Descent
3 ports
Descent / Descent II (DXX-Rebirth)
dxx-rebirth/dxx-rebirth
DXX-Rebirth: a Descent and Descent II port that continues the discontinued D1X and D2X, which in turn built on the original Descent source code and LDescent. It has one engine per game, D1X-Rebirth and D2X-Rebirth, which work independently, and it’s compatible with both full games, all of their expansions, and third-party levels, as well as with the pilot files, savegames, demos, and missions from the DOS versions. It renders with OpenGL, with optional transparency, colored lighting, texture filtering, and FSAA, at any resolution and aspect ratio your monitor supports, with VSync. It supports several joysticks at once alongside keyboard and mouse, MIDI, CD, or your own music files, and add-on packs that replace or expand the games’ content. Multiplayer runs over UDP, on a LAN or over the internet. It records smaller, less glitchy demos that stay compatible with the original games’, and it avoids the glitches that higher game speeds used to cause, such as overly fast homing missiles or excessive collision damage. The latest numbered releases on GitHub date from 2016 and 2018 (0.60 beta 2); to play without building it, the project points to the GitHub Actions builds for x86-64 Windows, macOS 14 on Apple silicon, and x86-64 Linux (AppImage). Four of its last 100 commits, from August and by a single contributor, state in their messages that they were made with help from OpenAI Codex.
You needThe data files from your own copy of Descent (descent.hog and descent.pig) or Descent II (descent2.ham, descent2.hog, descent2.s22, and its environments’ .pig files), for example from the GOG release; Descent II’s movies are optional. The free Descent shareware and Descent II demo data, PC or Mac, work too. Plus Windows, macOS, or Linux.
Descent / Descent II (DXX-Redux)
dxx-redux/dxx-redux
DXX-Redux: a Descent and Descent II source port based on DXX-Retro, which in turn builds on DXX-Rebirth. There is one engine per game, D1X-Redux and D2X-Redux. Many of its changes are for multiplayer; among what it adds are an observer mode (with separate options per game mode, third-person views, bomb timers, and damage lists), demo improvements, including automatic demos, customizable team colors, a borderless window, joystick axes usable as buttons, a classic option with no ammo autoselect when you run out, game logs split into separate files, an option to show only confirmed hit sparks, and crash dumps. Version 1.1 (January 25, 2025) ships builds for 32-bit Windows, Linux (also one with sdl12compat), and macOS (Intel and Apple silicon); the data folder on Linux and macOS is now called redux instead of rebirth, and since 1.0 the Linux package works on the Steam Deck. It builds with CMake and vcpkg in Visual Studio, or on Linux and with MSYS2. Its last change is from September 14, 2026.
You needThe data files from your own copy of Descent and Descent II; the README doesn’t list them. Plus Windows, Linux, or macOS.
Descent / Descent II (DXX-Retro)
CDarrow/DXX-Retro
DXX-Retro: a Descent and Descent II source port aimed at quality competitive play, committed to the original gameplay except where the original “sucked.” It’s based on the Rebirth project and has one executable per game, D1X-Retro and D2X-Retro. The latest stable releases are 1.3 for D1X-Retro and 1.3a for D2X-Retro (January 20, 2017), with builds for Windows and macOS. The experimental ones, up to 1.4X6 (January 17, 2018, D1X-Retro only), added custom ship colors, an observer mode (with first- and third-person views, and Ctrl+1 to 8 to follow each player), demo and co-op fixes, and building on macOS with scons. The last code change is from April 2023. DXX-Redux, another project for the same games, builds on it.
You needThe data files from your own copy of Descent or Descent II; the README doesn’t list them. Plus Windows or macOS (the downloads are from 2017 and 2018); on other systems, build it.
Questions
What projects are there for Descent?
The catalog has 3 ports for Descent, all on this page with their status.
What do I need to play it?
Your own copy of Descent (DOS). Recompendium only links projects that don’t distribute the game, and each entry says which version or region you need.
Which one is the most popular?
Descent / Descent II (DXX-Rebirth), with 641 stars on GitHub.