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Red Alert 2 in web browser

https://chronodivide.com/
110•nsoonhui•3h ago

Comments

khoury•1h ago
Can't start the game in the browser without a local executable of the game?
voxic11•1h ago
Copyright, you have to provide all the copyrighted material yourself so they can't be sued for distributing it.
shortrounddev2•1h ago
It's a copyright thing
torginus•1h ago
They really should've added the demo files.
grepfru_it•39m ago
still copyrighted
brovonov•1h ago
Yes, because they don't own the assets.
RankingMember•49m ago
yeah, bit of a buzzkill. What's the point of being able to launch from a web browser if you've gotta go dig up the game anyways?
tgv•37m ago
Now you can run it on more platforms.
nonethewiser•21m ago
Point taken, but there is an answer to your questions. Cross platform compatibility
Aurornis•7m ago
The point is they don’t get sued for distributing game assets they don’t own.

If they could distribute them, they would.

pjmlp•1h ago
> for good performance, Firefox should be avoided

Oh well.

Then again, the demo is only usable for those with existing assets.

nottorp•59m ago
> for good performance, Firefox should be avoided

Can't, for privacy reasons.

oniony•46m ago
Can, use Waterfox instead.
littlecranky67•42m ago
He was referring to chrome
doublerabbit•1h ago
I will throw out that if anyone does want to play RA2/YR multiplayer you can for free here: https://cncnet.org/red-alert-2
bennyp101•1h ago
How does OpenRA[0] do it? Is it just a X has expired thing?

Edit: Oh maybe you do have to have the assets now? I swear last time I used it, it was all online :/

[0] https://www.openra.net

jsk2600•43m ago
OpenRA does not distribute game assets, but they can be downloaded from OpenRA launcher.
catapart•41m ago
Since you broached the topic, I've got an open curiosity about projects like that: if I manufactured entirely new assets, completely independently from the source game (possibly not even matching the source; like a different "skin" or "theme"), and then used those assets in a "clone" (in all but assets) of the source game, would that run afoul of IP law? I'm aware that anything can be litigated, but is there some quirk of IP protection for that kind of thing, or would I be able to use the cloned source with completely new assets without really infringing on anything? Does the cloned (re-coded? recomposed? clean-roomed?) source cause issues or create some kind of legal link from the original assets to the unrelated ones?

Again, just idle curiosity. No actual intentions here, so just wondering if anyone has some deeper knowledge on the subject.

afavour•37m ago
IIRC if you make entirely new assets you're good to go. OpenTTD (Open source version of Transport Tycoon Deluxe) has its own custom made assets, but can also be used with the original if you own them.

https://www.openttd.org

Not sure it's ever been proven definitively in court, though. And if you "made" custom assets that were exactly like the original ones only with a 1px color difference or something I'm sure you'd fall foul of it. What counts as different "enough" is always debatable.

mikepurvis•33m ago
It would probably be the usual clean room reverse engineering rules: one guy describes the assets to be cloned, and then another guy who has never seen the originals uses that documentation to create the replacements.

Once you've seen the originals, you're contaminated and no longer suitable for the role of doing the replacement work.

coldpie•27m ago
Game mechanics are not considered copyrightable[1]. If you had a clean room implementation with your own significantly different assets, it would be allowed.

However, the exact definitions of "significantly different" and "assets" is where things start to get fuzzy. While you could definitely make a very similar RTS game, exactly how similar can you get? EA doesn't own "military-themed RTS", but they probably do own "Soviets vs Allies with about 5 different unit types, air transports, and tesla coils." Getting even more fuzzy, are unit abilities considered assets, or game mechanics? It'd have to be worked out in court.

My gut feeling is these clone engines would probably lose in court. I think the specific expression of the general game mechanics being cloned here probably would constitute infringement. But there isn't much upside to the IP owners to pursue enthusiastic hobbyists cloning a 20+ year old game in a non-commercial way, so they let it slide.

[1] "Although Amusement World admitted that they appropriated Atari's idea, the court determined that this was not prohibited, because copyright only protects the specific expression of an idea, not the idea itself." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari,_Inc._v._Amusement_World...

wwfn•12m ago
https://freedoom.github.io/ does that for the still proprietary DOOM assets. Though the DOOM engine itself is open source, so a slight different situation than Command and Conquer.
bbarnett•57m ago
Neat project.

If looking for gameplay like this, OpenRA does play a few games without original game assets. I don't think RA2 though.

Telaneo•54m ago
Yes! This'll be fun to show some friends who are fans.
RankingMember•47m ago
It'd be cool if there was a similar site but using OpenRA to avoid the need for local assets.
stego-tech•45m ago
Incoming HN hug.

Love it, can’t wait to poke at it from home later.

evanjrowley•39m ago
1. The source code for Red Alert 2 is rumored to be lost a very long time ago[0], so the fact that the Chrono Divide team was able to achieve this is quite amazing.

2. The Mental Omega mod project[1] is still going strong, so RA2 is still worth playing today. Hopefully it will work in this browser-based version.

[0] https://forums.revora.net/topic/107344-red-alert-2-engine-so...

[1] https://mentalomega.com/

s_dev•13m ago
Shame because EA released the source code for most of the other C&C games: https://github.com/electronicarts/

So if they had it they'd would have almost certainly included RA2 in that as well.

warpspin•34m ago
I loved Red Alert 2 so much at release. Always was the pinnacle of (single player) RTS for me. The over-the-top characters, the cheesy story, the terrain interactions...

Everything afterwards felt lame and was geared too much towards multiplayer balance, which does not interest me the least.

teeray•30m ago
> The over-the-top characters, the cheesy story

I love that they don't take themselves too seriously in this series. RA3 had some hilarious cutscenes with characters barely holding it together (the Soviet Premier was an underrated Tim Curry role IMO).

Xelbair•8m ago
"I'm escaping to the one place that hasn't been corrupted by capitalism,

barely holds laughter back and takes a break

SPACE!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1Sq1Nr58hM

ecshafer•28m ago
Starcraft becoming uber popular in Korea I think really hurt the RTS genre. I did play RTS games online when I was younger. But I think you're right, Everything went from lets make a fun game with a cool campaign, to lets make an Esport. Company of Heroes 1 to 3, Dawn of War 1 to 2, Age of Empires 1,2,3 vs 4. You can really see this.
Joshua-Peter•7m ago
Playing Red Alert 2 in a web browser is amazing! It brings nostalgia while letting you enjoy the classic strategy game instantly, without any downloads or installations.
Finnucane•6m ago
Click on web site, see unreadable light-grey-on-white text, say, fuck that and leave.

Nano Banana Pro

https://blog.google/technology/ai/nano-banana-pro/
69•meetpateltech•23m ago•29 comments

Red Alert 2 in web browser

https://chronodivide.com/
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