Original Wing Commander Games
Origin Systems developed the original Wing Commander games for IBM PC MS-DOS from 1990-94. Created by Chris Roberts, the Wing Commander games are some of the most overrated games in the history of computer games.
First of all, the Wing Commander games are heavily cinematized. Secondly, the first four WC games employed 2D sprite-scaling at 320x200 even though flight sims of 1987 and 1988 were displaying fully-3D 608x345 and 633x345 render-fields. Thirdly, they do not employ Newtonian flight physics.
Note that the original Wing Commander was marketed as featuring "cutting-edge 3D tech", but its objects and actors are not 3D like the ones in flight sims dating back to 1984. Also, I don't see any "state-of-the-art computer graphics" for 1990, 2D-bitmap or 3D-polygonal.
To be sure, what I see are well-drawn 2D bitmap-graphics and pre-rendered 2D sprites, but that's it. Was that cutting-edge and state-of-the-art in 1990?
Wing Commander's graphics were rendered on workstations, but the game engine itself is just scaling, rotating and shifting around low-res sprites based on cut-down ray-traced workstation output. Other games were doing that in and before 1990.
That is not to say that Wing Commander games are no good; they are. But they are not as good as computer-game journalism and the reddit mainstream make them out to be; they are not some of the greatest games ever made.
As they parrot praise and throw their superlatives about like confetti, computer-game journalism is very careful never to mention Frontier: Elite 2 when treating Privateer (both of 1993).
Because what chance does a sprite-scaler with no physics have against a fully-3D game with physics?
If Frontier scrawled in a story and added characters and cinematics (which have nothing to do with gameplay) the mainstream would suddenly acknowledge its existence.
But oh dear, flight physics employment.
Filtered.
Wing Commander IBM PC 1990
Origin Systems released the original Wing Commander in 1990 for IBM PC MS-DOS. Wing Commander displays in 16-color EGA 320x200 or 256-color VGA 320x200.
Wing Commander requires an i80286-12 MHz CPU, 640K of RAM and 5 megs of HDD space, but 2 megs of EMS is recommended.
Wing Commander can hardly be considered a space combat flight simulator. It is basically a dogfighter shooter with cinematic cutscenes and story-pathways. Also, its graphics are not 3D and there is no Newtonian flight physics. Instead, Wing Commander employs unrealistic controls and chunky pre-rendered sprites that unrealistically scale, rotate and shift about in the viewport.
That said, Wing Commander is a good shoot 'em up. But space combat flight simulator?
Give me a break.
Wing Commander 2 IBM PC 1991
Origin Systems released Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi in September of 1991 for IBM PC MS-DOS 3.3 (min.) / 5.0 (rec.). Wing Commander II requires an i80286-12 MHz CPU, 640K of RAM and 12 megs of HDD space, but 386 or 486 clocked at 16 MHz is recommended, along with 2 megs of EMS. WC2 displays in 16-color EGA or 256-color VGA 320x200.
Wing Commander: Academy IBM PC 1993
A spin-off of Wing Commander 2, Wing Commander: Academy was released by Origin Systems in August of 1993 for IBM PC MS-DOS 5.0. Programmed by Jeff Everett and Brent A. Thale, Academy is notable for its random missions and allowing players to customize their own missions.
Academy is the best Wing Commander game because it cuts out the cinematization and focuses on gameplay.
Academy requires an i80386SX-33 MHz CPU, 2 megs of RAM and 5 megs of HDD space, but a 486 25 MHz CPU and 4 megs of RAM is recommended. Academy displays in 256-color VGA 320x200. Academy supports MS-DOS 6.0 DoubleSpace.
Wing Commander Privateer IBM PC 1993
Origin Systems released Wing Commander: Privateer in September of 1993 for IBM PC MS-DOS 5.0. Privateer is a space-trading and space-combat flight "simulator". Privateer plays similarly to but is nowhere near as advanced as Frontier: Elite 2.
Privateer requires an i80386DX-33 MHz CPU, 4 megs of RAM and 20 megs of HDD space, but a 486 25 MHz CPU and 1 meg of vRAM is recommended. Privateer displays in 256-color VGA 320x200. Privateer supports MS-DOS 6.0 DoubleSpace.
Wing Commander 3 IBM PC 1994
Origin Systems released Wing Commander 3: Heart of the Tiger for IBM PC MS-DOS 5.0 in December of 1994. Wing Commander 3 requires an i80486DX2-50 MHz CPU, 8 megs of RAM (360K conventional, 7 megs XMS), 20 megs of HDD space and 2x-4x speed CD-ROM drive, but 486DX2-66 MHz, 500K conventional and 15 megs XMS is recommended.
WC3 was the first fully-3D Wing Commander game. And WC3 was one of the earliest IBM PC games to display in 256-color square-pixel VESA SVGA 640x480. Thus, WC3 is technically impressive and historically significant.
Naturally, one requires an ISA, VLB or PCI video card with 512K-1 meg of vRAM. WC3 was benchmarked with at least 36 different sound cards and 40 different video cards; such was the franchise's popularity by 1994.
"Don't watch the game, play the movie!" means WC3 is a heavily-cinematized CD-ROM game: three hours of live-action FMV to put you to sleep; 1.5 gigs of FMVs in 1994.
Yeah, I'm not impressed. And nor was I impressed in 1994 when I was forced to Esc-key through that ridiculous nonsense, trying to get back to what is otherwise a rather good game.
cf.
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