The game's name is Diaspora, it has been out since about 1999.  A couple of years ago, the company that created and ran it went under.  The community base has been developing the game ever since.  The community is made up of about 300 players, divided amongst 4 different spinoffs of the game.

The game was distributed as a standalone j++ compiled java exe.  To keep the game alive after the company went under we originally extracted the .class files from the exe and decompiled them to get the source.  Another player wrote his own server from scratch, also in java.

This is where we will be picking up.  With an old version of the server source, and a current version of the client source.  

The game itself is addicting and fun.  It's set in space.  Where you trade, fight, make and break alliances, form guilds, take over planets, build your character up over time and try to compete with everyone else doing the same.  You start from almost nothing, and by far the worst ship in the game, with only 20,000 in cash.  It usually takes a little over a month of playing about 2 hours a day to reach the top ship.  Once there you have to fight to maintain it.  The political atmosphere of the game is VERY thick.  I challenge you all to try it.  http://www.net-diaspora.com

That is just 1 of the 4 "clones" there is to this great game.  The ultimate hope of this project is to re-unite the community to one single game, and to attract new players and develop the game further than the creators ever hoped.



If you're interested, or want any information whatsoever on the project, email me: doc@dr-dimento.com

This project will be open source