Childs Play Software

In the early 90s I was a huge Dune 2 fan, I can remember staying up until the early (even no so early!) hours of the morning playing it and then going to college tired the next day! Then in 1995 the next RTS from Westwood Studios appeared called Command and Conquer. I can to this day remember being at my friend's house when he installed it (from a CD, which back then was still a new thing, most games were on Floppy Disks still). Next to playing Doom for the first time, playing C&C for the first time is one of those memories I will always remember.

Skip forward a few years to Red Alert and Roger, a friend of mine, told me that there was this magic file that you could edit to change the properties of the units and structures in the game! Between us we wrote RedEdit 97 and it was released as Shareware - haha, remember that!?

I then took over most of the development and reworked the Editor into RedEdit 98 and between the two versions, it was very popular, selling in excess of 1,000 copies worldwide.

When Tiberian Sun came out, I started work on SunEdit2K which would go on to be the most popular editor for C&C Tiberian Sun, selling close to 1,000 copies as well

Then around 2001 real life and a real job caught up with me and due to the lack of time, the two editors changed to Freeware, I released the serial number generator for them both and Childs Play Software went to sleep.

Now, its 2023 and thanks to the Remastered version of Command and Conquer and Red Alert, we're back! (Yes, I know the remasters came out in 2020 - see previous mention of 'real life, job and lack of spare time!)

CNCEdit2K is a new project which you can read about below which will allow easy editing of the original Command and Conquer and in time, hopefully the other games too. Most of the command and conquer games are below (there's a couple I've left out for various reasons) and not all of them are supported by our editors, yet.

Command and Conquer

The original C&C. Released in 1995 it is widely seen as the first hugely successful Real Time Strategy Game, with its predecessor Dune 2 being the very first RTS game. The remastered version was released in 2020 and due to the inclusion of the source code, we can now create an editor for it!

CNCEdit2k

Red Alert

Red Alert was released in 1996 and uses a slightly updated game engine as used by Command and Conquer. One key addition is an INI text file which controls the settings for the buildings and units in-game and means there's a very easy way to edit the game's settings

RedEdit 98 CNCEdit2k

Command and Conquer: Tiberian Sun

Tiberian Sun was released in 1999 and is the successor to the original Command and Conquer. It used an evolution of the Red Alert game engine, switched to an isometric view along with updated graphics and new features. One carry-over were the INI configuration files, which enabled easy editing of the game.

SunEdit 2K

Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2

Red Alert 2 followed a year after Tiberian Sun in 2000 and follows on from the first Red Alert game. Offering a wacky and alternative story and game play to the slightly more realistic C&C, it was a huge success. INI Files once again provided easy editing capabilities. Over Red Alert 1 it expanded the unit choice and added more naval options.

Command and Conquer: Tiberium Wars

Tiberian wars was released in 2007 and follows on around 17 in-game years after the events of Tiberian Sun & it's addon, Firestorm. It pitches GDI and Nod in another war over Tiberium and introduces a new faction, the alien 'Scrin'. Originally slated to come out sooner, the Electronic Arts who purchased Westwood soon after the release of Red Alert 2, decided to shift the focus from Sci-Fi to a more contemporary theme ending up as C&C Generals, released in 2003.

Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3

Red Alert 3 was released in 2008 and followed on from Red Alert 2, this time adding a 3rd faction "Empire of the Rising Sun". Fully embrasing the wackiness of Red Alert it included even more 'out there' units and was a commercial success. However, it is currently the last of the Red Alert games due to the decline in popularity of the RTS genre and Electronic Art's lack of interest therein.

Command and Conquer: Tiberian Twilight

Tiberian Twilight is the last in the Tiberium saga and was released in 2010. Offering a complete change in the gameplay, out went resource gathering and in came capturing control nodes on the map, holding these for long enough would earn the player victory. With Twilight Electronic Arts took the risk of trying to completely reinvent the C&C gameplay experience, but with the downside of potientially alienating the games existing player base, arguably making an RTS game that didn't resemble any RTS games at the time.

Command and Conquer: Generals

Released in 2003 Generals was the first C&C RTS released under Electronic Arts' ownership of the brand, following its purchase of Westwood. Following a similar gameplay feel to previous C&C games it used a new game Engine, replacing the old RTS engine that could trace it's linerage back to Dune 2! It also supports editing via INI Files, but far more indepth than the old Rules.ini!

CHILDS PLAY SOFTWARE

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