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Game engine recreations and source ports

508 bytes added, 01:57, 16 January 2023
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* In rare cases, games are released as open-source by the publishers themselves, allowing developers to perform a '''source port''' of the code. This skips the step of figuring out how the game works. The most common example that's often used is id Software's release of Doom in 1997. It led to [[wikipedia:List of Doom source ports|so many ports being released]] that the community began to joke about what devices haven't gotten it running yet.
Some projects are implemented in ways that the original developer did not intend; for example, for a platform other than which publishers marketed it for. And they're not just limited to game engines either; [https://webamp.org/ Webamp] is a JavaScript application that reimplements Winamp in the web browser. These projects are almost always open-source which also allows new programmers to fix bugs that could have been difficult to track down during development (alternatively, the bugs may be emulated to allow old mods to continue to safely exploit them). When most of the effort is on programming, the project will usually require the original game's assets (such as files in the installation directory or ROMs) until those ever get remade. This lets the developers claim they aren't infringing the game's copyrights since the player must obtain the original to use it; if the game is still being sold, this could allow the publisher to even earn revenue from the project. This aspect is debatable however, as some source code recreations did result in cease-and-desist letters and even lawsuits from companies such as in the case of re3 and reVC for the 3D-era ''Grand Theft Auto'' games, with Take-Two Interactive alleging that the source ports were made to facilitate piracy and that "the work is not licensed in any way"; some have speculated that the suit among others was to keep fan-made mods from getting in the way of their much-maligned ''Definitive Edition'' remasters.
For the sake of brevity, most of these projects often refer to themselves under some variety of '''fan remakes'''. The [[#External links|External links]] section has lists for a number of known and available projects.

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