Red Alert 1 Released As Freeware 105
Ciaran_H writes "Command & Conquer: Red Alert 1 was released as freeware on C&C's 13th anniversary. The Soviet and Allied CDs are available for download on EA's site. With the freeware release of the original Command & Conquer: Tiberium Dawn having taken place last year for the 12th anniversary, two of the most popular RTS games are now available completely free."
EA is also offering a free download of Red Alert 2 with a pre-order of the upcoming Red Alert 3. The above link has a trailer for the new game, which includes appearances from George Takei, Tim Curry, Jenny McCarthy, and others.
Re:C&C: Total Failure (Score:5, Insightful)
Point noted but collection packs are nice ways of legally getting all the old games and having a complete collection that doesn't take up a lot of space. Some even update the game to run on newer operating systems.
Re:C&C: Total Failure (Score:4, Insightful)
>1. The Tiberium Dawn link does not render correctly in Webkit. (Read: Google Chrome)
Renders perfectly in Opera, so who cares. Maybe you'll think twice before using the fruity browser next time ;)
>2. The Red Alert download link uses HTTP transfers rather than Bittorrent for 2x500MB files. And it was just posted on Slashdot.
Thankfully. This way I don't have to double the traffic through my slow DSL+WiFi link.
>3. I just purchased the C&C Collection Pack, you insensitive clods!
The First Decade includes pretty much every C&C game ever, so I guess you could say that your purchase just lost some value. However, you still get the game so the difference is negligible.
I've played most of the the Tiberium C&C games soon after they were released, but somehow missed the first Red Alert game, only starting with RA2. I've gone back the to it with the First Decade, and aside from some frustrations with the controls, it was a fun experience. Giving old games away for free is a great idea, even if it was not started by EA. At the cost of perhaps some additional compatibility coding and hosting, they get lots of good publicity (see this story above) and talk about their games (these comments), while gamers get to play the old games they loved to play or wanted to pay but missed, from a safe source.
Re:C&C: Total Failure (Score:3, Insightful)
Freeware doesn't necessarily mean you have access to the source code.
I think if you re-read the post you'd see they were referring to the possibility of the original creators updating the games when they release a collection pack.