Come For The Wingleader, Stay For The Intense Ad (October 4, 2005)

ChrisReid

ChrisReid

Super Soaker Collector / Administrator
Last week's Wing Commander Anniversary inspired Kilrah Moreira to dig up some old magazines to scan. The first page he sent is part of an article from Advanced Computer Entertainment written in 1990. In it the game is still referred to as Wingleader, which was an intermediate step between Squadron and Wing Commander. It's touted as the "world's first cinematic 3D space simulator." The second image is an advertisement printed once the game received its final title, and the third shot is a neat letterhead that Kilrah received in correspondence with Origin many years ago.
After reading the nostalgically inspiring LOAF’s words about WC’s 15th anniversary and the posts that followed, I decided to search in my old stuff. Can you guess what I’ve found? Part of the article that introduced me to this wonderful game called Wing Commander and an advertisment from that time.
Click to expand...




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Original update published on October 4, 2005
 
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I first bought Wing Commander when I was visiting a warehouse club store way back in 1990 or 1991. I was the proud owner of a brand new 386-25 and was immediately hooked on the game.

I will say, however, that I was a bit ticked that the actual gameplay did not even come close to matching the screenshots on both the box and the advertisements. I fiddled with a boot disk for hours before I finally called Origin to have them tell me the graphics weren't indeed as advertised.

Thankfully the game made up for it with good design and playability. Anyone else feel the same when they first got their hands on the game?
 
I just know that I worked for days trying to get the graphics to match the back of the box. I thought that if I was able to eek out just a bit more memory, just a bit more speed, that those beautiful bolt lasers, running lights, and cool HUD effects would magically come into being. They wouldn't lie to me, right? Alas, they did.
One of the most dissapointing moments in my life was when I realized this.
 
Hehe, "personkind". I do recall word processors in the mid-90s being infuriatingly stupid and insisting on "correcting" gender-specific terms ("actress", "man", etc.) into gender-neutral forms ("performer", "person", etc.)... but I didn't know that this kind of stupidity already existed in 1990 :p.
 
Well, fortunately someone killed that idea before the game was complete.
 
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