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

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Electronic Arts has released the source code for several classic Command & Conquer titles, including Red Alert, Tiberian Dawn, Renegade, and Generals: Zero Hour, under GPLv3 with some additional terms, while keeping the original art and other assets proprietary. Commenters see this as a major win for preservation, modding, and running the games on modern systems, even though the code relies on legacy libraries and still needs work to compile cleanly. Many express surprise that EA approved the move, speculate about missing titles like Red Alert 2 whose source may be lost, and draw parallels to earlier engine releases from studios like id Software.

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.