True confessions of a late 30's video game player

[Generic Eric]

I never owned any of the wing commander games.  I saw about 5 minutes of game play.  There is a hella deal on the whole package at gog.com


Can anyone tell me if the wing commander series is suitable to play in a cockpit?  Is it played with a yoke? HOTAS? Or mouse and keyboard?

[ark_ader]

As far as I can remember it is joystick orientated.

My Gravis joy took a beating to the whole series including privateer. 

[Generic Eric]

As far as I can remember it is joystick orientated.

My Gravis joy took a beating to the whole series including privateer. 

Do you feel like it lends itself to playing in a cockpit?  Sitting down with the joystick and a few buttons on a panel?  I want to do a space sim cockpit, but don't know how much theatrics are involved in this game.  Weren't there a lot of FMV cut scenes?

[Slippyblade]

I played the hell out of Privateer, loved it. 

Yeah, the Wing Commander games did have a lot of FMV, but most of it was (that I can recall) staged as if it was being relayed to you while in ship, so not too damaging to the vibe of a cockpit sim.

[lamprey]

I played with a 2-part flight stick (a la the Saitek x52). I don't recall how the first Wing Commander games functioned, but III on used analog controls. So, depending on how your cockpit is setup, I'd think it'd work very well.


EDIT for clarity

[Generic Eric]

:Full Disclosure:

I was sure I was passing a landmark deal and "pulled the trigger" on the deal.  I've linked in another thread the flight stick I do have, but it escapes me know what it is.

I'll be on the look out for one of those x52s. 

[Malenko]

I had the Sega CD Wing Commander game, would have been awesome to play in a cockpit style cab.

[pbj]

I dunno, man... what made Wing Commander such a hit was it was like playing a movie on your computer.  The innovation of it is really going to be lost in 2014 and I'm not sure how well it'll stand on just the space combat.  If you don't talk to your co-pilots between missions, why are you going to care if they get snuffed?

Buy, hey, you know what we say in BYOAC - do it anyway.  Or those that don't actually do things - post a lot about it.

 

[yotsuya]

Eric, I have one of these if you're interested in it. It was going to be for an Afterburner project panel that I never did.

http://www.amazon.com/Saitek-X45-Digital-Throttle-Stick-Windows/dp/B00005TOTG/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1403207986&sr=1-1&keywords=saitek+x45

[Generic Eric]

I dunno, man... what made Wing Commander such a hit was it was like playing a movie on your computer.  The innovation of it is really going to be lost in 2014 and I'm not sure how well it'll stand on just the space combat.  If you don't talk to your co-pilots between missions, why are you going to care if they get snuffed?

Buy, hey, you know what we say in BYOAC - do it anyway.  Or those that don't actually do things - post a lot about it.

 

Well, I've got'em now.  I'm peeled for a HOTAS now.

[Generic Eric]

Eric, I have one of these if you're interested in it. It was going to be for an Afterburner project panel that I never did.

http://www.amazon.com/Saitek-X45-Digital-Throttle-Stick-Windows/dp/B00005TOTG/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1403207986&sr=1-1&keywords=saitek+x45

I am pming you

[yotsuya]

Eric, I have one of these if you're interested in it. It was going to be for an Afterburner project panel that I never did.

http://www.amazon.com/Saitek-X45-Digital-Throttle-Stick-Windows/dp/B00005TOTG/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1403207986&sr=1-1&keywords=saitek+x45

I am pming you

Shazzle. I just answered you.

[Howard_Casto]

This rarely happens, but I actually agree with pbj.  The whole deal with Wing Commander was playing the fmv sequences featuring Mark Hamill.  The gameplay itself kind of sucked.... or at least it wasn't noteworthy. 

[lamprey]

Not sure what the GOG package has, but the FMV didn't start until the 3rd WC game. But, I don't see why playing it in a cockpit would hamper that.

[Barry Barcrest]

If you are building a cockpit you might want to look at Elite Dangerous. Wing commander was good but 1 & 2 look very dated now. They used scaled bitmaps for the enemy ships so you can image what that looked like. 3 onwards at least were actual 3d but I don't think there was any hardware support, privateer was a clone/rip off of the original Elite.

[Drnick]

I would love to play some Xwing vs Tiefighter from a cockpit sim,  A bit of Homeworld 2 with the babylon 5 mod could be cool too.  I have high hopes for Elite Dangerous, But having the original so high up my all time favourite list means it has no real hope of meeting expectations.

[mybrainhurtz]

Another game that's begging for a cockpit build would be Star Citizen. It's the latest project from Chris Roberts, maker of the original Wing Commander games.