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OpenRA – Classic strategy games rebuilt for the modern era
- herpdyderp 3y agoSee also CnCNet: https://cncnet.org https://cncnet.org Not the same goals but still enables playing the old C&C games on modern hardware.
- liotier 3y agoOpenRA's Red Alert is Red Alert as it was in player's dreams. The game is just as fun as it once was: fast, fun and limited in scope - but adapted to contemporary connectivity and display resolution. OpenRA's killer feature is the extremely fast installation of a reliable cross-platform game that anyone can understand in ten minutes, that works in even the most skinny hardware... The perfect combination for an impromptu LAN party, where having fun with friends right now is more important than gaming depth and graphical sophistication.
- hjek 3y agoThey did some neat game mechanic tweaks, especially of the previously useless units: mechanics and thieves being able to revive and capture vehicles. Keeps the spirit of the old game but makes it more fun.
- blueflow 3y agoThat epic moment when your thief manages to capture the Ukrainian bomb truck and sends it right back to the enemies base!
- Muromec 3y agoUkrainian bomb track in RA?
- blueflow 3y agoUkraine is one of the two playable Soviet factions in OpenRA. The nuke truck is a unit exclusive to Ukraine.
- FirmwareBurner 3y ago>The nuke truck is a unit exclusive to Ukraine. I now see what the creators did there. I didn't think about it when I was a kid.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- saithound 3y agoYou,didn't think about it as a kid because the original Red Alert didn't include a nuke truck. Although one of the expansions (Aftermath?) did, it wasn't exclusive to Ukraine. The nuke truck was made the Ukrainian unique unit only in OpenRA.
- skhr0680 3y agoRussia and Ukraine were the two Soviet factions in the OG Red Alert
- dismalpedigree 3y agoI like this plan. I’m going to try it when I play against my kids next.
- ta1243 3y agoDo they have an option where you can steal Russian tanks by using a tractor?
- blueflow 3y agoNot with tractors, but allied factions can do that with mechanics by capturing destroyed soviet tank husks. This is a worthwhile tactic because the soviets have bigger, more expensive tanks than allies.
- JumpCrisscross 3y ago> did some neat game mechanic tweaks Original RA had a tendency to devolve into tank spamming. That takes skill. But it's closer to tactical than strategic. Does OpenRA deal with this in any way?
- philistine 3y agoPlay it with seasoned players. You’ll quickly get a sense for the Meta. It’s not tank spamming, I can promise you that.
- Sakos 3y agoExcept for the original menu UI which is unmatched in atmosphere even today. It's the one thing that keeps me using the old RA2 instead.
- doublerabbit 3y agoRA2 was ace, but Yuri's Revenge, one of the greatest expansion packs IMO. Added so much more value to the game.
- rubymamis 3y agoTotally!
- jandrese 3y agoYuri was completely unbalanced in Multiplayer though.
- philistine 3y agoYield to me! Their will is my will!
- IntelMiner 3y agoThere's been attempts to re-balance him using memory injection to overcome INI file editing limitations without much success Hopefully Tiberian Sun and Red Alert 2 can be added to OpenRA one day. It seems like it's something the lead developer of OpenRA works on in his spare time, when he's not fixing bugs or tweaking things in OpenRA itself
- tomkarho 3y agoAny opinion on Mental Omega?
- Arrath 3y agoInstalling that game was a trip. I took the discs to a friend's house and we didn't realize the volume was cranked on the computer so we closed the drive and it boomed WARNING MILITARY SOFTWARE DETECTED - TOP SECRET CLEARANCE REQUIRED His mom was very curious as to what the hell we were getting in to.
- haolez 3y agoCan it be deployed as a web app? Might reduce the friction even further for new players
- TulliusCicero 3y agoI've played it a bunch, and it really is the perfect LAN party game: Quick to download, quick to install, no real setup or tutorial section, cross platform, runs on anything, timeless graphics, easy to understand gameplay, lots of custom game options including AI, etc. And of course, it's fun. I've tried to find the FPS equivalent of this, but it's been much harder, surprisingly.
- arksingrad 3y agoOriginal Unreal Tournament is a pretty good one for this, I copied the install to a thumb drive on high school and played it on school computers all the time. Same with GZDoom
- crystalPalace 3y agoOpenArena used to be my go to FPS for impromptu LAN parties. Works on Mac, Windows, and Linux and it's easy to get a local server up and running. Plus it works great on ancient Thinkpads.
- HeckFeck 3y agoIf you can get a modern remake of Quake I or II it would fit the bill. I have one on my USB memory stick that's forever been part of my keyring, just in case there ever is the need for a spontaneous fragfest.
- vegancap 3y agoI'm so glad this game still exists in some way or another. And this is a really authentic reproduction. I spent hours playing this as a kid, and rediscovered this in my 30's, and, well... have spent hours more playing it. Thank you for your efforts maintaining this classic
- jacooper 3y agoIs there anything like this but closer to the style of C&C Generals?
- tailsdog 3y agoThis I would like to see!
- elsjaako 3y agoAccording to wikipedia there are two options, although it looks like only one of them is actually playable right now: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_game_engine_recreations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_game_engine_recreation...
- pachouli-please 3y agoUse GenPatcher (https://legi.cc/downloads/genpatcher/ https://legi.cc/downloads/genpatcher/) to make the original game work basically perfectly on modern OSes, as well as implement a bunch of stability, balance, and other optional fixes.
- freedomben 3y agoAny idea if this can get it working on Linux? I dumped a couple hours into trying to get it running under wine and proton but couldn't figure it out.
- jacooper 3y agoGenerlas is a very picky game, with random mismatch errors all the time on windows, even as a linux gamer I've given up on running it on linux, it has enough issues as is!
- atomicnumber3 3y agoThis. I think part of the reason an OpenCCG hasn't shown up is because the modding/community support for the original CD images/binaries is so strong. Plus... the game isn't exactly hard to find (it's on Origin, for example) and isn't exactly hard to find (if you know what I mean).
- nhggfu 3y agois a ra2 release on the roadmap?
- Aeolun 3y agoIt’s been on the roadmap for the past 10 years. I imagine it’s not easy.
- matthewmcg 3y agoMeanwhile the old game (ra2) runs pretty well with enhancements from cnc.net to allow easier installation on modern windows systems and net play.
- FirmwareBurner 3y agoOr just Google it with "DODI Repack" and get it fully patched and batteries included for modern systems, if your ethics around piracy are not super strong.
- totetsu 3y agoHow many times over do I need to pay for RA2 in my life haha.
- bryanlarsen 3y agoNo matter the answer I imagine your cost/hour is pretty darn low if you're anything like the rest of us. When that denominator is high the ratio is always going to be low!
- Raed667 3y agoIf i remember correctly it doesn't come with cinematics or mission briefs for campaign mode. I'm guessing that would be a copyright issue.
- traspler 3y agoYou can import those from ISOs: https://github.com/OpenRA/OpenRA/wiki/Game-Content https://github.com/OpenRA/OpenRA/wiki/Game-Content but the campaign is not complete afaik as it needs to be re-built in OpenRA: https://github.com/OpenRA/OpenRA/issues/4989 https://github.com/OpenRA/OpenRA/issues/4989 (I think this is the related ticket)
- gh02t 3y agoImportant to note that EA released C&C, RA1, and Tiberian Sun as freeware so you can just grab the data.
- andrewstuart 3y agoI loved these games and played so many of them but for some reason I just don’t think I’d be able to play them again.
- TulliusCicero 3y agoOpenRA is somewhat modernized so you should give it a shot imo.
- rollcat 3y agoThere's also <https://stratagus.com https://stratagus.com> which re-implements Warcraft 2 and (very WIP) Starcraft 1.
- distantsounds 3y agoI never knew this existed, thanks so much for posting i!
- RulerOf 3y agoI'm very fond of wargus and war1gus. I had to build it myself, but I was able to play wc1 and wc2 on Mac OS with native arm64 binaries. Lovely project.
- koolba 3y agoCan someone who's played this confirm if it has some open source equivalent of the awesome Red Alert music? It's those fast paced heavy metal riffs that goes so well with seeing conscripts being sent into a meat grinder.
- shrx 3y agoAs is usually the case with these open source reimplementations, the game assets (textures, sounds) must still be retrieved from the official installation / ISO.
- johannes1234321 3y agoWhile the owners of C&C made them available for free. Thus they can be legally downloaded, even directly from within OpenRA.
- trey-jones 3y agoCheers to those guys. I never understand the thought process of obstructing the use of materials that are so old in video-game-years. Without the community they (these assets) will just sit in the closet and die.
- johannes1234321 3y agoI can only speculate that some fear it might hurt the saleskf later editions and other new games (which is a bad reason) And there seems to be some market for nostalgia around selling old games. We can see new versions of old consoles, bundles of old games (with preconfigured emulators), ...
- yetanotherloss 3y agoIn most cases it is that various rights are held by defunct or disinterested parties and so it's near impossible to get relicensing done legally.
- aspanu 3y ago
- justusthane 3y agoI'll take this opportunity to recommend Zero-K[1] for those who were into Total Annihilation. It's truly excellent! [1]: https://zero-k.info/ https://zero-k.info/
- anilakar 3y ago...or Total Annihilation Spring, nowadays known as Spring RTS: https://springrts.com/ https://springrts.com/
- stickmangallows 3y agoAnd Beyond All Reason: https://www.beyondallreason.info/ https://www.beyondallreason.info/
- josefresco 3y agoI play OpenRA / Tiberian Dawn at least 4-5 times a week. Always skirmish, 1v1, powers disabled (no nukes) I play GDI, CPU is NOD. Takes me 20 minutes, I win 90% of the time but have to focus or else I lose easily. It's my crossword/sudoku/wordle/puzzle/meditation/mental reset.
- mgbmtl 3y agoSame here, but sometimes I have to resist playing a second game :) I appreciate the simplicity of the game, but also the small details that make it fun. And that a typical game rarely lasts more than 20-30 minutes.
- gandalfgreybeer 3y agoHmm. Now I want to start playing StarCraft again. It’s been a while but I honestly feel like that helped me train my focus back then.
- mock-possum 3y agoI just ran back through StarCraft + Broodwars campaigns recently and… it really really holds up. The unit pathing and computer player AI isn’t quite as smart, but the game is solid.
- hnthrowaway0315 3y agoYup the campaigns are actually my favorite part. I wish I had the time to run through SC2 campaigns too but they are numerous.
- TulliusCicero 3y agoThere's a bunch of custom versions of the SC2 campaigns now as well, including a coop one. GiantGrantGames is known for covering PvE content there.
- 3y ago
- jpm_sd 3y agoWelp, never downloading this, I'd just stop sleeping. Played the shit out of the original C&C:RA against my friends in high school.
- sproketboy 3y agoCool. I'm currently working on a modern remake of the old goldbox games. Making good progress.
- pelasaco 3y agoFrom the code perspective, pretty nice, they decided to work with C# and don't use any Engine.. it would be nice however if we had more documentation about it internals, architecture and etc.
- dopeboy 3y agoThe decision to not use an engine is curious. Anyone know why?
- howmayiannoyyou 3y agoRA taught me almost everything I needed to know about geopolitics. Seriously, I marvel at its applicability. - Resources Without resources (eg. Net national income) you cannot support a national defense. ...Limited resources lead to conflict. ...Exploit and defend distant resources to preserve your domestic reserves. - Capability Evolution & Resiliency ...You must pursue advanced capabilities that surpass or match your adversaries, and if you manage your resources properly this is achievable. ...Your infrastructure must be configured dispersed, redundant and secure. - Combined Arms ...Combative units need a mix of capabilities to overcome defenses, unless you overwhelm (swarm) your enemy - which carries resource risks. - Long View ...One can easily win a battle or two and lose the war without a long-term plan. - Intelligence ...You cannot know how your capabilities measure up against your adversaries without good intel. This often means sacrificing units for a look into your opponent's capabilities. If RA theory and gameplay were mandatory in Congress the United States would be better positioned to both deter and compete with its global adversaries.
- Jenk 3y ago> If RA theory and gameplay were mandatory in Congress the United States would be better positioned to both deter and compete with its global adversaries. Surely these "global adversaries" are a myth? Isn't the US Military like 3 times the size of the 3 next largest militaries combined or something? There is no bogeyman except within, as far as the US Military goes. I'm not stupid - I know there are threats to the wellbeing of US society and citizens, but they aren't _existential_ threats to the US. Meanwhile the list of "de-throned and/or de-fanged by the US" nations is huge. I think the one critical lesson missing from the "RA Theory" is you need to continue to live, and there is more to life than just squashing your "enemies."
- solardev 3y ago> there is more to life than just squashing your "enemies" Thankfully, our other grand national pastime happens to be making new enemies! With a 3x military, we can afford to make 2x enemies and still come out ahead. "Cha-ching!" --Tanya
- 3y ago
- petre 3y agoI played a bit of Dune2000 but I kept getting my ass kicked by the AI at the first level and there's no difficulty oprion.
- warthog 3y agoLoving this, I really appreciate the work that you have done. Posting in all my friend circles now, I am sure everyone will love replaying this game
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- dismalpedigree 3y agoI love playing OpenRA. Really lets me relive and share some fond childhood experiences with my kids. They love it also. LAN party is so fun. I do need one of them to get with the program and actually build an army instead of 100s of dogs though.
- freedomben 3y agoWell damn, this has gotten good. Downloadable on linux as a flatpak and can automatically download the assets it needs... Luckily it has a "save mission" feature so I could save and exit and return later after only losing 20 mins of my workday. This is even better than I remember! Kudos to the devs on such a fantastic job.
- low_tech_punk 3y ago45MB download, that's an insane fun-to-byte density!! I'm gonna try this on my old ThinkPad x61! I remember distinctly about the amazing cinematic cut scene in RA for that era of technology. The engineer probably geeked out with a lot compression hacks. I thought they were skipping every other line of rendering but still retained the illusion of a full video.
- Havoc 3y agoHow do they get away with this legally? I'm glad they do, just a bit confused
- bendoidic 3y agoAll the art and sound assets are loaded from a local copy of C&C that the user must purchase on their own before running OpenRA (specifically the "C&C Remastered Collection" on Steam or Origin). OpenRA uses the assets from that local install, so it's all legal! Stratagus does the same thing with Warcraft assets. https://github.com/OpenRA/TiberianDawnHD#asset-installation https://github.com/OpenRA/TiberianDawnHD#asset-installation
- xsmasher 3y agoOpenRA will download the campaign and graphics assets for you (not sounds and movies). No purchase is required.
- itscrush 3y agoThe assets available for download within the OpenRA client are stored freeware releases OpenRA hosts. EA freeware'd the three base games back in 2008. OpenRA does prompt if you want to provide your own discs to load your licensed assets if that's preferred. https://cnc.fandom.com/wiki/Command_%26_Conquer:_Red_Alert#cite_note-ccrafree-7 https://cnc.fandom.com/wiki/Command_%26_Conquer:_Red_Alert#c... (referenced EA news link dead, doesn't look like archive.ph has a clean snap) https://www.openra.net/legal/ https://www.openra.net/legal/
- Havoc 3y agoThanks for explaining!
- p0w3n3d 3y agorecently I played my Warcraft II via Wargus and was pleasantly surprised. It seems that they generalised the engine, named Stratagus, so it can run different games...
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- boringg 3y agoAmazing. Also want to point out that the double clicking of the mouse for Dune2000 definitely took me a little bit to figure out. It's been a long time since I had to do that - don't miss it. Other than that though very cool - happy to revisit the games!
- lawlessone 3y agoCould this be done with Earth 2140? it was out around the same time, worked very similarly , there were demo disks included with PC magazine. edit:nvm it has been done :) https://github.com/OpenE2140/OpenE2140 https://github.com/OpenE2140/OpenE2140
- mmkos 3y agoWow, I'm totally checking this out, thanks.
- diimdeep 3y agoSuper cool. Sadly, seems like RTS is dead genre, except for old titles. https://youtu.be/q0jj71XcYYo https://youtu.be/q0jj71XcYYo
- dkh 3y agoIt’s a shame! I’m probably the least of a gamer of anyone I know (a bit of FIFA on PS4 is the only game I’ve played all year), but I played the shit out of RTS games back in the day. There was something wonderful about opening up StarCraft, jumping into a really fun and intense game, and then being finished 45min or so later. I just couldn’t get as into games you had to play for significantly longer or with more nebulous objectives. Endless unwinnable games like WoW were my absolute nightmare.
- TulliusCicero 3y agoStarcraft 1 is still quite active on the Korean server, though it's not for the faint of heart.
- S04dKHzrKT 3y agoSanctuary is an in-progress game that's heavily inspired by Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance. It does use Unity though. Not sure how the recent pricing changes will impact the game's development. https://shatteredsunrts.com/ https://shatteredsunrts.com/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/1699050/Sanctuary_Shattered_Sun/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/1699050/Sanctuary_Shatter...
- TulliusCicero 3y agoThere's a bunch of cool ones in development, actually: Beyond All Reason, Sanctuary, Tempest Rising, DORF, Immortal Gates of Pyre, Stormgate, and ZeroSpace just to name a few.
- ww520 3y agoThis is great. I couldn’t get my dos version running for a long time. This will let me get back into the game.
- jeremy_wiebe 3y agoIf I find a Total Annihilation remake, I’ll have to kiss my free time goodbye. That was the one strategy game like this that I really got into.
- apitman 3y agoI'm assuming you're already aware of SpringRTS and Zero K?
- Teifion 3y agoMay I present, Beyond All Reason - https://www.beyondallreason.info/ https://www.beyondallreason.info/ Like OpenRA it's open source too. Disclaimer, I'm one of the devs for it.
- Arrath 3y agoHey! BAR sucks up an unreasonable amount of my free time. Good stuff!
- Teifion 3y agoWe've had 3 people request temporary suspensions to allow them to focus on their studies this week. We see that as one heck of a compliment ;)
- nirav72 3y agoBaR is probably the closest thing I found to the original TA. This is after playing everything from Supreme Commander, planetary annihilation ,Zero-K and few others I can't even remember the names anymore. Something just felt off about those games. But BaR somehow was able to recreate it the feel of the original TA. Any plans to allow custom AI mods and units? (I haven't played it in a few months)
- Teifion 3y agoAI yes, very much so. In fact if you can get over the rather steep (for now) first step of getting them working I think we'd welcome AI submissions. Units we want to and there's currently something called "tweakdefs" that gets you halfway there.
- jeegsy 3y agoI have the old discs for RA and CC First decade and im still having trouble with disc detection in openra (installed appimage on kubuntu).
- xbmcuser 3y agoThis is for people wondering how to get the original audio and video files https://github.com/Walkman100/OpenRA-Install-Guide https://github.com/Walkman100/OpenRA-Install-Guide
- HeavyStorm 3y agoI wish it could support RA2 the same way. Don't get me wrong, RA1 was _fun_, but RA2 units are so much more. And there's a real difference between soviets and allies army. RA1 they were too much alike.
- solarman5000 3y agoFor a long time OpenRA was the only thing that would work on my kids Linux computers. The only reason I upgraded their computers is because OpenRA made an update that wouldn't work on first gen i5 integrated graphics. We play a game together almost every day. Huge thanks to the devs, this game was a big part of my childhood, and thanks to them it is a part of my kids childhood too
- nadermx 3y agoThere are some players on OpenRA that are really good. Beating one of them once or twice was riviting.