C&C Ultimate Collection & Windows 10

[majeds14]

Hello,

your kind advice is highly valued before i purchase C&C Ultimate Collection. i have two questions:

1. can i play it with Windows 10? as i have noticed alot of complains about this issue
2. can i play the old revisions of the game (command and conquer generals + command and conquer generals zero:hour)?

thank you in advance

[Nyerguds · Accepted solution]

@majeds14

1. You have to realize this is a tech support forum; only people with problems come here, which might give a slightly skewed perspective. I rather suspect most people who buy the bundle don't have too many problems. That said, the pinned threads on top of the forum here do have a bunch of general advice to make the older games run better on newer systems. For all of the games, it's advised to disable the "Origin In Game" feature in the game's settings in the Origin client program; the system simply doesn't work with any of the C&C games, and destabilizes a lot of them. Besides that, you might need to find the game folders and tweak the compatibility modes on the games' executable files a bit to get them all working right.

2. With "older revisions" do you mean the original CD/DVD versions, or just the older games? Because C&C Generals is still about ten years away from the actual oldest games in the series, y'know.

Generally, the games that will give the most problems are usually those in the middle of the series; those that start using Windows features that have changed since then. The very oldest games, namely Command & Conquer 1, Red Alert 1 and Tiberian Sun have all been upgraded with community-created unofficial patches that fix a lot of their bugs and compatibility problems, and Red Alert 2 uses more or less the same game engine as Tiberian Sun, so a lot of the tech support for that is similar to TS.

But besides those, there are a couple more fixes out there. Here are the patches I know of:

Command & Conquer 1:

• Nyerguds' C&C95 v1.06c revision 3 patch (which also adds bonus missions originally exclusive to the Playstation and Nintendo 64 versions of the game)
  Note that this patch fixes two quite common and completely fatal game crashes (top-of-map reconnaissance crash, stealth crash), so installing it is strongly advised.
• HD music pack, with stereo music for the game.

Red Alert 1:

• Funkyfr3sh's automatic Red Alert 1 patcher/installer (The thread also has briefing videos for the expansion missions, converted from the Playstation version of the game)
• Nyerguds' main.mix cleanup for TFD/TUC (Not really needed, but cleans up about a gigabyte of unnecessary files in the RA1 folder. Unpack in the game folder, run "patch_main.bat", let it finish, and then delete the files you extracted.)
• HD music pack, with stereo music for the game.

Tiberian Sun:

• Funkyfr3sh's Tiberian Sun patch

Red Alert 2:

• I advise installing the CnCNet online play installer for RA2/YR. Even if you're not interested in online play, it comes with a bunch of automatic fixes. It should automatically take care of the "black screen" issue, and has a configuration tool that allows further tweaking of the game's settings.

Generals:

• GenTool seems to be the main patch for Generals these days. The website is kind of vague on what it does besides restoring multiplayer and adding anti-cheat, but I heard it does a lot to make it work better on modern OSes too.

Renegade:

• The Tiberian Technologies patch fixes loads of issues on Renegade.

Do note that the first three games are freeware; the pages I linked to for them should also have the full game download on them somewhere. For RA, it's part of the same installer, but you have to make sure to check the boxes in the wizard to include both game discs. For TS, you just have to scroll down in the forum thread a bit to find it.

[Nyerguds · Accepted solution]

@majeds14

1. You have to realize this is a tech support forum; only people with problems come here, which might give a slightly skewed perspective. I rather suspect most people who buy the bundle don't have too many problems. That said, the pinned threads on top of the forum here do have a bunch of general advice to make the older games run better on newer systems. For all of the games, it's advised to disable the "Origin In Game" feature in the game's settings in the Origin client program; the system simply doesn't work with any of the C&C games, and destabilizes a lot of them. Besides that, you might need to find the game folders and tweak the compatibility modes on the games' executable files a bit to get them all working right.

2. With "older revisions" do you mean the original CD/DVD versions, or just the older games? Because C&C Generals is still about ten years away from the actual oldest games in the series, y'know.

Generally, the games that will give the most problems are usually those in the middle of the series; those that start using Windows features that have changed since then. The very oldest games, namely Command & Conquer 1, Red Alert 1 and Tiberian Sun have all been upgraded with community-created unofficial patches that fix a lot of their bugs and compatibility problems, and Red Alert 2 uses more or less the same game engine as Tiberian Sun, so a lot of the tech support for that is similar to TS.

But besides those, there are a couple more fixes out there. Here are the patches I know of:

Command & Conquer 1:

• Nyerguds' C&C95 v1.06c revision 3 patch (which also adds bonus missions originally exclusive to the Playstation and Nintendo 64 versions of the game)
  Note that this patch fixes two quite common and completely fatal game crashes (top-of-map reconnaissance crash, stealth crash), so installing it is strongly advised.
• HD music pack, with stereo music for the game.

Red Alert 1:

• Funkyfr3sh's automatic Red Alert 1 patcher/installer (The thread also has briefing videos for the expansion missions, converted from the Playstation version of the game)
• Nyerguds' main.mix cleanup for TFD/TUC (Not really needed, but cleans up about a gigabyte of unnecessary files in the RA1 folder. Unpack in the game folder, run "patch_main.bat", let it finish, and then delete the files you extracted.)
• HD music pack, with stereo music for the game.

Tiberian Sun:

• Funkyfr3sh's Tiberian Sun patch

Red Alert 2:

• I advise installing the CnCNet online play installer for RA2/YR. Even if you're not interested in online play, it comes with a bunch of automatic fixes. It should automatically take care of the "black screen" issue, and has a configuration tool that allows further tweaking of the game's settings.

Generals:

• GenTool seems to be the main patch for Generals these days. The website is kind of vague on what it does besides restoring multiplayer and adding anti-cheat, but I heard it does a lot to make it work better on modern OSes too.

Renegade:

• The Tiberian Technologies patch fixes loads of issues on Renegade.

Do note that the first three games are freeware; the pages I linked to for them should also have the full game download on them somewhere. For RA, it's part of the same installer, but you have to make sure to check the boxes in the wizard to include both game discs. For TS, you just have to scroll down in the forum thread a bit to find it.

[Vikings111111111]

I keep trying to download the funkyfr3sh's set up for red alert 2 and it wont allow my to click patch existing installation.

[Moleb3]

I suppose I have a similar question. If you purchase the game via the EA site, does it actually work with windows 10? Or do you have to edit each before you can play them? 

Would be interested to hear what EA actually say to this, especially as we are now in 2019. How 14 years have flown by and still love this game. 

[Nyerguds]

@Moleb3 

To be honest, the unofficial patches have achieved a lot more than EA can do at this point. And they're mostly automated anyway; download and install, and it's done.