This feels more like some o.g. Command and conquer devs who have worked at EA for a long time that are passionate about the franchise. There was no big PR release, no product tie in or announcement, no media campaign.
Recovering and restoring the source code for these titles was made possible through the combined efforts of EA technical director Brian Barnes, Respawn producer Jim Vessella, and Luke Feenan, a long-standing member of the C&C community who was involved in the development of the Command & Conquer Remastered Collection.
IIRC, a few years ago EA hired some of the original devs, put them in charge of the franchise, and then went very hands-off, but with very little budget. So far they’ve done this, and a very reasonably priced 4K remaster of TD and RA1.
Totally makes sense, considering the remaster was perfect. It was just “multiplayer works, we redid the sprites and audio and tweaked the engine to get rid of some of the bugs. Also hit space for original graphics” or whatever the button was. It was everything an OG C&C remaster needed IMO. I would love to see the same with some of these titles, but now that they’re open source it gives the opportunity for better fan made forks, so I’m all for it.
Edit: and forgot to mention the best part, EA didn’t force their launcher with the remaster or steam editions. They are purely steam games, which is a huge win
At least some of the remaster source code is in the repo, too. If the TS or RA2 source code is found, people will be immediately able to do that graphics switch for them, too.
IIRC, when the remaster was in the works, they were asking for files from the community as some of the cut scene videos from OG were lost. I think there are a few low def ones in there still because no one had them. There’s also an issue with the Nod ending theme song. I only have it because I had the game on Saturn and you could play them like regular CDs once you got past the information tracks. So I burned it in .flac.
Makes sense, that’s probably why the highest quality cutscenes are the ones from the PS1 port (retaliation) of the counterstrike and aftermath expansions, since the roms are so well preserved. A good example of how game preservation can help both the gaming community and the companies that make said games
Sometimes licenses get in the way, it’s possible they bought an engine or tech from a 3rd party and don’t have the legal standing (or don’t know if they do or not) to release the source.
Fallout source is gone too. There was just no reliable way to store source code back then, a lot of times it was just one of the developers that had it sitting in a desk drawer.
When I first played Red Alert, it was on a computer with a 6.4GB hard drive, and I had no idea how to fill up that much space at the time. I think we’ll be fine.
This doesn’t release any copyright work in the game. So you will need to go through and remove any sprites, images, audio, etc that is copyright. Which means you will need to own a copy of the game (to have a right to the copyright usage) to use any binary produced from THIS source.
Additionally, it indicates that you must include in any derivative that the source of your code is from the EA drop here.
Outside of that, it is GPLv3. Of course it has hard dependency on DirectX 5.0. So a fully free version will need to redo those parts. Also the code is very MS VC++ heavy. Don’t expect gcc to build you a binary.
dont people already make seperate MODS for each anyways, for them anyways,. they figured they wernt making money off having the old games in thier wierd little launcher.
Open source does not mean that the intellectual property is free. There’s a lot of good that comes from this, and it’s not like those games are expensive.
Correct. The license (at least, the one I read for Red Alert) is GPLv3 with some additional stuff. The additional stuff is mostly about not using EA trademarks in your version or showing any connection to EA itself. So it appears that a clean room asset swap would be allowed as long as it includes the title screen.
Which, in the immediate future, makes me wonder less about the things that are going to be done in code, and more about the creation of new, free, visual and audio resources that make this work. That seems like quite a noble pursuit.
If you dig some experienced players comments who bought the “remastered” stuff, they are complaining that they “re-mastered” the exact same bugs that seriously annoyed the players too. They didn’t fix the bugs.
With the power of OSS, every bug can be fixed.
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No matter what you think of EA, this is fantastic news.
Perhaps why this feels like them trying to save face.
This feels more like some o.g. Command and conquer devs who have worked at EA for a long time that are passionate about the franchise. There was no big PR release, no product tie in or announcement, no media campaign.
https://www.polygon.com/news/531365/command-and-conquer-open-source-code-ea
IIRC, a few years ago EA hired some of the original devs, put them in charge of the franchise, and then went very hands-off, but with very little budget. So far they’ve done this, and a very reasonably priced 4K remaster of TD and RA1.
Totally makes sense, considering the remaster was perfect. It was just “multiplayer works, we redid the sprites and audio and tweaked the engine to get rid of some of the bugs. Also hit space for original graphics” or whatever the button was. It was everything an OG C&C remaster needed IMO. I would love to see the same with some of these titles, but now that they’re open source it gives the opportunity for better fan made forks, so I’m all for it.
Edit: and forgot to mention the best part, EA didn’t force their launcher with the remaster or steam editions. They are purely steam games, which is a huge win
At least some of the remaster source code is in the repo, too. If the TS or RA2 source code is found, people will be immediately able to do that graphics switch for them, too.
IIRC, when the remaster was in the works, they were asking for files from the community as some of the cut scene videos from OG were lost. I think there are a few low def ones in there still because no one had them. There’s also an issue with the Nod ending theme song. I only have it because I had the game on Saturn and you could play them like regular CDs once you got past the information tracks. So I burned it in .flac.
Makes sense, that’s probably why the highest quality cutscenes are the ones from the PS1 port (retaliation) of the counterstrike and aftermath expansions, since the roms are so well preserved. A good example of how game preservation can help both the gaming community and the companies that make said games
Ah well I’m glad to see the devs sticking to their passions. I’m sure they’re proud of this move.
With that said, I’m still surprised EA didn’t try to capitalize on it somehow.
On what?
Just in general. EA has a lot to around for.
Extremely rare EA win
Are they trying to become the not most hated studio? The bar is pretty low these days…
I feel like at some point, EA became the least hated major studio by staying exactly where they were. The rest of the industry zoomed past them.
Nah, you’re going way too far. Least hated studio? What about CD Projekt Red? Larian? Fromsoft? Who hates Warhorse more than EA?
Maybe I should clarify that to “publisher”. EA itself doesn’t really make games anymore. They fund the studios who make games.
Well I’m very excited to see the injection of life this hopefully gives c&c modding
I wonder how many of the old guard are still around, I’m glad the cncnet project is still going strong
its odd that they open sourced Generals and the first CNC and Red Alert, but nothing in between.
CNC3 was my favorite, and I’ll die on that hill . but RA2 was obivously the fan favorite, and Tiberian Sun had probably the best atmosphere
Sometimes licenses get in the way, it’s possible they bought an engine or tech from a 3rd party and don’t have the legal standing (or don’t know if they do or not) to release the source.
someone else here suggested that the source code for TS/RA2 was lost. which wouldnt surprise me.
These are games that were made when and before the Zoomers were being born. they are ancient by most people’s standards.
Fallout source is gone too. There was just no reliable way to store source code back then, a lot of times it was just one of the developers that had it sitting in a desk drawer.
If it’s new enough, maybe a burnt CD.
still susceptible to disc rot
Yeah, I used to steal the physical CDs from Kmart back in the day. They’re old as hell.
I hope everyone’s SSDs have enough SPACE
SPAAAACE
SPGHGHAAIGHGHSSSE!!! is literally the only thing I know about Command & Conquer.
When I first played Red Alert, it was on a computer with a 6.4GB hard drive, and I had no idea how to fill up that much space at the time. I think we’ll be fine.
RENEGADE!!!
Loved Renegade so much. Played the shit out of the MP back in the day.
That game seemed so underappreciated. I would be thrilled if I could have another LAN party with it.
Holy shit, EA did something… Good? I did not have that on my 2025 bingo card. So, what’s the catch? There has to be a catch, right?
This doesn’t release any copyright work in the game. So you will need to go through and remove any sprites, images, audio, etc that is copyright. Which means you will need to own a copy of the game (to have a right to the copyright usage) to use any binary produced from THIS source.
Additionally, it indicates that you must include in any derivative that the source of your code is from the EA drop here.
Outside of that, it is GPLv3. Of course it has hard dependency on DirectX 5.0. So a fully free version will need to redo those parts. Also the code is very MS VC++ heavy. Don’t expect gcc to build you a binary.
That’s still pretty cool though right?
I think so. When I first saw the announcement, I was fearing some barely open source license, and was pleasantly surprised.
Heh, the red alert readme says it currently requires borland for the asm and watcom compiler for the c/c++.
Short version: You can make free stuff for them but they still own all of it and still require people to purchase a copy to use the derivatives.
You can make complete conversions with your own assets. That’s basically how old id engines work.
Holy shit.
I hope they opensource Dungeon Keeper.
dont people already make seperate MODS for each anyways, for them anyways,. they figured they wernt making money off having the old games in thier wierd little launcher.
I’m ready for a zero hour remake!
Im now just happy that it’s far more likely for a clean 60fps mod that’s not locked behind someone’s patreon
It’s a kick ass game but some of the tropes didn’t age well.
Ak47s for everyone!
Can I at least have some shoes?
The whole premise is “America: Fuck Yeah, The RTS”.
Open sourcing old games is awesome for video game preservation.
Yeah, this should be standard practice
EA ? Did I read right ?
Broken clock
Was expecting a catch. Still good for modding I guess
Anyone know if this is a technologically-enforced “must” or just a “pretty please”?
Open source does not mean that the intellectual property is free. There’s a lot of good that comes from this, and it’s not like those games are expensive.
Though do also note that of these four, TD and RA1 were already made freeware years ago.
I realize. Intellectual property is an icky concept IMO but I know not everyone agrees
Intellectual property is what allows them to make these games GPL.
The GPL is a way to make intellectual property work the way it should by default.
I’m assuming this is more about art assets. Art is not code and you shouldn’t expect them for free. It’s not a catch.
Correct. The license (at least, the one I read for Red Alert) is GPLv3 with some additional stuff. The additional stuff is mostly about not using EA trademarks in your version or showing any connection to EA itself. So it appears that a clean room asset swap would be allowed as long as it includes the title screen.
Which, in the immediate future, makes me wonder less about the things that are going to be done in code, and more about the creation of new, free, visual and audio resources that make this work. That seems like quite a noble pursuit.
The entire series is on sale on Steam right now for $6 if that helps.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1213210/Command__Conquer_Remastered_Collection/
That’s only the HD remaster of TD and RA1.
Sorry, that was the wrong link.
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/39394/Command__Conquer_The_Ultimate_Collection/
If you dig some experienced players comments who bought the “remastered” stuff, they are complaining that they “re-mastered” the exact same bugs that seriously annoyed the players too. They didn’t fix the bugs. With the power of OSS, every bug can be fixed.
https://www.openra.net/
Open Red Alert
This is a pretty standard affair for open sourced games.