EA Open Sources Command and Conquer: Red Alert, along with other games

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Overall reaction

  • Widespread excitement and nostalgia for C&C, especially Red Alert, Generals/Zero Hour, and Renegade; many report these games were formative.
  • Surprise that EA, often viewed negatively, would do a real GPL-style release; several people say they’re buying the Steam bundles specifically to reward this.
  • Some see it as a “miracle” achieved by persistent internal advocates and a rare piece of very good games news.

Missing titles and lost source

  • Frequent “where is Red Alert 2 / Tiberian Sun?” discussion. Multiple comments repeat the long‑standing claim that their original source code is lost.
  • This is cited as likely reason there’s no remaster or source release for those entries, despite them being fan favorites.
  • Fans point to mods and reimplementations (Mental Omega, Chrono Divide, OpenRA forks, Vanilla-Conquer, Thyme) that partly fill the gap.

Licensing, assets, and what “open source” means here

  • Repos are GPLv3 with extra term‑7 conditions (mainly trademarks and liability). Several commenters confirm this is still bona fide open source.
  • The line “to use the compiled binaries, you must own the game” causes confusion; others clarify it’s about missing proprietary assets, not extra legal restrictions.
  • Model is compared to idTech: engine code is free, art and media are not. Old freeware ISOs and cheap Steam bundles provide legal assets.
  • Some debate what “open source” vs “source‑available” means and note GPL explicitly allows selling copies.

Technical notes and codebase impressions

  • The games don’t build out of the box: they rely on old DirectX 5/Media, GCL, and HMI SOS; these must be stubbed, replaced, or removed. At least one person has Generals compiling with patches.
  • Red Alert has a surprisingly large assembly share, likely for legacy/optimization and low‑level graphics/audio.
  • Many are impressed by the 90s C++ quality: short functions, good comments, and assertions, contradicting the stereotype of all old game code being a mess.
  • Code comments and variable names are a major source of amusement (profane rants about Windows, “poo” variables, disabled CRC error messages, developer drama).

What the community might do next

  • Hoped‑for outcomes:
    • Fix long‑standing multiplayer desync and mismatch bugs in Generals/Zero Hour.
    • Native Linux/macOS ports (though dependencies mean real work).
    • Higher‑FPS, 4K‑ready, or raytraced builds that don’t break gameplay.
    • Browser/WebAssembly ports and AI‑research environments.
  • Some note that OpenRA already provides a very polished modernized experience and expect cross‑pollination between projects.

Broader industry / preservation angle

  • Several call this an important step for game preservation and cultural history; keeping code, tooling, and even .BAK files is praised.
  • EA is reminded they’ve done this before (Micropolis/SimCity, EASTL, accessibility tech), and people argue such efforts should be loudly celebrated to strengthen internal pro‑open‑source advocates.
  • Commenters wish more studios would follow with classic titles (SimCity 2000/3000/4, Nox, Earth & Beyond, Supreme Commander, Fallout 1/2, Warcraft 3, etc.), and propose ideas like source‑escrow tied to copyright as a long‑term preservation mechanism.