After many years, the source code for "Meridian 59", the groundbreaking MMORPG from 1996, has been released to the public, allowing fans and curious developers the chance to download everything that goes into the classic game.

The source code allows the ability to find information on the game and how it works, and also comes with tools such as the room editor needed to create new content.

From the post by Andrew Kirmse (known in-game as "Zaphod"), one of the two original lead programmers of Meridian 59 and owner:

" The Meridian 59 source is available at https://github.com/Meridian59/Meridian59 . I'll also put the link up on meridian59.com soon.

The license file comes with the source, but in short:

- The source is licensed under the GPL. A brief summary is that if you make any modifications and distribute the results, you must also make the changes available.

- "Meridian" is a registered trademark, which you may not use without our written permission.

- The game resources (artwork, audio, etc.) are not open source. If you are interested in redistributing them, please contact us.

You are welcome to propose changes to the repository, and we'll review them and incorporate those we like into the master repository, as well as publishing them on 101 and 102. We may have to work out a contributor agreement for copyright purposes before we can do this. There are also wiki and bug tracking features on github that we haven't started using yet. I'll be reading the Open Source forum here at least until we get an official forum set up for the codebase.

In other good news, we got enough donations from some kind souls to keep the game up through at least the rest of the year! Please consider donating, especially if you find the source useful, so that we can keep the servers up indefinitely.

We hope that people enjoy running and improving the game as much as we have over the last 18 years. "

- Zaphod

A NEW forum has been added to Gilroy's Message Boards dedicated to discussion about the source code: Gilroy's Message Boards -> Meridian 59 -> Open Source

There you will find many threads written by developers and Meridian 59 explorers trying to fix, find and create.

All new content/code created and published can be submitted to Andrew and Christopher Kirmse for review to be included on the regular Meridian 59 client that is available at the official website, www.meridian59.com, and is played on two US-based servers, 101 and 102. (More information is available at the download site and within Gilroy's Message Board forum - links below)

This allows a special opportunity for players and the curious alike to work together on furthering their own skills as developers and possibly even Meridian 59.

Thank you to the Kirmse' for their decision on finally releasing M59's inner workings for all the fans and game archaeologist's out there.

Links:

http://www.gilcon.net/m59forum/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=4217&posts=14&start=1

https://github.com/Meridian59/Meridian59

Source: Andrew Kirmse, Christopher Kirmse