Wing commander privateer graphics overhaul

#Wing commander privateer graphics overhaul code
#Wing commander privateer graphics overhaul series

вЂњI think the bitmaps were what helped give the game its movie-type feel.вЂќ вЂњIt took about two months of 16-hour days to come up with the rotation and scale routines for the bit-mapped images,вЂќ Roberts said in a 1992 interview. These looked better and would run faster, because the computer need not calculate the images in real time. He decided to handle each spaceship not as a polygon-based 3-D model, but as a collection of sprites (images) that showed the ship from all angles. With programmer Paul Isaacs, writer Jeff George, artist Denis Loubet and a team considered large for the time вЂ“ 11 people! вЂ“ Roberts pursued his vision with focus and cleverness.

For his next project, Roberts envisioned an Elite-style game, initially called Squadron and then Wing Leader, that would combine arcade-style space-fighting, innovative music, great graphics and a cinematic storyline he loved movies. Origin published RobertsвЂ™ Commodore 64 RPG, Times of Lore, in 1988 and his post-holocaust RPG, Bad Blood, in 1990.

#Wing commander privateer graphics overhaul code

It finally shipped years later, in 1993.Д«orn in 1968, Chris Roberts had been a professional game designer since he was 13, when he sold small games in BASIC and machine code for the BBC Microcomputer. You knew they were afraid.вЂќДЄfter the trade show ended, Lucasfilm Games unexpectedly announced X-Wing required much more work and would not make Christmas. We joked about how cool they tried to look, the faux nonchalance. They departed.ДЄ former Origin employee recalls, вЂњYou could see the fear in their eyes, as they walked by. That day, the entire Lucasfilm booth staff, including every senior producer at the show, huddled in a tight, silent knot before the Wing Commander monitors. The once-dignified halls of the Consumer Electronics Show turned raucous. The next day, companies in the booths near OriginвЂ™s brought their own sound systems in self-defense. Meanwhile, six Lucasfilm staffers gathered before the monitors in silence in silence they departed. Booth staffers turned it down until the officials left, then gradually amped back to full. Trade show officials asked Origin to reduce the volume. They chatted politely (over the deafening music) with the young Origin employees now and then, they glanced at the Wing Commander monitors they departed. Like a stately elk, the coder approached the Origin booth, momentarily surveyed the Wing Commander monitors and ambled on.ДЄ few minutes later, the programmer returned with another stately Lucasfilm coder. X-Wing was weeks away from going gold, and would easily make the 1990 Christmas season. A bank of monitors showed the demo of a Terran Confederation spaceship cockpit, and its view of beautifully rendered enemy Kilrathi ships diving and swooping with amazing speed.ДЄt the LucasArts booth вЂ“ or Lucasfilm Games, as it was then вЂ“ a programmer ambled away from the demos for the imminent Star Wars: X-Wing starfighter game.

#Wing commander privateer graphics overhaul series

The upstart game company, best known for the Ultima series of fantasy roleplaying games, was playing the soundtrack from its forthcoming starfighter simulator, Wing Commander. Stirring music, volume at 11, blared across the trade show hall.

The quiet aisles of the Consumer Electronics Show grew suddenly loud when Origin Systems turned on its sound system.