History VideoGame / CommandAndConquerTiberianDawn

** The EVA is also missing a handful of lines from later games, perhaps most notably in that it refers to training infantry as "building" just like all other production, another thing which even ''Red Alert'' fixed - this one being so memetic that even the ''Remastered Collection'' didn't fix it. "Establishing battlefield control, standby" at the beginning of a mission would also not be implemented until ''Tiberian Sun''.

* DespairEventHorizon: At the beginning of GDI mission 12, you're treated to some disturbing imagery of the effects and death toll of tiberium in the world. The real icing on the cake, though, is Dr. Mobius's grim press conference revealing the danger that tiberium poses to humanity:

** Another cheap tactic is to use the "wall trick" which involves building sandbags all the way to the enemy's base and then closing it off with Concrete Walls. AI Harvesters won't be able to get by (even sandbags will block them) so they will quickly be starved of resources. This became so well known that it was intentionally left in for the remaster.

Shortly before the release of the ''Remastered Collection'', EA released the source code for this game and ''Red Alert'' under [[UsefulNotes/FreeLibreOpenSourceSoftware GPL 3.0]].

** NOD has the Apache, an anti-infantry gunship than can only be built in skirmish and multiplayer modes.

* DeathFromAbove: GDI has the [[KillSat Ion Cannon]], can call A-10 airstrikes, and build Orca VTOL attack fighters. Several Nod missions are meant to counter, steal or reverse this hardly-checked advantage.

* CosmeticallyDifferentSides: Zigzagged. While basic units (Minigunners, Engineers, Harvesters...) are identical and almost all unique buildings have functional equivalents, FactionCalculus is present, in a stark contrast with its main rival of the time, ''Videogame/WarCraft I'' and ''II'' - more advanced infantry and armored vehicles are side-dependent, though gaining access to the enemy's units requires only a single Engineer. It's also a rare example of the good guys being the Powerhouse and the villains being Subversive, as GDI relies on heavy, conventional platforms to steamroll the enemy in a straight-up fight, while Nod relies on light skirmishers and experimental weapons for hit-and-run tactics and taking out targets of opportunity before the enemy can react.

* RiskStyleMap: The Commander can choose the missions in two separate continents depending on your side, Africa for NOD, Europe for GDI. The map is simply an artificial facade of a CampaignTree, but you can see other areas on the map being contested or conquered by the factions.

* VersionExclusiveContent: Both the Playstation 1 and the Nintendo 64 versions of the game came with sets of unique missions - the Special Operations - that could be activated from the main menu of each respective version: the [=PS1=] version came with six of them (3 for the GDI, 2 for Nod + the SecretLevel [=PATSUX=] - aka the one where you start with a dozen Commandos and Laser Orcas) while the Nintendo 64 version came with 4 of them (2 for GDI and 2 for Nod). These were eventually recreated for the PC version of the game and included in the unofficial patch 1.06, before the ''Remastered Collection'' included them officially. For ''Remastered Collection'' players: [=PS1=] Spec Ops = '97 Spec Ops; [=N64=] Spec Ops = '99 Spec Ops; [=PATSUX=] = [[L33tL1ng0 S3cr3t M1ss1on]]
* VideoGameFlamethrowersSuck: While individual flamethrower infantry can be useful, they do not work well in groups. Their attack is small short-range attack, which can hit friendly targets within the same group of five infantry simply by being on the back ranks.

* BoringButPractical: Both sides have units that may not be much to look at, but they get the job done. The Medium Tank and Light Tank are not very fancy, especially compared to the Mammoth and Stealth Tanks respectively, but they're cheaper, available sooner, and will have no issues crushing your opponent in large enough numbers.

* CosmeticallyDifferentSides: Zigzagged. While basic units (Minigunners, Engineers, Harvesters...) are identical, FactionCalculus is present, in a stark contrast with its main rival of the time, ''Videogame/WarCraft I'' and ''II''. And of course, gaining access to the enemy's units requires only a single Engineer.
** GDI relies on heavy, conventional platforms while Nod relies on light skirmishers and experimental weapons. A rare example of the good guys being the Powerhouse.

** In the final GDI campaign mission, General Sheppard informs you that Kane is surrounded by his own "crack militia". In hindsight, this is implied to be the Black Hand, an elite subfaction of Nod that plays a much bigger role the storylines of later games like ''Tiberian Sun'', ''Renegade'', ''Tiberium Wars'', and ''Kane's Wrath''. Here, they're just a standard Nod army like all other missions but ''Kane's Wrath'' would later see them as a playable subfaction with unique units and abilities.
** [[https://youtu.be/O0nA-19EnMg A rather creepy cutscene]] shows a military helicopter flying over and observing a Tiberium-infested valley. If you look closely, you can see what appear to be spaghetti-like weeds growing from holes in the ground. These are likely the [[https://cnc.fandom.com/wiki/Veinhole Veinholes]] and veins that would later appear in ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianSun''. The veins in particular would serve as an damaging obstacle for vehicles/buildings and as a resource for Nod's Chemical Missile superweapon.

** This game had a lot of gameplay mechanics that were either ditched or were not present in later installments, such as being only able to build right next to another building and not differentiating between defensive buildings (which could be built farther away but do not generate "build" areas or allow building of new things) and normal/production ones. This specifically led to the "Sand bag wall" exploit. Speaking of sand bags, this is the only game where sand bags and chain-link fences pose an obstacle to vehicles whereas in all following titles, vehicles could simply flatten them by driving over them.

* BoringButPractical: Both sides have units that may not be much to look at, but they get the job done. The Medium Tank and Light Tank are not very fancy, especially compared to the Mammoth and Stealth Tanks respectively, but they're cheaper, available sooner, and will have no issues crushing your opponent in large enough numbers.

* CosmeticallyDifferentSides: Zigzagged. While basic units (Minigunners, Engineers, Harvesters...) are identical, FactionCalculus is present, in a stark contrast with its main rival of the time, ''Videogame/WarCraft I'' and ''II''. And of course, gaining access to the enemy's units requires only a single Engineer.
** GDI relies on heavy, conventional platforms while Nod relies on light skirmishers and experimental weapons. A rare example of the good guys being the Powerhouse.

** In the final GDI campaign mission, General Sheppard informs you that Kane is surrounded by his own "crack militia". In hindsight, this is implied to be the Black Hand, an elite subfaction of Nod that plays a much bigger role the storylines of later games like ''Tiberian Sun'', ''Renegade'', ''Tiberium Wars'', and ''Kane's Wrath''. Here, they're just a standard Nod army like all other missions but ''Kane's Wrath'' would later see them as a playable subfaction with unique units and abilities.
** [[https://youtu.be/O0nA-19EnMg A rather creepy cutscene]] shows a military helicopter flying over and observing a Tiberium-infested valley. If you look closely, you can see what appear to be spaghetti-like weeds growing from holes in the ground. These are likely the [[https://cnc.fandom.com/wiki/Veinhole Veinholes]] and veins that would later appear in ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianSun''. The veins in particular would serve as an damaging obstacle for vehicles/buildings and as a resource for Nod's Chemical Missile superweapon.

** This game had a lot of gameplay mechanics that were either ditched or were not present in later installments, such as being only able to build right next to another building and not differentiating between defensive buildings (which could be built farther away but do not generate "build" areas or allow building of new things) and normal/production ones. This specifically led to the "Sand bag wall" exploit. Speaking of sand bags, this is the only game where sand bags and chain-link fences pose an obstacle to vehicles whereas in all following titles, vehicles could simply flatten them by driving over them.

* EarlyBirdCameo: In the final GDI campaign mission, General Sheppard informs you that Kane is surrounded by his own "crack militia". In hindsight, this is implied to be the Black Hand, an elite subfaction of Nod that plays a much bigger role the storylines of later games like ''Tiberian Sun'', ''Renegade'', ''Tiberium Wars'', and ''Kane's Wrath''. Here, they're just a standard Nod army like all other missions but ''Kane's Wrath'' would later see them as a playable subfaction with unique units and abilities.

** Engineers cannot be used to instantly repair friendly buildings in this game, relegated to only capturing enemy ones. For that matter, this is the only game in the entire franchise where Engineers would use the generic infantry voice lines. Even ''Red Alert'' would give Engineers their own unique voice lines, well before they ended up doing the same for every unit period by ''Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge''. Also, this is the only game where Engineers ''apparently'' have the ability to [[BanditMook steal enemy Chinnok Transport helicopters]] by entering them. [[note]]And this is the only vehicle that the Engineer can actually steal out in the open; aside from stealing a Harvester if it is "hooked-up" to a captured Refinery.[[/note]] This ability is revisited and later given to the Mutant Hijackers in ''Tiberian Sun'' and the GLA Hijackers in ''Generals''.

** Engineers cannot be used to instantly repair friendly buildings in this game, relegated to only capturing enemy ones. For that matter, this is the only game in the entire franchise where Engineers would use the generic infantry voice lines. Even ''Red Alert'' would give Engineers their own unique voice lines, well before they ended up doing the same for every unit period by ''Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge''.