Game Preservation Communities
We look at some community efforts to preserve games, and put them in relation with Jumpgate.
With Jumpgate’s privately-run server coming to its 10 years anniversary, it’s closing on the longevity of the game’s official support period. NetDevil’s US server ran the release version of Jumpgate uninterrupted (besides maintenances) from 26th September 2001 to 30th April 2012, when Gazillion shut it down. We can all be grateful for the continued existence of the game after this! So how do we keep things going for another decade? To think about this, it is perhaps helpful to take a look at what other gaming communities out there are doing. I will highlight a few different community projects that have interesting models, and see how the model could apply to Jumpgate.
The goal of this article is to encourage discussion within Jumpgate’s community about the game’s long term future.
Heroes of Might & Magic 2 - fheroes2
What it is
This is a fully open source (GPLv2) rewrite of classic New World Computing turn-based strategy game Heroes 2. It has entirely new code, but reproduces the old game to an impressive degree of accuracy, making use of the original game’s graphical and sound assets (you need to own a copy of the original game to use fheroes2).
Heroes is still licensed and distributed to this day, but you need to use something like DosBox to run it on a modern operating system. fheroes2 using all-new, maintained code means you can by-pass DosBox, run the game on other operating systems like Linux, take advantage of the superior resolution of modern screens, etc. Since the project is open source, anyone can theoritically contribute, and this level of support is likely to continue for as long as people remain interested in the game.
Could it work for Jumpgate?
The “rewrite” model is arguably the easiest in terms of what skills are required: a new implementation can be designed around available skills, and does not require a deep understanding of the original game’s implementation choices.
However, it is the hardest when it comes to matching the original game experience. It works well for Heroes 2, which is a fairly simple game from a technical standpoint. In Jumpgate, what happens within a split-second can matter significantly, so it would be more challenging to reproduce the exact dynamics of the flight engine with completely new code. Jumpgate uses fairly standard (albeit old) asset formats, like Direct 3D X models which could be converted through Blender, BMP texture files and UI assets, MP3 sound files, so re-using all the existing assets is possible. Recreating all the sector maps and the economy mechanics would be harder without more access to the server-side code, but is also do-able as long as the private server keep running and is observable.
Reinventing all of the code for the server and client side would be a massive effort, not fundamentally very different from writing the original game, but coming up with a basic implementation of the offline simulator would be a logical first step.
Re-Volt - rvgl
What it is
Another pretty amazing, completed project billed as a “rewrite/port”. What this means (I think), is that the physics engine was ported, and everything else was rewritten. As a former owner and avid player of Re-Volt, I’ll say this is a great example of a picture-perfect 3D, real-time action game project, quite comparable with Jumpgate. If you’re not familiar with Re-Volt, it’s an arcade-style racing game, in the spirit of Mario Kart, and also was a Direct3D Windows game from a similar timeframe as our favourite space sim. It was affubled with a absolutely horrendous network multiplayer mode, a guaranteed bust in LAN parties if you ever tried it. I don’t think I ever completed a race with it, not for lack of trying.
The route chosen for the port was to switch the rendering to OpenGL, and use a bunch of other open source, well supported libraries along with it. Since the port was completed, the team behind rvgl also added many new features, fixing multiplayer and enabling it over the internet, with many improvements allowing for organized community events, such as spectator mode, rich integration with discord, the list goes on!
Re-Volt is interesting in another way, since, like Jumpgate, its IP was acquired by a third party following Acclaim’s demise. This resulted in some significant plot twists for the community, as this entity distributed open-source code for money without permission over GOG. Eventually, the community prevailed. After a period when owning the original was required to use rvgl, at present the entire game is available for free, and all of its numerous mods and community-content can be used with it.
Could it work for Jumpgate?
It’s plausible that the physics engine could be ripped off the original game client, although that would leave out all of the server-side, persistent universe that Jumpgate also has. It does show a viable route for moving away from Jumpgate’s rendering engine which I see as relevant.
The legal wranglings are informative too. Because Re-Volt was set up as a non-profit, open effort, they were able to win out as GOG sided with them against the group that acquired the IP for Re-Volt. Trademarks for Jumpgate and Jumpgate Evolution, which were filed in US and Europe when the game launched, were not renewed and expired long ago now.
M.A.X. - M.A.X. Port
What it is
M.A.X. is a DOS area strategy game with a somewhat unique hybrid real-time/turn-based mechanic. It was released by Interplay in 1996 to moderate success. It is often compared to popular real-time strategy games of its area, such as Command & Conquer and Starcraft, but equally so to chess!
Contrary to the projects above, M.A.X. Port is a re-implementation project. The game’s code was never released and is believed to have been lost. The re-implementation effort is handled as a one-man effort and involves re-writing the code from the assembly (compiled) code of the game’s binary executable. As of writing, the single player game is complete and playable. Missing features include Multiplayer and video playback, but the game otherwise looks and feels like the original, except for the fact that it is considerably more stable and reliable, as many of the defects plaguing the commercial product have been methodically and painstaklingly addressed.
Although the project is led by a single developer, it is open-source under MIT license, but it requires players to own a copy of the original game to work.
Could it work for Jumpgate?
Re-implementing Jumpgate’s client from the available binary would possibly be more simple than M.A.X., which has a lot of very complex gameplay systems and did not benefit from some intervening improvements in game development tech for Windows. As a single-developer project, it’s also testament to the passion and dedication of some gamers to preserve, maintain and improve ancient software so it remains usable in modern days.
Like with other games we’ve looked at so far, re-implementing the client for Jumpgate would not give us the persistent universe aspect. For this, we’d need to emulate the server-side, which would be another significant undertaking, although again, possibly not as fraught with complexity as the game client itself.
City of Heroes - OuroDev
What it is
City of Heroes operated as a closed-source MMORPG under NCSoft - yes, the same NCSoft who published NetDevil’s Auto Assault - until 2012. The game was then officially shut down, but re-emerged in 2019 when it became apparent a private server was running, and the entire code base was leaked. Much has happened since then, with the community spinning up numerous instances of servers. While NCSoft made some noise about it not being cool, they weren’t able to do much else about it. The largest operator is Homecoming, which received over 100,000 sign ups and runs multiple shards (or universes, if you like) with differing set ups. This operation is funded through donations. One can only marvel at the level of professionalism on display here, clearly necessary to run elaborate cloud-based server infrastructure costing thousands of dollars a month. The server-side is fully open source and well documented as OuroDev.
Could it work for Jumpgate?
At present, the status of the source code for Jumpgate is unknown. One can reasonably speculate that the code base for JGC, combining client, server and anciliary code, would be considerably smaller than City of Heroes, which is a much more ambitious project in scope and scale. While people have on occasion commented about the quality of Jumpgate’s code, it being opened is the only way to really know and assess. Jumpgate has the advantage of being a completed product, working and relatively bug-free.
While City of Heroes is perhaps the most remarkable example of an open source or privately-operated MMO in the wild, it is far from the only one. Many other such games exist in various states of preservation today, such as Meridian 59, Star Wars Galaxies, Ryzom… The ability to spin up server infrastructure opens up many new avenues, such as specialized servers (PvP, peaceful, role play-focused), mods and experimentation. Could this bring Jumpgate player numbers up to what Homecoming has? Probably not! But could it encourage more activity? I’d say yes.
In City of Heroes’ case, it turns out the original code was obtained from original studio Cryptic. It is uncertain if this is even possible in Jumpgate’s case, but the more time passes, the higher the risk that surviving assets disappear forever. The best time to act may be passed, but the next best is today!
The Benefits of Openness
All the projects I highlighted benefit the player base in common ways:
maintained, modern code base that is easy to run on current day systems,
regular fixes, improvements and content updates,
visibility on the project’s status and direction,
the ability to “fork” into a new project, if problems arise, or part of the community wishes for a different direction.
What are your thoughts on the future of Jumpgate? Do you like any of these models? Have different ideas? Have questions, or plainly disagree?
First - It's not good I know City of Heroes exists again :)
Second - I heard about this a long time ago on the Joystick Required forums, went to look it up because of your article, and saw that it says it was updated a day ago...
https://sourceforge.net/projects/opengate/