Computer Gaming World Reviews Wing Commander

Computer Gaming World was, in the United States, the 'journal of record' for PC gaming throughout the 1980s and 1990s. The magazine, which was shuttered in 2006, closely covered Wing Commander. Today, we've collected all 12 of the reviews, starting with the original game in 1990 and ending with Wing Commander Prophecy Gold in 1999. Reviews were generally positive, with the exception of Privateer 2, and they're very interesting to look back on today. You can find all the scanned pages below! Update: We have added a missing review for Wing Commander Armada.

Why are we posting so many magazines? We're working on archiving as many Wing Commander articles as we can! They help tell the story of Wing Commander and they're fascinating time capsules. In many cases, major publishers worked with Origin and Electronic Arts to include canonical data for sidebars and they often include references to projects since abandoned (such as Maniac Missions.)

What's the difference between a review and a preview? There are two main types of articles to archive: reviews and previews. Previews are published before a game launches and are usually arranged by the developer. Reporters would travel to Austin or Los Angeles to interview developers, try early builds and ultimately hype an upcoming game to the audience. Reviews are published after a game is released and a journalist has played through it themselves. Major previews generally get 'cover stories,' while reviews are not so frequently remembered. There are several less significant article types that we will work to archive in the future, including capsule news and trade show coverage stories.

Why are there sometimes index pages and covers included, but not always? We've decided to operate under these rules: if a cover features text referencing Wing Commander (or a Wing Commander image) then we include the scan in the set. The rule for index pages is slightly more strict: they are included if they include an image or if they include text beyond listing the name of the game (usually a short description.)

Do you know of a Wing Commander article you'd like to see included in our collection? Let us know! We're happy to track down magazines for scanning purposes, or to accept scans from the community.

Computer Gaming World #77 - Wing Commander