SUPPORT BOARD OVERVIEW & TIPS:

About Receiving Help from the Support Board: While all members may answer questions posted in the Support board, you should only rely on responses posted or confirmed by support moderators and website administrators. Any solutions provided by members of the community that are not verified by a staff member (as indicated by a light-green background) are provided as-is, and we cannot take responsibility for any of the results of said actions.

About Responding to Support Threads: If you feel you know the answer to a question, you are welcome to respond to the thread and politely offer assistance. Please be courteous and try to provide detailed and helpful solutions to users who may not be as advanced as you. We ask that you refrain from posting one-sentence solutions.

Please search for existing topics before creating one! It's quite likely someone else has already encountered a similar issue which was resolved. You can search for existing support threads by clicking here .

About Topic Tags:

* Topics denoted with the [OPEN] tag are awaiting a response from the end user. You are welcome to post in these threads if you are experiencing a similar issue so we may provide further support.

* Topics denoted with the [RESOLVED] title have been successfully answered and confirmed by a support moderator and the end user, and should be used as a reference. These topics are locked.

* Topics denoted with the [CLOSED] tag were either inactive for more than 30 days or the end user did not respond to a suggestion and confirm if the issue was resolved. These topics are locked.

lightbulb Marble Blast Gold Source Code?

  • sillysailboat
  • sillysailboat's Avatar Topic Author
  • Offline
  • New Marbler
  • New Marbler
  • Posts: 2
  • Thank you received: 0
20 Jun 2022 03:19 #1
Hi all,

I was wondering if the source code for MBG has ever been released. The reason I ask is to make the game more accessible. For those who don't know, the original MBG is unplayable on newer apple computers and macOS releases (Catalina and onwards). This is because MBG is a 32-bit x86/PPC binary, and Apple decided to absolutely forbids 32-bit apps from running anymore.

While Windows users can still enjoy the 1.4 release, which is largely equivalent, the 1.6u release bundled with many mac computers in the early 2000s (my childhood) may be lost forever. I'm hoping to translate the binary to the x86 64-bit instruction set so that those who love this game can continue to have access to it. Having the source code would make this far easier than trying to reverse engineer it.

So, does anyone know if there's source code? Or more technical info on the binary itself?

Thanks in advance :)
  • Kalle29
  • Kalle29's Avatar
  • Offline
  • Moderator
  • Moderator
  • I blame ping for losing
  • Posts: 986
  • Thank you received: 756
20 Jun 2022 05:24 #2
Short answer, no, there is no public source code.

The full story is longer and involves trying to purchase ownership rights and blah blah, but the important part is that we don't have the source code.
༼ ͡◕ ͜ ʖ ͡◕༽ You have been visited by the Nivea™ Donger of moisture. Soft skin and good fortune will come to you, but only if you post "thank you Mr. Skeltal" in this thread ༼ ͡◕ ͜ ʖ ͡◕༽
  • sillysailboat
  • sillysailboat's Avatar Topic Author
  • Offline
  • New Marbler
  • New Marbler
  • Posts: 2
  • Thank you received: 0
22 Jun 2022 04:06 #3
We'll see what the future brings. Thank you pardner
  • HiGuy
  • HiGuy's Avatar
  • Offline
  • Lead Developer
  • Lead Developer
  • PQ Developer Emeritus
  • Posts: 1334
  • Thank you received: 605
22 Jun 2022 05:21 #4
Longer answer: There has already been a decent effort trying to reverse engineer the relevant parts of the game engine and port them to more modern engines. Check out github.com/MBU-Team/OpenMBU/ for the MBU team's work reversing Marble Blast Ultra (with some MBG compatibility). Various people have ported the engine's systems to other languages, such as the nearly-complete rewrite in Haxe by RandomityGuy: github.com/RandomityGuy/MBHaxe and the more clean-room rewrite by Vanilagy (with different physics) at github.com/Vanilagy/MarbleBlast Other than that, if you want to try contributing to the reversing effort, there are various copies of MB floating around in much easier to port forms than just the MBG exe. You might be able to find one if you DM the right person, but it's unlikely they would be posted in public, considering copyright etc.

If all you want is to play MBG on modern versions of macOS, I would recommend using the Windows version of the game and some form of Wine (eg Crossover). It's relatively performant for the base game considering it was written for 2003 hardware. It even works on the M1 via Rosetta translation.
This signature is real code
Code:
function clientcmd12dothepq() { commandToClient(LocalClientConnection, '34onthedancefloor'); }
Moderators: Doomblah
Time to create page: 0.937 seconds
We use cookies

We use cookies on our website. Some of them are essential for the operation of the site, while others help us to improve this site and the user experience (tracking cookies). You can decide for yourself whether you want to allow cookies or not. Please note that if you reject them, you may not be able to use all the functionalities of the site.

Ok Decline