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Comment on How Should I Retro? (OC, Long Post)

In my opinion the future of retro gaming, at least for popular games, is going to be dominated by open source decompilation-remakes. A few have already been released and have become the definitive way to play those games. They are simply the best version possible, free and open source:

Mario 64: github.com/n64decomp/sm64 Zelda OoT (and others that are WIP): github.com/zeldaret/oot Zelda ALttP: github.com/snesrev/zelda3 Super Metroid: github.com/snesrev/sm Wipeout: github.com/…/wipeout-phantom-edition Sonic 3: sonic3air.org Jak & Daxter: opengoal.dev

Those are but a few of the hundreds of such projects that have been released. PC games have benefited from such ports for a long while. A more conprehensive list can be found here:

There are countless other projects that are under developement.

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MrScottyTay@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
I don’t think decompilations will be the future due to the usually needing a leaked codebase to kick-start them off. It’s very hard to decompile and learn exactly what each function does without the contents and names from the original source code. It’s possible but it takes so long that it’ll never be enough to be the main way to play old games in the future.

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- lewegee@feddit.nl ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  They don’t necessairly. There are hundreds of examples of clean-room reverse engineered decompilations, such as the ones that I have listed. The great part is that once it’s done for one game, that game will forever be open source and perfectly preserved, able to be relatively trivially ported to any platform from the present pr future, indefinetly.
  
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  - MrScottyTay@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    But considering the amount of games that exist that is never going to be the primary ways to play older games. It’s great for those that end up getting that prices done for them but it’s only going to be the odd few that end up becoming a passion project for some super fans with the ability to do so.
    
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    basxto@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    I don’t think decompilation is the best way due to higher risks of git repo takedowns due to copyright violations. And the above mentioned “clean-room reverse engineered decompilations” contradicts itself since it’s either decompiled or clean room.
    
    But that aside it can be somwhat useful for games with similar engines, but yes they are usually games with a quite active community. As soon as one of the games has a working port basing ports for other games on it is a lot easier than starting from scratch. This can affect not so important games using bigger engines.
    
    examples:
    
    ScummVM supports a lot of engines (90 something) and even more games (325) by now. With few engines (SCUMM, SCI) supporting a lot of games.
    
    OpenRCT2 has its original/main focus on Rollercoaster Tycoon 2, but also (works on) supports Rollercoaster Tycoon.
    
    Openage has its original/main focus on Age of Empires II, but also (works on) supports Age of Empires and Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds.
    
    OpenRW has its original/main focus on Grand Theft Auto III, but also (works on) supports Vice City and San Andreas.
    
    OpenMW has its original/main focus on The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind , but also (works on) supports Oblivian and Skyrim.
    
    FreeHL (based on doom) has its original/main focus on old Half Life and Half-Life: Deathmatch, but the author also works on various mods for it: Counter-Strike 1.5, Team Fortress Classic, Scientist Hunt, Gunman Chronicles, Poke646, They Hunger, Opposing Force.
    
    OpenRA has its original/main focus on Command & Conquer: Red Alert, but also (works on) supports Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn, Dune 2000, Tiberian Sun and Red Alert 2.
    
    Julius has its original/main focus on Caesar III, but also (works on) supports Pharaoh.
    
    Xoreos has its original/main focus on Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, but also (works on) supports Neverwinter Nights, Neverwinter Nights 2, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II, Jade Empire, Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, The Witcher, Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age II.
    
    GemRB implements Infinity Engine and no idea if it ever was focuse on a single game, but they (works on) supports Baldur’s Gate 1, Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale 1, Baldur’s Gate 2 and Icewind Dale 2.
    
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