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Several questions inevitably are popping up when thinking about this:

Does this community as a whole have the will/conviction to push forward in this direction ?

Does it have the numbers of members willing to contribute financially and structure wise  ?

And who is willing to spearhead and lead this endeavor ultimately making decisions and taking responsibility for the utilization of funds and achieved codebase milestones ?

[@Cas]

@Cas
The points you mention all read very reasonable to me and I can't really find anything I would disagree about.

I still think from a "staying true to the original" point of view though that I would prefer a complete reverse engineered and then ported STUNTS codebase from assembly to C, C++ or C# (whichever language turns out to be the best choice in the end for a multiplatform portation) that then can be made run natively on all modern OSs (maybe even including mobile platforms with ensured crossplatform multiplayer functionality).

This would also allow for a feature where one could implement a "switch to the Original vs Remake Graphics&Sounds at Runtime" functionality aka as "Classic Mode" as showcased in games such as Halo Remastered for example:



The point I am trying to make is that it took 34 years to get where we currently are with STUNTS and that I believe putting some money behind this enterprise and hiring specialized experts will definitely expedite the process.

All this could and should then of course be open sourced and placed available to everyone's access online via Github & Co. 

I was honestly surprised how the assets of a game released 34 years ago still basically work on an engine released 3 decades later.

I personally think that before any serious and 100% true to the original remake (1:1 physics behavior) can commence, the original Stunts needs to be completely reverse engineered so it can be ported to any existing engine and still behave like the original.

Now I don't know about everyone else but I personally noticed over the years that if one really wants to achieve results (especially when it involves significant coding/programming related issues), investing money and establish contact with capable programmers for a specific task is the only way to achieve substantial progress in a tolerable amount of time.

Even if it turns out to be less than 30 people, if we all put our will and resources together it should be well achievable, which is why I wonder whether there have been attempts in the past by this community to make this happen instead of leaving it to time and single individuals in their free time only ?

If there weren't any coordinated efforts so far, how would you guys feel about finally trying to come together regarding the reverse engineering of Stunts ?

I am truly convinced everyone will benefit (even the die hard Stunts conservatives that love and enjoy the original Stunts builds only, as it would open up an unlimited supply of modding and customization even for the original DOS based game).

[Stunts Multiplayer Client and Server for DOSBox]

I am aware that a multiplayer support feature is already a niche category within a niche playerbase of a niche game (Stunts).

But for people like me that played the game back in 1990 and only could dream of being able to share the Stunts Universe with other players in real-time, projects like Stunts Multiplayer Client and Server for DOSBox by kurtis2221 are an absolute godsend.

Even though more than 90% of the community probably couldn't care less about multiplayer I think it is an outstanding achievement, especially when you consider that no official source code for Stunts was ever released.

@Matei:
1. Will eventually be solved once the game's codebase has been completely reverse engineered and thus can be ported to newer languages and OSs.

2. There are lots of ways (for example to lock physics simulations and netcode to a fixed tick rate) to prevent ppl with more performance to gain an unfair advantage or different behavior so I would consider this point to actually be a non issue too. 

Should enough people be interested and get involved in the financing and development, I am convinced that such a project could be completely setup as an open source project even with Unreal Engine.

[@Overdrijf]

Hey @Overdrijf, it was more of a general precautional term (as we currently seem to globally experience crazy times) and was not specifically directed at any recent forum activity 

Currently there are no downloadable builds of this project available as major features (like being able to load and distribute Tracks saved with the BLISS editor and have them propagated across all connected players in the network at runtime) have not yet been implemented.

The showcased example Track was manually placed.

Here is something I've been experimenting with in my free time trying to rehash a bit of my very own 1990s childhood's nostalgia with a modern game engine spin on it...

<click image to watch>

<click image to watch>

Now... I am aware that this is a VERY dedicated community and so before anyone gets riled up about the footage I'd like to state that this is just a personal project that I compiled together out of my very own nostalgic drive and interest to see Stunts rendered in a more modern game engine...

Work on this multiplayer capable prototype might seize at any point in time with or without a public build release...

With that being said I am constantly interested in working together with other people in the game industry so in case you have experience with game development in general or Unreal Engine in particular and in case you find this project interesting to work on, always feel free to drop me an e-mail or message...

Has anyone considered establishing a "multiplayer division" for Stunts where people build tracks and race each other in Duel Multiplayer ?