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Friday, February 28th 2025

EA Makes Command & Conquer Source Code Public

EA has released the source code for four legacy Command & Conquer titles under the GPL license, making them freely available to the public on Github. This includes the original source code for Command & Conquer and Red Alert, as well as the SAGE-powered Command & Conquer: Renegade and Command & Conquer: Generals. While fan projects such as OpenRA and OpenSAGE have developed their own versions of these games' code, access to the original source code is a big plus for video game preservation and future development.

The restoration and release of the source code were made possible through the efforts of EA technical director Brian Barnes, Respawn producer Jim Vessella, and Luke Feenan, a long-time member of the Command & Conquer community. To accompany this announcement, EA has also released a 35-minute video featuring alpha gameplay and previously unseen archival footage from Command & Conquer: Generals and Renegade.

In addition to making the source code available, EA is introducing Steam Workshop support for its more recent Command & Conquer titles, accompanied by a modding support pack. This pack includes the source XML, Schema, Script, Shader, and map files for all SAGE-engine titles, including Renegade, Generals & Zero Hour, Tiberium Wars & Kane's Wrath, Red Alert 3 & Uprising, and Tiberian Twilight. These tools will enable users to create new maps and assets and implement deeper modifications, such as support for higher refresh rates and ultrawide resolutions, which previously required third-party tools.
Source: Polygon
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15 Comments on EA Makes Command & Conquer Source Code Public

#2
csendesmark
YaaaY
After reaching social credit -100000000
They started to improve the numbers!
:toast:
Can't wait to see the mods coming!!!!! :love:
Posted on Reply
#3
TechBuyingHavoc
csendesmarkYaaaY
After reaching social credit -100000000
They started to improve the numbers!
:toast:
Can't wait to see the mods coming!!!!! :love:
The cynical take is that this was needed to boost Steam sales of those old games. Basically free money for EA to let the community do the work for them. I trust EA with good intentions as far as I can throw them.

That said, this individual move was nice for gamers.
Posted on Reply
#4
csendesmark
Modders got BUSY!

220 forks already!
Source C&C community Facebook
TechBuyingHavocBasically free money for EA to let the community do the work for them.
Bought the full C&C pack for 10€ when it got released :D
Posted on Reply
#5
Prima.Vera
I would pay full price for a remake of C&C - Tiberian Sun with UHD graphics and resolution, simmilar to Diablo 2 - Resurrected.
That was by far the best C&C - Tiberian game in my opinion.
Posted on Reply
#6
JLP
Always great to see another piece of software liberated and made free as in freedom and opensource, especially with the strong GPL license.
Posted on Reply
#7
csendesmark
Prima.VeraI would pay full price for a remake of C&C - Tiberian Sun with UHD graphics and resolution, simmilar to Diablo 2 - Resurrected.
That was by far the best C&C - Tiberian game in my opinion.
I checked the things more closely,
Tiberian Sun & Red Alert 2 are missing
It must mean, EA is working on a remaster!
Cannot mean anything else!
Posted on Reply
#8
Athena
EA being nice for once? Kudos.

IMO, all game companies should do this at some point, or, at the very least, remove all DRM and online requirements of SP games
Posted on Reply
#9
Random_User
The game is about thirty years old... It should have been the obvious move for an adequate company.
Also, with such move, the company/publisher/developer/IP owner avoid a huge burden, to shift the support of an "ancient" game, to the community and modders.

EA should have done the same with all old games, which they've abandoned ages ago. Not only the "classic", "pre-Frostbite" Battlefields, but also for all "classic" Need For Speed games, made by BlackBox/EA Canada. And so on, and so forth...
Posted on Reply
#10
TechLurker
I just hope they drop the RA3 and RA3U source code and modding support; they promised the latter decades ago but never followed through, causing a lot of modders to give up on adding more units due to coding limitations at the time.
Posted on Reply
#11
Prima.Vera
csendesmarkI checked the things more closely,
Tiberian Sun & Red Alert 2 are missing
It must mean, EA is working on a remaster!
Cannot mean anything else!
I would definitely love that.
However, knowing EA, and all the disappointments they did with the C&C series, I have ZERO confidence that this is the case, sadly...
Posted on Reply
#12
csendesmark
Prima.VeraI would definitely love that.
However, knowing EA, and all the disappointments they did with the C&C series, I have ZERO confidence that this is the case, sadly...
The C&C1 and RA1 remaster was great.
They even got Frank Klepacky to re-record all songs and more!
Posted on Reply
#13
Prima.Vera
csendesmarkThe C&C1 and RA1 remaster was great.
They even got Frank Klepacky to re-record all songs and more!
Indeed.
However, Tiberian Sun was on a different engine. Hopefully a remaster will make it less cartoonish and more like C&C 1 remastered, but keeping the lighting and atmosphere.
Posted on Reply
#14
csendesmark
Prima.VeraIndeed.
However, Tiberian Sun was on a different engine. Hopefully a remaster will make it less cartoonish and more like C&C 1 remastered, but keeping the lighting and atmosphere.
Exactly, and notice that the C&C TS engine was not released for the public with this package.
The two thing is connected. We can expect a remaster, and it won't be as cartoonish. Because the source material is not as cartoonish.
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