Background Data for Wing Commander 3

Book of Props

This is a PDF download of one of our favorite 'behind the screens' documents -- Wing Commander III's prop book. It contains sketches, correspondence and notes about the prop selection for the game. Everything from the contract with the helmet manufacturer to the discussion about what chairs to use on the Victory bridge!

Storyboards

Wing Commander III, like any Hollywood production, had a massive number of storyboards created during preproduction. Thanks to David Downing, we now have photos of all of them!

Production Book

Every aspect of Wing Commander III's production is chronicled in this binder, from the set catering information to camera positions to the shooting schedule! If you're interested in the nuts and bolts of interactive movie production, this is for you.

Barracks Edit Companion

This binder of information is the edit companion for Wing Commander III's barracks scenes. Every scene shot on the green screen for the barracks is tracked, measured and recorded here!

Production Slides

In 2013, LOAF visited EA Mythic's Origin archive to take a second fast pass at the Wing Commander production slides they had stored. The previous archiving effort had missed several as the slide scanner failed to recognize them or created garbled results. Here, for the first time, is the full set!

Why Origin?

This truly is a fascinating document. It's very interesting to read about some of the things that were planned, including an Academy-style mission builder and plans to carry over Strike Commander's 'virtual cockpit' feature. Note that Heart of the Tiger's final budget--including the film shoot--was around four million dollars.

Official Guide Interviews

Again thanks to Pix, we are able to offer a PDF of Origin's Official Guide's 'making of' section for Wing Commander III. It's not as comprehensive as the Wing Commander I book, but there's still a lot of cool material here. Plus, the occasional blast of 1990s nostalgia--Micro Machines! Babylon 5! Etc.!

Wing Commander 3 Source Code Fragment

we would like to mention for anyone that we have the game's source code in our offline archive. We know it's frustrating for fans, who could do amazing things with this, to read these updates... but it's also in everyone's best interests to remind EA that we have the raw material from which they could port Wing Commander III to a modern computer or console. Just let us know!

Meet the Developers

Here are some nice portraits of the Wing Commander III team. In order: Adam Foshko, Chris Douglas, Chris Roberts, Craig Miller, Dan Orzulak, Frank De Palma, Frank Roan, Galen Svanas, George Olziey, Kirsten Maryott, Mark Chandler, Martin Galway, Nenad Vugrinec, Prem Krishnan, Tim Ray, Tony Morone, Tuesday Frase and the QA team!

Behind the Screens Tape

One of Wing Commander III's most famous "extras" was a 'Behind the Screens' VHS tape, a full length program that interviewed both actors and developers to talk about how the game was made.

Wing Commander 3 On Set Candids

A big set of candids taken on the set of Wing Commander III -- you can really get a feel for what the atmosphere of the first serious full motion video shoot was like.

Official On Set Photos

You've seen the candids--now here are the fancy, black and white posed photos from the Wing Commander III set. Things look more spacious and less chaotic!

Building the Kilrathi

101 photographs that show how the animatronic Kilrathi in Wing Commander III were constructed!

Test Footage

LOAF happened upon some old VHS tapes with test footage of Wing Commander 3. These appear to be placement shots to explore the feasibility of the futuristic sets, camera angles and costumes. Since this predates actual filming, Eisen is portrayed by a Joe Garrity-lookalike stand in, and the other crew member is "Dallas." I like that background - it reminds me of the WC4's CIC!

Wing Commander 3 PSX Post Mortem

Since Wing Commander Prophecy was originally to be developed for the Playstation, it makes sense that the team would be looking at what went wrong with WC3 PSX. Some interesting comments here, especially about centering for the TV. Note that the issue about the discs scratching likely refers to the original 'big box' version of the game which included plastic sleeves instead of a jewel case.

Wing Commander 3 PSX Tools

A short document from the Wing Commander III development team--a list of special tools created for the PSX version. It's interesting to see how much work goes into these things before the sort of development we're familiar with can even start.

Vintage George Oldziey Interview

The following article and Q&A appeared in Origin's Official Guide to Wing Commander III. It discusses how music works in the game and then talks to composer George Oldziey about his story! Scans of the original pages are included below, which include images of some of the music generated by Cakewalk and a vintage photo of a younger George Oldziey!

Wing Commander 3 "Press Book"

Wing Commander III's "press book"--a large collection of magazine reviews and other clippings about the game maintained by Origin.

Wing Commander 3 ESRB Tape

The ESRB tape includes roughly one hour of Wing Commander III's FMV footage which was cut together so that the game could be content rated. The footage covers most of the game but does not include every branching path or optional decision. The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) is a voluntary video game content rating organization widely recognized by consumers in the United States. The ESRB was created in 1994 and launched its ratings system just two months before Wing Commander III was released for MS-DOS. The initial release of the game was not rated; the first port to carry an ESRB rating was the 3DO release which was published some seven months later (in June 1995) followed three months later by the Macintosh port. Beautifully restored by Jim Leonard from MobyGames.

Wing Commander 3 Making Of Documentary

Jim Leonard has done a bit of digital alchemy and produced an upgraded version of the Making Of documentary included with the Premiere Edition of Wing Commander 3. He's used special filter and conversion techniques to remove a lot of the grainy noise and choppiness associated with the VHS format. So if you haven't seen this in a while, or especially if you've never watched it through at all, this looks like the best way to experience the footage.

3DO UI Adjustments

The 3DO port of Wing Commander III is known for being unique, featuring significantly altered mechanics to improve console play. In addition to adding video and re-designing every mission, the 3DO port also put quite a bit of effort into updating the in-world UI the player uses to do things like save the game and outfit his ship. The main menu, ship selection, weapon selection and trainsim menus have all been updated for a good experience on consoles.