Heretic and Hexen Sources Re-released Under the GPL

[Quasar]

In a surprise email from Raven Software employee James Monroe, James "Quasar" Haley of Team Eternity has been notified that the source code for Heretic and Hexen has been re-released under the GNU General Public License, and is now available from Sourceforge.

Having the code relicensed required a community effort spanning almost a decade. At its height, this included an online petition, an open letter, snail mail campaigns, e-mail, an international action item on GNU.org, insider efforts by Chris Rhinehart of Human Head Studios and Doom's own John Romero, and other activities carried on individually by countless community members.

This release is of monumental importance, as it will allow GPL Doom source ports to freely integrate support for Heretic and Hexen without requiring the code to be rewritten from scratch or to be emulated through empirical testing. The door is also now open for new ports such as "Chocolate" Heretic and Hexen, and for such ports to be distributed in free software packages.

[kristus]

:O ZOMG, Epic WIN!

Wow. that's awesome. Never thought that would happen after all these tries and silence.

EDIT: FIRST POST OF EPIC!

[Siggi]

Probably the best news we've had in recent times.

Congratulations to everyone involved. :)

[Mechadon]

Wicked awesome. I was really surprised :O

[fraggle]

This is really great news. Big thanks to Quasar for leading this long and arduous campaign, and to James Monroe for taking the time to do the re-release.

[CODOR]

Is it April 1st already? Oh well, like I always say: the best time for an April Fool's joke is in September, when no one expects it.

Great news, though! Thanks for your -- and everyone else's -- hard work in getting this done.

[Stilgar]

And here I'd given up hope that it would ever happen.

This is excellent.

[lupinx-Kassman]

About time. Nice job Quasar.

[HackNeyed]

I don't even really play Heretic and Hexen but damn this makes me smile!

I know there has been ZDoom and Doomsday and in part Eternity for some time now... I'm just saying a "Chocolate" or "PrH*****" version might just bring me over.

[Udderdude]

Cool beans.

YES I STILL CARE ABOUT HERETIC :P

[RestlessRodent]

ASDUIHOJSAFUGFkal

AWESOME

heh maybe the ZDooms could be GPLed =P

[Csonicgo]

efjkghaewlk;ghal;dkjf;lasdkjf;laskdjfg;lkasjdg;lsdakj


HOLY FUCKING SHIT



I guess that email I sent to Ken Love helped somewhat? :P


:(

[Captain Red]

Do I need to worry about current Hexen mods written for zdoom/gzdoom being broking by future releases zdoom/gzdoom re-written with the official source?

[esselfortium]

Captain Red said:

Do I need to worry about current Hexen mods written for zdoom/gzdoom being broking by future releases zdoom/gzdoom re-written with the official source?

They're already using the official source, it just wasn't under a GPL-compatible license, so many ports couldn't legally implement any of it.

[Bucket]

I agree with the above sdkfjaelriuasbndlfasuhdfgkajerngaklejgnadfg HOLY CHRISTING FUCK sentiments.

[40oz]

NICE

Someone make source ports. PRONTO

[Kaiser]

GhostlyDeath said:

heh maybe the ZDooms could be GPLed =P

Don't make me laugh plz...

[Butts]

this is cool

[EarthQuake]

I had dreams of this happening!
Fucking epic win!

Btw, is there a way we can contact James Monroe to express our gratitude?

[chungy]

Csonicgo said:

I guess that email I sent to Ken Love helped somewhat? :P

Corelation is not causation.

[Xtife]

HOLY SHIT

doom history has been made!!

[andrewj]

Wow, great news! I thought it'd never happen.

[Fletcher`]

I never would have expected it.

[Kinsie]

GhostlyDeath said:

heh maybe the ZDooms could be GPLed =P

Kaiser said:

Don't make me laugh plz...

Graf Zahl said on the ZDoom Forums...
GPLing ZDoom won't be easy. There's several pieces of code that prevent it:

- FMod
- The OPL emulator
- Some Build code in the software renderer.

Obviously for GZDoom I could take out the software renderer and the OPL emulator (even though some people might complain about that one) but removing FMod would require writing a completely separate alternative sound module using a completely free sound library.

And this doesn't even address all of Randy's code that is in files that are still under the Doom license - although I don't think this is an issue.

All of the Strife code was reverse engineered from the EXE by reproducing the disassembly as C code. I can't say how this is to be treated.

(And just in case anyone asks: If the sound module issue gets resolved I will relicense GZDoom under the GPL even though it means sacrificing some code.)

So it's not entirely out of the question, but it'd need a bit of elbow-work.

[iori]

Wonderful news!

[Snarboo]

Fuck. Yes.

Always great news when something like this happens. :D

[Nuxius]

Wow, this comes as a total shock, LOL.

As most others have already said, totally epic.

Many thanks to Quasar, James Monroe and others in making this a reality! :D

I'm looking forward to Chocolate Heretic and Hexen, now. *coughs* :p

[CodeImp]

WIN :D

[exp(x)]

This is certainly something to celebrate.

It'd be even better if I actually liked Heretic and Hexen.

[duvel]

Hooray, maybe when HTC gets released you'll all have shiny new Heretic limit-removing windows ports to play it on! Instead of just ZDoom like I know a good 75% of you will use. It's like Christianity in America, or something.