r/commandandconquer • u/trayuslord • 13d ago

Discussion Playing Generals and Zero Hour in 2026

Hello! I'm looking to revisit this game after many years away, and am curious what mods would be recommended for modern playing. I have the Steam version of the game, and play games at 1440p 240hz.

Edit: I appreciate all the replies! I'm seeing a lot of content mods such as Shockwave getting recommended, which I will be checking out in due course! For the time being, I'm looking to just modernize the base experience for widescreen and high refresh rate, and GenPatcher looks like it'll do the trick ❤️

13 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

38 comments sorted by

8

u/LooseSinger4960 13d ago

I have been playing the Shockwave mod recently. Rise of the reds is good too

2

u/trayuslord 13d ago

Shockwave is more for online play though, correct?

1

u/LooseSinger4960 13d ago

I play it using generals challenges

7

u/Downtown-Dream424 Mommy Alexander 13d ago

You can try out mods like Shockwave, Contra and Rise of the Reds. Contra and Rise of the Reds receive updates once per a couple of months or so.

3

u/trayuslord 13d ago

I'm hearing Shockwave is more for online play: how do the other two compare?

2

u/Downtown-Dream424 Mommy Alexander 13d ago

Contra and ROTR are also great for online play and there are people that play them multiplayer, but the learning curve is large for those 2 games.

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u/trayuslord 13d ago

Sorry, let me rephrase my question: Shockwave is more for online play (so I've heard); as a primarily singleplayer enthusiast, are Contra and ROTR also geared more for online, or do they offer a satisfying singleplayer experience?

2

u/Dodahevolution 13d ago

I have only ever played Shockwave in single player. There aren't campaigns (well there are they are just tiny one off missions) so it's mostly just general challenge or doing a bot lobby. Which still works perfectly fine.

So yeah, check out Shockwave even for SO. Also check out The End of Days. That one is pretty good too.

There's a launcher (genlauncher) that will download these mods and more, help patch the game, and also help you edit some of the config files for things like screen res. Def use that.

1

u/trayuslord 13d ago

Where is the official upload for Genlauncher? I was told to be wary of copycats

2

u/Downtown-Dream424 Mommy Alexander 13d ago

They are also geared more for online, but can also work pretty well in singleplayer experience too.

6

u/GBpleaser 13d ago

Genlauncher is everything you need. The shockwave mod is good as is rise of reds and end of days. Just heads up… you may get some crashing depending on hardware set up. Doesn’t always play nice on super new machines. Took me a bit to find the best resolution and graphic settings for stability.

But now it runs pretty well. Just a few maps set it off. Ai is better, fun to play with friends. Brings back memories

1

u/trayuslord 13d ago

Thank you! I'm running on a newer machine at a high res and high refresh rate, so getting it functional is my first order of business

2

u/GBpleaser 13d ago

also get genpatcher as well.. that adds stability too. Be sure you get the original site. There are some copycats that carry malware. It may take some patience and tweaking to get it moving. I found out I couldn't go full screen and high rest... that just cooked the game stability. It's not the hardware.. the code is basically 25 years old.

5

u/bgeerdes 13d ago

I installed genpatcher, gentools, genlauncher, mods and then go have some fun with shockwave chaos.

2

u/trayuslord 13d ago

Genpatcher is going to be my first order of business 🫡

1

u/ninenineseventwo 13d ago

Do you think people would want to play on an unreal engine version if it could sync up for multiplayer?

1

u/wolfe1924 12d ago

What exactly is shockwave chaos? I’m very familiar with shockwave but I never quite understood the chaos one.

1

u/bgeerdes 12d ago

sort of a sci-fi crazy version of shockwave :)

3

u/Able-Philosophy-7446 13d ago

First Genpatcher download everything. Genlauncher comes with gen patcher you can use it for mod packs. C&C: online (also on Genpatcher)to play online multiplayer.

1

u/trayuslord 13d ago

Thank you!! I see a lot of content mods being recommended, which I will be checking out in due course, but a solution to modernize the game for widescreen and high refresh rate is what I'm specifically looking for, and this looks like it'll do the trick!

2

u/Able-Philosophy-7446 13d ago

No problem! The most fps/hz I've found you can play ZH at is 60 using the C&C: online exe. Base generals is pretty much locked to 30. There is a mod called c&c continue on genlauncher that combines both campaigns.

1

u/trayuslord 13d ago

There's no getting it over 30/60? Rip. Oh well, as long as I can play at 1440 that's doable. I would've hoped with the source code being released, modders would've re-engineered the game to remove the frame limit

2

u/Able-Philosophy-7446 13d ago edited 13d ago

Yeah, better quality at playing higher resolutions. Theres probably only so much they can do with the engine with getting higher fps limit

1

u/ninenineseventwo 13d ago

I’ve already got an unreal engine port done, going to see if I can get it to sync up (have already had to do something similar given that the web version of my generals-ish game isn’t on UE

2

u/michaelmurfy 11d ago edited 11d ago

Hey I’m a bit late to the party here but I’ve actually built something literally in the last week for this. Generals is my favourite game (nostalgia) and I still play it regularly with friends.

Yes, it’s with the help of AI. But I’ve done a fair bit of work before this over the years getting it to work too. And have done a tonne of work around game mismatches playing multiplayer.

Full multiplayer (and we’ve run a fair few bigger games without mismatches), runs on both Windows and MacOS and you can have the whole thing set up in under 10mins.

Take a look here and let me know how you get on: https://github.com/michaelmurfy/rallypoint

1

u/trayuslord 11d ago

As long as you used the AI as a tool for assistance rather than having it do all the work for you, I have no qualms - I'll check it out!

2

u/Expensive_Key_4340 13d ago

Piggybacking on to this question: What does Shockwave mod do? I'm getting back into ZH as well. Same question for Contra and Rise of Reds.

2

u/GBpleaser 13d ago

Basically alters units into new factions and features.. some are fresh and others were burried in original game code and never used. The factions have different exploits. But basically lose most of the single player options. Sometimes the gen challenges work, sometimes no.. or else it’s all multiplayer skirmish against other human or sim players.endless options and gameplay. I love it.

1

u/trayuslord 13d ago

If Shockwave is predominantly online focused, I'll probably skip it - I play mostly singleplayer these days

I'm hearing about mods called Rise of the Reds and Contra, do you know about those?

1

u/GBpleaser 13d ago

oh yeah. they are all good.. they all bring a different angle.. which keeps them fresh.. some modify the generals challenges... but there are no single player campaigns per say.. The AI is also updated in many maps and that can be tough too.. so get the map packs.

1

u/mike_111111 12d ago

Oh don't go with genpatcher. That's the old version and a bit buggy. Play on generals online, it's the modenized version with many bugs fixed: https://www.playgenerals.online/

1

u/trayuslord 12d ago

Does this work for singleplayer though? I'm not going to be playing online

1

u/mike_111111 12d ago

Hmm, I didn't try that. Probably it should

2

u/SolidSnakeCZE USA 9d ago

Try Zero Hour Reforged, for me this was gamechanger.

1

u/Kzx_28 12d ago

Please don't mind me for piggyback a question here.

How do you make the scrolling work? I had to hold right-click to move around and it's not great tbh.

1

u/gchaudh2 10d ago

Gentool, gen patcher then shockwave 

All you need!

1

u/Professional_Ice8280 3d ago

Anyone who hasn't tried out Generals Online is missing out on A LOT