Alas, no red alert 2 (the best, IMO). But still this is such great news. Huge props to EA for this.
I don't know why they're stalling, I wonder if there still any revenues from the game or if it's IP issue.
EA Open Sources Command and Conquer: Red Alert, along with other games
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Re: EA Open Sources Command and Conquer: Red Alert, along with other games
#212Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know why they're stalling, I wonder if there still any revenues from the game or if it's IP issue.
This stuff is decades old. It's completely legitimate that they may simply have lost the source code during a server migration or whatnot.
Re: EA Open Sources Command and Conquer: Red Alert, along with other games
#213If anyone used to play Zero Hour, there is still an active community. They still have tournaments and world series. A guy called Dominator on Youtube casts it all and its a pretty entertaining blast from the past. I recommend checking out his channel.
I remember going back and trying to play it many years after it came out, and it was basically broken because the entire game moved at like... 2-3x the maximum speed it was ever meant to run at
Re: EA Open Sources Command and Conquer: Red Alert, along with other games
#214I only glanced at the code in ANIM.CPP but for a C++ program from 1997 it looks kinda nice, right? The methods are all short, with some descriptive comments at the top of each one. Inputs and outputs described. Nice index at the top of the file. I’ve seen worse!
Yeah, I was looking at infantry.cpp, and the quality is actually very good for 90s game code. The documentation is good, it's decently well-formatted, and there are assertions. Nice counterexample to the "all successful games have terrible code" conventional wisdom.
Re: EA Open Sources Command and Conquer: Red Alert, along with other games
#215Earlier quoted context omitted.
This one made me laugh, mostly because the variable names are so dumb // our RNG is basically shit -- horribly nonrandom at the start of the sequence. // get a few values at random to get rid of the dreck. // there's no mathematical basis for this, but empirically, it helps a lot. UnsignedInt silly = GetGameLogicRandomSeed() % 7; for (Int poo = 0; poo { GameLogicRandomValue(0, 1); // ignore result }
I spent some time browing curiosities about old games, and what strikes me is that the code sometimes was quite personal. You could see the joy, the anger, the disappointment, the satisfaction. Nowadays it would never fly to name a variable "poo", you need to stay professional at all times.
Re: EA Open Sources Command and Conquer: Red Alert, along with other games
#216They came in and made an RTS when we didn't have a term for this. It had a cool, modern soundtrack. It had a cool world and a story fleshed out in high production value FMV. Cutting edge CGI.
We all know how Westwood died. Then the series had disappointing sequels, and a sad mobile title, and it all died until the remaster. The remaster felt like a well-executed effort, and a way to enjoy the classics on modern systems.
Today's release of the source code is so exciting. A recognition that C&C is worth preserving. That its community is still excited for it. It allows the series to live on forever. For fans to go crazy. For all sorts of mods and tweaks to be enjoyed on Steam.
It finally feels like after a decade and a half, C&C has a future. No longer a great old RTS, but one that has lots of excellent campaigns available on modern systems, moddable, and evergreen.
Battle control... online :)
Re: EA Open Sources Command and Conquer: Red Alert, along with other games
#217> If you wish to rebuild the source code and tools successfully you will need to find or write new replacements (or remove the code using them entirely) for the following libraries; Take the hint, Valve. And Epic (UT99). Having third-party code is not an excuse.
But it's sad that John Carmack's example has not been widely followed.
Re: EA Open Sources Command and Conquer: Red Alert, along with other games
#218Earlier quoted context omitted.
wouldn't surprise me if dang is notified when he's mentioned :D
He's not. He's mentioned that.
Re: EA Open Sources Command and Conquer: Red Alert, along with other games
#219Some funny comments https://www.reddit.com/r/commandandconquer/comments/1izpkmh/...
I vibe with the authors.