Privateer Day: How it Started (June 3, 2011)

[Bandit LOAF]

The game we know as Wing Commander: Privateer began life as Trade Commander, a game planned in 1992 to take advantage of the RealSpace technology being developed for Chris Roberts' opus, Strike Commander. The plan was to offset the tremendous cost of Strike Commander by quickly releasing other games built on the same engine--something that could be accomplished by beginning their development before Strike was ready. As Strike Commander ran into delays and overruns, it became clear the new 3D engine would not be available in time. Plans for Trade Commander were adapted to use the existing, less technically impressive Wing Commander engine. Trade Commander's sister project, Phoenix Force, was less lucky: it was unceremoniously cancelled and is rarely remembered today.

Trade Commander was formally announced, in typical Origin fashion, in 1992:

In 1990 ORIGIN revolutionized the industry when it introduced interactive cinema with the first Wing Commander game. In 1991 Wing Commander II carried this vision to new heights of game action, and with it new depth and sophistication. Now this year (we hope) will see the release of Trade Commander (now Privateer), a game that brings interactive entertainment software to a higher pinnacle of excitement than ever before.

(Read the full announcement.)


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Original update published on June 3, 2011

 

[st3lt3k]

Very interesting.

Do we know when/where this announcement was made? According to the Privateer page on GOG, Privateer was released on September 22, 1993 (I'm not sure if that was the date of a trade convention or something similar). I'm curious how much time there was between between announcement and release.

Do we have any pictures/scans of the actual document? Maybe there were some screenshots/mockups?

Thanks in advance for any answers!

 

[Bandit LOAF]

Over a year--this press release went out in August, 1992 No artwork--just Origin stationary.