Here's a classic review of Wing Commander 1 from COMPUTE! magazine Issue 126 in February 1991. The lengthy article was originally written by Richard Sheffield and posted at Atari Magazines. The gushing praise and excitement make this a joy to read. Try to think back to how you felt when you first played a cutting edge Wing Commander game. It was probably something like this. Check out the full article here. -- Original update published on November 5, 2009
This makes me realize just how far we've come. I think my cellphone could easily handle this game (although I wouldn't want to use the cell keypad to play). Once you needed a $2,000 PC to play it. Now you just need some time setting up Dosbox. The sad thing is that, even after 18 years, its still better than most games out there....
There's nothing sad about that - it's perfectly normal in any medium that some things stand out as classics even after many years. There's movies from the 1930s that are considered better than any current movie, there's books from the 18th century that people keep coming back to, and there's Shakespeare from the 17th century whose plays stand far above just about anything written for theatre these days. There's no reason why there wouldn't be games like that, as well.
I totally agree that the computer specs pale in comparison to the PCs of today. But I do remember when I got my copy of WC1 on disk. It definitely was a really cool feeling and totally different gameplay, I think I played it on a 486 if I'm not mistaken. Just like any game I play today I'm like "WoA"
