Point of Origin: Vol. VI, No. 1

The most interesting fact in this January 15th, 1996 issue of The Point of Origin? The City Council of Austin declared December 14th, 1995 to be Paul Baker and George Oldziey Day. Someone make a note so we can celebrate this year...

A very special thanks to Joe Garrity of the Origin Museum for making this resource available and to Electronic Arts for sending them to him in the first place!

• Spotlight highlights Multima and Wing Commander IV: "And let's not forget WC4, which is marching on! The hoopla is only beginning. From Dec. 18-22, John Rhys-Davies, Chris Roberts, Tom Wilson, Malcolm McDowell, and Mark Hamill fielded questions from fans on America Online's Celebrity Circle. Transcripts are available in the Celebrity Circle area of AOL. Keyword is Oldsmobile (the sponsor). During the last week of January, Mark Hamill or Malcolm McDowell or both may be booked on some late night and morning talk shows as part of a New York City tour. They also may do some game signings. Then on February 8, the Planet Hollywood in Beverly Hills will be hosting a Wing Commander IV promotion. Hopefully, this will be a high profile 'Hollywood' event attended by local luminaries, celebrities, electronic media outlets, print media, and paparazzi. The February release of Wing Commander will coincide with a revamped Web site and a contest to give away a Pentium computer every week for four weeks beginning February 9."
• In Ink has the usual:

Wing Commander IV garnered yet two more magazine covers. The first was the December issue of Interactive Entertainment, where editors exclaimed in their preview, "Bigger explosions, more detailed texture-mapping, and cleaner background music. An experience that really gives you the feel of watching a movie."

The second cover can be found on PC Game, a gaming magazine in South Korea. We can't read it (can anyone translate Korean?), but there are pictures of several on the WC4 team: Tony Morone, Jason Hughes, George Oldziey, Chris Douglas and Frank Roan.

The international copy doesn't end there. WC4 was featured in a story about the Hollywood/Silicon connection in Der Spiegel in Germany and in a special preview in Australia's aforementioned Hyper magazine. "Wing 3 was the best looking space combat sim ever, Wing 4 is better still."

Meanwhile, back on the home turf, Russ Ceccola wrote a novel (at least it seemed that way) in Fusion about his trip to the WC4 set this past summer. "Chris Roberts and ORIGIN clearly took brave new steps toward a bright future for the Wing Commander series and the production of WCIV. The important thing is that they (ORIGIN) did it right, from the professionally-built sets and the camera equipment to the rehearsals and intense drama."

And don't forget about Wing Commander III for the Macintosh. Peter Lewis of The New York Times didn't. In his column on December 19, he included it among four Mac games recommended for this holiday season. "ORIGIN spent several million dollars making this one," Lewis wrote, "and it shows."

... Finally, we combed the wide world of gaming magazines for some interesting reader comments to close out this article. We think we outdid ourselves this time. The December issue of Fusion magazine has this from Peter Hobbs in Springfield, Ohio, who writes about the rehabilitative powers of Wing Commander. "That game got me through some hard times back when I was on drugs and had no direction in life to speak of. In fact, my main goal every day (back then) was to get stoned and battle Kilrathi until my mom would beat on my bedroom door fuming. Now I'm a productive member of the working world." Next patient, please.

Point of Origin
Vol. VI, No. 1 - January 12, 1996 Contents Spotlight
Point Man
In Ink
More Moving
Holiday Giving
Kat's Korner of Phun Pfone Phacts
EOM
The Future
Ticker