Command & Conquer: The First Decade
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| Command & Conquer: The First Decade | |
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| Developer(s) | EA Los Angeles, Barking Lizards Technologies, Base Camp Films, Gametap Entertainment, Westwood Studios |
| Publisher(s) | EA Games |
| Designer(s) | EA Games |
| Engine | Various engines |
| Latest version | 1.02 (2006-04-18) |
| Release date(s) | February 7 2006 |
| Genre(s) | 11 RTS games, 1 FPS game |
| Mode(s) | Single player, Multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Teen (T) |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows XP |
| Media | 1 Game DVD, 1 Bonus "Community" DVD |
| System requirements | 9.8 GB diskspace, Windows, 933 MHz Processor, 256MB RAM, 64MB 3D Video Card |
| Input | Keyboard, Mouse |
Command & Conquer: The First Decade was announced on November 4th, 2005 and was released on February 7 2006. Not being a new title in the Command & Conquer series as such, The First Decade is a compilation of the series' prior games, all bundled into one DVD and updated to run optimally on Windows XP. It was sold for the price of one retail game. Also included in the compilation was a bonus DVD which took a look behind the scenes of the successful franchise, including interviews with producers, old concept art, various soundbites, as well as a montage of the winning fan videos of the "Are You The Biggest C&C Fan?" competition held prior to the compilation's release.
Other items included in the compilation included a A3 poster with high-quality C&C renders on both sides, one of which has been confirmed to be a teaser image for EA's new Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars game currently in production, as well as a 70-page manual that only includes unit descriptions for each of the included games.
Contents |
[edit] Included games and expansions
- Command & Conquer - August 1995
- Command & Conquer: The Covert Operations - April 1996
- Command & Conquer: Red Alert - October 1996
- Command & Conquer: Red Alert Counterstrike - March 1997
- Command & Conquer: Red Alert The Aftermath - September 1997
- Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun - August 1999
- Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun Firestorm - February 2000
- Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 - October 2000
- Command & Conquer: Yuri's Revenge - October 2001
- Command & Conquer: Renegade - February 2002
- Command & Conquer: Generals - February 2003
- Command & Conquer: Generals Zero Hour - September 2003
Note the omission of Command & Conquer: Sole Survivor, which EA Games appears to have disowned. However, because the compilation's said intention was to allow players to relive the story of Command & Conquer from the past ten years, the omission of Sole Survivor does seem somewhat plausible as it was just a multiplayer game almost identical to the original Command & Conquer.
[edit] Game DVD
[edit] New game content
The first DVD delivers each of the games with their most recent patches applied (except Command & Conquer: Red Alert which wasn't delivered at the latest version due to the latest patch being a beta version), all of which are bundled into a single installer. Many fans were disappointed that the original installers for the games, which were known to be very immersive and graphically pleasing were not included, and replaced by a single standard InstallShield wizard installer. The installer does enable the player to pick and choose what to install and what not to install, but assuming that all the games are selected, a total of 6 separate serial keys need to be entered.
The compilation does come as its own program, with a launcher which allows to choose between the installed games. To avoid the hassle of loading up this program only to launch the other games, a third-party shortcut installer has been made to create shortcuts for each of the individual games.
[edit] Internet Multiplayer
Many fans have been disappointed by the fact that, in the first two games, Internet multiplayer does not work because the separate "Westwood Chat" program which they relied on has not been updated. There is in fact a noticeable sticker to this effect on the box, but it was not made at all clear in the pre-release publicity and as a result many people bought the compilation believing that every necessary component of the games had been updated.
While a third-party patch can prove successful at providing a two player C&C Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert internet game, it is not especially reliable. An official solution is currently in production by EA, (see "Official Patches and updates" below).
[edit] Bugs
Many bugs have been reported to be present in the compilation, strangely including some that didn't affect the original games.
- Internet and LAN play for the older games, including Command & Conquer, Command & Conquer: Red Alert, as well as their expansion packs, were not provided.
- In Command & Conquer, the game crashed if some units went to the top left corner of the screen.
- Command & Conquer: Red Alert was not updated to the latest 3.03 version. EA has explained that 3.03 was only a beta patch and for this reason it wasn't included in The First Decade, although it would possibly be implemented through future patches to the compilation.
- In Command & Conquer: Red Alert, the between-mission videos (which give a detailed explanation of what the player is expected to do) were not shown when playing the Soviet campaign.
- The soundtracks for the older games' expansion packs, Command & Conquer: Red Alert The Aftermath, Command & Conquer: Red Alert Counterstrike and Command & Conquer: The Covert Operations, were incomplete.
- The installpath registry entries for Command & Conquer, Command & Conquer: Red Alert, Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun and Command & Conquer: Renegade had errors.
- The map editor for Command & Conquer: Red Alert failed to detect "The First Decade" disc as being a valid Red Alert disc, hence it couldn't be used.*
- The map editor can be used if you create a shortcut on the desktop directed with the command line with a space after " and input -cdcovert
[edit] Official patches, updates and workarounds
Since The First Decade's release, EA has released two patches, namely 1.01 and 1.02. Because The First Decade doesn't come with an Autoupdate program, the patches must manually be downloaded and applied. The patches can be found here at EA's official "The First Decade" site, and must both be downloaded and applied separately as they touch different components of the compilation. The full changelist and bugfix list is also available there. Many of the bugs listed above have already been fixed in the first two patches.
EA Games has also confirmed a 1.03 patch to be in production to enable online play for the older C&C games as well as fix additional bugs. 1.01 and 1.02 will most probably also feature in 1.03, making it a complete single download.
A number of third party fixes by the community have been released to enhance the quality of the compilation, although it is not known if they will be compatible with The First Decade 1.03 when it is released. They can be found here. Also, at this stage, EA Games has hosted a third-party patch and tutorial for online play regarding Command & Conquer and Command & Conquer: Red Alert (as shown above) the official "The First Decade" forums.
The Map Editor for Command & Conquer: Red Alert not recognizing "The First Decade" disc as the appropriate one can be bypassed by adding -cd. to the command line. (Including the period/full stop.)
The bug in Command & Conquer concerning the crashes when units are placed on the top left corner of the screen can be worked around by turning off Advanced Text Services in Control Panel/Regional and Language Options/Languages/Details/Advanced.
[edit] Bonus DVD
The Bonus DVD included in the compilation pack includes the following video items:
- The First Decade
- Louis Castle Interview
- 10 Years of Command & Conquer(TM)
- The Future
- The Community
- A Tribute to Command & Conquer(TM)
- Bonus Features
- The First Decade Trailer
- Concept Artwork
- The First Decade Credits
A good aspect of the discs in the compilation being DVDs, is that the Bonus DVD can also be used on TV.
[edit] "A Tribute To Command & Conquer" controversy
The "Tribute to Command & Conquer" item, a 5 minute montage of all the winning fan submitted videos was the most hyped feature to be included in the Bonus DVD, but many found it disappointing. Instead of being a whole section of its own, comprised of each of the 6 fan videos, only short extracts of each of the videos were put into the one montage video that is included.
EA has said that the reason the videos were not included in their entirety is because of infractions to copyright laws concerning the audio the fans used in their videos. The short movie extracts in the montage video do still have their original audio, but extremely vague and overpowered by a Russian-accented voiceover that's supposed to sound like Josef Stalin from Command & Conquer: Red Alert. The video also makes the mistake of crediting the Number 6 winning video, known as "Slaughter" to "Slaughter-music video", rather than its real creator, Mattias "Tesla7zap" Lundin. It even miscredits the Number 4 video to Tim "HeXetic Gokcen", rather than Tim "HeXetic" Gokcen.
The full versions of the videos are available for free download at CNCSaga.
[edit] "Louis Castle Interview" insight on C&C 3
The Louis Castle Interview item was a key factor in finding insight on a possible sequel to the acclaimed Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun, where Louis Castle vaguely revealed the possibilities of one by quote, "Well we are calling it The First Decade, not The Decade. So I guess that implies there are always possibilities for more, and I can assure people that we have not abandoned Command & Conquer by any stretch of the imagination. There's lots and lots of stories to tell and we're looking forward to telling them". Soon after, the official announcement of Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars was made.
The absence of other huge C&C figures such as Brett Sperry or Joseph D. Kucan were noticed by many fans (although Joseph Kucan was recently revealed to be involved with Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars), although that wasn't to say Louis Castle himself wasn't a good interviewee in terms of revealing information of the future of the Command & Conquer franchise, and also discussing how it was first made.
Louis Castle was also featured in pretty much every other video item just giving his insight here and there about each of the games in the compilation and also about the Command & Conquer franchise in general.
[edit] Bonus Poster
Also included in the compilation, is a single A4 double-sided poster showing high-resolution renders of Command & Conquer on either side. The units shown in the renders not being familiar to fans as such, but it is speculated that they are teasers for content in the upcoming Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars game.
[edit] Ion cannon
One of the renders is supposedly the new GDI Ion Cannon, and it would seem that this render is definitely Tiberium Wars content as the same render was shown in the PC Gamer June 2006 issue. Although not particularly similar to the designs of the Ion cannons in the past Command & Conquer games, the render does show some features that would support such a conclusion.
[edit] Stealth Tank
The other render on the other side of the poster, is thought to be the new Nod Stealth Tank. This is speculated because the design of the tank bears certain similarities to the designs of the Stealth Tank from Command & Conquer and Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun, such as the wheeled treads, the missile pod and the cannon barrel resembling the shape of the Brotherhood of Nod 'scorpion tail' insignia. However, there have been discussions that the tank could potentially be a GDI unit as it bears the semi-golden, desert paintjob of GDI, known as the Predator Tank. It has been confirmed that this vehicle has access to a missile launcher upgrade, and the general shape of it has been confirmed in numerours pre-release screenshots.
[edit] Compilation manual
The manual in the compilation unfortunately does not contain any backstory of information on the Command & Conquer series. Instead, the 70 page booklet only contains unit and structure descriptions for each of the games, as well as the standard pages such as warnings for epilepsy and the obligatory 'notes' section. Only Command & Conquer has its original manual provided which is in PDF form in its installed folder.
The rest of the manuals of each of the included games can be downloaded for free at ReplacementDocs.com (scroll down to find them).
[edit] See also
- Command & Conquer series
- Command & Conquer: Tiberian series
- Command & Conquer: Red Alert series
- Command & Conquer: Generals series
[edit] External links
- Official Command & Conquer: The First Decade website
- Official Command & Conquer: The First Decade forums
- CNCDen
- CNCNZ.com
- PlanetCNC
