Red Alert 1 : Free Download! Go Get it so we can all play against each other!

[Hyde]

[ http://www.ea.com/redalert/news-detail.jsp?id=62 ]

Go there.

Comrades, venture back to the original Command & Conquer game that twisted history as we know it upside down with an alternate war-torn universe unlike any other. Celebrate 13 years of Command & Conquer with us and download the original Red Alert right now for free! What better way to get set for Red Alert 3 then to play the original that started it all.

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING BEFORE DOWNLOADING:

-This software contains support for Windows XP/98/Me/95 with installation instructions. This software is not supported by Windows Vista, however there are community driven strategies and tips available for making the software function on Vista which you can find on our various fan-sites.

-To install the software, you will need Winzip or Winrar to unrar the files. These files have also been compiled in to an ISO image. You will need to burn the ISO to a CD for the software to function or use a Virtual CD program to run the installation on your computer.

-Please do not mirror the files on your site. Please only use the download links available here.

-Please have fun


If you're running only Vista, it's not going to work but if you have XP or lower, get it so we can all play each other. I sense a tournament coming on.

[Lodis]

Sweet. I'll get on it this afternoon.

[Phakiel]

Might as fucking well!

[Balthier]

I'm on Vista. No Red Alert 1 for me. :(

That is pretty nice of them though.

[Dick Fitzwell]

I just got my XP laptop working. i'm not too big a fan of RTS games, but I suppose I could give it a try if I'm playing against you guys and we can all get on Vent or something.

[Phakiel]

Currently Extracting. Burning next. Then installing.

[LunarGriever]

Hmm... Damn I have vista... and I use to love that game too=/

[Dick Fitzwell]

to the people crying about how it won't work on vista, I think you should read it again:

however there are community driven strategies and tips available for making the software function on Vista which you can find on our various fan-sites.

edit: the guy int he white lab coat in the trailer on that page is Swedish. Just thought you guys should know.

[Phakiel]

RA3 has Emma fucking Atkinson in it! I am so buying that game.

Also, RA is not working on my computer. Will try again today.

[Sibek]

Getting RA installed in vista with dosbox.

1. Download dosbox: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/dosbox/DOSBox0.72-win32-installer.exe?download

2. When installing dosbox, instead of doing the vanilla C:/Program Files/... change the directory to C:/Users/<your login>/DOS the last part can be whatever, I chose DOS for ease and will be referred as such in this tutorial. <your login> is the name of your login

3. After it's installed go to your new DOS folder and create a new folder called dosgames (again it can be anything). Go into the dosgames folder and create a new folder called isos

4. Move back into the DOS folder open dosbox.conf with your favorite text editor (I use Wordpad over Notepad in Windows). Scroll to the bottom the file and add this to your file

mount c c:\Users\<your login>\DOS\dosgames

again making sure <your login> is the name of your login.

(If you have already downloaded and extracted the two archives for the game, move to step 7)

5. Download the two game archives above from above. http://www.ea.com/redalert/news-detail.jsp?id=62
and save it somewhere outside of your DOS and dosgames folder.

6. Extract using your favorite extracting method (I use 7-zip because it's actually free) to someplace (again, avoid putting them in your dos or dosgames folder for the moment)

7. navigate the newly extracted folders and find the ISOs CD1_ALLIED_DISC.iso and CD2_SOVIET_DISC.iso cut or copy the two files to your C: ... \DOS\dosgames\isos folder.

8. Phew. Now we are ready to start running dosbox. You can either run it from a desktop shortcut or from the dos folder.

9. Now that we are in the dos environment, it will come up with a prompt with the Z:. First we want to change to where we have the games stored. Type in the command

c:

10. Dosbox should now be pointed at the folder where all your games are stored. To see all your folder run the command

dir

and it will show all available files and folders. If the isos folder shows up you should be good.

11. It's time to mount the isos for install. Let's start with the allied disc. Run the command

imgmount d c:\Users\<login name>\DOS\dosgames\isos\CD1_ALLIED_DISC.ISO -t iso

again you must use the full path. I know it's annoying but I will show how to automate mounting when playing the game.

12. Run the command

d:

this will bring you to the newly mounted iso.

13. If you run dir in D: you should see a lot of folders and files. You'll want to enter the SETUP folder when using DOS. So run the command

cd SETUP

this will bring you into the SETUP folder

14. Run the command

INSTALL.EXE

this will start the installation process for the game.

15. It will ask you what digital audio device to use. I just press the auto-detect option on the screen and it will pick the correct option.

16. Next the game will ask you where to install. This can be confusing because when the game says C:\ it means your dosgames folder which is mounted as C: in DOSbox. I use C:\allied for the allied disc and C:\Soviet for the soviet disc.

17.
The game will now install. After finishing it will ask you to press any key and tell you to wait. However, it really doesn't do anything so my recommendation is to close out of DOSbox.

18.
Re-enter dosbox and do steps 10-17 for the soviet disc.

19.
Close out of dosbox. Since the games required the isos to be mounted in order to play the game (like requiring the CD), I've made a couple batch files to let you automate the mounting and playing of the two games.

For Allied create a text file using note/wordpad. And enter the two lines below

imgmount d c:\Users\<your_login>\DOS\dosgames\isos\CD1_ALLIED_DISC.ISO -t iso
\allied\RUNGAME.EXE

save in your dosgames folder

for Soviet create a text file soviet.bat and enter these lines

imgmount d c:\Users\<your login>\DOS\dosgames\isos\CD2_SOVIET_DISC.ISO -t iso
\soviet\RUNGAME.EXE

save in your dosgames folder.

20. Open dosbox and move over to C:. Now that you are in C: you can run the game by either entering the command
allied.bat

or

soviet.bat

NOTE: Dosbox does feature Tab completion. So if you want to run a file that exists in the specific folder you're in all you need to do is type in the first few letters in the file and hit tab and it will finish the rest (usually)

[Priest4hire]

As an alternative to working with batch files I'd recommend a DOSbox frontend. Personally I use DOSbox Game Launcher and it works like a charm. It's easy to set up the games, even simpler to select them, and it even automates mounting the disk image. Sure beats working the command prompt.