[Help Request] Hellgate: London C++ Source Code

**omerta99** · 08-14-2016

Hello, I have sort of an interesting situation on my hands that I would love some insight on from people more experienced with hacking/reverse engineering... And stick with me to the end, this really is a C++ help request

First, a very short history:

Hellgate: London was a PC game released in 2007 by Flagship Studios with a majority of its functionality on MMO-ish centralized multiplayer servers. In 2009, the company behind the game shut down and took down the servers with it.
In 2011, HanbitSoft/T3Fun (who had acquired the IP) re-released the game as Hellgate: Global. In 2015, Hellgate: Global was also defunct and all references to it have been removed from T3Fun/Hanbitsoft's properties.

I was a huge fan of original game and have thought about the game every now and then since it shut down. But a few weeks ago, a code leak from 2011/2012ish resurfaced on a Hellgate fan forum. The leak actually focused on another game by Flagship Studios (called Mythos) but after some digging it was clear that the leak was actually the entirety of the server suite for Hellgate AND Mythos.

It is a large C++/C# codebase with dozens of Visual Basic solutions, SQL files, custom utility programs, 3rd Party libraries, etc. As a bonus it seems to include utilities for unpacking game client data files and repack them (great for modding).

I have gotten the WatchdogServer (the central server that coordinates the user server, authentication, game data server, etc) to compile but I am starting to near the far reaches of my knowledge of C++/C# and especially building software in the VS/Windows ecosystem (I am an open source developer with 10+ years of experience, however).

If I am correct that the code leak contains enough to set up a private server for Hellgate: London, it would be an incredible revelation for thousands of former players (think Project 1999 for EverQuest); as such I have been spending loads of time working on it, but I am struggling to come up with ways to involve other people who might be interested in lending a hand (especially if they have experience in C++/C#/Visual Studio). I feel like even if someone wasn't a fan of the game itself or never played, this would be an awesome challenge (I know it has been for me!).

If anyone has any advice or could point me in a direction, I would love to hear from you! And if anyone wants to check out the code/what I've done so far, I started a wiki and can share the URL if you join the Discord room using code "bRQGSD7" (I am not allowed to post URLs on here yet!). If you join the Discord channel listed on that wiki or PM me on here with your email address I can add you to the bitbucket repo.

Thanks for reading this far, I am really excited to work on this project!