Update 14/11/2024 - 17:28 UTC: an Epic Games Spokesperson replied with a short statement:
We can confirm that Unreal 1 and Unreal Tournament are available on archive.org and people are free to independently link to and play these versions.
So there you have it, both games are officially properly free to grab. As approved by Epic Games.
Original article below:
Epic Games announced back at the end of 2022 that they were pulling a whole bunch of classics like Unreal Tournament and Unreal from stores, along with turning off servers, but now it's a bit easier to get them running again.
The news comes thanks to the OldUnreal team, who have been publishing patches for the likes of Unreal Tournament for a long time now. Shared in the GamingOnLinux Discord yesterday, was the news that the OldUnreal team are now providing easy installers for both the original classics: Unreal Tournament and Unreal.
However, to be clear, these installers actually pull the ISO downloads from the Internet Archive. OldUnreal's team said (via their Discord) yesterday they actually now have "Epic's approval to distribute the Unreal Gold ISO". A few days before, another OldUnreal team member also mentioned (via Discord) how "With Epic's permission" they were linking to the downloads from the Internet Archive for both games.
Pictured - Unreal Tournament
Their installers for Unreal Tournament and Unreal are currently Windows-only, so hopefully Linux builds will come eventually. For Linux, there's actually a Flathub installer for Unreal Tournament that pulls in OldUnreal updates too, but you still need to grab the content yourself (available in the Internet Archive). The OldUnreal team also pointed out there's Lutris installers for both Unreal Gold and Unreal Tournament.
Doing my due diligence, I've reached out to my Epic Games contacts directly to see if I can actually get a proper confirmation that Epic Games really did give their approval for all this. Will update on any reply I receive.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Linux_Rocks 4 days ago
Wow, Epic did something good? A blind squirrel finds the occasional nut, I guess. lol
ElectricPrism 4 days ago
Then of course it could get the Doom and HL treatment and get RTX ray-tracing and other QOL improvements and kinder a modder community and cult following.
It's funny to think that their business partner's core values of chinese ideology are more in line with freely sharing inventions and not hoarding ideas or likeness.
It's great that people are free to play however I feel like the hole in the genre has been filled & replaced by GPL'd https://xonotic.org
Quoting: emphyBack on topic: I see on their github that they are also working on arm builds. That would be a raspberrypi port?
Or macOS silicon?
Quoting: Liam DaweUpdated with statement from Epic.
So basically... abandonware of sorts?
Quoting: _wojtekQuoting: emphyBack on topic: I see on their github that they are also working on arm builds. That would be a raspberrypi port?
Or macOS silicon?
Checked on the oldunreal website, and it is for Linux Cortex-A72. That includes pi4 and pi5?
If so, I expect there may be an install script on retropi in the not too distant future.
Last edited by emphy on 15 November 2024 at 2:22 am UTC
Quoting: ElectricPrismThese titles are so old they should license the code as open source and dump it on the net. It would do well for their legacy and reputation to immortalize their roots.
Last I heard, Sweeney said he would, but there are too many libraries used.
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/epics-tim-sweeney-says-that-unreal-engine-1-may-one-day-go-open-source/
Quoting: TechnopeasantWell, that's plausible. If it wasn't Sweeney I might give the benefit of the doubt.Quoting: ElectricPrismThese titles are so old they should license the code as open source and dump it on the net. It would do well for their legacy and reputation to immortalize their roots.
Last I heard, Sweeney said he would, but there are too many libraries used.
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/epics-tim-sweeney-says-that-unreal-engine-1-may-one-day-go-open-source/
Quoting: TechnopeasantQuoting: ElectricPrismThese titles are so old they should license the code as open source and dump it on the net. It would do well for their legacy and reputation to immortalize their roots.
Last I heard, Sweeney said he would, but there are too many libraries used.
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/epics-tim-sweeney-says-that-unreal-engine-1-may-one-day-go-open-source/
That was nearly ten years ago. I am thinking that if, by now, they haven't hired a team to dig through the code to replace those dependencies, chances are that it will never be done.
The oldunreal team also seems to be too small for a project of this scope.
Last edited by emphy on 19 November 2024 at 4:02 am UTC
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