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Comment by Andrew_nenakhov | Hacker News Reader

One thing i remember best about the original C&C is a gorgeous installer [1]! Being one of the first games that came on CD, I thought it is the standard of the things to come.

Unfortunately, the future disappointed: every other game came with a boring windows installer.

[1]: https://youtu.be/cioyLQ2O6yc

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Red Alert 2's was pretty great, though not to the same level as C&C's.

When it started it blasted out at full volume, "WARNING! Military Software Detected!" which, at one friend's house, caused his mom to yell up the stairs at us "WHAT ARE YOU BOYS DOING???"

Edit: hah, beaten.

Wow, there's a blast from the past. I think the full phrase was "WARNING! Military software detected. Top secret clearance required."

You're right, I was wracking my brain trying to remember the full phrase but just couldn't.

I loved the C&C/RA computer aesthetic. That's how I always imagined the future of UI. The modern digital experience is fine, but I sometimes wish we had more rotating graphics and phosphor green text.

I think a lot of the appeal of Fallout is the PipBoy aesthetic.

Green mono monitors are de rigeur for so much geeky computing. Linux terminals in basically every movie.

Knock knock, Neo...

RA2's was pretty fun https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKjPls9YGcI

This took me way back. What an experience that was back in the day.

Never saw that one, RA1 left me disappointed, so i never checked next installments.

Looks better than average installer, but still, but quite as great as in C&C1 )

I think especially in DOS, installing a game was an Experience on its own; like "unboxing", it made you hyped for the game. I'm sure market research showed that nobody cares.

I don't believe installing a game is that much faster nowadays, but I'm sure people end up doing something else - something that was possible once windows came around.

Every other game _except C&C remastered_:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eDt_Q1risk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nupLAa68rX0

While they were made by a community member, kudos to EA for shipping them. Really put a bow on the whole thing.

As a hormonal teenager I was far more interested in Tanya. The file copying process was not the type of install I was interested in.

Particularly frustrating when trying to install Red Alert 2 on Linux via Wine, because the installer itself had copy protection.

Is there anywhere that one can read about that? That's...bizarre

I'm not sure anyone considered it worth writing up - it was standard SafeDisc. Just frustrating as someone trying to use it legitimately.

The Digital Mars C compiler came on a CD, and was unique in that it did not require installation. You could just run it off of the CD.

Yes! As a kid, I specifically remember thinking that even the installer was cool.

That is so cool (...and quite cringe from modern standards).

not very epilepsie friendly

How so?

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