Document Archive: Games That Weren't

The Document Archive is where we try to collect and categorize all the neat finds related to the development history of the various Wing Commander products so you can more easily research your favorite titles. These might include storyboards, early product shots, art sources, and draft scripts that we've featured in one of our daily updates, but otherwise risk falling by the wayside. With Secret Ops turning twenty this year, the time was right to expand the archive's coverage of that game. The project was more limited in scope than Wing Commander: Prophecy, but we've still uncovered a few interesting items over the years:

• Secret Ops Scripts: 30 items added, including the lost web fiction.
• Secret Ops Artwork: Six art pieces added, including the backstory of the Plunkett design.
• Secret Ops Ads: A contemporary print article providing some fascinating insights on the impact of a burgeoning internet.
• Secret Ops Design: Various bits of source code and a CD-ROM with development tools like the internal mission editor MED.

• Shadow Force Design: Various design documents, source code fragments.
• Shadow Force Artwork: Ship and character sketches.
• Shadow Force Ads: Internal sell sheet and "Maverick Mix".
• Prowler Design: History of the project, and a developer chatlog from 1996.
• Prowler Artwork: Early pre-release screenshots, box art and sketches of characters, mechs and locations.