Is red alert 1 and tiberian sun now freeware

[Warrrior6081]

Is red alert 1 and tiberian sun now a free ware because read https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command_%26_Conquer:_Red_Alert and https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command_%26_Conquer:_Tiberian_Sun said that you have make it a freeware

[Nyerguds · Accepted solution]

@Warrrior6081

Command & Conquer 1, Red Alert 1 and Tiberian Sun are indeed all freeware. Command & Conquer 1 was made freeware with the release of C&C3, Red Alert was made freeware when RA3 was released, and when they released C&C4 they made Tiberian Sun freeware too.

@EA_David is partially right; for C&C1 and RA1, the original ISOs were released, however, C&C1 was already patched on the DOS version, before the Win95 port was made, so the Win95 version never received any further official patches anyway, and the Tiberian Sun released by EA was simply the fully patched no-cd install from The First Decade, so neither of these games require any further patching. Red Alert is the original release version, though, so that one is indeed the original completely unpatched game.

But none of that really matters, since 1) the ancient CD installers of C&C1 and RA1 don't work on modern systems anyway, and 2) all three of these games have since been vastly upgraded with community-created unofficial patches. The install packs of the freeware games, including these community patches, can be found here:

Command & Conquer 1:

• Complete No-CD game installation pack (v1.06c r3, no videos, all music included)
• English videos pack (French and German video packs are also available on the website)
• HD music pack, with stereo music for the game.

Red Alert 1:

• Web installer/patcher and some extras
• HD music pack, with stereo music for the game.

Tiberian Sun:

• Full game

[EA_David]

@Warrrior6081 They were made free alright, but EA doesn't host the files any more.

They should be pretty easy to find though, for example the notation link [6] on the RA wiki page leads to an archived site that hosts the rar files. 

I don't think these versions are the updated ones used in The Ultimate Collection, so you might have a bit of fun getting things running. 

[Warrrior6081]

Thanks for your reply

[Nyerguds · Accepted solution]

@Warrrior6081

Command & Conquer 1, Red Alert 1 and Tiberian Sun are indeed all freeware. Command & Conquer 1 was made freeware with the release of C&C3, Red Alert was made freeware when RA3 was released, and when they released C&C4 they made Tiberian Sun freeware too.

@EA_David is partially right; for C&C1 and RA1, the original ISOs were released, however, C&C1 was already patched on the DOS version, before the Win95 port was made, so the Win95 version never received any further official patches anyway, and the Tiberian Sun released by EA was simply the fully patched no-cd install from The First Decade, so neither of these games require any further patching. Red Alert is the original release version, though, so that one is indeed the original completely unpatched game.

But none of that really matters, since 1) the ancient CD installers of C&C1 and RA1 don't work on modern systems anyway, and 2) all three of these games have since been vastly upgraded with community-created unofficial patches. The install packs of the freeware games, including these community patches, can be found here:

Command & Conquer 1:

• Complete No-CD game installation pack (v1.06c r3, no videos, all music included)
• English videos pack (French and German video packs are also available on the website)
• HD music pack, with stereo music for the game.

Red Alert 1:

• Web installer/patcher and some extras
• HD music pack, with stereo music for the game.

Tiberian Sun:

• Full game

[Warrrior6081]

thanks

[Warrrior6081]

I forget to ask you whether DOSBOX is legal or not

[Nyerguds]

@Warrrior6081 Ehh... DOSBox is just a free program. Why wouldn't it be legal?

None of these games require DOSBox though. They're all Windows games.

[Warrrior6081]

Is this website legal website

https://web.archive.org/web/20100214144634/http://www.commandandconquer.com/classic to download

[Nyerguds]

@Warrrior6081

Do you mean archive.org, or do you mean www.commandandconquer.com? Because www.commandandconquer.com is the official EA C&C portal, and archive.org is a service that seeks to preserve the past of the internet by constantly saving web pages and offering them as completely reconstructed websites. If you want to know the specifics of how legal that is, go read their Terms of Service. I think they're fricking heroes, personally.

Anyway... yes, that page was made by EA, and was indeed hosted on the official site in February 2010, and the downloads there actually pointed to files on EA servers, so they're pretty much the most legal you can get. That page no longer exists on the official site, and EA stopped hosting the files, but that doesn't mean the games are no longer freeware. There are enough places offering them online now that they no longer have to do it. And, by saving that web page and its linked files, archive.org is just another website offering them.

Nice to know that archive.org mirror actually has all fully functional links of the original downloads, though

As I said, though, you're better off using the links I gave, since the old CD installers for C&C1 and RA1 don't run on 64-bit machines, and that Tiberian Sun pack was rather messy, since it was basically just the First Decade install dumped into a zip-file. It requires you to extract it in exactly the right folder, and to import the included registry stuff, before it works right.

[Warrrior6081]

@Nyerguds http://www.commandandconquer.com/classic website