With Gamespy set to shut down at the end of this month, the fates of many a multiplayer game mode have been sealed, or so it seemed. While Game Ranger might be swooping in to save some games, a cooperation between Revora and a handful of supporters will see Command and Conquer games able to continue operating for the foreseeable future.

Birthed from a project designed to keep Battle for Middle Earth online and playable, Revora's new C&C: Online, when launched, will make it possible to continue multiplayer games of C&C Generals, Zero Hour, C&C 3 Timberium Wars, Kane's Wrath and Red Alert 3. You won't even need to do anything particularly different, as thanks to a tweak to the launcher that connects the game to a different server, you'll just boot the game up as normal, head to the multiplayer section and find yourself some games to play.

“C&C:Online lets you use the game's native online interface, exactly like you are used to (no LAN),” reads the announcement. “It works by using a simple launcher that redirects traffic to our server. In order to participate in the new service, you will need to download the C&C:Online launcher for your game(s) and create an account at Revora. Your Revora account name is then synchronised to be your new “EA” account name. Don't worry, you will still be able to choose different nicknames.”

The only downside at the moment is that it's not available yet, though with GameSpy's shutdown coming in the next week or so, expect the launch to be soon. When it does debut, it will come with the ability to host, join and play multiplayer games for all of the above listed titles. Chat functions as well as a simple friends system will also work as intended.

In the future, the developers plan to add statistics and ladder rankings, as well as an automatching system.

It's all non-profit and will be available free, though if you want more information or fancy donating to the project, you can do so here.

KitGuru Says: This news warms the cockles of my heart. All I did in the mid 00's was play Generals and Zero Hour. I may have to find my old DVD and boot it up in celebration of the news. Anyone fancy a game on the new servers? 

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