Ancient DOS Games Episode 356 - Wing Commander II is online!

I've been sitting on this one for far too long... Part of what took so long to get around to it was because I had no idea if it would make for a short or a long video. Turns out... quite the long video actually, as despite being mostly an improvement over the original experience, it also includes one new feature which is one of the worst mechanics any game could ever add, and if not for a non-official way to mitigate that new feature, it likely would've ended this review before it even had a chance to get off the ground... >_>;

Welp... due to recent additions to the rules here on VOGONS it seems this 16-year-old thread of ADG videos has to come to a close. :(

It's no secret that I am terrible at the whole "social" thing; I can only monitor very few presences online before it becomes too overwhelming. In the early days of ADG I still wasn't using social media like Twitter or heck, I didn't even have a YouTube account. As things expanded and I now had a social media account to manage as well as YouTube comments to moderate, it became virtually impossible for me to keep up with things here on VOGONS. Nevertheless, I kept this thread going because I felt as though I should, I responded to feedback as such, plus whenever someone over on Twitter (now Bluesky), YouTube, or even by eMail, had questions about these old games I couldn't answer, I would simply send them over here, knowing that the people here on VOGONS, as a community, have far more collective knowledge about this stuff than I ever could!

But, because I'm not a regular here anymore, nor can I ever be again because I simply do not have the time to invest in being active here, keeping this thread going would be in violation of the new rules in place... which also means this may end up being my last post ever here on the forums.

Granted, at the same time I realize most people from these forums who watch my stuff on a regular basis probably aren't paying much attention to these posts anymore in the first place, so ending this thread is probably not going to be a huge loss either. At the same time I at least understand the reasoning behind the new rules and even though I have reservations about them, it's important for me to respect them. Still, it's kind of a weird way to draw such an old and ongoing thread to a close. *shrugs*

In any event, to the moderators, feel free to unpin and/or lock the thread if you feel it appropriate, or even just leave it as it is, and to everyone else, the videos aren't going anywhere, you just won't see updates for them here anymore.

I have no idea how many people from 16 years ago are still around, but for everyone here who helped give me that initial push into getting ADG going and noticed, for the people who originally gave me permission to start this thread, and to everyone who's been watching and providing feedback: Thank you. :)

Gemini000 wrote on 2026-05-07, 20:59:

Welp... due to recent additions to the rules here on VOGONS it seems this 16-year-old thread of ADG videos has to come to a clos […]
Show full quote

Welp... due to recent additions to the rules here on VOGONS it seems this 16-year-old thread of ADG videos has to come to a close. 🙁

It's no secret that I am terrible at the whole "social" thing; I can only monitor very few presences online before it becomes too overwhelming. In the early days of ADG I still wasn't using social media like Twitter or heck, I didn't even have a YouTube account. As things expanded and I now had a social media account to manage as well as YouTube comments to moderate, it became virtually impossible for me to keep up with things here on VOGONS. Nevertheless, I kept this thread going because I felt as though I should, I responded to feedback as such, plus whenever someone over on Twitter (now Bluesky), YouTube, or even by eMail, had questions about these old games I couldn't answer, I would simply send them over here, knowing that the people here on VOGONS, as a community, have far more collective knowledge about this stuff than I ever could!

But, because I'm not a regular here anymore, nor can I ever be again because I simply do not have the time to invest in being active here, keeping this thread going would be in violation of the new rules in place... which also means this may end up being my last post ever here on the forums.

Granted, at the same time I realize most people from these forums who watch my stuff on a regular basis probably aren't paying much attention to these posts anymore in the first place, so ending this thread is probably not going to be a huge loss either. At the same time I at least understand the reasoning behind the new rules and even though I have reservations about them, it's important for me to respect them. Still, it's kind of a weird way to draw such an old and ongoing thread to a close. *shrugs*

In any event, to the moderators, feel free to unpin and/or lock the thread if you feel it appropriate, or even just leave it as it is, and to everyone else, the videos aren't going anywhere, you just won't see updates for them here anymore.

I have no idea how many people from 16 years ago are still around, but for everyone here who helped give me that initial push into getting ADG going and noticed, for the people who originally gave me permission to start this thread, and to everyone who's been watching and providing feedback: Thank you. 😀

I've been primarily keeping up with your show through this forum thread and while I understand what Snover and the mods are trying to curb I will miss seeing you post here. YouTube has made it progressively more difficult for me to watch various things especially when you explicitly "age gate" videos (which as far as I know NO other major YouTuber ever explicitly does this even if it's a violent video game being shown on screen) but the yt-dlp project usually ends up finding a way through the mire.

We've probably only once or twice ever crossed paths on Twitch way back when too. Don't sweat it at being "terrible at the social thing", there's lots of people with similar problems. Nobodies perfect, and neither is the world at large.

DracoNihil wrote on 2026-05-08, 04:47:

Gemini000 wrote on 2026-05-07, 20:59:

Welp... due to recent additions to the rules here on VOGONS it seems this 16-year-old thread of ADG videos has to come to a clos […]
Show full quote

Welp... due to recent additions to the rules here on VOGONS it seems this 16-year-old thread of ADG videos has to come to a close. 🙁

It's no secret that I am terrible at the whole "social" thing; I can only monitor very few presences online before it becomes too overwhelming. In the early days of ADG I still wasn't using social media like Twitter or heck, I didn't even have a YouTube account. As things expanded and I now had a social media account to manage as well as YouTube comments to moderate, it became virtually impossible for me to keep up with things here on VOGONS. Nevertheless, I kept this thread going because I felt as though I should, I responded to feedback as such, plus whenever someone over on Twitter (now Bluesky), YouTube, or even by eMail, had questions about these old games I couldn't answer, I would simply send them over here, knowing that the people here on VOGONS, as a community, have far more collective knowledge about this stuff than I ever could!

But, because I'm not a regular here anymore, nor can I ever be again because I simply do not have the time to invest in being active here, keeping this thread going would be in violation of the new rules in place... which also means this may end up being my last post ever here on the forums.

Granted, at the same time I realize most people from these forums who watch my stuff on a regular basis probably aren't paying much attention to these posts anymore in the first place, so ending this thread is probably not going to be a huge loss either. At the same time I at least understand the reasoning behind the new rules and even though I have reservations about them, it's important for me to respect them. Still, it's kind of a weird way to draw such an old and ongoing thread to a close. *shrugs*

In any event, to the moderators, feel free to unpin and/or lock the thread if you feel it appropriate, or even just leave it as it is, and to everyone else, the videos aren't going anywhere, you just won't see updates for them here anymore.

I have no idea how many people from 16 years ago are still around, but for everyone here who helped give me that initial push into getting ADG going and noticed, for the people who originally gave me permission to start this thread, and to everyone who's been watching and providing feedback: Thank you. 😀

I've been primarily keeping up with your show through this forum thread and while I understand what Snover and the mods are trying to curb I will miss seeing you post here. YouTube has made it progressively more difficult for me to watch various things especially when you explicitly "age gate" videos (which as far as I know NO other major YouTuber ever explicitly does this even if it's a violent video game being shown on screen) but the yt-dlp project usually ends up finding a way through the mire.

We've probably only once or twice ever crossed paths on Twitch way back when too. Don't sweat it at being "terrible at the social thing", there's lots of people with similar problems. Nobodies perfect, and neither is the world at large.

Agreed with above,
I figured you are the exception to the rule since you are responsive to conversations here and have an actual useful descriptor of your thoughts when you publish.

I refuse to have more accounts so I can’t ask questions on YouTube or other places, so this is one of the few places I encounter your updates.

I’ve been around far longer but only discovered your channel when I rejoined this site.

DracoNihil wrote on 2026-05-08, 04:47:

I've been primarily keeping up with your show through this forum thread and while I understand what Snover and the mods are trying to curb I will miss seeing you post here. YouTube has made it progressively more difficult for me to watch various things especially when you explicitly "age gate" videos (which as far as I know NO other major YouTuber ever explicitly does this even if it's a violent video game being shown on screen) but the yt-dlp project usually ends up finding a way through the mire.

People who don't do this when uploading can run into problems keeping their channel as a whole monetized and can also end up losing their ability to have YouTube trust the manual content ratings provided by the uploader. The system EXPLICITLY tells me when I input content details that my "accuracy is high" and that because of this, I don't have to wait for videos to become monetized; it happens right away. To that same degree though, I'm also able to appropriately rate for "mild violence" and "moderate violence", thus why some videos which I would have had to age gate in the past I don't have to now, plus I've gotten better over the years at cutting around or blurring out the most graphic content in an otherwise not-so-graphic game. :B

Keeping my show going is more important to me than trying to squeak things past the system and risk losing it all just so a small number of viewers don't have to log-in and age-verify, or use alternative means of watching. Not to mention, where you live is an important factor as to how intrusive the age-verification thing is or isn't and that's less to do with YouTube and more to do with various governments setting the rules which YouTube has to abide by. :/

rmay635703 wrote on 2026-05-08, 14:47:

I figured you are the exception to the rule since you are responsive to conversations here and have an actual useful descriptor of your thoughts when you publish.

On this thread, sure, but I've barely touched the rest of the forum for years now; I just don't have the time anymore. :(

There had been a couple of vibecoded things that were more as a vehicle to launch a youtube channel, that's where that rule's more for - and they were hijacking threads to do it. But casting a net wide to punish a very human creator with very relevant DOSbox-related content and such with a pinned thread here feels wrong. It's not like the videos get two threads in two forums every time or crossposts into other threads....

This thread is my way to get new ADG videos. 🙁

And this forum is much better to have a discussion about a video than youtube. YT comments are always full of memes.

xcomcmdr wrote on Yesterday, 20:00:

And this forum is much better to have a discussion about a video than youtube. YT comments are always full of memes.

Fortunately, I moderate my YouTube comments appropriately; The quality of comments on my videos is considerably higher than on most. ;)