Mac Command And Conquer Games
Is there a more legendary real-time strategy franchise than Command and Conquer (C&C)?
Ok, there is Starcraft and Starcraft 2 (still one of the finest Mac strategy games). Regardless, Command and Conquer games can all be considered cult-classics with huge followings even to this day.
This is a list of all released Command & Conquer media with release dates. Unless otherwise noted, information is referenced to related Wikipedia articles and MobyGames. 1 Information about the soundtracks was received from iTunes Store. Sep 06, 2019 Command & Conquer: Generals for Mac Originally released in 2004, Aspyr updated the game to run on the latest macOS and re-released it exclusively on the Mac App Store, including the Zero Hour expansion. And the game mostly looks as good as ever. Dawn of the Tiberium Age is a stand-alone game that combines Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert, with GDI, Nod, Allies and the Soviets fighting on the same battlefields. Mental Omega is a large free unofficial expansion pack for Command & Conquer Red Alert 2 Yuri's Revenge. Featuring challenging missions as well many new units. Command & Conquer: A Retrospective The Command & Conquer series of games can be traced back to the very beginnings of real-time strategy. What better time than now to take a look back at the. The Command and Conquer series is also well-known for its use of a side bar UI rather than the traditional horizontal bar used by most other games in the genre. The games like Command and Conquer here all fall into the real time strategy genre with a focus on multiple factions or realistic warfare.
Overview Command And Conquer: Command and Conquer Generals is a sequel to the Commands and Conquer Generals 2, which is free to play the game simply known as the Command and Conquer. The game was released for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS in 2003 and 2004 respectively. The game is similar to the Actproton, Adventure and Strategy Games of the Modern Era. Similar to these games, the Command and Conquer Generals allows you to build a base, acquire resources, construct the combat and support.
Unfortunately, Command and Conquer Mac games are not as well supported as they should be. Some never made it to macOS while others were quietly discontinued years ago.
In this post, we’ll go through them all and chose the best Command and Conquer for Mac available today.
The list of Command and Conquer Mac games MIA
In the early 2000s, you could choose among several C&C games that natively supported macOS. Unfortunately, most of them were slowly discontinued, with most casualties coming from Apple’s move from PowerPC to Intel years ago.
At the time, EA had a working version of Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 for Mac, Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars for Mac, and more. In fact, you can still find remnants of this in old sales pages on Amazon.
But when Apple stopped supporting PowerPC application support, all the games and apps that were not updated ceased to work, including all C&C games.
In parallel, Transgaming, the company that ported C&C games to Mac on behalf of EA, was purchased. As far as we know, they have ceased all of their Mac porting activities…
This leaves us with only one officially supported Command and Conquer on Mac.
Command And Conquer Generals Mac
Command & Conquer: Generals for Mac
Originally released in 2004, Aspyr updated the game to run on the latest macOS and re-released it exclusively on the Mac App Store, including the Zero Hour expansion. And the game mostly looks as good as ever.
Mac Command And Conquer Games In Order
Aspyr upgraded C&C Generals to the iMac’s 5K resolution, making the 3D gameplay amazingly detailed and crisp to behold on a giant screen. The details in the graphics, terrain, weapons, and firepower, all feel like they belong and they almost have to be seen to understand just how detailed and intricate these appear.
The only problem was that the videos couldn’t receive the same upgrade. When you launch C&C Generals for the first time, you can see these amazing 3D battle shots with a detailed menu system, and all while the screen rotates around the city square under attack.
Unfortunately, as soon as you begin a game in any format, those gorgeous high-definition graphics switch over to a Quicktime video rendered in full-screen at 320×200. And it looks exactly like someone took a video clip and smeared Vaseline all over the lens.
But then the game pops back up with its brilliant graphics again and all is right with the world. It’s annoying – but that’s the worst part of the game by far.
The other limitation we need to point out is the Multiplayer. As confirmed by Aspyr’s official FAQ page:
Multiplayer has been retired and is inactive. Command & Conquer Generals Deluxe Edition is a single-player only experience.
Other than that, General remains an good choice for strategy fans, especially for those who grew up playing C&C games. And as far as Remasters of old classics go, Aspyr did an excellent job here.
Command and Conquer: General Mac requirements
These are C&C Generals Mac minimum system requirements:
- OS: OS X 10.9.5 (Mavericks)
- CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz
- Video Card: ATI Radeon HD 3870, NVIDIA GeForce 330M, Intel HD 3000, with 256 MB video RAM
- RAM: 4 GB
- Hard Drive: 5 GB available space
The following video chipsets are not supported:
- ATI Radeon: X1000 series, HD 2000 series
- NVIDIA: GeForce 7000 Series, 8000 series, 9000 series, 320M, GT 100 series
- Intel: GMA series
OpenRA: The best Command and Conquer Mac alternative?
While the big companies such as EA or Transgaming have abandoned Command & Conquer, a team of rogue developers have been working hard for over 10 years, recreating an open-source version of the legendary C&C games.
Their project is called OpenRA and is entirely open-source. As explained on their website:
Mac games 1990's music. The first version of Zork was written in 1977–1979 on a DEC PDP-10 computer by Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels, and Dave Lebling, and implemented in the MDL programming language.
OpenRA is a project that recreates and modernizes the classic Command & Conquer real time strategy games. We have developed a flexible open source game engine that provides a common platform for rebuilding and reimagining classic 2D and 2.5D RTS games.
And most importantly:
It includes native support for modern operating systems and screen resolutions without relying on emulation or binary hacks, and features integrated online multiplayer.
For such a small operation, the work they have accomplished is impressive, as shown by the number of supporters OpenRA has gathered. You can see their work in action below.
If you feel like playing one of the earlier C&C game, you should definitely give OpenRA a try.Your turn
C&C: Generals is great and shows the Westwood design from the pre-EA acquisition. However, the updates in the graphics department, engine, etc, fall flat when there is nothing to do after the single-player campaign finishes. We would have been more impressed if this was an iOS port.
In the meantime, if you’re feeling like building and managing, these are our absolute favorite simulation games available for Mac:
Game | ★ Best Overall | Best for MacBook | Best Value |
Genre | City-builder | Life simulation | RPG simulation |
Release date | 2015 | 2014 | 2016 |
Metascore | |||
Our rating | ★★★★★ Full Review | ★★★★☆ Full Review | ★★★★★ Full Review |
Requirements | High | Low | Low |
Check Price |
Bottom line: With something like OpenRA also at your disposal, a game that is both free and open-source, it’s hard to recommend anything else for Command and Conquer fans.