Prerelease:Command & Conquer: Generals
This page details pre-release information and/or media for Command & Conquer: Generals.
This article is a work in progress. ...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes. |
Contents
Concept Art
Concept art for the game, drawn by TJ Frame and Phil Robb. Apparently Command & Conquer: Generals was originally a vastly different game and shared little with the final product. It should be noted that most of the ideas depicted by the concept art below never made it past the concept stage and that they are from very early development stages of the game. On top of that, out of the three originally proposed factions, only one made it to the final game - The USA.
Concept Art Asian Empire, African Warlords and Europa Alliance are the factions that never came to be. |
Screenshots
Early development
The following screenshots seem to from an old iteration of the game which had different factions and also a different artstyle based off the concept art. The game's original factions are the American Strike Force, The Asian Empire and the Europa alliance, however only the first two seem to have had any work created for them. The game also relied on .gdf files to store object data since many of the data entries in the file Generals(Data).gdf correlates to units and buildings seen below.
Common to these screenshots is cartoonish-looking terrain textures, early road textures, some scrapped buildings, water shaders which were removed from the game, early SFX effects and vastly different, more vibrant trees.
Iron Dragon
Screenshot | Notes |
---|---|
A B52 carpet-bombing a bridge, on which cut Mammoth Tanks are driving. These Mammoth Tanks are likely taken from a game unrelated to Generals as evidenced by its model path ("..\Art\Models\GDI\Mammoth\GXMammothFX.w3d") in the file Generals(Assets).gdf. Thus, they were likely used as placeholder units. The B52 model is nowhere to be found in Build 98. | |
The same B52 has reached gas station. This building was pretty early in development but it can still be found in Build 98. | |
An enemy Raptor is firing on the Mammoth Tanks who just destroyed an enemy base. | |
A dogfight between the same enemy Raptor and a friendly one. The map has scripts for this fight, meaning it is heavily staged. | |
The Mammoth Tanks have pressed the attack. The Watchtower still has data in the GDF files but its model is nowhere to be found. The Soldiers' model seen here is edited from a model also taken from a game unrelated to Generals. The original model is Cmdo-Skin.W3D, but one used here is NIFOOTMAN.W3D. | |
The Mammoth Tanks are about to level this skyscraper. Note the debris of the sandbags and the fire coming out of it. | |
The Asian Empire base with their Predator tanks and Buggies, note their faction color and artstyle. The eponymous Iron Dragon is on the runway. The building on the right was cut but its model survived. After an apparent redesign for the game, the Asian Empire evolved into China. Their faction color was changed to red and the Buggies were given to the GLA. | |
Ditto, late afternoon. | |
Ditto, evening. | |
The Mammoth Tanks attacking the previous base. |
Other
Late development
This article is a work in progress. ...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes. |
EA_Pretty
Prerelease screenshot of a map named "EA_Pretty". It shows an untextured USA Barracks, Walls and Tomahawk Missile Launcher with the gold skin, the cut Guardian Control Center, an early Patriot Missile System model and Chinese Scorpion tanks and Buggies and Rangers with an old texture. The map can also be found in the prototype files.
Cliff
Screenshot of a map named "Cliff". Other than the old textures for the Rangers and Rebels, and the old SFX effects there is not much to say here.
Model Renders
Cover art renders
USA
Model renders of some USA buildings and a tank, they match the models found in the prototype.
Model renders of the final game USA Command Center.
China
Misc
Promotional Artwork
Promotional artwork showing the Apocalypse Tank from Red Alert 2. It's possible the Apocalypse Tank was to appear in Generals as a Chinese tank since its name can be found in Chinese placeholder selection images from the prototype.
Logos
Early promotional logos designs from 2002
Manual
The Zero Hour manual contains different cameos compared to the ones unused in the final game:
USA
Owner | Manual | Final |
---|---|---|
Laser Crusader | ||
Aurora Alpha (used) |
||
Aurora Alpha (unused) |
China
Owner | Manual | Final |
---|---|---|
Listening Outpost | ||
Helix | ||
ECM Tank | ||
Internet Center | ||
Carpet Bomb | ||
Minigunner | ||
Advanced Reactor | ||
Emperor Overlord |
GLA
Owner | Manual | Final |
---|---|---|
Battle Bus | ||
Combat Cycle | ||
Sneak Attack |
Music
Demo Track
The composer for most Command & Conquer games, Frank Klepacki, offered to compose the soundtrack for Command & Conquer: Generals and even submitted a demo track for EA, however he was not contacted by the latter.
The demo track can be described as warlike and features a grand and heroic choir.