This is not enough, the code is old with vulnerabilities that will be exploited with automation nowadays. To correctly do this you need open source server code, or to have it maintained.

[–] mox@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

This is not enough, the code is old with vulnerabilities

You have misunderstood. I am not talking about continuing to run the old server binaries.

[–] barryamelton@lemmy.ml 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

What do you mean by specs then? The protocol? The "protocol" is the ABI of the server binary, the logic of it. The networking protocol is super simple. You need the server code for replicating any server.

[–] mox@lemmy.sdf.org 0 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

I mean whatever is needed for the community to replace/maintain the servers, just as I said.

That would obviously include the network protocols, but might also include data structures, API contracts, map data, timetables, and any number of other things.

I wrote in general terms deliberately, since it would mean different things for different games, and to allow for the possibility of releasing source code instead of descriptive specs.

(And no, source code is not the only way to do it. If that were the case, the community-developed game servers that have been made through reverse engineering could never have existed.)