Return To Castle Wolfenstein Source Code Released

geefau writes with news that id Software has released the source code to Return To Castle Wolfenstein (single player and multiplayer), along with Wolfenstein – Enemy Territory, under the GPL. The linked article notes that "these only include the game source code, not the graphics. You need the full games for those."

Comments

Re:I'm a Little Confused

[fbjon]

Perhaps ET-GPL.zip, RTCW-SP-GPL.zip and RTCW-MP-GPL.zip are of interest?

Re:I'm a Little Confused

[AnonymousClown]

You don't see these files? File:RTCW-MP-GPL.zip 3250 KB 8/12/2010 2:22:00 PM
Or
File:RTCW-SP-GPL.zip 3642 KB 8/12/2010 2:21:00 PM

Try refreshing the page. I'm downloading RTCW-SP as I type.....

Re:I'm a Little Confused

[cheater512]

Hmm a FPS based at the Emmy Awards? That could become a best seller.

Re:I'm a Little Confused

[Anonymous Coward]

Perhaps ET-GPL.zip, RTCW-SP-GPL.zip and RTCW-MP-GPL.zip are of interest?

Ah, they were showing time stamps and not dates. I'm an idiot, ignore that post.

Pretty exciting

[Anonymous Coward]

Looking forward to seeing Wolf:ET and its mods getting the polish and extra features we've seen with ioquake3.

"Return to" Castle wolfenstein.

[Rhaban]

Title and summary are wrong: the article is not about Castle Wolfenstein.

Re:"Return to" Castle wolfenstein.

[GodricL]

I'm glad I'm not the only one to be disappointed that this had nothing to do with Apple/C64 classic game.

no need to port - ET is already a native Linux app

[darkeye]

ET itself has already been ported by iD software to Linux, the build environment should be there too...

Re:Instructions?

[Eraesr]

I know the Quake 3 sourcecode simply includes a Visual Studio solution file which can be opened and converted to VS 2005/2008 without problems. I do have to agree that it's a pain that it doesn't actually build out-of-the-box (out-of-the-installer) though, but with a little bit of creative Googling it's not a problem that cannot be solved.

Good News!

[pandrijeczko]

I actually loaded up RTCW on both a Windows XP and Linux PC the other week as I was feeling a bit nostalgic.

It took a bit of Googling to work out how to get it to run on both platforms as even with the latest patched executables (v1.41 off the top of my head), there's some kind of buffer overflow that happens due to the large number of GL Extensions that newer graphics card announce to the game - it took a bit of hex editing on the executable to get it to run.

It should be a bit easier now it's Open Source as hopefully someone will fix this, and other, issues.

Re:Good News!

[Nimey]

Yeah, I bought RTCW on Steam a couple months ago and it's buggy junk on a modern 64-bit system. I had to copy a certain file from an older ATI video driver and put it into RTCW's program folder before it would even run.

Similar problems with at least some of id's older Windows games as well, such as WinQuake and Quake 2.

Re:Good News!

[Anonymous Coward]

Not sure about ATI cards or Linux, but for Windows and Nvidia cards, you can specify in the driver settings to send the smaller, older list of GL extensions to a game to prevent bugs like that. No hex editing required.

Re:Good News!

[wildstoo]

If you want a more faithful Quake experience, but one that loads limit-breaking maps etc, you probably want Quakespasm.

http://quakespasm.sourceforge.net/

It's based on FitzQuake and available for Linux, Windows and MacOS.

Old news, eh?

[BagOCrap]

The source code for Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Enemy Territory was released under the GNU GPL on August 12, 2010.

Re:Old news, eh?

[shish]

The source code for Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Enemy Territory was released under the GNU GPL on August 12, 2010.

Slashdot reported it on August 12th too o_O

Re:Old news, eh?

[Iskender]

The source code for Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Enemy Territory was released under the GNU GPL on August 12, 2010.

And? It's not like the code stopped existing the next day. As can see in the many replies about coding with this stuff, most people in here don't have to get any information the same day. I suspect the timing matters only if one sees it as a kind of news aggregation contest, which I fail to see the point of.

Re:I'm a Little Confused

[noidentity]

Yeah, no need to call the guy a troll. I just opened the FTP link and at first it just showed an empty directory. After refreshing, it showed a bunch of files. So he probably ran into this issue. What's up with the Troll mod these days, anyway? Seems it's applied to anything the mods have even a slight problem with, rather than a person posting something to intentionally cause trouble.

Re:I'm a Little Confused

[Zeek40]

I'm very tempted to mod this -1 troll, but i'll let it slide this time. This is your last warning! ;)

Unilateral copyright law by ID

[horza]

Valve and ID have pretty much redefined copyright law in their own way, much to the benefit of consumers and society as a whole. I can buy my ID games through Steam, and I know the moment I buy a new computer I can be running all my games again in a couple of mouse clicks. No complicated DRM, limited number of installs, needing my CD in the drive, or any other BS. It IS DRM but Valve have slowly earned the trust of users over the years.

Then after a number of years, when sales have long since peaked and dropped, ID release the source code. This fulfills the social contract whereupon we give copyright for a number of years on the software after which it drops into the public domain. A DRM-ridden binary blob from a long-defunct software house is hardly fulfilling their end of the bargain. Looking at the source code also gets people interested in writing graphics code or games, can be used for educational purposes, some of the useful algorithms can be re-purposed (and not necessarily in the same domain, it could be anywhere), and it can give a new lease of life to the game through enthusiasts.

I know if I was a games programmer who I would want to work for. As it is, I'll just be a satisfied customer.

Phillip.

Re:Unilateral copyright law by ID

[hitmark]

Please note that while ID software gives up the code of the binary, they still retain the copyright on all maps, graphics and sounds. So if one want to play the game legally one either need to own a copy or recreate all those files in a non-infringing way.

Re:Unilateral copyright law by ID

[RobVB]

It's been done with OpenTTD. It's a remake of the old Transport Tycoon Deluxe, using open source code (reverse engineered instead of released by the original owners, but that's not the point) and the original graphics. For those who don't own a copy of the original game and thus don't have the right to use the graphics, there's an open source package file.

Sure, it's probably a lot easier to create a graphics pack for a 2D game than a 3D game like RTCW, but this still opens new doors.

Re:Unilateral copyright law by ID

[b4dc0d3r]

Technically correct, but gp was talking about the context of buying a DRM-encumbered game. So ownership is already there. You buy it, play for a few years, then you get the source. You can rebuild it without DRM, or someone else will. And it will come with a giant "You have to own the original game files" disclaimer. From that perspective, DRM works as it should. A temporary monopoly.

This benefits people who legally own the game but have an encumbered copy. If you don't own the game, you are not affected by the DRM, so there is no solution to be provided. You wait until the copyright expires like everyone else does for every other bit of work. If you are affected, ID provides a reasonable remedy, and in a reasonable time frame, above and beyond what they are required to provide.

That requirement btw is public domain status after a limited time. This is an intermediate step where the owner can make changes or improvements, like fixing the legs on a wobbly table or sawing off a third of it to fit it in a new space. If you aren't affected, the copyright status of the game files affects you as much as if you didn't own the table - which is to say not at all, positively or negatively.

Not Castle Wolfenstein

[michaelmalak]

It's not Castle Wolfenstein, the classic Apple ][ game, for which the source code was released; it was for Return to Castle Wolfenstein, a game for which Slashdot's use of the "classic games" story icon is dubious.

Re:Not Castle Wolfenstein

[HTH NE1]

You make me want to boot up my old Apple //e or IIgs and do a full disassembly of the original game, but I don't know if my floppies will boot or just shed their magnetic substrate onto the drive head.