WC I&II Ultimate Strategy Guide Appreciation Post

Having a grand time tonight flipping through Wing Commander I & II: The Ultimate Strategy Guide. This book is so cool. It’s written as an in-universe memoir with the main character (here named Carl LaFong) at age 73 looking back on his training and military career. There’s a neat meta layer too, he’s writing this memoir because he has just served as the technical advisor for 28th Century ‘holovid’ versions of Wing Commander I and II made by “Tristan Roberts”.

I love this stage of the series where there’s so much more Robotech and Battlestar Galactica in the blood stream. Where you could happily get away with “Galactic War” as the name of the conflict. And look at the interior artwork! You can smell the Macintosh SE from a mile away.

Origin actually had started using Blair internally at that time… “Arturo Blair” for Our Hero Bluehair. He doesn’t show up in print for another year, though, with the briefest cameo in Freedom Flight. He became Chris for WC3 which needed a name for cutscenes. Maverick was Chris Roberts’ call sign and they started using it behind the scenes on WC3. Most projects use it only sparingly (it’s not in the movie, WC3 or WC4!) but Wing Commander Academy really embraced it.

Also check out this bit from the series bible that named him Falcon and then Phoenix. Never used in a game but it did get a call out in End Run! (That you wouldn’t know was a reference to anything without this context.)