Mega-CD Longplay [066] Wing Commander (part 1 of 2)

[@Rebdomine20]

Snes version was the one i played the most but this is definately the best version i love the added voices

[@RAYTHEONGAMING]

What a fucking gem of a game Wing Commander was.

[@danielhouse6244]

the really fun thing about this game was the different permutations. if you fail the early missions they make you do the later ones on a worse ship, and you have to claw your way back. very fun.

[@Ben82077]

Pilot: Is it me or does it seem like we’re in the hanger bay every week for a medal ceremony? Pilot 2: Well if HotShot wouldn’t take every mission and take all the promotions, maybe we could get a medal let alone make rank. Do you know how long I’ve been a 2nd Lt???!! Pilot 1: Well I know I’ve been here for- Pilot 2: -SIX YEARS!!! I’ve heard every story ShotGlass has told me…twice!!

[@AaronBruceLadner]

Cam Clarke is the Voice of Commander Halcyon.

[@WilliamMc91]

No way! I didn't recognize Leonardo as the Colonel! :D

[@LorenHelgeson]

Growing up, this was my Wing Commander. I recently stumbled on a Wing Commander Prophecy video, and got it my my head to go through the whole series, starting with this one. I have a lot of nostalgia for this one - the music and the fully voiced script. But that frame rate... UGH! I swear those dog fights in the asteroid fields drop down to single-digit FPS. I would be very impressed to see if you, or anyone else, can pull off Kurasawa 2 in this version. Guess I'll find out next video. Also, had no idea you could get up to Lt. Colonel. I recently finished the PC version with 109 kills, and only made it to Major.

[@spartacusthebringerofrain3007]

Wing Commander 3 and saga darkness dawn are the best one's. I played wing commander 3 on every system and handheld it came out on. The darkest dawn is won of the best games every made showing what fighting a losing war is like. It actually shows you how screwed humanity was before blairs final mission in WC3.

[@SeekerLancer]

This was a ridiculously impressive version for the hardware it's on. It kicked the pants off of the SNES port.

[@SomeOrangeCat]

The SNES port didn't require a $300 addon to run either.

[@youuuuuuuuuuutube]

@@SomeOrangeCat SNES port was so bad you could only fight 1 ship at a time, others would wait in the background because they couldn't be rendered!

[@SomeOrangeCat]

@@youuuuuuuuuuutube LOL! What a pathetic Sega Karen. Responding to two year old comments with a burner account.

[@spartacusthebringerofrain3007]

This was never meant to be run on those systems. Computers were light years ahead of home systems at this point. There weren't any cross platform games in real time back then. The fact the SNES could even run this game was incredible for the time. It required not only the best computers but also monitors and game card to run this game. This was still when you had cga, ega and VGA monitors. If you didn't have the right monitor it wouldn't play back in 1990. My first monitor only had 3 color's and rendered everything Pink and black. I had to buy new ones as game's got better

[@Terrorkarel]

Never imagined Iceman sounding like Clint Eastwood but I can sorta see it.

[@SNARC15]

The 3DO version's Iceman also sounded like Clint Eastwood, but it's version of Maniac also sounded like Jack Nicholson

[@nicolashrv]

This game is a must-do to play with joystick.......I remember trying to use the keyboard and it's totally weird and screwed up, you cannot align the ship ever to shot the enemy.

[@stephenrobinson3301]

What is Clint Eastwood doing in this game?😂

[@gnomechomskylives]

koolkitty8989 As much as I love the voicework on this (no seriously, I do - the voices are almost exactly what I imagined they be playing on the "silent" music-only PC version), I hate hate hate HATE this new score for the game. Why mess with perfection? George "Fat Man" Sanger's original soundtrack was epic and fit Wing Commander to a tee. The new score doesn't do the game justice.

[@Fuchsia_tude]

I somehow doubt he was involved in the music on this game, despite the unchanged credits.

[@Watcher3223]

Supposedly, Noriyuki Iwadare and others were responsible for the Sega CD score. And while his work on the Lunar series of games on the Sega CD were great, I do agree that his music for this game was among the most disappointing aspects of it as it's nowhere near as thematic and didn't have as much emotional impact as the original. The Sega CD port of "Wing Commander" was apparently done by Game Arts for Electronic Arts.

[@Otokichi786]

2:07 In the bar with Shotglass, Paladin and Angel. 5:02 Mission briefing. 7:27 Launch. 7:42 Dralthi attack with soundtrack by Demented Squirrels.;) 9:47 Dodging Asteroid Blues. 11:16 Salthi attack with Demented Squirrels. 12:55 Asteroid Dodge 'em. 13:54 Where's the "L" key? (A long-ago WC DOS player asked THAT question.;) 14:44 After mission debriefing. (That same old time player wondered aloud what a "sortie" was!)

[@Meanthord]

No subtitles in this port :(.

[@Dave-PL]

The voices added to the characters was very good idea and it's missing in PC CD edition released in 1994. But music isn't like we heard in Amiga/PC edition. That's Chris Roberts inconsequential in development we can see whole WC series. This shit we observe even Today in Star Citizen game which not been released till Today.

[@smv4usa]

Not only land, but how to select different radio messages to give to your teammates. I didn't even understand what I was supposed to do in this game. Ignorance can be infuriating.

[@SomeOrangeCat]

Commander Bob Dole has a silky voice.

[@LorenHelgeson]

Good 'ol Cam Clarke.

[@LorenHelgeson]

Apparently he was, as the newscaster, audio only. I remember there being at least a couple times in the game where news clips played, but this was before I even knew who Cam was. I'd have to go back and re-listen to those clips.

[@mattb9664]

Cam Clarke is Leonardo from our TMNT cartoon!

[@HaloJaxed]

He got that voice from surviving years out in the Alaskan wilderness. Or being a genetic super soldier clone of Big Boss. It's so hard to tell Master Miller and Liquid Snake apart. It's like they've got the same voice or something.

[@palaiologos4441]

Ok. Breathe in.... LIQUIIIIIDDDDDD!!!!!!

[@sserpent21]

I thought Commander Halcyon sounded familiar.

[@spartacusthebringerofrain3007]

I played this when it first came out on computer. Stiil remember how much i hated the scimitar. It was the worst fighter ever inflicted on a person in any game. In order to experience the entire game you had to take the losing path and get stuck in the thing

[@jharvey62778]

The raptor was always my favorite ship to fly not the rapier

[@bjornjoseph]

ah man. i wish the original had the speech pack...

[@segasonic9117]

The scaling in this game is terrible considering how powerful the MEGA-CD's chip was. It looks similar to Night Striker where everything is a pixelated mess. At least Night Striker had a lot going on! This thing has 1 or 2 sprites at a time! For anyone saying it "looks terrible because of the MCD's low colour pallet", go and take a look at Batman Returns, Batman and Robin or any CORE game, especially Soul Star. It was shitty programming that made the graphics sucky, not the hardware. Certainly as far as the "action" scene graphics go. To me, this game just always looked like a typical PC game with "ugly Western PC game" art. Playing it did not change my mind.

[@LorenHelgeson]

The frame rate didn't help, either. It makes some of the combat missions barely playable. If it weren't for the story or music, I wouldn't have anything to get nostalgic over.

[@segasonic9117]

It had a dedicated chip that could do near System-16 "Super Scaller" scalling/rotation. That's FULL scalling and rotation, not 1 sprite/background like Mode 7. Check out Soul Star for a look at the true power the MEGA-CD's criminally underused ASIC chip had. Even early games such as Jaguar XJ220 and Batman Returns look amazing! Of course, more colour would have helped, but they still look amazing. A MEGA-CD version of Outrun could have been near perfect, shame it was only released as an 8-MEG cart!

[@segasonic9117]

Yeah, I loved Outrun on the MD and played it to death. Until the SEGA AGES release of Outrun on the Saturn :D That was released the same day as SFZero 2. I was actually more excited for Outrun the say I picked them both up! I was mega excited for SF Zero 2, especially as we Jp Saturn owners had to wait an extra 3 months after the PS1 release. Bloody CRAPCOM and their paid for timed exclusives, grrr. At least our ports were almost always superior. I say ALMOST because SSFIIX sucked arse on the Saturn! What a crime. Outrun has a very special place in my heart. I was also excited the day I bought After Burner II. I wish SEGA would release more SEGA AGES compilations on the PS4. An AM2 collection with everything from the Model 1-3 hardware would be amazing. Not to mention proper collections of all Outrun, Shinobi and Golden Axe games, as they should have done on the PS2. Sadly, I never see that happening.

[@segasonic9117]

The 3D AGES games on the PS2 were trash. Golden Axe being the biggest crime. It's a damn shame that they did make the whole collection like the collections that started at Vol.20 with Space Harrier Complete.

[@valentincasanova2648]

Well, it's not like that the game is even using the 64 colors, but instead uses only 16 colors.

[@mattb9664]

Shotglass sounds like Elmo’s dad!!

[@mattb9664]

I still prefer the PC version. I tinkered with this Sega CD version but wasn’t too interested... I enjoyed reading the lines of all the characters, and the PC dogfight graphics were superior to Sega CD anyway.

[@thecoyotespeaks9649]

I had this on pc and it had voices. I assume they changed it for the version I had. Super wing commander it was called

[@POLE7645]

@@thecoyotespeaks9649 Super Wing Commander was for 3DO and Macintosh. And yes, it had voices exclusive to that version.

[@thecoyotespeaks9649]

@@POLE7645 oh yeh i had a mac back then

[@LeeShadow]

I wish I could have figured out how to land the ship in the SNES game, I would have played more of the Wing Commander series as I grew up.

[@MidoseitoAkage]

Same, but for me it was on the pc instead.

[@cleverkitsune4302]

Select+r to bring up comm window then select +x to select tigers claw. X to select then x to request landing just approach the carrier and slow down

[@ronin6199]

She is honored to fly on his wing. Wink wink nudge nudge.

[@stephenrobinson3301]

Afterburner slides! Couldn't do those with the SNES version.

[@skarmachild]

HOTUSHOTU-SAN AND CAPTAIN-SAMA

[@Yoni123]

i wouldnt mind 'tailing' angel. thumbs up

[@zacherythehawk6266]

Did you all know the SNES version Has AN MSU PATCH!?

[@Krystalmyth]

No subtitles is a weird choice, and bizarre music. Shame this could have been the definitive version of the game if they didn't try to be different.

[@D0S81]

I just got the GOG collection and noticed that it looked like they had proper lipsync despite their being no voices, then i find out only this version and another has voices! I dont get why they wouldnt put the voices in the gog version. Ive seen a vid of a modder who did it, but the lip sync is too slow and they end up with flappy mouth syndrome. Which is a shame, cuz no matter how good or bad your graphics are, perfect lip sync makes all the different.

[@KopperNeoman]

Because only the Mega CD version has the voices (and there's also that other version on 3DO and Mac with a different dub and Secret Missions 1.5, the first time Blair was called Maverick) The GOG version is just the DOS version.

[@RobertsonBrendyn]

Hey, try Wing Commander 2 and 3.

[@RobertsonBrendyn]

You know, you should leave a few enemy fights for you wing-man to take down.

[@yarpen26]

currently playing this game on the PC, GoG version. at first i thought it would be better with actual voices. i don't think so anymore.

[@KungKras]

Is this a good port compared to the PC version?

[@joekeyser264]

Did the game really look this bad on the PC version? I can't remember it was so long ago.

[@KlingonCaptain]

I don't know about the PC version, but this looks amazing compared to the SNES version that I played as a kid. I never knew that the original "Wing Commander" could look this good.

[@gnomechomskylives]

***** Not sure how to answer your question because you don't specify what you mean by "bad" in your question. If by "bad" you mean tons of dithering, then no, the PC version had superior graphics because Wing Commander could use MCGA graphics that allowed up to 256 colors. Mega CD had a smaller palette it seems and had to dither some colors, giving a muddier, less-detailed appearance. Everything else is par for course and these were state-of-the art graphics considering the power of PCs and consoles back then. It's fair to say that Wing Commander was the killer app of its day and single-handedly sold more PCs and PC upgrades (including soundcards which weren't standard then) than any other game up to that point.

[@tbr2109]

+Joe Keyser The colors look extremely muted, and the graphics appear to be slightly lower resolution than the PC version (MCGA/VGA).

[@cj694x2]

If you were to play this on an actual console on a CRT, it wouldn't look this bad either. Everywhere there's dithering, the CRT would actually blend those pixels together and the picture would look smoother and more colorful.

[@cleverkitsune4302]

Yes it did.. Game came out in 1990 didnt look bad for 256 colors

[@RaidenWarriors]

Maniac's voice is too much ahahahaha

[@coyran]

Well, voice acting, different soundtrack are sort of refreshing, but graphically terrible due to Sega colour palette limitations.

[@Kaido_928]

Even the bar music is different:(

[@LorenHelgeson]

Everything was different in the audio department. This was my version of Wing Commander growing up, so I have a lot of nostalgia for the music in this one. However, playing the PC version for the first time a couple weeks ago, I must admit that one easily has the superior soundtrack by a wide margin. I imagine doubly so if you had an excellent sound card. Even the SNES version used the original PC version of the soundtrack, so no clue why they changed it. I mean, it wasn't even redbook audio.

[@waywardastronaut5128]

What the fuck did they do to the soundtrack?! It's abysmal. Voice acting isn't bad though, especially for the time.

[@toughguyver6986]

CD-32 version is better. More colors, better music.

[@julienbraudel7109]

Soundtrack is not as good as the original.

[@carbonbw]

what is this terrible music?

[@KitWriter]

The voice acting is HORRIBLE in both this AND the Mac/3d0 version. But at least I don't CRINGE on the Sega version. Well, not as much. I know it's the child in me but... when you first see Angel I'm like, "HA! You totally get the Vitamin D from Bluehair later! Hotshot, Maverick, Bluehair, whatever. you know you're gonna shout all three in ten years from now, Frenchie!" And then... I realize I'm shouting at a screen and wonder what I'm doing with my life. :\

[@KitWriter]

Also, I love when they go for a wide-angle "distant" shot of the Colonel... his hat logo turns into a "W" and it makes me think he looks like a manager at Whataburger xD

[@aiddogg3]

KitWriter wtf your above comments

[@Ztinkyy]

Too funny!

[@electricmastro]

I actually think the voice acting here is pretty good. Not sure how it could have been done different.

[@oopus4]

I know this post is 8 years old, but i wouldn't say it's ba, cheesy maybe, but not bad at all.

[@tzbenetti1000]

Terrible port in all aspects