Generals Zero Hour — macOS (Apple Silicon)

Native Metal port of Command & Conquer: Generals — Zero Hour for Apple Silicon. No Wine, no DXVK, no translation layer — the engine runs as a native macOS binary through an in-tree D3D8 → Metal shim. Game logic, AI and data are unchanged; only the platform layer is ported.

▶ Playable now — with a couple of caveats

The game runs and is playable: skirmish and singleplayer both work. Networked multiplayer isn't in yet — there's no online (or LAN) play for the moment.

On the roadmap: graphics-quality improvements, and multiplayer built straight for online play over the internet (skipping LAN, which isn't really relevant today).

And a heartfelt nod to Cold War Crisis — a brilliant total-conversion and a personal favourite. The launcher has one-click helpers for it (see the Mods & Extensions tab).

You must own a legitimate copy of Zero Hour — the proprietary EA game data is not included. The easiest way to get it is Command & Conquer: The Ultimate Collection on Steam (it includes both Generals and Zero Hour).

Install & play

1. Download GeneralsZH-Launcher.dmg from the latest release.

2. Open it and drag GeneralsZH Launcher.app onto the Applications folder.

3. The app is ad-hoc signed (not notarized), so on first launch macOS Gatekeeper blocks it — you'll see "…is damaged and can't be opened" or "…can't be opened because Apple cannot check it for malicious software." This is expected. Clear it once with either method:

   • Terminal (most reliable): strip the quarantine flag, then open the app normally from Launchpad / Applications.

     xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/GeneralsZH Launcher.app"

   • No Terminal: double-click the app once (it gets blocked), then open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll to the Security section, and click Open Anyway next to GeneralsZH Launcher. (On macOS 13–14 you can instead right-click the app → Open → Open.)

   If the .dmg itself is flagged, clear it the same way first: xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine ~/Downloads/GeneralsZH-Launcher.dmg.

4. In the launcher, pick the folder with your original Zero Hour data (the .big archives), then press Play.

That's it — the launcher downloads the game engine for you, keeps it updated, and can update itself (the only manual step is clearing Gatekeeper once, above).

Build from source (developers)

# Engine
cmake --preset apple-arm64
cmake --build build/apple-arm64 --config Release --target z_generals

# Launcher
bash launcher/build-app.sh            # -> "dist/GeneralsZH Launcher.app"

The launcher installs the engine to ~/Library/Application Support/GeneralsZH/. To run a local engine build without a release, point the launcher at a payload zip:

GZH_LOCAL_PAYLOAD="$(pwd)/dist/GeneralsZH-macOS-arm64.zip" \
  open "dist/GeneralsZH Launcher.app"

Acknowledgments

• Electronic Arts — for releasing the Generals — Zero Hour engine source under GPL-3.0. None of this would be possible without it. Thank you.
• TheSuperHackers/GeneralsGameCode — the upstream project this repository is forked from; their modernized C++ baseline is the foundation every macOS-specific change sits on.
• Westwood Studios — for the original Command & Conquer: Generals.
• Cold War Crisis and its authors — a superb mod this project is a fan of; the launcher ships optional one-click helpers for it (which contain only our own additive overrides, never CWC's assets).

License

GPL-3.0-or-later, with EA's additional terms — see LICENSE.md. EA has not endorsed and does not support this project. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.