EA Releases Source Code and 4K Remasters For Two 'Command and Conquer' Games (github.com) 41
EA Games has just released The Command & Conquer Remastered Collection on Steam, described by Hot Hardware as two of the '90s-era real-time strategy games that "were incredibly popular in their day and are still popular with retro gamers today..."
"Gamers can change between legacy and remastered 4K graphics in real-time when playing solo mode," they note, adding that "deep support for mods via the Steam Workshop is baked in."
But UnknownSoldier (Slashdot user #67,820) also writes EA has released the source code for two of their classic real-time strategy games in the Command and Conquer series: CnC: Red Alert and CnC: Tiberian Dawn on GitHub. Interesting trivia:
- Source code is around 5 MB.
- There are no art of sound assets.
- Filenames are all in capitals. This makes it easy to tell what was added for the Remaster.
- The path finding is NOT using the usual A* algorithm but the "Crash and Turn" algorithm.
- Searching the source for PETROGLYPH_EXAMPLE_MOD shows an example of how to add a mod.
And 25 years after the release of Tiberian Dawn, the remastering team even tracked down the original voice for its in-game computer system EVA -- to create new high-definition recordings.
"Gamers can change between legacy and remastered 4K graphics in real-time when playing solo mode," they note, adding that "deep support for mods via the Steam Workshop is baked in."
But UnknownSoldier (Slashdot user #67,820) also writes EA has released the source code for two of their classic real-time strategy games in the Command and Conquer series: CnC: Red Alert and CnC: Tiberian Dawn on GitHub. Interesting trivia:
- Source code is around 5 MB.
- There are no art of sound assets.
- Filenames are all in capitals. This makes it easy to tell what was added for the Remaster.
- The path finding is NOT using the usual A* algorithm but the "Crash and Turn" algorithm.
- Searching the source for PETROGLYPH_EXAMPLE_MOD shows an example of how to add a mod.
And 25 years after the release of Tiberian Dawn, the remastering team even tracked down the original voice for its in-game computer system EVA -- to create new high-definition recordings.
Great. (Score:2, Funny)
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It seems like you can actually buy these, currently about 8 bucks on Amazon. Good value for the amount of game you get.
I started out with Dune II on the Amiga. Great game but had some slight issues, like Harkkonen had one missile launcher that had a range 1 square further than the longest range enemy base defences so winning with them was pretty easy.
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If you wait a while they will probably appear on GOG eventually.
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I started out with Dune II on the Amiga. Great game but had some slight issues, like Harkkonen had one missile launcher that had a range 1 square further than the longest range enemy base defences so winning with them was pretty easy.
Dune 2 doesn't need a level setting, Harkonnen = easy, Atreides = medium, Ordos = hard. Or rather hard, very hard, almost impossible. I still remember finally beating the campaign with Ordos, despite the Emperor, despite the nuking from Harkonnen, despite the endless waves of Freemen. Only through insane exploitation of the weak AI is it even possible, all your units are wimps and you should totally be crushed. Fortunately the AI likes to send its units one by one to the slaughter...
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I seem to recall that was the case with all three factions. My standard strategy for taking down an enemy rocket turret (which was the longest range base defense structure) was to pull a rocket launcher in to that square where it could fire farther than the turret, let it get started attacking, and then pull two more rocket launchers in to the squares to the left and right of the first one, one squ
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EA releasing games on Steam again? (Score:3)
Did hell freeze over?
Re:EA releasing games on Steam again? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: EA releasing games on Steam again? (Score:2)
Does anything on gog require the client for single player? That would be an unfortunate turn on their earlier messaging. Terrible they compromised on multiplayer with Planetary Annihilation.
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To be honest, GOG Galaxy is the best client because it integrates all the other clients into it. For someone with accounts on many services, it's nice having a unified list of games (and helpful during sales to make sure you're not buying the same game multiple times).
Officially it sup
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The C&C Remaster does not.
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What about open sources? That was amazing. I can't wait to see a Linux port soon!
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Yeah, that's not going to happen.
They open sourced the game, but not the runtime that runs it. This lets them allow mods, but prevents the free-for-all cheating that would come with complete open source.
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Can't people figure out its runtime stuff? :(
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It's instructions are for Windows, but it should be similar for Linux.
Here's a video of it running under Linux in DOSBOX: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
I still run my DOS stuff on old hardware.
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This is a remaster of the original, so it's kind of what you want.
EA released the original game (and Red Alert) for free ages ago. You can grab the ISOs from archive.org, IIRC.
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https://store.steampowered.com... [steampowered.com]
Since we're at it (Score:2)
Can I get a real box with a DVD and a manual? You know to have something physical. I'm cool with even paying $50. I love the old PC game boxes. I wish I kept them over the years. I especially I like X-Wing and Tie-Fighter boxes and manual. And the old Ultima boxes with a map on fabric.
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They released the digital version for $20, a physical special edition via LimitedRunGames for $60, and a physical 25th anniversary edition via LimitedRunGames for $150. The physical versions have long since sold out, and the game itself was included as a Steam download key, the physical aspects were various sorts of swag, printouts, the remastered soundtrack, etc.
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C&C is From EA? Not Buying It (Score:3)
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Yeah the problem is there's no AAA publishers left who aren't evil. Fortunately indie games are quite good.
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EA is an evil company. It's not the wolf I want to feed.
It's been owned by EA since 1998... did you think Westwood was still around? I've got a present for ya.
You've either been living under a rock for 20+ years or you're not the intended demographic for a C&C remaster anyway. That was left handed.
Out of fairness for those recently living under rocks, EA bought Westwood Studios, WarCraft won, the entire RTS genre died, TCP is installed by default, the most aggravating features of multiplayer gaming are now celebrated as "skill based". Battle control term
License.txt (Score:2)
Coming soon to a PC near you, Red Alert GPL. Now how long will it take for someone to do a SDL port?
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There is an existing open source re-implementation of the various C&C games, OpenRA. There was some collaboration between people from OpenRA and EA on the remaster, and EA said they chose the GPL license specifically to ensure compatibility CnCNet and OpenRA.
Re: License.txt (Score:1)
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Awesome, thanks! This makes me almost as happy as Micropolis :)
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A hybrid solution that adds the complexity of both is preferable, because I bill hourly. More seriously having some way to escape out of a simple algorithm when you detect it is behaving poorly can be a really nice feature.
That said if I were writing a game on a schedule, I would write a simple algorithm likely to work. Then replace if I had time or if it turns out that it doesn't work well enough. Good enough to ship is a very persuasive argument.
Brings back old memory (Score:2)
Yuri's Revenge (Score:2)
My all time fave. Played that for days and days.