How to Downgrade your game to RETAIL | Version 1.0

[Nobody]

The absolute G D.C.V. backed up a hackjob? .exe that actually runs after the EA tweaks.

So i shorthand decided to update my longstanding forum thread yet again.

Really simple this time around.

Download this:

https://mega.nz/file/YWQxnBbQ#Ndo32Us1FPp_pHcPw9yX9bKOQLg__iK-OdejD0xvVu4
or
https://drive.google.com/file/d/18vwZxFtrGt0JNeVEqT5iNmzBX_mKC4_6/view?usp=sharing if you hate MEGA

Virus Total

https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/85c24a007c0952938da91c9ace7816dd8652156ff50190e07c17d616e028ab0b/detection

NOTE: My kaspersky never flagged it, and the big k is notoriously aggressive.

Unpack it into your CnC3 Root folder:

steamapps\common\Command and Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars


Overwrite all the files prompted.

add this command line by right clicking CnC3TW in your library and going under properties:

-runver 1.0


IMPORTANT NOTE: This does sidestep the very annoying bug? of GDI Defense not being able to damage nod infantry compared to the economy restoration mod.

Good Luck Commander

[[SWS] Sterps]

Автор сообщения: TotesAdorbs

So I'm not sure quite why the OP updated the post to say that EA patched the original method, and that it no longer works.

The old method to run 1.0 works just fine, I'm not sure what the confusion is.

If anyone would like to know a more in-depth explanation of exactly what the command-line argument "-runver [x]" does, and why it won't work without downloading a certain file from a certain site, I'll provide an explanation below.

So when the game originally released, the developers decided on a patching strategy that made each patch additive in nature to the previous patch. They did this for several reasons, a large one being that in order to watch replays of games from a different patch version, with the way their replay system worked, the game would functionally need to actually load all the data and work as if it was that patch.

They included a command-line argument (the above-mentioned "-runver [x]") in order to facilitate loading replays from the command-line. If you attempted to load a replay from the command-line that wasnt the same patch version as your game, and you did not include the argument to change your patch version, then it would cause problems and issues. The game's launcher (which you can access with the steam version by running with the argument "-ui") included a replay browser which basically just launched the game with the correct arguments for you when you selected said replay.

This was great, everything worked nicely, when players discovered the -runver command they were quite pleased that they could also use it to simply and easily play the game on any patch version they preferred! I believe this is one of the many reasons that the devs originally did not worry about their patches affecting the Single-Player campaign, as by simply modifying the shortcut, you could just play the game with the old patch, allowing you to use the old balancing and any available exploits (i.e. the teleporting engineer exploit for speed running).

Fast-forward a few years, and now they're releasing the game on digital platforms, and as part of a collection (The Ultimate Collection), and now we run into problems. As EA will forever be EA, they did this as cheaply and quickly as possible, and seemingly with no regard for the previous thought-process regarding patches. They needed to release the game digitally and they needed to do it yesterday. That means they needed to strip out, or modify, the copy protection on the .exe. Previously, the .exe would do as most did at the time, which was check to make sure you had the DVD in the drive in order to play. However, the digital version doesn't exactly have a DVD! So what to do? Well, not wanting to get caught just downloading and repackaging existing modified files like certain other companies had been, they decided they would actually put in the effort and do it themselves. EA being who they are, they decided that the best course of action was simply to patch the latest version, and then not wanting to do this with each previous version of the .exe from each patch, and not wanting to clog up bug report systems and customer support with errors if someone should try to watch an old replay, or run an old version, they just decided to DELETE every previous version of the patch executable! They seem to have not been able to figure out how to delete the original 1.0 version however, so they left this in-tact and simply removed a little helper file that tells the game how to properly use the "-runver [x]" command (the skudef file) to load this 1.0 version though.

So now when you launch the game off a fresh Steam install with "-runver 1.0" in the arguments, you get a message which says there is no 1.0! (Actually, there is, but there is no skudef, so the game doesn't know about the 1.0 version being there).

By creating this skudef file yourself (it is a simple txt file, open the existing one in Notepad, change the values to 1.0 and save the file name as 1.0, adding it to the base directory), you can enable the game to see the 1.0 version again!

This is where you run into the real problem though, as you'll notice launching the game with the "-runver 1.0" argument now will give an odd "EA Link" error. This is an old version of EA's digital DRM. It is attempting to activate and verify that this is a legit copy and can't (because that system is terrible, DRM is stupid. and this Steam release isn't about to be able to be verified, lol). So now, in order to make your game work and run the original 1.0 release version, you must find an executable that has the DRM stripped out. Replacing the DRM'd 1.0 with a DRM-Free 1.0 makes the game run just as it always should have, no problem.

Hope this helps anyone, it was fun to type it all out after piecing it all together! Good luck! :)

P.S. the "cnc3game.dat" file is actually just an exe. You can rename the .dat to .exe and run it to see what I mean. This is an old trick that has been used since the original command and conquer from the 90s!

P.P.S taking the above information into account, it is fairly easy and trivial to make the game run as any patch version for which you can find the DRM-Free .exe, even though they were completely deleted along with their directories. The neccessary supporting data is all there in the folders, it's only the .exe data that needs reconstructing!

I still cannot get it to work, even with a different cnc3game.dat, i receive an error starting with

"DID YOU REMEMBER TO BUILD DATA???
You might have build the wrong LOD level!

If you can get it working, it's probably best to provide the exact method of getting this working as many people are going to want to do this.

[OldMemes.biz]

Yes I agree. Lay it out step by step please, even if you think you "shouldn't have to."

[OldMemes.biz]

And of course he's AWOL. As I expected.

[vORTEX]

Автор сообщения: OldMemes.biz

And of course he's AWOL. As I expected.

its a post from 2022. can you really expect it him too still monitor it?

[Mr.Kill]

Автор сообщения: vORTEX

Автор сообщения: OldMemes.biz

And of course he's AWOL. As I expected.

its a post from 2022. can you really expect it him too still monitor it?

He's probably referring to TotesAdorbs given the context of the posts.

[OldMemes.biz]

Автор сообщения: Mr.Kill

Автор сообщения: vORTEX

its a post from 2022. can you really expect it him too still monitor it?

He's probably referring to TotesAdorbs given the context of the posts.

Correct. Thank you.

Context clues are elementary level education

[Nobody]

Автор сообщения: OldMemes.biz

Автор сообщения: Mr.Kill

He's probably referring to TotesAdorbs given the context of the posts.

Correct. Thank you.

Context clues are elementary level education

he talked ♥♥♥♥ and left.
if it was as easy as he said i wouldnt have just scrapped my post.
also @vortex. i do.

[OldMemes.biz]

Автор сообщения: ☁| Cloud |☁

Автор сообщения: OldMemes.biz

Correct. Thank you.

Context clues are elementary level education

he talked ♥♥♥♥ and left.
if it was as easy as he said i wouldnt have just scrapped my post.
also @vortex. i do.

Figured.

[OldMemes.biz]

Автор сообщения: Nobody

Автор сообщения: OldMemes.biz

Correct. Thank you.

Context clues are elementary level education

he talked ♥♥♥♥ and left.
if it was as easy as he said i wouldnt have just scrapped my post.
also @vortex. i do.

Hey so does that restored eco/crane functionality mod work 100%? Because someone said that the Mammoths aren't the 1.0 Mammoths and that makes me wonder if other things weren't set to their pre-1.9 values...

[Mr.Kill]

Автор сообщения: OldMemes.biz

Автор сообщения: Nobody

he talked ♥♥♥♥ and left.
if it was as easy as he said i wouldnt have just scrapped my post.
also @vortex. i do.

Hey so does that restored eco/crane functionality mod work 100%? Because someone said that the Mammoths aren't the 1.0 Mammoths and that makes me wonder if other things weren't set to their pre-1.9 values...

I'm pretty sure the restoration mod just restores the economy but leaves unit balance the same. Keep mind you'll fight plenty of mammoth tanks yourself and if they're the cracked 1.0 version it'll make those missions quite frustrating.

Also in another thread someone did post how to do downgrade to 1.0
https://steamcommunity.com/app/24790/discussions/0/612823460275652711/?ctp=2

It involves gamecopyworld though.

[Nobody]

Автор сообщения: OldMemes.biz

Автор сообщения: ☁| Cloud |☁

he talked ♥♥♥♥ and left.
if it was as easy as he said i wouldnt have just scrapped my post.
also @vortex. i do.

Figured.

Bump, also fixed m8.

[Nobody]

^

[Nobody]

^

[Nobody]

*should* work after the update

not able to check rn

[OldMemes.biz]

Автор сообщения: Nobody

*should* work after the update

not able to check rn

ANOTHER update?

They just can't leave well enough alone can they lol