February 24th, 2006
Hands-On Review: Command & Conquer: The First Decade
By David Johnston
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews
Has it been that long already? A decade is a long time, especially in the computer gaming industry. From 1995 to 2005 we’ve seen some tremendous advances in the industry on all fronts. One series that has always been leading the way in the real-time strategy genre is Command & Conquer. The series started out in 1995 with the original Command & Conquer game and has had 5 major releases between then and 2003 (not including the many, many expansion packs): Red Alert, Tiberian Sun, Red Alert 2, Renegade, and Generals. Each of the games has brought something new to the table. A larger arsenal of weapons, updated graphics or gameplay, and even different worlds. The original Command & Conquer as well as Tiberian Sun and Renegade are set in a less Earth-like world whereas Red Alert is a kind of alternate history of the World (set in the Cold War period) and Generals is set in the near-future.
All of the games were great fun when they were first released, and are still some of the best games ever produced in my opinion. Now, EA has taken all of them (hence the name) and re-released them as a complete set, including expansions, on a single DVD (see the picture to the right). That is what I’d like to call gaming nirvana. I must confess, I did not actually play all of the Command & Conquer Series. I am a Red Alert fan at heart, and previously I had only owned the original Red Alert, with expansions, and Red Alert 2 (if you ask me, the original is better). However, I had been missing my Red Alert fix for quite some time for a couple reasons. The first is that the original Red Alert was incompatible with Windows XP (yes, it is that old) without a patch that never officially came out of beta. The second reason is that a few years ago my mother figured that it would be a good idea to give the entire game away to charity without asking me first. I don’t know if that was supposed to be a subtle hint or not, but I guess I didn’t get it. Anyway, part of the point of that story is the following: the original Red Alert with all of the expansions took up not one, not two, not even three–but four CD’s. That’s a lot of plastic to juggle around. I can’t tell you how much nicer it is to have a single disc with everything on it. And that’s only one game: there are six others included.
Another great thing that EA did with this release was to not hold anything back. This DVD contains literally every game and expansion that came out for the Command & Conquer series for the past decade. If you missed an expansion, it’s here. I also think I should mention that there is one oddity in the Command & Conquer series: a first-person shooter. The game, aptly titled Renegade, was Command & Conquer’s attempt to put the gamer inside one of the characters that he controls in the more well-known real-time strategy games. I’ve only played through the first 45 minutes of the game, but I found that time enjoyable; even the training was well done. However, it can never come close to touching my all-time favorite FPS, Counter-Strike (or most other more popular FPS’s such as the Quake series). It’s not a bad game, but it just can’t compete with the FPS heavyweights. However, there’s no need to whine too much here since it’s just one of more than half a dozen that you get in this package.
Now that I’m done praising The First Decade, I should let you know some of the annoyances. The first thing I noticed was that to install all the games, you need to use individual CD keys. That means that you have to input seven different, fairly long, alpha-numeric codes. I know that these are technically 7 different games, but give me a break! They all came on the same DVD–why do we need all those CD keys (especially considering that many of the earlier games didn’t even use CD keys in their original incarnations). The second annoyance is that in older games, such as the original Command & Conquer and Red Alert, the resolution is set by default to 640×400, which causes horrible graphical distortion on my LCD monitor. You can’t fix this in the game either. You have to find and run the separate configuration program which is located in the game’s directory. This allows you to change the resolution to 640×480 which clears up the distortion. That’s another annoyance: the games are practically unchanged from their original incarnations meaning that you cannot run them at higher resolutions. This isn’t really that bad of a problem though, it just would have been a nice extra. Also, not surprisingly, you have to have the DVD in your DVD-ROM drive to play the games that came after Red Alert (but no DVD is required for the first two games). I know this is pretty much standard procedure now, but that doesn’t mean it’s any less annoying. That about sums up the annoyances. I haven’t found any other glitches in the game, and all of them seem to run very smoothly on my overkill gaming machine. Though, since many of the games are older they’d be great for slower machines that can’t handle some of the newest games.
We say: All in all, I really don’t think any of these annoyances is bad enough to warrant not getting the game. I got it online for $40, and at that price I’d call it a steal. All of these seven games are high-quality games (though the in-game videos are outrageously corny…I don’t know how on Earth they got James Earl Jones to act in some of them) that used to sell for about that much individually. I’m sure that if you’re a fan of Command & Conquer or RTS games in general you probably got this last week like I did, but if you just like to game casually or just haven’t picked The First Decade up yet, you’re missing a big treat. I guarantee you won’t be dissappointed.
JA says:
Actually, you can play without the disc for anything up to Red Alert 2.
I haven’t tried Generals yet, myself….
February 24th, 2006 at 11:09 pm
David Johnston says:
Interesting… I thought I needed it for Tiberian Sun, so I assumed that everything post-Red Alert needed it. Good to know
February 24th, 2006 at 11:10 pm
Mike McIntosh says:
I bought it for $30 at Circuit City last week. WHen I got it home it would not install - it said setup.exe and autoplay.exe were not win-32 programs.
I had to copy all of the files off of the DVD to a temporary directory and install from there.
How could EA screw up the install is beyond me.
February 27th, 2006 at 9:31 am
Joseph says:
yea, my dad bought it yesterday and it wouldnt install, it said that setup.exe and autoplay.exe were not valid win32 programs. same thing, had to put the whole thing in a temporary folder to install.
April 16th, 2006 at 12:42 pm
xenadrine review says:
xenadrine review xenadrine review
July 27th, 2006 at 3:12 pm
xenadrine rfa says:
xenadrine rfa xenadrine rfa
July 29th, 2006 at 10:40 pm
mark says:
hey joesph, wat did ya mean put in in a temp folder? im having the same issues, “not a valid win32 application”
September 9th, 2006 at 11:57 pm
play slots says:
play slots free like cleopatra …
There is muck coffeehouse middle play slots limit rainbow! …
November 5th, 2006 at 5:40 am
free online strip poker game says:
free online strip poker game …
In other words tournaments bet free online strip poker game up river! …
November 7th, 2006 at 8:07 am
Eric says:
i tried installing C&C: the first decade but the autorun didn’t pop up, so i went into the D:/ and double clicked and “D:/ is not a valid Win32 application” popped-up, so i tried double clicking on autorun.exe and the setup.exe and the same thing happened. What should i do?
November 27th, 2006 at 3:13 pm
Rob says:
Having the same problem with the ‘not a valid Win32 application’ error
Tried it with 3 DVD drives still the same problem.
Currently copying it from the DVD to a drive on my hard disk - “c:\c and c”
It’s going to take half an hour to copy, but double clicked on the setup whilst it was copying at it tried to run properly, so that appears to be the answer - install from a local copy
Hope this helps
March 30th, 2007 at 10:20 am
Eric says:
yeah if u just copy all files from CD to a folder on your harddrive it will install properly
April 27th, 2007 at 11:58 am
Rattus says:
Has any one told EA Games about this little “Not A Valid Win32 Application” yet? If not… go to EA Games website! I’m just about to do it!
July 2nd, 2007 at 1:22 am
tank219 says:
i need the instalation codes for command and conquer the first decade can some 1 give me them plz
August 12th, 2007 at 10:04 am
elite sniper says:
tank219, i know your problem,
i have this problem to…
SO, PLAESE SOMEBODY,
GIVE MY AND tank219
THE INSTALL CODES!
WE WANT THEM ALL!!!!!!!!!!!
i need them, im,
a little bit, you know…
i play it 8 hours a day…
i think every body knows
shockwave 9.3,
if you dont know what it is,
it is a extra expension pack
for zero hour!
already thx, elite sniper
September 18th, 2007 at 5:28 am
Josh says:
the instalation codesa are on the back of the game manual i think just check all of the papers that came in toe case.
other than that i am farly confident that all the codes are diffrent to prevent theft and illegal downloads
October 17th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
BOO says:
hey i los the book for command and conquer with the codes on it so i was wondering if someone can give me the codes
October 28th, 2007 at 12:32 pm
phsycpmv says:
i need the first decade codes…i cant find my book and a mod i downloaded messed with my RA2 and YR…
some send them to me at comandconlv@yahoo.com… please!
December 15th, 2007 at 5:13 pm
alex says:
ok, the reason why it wont work on some computers is that your cd hard drive must have a dvd rom with it.
December 16th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
-.-uhg-.- says:
on my manual it says installation code: and then a fucking blank strip
February 2nd, 2008 at 6:01 pm
Pablo says:
What is the installation code for CC the first decade… I need it i lost my maual…plz give it to me
February 6th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Pablo needs help says:
I need help, my manual says installation codes, than a blank strip can someone email me the codes or just send them to me…………………………………..stewie_nugget@hotmail.com
February 17th, 2008 at 6:01 am
Pablo needs help says:
send the cc the 1st decade install codes to……………………
stewie_nugget@hotmail.com
February 17th, 2008 at 6:03 am
Dean says:
PLEASE send the codes to dmxjosey@yahoo.com. I finally found the disc after moving but threw out the stuff accidentally. please help.
March 1st, 2008 at 6:52 am
aren says:
I LOST MY CODE BOOK SO CAN ANYONE SEND IT TO ME AT aren.23@hotmail.com
March 11th, 2008 at 11:35 am
max milien says:
i lost the istallation code anyone please send it to me i got a new computer but i dont have my manual send it to mm4az@virginia.edu please
April 3rd, 2008 at 3:33 pm
aerien88 says:
lost my manuel too! its such an old game but i still love playin it. can some help with the cd keys?
April 27th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
CommandConquer... says:
You guys realize that it is illegal to give you those codes, just buy the game just like everyone else you guys arent special. And I doubt half of you even bought the game, the other half, sorry, but it sucks to be you.
May 2nd, 2008 at 8:04 pm
Gen.W Reid says:
alright I understad wat all you guys are going through and I too need these codes but if your that much of a gamer you would respect all the other peope who wont give you the codes. However the game codes can be bought at C&C.com. there only 14.99. and they dont come with the game so you WILL need the actual disk
May 25th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
steve says:
i lost my book can some one help
June 2nd, 2008 at 5:53 pm
Tankamillion says:
Mr. garsen suck my BALLS…Ohhhhh yeah suck em till you die from it!!!
June 6th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Tankamillion says:
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh Yeah harder
June 6th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
Bored guy says:
i wanna join!
June 6th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
ray says:
Hey..I’m not gonna be an ass like most of you nerds. Because I was in the same boat of having bought a legit copy of First Decade at Walmart only to have my son throw it in the dog kennel where it was promptly destroyed by my Tibetan Mastiff. Here is a link to where you can download the codes you need.http://www.keygen.ms/crack/92780/…just scroll down do where it says Crack and KeyGen and download it.
July 13th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Koyote says:
Thanks ray!
I had the game storage. now it came out.
to the others, please be a team and help others, don´t use this site to attack others. don´t be inmature.
August 1st, 2008 at 3:40 pm
matt says:
thanks ray your awsome not like those other nerdy dicks
August 29th, 2008 at 8:08 am
ladygothkiller says:
for everyone suffering the “Not A Valid Win32 Application” error, i have had this issue with more than just C&C. It;s not an EA mistake. Go to windows updates under software(optional) on the left, click it. There is an update in there for Win XP user because Win Xp is a 64 bit sys not 32 so it does not always read 32 bit infor correctly. Downloading that update will correct the issue. (P.S.) I know im way late to tell you guys this but i did not have interent when this was origianlly posted.
October 29th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
John doe says:
You all are completely GAY. GAY GAY GAY GAY FREAKESHLY GAY!!!!!!! Get a life you pathetic bastards. P.S. big gay al dose not think your super
October 30th, 2008 at 11:32 pm
John doe says:
this only applys to those sexually obsessed with mr garsen
October 30th, 2008 at 11:34 pm
Bryce says:
hey i lost the fricken installation codes to CandC The First Decade… can someone send them to me??? little_ivanjr@yahoo.com
November 18th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
kldasdklk says:
POTANGINA NIO
November 19th, 2008 at 9:27 pm