Three Cheers For WC2 Manuals (November 7, 2017)

[ChrisReid]

Wing Commander games can come in all shapes and sizes, and today we have a look at the different colored manuals of Wing Commander 2. WC2 was one of the most ubiquitous titles of the early '90s thanks to several factors: the popularity of WC1 was key, but it also was a major showcase for in-game speech and eventually mass-produced for inclusion in a large number of different OEM and budget CD-ROM releases. The red manual below was quite common and the black lesser so. The nifty blue edition was a particularly rare release included with a Reveal Computer Products bundle. It was even reformatted slightly!

Did you know: the Wing Commander II Deluxe manual was available in several delicious flavors. Pictured: licorice, cherry and blueberry.

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Original update published on November 7, 2017

 

[Wedge009]

My copy of WC2 (and my first exposure to WC) was in a Creative Sound Blaster bundle. I had the red manual... but I suspect it was a bundle-specific reprint as the cover was plain paper (at least that I can recall), not a glossy print, plus it was missing the novel excerpt at the back (it only had the Jane's Fighting Spacecraft entries with the ship silhouettes).

 

[Dundradal]

I have the blueberry version for my WC2 deluxe. My dad got it at a yard sale.

 

[Bandit LOAF]

Red is the most common in my experience, while black is the rarest.