Hello there, I am a former player in the small, but dedicated community for the long dead MMO game Wind Slayer.

I have been looking to play the game for 7 years, and just assumed that someone else would come along and create a private server. Since I've been waiting about 4 years since the last time I heard any discussion about a private server, I figured I'd have to do this myself.

I have all of the game's files, I am looking for a team who would be willing to develop a private server. Already checked on the status of the game's IP and the developer (Hamelin) is a dead company, also; none of the former publishers (Outspark, and Ignited) exist either. So copyright concerns won't be an issue since the game isn't owned by any companies as of today.

Link to the game's files for anyone who's interested: http://download.cnet.com/Windslayer/3000-7540_4-10857324.html

 

1 hour ago, DaddyEso said:

So copyright concerns won't be an issue since the game isn't owned by any companies as of today.

This is not true. Copyright doesn't disappear when companies close down.

Copyright doesn't disappear when companies close down

What does disappear is the will to enforce said copyright.

However, if the companies shut down, but the asset were bought by someone or some other company, then a current owner actually exists.

If you're building this just for fun (not for profit) you may have less to worry about, but the best way to get an idea of what's a good or bad idea would be to talk to a licensed legal professional in your jurisdiction.

Regarding building a server, that may be simple if the game is straightforward, if the protocols are well documented, and if the game doesn't use encryption. If there is no existing server to compare to, and if you're not good with reverse engineering, and if the game uses encryption that makes it hard to even figure out what it's trying to do on the network, you may have much bigger challenges.

2 hours ago, hplus0603 said:

 

 

What does disappear is the will to enforce said copyright.

However, if the companies shut down, but the asset were bought by someone or some other company, then a current owner actually exists.

If you're building this just for fun (not for profit) you may have less to worry about, but the best way to get an idea of what's a good or bad idea would be to talk to a licensed legal professional in your jurisdiction.

Regarding building a server, that may be simple if the game is straightforward, if the protocols are well documented, and if the game doesn't use encryption. If there is no existing server to compare to, and if you're not good with reverse engineering, and if the game uses encryption that makes it hard to even figure out what it's trying to do on the network, you may have much bigger challenges.

 

It's a dead IP

I'm not looking for profit, just want to play the game again with all the others who want to as well.
As for the game, very simple. (as in less than 100 different enemy types simple)

It has been years since I last logged on to this forum in order to post something, however I feel obliged to step in in order to clear a few things up since the TS had initially discussed this with me on my Discord server.

With regards to encryption, most likely yes, as is the case with any early-2000 era Korean MMO. The good news is that it is often a simple cipher they pull out of their arse; often something barely more complicated than a simple foreach xor with some magic constant on the whole packet. Generally speaking, tracing forward from WSARecv until the decryption subroutine is found should be sufficient.

With regards to existing servers, there are no existing servers. In fact the last sign of any serious attempt to make a private server for Windslayer was back in late 2012. Any private server attempt now will essentially be an uphill battle. There are also no binary or source leaks, so one will have to grind at captured packets and the disassembly the old fashioned way. Suffice to say, their custom file formats still need to be figured out, which is always fun. Sarcasm implied.

Lastly with regards to the protocol documentation, I believe it's fair enough to say that it simply doesn't exist. Though speaking from experience with these early-2000 era Korean MMOs, we can assume that it's simple message-passing, usually exclusively TCP, with packet headers consisting of 2 bytes for the packet size followed by 2 bytes for the opcode, followed by per-opcode custom data that we can safely assume is never bitpacked. Encryption is usually only applied to the bytes after the custom header. Message structures may sometimes be unnecessarily recycled for more than one opcode in some of the games I've looked at / worked on. Needless to say, keeping in mind the fact that Korean MMO developers love to make their clients authoritative will help with deducing message structures from captured packets.

Just to be clear, I am in no way affiliated with the TS. I manage a Discord server for a server emulator project (for a completely unrelated game) that I head the development of. The TS simply hopped on and started talking about reviving Windslayer, and since he isn't well-versed in the technical aspects of server emulator development for legacy Korean MMOs, I decided to hop on here and clear some things up for him.

Before I go, I must admit that Spiritus in Terra is up there with some of the best black metal I've heard in years. Keep up the good work Kylotan, from a fellow developer/MMO networking enthusiast who's similarly a guitarist in an underground death metal band.

Based on that information, I would say that, to create a private server, you need to be very highly skilled in reverse engineering of software. If OP (DaddyEso) has those skills, then this might be a fun year-long project. If OP is looking for resources to do that work, I think that would be very hard to find, because people with those skills generally have more rewarding projects to choose from.

Idk you you were in game, but I'm super looking forward to the progression of this (if you do decide to start/continue!

- Serin (KWS/WS2Trapper) / Highness (Perm Novice) / Devil (Trapper) / Love (Priest) (WS1/2/KWS)

On 1/8/2018 at 10:00 PM, Serin said:

Idk you you were in game, but I'm super looking forward to the progression of this (if you do decide to start/continue!

- Serin (KWS/WS2Trapper) / Highness (Perm Novice) / Devil (Trapper) / Love (Priest) (WS1/2/KWS)

The OP has already given up on this until a competent and motivated developer offers help. In any case I've already disassembled the networking lib and translated the packet encryption/decryption subroutines to pseudocode for him out of boredom a while back.

Hello. I'm korean. Now, many people is wating windslayer private server on korea community site. Can you tell me about windslayer private server progress?