https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/ea-just-released-source-code-for-a-bunch-of-old-command-and-conquer-games-and-added-steam-workshop-support-to-bangers-like-c-and-c-3-tiberium-wars

https://github.com/electronicarts

So I guess that saves everyone the trouble of having to beg for it. Just grab a source port or wait until it's crammed into the OpenRA engine!

It seems to only include the engine, not any game data. So you would still need to buy the games somewhere, no matter the license on the engine code.

Anyone wanting to play C&C TD and red alert on modern systems without having to buy on EA apps or Steam. Using Vanilla Conquer is excellent. Copy and paste to the freeware version of CNC, and you're good to go.

https://github.com/TheAssemblyArmada/Vanilla-Conquer

Edit: dose this mean EA giving up on CNC? Nice to know all CNC mods will be forcing you to use the steam version to play them. I still have DRM free copy of Red Alert 3 from Amazon. The Generals 2 mod is only supported for the steam version.q

Last I looked, we can get one for one clones of several of these games already. Though I didnt bother, given the utter mess of all of them.

Or hunting down the physical releases. Everything up to Red Alert 3 was released DRM-free on discs. Not RA 3: Uprising sadly :(

Especially The First Decade. Which can be patched to run everything on modern systems by following this guide:
https://cncnz.com/features/technical-support-help-guides/fully-updating-the-first-decade/

I actually have two copy's of The first decade rip into ISO. There my main souce for playing Red Alert 2, Renegade, and Generals

May I ask you what physical DRM-free edition of Red Alert 3 are you referring to, specifically? That sounds new to me.

Turns out you are correct. I just installed the game when launched, it asked to go online to check and then threw an error that all activations have been used. It was possible to deauthorize installs in the game from version 1.05, but as I was pretty clueless about DRM back then, never did and they are apparently all used up :P

Crack to the rescue though. Works without issues. Adding it to my "all games service pack" collection folder. Still valuable, because the disc contains the 1.0 version of the game, which was what the original Campaigns were built around, before the multiplayer balancing patches started changing things. Any digital download defaults to the final 1.12 version.

Command & Conquer 1 (Tiberian Dawn) was previously released as freeware:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_commercial_video_games_released_as_freeware

So you won't have to buy it.

is good

I have Red Alert 3 from Amazon. It's Completely DRM free besides having to enter the Serial Key on install. But you do not need a crack to play it.

I dont know if it means that ea is giving up, but I noticed that the source code for the Tiberian Sun powered games is absent so either the remaster for TibSun and RA2 are still in the works or they just havent found the source code yet is unknown, Renegade's is whatever as that game never performed super well and the mods for it are already standalone and under one launcher as it is (I used to work for W3D Hub way back in the day) as for generals I dont know what this means for a future remaster for that game.

to quote Einstein from RA1 "Time well tell, sooner or later, time will tell."

That is usually the case, the source code is just the source code, not the game files.

But the ulitmate collection is for sale on Steam right now, you can get the lot of them for a cup of coffee, and take the game data from there.

i have bought red alert and C&C too many times.
i still have First decade cd pack.
my dune 2, dune 2000 and emperor battle for dune disc's
plus i wrote a dune 2 C&C inspired clone in 1998.

It’s worthless to me, as I never buy (or even claim for free) DRMed content.