Happy 30th Birthday Wing Commander! (September 26, 2020)

ChrisReid

ChrisReid

Super Soaker Collector / Administrator




Wow, three decades since this title screen began gracing monitors around the globe! The Wing Commander series celebrates its 30th birthday today, and we're excited to have seen it through all this way. After all this time, what do we say? Countless articles have been written about how revolutionary the series was for its time and how well it's held up after all this years. I still appreciate the new ones being written even today as they help put the games in context for the continuously evolving gaming landscape. When I think back on all this time though, the biggest things that stand out are the friendships, community and sense of combined experience that Wing Commander fans share. Many of us have been part of the online world of WC for two dozen years, and the CIC itself has been established at wcnews.com for nearly three quarters of the series' life. Wingnuts don't just love Wing Commander, but they're into a whole host of related things that have provided countless hours of enjoyment. It's especially fun to see new fans join the fray, including many who were actually born after the CIC was launched. Older fans help with the historical framework while newer members bring fresh insight, and we have a great time.

Back directly on the subject, dedicated fans continue to work on some amazing things to share with you all soon. I'm happy to report that we have positive news on the medical issue we mentioned yesterday too, so our party will likely be rescheduled sooner rather than later. And fans are still celebrating the series' birthday today in a variety of ways. Bonkus_Maximumus will be among the pilots broadcasting a play through of the original game tonight on Twitch. Check it out here at 5pm Pacific/8pm Eastern to follow along with that. We'll also be in #Wingnut on Discord all day, so feel free to drop in and say hello! And if you'd still like something fun to watch, here's an archive of last year's stream:


--
Original update published on September 26, 2020
 
I need to mark my calendar for September 26, 2025 for sure - 35 years of Wing Commander. At that point, the game will have been around the same length of time as the entire Terran-Kilrathi War, unless my math is bad...
 
My memory must be going, didn't remember Chris Roberts not actually being a part of Origin for WC1. Dramatic way of announcing his full-time employment there.
 
Wedge009 said:
My memory must be going, didn't remember Chris Roberts not actually being a part of Origin for WC1. Dramatic way of announcing his full-time employment there.
Click to expand...

Prior to 1991, Origin functioned very differently from a modern studio or publisher. They basically acted as a service which provided trained developers and resources (office space, PCs, packaging, marketing, etc.) to independent game developers who would agree to share profits with the company once their games were done. That changed after Wing Commander I, when the entire process went in house.

This is also why very few pre-1990 games from Origin are available digitally; with the exception of the Ultimas, they are owned by their developers rather than the company itself.
 
I want to thank everyone who had the chance to attend Saturday night's stream, and I especially want to thank Chris for posting this on the main forum! I have to admit that intentionally going through the losing track missions was fun, and I was also surprised that we needed only two tries for Kurse-a-sawa 2! I'll try to get the missions we couldn't cover on YouTube ASAP so we can continue the celebration by making fun of my struggles on the rest of the losing track missions!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top