Privateer Sketches: First Base

We have a very cool treat today from a former Origin employee. She explains:

I'm Sheri Graner Ray. I worked at Origin Systems for 3.5 years. I worked on Ultima 7, Ultima 7 part two and Ultima 8. (For Ultima 7, my name shows up in the credits as Sheri Hobbs) My husband, Tim Ray, was also working at Origin at that time. He was on Strike Commander and Wing Commander 3. He was what was then called a "TDA" or Technical Design Associate. (Today that position would just be called "Designer.") He was the "lead TDA" on Wing Commander 3 and did all the data wrangling for that title.

ANYWAY.. I was going through some of our old boxes and came across a file that had a bunch of photocopied storyboards from [Privateer and] Wing 3. Each one had "done" on it in pink highlighter. Tim said they were the storyboards the artists did for the TDAs. The "DONE" was written on them when that particular scene was, well, done. Now they are scans of photocopies, but photocopies are what the TDAs were given to work with. I wasn't sure these would be all that interesting to you, but I figured, what the heck and scanned 'em.

We're very glad she did! These are extremely cool images. Today's set are the storyboards for many of Privateer's bases. Several, including the pleasure planet bar, are by Paul Steed, who would go on to fame at id Software. Note that many names hadn't been finalized at this point: the game is called "Free Trader" in some and New Detroit is "New Chicago!" Check back soon for artwork from Wing Commander III!