A long-lost treasure has been restored to the archives: the very earliest Wing Commander III screenshots! These were put out by origin in late May 1994 and they broke some hearts. It was immediately obvious to everyone that Heart of the Tiger was a spectacular leap from Wing Commander II in terms of graphical quality... and system requirements! Take special note of the oddly textured carrier flight deck and the 'triangle' Kilrathi transport. The triangular troopships did not appear in the PC release of Wing Commander III... but they did star in the 3DO version and appear in a famous Wing Commander IV cutscene.
Scene 48A--ahh, transitions, those great little scenes that forced the player into an awkward position between liking how detailed the game was and being frustrated at how pointless they were. Here, Blair walks from Eisen's cabin to the rec room. I remember my little sister seeing Wing Commander IV for the first time and being very impressed that lesser ranks were stopping to salute for Blair as he walked by... so at least this game had some fun with it. Oddly, Wing Commander IV completely loses track of its transitions after Blair leaves the Lexington--there's no walking from place to place on the Intrepid.
These storyboard images were recovered from a backup CD containing materials belonging to Origin's web development team. They were dated November 17, 1995 and were likely planned for a never-completed web feature.
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