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EA will be releasing the C&C Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert source code under GPL3
- haunter 6y agoAlso here https://www.ea.com/games/command-and-conquer/command-and-conquer-remastered/news/remaster-update-modding https://www.ea.com/games/command-and-conquer/command-and-con... They also confirmed it will be in C++
- nightowl_games 6y agoThe pathfinding code and the networking will be interesting to look at.
- imjasonmiller 6y agoThey have uploaded the pathfinding related code for Red Alert [1] and Tiberian Sun. 1. https://github.com/electronicarts/CnC_Remastered_Collection/blob/b190e877f700ca920cef214b2186418979d6589f/REDALERT/FINDPATH.CPP https://github.com/electronicarts/CnC_Remastered_Collection/...
- EamonnMR 6y agoExplanation of RTs networking in that period: https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/131503/1500_archers_on_a_288_network_.php https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/131503/1500_archers_o... I did a Python implementation here: https://github.com/eamonnmr/openlockstep https://github.com/eamonnmr/openlockstep
- imjasonmiller 6y agoWith regard to pathfinding, there is this great video on some of their challenges at the time [1]. 1. https://youtu.be/S-VAL7Epn3o?t=414 https://youtu.be/S-VAL7Epn3o?t=414
- hiq 6y agoThe post mentions TiberianDawn.dll and RedAlert.dll, I assume it's not the whole source of the games, is it?
- TaylorAlexander 6y agoHere’s the language they use: “Electronic Arts will be releasing the TiberianDawn.dll and RedAlert.dll and their corresponding source code under the GPL version 3.0 license” I assume “their corresponding source code” means “the code for those DLLs”, but I do wonder why they bother mentioning the DLLs at all.
- DaiPlusPlus 6y agoEven weirder considering the games were for DOS originally - and DOS doesn’t use DLLs at all.
- learc83 6y agoThey released remastered versions of both for windows, so maybe that was the most readily available version of the source code they had.
- Slartie 6y agoThey probably wrote some kind of generic loader or wrapper for starting these games for pretty much exactly this reason (them being originally DOS games, thus expecting a DOS environment). The games then are compiled as DLLs and act like some kind of plugin for the generic loader, which is a self-sufficient project compiled into an executable.
- mnd999 6y agoIIRC Red Alert came with a DOS version and a DirectX 3 version for Windows 95
- llimllib 6y agotwo separate double CD cases, I think?
- zantana 6y agoHey EA, how about the Bullfrog games next?
- nihilist_t21 6y agoYes! The source for Magic Carpet would be awesome!
- aasasd 6y agoLet's check https://osgameclones.com/#magic-carpet-games https://osgameclones.com/#magic-carpet-games : there's a ‘reverse engineering of game Magic Carpet 2 from assembler to c/c++ language’.
- dblooman 6y agoFound this Theme Hospital project recently, as long as you have a paid for version of the game, it works great https://github.com/CorsixTH/CorsixTH https://github.com/CorsixTH/CorsixTH
- toyg 6y agoThere is also this clon— er, “spiritual successor”, which got some pretty good reviews: https://www.twopointhospital.com https://www.twopointhospital.com
- chpatrick 6y agoIt's also by the people who made the original.
- breakingcups 6y agoThe internal namespace is also TH2, I'm sure people can figure out what that stands for
- throwaway888abc 6y agoSyndicate pleeeeease :)
- capableweb 6y agoOne of the best things that could happen to the gaming landscape would be if companies like EA and similar learned from Microsoft's move to open sourcing more software and involving the community more gives them a lot more goodwill and business as a side-effect. And then us gamers get more long-lived games as a benefit as well.
- wlesieutre 6y agoA lot of newer games probably include middleware licensed from other companies that make relicensing more challenging
- colejohnson66 6y agoAlso, the SDKs for console ports may be under NDA. I’m looking at you, Nintendo Switch.
- Alupis 6y ago> A lot of newer games probably include middleware licensed from other companies that make relicensing more challenging Commonly Physics Engines, like Havok and others.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- klodolph 6y agoThis is why the original Doom (1992) source release had no sound, for example.
- alharith 6y agoPlease, please, please, please, release the source for NoX
- rnestler 6y agoThere is also the https://www.openra.net/ https://www.openra.net/ project which provides reimplementations of the classic C&C games. Me and some friends played it a few times on Linux, OSX and Windows and it worked smoothly :)
- josefresco 6y agoLove OpenRA and play a few times each month. They release regular updates, and the gameplay is just as I remember it.
- als0 6y agoCannot wait for the Tiberian Sun variant (currently under development).
- bredren 6y agoDirect link to OpenRA's 4/20/20 release highlights video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2sQP3YYBMA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2sQP3YYBMA As noted elsewhere ITT, "we made the decision to go with the GPL license to ensure compatibility with projects like CnCNet and Open RA." Given the progress of OpenRA, and quality of the above release video, the open source version seems like it is likely to eclipse the capability of the original game in the foreseeable future. I'm curious what the OpenRA community pulls out of this newly released source code that can be used directly or by reimplemented in OpenRA to create substantial leaps in progress. I'm also curious which of the existing OpenRA algorithms and methods are better or more efficient than the original source. Regardless, this release and the resulting introspective should make for some good reading!
- dleslie 6y agoThe Remaster is a visual and auditory improvement that maintains the original gameplay, save for a few minor UI improvements. OpenRA rebalances the game significantly, improves the AI, and greatly modernises the interaction with units. They both have their place and utility.
- steelframe 6y agoAs someone who got to be quite good at Red Alert back in the late 1900's, I look forward to taking a look. While the commercial value of the code dropped to about 0 over a decade ago (or did it?), eventual release of source code is better than never releasing source code.
- necovek 6y agoI laughed at "1900's" — technically, you could have gone with "1000's" just as well :)
- pfundstein 6y agoOr "last millennium"
- Ericson2314 6y agohttps://cncnet.org/ https://cncnet.org/ certainly still has players
- greatgib 6y agoThat is so awesome! Great decision of EA for one of my 'all time' favorite game!
- xwdv 6y agoWill it be easy to compile?
- jakearmitage 6y ago> After discussing with the council members, we made the decision to go with the GPL license to ensure compatibility with projects like CnCNet and Open RA. Our goal was to deliver the source code in a way that would be truly beneficial for the community, and we hope this will enable amazing community projects for years to come. Sweet.
- the8472 6y agoThey should have picked AGPL, in case anyone tries to serve the game via streaming.
- Jon_Lowtek 6y agoWhat does a "RedAlert.dll" actually contain? I guess it is not the remastered engine, it is not the models, animations or textures. It won't contain the mission briefing videos, the mission briefing texts or even the mission maps. It is likely not the multiplayer maps, the net code, and especially not the multiplayer server. And it sure is not the awesome music. That dll file might be mostly unit config, like the old rules.ini, but with a bit more code. It is still nice for modding, and the community will make "new games" for free, that will require the proprietary remastered engine and models/textures from EA to be played. Hey it is still EA. And €20 (one time) for the non-open sourced parts aren't even that much. So yeah if it would run on linux instead of DX11/Win64 only, i might even be interested, but i think i will stay with OpenRA.
- ocdtrekkie 6y agoMost of the rest of the game is already probably visible in plaintext. And the big thing is, they're not releasing the copyright to their intellectual property around Command & Conquer: So to legally use this, without providing your own assets, you have to own a copy of the game. But presumably, if you own the game, you now have everything you need to modify it however you like.
- Jon_Lowtek 6y agoThat is my point.. reusing or remixing the assets, like their "mammoth tank but with another turret" example, is just barely fair use, provided it is a free2play mod on their engine. All this talk about "open source" sounds nice, but 95% of the game is still "proprietary" and most of the code is still closed and the whole thing is still mostly about selling the enhanced edition. Which is fine. The news is just very misleading until you read the fine print.
- jfkebwjsbx 6y agoThat us how many open-source games works. They release it so that you can mod it, but they don't give the assets for free. Why is that a problem? Everyone wins.
- markus_zhang 6y agoFuck, is this EA? I double checked and yes it is. I love the PO for this game.
- peterhj 6y agoWould be glorious if at some point they also released sources for the voxel RTS's (Tiberian Sun, RA2).
- TheRealDunkirk 6y agoThey're re-releasing it on Steam on June 5th as well: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1213210/Command__Conquer_Remastered_Collection/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/1213210/Command__Conquer_.... Maybe the source release will allow for Mac and Linux versions.
- Jon_Lowtek 6y agoIt is not the engine source that is released, just the "engine plugins that specialize generic RTS engine into Red Alert / Tiberian Dawn".
- aasasd 6y agoPeople pining for other games might find this list handy: https://osgameclones.com https://osgameclones.com
- accidentalrebel 6y agoDidn't know there were a lot of them! Thank you for sharing!
- uncheckederror 6y agoI am really impressed that EA went with the GPL v3 license. I would have expected them to use the MIT license.
- gentleman11 6y agoThey probably want it to remain free, and not get bundled into commercial projects. Great for end users though
- Jyaif 6y agoIf destroy any possible commercial projects, it's not necessarily good for end users.
- ocdtrekkie 6y agoIt's not surprising: The GPL mostly torpedoes commercial uses, and EA does not want to give their competitors code they can use in their own proprietary games.
- sedachv 6y agoThere is nothing in the GPL that prohibits you from selling games: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#DoesTheGPLAllowMoney https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#DoesTheGPLAllowMon...
- learc83 6y agoYeah but if I use this GPL licensed code as the basis of a new game, I have to release the source code for my new game as well. The vast majority of game studios aren't willing to do this, so effectively releasing it under the GPL means that it's much less likely that a competitor uses the code. Asset flips from other countries with more permissive (or just hard to access for foreigners) legal systems are already a problem for game developers--releasing the source code for your game would ensure that you'd be inundated with assets flips almost immediately if your game is any good.
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- mikekhusid 6y agoI loved both of these games when they came out, but I'm completely shocked that enough people still play this game to make open sourcing the code 25 years later a newsworthy event.
- Jon_Lowtek 6y agoThey are not open sourcing the 25 year old games, they are open sourcing a small part of the enhanced edition (now in presale) to enable modding.
- als0 6y agoCheck out the OpenRA project https://www.openra.net/ https://www.openra.net/
- salmo 6y agoUnfortunately, even though these games were really popular, there's nothing reasonably current with their style of RTS gameplay. I think the Age of Empires franchise was probably the last one that had the same feel to me. SC3 is more of a twitchy high-speed reflex game that's too hardcore for a casual like me. Modern mobile games go with the town + battles setup, probably because games need to keep drawing you in (and getting you to pay) and not just be a session when you want it. It's probably that combined with the nostalgia of 'old folks' like me. I'd love to relive the Wilhelm scream and cheesy futurism of C&C. And I will always love the wololo of AoE.
- dopeboy 6y agoBingo - this genre as a whole has kinda died out. I played all the C&Cs religiously so I'm squarely in their target market and will probably pay for the remastered.
- chongli 6y agoI wonder if the demands of their control scheme had something to do with it. Other genres of games translate pretty well to consoles and mobile. RTS games (of the classic sort such as C&C, TA, WC1&2) seem to demand enough precision that keyboard & mouse are essentially required to play. So many people have consoles, phones, iPads, and laptops now. These games would not be very playable on any of them unless you could connect a mouse.
- gentleman11 6y agoApparently the old EA head has moved on to be the Unity CEO. Good for EA, but makes me worry about Unity
- DonHopkins 6y agoTo his credit, in 2007 when John Riccitiello was CEO of EA, he was instrumental in supporting our successful campaign to relicense the original source code of SimCity Classic free under GPLv3 and bring it to the OLPC XO-1 children's computer. EA Donates Original City-Building Game, SimCity, to ''One Laptop per Child'' Initiative: https://ir.ea.com/press-releases/press-release-details/2007/EA-Donates-Original-City-Building-Game-SimCity-to-One-Laptop-per-Child-Initiative/default.aspx https://ir.ea.com/press-releases/press-release-details/2007/... >REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 8, 2007--Today Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) announced the company will donate the original SimCity™ -- the blockbuster 1989 game credited with giving rise to the city-building game genre -- to each computer in the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) initiative. OLPC is a not-for-profit humanitarian effort to design, manufacture and distribute inexpensive laptops with the goal of giving every child in the world access to modern education. By gifting SimCity onto each OLPC laptop, EA is providing users with an entertaining way to engage with computers as well as help develop decision-making skills while honing creativity. This is the first time a major video game publisher has gifted a game to the world. Open Sourcing SimCity, by Chaim Gingold: https://medium.com/@donhopkins/open-sourcing-simcity-58470a275446 https://medium.com/@donhopkins/open-sourcing-simcity-58470a2... >Excerpt from page 289–293 of “Play Design”, a dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor in Philosophy in Computer Science by Chaim Gingold. >[...] The next chapter looks closely at the code to SimCity, which is possible only because it has been open sourced. There are few instances in which a company has open sourced the code to a commercial game, which makes the story of how this happened remarkable for a number of reasons. Recounting this story not only explains the provenance of my research materials, but reveals how social forces, in this case a heterogeneous collection of agents and agendas, shape software. >[...] Surprisingly, Electronic Arts agreed to the arrangement. Their legal counsel, in consultation with Eben Moglen (Columbia Law Professor, general counsel to the FSF, and OLPC advisor), worked through the legal logistics. This effort was aided by Hopkins’s discovery and copying of the original Maxis/DUX licensing agreement, on a lark, while working on The Sims. Hopkins did the coding work of the conversion. EA executives approved of the endeavor, no doubt aided by Will Wright’s legendary persuasiveness and considerable prestige, not to mention the prestige of the OLPC project itself. [...] Demo of SimCity on OLPC XO-1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpKhh10K-j0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpKhh10K-j0 >OLPC SimCity Demo: A demonstration of OLPC SimCity running on the One Laptop Per Child XO-1 laptop. OLPC / EA Contract: https://donhopkins.com/home/olpc-ea-contract.pdf https://donhopkins.com/home/olpc-ea-contract.pdf >This license and distribution agreement (this "Agreement") is entered into as of September 4, 2007 (the “Effective Date”) by and between ELECTRONIC ARTS INC., a Delaware corporation with its principal offices at 209 Redwood Shores Parkway, Redwood City, CA 94065-1175 (“EA”) and ONE LAPTOP PER CHILD ASSOCIATION, INC., a Delaware corporation, located at One Cambridge Center, Cambridge MA, 02142 ( “OLPC”). Free SimCity Source code: https://github.com/SimHacker/micropolis https://github.com/SimHacker/micropolis >Open Source Micropolis, based on the original SimCity Classic from Maxis, by Will Wright.
- bitwize 6y agoEven Shit-A is doing code drops, and no Id game past Doom 3 will ever likely see an open-source release or even native Linux version. What a world.
- lbeltrame 6y agoIf you want to see what can be done with a donated codebase, look up Freespace Open[1], which, from the original code of Freespace 2 from Volition (a game I loved, but that wasn't very successful) was improved a great deal by the community around it, with several improvements to assets, game engine, and even generated several total conversions. [1] http://www.hard-light.net/ http://www.hard-light.net/
- unixhero 6y agoWhoaaaa
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- tekstar 6y agoIf you're looking to just play the classic C&C games including Red Alert, either single player or multiplayer, check out cncnet.org. I've been playing old classic multiplayer games with some friends while we're isolating. Halo 1 for PC, BF1942, Battlefield II. All free or like 5$. Red Alert mostly ok under WINE on OSX or Linux but it prompted me to get windows running on a machine.
- jrimbault 6y agoBattlefield 2 can't be bought nowadays, but that doesn't stop a small community from working on mods even now. Forgotten Hope 2, one its biggest mods (a complete WW2 overhaul), had a new release last Friday.
- mywittyname 6y agoDo you still need a valid product license to play online anymore?
- jrimbault 6y agoOfficially yes. In reality no. Forgotten Hope 2 has its own workarounds and launcher. Other mods (and vanilla players) use BF2Hub, which wraps around bf2.exe I think to redirect DNS calls to the defunct EA and gamespy servers.
- tekstar 6y agoI used this guide last week, it worked and now we play on TheGreatEscape where there are ~20-40 players nightly. https://www.reddit.com/r/Battlefield/comments/6xx6za/bfl_the_definitive_guide_to_battlefield_1942_in/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Battlefield/comments/6xx6za/bfl_the... edit: this was for BF1942. We haven't tried BF2.
- 650REDHAIR 6y agoThat’s awesome! I’ll check it out. Forgotten Hope was originally a badass mod for BF42 that added a ton of extra units. That and Desert Combat got me into gaming and modding back in the early 00’s! I learned how to write scripts and markdown running cod and BF servers.
- paedubucher 6y agoI'd rather play those two games using OpenRA. Releasing Tiberium Sun (> 20 years old) RedAlert 2 (also 20 years old) would be a great move that actually made a difference.
- outworlder 6y agoI've found Generals fun too. Specially multiplayer.
- EamonnMR 6y agoI would absolutely love to see the Tiberian Sun engine's source code. The graphics setup is totally unique-sprites and voxels coexisting in a 2.5d world with lighting. Lighting! Used to great effect in the dark and grimy graphics.
- petercooper 6y agoI can't wait till they release the source code for FIFA 20 in about 2045. There is so much speculation in the community on how the game is rigged that I will be the first to download that repo ;-)
- cies 6y agoDon't miss this open source re-release: https://github.com/Warzone2100/warzone2100 https://github.com/Warzone2100/warzone2100 If you like strategy games
- Havoc 6y agoReddit appears to have just bought the farm
- awicz 6y agoMany, many hours of my life were lost to to C&C. It’s a fine game.
- Mobius01 6y agoWonderful. Now please open-source SimCity 2013 so we can fix it.
- EamonnMR 6y agoI'm curious about how this is allowed under GPL. Are you allowed to link GPL'd code against a closed source codebase? Shouldn't they be releasing the whole thing?
- skymt 6y agoYou're allowed to link GPL'd code that you own against your own closed codebase, because the GPL is just the terms under which you license your copyright to others. See also: "open core" and dual-licensed software.
- Arbalest 6y agoSo they're releasing the code? But what about the art assests. Moving to the future, those become more valuable, particularly as coding becomes more advanced. While coders have a habit of happily rewriting things to make them work better, visual stuff has a lot more nostalgia factor, as well as actually having them available makes the progress made on the code side seem a lot more real. Surely this isn't the only game where code is only part of the issue (if it is, I really don't know what the plan is in this instance).
- CivBase 6y agoI really hope this paves the way for a future where it's normal for old games eventually go open source.
- advertising 6y agoNeed AoE!!
- suff 6y agoThe fastest way to get me to click 'Ignore' in my game queue is to see EA as the publisher. This gesture is a day late and a dollar short.
- nodesocket 6y agoDoes this mean I will actually be able to play Red Alert 2 on a mac?
- recrof 6y agonope. this is about original RA1 and C&C.
- nodesocket 6y agoBummer. I for the life of me, can't find a way to play Red Alert 2 on a Mac.
- Aeolun 6y agoI’d rather have RA2 and Tiberian sun, but I’ll take what I can get.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- zjhgx 6y agoWow,glad to see that
- londons_explore 6y agoIs opensourcing the main DLL file enough to consider the game opensource? I assume there are other libraries, artwork, and some kind of launcher exe, which would presumably remain closed source. I guess it really jumpstarts the efforts to make an opensource version of the game, but it really might still be a long way off yet.
- s_dev 6y agoIs the implication that C&C Generals will be released in 10 years? Is this a precedent or a once off?
- hacker_9 6y agoNow we need a post mortem, like has been done with the Doom source code!
- unixhero 6y agoJust bought it. Can't wait!
- secondwtq 6y agoI'm surprised that no one has mentioned Homeworld 1. Yeah it's not GPL, not even a proper open source license, it's also not well maintained like the id ones and Warzone 2100. But it really helps the mod community (and even helps the Remastered 10 years ago). EA says "this will be one of the first major RTS franchises to open source their source code under the GPL". Well it's not GPL, but Relic is famous for it's RTS titles like Dawn of War, Company of Heroes (and now it's developing Age of Empires IV). Homeworld is one of the best RTS games for me (only second to C&C). Sadly we can't get the source of Homeworld 2 (they even lost the source code of expansion pack), which the Remastered was built on.