Wing Commander 3 is the latest game being given away by EA. Sign in to the Origin client or website and get the game from the store for free.
Wing Commander 3: Heart of the Tiger - Free on Origin
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Plankton on 06/08/2014 - 03:47 origin.com (2202 clicks)
Last edited 06/08/2014 - 12:52 by 1 other user
Last edited 06/08/2014 - 12:52 by 1 other user
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What a coincidence, after getting a copy from GOG deal while ago https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/107313, I'm currently playing this game, and up to the mission in Alcor system, after the destruction of the Behemoth planet killer. Even after 20 years, the gameplay still quite though on ace difficulty.
Now they just need to do something like this for Home world, Cataclysm and Home world 2
they need to hire lots of actors to be in homeworld cutscenes.
some of them from WC3 still around:
Blair -> Luke Skywalker (upcoming SW-7)
Paladin -> Gimli from LOTR
Flash -> Ace pilot from Stealth
Tolwyn -> Linderman from Heroes
Rachel -> 166 adult films
I purchased this game for my PS1 around 15 to 20 years ago as it was on clearance at Kmart for about $20. Never actually played it though.
Back then I didn't realise there would eventually be a community of impulse bargain buyers full of people just like me.I remember this game. It was bleeding edge when it released in 1993 or 94. The load times were really long unless you had 8MB of RAM, or was it 16, I can't remember. But it took about 10 mins to load a mission for me, and I sped that up by running speedisk (a HDD defragmenter), cutting it to 8 mins or so. Adding the extra RAM made it load within 30 secs. The game was too massive for hard drives of the time (around 320MB was considered huge) so the missions had to be copied from disc to HDD before each mission, then deleted after the mission to make room for the next mission's files. This led to a lot of HDD fragmentation. But if you had enough RAM it stayed in memory. Or something.
Game had full FMV which made the game 4 discs. These were massive feats at the time. The game cost $130 retail I recall, which at the time was well above the standard price for a PC game (which was about $80, though you could find them as low as $60 if you shop around) due to big budget. Even now games don't cost that much. The highest I've seen is $120 for PS3/360 games, which I was never dumb enough to pay. In 1993 dollars, $130 might be closer to $200 of today's money..
This game takes up 1.8GB, which is impressive for a 93/94 game. Graphics were awesome. They blew me away at the time, and might even still hold up. This was before 3D cards. Importantly, the dogfighting was loads of fun.
"You pathetic descendent of monkeys!" was a line used ad nauseum as a taunt by enemy cat-aliens.
Mark Hamill !
Isn't this the one where Malcolm McDowell gives you a serve when you fail a mission?
"Isn't that the guy from Star Wars?"
Maniac
Yep that behind the scenes/blooper reel is brilliant.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xyayn_wing-commander-iii-be…
Ahh, memories. I remember having to create boot disks just to free up enough memory in order to get the game to run.
Damnnn… Forgot all about that!!
I still got the PC retail box edition purchased in 1995, complete with all the manuals and refs. Too bad the cd-rom discs are no longer readable.
"Watch and learn Colonel"
Its called Kilrathi (the cat-aliens thing).
Makes me reminisce. I didn't play much WCIV but played heaps of WC 1 - 3. I remember reading through the manuals, copying them on multiple high density disks (or drilling holes in double density discs like a true Ozbargainer would). As a young teenage boy, I think I had my first orgasm shooting a missile at the Kilrathi from far away and putting it into missile camera mode and then BOOM!!… I probably should not be reminiscing whilst at work…
Every single game in that series was cutting edge technologically. WC2 was one of the early CD-ROM sound blaster games with full voices.
and now Chris roberts has made Star Citizen
Wing commander for 21st century
$50 for base game, or over $100 again in todays money if you want a decent ship
Bleeding edge graphics pushing modern hardware to its limits
Chris is a true PC master racer
Arena commander is a blast :)
Oh God, I forgot all about those loading times. We had a 486 DX2/66 and the load time for each mission was closer to 30 minutes, but we put up with it because it was friggin Wing Commander! I was barely into my teens at the time and emptied my savings for this game - and I could only afford a copy that was returned because disc 2 was slightly scratched.
It was all totally worth it - this game was rules!
I had the same system.. with 4MB RAM I think. You probably didn't defrag. If you get 8MB it loads in about 2 mins I think.. When I upgraded to a Pentium MMX 166mhz with 16GB, it loaded almost instantly and I was also finally able to see the game in its full SVGA glory.. I was so happy with that, that I replayed the whole game on my new system (for the third time going through it)!
My parents bought me the game for getting good grades, but it was so much more expensive than other games that I had to sell it after I finished the game so they could recoup some funds. I later repurchased it for $50 when it was sold under a Classics label.
The epic prelude to star citizen
For which I can't wait…
never played it…now is my chance :D I still can't believe Origin are giving away free stuff, it's wonderful!
I get to play with Flint all over again!
Or with Rachel:)
The choice scene was the best. The only way to not get either of them pissed off at you is to choose the most hilarious option, which involves kissing both and then rejecting them!
Wow this brings back memories. Also some great acting too.
I guess this was the only thing mark Hamill was good at other then star wars, also has biff… Yeh biff from back to the future.
from memory I think this was 5 cds back in the day on pc.
Just be prepared for a lot of watching.
He voiced the joker for years in various batman animations
True but I guess the luke skywalker title on resume was a killer, I saw him in a few movies and yeh it could be better but I guess it would be still awsome to have that title.
Edit:
A bit of IMDB'ing and turns out he has done a crap load of voice acting in a hell of a load of cartoons.
there you go.
also has biff
This is heavy!
i'm gonna have to dust off my joy stick
Awesome! The WC series is probably in my top 3 game collections of all time…
How do you "purchase" this without the Origin client? At work and want to get it on my account!
Go to the website? as posted in the link..?
It asks for you to download via Origin, even when you go thru the website.
All good - it actually adds it to your purchase history even though it prompts you to download origin.
yeah I've got it as purchased now in my history just had to log into the site and click the "get it now" link
I am sure I can win this game. I used to bullseye womp rats in my T-16 back home.
That's impossible! Even for a computer!
Is this game still in its original 320x200 VGA graphics? I am surprised it can still be run on today's modern PC. Thought it would not be compatible with modern components.
P.S. will Origin add Eye of the Tiger for its theme music?
It runs on DOS BOX with SVGA graphics. Not that bad.
The original had SVGA, but you needed a far more powerful machine than most people had in 93/94 to handle it. 486 DX/2 66 was the best available and remained the most common for a year or two, and it wasn't enough.
i get an error cannot find eaproxyinstalled.exe when i try to install :( tried reinstalling origin from https://www.origin.com/en-au/download still get the same error
So keen to play this. I was a smidge too young for this when it came out, but have always wanted to give it a go. Plus this brings the total of free games in my Origin library to 19… out of a total of 23…
You probably find the graphics is not 21st century quality. But its good to explore the dawn of computer games from the 90s.
Don't worry, man I've played plenty of old games so I know what I'm in for. Graphics are pretty secondary for me, anyway.
Wow i cant believe im not the only one who use to play this back in the days
You're not alone. I played all the wing commander series from 1+2, 3, 4, Propecy and privateer 1&2. Just bought them all from the GOG sale recently, and currently re-playing them all.
Never played this myself. Ill give it a go I see it in my purchase history.
Seems my sims 2 freebie wasn't registered though
This game way always compared to xwing tie fighter series. Imo the star wars series won hands down.
Star wars was newer and in 3D
WC3 is also in 3D, but texture wise not as good as SW.
WC3 and WC4 did not support 3D rendering, only software rendering. WC Prophecy supported 3D cards.
Rachel: My, my, Grandma, what a big gun you have.
Blair: They don’t get any bigger.
Rachel: That’s what they all say. Talk is cheap.Yes! Finally my username is relevant! :D
Bet you've been wanting to say that for the last 7 years..
One of the ground breaking game of the 90s, excellent production value, shocking graphics at the time…
Four freaking CDs (I still got them somewhere lol).Great memories….. I only recently watched a deleted scene where Hobbes says goodbye to Blair via holographic message. The defection never made sense to me before seeing the scene. Also featured John Rhys-Davies at Colonel James "Taggart" Paladin
And porn star Ginger Lynn.
Must be some joke about Kilrathi pussies there but can't think of one right now…
I wonder if it too has a "free" version of Securom automatically installed?
http://www.brightsideofnews.com/2014/07/29/get-sims-2-ultima…
Origin Games - "We Make Worlds"
this is free till 3rd of Sept