Wing Commander 2 Saves the Screen (August 25, 2011)

Bandit LOAF

Long Live the Confederation!
Want to expand your Wing Commander II experience? Great! Do you have Windows 3.1? Origin's "Origin FX" commercial screen saver program included several modes for Wing Commander II... including a 'debris field' which displayed objects from the game (asteroids, mines, etc.) and a 'theater' mode which would play scenes from Wing Commander II in a frame! (A copy of Wing Commander II was required--otherwise it didn't have anywhere to get the movies.)











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Original update published on August 25, 2011
 
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I would so use this as my screensaver if I could. Did any other games plug into OriginFX?
 
I would so use this as my screensaver if I could. Did any other games plug into OriginFX?

According to Pix's Origin Adventures, OriginFX modules were provided with Ultima VII (mentioned in the post) and Strike Commander (mentioned in the comments). However, the Ultima VII one just added the opening and ending sequences, and no one seems to have made Strike Commander actually work.

If you want to see the WC2 part in motion, it starts at 13:55 in Pix's video. While Pix says that the music is random, on that particular run, it oddly plays the WC1 opening theme.

Of course, if you own a 1990s cathode ray tube monitor to go with your Windows 3.1 computer, the OriginFX "screen saver" will actually do a pretty terrible job of saving your screen. Even with the varying backgrounds, some persistent elements will get burned in. In particular, the "Wing Commander" text and possibly the Avatar will become a permanent part of your monitor...

... actually, I'm not seeing a problem here.
 
The only one I ever had in Windows 3.1 was Afterdark. I didn't even know about Origin FX at the time. Still it was a neat idea.
 
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