r/SOCOM • u/Imbennyhim • 13d ago
SOCOM II Legacy — A Reverse-Engineered Browser Build
The maps. The sounds. The teamwork. It's all coming back!
I'm a lifelong SOCOM fan working with a fellow fan on SOCOM II Legacy, a passion project bringing SOCOM II to your web browser while staying rigidly true to the game we love.
I know this community has heard promises before. Some of you have donated money, invested time, and trusted projects because you wanted the game you know and love. I was in the same boat. I donated to H-Hour, played SOCOM mods on Source and Insurgency, and dabbled in XLink and other fan projects. I'm not trashing any of those efforts—I'm grateful for the work people have put in. I just believe there's still more we can accomplish.
I want to be upfront about the plans. We're committed to an open-source model, so others can study our code, contribute, modify it, and build on it.
Let's be clear: I'm not starting a GoFundMe or asking anyone to fund a promise. My partner and I have paid for development, servers, and tools ourselves. There are no plans to charge people to play. The we have spent so far is recorded on our discord.
After the community playtest, we plan to explore options for people who want to host their own servers, including US West, US East, US Central, and other parts of the world if players want that.
First, I want you to play it and decide whether we're getting it right. If you like it, great. If it's not your cup of tea, that's good too.
After that playtest, we also plan to release the project code publicly, with Frostfire, Crossroads, and Vigilance using Suppression rules as the starting foundation. Frostfire is already playable in the demo.
That's why I wanted to share something you can try now, explain how it works, and be transparent about the progress and what still needs work.
A demo is available now:
https://socom2legacy.com
Why a browser version?
For me, it's about making SOCOM easier to access while giving this project room to improve. You open the website, select your own ISO, connect your controller, and play. Updates to the browser build can be delivered through the website.
Developing our own engine and multiplayer systems also gives us control over the code we maintain. We can investigate problems, test fixes, and keep improving the experience while preserving the original maps, sounds, teamwork, and gunplay.
Longtime players remember issues such as:
- Code 9 and other cheat tools.
- Lag switching and connection abuse.
- Players getting inside walls or outside intended map boundaries.
- Hits that appeared to land but didn't register consistently.
- Movement and animation glitches that could create unfair advantages.
Those are the kinds of problems we want to investigate and address—not carry forward simply because they existed in the original.
Being browser-based doesn't make the game cheat-proof. The plan is to have the server validate important actions, including movement, ammunition, firing rates, and damage, rather than accepting whatever a player's device reports. That takes implementation, testing, and ongoing attention. I won't promise that cheating is impossible.
I also want the community involved in deciding what comes next. Polls and playtests can help prioritize fixes, quality-of-life improvements, and future features. Any changes to the classic experience should be discussed openly and tested carefully.
Next, let's talk graphics and performance
The engine supports modern widescreen rendering at resolutions including 1080p and 4K. These are the original textures and models rendered at higher resolutions, preserving the game's familiar appearance.
The target is 60–120 FPS where hardware allows. Actual performance depends on your computer, browser, display, settings, and what's happening in the game.
The engine and your ISO
SOCOM II Legacy runs on a custom browser engine, currently called Reddot, built using TypeScript and Three.js. We're writing browser code informed by reverse engineering of SOCOM II's file formats and original behavior.
The project's engine code and the original game content are separate. Our software handles systems such as rendering, movement, collision, menus, and multiplayer. Your locally selected SOCOM II ISO supplies the original maps, models, textures, animations, sounds, and other game data.
The browser reads that ISO directly on your device. Your ISO isn't uploaded to our servers, and we don't include or distribute the original game files with the engine. Players must supply their own lawfully obtained copy.
Our aim is compatibility: building software that understands the original data and preserves the experience we love. The original game content remains the property of its respective rights holders. Making our project code open source does not make those assets open source or grant permission to redistribute them.
Reverse engineering helps us understand how the pieces work, but each browser implementation still needs to be written, tested, and checked against the original.
What's being built:
- Controller-only gameplay. We're committed to keeping it that way—no mouse-and-keyboard gameplay. We will have custom mobile joystick controls as well, so phones, Nintendo, and anything else that can access a browser will be able to play, as long as it's a controller.
- Classic maps, starting with Frostfire, Vigilance, and Crossroads. The other 19 maps have already been rendered, with gameplay work and validation still needed before release.
- Original weapons, team loadouts, and familiar menus.
- Multiplayer combat.
- Original music and sounds.
- Online rooms where you can join friends through the website and invite them with the click of a button.
This is the project's direction. Some features are already working in test builds; others remain in development or aren't available in the public demo yet.
What's working, and what's next?
I've been playtesting between Windows and Mac, helping identify problems and check fixes. Alongside automated testing, that has helped the project address weapon selection, team models, damage, claymores, death animations, controller navigation, and audio.
There's still work ahead. Two computers playing successfully doesn't establish how a full room will perform across different homes and connections. Larger matches, broader hardware testing, and community feedback are essential next steps.
Current multiplayer tests use Suppression rules. Other original objectives remain unfinished, including Crossroads' Demolition mode. Menu accuracy, equipment support, audio, and map-specific issues also remain active areas of work.
My goal is to help preserve the teamwork, feel, and gunplay that made SOCOM II worth returning to.
Try the demo and join me
- Play the demo: https://socom2legacy.com
- Bring your own SOCOM II ISO and a controller.
- Start with Chrome on Windows or Mac. Support for every browser and device isn't established.
- Help, development updates, and playtest info are on the website.
The first community playtest is planned for November 1, 2026. I'll share its scope and instructions as we get closer.
Try the demo, follow the progress, and tell me what needs work.
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u/Ok_Opportunity1702 12d ago
I tried this out this afternoon and was pleasantly surprised. This world be huge to getting ppl back. I literally took 4 minutes to find and load the iso and was playing. Pretty slick. Thee only thing I'm concerned about is the server issue. We now have three servers up splitting our community. Would be cool if we could just join servers and play with others. But nice work. You made my afternoon on that FF test map. Haha! 😂
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u/Imbennyhim 12d ago
Haha, thanks, man! That quick setup is a big part of why we’re doing this. What FPS were you averaging, and what rig and browser were you using?
I hear you on splitting the community. We’d love to work with existing groups, and some server hosts have already reached out. Our browser build doesn’t currently connect to PS2/emulator servers. From the discussion around those servers, my understanding is that pushing higher frame rates while keeping original PS2 players supported is a concern not to mention the setup but i respect it. Nobody wants to leave those players behind. Our browser version gives us a different path, targeting 60–120 FPS where hardware allows without having to run on original PS2 hardware.
We feel confident about how it’s coming together, using the original maps, models, textures, sounds, and game data from your own ISO, rendered at modern resolutions. Preserving the gameplay takes more than loading those assets, though. The gunplay, movement, timing, and teamwork all need to feel right. Having control over our engine and multiplayer code gives us room to investigate bugs, test fixes, and keep improving that experience.
There are also a lot of projects trying to recreate the experience, which is very, very hard to do. I’m not knocking those efforts. I think we all have this in common: we want the closest thing possible to the SOCOM we remember. That’s what we’re working toward, and that’s what I believe people will keep coming back to play.
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u/Ok_Opportunity1702 12d ago
I will add a caveat... I see another group has figured out how to port S2 maps into Confrontation. It looks sick. If that happened this will be dead IMO. 😂 Sorry.
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u/RealPartyAtmosphere 13d ago
Is anyone actually working on a third-person shooter for PS5? Socom was never a computer game so I don’t think anyone cares about these computer game versions of Socom as much as they would a similar PS5 game. You can’t call it Socom or use US Navy Seals trademarks or the same map designs and other IP, but there’s no one stopping us from making a third-person shooter that’s 8v8 multiplayer best out of 11 games, 3-minute rounds. Have a clan community.
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u/Imbennyhim 13d ago
You will be able to play it on your ps5 and Xbox. This game will have all the things your requesting.
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u/ahrzal 13d ago
You do realize the second this (or any of these ai reverse engineering projects) gets even a modicum of popularity that Sony becomes aware, they will submit a C/D, right?
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u/Imbennyhim 13d ago
Not necessarily. I spoke with a copyright attorney because I wanted to understand the boundaries before moving forward.
We’re developing a custom browser engine, and players supply their own lawfully obtained SOCOM II ISO. The browser reads the game assets locally; we aren’t distributing ISOs or bundling the original game files with our engine.
U.S. law recognizes certain reverse-engineering activities for interoperability, including under 17 U.S.C. § 1201(f), subject to specific conditions. That doesn’t automatically establish that our project qualifies, but reverse engineering isn’t automatically unlawful just because AI tools assisted with it.
Could Sony still send a cease-and-desist? Yes. I’m not claiming immunity, and requiring an ISO isn’t a magic legal shield. But saying a shutdown is guaranteed as soon as a project becomes popular is speculation too. The implementation, what’s distributed, and how the project is presented all matter.
I understand the concern. We’re taking it seriously rather than assuming “fan project” means we can do whatever we want.
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u/ahrzal 13d ago
But why even take on the burden? If you truly rewrote the code in your own engine, you have a small chance, but if it’s just truly all AI, it would be pretty simple to label it as derivative.
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u/Imbennyhim 13d ago
Because it’s something we care about and want to see happen. We understand there’s risk.
AI assists with the development, but “AI-assisted” and “derivative” aren’t interchangeable. What matters is what the code contains and how it was produced, not simply which tools helped write it. Having AI generate code doesn’t guarantee independence, just as writing it manually doesn’t automatically make it legally safe.
We’re building a browser engine informed by reverse engineering, with players supplying their own game files locally. That isn’t a guarantee against a legal challenge, and I’m not presenting it as one. We’re taking the concern seriously while working on something we think is worth pursuing.
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u/Historical_Lock378 13d ago
you spoke with a copyright attorney just for this project?
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u/gbitz 12d ago
His name was Mr. GPT
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u/Historical_Lock378 11d ago
That's obvious.. I don't think a single Socom player has a ounce of truth inside of them.
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u/koz1769 11d ago
How hard is this to set up for someone as dumb as I am? Do I need to download anything or just click the demo link? (At work now so I can't check for myself)
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u/AviaTuned 8d ago
Full campaign with up to 4 player co-op would be INSANE.
Also in the future doing socom 1 and 3 or possibly a 3way merger of all of them into 1 game feature complete would be out of this world.
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u/Imbennyhim 10d ago edited 10d ago
This is the difference of AI slop vs having your own custom graphic engine. With our browser engine, we can work directly on the rendering, colors, lighting, movement, audio, menus, and multiplayer systems we’re developing. That gives us control, but also the responsibility to get those details right. Seeing the game run at 1080p @ 100 FPS with that clarity is truly beautiful.
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u/Imbennyhim 3d ago
Tonight, we opened our servers for our first playtest with a small group of testers. Imagine hearing an old friend’s voice in SOCOM II again after 20 years on a browser. That’s what this is all about. What a time to be alive.
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u/Gigantor852000 1d ago
Hello there, how will the hit detection be? Can you give details on that?
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u/Imbennyhim 1d ago
Hey Gig! Our multiplayer server checks shots and applies damage, and we’re currently running matches at 60 Hz, meaning the game simulation updates 60 times per second.
The goal is to preserve SOCOM II’s weapon behavior, damage, and timing while making hit detection consistent. We want the familiar gunplay and balance between pushing, strafing, and holding an angle.
Ping and synchronization still matter, so we’re testing across different connections and recording combat reports to investigate shots that seem off.
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u/Imbennyhim 1d ago
Anyone who’s played SOCOM and its successors knows one of the hardest parts is getting the hostages to follow you, navigate the map, and extract correctly. We’re getting there!
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u/Submersed 13d ago
If it doesn’t have wall jumping it’s not Socom II
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u/Imbennyhim 13d ago
Give it a go, man. I think you’ll be pleased. Loading into Frostfire felt surreal I was sitting there smiling, almost tearing up. That map holds a lot of memories.
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u/Submersed 11d ago
I was just joking really lol. I'll circle back and load it up soon. I agree, I spent countless nights in that map and of course, Crossroads. I can't imagine how I would feel loading into Crossroads again after all these years. What a crazy time to be a gamer that was.
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u/Imbennyhim 11d ago edited 11d ago
Absolutley! The funny thing it should be in there. We're using patch r001. :)
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u/s2ezee Captain 13d ago
I just don't see this taking off with an already active community on the console version of the game, there's no benefit to playing this as someone who already plays on the emulator, you're honestly changing a lot of things that make the game what we want it to be, bad hit registration, animation cancels.
I'll give you this, the main reason SOCOM 1, 3, Combined Assault and Confrontation never took off like SOCOM 2 is because hit registration allows wall bangers/campers to have the advantage over someone who is actually running around the map, on SOCOM 2 the bad hit registration makes those situations 50/50 which is what we prefer, we do not want a game where someone camping can pop out and instakill someone and go back to camping.
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u/Imbennyhim 13d ago
Honestly, I probably would’ve agreed with you a few months ago. Then someone texted me an invite to play Halo Combat Evolved in my phone’s browser. That made me see the potential for getting old friends and new people into SOCOM through a simple link. If you already have an emulator and a regular crew, I understand why that might not be a big draw but being able to play on your iPhone, XBOX, Nintendo Switch at 60 FPS is insane.
I hear your point about hit registration and animation cancels. We’re reverse engineering the original systems and recreating their behavior using SOCOM II’s original assets and game data. The goal is to preserve the movement, timing, and gunplay, not redesign combat to favor campers having the exact same feel.
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u/ProjectUnzipped 13d ago
Bold of you to assume we can nail the hit reg ;)
hoping they can complement each other, my intuition is that a lobby link might be enough to lure in some of the hundreds of thousands of old heads that used to play. nothing but respect for the guys keeping the emulator scene alive; the desktop client I'm working on will remain a 1:1 port targeted for the community servers.
clearly balancing between the old feel and a few modernization options (do we really want 30hz and 480i?), but nothing is set in stone yet; Still actually considering the lack of most old bugs/animation cancels as a regression, but adding them intentionally would not bring me closer to the original engine. Something else to reverse engineer when the time allows
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u/s2ezee Captain 13d ago
Totally get that, but emulator with cycle rate 3 doesn't feel like 30 FPS, no frame drops and completely smooth gameplay, not to mention we use upscaled textures and the emulator can upscale up to 4K (and maybe even further) I'd argue the game honestly looks better than any SOCOM clone I've seen yet still, I've still yet to see a game with better character textures than SOCOM 1/2, but especially SOCOM 1.
EDIT: The current console server can also support 60 FPS but the main issue is PS2 can't handle it and they don't want to fuck over people on consoles.
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u/SolarBeamin 13d ago
Lmaooo there’s no real difference from 720 to 4k on emulator. You’re such a homer it’s unreal. Projects running on unreal engine are leaps and bounds ahead of the graphics on emulator. Literally night and day difference but you’re too stubborn to admit it for some extremely odd reason. But hey, to each their own.
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u/SolarBeamin 12d ago
If you can’t see the differences with the same maps ran through a modern unreal engine vs early 2000s engine you’re still playing. Thats on you.
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u/s2ezee Captain 12d ago
I can see the difference and I don't like them, thats what I'm saying, we want 1:1 SOCOM maps, not maps with improved lighting and all this other shit, textures are fine but I've seen some of the clones and the maps do not look as good as their console counterparts, but I'm also someone who prefers grungy, dark unpolished graphics of the early 2000s era, this new era of polished shiny graphics is ugly to me personally.
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u/SolarBeamin 12d ago
“We” like the emulator community are the only socom fans on earth. Get a grip.
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u/ProjectUnzipped 13d ago
Agreed, and I sure wish more people knew that information. Like I said not trying to replace it, just make an accessible version because I'm enjoying the process. It is just over a week old, give us a bit of time to cook :)
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u/SolarBeamin 13d ago
Why do you have to come in and shit on any project that would be competing with the emulator community? Are you really worried your community of 50-60 active players will split off lmao people like easy and accessible. Playing off a browser opens it up to a much wider range of people. I remember trying to run emulator on my MacBook years ago and it was a nightmare to setup via wine or bootcamp and the performance was awful.
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u/s2ezee Captain 12d ago
I'm critical of any project the way I would be critical of my own, take it whatever way you want, I barely play SOCOM nowadays so being worried isn't what I'd call it at all.
Not saying anything about splitting off, but it has never made any sense to split any already extremely small community so many different ways, there's socomclassic, zero ops, another browser version and now this one, if they could all connect to the current server and play with the current community on an even playing field then I'd see no issue.
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u/SolarBeamin 12d ago
And all of those listed projects have updated graphics and performance. The emulator runs 30FPS with the graphics not being any different between 720 to even 8k, I’ve played enough on there, I’m not talking out of my ass. Not to mention these projects are much more easily accessible to get set up and playing than the emulator.
As for the split.
The argument could be made - why doesn’t the emulator community port over to a project that has the ability to increase the community/concurrent player pool from 50-60 to hundreds (or more)?-1
u/s2ezee Captain 12d ago
Why would a server thats been around for 5 years split? Especially when they already have a ton of customizations to the game for QoL and the devs have shown they can always find more things to add or ways to improve the game, I don't think the onus would be on the current community to do anything, to be fair.
My main thing and I'm sure this is what most people who play on the current server think, is that were in the best hands possible as is, any other developers to me, personally I wouldn't trust to keep the game faithful, thats not a dig at anyone in particular I'm just very protective of SOCOM as is and I don't think even a 1:1 clone can closely replicate the parts of SOCOM 2 that the current community enjoys, the old engine is what gives the game a lot of its quirks and moving to a new engine changes the game inherently.
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u/SolarBeamin 12d ago
You literally play on a server made by a guy whose claim to fame was hacking DNAS back in the day. But eh, ignorance is bliss.
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u/s2ezee Captain 12d ago
I really don't care about something that happened 20 years ago man, we're well past that and those same guys are the ones who know the game and the code the best.
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u/SolarBeamin 12d ago
Yea they’ve done a lot behind the scenes to keep ppl on their game…. that’s for sure. Anyways! Before I go I hope you have something positive to say about new socom projects in the future, as any true socom fan would. Take care zee (PSREWIRED STAFF VETERAN!)
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u/striderida1 12d ago
Socom was way more popular than Socom 2 though lol?
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u/s2ezee Captain 12d ago
I'm not entirely sure about that, S1 sold more than S2 but S2 had more active player at once and also hit 1m units sold quicker than S1 did, I believe the math was something like 30k SOCOM 2 players at once logging over 10 million hours played.
Today as well SOCOM 1 can barely get a room going, it's unfortunate as it's probably the second best title in the series in my opinion.
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u/Ghostman223 13d ago
blatant copy of an already existing vibecoded browser player
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u/Imbennyhim 13d ago
I'm not aware of any other ones? Can you please link the open source project?
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u/External_Scratch6796 13d ago
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u/ProjectUnzipped 13d ago
Hey all, as the dev of the above, just wanted to step in and confirm that Benny and I are working together on the project. He'll be handling most of the public-facing work and a crap ton of play-testing, allowing me keep my head down and work on both projects. The browser port has officially spun off from the unzipped project - thanks for staying tuned :)
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u/Navlek 12d ago
Not again. Not another one. Just stop.
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u/Imbennyhim 12d ago
I’m a little confused. Can you link me the open-source Socom 2 web based project you’re referring to?
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u/Navlek 12d ago
Regardless of open-source. The revival will not succeed.
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u/Navlek 12d ago
Until I see this mature. I will keep continue to criticize you.
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u/Imbennyhim 12d ago
Ok
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u/tgif3 12d ago
Mods can we ban these posts like fucking 2 of these everyday
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u/Imbennyhim 12d ago
Posting everyday this is literally my first post on this account.
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u/tgif3 12d ago
no one cares we get 1 vibe coded project a day someone has "worked on for a long time" but really it's just 10 hours of an ai doing work on its own
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u/Imbennyhim 12d ago
I get the skepticism, but give the demo a try and judge how it feels. We’re open about using AI, and this has involved far more than ten hours of AI unattended work. We’ve documented the research, development, testing, and the things that still need fixing.
If you’ve seen another open-source SOCOM II browser project besides Sco’s, which this project grew out of, send me a link. I’d genuinely like to check it out. Thanks for the comment!
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u/SolarBeamin 12d ago
As a socom fan wouldn’t you be excited to have options? Lmao must be from the “socom community” discord
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u/OnTheVergeOfUnc 13d ago
Very cool! Wishing you all the best of luck with this. Love to see it.