Pix Plays WC4 DVD The Old Fashioned Way (January 19, 2017)

[ChrisReid]

Pix has posted an awesome story about getting the DVD edition of Wing Commander 4 to run. WC4 DVD was only released as part of a specific Creative Labs Encore DVD-ROM bundle, and as such it was designed specifically to work with the DXR2 (and DXR3) decoder board. Pix highlights a fun alternate method utilizing the REALmagic Hollywood Plus decoder card, which happened to also be compatible. Until gulikoza's DXMCI patch was developed, rigging up a hardware solution like this was the only option to experience the game's high quality video. Today it's even easier with the GOG version of WC4, but I'm sure the sense of accomplishment Pix experienced building this authentic original setup was worth it! Find the full DVD adventure here. You can also check him out getting WC1 working on an old Tandy here.

As something of a follow-up to my attempts to get Wing Commander 1 running on an ancient Tandy, I thought I shouldn???t neglect what was for a long time my Wing Commander game of choice, Wing Commander 4. The only version ever sold in stores was on CD-ROM???s but in the mid to late 90???s, Creative released a bundle with a 2x DVD drive, MPEG-2 decoder and best of all a DVD-enhanced edition of Wing Commander 4. This bundle was the only way to get hold of this DVD as it was never made available in any other way that I???m aware of.

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Original update published on January 19, 2017

 

[GrimCW]

I actually still have the original PC that came with the game.. and the disc!
Still ran last time I turned it on too a few years ago... sitting in a comfy clean section of my fathers garage atm.