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| Wing Commander Secret Ops |
Wing Commander Secret Ops was a bold experiment in episodic internet distribution. Beginning in August 1998, one episode was released each week for eight weeks. New fiction and backstory was released on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and a corresponding mission pack came out on Thursday. Depending on their perfomance, players were given a password which would influence the fiction they read the following week. After the experiment was concluded, Secret Ops was bundled and sold in the Prophecy Gold collection. The story put Lance Casey and his squadron aboard the TCS Cerberus Quick Strike Cruiser. They fought the alien Nephilim menace once again, but this time the point of incursion was in the inner core of the Confederation. Along the way new revelations about the insectoid race were uncovered and Confed appeared resolved to take the fight to enemy in the near future.
Intense Battle Scenarios: Multi-stage capital strike missions create larger, more intense battles.
New Weapon Technology: Command the galaxy with new rapid fire weapons such as the Dust Cannon, Cloud Burst and Mosquito Missiles.
Powerful New Starships: Introducing Cerberus, Confed's first "Quick-Strike" Carrier, new Cruiser, Destroyers and civilian cruiseliners.
More Intense Story: Continuing where Prophecy left off, join the Confederation Intelligence Services and fight for mankind's very survival.
Critical data | Box art | Screenshots | System requirements | Demos and trailers | How to play | Guides and walkthroughs | Cheats | Fan-made tools and enhancements | Soundtrack information | Mods and fan missions | Trivia | Development Team | More screenshots
- Release Dates-
August 10, 1998 (Teaser)
August 27, 1998 (Episode One)
September 3, 1998 (Episode Two)
September 10, 1998 (Episode Three)
September 17, 1998 (Episode Four)
September 24, 1998 (Episode Five)
October 1, 1998 (Episode Six)
October 8, 1998 (Episode Seven)
October 15, 1998 (Prophecy Gold)
- Noteworthy Documentation: Manual
- Online Episodic Fiction (missing from Prophecy Gold)
- Game Storyline Script
- Play: A variety of small patches have been made to enhance the experience in Windows and overcome technical glitches which have cropped up on newer machines
- Game announcement Press Release
- Music
- Online Guide
- Patches & Tools
- Original Secret Ops Section
- Box Contents: Registration Card, Ultima Ascension/Fighter Pilot Advertisement, Reference Card, Flight Manual (140 pp), Jewel Case, CD-ROM (4)
- Compilations: The Biggest Names The Best Games 4 (with Dungeon Keeper 2, Sports Car GT, System Shock 2, World War 2 Fighters and World Cup Cricket), EA Compilations (with Alpha Centauri and Red Alert)
More screenshots
Secret Ops is a standalone game that does not require Wing Commander Prophecy to play. While the system requirements state a joystick is required, you can also play the game with the mouse or keyboard.
Standard System
- Pentium 166MHz
- Windows 95/Windows 98 and DirectX 6.0
- 32MB RAM
- DirectX 6.0-compatible 2MB PCI or AGP video card that supports 16-bit color
- 150MB free hard drive space
- DirectX 6.0-compatible sound card
- Joystick
Hardware-Accelerated System
- Pentium 133MHz
- Windows 95/Windows 98 and DirectX 6.0
- 32MB RAM
- 4MB PCI/AGP/3Dfxª DirectX 6.0-compatible or Direct3D supported video card*
- DirectX 6.0-compatible or Direct3D 3Dfx card with Glide version 2.43 or later installed
- 150MB free hard drive space
- DirectX 6.0-compatible sound card
- Joystick
* Please note that Direct3D requires 4MB of video RAM. Supported Direct3D video chipsets include:
- ATI Rage Pro
- Intel i740
- Matrox Mystique
- Permedia 2
- Rendition 2200
- Riva 128
For information on how to run the game on modern hardware and operating systems, please visit the Tech Support section. Requests for help can be posted to the Tech Support Forum.
Watch: Trailer #1 - Teaser
Watch: Trailer #2 - Variant G
Watch: Trailer #2 - Variant H
Watch: Trailer #2 - Variant I
Read: Preview fiction
The starter pack includes the first episode (four missions) and can be downloaded for free. A registration key can be obtained online. For information on how to run the game on modern hardware and operating systems, please visit the Tech Support section. Requests for help can be posted to the Tech Support Forum.
Download: Starter package (112MB)
Download: Episode 2 (0.5 MB)
Download: Episode 3 (0.6 MB)
Download: Episode 4 (0.7 MB)
Download: Episode 5 (0.8 MB)
Download: Episode 6 (1 MB)
Download: Episode 7 (1 MB)
The fiction between episodes from SecretOps.com can be found here. Be sure to read the preview chapters before playing the game!
The game controls are identical to Wing Commander Prophecy. You can find a list of controls here. The flight manual from Prophecy Gold (link) and the Secret Ops specific version of the ICIS manual (link) that Shades2585 put together also contain a lot of useful information.
No official guide exists, but Shades2585 has put together an excellent Revised Secret Ops Guide. In addition to detailed mission walkthroughs, it features updated stats from the Prophecy Gold documentation. There's a chapter on history with FAQs from the original launch, a chronology of the release events and bits of fiction that many people originally missed. It completes the Secret Ops experience with codes for the game, interviews with Secret Ops development team members and a collection of official announcements published in 1998. Get it here. You can discuss this guide on the Forums.
The CIC's Game Guides section also has a complete walkthrough with pointers and comments from other players.
In flight, type "moretunes". You may have to hold the shift key down.
Change background music by pressing Page Up and Page Down.
In flight, type "shoehorn" to enter debug mode. You may have to hold the shift key down.
Ctrl-I enables invincibility. Ctrl-F12 destroys your target. Ctrl-C turns collisions off.
| Fan-made tools and enhancements |
Pedro and PopsiclePete developed a new OpenGL starfield renderer (link) for Standoff that can also be used with Secret Ops:
This patch is in fact an additional optional graphics library, compatible with both Prophecy and Secret Ops, and will be included in the release of Standoff episode 4. In principle it is designed solely to remove problems experienced when using Direct3D such as 32bit support for ATI cards, and removal of texture glitches, most notable on things such as lens flares. Full transparency is supported, mimicking 3DFX. Some other mild improvements are also available, including the option to scale backgrounds and FMV to fill the screen.
Secret Ops reuses nine Cobalt 60 tracks from Wing Commander: Prophecy. You can listen to them here.
Standoff brings new content to Secret Ops. The branching storyline is based on events from the novel Fleet Action, and the graphics, audio, and gameplay attempt to recreate a WC2-like setting. The game features over thirty missions of various types in a branching campaign, ten simulator missions, in-game cutscenes and fiction to develop the story between missions, more than 40 ship designs from the classic games and an online scoreboard that records your simulator mission scores.
Although there's been a ton of attention on Standoff for the last couple years, it wasn't the first complete fan made addon for Secret Ops. Some of the same people released Unknown Enemy in 2002. UE doesn't have all the video cutscenes and impressive graphical improvements that Standoff features, but the game did pioneer much of the underlying modding techniques. The game takes place during the Prophecy timeframe in the Border Worlds. Many familiar ships play central roles as the crew of the BWS Dauntless finds itself in the midst of the Nephilim invasion. Cockpit voiceovers augment over one hundred pages of in-game fiction to detail the story. Their FAQ details a bit more of the foundation and potential issues some players may face. Once you grab the Secret Ops starter pack, you can download the 74 megabyte Unknown Enemy pack here. Check out their download area for an additional patch and a number of neat bonuses for the game. And finally for all the programmers out there, the UE source code is also available.
Over the years, fans have created many custom missions and ship models for Secret Ops.
- The flap of the Wing Commander Prophecy Gold box displays a Hydra-class cruiser with the caption "Alien Marlin class Cruiser". Marlin was an earlier name used during Prophecy's development.
- To promote the game, Origin's marketing department made Wing Commander Secret Ops hats and shirts - with the wrong URL!
- Many fans complained about the fact that Prophecy Gold did not include the game's web-based fiction. The development team actually created a fiction viewer to include with the game - but it was removed when EA Germany complained.
- Steven Petrarca refused to return to voice Lieutenant Casey and was replaced by a new actor. Similarly, Heather Stephens did not record any new dialogue for Stiletto - the game simply reuses taunts recorded for Wing Commander Prophecy.
Executive Producer
Rod Nakamoto
Project Director
Peter Shelus
Associate Producer
Adam Foshko
Administration
Cindy Wallingford
Lead Designer
Cinco Barnes
Designers
John ‘Majestic’ Guentzel, Reece ‘Transplant’ Thornton, Hal ‘HellBoy’ Milton
Additional Design
Ben Potter, Chuck Lupher
Programmers
Ala Diaz, Allen Jackson
Additional Programming
Anthony L. Sommers
Art Director
Mark Vearrier
Art Coordinator
Weston Giunta
Artists
Trey Hermann, William Kier, Mark Leon, Kerry Miller, Sean Murphy, David Plunkett, Elizabeth Pugh, David C. Russ, Damon Lane Waldrip
Vision Engine by Advanced Technology Group
Web Fiction
Hal Milton
Additional Fiction
Cinco Barnes, John Guentzel, Kenny Hott, Todd Raffray, Rhea Shelley
Chief Technology Programmer
Jeff Grills
Programmer
Jason Hughes
Sound by RA/VE Group
Audio Director
Stretch Williams
Audio Designers
Joe Basquez, Jason Cobb, Lisa Elliott, Bill Munyon, Matt Mitchell
"Prophecy," "Galactic Hives," Ahead," "Tones from the Spheres," "Alien Space Junk," "Quram," "Ashes to Life," "Colony 328," "Darwin was Right"
All songs composed by Jean-Luc De Meyer, Dominique Lallement and Robert Wilcocks
© 1997 Les Editions Confidentielle (SABAM) and Electronic Arts Music Publishing Inc. (ASCAP) (P) 1997 Edel America Records
All songs performed by Cobalt 60
Cobalt 60 appears courtesy of Edel America Records
Recorded at Origin, Texas, Earth, May ‘97
Engineered and Mixed by Robert Wilcocks
QA Manager
J. Allen "Blair" Brack
Maverick QA Lead
Grant "Rogue" McDaniel
QA Testers
Timothy "Quasimodo" Bell, Kenny "Hottman" Hott, Todd "Balls" Raffray, Rhea "Shalom" Shelley, Brandon "Arashi" Salinas, Mackey "Rastuss" Fair
Database Management
Kenny "Hottman" Hott
Project Translation Manager
Christina Vollmer
Translation
Ruth-Germann Ford, Frank Dietz
Director of Studio Services
Kay "The Big Boss" Gilmore
Manager of Studio Services
Richard "Zippy" Zinser
Customer Service Coordinator
Marie "Defender of the Black Lance Base" Williams
Voice Talent
Neill Barry, Maren Barwis, Susan K. Beecher, Thomas Bosch, Patrick Bradshaw, J.R. Brow, Anita Chambers, Sven Dahlem, Daggmar Dreke, Marcus Edmonds, Uwe Effertz, Brad Greenquist, Manfred Haenel, Eberhard Haar, Julia S. Hix, Henry Konig, Adam Lazarre-White, KaiLebert, Robert Missler, Hartwig Peters, Rainer Schmitt, Henry Sperling, Henning Stegelmann, Thomas Stein, Heather Stephens, Christina Vollmer
Product Marketing Manager
Chris Plummer
Product Manager
Brian Allen
Director of Communications
David Swofford
Associate Publicist
Teresa Potts
Web Team
Trey Hermann (art director), CBP, Dave Kozlowski, Chris Graf (production and programming)
Online Documentation
Jason Armatta
Documentation Writers
Chris McCubbin, Tuesday Frase
Documentation Editor
David Ladyman
Box Design and Documentation Layout
Electronic Arts Creative Services
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