The Remarkable Story Behind Command & Conquer's Remastering

Featuring interviews with Jim Vessella, Petroglyph Games and Lemon Sky, we explore how Command & Conquer Remastered Collection came together, and how the international team remastered FMV, graphics, audio, music, gameplay and more.

Noclip's work is 100% crowdfunded.

Hosted & Edited by Danny O'Dwyer
Gameplay Capture by Frank Howley
Closed Captions: Megan Carnes

Timestamps:
0:00 - Intro
01:24 - The Westwood Days
05:02 - Split Up & Reunion
10:20 - Remastering FMV
14:50 - Changing Gameplay
19:30 - Tweaking Audio
21:33 - Remastering Music & SFX
26:09 - Remastering Graphics
29:51 - Community Council
33:28 - The Final Release
36:10 - The Future
37:58 - Credits

[NoclipDocs]

This is the first documentary we've recorded in quarantine. How did we do?

[slipknotpurity]

Both this remaster and the Age of Empires remaster just seem to be oozing passion from the developers and they all include so much extra bonus stuff. It feels so different from the WC3 Reforged development.

[DSlyde]

My favorite thing about the remaster is how much it looks and sounds and feels like how I *remember* it, rather than how it actually was.

The rose colored glasses of nostalgia and childhood imagination will smooth out pixelated sprites and fill in detail thats not actually there, and what the sprites look like in the remastere is how I remember the old game looking because of that. It perfectly captured that.

[shzmeteor]

It’s actually impressive this remaster happened the way it did. Particularly, the full cooperation with the community during the development is not something I’m used to seeing.

[InnuendoXP]

yess been waiting for this!

Hoping for a HD remaster of Tiberian Sun too

[Jonnicom]

This remaster exists purely because of the love the fans have for the franchise, and the community keeping it's voice loud, even years after all hope was lost. It just speaks to how great these games are.
I'm getting a little emotional watching this. Just seeing all of the love that went into making this happen, seeing Frank talk about the music, and Petroglyph saying it was "music to their ears"...it's such a special franchise to me. I discovered CnC 1 in 1998, at just 6 years old, but I never looked back.
To everyone being negative in the replies, enjoy your pissy Cheerios!

[Vvardenfell_Outlander]

This release is one of the most expertly handled remasters ever made. I hope Tiberian Sun gets the treatment next. THANK YOU EA, PETROGLYPH & LEMON SKY!

[davedogge]

We played the original version of this multiplayer endlessly in the mid 1990s on the network at work after the boss went home at night. We called it 'chess in real-time' it was amazing.

[Hobointhehallway]

This was clearly a labor of love, the detail they went down to in ensuring the game is simply restored and not modified is incredible.

[КириллЛинкер-оф]

Dear Noclip:

1st - amazing documentary, as always. Your qulity of work and your efforts never stop to amaze me. A pleasure to see, a rare thing nowadays.
2nd - just wanted to suggest a documentary for a game XIII (2003, a comic style action game). It was a very unusual experience back in the day for me, this game just sucked me in completely. I think, it's pretty unique till this day. Maby you might want to take a look or if you played it, just to remind you.

Thank you for your amazing work.

[afterburner]

The amount of painful work delivered by the Malaysian artists at Lemon Sky is to be commended. What a gargantuan task.Amazing documentary, even with lockdown constraints!

[JanIvarCarlsen]

Really clever to frame the small interview videos in the HUD and loading screen graphics! Great way to work with what you've got and at the same time making it fun and immersive :) Awesome to finally get a doc on C&C, been hoping for it for years now.

[PaulXPZ]

I want Red Alert 2 and Generals remastered. Those 2 were my absolute favorite C&C titles

[Avossk]

Noclip's been on a roll with the projects that I'm interested in! Here's hoping we get a Tib Sun/RA2 remaster!

[AbbreviatedReviews]

I love the idea that they recreated unit animations from squinting at the blurry pixelated original. They did such a great job with the art upscale. The authenticity is astounding. The music is on the same level.
The CG videos are a bit rough though. The FMV upscale worked well, but doing that with the CG rendered ones just made small blurry videos into big blurry videos. If there was any single part that I'd have been happy seeing remade, it would be those.

[retroshark]

This game changed my life. This game changed everything. The remaster could not have been handled or been done better by anyone. It’s literally perfect. Just seeing and hearing Frank talking about the process of recreating the audio and sound fx brought tears to my eyes. Stylistically, cinematically and artistically - this game is absolute perfection. The nostalgia factor is so high its off the charts. I just feel so blessed to have been able to witness it from inception to its current remastered status, and to have played and have the ability to play a game so iconic as this one. Words cant describe the feelings I have about this project. Its just so so immense. I’m so happy I lived to see this.

[engitect]

I am so glad to find this documentary, it shows to how deep the developers, producers and Frank Klepacki with the Tiberian Sons feel about reviving this franchise. Happy to be a part of this wonderful community. Thanks Noclip!

[aristocrat]

Me and my siblings played the heck out of these games as kids. Red Alert 2 and Tiberium Sun are still my faves.
"Kane lives in death! Kane LIVES!" Joe Kucan killed that role.

[HarpKenneth]

I still remember that I had the Manual for Red Alert with me on vacation back when the game came out, so that I could read up on all the units in the game, that I would play when I got home, and I remember when I started to mess with the .ini files in the game folder to make V2 Rocket launch across the whole map, and stuff like that, I still have the game and case and everything :)

[punisheddante]

8:55 I love when these cold executives show their humanity and don't talk through the corporate buzzword bullshitery, I would of have the same reaction as Jim did