Command & Conquer: Red Alert

Connection to the Tiberian games

Westwood Studios designed Red Alert as a prequel to Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn. In the Soviet campaign, Kane appears as a mysterious counselor to Joseph Stalin, implied to have instigated the war to further the Brotherhood of Nod's goals. Nadia, head of the NKVD and a secret Brotherhood member, instructs the player to keep the peace until Nod tires of the USSR in the early 1990s, but Kane shoots her and declares himself the future. In the Allied campaign, a news announcer reports that the United Nations is forming a military task force to prevent future conflicts, heavily implied to be the precursor to the Global Defense Initiative.

Reception

In the United States, Red Alert debuted at No. 2 on PC Data's computer game sales chart for November 1996, behind Microsoft Flight Simulator. It became the seventh-best-selling computer game of 1996, with domestic sales of 347,844 units and revenues of $16.5 million. In 1997, it held a top-3 position for the first four months and was the fourth-biggest seller of the first half. It ended 1997 as the eighth-best seller, with 363,207 units sold.

Lifetime US sales reached 869,623 copies by September 1999. In August 1998, it received a Platinum sales award from the VUD for sales of at least 200,000 units in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Global sales hit 1.5 million copies in its debut month, with close to two million by mid-February 1997.

Expansion packs

Two expansion packs for Red Alert were released for PC in 1997: Counterstrike and The Aftermath, designed by Westwood Studios with assistance from Intelligent Games. Development on multiplayer maps involved players from the Compuserve Red Alert ladder. New units, missions, maps, and music were included. By October 1997, Counterstrike had sold 650,000 copies worldwide, making it the fastest-selling expansion pack for a computer game at that time.

It included secret Ant Missions titled 'It Came from Red Alert', referencing the 1989 game It Came from the Desert. The Aftermath added new units: for the Allies, the Field Mechanic and Chrono Tank; for the Soviets, the Missile Sub, Shock Trooper, M.A.D Tank, and Tesla Tank. Both sides received the Demolition Truck. It also included hundreds of new maps and a larger map size.

On August 28, 1998, Westwood released Command & Conquer Red Alert: Retaliation for PlayStation, a compilation of both expansions. It allowed mid-mission saves, introduced units like Tesla Tanks and Shock Troopers, and included 105 skirmish maps. A Soylent Green Mode turned ore fields into civilians. Retaliation featured 19 exclusive briefing FMV clips, including Allied General Carville, who later appears in Red Alert 2.

Did You Know?

• The game's plot begins with Albert Einstein traveling back to 1924 to shake Hitler's hand, erasing him from the timeline.
• EA released Red Alert as freeware on August 31, 2008, to mark the 13th anniversary of Command & Conquer.
• The source code for the remastered version was released under the GNU General Public License in 2020, enabling community ports like Vanilla-Conquer.