This is a list of commercial video games with later released available source code. The source code of these commercially developed and distributed video games is available to the public or the games' communities.
Commercial video games are typically developed as proprietary closed source software products, with the source code treated as a trade secret (unlike open-source video games).[1] When there is no more expected revenue, these games enter the end-of-life as a product with no support or availability for the game's users and community.[2]
In several of the cases listed here, the game's developers released the source code expressly to prevent their work from becoming lost. Such source code is often released under varying (free and non-free, commercial and non-commercial) software licenses to the games' communities or the public; artwork and data are often released under a different license than the source code, as the copyright situation is different or more complicated. The source code may be pushed by the developers to public repositories (e.g. SourceForge or GitHub), or given to selected game community members, or sold with the game, or become available by other means.Source code availability in whatever form allows the games' communities to study how the game works, make modifications, and provide technical support themselves when the official support has ended,[2] e.g. with unofficial patches to fix bugs or source ports to make the game compatible with new platforms.
Some developers that have released their source code have concluded that, in general terms, such action has not been harmful and even beneficial, among them Alec Holowka (Aquaria), Adam Saltsman (Canabalt),[3] John Carmack (Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake),[4] Brian Hook (Quake II),[5] and Terry Cavanagh (VVVVVV).[6] Wolfire Games also noted (along with Saltsman) that releasing the source code didn't reduce sales.[3] [7] However, releasing the source code may and has led to clones using the original proprietary assets from the game, with two notable examples of games having clones thanks to the source release being Canabalt and Lugaru HD. Although Saltsman has noted that those clones can be removed from storefronts with a DMCA takedown notice,[3] Jeff Rosen, co-founder of Wolfire Games, has recognized that such practices may discourage game developers from releasing their code.[8]
The games in this table were released under a free and open-source license with free content which allows reuse, modification and commercial redistribution of the whole game. Licenses can be public domain, GPL, BSD, Creative Commons, zlib, MIT, Artistic License or other (see Comparison of free and open-source software licenses).
| Title | First release | Source code release | Genre | Engine license | Content license | Original developer | Additional information | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abuse | 1995 | 2003 | Run and gun | Public domain software | Public domain and Proprietary* | Crack dot Com | Game source code was released as public domain along with the shareware-released media files.[9] Only shareware data, excluding the sound effects, is in the public domain; the rest is proprietary. In 2016 a community developer released a "20th anniversary source port"[10] [11] which enabled custom resolutions, OpenGL rendering, Xbox 360 controller support and fixed the music. | |
| Adventureland | 1978 | 1980 | Text Adventure game | Public domain software | Public domain | Scott Adams | Scott Adams Adventureland's[12] source code was published in SoftSide magazine in 1980[13] and the database format was subsequently used in other interpreters such as Brian Howarth's Mysterious Adventures series.[14] | |
| Alien Bash I+II | 1993 | 2014 | Run and gun | public domain software | public domain[15] | Glen Cumming | Glen Cumming provided media and material of his Amiga games AlienBash and AlienBash II to the fan community, who was able to restore source code in 2014.[16] | |
| Ant-Eater | 1983 | 2021 | Maze | MIT | MIT | Eddy Fries | On March 30, 2021, Kay Savetz uploaded the source code for Ant-Eater (a Dig Dug clone), Princess and Frog (a Frogger clone), Sea Chase, and two unreleased video games by Ed Fries (of Halo 2600 fame) to GitHub under the MIT license with permission of Fries.[17] | |
| AstroMenace (now OpenAstroMenace) | 2006 | 2007 | Arcade | GPL-3.0-or-later | CC BY-SA 3.0 | Viewizard | Based on AstroMenace which was released in February 2007 as shareware for Windows and freeware for Linux.[18] Also the source code of another Viewizard game, the puzzle collection Memonix, was released.[19] | |
| Beyond the Titanic | 1986 | 2009 | Text adventure | GPL-2.0-or-later | GPL-2.0-or-later | Apogee Software | Game source released on March 20, 2009.[20] | |
| Bird Strike | 1984 | 2021 | Shoot 'em up | GPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 | Andy Frigaard | On June 20, 2021, the source code for Bird Strike for the BBC Micro (one of the first releases by Firebird Software) was uploaded to GitHub under the GPLv3 by Andy Frigaard, the original developer.[21] | |
| Blades of Exile | 1997 | 2007 | RPG | GPL-2.0-only | GPL-2.0-only | Spiderweb Software | Source code and artwork was released by Jeff Vogel (Spiderweb Software) under a GPL license in June 2007.[22] | |
| Clonk series (now OpenClonk) | 1994 | 2010/2014 | Action, RTS, Platform | ISC | CC BY-SA 3.0 | RedWolf Design / Matthes Bender | For the series (Clonk 1, Clonk 2 Debakel, Clonk 3 Radikal, Clonk 4 World, Clonk Planet, Clonk Endeavor and Clonk Rage) the C++ source code was released under the "Clonk Source Code License (ISC license)".[23] The content of the original game series was released under the CC BY-NC.[24] Based on Clonk Rage code base the community continues the development as OpenClonk under ISC license and content as CC BY-SA. | |
| Colobot | 2001 | 2012 | Educational game, RTS | GPLv3 | GPLv3 | Epsitec SA | Game source released on March 26, 2012.[25] | |
| Colossal Cave Adventure | 1976 | 2000/2005 (?) | Text Adventure | Public domain software[26] [27] [28] / BSD (2017) | no artwork (Public domain software) | Will Crowther | Source code variants are at least available as far back as 2000.[29] An authentic version was retrieved in 2005 "from a backup of Don Woods's student account at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab (SAIL)". In February 2017 Eric S. Raymond was involved in the release of version 2.5 under the BSD license, the last release by the original author alone.[30] [31] [32] | |
| Cylindrix | 1996 | 2001 | Arcade, Shooter | LGPL-2.0-only | LGPL-2.0-only | Goldtree Enterprises / Softdisk | Around December 2001 the games was ported from DOS to Windows and released under the LGPL to the public.[33] [34] | |
| Cytadela (or The Citadel) | 1995 | 2006 | FPS | GPL-3.0-or-later | GPL-3.0-or-later | Virtual Design | Upon its retail release, Cytadela received generally favorable reviews.[35] In early 2006 the original Cytadela developer offered the Amiga source code of the FPS game to the community, which started a conversion project hosted on SourceForge.[36] [37] [38] Ported to several platforms, latest version released in 2013. | |
| Dandy | 1983 | 2018 | Dungeon crawl | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 | John Howard Palevich | In March 2018 the source code for the Atari 8-bit version was released by Kevin Savetz with permission of Palevich.[39] It was also uploaded to Palevich's own GitHub repository for Dandy which uses the Apache License 2.0, where he also maintains reverse engineered ports to a variety of programming languages.[40] | |
| Dragonfire | 1982 | 2003 | action | public domain software | public domain | Imagic / Bob Smith | Source code of this Imagic Atari 2600 game was released by developer Bob Smith on May 24, 2003, into the public domain.[41] [42] [43] Many more Atari games got disassembled and commented by the Atari community.[44] | |
| Duelyst | 2016 | 2023 | CCG | CC0 | Counterplay Games | Almost three years later after the servers were shut down,[45] Counterplay Games released the entire game (source code and assets), built on top of Backbone.js, to the public domain under the CC0 license on GitHub.[46] | ||
| Eat The Whistle - France 98 | 1998 | 2004 | Sports game | GPL-2.0-only[47] | GPL-2.0-only | Hurricane Studios | The France 98 football Simulation video game was released for the Amiga in 1998. Around 2004 Eat the Whistle was released under the GPL-2.0-only on SourceForge.[48] Later ported to many other platforms.[49] | |
| Escape Towards The Unknown | 1998 | 2004 | Point and click adventure | GPL-2.0-only[50] | GPL-2.0-only | Hurricane Studios | Around 2004 Escape Towards The Unknown was released under the GPL-2.0-only on SourceForge, together with the Eat The Whistle.[51] [52] Later ported to many other platforms. | |
| Fish Fillets (now Fish Fillets NG) | 1998 | 2002 | Puzzle | GPL-2.0-or-later | GPL-2.0-or-later | ALTAR Games | Released commercially as Fish Fillets in 1998. Source released in 2002 under the GPL.[53] | |
| Gladiator | 1995 | 2002 | top down perspective action game | GPLv2 | GPLv2 | Forgotten Sages Games | Released in 1995 as DOS shareware game,[54] in 2002 the game's source code was released under GPL by the developers. Development and porting by the game's community continued on SourceForge under the name OpenGlad.[55] | |
| Glitch | 2009 | 2013 | MMO | CC0 (client and other parts) | CC0 | Tinyspeck | In 2013, one year after the MMO was shut down, most of the artwork and parts of the code were released under the CC0 license.[56] [57] | |
| God of Thunder | 1993 | 2020 | Puzzle video game | Public domain software | Public domain (music and sound effects) Freeware (game graphics) | Adept Software | On March 27, 2020, Ron Davis released the source code and sound assets as public domain on SourceForge.[58] | |
| Gravity Force 2 | 1994 | 2008 | Multidirectional shooter | CC BY-SA 4.0 | CC BY-SA 4.0 | Jens Andersson & Jan Kronqvist | On September 21, 2008, the developers of the Amiga shareware title Gravity Force 2 released the source code for "nostalgic interest" without specified license.[59] In April 2017 the authors clarified the game and source code license as CC BY-SA 4.0.[60] | |
| Habitat | 1985 | 2016 | early MMORPG | MIT | MIT | Randy Farmer and Chip Morningstar/Lucasfilm Games | The Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment received the game's source code from its original developers,[61] and restored the code in a Hackathon.[62] In July 2016, the source code was uploaded to GitHub under MIT license.[63] [64] | |
| Halloween: The New Nightmare | 2004[65] | 2021 | FPS | GPLv3 | GPLv3 | Jadeware[66] | Commercial indie game first released online and by mail order. Released on to GitHub in 2021.[67] | |
| Inside a Star-Filled Sky | 2011 | 2011 | Top-down shooter | Public domain software | Public domain | Jason Rohrer | Inside a Star-filled Sky, for purchase for $12,[68] was put by developer Jason Rohrer into public domain,[69] like many other of his games.[70] | |
| Kaiser II | 1988 | 2003 | economical simulation | GPL | GPL | Carsten Strotmann | In 2003 Kaiser II author Carsten Strotmann released the source code under the GPL as Free Software.[71] [72] | |
| Kroz | 1987 | 2009 | Maze | GPL-2.0-or-later | GPL-2.0-or-later | Apogee Software | Game source released on March 20, 2009. | |
| Lemonade Stand | 1973 | 1979 | Business simulation game | Public domain software | no artwork (Public domain software) | Bob Jamison, Charlie Kellner / MECC | The Applesoft BASIC source code was available since 1979.[73] [74] The game was later ported to modern REALbasic and released as free and open-source software for many platforms like Windows and MacOS.[75] | |
| Lugaru | 2005 | 2010 / 2016 (assets) | Action-adventure game | GPL-2.0-or-later | CC BY-SA 3.0 | Wolfire Games | Open sourced with the first Humble Indie Bundle by Wolfire Games.[76] In November 2016 David Rosen relicensed all assets under the open content CC BY-SA 3.0 Creative Commons license which makes Lugaru a fully free video game.[77] In begin 2017 an open source HD version followed.[78] [79] | |
| Maelstrom | 1992 | 1995/2010 | Shoot 'em up | GPL-2.0-only | CC BY 3.0 | Ambrosia Software | Asteroids clone. 1995 source released under GPL. In 2010 Andrew Welch and Ian Gilman released the game's contents under a Creative Commons license.[80] | |
| MegaBall | 1991 | 2012 | Breakout clone | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 | Mackey Software/Ed Mackey | The Amiga game MegaBall was programmed by Mackey Software in 1991–1993. Inspired by Taito's Arkanoid it has several features more. The original author released in 2012 the source code of MegaBall under the Apache License v2.[81] [82] | |
| NoGravity | 1996 | 2005 | 3D space space shooter / Wing Commander | GPLv2 | GPLv2 | realtech VR | Source code released by realtech VR on February 16, 2005.[83] | |
| Nothing to Hide | 2013 | 2013 | Stealth game | CC0 | CC0 | Nicky Case | The crowdfunded surveillance/privacy-themed video game prototype by indie game developer Nicky Case was crowdfunded and opened under CC0 on GitHub between 2013 and 2015.[84] [85] [86] [87] [88] | |
| PaybackTime 2 | 1997 | 2014 | turn-based tactics game | public domain software | public domain | Niko Nevatie and Kari Luojus | The turn-based tactics game, inspired by Laser Squad and, was developed by two Finish students in Turbo Pascal and x86 assembly. They marketed their game as shareware for DOS in 1997.[89] The authors released the game in August 2014 as public domain software, including the assets.[90] | |
| Pinball Construction Set | 1983 | 2013 | pinball video game | MIT | MIT | Bill Budge, Electronic Arts | In 2013, Budge released the source code to the Atari 8-bit and Apple II versions of Pinball Construction Set to the public on GitHub under the MIT license.[91] [92] [93] | |
| Planet Blupi | 1997 | 2017 | Platformer | GPL-3.0-or-later | GPL-3.0-or-later | Epsitec SA / Daniel Roux, Denis Dumoulin, Mathieu Schroeter | Planet Blupie was freed (source code and all media files) and ported to all major platforms (Linux, macOS and Windows) for its 20th anniversary, released open source under GPLv3 on GitHub in 2017.[94] [95] Speedy Blupi, part of Blupi series, has been released as freeware by EPSITEC too and is available at blupi.org.[96] | |
| Principia | 2013 | 2022 | Sandbox game | BSD 3-Clause | BSD 3-Clause | Bithack AB | Principia was announced to be made open source in 2016,[97] but the source code was not released until 2022.[98] Development of the game has since then been continued by the community after its source code release. | |
| Spacewar! | 1962 | 2003 | Space combat | Public-domain software | Public domain | Steve Russell | Source code became available around the 2003.[99] | |
| RuneSword II | 2001 | 2004[100] | Turn-based strategy | Public domain software[101] | Public domain | CrossCut Games | In 2004 CrossCut Games released the game into the public domain on SourceForge.[102] Since then there is continuous development by the community on the game.[103] | |
| Ryzom | 2004 | 2010 | MMORPG | AGPL-3.0-or-later | CC BY-SA 3.0 | Nevrax | In response to the folding of Nevrax, the Free Ryzom Campaign was launched in order to gather enough funds from donations ("Crowdfunding") from the community to purchase Ryzom and release the game as free software. The campaign was almost successful with €172,988 of the required €200,000 gathered.[104] [105] On May 6, 2010, Winch Gate announced the full release of source code and artwork, and a partnership with the Free Software Foundation.[106] [107] | |
| Seven Kingdoms | 1996 | 2008 | RTS | GPLv2 | GPLv2 and Proprietary* | Enlight | Source code released by Enlight in November, 2008. *Music is proprietary[108] [109] | |
| SimCity (Micropolis) | 1989 (as SimCity) | 2008 (as Micropolis) | City-building game | GPL-3.0-or-later[110] | GPL-3.0-or-later | Maxis (Will Wright/Don Hopkins) | Source code released by Don Hopkins under GPL in 2008. For trademark reasons released under the original working title Micropolis, also known as OLPC SimCity.[111] | |
| Sissyfight 2000 Returns | 2014 | 2018 | Multiplayer | MIT | CC BY | Zimmerman, Clark, and Bhatnagar | On April 30, 2013, Zimmerman, Clark, and Bhatnagar announced a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter to revive Sissyfight.[112] The campaign was funded on May 30, 2013 with a final total of $22,735.[113] First Beta versions were released 2014. On February 9, 2018, the source code was released under the open-source MIT license and the assets under the CC BY Creative Commons license on GitHub.[114] | |
| Soldat | 2002 | 2020 | Run and gun | MIT | CC BY 4.0 | Team Soldat | Source code was released under MIT license on GitHub,[115] [116] assets followed shortly after under CC BY 4.0.[117] | |
| Sopwith | 1984 | 2000 | Shoot 'em up | GPLv2 | GPLv2 | David L. Clark | The C and x86 assembly source code to Sopwith was released in 2000,[118] at first under a non-commercial use license, but later under the GNU GPL at the request of fans.[119] | |
| Stunt Copter | mid 1986 | ? | Arcade | Public domain software | Public domain | Duane Blehm / HomeTown Software | After Duane Blehm death in 1988, his parents released Stunt Copter's and his other games' (like ZeroGravity, Cairo Shootout and PUZZ'L) binaries and source code into the public domain.[120] | |
| Super Lemonade Factory | 2012 | 2012/2021 | Puzzle-platform | GPL-3.0-only | Initialsgames | Based on the Flixel engine developed for the iOS version of Canabalt (that would later become part of HaxeFlixel), and inspired by it to release the source code, with the purpose of enabling source ports.[121] The game was released as freeware on itch.io on February 2, 2021.[122] The entire source code repository (source code and art assets) for the Ouya version was released under the GPL-3.0-only license on GitHub on February 4, 2021 to support the efforts for the preservation of Ouya games.[123] | ||
| Supernova | 1987 | 2009 | Text adventure | GPL-2.0-or-later | GPL-2.0-or-later | Apogee Software | Game source released on March 20, 2009. | |
| Triplane Turmoil | 1996 | 2009 | side-scrolling dogfighting flying game | GPLv3 | GPLv3 | Dodekaedron Software | In 1996 Triplane Turmoil was originally released as shareware DOS game. In 2009 Dodekaedron Software Creations Oy placed Triplane Turmoils source code, documentation, images and sounds under the GPLv3, hosted on SourceForge.[124] [125] The community continued the support and ported the game to other platforms (Linux, Windows) via SDL. | |
| Tyrian (now OpenTyrian) | 1995 | 2007 | Scrolling shooter | GPLv2 | Freeware/CC BY 3.0 US[126] [127] | World Tree Games Productions / Epic MegaGames (Jason Emery, Daniel Cook) | The OpenTyrian team ported the closed-source Pascal code of Tyrian to C with permission of Jason Emery in February 2007. The graphic artist Daniel Cook released the artwork shortly after. | |
| VGA Civil War Strategy Game | 1995 | 2017 | turn based strategy | MIT | MIT | W. R. Hutsell | In 2017 Mr. Hutsell gave the source code of VGA Civil War Strategy Game to Dave Mackey, who ported the game for modern platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux) with the help of SDL and other open-source libraries from QuickBASIC to QB64.[128] The source code is released on GitHub under a MIT license.[129] | |
| Voxelquest | 2014 | 2016 | open world simulation | MIT | MIT | Gavan Woolery | After a successful crowdfunding project on Kickstarter to develop an open-world simulation game in 2014,[130] Gavan Woolery developed several iterations of the game's engine. After running out of funding for further development, he open-sourced with support of the backers the game's engine on github.com under MIT license in August 2016.[131] [132] | |
| Wander | 1974 | 2015 | Text adventure | public domain (?) | public domain (?) | Peter Langston | As of April 2015, the source code (long thought to be lost) of Wander, one of the earliest mainframe text adventures, could be acquired from the original author.[133] [134] | |
| WaterRace | 2000 | 2014 | Racing game | GPLv2 | GPLv2 (assets), CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (music) | French Touch, SARL | In January 2014, Pierre-Olivier Latour, co-founder and CEO of French Touch, SARL, have uploaded the game's source code and assets on GitHub under the GPLv2 open-source license[135] | |
| Warfare Incorporated (now Hostile Takeover) | 2003 | 2014 | RTS | FreeBSD | BSD license | Spiffcode | In July 2014 the game's source code and content got open sourced with a BSD license under the name "Hostile Takeover" on GitHub.[136] [137] As result the game was ported by the game's community to alternative platforms like the Pandora handheld.[138] | |
| Warzone 2100 | 1999 | 2004/2008 | RTS | GPL-2.0-or-later | GPL-2.0-or-later, CC | Pumpkin Studios/Eidos Interactive | 3D real-time strategy game with a unit design system. First source part was released by Pumpkin Studios/Eidos Interactive in 2004 and the rest was released in 2008.[139] | |
| Word Whiz | 1988 | 2009 | Educational game | GPL-2.0-or-later | GPL-2.0-or-later | Apogee Software | Game source released on March 20, 2009. | |
| Worms? | 1983 | 2021 | software toy | MIT | MIT | David S. Maynard | The source code for Worms?, one of the initial Electronic Arts releases, was uploaded to GitHub by Kay Savetz on March 17, 2021 under the MIT license with permission of Maynard.[140] | |
| Zork (also known as Dungeon or Dungeon Adventure) | 1977 | 1978 | Text adventure | Public domain software | Public domain | Robert M. Supnik / Infocom | Public domain software ports with source code based on the first "Dungeon" version of Zork, are available in various repositories.[141] [142] Also, Infocom allowed the distribution of the early Fortran version. Original version from MIT.[143] [144] | |
| ZZT | 1991 | 2023 | Action-adventure puzzle | MIT | no artwork | Potomac Computer Systems | Originally thought to be lost,[145] a source code backup for ZZT 3.0 surfaced and a modified version of it with third-party content removed was uploaded to GitHub by Adrian Siekierka, developer of Reconstruction of ZZT, under the MIT license with permission of Tim Sweeney, creator of the game.[146] | |
Only the game engines in this table are developed under an open-source license, which means that the reuse and modification of only the code is permitted. The assets are provided free of charge to the final user, but with some restrictions. Note that both the engine and the game code must be available under a license approved by the OSI and/or the FSF, if it was made with a licensed engine.
| Title | First release | Source code release | Genre | Engine license | Content license | Original developer | Additional information |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Allegiance (now FreeAllegiance) | 2000 | 2004 | real-time strategy and Space combat simulator | MIT (earlier Shared Source[147]) | Microsoft Research | Released by Microsoft Research under a shared source license ("MSR-SSLA") 2004.[148] On July 27, 2017, Microsoft Research changed the license from MSR shared source license to MIT license.[149] | |
| Amulets & Armor | 1997 | 2013 | first person role-playing video game | GPL-3.0-only | United Software Artists | In 2013 Amulets & Armor was re-released as freeware on the game's official site and the source code under GPL-3.0-only on GitHub.[150] [151] Work continues for ports to newer systems (Windows, MacOS) and general bug fixes.[152] [153] | |
| Ares (now Antares) | 1996 | 2008 | Space Strategy video game | LGPLv3[154] | CC BY-NC-SA/CC BY-NC-ND/Freeware | Nathan Lamont/Bigger Planet Software | Released in 2008. Under continued development for modern systems as "Antares" via GitHub.[155] |
| Avara | 1996 | 2016 | Shooter game | MIT | Ambrosia Software / Juri Munkki | The MacOS classic game became open source in 2016 when Munkki released the source code upon the game's 20th anniversary.[156] | |
| Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space (now Race Into Space) | 1993 | 2007 | Simulation | GPLv2[157] | [158] | Strategic Visions/Fritz Bronner | A port of Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space to modern operating systems. The license fell back to Bronner as he had a contract clause with Interplay stating that in case Interplay went bankrupt or no distribution happened for some time. |
| Cart Life | 2011 | 2014 | Simulation | Richard Hofmeier | In March 2014 the game was removed from all digital distributions and the source code and game was made available for free online, with Hofmeier saying he was finished supporting the game.[159] His webpage went later offline[160] but the source code was mirrored on GitHub.[161] [162] | ||
| Corncob 3D | 1993 | 2016 | Flight simulator | Public domain software | Freeware | Pie in the Sky / Kevin Stokes | The game became around 2016 freeware and open source.[163] |
| Dink Smallwood | 1997 | 2003 | Action RPG | Zlib inspired own license[164] | [165] | Robinson Technologies | Source code published on July 17, 2003, from Seth Robinson.[166] 2008 Artwork published (without some sounds) under a Zlib license.[167] In October 2017 the HD version became fully open source and freeware, too.[168] The source code became available on GitHub shortly after.[169] |
| Gates of Skeldal | 1998 | 2008 | Dungeon crawler role-playing video game | GPL-3.0-or-later | Napoleon Games | On 19 November 2007 the game was made freeware by the Czech developer, in 2008 the source code was released under GPL-3.0-or-later on a SourceForge repository.[170] [171] Later it was translated by fans to English and ported to linux.[172] | |
| Glider 4.0 | 1991 | 2016 | Flight simulator | MIT | John Calhoun | On January 26, 2016, the source code for Glider 4.0 was uploaded to GitHub.[173] | |
| Glider PRO | 1994 | 2016 | Flight simulator | GPL-2.0-only | John Calhoun | On January 27, 2016, the source code, graphics, and sound data for Glider PRO were released on GitHub with the source code being licensed under the GNU General Public License v2.[174] [175] | |
| Gloom | 1995 | 2017 | FPS | unlicense | "for historical purposes" | Black Magic | In January 2017 the assembly and BlitzBasic 2 source code of the Amiga Doom clone Gloom was released as public domain software under unlicense on GitHub.[176] The assets were released "for historical and archiving purposes.".[177] |
| Gunocide II | 2000 | 2001 | Galaga-like 2D shooter | GPLv2 | Alexander Bierbrauer and Oliver Weiler | Developed around 2000.[178] After being succesless commercially published via a publisher,[179] the game was released as freeware and under GPL. 2002 ported to Linux and hosted on SourceForge as "G2ex".[180] [181] | |
| H-Craft Championship | 2007 | 2015 | science fiction racing game | zlib license | Irrgheist | H-Craft Championship was developed by the independent game studio Irrgheist[182] and released by Manifesto Games[183] /Akella in 2007.[184] In 2014, the developers released the game as freeware[185] and the source code under the zlib license in February 2015.[186] [187] | |
| Haunts: The Manse Macabre | 2012 | 2012 | turn based strategy | BSD-3-Clause[188] | CC BY-NC-SA | Rick Dakan | The 2012 with $29,000 crowdfunded[189] and in Go programmed game was put on GitHub after the money for further development run out.[190] [191] While a volunteer keeps updating the almost finished prototype,[192] the against the Go 1.0 API build game fails to compile with newer compilers and Go versions. |
| Hypercycles | 1995 | 2017 | Shooter | GPL-3.0-only | Bob Hays | Released in January 2017 on GitHub.[193] [194] As August 16, 2020, the repository was removed from GitHub. The code has been re-uploaded on GitHub | |
| Infinity | 2002 | 2016 | RPG | GPL-3.0-or-later | CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 / CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 | Affinix Software | Developed in 2002 as commercial Game Boy Color title (~90% finished) the game was never published. Infinity was released as non-commercial freeware with source code in August 2016,[195] [196] [197] and after a successful Kickstarter campaign in August 2021, development was restarted by Incube8 Games.[198] [199] |
| Iron Seed | 1994 | 2013 | Space trading and combat simulator | GPLv3 | Channel 7 | Released as freeware by the authors to promote the development of Iron Seed 2 in the 2000s. Source opened under the GPL by the developers in 2013.[200] | |
| Magic Land Island (now Pocket Island) | 2011 | 2012 | Casual game | MIT | CC BY-NC-SA | Wooga | Magic Land Island was launched during the GDC Europe in August 2011. In June 2012 the HTML5 game was open sourced under the name Pocket Island on GitHub under MIT license and with the assets under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-SA.[201] [202] |
| (now Aleph One) | 1995 | 2000 | FPS | GPLv2 | Bungie | Released by Bungie on January 17, 2000.[203] | |
| Marathon Infinity (now Aleph One) | 1996 | 2011 | FPS | GPL-3.0-or-later | CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 | Bungie | Released by Bungie in 2011.[204] |
| Meridian 59 | 1995 | 2012 | MMORPG | GPL-2.0-only (excluding compression and audio libraries) | Archetype Interactive | As of February 2010 Meridian 59 has been turned over to the original technical developers, Andrew and Chris Kirmse. On September 15, 2012, they released the game to the public as Freeware and most of the source code under the GPLv2 license.[205] | |
| The Pit Puzzle | 1997 | 2011 | Puzzle game | Apache-2.0 | Freeware[206] | Abe Pralle / Plasmaworks | The DOS game source code was released around 2011 by the author Abe Pralle under Apache 2.0 License on GitHub.[207] |
| Postal | 1997 | 2016 | GPL-2.0-only | Running with Scissors | In 2015 the Running with Scissors developers announced that they will release the source code of the game "if someone promises to port it to the Dreamcast."[208] In June 2016 the developers gave the source code to a community developer who ported the game to Linux for the OpenPandora handheld.[209] [210] On December 28, 2016, the source code was released on Bitbucket under the GPLv2.[211] [212] | ||
| Project Starfighter | 2001 | 2008 | Shoot 'em up | GPLv2[213] | [214] | Parallel Realities | |
| Star Control II (now The Ur-Quan Masters) | 1992 | 2002 | Action RPG | GPLv2 | CC BY-NC-SA 2.5 | Toys for Bob (Fred Ford / Paul Reiche III) | Source code of the 3DO version GPL-released in 2002.[215] |
| Star Ruler 2 | 2015[216] | 2018 | Real-time strategy, 4X | MIT | CC BY-NC 2.0 | Blind Mind Studios | Released on GitHub as an open-source project, including assets under the CC BY-NC (but not music) on July 22, 2018.[217] [218] |
| 2004 | 2011 | Space combat simulator | New BSD License | Destroyer Studios / Matrix Games | Source code released by Destroyer Studios/Matrix Games on December 14, 2011.[219] [220] | ||
| Strange Adventures in Infinite Space | 2002 | 2005/2009 | Space Roguelike | GPL-3.0-or-later | CC BY-NC 4.0 | Digital Eel | Source was released under GPL by Digital Eel in 2005.[221] [222] Content became freeware 2009.[223] License changed to GPLv3 and assets to CC BY-NC-4.0 on May 18, 2020.[224] |
| Team 47: GoMan | 1997[225] [226] | 1998 | Mech game | Public-domain software | 47-TEK | Released artwork and source code to public in May 1998.[227] [228] As of March 2022, source code has been uploaded to GitHub. | |
| Tread Marks | 2000 | 2017 | Tank Combat/Racing | GPL-3.0-or-later | Longbow Digital Arts / Seumas McNally | Won in 2000 the Seumas McNally Grand Prize. On January 20, 2017 the source code was released as open source on github.com and the game itself as freeware.[229] [230] A port to Linux and MacOS is in progress.[231] In September 2017 a version for the Linux-based OpenPandora was released.[232] | |
| Tribal Trouble | 2005 | 2014 | RTS | GPLv2 | Oddlabs | In September 2014 the game's source code was released to the public on GitHub and is now open source under the GPLv2.[233] Development continues in a community fork.[234] | |
| Tribes 2 | 2001 | 2012 | FPS | Dynamix | Many commercial titles were developed using the Torque engine.[235] GarageGames released Torque 3D under the MIT License on September 20, 2012.[236] The Tribes 2 source code beside the Torque engine is not available.[237] | ||
Only the game engines in this table are developed under an open-source license, which means that the reuse and modification of only the code is permitted. The assets are not provided for free and must be bought by the final user. Note that both the engine and the game code must be available under a license approved by the OSI and/or the FSF, if it was made with a licensed engine.
| Title | First release | Source code release | Genre | Engine license | Original developer | Additional information | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 2022 | Action-adventure game / Hack and slash | GPL-3.0-or-later | 1C: Seawolf Studio | Source code of game engine was released on GitHub under GPLv3 on November 28, 2022.[238] | ||
| 2009 | 2021 | Role-playing game | GPL-3.0-or-later | Akella | Source code of Storm Engine released on GitHub under GPLv3 in a 2021 and support Sea Dogs: To Each His Own and .[239] [240] | ||
| 2013 | 2020 | Survival horror | GPL-3.0-or-later | The Chinese Room | On September 23, 2020, Frictional Games released the source code for this game.[241] Source code was released on GitHub under the GPLv3.[242] | ||
| 2010 | 2020 | Survival horror | GPL-3.0-or-later | Frictional Games | On September 23, 2020, Frictional Games released the source code for this game on its 10th release anniversary. Source code was released on GitHub under the GPLv3.[243] | ||
| 2012 | 2013 | Visual novel | Love Conquers All Games | Developed using the Ren'Py engine, the game code for Analogue: A Hate Story was released on May 4, 2013 under a public-domain-equivalent license. The source code release includes the entire script of the game for context, but the script remains proprietary.[244] | |||
| Arx Fatalis (now Arx Libertatis) | 2002 | 2011 | RPG | GPL-3.0-or-later | Arkane Studios | The design of Arx Fatalis was heavily influenced by Ultima Underworld. Game source released by Arkane Studios on January 14, 2011.[245] Based upon this source code the formed Arx Libertatis-project created Fan-made patches and Source ports.[246] [247] | |
| Aquaria | 2007 | 2010 | Action-adventure | GPL-2.0-or-later | Bit Blot | Open sourced with Humble Indie Bundle.[248] | |
| 1994 | 2013 | FPS | GPL-2.0-or-later[249] | Apogee Software | Released in 2013 to promote the sale of the Apogee Throwback Pack on Steam.[250] [251] | ||
| Canabalt | 2009 | 2010 | Cinematic platformer | Adam Saltsman | Released by Adam Saltsman in 2010.[252] | ||
| Catacomb | 1989 | 2014 | Top-down shooter | GPL-2.0-or-later | Flat Rock Software | Released by Flat Rock Software on June 5, 2014 on GitHub.[253] | |
| Catacomb 3D | 1991 | 2014 | FPS | GPL-2.0-or-later | Flat Rock Software / id Software | Released by Flat Rock Software on June 5, 2014 on GitHub. | |
| The Colony | 1988 | 2023 | FPS | Apache-2.0 | Dave Smith | Source code for the PC, Mac and Amiga versions released by Smith on GitHub on June 6, 2023, with the source code under the Apache License 2.0.[254] | |
| Command & Conquer, | 1995 | 2020 | RTS | GPL-3.0-or-later | Westwood Studios | The games' code was released along with the Command & Conquer Remastered Collection in order to aid in the development of mods. It can be used to build mods for the remaster, but due to some missing bits that are substituted by the remaster's own (closed source) engine, it can not be used to directly re-build the original (unremastered) games from them.[255] However down stream projects such as Vanilla-Conquer have allowed source ports of the unremastered games to be developed by developing replacements for the missing code.[256] | |
| Commander Keen in Keen Dreams | 1991 | 2014 | Platformer | GPL-2.0-or-later | id Software | In September 2014, after an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign,[257] the game's source code was released on GitHub.[258] [259] | |
| CoreBreach | 2011 | 2012 | Racing game | MIT/GPL-2.0-only [260] | CoreCode | Futuristic "anti-gravity" racing game with combat. Source was released after a sales quota was met. | |
| Cortex Command | 2012 | 2019 | Action game | AGPL-3.0-only | Data Realms LLC | The indie game was in development since 2001, which won an IGF award in 2009,[261] was finally released in 2012.[262] In July 2019 the source code was released under AGPL-3.0-only on GitHub.[263] [264] As of end of 2019 the work on a community continuation, dubbed "Cortex-Command-Community-Project", is ongoing.[265] | |
| Delver | 2012 | 2018 | First-person action roguelike dungeon crawl | Priority Interrupt | Developed using the libGDX framework; on November 15, 2018, Chad Cuddigan released the source code under the GPLv2.[266] Changed to a modified version of the zlib license on November 23, 2018,[267] and changed to the regular zlib license on September 21, 2020.[268] | ||
| Descent 3 | 1999 | 2024 | FPS | GPL-3.0-or-later | Outrage Entertainment | On April 16, 2024, Kevin Bentley (one of the programmers of the game) released the source code for Descent 3 on GitHub,[269] under authorization of Matt Toschlog,[270] co-owner of the copyright holder of the game.[271] | |
| Doom (3DO) | 1995 | 2014 | FPS | MIT | Logicware | On November 30, 2014, the source code of the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer port of the game was released by Rebecca Heineman (sole developer of the port) under an MIT license, a different license than the Doom version for Linux, and the Atari Jaguar port.[272] [273] [274] [275] | |
| Doom and (Linux) | 1993/1994 | 1997/1999 | FPS | GPL-2.0-or-later | Id Software | Game source released on December 23, 1997, placed under GPL-2.0-or-later on October 3, 1999. | |
| Doom (SNES) | 1995 | 2020 | FPS | GPL-3.0-or-later | Sculptured Software | On July 14, 2020, Randy Linden uploaded the source code for his Super Nintendo Entertainment System conversion of Doom to GitHub.[276] | |
| Doom 3 | 2004 | 2011 | FPS | GPL-3.0-or-later | Id Software | Game source released on November 22, 2011.[277] | |
| 2012 | 2012 | FPS | GPL-3.0-or-later | Id Software | Source code released on November 26, 2012 on GitHub.[278] | ||
| DROD series | 1997 | 2000 | Puzzle game | MPLv1.1[279] | Webfoot / Erik Hermansen | After the author reacquired the rights to the game from the original publisher Webfoot,[280] he released the source code of the game engines.[281] The source code releases include DROD: King Dugan's Dungeon, DROD: Journey to Rooted Hold, DROD: The City Beneath, DROD: Gunthro and the Epic Blunder, DROD: The Second Sky, and DROD RPG: Tendry's Tale without its media assets.[282] | |
| Eldritch | 2013 | 2014 | FPS, roguelike | zlib License | Minor Key Games | In April 2014, the game's source code was released to the public under a permissive zlib license. Content still proprietary and game being sold.[283] [284] | |
| Flotilla | 2010 | 2020 | 3d tactic game | Blendo Games | Indie game developer Blendo games released the source code to Flotilla on its 10th release anniversary.[285] [286] The source code is Zlib licensed on GitHub, but assets are not included.[287] | ||
| Gish | 2004 | 2010 | Action | GPL-2.0-or-later | Cryptic Sea | Source opened with Humble Indie Bundle by Wolfire Games.[288] [289] | |
| Glypha III | 1990s | 2016 | Arcade | MIT | John Calhoun | On January 27, 2016, the source code, graphics, and sound data for Glypha III were released on GitHub with the source code being licensed under the MIT License.[290] Updated ports for MacOs and iPhone were created afterward.[291] [292] [293] A cross-platform OpenGL based port was released around May 2018 on GitHub.[294] | |
| Good Robot | 2016 | 2020 | Multidirectional shooter | MIT | Pyrodactyl Games | On August 3, 2020, Arvind Raja Yadav from Pyrodactyl Games released the source code for three of their games (Unrest, Will Fight for Food and Good Robot) under the MIT License on GitHub.[295] | |
| Hammerfight | 2009 | 2011 | 2D physic based combat game | zlib license[296] | Konstantin Koshutin | For the third Humble Indie Bundle[297] [298] Ryan C. Gordon ported the underlying game engine, "Haaf's Game Engine", to Linux and Mac OS X, and released source code under the zlib license.[299] [300] Relish Games released the original version of HGE 1.8.1 for Windows/DirectX to GitHub under zlib license, too.[301] | |
| Heretic | 1994 | 1999 | FPS | GPL-2.0-only | Raven Software | Game source released on January 11, 1999 under a very restrictive license,[302] [303] relicensed to GPL on September 4, 2008.[304] [305] [306] The ACC script compiler was not included in the GPL re-release. | |
| 1995 | 1999 | FPS | GPL-2.0-only | Raven Software | Game source released on January 11, 1999 under a very restrictive license, relicensed to GPL on September 4, 2008. The ACC script compiler was not included in the GPL re-release. | ||
| Hexen II | 1997 | 2000 | FPS | GPL-2.0-only | Raven Software | Game source released on November 10, 2000.[307] | |
| Hovertank 3D | 1991 | 2014 | FPS | GPL-2.0-or-later | Flat Rock Software/id Software | Released by Flat Rock Software on June 5, 2014 on GitHub. | |
| Lemma | 2014 | 2014 | Voxel FPS open world parcour[308] | MIT | Evan Todd | Despite an unsuccessful crowdfunding campaign in 2014,[309] Lemma was released commercially by the developer DRM-free and also on Steam. The source code is openly developed and available on GitHub under a MIT license.[310] [311] | |
| Little Big Adventure and Little Big Adventure 2 | 1994/1997 | 2021 | Action-adventure | GPL-2.0-only | Adeline Software International | Source code released on GitHub under the GPL-2.0-only license by 2.21, the current copyright holders.[312] | |
| Machines: Wired for War | 1999 | 2020 | Real-time strategy | GPL-3.0-or-later | Charybdis/Nightdive Studios | The game was released by the new rights holder Nightdive Studios in 2020.[313] The source code is under GPLv3 on GitHub.[314] The assets are available too from the original developer's webpage.[315] | |
| Monster RPG 2 | 2010 | 2012 | JRPG | zlib License | Nooskewl | After a successful Indiegogo campaign, released by Nooskewl under a Public domain like license ("Give it Your Own License") on November 11, 2012.[316] [317] Later changed to zlib license, and the content sold again to be able to pay the server bills.[318] | |
| 2007 | 2010 | MMORPG | GPLv3 | Cyan Worlds | "Myst Online: Uru Live" struggled to attract subscribers and was canceled after its first year. Cyan release the game as an open source game in 2010.[319] | ||
| Natural Selection | 2002 | 2014 | FPS | GPLv2 (most code) / custom (external libraries)[320] | Unknown Worlds Entertainment | In January 2014 Unknown Worlds released the source code for download on GitHub.[321] | |
| 2000 | 2010 | FPS | GPL | Monolith Productions | In 2001, Monolith Productions released a set of editing tools for No One Lives Forever that included the level editor and model editor used for development.[322] The team also released the source code for NOLF (version 1.003 on Windows) that year to "support the fan base by offering the tools to create their own levels".[323] [324] It is available both as a download, as well as on the Game of the Year Edition CD-ROM. Years later around 2013 Lithtech source code became available on GitHub under GPL,[325] and work for merging game code and engine started.[326] | ||
| 2002 | 2011 | FPS | GPLv2[327] | Monolith Productions | Source code released by Monolith Productions/Sierra Entertainment as part of a modding toolkit.[328] | ||
| Overgrowth | 2017 | 2022 | Action | Apache-2.0 | Wolfire Games | On April 21, 2022, Wolfire Games released the source code to Overgrowth on GitHub under the Apache License 2.0.[329] | |
| Pararena 2 | 1992 | 2016 | Action sport game | MIT | John Calhoun | On January 27, 2016, the source code was released on GitHub licensed under the MIT license.[330] [331] | |
| 2007 | 2009 | Survival horror with FPS aspects | GPL-3.0-or-later | Frictional Games | Developed by Swedish[332] developer Frictional Games, the game blends the genres of survival horror, first-person shooter, and adventure. Open sourced with Humble Indie Bundle.[333] | ||
| Quake | 1996 | 1999 | FPS | GPL-2.0-or-later | Id Software | Game source released on December 21, 1999. | |
| Quake II | 1997 | 2001 | FPS | GPL-2.0-or-later | Id Software | Game source released on December 22, 2001. | |
| Quake III Arena | 1999 | 2005 | FPS | GPL-2.0-or-later | Id Software | Game source released on August 19, 2005. | |
| Quake 4 | 2005 | 2021 | FPS | GPL-2.0-or-later | Raven Software | Adapted to the GPL id Tech 4 source code from Doom 3 with some issues remaining.[334] | |
| 1994 | 2023 | Scrolling shooter | GPL-2.0-or-later | Cygnus Studios | Released on October 1, 2023 on GitHub.[335] | ||
| 2000 | 2022 | Shooter | MIT | Argonaut Games | Source code uploaded on GitHub on September 26, 2022 under the MIT license by Matt Godbolt (one of the three programmers of the game) under authorization of Jez San, founder of Argonaut Games.[336] | ||
| Return to Castle Wolfenstein | 2001 | 2010 | FPS | GPL-3.0-or-later | Gray Matter Studios/Nerve Software | The source code for Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Enemy Territory was released under the GNU General Public License (GPL) on August 12, 2010.[337] [338] | |
| Revenge of the Titans | 2010 | 2011 | Tower Defense, RTS | BSD-3-Clause | Puppy Games | Java based game. Source code was released by Puppy Games with the success of the second Humble Indie Bundle.[339] | |
| Rise of the Triad | 1994 | 2002 | FPS | GPL-2.0-or-later | Apogee Software/3D Realms | Game source released on December 20, 2002.[340] | |
| Serious Sam (Serious Engine) | 2001 | 2016 | FPS | GPL-2.0-only | Croteam | In March 2016, Croteam released Serious Engine v1.10 as free and open-source software on GitHub under the GNU General Public License.[341] [342] | |
| Seven Kingdoms II | 1999 | 2009 | RTS | GPLv2 | Enlight | Source code released in August, 2009. | |
| 1998 | 1998 | FPS | GPL | Monolith Productions | In 1998, SDK released the game logic for modders.[343] The Lithtech engine was not included as source code. Around 2013, Lithtech's source code became available on GitHub under the GPL, and the work of merging the game logic and the engine started. As of the end of 2019, this reworked NOLF2/LithTech engine reached a buildable state under Windows, and the work continues.[344] | ||
| Siege of Avalon | 2000 | 2003 | RPG | LGPL | Digital Tome | Source code released June 23, 2003.[345] Later one of the original developers announced the preparation of a re-release of SOA, but nothing came out of it.[346] In September 2017 a community developer managed to fix the dependencies of the Open source release, recompile the executable, fixing several bugs and introducing higher resolution support for the game.[347] | |
| Soul Ride | 2000[348] | 2003 | Snow board simulation/sport game | GPLv2[349] | Slingshot Game Technology | On 20 Jan 2003 Soul Ride's game engine source code was released to allow ports to alternative OSes.[350] | |
| Spacebase DF-9 | 2013 | 2015 | Space simulator | CPAL | Double Fine | After Double Fine ended the support of the controversy ridden and incomplete game on end of 2014,[351] fans have been working to continue the game's development with the availability of the source code in May 2015 under the CPAL open-source license.[352] First patch became available in October 2015.[353] | |
| Spear of Destiny | 1992 | 1995 | FPS | GPL-2.0-or-later[354] | id Software | The source code of Wolfenstein 3D, which also covered Spear of Destiny, was released on July 21, 1995. | |
| Spectromancer | 2008 | 2020 | Turn-based strategy | Three Donkeys LLC/Apus Software | On March 4, 2020, Ivan Polyacov from Apus Software released the source code to the Apus Game Engine, the in-house game engine by Apus Software used for Spectromancer and Astral Heroes after reaching the $50 tier on his Patreon.[355] The game code to Astral Towers was also released to patrons.[356] [357] | ||
| Speed Haste | 1995 | 2012 | racing video game | public domain like license | Javier Arevalo Baeza | In 2012 the game's developer Javier Arevalo Baeza released the Borland C source code (minus some commercial library part) for "you can do whatever you want with this code" on GitHub.[358] | |
| 2002 | 2013 | First/Third-person shooter | GPL-2.0-only | Raven Software | Release of the source code by Raven Software and Activision coincided with the closing of LucasArts by Disney.[359] | ||
| 2003 | 2013 | First/Third-person shooter | GPL-2.0-only | Raven Software | Release of the source code by Raven Software and Activision coincided with the closing of LucasArts by Disney. | ||
| System Shock | 1994 | 2018 | FPS | GPL-3.0-or-later | Night Dive Studios | In April 2018 the Mac version's source code was released by Night Dive on GitHub,[360] fulfilling a 2016 promise.[361] [362] [363] After one month of development, a cross-platform source port, called "Shockolate", for modern compilers and platforms was released by community developer Chad Cuddigan.[364] | |
| To Heart 2 | 2004 | 2006 | Visual novel | GPLv2 | Aquaplus | Its source code was released by Aquaplus under the GNU General Public License on December 22, 2005, along with the source code for Arurū to Asobo! | , Tears to Tiara, and Kusari.[365] [366] This decision was made due to the inclusion of Xvid derived code; Xvid being distributed under the same license. The source code for all four games is distributed upon request in CD-R format. A copy of the original source code is hosted on GitHub,[367] as also an continued engine project.[368] |
| To the Moon | 2011 | 2014 | role-playing game | GPL-2.0-or-later | Freebird Games | To the Moon was developed using RPG Maker XP engine in 2011. In January 2014 To the Moon was also released for OS X and Linux with the Humble Bundle X. Edward Rudd ported the game with the GPLv2 RPG Maker XP game engine recreation MKXP,[369] [370] other ports followed later.[371] Also a successor game by Freebird games, "A Bird Story", was ported to Linux under usage of MKXP.[372] | |
| Toki Tori 2+ | 2013 | 2021 | puzzle platform game | GPL-2.0-only | Two Tribes | On December 17, 2021, Two Tribes released the source code to their in-house engine used for games like Toki Tori 2+ and Rive under the GPL-2.0-only license on GitHub.[373] | |
| Unrest | 2014 | 2020 | Role-playing video game | MIT | Pyrodactyl Games | On August 3, 2020, Arvind Raja Yadav from Pyrodactyl Games released the source code for three of their games (Unrest, Will Fight for Food and Good Robot) under the MIT License on GitHub. | |
| Urban Chaos | 1999 | 2017 | Action-adventure game | MIT | Mucky Foot | In May 2017 Mucky Foot's Mike Diskett released the source code of Urban Chaos under the MIT license on GitHub.[374] | |
| Vangers | 1998 | 2016 | racing and role-playing genre | GPLv3 | K-D Lab | In March 2016, Vangers source code was released[375] under GPLv3 license. Data was not freed though, so one still needs data files from Steam or GOG.com released in order to run the game. | |
| Wolfenstein 3D | 1992 | 1995 | FPS | GPL-2.0-or-later | id Software | The source code of Wolfenstein 3D, which also covered Spear of Destiny, was released on July 21, 1995. | |
| 2003 | 2010 | FPS | GPL-3.0-or-later | Splash Damage/id Software | Game source released on August 12, 2010.[376] | ||
| World in Conflict (server code) | 2007 | 2017 | Real time strategy game | GPL-2.0-or-later[377] | Ubisoft | Game source released in 2017 by ubisoft after support ended in 2014.[378] | |
Video games in this table are source-available, but are neither open-source software according to the OSI definition nor free software according to the Free Software Foundation. If the source code is given out without specified license or public domain waiver it has legally to be considered as still proprietary due to the Berne Convention. The assets are provided free of charge to the final user, but with some restrictions.
| Title | First release | Source code release | Genre | Engine license | Content license | Original developer | Additional information |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agony | 1992 | 2020 | Shoot 'em up | non-commercial use | Freeware | Art & Magic | Around 2010, graphic artist Franck Sauer started to offer the game's binary files (ADF format) for free download on his personal webpage, making the game Freeware.[379] On July 4, 2020, Yves Grolet (programmer of the game) uploaded all his Amiga development files (which included full source code for Agony) to WeTransfer.[380] |
| 1987 | 2004 | 4x game | no license given | George Moromisato | Developed by George Moromisato in 1987. Around 2004 the source code of the DOS version 2.00 was released.[381] | ||
| Beneath a Steel Sky | 1994 | 2003 | Point and click adventure | Beneath a Steel Sky Freeware License | Beneath a Steel Sky Freeware License | Revolution Software | The assembly language source code of the game was made available to the public and ScummVM in August 2003.[382] [383] The source code availability made it possible for the ScummVM project to support the game, which allows the game to be played on Windows, OS X, Linux, Windows CE and other compatible operating systems and platforms. |
| Beyond Castle Wolfenstein | 1985 | 2005 | Stealth game | no license given | Silas Warner | The reconstructed source code and the ported game was released by Silas Warner's widow in 2005.[384] | |
| Beyond Protocol (now After Protocol) | 2008 | 2011 | persistent, space MMORTS | non-commercial public license | Freeware | Dark Sky Entertainment | Initial design of Beyond Protocol began in 1991.[385] A scaled up beta program began Nov 15th 2007[386] with an open-beta in 2008. When due to financial issues the game has been shut down, the source code was released on 4 May 2011 on SourceForge to the public.[387] Based on this source code, community organized development continues until today as After Protocol.[388] |
| Bob's Game | 2004 | 2016 | puzzle, action RPG | Robert Pelloni | In August 2016 the source code of the game was released on GitHub under a non-commercial source available software license,[389] to allow the community to contribute. The author claims that he wrote the game originally in C, switched then to Java, and later converted it with an automatic code converter to C++.[390] | ||
| Carnivores 2 | 1999 | 2013 | Simulation | Action Forms | A version from 2013 is available on assembla.[391] Around 2017 the source code was released via Moddb.[392] | ||
| Crystal Mines | 1989 | 2011 | Arcade | Custom permissive license | Ken Beckett / Color Dreams | In August 2011 Ken Beckett, the programmer of the NES game Crystal Mines, released the source code under a custom permissive license to the public.[393] [394] Artwork still proprietary but can be shared for non-commercial, personal use.[395] | |
| Digger | 1983 | 2004 | Arcade | Windmill Software | The original source code became available in September 2004 "for historical interest" (together with source code of other Windmill Software games as Styx).[396] [397] There is also an earlier free software reverse engineered variant available by Andrew Jenner, called Digger Remastered, ported for many platforms.[398] | ||
| Dungeons of Daggorath | 1982 | 2001 | 3D Dungeon crawler | DynaMicro / Douglas J. Morgan | After years of no further distribution from the publisher Radio Shack of the game, the distribution rights fell back to the developers. Morgan released game around 2001 under a freeware like license to the public, also offering the source code.[399] [400] Following, the game's community has created ports for PC,[401] Linux,[402] RISC OS[403] and PSP.[404] | ||
| Enemy Nations | 1997 | 2005[405] /2006[406] [407] | RTS | own non-commercial license[408] | non-commercial Freeware | Windward Studios | Game source and artwork was released by Windward Studios under a non-commercial license around 2005/2006. |
| Fort Apocalypse | 1982 | 2015 | action | CC BY-NC-ND 2.5 | CC BY-NC-ND 2.5 | Steve Hales / Synapse Software | In 2007 the Atari 8-bit game was relicensed to a CC BY-NC-ND 2.5 by Steve Hales and released on IgorLabs.[409] On April 23, 2015, Steve Hales released the assembler source code to Fort Apocalypse on GitHub, also under CC BY-NC-ND 2.5, for historical reasons.[410] |
| Free Fall | 1983 | 1999 | Beat 'em up | ? | Ian Bell / Acornsoft | In 1999, developer Ian Bell released the video game's BBC Micro assembly source code on his website.[411] Semi-serious he considers it the first ever Beat 'em up video game. | |
| Flow | 2006 | 2009 | Life simulation | ? (For educational purposes) | Freeware | Thatgamecompany / Jenova Chen | Around 2009 the flash source code was made available for educational purposes by the developers.[412] [413] |
| HoverRace | 1996 | 2008 | Racing | originally time limited license / later non-commercial GrokkSoft HoverRace SourceCode License.[414] [415] | Freeware | GrokkSoft | Was first published under a time-limited license. In 2008 re-newed with an infinite duration license.[416] |
| In Pursuit of Greed | 1996 | 2014 | FPS | non-commercial use, "for educational and personal use only" | Freeware (non-commercial) | Mind Shear Software | Based on Softdisk Publishing's "Raven engine" which powered also ShadowCaster. The game was released (including the engine) later by the developer as non-commercial freeware in 2014.[417] [418] [419] |
| Kiloblaster | 1992 | 2008 | Arcade | Own license[420] | (with additional restriction) | Epic MegaGames | Allen Pilgrim declared the registered version freeware and released also the source code on August 4, 2008.[421] [422] |
| Kumquat & Cantaloupe | 1996 | 2012 | Maze | undefined | Freeware | Dave Schofield | The Amiga games Kumquat & Cantaloupe, originally released as shareware titles, were re-released as freeware with source code included by the author in November 2012.[423] [424] |
| Magus | 1995 | 2014 | Rogue-like | Ronny Wester | Around 2014 archived on GitHub from other now offline sources.[425] A SDL port is in progress.[426] In 2000 Wester released also the Borland Pascal 7 source code of Cyberdogs (excluding some libraries he had licensed) on his website.[427] | ||
| Roboforge | 2001 | 2008 | Multiplayer Strategy game | "RoboForge, Personal, Non-Commercial Use End User License" | Freeware | Liquid Edge | Announced the game in July, 2000[428] by Liquid Edge the game was released on May 23, 2001.[429] From July 2008 RoboForge became an open-source project with the source code for the Java-based client and server under a non-commercial license and as freeware.[430] The game's community continues development. |
| Rocky Racers | 2002[431] | 2004[432] | Racing game | Non-Commercial license | Freeware | Positech Games | Released around 2002 by Positech Games, the game's C++ source code was released in July 2004 to the public for free. |
| 2003 | 2007 | online Real-time strategy, FPS | no license/proprietary | [433] | S2 Games | The game was turned freeware by S2 Games on September 1, 2006. In 2007 the source code became available to the game community,[434] who now continues development.[435] The game can be played on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. | |
| Sea Dragon | 1982 | 2015 | Scrolling shooter | ? | Public-domain software | Adventure International | In 1995, Wayne Westmoreland (co-designer of the game) placed the original TRS-80 binaries for Sea Dragon in the public domain.[436] On December 19, 2015, Kevin Savetz uploaded the source code for the Atari 8-bit version of Sea Dragon under no license to the Internet Archive with permission of Russ Wetmore, developer of the port.[437] |
| Stellar Conquest III: Hostile Takeover | 1994[438] | 2006 | Stellar Conquest inspired Space simulation | open source freeware (non-commercial) | Freeware (non-commercial redistribution allowed) | NecroBones / Ed T. Toton III | The Turbo Pascal 6 source code for the VGA DOS game was released in February 2006 together with the game itself as freeware by the developer.[439] |
| Stellar Frontier | 1997 | 2008 | Space simulation | STARDOCK SHARED SOURCE STELLAR FRONTIER LICENSE (non-commercial license)[440] | STARDOCK SHARED SOURCE STELLAR FRONTIER LICENSE (non-commercial license) | Stardock | Stellar Frontier was developed by Doug Hendrix in 1995 and was later licensed and published by Stardock. On August 4, 2006, Stardock Systems closed the official master server. On November 18, 2008, the game source code was released under an own non-commercial license.[441] As result, the game's community took over the support of the game and improved the game, fixed the bugs and security holes with self-made patches.[442] |
| Treasures of a Slaver's Kingdom | 2007 | 2010 | Z-machine Text adventure game | Freeware | Freeware | Cumberland Games & Diversions | S. John Ross released the commercial Treasures of a Slaver's Kingdom, which won the XYZZY Award 2007 for the best NPC, in 2010 with Z-machine source code as freeware.[443] More source code of text adventure from the 1970s and 1980s are available at the archive.[444] |
| World Train Royale | 2009 | 2011 | Tycoon game | ? | Freeware | Versus Software | Sold around 2009 for 10 dollars,[445] the game source code was released on 26 June 2011 on SourceForge.[446] [447] |
| Xargon | 1993 | 2008 | Platformer | own license | (with additional restrictions) | Epic MegaGames | Game source released in 2008 by the programmer Allen Pilgrim.[448] A SDL port followed later by Malvineous.[449] |
Video games in this table are source-available, but are neither open-source software according to the OSI definition nor free software according to the Free Software Foundation. If the source code is given out without specified license or public domain waiver it has legally to be considered as still proprietary due to the Berne Convention. The assets are not provided for free.
| Title | First release | Source code release | Genre | Engine license | Content license | Original developer | Additional information |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3-D Ultra Pinball: Thrill Ride | 2000 | 2020 | Pinball | Left Field Productions | On May 13, 2020, Dave Ashley added the source code of the Game Boy Color port to his Game Boy Color development repository.[450] | ||
| Airline Tycoon | 1998 | 2015 | Simulation game | [451] | Commercial | Spellbound Entertainment | On 24 March 2015 Airline Tycoon Deluxe was re-released on the digital distribution platform gog.com, including the source code.[452] |
| Alien 3 | 1992 | 2019 | Run and gun | Probe Software | On May 19, 2019, Michael J. Archer uploaded the source code for the Commodore 64 version of the game to GitHub.[453] | ||
| 1996 | 1997 | FPS | ? | Team17 | In March 1997 Team17 made the source code of Alien Breed 3D and Alien Breed 3D II freely available on the cover CD of Amiga Format magazine issue 95.[454] [455] [456] | ||
| Alien vs Predator (Atari Jaguar game) | 1994 | 2008 | FPS | ? | Rebellion Developments | Released by defunct Jaguar Sector II website under a CD compilation for PC titled Jaguar Source Code Collection on August 24, 2008.[457] [458] Source code was provided by Atari historian Curt Vendel.[459] | |
| Aliens versus Predator | 2000 | 2001 | FPS | Own non-commercial license[460] | Rebellion Developments | Source code released by Rebellion Developments 2001. An unofficial patch project for the PC version, based on the source code, was released and is still updated.[461] | |
| Alpha Waves | 1990 | 2009 | early 3D exploration game with platform aspects | ? | ? | Christophe de Dinechin | Released in 1990 as one of the earliest 3D games[462] with full 6-axis degree of freedom. In 2009, author Christophe de Dinechin released the complete assembly and GFA BASIC source code of the Atari ST version.[463] [464] There is also a started PC port in C++ on SourceForge by the original author.[465] [466] |
| Altered Beast | 1989 | 2019 | Beat 'em up | Software Studios | On May 19, 2019, Michael J. Archer uploaded the source code for the Commodore 64 conversion of the game to GitHub. | ||
| Anachronox | 2001 | 2001 (partly) | RPG | Ion Storm | Some bits of code distributed with the official editor. | ||
| Anodyne | 2013 | 2020 | Action-adventure | Anodyne License | Anodyne License | Analgesic Productions | On April 4, 2020, Melos Han-Tani from Analgesic Productions released the source code of Anodyne under a custom permissive license.[467] [468] |
| Army Men III | 2013 | 2018 | Third-person shooter | Non-commercial use | Freeware | Neotl Empire | Army Men III was released in early access in 2013 and under development until its cancellation in 2016. Two years later, the unfinished game was released as open source on SourceForge in April 2018.[469] |
| Atomic Robo-Kid | 1990 | 2019 | Scrolling shooter | Activision | On May 19, 2019, Michael J. Archer uploaded the source code for the Commodore 64 conversion of the game to GitHub. | ||
| Attack of the Mutant Camels | 1989 | 2012 | Scrolling shooters | ? | ? | Jeff Minter | In 2012 the assembly language source code of the Konix version of the game was released on GitHub.[470] [471] |
| Aztaka | 2009 | 2011 | Action role-playing game | Citérémis | In 2011 Independent game developer Citérémis released a "Developer's Edition" of Aztaka for $9.99 which included also the source code of the game.[472] [473] | ||
| Balance of Power | 1985 | 2013 | Government simulation game | ? | ? | Chris Crawford | In August 2013 Chris Crawford released source code of several of his games from his career to the public,[474] fulfilling a GDC 2011 given promise.[475] Beside Balance of Power he released all the source code he could recover, for instance , Excalibur, Gossip, Eastern Front (1941), Scram and Legionnaire. |
| Batman Returns | 1993 | 2015 | sidescrolling Beat 'em up | for educational purposes | for educational purposes | ACME / Chris Shrigley | In March 2015 programmer Chris Shrigley, who worked on the Sega CD version, found the Batman Returns source code and released it for educational purposes to the public.[476] He released also the source code of Magician, Cliffhanger, Gargoyles and some other games from his working career.[477] |
| 1999 | 2020 | Board | Left Field Productions | On May 13, 2020, Dave Ashley added the source code of the game to his Game Boy Color development repository.[478] | |||
| 1998 | 1999 | FPS | Monolith Productions | In 1999, SDK released the game logic for modders.[479] The LithTech engine was not included as source code. | |||
| Blue Max | 1983 | 2016 | Scrolling shooter | Bob Pollin | Assembly source code released in 2016 by the author Bob Pollin in the Atariage forum.[480] On the Atariage forum source code of many more games was released.[481] [482] [483] | ||
| Breakout 2000 | 1996 | 2008 | Action | MP Games | Released by defunct Jaguar Sector II website under a CD compilation for PC titled Jaguar Source Code Collection on August 24, 2008. Source code was provided by Atari historian Curt Vendel. | ||
| and II: The Smoking Mirror | 1996/1997 | 2003 | Point and click adventure | Revolution Software | The source code of the games was made available to ScummVM in 2003.[484] | ||
| Call to Power II | 2000 | 2003 | turn-based strategy game | Non-commercial own license[485] | Activision | Civilization clone. Source opened to the apolyton community to allow support with Community patches.[486] | |
| Checkered Flag | 1994 | 2008 | Racing | Rebellion Developments | Released by defunct Jaguar Sector II website under a CD compilation for PC titled Jaguar Source Code Collection on August 24, 2008. Source code was provided by Atari historian Curt Vendel. | ||
| Civilization IV | 2005 | 2006 (partly) | turn-based strategy | Firaxis Games / 2K Games | In April 2006 the developers released the source code of the core game mechanic to the public with a Software Development Kit.[487] [488] Additionally to the released source code, as game data and rules are stored in XML files and most of the game is written in Python, much (but not all) of the game is "open" and easily customizable.[489] The game's community produced later many mods, total conversions and optimization patches for the game.[490] | ||
| Civilization V | 2010 | 2012 (partly) | turn-based strategy | Firaxis Games / 2K Games | In Fall 2012 the developers released the source code of the core game DLL.[491] The game's community produced later a community patch project.[492] [493] | ||
| Club Drive | 1994 | 2008 | Racing | Atari Corporation | Released by defunct Jaguar Sector II website under a CD compilation for PC titled Jaguar Source Code Collection on August 24, 2008. Source code was provided by Atari historian Curt Vendel. | ||
| Contract J.A.C.K. | 2003 | 2003 | FPS | Monolith Productions | Game code distributed with the official editor (www.mpgh.net). | ||
| 2001 | 2013 | Space Real-time strategy | Fever Pitch Studios | On December 9, 2013, the source code was bundled with every copy of the game purchased on GOG.com.[494] [495] | |||
| Cook, Serve, Delicious! | 2012 | 2016 | Business simulation game | Vertigo Gaming | Source code released in the Humble GameMaker Bundle on September 6, 2016.[496] [497] [498] | ||
| Crazee Rider | 1987 | 2019 | Racing | Superior Software | In November 2018 the source code of Crazee Rider in BBC Micro 6502 assembly language was released by Kevin Edwards, designer of the game.[499] In April of the following year the source code for the Acorn Electron version was also released.[500] | ||
| CryEngine 5 | 2002[501] | 2016 | FPS | ? | NA | Crytek | In 2016 Crytek released their engine as pay-what-you-want including the source code to the public.[502] [503] |
| Crysis | 2007 | ? | FPS | Crytek | Game code was officially released with the SDK. | ||
| Crysis 2 | 2011 | ? | FPS | Crytek | Game code was officially released with the SDK. | ||
| Cybermorph | 1993 | 2008 | Shooter | Attention to Detail | Released by defunct Jaguar Sector II website under a CD compilation for PC titled Jaguar Source Code Collection on August 24, 2008. Source code was provided by Atari historian Curt Vendel. | ||
| Daikatana | 2000 | 2015 | FPS | ? | Ion Storm / John Romero | Lacking any further official support after the closure of Ion Storm's Dallas office in 2001, John Romero gave the game's source code to community members, allowing them to develop additional platform ports and bug fixes.[504] [505] | |
| DarkSpace | 2001 | 2009 | MMO, Real-time strategy | multiple, self-written licenses.[506] | Palestar | DarkSpace's game engine called Medusa released by Palestar under multiple licenses.[507] | |
| Death and Taxes | 2020 | 2020 | Simulation game | Placeholder Gameworks | After selling well the indie game's Unity source code was released on GitHub[508] to help other developers.[509] [510] | ||
| Death Ray Manta | 2012 | 2015 | Arena shooter | educational purposes | Bagfull of Wrong / Rob Fearon | The GameMaker Studio based game's source code was released in 2015 with a Humble Indie Bundle.[511] The assets followed in 2016.[512] | |
| Descent, Descent II | 1995/1996 | 1997/1999 | space 3D FPS | own license[513] | Parallax Software | Game source released by Parallax Software in 1997 (Descent 1)[514] and 1999 (Descent 2).[515] Descent 3 source code seems to be in hands of Rebecca Heineman and were considered 2014 for a release.[516] | |
| Deus Ex (video game) | 2000 | ? | FPS | Headers and some code distributed with the official SDK. | |||
| Discworld and Discworld II | 1995 | 2008 | point-and-click adventure game | Teeny Weeny Games | First announced for release around 2005 by Terry Pratchett,[517] source code became in 2008 available to the ScummVM developers.[518] The code was fast integrated into ScummVM.[519] | ||
| Disney's Aladdin | 1993 | 2017 | Platformer | Disney | Around 2017 the source code of the game became available to "The Video game history foundation", which wrote a review of the technique of the game based on the code.[520] | ||
| Dog Daze | 1981 | 2014 | Arcade game | Gray Chang | In 2014 Gray Chang released the source code of his Atari 8-bit games Dog Daze, Dog Daze Deluxe, Bumpomov's Dogs, and Claim Jumper.[521] Available at the Internet Archive. | ||
| Doom (Jaguar) | 1994 | 2003 | FPS | Id Software | On April 27, 2003, the source code of the Atari Jaguar port of the game was released by Albert Yarusso of AtariAge with permission of John Carmack.[522] | ||
| Duke Nukem 3D | 1996 | 2003 | FPS | 3D Realms / Ken Silverman | Game source released on April 1, 2003.[523] Update builds and source ports like eduke32 followed by the game's community.[524] | ||
| Dungeon Defenders | 2010 | 2011 | Tower defense | Trendy Entertainment | In November 2011 there was a "development kit" released as free DLC which included the game's source code.[525] | ||
| Elite | 1984 | 1999 | Space trading game | Freeware | Ian Bell, David Braben | In November 1999, developer Ian Bell released on the game's 15th birthday the BBC Micro assembly source code on his website.[526] [527] Following that, Christian Pinder created a platform-neutral C version from the released BBC Micro version, called Elite: The New Kind (E-TNK; sources were removed in 2003 on David Braben request).[528] [529] In 1999–2000 a dispute occurred between Ian Bell and David Braben regarding Bell's decision to make available all versions of the original Elite.[530] The dispute has since ended and the various versions are now available again on Bell's site.[531] [532] | |
| 2000 | 2003 | Helicopter Flight simulator | own license[533] | Razorworks | Game source was released somewhen 2003 by Razorworks.[534] | ||
| Even the Ocean | 2016 | 2023 | action-adventure | Analgesic Productions | The entire source code for the game was uploaded under proprietary terms on GitHub on September 23, 2023.[535] | ||
| Escape from Monster Manor | 1993 | 2022 | FPS | Studio 3DO | On August 8, 2022, Leo Schwab (programmer of the game) uploaded the entire source code for the game on GitHub.[536] | ||
| 1997 | 2021 | Point and click adventure | The Dreamers Guild | The Wyrmkeep Entertainment provided the original source code to the ScummVM team in May 2021.[537] | |||
| Far Cry (video game) | 2004 | ? | FPS | Crytek | Game code was officially released with the SDK. | ||
| F.E.A.R. | 2005 | ? | FPS | Monolith Productions | Headers and some code distributed with the official SDK. | ||
| The Feeble Files | 1997 | 2005 | Adventure | Adventure Soft | The source code of the games was made available to ScummVM in 2005.[538] | ||
| Fight for Life | 1996 | 2008 | Fighting | Atari Corporation | Released by defunct Jaguar Sector II website under a CD compilation for PC titled Jaguar Source Code Collection on August 24, 2008. Source code was provided by Atari historian Curt Vendel. | ||
| Flight of the Amazon Queen | 1995 | 2003 | Adventure | Interactive Binary Illusions | The source code of the games was made available to ScummVM in 2004. | ||
| Freedom Force | 2002 | 2002 (partly) | FPS | Irrational Games | Game logic written in Python. Scripts are located in the game directory. | ||
| FreeSpace 2 (now FreeSpace 2 Source Code Project) | 1999 | 2002 | Space Sim | Non-commercial/Proprietary | Volition | Game source released by Volition on April 25, 2002.[539] | |
| Galaforce | 1986 | 2019 | Shoot 'em up | Superior Software | In March 2019 the source code of Galaforce in BBC Micro 6502 assembly language was released by Kevin Edwards, designer of the game.[540] In April of the same year Edwards released the source code for the Acorn Electron version.[541] | ||
| Gothic 3 | 2006 | 2007 | RPG | JoWood | Source code was opened by JoWood for the members of "Community patch project" from the game community in 2007.[542] | ||
| Grand Monster Slam | 1989 | 2017 | Fantasy sports game | ? | Rolf Lakaemper, Hartwig Niedergassel | In March 2017 the source code of the game became available via the Internet Archive.[543] | |
| Hack 'n' Slash | 2014 | 2014 | Zelda-like puzzle game | ? | Double Fine | With the 1.0 release on September 9, 2014, the source code of the game was also released by Double Fine.[544] [545] | |
| Hacker Evolution: Source code | 2007 | 2015 | Hacker game | ? | Exosyphen | Released on May 11, 2015 for $49.95 by the indie game developer.[546] | |
| Heartlight | 1990 | 2005 | Action-adventure | ? | ? | X LanD Computer Games / Janusz Pelc | The 8-bit Atari source code became available around 2005.[547] Other games like Robbo became available too. |
| 2000 | 2001 | Action-adventure | Ritual Entertainment | Game code distributed with the official editing tools / SDK. | |||
| Heretic II | 1998 | 1998 | Action-adventure | Raven Software | Game code distributed with the official editing tools. | ||
| 1995 | 2008 | Action-adventure | Lore Design Limited | Released by defunct Jaguar Sector II website under a CD compilation for PC titled Jaguar Source Code Collection on August 24, 2008. Source code was provided by Atari historian Curt Vendel. | |||
| Homeworld | 1999 | 2003 | Space Real-time strategy | Non-commercial license[548] | Relic Entertainment | Game source released 2003.[549] The source code became the base of several source ports to alternative platforms, like Mac,[550] Linux, Pandora,[551] Maemo/N900,[552] or Android[553] [554] using the Simple DirectMedia Layer (SDL) cross-platform multimedia library. As the source code's license requirements limits further development significantly[555] the game's community aims for a re-licensing with the new IP holder Gearbox.[556] In September 2013 Gearbox responded positively to the idea for a re-licensing of the already published source code, noting their efforts in supporting the modding community.[557] | |
| Hover Strike | 1995 | 2017 | Shooter | Atari Corporation | Made freely available on a Jaguar-dedicated Facebook group in May 2017.[558] | ||
| 1995 | 2008 | Shooter | Atari Corporation | Released by defunct Jaguar Sector II website under a CD compilation for PC titled Jaguar Source Code Collection on August 24, 2008. Source code was provided by Atari historian Curt Vendel. | |||
| Hundreds | 2010 | 2010 | Puzzle game | ? | ? | Greg Wohlwend / Semi Secret | Greg Wohlwend chose to open source his code in 2010,[559] partly with the intent to spur "non-coders" to try coding, as he had.[560] [561] Programmer Eric Johnson of Semi Secret found the open source version and ported the game to iPad in a weekend before notifying Wohlwend, which was later released commercially in an updated version. |
| I-War (Atari Jaguar game) | 1995 | 2008 | Shooter | Imagitec Design | Released by defunct Jaguar Sector II website under a CD compilation for PC titled Jaguar Source Code Collection on August 24, 2008. Source code was provided by Atari historian Curt Vendel. | ||
| Inherit the Earth | 1994 | 2005 | Point and click adventure | The Dreamers Guild | In 2005, Wyrmkeep Entertainment gave the source code for the game to the ScummVM Team for its inclusion in ScummVM.[562] [563] | ||
| Jim Power in Mutant Planet | 1992 | 2017 | Platform game | ? | ? | Digital Concept | Around 2017 the source code of Jim Power was rescued by Piko Interactive.[564] |
| Ken's Labyrinth | 1993 | 2001 | FPS | Non-commercial license | Freeware | Ken Silverman | Ken's Labyrinth was released as freeware on November 16, 1999. The source code under a non-commercial license followed on July 1, 2001.[565] A port to modern operating systems such as Windows and Linux using Simple DirectMedia Layer called LAB3D/SDL was created by Jan Lönnberg and released in 2002.[566] A version of the port which includes new higher resolution textures was also created by Jared Stafford.[567] |
| 1999 | ? | FPS | Xatrix Entertainment | Game code distributed with the official SDK. | |||
| The Labyrinth of Time | 1993 | 2016 | Adventure | Terra Nova Development | The source code of the games was made available to ScummVM in 2016.[568] | ||
| Larva Mortus | 2008 | 2009 | Top-down shooter | MIT/Non-commercial | Rake in Grass | Czech independent video game developer Pavel Tovarys released the Torque 2D v1.1.3 based source code in 2009 under non-commercial conditions.[569] [570] Several other games' source code were released too.[571] The code was taken offline after several games' IP were sold to another company. The source code is currently in no known repository on the web available. | |
| 2000 | 2020 | Pinball | Left Field Productions | On May 11, 2020, Dave Ashley released the source code of the game on GitHub, along with a Game Boy Color emulator.[572] | |||
| The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Serrated Scalpel and The Case of the Rose Tattoo | 1992 | 2015 | Adventure | Mythos Software | On 2015 Electronic Arts gave source code for both games to the ScummVM Team for their inclusion in ScummVM.[573] | ||
| MechCommander 2 | 2001 | 2006 | Real-time tactics | Shared Source Limited Permissive License[574] | FASA Interactive/Microsoft | Source opened under a Shared Source license by Microsoft in August 2006.[575] [576] As of 2017 there is a project fork on GitHub with the goal to port the source code to Linux.[577] | |
| Miner Wars 2081 | 2012 | 2013 | 6DOF Space Shooter game | own proprietary license[578] | Keen Software House | 6DOF action-survival space-shooter simulation-game set in the year 2081. Full game and engine source code released under a restrictive license. | |
| MiG Alley | 1999 | 2001 | Flight simulation | Rowan Software/Empire Interactive | Source opened by Rowan Software/Empire Interactive in 2001.[579] [580] | ||
| MoonBase Commander | 2002 | 2024 | turn-based strategy | Humongous Entertainment | The source code of the game was made available to the ScummVM developers in 2024.[581] | ||
| Mr. Do! (for Game Boy) | 1992 | 2007 | Arcade | Universal Entertainment Corporation | Game Boy version open sourced by developer Wesley Knackers in 2007 on his website.[582] [583] | ||
| Myth (series) | 1998 | 2001 | Real-time tactics | Take 2 Interactive/MumboJumbo | Source opened by Take 2 Interactive/MumboJumbo to the game community in 2001.[584] [585] | ||
| Nanosaur | 1998 | 2003 | FPS | Pangea Software | Around 2003 the Nanosaur source code was made available by the developer under a restrictive license.[586] | ||
| Nemesis the Warlock | 1987 | 2019 | Action game | Creative Reality | On May 19, 2019, Michael J. Archer uploaded the source code for the Commodore 64 version of the game to GitHub. | ||
| 1998 | 2021 | Adventure | Trecision | On May 29, 2021, the ScummVM Team received the source code for the in-house game engine created by Trecision, and used for games like Nightlong: Union City Conspiracy, Ark of Time, and Alien Virus.[587] | |||
| Pariah | 2005 | 2005 (partly) | FPS | Digital Extremes | Game code available on GitHub.[588] | ||
| Pirate Adventure | 1978 | 1980 | adventure game | ? | ? | Scott Adams (game designer) | The source code for Pirate Adventure was printed in the December 1980 issue of BYTE, with an addendum in April 1981.[589] [590] This enabled others to discover how the engine worked and to create their own adventures using this or a similar design. |
| Postal 2 | 2003 | 2003 (partly?) | FPS | Running with Scissors | Some game code and tools distributed with the official game release. | ||
| Preppie! | 1982 | 2016 | action game | ? | ? | Russ Wetmore / Star Systems Software | In January 2016 Russ Wetmore released the source code of his Atari 8-bit games Preppie! and Preppie II to the public on the Internet Archive. |
| Prince of Persia | 1989 | 2012 | Cinematic platformer | Jordan Mechner | Apple II source code was long-thought-lost,[591] but was found again and released in 2012.[592] A port of the assembly source code to C and SDL as backend was made by a community programmer.[593] | ||
| Rampage | 1988 | 2019 | Action game | Software Studios, Catalyst Coders | On May 19, 2019, Michael J. Archer uploaded the source code for the Commodore 64 conversion of the game to GitHub. | ||
| Rowan's Battle of Britain | 2000 | 2001 | Flight simulation | Empire Interactive License | Rowan Software/Empire Interactive | Source opened by Rowan Software/Empire Interactive in 2001.[594] | |
| Rune | 1999 | 2000 | FPS | Human Head Studios | Headers and some code distributed with the official SDK. | ||
| Savant - Ascent | 2013 | 2015 | Action | D-Pad Studio | Source code released in the Humble Weekly Bundle: Play and Create with GameMaker on September 17, 2015.[595] [596] | ||
| Sea Dogs: An Epic Adventure at Sea | 2000 | 2009 | pirate game | Akella | In 2009 Akella agreed to hand the source code of Sea Dogs' game engine to the game community on end-of-support.[597] | ||
| 2001 | 2001 (partly) | FPS | Rebel Act Studios | Game logic written in Python. Scripts are located in the game directory. | |||
| Shadowgun: Deadzone | 2011 | 2015 | Shoot 'em up | SHADOWGUN: DEADZONE PUBLIC LICENSE AGREEMENT[598] | Madfinger Games | Game source and assets of the Unity 3.5 game were released some years after release.[599] | |
| Shadowgrounds | 2005 | 2011 | Shoot 'em up | own non-commercial license[600] | Frozenbyte | Game source released with a Humble Indie Bundle by Frozenbyte on April 22, 2011.[601] | |
| Shadow Warrior | 1997 | 2005 | FPS | 3D Realms | Game source released on April 1, 2005.[602] | ||
| Silent Hunter II | 2001 | 2002 | submarine simulation | ? | Ubisoft | Around 2002 Ubisoft had ended the official support while still significant issues existed. Therefore, Ubisoft enabled the game's community at Subsim.com to fix the game themselves by giving them the source code. The fans raised $7000 for an unofficial patch development project which fixed most of the issues.[603] The community extended Silent Hunter II also content wise significantly with expansion packs or texture upgrades.[604] [605] | |
| Sin & | 1998 | 1998 | FPS | Ritual Entertainment | Game code was officially released. | ||
| Sláine | 1987 | 2019 | Adventure | Creative Reality | On May 19, 2019, Michael J. Archer uploaded the source code for the Commodore 64 version of the game to GitHub. | ||
| Soliter | 1994 | 2009[606] | Puzzle game | Oldsoft | Zdnek Stary developed at the Czech development studio Oldsoft the solitair game Soliter for the ZX Spectrum which got released in 1994. The game was released by the author in 2005 on his homepage for download, in 2009 the assembly source code followed as scan. | ||
| Soldier of Fortune | 2000 | ? | FPS | Raven Software | Game code distributed with the official SDK. | ||
| 2002 | ? | FPS | Raven Software | Game code distributed with the official SDK. | |||
| Solstice | 2016 | 2016 | Visual novel | MoaCube | Source code released in the Humble GameMaker Bundle on September 6, 2016. | ||
| The Space Bar | 1997 | 2024 | Point and click adventure | Boffo Games | The source code of the game was made available to the ScummVM developers in 2024.[607] | ||
| Space Engineers | 2013 | 2015 | space sandbox game | Keen Software House | On May 14, 2015, the development studio made the source code freely available to the game's community for easier modding on GitHub under a proprietary license (non-open source license).[608] [609] [610] | ||
| Star Fire | 1980 | 2020 | Arcade | Exidy | On August 21, 2020, The History of How We Play uploaded to the Internet Archive the source code for Star Fire provided by David Rolfe, co-designer of the game.[611] | ||
| Star Raiders | 1979 | 2015 | space combat simulator | Aric Wilmunder / Atari | The commented assembly source code scan of Star Raider became available in October 2015 in the Internet Archive as scan.[612] Aric Wilmunder opened it up with several other artifacts of his gaming career (e.g. SCUMM).[613] The community typed in the source code double checked in a GitHub project.[614] Shortly before a reverse engineering project was finished, too.[615] A true sequel, also called Star Raiders II, had been under development for some time by Aric Wilmunder. The never released prototype source code was posted publicly in December 2015. | ||
| 2000 | 2000 | FPS | Raven Software | Game code distributed with the official GDK. Holomatch multiplayer independently ported to ioquake3. | |||
| 2002 | 2003 | FPS | Ritual Entertainment | In November 2003 Ritual Entertainment released the source code of their server-side code base for multiplayer gaming under a non-commercial license.[616] [617] | |||
| Stealth Bastard Deluxe | 2012 | 2015 | Stealth | Curve Digital | Source code released in the Humble Weekly Bundle: Play and Create with GameMaker on September 17, 2015. | ||
| Taxman | 1981 | 202? | pacman clone | ? | ? | H.A.L. Labs / Brian Fitzgerald | Apple II pacman clone from 1981. In August 2015 Rebecca Heineman announced that original developer Brian Fitzgerald allowed to release the source code.[618] [619] GitHub repository is still empty as of July 2020.[620] |
| Tempest 2000 (Atari Jaguar) | 1994 | 2008 | Tube shooter | ? | Llamasoft | Released by defunct Jaguar Sector II website under a CD compilation for PC titled Jaguar Source Code Collection on August 24, 2008. Source code was provided by Atari historian Curt Vendel. | |
| Terminal Velocity | 1995 | 2015 | flight game | ? | ? | Mark Randel / Terminal Reality | Became available under a NDA in June 2015.[621] Work on an updated version for modern system started immediately.[622] |
| The Clue! | 1994 | 2000 | role-playing adventure game | own license | own license / Freeware | Neo Software | In 2000 the source code was released to the public.[623] [624] The game is since then ported to modern platforms via SDL and receives still updates by the community (2015).[625] |
| The Guild of Thieves | 1987 | 2017 | adventure game | ? | ? | Magnetic Scrolls | In June 2017 Magnetic Scrolls worked on recovering the source code of their classics from tapes to remaster and re-release them.[626] [627] |
| The Wizard's Castle | 1980 | 2004 | role-playing adventure game | ? | ? | Joseph R. Power | The BASIC source code of the 1980 developed game was published by the developer in the July/August 1980 issue of Recreational Computing.[628] Ports to other systems followed afterwards.[629] |
| The Wheel of Time | 1999 | 1999 | FPS | Legend Entertainment | Game code and tools distributed with the official game release. | ||
| Tilt Brush | 2016 | 2021 | Room scale | The Unity 2018.4.11f1 source code was uploaded to GitHub on January 26, 2021.[630] | |||
| Tony Tough and the Night of Roasted Moths | 2002 | 2012 | Point and click adventure | Nayma Software | In 2012, DotEmu and Nayma Software gave the source code for this game to the ScummVM Team for its inclusion in ScummVM.[631] | ||
| Tornado | 1993 | 2017 | combat flight simulator | ? | Digital Integration / Interplay Entertainment | In March 2016 in the Tornado's community forum, rumors surfaced that Interplay Entertainment was working on a re-release of the game for digital distribution, based on the original source code.[632] The assembly source code finally surfaced in January 2017 on github.com.[633] [634] | |
| Trevor McFur in the Crescent Galaxy | 1993 | 2008 | Shoot 'em up | ? | Flare II | Released by defunct Jaguar Sector II website under a CD compilation for PC titled Jaguar Source Code Collection on August 24, 2008. Source code was provided by Atari historian Curt Vendel. | |
| Tron 2.0 | 2003 | 2009 | FPS | ? | ? | Monolith Productions | Source code released with Lithtech Jupiter Enterprise b69 engine. |
| 1983 | 2003 | Role-playing video game | Keith Zabalaoui / Sierra On-Line | On 11 June 2003, the game was ported to PC (under GPLv2 license) by Kasper Fauerby based on the original BASIC source code and some smaller binary reverse engineered parts.[635] | |||
| Unreal | 1998 | 2008 | FPS | source opened to the community under NDA | Epic MegaGames | Headers and some code distributed with the official SDK. Also, some pre-release version (v0.87) is available on the internet. Around 2008 access to source-code was granted by Epic MegaGames to the OldUnreal game community.[636] In 2015 Tim Sweeney announced that he hope to be able to open source one day the engine to the public.[637] | |
| Unreal Tournament 99 | 1999 | 2019 | FPS | source opened to the community under NDA | Epic Games, Digital Extremes, Legend Entertainment | Headers and some code distributed with the official SDK. Around 2019 access to source-code was granted by Epic MegaGames to the OldUnreal game community.[638] | |
| Unreal Tournament 2003 | 2002 | ? | FPS | Epic Games | Game code was officially released. | ||
| Unreal Tournament 2004 | 2004 | ? | FPS | Epic Games | Game code was officially released. | ||
| Unreal Tournament 3 | 2007 | ? | FPS | Epic Games | Game code was officially released. | ||
| Uplink | 2001 | 2003 | Hacking simulation | Introversion Software | Mid-2003 Introversion Software started selling the source code for $45. Usage beside modding and fixing of the game are not permitted by the license.[639] Source code of the games Darwinia + Multiwinia and DEFCON was later sold too.[640] | ||
| 2003 | ? | FPS | Legend Entertainment | Game code and tools distributed with the official game release. | |||
| Video Checkers | 1980 | 2020 | Board | Atari, Inc. | On April 8, 2020, Kay Savetz uploaded scans of the complete source code of the revision A of Video Checkers (a first-party video game for the Atari 2600) to the Internet Archive donated by its developer Carol Shaw.[641] | ||
| VVVVVV | 2010 | 2020 | platformer | source available | Terry Cavanagh | On the 10th anniversary of the game's release in January 2020, Kavanagh released the source code[642] for VVVVVV under a non-open source "VVVVVV Source Code License v1.0"[643] via GitHub.[644] | |
| Warlords Battlecry III | 2004 | 2006 | RTS | Own proprietary license | Infinite Interactive/Enlight Software | On 24 May 2006, the Warlords Battlecry III source code became available to the public. Members of the community (who signed a NDA) have been entitled distributors, which have the legal permissions to allocate copies of the Warlords Battlecry III source code.[645] [646] The source code release resulted in the development of several community-made fan patches[647] [648] and mods. | |
| War Worlds | 2013 | 2014 | RTS | Own permissive license[649] | Own permissive license | Codeka / Dean Harding | The mobile strategy game was originally released commercially,[650] and later released to the public to allow the community to continue the support of the game.[651] [652] With help of the community the game's main developer has continued the support since then. |
| Witchaven series | 1995 | 2006 | FPS | non-given | Capstone Software | Around 2006 Les Bird, a programmer from the 1996 folded game development company Capstone Software, released the source code of the games Witchaven, Witchaven II, William Shatner's TekWar and .[653] | |
| Worms Armageddon | 1999 | 2002 | Deathmatch game | ? | Commercial | Team17 | Around 2002 Team17, impressed by the reverse engineering on Worms Armageddon for "Silkworm",[654] gave David "Deadcode" Ellsworth access to the source code.[655] Over the next years he created unofficial patches, until he joined Team17 in 2006. Updates are still created as of 2015.[656] |
| Xenonauts | 2014 | 2015 | Turn-based tactics | ? | Goldhawk Interactive | Shortly after the release of the stable version Goldhawk Interactive allowed selected members of the community to access the source code.[657] This resulted in the community edition of the game (Xenonauts:Community Edition, X:CE), which continues development of an independent branch of the game, adding new features and bugfixes.[658] | |
| XIII | 2003 | 2018 (partly) | FPS | Ubisoft Paris | The UnrealScript source code of the game was made available on GitHub in January 2018.[659] | ||