January 2022
So here is the thing. I was looking to buy this, but needed to know if it was compatible for Windows 10 (my old copies of Generals aren't).
So I asked online chat, but the representative would not answer the question. They just kept pasting the games minimum requirements.
I asked by email and got the same issue.
It almost feels like I am being trolled
Nobody from EA seems willing to just give me a yes or no answer.
Does anyone here know?
January 2022
January 2022 - last edited January 2022
@0252aa9f7c7762a37d8900d33e71b126
It's... a bit of a tricky situation, and I can kind of understand them being vague. The pack, as it is released on Origin, does have its fair share of problems. However, most of these problems were fixed a long time ago by the C&C fan-patching community. But it's not like EA could do much better; the source code of a lot of the older games is lost or partially lost, and it has been a long time since EA had any kind of team dedicated to maintaining them. It's just not cost-efficient to them, especially if it means they'd have to reverse-engineer their own games.
So we are currently in this bizarre situation where fan-patches have made great strides in fixing and enhancing these games, but EA Support can't really point people to these fixes since that would make them liable in case these 3rd party programs might do some kind of harm.
I don't think there are many problems with the post-Generals games, but those aren't really my area of expertise. As far as I know though, with the fan patches, the older generation of C&C games all run perfectly fine. And, for the record, as far as I know, these patches are all perfectly safe. Paranoid virus scanners notwithstanding.
You can find them here:
Command & Conquer 1:
Red Alert 1:
Tiberian Sun:
Red Alert 2:
Generals:
Renegade:
As for the old copies not working, yea, that's kind of Microsoft's fault; Windows itself stopped supporting the SafeDisc, the DRM system used for these game.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SafeDisc#Withdrawal_of_support
Do note that this is completely unrelated to Electronic Arts; tons of games from other developers were also affected by this.
There's also still active multiplayer for all these old games. The official servers have been offline for years, but you can play the games on the community servers:
January 2022
Thanks for this.
I did actually get a communication from EA (finally) stating that the games work on windows 10.
i can now use that as the basis for a refund if they don't
i will of course try your info first of course
January 2022 - last edited January 2022
@0252aa9f7c7762a37d8900d33e71b126
Do note, the first three games are actually freeware, so they're somewhat irrelevant in all of that; they're just added to the sold collection for completeness' sake.
https://answers.ea.com/t5/C-C-The-Ultimate-Collection/Is-red-alert-1-and-tiberian-sun-now-freeware/t...
They're also the most fan-upgraded ones in the series, since they are fairly small programs, which predate more complex DRM that could prevent such fan patching.