Research into C&C Modding History

[Gben 20]

Hey y'all...

 

I didn't know mod's exisited until after Yuri's Revenge was released. I'm interested in the background of the first group of mods for the C&C universe...

• Did any come out for the original C&C at the time?
• Does anyone know what the actual first public mod release was?
• Was it just a balance mod or were any custom units/buildings possible, any Total Conversions attempted?
• Were any community members particularly helpful/active in the early stages/first year?
• Were any Westwood staff particular helpful/active in the early stages/first year?
• In terms of the technical process involved, was there a particular technology/engine mechanic that everyone was limited by?

I'll probably have more questions, based on your answers... if any.

Keep in mind that I have never done a mod, I'm not a programmer, just an interested noob end-user.... so use little words!

[Nmenth 231]

Keep in mind that I have never done a mod, I'm not a programmer, just an interested noob end-user....

Never did a mod, but you're going to be a mod reporter?

[Gben 20]

I don't know how to make a car either, but I sure enjoy it!

 

or a fridge

or a watch

or a flatscreen lcd screen

or...

[Nmenth 231]

Are you a reporter of cars, fridges, watches, or flatscreen LCD screens?

[Doctor Destiny 30]

I don't think modding got big until the XCC tools were released eons ago. There are a lot of differences between Tiberian Dawn modding and Red Alert modding. Mainly that TD has no INI files of any kind that modify unit settings. Maps, though, are still INI files but that's the extent of text based editing.

 

Red Alert introduced a few INI files, like rules and art, but not AI.

 

It's expanded since but I don't think there were a great deal of mods released early on for either game. I'm pretty sure it picked up with Tiberian Sun and XCC.

 

[EDIT] Nyerguds would be the person to ask about TD/RA. You can ask me about TS/RA2 but I'm more of an RA2 man.

[Gben 20]

Are you a reporter of cars, fridges, watches, or flatscreen LCD screens?

 

I'm sorry... that's too personal a question for me to answer right now.

 

Nyerguds would be the person to ask about TD/RA. You can ask me about TS/RA2 but I'm more of an RA2 man.

 

Thanks DD, I've been expecting you and Nyerguds to help me get the ball rolling.

[CCHyper 1]

Hey y'all...

 

I didn't know mod's exisited until after Yuri's Revenge was released. I'm interested in the background of the first group of mods for the C&C universe...

• Did any come out for the original C&C at the time?
• Does anyone know what the actual first public mod release was?
• Was it just a balance mod or were any custom units/buildings possible, any Total Conversions attempted?
• Were any community members particularly helpful/active in the early stages/first year?
• Were any Westwood staff particular helpful/active in the early stages/first year?
• In terms of the technical process involved, was there a particular technology/engine mechanic that everyone was limited by?

I'll probably have more questions, based on your answers... if any.

Keep in mind that I have never done a mod, I'm not a programmer, just an interested noob end-user.... so use little words!

 

 

* Not at the start, it was mainly basic maps and online cheats.

* You will never know for sure i would say...

* ^

* Yea, ask Nyerguds, i remember when i started back in 1999, seeing hes name over forums.

* VirtualTed was for the old games, Raj and Delphi for TS onwards.

* C&C to RA, YES! (even code wise, getting RA to run in high resolution is giving me brain damage!)

TS upwards, games got more accessable becuase the coding involved was greater, so the programmers would have to be able to edit things with ease.

 

Any questions you got about the C&C games before Generals, i know a lot about the internal mechanics of the games code.

[Nyerguds 73]

Well it all depends on the definition of "modding". The original DOS C&C1 is one of the most thoroughly hacked games ever, and it wasn't long before data editors appeared to change the unit and structure stats, but they were mostly advertised as "cheat programs" back then.

 

The oldest combination of graphical modding and game data editing is probably the mod-campaign "The Flame Dancers", made by the legendary Andrew Griffin. It changed the graphics of the oil derrick to make it into a flame tower. The file stamps on the original FD archive I got show that the main archive of the installer was last modified on 10/11/1996.

 

I can go even further back though. The very original version of my C&C1 Star Wars mod was a small units and structures pack I found online. It only modified graphics and unit names. The dates in the zipfile say 20/08/1996.

 

And to go right to the source... the original Mix Manager's History document shows that the first graphics converters for the C&C/RA1 SHP format were released on 09/07/1996. I still use them from time to time

Edited October 28, 2009 by Nyerguds

[Gben 20]

Thanks Nyerguds... your point about definition of modding reminds me of the comment Castle made about illegal copies of the game...

 

I'll have more questions about the who's, why's and what's soon... are there any other active modders from the early days?

[Nyerguds 73]

Not a clue. I'm not even a modder from back then (started modding C&C1 around 2000 I think), and a lot of mods (like the pack I started the Star Wars mod from) are anonymous.

 

Me and some other people just spent a lot of time saving as much C&C1 related stuff as we could find, before the old sites disappeared permanently. I'm really glad I did that

Edited November 1, 2009 by Nyerguds

[Jehal 35]

I remember some modders from the Tiberiumsun.com fan site in about 1997 I think..

The site has been down for many years now and I have no clue where people went..

 

It's sad though, I remember downloading my first mod there for Tiberian Sun. It had some balances and a few new infantry units.

 

I wonder if any of these guys still wander around the community. It's hard to call back the names though.

[Doctor Destiny 30]

TibWeb...

[Jehal 35]

[Nyerguds 73]

Most of em moved to PPM while tibweb was down though