Command & Conquer

Command & Conquer

Developer(s)	Westwood Studios
Publisher(s)	Virgin Interactive
Engine	Westwood 2D
First release date	MS-DOS August 31, 1995 Mac OS 1995 Windows March 10, 1997

Command & Conquer: The Covert Operations

Developer(s)	Westwood Studios
Publisher(s)	Virgin Interactive
First release date	1996

Command & Conquer

Command & Conquer	1995
The Covert Operations
Command & Conquer: Red Alert	1996
Counterstrike
The Aftermath
Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun	1999
Firestorm
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2	2000
Yuri's Revenge
Command & Conquer: Renegade	2002
Command & Conquer: Generals	2003
Zero Hour
Command & Conquer: The First Decade	2006
Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars	2007
Kane's Wrath
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3	2008
Uprising
Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight	2010
Command & Conquer: The Ultimate Collection	2012
Command & Conquer (2013)	2013

Key points

This game is also known as "Tiberian Dawn".

Released for free in 2007.

Command & Conquer Gold: Project 1.06 fan patch is highly recommended to install.

Works very well in Mac and Linux using emulation..

In order to access online play with CnCNet, start the game with cncnet.exe. To play LAN, start the game as usual.

General information

Patch discussion

CnCNZ subforum

CnC-Comm forums

Official subforum

Command & Conquer Wiki

CnCNet IRC

Availability

Source(s)	Store unlock	Notes
Fan mirror #1 (portable)		This version contains improvements not present in the fan patch like the extended sidebar.
Fan mirror #2 (installable)		This pack is missing movies; download them from here.
GDI and NOD (EA servers)		ISOs that have been released for free by EA.

Source(s)	Store unlock	Notes
DMG (Mac)		Old DMG files for Mac. They are untested and have no benefits of the fan patch. It's most likely wiser to opt for emulation.

The game is also bundled with other games in the franchise in Command & Conquer: The First Decade (up to Generals) and The Ultimate Collection (up to Tiberian Twilight).

Improvements

1024x768 resolution with the Command & Conquer Gold: Project 1.06 compared to earlier versions.

Patch

Command & Conquer Gold: Project 1.06

This patch contains:

• Support for newer Windows systems (including 64-bit) and Mac/Linux through emulation
• Online (provided by CnCNet) and LAN playability up to 6 players
• High-resolution graphics
• No-CD option
• Missions from PSX and N64 versions and the Covert Operations expansion
• An enormous number of fixes

You can find the list of full changes in the changelog.

Compatibility mode, 256 colors and 640x480 in the compatibility tab should be turned OFF.

It is not recommended to install CnCNet alone as most players use 1.06 version and the patch installs CnCNet anyway.

The site also offers Music Upgrade Pack if you installed the game through CDs/ISOs.

Support for regular installation, The First Decade and The Ultimate Collection.

Utilities

Map Pack Updater

This map pack updater adds and updates custom multiplayer map packs in your C&C directory.

To "install" the updater, put the files into the installation directory.

TiberianDawnLauncher.exe is an optional game launcher included with the updater; CNCupdate.exe checks for updates every time the launcher starts.

Languages

C&C patch also supports multiple languages. They can be found lower in the Command & Conquer Gold: Project 1.06 website.

Natively supported languages

• English
• German
• French.

Additional language packs

• British English
• Spanish
• Polish
• (Brazilian) Portuguese.

Game data

Default installation directories

	Location
Default	C:\Westwood\C&C95
The First Decade	C:\Program Files (x86)\EA GAMES\Command & Conquer The First Decade\Command & Conquer(tm)
The Ultimate Collection	C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\Command and Conquer

Configuration files location

	Location
Default	C:\Westwood\C&C95\conquer.ini
DDraw	C:\Westwood\C&C95\ddraw.ini
CnCNet	C:\Westwood\C&C95\cncnet.ini

Save game location

	Location
Default	C:\Westwood\C&C95\savegame.***

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
GameSave Manager		It has to be set up manually

Video settings

These are video settings alongside the fan patch.

CCConfig.exe

Graphics option	Native	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution			The maximum size of a C&C map is only 1488x1488 so 1600x1200 gameplay will be ridden with graphical glitches on every map.
Multi-monitor
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See Borderless fullscreen windowed
Vertical sync (Vsync)		See Vsync

Borderless fullscreen windowed

Enabling borderless fullscreen • Link Go to <gamedir>\ddraw.ini Set: windowed =true, width, height = equal to computer resolution, border=false The resolution settings in ddraw only stretch the image; to set internal resolution you need to run CCConfig.

Vertical sync (Vsync)

Enabling Vsync • Link Go to <gamedir>\ddraw.ini Set: opengl=true, vsync =true

Fullscreen movies

Fulscreen movies • Link Go to <gamedir>\ddraw.ini Set: opengl=true, vhack=true

Input Settings

Input Settings	Native	Notes
Remapping		See Remapping for more info and here (Google Docs) for keybindings.
Mouse acceleration

Network settings

In order to play the game online with CnCNet, you can choose two main options: peer-to-peer or tunneled mode. Generally, peer-to-peer method is faster, but may need some network configuration. There are 2 options of doing this:

1. Automatic setup by CnCNet Tester with instructions below.
2. Manual setup (instructions here).

CnCNet Tester • Link Only works with UPnP enabled routers. Download the zip file and extract it anywhere. Run the tool. In the left corner of the program you should see a button called "Get All Port Mappings" and click it. In the box to the right you should see the text "Starting UPNP Device Search...". If you get a response after the message "Starting UPNP Device Search" go ahead and click the "Map My Port" button; otherwise see Manual setup.

Issues unresolved

If you haven't found an issue, head over to forums with links at the top of the page.

• It isn't possible to install the CDs/ISOs on a 64-bit system because the installer itself is 16-bit. It would be better to download from the fan mirrors.
• The game has some minor problems with missions that are smaller than the game resolution. This is nothing to be worried about, you can "fix" it by going to the in-game menu (Escape key).
• When playing in any resolution higher than 640x400, you can't place buildings with a placement height of only one cell on the lowest row of cells on the map.

Issues fixed

General fix

General fix • Link If you have not found a fix, be sure to also check: If you have installed the patch properly. If everything in the compatibility tab is unchecked (Right click shortcut -> Properties) If you have enabled "Back buffer in Video memory" and disabled "Allow hardware filled blits" in CCConfig If you may be able to run it using a different renderer or enabling/disabling "singlecpu" in ddraw.dll If you may be able to run it by disabling cnc-ddraw (and thus disable some of the awesome features and maybe even reintroduce some other issues like scrambled colors).

CCConfig won't run

CCConfig • Link You need to install .Net Framework.

Game speed/Map Scroll Rate issue

Game speed • Link While in-game, press Esc to open a menu, press game controls and move the game speed slider to adjust the game speed or Scroll Rate slider to adjust the scroll speed.

Scrambled colors (without ddraw.dll)

Scrambled colours • Link Ddraw.dll within the fan-patch already fixes that issue. However, if the game needs to run with ddraw.dll turned off and this appears, then this is for you. Open Notepad and paste whichever one of these corresponds to the version of Windows 7 you're running: 32-bit: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DirectDraw\Compatibility\Command & Conquer Gold] "Flags"=hex:00,08,00,00 "Name"="C&C95.exe" "ID"=hex:d5,83,dd,32" 64-bit: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\DirectDraw\Compatibility\Command & Conquer Gold] "Flags"=hex:00,08,00,00 "Name"="C&C95.exe" "ID"=hex:d5,83,dd,32 File -> Save, choose "All Files" from the "Save As" type dropdown menu, and save it with the extension ".reg". Double click on the .reg file you made, confirm that you want to add the key, and give the game a try. The intro video may still have the wrong colors (this seems random, sometimes it's fine, usually it's not), but the game and the rest of the videos will be fine. If you have your wallpaper set to slide show, you'll still get messed up colors when your wallpaper changes. This will last until the end of any video that was playing, but will only cause a brief flicker in the actual game.

"Unable to set video mode" error

Unable to set video mode • Link There are 2 ways how to fix this error: Change the resolution. Enable windowed mode. If you really want to play fullscreen, you might want to check how to enable Borderless fullscreen windowed mode.

Crash after overheating

Crash • Link One of the reasons for this could be that the game's demands for CPU are unoptimized for modern systems. To fix this, in the ddraw.dll, try enabling singlecpu to force single-core affinity.

No videos after installing the patch

No videos • Link If you happen to have the game on CD, that means No-CD option is turned on. Either turn off the option or download the videos.

Uncapturable AC Center/Helipad in NOD missions

Uncapturable • Link Either the Advanced Communications Center in Nod mission 12 or a helipad with an Orca fighter in Nod mission 7 can't be captured. This happens when loading old savegames. If you load savegames from older versions of the game, these options are not saved in it, or not saved on the correct spot. You will have to restart the mission after loading the savegame to fix this.

No difference in GDI and NOD Funpark campaign

This actually isn't an issue; there is technically only one Funpark campaign, with one missions set, and one briefing video. The side choice only affects which helicopters you get, and what you can build in mission #4, the only one where you have a base.

The map is put in a small box with black around it.

• Not actually an issue; it happens because the map is smaller than the monitor resolution.

Mac/Linux emulation

This is an emulation guide for the fan-made executable, not for the ISOs or CDs.

This is a guide to emulation using PlayonLinux/PlayonMac and can be also set on Wine with same configuration.

1. Download PlayonLinux or PlayonMac and install it.
2. Open, click "Install" and then "Install a non-listed program" at the bottom.
3. Choose "Install a program in a new virtual drive" and then check "Configure Wine" (Name of the virtual drive doesn't matter)
4. In the libraries tab, add ddraw.dll and thipx32.dll to override list, write them and click Add (one at a time).
5. After configuring Wine, select the executable, click Next and go through the installation process.
6. Add shortcuts for C&C95.exe and cncnet.exe.
7. Have fun!

If the configuration program doesn't work, then you have to do configure the game manually in conquer.ini or the aforementioned ddraw.ini. The settings for the internal resolution, sound and multiplayer options (not CnCNet) and languages are in conquer.ini.

General information

OpenRA

Re-implementations

There are a couple of open-source implementations of C&C existing. OpenRA is an implementation that is multiplatform and despite what it says on the title, has a C&C mod. It has a completely reimagined interface, supports high resolutions and is most supported (despite the name, it contains a Tiberian Dawn mod). However, its multiplayer-only and music has to be put separately into its Application Data folder. Another one is C&C: Tiberian Dawn - HTML5 which uses HTML5 features to be playable in a browser. Because it is a work in progress, it's lacking in options and it runs very slowly.

There are also some total conversions of the game. There's a Tiberian Sun conversion The Dawn of the Tiberium Age which is online compatible and which has a completely different campaign than in the original game. Also, a Red Alert conversion called Red Dawn is available as well as Generals conversion called Tiberian Dawn Redux.

Mods

Unlike newer games like Tiberian Sun, Tiberian Dawn doesn't support a strong modding community; however there are some that are quite neat on the fan-patch site, although definitely not necessary and mostly for fun.

• WinDOwS - Adds DOS interface
• German censoring - Brings back the German censoring
• Star Wars mod

Maps

C&C has support for external maps, both multiplayer and singleplayer. You can now download multiplayer maps automatically with Map Pack Updater as well as at the beginning of this article with singleplayer maps. There's even a map creator you can find at CnC-Comm, XCC Mixer to package the maps and this tutorial on how to get started.

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	MS-DOS 5.0	Windows 95
Processor (CPU)	486 DX2 66 MHz	Pentium 60 MHz
System memory (RAM)	8 MB RAM	8 MB RAM
Video card (GPU)	MCGA video card	1 MB DirectDraw compatible video card
Hard disk drive (HDD)	800 MB free	800 MB free

See Also

• Command & Conquer: The First Decade
• Command & Conquer: The Ultimate Collection