EA's CD Classics Deluxe versions vs. original floppies

[Ultimatar]

Hello All,

I'd first like to say it's really awesome to see Wing Commander alive and well and loved still by so many. It almost brings a tear to the ole eye
Now I need opinions and info from all who are willing to give input. I currently do have the Kirathi Saga version of WC on the CDs and can play a little but the minor changes they made are a bit of a turnoff. I'm looking for as close to the original '90's versions as possible. I do still have my Wing Commander Special promotional Release I played on my old 386 years ago but none of the Secret Missions expansions. Also my Wing 2 was 5.25 floppies and I tossed them, I was so stupid. Now my system's 3.5 drive is possibly dying, if not dead already, and may be chewing disks so...
I'd like to know is if those EA CD Classics versions of WC 1 & 2 are also changed in the sound and possibly graphic department like KS is? Should I try to acquire those versions or keep searching for the extremely rare expansions in their original DOS floppy versions? I am very willing to DOSBox run them if they can survive my floppy drive.
Thank you all and keep up this great work.

_Ultimatar_

 

[TheFraix]

The EA Classics versions of WC1 & 2 have no particular differences from the floppies version, aside that the default installations would only save your configuration settings in the harddisk and access the game files from the CD.

WC2 does have a speech pack, which was the common utilization of CD-ROM those days. Games like Privateer and Strike Commander have a full speech pack, which is far larger than the usual speech pack for floppies.

 

[ChrisReid]

I'd first like to say it's really awesome to see Wing Commander alive and well and loved still by so many. It almost brings a tear to the ole eye

Yup. It's the sum of everyone staying active though, and you can help keep things going by continuing to involve yourself like this.

The DOS CD classics type releases of the original WC games are an excellent way to go. They do not have tweaks and new music like Kilrathi Saga, and they typically come with the expansions. Due to the numbers that were distributed via OEM methods and such, they are also relatively cheap and plentiful. And they run great in DOSBox.