> But I think that an open-source release of Unreal Engine 1 that could potentially give us the power to fix these issues, would be great.

It'd also let us mod things way beyond what's reasonably possible by default, port the thing to other CPU architectures, port to other OSes..

I'm quite disappointed that the games industry at large doesn't care about their customers enough to open source their code.

For anyone who missed it, EA just announced that they will release the C++ source code of Red Alert 1. (It's not completely clear whether they will release all of the source.) [0]

You're right though, it's a pity this doesn't happen more often. As we've seen with Quake and classic DOOM, it doesn't even have to amount to a giveaway, as the game assets can remain payware.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23249964

They might want to avoid 3rd party licensed software issues, and/or possibly in their archaic restricted mindsets, any user enjoying a decades old game ported to current hardware becomes one less customer purchasing a new title.

Check GMDX. Also, The Darkest Mod.