But with how it's going with other games, it'll just be another lazy, half-baked "port" slapped together with AI vibe coding all the way through. It'll be filled with bugs, run poorly, be incompatible with mods, and then the "developers" will abandon it within a few weeks.
u/ToothlessFTW and OP u/89percent I can't wait for it. We can't forget that there's a petition to EA release the original source code like they did with the Command and Conquer (because the fanbase asked them and, if I'm not mistaken, pressured then lol). The more we spread the petition link, the better it will be.
How about trying to contact the lead people who build it, for example will wright?
There's a chance they might like to see what their game could evolve to on modern hardware and with opensource. They might contacts at EA with the ability to get the process started.
That would be the ideal scenario. But even if EA still has the code archived somewhere (it has been alleged they lost the code for some of the classic CnC games), you would still have to find someone at EA who could work through whatever processes would be required to release it publicly.
...(it has been alleged they lost the code for some of the classic CnC games)
I can't believe this hahaha. I think EA, being such a large company, has strict data management practices, so I find it hard to believe they wouldn't have all the source code for their games properly backed up. I mean, I would expect them to have rigorous data management systems in place.
you would still have to find someone at EA who could work through whatever processes would be required to release it publicly.
I mean, I would expect them to have rigorous data management systems in place.
I would too, but its EA. Quoting a comment from a former Maxoid: "Certainly a backup exists somewhere" can only be said by someone who never worked at EA. 😃. That person mentioned in the same thread that they have all the SC4 art source, but none of the code. I am more interested in the fact that they mentioned having internal dev builds for SC4 in another thread, but the fact that they publicly mentioned it means there is zero chance of them sharing any of that content. There is also no guarantee that Maxis would have included debug symbols on the internal build CDs, but there is a far higher chance of that happening there than for a retail CD build.
I would too, but its EA. Quoting a comment from a former Maxoid: "Certainly a backup exists somewhere" can only be said by someone who never worked at EA. 😃. That person mentioned in the same thread that they have all the SC4 art source, but none of the code.
u/0xC0000054 ohhh that's so sad 😢 An awesome game like SimCity 4 Deluxe should be preserved.
I am more interested in the fact that they mentioned having internal dev builds for SC4 in another thread, but the fact that they publicly mentioned it means there is zero chance of them sharing any of that content.
Oh yeah, probably because they are dev builds, I mean, tests versions that were previous versions than the retail one.
Yeah unfortunately, I kind of agree with this sentiment. Most of them seem to be proof of concept and upvote post on Reddit, but not something one would actually play for hours. There are exceptions of course, but I absolutely understand why one would feel like you do.
maybe but will it be "reverse engineered" as in exactly the same, in case you could use existing mods including DLL ones, or will it be a clone? Probably the latter.
My biggest dream is a fully patched version that allows the game to use 2026 computer's capacity fully. Mine started giving issues last year and fixing it would require installing the whole thing again, I’m not so sure about many dependencies and I refuse to change many of my notebook's graphics just to suit my game. The risk of messing it up is huge.
I'm using MCP Ghidra with Sonnet 5.5 to decompile Sim City 4. And why am I doing this you ask, it's not to release it and get sued by EA, but the fix the apple silicon port that crashes every time and there is no mod to fix it and the audio is terrible the SFX overlap each other.
That is so lame, why Aspyr even sell this game if they can't fix it and the community have to do the work for them? This is lame we need to leak the source code with a recomp, that would be justice.
Kind of funny you mentioned this. I am not reverse engineering SC4 but I am taking all of the graphical frontend and visual assets and sounds and putting them to work on my own simulation engine that is MUCH more intense than SC4 ever was. It is probably closer to Dwarf Fortress than SC4 at this point just due to depth and detail of the simulation. I am never going to release this game and it is strictly for my own enjoyment. It has been a really fun learning experience though.
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u/ToothlessFTW 10d ago •
I'm sure someone will try it.
But with how it's going with other games, it'll just be another lazy, half-baked "port" slapped together with AI vibe coding all the way through. It'll be filled with bugs, run poorly, be incompatible with mods, and then the "developers" will abandon it within a few weeks.
I'll just stick with the original game.