Point of Origin: Vol. IV, No. 56

The June 3, 1994 issue of 'The' Point of Origin has even more from the set of Wing Commander III -- and a few references to things happening behind the scenes, like the cancellation of Pacific Strike CD. The sad thing is that the voices were already recorded -- are they still out there somewhere? With the absence of an Origin flight sim community there's no one to fight for such things...

A very special thanks to Joe Garrity of the Origin Museum for making this resource available and to Electronic Arts for sending them to him in the first place!

• In Print has the first media reports on Wing Commander III: "There seemed to be a lot of ORIGIN mentions in the June issue of CGW. In the Read.me section, the editors gave readers an early glimpse of what to expect in Wing Commander III. 'Names like Mark Hamill, Tim Curry, John Rhys-Davies and Ginger Lynn Allen will fill the credits of what will surely be one of the hottest games of '94,' they said. Turn to the back of CGW in the same issue and you'll find a nice write-up on Wing Commander, which is one of only 32 games residing in that magazine's Hall of Fame. Editors wrote, 'Wing Commander was and is, in many ways, the ultimate action game. Chris Roberts' design combined the smooth performance of a polygon-filled flight simulator with convincing bit-mapped overplays that were artistically superior to the ordinary flight simulation.'... The good news doesn't stop there. Super Wing Commander for 3DO has rushed to the top of the class as the number one selling 3DO title to date. The game magazines are singing the game's praises. The latest edition of Gamefan magazine has a three page write-up on Super Wing. 'Super Wing Commander is a rare game that will have you completely engrossed in its story telling and its ability to keep you involved in its combat scenarios,' That's the word according to Talko, the writer of this review. Talko goes on to talk, 'Super Wing Commander for 3DO has arrived and you've never had a challenge like this.'"
• EOM - Brandt is a Wing Commander veteran: "He was recently the Project Leader for the Pacific Strike CD, until that project was scrapped, and he's previously worked on Pacific Strike floppy, Super Wing Commander 3DO and the Strike Commander CD."
• Extra, Extra! collects some odds and ends: "Check out the trophy case in the lobby and you'll see seven new plaques from the Software Publishers Association recognizing significant milestones for ORIGIN's sales department. They are Gold Sales Awards, which signify that ORIGIN has sold more than 100,000 units nationwide for each of the recognized games: Ultima III, Ultima IV, Ultima V, Ultima VI, Wing Commander, Wing Commander II and Strike Commander. Kudos to the sales team and the development teams responsible for creating such great games!"
• ORIGIN GOES HOLLYWOOD is the latest from the set of Wing Commander III:

  (Ed note--John McLean has been in Los Angeles for the past five weeks, working on the studio production segment of Wing Commander III. He files this report on the goingson when the lights came on at the Wing III set.)

  (Los Angeles) Origin's most ambitious interactive title to date, Wing Commander III, has just completed principal photography at Hayvenburst Studio in Los Angeles.

  Under the direction of Chris Roberts this live action portion of the game promises to inaugurate a new era of cutting edge entertainment, both for ORIGIN and the entertainment industry as a whole.

  Some 60 hours of footage were recorded on two adjacent sound stages during the 25-day shoot. What's more, for the first time in cinematic history not a single 'real' set was used in the production. Instead, every angle of every background was created from scratch on ORIGIN's own computers. The WC3 art department under the guidance of Chris Douglas and with the assistance of Silicon Graphics workstations and Alias software generated the dozens of impressive sets in which the story takes place.

  The production involved more than 80 experienced film professionals who put in 12 to 18 hour days in order to realize Chris Roberts' vision of the final chapter of the Terran-Kilrathi struggle. The name talent includes the likes of Mark Hamill, Malcolm McDowell, John Rhys-Davies, Tom Wilson, Jason Bernard, Courtney Gaines and the ever popular Ginger Lynn-Allen.

  Without exception, the actors were fascinated by the process of interactive moviemaking. After mastering the technical requirements of playing their roles while moving around an 'empty' stage, the talent began to take an active interest in the technology used to create Wing Commander III. This ranged from simple Hardware Envy of the formidable array of equipment the Origin team brought to LA (including an SGI Indigo, a Pentium, two Quadra 950s, two 486s and our ubiquitous lap-tops) all the way up to hands-on tinkering with our state-of-the-art AVID 1000 digital editing system.

  Although always intense and frequently frustrating, the shoot progressed without any major complications thanks in part to a close monitoring of contracts, budgets and schedules by resident 'suits' in both Austin and San Mateo.

  Taking advantage of a well-budgeted, live-action production is the free publicity the project attracts, and Wing Commander III was no exception. Due to the persistent effects of Origin's marketing department, the computer press turned out in force. Besides being dazzled by our technological feats of high-tech entertainment, they were visibly wowed by having the opportunity to sit down with household names such as Mark Hamill and fire off questions about the future of this new medium. But our press didn't stop there. Among other visitors to the set were representatives of the Today show, VH-1, the Los Angeles Times, Premiere, the Associated Press and USA Today. And if their reactions were any indication, the buzz on WC3 is that it's gonna be the hit software title of the year!

  Meanwhile back in Austin...

  Origin's programmers, led by director Frank Savage, have made rapid progress in building the backbone of the game itself. They've faced hurdles involving image compression, mission design and building a game that lives up to the hype--no mean feat.

  In the weeks ahead, the live-action footage will be edited down to a tight 90-110 minutes of dramatic material. Final compositing will take place at Electronic Arts' D-suite in San Mateo and then brought back to Austin to be married with the remaining components of the game.

  Look for Wing Commander III to hit retail outlets everywhere for Christmas of 1994.

  Point of Origin
  Vol. IV, No. 56 - June 3, 1994 Contents ORIGIN GOES HOLLYWOOD
  In Print
  Focus Pocus
  Ticker
  New Hires
  EOM - Evan Brandt
  Extra! Extra!
  Dear Point Man

Point of Origin: Vol. IV, No. 54

The March, 1994 issue of Point of Origin is full of interesting Wing Commander references, including a mention of 'trial' versions of Academy and Origin FX that I had not heard of before. The most interesting thing, though, is another passing mention of 'Bounty Hunter' -- here called "our most futuristic product." What was it?

A very special thanks to Joe Garrity of the Origin Museum for making this resource available and to Electronic Arts for sending them to him in the first place!

• Butt-Clenchin' reports bad news for SWC3DO: "And, as if the plot needed another twist, there's been a snag with SUper Wing. 'The joystick file didn't get encrypted at 3DO,' he says. 'We're getting a new ersion Friday. We hope to have it tested by Monday. It will go to duplication Monday, and I'm asking for a three-day minimum turnaround so we can ship it on Friday next week.'"
• EOM Whitney Ayres celebrates another great Wing Commander veteran: "Whitney has had a more than a decent two year history at ORIGIN as a lead artist on Wing Commander Academy (the only artist actually) and as an artist for both Privateer and ORIGIN FX."
• On the Clock welcomes aboard a man we all know and love: "As a new composer, George Oldziey will be working on the score for Wing Commander III. He's a faculty member at Southwestern University in Georgetown and has played trumpet in a few bands over the years. George's lit of credits include a New York salsa band called Ricardo Marrerro and Group which featured vocalist ngela Bolfil and jazz flutist David Valetin. This band also performed at Madison Square Garden in N.Y. George is currently playing with the Brazilian music band from Austin, Susanna Sharpe and Samba Police, which releaed a new CD in Dec. of '93."
• Off to Market has some unique new ways to sell Origin games: "Wing Academy and ORIGIN FX will be our first forays into electronic distribution. That's where somebody gets a slew of titles on a single CD, tries a program for a limited time, and then calls an 800-number for the code to "unlock" the program and d rop it to the hard drive. The company we're uisng is CD Select. It's sending 200,000 CDs to customers who have purchased through electronic distribution before. Both FX and Academy will also be on a separate disc, primarily filled with business applications, that will go out to corporate customers (they need entertainment, too)... Since there's no real 3DO bandwagon yet, we're also finding unique ways to get out word about Super Wing. We started by making sure it was fully represented with info and screen shots in the 3DO press kit at CES. Now, we're supplyin copies of the game to go out with loaner players which 3DO is supplying to major press like the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. Next: direct cross-marketing with Panasonic itself to see what can be done to establish Super Wing as the premier 3DO title. We'll also see what we can do with CH Products to cross market with their 3DO joystick coming out this June."
• In Print only has a few Wing Commander mentions: "In other news from around the globe, you might want to pick up the April edition of CD-ROM World when it hits the stands soon. You'll find a feature article on CD-ROM flight sims. A good portion of the report is devoted to ORIGIN's Wing Commander line. Christopher Forrest Grover calls Wing Commander, '...a runaway hit which includes plenty of flight sim comba fighting and a compelling story line.'... And two ORIGIN titles have been nominated in CGW's Game of the Year awards. Privateer and Shadowcaster are among five games nominated for Action Game of the Year."

Point of Origin
Vol. IV, No. 54 - March, 1994 Contents Butt-Clenchin' Time
Off to Market
EOM Whitney Ayres
On the Clock
Dear Point Man
Ticker
In Print

Point of Origin: Vol. III, No. 42

This issue of Point of Origin (July 16, 1993) comes with a pretty gold seal - which means that the company has scored yet another prestigious award! Nothing earth-shattering in this issue - although there's an interesting reference to MetalMorph (here Cyber Morph) being "the Space Commander game for SNES." What could that mean?

A very special thanks to Joe Garrity of the Origin Museum for making this resource available and to Electronic Arts for sending them to him in the first place!

• Kudos and Columns has the results of the recent Origins Awards: "Wing Commander II posthumously took title for Best Fantasy/Science Fiction Game of 1991. (They didn't have the awards last year.) Underworld I snagged the same title for 1992. Belated congrats to everybody involved in both projects. Ain't it a shame when awards slip worse than ship dates?" It also reports on good news from CGW's Reader Poll: "What's after World Circuit at #4? None other than Wing 2... In the action game category, Wing 2 remains firmly entrenched in the #1 spot. (note: Wing I was moved over to the 'Hall of Fame.')" And, finally, positive comments on future games from Joystick: "Wing Academy: 'It is possible to play any side, therefore you can be a Kilrathi and waste the Confederation. This option by itself should bring a hell of a lot of joy to those who, on a regular basis, regret to only play the good guys, when, deep down, they feel bad & nasty.' Privateer: 'Another stone suited to make ORIGIN even more monumental.'"

Point of Origin
Vol. III, No. 42 - July 16, 1993 Contents Security Council Update
Kudos and Columns
New Hires
Pulse Check
Clarifications
Farewells
Ticker
Richard's Birthday Bash
ORIGIN Company Picnic a Success
Bringing Things Into Focus
Take 5
Party Pics
Dear Point Man
NEWS.TXT

Point of Origin: Vol. III, No. 33

The year seems to be starting out well, according to the February 26th, 1993 issue of Point of Origin. Both EA and the industry at large are interested in expanding the game development market in Austin, seemingly a direct result of Origin's past successes -- and we all know how that turned out!

A very special thanks to Joe Garrity of the Origin Museum for making this resource available and to Electronic Arts for sending them to him in the first place!

• "End-Quote" has a few words of praise for the screensaver: "ORIGIN FX gets a nice mention in France's Generation 4, which writes: 'ORIGIN FX is simply fabulous and easy to use. With all the options, even the new user can obtain impressive results.' Not quite how we'd say it, but okay."
• Still Growing describes new employees: "Greg Gidel is working on Wing Commander for the FM Towns machine. Originally from Illinois, Greg's a long-time EA fan (Bard's Tale) as well as Ultima player."
• One of the responses in Dear Point Man describes plans for personalizing the new office: "Not only do we want a place to show all our awards, we want to have a couple of other spots in the building that would make interesting tour stops--places like the Wall of Fame in Customer Service, a 'Rogue's Gallery' of bizarre art from our artists, and an ORIGIN history area with Akalabeth, Wing Commander design plans, pirate copies of Ultima... things like that."
• Finally, the March, 1993 CGW Reader Poll lists Wing Commander II at #6.

Point of Origin
Vol. III, No. 33 - February 26, 1993 Contents "End-Quote"
EA Holds World Art Conference
Misc.
Room to Talk
In the Library
Bio: Kay Stringer
Ticker
Dear Point Man
NEWS.TXT
Still Growing
CGW Reader Poll

Vote For Best Official Guide

Our new poll asks which official Wing Commander game guide is your favorite. The choices are limited to books written in English, but the selection is diverse and covers a wide range of writing styles, formats and Wing Commander history. From the in-universe narrative of WC1&2's guide to the technical analysis presented in the Playtesters' guides, each one is chock full of valuable information. You can find more data on all the different Wing Commander books here: English, German, Czech and more!

Our latest poll asked which games fans most wanted to see on GameTap next. Wing Commander 3 took the top spot. With WC1, WC2 & WC4 already available to play, Wingnuts seem eager to get the main games out of the way. Privateer came in with a strong second place vote. Although no date has been attached to that one, P1 was actually the first WC game announced for the GameTap service.

Origin's Innovative 'Virtual Reality' Worlds Revealed

Origin's record of innovation didn't stop with Wing Commander: this trio of CGW advertisements promotes Ultima Underworlds I & II. These classics created "the first continuous-movement, 3D-dungeon, action fantasy" - which is to say that they're early RPG-derived ancestors of the first person shooter genre which dominates gaming to this day. Wolfenstein 3D, which was released soon after The Stygian Abyss, ultimately became more popular, but the Los Angeles Times preferred Underworld, saying "the 3D perspective lends an element of virtual reality not seen in other first-person adventures. A rich texture of character and story detail combine to keep a determined adventure involved for hours." An improved sequel, Labyrinth of Worlds, was immediately developed with upgraded gameplay and graphics. The team behind the games went on to develop System Shock, a similar RPG/shooter mix. Wing Commander fans should look out for a special CD-ROM release which includes both Wing Commander II and the second Underworld.

Some games can't be showcased with a few screen shots and some descriptive text. Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss - a game of action, motion and movement - is one of them. We hope this attempt to capture the excitement of the Underworld sends you running to a software store for a look at our demo. Because only there can you truly experiene this incredible journey. If your favorite retailer doesn't have an Ultima Underworld demo yet, ask them to call ORIGIN. We'll send one out right away."

Bioforge + System Shock = ?

When we told you the 'flight' advertisements (here) were the last Origin scans from Alkarion, we lied. He was dedicated enough to provide scans for three Origin games that aren't directly related to Wing Commander's development: Shadow Caster, System Shock and Bioforge.

Shadow Caster was another one of Richard Garriott's attempts to support developing games in unique directions distinct from Origin's 'standard' Wing Commander and Ultima releases. Unfortunately, it wasn't the breakout hit that some believe it deserved to be. The game featured an at-the-time unheared of first person interface and the still fairly unique feature of being able to morph into different types of animals.

System Shock was a very early (and very complex) first person shooter/RPG. It was eventually followed by Looking Glass' System Shock 2, and rumors of a third game in the series being in development persist to this day. The CD version of System Shock included an amazing Wing Commander mini-game, "Wing 0". You can read all about it here.

Bioforge was the second title released under Origin's 1994 "interactive movie" brand. Unlike Ultima VIII, the title was more than just an attempt to cash in on Wing Commander III's success: Bioforge was a uniquely cinematic adventure game with a healthy mix of action thrown in. Does it have anything to do with Wing Commander? Well, it shares a 3D space shuttle with the introduction to Super Wing Commander!

Advertising Gets Real

Rounding out his recent trilogy of classic Wing Commander advertisements (here, here and here), Alkarion has provided us with three scans relating to other amazing Origin games. In this case, it's Origin's three RealSpace engine flight games. The RealSpace 3D engine was also used on three Wing Commander games: Armada, Heart of the Tiger and The Price of Freedom.

First is Strike Commander, Chris Roberts' 'other' big interactive movie. Strike Commander a cross between Falcon and Privateer, with a Wing Commander style movie storyline thrown in for good measure. The player commanded a squadron of mercenary pilots flying F-16s... and was not only responible for shooting down a host of modern aircraft, but also for buying new weapons and picking from various paying missions. Strike Commander was also famous for its constant delays - it was released well over a year after its original announced date. Unfortunately, that delay meant that a followup game, Phoenix Force, was cancelled after being plotted.

Next is Pacific Strike, an earlier RealSpace game that met with a sadder fate. Pacific Strike was Origin's last disk-only game, and the version that shipped was unfortunately buggy. Low sales meant that two Pacific Strike followups, a '1946' mission disk and a full speech CD-ROM release, were cancelled during development. In the case of the full speech version, that was after all the dialogue had been recorded! Pacific Strike is actually a pretty cool game - one of its most exciting features is an entirely dynamic campaign... your performance not only defines how the war will end, but what kind of enemies you'll face in each mission (ie, kill enough carriers at Midway and fewer Japanese pilots will appear later on). The elaborate scripting was amazing!

Wings of Glory was the penultimate use of the RealSpace 3D engine, and certainly the most striking. The slower and more colorful world of World War I combat put Strike Commander and Pacific Strike to shame. The game also featured Privateer-style 'talking heads' and a classic Origin cinematic storyline (read: there is a traitor). If you haven't played WoG, give it a shot - it's on my personal top ten games list.

Birth of the Interactive Movies

Here's three more full page Wing Commander-related advertisements, courtesy of Alkarion. You can see the last sets here and here. The first shot shows the classic Wing Commander III artwork, making the bold claim that it is "THE INTERACTIVE MOVIE." The four inset screenshots are taken from the first set Origin released to the public, well before the game's release. Note the "also available for the 3DO" logo -- Origin was taking that port seriously very early on.

The second is for 1993s ORIGIN FX screensaver package. OFX seems like an odd product in retrospect, but one must remember that this was an age dominated by After Dark's iconic Flying Toasters... Origin certainly hoped their flying pigs would earn them a piece of that pie. The release included several Wing Commander modules, including a customizable debris field, a set of spaceships that fly around the screen and 'TCS Paradigm' - a well rendered Paradigm flies back and forth across various space backgrounds. The advertisement reads: "Special Bonus: For owners of Wing Commander II, ORIGIN FX includes a module that plays all of WC II's cinematic sequences when the game is installed on your hard drive. And that's just the beginning - look for add-on ORIGIN FX modules shipped with future games, to showcase their cinematics, as well." Strange as this sounds, it actually happened - Strike Commander shipped with this feature. Too bad the project was abandoned by the time the FMV titles were released...

The final advertisement was part of 1995s 'interactive movie' push, which included System Shock, Ultima VIII, Wings of Glory, Wing Commander III and Wing Commander Armada. "Hunt down the meanest aliens in dozens of different galaxies -- without having to guess what they really look like."

Classic Advertisements Highlight Wing Commander's Explosive Debut

Here's another set of awesome advertisements from old issues of Computer Gaming World. Alkarion grabbed these from issues of the magazine published in the early 1990s. Like the last set, these are creative ads that are full of tough talking verbiage and feature original takes on familiar Wing Commander art.

The first image is a 1992 advertisement that covered the entire series released up until that point. It's hard to imagine, but WC1, WC2 and their four add-on campaigns were all released within a two-year time span. The novel Freedom Flight and ports of the original Wing Commander for the Super Nintendo and Amiga were still in the works as the second Special Operations pack rolled out of the factory. These original titles account for some 160 missions and quickly established Wing Commander as the premiere space combat simulator and interactive movie. The middle strip is a Spring 1991 advertisement promoting the release of the second Secret Missions title. Both games in the ad pioneered the expansion disk concept and were created very quickly to seize on Wing Commander's surprise success. The last ad plays on the film strip concept also seen on the WC2 box. Long before Wing Commander 3's live actor FMV made its debut, the WC series was already known for its cinematic storytelling and lifelike characters. Origin emphasized this by showing scenes from the game in distinctive film reel highlights. The bullet points at the bottom also remind us just have revolutionary this all was at the time. WC2's digitized speech made Soundblaster a household name and kicked off the multimedia PC era.

Last year, ORIGIN defined the state of the art in computer games... Now, we're doing it all over again.

Can Furballs Really Fly? There's only one way to find out. Jump into Wing Commander, the game series that defined interactive entertainment on the PC. You're whisked to the front lines and left in the middle of an intergalactic brawl with a bunch of flea-bitten, battle-scarred felines from Kilrah.

MORE WING COMMANDER ACTION!

Warren Spector Talks Gaming

The current issue (264) of CGW magazine features an interview with Warren Spector, who was the associate producer of the original Wing Commander game. Since then Warren has become a highly influential figure in gaming, having been involved with producing games for Electronic Arts and Ion Storm. He has outspoken opinions about where the gaming industry is headed and tries to initiate some of the more creative development projects. Last year he moved on to establish his own game studio, Junction Point Studios, which is now working on producing an announced game based around Valve's Source engine.

CGW: Roger Ebert recently held a debate about the much-reviled "games as art" issue, but included no acknowledged speecialists like Henry Jenkins. Does it damage the "cause" when prominent media personalities have these kinds of "disconnected" debates?

WS: Roger Ebert has no impact whatsoever on the future of gaming... The fact is, almost everyone under the age of 30 grew up with games (and a lot of us over the age of 30!), and there's no sign that gamers stop being gamers as they get older... We do need to create a wider variety of game types and offer a wider range of content, but games are here to say. Universities are starting to recognize our cultural significance. Parents are playing with their kids. It's only a matter of time before the President's a PlayStation owner. We're an art form. We've won. Get over it, Roger.

Classic Advertisements Highlight Wing Commander Spinoffs

Back in the early '90s, Origin fans could look forward to advertisements, previews and special features on their favorite games in almost every issue of Computer Gaming World. Last week we posted some lost artwork that was revealed in the magazine, and even a Joan's Supplement made it out in 1991. Today we have three really cool Wing Commander advertisements from the CGW back page thanks to Alkarion.

Armada's artwork features the familiar Arrow, but only in this scene do they face off against a trio of heavy Gorans. Placeholder text seems to exist instead of mine, shipyard and fortress images, and the final look of the strategic map was tweaked slightly before release. Academy's sheet also has some temporary art in the form of a Morningstar schematic on the Wraith's left VDU. The Wingmen are also different from what made it to the final game. Rusty, Dingo, Gauntlet and Harridan were eventually replaced by Maniac, Hobbes, Angel and Lightspeed. The primary fighter pictured is the Dralthi VII, which also made it to the game's box art, but not the game itself. Privateer's ad also focuses on the box art with a set of mostly final screenshots. The ship dealer screen seems to be selling a Plasma Gun for a mere 15,000 credits however! They all have pretty exciting taglines and text which sets the tone for each game very well. Be sure to check out the high res links below if you really want to see the minute details.

Wing Commander Armada: The life of a seasoned starfighter pilot isn't all glory and adventure. After years of following orders and losing ships and friends, you are finally the sole commander of the fleet, responsible for heading up a final strike against your enemy's homeland - either the Empire of Kilrah or the confederation.

Wing Commander Academy: Relentless Space Combat - For Naive Rookies or Hardened Vets. As a student at the TCSN Academy, you custom-design and fly unique combat, rescue, and search and retrieval missions from the CyberSchool's holodeck console. In the Wing Commander tradition, the game features a dynamic musical score, improved rendered, bit-mapped graphics, and a dazzling array of customizing options. But Wing Commander Academy isn't another cinematic extravaganza - it's an intense dogfighting marathon.

Wing Commander Privateer: The War against the Kilrathi Rages on. To some, it means death, slavery or dishonor... To others, it's the chance to make a quick buck. Privateer - where deals are made with a handshake and broken by a volley from a meson cannon.

Joans Supplement Blueprint Art

Trent Haskins has created three blueprint files based on the Joans Supplement additional specifications. The design is done in original WC1 style with information taken from CGW and the Secret Missions. You can download a zipped pack of the three files in printable vector PDF format here.

I recreated these three blueprints of the Snakeir, Sivar and Star Post over the weekend when I caught a cold. It took about 2-3 hrs each with the exception of the Snakeir - probably closer to 4-5 hrs. I also fixed some errors in the original drawings as the fins on the Snakier were way off in the drawing, and some details were completely missing in other areas... Anyways, let me know what you all think... I know there are some other Blue prints out there that can be completed!

High Res Joans Supplement Available

Taking A Close Look At The Secret Missions

Here lies one of the greatest virtues of Wing Commander: the music and graphics aside (and they are both cutting-edge), this would be just another space arcade shoot-'em-up were it not for the engrossing cinematic storyline and strong protagonists with whom to empathize.

Crazy Top 100 Lists

Wow, I'm amazed. IGN's Top 100 counted down its final day today. While I'm not surprised the majority of the top ten were first party Nintendo titles, where's the Wing Commander? Even their earlier WC2 writeup mentions WC3 as the peak of Wing Commanderdom. Better luck next time. And next time is today! I've heard that the G4 tv network has put a Top 100 list in the latest Entertainment Weekly. Though I haven't found a copy myself. If anyone's a subscriber and can manage a scan, we'd appreciate it. To illustrate the differences, IGN's #8 X-Com UFO Defense ranked $99 in EW. And Wing Commander 1 & 2 tied for the 52nd spot. I love the first few WC games as much as the next guy, but these latest rankings are a bit odd. For those curious to know how it's ranked over time, I believe Wing Commander's highest spot was the February 2001 issue of Computer Gaming World where the Wing Commander series came in as the fourth best series of all time.. with less than one percent of the vote keeping it from second place right behind Half-Life.

Blast From the Past, Part 7

After taking the month of April off, we have a few more cool older magazine articles on Wing Commander. This one is quite a gem. The December 1995 Computer Gaming World cover story asks, "Wing Commander IV: Is it worth $12 million?" You don't have to answer that. In addition to the large spread in the middle of the mag, snippets in the beginning and end are Wing Commander related as well. There's even an Origin ad on the back cover. Don't see those too often anymore.

No series to date has managed to capture such a Hollywood feel and successfully combine it with such quality action. From moment one, Wing Commander 3 wowed us (and tons of other gamers) with its cinematic style. We expect Wing Commander 4 to do the same... We're also excited by the enhanced game engine, which will allow you more freedom in the heat of battle and give your wingmen more responsibility. $99.95 Origin

WC in Passing

"Gameplay is still sketchy, but AQUANOX seems to be shaping up like a deep-sea WING COMMANDER/PRIVATEER, with players cast as a mercentary earning cash to purchase a variety of upgrades for their zippy submarines." (Hot Shots, p. 25)

"Because Volition is making [SUMMONER]. The same team who helped create DESCENT when the world was enamored with the 2D-ness of DOOM. The same people who crafted FREESPACE 2 and showed that you didn't need X-Wings or Kilrathi in order to have a great space sim." (Previews, p. 54)

"I'm only 21, and have been computer gaming for, what - 12, 14 years now? I could revel in the nostalgia, through many of the older games (ZORK, WING COMMANDER, and others) I had not played until years after their respective release dates." (Letters, p. 15)

Still the One (of Five)

A high-concept, summer-blockbuster space opera—that's the best way to describe Chris Roberts' magnum opus. There are those who feel that either the third or fourth Wing Commander games were the best that Roberts put out, but they're just plain wrong. WCII did what modern action games are trying to do: It fused narrative and action together into a tight package. It gave you a compelling reason to fly forth and tear those Kilrathi ships in battle. It made you care about its various characters, and then taunted you by killing them off. It also tapped into the inner Star Wars geek within, by providing one of the first opportunities to flitter around in space and blow things up. Hopefully, Chris Roberts will find a way to use current technology to replicate the experience, and not try to make any more movies.

17 Ways to Please Your Man!

There's no such thing as bad PR -- the latest CGW cover (below) features "8 New games that make Wing Commander look like Asteroids". I think that's what they said about FreeSpace 2 -- but you'd have to ask the guy who bought it. CGW features an extensive article on Earth and Beyond.