Wing Commander™ 1+2

I love this game and it is what made me a gamer 20 some years ago. Now the painful part. I installed the game AND ITS BROKEN Dos box starts up and stalls. I have a copy of WC2 an original cd that works fine under another instance of dosbox. Whats up GOG you dropped the ball

Let me start off by saying that I don't believe the first Wing Commander game is unplayable. I'd say you get used to the slowdown and can even use it to your advantage at times. For the most part, it's actually really easy to stay on the winning side of the mission tree. The only system that gave me fits on my first playthrough was Brimstone. When I went back to replay some of the other systems I hadn't seen, I found out it was actually pretty easy to avoid that system. The story itself is ok. Nothing really to write home about, but it's serviceable. Now let's talk about the Secret Missions expansion packs for the first game. They're bad. Just pull the band aid off and admit it. The performance of SM1 is actually noticeably worse than the main game. Performance was greatly improved in SM2, but both of these games have a far worse problem; their mission design is absolutely horrid. I was forced to use the Origin -k cheat code multiple times for these packs. They just aren't fun. Wing Commander II works MUCH better in DOSBox. There are times when it is a bit too fast, but that's another thing you can get used to. The last mission of the game was tough, but I never had to resort to cheats to beat this game. You do have to suspend your disbelief towards the end there for the story, unfortunately. The Special Operations expansion packs are also well designed. SO1 did drop the ball at the end with a couple of impossible missions though. Up to that point, it wasn't too bad. SO2 was playable from beginning to end without any problems. One thing I'd like to point out. I played this with a Roland MT-32 for sound and it's a HUGE improvement over the Adlib sound. These devices are hard to come by, so you may want to look into the MUNT emulator for sound. You won't regret it. Overall, I'd give WC I a score of 3 stars and WC II a score of 4 stars. Great games worth playing to see where the space sim genre got its start.

little disapointed you left out the expansions for both games

The games look good, but they are very slow. DOSbox do not emulate it well. I've tested in two PCs, both the games are lagging. If you want a outstanding space sim buy DESCENT 1+2, WC 1+2 do not work well

I have mixed feelings about this release - on the one hand any Wing Commander to legally own again is great, on the other, this release could have been so much better. These are the DOS versions and the games do show their age after all this time. Saddest thing is that the epic soundtrack - revolutionary in its day - still sounded better on my Amiga than the version available here.The frustrating thing is that both games (and the music/sound effects) were significantly tweaked to run on newer machines for the later Window compilation release, The Kilrathi Saga. Hopefully GOG & EA can do a deal & upgrade to that version at a later date to really do this classic game the justice it deserves? I'm holding back a star until then despite my huge affection for this game & the memories it brings back.