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Point of Origin: Vol. V, No. 3
Bioforge is GO in the March, 1995 issue of The Point of Origin. Will Origin's second big-budget 'interactive movie' do as well as Wing Commander... or will the concept of CGI and gameplay-based cinematics be abandoned for another decade? The answers, right now: no and yes.
A very special thanks to Joe Garrity of the Origin Museum for making this resource available and to Electronic Arts for sending them to him in the first place!
- Spotlight suggests that Bioforge and SWC/Mac were forced out by EA: "It all began that fateful morning last Tuesday, when Mark Chandler joined our Pre-PSM meeting in Marketing. Super Wing/Mac, and Bioforge were to ship in the quarter. Mark told us in a very Picard-esque tone that EA corporate had told him to 'make it so.'"
- In Ink has nothing but good things to say about WCIII:
Interactive Gaming, the online magazine startup from Computer Gaming World-ex Chuck Miller has awarded Wing Commander III a couple of honors. The game was given an Editor's Choice award and was named Game of the Year for 1994.
Meanwhile a couple of ORIGIN games will be battling it out for one of CGW's Premier Awards. Both WCIII and System Shock have been nominated in the Best Action category. The winners will be announced in the mag's May issue. Wouldn't it be nice if one of those two could walk away with Game of the Year honors?
Okay, what's a coverage article these days without some Wing Commander III reviews. You want Wing III reviews? You got 'em. In the March issue of Electronic Entertainment, editors anointed the game as their "Game of the Month" and Al Giovetti called it "a bona fide phenomenon. This state-of-the-art game is a must-see and a must-play."
Reviewers at Interactive Entertainment, the CD-ROM magazine, had similar things to say about WCIII. "WCIII's movie sequences must be seen to be believed," they gushed. "The cast is superb, the movie sequences are some of the best you're likely to see for a long time, and the action is enough to make you fall out of your chair."
And right up the road in Dallas, Peter Bartholow, continued the WCIII love fest with his review in the Dallas Morning News. "Wing Commander III offers the best action and drama this side of the Ghorah Khar star system."
Meanwhile, the Hollywood connection continues to pay big dividends for WCIII. Rex Weiner had a nice feature on Mark Hamill in a recent issue of Variety magazine. Hamill spent plenty of time talking about WCIII and talked about how it's knocked his pal, George Lucas', game (Rebel Assault) off the charts. And in the March issue of Home PC, WCIII got a lot of attention in a story on the convergence of Hollywood and the computer industry.
But it's not just the star power that's winning points with reviewers on WCIII. ORIGIN's translations department got a big pat on the back from the editors at PC Player in Germany. "One can hear that the flawlessly translated German is being spoken by professional dubbing voices. This is the best dubbing ever done by a game company." Congrats are in order for Kirsten Vaughan and her translation crew.
Finally, if you haven't been reading the letters to the editor lately in some of the gaming magazines, you've really been missing out. Witness these two found in recent weeks. W.S. Corney wrote to Computer Gaming World and had this to say about WCIII and the state of computer games. "Now there are only two types of computer games: those before Wing Commander III and those after."
In Computer Game Review, there's an ongoing debate in the letters section on whether Wing Commander or TIE Fighter is the better game. I think Joe Folley has finally put this argument to bed. Joe wrote, "TIE Fighter has excitement, Wing Commander has fly-by-your-seat-while-dodging-the-bullets-going-one-thousand-miles -an-hour-strapped-to-the-seat-of-a-plutonium-powered-mega-machine -whiz-your-pants-and-scream-for-mercy kind of excitement. TIE Fighter was good, Wing Commander is one-hundred-percent-without-a-doubt-the-best-in-the-world -number-one-on-the-list-golden-triad-award-100,000-copies-sold -breaking-records-best-in-the-universe kind of game." Whew!!!!!!!! Thanks, Joe, but what did you really think of the game?
Point of Origin
Vol. V, No. 3 - March 14, 1995
Contents
Spotlight: Let Loose the Floodgates... Bioforge is Coming to Town
In Ink
The Number You Have Dialed...
EOM
Don't Try This at IBM
Caught in the Web
How Software Companies Work
The Gospel
Ticker
Point Man
New Hires
The Future
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Update published on February 6, 2008. View all news from that day.
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Official news, fan projects and topics of particular interest to Wing Commander fans.
- Some Ship Viewer Sample Shots Shown
- 2012-05-24 -- BoH_Havoc is continuing to move forward with his online ship viewer based on feedback he's received so far. Here are some new prototype images with the TCS Concordia rendered in the program. Pretty neat!
- Destroyer Destined for Guard Duty
- 2012-05-23 -- Kevin Caccamo's Ralari has taken a huge leap since the last time we saw it. The model has been plated with nice metallic textures that don't overdo the look. Running lights, windows, powered engines and intake glow all add significantly to the presentation here too.
- GOG Talks Space Sims
- 2012-05-22 -- centaurianmudpig spotted a new PlaySF interview with the folks at GOG.com. They discuss the state of the space combat genre and the possibility of releasing expansion packs for Wing Commander games.
- Enigma Mod Measures Out Confed Fleet
- 2012-05-21 -- Here's a new Confed showcase of capships for the Enigma 2666 mod. Each ship's length and scale is still subject to some potential tweaking to sync better with fighters, but the current lineup is displayed below. The TCS Concordia is very far along the design path, as is the Gilgamesh.
- "Sir, if we spot this Fralthi, should we engage?"
- 2012-05-20 -- Now we go from Fralthra to Fralthi WIP images. CMDBob's latest design is a classic Kilrathi light carrier/cruiser. His model has real clean lines and an animated WC1-style set of textures.
- Fearsome Fralthra Filling In Fast
- 2012-05-19 -- Red Baron has started to texture Cybot's Fralthra, and it's quickly turning into quite a work of art. The color scheme already does a great job of evoking Wing Commander 2. He's also scaled a Jalkehi as a point of reference and imagined what the entire fighter complement of the ship might look like.
- Wing Commander Saga Download Reminder
- 2012-05-18 -- If you haven't yet downloaded the long-awaited fan game, now is as good a time as any to get your hands on a copy! The Windows installer weighs in at a hefty 3.4 gigabytes, so we recommend some kind of download manager that can resume paused or failed transfers.
- New RPG Kicks Off
- 2012-05-17 -- The TCS Phoenix has launched and the game has begun in the Wing Commander: From the Ashes forum-based RPG. Some of the first characters have already been defined, and action in the Pentonville System is now in motion. There is also an out-of-character area where new players can ask questions and get situated before they begin role playing.
- Vega Sector Reinforcements Inbound
- 2012-05-16 -- Here's a preview of new designs that Klavs is working to bring to the Shapeways model factory. If all goes according to plan, this foursome may be available in a future bundle pack together. It's an interesting assortment of ships - Rapier, Super Wing Commander Rapier, Scimitar and Dralthi - and they all look fantastic!
- Academy Just Two Weeks Away!
- 2012-05-15 -- Wingnuts now have less than 14 days to prepare for the release of Wing Commander Academy on DVD! All thirteen episodes of the television series will be available in this set starting on May 29, 2012. Barnes & Noble and Deep Discount have some of the lowest prices, and there's still time to order from Amazon.
- Scimitar Prepares to Slice Up a Dralthi
- 2012-05-15 -- And to further get you in the Academy mood, here's another beautiful NinjaLA sketch. The CF-105 Scimitar was the workhorse of the cadets flying off the Tiger's Claw, and soon you'll get to watch them again in the new high quality release!
- Exotic Designs Hit the Spacelanes
- 2012-05-14 -- ScoobyDoo has put together several more concept renders inspired by a variety of sources. The first is a medium size capship with fighter-carrying ability, and it's followed by a beefier looking take on the Bearcat. The last design is a more unique idea that mixes Wing Commander elements with a Freespace ship.
- Fleets Increase Presence in Enigma
- 2012-05-13 -- Here's a big update for the Enigma 2666 mod. A handful of new pictures show off where the game is at today. Four different capship classes are pictured near a large Confed base, and all the fighters sport updated textures.
- Echo Sector Reopens
- 2012-05-13 -- The world's biggest website dedicated to the Crusader series, Echo Sector, has gotten a big revamp. New features include a streamlined menu interface and increased security. Not all of the links work yet, but more features will come online soon.
- Va ka Garga ka naru ha Garga
- 2012-05-12 -- NinjaLA has sketched a new fearsome Kilrathi. With his latest warrior, Ninja has done a good job of introducing menacing facial features, and this sinister look goes beyond just drawing a humanoid tiger. The armor is inspired by the classic WC2 style with a WC Movie headpiece.
- Kilrathi Destroyer Continues to Take Shape
- 2012-05-11 -- Kevin Caccamo is once again working on a Ralari model. Since we last saw the ship, additional detail has been added to the window areas and secondary structure. It appears to conform to the Claw Marks schematic quite well.
- Wing Commander Stories From The Fatman
- 2012-05-10 -- In recent weeks, Armchair Arcade has been conducting a series of interviews with famous videogame composer George Sanger. The newest issue talks about his and Dave Govett's work on the soundtrack for the original Wing Commander. Well worth a listen!
- Super Rapier Models Ready To Go
- 2012-05-09 -- Klavs has completed design and prototyping of another physical model. His Super Wing Commander Rapier is now available for fellow Wingnuts in 1/600 scale from Shapeways. The image below reveals that, although tiny, the ship packs some incredible detail - very distinctive hull markings and guns!
- WC Saga Soundtrack Released
- 2012-05-08 -- The WC Saga team has released the soundtrack to their Freespace mod. They are also working on a spinoff album based on George Oldziey's tunes from Wing Commander 3. You can grab the Darkest Dawn OST here (187 meg zip).
- Garriott DVD Drops May 15
- 2012-05-08 -- Richard Garriott's Man on a Mission documentary will be released on DVD next Tuesday! This charming film captures Lord British's successful dream to become the world's first second-generation astronaut. Most reviews have been quite positive and the documentary has come highly recommended.
- Paradigm Deployed to Enigma Sector
- 2012-05-07
- New WC Ship Viewer In Development
- 2012-05-06 -- BOC_Havoc has put together a very sharp 3D ship viewer. The program is still in the prototype stages, but you can try out the current build here. The unity web player plugin is needed to see the model.
- Still Worthy of an Honorable Mention
- 2012-05-05 -- There aren't as many gaming sites name dropping Wing Commander as there were a decade ago, but they still pop up all over if you look. Here's a couple from just this week: HotHardware ran a feature on gaming clichés. The story decries the linear nature of modern games that screech to a halt if any losing conditions are met.
- Warren Spector Revisits Origin Memories
- 2012-05-05 -- Yet another Wing Commander mention this week came from an interview with Warren Spector. Metro.co.
- A Trip to the WC Universe is Right
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- Everything's Ship Shape!
- 2012-05-03 -- In recent days WCPedia contributor Iceblade has worked on finalizing a layout for the ship articles on the project. After experimenting with the Broadsword article, and creating a great layout in the process, he's started to implement that layout across the Confederation fighters category. Currently, the F-36 Hornet article is the most complete.
- HUDdle Up and Check Out New Cockpit Displays
- 2012-05-02 -- Aginor is working on a new Wing Commander mod, and this game will be played from the Kilrathi perspective. Although there won't be full dashboard cockpit graphics, each ship will have a unique heads up display. Most games use the same targeting crosshairs and reticle for all ships, but here are some examples of how Wing Commander 4 differentiated its craft.
- Don't Miss an Infoburst!
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- Glance at Mod's Gwynedd Mission
- 2012-05-01 -- Here's some new shots from the Enigma 2666 mod that show off a fighter launch, autopilot fly-by and ship size comparison. Sharp players will quickly recognize the familiar Broadsword/Ferret pairing from the Fralthra Strike at the beginning of WC2 - a very fun mission, if you can keep the Broadswords alive! Here I used the Confederation Class from Klavs and the converted Broadsword from Standoff.
- Rapier Prepped for Production
- 2012-04-30 -- Klavs has finished his Super Wing Commander Rapier, and the result is gorgeous. These ships are now off to a trial at Shapeways 'rapid prototyping' lab. If the design pans out, small physical resin copies may be available to order soon.
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