Wing Commander

n/a

Wing Commander

System(s): Sega Mega-CD

Publisher: Electronic Arts (US), Sega (JP)

Developer:

Game Arts, Bits Laboratory, CRI

Original system(s): PC

Developer(s) of original games: Origin Systems

Peripherals supported: CD BackUp RAM Cart

Genre: Simulation

Number of players: 1

Release	Date	RRP	Code
JP	1994-03-24	¥7,8007,800	G-6011
US	1993-02^[1]		T-50045

VRC

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Wing Commander is a notable space combat flight game by Origin Systems for IBM PC compatibles. It was ported to a number of systems including the Sega Mega-CD in 1993.

The game was also reportedly in development for the Sega Mega Drive, with the cartridge containing an extra graphics chip for scaling and rotation.^[2] This was cancelled in favour of the Mega-CD version.

Versions

Wing Commander was originally released in 1990 for the IBM PC, with the Mega-CD version debuting three years later. It is a relatively accurate conversion, with most of the content being retained, though some cinematics are missing scenes while others are simplified. The move to CD-ROM also means the characters could be fully voiced - a feature missing in most ports of the game, though in return, all subtitles were removed from the game for unknown reasons.

While the game provides CD quality audio for its introduction, the vast majority of the music tracks rely on standard Mega Drive audio capabilities. Sound effects too are mostly driven by the Mega Drive, as are curiously in-game voices, resulting in much lower quality audio during play.

All of the art assets were altered to better suit the screen resolution (320x224 vs 320x200) and more restricted colour palette of the Mega-CD (256 (VGA) vs 64 colours, although the PC version also supports 16 colour EGA cards). Cinematics can also be briefly interrupted while data is loaded from the disc. While the game does not resort to dedicated loading screens, it can lead to unnatural pauses during conversations.

Wing Commander simulates its 3D world by heavy use of sprite rotation and scaling. On the Mega-CD, these sprites are often smaller, leading to blockier graphics when up close to an object than on the PC. The frame rate is also lower than some versions of the game, such as the Amiga CD32 conversion released some months later, however Wing Commander on the Mega-CD generally performs better than its standard Amiga and Super NES counterparts.

It should be noted, however, that a high level of performance running the original PC version requires a high-end Intel 80386 or an early 80486 processor (as if system is too modern, the game will run too fast). Most PC users at the game's launch were unlikely to have access to these then-expensive configurations, meaning performance of the Mega-CD version would have been typical of what many end users would have experienced in the early 1990s (and indeed of most "3D" games of the era).

Production credits

Design by: Chris Roberts
Software Engineers: Chris Roberts, Ken Demarest III, Paul C.Isaac, Steve Muchow, Herman Miller, Steve Beeman
Dogfight Intelligence: Ken Demarest III
Dogfight Choregraphy: Steve Beeman, Erin Roberts
Space System by: Chris Roberts
OriginFX Graphic System: Chris Roberts, John Miles
OriginFX Sound System by: Herman Miller
Artwork: Denis Loubet, Glen Johnson, Daniel Bourbonnais, Keith Berdak, John Watson
Screenplay by: Jeff George
Additional Writing: Steve Cantrell, Philip Brodgen
Soundtrack by: George A.Sanger, Dave Govett
Sound Effects by: Marc Shaefgen
Produced by: Chris Roberts, Warren Spector
Directed by: Chris Roberts

Source:

Introduce demo (JP)^[3]

IBM Unit

Origin: Chris Roberts, Steve Muchow, Paul C.Isaac, Steve Beeman, Ken Demarest III, Herman Miller, Erin Roberts, John Miles, Denis Loubet, Glen Johnson, Daniel Bourbonnais, Keith Berdak, John Watson, Jeff George, Steve Cantrell, Philip Brodgen, George A.Sanger, Dave Govett, Marc Shaefgen, Warren Spector

Genesis Unit

Game Arts: Youichi Miyaji, Satoshi Uesaka, Horoaki Okabe, Takuya Osamura, Osamu Harada, Yuzo Sunaga, Masatoshi Azumi, Meiko Wada, Tadao Mizuno, Akiko Satou, Mitsuhiro Watariya, Hideki Kanai, Naoki Kudou, Ari Kamijou, Ken-ichi Kunishima, Takeshi Miyaji
Bits Laboratory: Satoru Miyazaki, Motoyuki Kanayama
CRI: Yasushi Hirasaki, Miwako Ohshima, Yukinori Kaneko, Akira Nagano, Takahiro Kanou, Masayoshi Hari, Tsunehisa Nakai
Two-Five: Isao Mizoguchi, Noriyuki Iwadare, Ken-ichi Ookuma, Masaki Tanimoto
All Talent Provided to Sega of America, inc., by: David Platshon, DMP Entertainment.
Executive Producer: Kent Russel.

Source:

In-game credits

Sega CD Game Credits

Sega CD version developed by: Game Arts
Producer: Alan Gardner
Package Design: Al Carnley, Jeniffer Davis, Craig Miller
Documentation Design: Jeniffer Davis
Documentation and Editing: Tuesday Frase, David Ladyman
Q.A. Project Leader: Alvaro Moreno
Quality Assurance: Mark Franz

Original IBM PC Game Credits

Producers: Chris Roberts, Warren Spector
Lead Programmer: Chris Roberts
Programmers: Steve Beeman, Ken Demarest III, Paul Isaac, Herman Miller, Steve Muchow
Dogfight Coreography: Steve Beeman, Erin Roberts
3-D Space System: Chris Roberts
ORIGIN Graphic System: John Miles, Chris Roberts
ORIGIN Sound System: Herman Miller
Art: Keith Berdak, Daniel Bourbonnais, Glen Johnson, Denis Loubet, John Watson
Writers: Philip Brogden, Steve Cantrell, Jeff George
Music: Dave Govett, George A. Sanger
Sound Effects: Marc Shaefgen
Quality Assurance: Philip Brogden, Steve Cantrell, Greg Paul Malone II, Erin Roberts, Mike Romero, Marc Shaefgen, Jeff Shelton, Scott Shelton, Brian Tompkins, John Watson

Source:

Manual credits^[4]

Magazine articles

Main article: Wing Commander/Magazine articles.

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average

Publication

Version

Score

Beep! MegaDrive (JP)

NTSC-J

65

^[9]

Famitsu (JP)

NTSC-J

55

^[10]

Game Players (US)

NTSC-U

82

^[11]

GamePro (US)

NTSC-U

80

^[12]

Hippon Super (JP)

NTSC-J

40

^[13]

MAN!AC (DE)

PAL

70

^[14]

Mega (UK)

NTSC-U

70

^[15]

Mega Fun (DE)

NTSC-U

67

^[16]

MegaTech (UK)

NTSC-U

78

^[17]

Sega Pro (UK)

PAL

79

^[18]

Sega Saturn Magazine (JP)

NTSC-J

80

^[19]

Video Games (DE)

NTSC-U

72

^[20]

	70
Based on 12 reviews

Wing Commander

Mega-CD, US
Cover
Disc Manual

Mega-CD, JP
Cover
Spinecard Disc

Technical information

ROM dump status

System

Hash

Size

Build Date

Source

Comments

✔

CRC32
MD5
SHA-1

497,539,728

CD (JP)

G-6011

?

CRC32
MD5
SHA-1

454,342,896

CD (US)

T-50045

References

[:File:GamePro_US_042.pdf_p84-1] File:GamePro US 042.pdf, page 84

[:File:CVG_UK_151.pdf_p14-2] File:CVG UK 151.pdf, page 14

[:File:WingCommander_MCD_JP_SSCredits_Intro.pdf_p-3] File:WingCommander_MCD_JP_SSCredits_Intro.pdf

[:File:Wingcommander_mcd_us_manual.pdf_p66-4] File:Wingcommander mcd us manual.pdf, page 66

[:File:BeepMD_JP_1994-04.pdf_p22-5] File:BeepMD_JP_1994-04.pdf, page 22

[:File:SSM_JP_19950901_1995-09.pdf_p85-6] File:SSM_JP_19950901_1995-09.pdf, page 85

[:File:MegaFun_DE_1994-06.pdf_p96-7] File:MegaFun DE 1994-06.pdf, page 96

[:File:VideoGames_DE_1994-06.pdf_p83-8] File:VideoGames DE 1994-06.pdf, page 83

[:File:BeepMD_JP_1994-04.pdf_p22-9] Beep! MegaDrive, "April 1994" (JP; 1994-03-08), page 22

[10] Famitsu, "" (JP; 1994-03-18), page 1

[:File:GamePlayers_US_0707.pdf_p88-11] Game Players, "Vol. 7 No. 7 July 1994" (US; 1994-0x-xx), page 88

[:File:GamePro_US_060.pdf_p66-12] GamePro, "July 1994" (US; 1994-xx-xx), page 66

[13] Hippon Super, "April 1994" (JP; 1994-03-03), page 60

[:File:MAN.21AC_DE_1994-05.pdf_p52-14] MAN!AC, "05/94" (DE; 1994-04-13), page 52

[:File:Mega_UK_24.pdf_p54-15] Mega, "September 1994" (UK; 1994-08-18), page 54

[:File:MegaFun_DE_1994-06.pdf_p104-16] Mega Fun, "06/94" (DE; 1994-05-18), page 104

[:File:MegaTech_UK_33.pdf_p28-17] MegaTech, "September 1994" (UK; 1994-08-18), page 28

[:File:SegaPro_UK_33.pdf_p56-18] Sega Pro, "June 1994" (UK; 1994-05-24), page 56

[:File:SSM_JP_19950901_1995-09.pdf_p85-19] Sega Saturn Magazine, "September 1995" (JP; 1995-08-08), page 85

[:File:VideoGames_DE_1994-06.pdf_p87-20] Video Games, "6/94" (DE; 1994-05-25), page 87

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Wing Commander

From Sega Retro

Contents

Versions

Production credits

Magazine articles

Physical scans

Technical information

ROM dump status

References