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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

#91

Post by learc83 »

sedachv wrote: post #76
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Yeah but if I use this GPL licensed code as the basis of a new game, I have to release the source code for my new game as well.

The vast majority of game studios aren't willing to do this, so effectively releasing it under the GPL means that it's much less likely that a competitor uses the code.

Asset flips from other countries with more permissive (or just hard to access for foreigners) legal systems are already a problem for game developers--releasing the source code for your game would ensure that you'd be inundated with assets flips almost immediately if your game is any good.

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

#93

Post by johncolanduoni »

sedachv wrote: post #76
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

It does effectively prohibit you from competing with someone else who compiles there code and puts up a download link for free. The “but you can still charge money for it” aspect has always fallen flat, especially since most people won’t pay for disks containing something they could download online these days.

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

#94

Post by llimllib »

mnd999 wrote: post #78
DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

two separate double CD cases, I think?

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

#95

Post by renewiltord »

soared wrote: post #81
enitihas wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 as…

You’re moving the goal posts.

Is he? He's just saying both MS and EA are equivalent in what they open source right now.

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

#96

Post by dopeboy »

salmo wrote: post #55
mikekhusid wrote: post #35

I loved both of these games when they came out, but I'm completely shocked that enough people still play this game to make open sourcing the code 25 years later a newsworthy event.

Unfortunately, even though these games were really popular, there's nothing reasonably current with their style of RTS gameplay. I think the Age of Empires franchise was probably the last one that had the same feel to me. SC3 is more of a twitchy high-speed reflex game that's too hardcore for a casual like me. Modern mobile games go with the town + battles setup, probably because games need to keep drawing you in (an…

Bingo - this genre as a whole has kinda died out. I played all the C&Cs religiously so I'm squarely in their target market and will probably pay for the remastered.

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

#97

Post by livueta »

tialaramex wrote: post #56
haunter wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most likely the whole engine and the bare metal game without the arts/graphics and music/sound. That's how a lot of opensource clones work. For example OpenTTD [0] was reverse engineered and you have 2 options to actually play the game - either have the original game and use the arts/graphics and music/sound data from the original files - use the open source remake of the arts/graphics and music/sound The 2nd option…

To just make it playable you can just have any bunch of people with suitable tools make placeholder art, a sprite that says "TANK" on it is good enough for the tank moving code to run. But that looks really bad, and to make it look good (as almost any even mid-budget video game looks) you need an art director who can deliver consistency. For a small game that art director might also just make all the art, so it ends…

That effect is pretty visible even in the successful open projects like Wesnoth. Love it to death, like much of the art in isolation, but sometimes you get pretty jarring clashes in style.

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

#98

Post by HorkHunter »

sedachv wrote: post #76
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Oh god you're going to get bombarded by the "I want to use free software and lock my product" people

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

#99

Post by mywittyname »

jrimbault wrote: post #72
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.

Do you still need a valid product license to play online anymore?

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

#100

Post by Arelius »

colejohnson66 wrote: post #36
wlesieutre wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of newer games probably include middleware licensed from other companies that make relicensing more challenging

Also, the SDKs for console ports may be under NDA. I’m looking at you, Nintendo Switch.

Microsoft XBox, Sony Playstation, this is not unique to Nintendo.
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