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EA will be releasing the C&C Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert source code under GPL3

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Re: EA will be releasing the C&C Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert source code under GPL3

#71

Post by JumpCrisscross »

capableweb wrote: post #9

One of the best things that could happen to the gaming landscape would be if companies like EA and similar learned from Microsoft's move to open sourcing more software and involving the community more gives them a lot more goodwill and business as a side-effect. And then us gamers get more long-lived games as a benefit as well.

I wonder if we could create a tax incentive for this. For example, if a publisher commits to open sourcing N years after release, they get a break on sales. Or get to capitalise R&D more aggressively during development.

Re: EA will be releasing the C&C Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert source code under GPL3

#72

Post by jrimbault »

tekstar wrote: post #67

If you're looking to just play the classic C&C games including Red Alert, either single player or multiplayer, check out cncnet.org. I've been playing old classic multiplayer games with some friends while we're isolating. Halo 1 for PC, BF1942, Battlefield II. All free or like 5$. Red Alert mostly ok under WINE on OSX or Linux but it prompted me to get windows running on a machine.

Battlefield 2 can't be bought nowadays, but that doesn't stop a small community from working on mods even now. Forgotten Hope 2, one its biggest mods (a complete WW2 overhaul), had a new release last Friday.

Re: EA will be releasing the C&C Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert source code under GPL3

#73

Post by DaiPlusPlus »

flatiron wrote: post #42
DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least with OpenRA you can legally download the original game content ISO CD images (EA released them as free(beer)-ware a while ago) - the only thing missing is about half of the single-player campaign missions as OpenRA can’t play the original game missions directly so the project’s contributors recreate them by-hand,

its missing missions? my openra has missions, i thought it would have been complete. only thing i noticed its missing is the so awful they are amazing videos

> its missing missions? my openra has missions

Only about half of the missions

Re: EA will be releasing the C&C Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert source code under GPL3

#74

Post by bloodorange »

FartyMcFarter wrote: post #62
uncheckederror wrote: post #34

I am really impressed that EA went with the GPL v3 license. I would have expected them to use the MIT license.

What is impressive about it? The MIT license is more permissive, so using that would accomplish everything GPL does and more, no? I'm not a lawyer.

Well, the MIT license fails to make people release their changes if they release some work based on it.

Re: EA will be releasing the C&C Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert source code under GPL3

#75

Post by danso »

capableweb wrote: post #9

One of the best things that could happen to the gaming landscape would be if companies like EA and similar learned from Microsoft's move to open sourcing more software and involving the community more gives them a lot more goodwill and business as a side-effect. And then us gamers get more long-lived games as a benefit as well.

Beyond goodwill – which imho would likely be relatively minor given what the average gamer cares about – open-sourcing in the hopes of stimulating mod support is a very cool idea. It looks like EA is providing a map editor, but having the DLLs out there makes it more possible for dedicated users to really tinker with game logic and internals, and (hopefully) create the kind of ongoing sophisticated DLC for other players that EA isn't willing to create and sell itself.

I wonder if active support for open source by game companies will eventually reap the benefits it ostensibly does for big tech companies. For example, by open sourcing React, FB not only can influence JS frameworks in general, it can cultivate a hiring pool of engineers already familiar or proficient with React internals. There's already limited precedent with game companies hiring creators of big-time mods (Valve hiring the creator of Dota). But I'd think more open source support and reducing the friction for fans to become creators would surface even more talent.

Re: EA will be releasing the C&C Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert source code under GPL3

#76

Post by sedachv »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #46
uncheckederror wrote: post #34

I am really impressed that EA went with the GPL v3 license. I would have expected them to use the MIT license.

It's not surprising: The GPL mostly torpedoes commercial uses, and EA does not want to give their competitors code they can use in their own proprietary games.

There is nothing in the GPL that prohibits you from selling games:

https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#DoesTheGPLAllowMon...

Re: EA will be releasing the C&C Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert source code under GPL3

#77

Post by enitihas »

capableweb wrote: post #9

One of the best things that could happen to the gaming landscape would be if companies like EA and similar learned from Microsoft's move to open sourcing more software and involving the community more gives them a lot more goodwill and business as a side-effect. And then us gamers get more long-lived games as a benefit as well.

But Microsoft has not open sourced anything that was making $ for them. Neither windows nor any part of office, or any part of enterprise suite. What Microsoft has open sourced are things where similar stuff was already open source, and Microsoft wouldn't have made much money selling those. e.g, VSCode, tyepscript.

EA also open sources stuff like that. They even have open sourced a java library to be able to write async await style code in java. They off course won't open source money making games, and neither does MSFT.

Re: EA will be releasing the C&C Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert source code under GPL3

#78

Post by mnd999 »

DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #11
TaylorAlexander wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here’s the language they use: “Electronic Arts will be releasing the TiberianDawn.dll and RedAlert.dll and their corresponding source code under the GPL version 3.0 license” I assume “their corresponding source code” means “the code for those DLLs”, but I do wonder why they bother mentioning the DLLs at all.

Even weirder considering the games were for DOS originally - and DOS doesn’t use DLLs at all.

IIRC Red Alert came with a DOS version and a DirectX 3 version for Windows 95

Re: EA will be releasing the C&C Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert source code under GPL3

#79

Post by mackal »

capableweb wrote: post #9

One of the best things that could happen to the gaming landscape would be if companies like EA and similar learned from Microsoft's move to open sourcing more software and involving the community more gives them a lot more goodwill and business as a side-effect. And then us gamers get more long-lived games as a benefit as well.

https://github.com/electronicarts/EASTL

EA has a few things open sourced.

Re: EA will be releasing the C&C Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert source code under GPL3

#80

Post by clarry »

ryandrake wrote: post #38
zantana wrote: post #7

Hey EA, how about the Bullfrog games next?

Yea, I'd always wanted to make a Dungeon Keeper 2 clone. Please! I wonder why it's not more common to open source abandonware that has exactly zero remaining commercial value. These game companies don't even have to remain as maintainers/stewards of the code. It doesn't even have to compile. Just release it, and many people will get it to work! How much expense could it be to get an intern to upload the code to GitHu…

> I wonder why it's not more common to open source abandonware that has exactly zero remaining commercial value.

If it's actually abandoned, then there's probably nobody around who can do that.

Otherwise, what's the incentive? And there's always someone who thinks they can milk the title by selling it in a retro bundle or a cheap remastered edition. Of course, these days you don't even need a remake to milk old titles.

https://www.gog.com/game/dungeon_keeper_2

https://www.gog.com/game/dungeon_keeper

https://www.gog.com/game/magic_carpet

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