After a few fixes, it builds on a debian-13. You just need to install a few dependencies (glew, SDL, curl).

The real problem here is the tooling. New versions of automake and C++ compilers are stricter than they used to be.

Indeed, for long term conservation, you need to vendor your dependencies AND your tools to make sure that the project is sustainable without intervention. But with the magic of LLMs now, this is not a problem anymore. Claude was able to fix it in less than 10 minutes.

And having the source code beats playing the original game. You can recompile in high def and make all the modifications you want to make it feel like a modern game (or not!) and sill get you your dose of nostalgia.