The private servers have been up a while. But it is always hard for fan projects to gain traction for devs, players, or donations, when the IP could be yanked at any time. NCSoft granting a license should provide one heck of a shot in the arm for this cult classic game.
Go. Hunt. KILL Skul!
Daybreak Games has done something similar with EverQuest (released in 1999). People have written a server emulator from scratch but it requires an official client from the early 2000s. Almost everyone playing on the emulated servers has to download a pirated copy of the client, but Daybreak has said that they’re cool with it.
The interesting thing is that Daybreak still runs official paid servers of EverQuest after 25 years and is still cool with the emulator crowd.
Have they actually officially given their blessing to Project 1999 and people pirating old copies?
Last I checked, the P99 team’s official stance was still ‘we can’t help you acquire an old copy’
Respectable!