Origin FX

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This article is about the sceensaver. For other uses, see Origin FX (disambiguation).

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Origin FX
Platform	Windows 3
Release Date	December 8, 1993
Language	English
Retail Price	39.95 USD

Origin FX is a 1993 screensaver package developed by Origin Systems and published by Electronic Arts.

Description

Box back cover

ORIGIN FX™ SCREEN SAVER is more than just a Windows utility that protects your mointor from burn-in. At the same time, it delivers enough entertainment to keep you enthralled fo hours. These modules reflect the creativity and technical ingenuity that have taken the WING COMMANDER and ULTIMA series to the top of the charts. ORIGIN FX is as versatile and exciting as it is useful; a modular screen saver with the graphics, sound and imagination that have made ORIGIN a favorite of computer gamers throughout the world.

ORIGIN FX incorporates images and characters familiar to fans of ORIGIN game worlds, as well as novel imagery created especially for this unique package. Unlike screen savers which use limited colors against a black background, ORIGIN FX brings the hottest color graphics in the entertainment industry to your Windows environment.

Features

• More than 20 unique modules, with a selection of both algorithmic and graphics-based screen savers.

• Award-winning ORIGIN music and sound effects.

• Engage and hot key combinations to activate the screen saver at any time.

• Customizing options -- you set speed, color, sound and other options.

• Slide Show module allows you to cycle through bitmapped images from any directory, in any order, and for as long as you wish.

• As a special feature for owners of WING COMMANDER II, ORIGIN FX offers a module that plays the cinemat-ic sequences when Wing II is installed on your hard drive.

• Players of the Ultima and Wing Commander games will recognize their favorite characters and space ships as they interact with your desktop.

• Those new to ORIGIN's world will be introduced to the high quality graphics that made these games industry favorites.

Modules

• Air Show
• Armageddon
• Asteroid Field
• Avalanche
• Blaze
• Bouquet
• Building Blox
• Claw and Scratch
• Daily Quote
• Ghost Trax
• Guardian
• Hypnosis
• Magic Spheres
• Main Street
• Mighty Forest
• Pixel Stix
• Prism
• Psychedelia
• Pyroworx
• Screen Writer
• Silhouette
• Slide Show
• Stratosphere
• T.C.S. Paradigm
• Ultimate Menagerie
• Window Washer
• Wing Commander II

System Requirements

Original Release (1993)

MS-DOS: 386SX, 386, Intel486 or 100% compatible PC system
REQUIRED: 2 megs RAM, hard drive, 256-color VGA graphics, Windows™ v.3.0 or higher, 4.5 megs hard drive space
RECOMMENDED: DOS 6.0 and DoubleSpace
GRAPHICS: 386/20MHz+ processor, sound board, Windows 256-color mode SVGA graphics
MUSIC/SOUND EFFECTS (optional): Ad Lib®, Sound Blaster®, Roland® LAPC-I/MT-32, or 100% compatible sound board
$9.95 exchange form enclosed for other disk formats

Box Contents

• Origin FX Screen Saver Owner's Manual
• TroubleShooting
• Disk Exchange Form
• Registration Card
• Origin Systems Product Catalog

Credits

Role	Name	Source
Production
Producer	R. Scott Russo	Game, Documentation
Executive Producer	Dallas Snell	Game, Documentation
Project Administrator	Suzanne Taylor	Documentation
	Kirk Winterrowd	Documentation
Development
Programmer	Jeff Everett	Game, Documentation
	Richard Dean Johnson	Game, Documentation
	Brent A. Thale	Game, Documentation
	Edwin Herrell	Documentation
Lead Artist	Whitney Ayres	Documentation
Artist	Nigel Pickhardt	Game, Documentation
	Bill Narum	Game, Documentation
	Denis Loubet	Documentation
	Chris Douglas	Documentation
	Richard Mather	Documentation
	Terry Manderfield	Documentation
	Bob Cook	Documentation
	Micael Priest	Documentation
	Jeff Dee	Documentation
	Jake Rodgers	Documentation
	Danny Garrett	Documentation
	Bruce Lemmons	Documentation
	Craig Halverson	Documentation
	Glen Johnson	Documentation
Audio	Marc Schaefgen	Documentation
	John Tipton	Documentation
	Kirk Winterrowd	Documentation
Quality Assurance
Quality Assurance Leader	Don Derouen III	Documentation
QA Manager	Jeff Shelton	Documentation
QA Supervisor	Scott Shelton	Documentation
Quality Assurance	Russel Byrd	Documentation
	Ben Potter	Documentation
	Starr Long	Documentation
	Charles Angel	Documentation
	Marshall Andrews	Documentation
	Michael Chenault	Documentation
	Dee Starns	Documentation
Packaging
Documentation	Anthony Nichols	Documentation
Packaging	Craig Miller	Documentation
Editing	David Ladyman	Documentation
Graphic Design	Al Carnley	Documentation
Special Thanks
	Jeff Wilson	Documentation

Advertising

Marketing Flyer

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Origin Catalogs

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Print Advertising

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Versions

Original Release

Electronic Arts originally published Wing Commander Academy in North America, the United Kingdom, France and Germany in 1993.

International Releases

Wing Commander was not localized by Electronic Arts but was released in France and Germany with translated documentation. Electronic Arts sold an additional 500 copies through InterTAN (Radio Shack) in Canada; while these were assigned a unique EAN they have not been proven to have been physically different from the standard North American release. In Asia, a version without localization was published Taiwan by Soft World. DROSoft released a localized version in Spain.

Other

In March 1994, Origin Systems announced internally that they had partnered with CD Select to release a trial version of Wing Commander Academy which would be included on a CD containing a collection of applications and games. CD Select's system would allow those who enjoy the game to call an 800-number to pay and unlock the full program. It is not clear if this release ever made it to market.

Release Index

Platform	Year	EAN	UPC	Region	Publisher	Media	Language
MS-DOS	1993	6908	0 17814 81611 6	United States	Electronic Arts	3.5" HD diskette (3)	English
MS-DOS	1993			United Kingdom	Electronic Arts	3.5" HD diskette (3)	English
MS-DOS	1993			Germany	Electronic Arts	3.5" HD diskette (3)	English, German docs
MS-DOS	1993			France	Electronic Arts	3.5" HD diskette (3)	English, French docs
MS-DOS	1993	5240		Canada (InterTAN)	Electronic Arts	3.5" HD diskette (3)	English
MS-DOS				Spain	DROSoft	3.5" HD diskette (3)	Spanish
MS-DOS				Taiwan	Soft World	5.25" HD diskette (4)	English, Chinese docs
CD-ROM Classic	1995	5449		United States	Electronic Arts	CD-ROM (3)	English
CD-ROM Classic (Jewel)	1995	5713		United States	GOG	CD-ROM (3)	English
Hit Squad	1994			United Kingdom	Ocean	3.5" HD diskette (3)	English
Mile High Pack	1995			United States	Velocity	CD-ROM (8)	English
Digital	1993			Worldwide	GOG	Download	English

Screenshots

Pre-Release Screenshots

These three images were provided to press in 1993 and were made available through Origin's BBS. Several differences are visible between these captures and the release build of the game. In ACTION, the Wraith displays a Morningstar’s VDU, "leech" is misspelled as "leach" and the target being communicated with is identified as "Enemy 2" instead of a ship type. ENTRY has a darker cursor than the finished game and red menu text instead of blue. It also lacks the buttons to the quick start buttons located to left and right of the simulator. SELECT shows an entirely different set of wingmen (Rusty, Dingo, Gauntlet and Harridan in place of Hobbes, Angel, Maniac and Lightspeed, respectively) and seems to use the identifier "Zealous" instead of "Excellent". The VDU face shown for Dingo does not match any that appear in the final game.

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GOG Release Screenshots

These twelve images were captured by GOG from the release build for their Wing Commander Academy sale page.

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Community Screenshots

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Development

Point of Origin

March 26, 1993 - Vol. III, No. 35

• Joint Resolution: "Watch this space in the next issue for a look behind the scenes of Wing Commander Academy."

April 9, 1993 - Vol. III, No. 36

• Wing Commander Academy: "Face it: there's a little egomaniac in every pilot who's flown a Ferret. The 'brag factor' is what makes Wing Commander Academy (the current working name) look like it could be a big seller. Basically, WCA is a do-it-yourself mission builder in the Wing Commander universe. Programmed-turned-Producer Thomas Blom explains it this way: "There's no real story line, except what you design for yourself. Each mission can have an objective; maybe you have to retrieve a data pod or ejected pilot, or maybe you just want to do some dogfighting. In any case, you have total control over the design. "WCA should really appeal to people who care about how good a pilot they are. After you design a mission, it will have a score based on its degree of difficulty. The files will be small enough so that you can dump the scenario onto a disk or post it online someplace like CompuServe. That way, you can challenge your friends or other players to try and beat you at your own mission. Players who whizzed through Wing Commander can actually create impossible missions, while other players may just want to use it as a way to play around with different kinds of spacecraft or study the way the Kilrathi fly." WCA has another couple of big selling points. First of all, it's not as hardware-intensive, so there will be a lot of happy 386 owners out there. Second, it will be at a reduced price point (currently $49.95 as opposed to $79.95). WCA is planned as a fall project. Right now, it has a lean and mean team. Jeff Everett and Brent Thale are working on the programming and Whitney Ayres on the art. Thomas' goal is to have it in the box by the end of June (perfect for CES)."

April 23, 1993 - Vol. III, No. 37

• In Print: "People are already drooling at the concept and promise of Privateer. In the middle of it all we're going to throw some unexpected gems like Shadowcaster, Interactive Movie #1 and Wing Commander Academy at them out of the blue."

May 21, 1993 - Vol. III, No. 39

• Pulse Check: "Things have been going well - we've got new blood on the phones in C/S, and some of the C/S flying aces have been testing Wing Academy in QA and are helping to rid the world of pesky bugs every day."

June 18, 1993 - Vol. III, No. 40

• CES: The Gap Closes: "Not to say we didn't have an impressive lineup: Pacific Strike, Shadowcaster, Privateer and Wing Commander Academy... Look for Wing Commander Academy to be compared to X-Wing's Rebel Assault, while Aces Over Europe will square off against Pacific Strike... But the surprise hit and what could be our biggest seller this year was Wing Commander Academy. To a person, everyone who saw it wanted a copy of it right then and there. And talk about positioning - WCA was pitched as a non-traditional ORIGIN game: 'Less than 5 megs on your hard drive and runs great on a 386.'"

July 2, 1993 - Vol. III, No. 41

• Pulse Check: "The QA side of the world has been busy, with 5, count 'em 5 games in test right now... We've gotcher U7 SNES, yer Runes of Virtue SNES, yer Wing Commander Academy, yer UW1 and 2 CD and the ever present and wondermuss Silver Seed add-on to Serpent Isle."

July 16, 1993 - Vol. III, No. 42

• Kudos and Columns: "And, finally, positive comments on future games from Joystick: "Wing Academy: 'It is possible to play any side, therefore you can be a Kilrathi and waste the Confederation. This option by itself should bring a hell of a lot of joy to those who, on a regular basis, regret to only play the good guys, when, deep down, they feel bad & nasty.'"

July 30, 1993 - Vol. III, No. 43

• Pulse Check: "The Silver Seed and Wing Commander Academy have signed off. They are both expected to ship in August. Guess we'll be oilin' up the phones."

August 13, 1993 - Vol. III, No. 44

• Where Are They Now?: "First and foremost, kudos go out to Tandy Tamer Karl Kabler... What's next? He's already working on the Tandy buyer for Wing Academy and Silver Seed.... Whatever happened to Silver Seed and Wing Academy? Well, Academy is ready, but we're waiting on EAUK to get its stuff together in order for a simultaneous worldwide release..."

September 10 1993 - Vol. III, No. 45

• Road Kills: "Karl blew out to the West Coast and met with all of the accounts there, showing them Academy, Privateer, the Speech Pack and all the promotional opportunities coming up. 'We've had some good results with those accounts,' Karl said. Snorin' Lee Moore linked up with him so the two of them could blanket the Midwest accounts like Josha, Navarro and American. They wrapped up the week with an Egghead show in Chicago, where 255 store managers from around the country got a good look at Privateer and Wing Academy. In fact, many of them ran to the phones to find that Academy had already hit the shelves back home and was moving well. Lee reported that most of the managers still regard ORIGIN as the leading edge of the industry, but with reservations. 'There's a little bit of distaste for our hardware requirements,' Lee said, 'Generally, they like the games but they say, 'My God, you guys take up a lot of disk space. My God, you guys are hard to configure for.' Next on Lee's itinerary is the San Diego Computer Fair. He's taking his own technical support in the form of Ben 'Styg' Potter. More than 50,000 consumers will get a chance to fly Academy, Strike and Privateer."
• Another Bump in the Org Chart: "Meanwhile, two Wing Commander spin-offs, Privateer and Wing Commander Academy, are hitting the shelves while work on Wing Commander III is well underway."
• Reviews in Revue: "Wing Academy gets a full-fledged two-page preview in this month's Strategy Plus. Will Johnson says he'd like to have a little more control over mission design and the ability to fly more Kilrathi ships, but all in all, he really likes it. 'If you want to get your blood pumping, this'll do it,' he writes. 'Drag out the good joystick because the cheap one won't last very long with this game.'"

October 13 1993 - Vol. III, No. 48

• Start the Presses: "Egghead puts out a regular newsletter called Cue to about a gazillion of its customers every month. In a wrap-up of flight sims, Cue says Wing Academy is 'as thrilling for flight jocks as fantasy game fans.' One of the most bizarre, back-handed complimentary reviews we've ever run across is in the current issue of PC Games. In his look at Wing Academy, Cameron Crotty laments the loss of 'waiting to see what your next mission is, no more battles against impossible odds, no more clicking endlessly through useless and occasionally ham fisted plot scenes. Heaven, right? Maybe, maybe not.' Crotty says Academy is a lot of fun, but he misses Hobbes and Angel and the rest of the Wing universe. He says games like Wing and Strike 'blend adventure and action into an unbeatable combo.'"

October 22 1993 - Vol. III, No. 49

• Pulse Check: "Taking a look at the period from 10/11 to 10/15, Privateer tops the list with 748 calls logged. The top categories for that game are: IRQ conflicts (26%), hints (24%), boot disk creation (17%) and joystick problems (12%)... PS Reps handled an assortment of other calls: U7 (126), Wing 2 (70), Underworld 2 (65), Wing 1 (60), Silver Seed (57), Underworld 1 (52) and Wing Academy (42)... Team lead testers are: Brian Wachhaus/Super Wing 3DO, Rik Packham/Pacific Strike, Don Derouen/Ultima 8 and Jerrold Harrington/Strike CD."
• Big Bump in Profits: "Top selling new releases during the quarter were 'Jungle Strike(TM),' 'NHL Hockey '94,' and 'Bill Walsh College Football(TM)' for the Genesis system and 'Privateer(R)' for the IBM PC. Other Electronic Arts products appearing on retailer Top 20 lists during the quarter included 'General Chaos(TM),' 'Mutant League(TM) Football,' 'Bulls vs Blazers and the NBA(R) Playoffs,' 'PGA TOUR (R) II,' and bundles of 'Bill Walsh College Football and 'General Chaos' with the 4 Way Play adapter for the Genesis system; 'Syndicate,' 'Space Hulk(TM),' 'Ultrabots(TM),' and 'Wing Commander(R) Academy' for the IBM PC, and 'Wing Commander Deluxe' for the IBM PC CD."
• Press Roundup: "The November Computer gaming World is out and includes Strike strategy tips from Tom Basham. Later on, Paul Schuytema takes on Wing Academy. Let's put it this way, the review starts out with: 'First, the bottom line on ORIGIN's Wing commander Academy: if you enjoy space combat simulations, you must have this game. Period.' It just gets better in the two-page spread peppered with screen shots. His 'quibbles': no scoring for individual missions, no flight recorder and he wants more control in mission design... Hot off the presses, the November COMPUTE has a review of Wing Academy. Dave Gerding calls it a 'great, all-action playground where you can keep you battle skills honed.'"

November 8 1993 - Vol. III, No. 50

• In Print: "It's always great to start this article with a bang, so check out the Wing Academy review in PC Entertainment. 'ORIGIN seems to have taken every rational suggestion from the series' legion of fans and wrapped them into one gorgeous package,' Bill Trotter writes. And he ends with: 'Thank you ORIGIN; you have answered many prayers.' You can't top that."... The Tilt gang is a little more lukewarm to Wing Academy, giving it only 71%. 'Great quality, but the lack of scenario makes it quickly boring.' We've noticed that most European reviewers really miss the flicks and storyline."
• Pulse Check: "Finally, Wing Academy had 16 calls, with 31% of them dealing with IRQ conflicts and 19% of them having to do with boot disks."

December 1993 - Vol. III, No. 51

• Print and Prizes: "Japan's Pop Com has an ORIGIN product guide in which reviewer Toren Smith begins: 'ORIGIN, in my opinion, has never produced a dud game.' He tells all Wing Commander fans that they must have Wing Academy... Back home again, Privateer gets a good review (89%) in December's Computer Game Review. Editor Steve Honeywell takes to the high board to go off the deep end. 'Privateer is awesome,' he proclaims. 'It's one of those rare games you could see yourself playing years into the future and for twelve hours at a time. Truly cool!' In the same issue, though, Wing Academy gets a lukewarm review (80%). The writers basically say it's old technology and really best suited for already-hooked Wing fans. Academy fares a little better in the premiere issue of Electronic Entertainment (formerly PC Games). 'The Wing Commander juggernaut rolls on,' Bernie Yee writes, but he laments the lack of storyline and new technology. Usually, Bernie is a good reviewer, but this time, he just doesn't get it. The former editor of the former PC Games, Greg Keizer, includes Academy on his Christmas buying list in the December issue of Penthouse, cementing his reputation as a quality reviewer and solidifying our need to renew our subscription."

January 1994 - Vol. IV, No. 52

• In Print: "COMPUTE magazine starts off the new year with nothing but good things to say about ORIGIN products. Several titles were recognized in the magazine's special section, 'COMPUTE's Getting Started.' Wing Commander games were listed among the article's top 10 arcade games. 'Dynamic space combat wrapped around acinematic storyline,' the author writes. 'Ferocious action scenes, featuring in-your-face 3-D dogfights.' Concerning Wing Commander Academy, the same author writes, 'Nothing but pure adrenaline-pumping action.'"

February 1994 - Vol. IV, No. 53

• Press Here: "The editors of PC Entertainment got together and selected their top games of 1993 and Ultima Underworld II was among four ORIGIN games that made the honor role. ...William R. Trotter put Wing commander Academy among the best of 1993. 'One intense battle after another,' he said. 'Every afternoon I take a 'Wing Commander break' instead of a coffee break--it's cleansing, cathartic, and better for your heart...' Do you think he liked it? ... In Japan, they like what they see of Wing Commander Academy. In Popcom, a Japanese gaming magazine, Toren Smith writes, 'Wing Commander Academy is like a dream come true for hardcore WC addicts.'"

March 1994 - Vol. IV, No. 54

• EOM Whitney Ayres: "Whitney has had a more than a decent two year history at ORIGIN as a lead artist on Wing Commander Academy (the only artist actually) and as an artist for both Privateer and ORIGIN FX."
• Off to Market: "Wing Academy and ORIGIN FX will be our first forays into electronic distribution. That's where somebody gets a slew of titles on a single CD, tries a program for a limited time, and then calls an 800-number for the code to "unlock" the program and d rop it to the hard drive. The company we're uisng is CD Select. It's sending 200,000 CDs to customers who have purchased through electronic distribution before. Both FX and Academy will also be on a separate disc, primarily filled with business applications, that will go out to corporate customers (they need entertainment, too)."

February 1995 - Vol. V, No. 2

• The EOM goes to...: "Brent has been with ORIGIN since 1991, and has worked on Wing Commander II, Wing Commander Academy, and Super Wing Commander 3DO among other projects."

Team Shirt

The Wing Commander Academy team shirt features a school seal drawn by Origin System artist Paul Steed. The seal features planets, spacecraft, a book and an armored Kilrathi head. The text reads "established 1993" in reference to the release year of the game and gives the Latin slogan "fac ut gaudeam" which translates literally as "do it so I may be happy." The source of the slogan is the 1991 language book Latin for Even More Occasions by Henry Beard which gives "Age. Fac ut gaudeam." as a translation of Clint Eastwood's Sudden Impact catch phrase "Go ahead, make my day."

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Miscellaneous Files

• Academy Mission Pack
• Confederation Comm Sounds
• Fan Made WC Academy Mission Pack
• Flying Kilrathi Ships Information

Press

Previews

PC Games (Germany)

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PCMania (Spain)

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Reviews

Index

Publication	Issue	Pages	Score
Aktueller Software Markt	December 1993	37	8/12
Compute!	November 1993	128-130	None
Computer Gaming World	November 1993	162-163	None
Electronic Entertainment	January 1994	108	6/10
Electronic Games	December 1993	128	94%
MicroMania	November 1993	54	90%
PC Format	October 1993	64	76%
PC Games	October 1993	42-43	76%
PC Joker	October 1993	64	70%
PC Player	October 1993	40-42	68%
PC Review	October 1993	72-73	5/10
PC Zone	October 1993	52	60%
Power Play	October 1993	44	76%
Privat Computer	October 1993	39	66%
Tilt	October 1993	114-116	71%

Aktueller Software Markt (Germany)

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Compute!

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Computer Gaming World (USA)

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Electronic Entertainment (USA)

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Electronic Games (USA)

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MicroMania (Spain)

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PC Format (UK)

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PC Games (Germany)

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PC Joker (Germany)

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PC Player (Germany)

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PC Review (UK)

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PC Zone (UK)

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Power Play (Germany)

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Privat Computer (Denmark)

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Tilt (France)

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Other

Compute! - December 1994

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PC Player - October 1993

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Softworld - October 1993

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Not Yet Located

• Strategy Plus - September 1993 - Preview
• Cue (Egghead) - October? 1993 - Review
• PC Games (becomes Electronic Entertainment) - October 1993 - Review
• PC Entertainment - October 1993? - Review
• PC Entertainment - January 1994? - Best of 1993
• Computer Game Review - December 1993 - Review
• Penthouse - December 1993 - Christmas Buying Guide

Lore

References

Wing Commander Academy is given an oblique reference in Chapter Three of Fleet Action which mentions that Jason Bondarevsky had briefly spent time at the Academy running the new simulator before rejoining the Tarawa: "Jason walked around the bridge one last time. It had been his bridge for really only a very short time. After the raid on Kilrah the ship had been laid up for a year. It would in fact have been far cheaper to simply scrap her and build a new one from scratch, but public opinion was dead set against it. During that year he'd been stuck Earthside, assigned to the fleet war college for advanced training, finishing up with a brief stint at the Academy to run their latest holo combat simulator training program. But the ship had sailed at last, only to serve in one final brief action before the armistice. Yet, it was his ship, it was in fact, since Kilrah, the only thing he really loved."

Manuals and Game Documentation

• Flying Kilrathi Ships Information
• Wing Commander Academy manual

Ships

Terran Confederation

• F-44G Rapier II (debris)
• A-17D Broadsword (debris)
• F-54C Epee (debris)
• P-64C Ferret (debris)
• Talon (militia)
• Stiletto
• Paradigm

Empire of Kilrah

• Jalkehi (debris)
• Drakhri (debris)
• Grikath (debris)
• Gothri
• Kamekh
• Hha'ifra

Church of Man

• Talon (retro)

Steltek

• Steltek Scout
• Steltek Drone

Civilian

• Orion

Weapons

Defensive Weapons

• Chaff pod
• Mine