The tapes survived
EA producer Jim Vessella unveiled Wing Commander 3: 30th Anniversary Edition during a game-preservation panel at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo, according to reports from Wing Commander CIC and VGC. The project will restore the game’s full-motion video using original source tapes recovered from EA’s archives.
The 1994 space-combat game used more than two hours of live-action footage starring Mark Hamill, Malcolm McDowell and John Rhys-Davies. Technical limits reduced the original footage to heavily compressed 240p video, and the later PlayStation and 3DO versions brought only modest improvements.
More than sharper cutscenes
VGC reports that much of the source video has been recovered and catalogued, with the footage now being restored at the highest quality possible. Wing Commander CIC’s account adds that the recovered master footage and separately upscaled versions are being preserved as distinct assets rather than treating an upscale as a replacement.
The anniversary edition is also planned to run at up to 60 frames per second and include an enhancement patch made with members of the Wing Commander fan community. A presentation slide mentioned “Kilrathi Saga integration,” but neither report explains exactly what that means. VGC notes that the 1996 Kilrathi Saga compilation included the first three games and four expansions, so the phrase alone does not confirm that the first two games are also being restored.
Neither report included a release date.
