DOS Days

Command & Conquer

Released: 1995
Published by: Virgin Interactive
Developed by: Westwood Studios
Author(s): Joseph Bostic, William Randolph, Brett W. Sperry, Eydie Laramore, Denzil E. Long Jr., Phillip W. Gorrow, Barry Green, David Dettmer, Steve Wetherill, Erik Yeo, Christopher Demers, Joseph Hewitt IV, Damon Redmond, Maria del Mar McCready Legg, Shelly Johnson, Jack Martin, Cameron Chun, Nicolas deSomov, David Dame, Ren Olsen, Bhavin Patel, Felix Kupis, Eric Gooch.



Introduction

Command & Conquer, also called Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn, is a real-time strategy (RTS) game developed by Westwood Studios, and published in 1995 by Virgin Interactive. Westwood Studios took what they had learned from their first RTS title, Dune 2: The Building of a Dynasty, and built on it with C&C.

A war has broken out between two organisations: The Brotherhood of Nod and the Global Defense Initiative (GDI), fighting over a extra-terrestrial resource known as Tiberium. Kane, the leader of NOD seeks to control the Tiberium in addition to achieving global domination. Fight either for the Brotherhood (the bad guys), or the GDI (the good guys) over 25 missions.

Players control their units (artillery, tanks and light infantry) by selecting them with the mouse and directing them to another location. As you do so, your opponent is doing the same (hence, realtime strategy, not turn-based).

As with titles like Civilization, you need to build a base in order to build new units and structures. Before you have a base, you either start a mission with a Construction Yard, or a unit called an MCV (Mobile Construction Vehicle) which can be opened to create the Construction Yard. It is this that is the foundation of your base, from which you can build more structures and units. Crucial to the game are Harvesters, which are used to mine the Tiberium and ship it to a refinery, whereupon it is exchanged for money (needed to build bases and units). Whether you are playing as GDI or NOD alters what structures and units are available to you.

The action is intertwined in an engaging storyline which is presented as FMV (full motion video) cut-scenes.


Command & Conquer intro

 

The game had a single expansion pack called The Covert Operations, which arrived in 1996. This added 15 new singleplayer missions to the game (7 for GDI and 8 for Nod), plus 10 new multiplayer maps. These new missions are noted as being much harder than those that came with the original game.

A special edition called Command & Conquer: Special Gold Edition provided both the original game and the add-on in a single product.

 

The game was succeeded by a number of titles that take place after the events of the first game. These include Command & Conquer: Red Alert (1996) and Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun (1999):


Command & Conquer titles that followed the original game

 

System Requirements

System Requirements 486 33 MHz (66 MHz for multiplayer), 8 MB RAM, 560K of free conventional memory, 6 MB of EMS or XMS free, 2x CD-ROM driver, MS-DOS 5.0
Graphics: VGA or MCGA (320 x 200 in 256 colours)
Audio:Sound Blaster/Pro/16/AWE32, Gravis UltraSound/MAX, Ensoniq SoundScape, Roland RAP-10, ESS Audiodrive, Microsoft Sound System, Gold Sound Standard, Pro AudioSpectrum Plus, and Pro AudioSpectrum 16.
Peripherals: keyboard and mouse (req'd), optional modem or IPX-compatible network card for multiplayer.
Original Media Two CD-ROM discs.
Installed Size (MB) 30 MB


From where can it be run?

The game must be installed to your hard disk. In addition, one of the two CD-ROMs must be in the drive for FMV cutscenes to play (Disk 1 is for GDI, Disk 2 is for NOD). These cutscenes are streamed from the CD during gameplay, which is why the installed game size is relatively small.

 

Copy Protection

Command & Conquer has no copy protection.

 

How to Setup

Insert any of the two CD-ROMs into your drive and run INSTALL.

Sound options:-

 

 

By default, the game is installed to C:\C&C.

 

Problems

Symptom:
Cause:
Resolution:

Keys

 

To Quit the Game

 

Supporting Documents

 

Additional Files, Drivers & Utilities

 

Save Games

 

 

Versions of the game known to exist

Version Date Comments
1.0 1995 Initial public release.
1.07    
1.18p    
1.19p    
1.20    
1.22 Patch June 1996 Updates v1.07, v1.18p , v1.19p and 1.20 to v1.22p. Simply copy the PATCH.EXE and PATCH.RTP files to the directory that you installed Command & Conquer to (default is C:\C&C) and run PATCH.EXE.


Original Disc Contents

The CD-ROMs have no specific volume label. Here are each disc's contents:

    Disc 1 of 2 (CD-ROM):

     
                
    Directory of D:\

     

    Disc 2 of 2 (CD-ROM):

     
                
    Directory of D:\
     

 

Installed Directory Contents

Once installed, the following directory structure exists in the game directory:

     

     
                
    Directory of C:\C&C
    
         
     

 

Screenshots