This tweet caught me by surprise. The source codes to Catacomb & Hovertank 3D has been released under GPLv2. Check it out in the link below!

https://github.com/FlatRockSoft/

That's some history there. Very classy Flat Rock Software! :)

Cool! ^_^

Thanks for posting that link DustFalcon1985, Rock on! ^_^

NP! More codes to released soon. Hoping for Dangerous Dave sources to get released as well. :-D

Hey FlatRockSoft. Can we haz Hovertank 3D & Rescue Rover on GOG.com plz?

Indeed! Open-source does not mean that a store can't sell a program. ^_^
(In fact, now the source could be included with the bonus content!)

Would love to see more games released by Flat Rock Software on GOG. -_^

I'm really looking forward to source ports of those games in the future.

Carmack is a wonderful man for preaching the Open Source model. It helps us learn so much, and people have all ready done wonders with the Doom 3 source code. Quite fantastic, despite how old these games are. Looking at the code just makes me brain explode.

And now the source codes to Catacomb II and 3-D are released.

Carmack is indeed, but I don't believe he has any connection to Flatrock Software other than having written some of the games in the Softdisk catalog.

I'm a bit sad that even the one that's been downloaded the most hasn't been downloaded even 2 score times.

Where do you see the download counts? I only see "Stargazers"... 60 on Hovertank3D. 12 forks, but I don't see where the forks go.

You're apparently right there, I wasn't paying enough attention, although that's probably even more depressing as it isn't just restricted to people that are planning on using the code.

On the other hand, the number of forks on some of the games is something to be somewhat optimistic about. I'd love to see these games get a nice update to clean up the graphics and make them look a bit better on larger screens.

The engine is based on Commander Keen's, so it could be problematic. Is FlatRockSoft Softdisk?

I believe Blzut3 at the DieHardWolfers forum is going to implement the code in his Wolf3D source port, but I don't think that will mean cleaning up the graphics. Looking better on larger screens, yes. It looks like his source port handles widescreens pretty well.

I had originally though to make a source port, but those plans got shoved way on the backburners and it never got finished. I'd like to give it a go again because it should be pretty simple, but it's the "free time game" still and wanting to do too many things at once.

The #1 change for Catacomb 3D for me is to fix those "sticky walls"... hit a wall? You can't move until you're angled away from the wall (as opposed to sliding along walls while facing them in Wolf3D).

At least that's what I remember.

The details on that are sparse. But, Flatrock owns the Softdisk catalog. Also I thought Dangerous Dave came before Keen, so it would just be the later Daves where Romero wasn't involved that might have Keen source code.
I don't believe that the gliding walls in Wolf3d was intended behavior. The Catacombs behavior would be more like it's supposed to be.