westwood posts

Command & Conquer has had quite the convoluted and bizarre history. With three separate timelines at this point, things can get a little confusing. After all, it's been 15 years since the original's release, and there has been 7 core games and 15 expansion packs. It's not exactly an easy canon to get into. Thankfully, we've got a handy guide to the twisting corridors of Command & Conquer's story just in time for the final entry in the long-running Tiberian series. Since the campaigns in most of the games are mutually contradictory, we will be describing the events of both campaigns while pointing out which is canon.

Welcome to Freeware Friday, a weekly column showcasing excellent games that you can play free of charge!

Command and Conquer is an extremely long-running RTS series. It's certainly the one with the most entries, as the only other contender is Blizzard's -craft series, which has five entries compared to Command and Conquer's eight. In anticipation for Command and Conquer 4, which is supposed to be the biggest departure for the series, EA has released two more of the Command and Conquer games for free. Red Alert was already covered on Boot Disk, but Tiberian Sun has had no coverage whatsoever. With this new pack, players can enjoy both Tiberian Sun and Firestorm for free, and despite being slightly buggy upon release, Tiberian Sun is one of the most interesting and entertaining entries in the series.

In preparation for Command & Conquer 4, due to come out next month, EA has released the original C&C games from the 90s as freeware. These games include Tiberian Dawn, Tiberian Sun (with the Firestorm expansion), and Red Alert. Both Red Alert and Tiberian Dawn were turned over as freeware some time ago, but now they're joined by Tiberian Sun. These full games are free to download, own, and play. However, your mileage may vary. The older the game, the more complicated it is to get working. For example, Tiberian Dawn requires a separate disc virtualization program to load the ISO files. Links to related installation instruction pages are shown below.

This is a great collection for C&C fans to own, and it should definitely get players in the mood for the final chapter when it releases on March 16.

Download Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn for Win95 (843 MB)
Click Here for Tiberian Dawn Installation Instructions

Download Command & Conquer: Red Alert Allied Disc (499 MB)
Download Command & Conquer: Red Alert Soviet Disc (502 MB)
Click Here for Red Alert Installation Instructions

Download Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun (1.24 GB)
Click Here for Tiberian Sun Installation Instructions

Sometimes you just need to sit down, slide a floppy into your A: drive, and enjoy gaming retro style. We know this all too well! That's why we have a list of the best and brightest from days long gone. These are some of our favorite games of all time, and we're sure that you'll love them as much as we do, if not more. Welcome to Boot Disk, and enjoy the retro ride!

Once upon a time, there was a wildly popular real-time strategy game that helped create the genre as we know it. Westwood's Dune 2 created the modern real-time strategy game, and almost all of the features introduced in it have been used widely in other real-time strategy games since. While it is a great game, it wasn't until Westwood's second game in the genre that real-time strategy as both a single-player experience and as a multiplayer phenomenon became apparent. Command and Conquer (sometimes referred to as Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn to separate it from the other games) has one of the most lasting effects on the genre, with only Blizzard's games being this influential to real-time strategy on this sort of scale. There's a reason that Command and Conquer has recieved a long-running franchise with fantastic games.