Freeablo - FOSS rewrite of the Diablo 1 game engine

[wheybags]

Freeablo is a modern cross platform reimplementation of the game engine used in Diablo 1. As it is just an engine, you will need the original data files to play the game.
Version 0.3 is release, which includes level generation for dungeon level 3, a better ui for viewing CEL files, and a launcher. Announcement on website (+video): http://freeablo.org/?p=70
I am always looking for contributors, so if you think you can help (no experience necessary), have a look at the project on github (http://github.com/wheybags/freeablo).
Ofc, the project is FOSS (GPLv3).

[Nikita_Sadkov]

Great stuff!

Although I remember seeing back in 2006 already functioning version of reverse engineered Diablo engine. They used disassembler to extract dungeon generation algorithm. There was also a map-viewer/dungeon-generator for Diablo 2 by Paul Siramy: http://paul.siramy.free.fr/_divers/ds1/doc/index.html

Paul also explains Diablo 2 map format in detail.

[charlie]

They used disassembler to extract dungeon generation algorithm.

Which is basically illegal.

[Nikita_Sadkov]

They used disassembler to extract dungeon generation algorithm.

Which is basically illegal.

Then WINE is the most illegal software in the universe.

[charlie]

They used disassembler to extract dungeon generation algorithm.

Which is basically illegal.

Then WINE is the most illegal software in the universe.

No, because they don't use a disassembler then directly implement based on the results. Again you like to speak with authority when you don't really know what you are talking about, a bad habit of yours.

What you are allowed to do, which is not so basic (hence my use of the term 'basically') is have somebody use a disassembler, inspect and document the results, then pass that documentation to another programmer. This is what ReactOS have been doing, presumably in cooperation with the WINE project. It requires minimum 2 people, and those 2 people are not allowed to communicate.

EDIT: and the legality of the process described above is hardly rock solid. IANAL so I can't say for sure, but AFAIK it falls sufficiently in to the grey area that suing for copyright infringement is non-trivial (unlike the case of a programmer using a disassembler to directly influence his code).

[Nikita_Sadkov]

the legality of the process described above is hardly rock solid. IANAL so I can't say for sure, but AFAIK it falls sufficiently in to the grey area that suing for copyright infringement is non-trivial (unlike the case of a programmer using a disassembler to directly influence his code).

Proving that somebody have used a disassembler would be impossible, unless he directly includes the disassembled code.

I.e. author of Freeablo somehow got information on the proprietary data formats, like MPQ, which is impossible to guess, due to the complexity of the format. Yet nobody would be able to prove he has used disassembler. If questioned directly, the author of Freeablo can safely say that some unknown guy on IRC gave him the specs.

Besides disassembly, some former Blizzard employee may secretly break NDA and leak specs anonymously. Illegal, but impossible to prove.

Again you like to speak with authority when you don't really know what you are talking about, a bad habit of yours.

Hey! I'm not a lawyer, so I have zero authority. Just curious myself, how Wine managed to avoid lawsuit from Microsoft.

[charlie]

Just curious myself, how Wine managed to avoid lawsuit from Microsoft.

I just told you. They do not use disassemblers directly. I mean, did you even Google it since the first result explains their exact stance on the issue?

[wheybags]

I feel like I stumbled into an internal argument O.o
Anyway, there's no original re in freeablo, mpq code comes from stormlib, the rest is based on code and documentation I found online. So we're safe there

[charlie]

Sorry wheybags, just Nikita is making a habit of jumping in with wild assertions and bad ideas as if he's some kind of domain expert. You are lucky he didn't tell you to re-implement your game in a hugely different manner because otherwise it will look bad (in his opinion).

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On a more related note, what are the plans for freeablo? Just to re-implement Diablo I or are you looking at both Diablo I & II? Or new features? How far along are you in the process?

[Akien]

Freeablo is a modern cross platform reimplementation of the game engine used in Diablo 1. As it is just an engine, you will need the original data files to play the game.
Version 0.3 is release, which includes level generation for dungeon level 3, a better ui for viewing CEL files, and a launcher. Announcement on website (+video): http://freeablo.org/?p=70

That's some really sweet progress, I'm happy to see that the project is still alive and kicking. I don't have time to contribute myself, but I'm really looking forward to what you will achieve, and hope you'll manage to build a strong dev team around it as it shapes up.

[rogerdv]

Congratulations. I wish I could try it, but I dont have the original Diablo 1 here.

[Jastiv]

The project is still going. Of course assets are still non-free.

[Julius]

There is now also: https://github.com/OpenDiablo2/OpenDiablo2

[DrAltaica]

I notices https://github.com/collinsmith/riiablo has been having some activity lately too.