[Nix]

Has EA done something marginally smart?  EA has released a huge compilation of the entire Command And Conquer series of games on a single DVD last month, called "Command and Conquer: The First Decade".  According to Gamestop, it's got EVERYTHING, from CnC '95 all the way up to Zero Hour, all core games plus expansions including Renegade.  I've never really played any of the expansion packs, only played CnC, RA1, TS, and Generals, no expansions and never picked up Renegade either.  Probably another way to squeeze money out of the franchise, but at least it'll probably work properly on XP now, the old CnC 95 I had required some extra patch to get it to launch.  Has anyone picked up this pack yet?  I'm just curious if it's worth the $40.

[Petrarch of the VBB]

Yes.
I bought it a few weeks ago. It's well worth it.
Everything works on XP, yes. But getting multiplayer to work for the Original C&C and for RA1 is pain in the gusset.

[CP5670]

I saw this on a shelf when I went to CUSA yesterday. I already have almost all of the C&C games though (everything but Renegade), so it wouldn't be worth it to me.

The first two games work fine on XP. You need an updated thipx32.dll file for RA and I think compatibility mode is needed for the installer to run, but otherwise they work great. I play skirmishes with my RA mod every now and then.

oh, and speaking of C&C, does anyone remember that sandbag trick you could use against the computer? Here is something I found in my old screenshots folder showing the results of this:


I still have a savegame of this traffic jam.

[Sandwich]

C&C was amazing. So involving. I remember emotionally struggling through the series of GDI missions where you're cut off from HQ and have to manage on your own. Then getting the Orca when contact was re-established....

[Turnsky]

C&C made the RTS genre what it is today, unfortunately EA effectively devoured and destroyed westwood, so no more C&C the way that would be intended 

[StratComm]

I saw this on a shelf when I went to CUSA yesterday. I already have almost all of the C&C games though (everything but Renegade), so it wouldn't be worth it to me.

The first two games work fine on XP. You need an updated thipx32.dll file for RA and I think compatibility mode is needed for the installer to run, but otherwise they work great. I play skirmishes with my RA mod every now and then.

oh, and speaking of C&C, does anyone remember that sandbag trick you could use against the computer? Here is something I found in my old screenshots folder showing the results of this:
http://home.comcast.net/~cp5670/scrn0015.gif

I still have a savegame of this traffic jam.

Ah, GDI mission 15C.  I loved that one.

And by sandbag trick I'm assuming you mean capturing enemy harvesters, right?  IIRC, it was particularly effective if you trapped them on the way back from a Tiberium field rather than on the way in, as the harvester would remain locked in to its refinery and no other harvesters could use it.

[CP5670]

It's actually the Deceit mission in Covert Ops. Those are the computer's units and they're all stuck in their places.

This method can be used to block harvesters, but you can do a lot of other things too. The computer units basically treated sandbags as terrain in C&C and sometimes just froze in their tracks when they ran into it. That particular map had a river going down the middle of the map and if you blocked all the bridges with sandbags, the squads of units the computer builds every few minutes and sends to your base just got piled up in a gigantic traffic jam over time. They fixed this AI quirk in RA, for better or worse.

[Corsair]

Yup, I got it for my birthday and it's absolutely worth it. Great deal.

[Blue Lion]

I already have every C&C, the first one was still the best.

[Nix]

I think I'll pick it up cause I dont have any of the expansions, never played RA2, and I've always wanted to see what Renegade was like.  I remember that video at the end of the campaigns that showed off what Tiberian Sun was going to be.. oh big LOL to that.  I guess that video is kinda what Renegade is supposed to be.  I also.. well, couldnt believe I did this, but pre-ordered the Tiberian Sun Platinum edition.  The pack where you got the pewter figure and the large book covered in pre-printed signatures.  Oh yeah, and the soundtrack that was a real letdown too.  I think I still even have the original box somewhere. Man, I couldn't believe how much that game really truly let me down.  it got way boring about halfway through either campaign.   

I also remember the bug where you could place whatever piece you wanted to build anywhere on the map, and yeah, putting up little tiny sandbag walls that the tanks probably COULD run right over (they do in RA) but are stuck.. then the computer keeps building them and they keep moving back and forth at the point the computer thinks is the best entry point.

I believe this is still one of the best games to play multiplayer though.  It's simple, easy to get into and great fun. Getting nuked was teh suck, and the Ion Cannon was **** unless you were frying a bunch of footsoldiers or weak vehicles.  The Ion cannon in Generals was very useful though.  I like RA1 better for multiplayer though, it has a lot more of the simple things to really make the game fun.  I despise Generals honestly. 

[NGTM-1R]

I'm happy with it, my Soviet disk for Red Alert got busted before I could finish the missions. Nice to get the expansion for Tiberian Sun too. I loved Tiberian Sun if for no other reason then the Wolverines. I'm a sucker for power armor.

But RA2 should not have happened. And the expansion should really not have happened.

[CP5670]

I think I'll pick it up cause I dont have any of the expansions, never played RA2, and I've always wanted to see what Renegade was like. I remember that video at the end of the campaigns that showed off what Tiberian Sun was going to be.. oh big LOL to that. I guess that video is kinda what Renegade is supposed to be. I also.. well, couldnt believe I did this, but pre-ordered the Tiberian Sun Platinum edition. The pack where you got the pewter figure and the large book covered in pre-printed signatures. Oh yeah, and the soundtrack that was a real letdown too. I think I still even have the original box somewhere. Man, I couldn't believe how much that game really truly let me down. it got way boring about halfway through either campaign.

I also remember the bug where you could place whatever piece you wanted to build anywhere on the map, and yeah, putting up little tiny sandbag walls that the tanks probably COULD run right over (they do in RA) but are stuck.. then the computer keeps building them and they keep moving back and forth at the point the computer thinks is the best entry point.

I believe this is still one of the best games to play multiplayer though. It's simple, easy to get into and great fun. Getting nuked was teh suck, and the Ion Cannon was **** unless you were frying a bunch of footsoldiers or weak vehicles. The Ion cannon in Generals was very useful though. I like RA1 better for multiplayer though, it has a lot more of the simple things to really make the game fun. I despise Generals honestly.

I played RA online quite a lot back during the 3.03 patch beta period (it wasn't ever officially released and became useless after the testing period ended, but was a lot of fun while it lasted), but the multiplayer wasn't as good as the first game due to the sides being very unbalanced. The Soviets pretty much owned on almost any map, mainly due to their heavy tanks, and the side balance became even worse with the aftermath expansion. That being said, RA was the game I spent years modding and screwing around with. It was much more moddable than C&C and had the skirmish feature. I played a couple of games just last week; 7 computers on Ridge War with my mod is some great fun.

I was quite disappointed by TS too. I don't think I ever actually finished those campaigns; just lost interest in them halfway through and got into the multiplayer instead. The Firestorm campaigns were better though and the Eternity mod for it is great. Few things I've seen can match the sheer goofiness of that.

[Petrarch of the VBB]

Renegade is quite amusing. It's just so ****. ¬_¬

[Turnsky]

Renegade is quite amusing. It's just so ****. ¬_¬

great promise, it had, so were the amount of bugs it had.

[Andreas]

I really like the original C&C and Red Alert, and I have many fond memories of them.  Tiberian Sun was a pretty mediocre game, and Red Alert 2 and Generals are both steaming piles of **** in my honest opinion. 

[Grug]

Any one else do the telsa coil wall across the map or into their base?
God I loved that.

[Descenterace]

I like RA and RA2. Never finished the original C&C but it was a great game. Tiberian Sun was... OK, I suppose.

Generals is a popular game in our house, but only multiplayer. The campaigns sucked. Zero Hour is a bug-ridden piece of crap in multiplayer: more than 2 AIs and the game loses synchronisation. For that matter, vanilla Generals has sucky netcode too.

Renegade was quite a lot of fun, but lacks real replay value. As for bugs... can't say I noticed any. Maybe I haven't played it enough.

[Petrarch of the VBB]

Well you could walk down near-vertical slopes and not fall, for one.

[NGTM-1R]

If Sandwhich happens to poke his head in here, or if anybody for that matter happens to like both Battletech and C&C, might want to check these out.

The Capellan Solution, mod for Generals.
http://www.battletechmodproductions.com/btgenerals/

Davion Sun, for Tiberian Sun (no, really?). No website remains, so I just linked direct to the download. Full disclosure, I've never tested to see if it works, I broke my Tiberian Sun disks by the time I found it.
http://www.battletechmodproductions.com/files/Davion%20Sun%201.00%20full%20version.exe

[Roanoke]

Tiberium Sun (+ Firestorm) was the only C&C I ever really liked. Never really got into RA, and I was a console guy when the original was made.