edit: here's the announcement from the TF2C Discord:
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@everyone We'll have more to say later, but you might not be able to launch TF2 Classic for a little bit due to the massive SDK update and public release of Team Fortress 2's code.
We're already preparing for the porting efforts and a potential Steam release now that we've been legally enabled to pursue that, but in the meantime, you will have to shift Source SDK Base 2013 Multiplayer to the "previous2021" beta branch that still has the previous revision of the SDK files to continue playing. See the screenshot for an example.
Given they call out derivative works of the original games being ok, and those works can be released as new games on steam seems to clear the way for TF2 Classic.
Wow! They’re making landing pages like the old TF2 updates and even making shorts. This is obsessive. I love it. Also, check out how big the team is. Holy crud.
It's very good. Most of my TF2 hours back in The Day were on 360 which never got Valve's original class updates anyway, so TF2 Classic feels to me like if TF2 had ever gotten updates at all :p
A good example of the stuff they're trying is the Jump Pad PDA, the alternate to Teleporters for Engineer. I like them a lot because they really open up the verticality of the maps to players who aren't obsessive rocket/sticky-jumpers: https://wiki.tf2classic.com/wiki/Jump_Pads
It's fun as Engineer too since they make that slot more useful in circumstances where Teleporters are a waste. A single Jump Pad costs more metal than a single Teleporter, but then it's also useful on its own instead of requiring the complete pair. It's great if there's an enemy Spy who has made it their mission to constantly harass your buildings, and on maps/modes where the objective is so close to spawn (like the first phase of Payload as BLU and the final phases of Payload as RED) that Teleporters are less tactically important.
e: also the obvious visible fact that TF2C maintains the original cohesive art style with meaningful silhouettes, something Valve made a huge deal about in the TF2 developer commentaries only to throw away in favor of becoming Very Rich via gambling for colorful sparkly hats lol https://ia904504.us.archive.org/view_archive.php?archive=/11...
edit: here's the announcement from the TF2C Discord:
==============
@everyone We'll have more to say later, but you might not be able to launch TF2 Classic for a little bit due to the massive SDK update and public release of Team Fortress 2's code.
We're already preparing for the porting efforts and a potential Steam release now that we've been legally enabled to pursue that, but in the meantime, you will have to shift Source SDK Base 2013 Multiplayer to the "previous2021" beta branch that still has the previous revision of the SDK files to continue playing. See the screenshot for an example.
Thank you, and we'll have more news soon!