Unreal Match 2004 has been resurrected and made obtainable to play at no cost, due to a fan group.
As beforehand introduced late final 12 months, the OldUnreal group was given permission by Epic Video games to make Unreal Match 2004 obtainable to obtain at no cost.
Now the group has made the sport obtainable (as noticed by PC Gamer) and likewise launched a brand new patch – its first “in over 20 years” – which permits the sport to run on fashionable PCs, with quite a few optimisations and bug fixes.
Gamers trying to play the sport can entry the OldUnreal web site, the place Home windows customers can obtain an auto-installing .exe file.
Operating the .exe file begins an set up course of which downloads an authentic sport disc picture from the group’s personal file servers, then extracts the disc picture, installs the sport and routinely applies its newest patch to it.
This patch permits the sport to run on fashionable PCs and provides new options, corresponding to widescreen enhancements and the choice to play in resolutions as much as 4K.
Linux and macOS customers can even play the sport, however they need to obtain the installers from the OldUnreal Github web page and apply the patch manually.
That is simply the most recent sport OldUnreal has made obtainable to play at no cost with Epic Video games’ permission – it additionally has related auto-installers for Unreal Gold and Unreal Match: Recreation of the Yr Version.
The group will now proceed to work on future patches to repair bugs – each people who had been current within the authentic sport, and people newly created by the act of creating the sport work on fashionable PCs.
“Clearly, there may be numerous work nonetheless to be achieved, however we needed to begin someplace,” a press release reads. “A few of you will have seen bugs within the patch preview. Some are side-effects of taking part in at a lot greater body charges than had been widespread in 2004, others are legacy bugs from the ultimate official model that went unnoticed again then.
“Lastly, there are fairly a number of regression bugs. That is unlucky however inevitable given the scope of this replace – moreover the seen modifications, we needed to do vital work simply to get the sport to compile and run on fashionable programs. Relaxation assured that essentially the most seen and gameplay-impacting bugs can be fastened promptly (or have already been fastened internally).”
