I've finished preparing Wednesdays free game, so thought I'd post it early. I've not decided what to post for Thursday yet, so it will give me more time to decide what to post. There are still hundreds (probably thousands if you count all the really old games over 15 years old) of free games to choose from. :) Both the games I've chosen for Wednesdays free games have already been mentioned in passing elsewhere in the forums, but not as part of this project. They are either buried deep within the bowels of these forums or the links are dead, so I thought it appropriate to repost them today.
I was originally going to post the Gold Edition over the Christmas period, but lost all the data on my computer and forgot all about it. All the downloads are large. Each game is over 1Gb, though they are split into 500Mb downloads. I've also posted a link to a demo that's only 25Mb, for those who want to check the game play out before commiting themselves. If you're on a download cap, 2Gb can be a significant wedge out of your entitlement. The franchise has been around for nearly 15 years and is a brilliant rts game. The first one I bought was Tiberium Sun, the second installement to the C&C franchise, which I still play occasionally.
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Command & Conquer Gold aka Tiberium Dawn (part I - 580.81Mb part II - 565Mb)
There have been two C&C games offered for fee over the last few years, the first is Command & Conquer Gold and the second one is Command & Conquer Red Alert 1 (there are now three Red Alerts I, II and III). As for the Gold edition, there are several upgrades available which can be accessed via the second link below (I’ve linked to those I reckon are essential). In order for C&C GOLD to run on Windows XP, you will need to burn the ISO image onto a CD with a CD Burner. At this point I can’t confirm that it will work on Vista, but if you are having problems I found a forum (linked to below) where a possible fix has been found.
Welcome to the New World Order. A gritty high tech world where the art of electronic intelligence and covert surveillance reigns supreme. Where guerilla strategies and savage combat are the norm. Build bases, muster forces and dominate your enemies. All for the love of power.
Features:
# Complete control over land and air units; muster forces; build bases; and manage resources
# Over 60 minutes of intense action video and 3-D rendered excitement
# Pick your side: Fight the good fight with the GDI or bring the world to its knees with the Brotherhood of Nod
Minimum System Requirements:
256MB RAM, 32 MB Video RAM, 9800 MB disk space
Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5c9xyryhCqY ( Intro)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97zEN_xlge4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpryWdjKsUY
Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command_&_Conquer_(video_game)
and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command_%26_Conquer
Downloads:
Part 1 (580.81Mb)
http://www.gamershell.com/download_20863.shtml
Part 2 (565Mb)
http://www.gamershell.com/download_20864.shtml
All Command & Conquer Gold files: (includes patches, music and fixes)
http://www.gamershell.com/download_20863.shtml
Command & Conquer Hi Resolution Patch:
http://www.gamershell.com/download_21222.shtml
Fix for Win 2000 and XP is also available here: (15Kb):
http://uk.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/commandconquerthefirstdecade/download.html?sid=6178099
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Command & Conquer Red Alert 1 (500Mb)
This is the second Command & Conquer game to be given away over the last few years. This was for the 13th anniversary of the C&C franchise, and was released for free by EA Games (spits over shoulder)
Command and Conquer: Red Alert is a strategy game. For the thirteenth anniversary of Command & Conquer, EA officially declared that Red Alert would now be available as a free download.
The story takes place in an alternate stream of history, around the time of World War II. In this version of world history, World War II never happened, and Hitler was nothing more than a minor annoyance. The real threat here is something hundreds of times worse than Hitler could ever have been: Joseph Stalin. The Soviet Empire is killing its way through Europe. Towns are falling and countries collapsing before the overwhelming might of the Soviet forces. Does anyone stand a chance, or will the Red Menace engulf all of Europe?
New features include improved AI, new game units and structures, a Skirmish mode, and a detailed, interweaving story line.
Story
It's 1946. Mankind has just gone through one of the most brutal wars it ever faced. While the rest of the world is still in shock and trying to find ways to prevent such an event from ever taking place again, a Jewish/German scientist decides to act.
With a device he was engineering for the US government, he travels back into time to kill the person who he sees as the root of all misery; Adolf Hitler. He catches up with Hitler in 1926, as Hitler is still a young - but already embittered - man and 'disposes' of him. Without thinking through the consequences thoroughly enough, as will soon turn out.Without Hitler and Nazi-Germany to keep the him in check after all, Hitler died before he ever became of any importance, Stalin takes his communistic USSR to unknown heights and then decides to speed up the world-wide Marxist revolution a bit by invading the free countries of Western Europe. Obviously, the West-European countries aren't too pleased with this and starts a grim guerilla war against the Russian invaders.
And so, in spite of our dearest scientist's efforts, a new World War starts.
Here’s a video of the story line:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpvqn0fT1OY
Soviet mission intro:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfbiyO29vzk&feature=related
Allied mission intro:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svNAHmE6_K4&feature=related
Gameplay:
In Red Alert, you choose which side you will fight for, the Soviets or the Allies. Each will lead you down a long string of dangerous missions. Either way you will command forces of land, sea, and air to achieve your objectives in battles that never should have taken place.
The game uses a very simple point and click style of gameplay, making it very uncomplicated, and easily accessible, resulting in a more arcade style of game. Each level has a different mission (with the briefing coming in the form of FMV sequences and brilliantly rendered cut scenes), which has to be completed in order to progress on to the next stage. Throughout the game you can build various structures to help you along your campaign, and eventually defeat the enemy.
Just like in Tiberian Dawn, begin a standard mission by establishing a base of operations. This means you'll need ore to build things, power to run things, and defenses. Both sides can build a certain set of basic buildings: Construction Yards (which let you build other things), Power Plants, Ore Refineries, Barracks (for training troops), War Factories (lets you build Tanks, Mind Layers, etc), Naval Yards (lets you build naval units), etc.
There are three difficulty settings to Red Alert ranging from easy to hard. By changing the setting you change your starting location and forces which makes missions much harder.
The AI has been improved in a few areas; specifically, it no longer stops at walls, instead often going after them with a vengeance (something you can use to help draw the AI units into range of your base defenses), and it will no longer leave a base totally defenseless when you assault its Ore Truck (the equivalent to the Tiberium Harvester in Tiberium Dawn). And thanks to the new and improved AI, the game now features the "Skirmish" mode, which allows you to practice on all the multiplayer levels, and your own custom maps; this also means you can play any amount of random battles against the computer, over and over.
Reference: http://planetcnc.gamespy.com/View.php?view=GameInfo.Detail&id=25&game=6 accessed 8th June 2009
Installation
The following guide will take you through installation step-by-step
64 Bit Users: Players have reported success installing the game using the Red Alert Setup Manager v0.98 tool. (3.1Mb) available from the following link.
http://ra.afraid.org/html/downloads/utilities-3.html
You’ll also find several other downloadable files from this link which can be used to rip the music from the game or even edit the terrain and create new units
First you need to download it. The files have been released in their original format (iso); one for the Allied missions and another for the Soviet missions, If you want to play online you only need one of them.
.
The files have been compressed to save on filesize (and so EA can add unnecessary promotional material), you'll need winrar, stuffit or 7zip to extract them:
Reference: http://www.cncworld.org/?page=features/tutorials/rafree. accessed 12th November 08
Useful red alert websites:
http://members.tripod.com/red_alert_website/index.htm
http://www.b2g2.com/boards/board.cgi?user=CCRA1
http://planetcnc.gamespy.com/redalert/
Bug Fixing tutorials:
http://www.cncworld.org/?page=features/tutorials/index
Vista Support:
http://thevistforums.com/index.php?showtopic=29762
Gameplay Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se2xcTKAStI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3_GgerMmJM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyHG3iIPLxM
Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Alert_(computer_game)
Download:
Because the files for both campaigns (allied and Soviet) are iso images I’ve posted a link to a simple tutorial that tells you what you need to know to get this game to work. I realize most of you will already know how to burn iso images using your own burning software - {it’s really easy using NERO or Starburn}, - but I’m sure there are a few who may find it confusing. You’ll require two CD’s - you can use DVD’s if you don’t have any CD’s, but it’s wasting a lot of space unless you don’t mind storing other programs on the discs, but for those of you who are purists and like to dedicate a single disc to certain programs 2 CD’s are a must have.
How to download and play Red Alert:
http://www.cncworld.org/?page=features/tutorials/rafree
To download from the following 2 links you are required to create a free account with fileshack. Well worth the effort imo, if you want to play this game. Free accounts are capped at 750kb per second so each download will take at least 15 to 20 minutes assuming you have a fast broadband connection
Allied download (499Mb)
http://www.fileshack.com/file.x/12826/Command+&+Conquer:+Red+Alert+-+Allied+Disc
Soviet Download (502Mb)
http://www.fileshack.com/file.x/12827/Command+&+Conquer:+Red+Alert+-+Soviet+Disc
There’s a download site with no registration requirements but it hasn’t been WOT guaranteed yet. You can download both the Allied and Soviet campaigns from the samepage:
http://www.frostclick.com/wp/index.php/2008/09/02/command-conquer-red-alert-1-free-full-game/
If you’re new to the Command & Conquer world, you can get C&C Red Alert 2 for free if you buy the latest incarnation of the game which was released in 2008 and is called Command & Conquer Red Alert 3 (lol) . If you’re interested PM me and I’ll find the link for you.
If you’re not sure about this great futuristic strategy game you can download a small demo of Red Alert 1: (25.8Mb)
http://download.cnet.com/Command-amp-Conquer-Red-Alert/3000-7483_4-10017271.html
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Finally …………………. If you have any problems setting either of these games up, please do post your problems here. There’s a dedicated team of gamers who will be able to help get you up and running. If you’re new to this site and haven’t checked out previous games we’ve spotlighted here you can find a hugh list in the games synopsis thread, where you’ll find several hundred freeware and abandonware games plu a few ad supported games. If you like strategy games, there are several excellent ones to be found in the games synopsis and include the grand daddy of all strategy games (in the eyes of most gamers anyway), Civilization I and II, plus AstroWars, deadline (3rd person), Euchmich Legacy, Fantasy Battlefields, Freeciv, History Line 1914-1918, Outpost 2, Priority: Survive, Stronghold I, Syndicate I & Syndicate Wars, Warcraft: Orcs and Humans, Warlords, 1848 and a couple of fairly recent releases with modern graphics called Rise and Fall: Civilizations at War and SAGA (the latter is actually an online game, but you van play without having to play other humans if you’re nor into playing against other players.
