#ab silvera

Wing Commander: Armada

By 1994, momentum was building in the Wing Commander brand. While Academy gave fans the mission creator they always wanted, Privateer had managed to fire up the imaginations of PC gamers, opening up the Wing Commander universe in what was thought to be just another spin-off. New novels were exploring more of the canon, and Wing Commander III was already under development. But it was still a highly experimental time for the series, and for gaming as a whole.

Enter Wing Commander: Armada, an ambitious, testbed little game. Part turn-based strategy, part multiplayer simulator, Armada was made from early WC3 assets combined with recycled Super Wing Commander ones. It featured modem multiplayer which few could attempt to replicate. On top of it all, it boasted a turn-based 4X strategy game which allowed you, in those pre-internet days, to copy their file on a floppy and mail it to a friend, so that they could take their turn and mail it back. And you got to command a Kilrathi strike force if you so wished!

Strike Commander

After the grand splash of the first installment, Wing Commander II had been a refinement for fans that wanted a deeper exploration of this new universe. Aside from its second mission pack, 1992 was a bit of a gap year for Wing Commander. The company’s focus seemed to be on the release of the ambitious Ultima VII: The Black Gate, and the Wing team was otherwise occupied. The series wasn’t forgotten, however. Ports of the first game were being released in multiple platforms. The first licensed Wing Commander novel, Freedom Flight, hit shelves, penned by Wing writer Ellen Guon. The universe was expanding, even as the games took a brief break.

As mentioned earlier, Chris Roberts’s attention was elsewhere during the development of WCII and its expansion packs. His new permanent position as Director of New Technologies meant he had to pursue projects that pushed the envelope for, well, technology. Strike Commander was that project.

Wing Commander: Privateer

With Wing Commander: Academy, Origin had seen the value in developing smaller games with existing technology in order to recoup the costs from developing their bigger releases. The use of pre-existing engines to build from gave Origin devs the freedom to experiment without being too concerned about reinventing the wheel. The next installment in the Wing Commander main series was still a year or so away when players were treated to the biggest departure from tradition in the series so far: Wing Commander: Privateer. 

Wing Commander

For most of the 1980s, Origin Systems was best known for their groundbreaking work in the Ultima series. Ultima defined the CRPG and broke ground with each new iteration, gaining Origin Systems, and especially its key figure, Richard Garriott, considerable fame within the industry. The history of Ultima can be found elsewhere on this site, but Origin released other games, of course, many of which were also RPGs. Its reputation as ‘the Ultima guys’ was well-earned.

All of that changed in 1990 with the release of Wing Commander.

Much like Garriott came to be defined by his creation of Ultima, so did Chris Roberts come to be known primarily for his magnum sci-fi opus. Wing Commander put space combat simulators on the map, causing a boom in the genre not seen since its apex in the 1990’s. Throughout multiple games, ports, and adaptations to other media from cartoons to novels to a Hollywood film, Wing Commander defined Origin’s ’90s just as much as Ultima had defined its ’80s.

Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi

Tense music plays as a ship appears in the blackness of space. It’s the TCS Tiger’s Claw. Your home for all of Wing Commander, now in maneouvres behind enemy lines. Suddenly, three Kilrathi starfighters appear from thin air, and unload torpedoes in a surprise attack! The Tiger’s Claw is destroyed with all hands.

And the Confederation has chosen to blame you for it.

Wing Commander: Academy

The prolonged development time of Strike Commander made Origin realize they could not capitalize exclusively on bigger titles. The bigger Origin titles released at the time retailed for $79.95, before adjusting for inflation. The company felt it was not sustainable to have such a staggered release schedule of very expensive games. Smaller titles would help with the company’s cash flow, while at the same time catering to specific demands from their fanbase.

One such commonly heard demand from the Wing fandom was for a mission creation tool, which had been promised to ship with Wing Commander II. Many fans of the series were left hanging when that promise didn’t materialize, so Origin set about to make up for that fact with Wing Commander: Academy. Not to be confused with the 1996 animated series of the same name, which we will look at later in this series.