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A collector of classic games and rare items who goes by the nickname Siberian GRemlin obtained this very early build of Red Alert through a contact of his. The real source of this discovery is unknown; it is quite possible this was an early QA or Playtest build for an event like E3 from 1996. Here is a short message from him:

“Good day, comrades. This version was found on a bootleg CD copied from an unknown source in 1996. Maybe this version was used for some game shows and expos. How it leaked from Westwood Studios and come to Russian bootleggers is unknown. I just bought it from the previous owner, whom I will no longer meet.”

So, the five of us got together and decided this was something the community really needed to experience and explore, so we contacted him and came to a deal so we could share this treasure with all of you!

For the past couple of days we have all jumped right in and have been testing the game as much as we could, documenting any differences from the release version of Red Alert. We have also pulled the game files apart, to see if there were any hidden files or new files to be discovered, and we weren't disappointed!

Here a few of the interesting discoveries and changes we found;

A couple of previously unseen FMVs, including the infamous “shipyard” FMV that never made the final game, and another FMV showing the UN flag.

Unheard voices for some units. Allied: “It is done!”, Thief: “Like candy from a baby.”, “Let’s pick ‘em clean.”, “Time for a little five-finger discount!”.

“Soviets” and “Allies” are the only factions available in Skirmish.

Contains a primitive version of the Skirmish AI.

Game balance is very different to the final game, with some weapons being quite overpowered.

Also, a really interesting discovery we found. This version of the game contains the internal developer map editor! There are also quite a few debug keys, for example; one that grants you instant special weapons, instant win/lose of the current mission and one that gives you 10,000 credits! You can find full details on how to activate it in the document below.

We have uploaded some shots of the “Editor” to an imgur album, and with the help of Chad, there are also some screenshots of the differences in the multiplayer maps maps here: https://imgur.com/a/OyBos03

TaxOwlbear Has been busy and very kindly prepared a full ‘Let’s Play’ for you all of the campaign and more which you can watch on his channel here (new videos will appear every 15 minutes from now!): TaxOwlbear's YouTube Channel

Nyerguds has uploaded the FMVs and Thief quotes to his YouTube channel for your viewing: Nyerguds's YouTube Channel

Tore has also kindly hosted the the original, unmodified ISO image for you all, which can be downloaded from: https://downloads.cnc-comm.com/?dir=red-alert/beta

You can find a full list of our discoveries and changes, along with instructions for installing the game here: https://downloads.cnc-comm.com/red-alert/beta/rabeta_instructions_and_notes.pdf
Make sure you read the instructions first! It will guide you through installing and running the game, and will give instructions for running on newer operating systems like Windows 10.

Have fun, and let one of us know if you discover anything we didn't catch!

Long live Command & Conquer!

CCHyper /u/cchyper88
Nyerguds /u/Nyerguds
Tore /u/Tore29
TaxOwlbear /u/TaxOwlbear
Chad (CNCNet)

https://www.reddit.com/r/commandandconquer/comments/dflqti/a_present_to_the_cc_community/?sort=new