LOM Source Code Search

[banbeano]

I don't know how to start this thread eloquently, so I will just jump in. I love Lords of Magic. The game isn't just a highly nostalgic game for me, I feel as if the game sits as a pretty unique game in the pantheon of turn based strategy games. It deeply saddens me that the game has effectively fallen into obscurity outside of us devoted fans who keep the IP alive in our minds. While the game is 'playable' still with each passing version of Windows released it gets harder to run, and only weirdos like me who have a retro system can play the game without hurdles. When Rebellion acquired the rights to the franchise I was hopeful that they might be working on something behind the scenes, but after a couple of years and nothing coming of it I can only assume that they are not working on anything currently. What this game needs is a proper modern port, and I don't see that happening with the current rights holders.

There are two ways to create a modern port.
1) To backwards engineer the game from scratch. 
2) Find a copy of the original source code.

I have a background in software engineering and I have independently looked into the possibility of reverse engineering the game. While technically doable there are some fairly major hurdles dealing with how the game was built that would make it very difficult to backward engineer fully and correctly. If anyone is interested in what I found out in my research I can share what I know, but that isn't what this thread is about.

Finding the original source code would be the better option, so that is what I plan on trying to do.

The first step is to ask the community (You guys) if you are aware of any older attempts to locate a copy of the source code before me. Any information to get started would be helpful. Then after that go down the chain of people who might know something until all avenues are gone down.


While its a long shot, its worth doing in my opinion to save a game I love.

[Boaster]

I don't know that we'll ever have a source code. But I know some people have decompiled and recompiled the EXE. The EXE has some important bits in it. Along with the DLL files.

[banbeano]

Do you have any other details?
A fully and correctly decompiled executable would go a long way to creating a source port.

[Boaster]

Jun 18, 2024 13:02:47 GMT -6 banbeano said:

Do you have any other details?
A fully and correctly decompiled executable would go a long way to creating a source port.

I don't, really. And, it's been such a long time that I may be misremembering details.

Another guy who came through the forum and disappeared.

[banbeano]

I just did a quick search of the forums for the word "Decompile", it came up with a few hits but it was all theoretical with no actual legitimate attempts that I can find reference to here.

You might be thinking of this thread impz.proboards.com/thread/1627/screen-resolution


A decomplication is not impossible, on the contrary it would be doable if given enough time and effort. If you open up the EXE in a hex editor you can find tons of human readable information, including what appears to be a full debug log that gives partial header/code information. Unfortunately after looking through all that information I determined that LoM would be a difficult decomplication due to a combination of the game using archaic and proprietary library files, the use of an internal scripting language, and that the mpq files are not fully decryptable as of now.

I actually decompiled the EXE file using Ghidra and took a look, but I am not an expert at decomplication by any means and it would take a very long time to go through all 684,794 lines of it to figure out what it means.

That is why I wanted to start with a source code search rather then a decomplication and reimplementation, it would only take months rather than years to get up and running.