Wing Commander

Released: September 1990
Published by: Origin Systems, Inc.
Developed by: Origin Systems, Inc.
Author(s): Chris Roberts, Ken Demarest III, Paul C. Isaac, Steve Muchow, John Miles, Herman Miller, Steve Beeman, Erin Roberts, Daniel Bourbonnais, Denis Loubet, Glen Johnson, George A. Sanger, Dave Govett, Marc Schaefgen, Warren Spector

Introduction

The first game in what would become a long-running franchise, Wing Commander is a space combat simulator from ORIGIN Systems, released in 1990. Somewhat unique at the time was the immersive storyline intermixed with the action gameplay. The player takes on the role of a nameless pilot (later referred to as Christopher Blair in sequels) aboard the TCS Tiger's Claw, a Bengal-class Strike Carrier. The Terran Federation are at war with the feline-like Kilrathi Empire, who are bent on the destruction of the human race.

The player names the pilot and chooses his call sign. Missions varied from jumping to different jump points to seek and destroy, running patrols, and escorting cargo vessels. You usually have a wingman at your side on these missions who you can communicate with in-cockpit to direct their actions throughout the mission. You can also taunt any Kilrathi you come across through your comms system!

The pilot, known in-production to Origin personnel as "Bluehair" after his most notable feature, quickly rises through the ranks of the flight wing. The campaign is spread over various planets and scenarios depending on the player's performance. If the player performs well, they eventually lead a strike on the Kilrathi High Command starbase in the Venice system and force the Kilrathi to retreat. If the player fails too many objectives, missions become increasingly defensive in nature.

Despite Wing Commander appearing to make use of 3D models for the spacecraft, these were actually bitmapped sprites that were cleverly rotated. These sprites were pre-rendered at a number of angles to keep the game speed high.

The game would later be re-released on DOS, with ports on Amiga, Macintosh, SNES and Sega Mega-CD.

 

System Requirements

System Requirements	Intel 80286 12 MHz minimum (80386 16 MHz recommended), 640 KB RAM (768 KB for Tandy) - 2 MB RAM recommended. Graphics support for EGA, VGA, MCGA and Tandy. Audio support for Ad Lib, Sound Blaster and Roland MT-32/LAPC-I Keyboard, mouse and joystick supported.
Original Media	Six 3.5" 720 KB floppy disks, or three 3.5" 1.44 MB floppy disks, or eleven 5.25" 360 KB floppy disks, or four 5.25" 1.2 MB floppy disks. Secret Missions expansion: One 3.5" 720 KB floppy disk. Secret Missions 2 expansion: One 3.5" 720 KB floppy disk.
Installed Size	Main game - 5.1 MB Secret Missions expansion - 1.18 MB uncompressed or 0.74 MB compressed Secret Missions 2 expansion - 1.41 MB uncompressed or 1.03 MB compressed

 

From where can it be run?

From a hard disk only. The game comes on six 3.5" or eleven 5.25" low-density floppy disks - simply insert Disk 1 and run INSTALL.EXE. You cannot install the game from a subdirectory that has the install files on your hard disk, only a floppy drive letter is permitted as the source.

If you have issues with INSTALL.EXE hanging or rebooting your PC, use this version instead (make a backup copy of Disk 1 and on your copy put this file instead, then run it with INSTALL -a

This tells the installer to avoid running hardware checks as the installer begins, which is likely the cause of the hangs.

If the installer detects your hard disk has more than 6 MB of free space, it will ask if you want to Save Space or Save Time. By choosing Save Space it will keep many of the files in compressed form on your hard disk. If you choose Save Time the installer will copy all the files to your hard disks's game directory and then uncompress them, taking up more disk space but taking less time during gameplay as it won't need to uncompress them on-the-fly.

Installing the Secret Missions 1 and 2 expansions prompts you for the location of the game on your hard disk, asks again if you wish to save space or save time, and then goes through your graphics and sound options again before installing the expansion's files.

Game Audio/Video

Roland is from MT-32 "old"

OPL3 (Ad Lib) Intro  Sound Blaster Intro  Roland MT-32 Intro

Copy Protection

Wing Commander has manual copy protection. When the game starts you will be prompted to enter a number from the four blueprints included in the box (Hornet, Scimitar, Rapier and Raptor), and the "Claw Marks" booklet/ship magazine.

How to Setup

To change your graphics card and audio configuration, run INSTALL.EXE after installing the game from the original disks:

Screen 1: Graphics options

Screen 2: Audio options

Screen 3: Confirm

If the install program doesn't detect an Expanded Memory (EMS) driver such as EMM386, it will then show this warning (note that you need to run an EMS driver if you want to hear any in-game music):

You can also force the graphics and audio mode by running WC.EXE with these command-line arguments:

V - runs the game in VGA/MCGA mode
E - runs the game in EGA mode
A904 - runs the game on an AST computer with Ad Lib or Sound Blaster audio
R - runs the game in Roland MT-32 sound mode

Problems

Symptom: The game runs too fast!
Cause: Wing Commander is a very speed-sensitive game - you are playing it on a more modern PC than that for which it was designed. WC and WC2 are both happiest running on an Intel 80386 computer, preferably one that is 25 MHz or slower.
Resolution: Try slowing down your PC by disabling the L1 or L2 cache in the BIOS, and perhaps additionally running a slowdown utility such as Slow v3.0. Check here for my results running WC on my Pentium MMX 200 retro PC.

Symptom: The game runs too slowly, with jerky ship movements.
Cause: Wing Commander will not run well on any 80286 computer, despite the minimum system requirements shown on the game box. Another possible cause of jerky ship movements in-game are that you chose 'Save Space' when installing and you don't have sufficient free hard disk space for the game to unpack the game files.
Resolution: Check your free hard disk space and if lower than 2 MB you might want to free up some more space and reinstall the game with the Save Time option. If you simply have a slow PC you can use Ctrl <PLUS> while playing until the speed improves - this will cause the game to skip animation frames. You can use Ctrl <MINUS> to increase the number of frames again. You can choose from 0 to 4 frames to be skipped - a message will appear on the screen to acknowledge the change.

Symptom: It says "Limited music will play." when I begin loading the game and/or music comes out sounding odd or non-existent.
Cause: Wing Commander requires an Expanded Memory Manager such as EMM386 to be loaded in order to fully play all music and sound effects. It also requires a minimum of 560,000 bytes of conventional memory to run the game, and a minimum of 583,000 bytes if you want full music.
Resolution: Add these lines to your CONFIG.SYS file (assumes the files are in C:\DOS directory):

DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS /TESTMEM:OFF
DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE RAM         

Then reboot your PC and try running the game again.

To Quit the Game

Press Alt-X at any time, following by Enter to return to the DOS prompt.

 

Cheats

Start the game with wc Origin to run the game in debug mode. You can then use Alt-Del to destroy your current target, or Alt-Ins to destroy the entire enemy wing.

Start the game with wc Origin -k to have the same as the above, but also with invincibility.

 

Supporting Documents

• Claw Marks
• Blueprints (Copy Protection)
• Kilrathi Saga Manual
• Wing Commander Reference Card
• Secret Missions Reference Card
• Secret Missions 2 Reference Card

 

Save Games

You can save your game between each mission in the campaign in the Barracks. There are 8 'beds', where upon selection you are prompted for a Game Name up to 16 characters to describe that save game. When a 'bed' is occupied it means that save game slot is used.

You can load from a saved game by clicking on the person's head - a message will appear saying "AWAKEN <Game Name>?(Y/N)".

You can overwrite a previous saved game by clicking on the body of the person - a message will appear saying "Replace <Game Name>? (Y/N)". If you press "Y" you will be prompted for a new Game Name.

All save game entries are written to a single file in the GAMEDAT subdirectory called SAVEGAME.WLD. This file is not text-readable/editable.

 

Additional Files, Drivers & Utilities

File	Comments
WCINSTAL.ZIP	Revised INSTALL.EXE which has a "-a" command-line argument to switch off any hardware sensing during installation. This can prevent lock-ups due to resource conflicts, typically when you have a funky sound card configuration.
WCJYPTCH.ZIP	Joystick patch
no asteroid damage.zip	If you're frustrated with dying as you go through asteroid fields, use these revised executable files to run the original game or Secret Missions 2 - they reduce the collision radius of asteroids, thus making it easier to get through.
SM15.ZIP	Fan made patch that extracts Secret Missions 1.5 from Super Wing Commander and allows it to be played with the Kilrathi Saga version of Wing Commander + Secret Missions 2 (I tried this on the original game + SM2 install and it worked fine). To play: First, back up your install.dat in the KS gamedat folder (and make sure your KS install includes Secret Missions 2 already). Then unzip the contents of this file (60KB zip) into wc/gamedat. It includes a new install.dat that will replace Secret Missions 2. You can flip back and forth between iterations of the file to choose which campaign you want to play. Author's note: This is about bringing the Secret Missions 2 campaign from Super Wing Commander and 3DO, known as "Secret Missions 1.5", to the PC. For a start, I'll just make the files available here that have been converted 1:1 from the 3DO version. That's possible due to the awesome work of UnnamedCharacter and many others who paved the way. The zip file contains a readme file with all necessary information and instructions. So, by downloading and installing this zip file to your Wing Commander I, Secret Missions 2 installation, you should be able to play the full SWC Secret Missions 2 campaign, which is commonly referred to here on the forums as Secret Missions 1.5.
WINGHARD	Modifies WC1&2 ship damage values in order to allow players to customize the difficulty just to their liking. Rather than making yourself invulnerable or killing enemy ships with the push of a button, you can carefully tweak everyone's armor values to balance the right amount of challenge and fun. As an extra bonus, you can adjust the radius of impact and increase or decrease how deadly the asteroids are. Created by Sheppard.
Mission Editor	Work in progress. In this preview release, each mission's nav maps and mission details can be pulled up, which is itself already a useful function. A copy of WC1 is not actually needed - just unzip the file and run wce1.exe. The code behind the program and user interface are now being improved, and the hope is eventually that custom WC1-engine campaigns should be easy to make.
WCSAV	A utility for viewing and editing Wing Commander save files. This program allows you to view and edit data concerning pilots, awards, and missions. By David S. Raley
WCVIEW	A program that will allow you to view and edit some of the parameters associated with the ships used in Wing Commander and Secret Missions II. By John Martuch
Editing Info	Editing information for WC1, WC2 and Privateer.

Versions of the game known to exist

Version	Date	Comments
Demo	1990	A non-playable demo of Wing Commander.
1.0	26th Sep 1990	Initial public release.
1.0	1990	First add-on released: "The Secret Missions"
1.0	1991	Second add-on released: "The Secret Missions 2: Crusade"
?	1994	Re-released in a bundle consisting of WC + WC II. These re-releases do *not* support the expansion packs.
?	1996	WC ported to Windows 95 in a bundle called "Wing Commander: The Kirathi Saga", consisting of WC1, II and III.

 

Original Floppy Disk Contents

The floppy disks have no specific volume label. There is a small file on each disk called DISK.001, DISK.002, etc, which identifies to the installer which disk is inserted.

Disk 1 of 6 (3.5" 720 KB DS/DD): Directory of A:\ DISK 001 48 07-18-02 9:00p INSTALL EXE 55,056 07-18-02 9:00p WC EXE 304,976 07-18-02 9:00p ARROW VGA 513 07-18-02 9:00p COCKPIT VGA 50,008 07-18-02 9:00p CONVERT PAL 256 07-18-02 9:00p FONTS FNT 7,664 07-18-02 9:00p GAME PAL 1,120 07-18-02 9:00p INTRO DAT 630 07-18-02 9:00p MODULE 000 22,085 07-18-02 9:00p OBJECTS VGA 125,960 07-18-02 9:00p PCSHIP V00 139,788 07-18-02 9:00p PCSHIP V04 27,574 07-18-02 9:00p PLANETS VGA 15,583 07-18-02 9:00p SAVEGAME WLD 6,624 07-18-02 9:00p SHIP V17 134,941 07-18-02 9:00p STRAX DRV 4,869 07-18-02 9:00p WINGLDR TIM 5,596 07-18-02 9:00p INSTALL DAT 976 10-21-12 1:21p 19 file(s) 904,267 bytes 548,352 bytes free
Disk 2 of 6 (3.5" 720 KB DS/DD): Directory of A:\ COMMUNIC DAT 12,320 07-18-02 9:00p PCSHIP V01 151,825 07-18-02 9:00p PCSHIP V02 123,317 07-18-02 9:00p PCSHIP V03 157,968 07-18-02 9:00p PILOTANM VGA 139,984 07-18-02 9:00p SHIP V18 132,555 07-18-02 9:00p SHIP V21 71,664 07-18-02 9:00p SHIPTYPE V00 64,522 07-18-02 9:00p SHIPTYPE V01 75,274 07-18-02 9:00p SHIPTYPE V02 60,523 07-18-02 9:00p SHIPTYPE V03 72,291 07-18-02 9:00p SHIPTYPE V29 12,754 07-18-02 9:00p WINGMEN VGA 57,211 07-18-02 9:00p DISK 002 48 10-24-20 2:59p 14 file(s) 1,132,256 bytes 321,536 bytes free
Disk 3 of 6 (3.5" 720 KB DS/DD): Directory of A:\ BRIEFING 000 222,366 07-18-02 9:00p BRIEFING VGA 516,592 07-18-02 9:00p CAMP 000 651 07-18-02 9:00p RECROOM VGA 262,789 07-18-02 9:00p DISK 003 48 10-24-20 3:01p 5 file(s) 1,002,446 bytes 453,632 bytes free
Disk 4 of 6 (3.5" 720 KB DS/DD): Directory of A:\ SHIP V06 139,615 07-18-02 9:00p SHIP V07 131,031 07-18-02 9:00p SHIP V08 148,101 07-18-02 9:00p SHIP V15 154,183 07-18-02 9:00p SHIPTYPE V09 66,046 07-18-02 9:00p SHIPTYPE V10 76,725 07-18-02 9:00p SHIPTYPE V12 73,145 07-18-02 9:00p SHIPTYPE V13 65,060 07-18-02 9:00p TALKING VGA 228,237 07-18-02 9:00p DISK 004 48 10-24-20 3:02p 10 file(s) 1,082,191 bytes 373,248 bytes free
Disk 5 of 6 (3.5" 720 KB DS/DD): Directory of A:\ MUSIC MID 139,707 07-18-02 9:00p SCRAMBLE VGA 301,503 07-18-02 9:00p SHIPTYPE V11 75,045 07-18-02 9:00p DISK 005 48 10-24-20 3:02p 4 file(s) 516,303 bytes 940,544 bytes free
Disk 6 of 6 (3.5" 720 KB DS/DD): Directory of A:\ MIDGAME V00 109,608 07-18-02 9:00p MIDGAME V01 82,001 07-18-02 9:00p MIDGAME V02 97,523 07-18-02 9:00p MIDGAME V03 61,438 07-18-02 9:00p SUPERTM DRV 65,281 07-18-02 9:00p TITLE VGA 271,553 07-18-02 9:00p TM DRV 29,779 07-18-02 9:00p DISK 006 48 10-24-20 3:03p 8 file(s) 717,231 bytes 737,792 bytes free
Secret Missions Disk 1 of 1 (3.5" 720 KB DS/DD): Directory of A:\ BRIEFING 002 90,407 07-18-02 9:00p CAMP 002 437 07-18-02 9:00p COMMSM2 DAT 12,320 07-18-02 9:00p CONVERT PAL 256 07-18-02 9:00p DISK 005 8 07-18-02 9:00p INSTALL DAT 1,120 07-18-02 9:00p INSTALL SEC 352 07-18-02 9:00p INSTALL2 EXE 56,288 07-18-02 9:00p INTRO1 DAT 743 07-18-02 9:00p MIDGAME V06 38,083 07-18-02 9:00p MIDGAME V07 148,941 07-18-02 9:00p MIDGAME V08 83,661 07-18-02 9:00p MODULE 002 17,765 07-18-02 9:00p PCSHIP V05 105,764 07-18-02 9:00p PLANETS1 VGA 8,598 07-18-02 9:00p SERIES VGA 15,486 07-18-02 9:00p SHIP V19 85,884 07-18-02 9:00p SHIPTYPE V14 48,575 07-18-02 9:00p SM2 EXE 305,024 07-18-02 9:00p TALKING1 VGA 33,859 07-18-02 9:00p TITLE1 VGA 31,467 07-18-02 9:00p TRANS2 EXE 71,200 07-18-02 9:00p WINGMEN1 VGA 2,057 07-18-02 9:00p 23 file(s) 1,158,295 bytes 293,376 bytes free
Secret Missions 2 Disk 1 of 1 (3.5" 720 KB DS/DD):

 

Installed Directory Contents

Once installed, the following directory structure exists in the game directory. Note that file sizes and the existence of files themselves may differ between game versions, and that this listing is the original version of the game with no expansions:

Directory of D:\GAMES\WING . <DIR> 11-09-21 4:54p .. <DIR> 11-09-21 4:54p ARROW VGA 513 12-25-96 12:32a BRIEFING 000 222,366 12-25-96 12:32a BRIEFING VGA 516,592 12-25-96 12:32a CAMP 000 651 12-25-96 12:32a COCKPIT VGA 50,008 12-25-96 12:32a COMMUNIC DAT 12,320 12-25-96 12:32a CONVERT PAL 256 12-25-96 12:32a DISK 001 48 12-25-96 12:32a DISK 002 48 12-25-96 12:32a DISK 003 48 12-25-96 12:32a FONTS FNT 7,664 12-25-96 12:32a GAME PAL 1,120 12-25-96 12:32a INSTALL DAT 928 12-25-96 12:32a INSTALL EXE 55,056 12-25-96 12:32a INTRO DAT 630 12-25-96 12:32a MIDGAME V00 109,608 12-25-96 12:32a MIDGAME V01 82,001 12-25-96 12:32a MIDGAME V02 97,523 12-25-96 12:32a MIDGAME V03 61,438 12-25-96 12:32a MODULE 000 22,085 12-25-96 12:32a MUSIC MID 139,707 12-25-96 12:32a OBJECTS VGA 125,960 12-25-96 12:32a PCSHIP V00 139,788 12-25-96 12:32a PCSHIP V01 151,825 12-25-96 12:32a PCSHIP V02 123,317 12-25-96 12:32a PCSHIP V03 157,968 12-25-96 12:32a PCSHIP V04 27,574 12-25-96 12:32a PILOTANM VGA 139,984 12-25-96 12:32a PLANETS VGA 15,583 12-25-96 12:32a RECROOM VGA 262,789 12-25-96 12:32a SAVEGAME WLD 6,624 12-25-96 12:32a SCRAMBLE VGA 301,503 12-25-96 12:32a SHIP V06 139,615 12-25-96 12:32a SHIP V07 131,031 12-25-96 12:32a SHIP V08 148,101 12-25-96 12:32a SHIP V15 154,183 12-25-96 12:32a SHIP V17 134,941 12-25-96 12:32a SHIP V18 132,555 12-25-96 12:32a SHIP V21 71,664 12-25-96 12:32a SHIPTYPE V00 64,522 12-25-96 12:32a SHIPTYPE V01 75,274 12-25-96 12:32a SHIPTYPE V02 60,523 12-25-96 12:32a SHIPTYPE V03 72,291 12-25-96 12:32a SHIPTYPE V09 66,046 12-25-96 12:32a SHIPTYPE V10 76,725 12-25-96 12:32a SHIPTYPE V11 75,045 12-25-96 12:32a SHIPTYPE V12 73,145 12-25-96 12:32a SHIPTYPE V13 65,060 12-25-96 12:32a SHIPTYPE V29 12,754 12-25-96 12:32a STRAX DRV 4,869 12-25-96 12:32a SUPERTM DRV 65,281 12-25-96 12:32a TALKING VGA 228,237 12-25-96 12:32a TITLE VGA 271,553 12-25-96 12:32a TM DRV 29,779 12-25-96 12:32a WC EXE 304,976 12-25-96 12:32a WINGCMDR CFG 6 10-16-20 4:07p WINGLDR TIM 5,596 12-25-96 12:32a WINGMEN VGA 57,211 12-25-96 12:32a 60 file(s) 5,354,508 bytes