Wing Commander II Demo

Wing Commander II Demo
Platform	MS-DOS
Engine	3space, Origin FX
Release Date	January 10, 1991
Language	English

Wing Commander II Demo is a rolling demo of Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi. It features an early version of part of the game's introduction showing Prince Thrakhath's audience with the Emperor. It was created by Origin Systems to demonstrate the game at Winter CES 1991 (January 10 to 13 1991) and was released to the public via BBS afterwards. It was the first Origin product to include recorded speech.

Screenshots

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Credits

The Wing Commander II Demo does not have official credits separate from Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi but several roles specific to the release have been confirmed:

Role	Name
Development
Background Artwork	Daniel Bourbonnais
Performances
Imperial Guard	Martin Galway
The Emperor	Siobhan Beeman
Prince Thrakhath	Philip Brogden

Transcript

SUPER: Deep in Kilrathi space...

SUPER: Kirathi Imperial Palace

GUARD: Prince Thrakhath approaches, your majesty.

EMPEROR: Excellent. Guards, you are dismissed. Arise, grandson. This isn't a formal audience. How goes the war against the humans?

THRAKHATH: The first test of the cloaking device was a glorious success. The pride of the Terran Navy, the Tiger's Claw, has been destroyed and soon my stealth fighters will demolish the rest of the human fleet.

EMPEROR: I care not for technological advances. I granted the title of slavelord of Terra to you, not to your scientists. Speak of your plans not of your toys.

THRAKHATH: Yes, my Emperor. My human spies have informed me of a weak point along the frontier. While a diversionary attack draws the Confederate fleet away my armada will crush the defenseless colonies.

EMPEROR: And what of the human pilot who has caused us so much trouble?

THRAKHATH: Those foolish apes blame him for the loss of the Tiger's Claw. Even if they do not execute him for treason he will never fly a fighter again.

EMPEROR: Excellent, without him the humans cannot stand against us. Soon Earth itself will be in our grasp.

TITLE CARD: COMING SUMMER 1991...

TITLE CARD: ONLY FROM ORIGIN

Comparison

Wing Commander II Demo	Wing Commander II	Wing Commander II Speech Version
Kilrathi Imperial Palace	K'Tithrak Mang Kilrathi Sector HQ	K'Tithrak Mang Kilrathi Sector HQ
Prince Thrakhath approaches, your majesty.	I will speak with Prince Thrakhath alone. Guards, you are dismissed.	I will speak with Prince Thrakhath alone. Guards, you are dismissed.
Excellent. Guards, you are dismissed.	Arise, grandson.	Arise, grandson.
Arise, grandson. This isn't a formal audience.
How goes the war against the humans?	How goes the war against the Terrans?	How goes the war against the humans?
The first test of the cloaking device was a glorious success.	The Terran carrier, Tiger's Claw, tried to attack us here at K'Tithrak Mang.	The Terran carrier, Tiger's Claw, tried to attack us here at K'Tithrak Mang.
The pride of the Terran Navy, the Tiger's Claw, has been destroyed and soon my stealth fighters will demolish the rest of the human fleet.	But my stealth fighters destroyed it!	But my stealth fighters destroyed it!
	And soon we will demolish the rest of the human fleet---	And soon we will demolish the rest of their fleet---
I care not for technological advances. I granted the title of slavelord of Terra to you, not to your scientists.
Speak of your plans not of your toys.	Speak of your plans, not of your toys.	Speak of your plans, not of your toys.
	Tell me how you will defeat the humans!	Tell me how you will defeat the Terrans!
Yes, my Emeror.	Yes, my Emperor.	Yes, my Emperor.
My human spies have informed me of a weak point along the frontier.	Without the Tiger's Claw to defend them, we can crush the rebellion on Ghorah Khar.	Without the Tiger's Claw to defend them, we can crush the rebellion on Ghorah Khar.
While a diversionary attack draws the Confederate fleet away my armada will crush the defenseless colonies.	And then my armada will sweep through the Enigma Sector---	And then my armada will sweep through the Enigma Sector---
	---to attack the defenseless human colonies!	---to attack the defenseless human colonies!
And what of the human pilot who has caused us so much trouble?	And what of the human pilot who has caused us so much trouble?	And what of the human pilot who has caused us so much trouble?
Those foolish apes blame him for the loss of the Tiger's Claw. Even if they do not execute him for treason he will never fly a fighter again.	Those fools blame HIM for the loss of the Tiger's Claw.	Those fools blame HIM for the loss of the Tiger's Claw.
	He will never fly a fighter again!	He will never fly a fighter again!
Excellent, without him the humans cannot stand against us.	Excellent!	Excellent!
	Without him, the Terrans cannot stand against us!	Without him, the Terrans cannot stand against us!
Soon Earth itself will be in our grasp.	Soon Earth itself will be in our grasp!	Soon Earth itself will be in our grasp!

Recording

• Download: Pix_Wing_Commander_II_Demo.mkv

Documentation

The download includes a file called README.1ST which includes instructions for installing the demo.

To setup the demo:

1. Make a directory called INSTALL
2. Copy all WC2DEMO files to this directory
3. Type CD\INSTALL
4. Type INSTALL

The demo will then create a subdirectory called WC2DEMO and install the program here. You will need to manually delete the files from the install directory.

To run the demo:

1. type CD\WC2DEMO
2. type WING2

Behind the Screens

Pix's Origin Adventures

On January 23 2012 Siobhan Beeman posted a reminiscence of the Wing Commander II Demo's development in reply to a post at Pix's Origin Adventures:

“You can just imagine two guys at Origin recording that on their PCs.”

Heh… yes, that’s literally what happened. We had exactly one SoundBlaster card in the entire company at the time, so our audio recording computer was the desktop PC I coded the demo on. Thrakath was voiced by Savage Empire writer Phil Brogden, the guard by composer Martin Galway, and the Emperor by me. The actors were picked not for our acting ability (clearly!) but for our presence in the building at 3AM.

“For years I wondered where the demos actually came from, assuming they were done for trade shows and store demo machines.”

The WC2 demo was a teaser created for the Origin and SoundBlaster booths at Fall COMDEX in ’90 to announce the game. It was the very first work I did on WC2–once I wrapped on Savage Empire, Chris tossed me the SoundBlaster card and said “hey, see what you can do with digitized speech”. The SDK was really easy to use, so I got voice working in a day, at which point we decided to make that the big tech advance for WC2 (much to the delight of the SoundBlaster marketers!). Start to finish I think the demo took maybe 80 hours of work… so basically one calendar week, considering the Origin lifestyle.

How to Play

The demo can be run in DOSBox.

Characters

Speaking

• The Emperor
• Prince Thrakhath nar Kiranka
• Unnamed Imperial Guard

Non-Speaking

• Unnamed Imperial Guard (10)

Ships

Kilrathi

• Star Post (Kilrathi Imperial Palace)
• KF-100 Dralthi
• Bloodfang

Download

• wc2demo.zip (1,805 K)

Links

• Pix's Origin Adventures review
• YouTube recording