At the beginning of this year (2010.01), I decided that it was time to revisit a game that I greatly enjoyed during my youth, and have many fond memories of playing: Origin’s Wing Commander. With the advent of DosBox, all the games in the series were playable again, and I figured I’d fly a few missions for old time’s sake, think back nostalgically about what the game was like and what it meant to me then, and move on after a little while.

I played a few missions of the original Wing Commander, and found myself coming back time and time again to take the fight to the Kilrathi the way I used to back in the day. The game had the same effect on me at age 27 that it did at age 12: cool factor 50. What started out as something I figured I’d do for a lark turned into a cross-decade odyssey across gaming, seen through the Wing Commander series. Below, I hope to document my experience with the games as an adult versus how I remember them from my teenage years, and chronicle the moments I’ve had with the game since I picked it up again. Perhaps other Wing Commander fans (“Wingnuts”) will be interested in browsing these pages. Who knows? All screen caps are of actual screens from my computer, not pictures I pulled off of the internet.

SSC: It has been talked about that the Miner Wars universe is going to be a decent size with maybe thousands of sectors. Right now you can either use your base ship to move to different sectors or fly through them yourself. Is there a limitation on the distance you can travel because of fuel or oxygen? And if so what is the average distance a player can go before they have to replenish fuel or oxygen?

MW: Yes, it’s possible to travel from sector to sector by your ship. Fuel and oxygen will last for about 4 sectors, that’s between 30-60 minutes of game-play. Although it depends on player’s ship, engines, extra fuel tank, etc. And you can also replenish your oxygen reserves meanwhile so basically you can keep on going till you fall asleep.

SSC: In Miner Wars do you have to take into account the weight of items like installed equipment, weapons, ammo, fuel and cargo? Will weight slow down the overall speed of your ship or make it less maneuverable?

MW: Yes. Every ship and all the equipment will make an impact on your ship maneuverability. So if, for example, you attack a player and loot all his belongings, on your way back to the mothership/space station, your ship with the cargohold filed will be far less agile than normal, so you yourself will be in turn a valid and most likely easy target for other players on the hunt.