Diablo 2 - Source Code Lost

GamePressure reports that the source code for Diablo 2 has been lost, leading to speculation around the future of a potential Diablo 2 Remaster.

Fans of the iconic Diablo II would like to see the remaster of the game on their screens. Some of them would probably prefer to return to the world of the Sanctuary in the refreshed Diablo II rather than in the recently announced fourth installment. However, the devs of the original version believe that the chances are low, because its source code has been damaged. However, not everything makes sense in the statements given to the editorial staff of GameSpot.

Max Schaefer, Erich Schaefer, and David Brevik, the fathers of Diablo, were guests at the ExileCon 2019. During one of the panels, they were asked about the most horrible moment in the developing of the second installment. It turns out that after 11 hours of work, developers irretrievably lost the code core and all resources. They didn't foresee such a problem, so they didn't make any backups.

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There is an open-source D2 project in the making. You need original assets (MPQ files). Very early but looks promising, map generation works, etc.

https://github.com/OpenDiablo2/OpenDiablo2

"It turns out that after 11 hours of work, developers irretrievably lost the code core and all resources. "

So it only took them 11 hours to develop the code core of Diablo II, and then they lost the code - Ah Ha!

Well the source is probably not lost. The original high quality 3d assets and models are. They can do the Beamdog and just update the engine, add a new UI and voila here's your enhanced edition.

Originally Posted by SpoonFULL
"It turns out that after 11 hours of work, developers irretrievably lost the code core and all resources. "

So it only took them 11 hours to develop the code core of Diablo II, and then they lost the code - Ah Ha!

And all the assets. Which they also created in those 11 hours, of course.

Which has nothing todo with the remaster.

This article is tremendously confusing.

I would think with something as important as that, they'd have multiple backups including off-site.

I'll be hoping some long forgotten back-up will be discovered sometime in the near future.

Originally Posted by tekulte
I would think with something as important as that, they'd have multiple backups including off-site.

In Activision, you don't keep backups of singleplayer games. Singleplayer is dead.

Didnt Blizzard say something similar about world of warcraft?
I think that if there is enough money in it they will make it happen. If there isnt, they will keep making excuses.

How do you irretrievably lose source code unless you wipe the disk? Did somebody run amuck with a neodynium magnet? Maybe it's encrypted and they forgot the key?

Originally Posted by rjshae
How do you irretrievably lose source code unless you wipe the disk? Did somebody run amuck with a neodynium magnet? Maybe it's encrypted and they forgot the key?

Hard disks can crash and be totally lost, as can any kind of media, internal or otherwise.
I worked on server based applications for decades and we lost hard drives all the time. Backups always saved the day (and our jobs!).

Thus my puzzled comment regarding an (apparent) lack of backups in this case. It really makes no sense to me.

Originally Posted by tekulte
Thus my puzzled comment regarding an (apparent) lack of backups in this case. It really makes no sense to me.

You'd think people would have learned a lesson from Margot Kidder's breakdown. Apparently not.

Originally Posted by joxer
In Activision, you don't keep backups of singleplayer games. Singleplayer is dead.

Quote of the year Joxer.

Since after Warcraft III every Blizzard game was online only.

Let it be said again I despise online SP games.

I'm not sure why missing assets matters. A remaster would be using a new engine with new assets anyway right?

Version controlling + backups make it almost impossible, it sounds kind of fishy.

I would think a remaster would use new assests with the same basic engine. You want to keep game play pretty close to the original experience with some improvement to the UI (when required - not relevant to a game like diablo 2) and improved graphics. If you redo the game engine there will be subtle changes to the game (for better or worse).
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I find it amusing if these people lost the source code; pretty low iq thing. Yes if you are developing something your disk can crash - but once the game go gold you should have a dozen backup - i mean a backup only cost a nickel for something of this nature.

Originally Posted by Greygore
I'm not sure why missing assets matters. A remaster would be using a new engine with new assets anyway right?

The source code hasn't been lost. 1.14x patches of the game are from recent years and the Brevik+Schaefer brothers trio went from Blizzard long time ago. They are talking about something else. The assets shouldn't be too hard for Blizzard to produce again (they would have to do it anyway if they want to remaster the game). Problem is they don't want to do it.

Originally Posted by Greygore
I'm not sure why missing assets matters. A remaster would be using a new engine with new assets anyway right?

Even if you completely redo, let's say, the textures, you'd want to have the original ones as a starting point or template.

It works without that, but it probably takes longer.

Originally Posted by kazga
Problem is they don't want to do it.

Maybe. Blizzard might still do it, but of course the "fathers of Diablo" discussed in the article won't be involved. The main issue here is that they might take paying customers away from Diablo 4. So Blizzard would either have to do that as early as possible, or a sufficient timespan after D4 release.

It looks amazing scaled on recent monitors and doesn't need an HD reboot at all. Interpolated resolution blurring is a thing of the past.