GeneralsX is an independent community build. EA has not endorsed and does not support this product. Command & Conquer, Generals and Zero Hour are trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc.

Build resolved at install

A port,not a copy

GeneralsX is the Command & Conquer: Generals Zero Hour engine, rebuilt so it runs natively on a Mac, on Linux, and on modern Windows. Everything else comes from your own copy of Zero Hour: the maps, the units, the campaigns.

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What it is, and is not

It is

The game running on your machine. Native on Apple silicon Macs, on Linux, and on Windows. Same engine, same saves, and multiplayer between them.
Free. The engine is free and open source under GPL v3. There is no account, and nothing is sold here.

It is not

The game data. You need a copy of Zero Hour you already own: disc, Origin, Steam, any of them. GeneralsX ships no game data, so without it there is nothing to play, and no EA game data is included or distributed here. If you have Generals but not the Zero Hour expansion, that is not enough: the file to look for is INIZH.big.
All open source. The launcher is free but closed source.

Not signed by Apple or Microsoft. Code signing costs money every year and this project takes none, so your system will stop the download once. Allowing the first launch is the one-time step.

Mac, Linux and Windows in one match

One engine, built for each system, and every build plays the others in the same match. That only works if every machine simulates exactly the same game, so it is checked before the match starts rather than hoped for.

macOSApple siliconShipping
Linuxx86_64Shipping
Windows64-bitShipping
iPadOSIt runs here. Nothing has been published, so there is no iPadOS download.In testing

Next: twelve players.

A mismatch is refused

When a player joins, the two engines compare their build identity: how the engine was built, the source it was built from, and the game data it loaded. If any of it differs, the join is refused and the game says why, instead of letting the match start and desync.

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Same build

engine: same
source: same
data: same
ordinal: same

Joins the match.

One field differs

engine: same
source: differs
data: same
ordinal: same

“Build mismatch, not a network problem.”

What the game compares when one player joins another. A refusal lists every field, yours against theirs.

Where it came from

The game and the engine are not mine. EA released the source under GPL v3, and a chain of community forks did the foundational work long before I touched it.

Built on: fbraz3/GeneralsX, which descends from EA’s GPL v3 source release through TheSuperHackers and Fighter19, plus DXVK, MoltenVK, SDL and OpenAL Soft
Licence: Engine GPL v3. Game assets are not included and not licensed here. Licences & source.
Status: In active development, by one person

Once it runs

First launch

macOS, Windows and Linux each stop an unsigned app once. This is the one-time step that allows it.
How to allow it
Maps

Three maps built for this engine, generated and then checked for symmetry rather than eyeballed.
See the maps
Key bindings

Read out of the game’s own CommandMap.ini, so it matches the build in your hands. Includes the three Mac differences.
Key reference