6 ms·

Freeablo – An open-source Diablo engine

247 points by bane 10y ago

oridecon 10y ago
Is there controller support? I know the UI is not made for that but I always wanted to try it.
- jakebasile 10y ago
  There was a PSX version of Diablo. I'm sure a ROM is floating around somewhere. It was pretty terrible though :)
  - mewmew 10y ago
    The Japanese Playstation 1 release of Diablo 1 did include debug symbols though! https://github.com/sanctuary/notes/issues/1 https://github.com/sanctuary/notes/issues/1
    - jakebasile 10y ago
      Thank you for this, I'll enjoy reading through this and some of the linked material. Diablo 1 is the game that got me into gaming and it holds a special place in my heart.
santaclaus 10y ago
Too awesome! Someone should run this through emscripten and have Diablo in the browser.
- dleslie 10y ago
  That would require distributing the art assets without a license.
  - ygra 10y ago
    Or reading a 500 MiB file via file APIs.
    - mewmew 10y ago
      https://github.com/doggan/diablogl https://github.com/doggan/diablogl
marricks 10y ago
For people hoping to just download and play be aware, it doesn't include art files. Need to get those from original Diablo. > freeablo is a modern cross platform reimplementation of the game engine used in Diablo 1. As it is just an engine, you will need the original data files to play the game. > #Installation > Copy DIABDAT.MPQ and Diablo.exe from your diablo install into the folder with the freeablo executable. (NOTE: only version 1.09 of diablo is currently supported, so please patch to that version)
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
dancek 10y ago
The most recent release (0.3) is from 2015-08, but apparently there's been good progress recently.
zavandor 10y ago
Any bets how long it'll take for a cease-and-desist letter from Blizzard for this one?
- tormeh 10y ago
  It's just an engine - you have to get the content from Blizzard. OpenMW is doing the same with Bethesda.
  - zanny 10y ago
    You don't have to get consent from anyone without reusing, redistributing, or modifying their copyrighted materials. A cleanroom reverse engineering is perfectly legal, without any "permission", in most countries.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
    - prewett 10y ago
      Yes, but distributing the copyrighted art with your clean-room reverse-engineered engine is not legal. Hence, no art is available for this engine, and you have to procure your own copy of the art, presumably from the CD you purchased, in order to use the engine.
  - zavandor 10y ago
    That's what FreeCraft folks thought too
    - dleslie 10y ago
      That was a dispute over the name; rather than fight it they changed the project name to Stratagus[0] and released Wargus[1]. 0: https://launchpad.net/stratagus https://launchpad.net/stratagus 1: https://launchpad.net/wargus https://launchpad.net/wargus
- codingdave 10y ago
JustSomeNobody 10y ago
Wouldn't libre-ablo be a better name?
- GFK_of_xmaspast 10y ago
  Depends on if you want to pronounce it or not.
smegel 10y ago
Good. I found the only way to play Diablo on a modern system is WinXP in virtualbox and with certain compatibility setting enabled. Was painful to get working.
orionblastar 10y ago
If only I could find the old Diablo CD-ROM that I had owned. Not sure where I put it, but if I find it I will give this a try.
Waterluvian 10y ago
The beauty of a project like this, is that you get plenty of experience and fun building an engine, without being up the creek on art assets, game design, etc. Some of my favourite personal projects are where I wholesale rip off assets from other games, used as placeholders for assets that will never arrive. My creative space is then the underlying engineering and game systems.
shmerl 10y ago
Nice. Now we just need the game distributed DRM-free on GOG for the art assets. https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/diablo_i_diablo_ii_and_diablo_iii_expension_packs_and_soundtrack_and_maybe_some_wallpapersart https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/diablo_i_diablo_ii_and_di...
ThePadawan 10y ago
For anyone interested in contributing to open-source game engines, there is a nicely curated list (by language and game genre) at http://osgameclones.com/ http://osgameclones.com/.
- clarry 10y ago
  I've been thinking of making such a list (with all these filters!), but thankfully someone beat me to it. One thing I'd like to see though would be the extension to include open source game projects that aren't clones or remakes.
  - ekianjo 10y ago
    There's a lot of open source game projects that are not clones, but also a lot of them are just unfinished, unmaintained, buggy or just crap as well.
SXX 10y ago
How it's compared to Flare? (http://flarerpg.org/ http://flarerpg.org/)
YeGoblynQueenne 10y ago
Wow, nice, but gosh- freeablo?

247 points by bane 10y ago

oridecon 10y ago

Is there controller support? I know the UI is not made for that but I always wanted to try it.

jakebasile 10y ago
There was a PSX version of Diablo. I'm sure a ROM is floating around somewhere. It was pretty terrible though :)
- mewmew 10y ago
  The Japanese Playstation 1 release of Diablo 1 did include debug symbols though! https://github.com/sanctuary/notes/issues/1 https://github.com/sanctuary/notes/issues/1
  - jakebasile 10y ago
    Thank you for this, I'll enjoy reading through this and some of the linked material. Diablo 1 is the game that got me into gaming and it holds a special place in my heart.

santaclaus 10y ago

Too awesome! Someone should run this through emscripten and have Diablo in the browser.

dleslie 10y ago
That would require distributing the art assets without a license.
- ygra 10y ago
  Or reading a 500 MiB file via file APIs.
  - mewmew 10y ago
    https://github.com/doggan/diablogl https://github.com/doggan/diablogl

marricks 10y ago

For people hoping to just download and play be aware, it doesn't include art files. Need to get those from original Diablo. > freeablo is a modern cross platform reimplementation of the game engine used in Diablo 1. As it is just an engine, you will need the original data files to play the game. > #Installation > Copy DIABDAT.MPQ and Diablo.exe from your diablo install into the folder with the freeablo executable. (NOTE: only version 1.09 of diablo is currently supported, so please patch to that version)

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

dancek 10y ago

The most recent release (0.3) is from 2015-08, but apparently there's been good progress recently.

zavandor 10y ago

Any bets how long it'll take for a cease-and-desist letter from Blizzard for this one?

tormeh 10y ago
It's just an engine - you have to get the content from Blizzard. OpenMW is doing the same with Bethesda.
- zanny 10y ago
  You don't have to get consent from anyone without reusing, redistributing, or modifying their copyrighted materials. A cleanroom reverse engineering is perfectly legal, without any "permission", in most countries.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - prewett 10y ago
    Yes, but distributing the copyrighted art with your clean-room reverse-engineered engine is not legal. Hence, no art is available for this engine, and you have to procure your own copy of the art, presumably from the CD you purchased, in order to use the engine.
- zavandor 10y ago
  That's what FreeCraft folks thought too
  - dleslie 10y ago
    That was a dispute over the name; rather than fight it they changed the project name to Stratagus[0] and released Wargus[1]. 0: https://launchpad.net/stratagus https://launchpad.net/stratagus 1: https://launchpad.net/wargus https://launchpad.net/wargus
codingdave 10y ago

JustSomeNobody 10y ago

Wouldn't libre-ablo be a better name?

GFK_of_xmaspast 10y ago
Depends on if you want to pronounce it or not.

smegel 10y ago

Good. I found the only way to play Diablo on a modern system is WinXP in virtualbox and with certain compatibility setting enabled. Was painful to get working.

orionblastar 10y ago

If only I could find the old Diablo CD-ROM that I had owned. Not sure where I put it, but if I find it I will give this a try.

Waterluvian 10y ago

The beauty of a project like this, is that you get plenty of experience and fun building an engine, without being up the creek on art assets, game design, etc. Some of my favourite personal projects are where I wholesale rip off assets from other games, used as placeholders for assets that will never arrive. My creative space is then the underlying engineering and game systems.

shmerl 10y ago

Nice. Now we just need the game distributed DRM-free on GOG for the art assets. https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/diablo_i_diablo_ii_and_diablo_iii_expension_packs_and_soundtrack_and_maybe_some_wallpapersart https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/diablo_i_diablo_ii_and_di...

ThePadawan 10y ago

For anyone interested in contributing to open-source game engines, there is a nicely curated list (by language and game genre) at http://osgameclones.com/ http://osgameclones.com/.

clarry 10y ago
I've been thinking of making such a list (with all these filters!), but thankfully someone beat me to it. One thing I'd like to see though would be the extension to include open source game projects that aren't clones or remakes.
- ekianjo 10y ago
  There's a lot of open source game projects that are not clones, but also a lot of them are just unfinished, unmaintained, buggy or just crap as well.

SXX 10y ago

How it's compared to Flare? (http://flarerpg.org/ http://flarerpg.org/)

YeGoblynQueenne 10y ago

Wow, nice, but gosh- freeablo?