Man, the print ad for it back in Compute magazine really set the imagination off.
Paul Barnett from EA Mythic is trying to get some twitter social network spam (what do the kids call it these days?) going to see if EA legal will release the games.
I’ve love to see them as freeware or up on GOG.
I bought my 386/33 to play that game.
Totally worth it.
WTF. My own thread is already the fourth search on Google for “wing commander print ad.”
fuck, i’m so old.
Best twitter post I ever read was by Paul Coelho:
Getting old is an inevitable consequence of staying alive.
Enjoy.
The one with the turbo button? Man, those were good days
When I was a kid my dad had an OSI computer with a button that doubled the speed from 1MHZ to 2MHZ.
100% speed increase!
But Wing Commander was the first game that was as cool as I imagined games could be.
One of the greatest moments of my gaming life was finishing a run by blowing up the last Kilrathi by colliding with it using my afterburners. I survived with nothing left. No guns, no shields, nothing.
I definitely sweated the landing on that one.
Wing Commander was my first PC game. I guess I could have chosen a worse moment to become a PC gamer…
It’s quite impressive to think tere’s only five years between Ultima IV and Wing Commander. Origin sure were the kings at the time, and look how fast the technology evolved at that time… Wing Commander had such impressive graphics for the time, it really blew my mind back then, playing it on the 386 25 with the turbo button.
Barnett’s involved? Somehow this will end up with all copies of Wing Commander being destroyed in an arson attack.
I never did play Wing Commander. Was still clinging desperately to Commodore and could only stare longingly at the boxes of newer Origin releases. Then I went to college and gaming was more or less off for several years.
Wing Commander is the game that got me to finally try gaming on a PC after years of being an Amiga die-hard.
Me too. 256 color VGA graphics and a SoundBlaster card! Who could say no?
I’d have been onboard, had I not been a broke student. I didn’t have the scratch to buy a gaming PC until 1998.
Originally played it on a PS/2 Model 60. That’s a 286 at 16MHz. No sound card (micro channel) or joystick – used the mouse to control. Afterwards I’d developed such a fine touch with the mouse that I was able to freehand draw the laughing devil on the cover of Roth’s A Little Ain’t Enough in DeluxePaint II… and I’d really never had any drawing ability before then. Lost the touch about 2 weeks afterwards. :(
“Origin - We create worlds”
You sure did! :)
I bought the “Kilrathi Saga” (WC 1-4 for Windows 95) a while on ebay for some serious money so I’m set.
Still support the release of these games on GoG!
I played Wing Commander on my Amiga 1200 as an eight year-old. I have fond memories of making my callsign “Destroyer”, and then fleeing in terror during the first mission when I looked at the map - it looked like there was a destroyer RIGHT ON TOP OF ME, cloaked and ready to strike.
I felt a bit silly after that.
I also remember finally completing the last mission of the campaign, but losing Hunter in the process. G’day, my dingo-chewing compadré. Your sacrifice was not in vain.
same.
Something I just don’t get is why nobody tries to do a WC clone ? Yeah, I know, space sims are dead, but I’m pretty sure there would be a market for a simple sci-fi dogfight game. Heck, they even made a Snoopy flying ace game, and that was sort of successful if I’m not mistaken.
Of course don’t do it the EA way, making a crappy twin sticks shooter with one of your most ancient licence… I guess a 3D game in space wouldn’t cost that much to make as you can have a fairly static background, and don’t need that detailed models if the game is fast paced… As far as cinematic goes, for nostalgia’s sake 2D would be perfectly fine as long as the writing is entertaining… Juste keep the game arcadey enough, add melodrama and giant shipes, and you’re set…
Granted I haven’t played a WC in ages so I don’t really know if they’re still fun.
I was amazed i could play it on my A1200, it was a little jerky in places, but overall that sweaty-palm, seat-of-the-pants feeling of actually being in the cockpit was all there in the amiga version.
Still it was the dawning of the PC as games machine era, and the good old amiga just didn’t have the firepower to compete. X-wing was the game that finally made me convert over to PC for gaming. Don’t really make games like those anymore…still at least they were made, and can still be played!
Like Rimbo, I played the game on a 286/16 machine. I think, I didn’t even have a soundcard at that time. Ah good times. I also remember the eternity it took to install the sequel.