Chief among the "memorable moments" was trying to play Wing Commander on a 486DX2/66. The game, well, wasn't designed for a 486. I would hit A, see "Dralthi" flash on the VDU, and die. One time I used the nav map to go to a different nav point, saw some asteroids, hit one, watched the VDU go out, hit a couple more, and died. It was many years before I got a copy with SM2 and used the SM2 exe to play the game. Unfortunately I don't have that particular copy anymore and the retail version is flaky under any settings in DOSBox.
On my first playthough of the original campaign using the SM2 exe, Iceman was shot down, and I got to see his funeral. Iceman is my favorite character in the entire WC series. It sucked.
Ripping Prince Thrakath a new one near K'Tithrak Mang. That felt good. The Drakhai Sartha were actually tougher individually than he was.
Then there was the first time I flew the Morningstar. I felt like God in that thing. Three particle cannons, 20cm of armor, a big honking nuke to launch at unsuspecting cap ships. I loved and still love WC2, even if I wish they hadn't thrown out all the old WC1 ships. I miss the Salthi, Dralthi, Gratha, and Raptor in WC2.
More recently, I played Prophecy and Secret Ops for the first time and met the Nephilim, whom I had previously known only through FAQs, sites, and the WC CIC ship section. They were the lamest enemies I've fought in any space sim ever, from their crappy ships to their cliched space-bug theme to the
retarded taunts and messages they spew out every three seconds (I AM DESTROOOOYYYYEEEED!). They replaced the kats with
this?
I was elated when Wing Commander Saga Prologue gave me a taste of what I will experience when I play a copy of WC3 that works. I tried to play the WC3 demo years ago on a Windows 98 system, but it didn't work, I recently tried to play the Kilrathi Saga version, which stubbornly resisted all attempts to make it work, and now I've ordered an original DOS copy off of Amazon, which will hopefully work when it arrives. (But I still think the WC3 ships are uglier than their WC1/2 counterparts)
We don't have actually unwinnable missions anywhere in the campaign... everything was beat by someone on the team that didn't use cheats... somehow.
We do have
nearly-impossible missions, but they're intended to be that way - meaning that we don't punish people too much for losing these (I suck at Standoff too
).
Also, it's really great to see Standoff mentioned in a "most memorable moments" thread.
Standoff could really use an easier difficulty mode than "rookie". It's a hell of a lot harder than WC2.
All you have to do is tie Maniac's shoes together so he has to fly on his own wing.
Halcyon: "Maniac, you're flying on the Tiger's Claw's wing today."
Maniac: "Aww, not another CAP mission..."
Halcyon: "No, I mean, you will actually be standing on the carrier's port wing."
Maniac: "WHAT?"
Halcyon: "Yes, that's right, so get to it. Also, we're out of space suits, so you'll have to make do without one."
Sometimes my hatred of Maniac has risen to the point where I've intentionally shot him down.