It's crazy how much I played the Command & Conquer games on Playstation back in the day, considering how much they were compromised.

[AuthenticM]

Command & Conquer Tiberian Dawn and Command & Conquer Red Alert were both on the original Playstation. I played the fuck out of them because they were, and still are, fantastic games. I didn't have a PC back then, and wouldn't have one until the year 2000. I had never played an RTS before, and was amazed by how great the gameplay was. That there were kickass FMV videos to tell the story was the cherry on top.

That said, these versions of the games were definitely inferior to their original PC releases. The resolution is super small, so you only see very little of the map at any given time. You had to play with the dualshock instead of a mouse. I am also pretty sure the player didn't have access to the repertoire of commands they could give to their units, such as guard and attack move. I might be wrong on that, but the low resolution and lack of mouse alone make these versions unrecommendable in the year 2019.

But back then? Shiiiiiiiiiit.



Also, I have to ask: did these versions have easier difficulty? It would feel appropriate considering the compromises.

 

[Radiant Silvertuna]

StarCraft 64 was absolutely incredible... if you had no other way to get your Brood War fix.

 

[Version 3.0]

I feel the same about Descent, which I played, on the Playstation, well past the point of it being unplayable by reasonable standards. My PC at the time ran it even worse, though. It was amazing when I upgraded.

I couldn't say about the C&C difficulty, never played those. I know some console ports did.

 

[Jawmuncher]

God, that soundtrack always takes me back.

"New Construction Options" "Moving out" "YESSIR" "Affirmative"

then you got that funky beat hitting you with

I'M A MECHANICAL, I'M A MECHANICAL, I'M A MECHANICAL MAN

 

[machine]

Red Alert and Red Alert Retalation were compatible with Playstation Mouse

 

[Figgles]

You could definitely guard and attack move. I played the hell out of Red Alert on Playstation. I played it years later on PC with the PC collection. The port wasn't bad. Matches had some slowdown, when the unit counts got high, but other than that it was fine.

 

[Crayon]

Hey the saturn c&c discs are sitting in a flip case right here not two feet from my curry.

Ive been obsessed with saturn for almost week and its affecting my judgement. I have a pc in the living room but i want to play it on saturn now.

Some games can survive these translations. Usually good games. The game can be compromised enough to play diffently but it's not necessarily less fun.

Sometimes they even pick up something good in the process. The console versions of me MechWarrior 2 are massively hacked up but the result is a game that has some... Editing?... That may have improved the origional.

 

[Hayama Akito]

Well, at least they are not Diablo 1 on PS1...

 

[SyndicateWars]

Red Alert Retaliation was really cool on PSX. I didn't had issues with the controls although keyboard and mouse are beyond any doubt better fpr the genre.

 

[Tofer]

I played the hell out of red alert on ps1. That 5 FPS...so good

 

[VodkaFX]

Red Alert and Dune 2000, sinked plenty of hours with both of these games on PS1.

 

[Bishop89]

Played the hell out of retaliation.

 

[famikon]

and lack of mouse

Red Alert has mouse support on PS1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_Mouse

 

[AuthenticM]

Red Alert has mouse support on PS1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_Mouse

well shit

 

[ashtaar]

Hey the saturn c&c discs are sitting in a flip case right here not two feet from my curry.

Ive been obsessed with saturn for almost week and its affecting my judgement. I have a pc in the living room but i want to play it on saturn now.

Some games can survive these translations. Usually good games. The game can be compromised enough to play diffently but it's not necessarily less fun.

Sometimes they even pick up something good in the process. The console versions of me MechWarrior 2 are massively hacked up but the result is a game that has some... Editing?... That may have improved the origional.

MY BROTHER in law had c&c for Saturn
No no no no mercy
I remember those towers of nod and my boy Kane

 

[famikon]

I remember back then I managed to finish Warhammer: Dark Omen by using d-pad only (I didn't have DualShock at that time). Still one of my favorite game of all time. A few months ago launched it again - still holds up on my opinion.

 

[Brazil]

Red Alert has mouse support on PS1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_Mouse

... Wow.

 

[Samanosuke Akechi]

I remember as a kid seeing this ad in a magazine thinking”wow those graphics are amazing “

Never played these. Was more of a Soviet/ Nuclear trike fan.

 

[Zefah]

I had it on PC and still rented it on PS1 for some reason. I ended up playing it a ton.

Diablo was another game that I played a ton of PS1, too, despite also having it on PC.

 

[Stider]

I remember my friend and I bought the link cable so we could play Red Alert against each other with 2 TV's and ps1's.

 

[Poimandres]

I remember my friend and I bought the link cable so we could play Red Alert against each other with 2 TV's and ps1's.

Lol yeah I did the same. We used to play epic 3 hour matches. Too many units and the slowdown got pretty bad...

Dune 2000 was a much more interesting because it was in full 3D on PSX. Not on par with the PC original of course, but interesting and playable.

 

[seloth]

I wish there was a game like this on consoles these days.

I don’t really enjoy the FE/Wargroove style strategy games.

 

[Anthony Hopkins]

I remember playing c + c on the N64, i don't remember being to impressed by it.

I remember I bought the PC version before I had a PC, I went to a friends house who had a PC and he let me install it on his pc, I loved it, but he had no interest, but he said it was ok if I wanted to play it.


It strange that despite its limited visuals compared to today, I was more drawn into the c + c world then many games of today.

The old cgi videos really did spur the imagination.

 

[RC0101]

I played so much Red Alert on the PlayStation! My PlayStation would constantly over heat while playing so I had to put ice packs on it haha

 

[Tagyhag]

Red Alert and Dune 2000, sinked plenty of hours with both of these games on PS1.

Woah, had no idea Dune 2000 was on PS1, and it's fully 3D.

 

[Adamska]

I used to watch my brother play a bunch of Warzone 2100 on PS1. It looked way better than C&C.

 

[MegaSackman]

I'm with you in that I played a lot of the original and Red Alert, it was one of the first games I owned and I loved it!

 

[famikon]

I had it on PC and still rented it on PS1 for some reason. I ended up playing it a ton.

For me, similar thing was with Dune 2 on Sega MD.

Despite PC version was far superior, I still spent a lot of time with MD version too, mainly because of OST and sound effects (my PC was without sound card at that time).

 

[Anthony Hopkins]

I wish there was a game like this on consoles these days.

I don’t really enjoy the FE/Wargroove style strategy games.

The closest you'll get is Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars for 360, its back compact on the x1.

 

[Dogui]

I love how RTSs were a thing on the PS1. Along with Red Alert, wasted dozens of hours on the console version of KKND 2: Krossfire back then.

"Clearly designed for pc" games like the first Diablo or Worms Armageddon were also stuff i played a lot more on the PS1.

 

[famikon]

I love how RTSs were a thing on the PS1. Along with Red Alert, wasted dozens of hours on the console version of KKND 2: Krossfire back then.

I also liked Z.


Pretty unique RTS game

 

[Crayon]

I remember back then I managed to finish Warhammer: Dark Omen by using d-pad only (I didn't have DualShock at that time). Still one of my favorite game of all time. A few months ago launched it again - still holds up on my opinion.

Ive got shadow of the horned rat and a psx mouse. You could say its been on my backlog for two decades. Were those pretty good?

 

[Ishmae1]

Respect, TC. I remember the programmers working through the controls for those. I was always impressed with how much input fidelity they squeezed out of the ps1 controller.

 

[famikon]

Ive got shadow of the horned rat and a psx mouse. You could say its been on my backlog for two decades. Were those pretty good?

Can't say anything about Shadow of the Horned Rat since I never played it. I know it's a prequel, but that's about it.

As for Dark Omen - it's basically predecessor of Total War series (minus "turn-based strategy" part) and I like it much more, because for me - simpler is better. It has proper story mode, branching paths, unique units and well designed maps (unlike TW, where maps look like they were randomly generated).

Basically, it's like Game of Thrones in RTS form.

 

[Locust Star]

I never understood how those who played c&c on console or other PC games during its golden age. They always seemed incredibly inferior.

 

[Uremifasolasiututut]

Played the hell out of Red Alert on PC, and a friend had the PSX Retaliation version which I borrowed from him more than a few times. It was pretty good I thought, and I really enjoyed it.

Makes me want to listen to the soundtrack again, heh.


CHA-CHIIIIINNNNNNNNG!!

 

[finaljedi]

Command and Comquer on the N64 had some nice 3d terrain effects and would have been great... except for the shit slideshow cutscenes

 

[boredandlazy]

Used to play Red Alert against my friends with the link cable on PS1. Good times. Especially when my heavy tank rush lowered the fps to about 2.

 

[daninthemix]

Same OP. Funny story is I rented the first C&C multiple times to play through the NOD campaign over and over again. The GDI disc was missing from the rental pack. Only got to play GDI much later on PC.

 

[Sandersson]

I also liked Z.


Pretty unique RTS game

That demo was hard AF, especially for a 1st grader at the time. I still get nightmares..

 

[KingBae]

Oh wow! This brings back a ton of memories. I've played a ton of Red Alert and Warcraft 2 on PS1. RA games would take me all afternoon when the resources run out and I waited for them slowly respawn and patiently gather them. Thanks for the nostalgia attack, OP!

 

[CrimsonCrescendo]

Goddamn do I miss Command and Conquer.

 

[Izzard]

I still play them on my ps every now and then. I was so addicted to them.

 

[Diego Renault]

I liked it on PS1 as well. Controls weren't that bad. All buttons could be used as hotkeys (to group units and stuff).

One of the best things: You could link 2 PS1 together and play in a LAN. Playing against a friend was super fun.

 

[FyreWulff]

Even if you were playing this on PC, the jump from C&C DOS to C&C '95 was like a generational upgrade, even if it was technically the same game.

C&C DOS:

C&C '95:

Someone made a handy comparison:

Even after playing tons of the PC version, I got C&C 64 (have a copy right now, actually). It's still amazing that the one 3D remake of the original Command and Conquer is still only on the N64.

 

[Ruruja]

I put hundreds of hours into Civilization II on PS1, and looking back I have no idea how it didn't drive me insane.

I love how RTSs were a thing on the PS1. Along with Red Alert, wasted dozens of hours on the console version of KKND 2: Krossfire back then.

"Clearly designed for pc" games like the first Diablo or Worms Armageddon were also stuff i played a lot more on the PS1.

KKND 2 was awesome. Arguably my favourite RTS.

 

[karkii]

I also liked Z.


Pretty unique RTS game

I've pretty much never seen anyone mention Z! That was one of the first pc games I ever played.

 

[Hamster Plugin]

I wish there was a game like this on consoles these days.

I don’t really enjoy the FE/Wargroove style strategy games.

Issue is that every AAA publisher wants every single game to be a mega hit. These kinds of games really want a mouse, and for the past two gens only the PS3 and PS4 supported a mouse before the Xbox One got support very recently. And the amount of mouse users on either console is likely to be low anyway, so you can't make the kind of mega hit that AAA publishers want.

 

[lazygecko]

I tried the PS1 port of Warcraft 2 a few years ago just out of curiosity. It was way worse than I anticipated. Probably even significantly worse than the C&C ports. Even most of the unit voices were removed which kills a lot of the personality.

 

[Ivan]

You're not crazy at all...

There were many of us who didn't own a PC back then, but had PS1. And those versions were actually very sucessful, reaching platinum status (each version).

Those were different times when you didn't ask too many quetions and just enjoyed the game. Was it compromised? Of course. But, like with everything, you learn your instrument and just enjoy a fantastic game. I miss that approach, simpler times....

And actual games were really good, especially red alert with streamlined sidebar (closer to red alert 2 version). and shortcuts for unit gropus (L2 + button to assign, L1 + button to select). And R1 + circle to train last unit again. Faster cursor movement on R1. It was really well made for the time.


Playstation version had some advantages, too. Videos were higher quality with less artifacts. Scrolling (before a slowdown :P) was super smooth at 60 fps (I don't think PC version had that).

It is even mentioned on the back cover :D

Being made for CRT tv made it a different beast, of course. It was 320x200 (like DOS version of both C&C and Red Alert), but comparison is pointless because there was no need to have higher resolution on CRT with scanlines on PS1. It had certain charm of a "game on crt with scanlines" that pc version lacked. It was smoother, less pixelated looking and today I apreciate it even more. When you play it on an emulator, you see how "shitty" it looked, but there were many tricks to go cheaper because you had a low res crt. It looked great in practice. Also, I didn't like how everything became too tiny on pc after 95. version and patches. It was more detailed in theory, but you caouldn't see it because it was tiny. I prefer the sprite size of 320*200 version and I hope they're gonna use that as a base for remasters.

Mouse support was there, I had a playstation mouse, but then you couldnt use shortcuts on joypad. I think playing it on a gameped is the way to go.

The point is - it was introduction to the series for many of us who wouldn't be able to experience it otherwise....and it was great.

I love Warcraft 2 The Dark Saga too. It also had different interface without the side menu. It was a different, full screen warcraft experience :D. They didn't nail the controls like westood i think . But you could select 12 units :D.

Awesome times, awesome games. PC versions are my all time favourites, too :P. I still have them all.

I just love those "impossible ports". You know it doesnt make sense at first, but you find a way and make people happy. I adore many "impossible" playstation versions of pc games from that era and sometimes even end up prefering ps version because of better controller.

I would die for a console version of C&C remasters. There, I said it.