BioWare Mythic Man Pushes EA Into Re-Releasing Original Wing Commander

Logan Westbrook

Transform, Roll Out, Etc
Feb 21, 2008
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BioWare Mythic Man Pushes EA Into Re-Releasing Original Wing Commander



The classic space combat game will once again be available thanks to one man's enthusiasm and the power of social networking.

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the release of Wing Commander, BioWare Mythic's creative director Paul Barnett has leaned on EA to sanction the release of a DOSBox compatible version of the game.

Barnett's campaign started on Twitter [http://twitter.com/thatbarnettblok], where he said he was hard at work convincing EA's legal department to allow Wing Commander to be released, and asked for fans to show their support by retweeting his message. It would seem that enough people were excited about the idea, as later tweets said that he had the code for the game plus the Secret Missions expansions, and the technical team was removing the copy protection and making sure that everything worked ok. There's no word as yet about when or where the game will be available.

Wing Commander was first released for the PC in 1990, and was later ported to a variety of other platforms including the SNES and the Sega CD. It cast the player as a young pilot in the Terran Confederation, fighting a war against the feline Kilrathi. It was markedly different from other space combat games of the time, as it was much more cinematic and your performance actually affected the direction of the story. It spawned a number of spin-offs and sequels, which include novels, games and a rather poor movie.



Source: Eurogamer [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-09-28-ea-releasing-dosboxed-wing-commander]




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erbkaiser

Romanorum Imperator
Jun 20, 2009
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Dear EA, put a working collection of WC on Steam or GoG!

I would love to replay them on a modern system. The newer Windows games (WC3 and WC4) I can get to work thanks to a rather brilliant DirectDraw hack [http://sol.gfxile.net/ddhack/], but I can no longer find my copies of the older games... or indeed Privateer.
 

skitskat

New member
Apr 14, 2009
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yes! i freaking loved this game :D i still have it here on floppy disk! :D

cant wait for the release, although i'd complain if they charged me for it :p i'd just rather get a usb floppy diskette reader thingy instead if they tried charging for it ;)

yet another game for me to be looking forward to :D
 

Jared

The British Paladin
Jul 14, 2009
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Power of social networking! go! Thats epic! Now lets hope it can be released soon!
 

Unrulyhandbag

New member
Oct 21, 2009
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That's nice, had a copy for just about forever; while it was a revolution back in the day it's nigh on unplayable these days.

Could they re-release WC3 and 4 instead those still look good and have a fantasic story that moves along even as you lose.

Besides, one of my WC3 CDs has gone translucent and won't play, sunlight damage what did I DO?
 

aldowyn

New member
Mar 1, 2010
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I'm starting to see the signs of the resurrection of a new genre! Wing Commander was the flagship, premier title of the genre, and it's to be hoped that someone will look at it and say "gee, why hasn't anyone made a game like that lately?" I'll try this out, and I'd definitely take a look at any game in the genre!
 

Firia

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Sep 17, 2007
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I remember Wing Commander. :) I think it was Wing Commander 2 that I was more of a fan of. Then when I got the PS1, I moved on to Colony Wars, which had different mission branches for victory/success, and endings to go with it. :D Love that style of game. Where failure doesn't mean game over, but instead, story change.
 

Rawle Lucas

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Aug 19, 2010
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My experience with the Wing Commander series has exclusively been with Wing Commander 2, but it was still awesome and I still liked the story. My hope is that they re-release that game.

And who could forget:
"You cannot defeat the Drakhai!"
 

APVarney

Writer and game designer
Aug 15, 2006
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I wrote about the Wing Commander series for The Escapist in July 2006: "Wing Leader [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_54/323-Wing-Leader]"
 
May 1, 2010
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This and Legend are two games that I wished that they would remake, but at the same time want everyone to leave them the hell alone.

I declare here: I will not purchase another game from BioWare if this isn't enjoyable for me. I don't care about reviews or whether I'll be the only person in the world to buy it. I will no longer consume any of BioWare's products if this is boring to me.
 

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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I actually paid to see the Wing Commander film in the theater. I don't think I've ever fully recovered from the experience.

Here's hoping this is a freebie. After all, I can figure out DOSbox for myself.
 

digital warrior

New member
Oct 17, 2008
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Good start. They need to release more space combat sims. If they released the others on say steam for a few dollars I'd buy it in a second. Also bioware on the subject of space shooters convince lucasarts to re release x-wing and tie fighter.
 

tautologico

e^(i * pi) + 1 = 0
Apr 5, 2010
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Don said:
This and Legend are two games that I wished that they would remake, but at the same time want everyone to leave them the hell alone.

I declare here: I will not purchase another game from BioWare if this isn't enjoyable for me. I don't care about reviews or whether I'll be the only person in the world to buy it. I will no longer consume any of BioWare's products if this is boring to me.
It's not a remake, it's the original game itself.
 

Jhereg42

New member
Apr 11, 2008
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The opening to "The Price of Freedom" is one of my favorite opening cinimatics in a game ever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ms2sYa6yFRg
 

zHellas

Quite Not Right
Feb 7, 2010
2,672
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Also rerelase Wing Commander: Privateer!

And possibly all of the cut-scenes from Privateer II: The Darkening (just the cutscenes).
 

Antari

Music Slave
Nov 4, 2009
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And so it has begun ... New games are so horrible, they HAVE to remake the old ones to make a dime. I'd say I told you so ... but its not that important anymore. DOS is still King