Diffirences between PC and Super Nintendo Wing Commander.

P

Phillip Tanaka

Swabbie
Banned
I thought that I would draw up a little guide detailing the diffirences I have noticed in the PCversion of Wing Commander and the Super Nintendo version.

-The characters are more active in the PC version. They are more animated.
-A couple of pieces of music have been left out.
-Cut scenes when you win or lose a campaign are not in the Super Nintendo version, although the ending remains intact.
-In the Secret Missions add on for Super Nintendo, one of the missions have been removed.
-Dialogue that wouldn't fly with a family company like Nintendo were changed or removed. For example, alcohol and talk of death and suicide is persona non gratta.
-The Kilrathi Admiral's demise is less graphic.

Below is a list of the dialogue from the PC version that, from memory, has been changed or removed. The dialogue is from Wedge's Wing Commander page. http://home.iprimus.com.au/nsswty/Wedge009/WC1/Valgard.html

Knight: Good morning, Maverick. I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to get worried about this affair. You realise we’re heading blind as a bat into uncharted enemy space? Going after a Kilrathi super-weapon we know nothing about?
Paladin: That’s right, Major. Joe here is going to be our morale officer from now on.
Knight: No, thanks, I’d rather fight the Kilrathi! [Not included. Also, Paladin's comment on genocide was removed.]

Spirit: Good day, Major Blair. Have you come here to cheer me up? The Colonel thinks that I am depressed. It is not so. We live in uncertain times. And I have always known that Death walks beside each of us. But if we destroy the Kilrathi fleet and their secret weapon, I will celebrate. I will get very drunk, and swear quite loudly, and act much like Maniac or Hunter. At least for an hour or two. Or maybe not. What if my fiancé were to learn of such behaviour? [This was altered so as not to include any referrence to alcohol.]

Angel: Good luck, my friends, and godspeed. [Changed, for some reason.]

Valgard 3 was not included. I'll put the dialogue below.

(Shotglass: Hey, Maverick, glad to see you’re all right. I keep hearin’ that the situation is bad and gettin’ worse… I think the stress is getting to everyone. I’ve seen a lot of off-duty pilots in here, getting drunker than skunks. And fighting each other… Two techs and a pilot tried to kill each other in here, two hours ago. And some people are just going crazy, like Maniac. I’m tellin’ you, if we don’t finish off those Kilrathi soon and get out of this place, we might end up killing each other, and save the Kilrathi some work.

Angel: Maverick! I am glad to see that you are well. I had heard that you were injured on your last mission. There are too many rumours floating around this ship. Some of the stories I have heard! I, for one, cannot believe that this is a suicide mission. Soon we will complete this mission, and return to our duties in Vega Sector.

Spirit: Hello, Maverick. I have been sitting here, thinking. My fiancé… what if he has been captured, like those poor souls aboard the Gwenhyvar? Captured, and forced to betray his own people, over and over again? It is a fate too horrible to contemplate. I will tell you now, if I were to be captured… I think I would rather die. Better that than the dishonour and shame of what happened to the Gwenhyvar’s crew.

Mission Briefing, 06:00 hours, 2655.115. Valgard System.
Halcyon: Listen closely, pilots, because we don’t have much time. Our success against the supply depot has left a large number of Kilrathi fighters without a home base. Tactical says those ships are heading here. They’ll be very low on fuel, they may try to take the Tiger’s Claw intact. Pilots, you’ll stay close to the Tiger’s Claw and defend. As soon as those ships are destroyed, land immediately. We’ll be jumping from this location before more of these orphaned fighters can arrive. Wing assignments:
The Commander lists the other wing teams, then addresses Maverick:
Halcyon: Maverick, you and Iceman are Mu Wing again. Get ready for immediate launch. Dismissed.

Fly Valgard 3 (mislabelled Valgard 2)

Mission Debriefing – 15:00 hours, 2655.115.
Halcyon: Glad to see you back alive. The recorder shows you nailed 7 of those cats, Colonel. Good work. And Iceman took down 6 Kilrathi. Well, you’d better get some rest while you can, Maverick. Dismissed.

Hangar Deck. 18:00 hours, 2655.115.
Halcyon: For excellence in combat with the Kilrathi enemy, on or about 2655.115, the Terran Confederation is proud to present the Bronze Star to Lieutenant Colonel Blair. Your courage is an example to the Confederation’s finest defenders. Well done, Maverick. Congratulations.
Maverick: Thank you, sir.
Filled with pride, Maverick meets the applause of his crewmates.)

Halcyon: Angel, give ’em hell… but don’t accept any in kind.
Angel: Je comprends [I understand], mon colonel. [Changed, will have to check to see what to.]

Halcyon: Spirit, if you harbour any romantic notions about self-sacrifice…
Spirit: No, sir. Anything I sacrifice today will bear fur and whiskers. [This was changed to "Keep your mind on the job out there." "Yes sir. It is an honor to be a part of this operation."]

Paladin: Are you just sayin’ that so you can get drunk at my retirement party, sir? [Changed to "Are you just sayin’ that so you can be at my retirement party, sir?" to avoid any alcohol referrences.

The Kilrathi Slave Mines.
With the retreat of the Tiger’s Claw and the failure of her mission, the Kilrathi use their new weapon to establish dominance over Confederate defenders. Thousands of Humans are enslaved and taken to the Kilrathi Illudium mines, forced to work in misery until dying from the radiation in the ore… their toil fuelling the Kilrathi advance toward the Human homeworlds. [Edited the part about radiation, possibly because any nuclear incidents were a large concern when the game was released in 1993.]
 
And fortunately, the list of things ADDED from the Super Nintendo to the GBA Link to the Past game is about as long.
 
Yea, the new Zelda is way cool but thats OT.
Anyway, Thanks for taking the time to make up that list. My first experience with WC was the super nintendo game, ever since ive been hooked.
Slao, if memory serves me right, the SNES game did not let you put in your last name, just a call sign.
 
Yes, thanks for the list, Phillip. Also, did any of you notice that in SNES WC, the ships only fought 1-on-1 with you? Really, if you were dogfighting with one guy, the most the others would do is fire at you from a distance. Like Morphine, my 1st WC experience was on SNES...so when I played the PC version, it was more difficult!:p
 
To both of you, thank *you* for the props. That bit with the names I missed. There were a few other small quotes I missed as well, but it mainly fell into any discussion of death and alcohol being ventrabon. (?sp).

On the topic of only one fighter fighting at a time, I've noticed that as you trail one, another will attack. Or sometimes you'll be attacked and massecred, worse even than the Sivar. I'm pretty certain it's multiple attacks, but that might be just what I think it is, and just a Jalthi that I didn't see because it hammered me as I came out of jump.
 
Originally posted by Phillip Tanaka
Knight: Good morning, Maverick. I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to get worried about this affair. You realise we’re heading blind as a bat into uncharted enemy space? Going after a Kilrathi super-weapon we know nothing about?
Paladin: That’s right, Major. Joe here is going to be our morale officer from now on.
Knight: No, thanks, I’d rather fight the Kilrathi! [Not included. Also, Paladin's comment on genocide was removed.]
Click to expand...
I remember something like that being in the text, but I left it out because it didn't seem to play in the PC game. There was another line (possibly in SM2) which said something like "If you're seeing this text, call Origin, this is a bug" blah, blah, blah, or something like that.
 
Hmmm, must've seen hiw much fun ID had joking around with Wolfenstein and World War Two, and wanted to get in on the act. One of my favourite lines (from Doom) is "Look, bub, you leave now and you forfeit your body count." Heh, if I could I probably would use that on the Tiger's Claw if it ever retreats.
 
Wow,there are indeen differnces between the 2 versions.I just bought from a friend a SNES and now Im looking for SNES Wc1.
Phillip good work;)
 
I forgot to ask,the SNES differences where made byt Chris Roberts himself ?Or.....?
 
I would assume some of them were done because Nintendo were, rather strictly back then, a family company. Some of the changes in the dialogue to exclude alcohol, which is illegal for kids, and talk of death and suicide and such, which children generally don't need to hear, may have been cut out so that it would be easier to sell and put to Nintendo, but it's just a theory. That may be also why the Kilrathi Admiral's death is less graphic in the Super Nintendo version. The other main thing that's edited is the referrence to nuclear (radioactive) poisoning. The Soviet Union was in an upheavel at the time, and the threat of a nuclear winter was still fresh in people's minds. Then there was Chernobyl. Computers at the time were generally for adults, but in regard to children and Nintendo, this and the real life incidents may have been cause for it to be changed. Lose ending aside, I think it was the most adult game of it's time. It was a dark and gritty affair, which I believe had not been done on the system before.
 
I started my gaming life with Nintendo and corresponded with them quite often Brrrrrrrrrrt(tooting own horn)

One thing I've found with Nintendo Of America, or NOA, is that they will changes games for no apparent reason or out of concern for child consumption, Bionic Commando was originally about the Nazis resurrecting Hitler.
However, with games like Wing Commander, where they are a port from a PC game, elements of the game have to be sacrificed for the sake of space. There were bits and pieces taken out of WC that were unnecessary to gameplay but it allowed them to squeeze the game onto SNES game pak format. A lot of the bits and pieces were things like character animations during conversations or even the cutting of a mission or two. Those kinds of changes were made for the sake of space.
They did also make changes to some of the content because the NES and SNES were largely considered to be kid systems. So they did take out some of the more adult references.
As for the Cat Admiral's death being more graphic in the PC version, that was probably a space change rather than content. Because when you kill Hitler at the end of BC his head explodes and his eyeballs shoot out!
 
Yeah, there was a bit about that. I have Bionic Commando, or Top Secret: The Revival of Hitler as it was known in Japan, and it remains one of my all time favourites. The whole Nazi thing went right over my head actually. For those who don't know, the game dealt with the revival of the Nazis in 1988 and the attempt to bring Adolf Hitler back from the dead. The game was a little coarse for it's time, with more adult language (ala Metal Gear Solid) and the ability to interrogate POWS as examples. The background for the game, as well as Hitler's exploding head, have made the game a cult classic. Just look at the reviews on Gamefaqs.

On Wing Commander, true enough, things like the character animations may have been cut out due to space restrictions (they were still rather impressive), but with some content you are spot on for saying that the system was thought of as being for kids, and hence why I think some of the content may have been changed to reflect this. The lose ending, from memory, was exactly the same as the PC one, and I would have thought that the same would apply to the win ending. (The same music plays in both endings, by the way. Odd).
 
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