EA has open sourced a bunch of old Command & Conquer games
Electronic Arts, inspiring a global community of players to explore new ways to play every day - Electronic Arts
I'm not well versed in C&C, but it's always good to see more games open sourced.
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.
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.
https://www.polygon.com/news/531365/command-and-conquer-open-source-code-ea
Open sourcing old games is awesome for video game preservation.
Yeah, this should be standard practice
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.
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.
To use the compiled binaries, you must own the game
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.
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/
This is a pretty standard affair for open sourced games.
This is a momentous event. I only wish it had Red Alert 2 in it.
If it doesn't then I'm not interested.
Broken clock
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.
Is Tiberian Sun included!!!??
No. The repo has Tiberian Dawn, Red Alert 1, Generals with Zero Hour, Renegade, and components for the HD ports of TD and RA1 they put out a few years ago.
AY YO RENEGADE!?
From what I've read/know, the source for Tiberian Sun and Red Alert 2 were lost a while ago. Doesn't mean it can't be reverse engineered at some point, but it's challenging. I'd LOVE for those to be next though!
Yes, if you click the link, it takes you to the EA github amd you can see folders for all included games
I heard so, yes.
Old games being open sourced is a trend I can get behind.
Mmmmm pre-standard C++
EA ? Did I read right ?
I hope everyone's SSDs have enough SPACE
SPAAAACE
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.
SPGHGHAAIGHGHSSSE!!!! is literally the only thing I know about Command & Conquer.
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.
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
Now if only they open-sourced the SAGE engine, then we'd be all happy
The engine is highly optimized & produces great visuals, Of course there IS OpenSAGE
Fuck EA but cool move - if they keep being not shit for long enough I might consider their products again.
Doubt they can keep it up.
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.
If I had to guess, I'd say it's some write-off move. A bit like Epic Games released all Paragon assets after they canceled the game.
Epic released those to add value to their engine not as a write off
EA released this to boost Steam Workshop content - which would boost sales - not as a write off
As I understand accounting, you really don't need to do stuff like this to write off your assets.
I'm not saying there isn't a cynical corporate reason for doing this but I doubt this is it.
Holy shit.
I hope they opensource Dungeon Keeper.
Can you say why? The opensource project is already insanely good.
To make the opensource project even better! :P
The compiler has optimized the rendering engine too much to be decompiled into any useable code. Somebody is working on Linux and 64bit support which will need to have this completely rewritten. https://github.com/dkfans/keeperfx/blob/master/src/bflib_render_gpoly.c
The maintainer of KeeperFX told me that EA does not have the original code anymore though.
Finally someone can fix Twilight Flame
It's about thyme!
They're still requiring EA Play or $6 for the bundle on steam.
Correct. Doom and Quake still cost money as well.
Abusers will often buy gifts to placate the victim. It's a cheap and empty move that changes nothing in the end. Do not be fooled.
I'm sorry but comparing this to domestic abuse is just insane
It's literally the exact same tactic
EA doesn’t open source old games: EA are scum and anti-consumer.
EA open sources old games: EA are scum and anti-consumer.
If it’s good it must be bad, right?
That's correct
I am under the impression that lemmy is more negative than reddit
People are people; I feel we've generally got quite a good vibe going on so don't let the grumps bring you down!
Who cares. EA sucks balls
Not when they do this.
EA sucks balls, but this is one objectively good move from them. It's worth noting, especially from a games preservation perspective.
This is an opportunity where if you'd used your brain you'd have come to a different conclusion.
You can hate the company while accepting this. EA doesn't have exclusive control over that game anymore.
I will never have anything good to say about EA
I wish.
I have dry balls.
