A decade of the Wing Commander franchise

Pedro

Admiral
I've just completed running through all of the main range games (and almost all of the novels/manuals/guides, but I'll touch on those in a separate post).
It had been decades since I'd played/read some of the franchise and thought it might be interesting to touch on how it changed my view of it.
One thing to note is that I started the franchise with Wing Commander IV, then went onto 3, Privateer 2, Prophecy etc and finally the KS.
This time I opted to go through the series in as close to timeline order as I could (so starting with Action Stations, ending with the Arena manual).

Also note that this ranking is based on how much fun I had this time around with them, compatibility issues included.

Old ranking (taken from a 2014 post)
1. Wing Commander IV
2. Wing Commander Prophecy
3. Wing Commander II
4. Privateer 2
5. Wing Commander III
6. Wing Commander Privateer
7. Wing Commander I
8. Wing Commander Secret Ops



This time through:
1. Wing Commander III 3DO
First time with this port, I adored it. I missed the ground missions but the physics was excellent, a real inspiration for the remake as I found myself really wishing the same quality of port had been created for 4. I doubt it would stay this high; but as a new experience it topped my list.

2. Secret Missions 2
I'm including this separately as I played on PC (the rest of WC1 I played with SWC). This was the first WC campaign where I cared about the plot. Reading Freedom Flight in parallel really helped bring the Tiger's Claw to life, which for me had honestly never really happened before.

3. Privateer 2
I was absolutely blown away by the FMV, was it a high budget or did they really make it stretch? It's a shame about the audio as that really let it down at the time, fortunately the future has noise cancelling headphones and none of the dialogue was hard to catch this time around. Still it should have had subtitles.
Downside was the balancing, the guide suggests you stock up on cash before Kappa labs, but that's too late, the game has already bumped up your difficulty. Whereas in Privateer 1 you can mostly just do missions Privateer 2's difficulty often forces you to do trading instead. Jumping rather than autopilot also means you can get trapped at a nav point. The AI was terrible too - but I still had an absolute blast.
Privateer 2 is a testament to how important good physics and a rewarding story are. It shouldn't work, but those aspects saved it for me.
And can I just say how amazing the artists were? Those planets look superb, and it's almost impossible to believe that the CG in the FMV is from only a few years after Wing 3.
Oh and if you do replay it be sure to set it grab patch 3 (not 2 on HCl's site) and set compatibility to XP.

4. Super Wing Commander
I initially tried to play WC1 standard and gave up, not wcdx, nor DOSBOX runs at a sensible speed. I find myself wanting to get some original hardware.
Fortunately SWC doesn't have that issue. Since I came to WC late in the franchise I never had the same attachment to the old visuals. My one real issue with it is SM1.5 - I love SM2 but SM1.5 is almost broken and reuses enough of SM2 that I consider this a (failed) replacement

5. Wing Commander Privateer
Very well balanced, the difficulty curve was far, far more agreeable than the Darkenings. I loved how deep the systems damage could be (not being able to turn at all in one direction was a shame - but reducing speed in a direction is a technique I may nick for the remake to make the systems damage more interesting).
I don't think Righteous Fire was necessary, I'd probably skip it on future replays.

6. Wing Commander II
Oh my god the crashing! I do wish GoG would fix that. Speed wise this seemed to run much better than WC1 and I found the cutscenes to be a real reward at the end of each mission. I was definitely more invested in the crew of the concordia, interactions with them were already starting to feel more movielike.

7. Wing Commander Prophecy
The gameplay is excellent, I was enjoying every moment of going head to head with the bugs. But compared to WCIV and Privateer 2 the FMV is pretty painful. Chris Roberts absence is really felt here. Worst of all it actually pretty much cuts out at the end of the campaign.
Had multiplayer come with it as was originally intended everyone would have just have been grateful for the single player "bonus".

8. Wing Commander IV
This played worse than I remembered. On the plus side it made me convinced it's worth remastering. I had a number of issues whilst playing; I had to fix HCl's DVD patch to work on my super wide monitor, the music kept cutting out (managed to fix this but only once I'd pretty much completed the game). Trying to hit an ace with lasers is maddening, I don't remember that being an issue in WC3 (but I haven't played it this time around). Briefings promised obstacles like asteroids but I never saw them, and the joystick "hopping" now drives me mad, I remember it being there in the original but it didn't bother me so much. Since I played WC3 on 3DO this was by far my least agreeable experience gameplay wise.

9. Wing Commander Secret Ops
There's not too much to say. I think the e-mail needed to be integrated into the game so you got a message or two every mission. And I think e-mail should have been in WCP, it would have helped distract from the lower number of FMVs, and made the switch to mail more palatable with SO (not that they knew SO was coming). It's a reasonable expansion, when you do get the in-flight comm videos you get hints of a format that could have worked for expansion packs in this FMV world.
Episode 6 is where it really falls down for me though, the difficulty is suddenly absolutely mad. Then episode 7 is short and easy.

Overall I had a blast with almost all of it, glad to see it's not rose tinted glassess.
Playing through in order I definitely gained more of an appreciation for the earlier titles, in the later titles I found myself missing features/complexity from them which I didn't know were missing when I originally experienced them. I also am convinced I'd like FMV to come back; even in modern cutscene heavy games they feel sterile. Live action video always feels like a reward, and the subtleties of performance that motion capture never quite mimics make the world of difference.

Anyone else find their rankings changed radically on coming back to the series?
 
This time I opted to go through the series in as close to timeline order as I could (so starting with Action Stations, ending with the Arena manual).

Action Stations is technically an in-universe historical novel written in 2677, so you could hold it for later! (Of course, the strategy guide claims that Wing Commander I and II are actually historical video games developed in the early 2700s so you could even play them towards the end of such a playthrough!).


First time with this port, I adored it. I missed the ground missions but the physics was excellent, a real inspiration for the remake as I found myself really wishing the same quality of port had been created for 4. I doubt it would stay this high; but as a new experience it topped my list.

Add me to the list of Wing Commander III 3DO fans, I would encourage anyone to try it because it's just such a different experience. It's not 100% /better/ than the original but it has all sorts of neat things to discover. Part of that is because the (in house) team was allowed to continue working on a bunch of quality of life things that weren't ready to ship in 1994... so it's a mix of both changes made to accomodate the console and touches that were once meant for the PC version. It's too bad the team didn't revisit some of that for Kilrathi Saga! My only true problem with it is the clunkiness of using a controller or even the Flightstick... in every WC port it feels like this layer of mud that slows down my brain.

A Wing Commander IV 3DO port was in the works when EA finally abandoned the platform... there was also an enhanced Wing Commander III being developed for the 3DO's aborted M2 followup system. You might enjoy checking out the 3DO Wing Commander III demo too... the gameplya and engine are much closer to the PC release so it's a strange comparison!

I'm including this separately as I played on PC (the rest of WC1 I played with SWC). This was the first WC campaign where I cared about the plot. Reading Freedom Flight in parallel really helped bring the Tiger's Claw to life, which for me had honestly never really happened before.

It's interesting to me to see these reactions because while I agree with much of them it's also clear you come to the games with a completely different sensibility. For me it was the world first and all the gameplay, physics, etc. was just a means to that end. Secret Missions 2 remains the most powerful story in Wing Commander to me, though... specifically, the talking head cutscene where Iceman finds out his daughter has been rescued from a Kilrathi slave ship. (Kinda missed an opportunity for a female protaganist with a built in history there, Prophecy!)

I was absolutely blown away by the FMV, was it a high budget or did they really make it stretch?

It was in the same ballpark as Wing Commander III ($3 to $5 million depending on who you ask). Shooting in England (at the time) meant they could do more with less... and the casting was largely the result of being done at exactly the right time, the specific point when every C-list actor in Hollywood was salivating over how much Mark Hamill made taking points on WC3.

Fortunately SWC doesn't have that issue. Since I came to WC late in the franchise I never had the same attachment to the old visuals. My one real issue with it is SM1.5 - I love SM2 but SM1.5 is almost broken and reuses enough of SM2 that I consider this a (failed) replacement

One thing I think people don't ever 'get' about SWC is how many edges got cut... the talking heads have far fewer animations, the comm VDUs are almost nothing, weapon selection and ejection and stuff get shunted to the nav menu even in the Mac version... and the resolution isn't any higher than WC1. Once you've internalized it all you also see that they absolutely ran out of steam reworking the story about four serieses in. Playing the first five missions of WC1 will give you 80% of the cutscenes because they ran out of bandwidth to do any more of them.

I think the e-mail needed to be integrated into the game so you got a message or two every mission.

They had this working! The localization people nixed it because they didn't want to spend the money it would take to do a game-quality translation to German (... and then they did a cheaper one for the website anyway).

Episode 6 is where it really falls down for me though, the difficulty is suddenly absolutely mad. Then episode 7 is short and easy.

You can REALLY tell that the episodes were each assigned to one designer who went off and came up with the missions on their own. You'll have one where the focus is fighting ten million aliens and then one where it's more like WC4 with a few aces.
 
One thing I think people don't ever 'get' about SWC is how many edges got cut... the talking heads have far fewer animations, the comm VDUs are almost nothing, weapon selection and ejection and stuff get shunted to the nav menu even in the Mac version... and the resolution isn't any higher than WC1. Once you've internalized it all you also see that they absolutely ran out of steam reworking the story about four serieses in. Playing the first five missions of WC1 will give you 80% of the cutscenes because they ran out of bandwidth to do any more of them.
A huge part of it is that it runs correctly. I'll have to come back to WC1 PC (and 3) soon, but I just really struggled getting a decent experience out of any version. SM2 seemed better for whatever reason.


For me it was the world first and all the gameplay, physics, etc. was just a means to that end
I think this used to be true for me; hence Wing Commander IV always being my favourite title. Most of my old ranking is primarily based on the story telling. But I approached this playthrough thinking about the remaster where we aren't really touching the story but are the gameplay. So what jumped out at me was the better physics in WC1, the more complex damage systems (not to mention cockpit damage). But WC1 also predates any story based game I played, the first were all around 1993 with various point and click adventures so the voiceless talking heads of WC1 were always hard for me to connect to.
Also blame it on the day job, whether I like it or not I've spent more of my career doing gameplay than anything else and that stuff just jumps out at me more now.

They had this working! The localization people nixed it because they didn't want to spend the money it would take to do a game-quality translation to German (... and then they did a cheaper one for the website anyway).

That's a real shame; I genuinely believe that would have hugely improved SO. Especially for those of us who didn't get to play it until WCP Gold - having the fiction online rather than in the game felt even more incomplete when the downloadable nature of the title wasn't relevant to you.

You can REALLY tell that the episodes were each assigned to one designer who went off and came up with the missions on their own. You'll have one where the focus is fighting ten million aliens and then one where it's more like WC4 with a few aces.

That sure explains the wild changes in difficulty between episodes.
 
And one day later I've finished False Colors; timed that well given I started all of this almost two years ago.
So for the franchise outside of the games:

1. Fleet Action
Its a fan favourite and for good reason. What stuck out to me here was how relevant it has become in modern times; a number of academics and civilians yelling at anyone warning against an armistice, calling them warmongers. As the same thing happens now even as Kyiv warns that any cease fire would only give Russia time to regroup and re-arm there are still those pushing for peace at any cost, regardless of what we know of the enemy. Hopefully it isn’t prophetic however as the Kilrathi do nuke Kyiv. I feel like these parallels continue throughout Forstchen’s novels – clearly he has a great love of history and it shows, feeling more relevant than it did in the 90’s when war felt more distant. War I suppose never really changes; I was reading this exactly at the time Ukraine was targetting Russian supply vehicles; the absence of which is what forces the Kilrathi into the armistice. I do love the cynical reality Telep brings to the novels. Again in the 90s I found his negative portrayal of civilians and politicians, and comparatively positive view of the military a little harder to take. These days however it seems appropriate, and he does have the odd self serving bootlicker in the military to even things out.

2. End Run
Ok so this earns its spot due to milk run, which is just fantastically written, Christopher Stasheff wrote in a way that was truly captivating. All of the characters really came to life, they were painted as flawed but you didn’t dislike them, the action scene. I read this in the way I read books as a kid; in one sitting.


3. Freedom Flight
I went through the games originally in a very strange order and there was probably a huge gap between playing SM2 and reading Freedom Flight; in all honesty I probably never noticed the references to the novel in the expansion pack. This time around though it really helped bring the crew of the Tiger’s Claw to life; as well as linking to WC2 in a very natural way. This was the most cohesive connection to the games.
I will say though Hunter got away with absolute murder; if this was a Forstchen novel he’d have been court-martialled 5 times over. Tonally it’s very different to the later novels, perhaps slightly more fun but less believable.

4. False Colors
After reading these novels I decided I could happily read a book by Andrew Keith about wallpaper, which is fortunate as the novel is longer than it needs to be with almost half of the novel focusing on repair efforts.
Still I'm ranking it highly because it really helped solidify what I would/ would not want to see in a new Wing Commander title.
Firstly, as with many of the other novels, but especially here, I love when the Kilrathi come together with humans and you get a more layered representation of them. The idea of a now fractured society which which alliances can be made and new enemies formed seems much richer to me than just retelling war with Kilrathi. Telling a story set in this future where there's more opportunity to interact with the Kilrathi in different ways is appealing.
Re-enforcing this view is that in a way this is a re-telling of End Run. A ship goes in against dry-docked ships against impossible odds. The fleet returns for another engagement just in time to pull them out. I don’t want to see a Wing Commander without the Kilrathi; but I don’t know how much I want to see them as the main protagonist.
I think False Colors also did a good job of briding the gap of Tolwyn between WCIII and IV.

That said this was another "uhoh, incoming ships to tip the balance of power" novel (one on each side infact). It made me convinced I also don't want more of the Kilrathi war, that story has been told. I want to see a new race present, but *not* have the Kilrathi being used as nothing but cameos ala WC4/P.
I also think the Landereich is an interesting place to to put the characters, especially when you're trying to create a sense of overwhelming odds without doing another grand scale story. WCP failed as it was basically a reboot, another confed character, another rookie pilot, another joker. I'd love bounce around the war in the games in the same way the novels do, maybe even not following a single protagonist (which makes like easier if you cast another Casey :p)

5. Wing Commander III novel

Again, I love Andrew Keith’s writing style. There’s not a whole lot to say about the novel – it fleshes out some of the characters, reframes certain elements such as the media reports (for the better I’d say), but it seems to lose steam towards the end. Some of my favourite parts of the games from towards the end are cut. One thing I really liked though was how it made early campaigns that seemed unconnected in the game to all be leading up to the behemoth mission. I feel as a result it really compliments the game.

6. Wing Commander Academy
I love it, I've watched in multiple times, and recently - so much so that I struggled to get through it once more. It's a great series, faithful to the franchise in a way so few shows are. But the issue with prequels, you can only be so bold. There isn’t I suppose a natural place in the Wing Commander timeline to put this and they did well to touch on the stealth ships etc, still I *wish* there was a way they could have put it on the Victory towards the end of the war. Tolwyn’s characterization walks a pretty good line balancing the hero with the callousness which would lead to what he would later become.


7. Action Stations
As others have commented on this is essentially just a retelling of pearl harbor, but as the events had largely been outlined already that’s not suprising. Probably my favourite aspect of it was on the smugglers base, and I found myself wishing we have Privateer/ Privateer 2 novels.
I don’t think it really helped reframe Tolwyn’s character, to the point where I wondered if Forstchen had been writing this before WCIV and had just tacked on the prologue.



8. Wing Commander IV novel
There were things I liked about it; Blair being intimidated and overpowered by Seether on their first meeting really reshaped the dynamic and the final showdown. The game really does not build up Seether as a threat, but the novel does so very effectively. Having Maniac come in and save him rather than just being this cowardly comic relief helps Maniacs character too.
That said that switch around perhaps goes a little too far, Blair comes off as a drunken lecherous guy who has lost his edge.
Another thing the novel makes a little more believable is Blair getting into the assembly; again it doesn’t line up with the video, but in the novel he had Paladin’s help and that makes the ending scene a lot less cheesy (infact if we add a fan cut button with altered stats I may just have it cut to Paladin letting him talk, and cut out “that was the move of a true master” for LOAF).
And finally I love the additional comms on Tyr VII that give a hint that something else is going on, not to mention the audio Maniac has Blair listen to. Again, total pipe dream, but if there was a “fan mode” option I’d love to have an e-mail system with extra lore and have maniac e-mail you that comm. I guess they didn’t want everyone defecting when given the option, but the novel definitely makes Eisen’s hope that you would defect with him seem more natural.
The novel having a WC1/2/WCP style briefing – hearing the other pilots dissent works well too. In fact since briefings on the intrepid are like that you have to wonder why they went with the 1 on 1’s with Eisen on the Lexington.
The romance with Sosa really doesn’t work for me, the absence of another love story for 4 changed the dynamic, and for the better. There’s a slight hint that Blair might be interested in Sosa in the FMV, and none that she’s into him and that worked for me.
The book does come somewhat disconnected from the game in the later two thirds in terms of events, not really for the better or the worse; although maybe to brute force bumping into Sosa in the shower?
I feel like the crew could have found a way to keep frozen food frozen on a spaceship, even without power – so I guess someone on that ship just really wanted an excuse to go the extreme route of eating soylent green.
It’s a shame that the author thought the Lex was the same class as the Concordia of WC2 as it gets mentioned a few times. Also whilst the transport attack in the opening chapters is separate to the one in the cutscenes there’s enough dialogue overlap as to make that seem odd.
I’ll be honest, I did not like Ben Ohlanders writing style. I read this novel twice because of the WC remake, and both times I struggled to get through it; but I don’t know why, and I do think he improved the story in more ways than hurt it.


9. Movie novel
This is so faithful to the script there's little to say. I enjoy Teleps writing style and the missing scenes add something but they just breeze by, I can imagine test audience being confused by the blink and miss it traitor subplot.


10. Wing Commander Movie
I was actually just discussing this on Discord, but my biggest issue with the movie is that Arena chose to make it part of the canon.
The pilgrim stuff changes WC into Star Wars, and there’s a lot of mental gymnastics required to explain who is alive/dead at what point in the claws history.
Taken as a stand-alone parallel timeline ala the Resident Evil movies I used to enjoy this much more. The sound track is fantastic, the action scenes work and despite the consensus I think this is one of the more underrated video game adaptions.
That said the dialogue makes me cringe in a way not even WCP managed "you die, you never existed" especially.


11. Pilgrim Stars
Another remarkable ship that threatens to change the balance of power, my word there's as many of those are there are traitors. I’ll be honest, if I’d read this before I didn’t remember it. And I wasn’t fond of it. Telep takes the Pilgrims further down the Star Wars path, now they are truly Jedi.
But I will say this is the one novel that truly shows a ruthless side to Tolwyn not seen in the other novels, and you can absolutely believe that he is the mad man in Wing Commander IV.

12. Pilgrim Truth
Honestly at this point we’ve totally left the more grounded world of Wing Commander and moved into Star Gate territory. The Pilgrims ascend, Blair is left with his Jedi powers, raising the question of why he never used them. I don’t have a lot positive to add so I’m going to stop there, trying to incorporate these novels reduces my enjoyment of the franchise. I’m probably just never going to read them again, much like that episode of Star Trek Voyager when Janeway and Paris evolve and mate.
 
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4. Super Wing Commander
I initially tried to play WC1 standard and gave up, not wcdx, nor DOSBOX runs at a sensible speed. I find myself wanting to get some original hardware.
Fortunately SWC doesn't have that issue. Since I came to WC late in the franchise I never had the same attachment to the old visuals. My one real issue with it is SM1.5 - I love SM2 but SM1.5 is almost broken and reuses enough of SM2 that I consider this a (failed) replacement
A huge part of it is that it runs correctly. I'll have to come back to WC1 PC (and 3) soon, but I just really struggled getting a decent experience out of any version. SM2 seemed better for whatever reason.
BUT HOW?

Listen, I absolutely get you. My dad had a Mac and I got a bundle-box with 10 games for Christman one day... a box containing legendary experiences like System Shock, and WC3 + SWC that have stayed with me forever, and containing other games like Peter Pan - A Story Painting Adventure that make no sense in a bundle like this. I was absolutely unaware of the Windows games for years and upon first contact with e.g. the DOS version of WC3, I was just shocked about the MIDI music. WC1 and WC2 remain unplayable for me until this day, although I tried WC2 multiple times.

Do this day, I look for a way to properly have fun with SuperWingCommander again. Over the years, I have tried so many things:
- SheepShaver and Basilisk II (on Windows), but SWC runs badly, incredibly inconsistent and is prone to crashing or color-inverting
- keeping my old pre-Intel iMac alive, which can still run MacOS 9, but SWC runs too fast there, while also being incredibly inconsistent and being prone to crashing or color-inverting
- using a 3DO emulator to play the 3DO version, but SWC runs badly, incredibly inconsistent and the controls are really shit. And, honestly, after that experience I am not very inclined to buy a real one...

How can we have fun with this game today? I would kill for a remaster, source port or fan patch...
 
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BUT HOW?

How can we have fun with this game today? I would kill for a remaster, source port or fan patch...

I managed to have fun with the emulator, but yeah it’s nowhere near as good as the real thing.
My wife bought me a 3DO for Christmas, infact I got real lucky - it was the model with 240p, no interlacing, amazing picture with retrotink. Even luckier it came with the external hard disk for free, looking on eBay that often sells for more than the system.

I’ve heard some games speed up using 240p, at some point I’ll have to test flipping the switch 480i and see if I’ve been going at double speed ;) But in any case the upscaling is amazing.

For me the GoG version of wc2 ran well but kept crashing, my total time inc expansions was like 25 hours as I had to keep repeating missions that crashed right at the end.
I contacted GoG and they shrugged and gave me suggestions of games to play next :p
 
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12. Pilgrim Truth
Honestly at this point we’ve totally left the more grounded world of Wing Commander and moved into Star Gate territory. The Pilgrims ascend, Blair is left with his Jedi powers, raising the question of why he never used them.

Are you sure he/we never used them? :)

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Old ranking (taken from a 2014 post)
1. Wing Commander IV
2. Wing Commander Prophecy
3. Wing Commander II
4. Privateer 2
5. Wing Commander III
6. Wing Commander Privateer
7. Wing Commander I
8. Wing Commander Secret Ops

This time through:
1. Wing Commander III 3DO
2. Secret Missions 2
3. Privateer 2
4. Super Wing Commander
5. Wing Commander Privateer
Very well balanced, the difficulty curve was far, far more agreeable than the Darkenings. I loved how deep the systems damage could be (not being able to turn at all in one direction was a shame - but reducing speed in a direction is a technique I may nick for the remake to make the systems damage more interesting).
I don't think Righteous Fire was necessary, I'd probably skip it on future replays.
6. Wing Commander II
7. Wing Commander Prophecy
8. Wing Commander IV
9. Wing Commander Secret Ops
I thought Righteous Fire added a lot to the story. If there's another expansion hidden somewhere I'd welcome the chance to play it. Minds can differ of course.

I was not aware of Retrotink, thanks!
 
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I don’t think it really helped reframe Tolwyn’s character, to the point where I wondered if Forstchen had been writing this before WCIV and had just tacked on the prologue.

That's exactly what happened! Action Stations was pitched as the followup to Fleet Action but repeatedly delayed in favor of novelizations. (Baen's deal with Origin allowed them to continue publishing new Wing Commander novels indefinitly as long as there was one released each year... so they avoided doubling them up.)

It’s a shame that the author thought the Lex was the same class as the Concordia of WC2 as it gets mentioned a few times. Also whilst the transport attack in the opening chapters is separate to the one in the cutscenes there’s enough dialogue overlap as to make that seem odd.

We can blame the script for this one as it's the source of the Lexington and Princeton being "Concordia class". And when it was written that was probably the Borst & De Palma's intention (though stories of the team failing to reuse the Concordia model from WC3 aren't true, the idea just wasn't followed up in active development).

Honestly at this point we’ve totally left the more grounded world of Wing Commander and moved into Star Gate territory. The Pilgrims ascend, Blair is left with his Jedi powers, raising the question of why he never used them. I don’t have a lot positive to add so I’m going to stop there, trying to incorporate these novels reduces my enjoyment of the franchise. I’m probably just never going to read them again, much like that episode of Star Trek Voyager when Janeway and Paris evolve and mate.

I won't disagree but I will encourage you to reread them in another ten years or so. I just re-read Pilgrim Truth this week and found myself absolutely fascinated by a lot of what I truly couldn't stand for years and years... it's an interesting change!
 
Righteous fire was more a different story. I was more into the steltek side of things and kind of wished it went further down that rabbit hole.

I was not aware of Retrotink, thanks!

No one should do classic gaming without a retrotink.

The 2x pro is plenty for the 3DO, you only really need the 5x if you have multiple consoles or don’t like image filtering and want to use nearest pixel (or crt filter etc).
 
Righteous fire was more a different story. I was more into the steltek side of things and kind of wished it went further down that rabbit hole.

Interestingly, Privateer was intended to have a completely different story with the Steltek stuff as the first expansion. It's one of those things I'd really like to know more about, it seems like a change that happened pretty late in development.
 
Interestingly, Privateer was intended to have a completely different story with the Steltek stuff as the first expansion. It's one of those things I'd really like to know more about, it seems like a change that happened pretty late in development.
What DO we know? You keeping teasing these things, like that time you talked about cut ships from WC3, but I never find a WIKI article or other big write-up on these on the site...
 
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