Wing Commander II SNES Box Art Simulated

Yesterday's shocking Wing Commander II SNES painting news wasn't just of interest to the Wing Commander community. Hardcore fans of Nintendo history were also all over the reveal! John Rairdin of Nintendo World Report even went right to work creating an image that simulates what the game's box likely would've looked like:

This is a case where the artist is the bigger expert to begin with but it looks pretty accurate to us! The real game probably would've had a different tagline but since we have no idea what it would've been reusing the original is a smart choice. Nintendo World Report also published an article on the find as did Go Nintendo. It's great to see coverage from the serious Nintendo community; when the game is someday located, I suspect they will be prime movers! For those unfamiliar with SNES branding and who would like a point of comparison, here are box scans for FCI's other Origin ports from SNES Central:

We're also thinking about the artwork itself! One question I always ask myself about paintings like this is: what material was the artist provided as reference. Michael Winterbauer's Wing Commander SNES painting is based on the PC game's box art while Greg Winters' Secret Missions piece famously referenced the Super Famicom manual's ship artwork (hence the green Salthi). This one is a little harder to determine: the Scimitar and the Star Post are extremely on model while the Kilrathi capital ship and the Dralthi are not. But what reference available for an artist in 1994 would've had artwork of the Star Post and the Dralthi? Our Discord's own DeerGazer came up with a pretty good answer: Mike Harrison's Secrets of the Wing Commander Universe, which features artwork that matches the Scimitar and the base very closely but only has a single side view of the Fralthi. Again, seems pretty likely to us!