Quake 2 Source Code Released Under The GPL

Masem (and many others) writes: "The source code for Quake 2 is now available until the GPL license. The .plan file for John Carmack has the details." The Id Software site is of course slammed with demand for the code. Hopefully other mirrors will be available.

Good, a distraction!

[Some Dumbass...]

While everyone's busy downloading the Quake II source code, maybe I can mange to download kernel 2.4.17!

Re:Merry Christmas to all Programmers

[Hangtime]

If showing genuine appreciation is considered in that context, I guess then I do fellate everyone who goes out of their way to do something nice. Merry Christmas...even to the ACs.

Re:Lint

[Anonymous DWord]

Not if a build of your project sold 20 gazillion copies, you wouldn't. ;-)

Re:Wow, already!?

[FyRE666]

Dude, if you lived next door to me and were playing Quake with the sound up, blasting through a subwoofer at 3AM, it wouldn't just be the game scaring the hell out of you...

Actually, it's late.

[Doktor Memory]

Actually, I'm kinda surprised that it took this long. Mr. Carmack had mentioned a while ago (like, 8-12 months) that the only thing holding up the Q2 source release was that they were waiting for the final two Q2-engine-license games to ship, since apparently they were legally embargoed from GPLing the code until that happened. Those two games were, natch, Anachronox and Daikatana (cue inevitable snickering here). Anox shipped several months ago, and, uh, we all know what happened to Daikatana.

Hopefully the fact that it took him so long to get around to packaging up the Q2 source for GPL release means that they've been burning the midnight oil on DOOM 3, and we'll get to see it soon.

Re:first impressions...

[Anonymous Coward]

now if i only knew what half of it did

It's a 3D running shooting and killing game.

Re:first impressions...

[kreyg]

I thought it looked almost exactly like typical CS code, actually not too different from my style.... until I saw line 577 in ref_gl/gl_light.c:

"store:"

WTF? Search "store"....

Line 488:

"goto store;"

And the style Nazi in me went: NNNOOOOOOOO! :-)

This must be a remnant of something, an "else" would have sufficed. :-)

Hidden in the code...

[DarkHelmet]

And I'm sure somewhere in the code is hidden:

3d realms and epic megagames are weenies

:)

Information wants to be free!

[Anonymous Coward]

This is great news! Now I can download all those games based on the Quake 2 engine for free! Open Source rules!

Re:nope ~ Re:free data files?

[SaberTaylor]

No offense, but I didn't enjoy Quake, too dark and dizzy, and therefore feel zero urge to buy it. I have no pirated games if you're implying that. Is it bad to want to play with this Quake2 and free data files?

They Skipped a Whole Generation of Games...

[BigJimSlade]

Dear Lord, how will I be able to startup ComanderKeenForge.net without the source code to Comander Keen!?!?!?!?! It's just not fair to leave us hangin' like this!!! :)

Inside the ID offices:

[doublem]

"Hey, we're not making much off the Quake II engine anymore now that we've shifted everything to Quake III. Should we mothball it, maybe even lose the source so no one could even compile it anymore, just like every other game company does with their code?"

"Hell No! That doesn't match my master plan!"

"Master plan?"

"You must be new here. I want all programmers to either learn from my masterful code, or bow before me acknowledging my skill."

"How you gonna do that?"

"Same way Linus did. GPL it! My code shall never die! I will forever be known as the father of thousands of computer games. My code shall outlive the very civilization in which we live. Through my GPLed code, I shall achieve immortality! Mwhahahahahaha."

"Yeah. OK. I'll put together a tarball and drop it on the FTP server."

To himself: "Besides, if I give my brother and sister coders enough samples of my work, sooner or later they'll design the tools necessary fro me to move off of Windows once and for all, and do all my coding under Linux. They'll have to, just so they can continue to hack and improve my own work. Soon, very soon I'll be able to launch Afterstep and compile to Win32 with the click of a button."

(Dramatic Pause)

"And then I'll never have to use Windows again! Mwhahahahahahahahahaha!"

Re:Merry Christmas to all Programmers

[tshak]

I have peaked at both Doom and Quake to just see what goes on in the head of one of the best programmers in the world. In doing so I have picked a few pointers without even realizing it...

And this, sir, is how we get Memory Leaks.

Re:Thanks

[dadragon]

I am also happy to say that another old game's code will be released under the GPL soon.

Please tell me it's Commander Keen... :)