So what does that mean? It means that anyone has the quake 2 source available to learn from, or even write a new game from. If you want to play quake 2 with the code you compile here, you still need to buy a copy of it (which I did like a year ago for $10) because all the artwork/levels/models/etc were not releasd (which is typical). But -- you could create what the mod communities called a Total Conversion (TC) meaning, new graphics, new sounds, new models, new maps (new everything, basically) and then give away, or even sell that game/program, provided that you make your source code freely available. If you want to keep your code private, you can license it for $10k from id software.

Why is this all exciting to me? Well, for one, Carmack is probably at or near the head of programming food chain, particularly in regards to game development and there's a lot of neat stuff in that code (as I've begun to look through it).

An idea that I had would be for a group of Christian programmers (*cough*) to get together and either make enhancements to the engine and release them, or to make a game that could be sold and give away the code. That's a radical idea, but we're supposed to be a different, radical people, as well as a blessing to the nations (That's biblical!) -- so why not do it through code? I mean, advancing the quake 2 engine is hardly the equivilent of sending food to Africa/third world countries, but it might be something that would begin to change at least some minds about Christians....

Consider... when Doom came out... people played it, and said, "yeah, I know it's all about demons and has pentagrams and other demonic symbols all over it... but it's the best thing out there..." -- don't get me wrong, I played it too. Sometimes it bothered me more than others, because I came from an occult background, but I played it nonetheless. I've *ever* since then wanted to create Christian things that were the best thing out there. Even if it's not a "Christian" game in that the gameplay is taken from a Bible story or centered around the conflict between Satan and God or whatever -- maybe it could be the absolute coolest 3d Breakout/Tetris/Pengo/LodeRunner/Lemmings/Whatever remake that anyone's ever seen. It would be a "Christian" game in the sense that Christians made it, and made it with the desired result of something that they'd like to play, and wouldn't mind their young children playing or something. But it would also enable us to give something back to the community (we're involved in) at large.

Idealistic? Perhaps. But why not??

I'm not (at the moment, anyway) looking to form a team and make said game -- I've got too much going on right now. (I think, but if you're really interested, let me know ) But this just seems like it might be a pretty interesting opportunity for us to do something of significance.

Here's a link to the latest source: (it compiles currently with VC++ 6)
ftp://ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/source/q2source-3.21.zip

-Ascent

[This message has been edited by ascent (edited December 29, 2001).]

[This message has been edited by ascent (edited December 29, 2001).]

That's how my next game will be - can't care less about making money.

The game I already have made though, I would give it away, but some people have already paid for it and it wouldn't be fair to them.

That's my two cents worth.

Revelator!

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www.revelatorgames.com

I've been really busy these past couple of months, writing software for Southampton University (using PHP and mySQL). It's been a big learning curve and it has meant i haven't had a lot of time to do much else (first time i've touched my home PC for 4 weeks now!!).

Anywayz, I think that whole open source movement is great for software development.

If you have a team of 5 programmers working on a programme, theres bound to be bugs, things that can improved etc. Basically the programme they are writing is only limited to there own abilities.

But with open source software, you can have 10, 20, 100's of programmers contributing to the programme, adding there own hacks, patches etc Which programme do you think is going to be better??

Now i'm not dissing microsoft at all. Bill Gates is a clever bloke, and has got great business sense. But open source has it's place as well, and i think that trying to put a stop to it would be a very bad thing,

Anyway, it's good to be back.

--D-SIPL

[This message has been edited by Nfektious (edited November 26, 2002).]