reignofevil posted:

splifyphus posted:

This hilarious thread made me discover that practically everything Frank Klepacki has ever done is up on spotify.

e: Also I haven't finished the thread yet but there is a community update of RA1 that runs at modern resolutions on modern OSes and it's wonderful. Requires access to the original game assets and whatnot.

CarpenterWalrus posted:

this awesome thread has inspired me to play through Generals. thanks?

Pham Nuwen posted:

I've tried OpenRA before, but it felt like the AI was "off" from what I remembered. Then I found https://forums.cncnet.org/topic/1165-how-to-install-red-alert-1-on-windows-xp-vista-7-8-10-linux-mac-32-64bit/ which just patches the original game to work on modern Windows systems. I installed it a couple weeks back and played through a bunch of the Soviet missions. It's pretty good, although kind of hilarious when you run at native resolution: the radar dome becomes almost pointless because you can see the whole map on-screen, but on the other hand it can be really difficult to pick out a particular unit from a blob.

I also learned that I'm not particularly good at Red Alert. Even on easy difficulty, it feels like I'm always just barely hanging in there, fending off constant waves of light tanks and rocket troopers, who are a lot more useful than I remembered.

Spookydonut posted:

it's because C&C1 and RA1 are both 100% scripted in the campaigns, theres no real AI

Mokinokaro posted:

Despite the horrid racism and jingoism I will give Generals credit for really making flavorful factions.

Tulip posted:

An unexplored consequence of the RA universe is that, given the moment and manner in which things got derailed, there's probably a lot more people in the present who have a neutral to positive opinion of Nazis.

Personally I do not want to explore this, but the far funnier "if Einstein's so great why'd he just kill some German guy and not Stalin/the next bad guy after you kill Stalin/the next bad guy after you kill that one"

reignofevil posted:

Someone who knows more about how world war 2 redrew the borders of europe and africa tell me if EA has thought about this map at all and if any of these countries are even possible given the totally hosed up timeline.

reignofevil posted:

No joke after we finish up command and conquer alt history I'm gonna launch into an in depth explanation of just what the gently caress was happening in harry turtledove's world war series. Nobody loves harry turtledove more than me!

DivineCoffeeBinge posted:

Command and Conquer history and alt-history is cool but I want this thread ASAP I'm just sayin'

Moon Slayer posted:

Serious question: did Turtledove have a stroke or something? I loving loved Worldwar and the alternate Confederate victory series because I'm dumb and love trashy alt history. But his latest stuff has been just shockingly bad. And I was really looking forward to his novel set in modern times where the Muslim world was advanced and progressive and Europe was a hyper-conservative shithole but good lord was it badly written.

reignofevil posted:

Also thank you A Buttery Pastry for the effort post re: maps and alt history!

A Buttery Pastry posted:

Least I can do after, you've educated us on the history of the world before Einstein jr. went back in time to convince his dad to drop his time travel plot.

drunkill posted:

Posting this here, despite it being C&C 1 advertising material.

I think it is fitting to post it during the Generals play through, given that game is pretty on the nose with many topics and depictions.





These ads scream 1990s videogame, like duke nukem or doom ads, or even videocard ads.

And a reminder, the C&C and RA1 remasters come out on steam (and origin) next weekend, head over here for more information: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3919118

drunkill posted:

Posting this here, despite it being C&C 1 advertising material.

I think it is fitting to post it during the Generals play through, given that game is pretty on the nose with many topics and depictions.





These ads scream 1990s videogame, like duke nukem or doom ads, or even videocard ads.

And a reminder, the C&C and RA1 remasters come out on steam (and origin) next weekend, head over here for more information: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3919118

Taerkar posted:

The last GDI mission of the first game got a lot easier for me when I discovered a pair of resource silos in the bottom right (I think) that were outside of the main base that you could capture and sell and they would immediately get rebuilt and refilled with sweet sweet green death crystal bucks.

Farmer Crack-rear end posted:

What determines which map you get for the last mission?

reignofevil posted:

Right. Essentially the twin timelines both branch out from the same events, killing hitler. That said even though I gave the copout answer earlier that the red alert timeline is so stuck in a loop that it has never reached the 90's I feel confident that eventually it will be revealed that tiberium and the scrin just don't exist in the red alert universe because of Plot Magic.

Grand Fromage posted:

The fan explanation is the Allied victory in RA leads to RA2 and 3, while the Soviet victory leads to the tiberium universe. It's possible that if the Soviets lose RA Kane isn't able to do anything and thus the tiberium meteor never shows up? Or something.

reignofevil posted:

It leads to this, the soviet equivalent to a Chronosphere. Einstein, the drunk, was probably blabbing between his cups.

reignofevil posted:

Here is the time machine in a more easy to see form

Chev posted:

I'm discovering this thread late, it is wonderful. Thank you!

I bring historical information, though! Pertaining to the question of where the tiberiumverse fits in regards to Red Alert. Some dangerously misinformed people (by soviet agents, possibly!) mentioned this:


Remember the Temple of Nod in Renegade! It has all the good stuff. The TV studio used for Nod Propaganda, the Lawnmower Man Xtreme Hackerz Room For Blowing Up Monumentz, the stuffed Seth, that museum with the Nod stone tablet you wondered about in C&C's ending credits, all the fanservice historical stuff they could cram.

Including, very relevant to us, very historical pictures of Premier Romanov's apocalypse tanks parading in front of the Kremlin, thus establishing that Renegade and the tiberium games exist within a timeline where RA2 happened. If the stuffed Seth is genuine important historical material, those pictures sure are too!

While some humbugs could argue it's possible an intern just grabbed a RA2 cutscene shot thinking it'd count as a RA1 reference, it's worth noting it's in line with the later plans for the canceled Renegade 2, the beta shots of which hint it was going to chronicle the rise of the brotherhood of Nod from the ruins of the soviet union after RA2's allied victory.

Although it tells us where C&C fits in regards to Red Alert 1 and 2, but then what about Red Alert 3? Since nukes exist in C&C but not in RA3, does that mean RA3 erased the C&C timeline before it even existed? Remember, never drink and time travel. Speaking of which!

It's kinda subtle, but the visual design of this:


is actually pretty much this

with four tesla coils bolted on and one of those russian onion domes on top (or maybe it's a fifth coil), which lends credence to the idea Einstein was drinking buddies with Greg (and also that Greg, or Greg's entire science department or institute may be responsible for putting all the onion domes on various bits of russian tech)

reignofevil posted:

In between putting off updates to this thread and putting off updates to the offworld trading company thread I'm speculating about a trip to the bookstore to fill in the holes in my collection I am deadly serious about this proposed turtledove thread! The same as I'm deadly serious about someday reaching command and conquer zero hour!