Microsoft Releases Mech Commander Source Code

[Serapth]

You can now download (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6d790cde-c3e5-46be-b3a5-729581269a9c&DisplayLang=en) the entire source code and assets ( art, music, etc ) of the full game Mech Commander (http://www.microsoft.com/games/mechcommander2/home.asp?flash=yes&) Word of warning though, it weighs in at a might 1 gig in size.

Very cool whenever full commerical games get open sourced. Microsoft is getting pretty good at this as they open sourced Freelancer a year or so back. Anyways, the release is part of the XNA unveiling. Apparantly they switched the build process from the old way to using the new XNA build for a 6 - 12x increase in speed.

[drakkarim]

those two were great games. there's just something about little mechs blowing stuff up, kinda like back in the day with the little mattel cars in the sandbox, crashing into stuff :)

someone should seriously do a 3rd one, with modern graphics/sounds/effects, i'm thinking the guys who did Warhammer40k, they're about the only ones i would trust to do the game justice.

[Nite_Moogle]

Mech Commander OWNED. I'm so hacking this...

[YoungAlCapone]

Yes, Mech Commander did own, checking this out when I get back to my place this evening.

[Serapth]

Hmmm, guess I should have clarified it was actually Mech Commander 2. Im going to download this game just to play it again tonight. Ill look at the source code and thats probrably about it. Oh, and grep through the code for the funniest most obscene comments they forgot to remove. Thats always the best part of large open source software.

reading comments like

// Dont know what the fuck the following code is, but dont screw with it or everything goes boom

or

// What are you doing dave?

Downside is, Microsoft probrably did a comment prescreening.

[NoName]

Give me something to play with until I can get my hands on Oblivion at least :). Good memories from Mech Commander.

[Franjo]

gotta love those comments..if I'm going over some old report code I find some odd stuff from a dude who used to work here. He did drink a lot though. Made for good times.

[jeffbax]

What are the terms of the source? Does it allow porting to other platforms (though DirectX barriers will be present)

I'd love to get this on my Mac.

[Carnifex]

Microsoft is getting pretty good at this as they open sourced Freelancer a year or so back.
Anyone got a link to the Freelancer source? A bit of searching yielded nothing.

[Serapth]

Anyone got a link to the Freelancer source? A bit of searching yielded nothing.

My bad, it was the followup Allegiance. http://research.microsoft.com/research/allegiance/

[amusedtoe]

Hmm, rather atypical that their realsing more then just the code right? Seems like usually that's all the companies decide to release.

[moron]

Note that this sucker is released under Microsoft's "shared source" license which is NOT an open source license. If you are or ever plan to be a software developer you DO NOT want to look at this source code lest you set yourself up for patent lawsuits later. Be clear, Microsoft owns anything you do with this code and if you do look at it, they can hold that against you later if you do something similar.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shared_source

"Some people see Shared Source as Microsoft's attempt to profit from the public image of goodwill and volunteer work that follows most free software and open source software projects. Others fear that viewing Shared Source may "taint" a developer with knowledge of licensed code, preventing participation in other projects where such code may be inadvertently used in violation of the shared source license."

Cheers

[Serapth]

God that is such FUD. Microsofts Shared Source license is OSI certified. You do know that there are three levels of licensing available, and this one is released under the permisive license, which allows you to do basically anything?!?!

Infact, the license this code was released under is less restrictive then the GPL, BY FAR! I know its cool to bash Micrososft and everything, but atleast be right about it. Plus, in this case, using wikipedia as a reference just seems wrong. It justs about as bad as citing slashdot as a reference when it comes to Microsoft.

[moron]

Can you provide some proof that the "shared source" license is approved by OSI? So far I am not able to confirm that (I do not see it in the list of approved licenses nor does a search turn up anything but cautions against the shared source licenses).

This eWeek article from October 2005 says that Microsoft chose not to submit their licenses:

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1875238,00.asp

If you want to call FUD, at least back it up with some proof.

I was hesitant to download the RTF but will do so later to confirm what license this sucker is actually released under, there used to be 10 shared source variants though I believe it is down to 3 now with only one or two of those even potentially compatible as an open source license (though both still incompaitlbe with most other open source licenses).

Cheers