Follow the Wingleader

Yesterday we showed you a pair of Wing Commander II Demo paintings, now preserved for all time thanks to the archival efforts of the Origin Museum... well, that's not all! Joe and Paula Garrity received another Wing Commander rarity from former Origin artist Dan Bourbonnais.

This second piece of artwork is a very early Wing Commander logo. Wing Commander was famously originally developed as 'Squadron'. When rights issues prevented the use of Squadron as the name, Origin retitled the game Wingleader - and presented the game as such during its first public demonstration, at CES in June, 1990. The Wing Commander I&II Ultimate Strategy Guide goes on:

"A surprise awaited everyone at the end of the show. While the initial trademark search had cleared Wingleader, there were enough similar names of early software titles, MicroProse's Wingman among them, that the company yelded to its second choice, which had come through unscathed. Wingleader became Wing Commander..."