18h ago

Several Command & Conquer games are now open source

Electronic Arts, inspiring a global community of players to explore new ways to play every day - Electronic Arts

Full discussion here

A bit of a non-standard post as I don't think you can actually play them for free yet (I can't see any binaries available and there's a disclaimer that you need to already own the games, presumably for assets/art), but a pleasant surprise and hopefully something to keep an eye on!

Games @lemmy.world

ampersandrew @lemmy.world

1d ago

EA has open sourced a bunch of old Command & Conquer games

github.com /electronicarts

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5 comments

This is a step in a good direction. Retired IP should either be released for free or open sourced altogether
- To make things extra confusing I think this is explicitly the code for the games but not the IP. As in the assets, art, etc. are not free, and you can't just make your own game and call it Command & Conquer.
  
  Then it will help OpenSAGE immensely. Also it helps to preserve at least part of the game. I'd rather have the retired IP officially retired like this rather than leaving it in a limbo/grey area. Like, sure maybe the owner doesn't pay attention, but when they do pay attention, you can get Nintendo'd anytime. But this one is pretty explicitly open sourced/retired. I also see not just the RTS but Renegade as well. The less known FPS of C&C.

Yeah, the disclaimer means the source code is 100% free, which will enable community patches and mods, but the art, music, etc is all still under copyright and not GPL or any other open licenses. That said, the freeware versions EA released some time ago are available on Cncnet. Don't click the big download and play free, that button is the multilayer only, click the one under it and pick full game. You can also select other games available on the sidebar.

I don't think you can actually play them for free yet
Actually, you can play for free C&C, Red Alert and, iirc, Tiberian Sun. EA released them all for free some years ago so you can find their ISOS anywhere legally