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Wing Commander III

filfre.net

101–110 of 166 posts

Re: Wing Commander III

#101

Owned it. It was campy fun even then but WCII and WC:Privateer were far and away the better games. III was one of many attempts at a game-movie crossover that never really worked imho. Privateer is the basis of EVE online, Star Citizen and countless other modern titles. In terms of influence it is up there with SimCity and Civilization. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wing_Commander:_Privateer

Privateer! I absolutely loved that game - I must have racked hundreds of hours on it as a kid!

I liked WC:Prophecy a lot too, but the trade aspect of Privateer was what really got me hooked. Also, the sheer size of the Privateer universe was mind boggling at the time. That and the graphics almost seemed like witchcraft given PC capabilities of the day.

Re: Wing Commander III

#102
post #64

This was also the perfect way to learn your dad knew who Ginger Lynn is but also to for him to learn how his then ~15 year old also knew.

One evening we are watching some reality show where they show up at your house and fix things, and this one episode they introduce the owner. Owner, nothing, that’s Ginger Lynn. They never did name her. The whole episode she was just “the owner”. I had nobody to share this realization with, as you can imagine. So she is still out there somewhere, living her best life from the sounds of it.

Good for her - honestly the way we treat porn stars (all sex workers really) as a society is so awful. I would bet most, including the pious and self-righteous, what have you, are at once consumers but then have no qualms shaming them.

Re: Wing Commander III

#103

Owned it. It was campy fun even then but WCII and WC:Privateer were far and away the better games. III was one of many attempts at a game-movie crossover that never really worked imho. Privateer is the basis of EVE online, Star Citizen and countless other modern titles. In terms of influence it is up there with SimCity and Civilization. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wing_Commander:_Privateer

Wing Commander II was just amazing. Had a long, fairly well thought out story with meaningful twists, emotional moments, tension and accompanies by a great soundtrack.

I will see you in heaven.

Some remastered bits of soundtrack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJD6YpHD5O0&list=PLFB7GcAB-z...

Re: Wing Commander III

#104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel the same way. I'm really fascinated by speedrunners who can beat my favorite classic games less than an hour, sometimes in minutes. Some of that is cutting weird corners but often it's pure excellent execution. I often wonder about doing that myself, playing hundreds of hours of a single game to master it. Putting all of my focus on a single game like I used to as a kid, but I don't find anything keeps my atte…

"I'm really fascinated by speedrunners who can beat my favorite classic games less than an hour, sometimes in minutes. Some of that is cutting weird corners but often it's pure excellent execution." Ocarina of Time speedrunning has gotten to a really weird place now, where they basically set the character's name to a string of bytes which are executable code, and then de-reference a pointer to it and warp directly to…

I'm aware of all of this, but I'm really glad you posted it in case some others read it and it catches their interest.

OoT speedrunning is very unique, and since it was a game I played a lot as a kid I'm always excited to watch the ways it's beaten.

I do admit I prefer the categories that emphasize more gameplay though, even if the glitches are incredible.

Re: Wing Commander III

#105

It must be Origin retrogames quarter on HN! We had an article about what made Ultima IX (or was it VIII?) a complete disaster and it was exactly from this same web domain. I read the entirety of the WCIII article then ,since the ultima article linked to it. I think the article is well sourced, and for sure i learned a thing or two, but more importantly, it made me think on how valuable sources of information (domains…

You can get lost on filfre.net for days. The PC gaming era was never my bag but he’s spot on on the old 8-bit stories - his articles on Imagine/Psygnosis, and Melbourne House’s The Hobbit, are superb.

Re: Wing Commander III

#106
I just loved launch bays, hanger decks, briefing rooms, flying CAP, and defending the fleet. It started with Elite, went into overdrive when I watched the original series of Battlestar Galactica, then Playing Wing commander 3. Something really cool about going down the launch bay, straight into an ambush, and limping your fighter back in one piece. Loved it.

Re: Wing Commander III

#107

Owned it. It was campy fun even then but WCII and WC:Privateer were far and away the better games. III was one of many attempts at a game-movie crossover that never really worked imho. Privateer is the basis of EVE online, Star Citizen and countless other modern titles. In terms of influence it is up there with SimCity and Civilization. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wing_Commander:_Privateer

Privateer! I absolutely loved that game - I must have racked hundreds of hours on it as a kid! I liked WC:Prophecy a lot too, but the trade aspect of Privateer was what really got me hooked. Also, the sheer size of the Privateer universe was mind boggling at the time. That and the graphics almost seemed like witchcraft given PC capabilities of the day.

Indeed. Though revisiting it I find it's brutally difficult without a small deadzone joystick and careful choices early on. Like stay in Troy, Meson blasters, afterburners, run away from most fights, scout don't patrol, etc.

Also lack of in flight saves and close asteroid spawning makes it tough even with the best ship and shields.

Re: Wing Commander III

#108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need to create everything with modern AAA standards. Games like FTL show that you can achieve a lot with much less effort. You just need to be bolder. And i think being bolder is the hard part: games these days are more timid in their aprroach to than they were in early 90s, like always trying to stick to a working formula. Mashups of different genres like SC2 are somehow nonexistent.

If you think that, you're not looking hard enough. There are countless incredible (and bold) indie games doing really interesting and unusual things. Off the top of my head: - Outer Wilds (an entire solar system is a puzzle stuck in a time loop) - Hades (a roguelike where dying progresses the story) - Slay the Spire (a hybrid deckbuilder/roguelike where different runs can produce drastically different gameplay and bu…

StarSector - ~Star Control

RimWorld - "sims"

Re: Wing Commander III

#109
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's just the novelty of things. And the free time aspect. I remember playing Dragon Warrior on NES late into the night with friends. Grinding away to get that next item and leveling up to fight bigger monsters. It was really fun, really exciting. A few years ago I got an emulator and fired it up. Played about 5 minutes before I couldn't continue. Just didn't have the desire to grind away. And the emulator ha…

This week I reconnected to the MUD I used to play 20 years ago. I'm amazed it's still running. I've forgotten nearly everything. I've been having a blast these past few days exploring the vast world. There's nothing that Google can tell me about it. There's still people playing (and building) it, so I can ask for help - my old clan is still going even - but there's no instant fix on everything. I don't know how long…

Out of curiosity, which MUD?

I used to play EliteMUD a ton decades ago. We used to get up at 6am to grab some computer terminals at the city's computer center and play all day.

I could've played from home but the phone bill would've been crippling.

Re: Wing Commander III

#110

I've lost something. When I was a kid, buying a new game was nearly impossible; If I was lucky, I'd get one for a birthday present or a Christmas gift. Occasionally a cool friend would lend me a copy of something. For a very short time, I lived about a mile away from a video game rental store and I'd sometimes be able to convince an adult I was responsible enough to return the game and spend my own money renting a ga…

Speedrunners can spend hours working on small incremental improvements to their runs on a very deep level, with some of that time wading through code and disassembly; they sometimes end up understanding a game's programming better than the original designers haha

It seems like a grind from the outside but with the right game and the right community... there is always a faster time to achieve :) https://www.speedrun.com/

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