I am trying to play Red Alert 2 and Yuri's Revenge, but everytime I try to play a skirmish match, everything blows up. I bought the game fair and square on origin but I'm being hit by copy protection. How do I fix this?
Avoid installing the games under Program Files; if you put them there the games have no write access to their own install folder, and since these are old games that write game settings inside the game install folder, that may cause issues like that. Alternatively, open the compatibility settings of the executable files in the RA2 game folder and set them all to run as administrator.
Note, a lot of the games have been upgraded with community-created unofficial patches that fix a lot of their bugs and compatibility problems. You can find them here:
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.)
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.
If you have issues with DirectX errors popping up, find and delete the file "dbghelp.dll" in the game's install folder.
Like a lot of people helping out around this place, I am a volunteer, not an EA employee. I'm just here to help. If my answer helped you, please give XP. And if an answer solved your problem, be sure to accept it as solution.
I will not help with game questions sent as private messages; those questions belong on the boards where everyone can see my answers.
Avoid installing the games under Program Files; if you put them there the games have no write access to their own install folder, and since these are old games that write game settings inside the game install folder, that may cause issues like that. Alternatively, open the compatibility settings of the executable files in the RA2 game folder and set them all to run as administrator.
Note, a lot of the games have been upgraded with community-created unofficial patches that fix a lot of their bugs and compatibility problems. You can find them here:
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.)
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.
If you have issues with DirectX errors popping up, find and delete the file "dbghelp.dll" in the game's install folder.
Like a lot of people helping out around this place, I am a volunteer, not an EA employee. I'm just here to help. If my answer helped you, please give XP. And if an answer solved your problem, be sure to accept it as solution.
I will not help with game questions sent as private messages; those questions belong on the boards where everyone can see my answers.
