Wing Commander turns 30 (PC)

[Raid27]

September 26, 1990 saw the release of the first Wing Commander game for the PC.
The Amiga people (like me) had to wait until early 1993 for our turn.

Happy 30th Birthday Wing Commander!

[pipper]

One of my all time favorites - though hardly enjoyable on an A500

[NovaCoder]

Originally Posted by pipper

One of my all time favorites - though hardly enjoyable on an A500

Yep me too

I've just started playing through it again in my MiSTer

[ Show youtube player ]

[klx300r]

had a blast playing it at my university computer room with a few school friends along with Doom on the networked PCs... by he time it came out on Amiga I already had my Blizzy 030@50 in my 1200 so it ran awesome

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by Raid27

The Amiga people (like me) had to wait until early 1993 for our turn.

And it was totally not worth the wait
I never got to play it back then in the intended hardware, and only now I am experiencing it as it's meant to be, and it's quite a great game, but still really annoying with collisions. Those asteroid fields are just rage inducing.

[dreadnought]

It was an important game, no doubt, but somehow has never really clicked with me.

Now, Privateer, that's a completely different story...loved that one to bits.

[Amigajay]

Originally Posted by Akira

And it was totally not worth the wait

Maybe not on the A500, but i had great fun with it on the CD32, then i bought WC3 on the PS1 when it came out, funnily enough i never got into it as much as the original.

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by Amigajay

Maybe not on the A500, but i had great fun with it on the CD32

Even though that version was OK, if you ever played the original on PC, you cannot go back to the Amiga crap.

It was one of the first PC "killer app" games that I can remember. People bought kitted out 486s just to play Wing commander.

[Amigajay]

Originally Posted by Akira

Even though that version was OK, if you ever played the original on PC, you cannot go back to the Amiga crap.

It was one of the first PC "killer app" games that I can remember. People bought kitted out 486s just to play Wing commander.

Never played the original because PC’s were in the thousands to be able to play such a game, only for it to be outdated to play the sequel!

In all seriousness, despite it running slower (or equal depending on what PC you had) it was still a great game, so far from being ‘amiga crap’.

[gimbal]

Originally Posted by Akira

It was one of the first PC "killer app" games that I can remember. People bought kitted out 486s just to play Wing commander.

Really! In my neck of the woods people didn't even know what Wing Commander was, not even when Mark Hamill started to get involved.

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by Amigajay

Never played the original because PC’s were in the thousands to be able to play such a game, only for it to be outdated to play the sequel!

[
I agree, and as I said, I never had it back then, only now.

so far from being ‘amiga crap’.

I think it is, it's just a game that cannot possibly realistically fit in that format. Porting it was a weird decision probably driven by greed.

I played the Amiga version a lot, it was the game I was given as a gift when I got my first Amiga. But the framerate turns it absolutely unplayable. Many times I died out of literally nowhere by being hit by an asteroid that wouldn't render.

[Raid27]

Originally Posted by pipper

One of my all time favorites - though hardly enjoyable on an A500

I know what you mean. It was a slideshow sometimes. Though a slower gameplay made dogfighting a bit easier as I recall.

[d4rk3lf]

Awesome game.
One of the true AAA titles on the Amiga.

One thing bothered me, when I was playing this on my A1200 (on floppies). Death animation. I think every mission fits in 2MB RAM, and as I recall, there was no disk swapping inside mission, but when you die, just for the sake of playing this 5 seconds animation of pilot being blown, you had toi replace disk, then another replace, and anoother, until you restart mission.
It was like 3-4 minutes when you die, until you're able to play mission again.
I remember thinking back then: "Why the hell, nobody did just one line of code, where you can skip all this anims you already seen million time, and just start over, while the mission is still in Ram.

Other then that, I really enjoyed it, and got pretty far (but not finished it).
Loved the story and small twists, loved the gameplay.

Definitely, one of the titles that I am planing to finish in the future.

[manossg]

The game was borderline unplayable on a stock A500, but it plays gloriously on my ACA500+ and I am sure to revisit it again soon. The only thing that depresses me a little bit is that the extra missions expansion never made it to the miggy...

[Anubis]

I still have found memories of playing it on my A500+, it was just awesome... until I realized that second game will never be ported on miggy.

Still have CD-Roms with all gamez and voice pack+ missions, also rest of the series (privater 1 + 2), but never completed any of the other ones on PC, only on PS1.

Videos with Mark Hamill were interesting, but then movie was just awful... still remember wife's face with question - did we really come to see this movie?!

[BigD]

Originally Posted by Akira

I think it is, it's just a game that cannot possibly realistically fit in that format. Porting it was a weird decision probably driven by greed.

You should have bought an 030 AGA Amiga. That level of machine was more than capable of running the 256 colour version of the game! Maybe A500 owners should have started eyeing up the 'next gen' Amigas in 1992 along with hard drives rather than just expecting the A1000/A2000/A500 to last forever!


I get it that Americans were forward thinking and jumped ship when they saw the inevitable but which was more intuitive and the better machine I'd argue right up until Windows XP? The Amiga of course

[BigD]

Originally Posted by Anubis

...but then movie was just awful... still remember wife's face with question - did we really come to see this movie?!

Did we watch the same film? That film was great popcorn cheese! Freddie Prinze Jr. at his best!

[Anubis]

Originally Posted by BigD

Did we watch the same film? That film was great popcorn cheese! Freddie Prinze Jr. at his best!

Surely we did and it is not as bad as Battlefield Earth, but it is not far away from it either...

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by Anubis

still remember wife's face with question - did we really come to see this movie?!

Mate that was not a great decision if you cherished your marriage

[Rotareneg]

Oh man, that movie was awesome! Jürgen Prochnow griping about someone being a "Pilgrim" and then pretending to be back on U-96 from Das Boot was beautifully cringy. Ok, I don't really blame Jürgen, but rather the director... I wonder who filmed that train wreck?

I played Wing Commander on an A1200 (with fast RAM) and remember generally enjoying it, but for me those old sprite based "3D" graphics don't hold up as well as even simple polygonal models like in Starglider 2, Elite, Frontier, etc.