2d ago

28 years later, Lego Island's lost source code has been rediscovered – but the fans who spent nearly two years painstakingly decompiling it by hand "can't have it"

www.gamesradar.com

Post of the video

32 comments

I don't know why it isn't more common to open source really old games.
You don't have to give away the assets. ID gave away the source to Doom and Quake and people can still play them now. Yet here we are, 20 years later, and they're about the only studio that ever bothered.
- Because doing so incurres a cost but no revenue.
  It may require a review of the code, there's a risk of something being exposed that shouldn't have been (e.g. misuse of intellectualproperty).
  There really aren't any benefits for the studio.
  That's assuming they're even in business decade later, or even still have ownership.
- EA recently open sourced several Command and Conquer games.
- Yeah but if they make some really cool game with that open source code they'll be playing that instead of our multi billion dollar AI slop!
  Some mid and higher executive managers at gaming companies. Hell, at nearly all large companies

to clarify: the decompilation is done. so we have the source code, one way or another.
(well, it’s not completely done since it doesn’t compile to the exact same binary, but it’s very close - just go watch the video OP linked, it’s good)
- Decomp isn't the original source code, though. It's just code written in a way that's going to produce similar to exact same results as the original.
  
  yea, for historical preservation purposes, having the original source code will always be better
  but in practice, what we have now is good enough to do basically anything you’d want the source code for

"The full source code of Lego Island? At this time of year, at this time of day, in this part of the country, localized entirely within your archives?"
"Yes"
"... Can I see it?"
"No"

So the decompilation project created a bunch of interest and now Lego will capitalize on their tremendous effort because they own the IP and can shit out a port? awesome, super fair
- No. The code was discovered by a person who used to work on it back in the day. They don't give it out, unless the decompilers have the permission to get it from the original rights owner. It's however unclear who owns the rights. They tried to get the permission but all three companies that might own it, didn't even answer.
  
  or, hear me out, if we had more reasonable copyright and IP laws the permission wouldn’t be necessary for a completely dead 28 year old game that fans spent a great deal of effort reviving with no help or financing from the original rights owner
  If the person who holds the code refuses to give it out because they are a jerk then so be it I guess but the law should not stop them from doing so in this scenario. It is absurd
  
  And yet, if they ever did release it, you can bet all three companies would C&D it.
  
  Yeah the original Mindscape is long gone and liquidated. The Dutch subsidiary that continued under the Mindscape name probably doesn’t own the code.

We’ll get there eventually, brick by brick.

I remember this game! It was pretty cool for it's time, graphics were awesome. I don't know how the gameplay would hold up compared to modern games. This was back when things like UI/UX was in general not very polished to the standards we expect now.
- It has very little gameplay. It's a few mini games spread across a janky early-3D scene.
  Lego Island 2 is much more game.
  
  There is a 2? O_O

This was one of my favorite games at the time. So unlike most other games. It definitely doesn't hold up anywhere near modern games, but it holds a special place unlike most other games.

I watch playthroughs of this for background noise sometimes. It’s just cozy nostalgia for me.

32 comments