[HN Gopher] OpenRA - Classic strategy games rebuilt for the mode...
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OpenRA - Classic strategy games rebuilt for the modern era
Author : xbmcuser
Score : 423 points
Date : 2023-09-18 07:07 UTC (15 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.openra.net)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.openra.net)
| liotier wrote:
| OpenRA's Red Alert is Red Alert as it was in player's dreams. The
| game is just as fun as it once was: fast, fun and limited in
| scope - but adapted to contemporary connectivity and display
| resolution.
|
| OpenRA's killer feature is the extremely fast installation of a
| reliable cross-platform game that anyone can understand in ten
| minutes, that works in even the most skinny hardware... The
| perfect combination for an impromptu LAN party, where having fun
| with friends right now is more important than gaming depth and
| graphical sophistication.
| Sakos wrote:
| Except for the original menu UI which is unmatched in
| atmosphere even today. It's the one thing that keeps me using
| the old RA2 instead.
| paulryanrogers wrote:
| There is also Chrono Divide for MP in browser, which was on
| HN not long ago.
| doublerabbit wrote:
| RA2 was ace, but Yuri's Revenge, one of the greatest
| expansion packs IMO. Added so much more value to the game.
| rubymamis wrote:
| Totally!
| jandrese wrote:
| Yuri was completely unbalanced in Multiplayer though.
| philistine wrote:
| Yield to me! Their will is my will!
| tomkarho wrote:
| Any opinion on Mental Omega?
| Arrath wrote:
| Installing that game was a trip. I took the discs to a
| friend's house and we didn't realize the volume was cranked
| on the computer so we closed the drive and it _boomed_
|
| WARNING
|
| MILITARY SOFTWARE DETECTED - TOP SECRET CLEARANCE REQUIRED
|
| His mom was very curious as to what the hell we were getting
| in to.
| WirelessGigabit wrote:
| I still get goosebumps when I hear that intro sound.
|
| ENCRYPTION CODE REQUIRED - YOU HAVE 30 SECONDS TO COMPLY.
|
| WHERE IS THE DAMN BOOKLET?
| haolez wrote:
| Can it be deployed as a web app? Might reduce the friction even
| further for new players
| hjek wrote:
| They did some neat game mechanic tweaks, especially of the
| previously useless units: mechanics and thieves being able to
| revive and capture vehicles. Keeps the spirit of the old game
| but makes it more fun.
| blueflow wrote:
| That epic moment when your thief manages to capture the
| Ukrainian bomb truck and sends it right back to the enemies
| base!
| Muromec wrote:
| Ukrainian bomb track in RA?
| blueflow wrote:
| Ukraine is one of the two playable Soviet factions in
| OpenRA. The nuke truck is a unit exclusive to Ukraine.
| FirmwareBurner wrote:
| _> The nuke truck is a unit exclusive to Ukraine._
|
| I now see what the creators did there. I didn't think
| about it when I was a kid.
| [deleted]
| skhr0680 wrote:
| Russia and Ukraine were the two Soviet factions in the OG
| Red Alert
| dismalpedigree wrote:
| I like this plan. I'm going to try it when I play against
| my kids next.
| howmayiannoyyou wrote:
| RA taught me _almost_ everything I needed to know about
| geopolitics. Seriously, I marvel at its applicability.
|
| - Resources
|
| Without resources (eg. Net national income) you cannot support a
| national defense.
|
| ...Limited resources lead to conflict.
|
| ...Exploit and defend distant resources to preserve your domestic
| reserves.
|
| - Capability Evolution & Resiliency
|
| ...You must pursue advanced capabilities that surpass or match
| your adversaries, and if you manage your resources properly this
| is achievable.
|
| ...Your infrastructure must be configured dispersed, redundant
| and secure.
|
| - Combined Arms
|
| ...Combative units need a mix of capabilities to overcome
| defenses, unless you overwhelm (swarm) your enemy - which carries
| resource risks.
|
| - Long View
|
| ...One can easily win a battle or two and lose the war without a
| long-term plan.
|
| - Intelligence
|
| ...You cannot know how your capabilities measure up against your
| adversaries without good intel. This often means sacrificing
| units for a look into your opponent's capabilities.
|
| If RA theory and gameplay were mandatory in Congress the United
| States would be better positioned to both deter and compete with
| its global adversaries.
| cbloom wrote:
| If I tried to apply the lessons learned from Red Alert to
| geopolitics then every attempt at any kind of negotiation or
| diplomacy would be over within minutes after I attack my
| opposite number with a dog as a distraction while driving a car
| full of engineers into their base
| christkv wrote:
| Just need Tanya.
| ceejayoz wrote:
| I once edited the .ini file to give Tanya the cruiser
| cannons. Most of the map would just... evaporate.
| Arrath wrote:
| C&C games were among my earliest forays into modding. It
| was so easy with the whole game wrapped up in an ini
| file, and so much fun to muck with stuff.
| ckozlowski wrote:
| I cannot upvote this enough.
| malux85 wrote:
| I'm going to add a realism mod to balance this out a bit -
|
| The car would get a flat tire on the way, and the engineers
| would spend hours arguing about how to fix it and whether
| operations would be "more scalable" if we designed a car that
| didn't have tires at all; Then the commander would call them
| to see what the heck was going on and they would all get
| nosebleeds from the stress.
| zahllos wrote:
| Meanwhile if we applied the lessons of command and conquer,
| no enemy can defeat the power of sandbags!
| MenhirMike wrote:
| The main geopolitical lesson from Red Alert: Build more Tesla
| Coils.
| Jenk wrote:
| > If RA theory and gameplay were mandatory in Congress the
| United States would be better positioned to both deter and
| compete with its global adversaries.
|
| Surely these "global adversaries" are a myth? Isn't the US
| Military like 3 times the size of the 3 next largest militaries
| combined or something?
|
| There is no bogeyman except within, as far as the US Military
| goes. I'm not stupid - I know there are threats to the
| wellbeing of US society and citizens, but they aren't
| _existential_ threats to the US. Meanwhile the list of "de-
| throned and/or de-fanged by the US" nations is huge.
|
| I think the one critical lesson missing from the "RA Theory" is
| you need to continue to live, and there is more to life than
| just squashing your "enemies."
| solardev wrote:
| > there is more to life than just squashing your "enemies"
|
| Thankfully, our other grand national pastime happens to be
| making new enemies!
|
| With a 3x military, we can afford to make 2x enemies and
| still come out ahead.
|
| "Cha-ching!" --Tanya
| howmayiannoyyou wrote:
| > Isn't the US Military like 3 times the size of the 3 next
| largest militaries combined or something?
|
| The PLA is larger. The PLAN is larger. China is situated far
| closer to the likely contested areas.
|
| > _existential_ threats
|
| Your head is firmly embedded in the sand. If you care you
| need to do some reading. A shortcut to your learning looks
| something like this: The CCP's ascension and probable
| downward spiral is only reversible through control over
| resources contested by the West and regional players. The
| parties cannot cooperatively resolve the disputed issues
| because more resources are required than are available and no
| viable alternatives exist. War is probably coming, perhaps
| inevitable, unless one of the key players implodes
| domestically.
| JohnMakin wrote:
| > The PLA is larger.
|
| Pretty much only if you count number of active duty troops.
| USA outspends China significantly, and the number of tanks,
| warships, planes, etc. is vastly in favor of the USA, not
| even to mention nuclear warheads.
| howmayiannoyyou wrote:
| > USA outspends China
|
| US costs are far higher for almost everything, and the
| PLA obfuscates their spending. I wouldn't rely on this
| assumption.
| wing-_-nuts wrote:
| >unless one of the key players implodes domestically.
|
| If you listen to Zeihan, you'd be convinced china is on the
| verge of implosion due to it's demographic crash. I think
| he's a bit too deterministic, but it does lend credence to
| the 'now or never' idea that china is, in fact, serious
| about invading Taiwan by 2030 as things only get worse for
| them from there...
| tomjen3 wrote:
| In terms of combined arms, I tried playing the remake of the
| original and realised quickly that all my humans were just run
| over by tanks, even in a mixed group.
|
| What do you use them for?
| howmayiannoyyou wrote:
| For the most part - they are good for delay, tripwires, anti-
| air and scouting.
| skhr0680 wrote:
| In RA1-2, they are good as fodder to soak up Tesla Coil hits
| and tank rounds so your armor can break through, especially
| agianst a human player. A good amount of fodder will force a
| human player micro against that attack, and distract them
| from other things.
| otikik wrote:
| It taught me what's the One Place That Hasn't Been Corrupted by
| Capitalism
| aidenn0 wrote:
| Spaaaaaceee!
|
| [edit]
|
| Seriously though RA3 had:
|
| - An eventual Oscar winner (Simmons)
|
| - Two people with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
| (Takei, Hasselhoff)
|
| - An Emmy winner and Tony nominee (Curry).
|
| - The first appearance of Gina Carano
|
| All to further a plot that is absurd even for a video game,
| with a presentation that is possibly peak "pandering to
| teenage males."
| [deleted]
| [deleted]
| ebiester wrote:
| I think that What Jeff Jackson says here (
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxEu3L2cMEE ) is pertinent.
|
| Most of the people in congress are more calculating and
| competent than they look. They are largely clever and socially
| adept, and have smart people around them. The problem is that
| the incentives for public speech are misaligned.
|
| That's why it's rarely what the politician says that matters -
| it's what they vote for that counts. And largely, The pentagon
| and NSA tell politicians what they need and they get it.
| howmayiannoyyou wrote:
| I worked on the Hill and this is unfortunately not the case
| in general, though there are exceptions.
| airstrike wrote:
| I think the real story is we elect the candidates that do
| the best job of convincing people that they are aligned
| with their wishes and values, but those wishes and values
| proclaimed by the politician are, at best, only a very
| noisy proxy for how they will vote and, at worst, entirely
| fabricated for the sole purpose of winning votes
| josefresco wrote:
| Love this, here are my lessons from Tiberian Dawn:
|
| Invest in your economy early rather than on an early defense.
| Just survive the first wave.
|
| I take out harvesters (vehicles) first which disrupts my
| enemies ability to purchase military equipment.
|
| Artillery is a game changer but needs support from small arms
| and scouts to increase the "sight" or range which will trigger
| a response.
|
| I target power plants second, which disrupts radar, slows
| production and most importantly disables air defenses.
|
| Troops / units are most effective when micro-managed.
|
| A fighting force with diversity almost always wins out over a
| force dominated by one unit type.
|
| Knowing what direction your enemy will attack from is critical.
|
| By the time you've built very advanced weaponry, you should
| have already won a conventional war.
|
| Probe your enemy for base weaknesses before attacking.
|
| Don't waste your time repairing, just build new.
| sproketboy wrote:
| Cool. I'm currently working on a modern remake of the old goldbox
| games. Making good progress.
| josefresco wrote:
| I play OpenRA / Tiberian Dawn at least 4-5 times a week.
|
| Always skirmish, 1v1, powers disabled (no nukes) I play GDI, CPU
| is NOD.
|
| Takes me 20 minutes, I win 90% of the time but have to focus or
| else I lose easily.
|
| It's my crossword/sudoku/wordle/puzzle/meditation/mental reset.
| gandalfgreybeer wrote:
| Hmm. Now I want to start playing StarCraft again.
|
| It's been a while but I honestly feel like that helped me train
| my focus back then.
| mock-possum wrote:
| I just ran back through StarCraft + Broodwars campaigns
| recently and... it really really holds up. The unit pathing
| and computer player AI isn't quite as smart, but the game is
| solid.
| hnthrowaway0315 wrote:
| Yup the campaigns are actually my favorite part. I wish I
| had the time to run through SC2 campaigns too but they are
| numerous.
| 3abiton wrote:
| I wish they had Red Alert 2. My favorite.
| mgbmtl wrote:
| Same here, but sometimes I have to resist playing a second game
| :)
|
| I appreciate the simplicity of the game, but also the small
| details that make it fun. And that a typical game rarely lasts
| more than 20-30 minutes.
| justsomehnguy wrote:
| Armageddon, 10 players, FFA.
|
| Most of the games it's the usual route of eating all players
| from BL to TL and then moving to TR and BR and the same time. I
| managed to bring the average time down to 12 minutes, with the
| best time around 10:30, but sometimes it's manages to catch me
| with the pants down, if I do something wrong or just take to
| long to do the essentials.
| low_tech_punk wrote:
| 45MB download, that's an insane fun-to-byte density!! I'm gonna
| try this on my old ThinkPad x61!
|
| I remember distinctly about the amazing cinematic cut scene in RA
| for that era of technology. The engineer probably geeked out with
| a lot compression hacks. I thought they were skipping every other
| line of rendering but still retained the illusion of a full
| video.
| jacooper wrote:
| Is there anything like this but closer to the style of C&C
| Generals?
| elsjaako wrote:
| According to wikipedia there are two options, although it looks
| like only one of them is actually playable right now:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_game_engine_recreation...
| tailsdog wrote:
| This I would like to see!
| pachouli-please wrote:
| Use GenPatcher (https://legi.cc/downloads/genpatcher/) to make
| the original game work basically perfectly on modern OSes, as
| well as implement a bunch of stability, balance, and other
| optional fixes.
| freedomben wrote:
| Any idea if this can get it working on Linux? I dumped a
| couple hours into trying to get it running under wine and
| proton but couldn't figure it out.
| atomicnumber3 wrote:
| This. I think part of the reason an OpenCCG hasn't shown up
| is because the modding/community support for the original CD
| images/binaries is so strong. Plus... the game isn't exactly
| hard to find (it's on Origin, for example) and isn't exactly
| hard to find (if you know what I mean).
| ozarker wrote:
| My friends and I have a C&C Generals night a couple times a
| year. We use the Rise of the Reds: Babushka's Revenge mod,
| which is sort of a mod of an old mod. It balances things out
| quite a bit and adds some new stuff. I think it includes
| widescreen support
| ww520 wrote:
| This is great. I couldn't get my dos version running for a long
| time. This will let me get back into the game.
| Havoc wrote:
| How do they get away with this legally?
|
| I'm glad they do, just a bit confused
| bendoidic wrote:
| All the art and sound assets are loaded from a local copy of
| C&C that the user must purchase on their own before running
| OpenRA (specifically the "C&C Remastered Collection" on Steam
| or Origin). OpenRA uses the assets from that local install, so
| it's all legal! Stratagus does the same thing with Warcraft
| assets.
|
| https://github.com/OpenRA/TiberianDawnHD#asset-installation
| itscrush wrote:
| The assets available for download within the OpenRA client are
| stored freeware releases OpenRA hosts. EA freeware'd the three
| base games back in 2008. OpenRA does prompt if you want to
| provide your own discs to load your licensed assets if that's
| preferred.
|
| https://cnc.fandom.com/wiki/Command_%26_Conquer:_Red_Alert#c...
| (referenced EA news link dead, doesn't look like archive.ph has
| a clean snap) https://www.openra.net/legal/
| [deleted]
| dismalpedigree wrote:
| I love playing OpenRA. Really lets me relive and share some fond
| childhood experiences with my kids. They love it also. LAN party
| is so fun.
|
| I do need one of them to get with the program and actually build
| an army instead of 100s of dogs though.
| boringg wrote:
| Amazing. Also want to point out that the double clicking of the
| mouse for Dune2000 definitely took me a little bit to figure out.
| It's been a long time since I had to do that - don't miss it.
| Other than that though very cool - happy to revisit the games!
| justusthane wrote:
| I'll take this opportunity to recommend Zero-K[1] for those who
| were into Total Annihilation. It's truly excellent!
|
| [1]: https://zero-k.info/
| anilakar wrote:
| ...or Total Annihilation Spring, nowadays known as Spring RTS:
| https://springrts.com/
| stickmangallows wrote:
| And Beyond All Reason: https://www.beyondallreason.info/
| jeremy_wiebe wrote:
| If I find a Total Annihilation remake, I'll have to kiss my free
| time goodbye. That was the one strategy game like this that I
| really got into.
| Teifion wrote:
| May I present, Beyond All Reason -
| https://www.beyondallreason.info/
|
| Like OpenRA it's open source too.
|
| Disclaimer, I'm one of the devs for it.
| Arrath wrote:
| Hey! BAR sucks up an unreasonable amount of my free time.
| Good stuff!
| anderspitman wrote:
| I'm assuming you're already aware of SpringRTS and Zero K?
| rollcat wrote:
| There's also <https://stratagus.com> which re-implements Warcraft
| 2 and (very WIP) Starcraft 1.
| distantsounds wrote:
| I never knew this existed, thanks so much for posting i!
| lawlessone wrote:
| Could this be done with Earth 2140? it was out around the same
| time, worked very similarly , there were demo disks included with
| PC magazine.
|
| edit:nvm it has been done :)
| https://github.com/OpenE2140/OpenE2140
| jpm_sd wrote:
| Welp, never downloading this, I'd just stop sleeping. Played the
| shit out of the original C&C:RA against my friends in high
| school.
| afavour wrote:
| I'm always terrified to download stuff like this because either
| what you describe will happen... or I'll discover the game
| isn't anywhere near as compelling as it is in my memories.
| diimdeep wrote:
| Super cool. Sadly, seems like RTS is dead genre, except for old
| titles. https://youtu.be/q0jj71XcYYo
| dkh wrote:
| It's a shame! I'm probably the least of a gamer of anyone I
| know (a bit of FIFA on PS4 is the only game I've played all
| year), but I played the shit out of RTS games back in the day.
| There was something wonderful about opening up StarCraft,
| jumping into a really fun and intense game, and then being
| finished 45min or so later. I just couldn't get as into games
| you had to play for significantly longer or with more nebulous
| objectives. Endless unwinnable games like WoW were my absolute
| nightmare.
| herpdyderp wrote:
| See also CnCNet: https://cncnet.org
|
| Not the same goals but still enables playing the old C&C games on
| modern hardware.
| freedomben wrote:
| Well damn, this has gotten good. Downloadable on linux as a
| flatpak and can automatically download the assets it needs...
| Luckily it has a "save mission" feature so I could save and exit
| and return later after only losing 20 mins of my workday. This is
| even better than I remember! Kudos to the devs on such a
| fantastic job.
| nhggfu wrote:
| is a ra2 release on the roadmap?
| Aeolun wrote:
| It's been on the roadmap for the past 10 years. I imagine it's
| not easy.
| matthewmcg wrote:
| Meanwhile the old game (ra2) runs pretty well with
| enhancements from cnc.net to allow easier installation on
| modern windows systems and net play.
| FirmwareBurner wrote:
| Or just Google it with "DODI Repack" and get it fully
| patched and batteries included for modern systems, if your
| ethics around piracy are not super strong.
| totetsu wrote:
| How many times over do I need to pay for RA2 in my life
| haha.
| bryanlarsen wrote:
| No matter the answer I imagine your cost/hour is pretty
| darn low if you're anything like the rest of us. When
| that denominator is high the ratio is always going to be
| low!
| p0w3n3d wrote:
| recently I played my Warcraft II via Wargus and was pleasantly
| surprised. It seems that they generalised the engine, named
| Stratagus, so it can run different games...
| [deleted]
| pelasaco wrote:
| From the code perspective, pretty nice, they decided to work with
| C# and don't use any Engine.. it would be nice however if we had
| more documentation about it internals, architecture and etc.
| Raed667 wrote:
| If i remember correctly it doesn't come with cinematics or
| mission briefs for campaign mode. I'm guessing that would be a
| copyright issue.
| traspler wrote:
| You can import those from ISOs:
| https://github.com/OpenRA/OpenRA/wiki/Game-Content but the
| campaign is not complete afaik as it needs to be re-built in
| OpenRA: https://github.com/OpenRA/OpenRA/issues/4989 (I think
| this is the related ticket)
| gh02t wrote:
| Important to note that EA released C&C, RA1, and Tiberian Sun
| as freeware so you can just grab the data.
| koolba wrote:
| Can someone who's played this confirm if it has some open source
| equivalent of the awesome Red Alert music?
|
| It's those fast paced heavy metal riffs that goes so well with
| seeing conscripts being sent into a meat grinder.
| shrx wrote:
| As is usually the case with these open source
| reimplementations, the game assets (textures, sounds) must
| still be retrieved from the official installation / ISO.
| aspanu wrote:
| You can get a copy on the Internet Archive
| (https://archive.org/details/cnc-red-alert). I don't believe
| that this is copyright infringement. I think that we're just
| that old.
| larkost wrote:
| I can assure you, we are not that old. For works created in
| 1978 or later (which is the case for these) work-for-hire
| pieces like this get 95 years of copyright protection:
|
| https://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-duration.htm
|
| So we are solidly inside the copyright window.
| toxik wrote:
| The entire player base will literally die from old age
| before the copyright expires.
|
| Sounds reasonable.
| johannes1234321 wrote:
| While the owners of C&C made them available for free. Thus
| they can be legally downloaded, even directly from within
| OpenRA.
| trey-jones wrote:
| Cheers to those guys. I never understand the thought
| process of obstructing the use of materials that are so old
| in video-game-years. Without the community they (these
| assets) will just sit in the closet and die.
| yetanotherloss wrote:
| In most cases it is that various rights are held by
| defunct or disinterested parties and so it's near
| impossible to get relicensing done legally.
| johannes1234321 wrote:
| I can only speculate that some fear it might hurt the
| saleskf later editions and other new games (which is a
| bad reason)
|
| And there seems to be some market for nostalgia around
| selling old games. We can see new versions of old
| consoles, bundles of old games (with preconfigured
| emulators), ...
| vegancap wrote:
| I'm so glad this game still exists in some way or another. And
| this is a really authentic reproduction. I spent hours playing
| this as a kid, and rediscovered this in my 30's, and, well...
| have spent hours more playing it. Thank you for your efforts
| maintaining this classic
| warthog wrote:
| Loving this, I really appreciate the work that you have done.
| Posting in all my friend circles now, I am sure everyone will
| love replaying this game
| petre wrote:
| I played a bit of Dune2000 but I kept getting my ass kicked by
| the AI at the first level and there's no difficulty oprion.
| gao8a wrote:
| Is part of the AI the worms? such is life on Arrakis ;)
| petre wrote:
| No, the worms are okay. It's the enemy that storms you with
| neverending units. This is way harder than the original game.
| andrewstuart wrote:
| I loved these games and played so many of them but for some
| reason I just don't think I'd be able to play them again.
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