# OpenDW: porting Dragon Wars to a C game engine

> OpenDW ports Dragon Wars from its 16-bit DOS implementation toward a C game engine for modern environments. It builds an SDL2 frontend and uses the player's original DRAGON.COM, DATA1 and DATA2 files; the repository also includes resource extraction tools.

- Type: Case study
- Targets: Game
- Category: Independent reconstruction cases
- Relationship: Independent reconstruction project
- Sources reviewed: 2026-11-07
- Added to the catalog: 2026-11-09
- Original resource: <https://github.com/devinsmith/opendw>
- Primary source: <https://github.com/devinsmith/opendw/blob/e9765e66ff51dcbfe658306822b23567827f83ad/README.md>
- Catalog page: <https://awesomerea.org/resources/opendw-dragon-wars-case/>
- Record JSON: <https://awesomerea.org/resources/opendw-dragon-wars-case/record.json>
- Chinese version: [简体中文](https://awesomerea.org/zh/resources/opendw-dragon-wars-case/index.md)

## Requirements & limits

- **Prerequisites:** Requires the original DRAGON.COM executable and DATA1 and DATA2 files.
- **Prerequisites:** Requires SDL2 and CMake to build; unit tests additionally require Check.
- **Prerequisites:** On Linux and Unix, the original game filenames must be lowercase and placed beside the build.
- **Limits:** The C port is described as an attempt.
- **License:** ISC license.

## Primary sources

1. <https://github.com/devinsmith/opendw/blob/e9765e66ff51dcbfe658306822b23567827f83ad/README.md>

## More in Games

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- [OpenPREY: a replacement engine for PREY (2006)](https://awesomerea.org/resources/openprey-prey-2006-case/index.md) · Case study

## About this entry

The description was reviewed against primary sources.
Original editorial content: MIT. Linked projects, papers and assets retain their own rights and licenses.