Point of Origin: Vol. 1, No. 2

We're back with the second archived issue of Point of Origin, Origin Systems' in-house newsletter. This one focuses on the 1991 Summer CES show where Ultima VII and Strike Commander were shown... but it also touches on Wing Commander licensing and the technical and promotional issues leading up to the Wing Commander II launch.

A very special thanks to Joe Garrity of the Origin Museum for making this resource available and to Electronic Arts for sending them to him in the first place!

• "From the Field" details in-store game demos being held around Austin. Just living near Origin must have been great: "Store shoppers were able to take a good look at Martian Dreams,as well as get a sneak preview of Wing Commander II, Ultima VII and even Strike Commander. The universal reaction seemed to be: 'I want them all... NOW!!!'... If you happen to be in the neighborhood, throw on your Wing Commander hat and Origin jacket, and join the fun!"
• The "Feature Story" details the CES show in Chicago. It focuses primarily on Ultima VII and Strike Commander, but also announces a deal to have Mindscape develop Wing Commander for the SNES: "Origin has licensed Mindscape to do the conversion and publishing of Wing Commander for the Super NES."
• From the Pipeline deals with two Wing Commander developments - the announcement of a three-game deal to port Wing Commander games to the FM Towns: "As mentioned in the CES report, new proects to be taken on at Origin include Ultima 7, Martian Dreams and Savage Empire for the 16-Bit Super NES, a sequel to Runes of Virtue (Ultima for GameBoy), and two three-part releases of Wing Commander, Secret Missions 1 & 2 and Wing Commander II and the two assosciated 'Secret Missions' disks for the FM-Towns on CD." and a several week delay for Wing Commander II: "Wing Commander II is being held for release an additional 2-3 weeks to rework some of the game design based upon product testing. This is the first Origin product to undergo such changes based on the advice of our QA department." It would be interesting to know what was changed about the game!
• Finally, the SPA Top 25 Hits List MS-DOS Games April 1991 sales chart includes rankings for three WC titles: Wing Commander (This Month 4, Last Month 4), WC Secret Missions 2/Crusade (This Month 6, Last Month 16) and WC Secret Missions 1 (This Month 11, Last Month *).

Point of Origin
Vol. 1, No. 2 - June 21, 1991

Contents
Feature Story by Fred Schmidt - CES-Chicago Wrapup
Fireside Chat by Robert Garriott
From the Field by Marten Davies
At Your Service by Kay Gilmore
Covert Operations by Mark Chandler
The Market Place by Pat Price Munroe
That's Entertainment by Michelle Caddel
From the Pipeline by Dallas Snell
Random Bits by Steve Cantrell
Help Wanted
Personal Requests
SPA Top 25 Hits List MS-DOS Games April 1991