The classic space combat game will once again be available thanks to one man’s enthusiasm and the power of social networking.
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the release of Wing Commander, BioWare Mythic’s creative director Paul Barnett has leaned on EA to sanction the release of a DOSBox compatible version of the game.
Barnett’s campaign started on Twitter, where he said he was hard at work convincing EA’s legal department to allow Wing Commander to be released, and asked for fans to show their support by retweeting his message. It would seem that enough people were excited about the idea, as later tweets said that he had the code for the game plus the Secret Missions expansions, and the technical team was removing the copy protection and making sure that everything worked ok. There’s no word as yet about when or where the game will be available.
Wing Commander was first released for the PC in 1990, and was later ported to a variety of other platforms including the SNES and the Sega CD. It cast the player as a young pilot in the Terran Confederation, fighting a war against the feline Kilrathi. It was markedly different from other space combat games of the time, as it was much more cinematic and your performance actually affected the direction of the story. It spawned a number of spin-offs and sequels, which include novels, games and a rather poor movie.
Source: Eurogamer
