Activision Releases Call to Power 2 Source

An anonymous reader writes "After some lobbying from Internet fans, Activision has released the source code for its Civilization-related PC strategy sequel "Call to Power 2". Fan-site Apolyton have announced this today, and the 8mb source code can be downloaded here . The readme notes that they could not distribute the Miles Sound library with the code, and that you need to have bought a copy of the game to use its data directory - there's plenty of discussion over at the CtP2 open source forums."

Comments

uh huh

[Anonymous Coward]

i'm sure some home made games will be made out of this but having to own the code won't mean much if you don't own the game.

already organising

[buttahead]

here you can see the fun spelling and the laying out of plans for developing the code base further. towards the top you can see that there is a call to arms for C++ programmers.

Re:already organising

[buttahead]

whoops... that link was supposed to be this

Sounds like fun

[dtfinch]

I don't have a copy of the game, but I'm downloading the source anyway. I would have expected that any open sourcing of a well known commercial software product would be front page material, but I guess someone disagrees.

Re:Sounds like fun

[Anonymous Coward]

I would have expected that any open sourcing of a well known commercial software product would be front page material, but I guess someone disagrees.

Probably because 1) the commercial software product in question is crap and 2) the EULA is so restrictive it pretty much renders the idea of "open source" pretty much nugatory in this case.

Almost open source

[leastsquares]

This would be truly great, if not for the fact that the EULA is extremely restrictive.

For example: You agree not to make copies of the Call to Power II Source Code or any part thereof, except for back up or archival purposes, or make copies of the materials accompanying the Call to Power II Source Code.

So that rules out distributing it, or any derivations. I guess you could distribute patches, but the main code would have to come from the original source.

You are explicitely allowed to distribute "New Game materials" (which I read as home-produced media files). But the source doesn't help in that regard anyway. You could always create new media based on evaluation of the original file formats.

I am disappointed...

Re:Almost open source

[Mike Hawk]

You are disappointed? This would indicate you had expectations. What would these expectations be based on? That all game source gets released? That's not true. That you had been promised unrestricted access to this proprietary work? That can't possibly be true. That you were owed something? What were you owed, and for what?

Don't release the source, people bitch. Release the source, people still bitch. Why bother?

Re:Almost open source

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm one of the guys who lobbied for the release of the code, and someone who has been in contact with Activision to arrange this (on Apolyton I'm known as Locutus, the Apolyton CS CtP1/2 Manager).

The basic idea the EULA wants to convey is that we can do with the code whatever we want, as long as any products we create still require the original game to work. The idea is that we don't just remove the copyright protection, include (or replace) all the data from the game CD and distribute the game as freeware. Activision wants to make clear that open source doesn't necessarily equal freeware.

The whole idea of releasing the source code is that we could use it to make CtP2 a better game, which would be rather pointless if the result couldn't be distributed. One caveat (if you can consider it that) is that we can't make money off of it. But it's not like we were planning to.

If you check out the download section of Apolyton you'll see that countless mods and scenarios were already made for the game, which often make pretty radical changes to the original game (and which are all freeware, of course). The game is extremely flexible in how far it can be modded. Having the source code allows us modmakers to take what we've already been doing for the past 3 years one step further, which is exactly what Activision intended.

Re:Almost open source

[m_evanchik]

Whatever the restrictions are, this is still a very significant release. The release makes the source open, though not completely free. One must credit Activision with going farther than any other game company would. This is a very positive step.

Re:Almost open source

[leastsquares]

I am disappointed? Yes.

I didn't expect unrestricted access. I didn't think that I was owed anything.

I do know that CTP2 is one of my few PC games. I do know that a reason I never play it is that is full of niggling bugs - nothing that completely ruins the game, but there's lots of little cheats that spoil multiplayer games. Activion released the source. "Excellent," I thought, I can maybe fix some of those bugs and give away fixed copies of the game. People will still need the original CDs to play it because they contain the scenarios/graphics/sounds etc.

But with the EULA as it stands, that is impossible. If I gather a group of friends to fix bugs, we can't even setup a CVS server for revision control.

The CTP2 source code has no significant commercial value that would be impacted by its release. Activision has no desire to fix the outstanding bugs. Activision clearly sees a potentially valuable community of CTP2 fans, a community that would be enhanced by the source code release and subsequent fixes. They didn't need to give away the commercial rights to the code, nor any copyright. At least let us work with the code (and I'll need more than one copy to do that)!

Re:Almost open source

[leastsquares]

The basic idea the EULA wants to convey is that we can do with the code whatever we want, as long as any products we create still require the original game to work. The idea is that we don't just remove the copyright protection, include (or replace) all the data from the game CD and distribute the game as freeware. Activision wants to make clear that open source doesn't necessarily equal freeware.

That basic idea would be fine, except the EULA doesn't even allow you to distribute "fixed" versions of the code! You are correct, The whole idea of releasing the source code is that we could use it to make CtP2 a better game, which would be rather pointless if the result couldn't be distributed. As I read the EULA, it specifically disallows this.

I never really expected the source to be released under a OSI-certified license. I am a great fan of the Civ games. I consider myself a competent C++ programmer. And, I am aware of several bugs in CTP2 that are probably trivial to fix. But, I won't be touching this code because of that EULA.

Re:Almost open source

[ACS Locutus]

Me, Locutus of Apolyton (ouch, that sounds lame ;-)) again. Okay, having read through the EULA carefullly (again), here's the deal: The EULA makes a clear distinction between "Call to Power II Source Code" (i.e. the archive file available from Apolyton) and "New Game Materials", which is not explicitly defined but is clearly implied to mean 'fixed' (possibly compiled) versions of the game. The EULA forbids anyone from distributing the "Call to Power II Source Code" without express consent from Activision. Apolyton has this consent, so Apolyton is (AFAIK exclusively) allowed to distribute the code. It doesn't say anything like this about the "New Game Materials". In fact it says quite the opposite: the EULA explicitly mentions that you can distribute "New Game Materials" to other gamers, as long as you do so free of charge and meet a couple of other demands (mostly mark it clearly as a non-Activision product). This means that you're perfectly allowed to make "New Game Materials" from the source code and, once you've done so, you can distribute and copy those however you like (as long as the terms in the EULA are met of course). You don't even have to change anything about the game, just clearly mark it as non-Activision "New Game Material" in the documentation (and in the start-up screen, if it's compiled as an executable), slap your name and email on it, and you're good to go. If you want to interpret the EULA very strictly, you could argue that a modified yet uncompiled version of the source code doesn't qualify as "New Game Material" but should rather be seen as "Call to Power II Source Code". In that case it can only be distributed through Apolyton. So in theory you might be violating the EULA if you distribute your own 'fixed' source code through any channel other than Apolyton, but I doubt Activision would sue you over that... As Apolyton staff member, I would actually think it would be rather cool if they did ;)

Re:Almost open source

[ACS Locutus]

Aw, crap, messed up the layout. Apologies for that... (Guess I should've used that preview, huh?)

Pretty much.

[Anonymous Coward]

Pretty much.

test

[Anonymous Coward]

bleah bleah TEST!

Old Code

[OtakuNoZoku]

Having worked on the original CTP it's nice to see how much of my original code made it into the second iteration. It's also embarassing looking at 6 year old code.

From the README:

[neglige]

[The source code] has been stripped of comments

Ah, so they have learned from SCO ;)

Seriously, though, I'd be more than interested to see what the community will do with the code. The first CtP was available for Linux, and there is already Freeciv. Maybe the latter will integrate a few ideas (personally, I think not, since they are very well underway on their own!).

Now, Sid, how about the Civ3 source? ;)

Re:From the README:

[OtakuNoZoku]

I'm not sure why they stripped -all- of the comments out of the code. Part of that seems a bit pointless. But it was probably a safety measure as much of the code contained quite a bit of personal information, e-mail addresses, telephone numbers, and also some "adult humour." I also recall that there was a Christmas tree that I created out of one part of the source code that other people contributed too, it looked like a Christmas tree and it actually compiled and executed, there was also a small perl script (just for fun) embedded within the C++ that if you used it would re-arrange the code but leave it execute in the exact same way. I also recall a running conversation between myself and two other programmers in the comments of one source module. Lots of team "in jokes" too.

Re:From the README:

[ACS Locutus]

The comments were stripped by Joe (Rumsey). He had to do that on his own, and for one man to go through ~2 million lines of code to find and remove any inappropriate comments would just take waaay too much of his time (his own time, that is, as he no longer works for Activision). So to save time, he just deleted everything (well, almost everything, there are still some remnants there).

if our job is done... (Re:Almost open source)

[ACS_MarkG]

i fail to see the restriction...

me thinks they just care that whatever is made with the code is free and needs a $5 copy of ctp2 to play. that's fine by me... :)

If you decide to make available the use of the New Game Materials created by you to other gamers, you agree to do so solely without charge.

New Game Materials may be created only if such New Game Materials can be used exclusively in combination with the retail version of Call to Power II. New Game Materials may not be designed to be used as a stand-alone product.

if you're saying that they didnt release the source code to anyone wanting to make any kind of game(e.g. give up their property), well, no, you dont have that

LokiHack 99 Flashbacks

[SamBeckett]

They released the source code a long time ago, for LokiHack 99.. For those of you who don't remember, Loki (the now dead Linux game company) had a contest where the brought in a bunch of open source hacker dudes to try to make the coolest mod to Civ:CTP in 3 days time. (This was in Atlanta during some Linux Expo-- I actually met Hemos there (and had no idea who he was) and ESR (had no idea who he was either)

I was one of the particpants. I had never played Civilization anything AND was still wet behind the ears from my first years in college. It was embarassing how little I knew of C++.

Anyway, I putzed around with the source code for 3 days, while sleeping in my car every 16 hours or so.