When I enter skirmish, none of the buttons work! The side control panel looks like this all of the time...

and I can't figure out how to enable the buttons! Help :(

I think it is because you are playing a warez version.

I remember years ago RA2 was one of the first games to have fancy piracy triggers in the code where if you were playing a cracked version that hadn't been fully cracked strange things would happen.

Your example is one of them, also one was that you couldn't finish a mission, and another was all your units blowing up for no reason.

I'd suggest either finding a better crack, or turn to the light side and don't play illegal pirated copies.

This Man Is Correct.

However, if you are playing a real copy try uninstalling and reinstalling and redoing all the patches.

However, god help you if you're playing a Sold Out re-release because they are hell to get working.

Oh and "naughty boy!"

Not that I would advocate such a dastardly act but finiding a "good" crack is very easy. I'm sure the publisher isn't missing out on much for such an old game. If you aren't playing a copy then I can't help except to say try updating to latest version.

I got it working... So thanks for believeing in me...