Whoever pushed for this at EA - my deepest respect is with you!<p>Original C&C was rewritten from scratch long ago, but open source version of Zero Hour is such an amazing gift.<p>PS: if you want to send respects to the person who did it you can do it on Linkedin:<p><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jim-vessella-62726825_from-the-commandandconquer-community-on-reddit-activity-7300953625088901121-BWZL" rel="nofollow">https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jim-vessella-62726825_from-th...</a>
>To use the compiled binaries, you must own the game. The C&C Remastered Collection is available for purchase on EA App or Steam.<p>Mind you EA released [some of] the games as freeware back in 2008 so no, you don't have to buy them for the graphics, art, sound, and music assets<p>Tiberian Dawn GDI <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110927141135/http://na.llnet.cnc3tv.ea.com/u/f/eagames/cnc3/cnc3tv/Classic/GDI95.iso" rel="nofollow">https://web.archive.org/web/20110927141135/http://na.llnet.c...</a><p>Tiberian Dawn NOD <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20111104060230/http://na.llnet.cnc3tv.ea.com/u/f/eagames/cnc3/cnc3tv/Classic/NOD95.iso" rel="nofollow">https://web.archive.org/web/20111104060230/http://na.llnet.c...</a><p>Tiberian Sun (though no source code was released for this game) <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110823002110/http://na.llnet.cnc3tv.ea.com/u/f/eagames/cnc3/cnc3tv/Classic/OfficialCnCTiberianSun.rar" rel="nofollow">https://web.archive.org/web/20110823002110/http://na.llnet.c...</a><p>Red Alert Allied <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100130215623/http://na.llnet.cnc3tv.ea.com/u/f/eagames/cnc3/cnc3tv/RedAlert/RedAlert1_AlliedDisc.rar" rel="nofollow">https://web.archive.org/web/20100130215623/http://na.llnet.c...</a><p>Red Alert Soviet <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100130220258/http://na.llnet.cnc3tv.ea.com/u/f/eagames/cnc3/cnc3tv/RedAlert/RedAlert1_SovietDisc.rar" rel="nofollow">https://web.archive.org/web/20100130220258/http://na.llnet.c...</a>
The complete C&C bundle with all open sourced games and several others is currently $6 on Steam, if you need the art assets <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/39394/Command__Conquer_The_Ultimate_Collection/" rel="nofollow">https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/39394/Command__Conquer...</a><p>Hopefully this causes a sales spike and encourages other developers to do similar things.
<p><pre><code> // Homework for today. Write 2000 words reconciling "Your code must never crash" with "Intentionally putting crashes in the code". Fucktard.
// DEBUG_CRASH(( "xferScienceVec - vector is not empty, but should be\n" ));
//
</code></pre>
<a href="https://github.com/electronicarts/CnC_Generals_Zero_Hour/blob/0a05454d8574207440a5fb15241b98ad0b435590/GeneralsMD/Code/GameEngine/Source/Common/System/Xfer.cpp#L646">https://github.com/electronicarts/CnC_Generals_Zero_Hour/blo...</a>
The complete game was released as freeware by EA over 15 years ago. It was freely available for download from EA's servers for many years and has been redistributed by many third party sites as well. So getting the art and other assets to use with this code should be no problem.<p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100214144634/http://www.commandandconquer.com/classic" rel="nofollow">https://web.archive.org/web/20100214144634/http://www.comman...</a>
Found this gem in Recorder.cpp of generals:<p><pre><code> //Kris: Patch 1.01 November 10, 2003 (integrated changes from Matt Campbell)
// Since we don't seem to have any *visible* desyncs when replaying games, but get this warning
// virtually every replay, the assumption is our CRC checking is faulty. Since we're at the
// tail end of patch season, let's just disable the message, and hope the users believe the
// problem is fixed. -MDC 3/20/2003
//TheInGameUI->message("GUI:CRCMismatch");</code></pre>
Some funny comments<p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/commandandconquer/comments/1izpkmh/funny_generals_source_code_comments/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=usertext&utm_name=commandandconquer" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/commandandconquer/comments/1izpkmh/...</a>
OpenRA did it better :D<p>If you haven't seen it yet <a href="https://www.openra.net/" rel="nofollow">https://www.openra.net/</a> is worth your time.<p><a href="https://github.com/OpenRA/OpenRA">https://github.com/OpenRA/OpenRA</a><p>I have many fond memories of playing openra as "LAN" game on the gaming weekends we used to have in a few open source groups I've been in. I can't recommend "saturday gaming" enough, for anyone involved in any foss community, set up a recurring gaming weekend! You get bonus points if you make it mostly or exclusively foss games!
// Lets discuss how Windows is a flaming pile of poo. I'm now casting the header<p><pre><code> // directly into the structure, because its the one I want, and this is just how
// its done. I hate Windows. - jkmcd
DEV_BROADCAST_VOLUME *vol = (DEV_BROADCAST_VOLUME*) (hdr);
// @todo - Yikes. This could cause us all kinds of pain. I don't really want
// to even think about the stink this could cause us.
TheFileSystem->unloadMusicFilesFromCD(vol->dbcv_unitmask);
return TRUE;</code></pre>
For real, CnC Generals was the game that has taught me the most about the frivolity of war: there are no winners, both sides lose, it's just a grand burning of resources... for nothing.<p>You build a wonderful base and war machine, only to watch it burn.<p>If this was "required playing" to all kids, I would be greatly surprised if war would still be a thing... it basically mocks war. In the most fun way possible!<p>Look up Jeffrey Sachs' address to EU Parliament, if you are unsure about the real geopolitics of this century... you won't find it in US media.
> If you wish to rebuild the source code and tools successfully you will need to find or write new replacements (or remove the code using them entirely) for the following libraries;<p>Take the hint, Valve. And Epic (UT99). Having third-party code is not an excuse.
This is very cool. It should be done a lot more often for old games. Whoever pulled this off at EA Games, you did a great thing for art and culture, and chapeau for pulling it off at a big corp.
I was a young teen when Command & Conquer came out. It was so damn cool. Westwood was at their peak: they made hit after hit after hit. The Kyrandia point & click series. The Eye of the Beholder series. Lands of Lore. Dune II. Everything they made was gold.<p>They came in and made an RTS when we didn't have a term for this. It had a cool, modern soundtrack. It had a cool world and a story fleshed out in high production value FMV. Cutting edge CGI.<p>We all know how Westwood died. Then the series had disappointing sequels, and a sad mobile title, and it all died until the remaster. The remaster felt like a well-executed effort, and a way to enjoy the classics on modern systems.<p>Today's release of the source code is so exciting. A recognition that C&C is worth preserving. That its community is still excited for it. It allows the series to live on forever. For fans to go crazy. For all sorts of mods and tweaks to be enjoyed on Steam.<p>It finally feels like after a decade and a half, C&C has a future. No longer a great old RTS, but one that has lots of excellent campaigns available on modern systems, moddable, and evergreen.<p>Battle control... online :)
According to some research I did a few years back, EA currently owns the rights to Full Tilt! Pinball, which is what 3D Pinball Space Cadet was based on.<p>EA, if you have a single shred of decency, open source Pinball!
I only glanced at the code in ANIM.CPP but for a C++ program from 1997 it looks kinda nice, right? The methods are all short, with some descriptive comments at the top of each one. Inputs and outputs described. Nice index at the top of the file.<p>I’ve seen worse!
Who can we bribe at Microsoft to get Fallout 1 / 2 source code released? Would be really interesting when you consider that FO2 has online modding, so it would allow for so much craziness to ensue out of FO2...
25 or 30 years would be a good amount of time for software copyright to expire.<p>It would be fantastic if there was a way (somewhat like patents) where IP protection could be linked up with publishing materials so that in order to get the law to protect your software from copying, you had to have it published at the end of the protection period. (like on release you had to store the source code at the library of congress or something)
This is really nice and positively surprising for EA. While the RTSs are amazing I think Command and Conquer Renegade is one of the most fun games ever made as well.<p><a href="https://github.com/electronicarts/CnC_Renegade">https://github.com/electronicarts/CnC_Renegade</a><p>What these people did is really amazing:<p><a href="https://w3dhub.com/" rel="nofollow">https://w3dhub.com/</a>
I love reading the code that these people wrote when i was a kid enjoying the game. Never thought I'd have the opportunity when I was 10 and dreaming of these things haha.
If anyone used to play Zero Hour, there is still an active community. They still have tournaments and world series. A guy called Dominator on Youtube casts it all and its a pretty entertaining blast from the past. I recommend checking out his channel.
I recommend this video "This is Why We Still Play Tiberian Sun in 2025"<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIbuqy6bI2Y" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIbuqy6bI2Y</a>
There are loads of .BAK files as well, and diffing them with the actual file gives you some insight on what they were working on. (Like pre and post Counterstrike addon).
Neat! I am going to have to play with this for fun in my free time. C&C Red Alert was one of the first things that got me interested in programming and developing software, there was an ini file somewhere where you could control all the stats/wepons of the units. I had a blast making crazy units mods to units and it made me want to learn how to create games and software generally.
I hope that the events like this could start a bigger wave of opening the source for many other older games.<p>To anyone else reading, who's passionate about the topic: reach out to the companies however you can! I can share a personal experience that it does sometimes work, and thanks to that, a somewhat niche game of Zatikon is getting a second life as a FOSS project :)
One idea I had for open source games like this is AI experiments or training. Many people have been using Starcraft. If not it, they often use games that are nowhere near mainstream quality.<p>My idea was to have games in various genres with different skills required, like planning or physical abilities. Then, set each one up to work with just the engine in a way where game state is easy to interact with. For instance, no graphics or pop-up menus. Then, iterative experiments, like genetic programming or neural networks, could run much faster. Later, a common interface to many of them, like human senses, might let them be used to build general knowledge for AGI experiments.<p>Curious what people think of this. Especially a few exemplars in each category modified to just run really fast. For each, maybe training data on top of it that shows how to play the game. Seems like a cheaper option for testing architectures vs games not designed to do this.
Best game intro [1] ever IMO. Fun story, compact length, epic soundtrack ("Hell March"). They did that in 1996 and nothing since has even come close for me.<p>Had a ton of fun with the game itself, too.<p>1: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJnMaTx4yjI" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJnMaTx4yjI</a>
Looking at the README for Red Alert specifically and the various requirements, how is it possible that these run on modern Windows?<p>OFC they're distributed via Steam as binaries + libs etc, but are they including these ancient versions of DirectX and the other dependencies with the downloads? Are these still compatible?<p>I know Windows has/had for years remarkable backwards compatibility, but that's always been a source of confusion for me.<p>Is there some monstrous "compatibility shim" somewhere for old DirectX APIs or something? What makes this possible?<p>Edit: Wait was this a re-release at some point more recently? If so, I suppose that specific question is addressed, but that still pertains to other old games. How does Half-Life (or whatever) still work? Same story?
Omniblade from Thyme project [0] managed to get Generals to compile [1][2] but there is still work to be done:<p>[0] <a href="https://github.com/TheAssemblyArmada/Thyme">https://github.com/TheAssemblyArmada/Thyme</a><p>[1] <a href="https://discord.com/channels/409121752921276426/409121752921276428/1345188172375527504" rel="nofollow">https://discord.com/channels/409121752921276426/409121752921...</a><p>[2] <a href="https://github.com/electronicarts/CnC_Generals_Zero_Hour/compare/main...OmniBlade:CnC_Generals_Zero_Hour:feature/cmake">https://github.com/electronicarts/CnC_Generals_Zero_Hour/com...</a>
I really hope that one day they will open source Nox [1], it was my favorite childhood game after Sims. Nox was also a game created by the same studio that created Red Alert.<p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nox_(video_game)" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nox_(video_game)</a>
I wonder if the current owners will ever consider open sourcing Supreme Commander, the spiritual successor to Total Annihilation.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Commander_(video_game)" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Commander_(video_game)</a>
Previously: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23249964">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23249964</a> "EA will be releasing the C&C Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert source code under GPL3" May 20, 2020 253 comments
I used to play this game a lot (more Red Alert 2, which is actually hosted for free online somehow with multiplayer mode: <a href="https://chronodivide.com/" rel="nofollow">https://chronodivide.com/</a>)
Related: If you like the old Command and Conquer classics, give Combined Arms a try.<p><a href="https://www.moddb.com/mods/command-conquer-combined-arms" rel="nofollow">https://www.moddb.com/mods/command-conquer-combined-arms</a>
A bit off-topic, but I found it very dystopian a few months ago to ask ChatGPT to describe the game in some detail. It refused to, claiming it violated content policy. Chilling.
Curious. Can anyone tell me if it’s windows thing, specific filesystem thing, source control system thing or just a style thing, naming all files and directories in caps?
I guess this is as close to public domain that software can be until the 2070s. Functionally no different to use, but you are not allowed to make any money selling it.
I like to think I caused this<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42827280">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42827280</a>
I am speechless.<p>The most vile gaming company I know. The most beloved game I ever played.<p>Now, Open source ... from them? How? Why? Marketing gag or a step in the right direction?<p>But then, OpenRA has existed for a while - does that mean its getting even better?<p>Where is this going?
A bit challenging since none of the repositories I looked at actually compile.<p>EA says that if you remove (or refactor!) the dependencies it might work but I don't know if that's high enough confidence to dive in.
Nice! Now this piece of video game history can be better shared and preserved. Does this repo include the artistic assists, or does it include the code only?
IDK why but it ironically brings me joy to find typos in old code. Maybe a reminder that we're all human (well back when code was written by humans /s).<p><a href="https://github.com/electronicarts/CnC_Remastered_Collection/blob/master/REDALERT/INTERNET.CPP#L143">https://github.com/electronicarts/CnC_Remastered_Collection/...</a>
> To use the compiled binaries, you must own the game.<p>> This repository and its contents are licensed under the GPL v3 license, with additional terms applied. Please see LICENSE.md for details.<p>It does not sound open-source to me...
Maybe someone can finally make a native Mac version.<p>It astonishes me that EA leaves obvious money on the table by not taking the 5 mins it would take to recompile it for MacOS.