Headquarters
In search of my teenage fan club – by Tchutch'
When the first Command & Conquer came out, I was 13. I didn’t realise then that, thirty years later, I’d still be here talking about tanks, Tiberium and Kane. But the bug had already taken hold: in 1996, I set up CnCSaga to share this passion, soon joined by Red Alert.
Inside the boxes of the first two C&C games and their expansions, there was a leaflet that really sparked my imagination. It showcased the official French fan club, Headquarter, as well as a merchandise shop. Joining the club, receiving its newsletters, wearing the colours of the GDI or Nod… For the fan that I was, it all sounded incredibly appealing. And then there were those items in the leaflet – we’d have loved to pluck them right out of the paper so we could hold them in our hands, wear them, display them.
In 1997, Virgin Interactive (VIE) launched an official fan club in France and included a leaflet in every box of Command & Conquer™ to promote it. This fan club lasted until the summer of 1998 (and the sale of Westwood to EA).
But here’s the thing: to join or place an order, you had to pay by cheque or credit card. Two things I didn’t have at that age. So I could look at the leaflet, daydream a bit, then go back to playing. In 1998, following Electronic Arts’ takeover of Westwood, the fan club and the shop closed down. In the end, I never actually became a member of Headquarter.
The years have passed, but the desire to find these items has remained. Through my more or less compulsive shopping sprees on eBay and elsewhere, I eventually managed to get hold of a few of them: the two soundtracks for C&C: Red Alert and Alerte Rouge, as well as a very worn GDI watch. It had clearly been through a few battles, but it was definitely the one I’d fancied in the brochure! (Well… for want of the Nod one)
Then, in July 2024, I received a message from Wesley ‘Wes Ley’ Boogmans. He’d seen a photo of my C&C merchandise and wanted to know if I’d be willing to sell him a Lands of Lore III pin badge, another game by Westwood. We had a chat and he explained that he collects anything and everything, directly or indirectly, related to the studio. I finally decided to give him the pin and post it to him in the Netherlands.
Wesley then shared some photos of his collection with me. And what a collection! Amongst his vast array of items, I came face to face with the Headquarter again: he owns the welcome pack and three issues of the fan club magazine. I’m both amazed and a little sceptical. How did these items from the French fan club end up in the collection of a Dutch fan? I ask him for detailed photos of the leaflet, feeling as though I’m rediscovering a piece of my teenage years.
The idea lingered in the back of my mind until August 2026. With the 30th-anniversary revamp of CnCSaga, I thought it was the right time to delve into the subject and devote a proper feature to it. So, in September, I got back in touch with Wesley with a slightly more extensive request: to photograph every page of his three magazines.
Using his photos, I then digitally reconstructed the pages to produce straight, perfectly legible spreads. The aim is to finally be able to read these documents properly and share them with you. At the same time, I’m carrying out extensive searches on the Web Archive’s Wayback Machine to track down traces of the fan club and its shop, cross-check the information and fill in the gaps in what the paper documents tell us. Little by little, the Headquarter is taking shape again.
A big thank you to Wesley for his help and his photos. I wanted to treat him to a pin; I didn’t expect that this exchange would lead to the rediscovery of a whole chapter in the French history of C&C.
What you’ll find
In this feature, you can discover how the fan club worked and its welcome pack, browse through the three recovered issues of Trans-mission, complete with their news, competitions and tournaments, and explore the shop, its products and the prices from that era. The galleries allow you to view the reconstructed documents and visuals gathered during the research. This is what makes this project rather special: making available archives that I hadn’t previously found anywhere on the internet (as they aren’t there), and finally bringing this little piece of our community’s history to light. There are still some gaps to fill, so if you were a member, have kept any documents or have found an item at the back of a box, your memories and photos are very welcome!
