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Community developers plan to bring new life to [classic 1990s video games](https://hackweek.opensuse.org/25/projects/port-some-classic-game-to-linux) by reviving and reverse engineering some classic games during a project during [Hack Week 25](https://hackweek.opensuse.org/).

The project calls on participants to select an older game, analyze its data formats and underlying rules, and write a clean-room engine capable of running the original assets.
The project calls on participants to select an older game, analyze its data formats and underlying rules, and write a clean-room engine capable of running the original game content.

Many games from the era are simple enough that contributors can produce a playable prototype within the week.

The classic-games project, which has grown over multiple years, has titles such as [Master of Orion II](https://store.steampowered.com/app/410980/Master_of_Orion_2/), [Chaos Overlords](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_Overlords), and [Signus: The Artifact Wars](https://github.com/signus-game/signus).
The [classic-games project](https://hackweek.opensuse.org/25/projects/port-some-classic-game-to-linux), which has grown over multiple years, has titles listed such as [Master of Orion II](https://store.steampowered.com/app/410980/Master_of_Orion_2/), [Chaos Overlords](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_Overlords), and [Signus: The Artifact Wars](https://github.com/signus-game/signus).

Work on Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares, regarded as one of the defining 4X strategy games of the 1990s, has become the project’s flagship effort. Developers have decoded savegame formats, resource files and interface screens across several Hack Weeks. The current open-source engine can load original save files and display galaxy and fleet data, but other systems like ship design, colony management and research still require some reverse engineering.
Work on Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares is regarded as one of the defining 4X strategy games of the 1990s and has become one of the project’s flagship effort. Developers have decoded savegame formats, resource files and interface screens across several Hack Weeks.

The team working on Chaos Overlords identified resource formats, mapped much of the logic and begun developing a Qt-based interface resembling the original’s mouse-driven design. The game’s AI remains one of the toughest puzzles. Contributors calling it critical to the game’s identity.
The team working on Chaos Overlords identified resource formats, mapped much of the logic and begun developing a Qt-based interface resembling the original’s mouse-driven design. The game’s AI remains one of the toughest puzzles. Contributors are calling it critical to the game’s identity.

Earlier efforts include Signus: The Artifact Wars, a Czech turn-based strategy title open-sourced in 2003. Developers continue to refine support for original file formats and work toward packaging improvements for openSUSE.

Participants frequently suggest new candidates and companies and Individuals are encouraged to join.
The invitation to bring together contributors mirrors the spirit of another Hack Week 25 effort underway this year: a project to [bring missing YaST features into Cockpit and System Roles](https://news.opensuse.org/2025/10/29/hw-project-aims-to-bridge-yast-cockpit-gaps/) following YaST’s deprecation from [openSUSE Leap](https://get.opensuse.org/leap/) 16.0.
Participants frequently suggest new candidates. Companies and individuals are encouraged to join the project and hack on it for fun.

Another Hack Week 25 effort underway and the project aims to [bring missing YaST features into Cockpit and System Roles](https://news.opensuse.org/2025/10/29/hw-project-aims-to-bridge-yast-cockpit-gaps/); this comes following YaST’s deprecation from [openSUSE Leap](https://get.opensuse.org/leap/) 16.0.

Hack Week, which began in 2007, has become a cornerstone of the project’s open-source culture. Hack Week has produced tools that are now integral to the openSUSE ecosystem, such as [openQA](https://open.qa/), [Weblate](https://weblate.org/) and [Aeon Desktop](https://aeondesktop.github.io/). Hack Week has also seeded projects that later grew into widely used products; the origins of [ownCloud](https://owncloud.com/) and its fork [Nextcloud](https://nextcloud.com/) derive from a Hack Week project started more than a decade ago.

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