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A little bit of gaming history just got the MIT license treatment. Habitat from Lucasfilm Games is now available under the MIT license on github.

From the official release announcement:
QuoteIn 1986, LucasFilm Games and Quantum Link launched an original game world known as Habitat. It was unlike anything available for the Commodore 64 at the time, and it required its owners to be online with a modem-based dial-in service that billed by the hour. Qlink, as it was known, would go on to be called AOL.


They do note they need help getting AOL on board with this:
QuoteIncidentally, we do need help inside AOL, as they are the last IP holders involved we’ve not formally engaged with, and thus, their libraries are omitted from this release. We would appreciate any help we could get in preserving QLink and its surrounding environments. They, too, are an important part of our digital heritage.


I love open source and how it can be used to help keep games alive, much like the open source re-implementations we have in OpenRA and OpenXcom, it's also good to see original source code get released for such classic games.

Find the github here.

Thanks Gamasutra. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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6 comments

Slackdog Jul 7, 2016
I remember this coming out - Jebus! I. Feel. Old. :P
InverseTelecine Jul 7, 2016
So... what was the game like? Anybody ever play it? I'm really curious what an MMO from the Commodore 64 days was like!
DrMcCoy Jul 7, 2016
That is pretty neat indeed, yes. :)
I'm personally not a fan of that macro assembly dialect they used on the C64 side, but YMMV.

For somewhat related historically significant assembly code, there's the (assembly) sources for the original Apollo 11 guidance computer. On GitHub here: https://github.com/chrislgarry/Apollo-11 and more information here: http://www.ibiblio.org/apollo/.
Caldazar Jul 7, 2016
I never played it but I have to say, nowadays game trailers aren't quite the same anymore.
View video on youtube.com

Will GOL get a Mainframe running?


Last edited by Caldazar on 7 July 2016 at 6:12 pm UTC
Mountain Man Jul 7, 2016
I had a QuantumLink account for about two-years as I was finishing up high school and then cancelled it when I went to college since I knew I wouldn't have the time or money to keep up with it. Man, those were the days. Never did play Habitat since it came out right around the time I ended my subscription, but I remember wistfully reading about it in the pages of COMPUTE!'s Gazette.
badber Jul 9, 2016
Seems very cool. See the link for some gameplay recorded back in '88 on a VCR. :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTtIzLZGNLw
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