Strange info from Westwood's old Red Alert 1 page

[Iran]

09/01/96

Both Windows 95 and DOS versions of game are sent to test departments in satellite offices. Game begins testing phase. Within one week, Westwood's internal testing department increases from 10 to 60 testers.

 

http://ra.afraid.org/ww_archive/games/redalert/news.html ^

 

 

Tesla, Nikkola

 

 

A prolific inventor and a pioneer in high-tension electricity, he made many discoveries and inventions of great value to the development of radio transmission, radar and to the field of electricity. His inventions include an arc-lighting system, the Tesla induction motor, the Tesla coil, and various generators and transformers.

 

In 1938 he and his colleagues developed and conducted a series of experiments in stealth technology, radar jamming, electronic shrouding and mind control which were conducted and carried out in secret.

 

Stealth Technology

 

 

Stealth technology was created to fool both pulse and doppler systems of radar. This is a collection of materials and techniques used in the construction of mobile military systems such as aircraft, tanks, and ships, that significantly reduce detection by an enemy, primarily by enemy radar.

 

Among the techniques used in the F-117A fighter and B-2 bomber, for example, are a low profile construction with no surfaces that reflect radar directly back, the intensive substitution of radar-opaque composites for metals, and an overall coating of a radar-absorbing material.

 

In 1939, Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla told the United States Office of Naval Research that Einstein's Unified Field Theory could be used to jam certain types of radar, thereby making objects become invisible. On June 12, 1943, the Navy prepared seven gigantic Tesla coils and beamed them toward the USS Eldridge, a medium-sized cruiser berthed just outside Philadelphia.

 

The ship vanished completely for some seven minutes.

 

When the ship reappeared most of the 67 men on board were okay. However, Naval researchers and scientists then discovered a grisly sight.

 

Bodies, or remains of bodies were found throughout the ship, some embedded within the steel. It appeared that the experiment had caused a complete breakdown of the Einsteins suggested time/space continuum. The surviving crew members were hospitalized in secret locations and all records of the experiment received the highest classification.

 

In 1990, two survivors, Preston Nichols and Duncan Cameron broke the code of silence, and began revealing with documents and photos what had happened during the Philadelphia Experiment.

 

Many authorities believe that much of the research data on cloaking, however, had been used by Lockheed in its construction of the B-1 stealth bomber.

 

http://ra.afraid.org/ww_archive/games/redalert/research.html ^

 

New Units & Structures - Thieves, Medics, Attack Dogs, Spies, Land Mines, Tesla Coils, Mobile Radar Jammers, Saboteurs, Destroyers, Cruisers, Bombers, Paratroopers, and Submarines... to name just a few. We won't even hint at what the Chronosphere and Gap Generators do.

 

http://ra.afraid.org/ww_archive/games/redalert/hq.html ^

 

Ed: High-res. Without a doubt. When C&C came out, we only took 2 slams

from our competitors. Low-res and no map editor. Now we have both.

What can I tell ya -- You ask, we give!

 

http://ra.afraid.org/ww_archive/games/redalert/articles/gameslice/red.html ^

 

http://ra.afraid.org/ww_archive/games/redalert/articles/gameslice/iteam1.jpg

http://ra.afraid.org/ww_archive/games/redalert/articles/gameslice/iteam3.jpg

http://ra.afraid.org/ww_archive/games/redalert/articles/gameslice/iteam2.jpg

http://ra.afraid.org/ww_archive/games/redalert/articles/gameslice/iteam4.jpg

 

Interior map screenshot with a Kennel on the map:

 

http://ra.afraid.org/ww_archive/games/redalert/articles/pcgamer/scrsht00.gif

 

Each country (currently Russia, England, France, Greece, Germany, Italy, Spain and Turkey)

 

http://ra.afraid.org/ww_archive/games/redalert/articles/stratplus/page3.html ^

 

Tiberium hasn't appeared yet, but it's being replaced by different types of ore: copper, iron and nickel, all of which are worth different amounts of money.

 

Some other new gameplay features include the ability for players to set up patrols with more than one waypoint

 

Each side has new "ultimate weapons" that are more specialized and which, as Westwood designer Adam Isgreen puts it, "promise to generate some evil possibilities for extreme violence."

 

Also present are actual beaches, making for some spectacular beach landings. Send in the infantry as cannon fodder and bombard

 

http://ra.afraid.org/ww_archive/games/redalert/articles/stratplus/page3.html ^

 

Westwood is looking into different ways to implement a sort of random mission generator.The computer AI (artificial intelligence) is receiving the most attention in Red Alert.

 

Isgreen and Lightner are both excited that, at the highest difficulty setting, the computer is seriously tough to defeat. The plan is for additional settings for the computer AI to help tailor it to the player.

 

The AI will now notice if it's being ganged up on and try to ally with other computer players to defend itself.

 

The player can take on multiple computer opponents and set the AI for each of them.

 

The newer AI does a better job of determining threats. Isgreen explained that "The computer can now calculate threat ratings for each confrontation and will send out a batch of units to counter that threat."

 

http://ra.afraid.org/ww_archive/games/redalert/articles/stratplus/page4.html ^

[r34ch]

Ed: High-res. Without a doubt.

Made me giggle XD

[Allen262]

What was Hi-Res at the time of RA1?

[Tore]

Some games had modes up to 1024 x 768.

[Iran]

About the Expert AI thing, the game has a function Called HouseClass::Expert_AI() which calls the following functions:

 

const HouseClass::Check_Build_Power(void) ; check if power plants need to be built
const HouseClass::Check_Build_Defense(void) ; doesn't do anything
const HouseClass::Check_Build_Income(void) ; doesn't do anything
const HouseClass::Check_Fire_Sale(void) ; check if the AI should sell all their buildings
const HouseClass::Check_Build_Engineer(void) ; doesn't do anything
const HouseClass::Check_Build_Offense(void) ; doesn't do anything
const HouseClass::Check_Raise_Money(void) ; checks if buildings need to be sold to raise money
const HouseClass::Check_Raise_Power(void) ; check if power needs to be raised
const HouseClass::Check_Lower_Power(void) ; check for low power
const HouseClass::Check_Attack(void) ; checks if it's time to attack, if less than 900 game frames have elapsed does nothing
HouseClass::AI_Attack(UrgencyType) ; does an attack wave
HouseClass::AI_Lower_Power(UrgencyType) ; sells a Power Plant or Advanced Power Plant
const HouseClass::AI_Raise_Power(UrgencyType) ; Raises power by selling structures
const HouseClass::AI_Raise_Money(UrgencyType) ; Raises money by selling structures
const HouseClass::AI_Build_Offense(UrgencyType); does nothing
const HouseClass::AI_Build_Engineer(UrgencyType) ; does nothing
HouseClass::AI_Fire_Sale(UrgencyType) ; sells all buildings and sets all units into hunt mode
const HouseClass::AI_Build_Income(UrgencyType) ; does nothing
const HouseClass::AI_Build_Defense(UrgencyType) ; does nothing
const HouseClass::AI_Build_Power(UrgencyType) ; does nothing

 

There's separate functions for buying tanks, infantry, buildings, aircrafts and naval.

[cn2mc]

Ed: High-res. Without a doubt.

Made me giggle XD

 

Compared to DOS C&C's 320x200, RA's resolution is stellar, pretty much in tune with what people considered high-end at that time, and certainly on par with WarCraft II. Sure, you could go 800x600 and even 1024x768 on some games, but did you really need/benefit from that? Display sizes were much smaller back then and monitors were mostly oldschool CRT.

I remember high resolutions bugging the hell out of me in Quake 2 and to this day play it in either 640x480 or 800x600.

[Matt]

Small company with big plans.