command and conquer and covert operations
@Foxrich99: Yeah, it's a commonly known problem in both C&C1 and RA1, and we found ways around it years ago. It's caused by the fact the game uses DirectDraw, the predecessor of DirectX, which isn't completely supported anymore in the way it worked back in the game's release days. There's some DirectDraw compatibility mode that can be activated in the registry to fix it, and another method has been devised to simply intercept all DirectDraw calls made by the game by putting a replacement "ddraw.dll" file in the game folder, and then handle them on another graphics system, without the bugs.
There's no need to actually do any of that yourself, though:
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, including that one. For Red Alert 2 there's a more general patch that solves similar graphics problems. You can find them here:
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)
Red Alert 1:
- Funkyfr3sh's automatic Red Alert 1 patcher/installer
- 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.)
Tiberian Sun:
Red Alert 2:
- The graphics system patch DDWrapper is known to solve the "black screen" issue, and an issue where you get weird colours.
Download the zip file and extract "ddraw.dll" and "aqrit.cfg" into your game folder. Then, open the configuration file "aqrit.cfg" in Notepad, change the "ForceDirectDrawEmulation" option to 1, save the file, and the game should work.
It is strongly advised to install all of these.
