Super Wing Commander
Lee Fisher
right off of ftp.ea.com
Contact: David Swofford or Eileen McKeon Butt
ORIGIN Media Relations
January 20, 1995
For immediate release
Wing Commander. Makes Macintosh Debut
(AUSTIN, TX) In 1990, the release of Wing Commander signaled a new era in computer gaming.
Named *Game of the Year* by several publications, its nonstop, heart pounding space combat
has been enjoyed by PC gamers ever since. Now in 1995, ORIGIN announces that Macintosh
computer players will finally get their chance to hone their skills as a Confed pilot.
Super Wing Commander Mac CD, an enhanced version of the original game, is scheduled for
release in the early spring of this year. Super Wing Mac has additional missions, full
digitized speech and completely reworked graphics from the 1990 version.
It s the 27th century and mankind is locked in a deadly war with the Kilrathi Empire, a
race of vicious, cat-like aliens bent on destroying the Terran Confederation and humankind.
Your homebase is the TCS Tiger s Claw. From there you and your wingmen will launch mission
after mission, fighting against overwhelming odds to save all of humanity.
In Super Wing Commander Mac, you ll experience full digital sound as you hear mission
briefings, your wingman s emphatic warnings and other conversations amongst the Tiger s
Claw crew. As you re flying missions you ll listen to a fully orchestrated musical score
that seamlessly changes as the action escalates and you turn a Kilrathi Drakhri into an
exploding fireball. Of course, Super Wing Mac is enhanced by the high-quality graphics
that ORIGIN games have become noted for. Best of all, you ll have no headaches with any
installation instructions in Super Wing Commander Mac CD just pop in the disk and you re
ready for action.
Current System Requirements for Super Wing Commander Mac CD are:
Apple Macintosh 68040/25+ or a native PowerPC processor for PowerMac
8 MB of RAM
Double speed or faster CD-ROM drive
256 color graphics
Expected Retail Price: $50-60
###
ORIGIN, We create worlds, Ultima and Wing Commander are registered trademarks of ORIGIN Systems, Inc.
Electronic Arts is a registered trademark of Electronic Arts.
All other products and trademarks are property of their respective owners.
ORIGIN Systems develops and publishes state-of-the-art entertainment software. To date, the company has released more than 45 titles, including the award-winning Ultima. and Commander series of games. ORIGIN is based in Austin, Texas, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS).
--
Lee Fisher
Drexel University
Computer Science
Web Dove
(Lee Fisher) wrote:
>
> Wing Commander. Makes Macintosh Debut
>
What is the current version of the wing cmdr for PC? Somebody at Origin
said that the mac port was WC1. Super WC sounds newer than that.
Web
--
Web Dove
do...@spcot.sanders.com
Daniel Quaroni
Deluxe game for the IBM. I think it has new graphics (Probably mentioned in
a previous post), and appearently it has some new missions. (Maybe it contains
secret missions 1 and 2. I think the IBM version does.) Anyway, I'm a REALLY
big fan of the Wing Commander series, so I know I'll be buying it as soon as
it comes out!
-=-Daniel Quaroni
-=-go...@pelican.cit.cornell.edu
Jay Craft
> -=-Daniel Quaroni
> -=-go...@pelican.cit.cornell.edu
Yeah, Super Wing Commander is going to be Wing Commander 1 plus both secret
missions disks.. At least the Super Wing Commander for 3d0 is this. But after
seeing the 3d0's animation and enhanced graphics, the 320 mode pc version
will make you puke :) Hopefully the mac version will have all (most) of the
beautiful animated sequences and improved gfx of the 3d0 (is that 3Do?) version.
--
rif...@drift.winternet.com
Jon Folkers
the same name! It's sort of a hybrid of both WC1 and 2, with story elements
and characters from both games. There's a full writeup in the Jan/Feb Inside
Mac Games, which you would love if you have a CD drive (and if you want to
play SWC, you'll need one!)!! I believe they are even running a demo of the
game next month. It looks OK, but not exactly cutting edge. It's certainly
the only game of its type for the Mac right now, which is pretty surprising
considering how popular they are on the PC.
Aaron Countryman
a PC version. It looks really good even though it's in low res.
Aaron aco...@u.washington.edu
Bill Leonard
do...@spcot.sanders.com (Web Dove) wrote:
> In article <3i6nn8$h...@noc2.drexel.edu>, st93...@dunx1.ocs.drexel.edu
> (Lee Fisher) wrote:
>
> >
> > Wing Commander. Makes Macintosh Debut
> >
>
> What is the current version of the wing cmdr for PC? Somebody at Origin
> said that the mac port was WC1. Super WC sounds newer than that.
>
I think that Super Wing Commander is gonna kind of be like Rebel Assault.
Ity would seem this way because they also have it out for 3DO. Maybe I'm
wrong. The last issue of Inside Mac Games has the spiel on it, try and
check it out.
Bill
Brandon Lucas
bil...@magicnet.net (Bill Leonard) wrote:
> In article <dove-23029...@ppp3.sanders.com>,
> do...@spcot.sanders.com (Web Dove) wrote:
>
> > In article <3i6nn8$h...@noc2.drexel.edu>, st93...@dunx1.ocs.drexel.edu
> > (Lee Fisher) wrote:
> >
> > >
> > > Wing Commander. Makes Macintosh Debut
> > >
> >
> > What is the current version of the wing cmdr for PC? Somebody at Origin
> > said that the mac port was WC1. Super WC sounds newer than that.
Anyone know a shipping date??????
Brandon Lucas
Blu...@ucs.indiana.edu
D.G. Rajangam
Is the demo for SWC available somewhere, like the Sumex archive perhaps?
--
Daven Rajangam
Wharton School-UPenn
RAJA...@wilma.wharton.upenn.edu
Gilmore
: This has probably already been posted, but there are a couple screenshots
: (in .gif format) of the Mac version of SWC at ftp.ea.com in the directory
: /pub/gifs/super_wing_mac.
: - Trevor "This space for rent" Powell
It is worth noting that EA archived these screenshots in .ZIP format.
They're Mac screenshots, for christ's sake! How brainless are you,
Electronic Arts?
--
\\\ _ / Gilmore Web Designer
\\\ // i r t u a l gil...@vv.com "The world won't stand still..."
\\// / http://www.en.com/users/gilmore/gilmore.html
\/ \/ i S i o N s --------------- http://www.vv.com ----------------
Jay Craft
they are only 8 bit color.. The 3do screens are 16 bit color (who knows,
maybe 16 bit will be an option in the mac version). The res is the same
(320 X 240 i guess). What I'm waiting for is to see if the sound is as good..
The 3do tends to crank out better music than I expect on my little ASC.
Trevor Powell
> do...@spcot.sanders.com (Web Dove) wrote:
>
> >st93...@dunx1.ocs.drexel.edu (Lee Fisher) wrote:
> >
> > What is the current version of the wing cmdr for PC? Somebody at Origin
> > said that the mac port was WC1. Super WC sounds newer than that.
> >
>
> I think that Super Wing Commander is gonna kind of be like Rebel Assault.
> Ity would seem this way because they also have it out for 3DO. Maybe I'm
> wrong. The last issue of Inside Mac Games has the spiel on it, try and
> check it out.
Just a note.. SWC on the Mac is supposed to be virtually identical to the
3DO version. The 3DO version contained the PC versions (with enhanced
graphics) of Wing Commander 1, and both Special Missions sets. That makes
for a LOT of missions. And no, it's not like 'Rebel Assault', SWC has
full interactivity, just like the PC version of WC1.
Web Dove
ftp.ea.com and I couldn't decipher the WC3 pics. The SWC ones looked
visibly pixelated. I hope it is FAST to make up for it. I also hope they
offer a line skipping option, because in Rebel Assault and Marathon I
think that looks better than doubling.
Jay Craft
actual flight portion of the game.... it uses 640 X 480 for many of the
animated sequences).. But the 3do uses 16 bit color while in 320 mode, which
of course gives it the "illusion" of higher resolution... Hopefully the mac
version will support a 16 bit color mode for the game, but I guess i could
live with 256 as long as the action is fast and smooth.
David Wareing
>Yeah, Super Wing Commander is going to be Wing Commander 1 plus both secret
>missions disks.. At least the Super Wing Commander for 3d0 is this. But after
>seeing the 3d0's animation and enhanced graphics, the 320 mode pc version
>will make you puke :) Hopefully the mac version will have all (most) of the
>beautiful animated sequences and improved gfx of the 3d0 (is that 3Do?) version.
Well the screenshots (supposedly of the Mac version) that are on
Electronic Art's FTP site (ftp.ea.com) are just pixel doubled
320x240 images. Nice artwork, but chunky graphics would piss
an awful lot of people off (me included). Let's hope that EA
are more intelligent than that...
--
David Wareing dwar...@apanix.apana.org.au
Adelaide, South Australia
Macintosh Games & Multimedia Programming
--------------------------------------------------------------
May you live in interesting times
Andre-John MAS
out for the Mac, if not when is it coming out. Also what sort of price is
it ment to sell at, and who is the publisher.
Thanks
Andre-John
Will Iverson
(Andre-John MAS) wrote:
Super Wing Commander for the Mac (CD-ROM only) from Origin is not out yet,
but should be very soon. I'm guessing around $50-$60, depending on where
you buy it.
-Will
--
If your email bounces, please resend it and/or cc: to Ive...@aol.com.
Sebastian Rust
There is a demo,
So I'd guess that the Release will be along shortly.
L8rs
Legend
Buckaroo
at an ftp site or what?
--
"No matter where you go, there you are."
Buckaroo
Austin Cline
nt...@primenet.com (Sebastian Rust) wrote:
Is the demo available anywhere? I haven't seen it at info-mac, but I may
have simply missed it. If it is somewhere else, please let me know!
Austin Cline; German Department; Princeton University
---
...it is still a *metaphysical faith* that underlies our faith in science - and we...godless ones and anti-metaphysicians, we, too, derive *our* flame from the fire ignited by a faith millennia old, the Christian faith,...that God is truth, that truth is divine. -Friedrich Nietzsche; The Gay Science, 344
Sebastian Rust
(Buckaroo) wrote:
Um...Mr. Banzai,
The demo is 65 megs.(Came on the IMG CD)
L8rs
Legend
msk...@charlie.usd.edu
for those of us that haven't caught up with CD-Rom yet, available on disk?
John Mintz
: Does anyone know where I can get the demo for this game? Is it available
: at an ftp site or what?
The demo is 65 megs.Nuff said.
JP
Phil....@infoport.com
Where did you get your demo? I wanna know where I could get it other than
a ftp site. Like you said, 65 megs! Whheeeee... Is there a number I can
call to get it?
Thanks a bunch!
**********************************************************
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located in Denver, Colorado USA With your modem - (303) 429-0291
telnet, FTP or Gopher to infoport.com ( http://infoport.com soon!)
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Gray Collette
interested. What's the nature of the game? I'd look at the demo and
find out for myself if it was available. What's the point of a 65Meg
Demo - that really limits distribution channels. OR is it a demo that
"unlocks" into the full version with the purchase of a code...?
Thanks for any info,
Gray.
----------------------------=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-----------------------------
Homepage: Gray Collette
http://chat.carleton.ca/~gcollett Dept. of Psychology
Carleton University
gcol...@CHAT.Carleton.CA Ottawa, CANADA
============================-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==============================
Markus Imhof
idling IBM mainframe here :-) (which will be switched off end of next term
:-( ). So, where is it ?
Or is there a way of getting the demo on a CD, let's say in the order of 10 $ ?
Bye
Markus
Maxx111
You can order single copies of IMG at $10 each. E-mail tun...@mcs.com. The
March CD has the SWC demo on it.
Max
Howard Berkey
Austin Cline <arc...@phoenix.princeton.edu> wrote:
>In article <ntlor-19039...@ip143.tus.primenet.com>,
>nt...@primenet.com (Sebastian Rust) wrote:
>
>> In article <3k3qf1$v...@monterosa.zurich.ibm.com>, aj_...@be.ibm.com
>> (Andre-John MAS) wrote:
>>
>> > I'm new to this thread, so could anyone tell me whether Wing Commander is
>> > out for the Mac, if not when is it coming out. Also what sort of price is
>> > it ment to sell at, and who is the publisher.
>> >
>> > Thanks
>> >
>> > Andre-John
>>
>> There is a demo,
>>
>> So I'd guess that the Release will be along shortly.
>
>Is the demo available anywhere? I haven't seen it at info-mac, but I may
>have simply missed it. If it is somewhere else, please let me know!
>
It's on the March IMG CD. It's 65 megabytes so I doubt it will show
up on sumex :-)
It's one huge intro interlude and a space game that is totally
unimpressive after sitting through the intro. Not that I'm complaining about
the Wing Commander series coming to the Mac; it's just that the game
is a real let-down after seeing the intro, which has some impressive
parts. Of course, I'm playing it off of the CD; it might work far
better if I copied it to the hard drive... I would if I had a spare 70
megs or so right now.
I might buy it anyway to help insure WC3 gets a mac version :-)
Later,
-H-
--
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
Howard Berkey how...@premenos.com
Happiness is having a pet Cylon
Roque Mozingo
demo of course!)
Andrew C. Plotkin
First, get the March IMG CD. That's the only place I've heard of the SWC
demo existing. No, I will not upload it, because it is TOO BIG.
Sixty-five megabytes or so? Stop asking.
Now drag the SWC Demo application off the CD onto your hard drive (it's
not that big; the sixty-five megs is mostly movies and sound, which can
stay on the CD.) Increase the preferred memory usage to bigger than your
Macintosh.
If you've tried running this thing before, trash the SWC preferences
file from your Preferences folder. (This is because you may have set the
preferences to something unworkable, and if so, you won't have a chance
to set it back before the game crashes. Trashing the prefs file ensures
that the game immediately presents an options dialog.)
Now, set the options to the absolute wimpiest mode: smallest window,
QuickDraw on, no music, no sound. Since sound is off, use the "text on"
option so that you can read the dialogue. (You may have to do this
later, from the menu bar.)
Commence play. I found that this set of options worked fine on my
Centris 610 (68040 with 8 megs RAM.)
Hit the space bar to cancel a movie sequence; move the cursor to the top
of the display to make the menu bar appear. (This works even when the
cursor is invisible, such as during a movie.)
Now that you've proved it actually works, start changing the options one
at a time, until you've reached your Mac's limits. I had no trouble
turning on sound. Increasing the window size, even to the medium level,
really bogged down the game. I didn't try music.
I had severe problems with the "faster -- QuickDraw off" option. First,
it froze instantly if my machine was in 24-bit memory mode. Only try it
in 32-bit mode. Second, it insisted on drawing in the wrong place on my
17" display. Every time I hit space, I got a double image, and on the
mouse-controlled screens like the barracks, the mouse position was
out-of-synch with the thing being selected.
Oh, yeah -- if the game is running slowly, it tends to drop keystrokes.
That's why I thought earlier that I couldn't cancel movies. You have to
hold down the spacebar until it registers.
That only leaves the matter of playing the game, which was pretty
unclear. There should have been some docs with the demo. I managed to
blow some stuff up, and even fire a missile or two, but not reliably,
and I never figured out what all the blinking and beeping target
indicators on the display were. However, this is not my concern. Go play
with it.
Other people's comments:
* RamDoubler may conflict with it (possibly only in "QuickDraw off"
mode? Try it both ways.)
* Kensington Turbo Mouse may conflict with it.
--Z
"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..."
Bobby
--
"I never met a deal...."
-DM, 199x
Maxx111
the
demo of course!)<
No! It's huge. Like 65 MB.
Max
David Schlosser
bob...@i-2000.com (Bobby) wrote:
It was released on March 23...
Gaylord250
<<Anyone have a potential release date?>>
It's already out. The lady I spoke to over the phone at EA Direct said it
was $59.99, and had shipped on March 17th. I'll probably wait for it to
hit a shelf somewhere, as 2-day shipping from them was $16.00.
-GT
Andrew Laughton
>at an ftp site or what?
Demo?! I didnt even know it was available for the Mac!!
Adam Schenker
(Gray Collette) wrote:
> I'm not familiar with "Wing Commander", but the hype has me
> interested. What's the nature of the game? I'd look at the demo and
> find out for myself if it was available. What's the point of a 65Meg
> Demo - that really limits distribution channels. OR is it a demo that
> "unlocks" into the full version with the purchase of a code...?
> Thanks for any info,
First, AFAIK, the demo does not "unlock". The game is coming on CD-ROM and
I would be disappointed if the game was "just" 65Megs. :) BTW, my friend
tells me that it doesn't run unless you run it off the IMG CD.
Anyway, the game is a sci-fi space fighter simulation. Earth is at war
with the Kilrathi Empire. The Kilrathi are a cat-like species bent on the
destruction of mankind. You play the role of a fighter pilot assigned to
the spacecraft carrier "Tiger's Claw". On the Claw, you will meet other
pilots from your squadron and are able to chat with them between missions.
When your are ready, you go to the briefing room and get assigned a new
mission. During the course of the game you can fly 4 different types of
fighters, each with different armament and capabilities. You will also be
assigned one of the other pilots as a wingman. You fly as the wing
commander and can order your wingman to attack certain targets, maintain
course, etc. Missions consist of anything from escorting cargo vessels to
navigating minefields to attacking enemy bases and capital ships.
New missions are assigned depending on how well you do on previous
missions. For example if you fail to destroy some capital ships they might
attack some friendly ships later, and you will probably have to defend
them.
At least on other platforms (I haven't seen the demo), the graphics and
sound are very good. The game plays much like a movie, with the soundtrack
changing depending on what is happening. For example when you come under
attack, the music changes to a more frantic beat. When you are badly
damaged the music changes again. Music also accompanies the destruction of
enemy ships (some triumphant notes), the destruction of friendly ships
(sad music) and returning to base.
The game is mostly an action game. You will need to develop strategies to
attack and evade enemies, as well as determine how to best utilize your
ship's weapons and other capabilities. Depending on which class of fighter
you fly, you can have about 4 different types of energy weapons (recharge
with time), some of which can be used in combination. You also have about
3 types of missles and one type of mine.
It's hard to say where the appeal for this game comes from. It's
definitely good for some intense action (try dogfighting in an asteroid
field sometime!). The charcters and dialog are interesting. The game plays
differently depending on your performance since new missions depend on how
you did on old ones. You play about 16 missions per pilot, and 2 extra
mission disks come with the CD-ROM version.
--
Adam Schenker Department of Computer Science &
asch...@babbage.csee.usf.edu Engineering
http://www.csee.usf.edu/~aschenke/ University of South Florida
College of Engineering
Aric Friesen
> (Gray Collette) wrote:
> > find out for myself if it was available. What's the point of a 65Meg
> > Demo
Wing Commander III for the PC is over 2 gigs large (on 4 CD ROMs)
It is more of an action game than a simulator (a lot of people don't
like the game because of this, but I like it because of this).
Aric Friesen
Daniel Quaroni
other WCs?
-=-Daniel QUaroni
-=-go...@pelican.cit.cornell.edu
Henri H. Arsenault
(Daniel Quaroni) wrote:
> Wait a sec... What's this action thing in WCIII? How is it different from the
> other WCs?
In case I'm partially responsible for the confusion, let me clarify
something. The salesman in the computer store told me yesterday that Super
Wing Commander in NOT Wing Commander III, but a slicker remake of Wing
Commander I. I had asked because from looking at the solutions manual for
WC III, it didn't look like Super Wing Commander.
Henri
--
Henri H. Arsenault
ars...@phy.ulaval.ca