Wow, everyone. Again I'm taken aback at how in depth everyone is getting here. I mean it's not the first time I've seen it here, but in the past I've also looked in and thought "oh wow, how did this war get started over that harmless post? haha. To me, back then, I would have thought because everyone was here under the guides of loving Wing Commander, that it would have been harder to get upset about people who are just sort of over analyzing their mutual love for something. As many faults as I see in the movie I have to say if I ever heard anyone talk ill of it who was "not" a fan of the series, I'd probably go to town on them. I wouldn't lie and say I love it, but I would be far more forgiving of it while pointing them at the excellent games. To me it's always been astonishing there are not more Star Wars fans who absolutely adore Wing Commander. Not that Mark Hamill didn't make quite a nice career for himself despite getting a bit type cast, but how can you love him in Star Wars and be so invested in that character and just not give two craps about those computer games in the 90's that he stared in, the closest you're going to get to seeing him kick ass in space again (well, at the moment anyway).
Personally I've always kind of been more of a Star Trek guy, original series and movies. I just love how intelligent they all are. While I kind of remember seeing the Empire Strikes Back before Wing3, I actually didn't really "care" until playing Wing3 and seeing him, then researching him. Oh, that's HIM in Star Wars? Cool. I'm sure I got more enjoyment out of Star Wars by already knowing Hamill as Blair than I would have otherwise. It's amazing how much a game can touch your life forever. I'm sure we all remember the first time we looked up who Rachel was, and even Flint had a couple eye raising scenes in the past. I already liked Tom Wilson from Back to the Future but it's just amazing at how much of the cast I've looked up over the years and ended up enjoying their other work. I didn't know Jason Barnard had died when Prophecy came out and I remember being a little pissed that he didn't make it in. Then one day I saw the post this site made about his wife and how she gets all these great letters from fans of Wing Commander. I remember Hamill being on Howard Stern and Stern taking him to town on being stuck in the past with the conventions and stuff... Then he's like "look, I don't need Star Wars! I'm set for life because of Wing Commander!" - and reading about how Lucas screwed the cast out of all that money... raaar! But hey, smart man learning from his past mistakes and gambling on a computer game.
I remember when Ginger Lynn answered all those questions for everyone... I gotta imagine that for her, well, I'm sure she had no shortage of fan mail at the time and to this day... But I bet it means a lot to her to have this group of nerds care about her on a bit of deeper level because of what she gave in Wing Commander. I've heard Malcolm Mcdowell say great things about his experience. You know, in retrospect having seen all these behind the scenes videos of them at the time; Chris Roberts really must have been the world's greatest salesman EVER! I mean not all of them were at the height of their game, but so many were recognizable, what was his pitch to them all? I have a guilt pleasure for interactive movies like Night Trap and the like, but of course it's because they're so bad they're good. All of these actors were so convinced that interactive movies were the future. They don't seem to be bull.... about it either, it really feels like Robert's was able to convince them fully. Of course that was not to come true, but they still bet on the right game!
Until this site came along I thought I was the only one that sort of cared about these B list actors. When the movie came out I was fully expecting those names to be in it. At the time I didn't really have anything against Freddie Prince Jr or Lillard... They were okay, I didn't consider them "stars" by any means... I feel it was such a missed opportunity to have so many new fans of Wing Commander come to the party if it had been Hamill in the movie, which so many Star Wars fans went to "see" because of the preview... I will say this for the Wing Commander movie... It is less of a betrayal to Wing Commander than the prequels to Star Wars were.
You're right, there was such a drama in getting that movie made, I've always ate up anything regarding that behind the scenes info this site puts up. But you look at everything working against Robert's at the time, and how much free rein Lucas had to do whatever the hell he wanted with those prequels... The bigger apology deserves to come from him in my eyes. But in a way, I kind of felt betrayed by Robert's when I read, long before the movie came out, that he was quitting to be a film director. I understand that must have been the dream, but after all the energy he must have conjured up to convince these not terrible actors to join his video game, it's just too bad it took him so long to discover he was living the dream all along. Maybe he felt the story was done, but I can't believe the games would have been left abandoned for this long had Robert's remained in that industry. With the success of Wing3 and 4 who knows who they might have gotten to come aboard before the death of the interactive movie. To tell the truth I wish the new game was being filmed, if a story you want, there's nothing like seeing the real faces to bring you in. It's too bad it went out with such a whimper, interactive movies.
Despite Wing4 being filmed it didn't exactly get the best transfer to video. Even the DVD version does not exactly look "right", probably the jump from 24 frames per second to 30. In my Wing4 video I did also take a couple pot shots over here again, in the forum of actual Wing4 film masters. You guys have gotten a hold of such wonderful stuff over the years, to me the holy grail would be the original 35mm film masters. I remember the X-Files video game coming out, a very late interactive movie, came out in like 1999 I think. It was digital, not film, but just on the regular CD-ROM it looked so incredible at the time, better than television anyway. Of course it came on 7 CDs and each one was done before you knew it... But imagine how fantastic Wing4 "could" have looked. It's hard for me to forgive them for taking out the remove interlace feature for DOS, which Wing3 had. I truly believe they did that just to add to the list of "features" for the Win95 patch. Ugh... I imagine the filmed portion of Wing4 was simply the original acting and the bare sets. I doubt they edited CG onto the actual film itself, so I mean, we'd of course be missing out on a lot... But what a piece of history it would be, to restore the 35mm print, it would look amazing!
Let me apologize for any harsh words pointed this way or at Ben in the videos. Having not felt welcome all those years ago, yet still loving the site for information, it was easy to find things to point at and criticize. While I contend I just sort of like to poke, I didn't personally feel welcomed, so let's make sure they don't feel welcome here either. I was always pretty sure at some point, lovers of Wing Commander that you are, my very small channel would end up getting noticed. I sort of didn't want that, in a way. Say I hadn't said anything bad, everyone loved my review, and then I got a whole bunch of subs from here... Now I'm a little bit bigger but how many of these people are going to have any interest in all the other games I cover? I sort of purposely was changing up my videos to do my best to make sure people wouldn't subscribe UNLESS they really wanted to be along for the ride. In time I'll review all the Wing Commander's, and I truly feel my take on them will be unlike any current videos or written reviews. But I'm also in no rush, I'm just doing what I want to do. I had a whole load of people (for me) watch and sub to me based on a review I made for the Amiga game Defender of the Crown. The actual head artist for the game, Sim Sachs, commented on my video and loved it! Highlight of my Youtube life. I probably should have followed that video up with another Amiga game or something I felt all these new people might like... Instead I uploaded a Super8 film! Oh no, this is a "retro" channel, I do many things, get out if you don't like it! In a way I jabbed just to keep you away.
While I ultimately feel both those Wing Commander videos and my written review for Wing4 are super unique and good, and I spent such little time in the grand scheme talking about this site... Ya know, it's all about personal connection with me, the memories along with the review. I'm not a monotone guy scripting these short reviews where they don't even finish the game... If that's what people call reviews, I want no part in it. But I do remember a day when reviewers were allowed to be very opinionated, a day when they were expected to win the games they reviewed or say why they could not. Since people started making money on YouTube the quest to turn the video making process into a sausage factory has so made me feel left out from how the site originally started. While I know most people who love forums rarely venture or have much respect for YouTube, to me it's an incredible place. If you're willing to search and find those small chancels, you come across some of the most genuine and thought provoking opinions.
But you know what? Looks like you get that here, too. I still think those videos are worth watching, but I am sorry for any shots taken here, it is obviously a much different place with some great people who love to talk about the details. Back to some of the discussion; I'd really love to see all of what Super Wing Commander has to offer, but the last time I checked there was nothing but a few short mystery science theater 3000 type videos on it. I've never been able to see a full playthough and I can't say that particular port ever made me want to emulate the 3DO or Mac to play it myself. I couldn't tell you how much better the actual Super Wing Commander is compared to this DOS patch, but I tried to say in the video "if" this was the dialogue given, "if" it is accurate to the real game... eeeek.... To me the dialogue was not up to part with any of the previous Wing Commander, including Secret Missions 2. The whole mentioning of Stealth Fighters thing, this base is "developing and refining stealth fighter technology".... I gasped when I read that... It broke my heart to see this official piece of Wing Commander destroy the entire foundation that Wing2 was built upon... You are disgraced, sent away to the corner of the galaxy, never to fly a fighter again... Because Tolywin KNOWS the destruction of the Tiger's Claw was OUR fault. "Your ridiculous claims about a Kilrathi cloaking device!" - I might not love the movie, but I'm able to keep it separate from my opinions of the games. There are books I like, there are books I don't like so much... But like them or not I'm able to keep the books separate from the games. It broke my heart to see Super Wing Commander admit to stealth fighters, most likely to further promote Wing2, but they broke my heart in the process... Oh so many years later I can say I would have died a tiny bit happier if I had never read those words.
All right, this has already gotten too long for one post... I'm sure you're all readers but bless you for making it this far if you have. Thanks to Ben again for his nice response to the matter, I'm glad a war was not started by anyone here or myself. I've seen it before from other forums, and without even saying anything about them. Just because I have an opinion, a factually based opinion that they refused to consider in that instance, this entire board was going after me... NONE of them said a word about it on my actual video... To me, Reddit makes no sense... You link other people's stuff, but you comment on Reddit, they might love it, they might hate it, but it's all in this little bubble and the guy making the video has no idea. Like me or hate me I really wish this thread would have been brought to my attention via the actual video. For someone so small, any sort of feedback means the world. I don't "want" to make money, no ads on my videos... I don't want to become what I hate from others. But it's not a television show to me, it's a personal journey as I collect my thoughts and opinions regarding a very long history of loving video games... Well, all things retro really. I don't need my ass to be kissed, but it sucks I had to find out about this out of total shock because I was interested in this post titled "DOS Secret Missions 1.5" - I'll have me some of that! .... oh.... it's about me...
But then again, hey, I'm here now! A place I sort of always wanted to be. I hope I can occasionally bring some interesting conversation to the forum. Have to start signing in automatically now.