Play Total Annihilation Today

Total Annihilation is still on sale, with both of its expansions. You can play it as it was released, or you can run your copy with Open Annihilation, a free engine for modern systems.

Buy the Game

Two stores sell Total Annihilation today:

  • GOG sells Total Annihilation: Commander Pack. It is DRM-free and includes The Core Contingency and Battle Tactics. GOG lists it for Windows and Mac.
  • Steam sells Total Annihilation for Windows. It also includes both expansions.

Both editions are updated to version 3.1c, the final official version of the game. Core Prime's Get the Game page links to both stores.

Open Annihilation

Open Annihilation is a free, open-source engine that plays the original Total Annihilation. It is released under the GPLv3. It contains no game data: it loads the units, maps and missions from your own copy of the game.

It runs natively on:

  • Windows, from Windows 95 to Windows 11
  • macOS 11 or later, on Intel and Apple silicon
  • Linux, including the Raspberry Pi
  • Steam Deck, as an experimental package that finds your Steam copy of the game by itself
  • iPhone and iPad, with iOS or iPadOS 15 or later

There is no App Store release for iPhone and iPad. You build the app yourself with Xcode on a Mac and install it on your own device.

Open Annihilation uses the original network protocol. You can host or join multiplayer games over TCP/IP, and play against people who use the unmodified game, version 3.1c.

Getting Started

  1. Download Open Annihilation for your system from play.coreprime.net.
  2. Get the game data. A copy from GOG or Steam works, or the original CDs updated to version 3.1.
  3. Start Open Annihilation and choose the folder that contains the file totala1.hpi. On Linux and the Steam Deck, the engine finds Steam installs by itself.

If you want to try it first, the free 1997 demo also works. It has the first three Arm missions and 32 units, but no skirmish, multiplayer or music.

The install guides explain each step with pictures. There are guides for Windows, macOS, Linux, the Raspberry Pi, the Steam Deck and iPhone and iPad.

Sources