Spyro Reborn

LoneKnight · Mar 06, 2007 2:54 AM

All right, those of you who know me know that I have a particular interest in the original Spyro the Dragon engine. For those of you who don't take a seat, and read the following:

What is a game engine? It's the core of a game, all of the information pertaining to the game, making it what it is. Picture it as the engine to a car; completely necessary and the sole main piece of function the rest of the vehicle.

What is a source code? The coding within the game, the specifics on how everything works.

Perhaps you have heard about the Grand Theft Auto Online project? Or, a better example would be the FSSCP, or the Freespace Source Code Project. Freespace was an old[er] SpaceSim. The company that created it was known as Volition. Volition moved onto bigger and better things. A few years ago, the fan community of Freespace convinced Volition to release the source code for the Freespace engine. With this, the community was able to modify the entire game. The performance and graphical capability was increased, and the gamers could create missions of their own. The grand theft auto project, similiarly used the source code engine to port it to make it fully functional online. Read about the Freespace Source Code Project here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freespace# … de_Project

The whole point of mine is this: If ever Insomniac was to release or accidently let the source code out, modders could make their own game of Spyro, in a nutshell. I brought up this topic regarding the building tools that Insomniac used to create the game, or an editor. An editor is where the level designers essentially put everything into the game. An editor coupled with the engine would make possibilities limitless. However, editors can be created with just the engine, it just complicates things.

I am just fascinated with the idea of gamers being able to take the game of Spyro to the next step; making their own campaigns and continuations of the Spyro world with the original engine.

Make note that the newer versions of Spyro are completely different engines that were made, either for the fact of copyright issues, or because of newer technologies. You can often tell this based on factors such as loading, capabilities, and physics. I'm not interested in the newer ones, however, and the old ones are perhaps in our grasp.

Now, here's the issue we all face. Insomniac controls (and shares) the engine/source code as well as editor for Spyro. I believe that the main thing that would possibly prevent them from releasing this would be that they don't own the rights. In most cases, the company would have no problem with this. However, it seems Insomniac is very careful, moreso than other companies about any possible copyright infringement. They won't even answer questions regarding Spyro, short of referencing you to the current owners. BUT, the current owners don't own the original Spyro engine soley.

BUT, no one has ever even asked the question about the source code or the editor. I think this is a great opportunity for all of us, to try at least.

So, the whole point of this thread is dedicated to working on retrieving the original Spyro source engine and/or editor for level design. If anyone finds information regarding this online or has anything on Insomniac that may help, please share.

I am going to update this myself, as more information becomes available to me. I plan on emailing Insomniac in the not-too-distant future with a detailed letter regarding this. Any thoughts?

Spyrorocks · Mar 06, 2007 5:04 AM

Im sorry to say, but that would be imposable. They only created 3 games, I don't even know if they would have a engine created for it.

LoneKnight · Mar 06, 2007 8:07 PM

Excuse me? You cannot have a game without an engine. At my estimation there have been three engines built for Spyro at this point. Insomniac stuck to one, one was created for ANB, and the other was for Hero's Tail.

Spyrorocks · Mar 06, 2007 8:48 PM

not all games are created with an engine. Some of them are done by hand, you know.

As for getting the engine for any spyro game (Which would be pretty much impossable), it won't happen because they want to make money off of the games, and with a bunch of 3rd party games around, they would no longer make any money off of it. Unless they sold the engine, but even then spyro isnt in that much of a demand.

Zekira Drake · Mar 09, 2007 9:21 AM

Å½ Â· It's a shame that Spyro isn't really that famous around the net, so it's very much a very low possibility that the engine wouldn't be given out. Heck, I'm betting that it was already discarded or something. Not to be a pessimist or anything, heh, it's just that it is most probably not gonna be true. BUT if anyone here gets the chance to become a programmer for Insomniac (I'd be a game programmer, but I don't have intentions for them, unfortunately), it would be nice if you dig in their ancient files. ^_^

Spyrorocks · Mar 09, 2007 8:59 PM

Yeah, and also if you would like to loose your job and get sued, you could do that.

jamieque · Mar 16, 2007 12:38 AM

Honestly, I wouldn't even bother with trying to get the old engine. It has already been discarded for much more updated version. The rights of who owns what is so *bleep* complicated that you would be better off making your own engine to do a Spyro game. That is what I am working on at the moment for the LOA: Heroes games. The original engine is so old as of now that you would literally have to either rebuild it or patch it to death to make it do what you want to do with it.

It just wouldn't work so if you have the time you may have to create your own engine. However, it is not easy to do. Be sure of what you want to do before you contribute that much work to it.

Spyrorocks · Mar 16, 2007 2:25 AM

Well said, jamieque.

#1 Mar 06, 2007 2:54 AM

Spyro Reborn

#2 Mar 06, 2007 5:04 AM

Re: Spyro Reborn

#3 Mar 06, 2007 8:07 PM

Re: Spyro Reborn

#4 Mar 06, 2007 8:48 PM

Re: Spyro Reborn

#5 Mar 09, 2007 9:21 AM

Re: Spyro Reborn

#6 Mar 09, 2007 8:59 PM

Re: Spyro Reborn

#7 Mar 16, 2007 12:38 AM

Re: Spyro Reborn

#8 Mar 16, 2007 2:25 AM

Re: Spyro Reborn

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