SHP Forums

According to Douglas Herring, the animator and background designer of the TCB:

- The boat in the swamp sequence was an homage to Walt Kelly's "Pogo"
- The name "Jessie" on the boat (in the opening sequence) is the name of his granddaughter
- The name "Minnow" on the rowingboat in the carriage house is a reference to Gilligan's Island
- Doug actually had a neat multi-plane effect for the opening sequence, but it was cut because it ran too slow on a 286-16. When WingCommander did a similar effect a year later, and everyone marveled at it as a great inovation, he was a bit bummed.

It would be neat seeing the multi-plane effect. Wonder if it's still hanging around. Never knew about the others, except for the Gilligan's Island reference. ^_^

Rudy wrote:Doug actually had a neat multi-plane effect for the opening sequence, but it was cut because it ran too slow on a 286-16. When WingCommander did a similar effect a year later, and everyone marveled at it as a great inovation, he was a bit bummed.

I loved Wing Commander and the other WC games. That wasn't because of the multi-plane effect, but because the games were freakin' awesome.

If I recall correctly, what many people first noticed in WC was the musical score and sound effects. When WC came out in 1990, people were just beginning to get sound cards. Those who did noticed a dramatic difference and WC was once such game to take advantage of that.

WC was also one of the first VGA games. So the graphics certainly looked better than most games of the time period. I felt -- and still feel -- that the graphics looked better than those in KQ5.

It was also the first Flight Simulator to incorporate a storyline. The plot was good and got better with each successive game... until the fifth game came out. The best way to describe Wing Commander: Prophecy (aka WC5) is to call it the MoE of the WC series.

I know Rudy's comment wasn't about WC itself, but I can't help it. The WC series contained some of my favorite games of all time.