By Dan Stapleton, Senior Associate Editor

For my Strategic Command column for the April issue (on stands today!) I went back to where the Red Alert saga began: Westwood Studios. Which, unfortunately, no longer exists, since EA bought it up and merged it with their LA studio. So instead, I went to Petroglyph Studios, located a few blocks from the office where Westwood created Command & Conquer, and where many former Westwoodians set up shop after EA bought up their former employer. What I got was way too much information to cram into a single column, but also too good to waste. So here, as promised, are uncut interviews with Red Alert’s Lead Designer, Adam Isgreen, and Frank Klepacki, Lead Music Composer.

By Dan Stapleton, Senior Associate Editor

For my Strategic Command column for the April issue (on stands today!) I went back to where the Red Alert saga began: Westwood Studios. Which, unfortunately, no longer exists, since EA bought it up and merged it with their LA studio. So instead, I went to Petroglyph Studios, located a few blocks from the office where Westwood created Command & Conquer, and where many former Westwoodians set up shop after EA bought up their former employer. What I got was way too much information to cram into a single column, but also too good to waste. So here, as promised, are uncut interviews with Red Alert’s Lead Designer, Adam Isgreen, and Frank Klepacki, Lead Music Composer.

Adam Isgreen
Creative Director, Petroglyph

PCG: Where did the idea come from to take C&C from the near future to recent history? What was your inspiration?

AI: I think the original idea from [Westwood President & Co-Founder] Brett [Sperry] was more financial than anything. We originally wanted to make a WWII add-on for C&C that wouldn't take a long time to do and would leverage the engine from C&C, making a tidy profit in the process. We had a ton of existing material to draw from regarding WWII units, so it should have been something easy to do. However, our own creativity and established C&C philosophy got in the way. After making two different factions with GDI and Nod, suddenly creating three tanks for the Germans that all had minor tweaks in fuel efficiency, combat range, speed and turret rotation rate didn't feel like it fit into what was now becoming the C&C brand. The more we looked into straight WWII, the more we thought "yeah that's realistic... but is that fun? Is that what C&C is about?"

Eventually, we decided that no, C&C as a brand wasn't about nearly identical units on each faction.

PCG: I know that Red Alert was initially planned as an expansion pack for C&C; when did you realize you were on to something big enough to make the jump to a full-fledged game?

AI: After we finished Covert Operations, and looked over what we delivered and defined as an expansion, then looked at all the material we had for C&C0... and we had 10x more stuff than Covert Ops ever did. About then, we realized that this shouldn't be any kind of add-on, but a full-fledged C&C game. And boy, was it ambitious: three unique paths for both the Allies and the Soviets, with unique maps and units per path; naval combat; a palace-building mode for the Soviets; a paradox ending; Einstein assassinating Hitler; a crazy multiple-double-agent story; and a "choose the ending" finale with the Soviets, where Stalin and Kukov (an allied spy) got into a fight, the gun skittered across the floor... and you picked it up. Who did you shoot? Stalin or Kukov? Of course, the scope got reduced as we went on, but boy did we have some crazy stuff lined up for it.

PCG: What were some of your favorite stories from working on the game? I heard one about attack dogs turning into projectiles…

AI: Yeah, the dogs that could survive a nuke. Classic. [Lead Programmer] Joe Bostic had coded the dog to turn itself into a projectile when it jumped, so that the dog essentially "shot" itself at enemies, then reconstituted itself into a unit when it landed. Projectiles in the C&C engine were non-interactive with other weapons, so if dogs happened to be in the air when the nuke hit, the dog would survive. It was great to see this mushroom cloud go up, and then there was Rin Tin Tin just standing there in the aftermath, tail wagging.

Also, the spy's temp art! When we first put the spy in, for temp unit art, one of our artists created the black spy from Mad Magazine's Spy vs. Spy comics. It was great. He had all these terrific animations, and we loved him because it was silly and fun, which was really one of the mandates of Red Alert - have FUN. I tried to get Brett to keep him in as an Easter egg, but legally...yeah, right.

Naval units...they were driving around on land for a while. A submarine that could only move in dirt...great. And ground explosions would use water detonations for a while, so it felt like you were fighting on a giant sponge.

And the giant ants. Originally, we wanted to include something that was going to be the RA equivalent of the Dino Island from C&C. I'm a big fan of the film THEM! and thought that giant radioactive ants would fit the RA universe well. Brett said no. No time, not going to happen. We can't make unique units for something like this. C'mon Brett, we established a trend with Funpark. Ok, you can have one unit, but it has to be symmetrical. How about a killer tomato? (yeah, he actually suggested that) No, Brett, we're not doing that. Ok, fine, then you don't get anything.

So, I kind of went around him and forced the issue. I had our writer create this dialogue between two soldiers talking about a missing patrol and these bites laced with formic acid, then had our manual designer add the entire conversation it in Morse code to the bottom of the pages of the manual. No explanation at all - just Morse code along each page bottom. The game shipped, and suddenly these letters came in from boy scouts and soldiers and all these people that knew and were learning Morse code would come in. It was the best tease ever. Man, was Brett was pissed at me. That got me quite an earful...but it did force him to relent and allow us to put the giant ants in...and we even got a cinematic out of it, too. I think it was even a bullet point on the box for Counterstrike!

However I don't believe for a second that he didn't know about what I was doing from the very beginning. I think he felt that he had to yell at me for the sake of breaking the chain of command, but that he really didn't mind how it all turned out. I think in the end he just wanted to see how much I really wanted to put them in.

PCG: Were you surprised by the incredible reaction to the game?

AI: Yes and no. Everyone what worked on that game loved it, but we didn't know if anyone else would. We all played it. We worked until 3 AM and were back at 9 AM for weeks and weeks towards the end of the project. It didn't matter. Semi-conscious or not, we simply were having a great time. I guess all the fun that we had in creating the game really came through. It made us all very proud to have worked on it.

One telltale sign: A reviewer from Gamestar came out from Germany to play the game. He played all day for two days straight, loving it. He then asked if he could come back the next day (a Saturday) and play more before his plane left!

PCG: Looking back, 12 years later, what are you most proud of about RA?

AI: We took C&C and created something that was C&C, yet not what C&C was originally defined as. RA was faster, featured masses of units, added naval combat, added Skirmish as a standard feature, coined the phrase "tank rush," created some crazy rule-breaking abilities and units, and helped solidify the C&C brand as a major player with two hits in a row. RA and its expansions also defined the idea of adding new units in expansions, something that hadn't been done up until then in RTS. I think the RA development team also exemplified the best environment that game development can exist in. We'd argue, fight, yell - and all for the better of the game. No egos involved, just a lot of very devoted people making a game they really all passionately believed in and wanted to make great. The fun was contagious amongst the team, and that's something we try very hard to cultivate on all the projects we work on these days.

PCG: What are you looking forward to about Red Alert 3, and what would you like to see?

AI: I'm really looking forward to what they do with the factions. RA has always been near and dear to my heart in terms of crazy, creative, wild units and strategies. RA2 went beyond my wildest expectations for what the RA series could become. I'm looking forward to being blown away yet again by what the EALA guys come up with for the third!

Frank Klepacki
Audio Director, Petroglyph

I was Westwood Studios’ full time music composer, and did the score for Red Alert, as well as all the Command & Conquer games up through Renegade.

The first thing that anyone will ever say about Red Alert’s music is that it has one of the most popular video game songs of all time: “Hell March.” This was the main theme for the game and the whole series, as Red Alert 2 saw a reworked version as well.

This was the first song I wrote for Red Alert, not having any idea about what Red Alert would be. One day I walked in my office at Westwood, picked up my guitar, plugged it in, and that was the first riff I played. I was inspired right away. I knew it would be an instant song, but had no idea it would be a "hit"! I immediately heard in my head that I wanted a marching sound effect that would be in rhythm of the riff. I could see the army NOD getting ready for battle in my head. Sometimes when you write songs, every idea comes at once, and that's what happened here for me. I knew right away that I wanted a military voice sample to put in as well, as if he were commanding the troops while marching. After going through some sound effect libraries, I found a sample that also had a similar rhythm to the song that stood out to me. I always thought he said “We Want War, Wake Up,” but it turned out it’s actually a German phrase for “Ready Weapons!”

Now I knew the right arrangement would really make this song. I didn't want to come out blazing right away. I needed it to build up, and then hit hard. I thought that just having the bass guitar slightly distorted playing segments of the riff would be a good place to start, playing to the rhythm of the marching only. After the commander gave his cue I then added in some industrial sounds in rhythm of the marching as well for helping the build up. Then "Boom!" The guitars and drums kick in loud and rockin’!

I was pretty proud of it. When Brett Sperry, our president, heard it for the first time, he said right away that it was the title track for the game. And when I learned that GDI and NOD weren't actually in this game, it was discussed that it would be allies and soviets, with a "what if" fun campy scenario.

With this in mind, I began to think, black and white b-movies from the 50's. I experimented with a few ideas, surf music, under-produced orchestra stuff, I even tried a disco theme for Tanya, which was scrapped right away. I was trying to come up with ideas that would fit more of the old sci-fi campy-ness rather than continue with what I had done before. But the direction would end up being to play to the “personality” of the sides, not straying too far from the original C&C. Once we established the direction the rest of the scoring came like clockwork, and resonated with the fans so much they all wanted the soundtrack.

In a way, the process of creating the soundtrack, was very similar to the process of doing it with C&C, listening to new stuff, drawing several influences, trying a few experimental flops to get to the good stuff. It's all in the name of making a great game, and music that fits the mood of whats going on. I commend the team for having the guts to take these kinds of chances and going another way with it. That's what made it creative. That's what made it fun. That's what made it "C&C: Red Alert."

Red Alert 3? It would be cool if they continue some of the crazy stuff we had going in Yuri’s Revenge, that was a blast. But, all I can say is it would be sacrilege not to have “Hell March” in it…