OldTechAdverts recently reposted a spiffy advertisement sheet for Wing Commander Academy. LOAF took a moment to appreciate it and point out some interesting elements below. It can be hard for modern audiences to appreciate Academy today, but if you were there to see things like this in magazines back in 1993, you knew how cool this was! You can find more classic WC ads like this in the CIC Documents Archive here.
This ad is a master class in marketing copy. Everything fresh and appealing—“CyberSchool’s holodeck console,” “cybernet wingman”, etc.—is just describing the fictional setting and doesn’t touch the gameplay at all.
The bottom screenshot is one of my all-time favorite bullshots, too! None of these wingmen are in the game and that VDU face appears nowhere else! Final game doesn’t use “zealous”, either.
If you look closely at the Wraith cockpit you’ll see it isn’t finished... the left VDU is still a Morningstar!
Even the key art is a big cool lie. This painting is the very first appearance of the Privateer/Super Wing Commander-style Dralthi Mk. VII design... which doesn’t appear in the game at all!
It's kind of crazy I referred to this as a "classic" ad fifteen years ago too...
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