# OpenRA: an engine reimplementation reimagining early Westwood RTS games > Provides a C# engine for early Westwood real-time strategy games, with mods that reimagine Command & Conquer: Red Alert, Tiberian Dawn and Dune 2000. It loads the original games’ content through its own file-system, MiniYAML rules and Lua mission layers rather than running or recovering Westwood code. Gameplay and interface deliberately follow OpenRA’s own design, so it is not a faithful recreation of the original executables. - Type: Case study - Targets: Game - Category: Independent reconstruction cases - Relationship: Independent reconstruction project - Sources reviewed: 2026-10-18 - Added to the catalog: 2026-10-19 - Original resource: - Primary source: - Catalog page: - Record JSON: - Chinese version: [简体中文](https://awesomerea.org/zh/resources/openra-engine-case/index.md) ## Requirements & limits - **Prerequisites:** INSTALL states that several files from the original game disks are needed; for Red Alert, the content manifest checks for archives such as allies.mix and conquer.mix. The content installers recognise original discs, The First Decade and the Steam or Origin editions, including the Remastered Collection, or install a minimal asset pack hosted by the project. Commit history shows that some supplementary sounds and icons under mods/*/bits came from Westwood games such as Sole Survivor, and the reviewed sources state no separate licence for them. - **Prerequisites:** Building needs the .NET 10 SDK: make on Linux and macOS, or make.ps1 and dotnet on Windows. On x86_64 Linux the build fetches prebuilt native libraries through NuGet by default; other systems use system SDL 2, FreeType, OpenAL and Lua 5.1. - **Scope:** The reviewed bleed (development) snapshot postdates release-20250330 and carries a development version placeholder. The README lists the Red Alert, Tiberian Dawn and Dune 2000 mods as reimaginings, and INSTALL calls the Tiberian Sun mod experimental. No Westwood source code is recovered or reproduced. - **Testing evidence:** CI on Linux and Windows runs code checks, the OpenRA.Test unit tests, Lua script checks and MiniYAML validation for every mod. - **License:** COPYING applies GPL-3.0-or-later to OpenRA, and AUTHORS lists bundled libraries under their own terms, such as zlib for SDL2-CS and OpenAL-CS and MIT for Eluant. The README states that EA has not endorsed and does not support the project. Original game content keeps its own rights. ## Primary sources 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. ## More in Games - [OpenRCT2: an open re-implementation of RollerCoaster Tycoon 2](https://awesomerea.org/resources/openrct2-engine-case/index.md) · Case study - [OpenRiseOfNations: a native macOS engine reimplementation](https://awesomerea.org/resources/openriseofnations-engine-case/index.md) · Case study - [OpenRW: an open re-implementation of the Grand Theft Auto III engine](https://awesomerea.org/resources/openrw-gta3-engine-case/index.md) · Case study - [OpenSC4: an early open-source reimplementation of SimCity 4](https://awesomerea.org/resources/opensc4-simcity-4-reimplementation-case/index.md) · Case study - [OpenTomb: Tomb Raider engine reimplementation](https://awesomerea.org/resources/opentomb/index.md) · Case study - [OpenXcom: an open-source clone of X-COM: UFO Defense and Terror from the Deep](https://awesomerea.org/resources/openxcom-engine-case/index.md) · Case study ## About this entry The description was reviewed against primary sources. Original editorial content: MIT. Linked projects, papers and assets retain their own rights and licenses.