Videos of Wing Commander Missions

Prometheus

Spaceman
A while ago, I started recording myself when flying in DOSbox (Ctrl+Alt+F5). I want to make a habit out of doing this every time I fly a mission (although I've forgotten it a couple of times), and then afterwards, especially in the case of a failed mission, watch the replay and analyze what went wrong.

Also I can upload some of these videos to Youtube, and until now I already uploaded three:

1. A succesful run of Port Hedland 2
2. A failed attempt at Port Hedland 3
3. The first mission of Wing Commander 2, finished with unusal circumstances.

You can watch them here: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9821B19B8C433B5F
I might add more in the future.

Maybe some people can learn from these videos. And maybe I can learn from people commenting on these videos. If you play WC1 and WC2 these days, maybe you could record your flying too, upload it and then share them here in this thread.

Another point in this is that I also hope to catch some glitches on video, so we can have a little "glitch collection" here. I remember some strange occurences, for example a Kilrathi Ace turning invisible (not cloaked!), or these spontaneously exploding Salthi I talked about in another thread. In the "Port Hedland 3" video above you can already see a little glitch during the briefing (the map isn't displayed quite right)... So if we just "keep the camera rolling" all the time, we might hopefully catch these occurences on file. Of course you can always delete video files if they contain nothing to write home about.
 
I did a play through of Wing Commander on the winning path, which I upload to YouTube. I added annotations, which provided some tactics, which got less the further into the missions I got. You can find my play list for that here. I am considering doing a play through of WC2, which has already been done, or do something extra with WC (like visiting the different braches of the missions).

I never came across the invisible Kilrathi ace during my play through's, though on the Amiga the game evebtually glitches so that all the Dralthi were invisible (except for their engine thrusts). It was a very sad time, as it happened on the original disks :(
 
Thanks for the share, great vids. A little off-topic, but would you be so kind as to post the contents of your DOSBox config file? I've never seen WC2 run this smoothly in DOSBox on any machine - even with the reccomended settings from posts I've seen here at the CIC, I've only ever been able to get the game playable, but extremely choppy, even on a nearly-new high-end PC. Again, sorry to hijack the thread but would be interested to see how you set this up so well.
 
@centaurianmudpig: Nice flying and annotations, especially part #10. I look forward to see you tackle WC2 SO1.
 
Wow, I didn't think I would ever make it to the front page. I honestly feel honored. Thank you.

I started watching your videos, centaurianmudpig. It was interesting to see, that Spirit hit an asteroid and got damaged from that. Somehow I always assumed your wingmen in WC1/2 "cheat" in asteroid and mine fields.

I've also got a question for you: In the videos you seem to use the other viewports, e.g. for lining up the landing. Do you regularly do that, or did you just do that for the video? I for myself almost never use anything but the cockpit view, except maybe when I "show off" the game to someone who never saw it before.
 
@centaurianmudpig: Nice flying and annotations, especially part #10. I look forward to see you tackle WC2 SO1.
Thanks. I'm looking forward to playing SM1/2 when GOG get it released, similar for SO1/2. When I get round to WC2 I may just film the combat rather than the cinematics. Any thoughts on this?

I started watching your videos, centaurianmudpig. It was interesting to see, that Spirit hit an asteroid and got damaged from that. Somehow I always assumed your wingmen in WC1/2 "cheat" in asteroid and mine fields.
There may be some form of cheating, I have a presumption it is to do with how the asteroid fields are generated, though it looks like they do a decent job at avoiding slow moving objects.
I've also got a question for you: In the videos you seem to use the other viewports, e.g. for lining up the landing. Do you regularly do that, or did you just do that for the video? I for myself almost never use anything but the cockpit view, except maybe when I "show off" the game to someone who never saw it before.
I find it easier to line up with the 'claw's landing bay using the side views and when getting behind enemy carriers, it's something I use often. External camera's are for showing off.
 
There may be some form of cheating, I have a presumption it is to do with how the asteroid fields are generated, though it looks like they do a decent job at avoiding slow moving objects.
As I recall, the asteroids are only generated in the player's view. Once they've been generated, they don't disappear when they get out of your view, I think, but they aren't generated either - so your wingmen and other AI are indeed relatively safe... as long as you don't see them :).

I find it easier to line up with the 'claw's landing bay using the side views and when getting behind enemy carriers, it's something I use often. External camera's are for showing off.
Yeah, I always used that as well - it's by far the best way to approach, in my opinion.
 
As I recall, the asteroids are only generated in the player's view. Once they've been generated, they don't disappear when they get out of your view, I think, but they aren't generated either - so your wingmen and other AI are indeed relatively safe... as long as you don't see them :).

Yeah, I thought as much. I may play around with the external camera to see what happens when I am viewing enemy fighters approaching from an asteroid/mine field. See how they like it :)
 
Just found a mistake in the mission briefing time/date for Gateway 1 & 2. Both briefings give the time and date as 06:00 hours, 2654.116.

You can witness the madness here, just click on the link and the briefing will start in about 5 seconds:
Gateway 1
Gateway 2
 
Yeah, I thought as much. I may play around with the external camera to see what happens when I am viewing enemy fighters approaching from an asteroid/mine field. See how they like it :)
It seems however, that if you have got an enemy encounter inside an asteroid field, the density of the asteroids is significantly reduced. Maybe not only the density, but the whole "physics" change in that kind of situation?
 
Back
Top