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Command and Conquer – Programming an RTS game in HTML5 and Javascript
- dazbradbury 15y agodupe - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3473024 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3473024
- samwillis 15y agoIt doesn't matter if its a dupe of something everyone missed before and people up vote it this time. So much stuff gets submitted now that links are only on the first page of the new list for a few minutes and can easily be missed. This time its hit at the right time and there could be a good discussion about it.
- user9756 15y agoI agree with your argument, but why is he being down voted? All he did was to point out that this article has been published before. Maybe there are some interesting comments in the "dupe" thread? (in this case no, but you get the point) I'm still new to HN and I find the up/down vote behaviour rather peculiar from time to time. This is such a time.
- eru 15y agoOh, it's probably best not to value the early voting too much. It usually balances out to something sensible over time. Providing a bit more context in your post would have probably helped.
- nl 15y ago(He's being downvoted because it didn't add anything to this discussion, and it seemed like a case of sour-grapes because he originally submitted the link. If there was discussion on the original submission it would have been useful)
- dazbradbury 15y agoMy comment was posted when this page had no comments, nor was it on the front page. In fact, I think it had less than 3 or 4 points. I was just informing the original poster, given that I too thought it was an interesting article, that it seems there was little interest here on HN. Clearly, due to getting enough karma to put it on the front page this time, my comment is indeed now irrelevant. The post was clearly just missed the first time as you say. Whether this is a problem with the karma/new post system or not is a different matter - and probably not one for discussion here. I didn't think I'd get downvoted though, given when my comment was made, but your points are fair.
- dazbradbury 15y agoPs. For completeness, here are all the other submissions: http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/submissions&q=title%3A(conquer+command)&start=0 http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/submissions&q=tit...
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- swombat 15y agoC&C is not the "grandaddy" of RTS. Dune 2 is.
- phalasz 15y agoStill it is EPIC especially in HTML5. Quite impressed how far you can go with HTML5 and javascript :)
- twelvechairs 15y agoOr Herzog Zwei or perhaps earlier games (Ancient Art of War anyone?). (sadly I guess this discussion somehow has to come up every time someone mentions the word RTS.)
- artmageddon 15y agoI have to say I really enjoyed Herzog Zwei on the Genesis - did anyone ever make a new version of it?
- pspda5id 15y agoThere's Airmech, an alpha version is available for play on Google Chrome. I think the developers intend to make it into a free2play game, like Leagues of Legend.
- Serentiynow 15y agoYes. http://carbongames.com/airmech/help.html http://carbongames.com/airmech/help.html Interesting blog where they write about their experience in porting it to NaCl.
- caycep 15y agodwarf fortress next!
- kiba 15y agoFunny that you mention that, because I am working on my own unique "blend" of dwarf fortress in HTML5 and javascript. Let just say the game takes place in a dyson sphere in the far future.
- nikcub 15y agoi'd suggest using Git properly instead of making a new copy of the main JS file with every version: https://github.com/adityaravishankar/command-and-conquer/tree/master/js https://github.com/adityaravishankar/command-and-conquer/tre... it would also be nice if you separated out the code into functional modules (as opposed to event functions) so that parts can be reused. I was interested in checking out your selection code since I implemented my own recently. better modules and functional separation would also make it easier for others to understand and contribute to the code. Not taking anything away from an awesome demo, just some suggestions.
- pavelkaroukin 15y agoAll these are minified versions. I believe these were kept in place with different version number attached to be able to quickly switch between, not for version control reasons.
- molmalo 15y agoCheck out cnc.js for a non-minified version.
- Serentiynow 15y agoea is making the same thing. http://www.ea.com/tiberium-alliances http://www.ea.com/tiberium-alliances Command and Conquer Tiberium Alliances brings the battle to your browser in this epic strategy MMO. Compete or ally with your friends in a worldwide war for precious resources. Based in the Command and Conquer Tiberium story world, C&C Tiberium Alliances allows players to experience C&C in a brand new way. Using HTML 5 technology, players are able to access their game from any web accessible browser making this one of the first truly portable mmo strategy titles to hit the market. Apply for the Closed Beta today at www.TiberiumAlliances.com and get into the closed beta.
- eru 15y agoYou should have probably marked the citation somewhat more.
- SeanDav 15y agoGreat effort! Still a couple of comments: As already mentioned C&C is not the originator of this genre. Wikipedia has a decent article on this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real-time_strategy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real-time_strategy Also please don't use a black background. The dark blue links are really hard to see clearly!
- scriptproof 15y agoVery interesting. These games in the browser will change the world for gamers.
- jiggy2011 15y agoLike the flash/java games we've had for the last ~12 years? I'll be impressed when we get a full 3D FPS/RTS with full shader effects.
- eru 15y agoI guess it's more about how people are now actually using the technology to full effect, than about nifty graphics.
- Destroyer661 15y agoIf you check out http://mrdoob.github.com/three.js/ http://mrdoob.github.com/three.js/ you'll see that WebGL/Canvas is way beyond the flash/java games. Both do have low-level shaders right now and more improvements are coming all the time.
- roschdal 15y agoI would advise you to stop working on this project immediately, and instead focus your efforts on creating a game with original game content. EA owns the trademarks and copyright to the material. You'll be much better off by starting your own project, instead of cloning a commercial product. Yes, the source code of command and conquer might have been released by EA, but EA still owns the trademaks. (speaking as someone who as tried recreating a popular turn based strategy game using HTML5..)
- robertmrangel 15y agoI'm in a similar boat.. I'm trying to recreate Squad Leader by Avalon Hill in a browser. I think Hasbro might own the trademark, but I don't think copyright applies to game rules: http://www.battle-board.com/minisl/ http://www.battle-board.com/minisl/ If they send a cease and desist I guess I'll just take it offline. I don't think there are any damages in my case, but I'd still hate to be sued!
- rmc 15y agoProbably not game rules, but be careful with logos (of the game and of game pieces).
- eru 15y agoAnd careful with the names, too.
- smallblacksun 15y agoThe ideas in the rules cannot be copyrighted, but the specific text of the rules can be (see http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl108.html http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl108.html). Also, game mechanics can be patented.
- Serentiynow 15y agoYes, I'm afraid game mechanics can be patented. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_Taxi_(series)#Legalities http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_Taxi_(series)#Legalities The green arrow on top of the screen. http://screenshots.en.sftcdn.net/en/scrn/22000/22606/crazy-taxi-1.jpg http://screenshots.en.sftcdn.net/en/scrn/22000/22606/crazy-t...
- kghose 15y agoI'm on Mac OS X Lion and Firefox. I lost my cursor after I loaded this page. So now, when Firefox (any firefox window) is active my cursor disappears. It returns when I make some other app active. This sometimes happens on Chrome and Flickr, so I wonder if there is some HTML5 thing that is buggy for FF and Chrome? Any one else with this issue?
- pak 15y agoI've had this happen to me on Chrome. It was definitely a browser bug, because restarting the browser resolved it. I first noticed it when I was working on a web page with complicated CSS rules for 'cursor'. If I had to guess, it has to do with loading custom .cur or .gif files as the cursor, since it didn't seem to happen unless I tried to do that. However, it was very sporadic and I could never get a reproducible minimal test case.
- nicetryguy 15y agoI'll just leave this here http://www.youtube.com/user/theostation#p/c/880ECFFEF4972939 http://www.youtube.com/user/theostation#p/c/880ECFFEF4972939
- molmalo 15y agoIsn't it strange that we are celebrating being able to build things made 20 years ago, but in the browser? I can imagine someone in 2032 posting somewhere: "Hey! I ported Crysis to the XXX " Being XXX = an Augmented Reality 3D Browser or what comes next in 20 years from now. Just a thought.
- wslh 15y agoYes. The same for programming languages features such as Javascript.
- InclinedPlane 15y agoAll of this has happened before, and all of it will happen again. Back in the early days of the personal microcomputer they were regarded as toys relative to the minicomputers and mainframes of that era. And in many ways they were. But bit by bit people copied functionality from older systems to PCs. Often times the new stuff was a bit simplified and in some cases downright hacky. Even CP/M let alone DOS was a pale imitation of UNIX, for example. But the microcomputer community caught up rapidly, and then soon overshot the state of the art by developing GUI based operating systems, word processing, desktop publishing, desktop graphic design, etc. The same sort of thing has been happening with mobile platforms as well. At one time mobile computers were very immature compared to their PC counterparts, but they've started to leap-frog PCs in usability and certain other capabilities. Since its inception the web has always been regarded as a potential competitor platform to traditional PCs. Today we are seeing hints of that coming true, with a lot of web based software replacing traditional shrink-wrapped client software. And we're also seeing the edges of the PC's strengths being nibbled away too, with various applications that would have been very difficult to make run on the web being ported to html5 and such-like. But this is probably just a hint of the progress which will come in the future, when eventually the browser-as-a-platform is fully realized technologically and running an immersive first-person 3D game fully within a browser is the norm rather than a proof-of-concept.
- paintAcquaint 15y agoWell, it's a lot sooner than you think. Flash 11 already has the unreal tournament engine ported. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQiUP2Hd60Y http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQiUP2Hd60Y