send to me and I'll convert it to something that can be put online for everyone. 😀

I can send it back when I'm done. You are in the US so it would be easy and cheap with media mail.

I went ahead and converted it myself, cheaper then shipping to swaaye. 😉

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=EHNT1Q4D

Just watching the first 5 minutes which is the Adlib advertisement is worth the 400mb download. I might dice up the video and put just it on youtube.

Cool. Will check this out.

Awesome, thanks! 😀

Just watched the whole thing while having an early lunch

The must have used a pretty slow PC when they ran Wing Commander...like a 386SX since it ran very slow and choppy

Spectrum Holobyte's stuff was very cheesy imho.....and you saw more live video footage than scenes from the real game 😉
Must have been the way to market simulators back then...when we didn't have fraps to record real video from the games 😁

thanks for sharing!

I love this pre-release early game footage of Stunt Driver, Stellar 7 and Kings Quest V! Stunt Driver's crash physics look different and its menu is gray in this video. Stellar 7 is missing the special weapons in the bottom left and the explosions are static unscaled sprites, and its title screen and menu is all different as well.

The Adlib portion should be specially preserved in 640x480 retaining interlacing, IMO 😉 Things move so fast I wonder how surreal it'd be at 60hz, especially the "child's imagination" part.

The man transforming into a pilot is a priceless moment also, and the narrator in the Stunt Driver segment... ROFL

Amigaz wrote:

The must have used a pretty slow PC when they ran Wing Commander...like a 386SX since it ran very slow and choppy

Maybe that's how they intended it? Better blow up your special Wing Commander 386 and build an all new slower one! 😁

Amigaz wrote:

Awesome, thanks! 😀

Just watched the whole thing while having an early lunch

The must have used a pretty slow PC when they ran Wing Commander...like a 386SX since it ran very slow and choppy

My Wing Commander: Secret Mission 2 manual states that there is a slowdown button (which is I think Ctrl-minus) for faster 386 computers, starting with the 33mhz model.

Interesting that they preferred the slower speed 386 ones.

pianoman72 wrote:

Amigaz wrote:

Awesome, thanks! 😀

Just watched the whole thing while having an early lunch

The must have used a pretty slow PC when they ran Wing Commander...like a 386SX since it ran very slow and choppy

My Wing Commander: Secret Mission 2 manual states that there is a slowdown button (which is I think Ctrl-minus) for faster 386 computers, starting with the 33mhz model.

Interesting that they preferred the slower speed 386 ones.

Really? damn...does this mean we finally can run this game on a fast 386 or 486? 😳 😁 😎

I checked my secret missions 2 manual to make sure I got the right information for the slowdown keys, and here's the exact quote of the paragraph:

"If you are playing the Secret Missions 2 on a very fast computer (such as a 33 megahertz 386 or a 486), you can adjust the game speed by using the Alt key combined with the + (plus) and - (minus) keys. Alt + will increase the animation frame delay rate, which will slow down the animation speed in the game. Alt - will decrease the frame delay rate, and will speed up the animation in your game. This feature is usable only in the Trainsim and combat missions, and will not affect the Rec Room/Briefing/Debriefing animations."

Whether or not this key combo works with the main Wing Commander game and Secret missions 1 is another story, and I'll have to check that for you later, as I'm not at my 386 PC right now.
Hope that helps!

I think they only refer to the mobo's built in slowdown feature to go into "XT compatibility" mode which in most cases it too slow for anything but prehistoric games

Ok, I just had a chance to check quickly this feature on my 386DX40 computer. The slowdown is really a stepwise frame rate reducer. It's more like it skips certain frames. By default, when you start sm2.exe (secret missions 2), during the battle, pressing alt - does not do anything, since you're at full speed anyway. Pressing alt + reduces the animation frame rate, so it looks a bit more choppy, but in no way it slows down the actual computer or game, but allows you to deal more realistically with the incoming ships at a more reasonable pace.

I hope that makes sense, since I know that can be confusing. It definitely is not an "XT compatibility" mode, but that was a good guess. Playing at 40 mhz, I found the game play quite fast.

Since my 386DX40 computer has dip switches on the motherboard to slow down incrementally to 33 and 25mhz, as well as to 20mhz by turning off the cache in the BIOS, I am inspired to play the whole game with its expansions, and let you know how I perceive the "right speed" to be. Give me a few days, and I will do so.

nah, I used that alt-+/- combination myself in the past. It worked, but I recall there was a limit on how much it would slow down.

That "Blade Hunter" Rise of the Dragon game looked really interesting to me. I'd never heard of it before.
http://www.mobygames.com/game/rise-of-the-dragon

Sorry to post some offtopic info. here again, but I wanted to follow on what I promised earlier in the thread. I had a chance to test Wing Commander 1 with its expansions, at the different speeds of my 386, including 20, 25, and 33mhz, and playing several missions (about 12 including some from the expansion).

To my best reasoning, there is not one perfect processor speed for this game. Playing at 33mhz, as Amigaz suggests is the best for this game, I found the gameplay too fast in most cases (compared to the video uploaded in this thread), with the exception of when there are many ships on the screen (big battles). At 25mhz, the cutscenes and gameplay are playing at a more normal speed, but I still found the beginning missions (with few ships) and especially the simulator too fast to have a comfortable feel with using the joystick. However, at 20mhz I found my favorite feel most of the time, except of course it does get slow and a bit choppy with bigger battles.

I have a feeling that the developers knew about the limitations, and preferred this speed around 20mhz, knowing that there are slowdowns on the more intensive action. I'm sure they had to accomodate a lot of computers out there, including 286 ones, which many people still used.

Anyway, this is my humble and subjective opinion, and I appreciate you reading this.

pianoman72 wrote:

Sorry to post some offtopic info. here again, but I wanted to follow on what I promised earlier in the thread. I had a chance t […]
Show full quote

Sorry to post some offtopic info. here again, but I wanted to follow on what I promised earlier in the thread. I had a chance to test Wing Commander 1 with its expansions, at the different speeds of my 386, including 20, 25, and 33mhz, and playing several missions (about 12 including some from the expansion).

To my best reasoning, there is not one perfect processor speed for this game. Playing at 33mhz, as Amigaz suggests is the best for this game, I found the gameplay too fast in most cases (compared to the video uploaded in this thread), with the exception of when there are many ships on the screen (big battles). At 25mhz, the cutscenes and gameplay are playing at a more normal speed, but I still found the beginning missions (with few ships) and especially the simulator too fast to have a comfortable feel with using the joystick. However, at 20mhz I found my favorite feel most of the time, except of course it does get slow and a bit choppy with bigger battles.

I have a feeling that the developers knew about the limitations, and preferred this speed around 20mhz, knowing that there are slowdowns on the more intensive action. I'm sure they had to accomodate a lot of computers out there, including 286 ones, which many people still used.

Anyway, this is my humble and subjective opinion, and I appreciate you reading this.

How much cache does your 386 I have?

My two "sweet spot" 386 machines have 64k cache

My 386 has 128kb cache. However, the 20mhz speed is only achieved by disabling the cache in my machine. As I mentioned earlier, the other 2 speeds available (other than the XT-like speed when I press the turbo button) of 33 and 40mhz, I can set up with the jumpers on the motherboard, and of course having the cache enabled as well.

There seems to be different narrators describing each companies' games on the tape. Whoever did the narration for Adlib and Lucasfilm should have been replaced, I never knew how boring their products could sound until I heard this guy talk about them.

Wow! That's an amazing document! Thank you!