Wing Commander Saga Prologue (+ Prey Demo)

Well there goes my weekend. I was going to macgamefiles to download the new Prey demo that Aspyr just released and I discovered something amazing: a new Wing Commander game! In my misbegotten youth (pre-switch) of the late 80's and early 90's many, many hours were wasted on one of the best game series ever released: Wing Commander by Chris Roberts. What could be a better way to spend the time after school than flying around in space saving the Terran people from the dastardly cat-like Kilrathi? The Wing Commander series was retired years ago by its original publisher (a truly wretched movie cannot have helped), but devoted fans simply would not let it die. Now a group of them is working on another game in the series called Wing Commander Saga that takes place after WC3. And the best part: they've ported it for the Mac!

It is based on the space sim Freespace2 (whose source code was apparenly open sourced) and they have already released the first part of the game: the Prologue. I've been playing it for a bit and I must say it's still definitely rough around the edges (there are some huge problems with the space background bitmaps), the production values aren't exactly stellar (pretty weak voice acting), and the game engine is far from state of the art. But dadgummit, I can play Wing Commander on my Mac! And if you're a creative type they're looking for some help.

So if you have fond memories of Wing Commander, or just want to see what a a group of determined fans can accomplish, check it out. The Prologue is available free for download and is a Universal Binary. Oh yeah, and you might as well check out the Prey demo, too. (caution: there's adult language in Prey)

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Source: http://www.scifi3d.org/index2.htm

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Gaming Software Freeware

Well there goes my weekend. I was going to macgamefiles to download the new Prey demo that Aspyr just released and I discovered something...

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InSaNeBoY

I have the Mac version of Wing Commander IV, still... ;)

January 15 2007 at 9:50 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

James

Anyone else notice nobody's seeding the Prey torrent? Why put it up if you're not going to support it?

January 13 2007 at 9:41 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Brandon Hays

What, no Mark Hamill?

I still have the 1997 DVD release of Wing Commander IV. I'm struggling to get it working on my Mac, I've even tried a Win98 installation under Parallels!

January 13 2007 at 3:20 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Bryan T

NOTICE: Intel integrated video chipsets are not supported.

Thought maybe i would try to run the demo on the ol' macbook, see what i could do. Guess not.

January 13 2007 at 3:19 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Mathew

@Trevor

No you don't understand, that's my way of insulting them! Thanks, it's fixed.

January 13 2007 at 3:16 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Trevor

You should turn in your wings. That's "Kilrathi" not "Kirathi".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilrathi

January 13 2007 at 1:47 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Mitch

Nevermind, I'm just an idiot... (1st link, not 2nd)

January 13 2007 at 11:08 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Mitch

Is it just me, or can I not find the Prey demo anywhere?

January 13 2007 at 11:07 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

meego

Setting everything up and running can be a strainous process. Here is a link a small Java auto-installer which was released a short while ago.

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,42854.0.html

You'll need the original FS2 files which can be found at http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,38195.0.html

The SCP forums are a gold mine for all information regarding the open-source Freespace project.

January 13 2007 at 11:04 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

meego

Yup, the SCP folks have done an impressive job with the Freespace2 source code. Not only have they substantialy upgraded the original game, but they also made it possible to run mods within the game. These include among others an original Freespace1 mod, a Star Wars conversion and a Babylon 5 mod. All in sweet OSX flavor.

Plus, the game scales very well on most systems. I can run it with most graphical upgrades on my 15' powerbook.

January 13 2007 at 10:57 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply