It Sure Was Good While It Lasted

We've put together a quick tribute to those nine glorious months of Wing Commander on GameTap. It includes screenshots of all the 'bonus material' presented in the client along with copies of the games' manuals, the video trailer for Wing Commander I and other bits of GameTapicana. For those unfamiliar, the service will stop hosting Wing Commander I, II and IV on December 11th. The GameTap archive is available here.

We've also learned that the games are being removed because GameTap opted not to continue paying Electronic Arts' for their use. Their failure to report on the issue or to deal with the aftermath is at least as infuriating as the fact that we've been paying them for a service which doesn't work as promised. We urge anyone affected by this debacle to post to this thread at GameTap's website - let them know what you think!

Point of Origin: Vol. III, No. 34

This "Special SPA Issue" of Point of Origin is dated March 12, 1993... and, once again, Origin lost at the awards show. It's all treated very humorously, but you can be sure that this is exactly the kind of thing that would have driven Lord British crazy.

Also note that the ORIGIN Music CD has been added to the company's library in this issue. The CD was long-shrouded in mystery, but several appearances in recent articles have cleared up its history: it was apparently initially given away at trade shows in late 1992 and early 1993.

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!

• Misc has an interesting story about Wing Commander and Babylon 5 brushing elbows - a real meeting of the minds:

Charles Cafrelli blasted a message to Babylon 5 and its creator/director/writer, Michael Straczynski, via CompuServ. Charles told him how much a lot of people at ORIGIN enjoyed the television show (and also passed along some of our artists' suggestions concerning bumps in the bitmaps). Straczynski sent Charles an e-mail reply: 'Do you realize how many hours of my life I have wasted in front of Wing Commander, Wing Commander II and the various Secret Missions modules? I hate all of you! Feh! Seriously, though, I'm glad y'all approve. I'll definitely relay the comments back to our design people.' Neat guy.

• The Week in Reviews has another honor for Wing Commander II and some kind words for Origin FX.: "Electronic Games, the newest of the bunch, held its first Readers' Choice Awards and the results are in the current (April) issue... In the same issue, Wing Commander II is named 1992 Computer game of the Year. (If only our fiscal calendars worked the same way...) 'ORIGIN's high flyer shot down everything,' the editors write... ORIGIN FX gets a nice mention in the March issue of Computer Game Review: 'ORIGIN's already established reputation for high-quality games has allowed them to produce a high-quality screen saver.'"

Point of Origin
Vol. III, No. 34 - March 12, 1993 Contents Views from the Top
Always a Bridesmaid
NEWS.TXT
In the Library
And the Winners Are...
Dear Point Man
Misc.
The Week in Reviews
New Contest
Help Wanted
Still Counting