Do More Tinkering with Command Line Switches

With all the work for the WCToolbox, I have observed and learned quite a few things about the inner workings of Wing Commander. I thought I would do a series of post highlighting this information. I suspect some of this information will be old news to WC veterans; and some will have no practical application as they are just curiosities.

Command Line

Let’s begin with starting the game itself: executing WC.EXE.

There are many posts online detailing the command line options and cheat codes available, but I don’t think I have ever seen a post highlighting some of the following options:

• e|t|v selects the video mode: EGA | TGA | VGA; the appropriate files must be installed (you can have all *.EGA, *.TGA, and *.VGA files in the same GAMEDAT directory since they have unique names)​
• a#|p|r selects the audio mode: AdLib | PC Speaker | Roland (for AdLib look into your CFG file for the number)​

For example:

"WC e p" - starts the game in the EGA video mode and using the PC Speaker for audio
"WC v a904" - starts the game in the VGA video mode and using AdLib for audio​

The following options are probably familiar to most and only activated if the Origin switch is specified:

• s# select specific series (e.g. s8)
• m# select specific mission (e.g. m0)
• as# select specific action sphere (e.g. as1)
• w# preview cinematic scenes (e.g. w3), scene numbers range from 1 to 22 (to 25 with SM1 installed). Mission specific scenes require that s# m# also be specified
• l launch single mission, no copy-protection question
• -k unlimited shields​

For example:

"WC Origin s1 m1 as1 l" - launches series 1, mission 1 (S01M1) from sphere 1 (Nav 1)
"WC Origin s2 m0 w8" - views series 2, mission 0 (S02M0) from the bar​

Note: From the command line, series starts at 1 (S1) instead of 0, skipping the training simulator series.

Cinematic Scenes

These are the cinematic scenes which can be previewed from the command line:

w0 cockpit death w1 takeoff w2 briefing w3 running sequence w4 cockpit canopy closing w5 landing, no ship w6 cockpit canopy opening, with full damage w7 intro w8 bar w9 [none] w10 debriefing, colonel angry w11 funeral, our hero w12 hangar deck, bronze star

w13 barracks w14 cockpit canopy opening, no damage w15 office w16 closing animation, success w17 closing animation, failure w18 midgame.v00, both success and failure w19 midgame.v01, both success and failure w20 midgame.v02, both success and failure w21 midgame.v03, both success and failure w22 funeral, all wingmen w23 midgame.v04, failure only (if SM1 installed) w24 midgame.v05, both success and failure (if SM1 installed) w25 midgame.v06, success only (using SM2)​

Wing Commander Meme of the Day: Grumpy Cat

Relieve your grumpiness here