Star Wars Galaxies Emulator Test Server Hits Alpha

CoffeeHedake writes "The SWGEMU (Star Wars Galaxies Emulator) Team has successfully run their first Alpha stage test of a reverse-engineered version of Sony Online Entertainment's Star Wars Galaxies server software. An announcement was made on the SWGEMU bulletin boards that something special would be shown in their IRC channel at 12:00AM EST Today. A hosted video montage of the successfully connecting the SWG client to an emulated server, loading a character, zoning from one area to another, and other huge leaps were shown in the clip." Read on for more information, including links to the video clip.

CoffeeHedake provides a pointer to the forum and current announcement, and links to the video at several mirrors:

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CoffeeHedake continues "This all comes after much very bad press for SOE, after completely changing the game mechanics of Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided. The game has had a rocky history, with nerfs and bugs abounding, but the latest 'NGE' or New Game Enhancement patches have led to the detrimental decline in player population. SWGEMU was formed with the hopes of allowing players to 'roll back' their experiences to a Pre-'Combat Upgrade' state of the game, months before the ill-fated NGE was implemented."

"The SWGEMU will allow private, emulated game servers to be run by anyone with the hardware and bandwidth to support the load, possibly allowing customized environments, and game mechanics, as well as a 'dungeon master' control of the server, possibly even over a LAN."

"News has spread, even throughout the Sony Online Entertainment forums of SWGEMU's latest success. No word from Sony, as of yet."

I'll give odds

[Trigun]

That this goes the same way that the everquest server emulator went.

Oh dear god...

[SatanicPuppy]

Well, that definitely opens SWG up for continuation for when SoE decides to flush the project, and it makes it possible to implement some of the changes that people have been clamoring for forever, unhindered by Sony's jackassed design philosophy

And it's going to make it possible for Sony's legal team to achieve their "absuive lawsuit quotient" months ahead of schedule.

Seriously. It's like they're begging to be crushed. I can't think of a company with less sense of humor than Sony, and I really can't think of anyone who protects his IP better than Lucas. They're going to combine to form some sort of mega-legal-robo-proctologist, and they're not going to stop until they get to the back of the SWGEMU team's teeth.

I guess I'm happy and sad for them. They're like happy little lemmings.

Re:So what?

[Anonymous Coward]

To be honest, a big fat SO WHAT.... truth is, SOE screwed the game over so hardcore that even die-hard star wars fans have already moved on. It's splendid that they're creating an emulator, kudos, BUT I seriously doubt they'll see the fan support required to grow further than a curiosity to gamers.

A big reason why the SWGEMU crew is trying so hard to pull this off is so that they can get private servers up at the stage where the game was still fun to play. You know, before SoE started teleporting people into space for complaining over massive changes that essentially disemboweled the game they signed up to play.

Those of you weeping over this, try http://www.eve-online.com/ [eve-online.com] Sure it's nothing like SWG, but it's a MMORPG that actually seems to give a damn about it's userbase and isn't catering to the largest $$ segment of the population

Amen to that. EVE has a very steep learning curve, but that's been a blessing in disguise to me - the amount of griefers, kiddies, and general idiots is far, FAR below the MMORPG average. Having an unsharded universe also helps that ... no need to worry about being on a different server than your buddies. And the developers are active on the game boards as well, which gives you a lot more sense that you're actually helping to shape the way the game is played.

I still miss my old Kestrel+Cruise setup though.

Captcha in a post about MMORPGs = lifeless. How appropriate. :)

it was a good game

[xeithmazz]

i played this game several times for a couple months at a time (launch, during the CU, during the NGE) and all they did was make it suck more and more as time went on. sony killed the star wars mmorpg, let it be dead.

IP already paid for?!

[PWNT]

I am not entirely sure the correctness (and want someone to clarify if I am incorrect) of these next few statements. Purchasing the game is different than playing online in the SWG servers. Some may find there is no distinction, however Sony sells the game, and bundles a FREE 1-2 month pass to the servers. The game is sold separately. From a contractual standpoint, does this not mean the consumer has ALREADY paid for liscensing costs for SWG? The server does not manipulate the actual Lucas Arts IP, mearly gameplay aspects. Adding to the fact that this should fall under "fair use" exemptions, so long as the core Lucas IP is not messed with. Sony mearly provides some algorithm development and a data storage/serving SERVICE for a FEE. Supposing it was all clean room reverse engineered, as stated above, so long as the actual data on the install CD's (or updated to whatever patch #) are not altered, we should be in the clear. The instructions residing on the server are probably not covered by copyright. Am I wrong?

Eve astroturfing?

[Wind_Walker]

Why is it that every single MMORPG discussion on Slashdot ends up with a 5-rated post espousing the virtues of Eve-Online? I'm not saying you're directly to blame, but it seems to me that Eve-Online has some great PR people who constantly beef up their sales, always with a link to the site.

Kinda upsets me a bit.

Ohh, No! Stupid, stupid, stupid!

[Qbertino]

Please don't tell me this is true? You've wasted your braintime on the most milked franchise in the history of mankind only to be sued to chunky kibbles by Sony/LucasArts/YouNameIt the instant this goes gold? Please, no, don't tell me this is true.
If only they had put their efforts into Planeshift [planeshift.it] to get it on with a viable open source alternative to WoW and GuildWars. But, no, they had to ripp a commercial product. Great. Wonderfull.
What a waste of brainpower.

Re:UO

[christian.elliott]

I played UO for 7 years, and not once did I pay for it, except when I found the CD in a bargin bin (4.97!). From shards with 26 people to shards with 2000 (In Por Yelm/RunUO), hell I even was Co-Admin of another. And as far as I know, alot of shards are still going quite strong. But I really think that UO was the exception to most free shards programs. The emu was created very quickly, and the fact that all the client had todo was change their login.cfg made it very easy. Also the fact that UO was the "first" of it's kind, alot of the fanbase (that didn't defect to EQ) finally got fed-up with Origin when they started going "Trammy" and pretty much destroyed the PVP system helped the move to free shards. Good to hear that abbreviation though, it's been a while ;P

Re:Ohh, No! Stupid, stupid, stupid!

[thasmudyan]

The problem is not brainpower, it's creativity. While there are lots of people capable of reverse engineering protocols and emulating the necessary data structures there seems to be a distinct lack of developers with enough vision to create something new from scratch. Likewise, the sky is full of people who _want_ to create something new but can't follow through on a technical level.

Maybe it's also about motivation: create an SWG emulator now and enter the hall of fame, and very possibly be either hired or gruesomely executed by Sony. The alternative: "I helped to create an Open Source MMO before it was forked five times and lost its only player" - just doesn't compare to that.