Date/Time:
| Sequence | Title | Link on Page |
|---|---|---|
| 1. ) | Wing Commander 2 (1991) Review | Link on Page |
| 2.) | Wing Commander II (1991) Playthrough | Link on page |
| 3.) | Wing Commander 2 Special Operations 1 | Link on Page |
| 4. ) | Wing Commander 2 Special Operation 2 | Link on Page |
| 5. ) | Wing Commander 2 Speech Fix | Link on Page |
| 6. ) | Wing Commander 2 (1991) Intro Video Adlib | Link on Page |
| 7. ) | Wing Commander 2 (1991) Roland MT-32 and Sound Blaster | Link on Page |
| 7. ) | Wing Commander 2 Final Mission and Ending | Link on Page |
| 8. ) | Wing Commander Secret Mission 2 Crusade Bad Ending | Link on Page |
Wing Commander 2 (1991)
► Title: Wing Commander 2
► Publisher: Origin Systems
► Published: 1991
► Genre: Space Combat Simulator
► Platform: MS-DOS 5.0
► How to enable cheats
• Before you start the game type in wc2.exe Origin -k to run the game. It will give you
invincibility.
• Lock or select the enemy ship, and press the “Alt” and “Delete” key together.
Wing Commander 2 was released one year after Wing Commander. The graphics were much better than the original Wing Commander, and the system requirements were higher as well. When I got the game in 1991, my 386 sx-16 couldn’t run this game without slow downs in intensive missions. They had speech packs for this game, so real voices could be played. That required a lot more CPU processing power with a sound card that can handle such tasks.
Computers were very expensive back in those days. A 386 DX-33 based computer could cost as much as $2500 to $3000. We had a major recession in the 1990s due to the stock market crash of 1987, and money was very tight back in those days. I played this game with the hardware I had, and it was still a enjoyable experience. The cheats from Wing Commander 1 worked with this game as well. You would enter wc2 Origin -k, and Wing Commander 1 it was wc Origin -k to enable the cheat. Back in those days, we didn’t have the internet, so when I got together with my friends they would share bits of information like this. Even with the knowledge of the cheats, I didn’t use the cheats to finish any Wing Commander game. Back in those days, I was very good at games like these.
As for the story, you are branded as a traitor, because your carrier the Tiger’s Claw was destroyed, and you have no way of proving the attack was conducted by stealth fighters. Without the evidence, you were framed for a crime you did not commit. You have to find a way to prove your innocence. In addition, you were stripped of your previous rank and demoted, so you have to essentially start all over.
The game graphics were very good compared to other PC games at the time. The game play was excellent on a faster computer, I was able to play it on my friend’s 486 DX-33 and it ran well. He had a Roland MT-32 sound synthesizer which sounded great as well. I only had a 386 SX-16 with a Adlib sound card, so the comparison was like heaven and earth. The story was well written, and that is what made the game interesting. The difficulty was very hard, and you needed to play a mission a number of times to finish it. Most of times, you couldn’t pass some mission with just one try. You are facing odds of 8 to 1 or 10 to 1. You need to be able to dispatch an enemy very quickly and go to the next one. If you don’t kill your enemies quickly, they will get behind you and shoot you to pieces.
In this games, the guns charge, so you need to be able to get a full charge and shoot accurately to take out heavy fighters. You need to be able to use the missiles effectively. To do this, you need to take out the enemy’s shields first, and use the missiles to inflect massive damage on weakened parts of the enemy ship. You need to keep the ship moving with afterburners if you want to avoid getting hit and taking damage. You run of fuel which enables you to use afterburners in this game. In order to beat each mission successfully, you need to manage all of these things to do it. That is the major difference between a game like this, and Nintendo game like Elevator Action, Ninja Gaiden, or Duck Hunt. PC games required a great deal more skill to finish.
Overall, I thought Wing Commander 2 was a great game, and it was on almost every video game and computer game magazine. The ratings were always high for this game in the reviews. The game was a major success, and 5 more games were produced based on this game in the following years, like Privateer, Wing Commander Armada, Wing Commander III, Wing Commander IV, and Wing Commander Prophecy. You should get a copy of this game and try it out on Dosbox. This will give you some exposure to how games were like in the early 1990s.