OpenRA
Open-source re-implementation of Command & Conquer, Red Alert, and Dune 2000. Multiplayer, modded, actively developed. The real thing.
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Play OpenRA →Opens in a new tab on the original host.
Controls: Mouse to select and command units. Right-click to order. Keyboard shortcuts for buildings and unit groups. Full remapping available.
OpenRA started as a project to re-implement Command & Conquer in a modern engine. It has grown into something more than that. The engine now supports three complete games — Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn, Red Alert, and Dune 2000 — with enough fidelity to the originals that players who remember the 1990s releases will recognize every unit, every building, and every map. It also has enough changes that players who never played the originals can pick it up without thirty years of context.
The project has been in active development since 2007. The engine receives regular updates. The multiplayer community is small but functional, with matchmaking, ladders, and custom maps. Single-player includes the original campaigns plus scripted missions contributed by community members.
Each of the three games has a distinct flavor. Tiberian Dawn is the original — tanks and infantry and resource management in a world being consumed by alien crystal growth. Red Alert is the alternate-history version — Soviet versus Allied factions, Tesla coils versus nuclear bombs. Dune 2000 is the Arrakis adaptation — three houses competing for spice, ornithopters, and the occasional sandworm.
The engine is GPL-3.0. The game assets — the original sprites, music, and voice acting — are redistributed under a Westwood/EA non-commercial use agreement that has been tacitly accepted for over a decade.
Why it’s on the guide: GPL-3.0 engine, preserved classics, active development. The right way to play a genre that the 1990s built.