Wing Commander (DOS) - Intro & First Mission (Enyo 1)

Here we have the classic space simulation game Wing Commander by Chris Roberts. This video shows the full introduction sequence and first mission.

The game was first released by Origin Systems for the PC (MS-DOS) on September 26, 1990.

Wing Commander brought space combat to a level approaching the Star Wars films. Set in the year 2654, it featured a multi-national cast of pilots from the "Terran Confederation" flying missions against the predatory, aggressive Kilrathi, a feline warrior race.

Cockpit performance affected gameplay: going above and beyond the call of duty resulted in medals and promotions, and success or failure on certain critical missions would even decide the player's plot progress, "winning" or "losing". (info taken from Wikipedia)

When I first played WC on a friends PC I was totally blown away, particuarly because I owned an Atari ST which could in no way run a game with this kind of graphics and sound. To an 11 year old it was an epic experience, oozing amtosphere and really making you feel part of the game world. The running sequence from mission briefing to your fighter still makes me grin with anticipation.

21 years after it release, it is obviouslly starting to showing it's age graphically. The graphics are completely sprite based and look very pixalted close up. Also, being sprite based does the animations of the spacecraft no favours due to the lack of fluidity. But as long as you can see past that, it is still a lot of fun to play today.

This version of the game is running through DOSBox. However it was re-released for Windows (and fixed for modern CPU's and also the addition of enhanced sound) as part of the Kilrathi Saga.

(And yeah, I should have used a couple of missles on that Salthi that got away. As for the asteroid hitting me, that's what happens when you look down at the keyboard at the wrong moment...)