Wing Commander™ 1+2

These games were hugely important and influential - and even more so for my own development as a gamer. The branching campaign structure and shifting narrative of WC1 - an adaptive game structure, sensitive to your successes and failures and even respecting the death or survival of your wingmates - was an astounding achievement for its time. The combat mechanics themselves stand up today, as you jockey to get onto the tail of a Kilrathi fighter and learn the behaviours and weaknesses of each opponent. A challenging game by any standards. WC2 shifts the focus to plot-led action, fleshing-out some characters and motivations and really presenting an old-fashioned WW2 Pacific Campaign scenario. Similarly good fun, and a vital introduction to the 'interactive movie' episodes to come.

So many years ago, a friend show me a new game, a starship simulator that had more than the tipical eneme to shoot out. A great history, great characters, and a playability never seen. The game was Wing Commander, and since that time, I fell in love with the franchise. I play all the games at his time, even I had the dvd version of WC4.I still had the original games and all this years I pray for that a version that could run on actual computers appears. You make my wish come true and I eternally grateful.

If you know anything about pc games, these 2 were the standard bar games went after, that and the xwing tie fighter games. nothing came close to those series. being someone who hates tryting to setup dos box this place is great for me. I hope they get wing commander 3 and 4 on here too, those games were amaazing. shame that the line ended with prophecy and its addon. Cheers Chris Roberts for making something worth remembering almost 20 years later.

There is a lot to be said on the first two Wing Commander games. They were the first games to be treated as a hollywood production by their makers. They also were the first games with budgets on an entirely different level. But the most important thing was that Wing Commander was probably the first game which made gamers want to buy a x86 based PC. And the main reason for that was that the game at the time of its release was exclusive to x86 MS-DOS. Sure it was ported to other systems later but that was much later. This is an epic peace of PC gaming history. This game proved to people why the MS DOS PC can be and still is a valid gaming machine, by giving them an experience they cannot find anywhere else. Up until that point the closest thing to Wing Commander (called Wing Leader during early production) was Wings, from which Wing Commander borrows a lot. But instead of copying Cinemaware, Origin just took a look at their cinematic design playbook and improved on it immensely. A must buy, even if you are not interested in space combat sims.

This game is a genre defining classic in every way. In the 90's Wing Commander was one of those games that made you want to upgrade to a VGA graphics card and Sound Blaster 16 sound card just to get the most out of it. The multiple paths through the story and animated cut scenes made you feel like a star in a science fiction movie. There simply was no other game like it when it was released. You get so heavily invested in your squad mates that when someone dies (and they don't come back!) you really feel like you let them down. A must own pair of classics that are at a price too good to pass up.