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That's Gotta Hurt
The Escapist has published a very nice article about the history of Wing Commander development. Wing Leader starts with a very interesting story about Wing Commander's original unveiling and goes through the series' evolution -- through to the fan efforts that continue today. It's full of interesting anecdotes, including a great story about Chris Roberts being punched in the face during the animation shoot for Wing Commander II.
Wing II also used rotoscoping for its cut-scene animations. Stephen Beeman recalls, "We used people around the office, filming them with a camcorder, capturing with a really primitive capture card, and painting over the vidcaps in Deluxe Paint, frame by frame.
"The best part of the rotoscoping came when we filmed the scene at the end of Wing II, where Angel punches Jazz. Jackie Chapman, one of Origin's marketers, was playing Angel, and we had Chris play Jazz. Needless to say, neither of them was a trained Hollywood stunt person, so when Jackie threw that punch, it didn't breeze past Chris the way we intended - it socked him right in the nose! Naturally, that's the take we used.
"The fans should be pleased to know Chris literally put his blood, sweat and tears into that game. The rest of us settled for just the sweat and tears."
The article is ultimately a criticism of Roberts' decision to move on to Hollywood... but it presents some excellent information before reaching that end. The online magazine also published an article on Origin itself back in October - you can find that here. You can also find the article in an easier-to-read straight format of the current article here.
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Placing Blame
Ars Technica is running an article called "Epic VP: Intel is killing PC gaming! Ars: Not really." The article is a reply to a recent speech by the president of Epic Games, who claims that Intel is responsible for the decreased size of the PC gaming market. Like all good rebuttals, it mentions Wing Commander:
I'll end this article on a personal note. I have always been a gamer, and have often ran the debate through my head about the value of upgrading my computer for gaming versus investing in a console instead. Back in the days of Wing Commander III, I considered buying a 3DO, but instead put the cash into a new motherboard and video card, which I think was the right decision.
Was that the right choice regarding III, though? To its credit, the 3DO port features more cutscenes and higher quality video. Still, Wing Commander has long driven PC gamers to upgrade -- from the very first game, which required a 386 for the best quality gameplay, on, Wing Commander has always pushed the envelope. Maybe the real problem with PC gaming in 2006 is that there aren't any new Wing Commander games...
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