More than twenty years after its release, Command & Conquer: Generals and Zero Hour are getting some long-overdue attention. Armed with the original source code, a community of developers is fixing old problems, modernising the engine and helping keep one of PC gaming's most beloved strategy games alive.

More than 23 years after Command & Conquer: Generals first arrived on PC, fans are still finding ways to improve it. You might have seen that last year, EA made the surprising decision to release the original source code for several classic Command & Conquer games, like Generals and Zero Hour. Since then, a community of developers known as The Super Hackers has been working on GeneralsGameCode, fixing bugs that have been around for decades, modernising the engine, improving compatibility and laying the groundwork for features that simply weren’t doable before that.

I’ve written just a little about the project, the work they’re doing, and why I think efforts like this are such an important part of video game preservation. It’s definitely not a remaster, and that’s what makes it so interesting. It’s a community making sure a game they love can keep going for another twenty years!

  • kboos1@lemmy.worldEnglish
    191·
    23 hours ago

    Westwood C&C was awesome, still some of my favorites. EA C&C is straight garbage

    • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      8·
      9 hours ago

      OG through TS were fun; up through 3 on both series were entertaining, but somewhat of a different vibe; c&c4 was absolute garbage tier.

      Edit: generals was fun too, if a bit… uh… racist-trope-y, especially in retrospect?😬

      • egregiousRac@piefed.socialEnglish
        5·
        9 hours ago

        I rank RA2 above TS, but they are pretty close.

        Check out Combined Arms. It runs on OpenRA and is a new game that blends the units and design of the entire series together. Focuses on the Tib and RA factions, but some Generals stuff is blended into those.

        It’s got a huge campaign and an active multiplayer community.