As part of the marketing campaign for Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, EA will let you download the original Red Alert for free on August 31st. It's over a decade old and doesn't have as much babeage as later installments but, hey, you get to see Einstein kill Hitler.

You'll be able to download the game from the official Red Alert 3 site on Sunday. It's not clear if you'll be able to download after that day but I don't see why not. I mean, it's not like anyone's buying it these days. Additionally, you can download Red Alert 2 for free if you pre-order RA3 (along with all the other swag they're offering, including a beta key for a yet-to-be-announced strategy game).

So, why are they offering Red Alert for free this Sunday, of all days? Well, for starters, it's the 13th anniversary of the first Command & Conquer game. Also, it's Richard Gere's birthday. I'll leave it to you to decide which event inspired the giveaway.

Update: EA just posted the download page. It's here. Enjoy.