[HN Gopher] TR1X: Open-source re-implementation of Tomb Raider 1
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       TR1X: Open-source re-implementation of Tomb Raider 1
        
       Author : alexzeitler
       Score  : 73 points
       Date   : 2024-08-06 10:23 UTC (3 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | fabiensanglard wrote:
       | This is beautiful. You can feel the passion.
       | 
       | I wish there was a blog attached to it to follow the developers'
       | journey in this super cool adventure :) !
        
       | msk-lywenn wrote:
       | I wonder how this compares with OpenLara
       | https://github.com/XProger/OpenLara
        
         | pandemic_region wrote:
         | The name seems purposely ambiguous, but perhaps I'm getting
         | old.
        
           | stavros wrote:
           | Hm, what's the ambiguity?
        
             | phs318u wrote:
             | I believe the ambiguity stems from the different
             | interpretations arising from reading "open" as a verb vs as
             | a noun.
             | 
             | I.e. a double entendre.
        
               | stavros wrote:
               | Hm, my mind kind of went there but it felt too sophomoric
               | to be intentional.
        
       | ionwake wrote:
       | Great work. When I first played this game it felt as real as when
       | I play any modern game today, if not even moreso.
        
       | nanna wrote:
       | With all due respect and without intending to troll, I just don't
       | get why people spend so many hours of their lives lovingly doing
       | things like this. TR is out there playable on various consoles, I
       | had it on the Saturn 25 odd years ago, I'm sure like the devs of
       | TR1X and Open Lara. Why bother remaking it? Genuine question.
        
         | hoten wrote:
         | For modding; for a better experience on modern system (higher
         | resolutions, etc.); for the joy of it.
        
         | zepolen wrote:
         | It's hard to explain why a creator creates to a consumer that
         | doesn't.
        
         | mbivert wrote:
         | Fun, challenge, learning, curiosity, etc.
         | 
         | I would personally _never_ spend that much time playing a video
         | game nor writing one, but that kind of passionate behavior is
         | commonly visible in the video game community (e.g. the recent
         | tetris records, speedruns, etc.)
        
         | poikroequ wrote:
         | All I can say is, I wish I was passionate and motivated enough
         | to work on projects like this. It doesn't have to be pragmatic
         | in any way, you do it because you want to. No different than
         | someone who may spend their free time working on old cars.
        
         | recursive wrote:
         | Think of it as as a hobby. Hobbies are good.
        
         | MrGilbert wrote:
         | Just for fun. No, really.
         | 
         | (https://justforfunnoreally.dev)
        
         | samstave wrote:
         | Mayhaps because games these days are FN humunguous! and require
         | daunting, powerful engines -- but games of old, that fit on a
         | disk, CD, DVD even might all be within the scope of an
         | individuals ability to tinker.
         | 
         | Also - OG games that built their own engines provide some
         | insight to incredible methods of wizards -- like when people
         | pick apart something Carmack did with what appears to be two
         | characters to create a whole [thing] - as opposed to a UE4
         | engine game is going to have a f-ton of opaque mechanics?
        
         | orblivion wrote:
         | If it's a faithful re-implementation I like the idea of it
         | being easy to make cross-platform. I don't think I'd ever play
         | this one, but I like the fact that ScummVM (and thus all the
         | old adventure games) can be implemented for iPad etc.
        
         | zzo38computer wrote:
         | One reason is to make a FOSS version, and other reason can be
         | to add improvements. Furthermore, with some game engines, you
         | might then be able to make your own sets of levels and other
         | stuff, without needing the original proprietary software to be
         | used with. You might also try to figure out the behaviour of
         | specific details of the game engine, so that the FOSS version
         | of the program may explain it. You might also be able to port
         | it to other computers. And, maybe, you just like to do it.
         | 
         | This can be the case with many other game engines too. In a few
         | cases, the original code may later be released as FOSS anyways
         | (or, in the case of ZZT, it was rewritten from disassembling
         | the code and made to produce the same executable file), but
         | sometimes it might not.
         | 
         | (I had made a FOSS implementation of Everett Kaser's MESH:Hero
         | game engine, and at least, the reasons I mentioned above are my
         | own reasons for doing so; I don't know if the people who did
         | TR1X have similar ideas and/or different ideas.)
        
         | nnnnico wrote:
         | There is art in it
        
         | moritonal wrote:
         | May I present Augustus (https://github.com/Keriew/Augustus)
         | which is a quality of life fork of Ceaser 3, only possible
         | because they rewrote it in open source.
        
         | boricj wrote:
         | Because it's fun.
         | 
         | I have my own ongoing decompilation/reverse-engineering project
         | for a video game. As part of it, I've accidentally stumbled
         | upon delinking, a very niche and esoteric technique for slicing
         | an executable back into object files. This turned into a two
         | year side-quest to create and improve my own tooling for it,
         | which has been by far the most interesting and intellectually
         | stimulating project I've ever embarked on. It's steadily
         | attracting attention (with some cool in-depth technical email
         | threads with various people around the world) and recently it
         | has even gained at least one active user.
         | 
         | Is there a rational reason why I've tackled this project?
         | Absolutely not. It's completely bonkers, both in idea and
         | execution. I've committed some wicked acts of heresy with it
         | according to conventional computer sciences wisdom, like
         | delinking code across platforms/object file formats and shoving
         | it into foreign systems in spite of ABIs.
         | 
         | Sometimes people just have an itch to scratch. Mine is to take
         | a chainsaw to executable files and make twisted chimeras out of
         | the torn off pieces.
        
         | GaggiX wrote:
         | >Why bother remaking it?
         | 
         | Reverse engineering the source code makes it much, much easier
         | to mod the game and add more fun stuff.
        
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       (page generated 2024-08-09 23:00 UTC)