Command & Conquer: Sole Survivor

Command & Conquer: Sole Survivor

Developers
	Westwood Studios
Publishers
	Virgin Interactive
Release dates
Windows	December 8, 1997
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Bird's-eye view
Controls	Point and select
Genres	Strategy
Themes	Sci-fi
Series	Command & Conquer

Key points

The game lost support not long after release, and the official server was shut down in 2002.

Without a proper server replacement, the game can only be played against random bots offline.

As of 2022, an unofficial server replacement project is in development.

The installer is 16-bit and does not run under modern systems; programs like WinPack or UniExtract can be used to extract the needed files from setup.z on the disc.

General information

Command & Conquer Wiki - A wiki for everything Command & Conquer-related

Sole Survivor section on C&C Communications Center

Sole Survivor section on CNCNZ.com

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail

Notably, this is the only PC Command & Conquer title omitted from all compilations and re-releases, both retail and digital. Only known retail versions originate from North America and Taiwan and are considered rare.

Essential improvements

Patches

• Patch 1.05 (2c) is the latest official patch. It can be downloaded from CNCNZ.com or C&C Communications Center.

Unofficial renderer

• CnC-DDraw can be used to resolve issues caused by the game's old graphics renderer. While originally intended for the original Command & Conquer and Red Alert, the common game engine allows for a common solution.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\*.ini

Video

In-game color settings menu

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed		See Windowed.
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See Windowed.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
High-fidelity upscaling		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
High dynamic range display (HDR)

Windowed

Set values in cnc-ddraw.ini
This presumes you have CnC-DDraw installed. Go to <path-to-game>. Open cnc-ddraw.ini. Set windowed=true. For borderless windowed, set border=false. Save the file.

Input

In-game general settings menu

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support

Controller types

Audio

In-game audio settings menu

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Music and sound
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Notes
LAN play
Online play		Versus The official server was shut down in 2002.

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP

Issues resolved

Mouse scroll speed too high regardless of setting

Insert values in cnc-ddraw.ini
This presumes you have CnC-DDraw installed. Go to <path-to-game>. Open cnc-ddraw.ini. Anywhere below line 90, add an entry for Sole Survivor like so: ; Command & Conquer Sole Survivor [sole] maxgameticks=120 Save the file.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
DirectDraw	3

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Cutscenes	VQA
Multiplayer	Westwood Online

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	95
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium 90
System memory (RAM)	16 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	40 MB
Video card (GPU)	1 MB of VRAM