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The Escapist has published a very nice article about the history of Wing Commander development. Wing Leader starts with a very interesting story about Wing Commander's original unveiling and goes through the series' evolution -- through to the fan efforts that continue today. It's full of interesting anecdotes, including a great story about Chris Roberts being punched in the face during the animation shoot for Wing Commander II.

Wing II also used rotoscoping for its cut-scene animations. Stephen Beeman recalls, "We used people around the office, filming them with a camcorder, capturing with a really primitive capture card, and painting over the vidcaps in Deluxe Paint, frame by frame.

"The best part of the rotoscoping came when we filmed the scene at the end of Wing II, where Angel punches Jazz. Jackie Chapman, one of Origin's marketers, was playing Angel, and we had Chris play Jazz. Needless to say, neither of them was a trained Hollywood stunt person, so when Jackie threw that punch, it didn't breeze past Chris the way we intended - it socked him right in the nose! Naturally, that's the take we used.

"The fans should be pleased to know Chris literally put his blood, sweat and tears into that game. The rest of us settled for just the sweat and tears."

The article is ultimately a criticism of Roberts' decision to move on to Hollywood... but it presents some excellent information before reaching that end. The online magazine also published an article on Origin itself back in October - you can find that here. You can also find the article in an easier-to-read straight format of the current article here.

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