WC: The Secret Missions for the Amiga?

FredDude32

Rear Admiral
Hey all!
I apologise before hand if this question has been asked before: Is it possible, with todays technology, to convert the "The Secret Missions" from PC to the Amiga format?
As I understood it, the original Wing Commander game was developed for the Amiga and PC, but not the "The Secret Missions 1&2" which was never included on the Amiga but only the PC.
Is it possible for anyone of you WC patriots & programming gurus to convert the PC "The Secret Missions" for the Amiga and/or the Amiga Emulator?

Again, I'm sorry if this has been asked & answered before.
 
If the module.ooo, camp.000 and briefing.000 files are the same for both incarnations (and I see no reason why they could not be) then yes it would be possible-ish.

You'd get no cut-scenes (which wouldn't really be a problem for story telling purposes), but the missions and bar talk should be the same. For SM1 at least.

In SM2, you get upgraded dralthi (you even get to fly one), different wingmen and the cutscenes are a lot more cut-scenes. Losing those would be a problem I think. There's also the problem that in the SM2 data files, the Imperial Guard's data replaces the kilrathi ace data from WC1. So instead of fighting Drakhai(sp?) you could encounter a wing of Baktosh's

That's not to say it isn't possible that the campaign would not work though. Although saying that, the 3 Fralthi's at one nav in SM2 might just crash a poor Amiga, or send you down to 1fps.

If my Amiga was in servicable condition and I could port files across into the right disk format, I'd certainly be interested to see.
 
I fired up my Amiga 500 just this past week to check my WC disks (which I had stupidly stored in a box along with CIC magnets). I distinctly remember the menu having a "Start Secret Missions" button, although I'm guessing that is just SM1. I don't remember what the CD32 version has.
 
I fired up my Amiga 500 just this past week to check my WC disks (which I had stupidly stored in a box along with CIC magnets). I distinctly remember the menu having a "Start Secret Missions" button, although I'm guessing that is just SM1. I don't remember what the CD32 version has.

Aye, the most frustrating dead link in the history of computer gaming, but I think the button's presence indicates that it was Origin's intention at some point to release Secret Missions for the Amiga. I wonder if Nick Pelling's illness contributed to it never materialising.

As for the OP, please keep us posted. I never suspected it even technically possible, but then after I got Secret Missions for the PC, I never thought to try.
 
If someone can suggest a way to get amiga format files into a PC readable format, then I'll definitely have a quick look at it.
In the perfect world, this could actually work inside an afternoon!
The files I would need to look at are the ones listed in my previous post.
 
Dang...I sorta guessed it wouldnt be practicable.

I remember back in 1991 or 1992 after I just finished the original WC campaign on the Amiga and drooling over the WC Secret Missions. Whenever I started the game and re-played the campaign again I would look at the "start secret missions"-option and do some more droolin.
For some reason, eventhough I've played the Secret Missions 100 times already on the PC, I somehow are still drooling and longing for the possibility of playing the SM on the Amiga.
Thats mostly the reason I posted this topic. :)
 
Aye, the most frustrating dead link in the history of computer gaming, but I think the button's presence indicates that it was Origin's intention at some point to release Secret Missions for the Amiga. I wonder if Nick Pelling's illness contributed to it never materialising.

As for the OP, please keep us posted. I never suspected it even technically possible, but then after I got Secret Missions for the PC, I never thought to try.

Ahh, okay. I didn't get around to clicking that button because it took a good 5-10 minutes just to get to the first mission. I lost count of how many times I had to change disk to get to that point even. Not to mention that the game was horrendously slow on an Amiga 500. For that reason, I'd be more interested in seeing SM1/2 on the CD32 version (which I believe also runs on Amiga 1200/4000s with CD drives). I have my doubts about it being possible though.
 
By the way: I just realised that if it had been practicable to do a conversion from PC to Amiga, what would have stopped us (the WC community) from making SM3, 4, 5? (minus cutscenes). I mean the mission briefings, bar-talk and actual combat missions are already there. They would just have needed a bit of tweaking in order to create whole new missions. (minus new spacecraft & stuff as those would have to been designed from scratch).

Too bad there isn't a "WC Workshop" like on Steam.
 
There was a great editing program in progress for WC1 that looked very promising.
https://www.wcnews.com/news/2011/04/15/wing-commander-editor-viewer-test-available
https://www.wcnews.com/news/2011/05/21/wc1-campaign-editor-cleaned-up
Too bad it seems to have stopped. Maybe someone can pick up that torch.

That is mine.
The reason it has stopped is simple. I'm trying to identify what it is in the mission code, that tags ships as mission objectives.
I know how to set up nav points, ships, wing instructions, mines and all that. I'm not fully certain on the briefing branching code yet, but until I can work out what it is that makes a certain ship important to the mission, I don't see the point in carrying on with the rest.

For me this means studying the 3 files I mentioned before, byte by byte, trying to fathom it out. So far I have no idea. Anyone who knows the answer to this, I would greatly appreciate the help.

Being as familiar as I am with those files, I'd say the chances of porting SM1 to the Amiga would be atleast 50/50, because I see no reason for the amount of data or its format to have changed.
SM2 would be more difficult to do.
 
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I wish I could help, but I'm no programmer :/
Too bad we dont know any of the original programmers. That would prolly shorten the learning curve.
 
Actually, one of the original programmers was posting in the news forum just yesterday. :)

... although HCl probably knows more about how WC1's file formats work at this point!
 
Actually, one of the original programmers was posting in the news forum just yesterday. :)

... although HCl probably knows more about how WC1's file formats work at this point!

I did think, when posting my last reply, that I hadn't thought to ask Mario. I'll have to email him.
As for one of the programmers, could you nudge me in the right direction? :)
 
Yeh I dont want to be a stressfull ninny here, but I wouldnt mind some info too! :D

The glory of being able to play WC Secret Ops on my (admittedly emulated) Amiga is very attractive :D
 
No news at the moment.
I have an amiga 1200, but my hard disk is not working.
Without that I don't have access to my programming utilities, which is what I'd use to look at the files on the amiga. I also don't have the means to transport the files onto a PC readable disk.
If anyone knows where I can download an amiga version of this game to my PC, please let me know.

Before the mods jump on me, this would be purely in the interests of looking at the file differences with the hope of bringing SM1 to the amiga.
 
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