Essential games compatibility updates needed - and request regarding soundtracks

[Turbo_Nozomix]

Multiple games in the C&C Ultimate Collection in some cases do not function at all on modern OS', or start in unplayable states, such as complete discolourization, too fast scroll-rate, etc. The games that completely don't work are also the games which many consider to be the best of the series: the first C&C and Red Alert 1. These games also have the best soundtracks in the series, and hold strong sentimental value to those who played and supported the series from its first inception.

While these issues are difficult to work-around for end-users, EA has means to make what are minor updates to the code, or even create a shell which they launch in, to resolve them.

It is unfair to sell on the Origin marketplace a product listed as "Ultimate Collection", containing all C&C games, when several of them do not function, even though purchasers meet the listed system requirements. For those who buy the collection to play those original C&C games, as many do, it is like being sold a bunk product.

It is no novelty that old games continue to be popular, as GoG.com proves and also does old games with updates OS support on Steam, but their capability to continue to draw interest suffers when people who own them aren't playing them, because they aren't playable, and so there's no chance for word-of-mouth / vibe to ensue, because there's nothing to talk about. In this regard, EA sits far behind GoG.com and also many Steam-published old titles that have support given for modern OS playability.

Even the most post-life customer-support-adverse publishers, like Bethesda, have made the effort for their similarly-dated games on Steam, Fallout 1, 2, and 3, and patched them to run natively on modern OS' - and they didn't stop there, but added whole new menu options regarding resolutions, graphical enhancement filtering, and more, and then also cloud-saving support, to boot.

I call upon EA to show similar pride in their legacy games, the ones which their respective brands are founded upon and known because of, and to include in that effort modern compatibility for C&C, Red Alert 1, Generals, and any others in the Ultimate Collection that either do not play, or require end-user and 3rd party tweaks in order to run. EA is a significant label, and it should not sit last-place in the market when it comes to honouring its own heritage, and supporting the games which its most long-time customers continue to regard fondly.

Also, the Red Alert soundtrack offered for sale by EA is not the complete soundtrack, but is a limited 15 tracks from the whole game, and leaves out some of the best music. It does this because it is a simple transfer of the old CD sountrack for the game, which was limited in order to fit the full sountrack on one CD. The soundtrack now sold by EA is not in CD form, but a digital download - and therefore no longer experiences  any size limitations.

The bonus C&C music MP3's included in the C&C Ultimate Collection have received remastering, and sound huge in comparison to the original releases. I very much desire to have the full C&C + Covert Operations soundtrack, and also the full Red Alert soundtrack available in like remastering. These are a couple of gaming music history's greatest monuments, and some of the most iconic experiences of modern gaming.

[Nyerguds · Accepted solution]

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@Turbo_Siats wrote:

Multiple games in the C&C Ultimate Collection in some cases do not function at all on modern OS', or start in unplayable states, such as complete discolourization, too fast scroll-rate, etc. The games that completely don't work are also the games which many consider to be the best of the series: the first C&C and Red Alert 1. These games also have the best soundtracks in the series, and hold strong sentimental value to those who played and supported the series from its first inception.

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Honestly, though, these games are not only freeware, but were already patched by the community to degrees far beyond what EA will ever be bothering to spend on them. And, in fact, there is currently no C&C team anymore, at all, at EA; with the cancellation of Generals 2, the entire team was sacked. No one has even updated the official C&C website... simply because there is no one left to do it.

So, yeah. Don't go expecting official updates on games they made freeware. And don't buy collection packs to play games in it that are freeware. On that note, don't expect any C&C EA team people to respond here - as I said, there aren't any. This is mostly a "users helping fellow users" forum.

The community patches:

C&C95 patch 1.06: (if you have any problems with this, feel free to contact me; I made it. Though, it's always nicer if you check the FAQ first)

http://www.moddb.com/mods/command-conquer-unofficial-patch-106/

Red Alert v3.03 hi-res:

http://funkyfr3sh.cncnet.org/

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@Turbo_Siats wrote:

It is unfair to sell on the Origin marketplace a product listed as "Ultimate Collection", containing all C&C games, when several of them do not function, even though purchasers meet the listed system requirements. For those who buy the collection to play those original C&C games, as many do, it is like being sold a bunk product.

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No argument there - TUC is a piece of carp

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@Turbo_Siats wrote:

Also, the Red Alert soundtrack offered for sale by EA is not the complete soundtrack, but is a limited 15 tracks from the whole game, and leaves out some of the best music. It does this because it is a simple transfer of the old CD sountrack for the game, which was limited in order to fit the full sountrack on one CD. The soundtrack now sold by EA is not in CD form, but a digital download - and therefore no longer experiences  any size limitations.

The bonus C&C music MP3's included in the C&C Ultimate Collection have received remastering, and sound huge in comparison to the original releases. I very much desire to have the full C&C + Covert Operations soundtrack, and also the full Red Alert soundtrack available in like remastering. These are a couple of gaming music history's greatest monuments, and some of the most iconic experiences of modern gaming.

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This isn't really EA's fault; the official soundtrack CDs released by Westwood just happen to be from before the digital age, so they simply happens to BE incomplete, and that's just the product they re-sell. And the actual game files only have these tracks in mono audio. If you want the rest of the music in high quality, I suggest you find a way to download the MP3s from the jukebox on Frank Klepacki's website; he has them all in stereo.

For the sake of completeness... if you're building a C&C audio collection, try to find the Sega Saturn version of C&C1; it has all of its music in CD audio, and while it doesn't have all the tracks the PC game has, it does contain a lot of tracks the official soundtrack doesn't.

The original versions of the expansion CDs of Red Alert also have CD audio, but sadly, due to an internal mistake, they both just have the "Counterstrike" music. Also, one of the tracks, Voice Rhythm 2 ("VR2" ingame) has an error in the audio (ingame too, for that matter) that has been corrected in the version on Frank Klepacki's website.

The original DOS Covert Operations CD also has CD audio, but all except one of these tracks are on the official soundtrack too. And if you get your hands on Sole Survivor (or a complete CD image of it), that one also contains CD audio tracks, of the remix tracks of C&C1 and RA1 used in the console release "Retaliation", which was a stand-alone version of the Red Alert expansion packs.

[Nyerguds · Accepted solution]

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@Turbo_Siats wrote:

Multiple games in the C&C Ultimate Collection in some cases do not function at all on modern OS', or start in unplayable states, such as complete discolourization, too fast scroll-rate, etc. The games that completely don't work are also the games which many consider to be the best of the series: the first C&C and Red Alert 1. These games also have the best soundtracks in the series, and hold strong sentimental value to those who played and supported the series from its first inception.

---

Honestly, though, these games are not only freeware, but were already patched by the community to degrees far beyond what EA will ever be bothering to spend on them. And, in fact, there is currently no C&C team anymore, at all, at EA; with the cancellation of Generals 2, the entire team was sacked. No one has even updated the official C&C website... simply because there is no one left to do it.

So, yeah. Don't go expecting official updates on games they made freeware. And don't buy collection packs to play games in it that are freeware. On that note, don't expect any C&C EA team people to respond here - as I said, there aren't any. This is mostly a "users helping fellow users" forum.

The community patches:

C&C95 patch 1.06: (if you have any problems with this, feel free to contact me; I made it. Though, it's always nicer if you check the FAQ first)

http://www.moddb.com/mods/command-conquer-unofficial-patch-106/

Red Alert v3.03 hi-res:

http://funkyfr3sh.cncnet.org/

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@Turbo_Siats wrote:

It is unfair to sell on the Origin marketplace a product listed as "Ultimate Collection", containing all C&C games, when several of them do not function, even though purchasers meet the listed system requirements. For those who buy the collection to play those original C&C games, as many do, it is like being sold a bunk product.

---

No argument there - TUC is a piece of carp

---

@Turbo_Siats wrote:

Also, the Red Alert soundtrack offered for sale by EA is not the complete soundtrack, but is a limited 15 tracks from the whole game, and leaves out some of the best music. It does this because it is a simple transfer of the old CD sountrack for the game, which was limited in order to fit the full sountrack on one CD. The soundtrack now sold by EA is not in CD form, but a digital download - and therefore no longer experiences  any size limitations.

The bonus C&C music MP3's included in the C&C Ultimate Collection have received remastering, and sound huge in comparison to the original releases. I very much desire to have the full C&C + Covert Operations soundtrack, and also the full Red Alert soundtrack available in like remastering. These are a couple of gaming music history's greatest monuments, and some of the most iconic experiences of modern gaming.

---

This isn't really EA's fault; the official soundtrack CDs released by Westwood just happen to be from before the digital age, so they simply happens to BE incomplete, and that's just the product they re-sell. And the actual game files only have these tracks in mono audio. If you want the rest of the music in high quality, I suggest you find a way to download the MP3s from the jukebox on Frank Klepacki's website; he has them all in stereo.

For the sake of completeness... if you're building a C&C audio collection, try to find the Sega Saturn version of C&C1; it has all of its music in CD audio, and while it doesn't have all the tracks the PC game has, it does contain a lot of tracks the official soundtrack doesn't.

The original versions of the expansion CDs of Red Alert also have CD audio, but sadly, due to an internal mistake, they both just have the "Counterstrike" music. Also, one of the tracks, Voice Rhythm 2 ("VR2" ingame) has an error in the audio (ingame too, for that matter) that has been corrected in the version on Frank Klepacki's website.

The original DOS Covert Operations CD also has CD audio, but all except one of these tracks are on the official soundtrack too. And if you get your hands on Sole Survivor (or a complete CD image of it), that one also contains CD audio tracks, of the remix tracks of C&C1 and RA1 used in the console release "Retaliation", which was a stand-alone version of the Red Alert expansion packs.

[Finjonz]

Thanks for making this patch and making C&C playable again. Childhood memories have started to flow back at me. 

[Nyerguds]

If you're talking about the C&C95 patch... you're welcome

[Gixerblade]

You are a godsend! Thank you!!

[Turbo_Nozomix]

Thanks for your work, Nyerguds, and for the links you have provided. Are these still the best solutions to playing these games on modern OSes?

[Nyerguds]

@Turbo_Nozomix

Yeah, they should be. I should really update the config tool of the C&C95 patch, though; seems it causes some odd lag problems to disable Win95 compatibility mode on windows 7/8/10. So, yeah, if you use that tool (CCConfig.exe), make sure to manually re-enable Win95 compatibility mode on the exe file (C&C95.exe) again afterwards. (The config tool disables it because it was originally made for WinXP, and on XP, the graphics fix dll included in the patch actually made the game work better without compatibility mode. Seems that changed on newer OSes, though.)

For TS, there's also a patch. You can find the freeware version and patch for TS here:

• Full game (not really needed if you got TUC)
• Patch

On that note, a bunch of extras for Red Alert 1 (like the originally playstation-exclusive videos for the expansion packs) can be found here.