EA has open sourced a bunch of old Command & Conquer games
Electronic Arts, inspiring a global community of players to explore new ways to play every day - Electronic Arts
I'm not well versed in C&C, but it's always good to see more games open sourced.
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No matter what you think of EA, this is fantastic news.
Perhaps why this feels like them trying to save face.
This feels more like some o.g. Command and conquer devs who have worked at EA for a long time that are passionate about the franchise. There was no big PR release, no product tie in or announcement, no media campaign.
Recovering and restoring the source code for these titles was made possible through the combined efforts of EA technical director Brian Barnes, Respawn producer Jim Vessella, and Luke Feenan, a long-standing member of the C&C community who was involved in the development of the Command & Conquer Remastered Collection.
https://www.polygon.com/news/531365/command-and-conquer-open-source-code-ea
IIRC, a few years ago EA hired some of the original devs, put them in charge of the franchise, and then went very hands-off, but with very little budget. So far they've done this, and a very reasonably priced 4K remaster of TD and RA1.
Totally makes sense, considering the remaster was perfect. It was just “multiplayer works, we redid the sprites and audio and tweaked the engine to get rid of some of the bugs. Also hit space for original graphics” or whatever the button was. It was everything an OG C&C remaster needed IMO. I would love to see the same with some of these titles, but now that they’re open source it gives the opportunity for better fan made forks, so I’m all for it.
Edit: and forgot to mention the best part, EA didn’t force their launcher with the remaster or steam editions. They are purely steam games, which is a huge win
At least some of the remaster source code is in the repo, too. If the TS or RA2 source code is found, people will be immediately able to do that graphics switch for them, too.
IIRC, when the remaster was in the works, they were asking for files from the community as some of the cut scene videos from OG were lost. I think there are a few low def ones in there still because no one had them. There's also an issue with the Nod ending theme song. I only have it because I had the game on Saturn and you could play them like regular CDs once you got past the information tracks. So I burned it in .flac.
Makes sense, that’s probably why the highest quality cutscenes are the ones from the PS1 port (retaliation) of the counterstrike and aftermath expansions, since the roms are so well preserved. A good example of how game preservation can help both the gaming community and the companies that make said games
Ah well I'm glad to see the devs sticking to their passions. I'm sure they're proud of this move.
With that said, I'm still surprised EA didn't try to capitalize on it somehow.
On what?
Just in general. EA has a lot to around for.
![[Forever-Free Friday] Several *Command & Conquer* games are now open source](https://lemmings.world/pictrs/image/762f9751-6eeb-456c-bcd1-e8d8d3e0f546.png?format=webp&thumbnail=196)
