Fun fact: there was a memory exception bug that occurred every time you went to quit the game. Instead of fixing it because of deadlines, they just edited the line to read "Thank you for playing Wing Commander!".
I have to say one thing... the title screen alone tells you the game's technical issues. Since I first played the SNES version, I knew that the music was supposed to get dramatic at the point where the kilrathi fighter gets blowed up. But on PC, this isn't what happens. Similarily, the sequence of running to the aircraft before each mission is more powerful on the SNES simply due to the music and visuals being properly timed. The SNES version has shortcomings, of course, but I do not regret it being my first exposure at all. Funny story about my SNES copy.... the store I found it at literally had it as just the PCB, no cartridge shell, but me and my dad could at least see it was a SNES game. We bought it (for three dollars) just taking a gamble it would be anything worthwhile at all. So yes, for awhile I owned a naked Wing Commander. Unfortunately I no longer have it--lost it in a move.
I actually think the FM music is outstanding in this game, though I do agree the MT-32 soundtrack (like in just about every game that supports it) is way better. Nice review.
There is a patch on wcnews.com for WC1 for the joystick. It seems to get rid of that nasty deadzone the game puts on joystick controls and REALLY smooths it out. Definitely worth a look.
I recently played it for the first time (my intention is to beat the whole series from 1 to Prophecy) , and I must say using Munt to emulate a roland mt 32 and a 4k CRT shader from Dosbox Staging to make it less "pixelated" helps a lot, to the point I would say that, at least for me, it has aged quite well, specially for a game that's older than me. 10: 35 I must say that in my experience, this wasn't true and I got killed lost of times because of collisions with other fighters, specially when using afterburner. 11:40 I found minefields to be trivial. Just use afterburners and you pass them like nothing. That way, I only got a mine to the face once, and that was in WC II.
+Stephan S I know, but it's the most recognizable thing to put there, especially considering most games which support it list the MT-32 specifically as the sound device to utilize. If a game requires a different Roland device at the minimum, it fills that slot in the game stats instead. :B
I do hope that you're planning to review the sequels. Oh, and someone is developing a patch to add in the (surprisingly good) voice acting from the Sega CD version.
Not "planning" per say but not against it. Every DOS game is viable to cover sooner or later, it's just a question of what I've been gifted, what's been requested, and what I'm able to get a hold of on my own accord. :B
@@Pixelmusement Oh, I forgot to add that Maniac literally sounds like Cool Cat! The only decent voice acting in the game are the player character, barman and mission briefer.
Sigh. You really need to play this on a fast 386 for it to be playable. In Dosbox there's no gap between laggy and unplayably fast (which is accurate, as the game was unplayably fast on a 486 DX2).
I enjoy these types of games but I can't call them sims since there's nothing remotely realistic about the way the ships fly in space. Also, I think your cycles are too low. I've played the game and seen other people play the game I don't remember it being that slow. Edit: I just checked my D-fend profiles and it looks like I had the cycles set to 4000 for the main game and 5500 for the Secret Missions 2 add-on. Not that I'm say those are the best settings, those are just what I chose.
Fun fact: there was a memory exception bug that occurred every time you went to quit the game. Instead of fixing it because of deadlines, they just edited the line to read "Thank you for playing Wing Commander!".
Ah yes, my old war holo-vids.
I have to say one thing... the title screen alone tells you the game's technical issues. Since I first played the SNES version, I knew that the music was supposed to get dramatic at the point where the kilrathi fighter gets blowed up. But on PC, this isn't what happens. Similarily, the sequence of running to the aircraft before each mission is more powerful on the SNES simply due to the music and visuals being properly timed.
The SNES version has shortcomings, of course, but I do not regret it being my first exposure at all.
Funny story about my SNES copy.... the store I found it at literally had it as just the PCB, no cartridge shell, but me and my dad could at least see it was a SNES game. We bought it (for three dollars) just taking a gamble it would be anything worthwhile at all. So yes, for awhile I owned a naked Wing Commander. Unfortunately I no longer have it--lost it in a move.
I actually think the FM music is outstanding in this game, though I do agree the MT-32 soundtrack (like in just about every game that supports it) is way better. Nice review.
I loved this game so much... Got it for my snes back in the days and played it till exhaustion..
There is a patch on wcnews.com for WC1 for the joystick. It seems to get rid of that nasty deadzone the game puts on joystick controls and REALLY smooths it out. Definitely worth a look.
I recently played it for the first time (my intention is to beat the whole series from 1 to Prophecy) , and I must say using Munt to emulate a roland mt 32 and a 4k CRT shader from Dosbox Staging to make it less "pixelated" helps a lot, to the point I would say that, at least for me, it has aged quite well, specially for a game that's older than me.
10: 35 I must say that in my experience, this wasn't true and I got killed lost of times because of collisions with other fighters, specially when using afterburner.
11:40 I found minefields to be trivial. Just use afterburners and you pass them like nothing. That way, I only got a mine to the face once, and that was in WC II.
The System Shock devs stated that Wing Commander was an influence on Shock, in that it probably delayed Shock 1's release by about a month.
The Mt32 is no a card. Its a standalone synthesizer module in a desktop housing.
+Stephan S I know, but it's the most recognizable thing to put there, especially considering most games which support it list the MT-32 specifically as the sound device to utilize. If a game requires a different Roland device at the minimum, it fills that slot in the game stats instead. :B
I do hope that you're planning to review the sequels.
Oh, and someone is developing a patch to add in the (surprisingly good) voice acting from the Sega CD version.
Not "planning" per say but not against it. Every DOS game is viable to cover sooner or later, it's just a question of what I've been gifted, what's been requested, and what I'm able to get a hold of on my own accord. :B
@@Pixelmusement Oh, I forgot to add that Maniac literally sounds like Cool Cat! The only decent voice acting in the game are the player character, barman and mission briefer.
at 10:33 did you say ironic or erotic?
Jeff Redmond "ironic" :B
Sigh. You really need to play this on a fast 386 for it to be playable. In Dosbox there's no gap between laggy and unplayably fast (which is accurate, as the game was unplayably fast on a 486 DX2).
I enjoy these types of games but I can't call them sims since there's nothing remotely realistic about the way the ships fly in space.
Also, I think your cycles are too low. I've played the game and seen other people play the game I don't remember it being that slow.
Edit: I just checked my D-fend profiles and it looks like I had the cycles set to 4000 for the main game and 5500 for the Secret Missions 2 add-on. Not that I'm say those are the best settings, those are just what I chose.
I t is possible to emulate the mt-32 using dosbox. Tested it and worked fine
But you have to own one if you want it to be legal ;)
This is one of the most overrated series in PC history.
Privateer had the merchant aspect added wich was nice, tho.