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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

#111

Post by DaiPlusPlus »

llimllib wrote: post #94
mnd999 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

two separate double CD cases, I think?

Just two CDs. One with the Soviet campaign videos and the other with the Allied campaign videos. Other then that, both discs contained full copies of the game for both DOS and Windows 95 - users were encouraged to lend the other disc to a friend so you could play multiplayer.

This continued with Tiberian Sun and Red Alert 2. Generals came on two CDs but it used the “install disc” + “play disc” system rather than the “lend one to a friend” model used previously. Then CNC3 was released on a single DVD.

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

#112

Post by habitue »

enitihas wrote: post #77
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 as…

We probably don't expect these companies to open source their primary competitive advantages. We expect them to open source things once good_will_value > expected_sales_volume for a given title/piece of software.

The thing is right now Microsoft is getting into the habit of open sourcing things that hit that criteria, and EA is just flatly evaluating that to False every the time. Even when they aren't actively selling a title they own the rights to. The expected value of a title you don't sell is $0 [0], so in effect they're valuing goodwill negatively!

When it's framed that way, it's actually pretty dumb for EA not to be making that calculation. If they do and open source more low sales titles, EA will make more money from better goodwill, and consumers will get more value from older games

[0] This isn't strictly true, because they retain the rights to sell the title in the future, and that option is worth something. But barring very strange circumstances, we expect that if an old title isn't worth the effort to sell today, it likely won't be in the future either. The option is not worth a ton vs. the goodwill of open sourcing it.

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

#113

Post by Ericson2314 »

NoInputSignal wrote: post #108
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

IMHO, I think this counters a philosophical point of open source software. The open code to the software we use should not be a handout or a gift ex post facto. The open code to the software should be an invitation: to collaborate on it, audit it, or frankly do anything you want with it (e.g. WTFPL); before, during, and after using it.

That's like saying "landlords shouldn't be incentivized to hand over apartment over to residents after x years, because all housing should be publicly held"

You're not wrong, but given the world we live in the incentive would be better. And I would say that's the sort of "non-reformist reform" that's liable to push towards the ideal, not appease and reinforce the status quo.

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

#114

Post by 650REDHAIR »

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.

That’s awesome! I’ll check it out.

Forgotten Hope was originally a badass mod for BF42 that added a ton of extra units. That and Desert Combat got me into gaming and modding back in the early 00’s!

I learned how to write scripts and markdown running cod and BF servers.

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

#116

Post by lucb1e »

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.

This news has me more stoked than I'd like to admit.

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

#117

Post by Ericson2314 »

rnestler wrote: post #14

There is also the https://www.openra.net/ project which provides reimplementations of the classic C&C games. Me and some friends played it a few times on Linux, OSX and Windows and it worked smoothly :)

Open RA takes some liberties and so isn't really a good comparision. https://github.com/TheAssemblyArmada and https://github.com/OpenDUNE/OpenDUNE are extremely faithful, and probably why this is happening (CCHyper from TheAssemblyArmada is on the community Council, for example).

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

#119

Post by jrimbault »

mywittyname wrote: post #99
jrimbault wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Officially yes. In reality no.

Forgotten Hope 2 has its own workarounds and launcher. Other mods (and vanilla players) use BF2Hub, which wraps around bf2.exe I think to redirect DNS calls to the defunct EA and gamespy servers.

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

#120

Post by modmans2nd »

renewiltord wrote: post #95
soared wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

MS is open sourcing their platforms which is more valuable than their products from a community benefit perspective.
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