Відео

about the wave system.. which also relates to the firing rate of the lasers... you forget to note that this game was designed to run in a DOS systems that had limited memory and CPU (even when it's been remastered to play today in stronger machines). to keep things running at a reasonable level, they had to make sure to not overwhelm the game engine by putting too much objects out at a time, ships and lasers included. so that's also the other reason why you aren't being flooded by the gunboats, tie fighters, etc until you get rid of the current group already in play. and if you're spitting too much laser bolts out, that's going to risk adding too much objects out to display and end up choking your system. (remember, this was designed with those IBM 386 systems in mind)

In actual air dogfighting collisions are a real risk. In X-wing it forces you to be careful about your range. It makes sense to me that you don't want to be very close to a thing you are trying to blow up. Manage your speed! When you said that collisions weren't a problem for Wedge in the movie, note that you used a clip from the Special-Crap Edition and it that didn't happen like that in the real movie. Hell the special editions didn't even exist at the time. I didn't get much further because you continued to complain about the things that make this game great. It is not a point and shoot, it requires practice, skill, and thought.

It's so interesting seeing the perspective of someone who is younger than me and didn't grow up during that time. For context, I was born in the late 70s and my teens started at the beginning of the 90s. Back then, having a joystick was commonplace. Everyone had them since so many games used them. I had a ZX Spectum 128, then an Amiga 500, followed by an Amiga 1200 before getting into the PlayStation consoles. I remember playing Wing Commander on my friend's PC using an analogue joystick. Back in those days the analogue joysticks on PCs were pretty terrible. They had no automatic centralisation for the stick and they had trim sliders on the X and Y axis. You had to calibrate them with every game, but since flight simulators were so popular back then everyone had at least one or more joysticks. The most popular were made by Quickshot or Zip Stick. They later came out with microswitched versions which handle and sound a lot like arcade sticks these days. I bought Wing Commander 1 for my Amiga 500 which I initially played from the floppy disks and it ran ok, I never had any issues with aiming and hitting the Kilrathi fighters (a criticism you made in the WC1 video I just re-watched) but that's most likely because playing it at the time, on a system at the time using a control method it was designed to be played with probably did factor into that a lot. I definitely played it to death, but when I got the Amiga 1200 and was able to install it on the HDD and it was able to make use of all that extra RAM the game ran so much better (like you said, game speed and frame rate seemed to be tied together). I was very sad that Wing Commander 2 and 3 weren't released on the Amiga as by this point I was thoroughly invested in the franchise, so enjoyed playing WC2 on my friend's PC but that didn't happen all that often. I didn't get back into the franchise until they released the later ones ported to PlayStation that featured FMV with Mark Hamill, Malcolm McDowell, John Rhys-Davies and many others. I have very fond memories of these games through my teenage years and it's so nice to see someone revisiting them and seeing it through your lens.

the way i got passed ToD3 Mission 3 was to use my wingmen as Cannon fodder for the Gunboats then once the Boarding Trasport showed up a made a b line towards it used the Ion Cannons to disable it by doing so no other Boarding Transports showed up and most of my wingmen were killed by the gunboats so I didn't have to worry about them blowing up the Boarding Transport when that worked i tore my hair out and no lie starred at the results screen in virtual silence flabbergasted for a full 30 minutes

I get so defensive over keyboard layouts being blamed for the decline of the genre, lol. I agree, it definitely is a factor. The defensive nerd in me says that if you want to be a fighter pilot in space you need more than 14 buttons! But of course, these are video games haha.

Ah. The memory of playing this game on my mom's 486,playing cat and mouse with her deleting it and me reinstalling it in hidden folders. Hard to hide a game that size on a 540mb hdd. Lol Saving up $20 to buy a joystick and buying the complete strategy guide with Keyan Farlander's story being fleshed out alongside all the missions. What a truly immersive Star Wars game this was. Absolutely loved it.

Whut

On cap ships, Wing Commander II got it right with the introduction of the torpedoes. It takes a long time to lock them and it is the equivalent of a nuclear bomb. That removed the problem of WC 1

I played Wing Commander when I was 6-7 years old. The game was 4-5 years old by the time I played it. I couldn't get past the first mission. It wasn't a skill problem. I just never knew there was a communication feature on the HUD. I didn't know I needed to request permission to land. You just showed me and I can finally play the rest of that game. That deserved a like and a follow.

Nope the original 3d space game was Elite fantastic space shooter but wing commander 3 was my second love

1:04:09 thats when you have to use the Magical Match Speed button and if your getting to close break away for a few seconds to get some distance

The exchange never happened. The in flight cutscene even says so. The Mandarins no-showed.

Starlancer's Controls aren't as daunting when you realize you won't use half of those buttons except in very specific situations

So Star Citizen is actually a wing commander reboot?

Another one well done! TIE Fighter was the first space sim I spent any real time playing, and when I came back to play X-Wing I remember it feeling like a huge step backwards. People have already made the point about sim-level controls with a gamepad, so you get it. Hope you do TIE Fighter one of these days, keep up the great work!

Thanks for doing these. I was born in '85 so Wing Commander I + II were kind of a legend in my young mind. My friends older siblings had these games and they were so cool. And me and my friends got blown away anytime we tried it. I'll check out your X-Wing video next- I spent way more time on X-Wing and (Star) Tie Fighter (Wars). Subscribed and looking forward to more! Thank you!!!

1:45:20 Oh my.... I can only imagine going to bed with the rage after this realization....

"Colonel-sama" lol🤣🤣🤣🤣

This might be outside your wheelhouse, but I feel like we need a review of Traffic Department 2192. Because of course, the story was bonkers... AND the killer music... according to my childhood memory, anyway. Well done on this one, looking forward to more.

I've had this video in my watch later since it came out and finally watched it - so glad I did! Thanks for making it!!!

20:40 As a kid, I couldn't figure this out. I would crash into the carrier. I think I found the hangar, but didn't know to communicate first. I remember I used to eject at the ends of missions hahaha

I played with a mouse....then and now. Playing with a squirrelly control system against squirrelly enemies will put hair on your chest.

Holy moth balls lol I'm stuck on OP3 mission 3 too! Never thought to tell the shuttle to wait! But yeah I feel you on the mission design. That's why this was completely revamped in the sequel and it pretty much continued with every subsequent game.

This was my first space sim wayyy back in 1992. It came in an "Origin Two Pack" with Ultima 6 (or 7?). It was on a CD-Rom back when they were brand new. You had to put the CD in a jewel case, then stick the jewel case in the CD drive. Then after that, you had to type in the usual DOS commands. Then you would think you would just jump into the game, but oh no! You had to answer a question from the blueprints. It came with full fledged blueprints for each fighter. Normally I would find this type of thing kind of cool. But I was 8, and had no idea what they meant by "what is the maximum shield rating of a Drathi fighter?" Or "what is the Rapier's max fire rate?" Stuff like that where you had to spread the blueprints all out on the table. Then you could play the game. It took me a real long time to figure out that you had to ask permission to land on the Claw. However once I got better, I had a lot of fun with it. I've never heard that there was a "Kilrathi Saga" version. I will have to look into that. I enjoyed this little trip down memory lane. Thanks!

Hot take, but I like X-Wing and Tie Fighter more than Wing Commander. The immersion is better in Wing Commander, but the flight mechanics and handling felt better in X-Wing and Tie Fighter. I enjoy playing X-Wing and Tie Fighter more than I enjoy playing Wing Commander, but I enjoy reading into Wing Commander more.

The final mission in special operation one is hard as crap but I actually like all the stuff with bear. it was interesting going against other humans and he's a major character in the books so I have a place in my heart for Him

The issue I have with current space sims is the lack of good peripherals. I remember I could drop around $70 in the early 2000's and get a good joystick. And it had awesome force feedback! Nowadays none of the joysticks, even pricey HOTAS kits, have force feedback. I hope the space/flight games genre makes a comeback and bring back the reasonably priced force feed back joysticks with them.

There were some really great early Star Wars games. Rebel Assault 1 and 2 were so good.

Privateer was my favorite.

Thank you for this wonderful analysis. I've been playing the original again after all these years on the Steam deck and I've enjoyed immersing myself in its nostalgic atmosphere. It is a frustrating experience, not only because I'm playing the GoG version which is essentially unplayable with its fluctuating speed, but seeing how much it would benefit from a loving remake. If only EA had the balls to do it, I think they'd have a good little double-A hit on their hands. A decent, modestly-sized dec team wouldn't need the resources of a giant open world blockbuster - just enough to make a satisfying space shooter. WC1 such a relatively contained experience, it shouldn't be too hard to pull off and wouldn't be that much of a risk, would it? I hate to see the series wallow in obscurity.

Thank you for this wonderful analysis. I've been playing the original again after all these years on the Steam deck and I've enjoyed immersing myself in its nostalgic atmosphere. It is a frustrating experience, not only because I'm playing the GoG version which is essentially unplayable with its fluctuating speed, but seeing how much it would benefit from a loving remake. If only EA had the balls to do it, I think they'd have a good little double-A hit on their hands. A good team wouldn't need the resources of a giant open world blockbuster - just enough to make a satisfying space shooter. WC1 such a relatively contained experience, it shouldn't be too hard to pull off and wouldn't be that much of a risk would it? I hate to see the series wallow in obscurity.

I owned and played this game all the way through when it first came out. I was in high school at the time. I threw out my old copy some years ago during a move, and just recently bought it back to put into my Big Box collection. I'm glad to have it again.

My original playthrough on WC was on an Amiga, with a copy giving to me by my Uncle. It had no instructions, we had no idea how to Autopilot lol. That made it for a loooong mission.

Just binged all of your videos in one day. Thanks for putting in so much time and effort to talk about these classics!

I need nightdive studios to work their magic on wing commander.

Just discovered your channel and I love your work! Looking forward to the next video ❤

It's kinda weird how the whole HOTAS thing seems to have become the default starting point for people getting into these games. I think that happened some time in the past 5-10 years or so? Extra controllers, in my experience at least, were things for hardcore enthusiasts back then. People go on about the cost and all the plastic crap you "have" to buy, but just the T16K with it's twist and built-in slider (and a keyboard obviously) is perfectly fine for nearly every flight sim past and present. TBF, the T16K at $80 is really the maximum they can get away with charging for that one, but still. I guess this is also my mandatory engagement comment for Tachyon :p -- Appreciate the work you put into these.

this video sucks

There's a new X-Wing Alliance Upgrade Project update, making it even crisper on modern systems. I think you might enjoy making a video of something like that for a change, and I know I would appreciate watching it. :)

This brings back memories. I played Wing Commander I back in the day, all the way to the end, as I'm sure everyone did. The sound effects were satisfying, althought, as everyone should know, there is no sound in space. 🤣 On the other hand, no sound would be boring.

I'm pretty sure the joystick issues which affects WC1, WC2 and Privateer is a problem related to dosbox or modern hardware. I do not remember the controls being so imprecise when I originally played it back in the day. The joystick in dosbox seems almost like playing with arrow keys only, you are either moving at full speed or not at all, and with a huge dead zone. Maybe someone with original hardware could confirm. The main problem I remember back then was cheap joysticks drifting and needing to be recalibrated often. I think the WC games are an excellent candidate for a remaster/remake just to make it work well on modern hardware, like what Beamdog did with the Baldur's Gate series.

Strike commander CD raised me

Great to see you made more videos

This got me interested pc gaming, doom tipped me over.

53:29 You're welcome, true fans of the game.

My biggest regret is we don't get to fly with any of the 3 magnificent facial hair donning pilots at 1:59:38

"Oh, I have to polarise my shields? I just want to shoot some tie fighters!" There is the exact reason why the genre collapsed. A lot of people just want to shoot some Tie Fighters, but the joy of these games is giving the player a lot of control over their vehicle. To make the tactical decision over energy allocation and shield facings and things like that (and in Freespace, one never really needed to know all of the targeting buttons, forward, backwards, nearest hostile, craft targeting my target and next subsystem were all you needed. The rest were just fluff.) That's what made they games great because that control allowed, which allowed you to beat the odds. MORE arcadey shooters still let you beat great odds, but it's not really your own doing. It's not really your mastery of the systems. The don't have the depth for that. It's just your ship is beefier than the enemy statistically. And those types of games are flashy but ultimately boring.

I liked Strike Commander. I Actually didn't play WC1 until I'd played 2 and 3

Jan Dodonna was killed shortly after the Battle of Yavin.