Original C&C now free

By Robert Purchese Published 3 September, 2007

EA celebrates 12th anniversary.

EA has celebrated 12 years of Command & Conquer by releasing the very first game as a free download.

It's the same version that was included in The First Decade compilation pack last year, and can be snaffled up from the official website.

Once you've downloaded the ISO images of the GDI and Nod discs, you'll want to either burn them onto a CD or DVD to be able to play, or virtually mount them using a program like Daemon Tools. Or so a friend told us. Who wouldn't say how he found out.

Command & Conquer was released in 1995 to wide critical acclaim, and was responsible for kick starting the real-time strategy series recently added to by Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars.

EA has more plans to celebrate 12 years of the series throughout September, so keep your tactical eyes peeled.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (15) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • mkreku #1 5 years ago

    Why can't Bethsoft do something like this too, but for Daggerfall? Do they even know how difficult it is to get that game legally?

    Oh, and it would be nice if they finally fixed the bugs and upgraded the graphics engine to better suit modern computers too :D

  • quantumsheep #2 5 years ago

    Classic game at the time - shame they couldn't just let you download the .exe so you wouldn't have to faff about with ISOs - which is fine for you and me, probably, but not for the average joe!

    Still, worth a punt! =D

  • crazyhorse174 #3 5 years ago

    Cool. Two articles about free games in one day - genius!

    Hows it aged by the way?

    @mkreku: Fix the bugs in Daggerfall!? They'd be there forever! It was full of the damn things! Still a great game though. My copy is up in the loft I think...

  • GrandpaUlrira #4 5 years ago

    Not for Mac :(

    I suppose it was a long shot expecting that though.

  • Lutz #5 5 years ago

    Will it actually work in XP this time?

  • Euronymous #6 5 years ago

    @Lutz: "Will it actually work in XP this time?"

    If you read the install instructions, you can get it working on XP by going into the Compatibility settings and making it Windows 95. ;)

    Pity it doesn't work on Linux though, although expected. :(

  • neilka #7 5 years ago

    Can't you use DosBox in Linux/OSX?

  • mkreku #8 5 years ago

    @crazyhorse174: OK OK, the bug removal is an impossible dream. But how about adding higher resolutions and 3D-accelerator support to the old XnGine then? :D

    It wouldn't be impossible..

  • redneon Verified Programmer, SUMO Digital #9 5 years ago

    @neilka: Yes, that's how I've been playing it in OS X =o)
    Edited by 1 at 03/09/07 @ 12:23

  • JDT_JDT #10 5 years ago

    @nelika: This seems to be the Win95 version, so probably not. Dos version works fine on Dosbox. WINE will probably work.

  • Durandle #11 5 years ago

    shame its not the Mac version too, graphically it looks way nicer than the CnC95 version, plus the networking still works, which is more than I can say about the CnC95 version under XP - as far as I know, network play is totally borked and I've not found anyone who says it can be fixed.

  • crazyhorse174 #12 5 years ago

    @mkreku:

    Ah! Now that would rock! We could start a petition!?

  • Nithron #13 5 years ago

    Last time i played this under XP, on the First Decade pack... It still didn't work on XP. They had literally repackaged the unofficial patch that you can find online, which makes the game crash when you let units enter certain areas of the maps in singleplayer. Eventually, you hit a mission where you *have* to pass through one of these areas to complete the map, and you're basically stuck there forever.
    Your mileage may vary, i suppose...

  • dllord #14 5 years ago

    Personally, I think Dune 2 was responsible for kick starting the real-time strategy series!

  • The12thMonkey #15 5 years ago

    It's pretty easy to install on XP.
    Copy shortcut of install to desktop, set compatibility.
    Install
    Set compatibility of .exe to Win95
    Apply patch
    Play

    Yeah, okay, not that easy, but if you're intent on a nostalgia trip, then it's pretty good. And some of those missions are still bitch hard today, like GDI Greece >.>