Salty game dev comments, easier mods are inside Command & Conquer’s source code

Inside the source code are some wonderful reminders of what Windows game development from 1995 to 2003 was really like. One experienced modder posted some gems on Bluesky, like a “HACK ALERT!” text string added just to prevent the Watcom IDE from crashing because of a “magic text heap length” crash: “Who knows why, but it works,” wrote that poor soul.

This writer’s personal favorite is this little bit in the RampOptions.cpp file in Generals, credited to John K. McDonald Jr., which expresses concerns about “TheRampOptions” existing with a set value:

if (TheRampOptions) {
// oh shit.
return;
}

In addition to helping out modders and entertaining experienced coders, the GPL-licensed source code releases do a lot to help preserve these games, such that they can be reworked to run on future platforms. Projects like OpenRA and OpenSAGE already offer open source reimplementations of those games’ code, but having the original source can only help. C&C community stalwart Luke “CCHyper” Feenan worked with EA leaders to get the code back into a build-ready state and said in a press release that the updated code should make the classic games easier to patch in the future.

As part of the source code release, the Command & Conquer team dropped off 35 minutes of footage, newly found in the archives, of alpha and archive footage from the later Sage-engine based Generals and Renegade games.

It’s heartening to see that with the right combination of people and purpose, classic games can find renewed interest and longevity inside a big publisher.