Final Fight MD developer Mauro Xavier has revealed that he is making the game open-source.
Xavier says the source code will be released on GitHub, "ready to be fully compiled with the latest version of the SGDK." All ROM protection systems will be removed, and the game may even run without SRAM – although this will disable achievements and save games.
"The itch.io platform will also be used to distribute the binaries for free, but I will continue to accept spontaneous donations," explains Xavier. "I decided to adopt this approach before reaching version 1.0 because I'm tired of some comments about the project, especially regarding the donations I receive, as I never said since the start of my Patreon that it was specifically for Final Fight MD."
The developer feels that making the project open-source is his way of "giving back to everyone who believed in and supported this project, whether through donations, kind words, criticism, suggestions, promotion, or anything else that was important in keeping this flame alive."
The Brazilian coder says he will continue to polish Final Fight MD, but will "start talking more about Driftin' Rage and The Legend of Drakonnus, making these original projects more active in my programming journey during my free time."
Xavier also says he's open to someone taking the Final Fight MD code as a basis for "porting it to other consoles, especially the PC Engine or Supergrafx."