpenGlad.[55]
On September 21, 2008, the developers of the Amigashareware title Gravity Force 2 released the source code for "nostalgic interest" without specified license.[59] In April 2017 the authors clarified the game and source code license as CC BY-SA 4.0.[60]
Asteroids clone. 1995 source released under GPL. In 2010 Andrew Welch and Ian Gilman released the game's contents under a Creative Commons license.[80]
The Amiga game MegaBall was programmed by Mackey Software in 1991–1993. Inspired by Taito's Arkanoid it has several features more. The original author released in 2012 the source code of MegaBall under the Apache License v2.[81][82]
The turn-based tactics game, inspired by Laser Squad and UFO: Enemy Unknown, was developed by two Finish students in Turbo Pascal and x86 assembly. They marketed their game as shareware for DOS in 1997.[89] The authors released the game in August 2014 as public domain software, including the assets.[90]
Epsitec SA / Daniel Roux, Denis Dumoulin, Mathieu Schroeter
Planet Blupie was freed (source code and all media files) and ported to all major platforms (Linux, macOS and Windows) for its 20th anniversary, released open source under GPLv3 on GitHub in 2017.[94][95]Speedy Blupi, part of Blupi series, has been released as freeware by EPSITEC too and is available at blupi.org.[96]
Principia
2013
2022
Sandbox game
BSD 3-Clause
BSD 3-Clause
Bithack AB
Principia was announced to be made open source in 2016,[97] but the source code was not released until 2022.[98] Development of the game has since then been continued by the community after its source code release.
In 2004 CrossCut Games released the game into the public domain on SourceForge.[102] Since then there is continuous development by the community on the game.[103]
In response to the folding of Nevrax, the Free Ryzom Campaign was launched in order to gather enough funds from donations ("Crowdfunding") from the community to purchase Ryzom and release the game as free software. The campaign was almost successful with €172,988 of the required €200,000 gathered.[104][105] On May 6, 2010, Winch Gate announced the full release of source code and artwork, and a partnership with the Free Software Foundation.[106][107]
Source code released by Don Hopkins under GPL in 2008. For trademark reasons released under the original working title Micropolis, also known as OLPC SimCity.[111]
After Duane Blehm death in 1988, his parents released Stunt Copter's and his other games' (like ZeroGravity, Cairo Shootout and PUZZ'L) binaries and source code into the public domain.[120]
Based on the Flixel engine developed for the iOS version of Canabalt (that would later become part of HaxeFlixel), and inspired by it to release the source code, with the purpose of enabling source ports.[121] The game was released as freeware on itch.io on February 2, 2021.[122] The entire source code repository (source code and art assets) for the Ouya version was released under the GPL-3.0-only license on GitHub on February 4, 2021 to support the efforts for the preservation of Ouya games.[123]
In 1996 Triplane Turmoil was originally released as shareware DOS game. In 2009 Dodekaedron Software Creations Oy placed Triplane Turmoil's source code, documentation, images and sounds under the GPLv3, hosted on SourceForge.[124][125] The community continued the support and ported the game to other platforms (Linux, Windows) via SDL.
World Tree Games Productions / Epic MegaGames (Jason Emery, Daniel Cook)
The OpenTyrian team ported the closed-source Pascal code of Tyrian to C with permission of Jason Emery in February 2007. The graphic artist Daniel Cook released the artwork shortly after.
In 2017 Mr. Hutsell gave the source code of VGA Civil War Strategy Game to Dave Mackey, who ported the game for modern platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux) with the help of SDL and other open-source libraries from QuickBASIC to QB64.[128] The source code is released on GitHub under a MIT license.[129]
After a successful crowdfunding project on Kickstarter to develop an open-world simulation game in 2014,[130] Gavan Woolery developed several iterations of the game's engine. After running out of funding for further development, he open-sourced with support of the backers the game's engine on github.com under MIT license in August 2016.[131][132]
In January 2014, Pierre-Olivier Latour, co-founder and CEO of French Touch, SARL, have uploaded the game's source code and assets on GitHub under the GPLv2open-source license[135]
In July 2014 the game's source code and content got open sourced with a BSD license under the name "Hostile Takeover" on GitHub.[136][137] As result the game was ported by the game's community to alternative platforms like the Pandora handheld.[138]
3D real-time strategy game with a unit design system. First source part was released by Pumpkin Studios/Eidos Interactive in 2004 and the rest was released in 2008.[139]
The source code for Worms?, one of the initial Electronic Arts releases, was uploaded to GitHub by Kay Savetz on March 17, 2021 under the MIT license with permission of Maynard.[140]
Originally thought to be lost,[145] a source code backup for ZZT 3.0 surfaced and a modified version of it with third-party content removed was uploaded to GitHub by Adrian Siekierka, developer of Reconstruction of ZZT, under the MIT license with permission of Tim Sweeney, creator of the game.[146]
Open-source games with free of charge data
Only the game engines in this table are developed under an open-source license, which means that the reuse and modification of only the code is permitted. The assets are provided free of charge to the final user, but with some restrictions. Note that both the engine and the game code must be available under a license approved by the OSI and/or the FSF, if it was made with a licensed engine.
A port of Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space to modern operating systems. The license fell back to Bronner as he had a contract clause with Interplay stating that in case Interplay went bankrupt or no distribution happened for some time.[158]
In March 2014 the game was removed from all digital distributions and the source code and game was made available for free online, with Hofmeier saying he was finished supporting the game.[159] His webpage went later offline[160] but the source code was mirrored on GitHub.[161][162]
Source code published on July 17, 2003, from Seth Robinson.[166] 2008 Artwork published (without some sounds) under a Zlib license.[167] In October 2017 the HD version became fully open source and freeware, too.[168] The source code became available on GitHub shortly after.[169]
On January 27, 2016, the source code, graphics, and sound data for Glider PRO were released on GitHub with the source code being licensed under the GNU General Public License v2.[174][175]
Developed around 2000.[178] After being succesless commercially published via a publisher,[179] the game was released as freeware and under GPL. 2002 ported to Linux and hosted on SourceForge as "G2ex".[180][181]
The 2012 with $29,000 crowdfunded[189] and in Go programmed game was put on GitHub after the money for further development run out.[190][191] While a volunteer keeps updating the almost finished prototype,[192] the against the Go 1.0 API build game fails to compile with newer compilers and Go versions.
Developed in 2002 as commercial Game Boy Color title (~90% finished) the game was never published. Infinity was released as non-commercial freeware with source code in August 2016,[196][197][198] and after a successful Kickstarter campaign in August 2021, development was restarted by Incube8 Games.[199][200]
Released as freeware by the authors to promote the development of Iron Seed 2 in the 2000s. Source opened under the GPL by the developers in 2013.[201]
As of February 2010 Meridian 59 has been turned over to the original technical developers, Andrew and Chris Kirmse. On September 15, 2012, they released the game to the public as Freeware and most of the source code under the GPLv2 license.[206]
In 2015 the Running with Scissors developers announced that they will release the source code of the game "if someone promises to port it to the Dreamcast."[209] In June 2016 the developers gave the source code to a community developer who ported the game to Linux for the OpenPandorahandheld.[210][211] On December 28, 2016, the source code was released on Bitbucket under the GPLv2.[212][213]
Source was released under GPL by Digital Eel in 2005.[222][223] Content became freeware 2009.[224] License changed to GPLv3 and assets to CC BY-NC-4.0 on May 18, 2020.[225]
In September 2014 the game's source code was released to the public on GitHub and is now open source under the GPLv2.[234] Development continues in a community fork.[235]
Many commercial titles were developed using the Torque engine.[236]GarageGames released Torque 3D under the MIT License on September 20, 2012.[237] The Tribes 2 source code beside the Torque engine is not available.[238]
Open-source games without assets
Only the game engines in this table are developed under an open-source license, which means that the reuse and modification of only the code is permitted. The assets are not provided for free and must be bought by the final user. Note that both the engine and the game code must be available under a license approved by the OSI and/or the FSF, if it was made with a licensed engine.
On September 23, 2020, Frictional Games released the source code for this game on its 10th release anniversary.[242] Source code was released on GitHub under the GPLv3.[244]
Developed using the Ren'Py engine, the game code for Analogue: A Hate Story was released on May 4, 2013 under a public-domain-equivalent license. The source code release includes the entire script of the game for context, but the script remains proprietary.[245]
Released by Adam Saltsman in 2010.[255] On February 7, 2024, the full source code for an improved version of the original Canabalt ported to HaxeFlixel with support for Windows, macOS, Linux and HTML5 by Cameron Taylor (of Friday Night Funkin' fame) was released on GitHub under the same license, with authorization of Finji (the company founded by Adam Saltsman).[256][257][258]
The games' code was released along with the Command & Conquer Remastered Collection in order to aid in the development of mods. It can be used to build mods for the remaster, but due to some missing bits that are substituted by the remaster's own (closed source) engine, it can not be used to directly re-build the original (unremastered) games from them.[261] The original, full source code to both games was later released on February 27, 2025.[262]
The indie game was in development since 2001, which won an IGF award in 2009,[267] was finally released in 2012.[268] In July 2019 the source code was released under AGPL-3.0-only on GitHub.[269][270] As of end of 2019 the work on a community continuation, dubbed "Cortex-Command-Community-Project", is ongoing.[271]
Developed using the libGDX framework; on November 15, 2018, Chad Cuddigan released the source code under the GPLv2.[272] Changed to a modified version of the zlib license on November 23, 2018,[273] and changed to the regular zlib license on September 21, 2020.[274]
On April 16, 2024, Kevin Bentley (one of the programmers of the game) released the source code for Descent 3 on GitHub,[275] under authorization of Matt Toschlog,[276] co-owner of the copyright holder of the game.[277]
On November 30, 2014, the source code of the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer port of the game was released by Rebecca Heineman (sole developer of the port) under an MIT license, a different license than the Doom version for Linux, and the Atari Jaguar port.[278][279][280][281]
After the author reacquired the rights to the game from the original publisher Webfoot,[286] he released the source code of the game engines.[285][287] The source code releases include DROD: King Dugan's Dungeon, DROD: Journey to Rooted Hold, DROD: The City Beneath, DROD: Gunthro and the Epic Blunder, DROD: The Second Sky, and DROD RPG: Tendry's Tale without its media assets.[288]
In April 2014, the game's source code was released to the public under a permissive zlib license. Content still proprietary and game being sold.[289][290]
Indie game developer Blendo games released the source code to Flotilla on its 10th release anniversary.[291][292] The source code is Zlib licensed on GitHub, but assets are not included.[293]
On January 27, 2016, the source code, graphics, and sound data for Glypha III were released on GitHub with the source code being licensed under the MIT License.[173][296] Updated ports for MacOs and iPhone were created afterward.[297][298][299] A cross-platform OpenGL based port was released around May 2018 on GitHub.[300]
On August 3, 2020, Arvind Raja Yadav from Pyrodactyl Games released the source code for three of their games (Unrest, Will Fight for Food and Good Robot) under the MIT License on GitHub.[301]
Game source released on January 11, 1999 under a very restrictive license,[308][309]relicensed to GPL on September 4, 2008.[310][311][312] The ACC script compiler was not included in the GPL re-release.
Game source released on January 11, 1999 under a very restrictive license,[308][309]relicensed to GPL on September 4, 2008.[310][311][312] The ACC script compiler was not included in the GPL re-release.
Despite an unsuccessful crowdfunding campaign in 2014,[315] Lemma was released commercially by the developer DRM-free and also on Steam. The source code is openly developed and available on GitHub under a MIT license.[316][317]
The game was released by the new rights holder Nightdive Studios in 2020.[319] The source code is under GPLv3 on GitHub.[320] The assets are available too from the original developer's webpage.[321]
After a successful Indiegogo campaign, released by Nooskewl under a Public domain like license ("Give it Your Own License") on November 11, 2012.[322][323] Later changed to zlib license, and the content sold again to be able to pay the server bills.[324]
"Myst Online: Uru Live" struggled to attract subscribers and was canceled after its first year. Cyan release the game as an open source game in 2010.[325]
In 2001, Monolith Productions released a set of editing tools for No One Lives Forever that included the level editor and model editor used for development.[328] The team also released the source code for NOLF (version 1.003 on Windows) that year to "support the fan base by offering the tools to create their own levels".[329][330] It is available both as a download, as well as on the Game of the Year Edition CD-ROM.[328] Years later around 2013 Lithtech source code became available on GitHub under GPL,[331] and work for merging game code and engine started.[332]
Developed by Swedish[338] developer Frictional Games, the game blends the genres of survival horror, first-person shooter, and adventure. Open sourced with Humble Indie Bundle.[339]
Source code uploaded on GitHub on September 26, 2022 under the MIT license by Matt Godbolt (one of the three programmers of the game) under authorization of Jez San, founder of Argonaut Games.[342]
The source code for Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Enemy Territory was released under the GNU General Public License (GPL) on August 12, 2010.[343][344]
In 1998, SDK released the game logic for modders.[349] The Lithtech engine was not included as source code. Around 2013, Lithtech's source code became available on GitHub under the GPL,[331] and the work of merging the game logic and the engine started.[332] As of the end of 2019, this reworked NOLF2/LithTech engine reached a buildable state under Windows, and the work continues.[350]
Source code released June 23, 2003.[351] Later one of the original developers announced the preparation of a re-release of SOA, but nothing came out of it.[352]
In September 2017 a community developer managed to fix the dependencies of the Open source release, recompile the executable, fixing several bugs and introducing higher resolution support for the game.[353]
After Double Fine ended the support of the controversy ridden and incomplete game on end of 2014,[357] fans have been working to continue the game's development with the availability of the source code in May 2015 under the CPALopen-sourcelicense.[358] First patch became available in October 2015.[359]
On March 4, 2020, Ivan Polyacov from Apus Software released the source code to the Apus Game Engine, the in-house game engine by Apus Software used for Spectromancer and Astral Heroes after reaching the $50 tier on his Patreon.[361] The game code to Astral Towers was also released to patrons.[362][363]
In 2012 the game's developer Javier Arevalo Baeza released the BorlandCsource code (minus some commercial library part) for "you can do whatever you want with this code" on GitHub.[364]
In April 2018 the Mac version's source code was released by Night Dive on GitHub,[366] fulfilling a 2016 promise.[367][368][369] After one month of development, a cross-platformsource port, called "Shockolate", for modern compilers and platforms was released by community developer Chad Cuddigan.[370]
Its source code was released by Aquaplus under the GNU General Public License on December 22, 2005, along with the source code for Arurū to Asobo!!, Tears to Tiara, and Kusari.[371][372] This decision was made due to the inclusion of Xvid derived code; Xvid being distributed under the same license.[371][372] The source code for all four games is distributed upon request in CD-R format.[371] A copy of the original source code is hosted on GitHub,[373] as also an continued engine project.[374]
On December 17, 2021, Two Tribes released the source code to their in-house engine used for games like Toki Tori 2+ and Rive under the GPL-2.0-only license on GitHub.[379]
On August 3, 2020, Arvind Raja Yadav from Pyrodactyl Games released the source code for three of their games (Unrest, Will Fight for Food and Good Robot) under the MIT License on GitHub.[301]
In March 2016, Vangers source code was released[381] under GPLv3 license. Data was not freed though, so one still needs data files from Steam or GOG.com released in order to run the game.
Around 2010, graphic artist Franck Sauer started to offer the game's binary files (ADF format) for free download on his personal webpage, making the game Freeware.[385] On July 4, 2020, Yves Grolet (programmer of the game) uploaded all his Amiga development files (which included full source code for Agony) to WeTransfer.[386]
The assembly language source code of the game was made available to the public and ScummVM in August 2003.[388][389] The source code availability made it possible for the ScummVM project to support the game, which allows the game to be played on Windows, OS X, Linux, Windows CE and other compatible operating systems and platforms.
Initial design of Beyond Protocol began in 1991.[391] A scaled up beta program began Nov 15th 2007[392] with an open-beta in 2008. When due to financial issues the game has been shut down, the source code was released on 4 May 2011 on SourceForge to the public.[393] Based on this source code, community organized development continues until today as After Protocol.[394]
In August 2016 the source code of the game was released on GitHub under a non-commercial source availablesoftware license,[395] to allow the community to contribute. The author claims that he wrote the game originally in C, switched then to Java, and later converted it with an automatic code converter to C++.[396]
In August 2011 Ken Beckett, the programmer of the NES game Crystal Mines, released the source code under a custom permissive license to the public.[399][400] Artwork still proprietary but can be shared for non-commercial, personal use.[401]
The original source code became available in September 2004 "for historical interest" (together with source code of other Windmill Software games as Styx).[402][403] There is also an earlier free software reverse engineered variant available by Andrew Jenner, called Digger Remastered, ported for many platforms.[404]
After years of no further distribution from the publisher Radio Shack of the game, the distribution rights fell back to the developers. Morgan released game around 2001 under a freeware like license to the public, also offering the source code.[405][406] Following, the game's community has created ports for PC,[407]Linux,[408]RISC OS[409] and PSP.[410]
non-commercial use, "for educational and personal use only"
Freeware (non-commercial)
Mind Shear Software
Based on Softdisk Publishing's "Raven engine" which powered also ShadowCaster. The game was released (including the engine) later by the developer as non-commercial freeware in 2014.[423][424][425]
The Amiga games Kumquat & Cantaloupe, originally released as shareware titles, were re-released as freeware with source code included by the author in November 2012.[429][430]
Around 2014 archived on GitHub from other now offline sources.[431] A SDL port is in progress.[432] In 2000 Wester released also the Borland Pascal 7 source code of Cyberdogs (excluding some libraries he had licensed) on his website.[433]
"RoboForge, Personal, Non-Commercial Use End User License"
Freeware
Liquid Edge
Announced the game in July, 2000[434] by Liquid Edge the game was released on May 23, 2001.[435] From July 2008 RoboForge became an open-source project with the source code for the Java-based client and server under a non-commercial license and as freeware.[436] The game's community continues development.
The game was turned freeware by S2 Games on September 1, 2006. In 2007 the source code became available to the game community,[440] who now continues development.[441] The game can be played on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.
In 1995, Wayne Westmoreland (co-designer of the game) placed the original TRS-80 binaries for Sea Dragon in the public domain.[442] On December 19, 2015, Kevin Savetz uploaded the source code for the Atari 8-bit version of Sea Dragon under no license to the Internet Archive with permission of Russ Wetmore, developer of the port.[443]
Stellar Frontier was developed by Doug Hendrix in 1995 and was later licensed and published by Stardock. On August 4, 2006, Stardock Systems closed the official master server. On November 18, 2008, the game source code was released under an own non-commercial license.[447] As result, the game's community took over the support of the game and improved the game, fixed the bugs and security holes with self-madepatches.[448]
S. John Ross released the commercial Treasures of a Slaver's Kingdom, which won the XYZZY Award 2007 for the best NPC, in 2010 with Z-machine source code as freeware.[449] More source code of text adventure from the 1970s and 1980s are available at the archive.[450]
Source code released as part of the Source SDK on February 18, 2025.[452] Previously, a 2008 version of the game's source code was leaked alongside several other Orange Box games in 2012,[453] and later a 2017 build of the game was leaked in 2020.[454]
The original game was very donation-base. The official game server was closed in 2021. Sergey Orlovsky released repo with source code and data - excluding parts about commercial functions[460]
Released by defunct Jaguar Sector II website under a CD compilation for PC titled Jaguar Source Code Collection on August 24, 2008.[468][469] Source code was provided by Atari historian Curt Vendel.[470]
Released in 1990 as one of the earliest 3D games[473] with full 6-axis degree of freedom. In 2009, author Christophe de Dinechin released the complete assembly and GFA BASICsource code of the Atari ST version.[474][475] There is also a started PC port in C++ on SourceForge by the original author.[476][477]
Army Men III was released in early access in 2013 and under development until its cancellation in 2016. Two years later, the unfinished game was released as open source on SourceForge in April 2018.[480]
In March 2015 programmer Chris Shrigley, who worked on the Sega CD version, found the Batman Returnssource code and released it for educational purposes to the public.[487] He released also the source code of Magician, Cliffhanger, Gargoyles and some other games from his working career.[488]
Assembly source code released in 2016 by the author Bob Pollin in the Atariage forum.[491] On the Atariage forum source code of many more games was released.[492][493][494]
Released by defunct Jaguar Sector II website under a CD compilation for PC titled Jaguar Source Code Collection on August 24, 2008.[468][469] Source code was provided by Atari historian Curt Vendel.[470]
Released by defunct Jaguar Sector II website under a CD compilation for PC titled Jaguar Source Code Collection on August 24, 2008.[468][469] Source code was provided by Atari historian Curt Vendel.[470]
In April 2006 the developers released the source code of the core game mechanic to the public with a Software Development Kit.[498][499] Additionally to the released source code, as game data and rules are stored in XML files and most of the game is written in Python, much (but not all) of the game is "open" and easily customizable.[500] The game's community produced later many mods, total conversions and optimization patches for the game.[501]
In Fall 2012 the developers released the source code of the core game DLL.[502] The game's community produced later a community patch project.[503][504]
Released by defunct Jaguar Sector II website under a CD compilation for PC titled Jaguar Source Code Collection on August 24, 2008.[468][469] Source code was provided by Atari historian Curt Vendel.[470]
In November 2018 the source code of Crazee Rider in BBC Micro6502 assembly language was released by Kevin Edwards, designer of the game.[510] In April of the following year the source code for the Acorn Electron version was also released.[511]
Released by defunct Jaguar Sector II website under a CD compilation for PC titled Jaguar Source Code Collection on August 24, 2008.[468][469] Source code was provided by Atari historian Curt Vendel.[470]
Lacking any further official support after the closure of Ion Storm's Dallas office in 2001, John Romero gave the game's source code to community members, allowing them to develop additional platform ports and bug fixes.[515][516]
First announced for release around 2005 by Terry Pratchett,[529] source code became in 2008 available to the ScummVM developers.[530] The code was fast integrated into ScummVM.[531]
Around 2017 the source code of the game became available to "The Video game history foundation", which wrote a review of the technique of the game based on the code.[532]
In 2014 Gray Chang released the source code of his Atari 8-bit games Dog Daze, Dog Daze Deluxe, Bumpomov's Dogs, and Claim Jumper.[533] Available at the Internet Archive.
On April 27, 2003, the source code of the Atari Jaguar port of the game was released by Albert Yarusso of AtariAge with permission of John Carmack.[534]
In November 1999, developer Ian Bell released on the game's 15th birthday the BBC Microassemblysource code on his website.[539][540] Following that, Christian Pinder created a platform-neutral[citation needed]C version from the released BBC Micro version, called Elite: The New Kind (E-TNK; sources were removed in 2003 on David Braben request).[541][542] In 1999–2000 a dispute occurred between Ian Bell and David Braben regarding Bell's decision to make available all versions of the original Elite.[543] The dispute has since ended and the various versions are now available again on Bell's site.[544][545]
Released by defunct Jaguar Sector II website under a CD compilation for PC titled Jaguar Source Code Collection on August 24, 2008.[468][469] Source code was provided by Atari historian Curt Vendel.[470]
In March 2019 the source code of Galaforce in BBC Micro 6502 assembly language was released by Kevin Edwards, designer of the game.[553] In April of the same year Edwards released the source code for the Acorn Electron version.[554]
Released by defunct Jaguar Sector II website under a CD compilation for PC titled Jaguar Source Code Collection on August 24, 2008.[468][469] Source code was provided by Atari historian Curt Vendel.[470]
Game source released 2003.[562] The source code became the base of several source ports to alternative platforms, like Mac,[563]Linux, Pandora,[564]Maemo/N900,[565] or Android[566][567] using the Simple DirectMedia Layer (SDL)cross-platform multimedia library. As the source code's license requirements limits further development significantly[568] the game's community aims for a re-licensing with the new IP holder Gearbox.[569] In September 2013 Gearbox responded positively to the idea for a re-licensing of the already published source code, noting their efforts in supporting the modding community.[570]
Released by defunct Jaguar Sector II website under a CD compilation for PC titled Jaguar Source Code Collection on August 24, 2008.[468][469] Source code was provided by Atari historian Curt Vendel.[470]
Greg Wohlwend chose to open source his code in 2010,[572] partly with the intent to spur "non-coders" to try coding, as he had.[573][574] Programmer Eric Johnson of Semi Secret found the open source version and ported the game to iPad in a weekend before notifying Wohlwend,[573] which was later released commercially in an updated version.
Released by defunct Jaguar Sector II website under a CD compilation for PC titled Jaguar Source Code Collection on August 24, 2008.[468][469] Source code was provided by Atari historian Curt Vendel.[470]
Ken's Labyrinth was released as freeware on November 16, 1999. The source code under a non-commercial license followed on July 1, 2001.[578] A port to modern operating systems such as Windows and Linux using Simple DirectMedia Layer called LAB3D/SDL was created by Jan Lönnberg and released in 2002.[579] A version of the port which includes new higher resolution textures was also created by Jared Stafford.[580]
Czech independent video game developer Pavel Tovarys released the Torque 2D v1.1.3 based source code in 2009 under non-commercial conditions.[583][584] Several other games' source code were released too.[585] The code was taken offline after several games' IP were sold to another company. The source code is currently in no known repository on the web available.
On May 29, 2021, the ScummVM Team received the source code for the in-house game engine created by Trecision, and used for games like Nightlong: Union City Conspiracy, Ark of Time, and Alien Virus.[601]
The source code for Pirate Adventure was printed in the December 1980 issue of BYTE, with an addendum in April 1981.[603][604] This enabled others to discover how the engine worked and to create their own adventures using this or a similar design.
Apple II source code was long-thought-lost,[605] but was found again and released in 2012.[606] A port of the assembly source code to C and SDL as backend was made by a community programmer.[607]
Cellar Door Games released the game's source code "in the pursuit of sharing knowledge".[608] The source code was released on GitHub[609] with a license inspired by the VVVVVV Source Code License.[610]
Around 2002 Ubisoft had ended the official support while still significant issues existed. Therefore, Ubisoft enabled the game's community at Subsim.com to fix the game themselves by giving them the source code.[620] The fans raised $7000 for an unofficial patch development project which fixed most of the issues.[620] The community extended Silent Hunter II also content wise significantly with expansion packs or texture upgrades.[621][622]
Zdnek Stary developed at the Czech development studio Oldsoft the solitair game Soliter for the ZX Spectrum which got released in 1994. The game was released by the author in 2005 on his homepage for download, in 2009 the assembly source code followed as scan.[623]
On April 25, 2024, 3DO homebrew developer Trapexit released the source code with assets included for the 3DO port of Star Fighter under no license on GitHub, after obtaining it from Nathan Atkinson, who got permission from Andrew Hutchings, co-creator of the game and this port, to release it.[628]
On August 21, 2020, The History of How We Play uploaded to the Internet Archive the source code for Star Fire provided by David Rolfe, co-designer of the game.[629]
The commented assembly source code scan of Star Raider became available in October 2015 in the Internet Archive as scan.[630] Aric Wilmunder opened it up with several other artifacts of his gaming career (e.g. SCUMM).[631] The community typed in the source code double checked in a GitHub project.[632] Shortly before a reverse engineering project was finished, too.[633] A true sequel, also called Star Raiders II, had been under development for some time by Aric Wilmunder. The never released prototype source code was posted publicly in December 2015.[634]
In November 2003 Ritual Entertainment released the source code of their server-side code base for multiplayer gaming under a non-commercial license.[635][636]
Apple IIpacman clone from 1981. In August 2015 Rebecca Heineman announced that original developer Brian Fitzgerald allowed to release the source code.[637][638] GitHub repository is still empty as of July 2020.[639]
Released by defunct Jaguar Sector II website under a CD compilation for PC titled Jaguar Source Code Collection on August 24, 2008.[468][469] Source code was provided by Atari historian Curt Vendel.[470]
In 2000 the source code was released to the public.[642][643] The game is since then ported to modern platforms via SDL and receives still updates by the community (2015).[644]
The BASIC source code of the 1980 developed game was published by the developer in the July/August 1980 issue of Recreational Computing.[647] Ports to other systems followed afterwards.[648]
Released by defunct Jaguar Sector II website under a CD compilation for PC titled Jaguar Source Code Collection on August 24, 2008.[468][469] Source code was provided by Atari historian Curt Vendel.[470]
Headers and some code distributed with the official SDK.[citation needed] Also, some pre-release version (v0.87) is available on the internet.[citation needed] Around 2008 access to source-code was granted by Epic MegaGames to the OldUnreal game community.[655] In 2015 Tim Sweeney announced that he hope to be able to open source one day the engine to the public.[656]
Epic Games, Digital Extremes, Legend Entertainment
Headers and some code distributed with the official SDK.[citation needed] Around 2019 access to source-code was granted by Epic MegaGames to the OldUnreal game community.[657]
Mid-2003 Introversion Software started selling the source code for $45. Usage beside modding and fixing of the game are not permitted by the license.[658] Source code of the games Darwinia + Multiwinia and DEFCON was later sold too.[659]
On April 8, 2020, Kay Savetz uploaded scans of the complete source code of the revision A of Video Checkers (a first-party video game for the Atari 2600) to the Internet Archive donated by its developer Carol Shaw.[660]
On the 10th anniversary of the game's release in January 2020, Kavanagh released the source code[661] for VVVVVV under a non-open source "VVVVVV Source Code License v1.0"[662] via GitHub.[663]
On 24 May 2006, the Warlords Battlecry IIIsource code became available to the public. Members of the community (who signed a NDA) have been entitled distributors, which have the legal permissions to allocate copies of the Warlords Battlecry III source code.[664][665] The source code release resulted in the development of several community-made fan patches[666][667] and mods.
The mobile strategy game was originally released commercially,[669] and later released to the public to allow the community to continue the support of the game.[670][671] With help of the community the game's main developer has continued the support since then.
Around 2002 Team17, impressed by the reverse engineering on Worms Armageddon for "Silkworm",[673] gave David "Deadcode" Ellsworth access to the source code.[674] Over the next years he created unofficial patches, until he joined Team17 in 2006. Updates are still created as of 2015.[675]
Shortly after the release of the stable version Goldhawk Interactive allowed selected members of the community to access the source code.[676] This resulted in the community edition of the game (Xenonauts:Community Edition, X:CE), which continues development of an independent branch of the game, adding new features and bugfixes.[677]
^Herro, Mark (October 1980). "The Electric Eye"(PDF). The Dragon (42): 42–43 hardcopy (aka electronic pagenumbers 44–45 in archived PDF version). Archived(PDF) from the original on 2015-07-14. Retrieved 2015-07-11.
^Adams, Scott (July 1980). "Adventureland". SoftSide. p. 36. Archived from the original on 28 March 2016. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
^AlienBash_src.readmeArchived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback MachineThis code is available under the following license, as stated by Mr. Glen Cumming in the above thread: "I am happy for every scrap of code on my disks to be made available to whoever wants it - I only ask that the really embarrassing stuff is erased (lots) and any potentially libelous messages (or swears) in any of the code/scrolling messages are removed."
^Frigaard, Andy (20 June 2021). ""Bird Strike Q&A Thread" post #4". stardot.org.uk. Archived from the original on 21 June 2021. Retrieved 21 June 2021. After a few enjoyable weeks of working through all the original uncommented code, I have posted the source to Github.
^Developer "Clonk Game Content License Clonk game content is available under the following license. This applies to graphics, audio data, scripting, and text found in the game release packages (usually packed inside c4f, c4g, and c4d group files). Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC)"
^tinyspeck (2013-11-18). "Glitch is Dead, Long Live Glitch! - Art & Code from the Game Released into Public Domain". glitchthegame.com. Archived from the original on 2013-12-13. Retrieved 2013-12-11. The entire library of art assets from the game, has been made freely available, dedicated to the public domain. Code from the game client is included to help developers work with the assets. All of it can be downloaded and used by anyone, for any purpose.
^Andersson, Jens; Kronqvist, Jan (2008-09-21). "The Gravity-Force 2 Homepage". lysator.liu.se. Archived from the original on 2013-10-15. Retrieved 2013-10-13. Jan made an archaeological expedition and recovered the GF2 source code from a dusty old floppy disc! We do not pretend it is a wonder in coding style (in fact, it is a complete disaster!), but for primarily nostalgic interest we publish it here.
^gf2Archived 2013-10-15 at the Wayback Machine on lysator.liu.se "The screenshots, the GF2 source code, and the actual Amiga game (v1.10, v1.20) are released for use under the CreativeCommons CC-BY-SA license." (April 26, 2017)
^Simser, Bil (2008-01-10). "SimCity Source Code Released to the Wild! Let the ports begin..." weblogs.asp.net/bsimser. Archived from the original on 2014-05-10. Retrieved 2012-12-30. [...]Don Hopkins got a lot of work done on the finishing touches on releasing the original SimCity source code under the GNU General Public Library (GPL). The code won't have reference to any SimCity name as that has all be renamed to Micropolis. Micropolis was the original working title of the game and since EA requires that the GPL open source version not use the same name as SimCity (to protect their trademark) a little work had to be done to the code.
^Duane Blehm's Source Code on macintoshgarden.org "Source Code for Duane Blehm's games (Stunt Copter, ZeroGravity, Cairo Shootout), released into the public domain by his parents after his passing."
^dungeon-3.2A.tar.Z (05-Oct-1994)Archived 2016-06-23 at the Wayback Machine on the Interactive Fiction Archive "Dungeon version 3.2A, 1-Oct-94; contains all the rooms and puzzles of the original MIT Zork. DEC FORTRAN source code by Robert M. Supnik; see dungn32b.zip for a port to DOS."
^Dink-Smallwood-Source-LicenseArchived 2015-01-06 at the Wayback MachinePlease keep in mind while I'm sharing the source, I am not sharing the media, if you would like to use or distribute the Dink Smallwood artwork, this requires express permission.
^Infinity Released (August 13, 2016)Archived October 24, 2016, at the Wayback Machine on affinix.com "Today we are pleased to announce the release of Infinity for Game Boy Color in unfinished form! We've made a ROM file available, as well as the source code."
^"Marathon 2 Source Code Released". mactech.com. 2000-01-17. Archived from the original on 2014-08-20. Retrieved 2012-12-25. Today at 7 pm CST Bungie Software releases the Mac source code for their classic game "Marathon 2: Durandal" to the net.
^Kirmse, Andrew; Kirmse, Chris (2012-09-15). "License for Meridian 59 v1.0". GitHub. Archived from the original on 2015-10-26. Retrieved 2013-10-08. This source code is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License with the following special exception. As a special exception, the copyright holders of this program give you permission to link this program with the accompanying files wrap.dll and waveplay.dll.
^Wen, Howard (2005-08-11). "The Ur-Quan Masters". linuxdevcenter.com. O'Reilly Media. Archived from the original on 2016-01-19. Retrieved 2016-01-19. When the original developers of Star Control 2 contacted the online Star Control fan community, they presented an enticing question: if they released the source to the 3DO version of Star Control 2 under GPL, would anybody be interested in porting it to modern-day computers? Michael Martin, a 26-year-old Ph.D. student at Stanford University, answered the call. After removing proprietary 3DO-specific components from the code, the developers released the source for Star Control 2 to the public.
^Rubin, Brian (2012-01-16). "Starshatter: The Gathering Storm Goes Open Source!". spacegamejunkie.com. Archived from the original on 2012-06-15. Retrieved 2013-01-08. Apparently the excellent and unique military space sim, Starshatter: The Gathering Storm, has gone open source thanks to its original developer releasing the source code. [...]: "14 DEC, 2011 – STARSHATTER:THE GATHERING STORM – Open Source Version 5.0.5. This download Includes the cumulative Starshatter-TGS game up to version 5.0.5 (No CD Required). It is available for download from our "Lagacy Official File" section."
^doctorfrog (2012-02-06). "Because Stars Matter: Starshatter (Sci-Fi Flight Sim) is Free!". drfrog.wordpress.com. Archived from the original on 2012-01-27. Retrieved 2012-01-08. Starshatter: The Gathering Storm is a moderately complex, moderately realistic, spaceborne military flight sim that takes place in a series of dynamic campaigns.
^saisArchived 2012-12-26 at the Wayback Machine on infinitespacegames.com "After being sold for several years by Cheapass Games, Strange Adventures in Infinite Space was released as free software and its source code was made available under the GNU General Public License. Go to the Strange Adventures in Infinite Space website to download the game, source code and various other goodies"
^Love, Christine (4 May 2013). "Tumblr post #49592102340". Tumblr. Love Conquers All Games. Archived from the original on 27 May 2020. You can use the python code portions for whatever you like. I've also left in the script, but only for context; please don't interpret this as me releasing any sort of legal rights whatsoever to the writing in the game! (I apologize for even needing to say this, but… you know, lawyers.)
^Humphries, Matthew (21 April 2012). "Arx Libertatis: cross-platform port of Arx Fatalis released". geek.com. Archived from the original on 3 July 2012. Retrieved 17 November 2012. What's interesting about Arx Fatalis is that development of the game started up again last year. Arkane Studios released patch 1.21 and with it open sourced the engine. That led to a new project called Arx Libertatis, which aimed to update the game to be played on multiple modern operating systems including Windows and Linux.
^Hodgkins, Kelly (2010-12-31). "Popular indie game Canabalt goes open source". tuaw.com. Archived from the original on 2013-06-30. The developers behind Canabalt confirmed that the game's source code will be made available as part of an open source project. The game will be licensed under the MIT Open Source license, which will let other developers use the engine source code in its entirety for both personal and commercial projects. While the code powering the game is available for the world to use, the game art, sounds, animations and Canabalt game-specific code is still proprietary.
^Bentley, Kevin (16 April 2024). "Descent 3 Source Code". Hacker News. Y Combinator. Archived from the original on 16 April 2024. Retrieved 16 April 2024. Someone recently asked if the source code from Descent 3 will be released. I reached out to my old boss (Matt Toschlog) at Outrage Entertainment and he gave me the go ahead. I'm going to work on getting this running again and I'm looking for some co-maintainers.
^SourceCodeArchived 2015-03-27 at the Wayback Machine on forum.caravelgames.com "Yes, you can have all of the source code to the engine for our commercial products, DROD: King Dugan's Dungeon, DROD: Journey to Rooted Hold, DROD: The City Beneath, DROD: Gunthro and the Epic Blunder, DROD: The Second Sky, and DROD RPG: Tendry's Tale. You just can't have all the media, i.e. the levels, in-game writing, graphics, music, sound effects, and voice samples."
^ abRaja Yadav, Arvind (4 August 2020). "11 Years of Pyrodactyl". Pyrodactyl Games. Archived from the original on 4 August 2020. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
^Thomsen, Michael (2011-08-24). "Building With Someone Else's Blocks: Going Open Source With Games". Gamasutra. p. 2. Archived from the original on 2013-10-29. Retrieved 2013-10-25. [...] the game struggled to attract subscribers and was canceled after its first year. Disappointed with the turn of events, Cyan decided to release Myst Online: Uru Live as an open source game in 2010 hoping fans would be able to give the game a new life.
^"unknownworlds / NS". GitHub. Archived from the original on 2015-07-19. EXCLUDED CODE: The code described below and contained in the Natural Selection Source Code release is not part of the Program covered by the GPL and is expressly excluded from its terms.
^"Revenge of the Source Code". Puppy Games. 2011-04-20. Archived from the original on 2011-08-31. Retrieved 2011-08-23. "We used the same license as found in the LWJGL."
^"Going Open Source!". soaos.sourceforge.net. 2003-06-23. Archived from the original on 2011-07-24. Retrieved 2011-08-02. In order to give the Siege game an extended practical life, allow ongoing player support, give the game a chance to be made available on other platforms, and to share our technical learning experience with the game development community, the Board of Directors at Digital Tome LP have agreed to release the Delphi source to the Siege game to the Open Source community under an LGPL license!
^"Siege". Archived from the original on 2016-09-29. Retrieved 2014-08-29. I am currently engaged in discussions to re-release Siege of Avalon. Stay tuned.
^ abreadme_iWolf.txt: «I released the original source for Wolfenstein 3D many years ago, originally under a not-for-commercial purposes license, then later under the GPL.»
^ abPlunkett, Luke (2013-04-03). "Lucasarts' Closure Convinces Developers To Release Awesome Star Wars Source Code". Kotaku. Archived from the original on 2013-04-07. Retrieved 2013-04-04. In the wake of Lucasarts' closure today, Raven - the developers of the thoroughly excellent Jedi Outcast - have decided to release the source code for the game. Oh, and the code for its sequel, Jedi Academy, as well.
^"Beneath a Steel Sky". classicdosgames.com. 2005. Archived from the original on 2016-07-03. Retrieved 2017-10-04. Source code for Beneath a Steel Sky in Assembly language (415,225 bytes) xxxx
^"Latest Developments". ScummVM.org. August 2, 2012. Archived from the original on August 22, 2013. Retrieved July 14, 2013. Support for Beneath a Steel Sky, made possible thanks to Revolution Software supplying us with the original assembly source code!
^Crystal%20Mines%20(NES)%2011151989%20Version.zip in "Crystal Mines License.txt" "Ken's license: - The name "Crystal Mines", the graphics, sound, music, and the levels are NOT open source. People other than me worked on them, and for that version of the game actually got royalties and still have ownership. It's OK to possess them for personal use, but they can't be reused in a new game or distributed for profit. - As the sole author of the code, I (Ken Beckett) will allow the source code for the NES version to be used in other works, provided that: A) Credit is given to 'Ken Beckett' in both the portions of re-used source code AND in the credits of the new game, and B) That the code is modified sufficiently such that the new game is not easily recognizable as being Crystal Mines with new graphics/sound/music. -Ken"
^Grant of license to reproduce Dungeons of Daggorath by Douglas J. Morgan "I hereby grant a non-exclusive permanent world-wide license to any and all Color Computer site administrators, emulator developers, programmers or any other person or persons who wish to develop, produce, duplicate, emulate, or distribute the game on the sole condition that they exercise every effort to preserve the game insofar as possible in its original and unaltered form. [...] Anyone willing to pay for the copying of the listing (at Kinko's) and shipment to them, who intends to use it to enhance or improve the emulator versions of the game is welcome to it."
^Barton, Matt (13 October 2006). "A Review of DynaMicro's The Dungeons of Daggorath (1982)". Armchair Arcade. Archived from the original on 11 September 2010. Programmers and coders may also be interested in the source code should email Louis Jordan. Before doing so, check out the License Grant offered by Doug Morgan, former president of Dyna Micro. Apparently he's willing to give the code to anyone willing to cover the costs of shipping and copying (at Kinko's) the listing.
^"The End of an Era!". Windward. 2005-10-01. Archived from the original on 2005-11-24. Retrieved 2013-10-26. October 1, 2005: We just sold the last copy of Enemy Nations. [...] If you have a copy and want to give a copy to a friend - you have our permission to burn a CD with a copy of Enemy Nations - with one major caveat. You must give them the game. You cannot sell it to them. You cannot include it as part of anything you sell. It cannot be included with any product or magazine as a free extra. The person making the copy must even buy the blank CD. It must be a true free gift given totally separate of anything else.
^ ab"License for Original Code". launchpad.net/enations. Archived from the original on 2017-02-13. This is released under a limited license: 1) No rights are given to the game Enemy Nations, the trademark Enemy Nations, or the concept. 2) Windward intends to someday create an Enemy Nations II and reserves all rights for all future versions of the game. 3) You may not sell anything derived from this code, art, or anything else included. 4) This is released solely for people to learn from the code and to make fixes in the existing code that they will make available for free. If you don't like these restrictions, don't use this code/data.
^Free FallArchived 2015-05-21 at the Wayback Machine on Ian Bell's website "I wrote Free Fall in 1982/3 for the BBC Micro. It was published by Acornsoft in 1983. I like to describe Free Fall as the first ever beat-em-up so as to claim, with tongue somewhat in cheek, to have invented two gaming genres."
^XargonArchived 2016-04-18 at the Wayback Machine Allen Pilgrim on pyra-handheld.com "I own the copyright for the game and have released the entire trilogy as freeware. The source code is also released as freeware. I am perfectly fine with people creating ports of the game and using all the assets for those ports. What I do not authorize is someone taking the assets and creating a new game."
^Newerth Savage XR - About usArchived 2013-01-15 at the Wayback Machine on newerth.com "In 2007 Newerth.com acquired the source code for Savage: The battle for Newerth and announced its continued development with the implementation of new features and content into the game via a patch named XR, incorporating previous community modifications."
^"Stellar Frontier Source Code – Released". stellarfrontier.ss-network.net. 2008-11-18. Archived from the original on December 31, 2009. Retrieved 2013-10-13. As of Tuesday, November 18, 2008, the Stellar Frontier source code has officially been released by Stardock Corporation. End-User License Agreement was updated June 19th 2010.
^license.txt"Source code remains property of Black Forest Games GmbH and is free for non-commercial use only."
^gog.com team (2015-03-24). "Release: Airline Tycoon Deluxe". gog.com. Archived from the original on 2015-08-09. Retrieved 2015-08-01. Airline Tycoon Deluxe is a golden oldie with native versions for Mac OS X and Linux. As an added bonus, the package here comes with the game's Windows source code for your viewing and tweaking pleasure. You sure don't see that every day.
^Alien Breed 3D by John Girvin "In March 1997, Team17 released the source code to AB3D's sequel, "Alien Breed 3D II: The Killing Grounds" (known as TKG) on the cover CD of Amiga Format issue 95. It was megabytes of undocumented, disorganised, messy assembly language. Andy Clitheroe, the lone programmer of both games, must have been some kind of genius, I think. The official release was of the TKG source code. However, when poking around the CD I found the original (and equally messy) AB3D source too." (archived, 2009)
^AvP/trunk/License.txtArchived 2016-01-09 at the Wayback MachineThe source code to Aliens Vs Predator is copyright (c) 1999-2000 Rebellion and is provided as is with no warranty for its suitability for use. You may not use this source code in full or in part for commercial purposes. Any use must include a clearly visible credit to Rebellion as the creators and owners, and reiteration of this license.
^Crawford, Chris (2013). "Source Code". Archived from the original on 2016-12-19. Retrieved 2017-02-24. 30 months ago, at the 2011 Game Developers Conference, somebody asked me to release the source code for my old games. I said I would look into it. [...] I have begun the process of preparing my source code for general distribution.
^ener (16 March 2004). "The big Zero Six Zero". Archived from the original on 12 June 2010. Retrieved 20 July 2020. [...] We have also added new support for the following games: Broken Sword 1 and Broken Sword 2. Many thanks to Revolution for providing us with the source-code to these games.
^Bell, John (2009-10-01). "Opening the Source of Art". Technology Innovation Management Review. Archived from the original on 2014-03-30. Retrieved 2012-12-30. [...]that no further patches to the title would be forthcoming. The community was predictably upset. Instead of giving up on the game, users decided that if Activision wasn't going to fix the bugs, they would. They wanted to save the game by getting Activision to open the source so it could be kept alive beyond the point where Activision lost interest. With some help from members of the development team that were active on fan forums, they were eventually able to convince Activision to release Call to Power II's source code in October of 2003.
^Civ4: Better AIArchived 2017-01-04 at the Wayback Machine on sourceforge.net "Major improvements to AI naval and air unit handling [...] Well over 100 bug fixes"
^Wicks, Samuel (2016-04-26). "Wondrous: The Civilization V Community Patch Project". Rock Paper Shotgun. there's another big new release expected, but it's not an official expansion. It's the Community Patch Project (CPP; to be named Vox Populi on release), a community-made mod that overhauls and improves a majority of the game's systems in an attempt to make Civilization V the best game it possibly can be.
^Klepek, Patrick (2017-04-26). "The Modders Who Decided to Overhaul the AI in 'Civilization V'". Vice.com. Community Patch was actually built upon another mod. Since development began in 2014, it's become its own thing, prompting a rebranding: Vox Populi. Besides improving upon the game's AI, Vox Populi tweaks the game's balance, and fixes bugs that were left behind after Firaxis moved on. [...]we have to respect them for giving us the source code, and that must have taken some courage
^ abHillier, Brenna (7 September 2016). "GameMaker's Humble Bundle has some great games – and the tools to make your own". VG247. Archived from the original on 8 September 2018. Retrieved 8 September 2018. ...Uncanny Valley; Cook, Serve, Delicious; Ink, Shep Hard, and Angry Chicken: Egg Madness [...] Extreme Burger Defense, Freeway Mutant [...] Galactic Missile Defense, Solstice, and Home [...] 10 Second Ninja X GameMaker Edition [...] Flop Rocket.
^ abPranckevičius, Aras (26 March 2018). "Releasing the Unity C# source code". Unity Blog. Unity Technologies. Archived from the original on 26 March 2018. Retrieved 17 August 2020. We are not releasing Unity as open source. Not even a little bit. (Sorry.) It's not that we don't like open source. We'd open source all of Unity today if we thought we could get away with it and still be in business tomorrow, and we do have a growing number of open source projects. But the main engine will remain proprietary for the foreseeable future, and the C# reference source code is released under a license which only permits you to read the code, not modify it. Please consult the full license text for details before you get carried away.
^Dunkin, Alan (1998-01-26). "Descent Source Code Released". gamespot.com. Retrieved 2013-01-13. Parallax Software, the software developer that created the popular three-dimensional action games Descent and Descent II, has released Descent's source code (version 1.5) to the public domain for noncommercial purposes.
^OldeSkuul on facebook.com "we are seriously considering source code releases" (2014)
^Freeware releases"The rights situation has been resolved, and Terry Pratchett and his agent Colin Smythe have approved the source release and future freeware re-issuing of the game. We are currently awaiting receipt of the engine source code." on adventure-treff.de (2005, in German)
^a-yyg (20 May 2021). "First Post". a-yyg's blog. Archived from the original on 15 August 2021. Retrieved 15 August 2021. The task I am here to work on during this GSoC is the implementation of the SAGA2 engine. [...] Another game developed by The Dreamers Guild is Faery Tale Adventure II: Halls of the Dead. Unfortunately, it seems that the SAGA engine is not appropriate for playing FTA2, so we have decided to implement its functionality into another engine. Therefore, the goal of my task is, in specific terms, to have the game playable within ScummVM as a new engine named SAGA2. Of course, we're not doing this empty handed. We have gratefully received full sources from the authors and will build from that into the SAGA2 engine.
^pandorapress staff (2011-06-23). "Game of the Week #3 – Homeworld SDL". pandorapress.net. Archived from the original on 2011-08-30. Retrieved 2013-04-24. […] released port of HomeworldSDL. […] enables your Pandora to experience the excellent work done by the guys at HomeworldSDL.
^BugsMenot (2013-04-01). "Congratulations on the purchase of Homeworld IP! Re-licensing of code requested". gearboxsoftware.com. Archived from the original on 2015-02-17. Retrieved 2014-08-11. [...]it was deemed pretty much impossible to continue to do anything with the released source code that was made available.[...]We just ask that the already released source code be made available under a GPL V2.0 or higher license and hosted on GitHub.
^BurlesonGBX (2013-09-05). "Re: HW source now?". gearboxsoftware.com. Archived from the original on 2015-03-08. Retrieved 2014-08-11. The license agreement for the original release of the source still stands.[...] If someone is interested in doing something under a different license using the old opensource code, there is always room to talk.
^Buchanan-Smith, Matt (May 28, 2017). "Hover Strike Source (Tank)". Facebook. Retrieved 2018-09-11. Source Code for the Atari Jaguar game Hover Strike which was code named 'Tank'. There is another version of the source code floating about which is apparently for the CD version. Not seen any documentation for this but I think it's the cart version, originally from the Atari HQ CD
^"Inherit the Earth Soundtrack released". scummvm.org. 2 December 2005. Archived from the original on 12 June 2010. Retrieved 19 July 2020. ScummVM supports [Inherit the Earth] as of 0.8.0, thanks to [...] the fact that [Wyrmkeep Entertainment] kindly provided us with all source code and the rights to reimplement it.
^ abcThomas, Neil (20 January 2020). Retro Tea Break: Eugene Sandulenko SCUMMVM Team Leader (Podcast). Event occurs at 12:00. Retrieved 19 July 2020 – via YouTube. Sometimes, [the source code came] from original developers, like it was with Revolution Software or like it was with Adventure Soft later or as it was with Joe Pearce and his Inherit the Earth and [The Labyrinth of Time] games [...]. But sometimes, a number of times, it has come from the IP right owners. So you know, some companies go bankrupt and then later another company acquire assets and they would like to put the game, let's say, on GOG –Good Old Games–, and this is where they approach us and they "Hey guys, here is the source code." Very often under NDA. For instance, it was the case with Tony engine.
^help_me_rescue_abandoned_dos_games on reddit by pichichi010 "[...] We got the Amiga source code for Jim Power, and it was 100K code lines in one single file lol." (2017)
^Filippos "md5" Karapetis (23 January 2016). "The labyrinth must be destroyed!". ScummVM. Archived from the original on 3 February 2016. Retrieved 18 September 2020. Many thanks to The Wyrmkeep Entertainment Co. for sharing the game's original source code with us!{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^Gilbert, Paul (13 September 2015). "Elementary, my dear Watson". ScummVM. Archived from the original on 22 October 2015. Retrieved 14 June 2020. The ScummVM Team is proud to announce support for both games of The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Serrated Scalpel, and The Rose Tattoo. Many thanks go to Electronic Arts, for allowing us access to the original sources.
^Keller, Brian (2006-03-22). "MechCommander 2 EULA". Social.msdn.microsoft.com. Archived from the original on 2011-07-28. Retrieved 2013-12-29.
^Fleshbourne, Daniel (2006-08-18). "Microsoft MechCommander 2 Shared Source Release". neowin.net. Archived from the original on 2016-12-20. Retrieved 2012-12-30. This is the Shared Source release for MechCommander 2. This release contains all of the source code and source assets required to build MechCommander 2. This release can be used with the Microsoft XNA Build March 2006 Community Technology Preview (CTP).
^ abMitchell, Robert (2001-11-19). "The Return of MiG Alley?". combatsim.com. Archived from the original on 2013-01-22. Retrieved 2013-01-06. Bob Mitchell: What has prompted you to release the source code for MiG Alley and Battle of Britain? Dave Whiteside: Because we are no longer doing flight sims [after Empire took us over at the end of 2001], and we would not be able to publish any patches that were required [no money was allocated to this], rather than let MiG die and all the code sit doing nothing it was considered a good idea, a swan song, if you like, for Rowan [after 13 years in the flight sim market].
^LittleToonCat (3 July 2024). ""Your move, Commander."". Archived from the original on 4 July 2024. Moonbase Commander, one of the very last games ever created in the SCUMM engine, is now finally supported and ready for public testing! [...] Many thanks to the current IP holder Rebellion for providing access to the game's source code to the team!
^Wen, Howard (2004-06-10). "Keeping the Myths Alive". linuxdevcenter.com. Archived from the original on 2013-04-06. Retrieved 2012-12-22. [...]fans of the Myth trilogy have taken this idea a step further: they have official access to the source code for the Myth games. Organized under the name MythDevelopers, this all-volunteer group of programmers, artists, and other talented people devote their time to improving and supporting further development of the Myth game series.
^Adams, Scott (December 1980). "Pirate's Adventure". BYTE. p. 192. Archived from the original on 31 March 2015. Retrieved 18 October 2013.
^"Adventurous Bugs". BYTE. April 1981. p. 302. Archived from the original on 14 April 2014. Retrieved 18 October 2013.
^Ciolek, Todd (2012-10-17). "Among the Missing: Notable Games Lost to Time". 1up.com. Retrieved 2015-06-19. Prince of Persia creator Jordan Mechner believed that the source code to the game's original Apple II version was gone when he failed to find it in 2002. Ten years later, Mechner's father uncovered a box of old games at the family home, and among them were disks containing Prince of Persia's bedrock program.
^ abTrotter, William (2003-05-01). "Submarine marries Destroyer: The long vaunted union of SSI naval-sims is complete – thanks to fans". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on 2016-06-10. Retrieved 2017-05-06. gave source code to subsim.com [...] a fund raising drive netted more than $7000 to jump-start Project Messerwetzer [...] Skilled volunteers and playtesters rallied to the call [...] a free 5MB to 6MB patch that will be finally polished and playtested. The original crippling flaw, multiplayer instability, has been dramatically minimized [...]
^Najciekawsze modyfikacje (15/03/10)Archived 2016-08-03 at the Wayback Machine on gry-online.pl by Adrian Werner "Silent hunter II: Pacific Aces - podstawowa wersja gry obsadzała nas w roli kapitana U-Boota na Atlantyku, podczas gdy ten mod dodaje okręty podwodne marynarki amerykańskiej i wody Pacyfiku. Poza tymi dodatkami Pacific Aces wzbogaca grafikę, dźwięk i strukturę misji w kampanii oraz wprowadza szereg poprawek do mechanizmów rozgrywki." (March 15, 2010, in Polish)
^DreamMaster (15 June 2024). "It's a Bar... In Space!". Archived from the original on 4 July 2024. In a universe where bagels meet bars, the BAGEL engine has been perfectly toasted, and the ScummVM team is now ready to serve a slice of The Space Bar nostalgia. [...] This is thanks to the kind people at ZOOM Platform, who provided us with the original game sources to work with.
^Rosa, Marek (2015-05-14). "Space Engineers – full source code access, total modifications and 100,000 USD fund". marekrosa.org. Archived from the original on 2015-06-22. Retrieved 2015-06-16. Today we have a very important announcement for our modders and our community. We decided to give you 100% complete access to Space Engineers' source code. This comes as a continuation of our decision to give more freedom to modders and community.
^sev (25 October 2012). "Tony Tough, a New Supported Game". ScummVM. Archived from the original on 1 June 2013. Retrieved 19 July 2020. The ScummVM team, in close collaboration with Nayma soft (the legal rights owner) and DotEmu, is happy to announce support for Tony Tough in our development branch.
^Escape from Mount DrashArchived 2016-07-21 at the Wayback Machine on peroxide.dk "was ported from the Vic20 to PC by Telemachos. Included in the download is the sourcecode for the project. Mount Drash 0.4 Mb .zip" (2003)
^Meer, Alec (2012-10-12). "Patchy Like It's 1998: Unreal 1 Updated". rockpapershotgun.com. Archived from the original on 2013-01-15. Retrieved 2012-12-21. The list of fixes upon fixes are too long to mention here, but the essential purpose of v227 is to add DirectX9 and OpenAL support as well as mending everything that needs mending. Epic are aware of and permit the patch [...]
^Phillips, Tom (September 23, 2020). "The original Unreal Tournament just got a new patch with hundreds of fixes". Eurogamer. Retrieved March 21, 2023. The patch is the work of the OldUnreal forum, building on work from the UTPG (Unreal Tournament Preservation Group), a collective of community programmers and server admins that took over after Epic Games wound up its official support. It contains hundreds of fixes for crashes, visual issues, networking, physics and player movement which have arisen over the years as the game is player on newer PCs.
^The Source CodeArchived 2012-12-30 at the Wayback MachineWe get bored easily and once we've finished a game we want to work on something completely different. But wait, what if there's other cool stuff that could be done that we left out? If you are a programmer you can take any of our games to the next level by becoming a developer. Buy access to our hosted SVN repo and get forum access to chat about your mods with the rest of the community.
^shutting downArchived 2016-07-21 at the Wayback Machine"The game had about 45,000 downloads in total. At its peak, there were about 2,000 7-day active players and I was making around $150 per month."
