Command & Conquer for Atari ST

Command & Conquer on the Atari ST - because why not?

This is a work-in-progress port of Westwood's 1995 real-time strategy classic Command & Conquer to the Atari ST, a 16-bit computer introduced in 1985.

Build and defend your base, harvest Tiberium, fight the enemy and conquer their base in this genre-defining classic. Whether you play on the side of the Global Defense Initiative or the Brotherhood of NOD, a thrilling ride is waiting for you.

What makes this special

The original DOS version of Command & Conquer ran on 256-color VGA graphics. The ST port has to run on 16 colors. Therefore, color reduction played an important part in this port. If you like the 16-color aesthetics, Command & Conquer for Atari ST is for you!

Why donate

This project is driven by the author's passion for the Atari ST and the original game. However, it is also an experiment in whether work of this kind can carry itself financially. Your contribution is voluntary and will motivate further development of Command & Conquer and future Atari ST projects.

You don't need to donate upfront. In fact, feel free to download the game first, and donate whenever you want and how much you want.

Hardware requirements

The DOS version of Command & Conquer required  a 486-class CPU and at least  8MB of RAM. The Atari ST port is slowly lowering these requirements towards an Atari Mega STE with 4MB of RAM.

Command & Conquer for Atari ST  runs on all Atari ST(e), Atari TT and Atari Falcon computers, provided they're eqipped with at least 8 MB RAM (experimental support for 4 MB). If you don't care about Atari ST hardware, the best option is to play on an emulator like Hatari. 

Experimental	Minimum	Recommended
68000 @ 8 MHz · 4 MB RAM	68000 @ 16 MHz · 8 MB RAM · DMA sound	68020+ @ 32 MHz · 14 MB RAM · DMA sound · Blitter
No audio.	Only sound effects.	Sound effects and music. Blitter makes graphics faster.

The experimental setting is known to still have issues. Take it as a preview for upcoming minimum requirements.

How to play

1. Download the executable game package using the "Download Now" button. 
2. Download the Command & Conquer CD's from cnc-comm.com. You need the DOS version of both the GDI or NOD CD.
3. Use the new web-based remix tool to generate a combined ZIP file.
4. Extract the resulting combined ZIP file to some folder on the (emulated or actual) Atari ST, run CNC.TOS and enjoy the game!

Frequently Asked Questions

• The first mission takes ages to load and all I see is a black screen.
  Did you activate the "Convert terrain iconsets to ST16" option in the web-based remix tool? If iconsets are not converted, the game has to do that at mission load time, which can take several minutes.
• After finishing the first NOD mission I get an "Out of memory"  error.
  This is a known issue with the 0.2.0 release and happens on 4MB RAM machines. (experimental support!).
• All my units are white or black.
  This was observed on STs with an acceleration card that provides "fast RAM". There is currently no solution but to disablie "fast RAM".

Development

This port started as a port of the released source code of Command & Conquer Remastered Collection from EA. It was then ported onto a community-maintained fork, Vanilla-Conquer. Since this is all Open Source code released under the GPLv3 license, this Atari ST port's code is available as well: Vanilla-Conquer-Atari-ST.

The author's development process uses the following tools:

• Cursor as an AI-driven IDE
• Thorsten Otto's m68k-atari-mint cross-tools for the GCC compiler toolchain and basic libraries

AI was not used to generate any artwork, but it was used to port the software itself and to create tools for dealing with the game's assets. Most importantly, the tools to convert the graphics to 16 colors. AI was also incredibly helpful in porting the parts of the code which were implemented in x86 assembly code.

Disclaimer

Command & Conquer, Westwood Studios, and related names, logos, and assets are trademarks and/or copyrights of Electronic Arts Inc. and/or its licensors. This project is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Electronic Arts or Westwood Studios.

This is an independent, community-developed port of open-source game code (Vanilla-Conquer / GPLv3). It does not include Command & Conquer game data. You must legally obtain the original DOS CD assets yourself (e.g. from cnc-comm.com) and use them only if you are entitled to do so under applicable law.

This software is provided “as is,” without warranty of any kind. Features, performance, and hardware requirements may change between releases. Save games, multiplayer, movies, and other functionality may be incomplete or absent.

Development of this port used AI-assisted tools for code porting, debugging, and asset-conversion tooling. No game artwork was generated by AI; visual assets are derived from the original game files via conversion tools.

By downloading or playing, you accept that this is experimental work-in-progress software.

C&C ST - At program start:
ST-RAM 2308478 b (~2254 KiB)
TT-RAM 0 b (~0 KiB)