red alert<\/em>, unreal tournament<\/em>and more.”,”image_url”:”https://\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/screen1c-500×500.jpg”,” listing_image_url”:”https://\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/screen1c-768×432.jpg”}”>
Skip to the content
No more port-forwarding!
There are fan-made browser versions of red Alert, unreal Tournamentand more.
A screenshot of Chrono Divide, a fan-made browser version Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2,
Credit: Chrono Divide
A screenshot of Chrono Divide, a fan-made browser version Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2,
Credit: Chrono Divide
Over the past few weeks, friends and colleagues have introduced me to several ingeniously implemented browser-based ways to play classic MS-DOS and Windows games with other people on basically any hardware.
The late 1990s and early 2000s were the peak of multiplayer gaming for me. This was the era of real-time strategy games and boomer shooters, and I not only participated in many LAN parties, but also played online with friends.
This is still possible today with many older games; There are Discord servers that arrange scheduled matches Starsiege TribesFor example. But often times, getting those games running on modern Windows isn’t exactly trivial, and just like in the old days, you may be faced with some annoying network configuration tasks – to say nothing of the fact that many people who were on Windows in those days are now on macOS or Linux.
This week, several tech and gaming websites (starting with PC Gamer) have started circulating a link to Chrono Divide, a fan-made browser version. Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2It was first introduced in early 2020, but continues to receive updates, and is now quite feature- and content-complete as far as the multiplayer portion of the game goes, (Single player isn’t there yet,)
Here’s what the website says about it:
Chrono Divide is a fan-made project that aims to recreate the original “Red Alert 2” from the “Command & Conquer” series using web technologies. The result is a game client that runs in your web browser, with no additional plugins or applications installed.
The project initially began as an experiment and aimed to prove that it was possible to run a fully functioning, cross-platform RTS game in a web browser. Now, with a playable version already available, the ultimate goal is to reach feature parity with the original vanilla “Red Alert 2” engine.
It works with a client-server model (“say goodbye to port forwarding and firewall exceptions”), supports mods, offers both modern and classic mouse control schemes, and works “on any device and operating system, including phones and tablets, straight from your web browser.” However, you must (sensibly) have a copy of the game files to play.
In addition, there are leaderboards and a Discord server, as well as modern-game-style “seasons” (without any monetization, of course) that feature special rules and map rotations. So there’s a decent sized community playing red alert 2 Regularly in 2025, which is pretty wild.
Chrono Divide joins a few similar projects in bringing old multiplayer PC games to web browsers with modern features and whistles. An example: DOS Zone offers one-click connecting to online matches Apocalypse, earthquake 2 And 3, unreal TournamentAnd Half-Life: Deathmatch-Again, with Discord servers for an additional community layer.
So if you want to relive your Friday night TCP/IP and LAN party multiplayer games of the early 2000s, fine. I’ll see you there—I still think unreal Tournament The best multiplayer first-person shooter ever.
