In a surprise email from Raven Software employee James Monroe, James "Quasar" Haley of Team Eternity has been notified that the source code for Heretic and Hexen has been re-released under the GNU General Public License, and is now available from Sourceforge.
Having the code relicensed required a community effort spanning almost a decade. At its height, this included an online petition, an open letter, snail mail campaigns, e-mail, an international action item on GNU.org, insider efforts by Chris Rhinehart of Human Head Studios and Doom's own John Romero, and other activities carried on individually by countless community members.
This release is of monumental importance, as it will allow GPL Doom source ports to freely integrate support for Heretic and Hexen without requiring the code to be rewritten from scratch or to be emulated through empirical testing. The door is also now open for new ports such as "Chocolate" Heretic and Hexen, and for such ports to be distributed in free software packages.
DSOGaming writes: "Back in February, we informed you about an AI-enhanced high resolution texture pack for Hexen. Created by modder ‘gmh4589’, that texture pack significantly improved the textures of this classic shooter. And today, I’m happy to report that there is a new AI-enhanced texture pack for Heretic."
Take a note from Wolfenstein's protagonist William “B.J.” Blazkowicz and “get psyched” as we set our sights on five shooters we’d love to see get a modern reboot.
I'd love to see Perfect Dark get brought back. If they do, hopefully it'll be better than Zero.
Haha. Zero was an absolute train wreck. It's a shame because I loved the original to death.
I really would love SINGULARITY 2. The first one wasn't perfect, but it was a really cool concept and that Bioshock-eak vibe was awesome! Activision please let Raven off the leash on this one.
It's so rare to see a fellow Dark Sector fan. If that game only had a few more shades of paint, it would have easily made waves in the gaming industry but for what we were given I still consider it as one of my favourite shooters of last generation.
Definitely, and when seeing the armor of Dark Sector in Warframe, especially with the lore, it just made me like Dark Sector even more.
Blood/Heretic/Hexen/
EDIT
oh almost forgot, on a lighter note, NOLF, more people really need to experience NOLF
The developer has been bringing back all the classics in recent years, so what's next on the list?
I really would like to see the Heretic/Hexen series get a modern day remake next.
Commander Keen has a remade downloadable like they are doing the new Wonder Boy would be rad.
His comments don't really reflect any interest in Commander Keen. Doubt it will ever happen unless they palm it off.
I'd be happy for them to palm it of. They are palming off Quake I am sure they can palm of Commander Keen.
I would LOVE to see a Hexen remake. I played the shit out of the original as a kid
Raven Software did Heretic and Hexen which made them big to begin with. I want an actual Quake 5 from id Software next.
I've been wanting a new Commander Keen game for years, so l hope it happens soon.
Awesome. I already have these running under Doomsday anyway, but I'd love to see what people can do with this stuff.
Heretic especially was awesome..