In Progress Screaming Tabby: Let's Play Wing Commander 1 and special missions!

[Neckbeard Shitlord]

One of my favorite games of all time. At the time it was quite cutting age, and I had to upgrade to something called EXTENDED MEMORY and use an EXTENDED MEMORY MANAGER. My God it was worth it, and at the time this cutting edgedness made me truly feel like an elite keyboard warrior.

Always loved this little orchestral bit for some reason. I think it was the first time I saw realistic looking animation of real humans in a game on a full screen basis.

The game starts with a bang, too. Can't fault it there. Another thing that blew my tiny mind was seeing that the game started within an in-game simulation.

Been forever since I played so I jumped back in the pretend cockpit and got busy.

Booya! Already taking down heavy fighters.

Number one!

It's the first game like this where you could talk to characters between missions that I remember. The bartender always had a little bit of flavor to add.

The pilots have their own personalities as well. Perhaps this little message is a sign of things to come.

No time to waste. Things are boring in this system so let's get to the action! The music is even better than the hand drawn artwork. Every time the scramble sequence plays I start to get pumped up.

Not to mention that the whole thing is remeniscent of the original Battlestar Galactica.

The starter system is boring so I will move past it quickly. The first mission was a simple patrol, followed by escorting a Drayman supply ship to a jumppoint. Spirit annoyed me by stealing two of my kills on the second mission. On the first one she just sat there doing nothing. Yet she refused to head back to base. I should have executed her then and there.

But patience pays off. They were so impressed I didn't summarily execute her that they gave me a medal!

I also got promoted and got the 'reward' of being assigned to the medium fighters called scimitars.

 

[Neckbeard Shitlord]

One thing I thought was innovative was even the save game function was kind of special, and seamless to the game. Click on a bunk to save the game, click on the sleeper to waken him.

Iceman. The top Terran Ace. Tough as nails but camera shy. Tends to blink.

Another system and another simple patrol. I guess I will have to get used to these being the first mission in each system.

At least I am finally getting the respect I deserve.

The scimitar looks great from the outside butit's annoying to fly. The biggest problem is the mass driver bullets fly so slowly but hit so hard and the ship itself is so slow. Your own wingman will continuously chew you to pieces as you fly.

You also don't get any indicators for front or back armor for some reason. This is a big problem!

This mission immediately went to hell. I ended up ramming a dralthi and took severe damage. I managed to take the rest out, though.

Then I got to experience my first minefield. In a ship built like a dump truck. I barely got through that alive and limped the rest of the way through the mission.

This time my ship didn't look so hot when I got back.

Somehow there were six ships but we only got 5 kills?! Maybe rams don't count. At any rate, not a great start for this system.

Finally a pilot with a proper attitude!

There's always a few killjoys, though. Since your dumbfire missles are mosly good for stationary targets you are better off to waste big ships first. Otherwise your dumb wingman will sit there blasting on it and either steal your kill or get killed himself.

Thank you, Colonel Backstory.

This time I will do better. No ramming, and I will TAKE SCREENSHOTS of everything.

Well, almost got the explosion.

Surrounded. Coming at us. All sides. They keep coming.

Kill stealing bastard!

Shit just got real. That ship is big, and those fighters are mean. No match for me, though.

That's probably not good. Maybe I should worry about screenshots less and play the game a sec.

Whoops, too late. No kilrathi can stand up to me, but a bunch of shots from behind was more than enough to take me down. Damn you, paladin!

The End...or is it?

 

[Neckbeard Shitlord]

It took me a while to do this mission right. What happens is you get jumped by two heavy fighters, Maniac rushes them and gets blown away immediately. I finally figured out the only way to stop this is to hit afterburners immediately and tag both of them to draw their fire away.

Once you get behind them they aren't so tough. They don't seem to fire many missiles either, which is always the biggest problem the enemy presents.

Booyah!

Not so tough now, eh. After that I think I had to take down some krants and blow up a freighter.

Then back to base and a promotion.

Brimstone system really sucked. It's the biggest pain, and it's hard not to lose maniac. Maniac always blows me up anyway but I hate losing the pilots because then you don't get to talk to them in the other part of the game.

 

[Neckbeard Shitlord]

I realize I lost some pictures. From brimstone (itself a "loser" system because I messed up earlier) it's off to kurasawa, assuming you do the missions properly.

No wait, I did gimle system, too. The only exciting thing there was killing brurak bearclaw, though. A tiger who really likes pastry apparently. Some of the aces can be a big pain, but there is only so much fancy flying you can do in one of those big jalthi fighters. Usually I ignored the aces til I take on a couple of their wingmen, but with this guy don't turn your back as just one jalthi blast can terminate you.

After that and some asteroid firefights that were too hairy to screen capture, it was off to kurasawa.

Finally, we are taking the offensive.

I have mixed feelings about these hornets. They put them out there like they are the best thing since sliced bread but they are annoying in a lot of respects. Those neutron cannon use a lot of juice so you barely get any shots on full guns, but the laser cannon don't do much damage. The two types are unmatched in range as well, so overall it is a senseless combo.

They are nimble but they have some terrible visibility, so you can easily get smashed in an asteroid field.

With the lessons I learned when I flew them previously, I decided to ramp down my speed to 380 and to use only neutron guns. Otherwise you are flying around unable to shoot, and the speed differential between you and most enemies is so high you only get a split second to shoot.

These tactics yielded some immediate results.

This was one satisfying dogfight. 4-5 dralthi and then a dorkir.

Followed immediately by more of the same. A tough fight but they didn't get past the shields, and this new speed differential plus afterburners was enough to make things go smoothly.

I switched to full guns to take these krants down and they slew apart at the seams. So did another tanker.

Bossman is a kill stealing prick. He always gets 2-3 kills every mission. This was a nice mission, just blast stuff up, and nothing to annoy me like with maniac running to get killed right away.

Looks like we are on our way to victory!

I think if you lose this one you get the bad ending, so thankfully I didn't screw up this time.

 

[Neckbeard Shitlord]

This is the only game where NPCs had a personality both in the way they talk and how they actually fight. I love the subtle jealousy this guy displays at every turn. Just little details like this.

In one of the missions I lost pics for, he actually decided to go home without me! Not a scripted event or anything either, and he did not even tell me. Just took off when things got hairy.

Hunter and Bossman and Iceman are pretty reliable and don't get killed out of the blue or need constant orders. Maniac is just crazy and gets killed or gets you killed. Paladin has killed me off as well, and doesn't do much. Spirit is pretty annoying. But I love the way Knight was done because it's subtle enough to miss what his real personality is like.

I'm climbing up on the scoreboards now. I think I got twelve kills in one mission a while back.

Looks like the big push is finally here.

Even the animation where everyone stands up to scramble is a little different each time. A great touch.

Fighting in the asteroids again. This time against six ships. I can't even get a second free to tell bossman to attack.

I keep running out of power so finally I switch to lasers.

Ooh, sorry bossman!

It just goes on and on. I keep having to break off my attack to avoid asteroids.

Finally I get the last one, though half my fuel is gone.

Damned Gralthis are all over the ship I am supposed to be protecting!

One is toasted immediately but this rapier is really not very good for chewing up heavy fighters.

I get another one but then they toast the destroyer.

Now I start to make even more excuses than Knight.

Sorry colonel. It's hard to deal with heavy fighters that teleport on top of the target you are trying to defend.

He is not impressed.

It probably won't happen again because I think I have lost this system now anyway. I might get a last chance to pull off the winning ending, though.

 

[Neckbeard Shitlord]

Iceman is no one to mess with.

Hunter is probably the best wingman.

Like not flying through those god damned minefields and asteroid belts.

Not another escort. I don't have the best record so far.

Half a dozen salthi jump us but at this point they are no match for us.

We find the Exeter and there's dralthi everywhere. The fight keeps dragging on and I am sure this is another failed mission.

But I make two quick kills in succession. This is enough to let the Exeter's shields regenerate while I take on the stragglers.

And now a wave of krants, too!

I launched all my missiles here and manage to take down all four before they become a big problem.

Except for bossman getting one that is.

Not to mention it would be pretty embarassing to lose your former crewmates.

Boump chika. Now I see what this mission was really about.

I like the raptos better but this is a demotion for the previous mission.

Looks like I am in the last chance star system. This is not the 'good' ending from kurasawa.

Now we know where RPG Codex severs are hosted!

Don't worry, I will be in captain della guarda's quarters...with no uniform.

Iceman is not so happy as the bartender. He knows it's do or die.

Kill count is piling up here. The game is already well along. The secret missions are a lot harder, though.

 

[Azira]

I played the fuck out of this game back when it came out.
I did savescum though. Didn't cope well with losing fellow fighters or failing missions.

Heck, I was only 11 years old.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Can you make the screenshots bigger? I'm sure there's an option for it in DosBox settings.

 

[Neckbeard Shitlord]

I asked the dosbox people how to make it take bigger images. Unfortunately it goes by the actual resolution of the game not what it displays on the screen.

If anyone else knows how to make a screenshot that's higher quality, let me know. I don't think it's possible to run the game itself at a higher resolution. This was one of the first decent flight sims and actually strained my computer when it first came out.

 

[Neckbeard Shitlord]

Rostov is an important system. If you blow it here, it's all over and you wind up in hell's kitchen. If I do blow it I will go to hell's kitchen it's a interesting system and the fights are even harder.

Spoiler

Literally the instant you are out of the door an asteroid is smashing towards you. I had to really yank the controls to keep from being smashed.

Soon enough there's Dralthi amongst the rocks. I take one down immediately and am hot on the tale of the next.

The fool ran right into an asteroid in his panic! What an incompetent, such a thing would never happen to a well trained pilot.

Oh crap! I didn't see that asteroid coming.

How embarrassing. Well, let's just pretend that never happened.

Take out the dralthi again, this time more smoothly.

Next up a pair of graltha. I hit the afterburners and cruise in but I wind up being hit by a missile (or two) and my shields are quickly down.

However I recharge my weapons then get thre hits in a row. BOOM. First Graltha is gone.

The other one doesn't last much longer.

However this fight has just begun. 4 more graltha jump in with a dorkir (not sure how this works) and the fight is on.

I let fly with my missiles and some more lucky hits makes the first one go fast.

I almost eat it because I keep getting hit by missiles, and lose both front and back shields at different times. Only liberal use of afterburner saves me.

Iceman actually shoots his guns unlike some wingmen, and once my shields recharge we quickly take down the rest (all the actual kills go to me though).

I even get credit for the dorkir this time.

Iceman, laconic as ever.

But that's not quite all. There's asteroids everywhere.

I even have to dodge asteroids as I land!

Aside from the fact I died the first try, the mission went perfectly. It was also another satisfying mission with nice dogfights.

The rocks are even worse than the kittens!

 

[Neckbeard Shitlord]

Search and destroy! My favorite kind of mission!

Spoiler

Immediately we are attacked by salthi amongst the rocks and I have iceman break to attack.

The first two go quickly but the second wave comes in immediately afterwards.

All three go after Iceman.

From directly behind they are sitting ducks and I torch them all in one salvo.

The four Jalthi heavies and a destroyer are another story, though. I immediately get hit by a bunch of missles again.

Soon, I have taken down two of the ridiculously strong jalthi fighters. I don't miss any shots.

I turn towards the others but I am too late! While I was occupied, one of them gets a lucky shot on Iceman.

One of the best pilots in the galaxy wasted by some punk kitten who probably hasn't ever stepped into a cockpit before today!

I quickly avenge Iceman.

The Ralari is next on my list, helpless without its escort.

Mission accomplished, I head home, still shocked at the loss of Iceman.

It doesn't seem right to leave him so far from home, but perhaps this is where he belongs, in space....

 

[Neckbeard Shitlord]

I played the fuck out of this game back when it came out.
I did savescum though. Didn't cope well with losing fellow fighters or failing missions.

Heck, I was only 11 years old.

Even as an adult and having played before, it's hard not to get wiped occasionally. And even easier to lose a wingman. That is part of what I like about the game, though.

I wish if you lost a wingman someone else would show up to have something to say in the bar in their place. Like tell some story about the guy who got wacked. I just don't like to lose them because then you get an empty seat instead. But it's late enough in the game now that I don't worry as much.

 

[Neckbeard Shitlord]

I'm having trouble with imgur. I upload a bunch of images and there is no way to look at any but the last image. Anyone experienced this problem?

 

[Neckbeard Shitlord]

The nazi bastards at imgur are screwing me over. It only lets me upload one image at a time or it deletes all images but the last one!

So this won't have quite the blow by blow as other updates, some of which I probably go a little crazy on pic count anyway.

The next mission was a simple intercept. I was forced to fly alone due to Iceman's untimely demise.

This ship is huge, but doesn't have much in the way of defenses. With neutron cannon and mass drive combo, any ship in the game is easily chewed up by the Raptor.

With the enemy light carrier taken down, there is victory in Rostov!

Social Justice has been served. The cuddly primitives have been protected from being sent to killrathi work camps and the killrathi themselves booted out of the system for good! Multiculturalism has prevailed over evil colonialism/capitalism once and for all, KKKomrades!

Now it's off to Venice system. So long as I survive then the good ending is assured.

 

[Neckbeard Shitlord]

I'm eager to finish up the main campaign but imgur is still making me upload one at a time or else at the end it only shows that I have uploaded one image! This makes things a lot more painful so I will probably have fewer images.

Hunter is a proper pilot. He goes after the enemy but doesn't get killed. Also, he smokes, and smoking is cool. I took some pics of him smoking and paladin drinking but they got lost in the shuffle.

This is it, folks. The big enchilada! First we have to find it though so the first thing we do in this system will be - you got it - a patrol!

The feeling is mutual, ser.

That escalated quickly! Two heavy fighters in a mine field.

I mentioned before how quickly full guns drain a rapier's energy and how they are range mismatched and don't really have much damage compared to just using neutron guns. So I experiment and try neutron guns only.

These guys don't go down easy. I take several mine hits and lose both shields, but they do go down.

It's only minutes before we come across 4 krants guarding a destroy.

This fight doesn't go very well, and Hunter is calling for help almost right away.

I afterburn around and make a dumbfire missile kill on one of the krants cutting him up. You can see him in the background.

Even so I was sure he was going to be toast soon and the other three only go down slowly. Hunter refuses to return to base, as well.

I got so intent on chasing them away from hunter I ran right into the Ralari. Thankfully I fly rapiers below their max speed, or that would have been it.

Another dumbfire missile kill. I am getting better.

The last two I cut down with guns. Unfortunately that was just the start of my problems.

 

[Neckbeard Shitlord]

Graltha heavy fighters everywhere!

Hunter calls for help constantly. I switch back to full guns as the neutrons alone hardly make a dent and it's taking forever. I even ram a couple of times, and still I am sure Hunter is a goner.

Finally Hunter makes his move, which may have saved his bacon.

The fight is so intense I don't take too many pictures, but eventually we get them all and Hunter survived. One of the ships I must have shot 100 times and it was red on every surface before it finally went down.

Hunter was red all over, too, and it's a miracle he survived.

Finally, home sweet home. This was probably the most intense mission so far.

I "only" got ten kills, but they were tough ones.

Looks like more strike missions are on the plate....

 

[Neckbeard Shitlord]

This mission had a little bit of a twist. We would rendezvous with some rapiers, then proceed to take down a fralthi.

I am surprised I didn't die on this mission. With so many ships in the air I collided at least half a dozen times with other ships.

Because my wingmen will often waste their time on the capital ships and get killed, I took that down first. That way I didn't end up getting many kills, though.

Still, was a little bit of a changeup so nice mission.

Better yet, now we know where the Kilrathi HQ for the sector is located! Time to go all in.

 

[Neckbeard Shitlord]

It's actually best to go through minefields on afterburners. For asteroids it's the impact that kills you, but mines actually move towards you then explode. So the faster you go, the better.

Victory is within grasp.

Looks like one last mission before the final mission. This time it's a sweep as the carrier moves forward. My job is to protect tiger's claw by eliminating anything that I come across.

We fight some jalthi heavy fighters among the mines, after which we come across some dralthi guarding a ralari. I get my tail chewed up while attacking the destroyer and turn around and take down the fighters first. Of course this means hunter steals my kill on the destroyer as usual.

A pretty simple mission and we head back for home.

But wait, what's this? The Tiger's Claw is under attack!

I was a bit distracted and did not get on the ball right away, and almost lost everything.

Gralthi are tough and I had to use every trick in the book to take them down before the claw went. They are slow so I was able to hit them with dumbfire missiles which do double damage. However they are so strong this is not enough to take them down. I also rammed one to death as well.

Finally, I got them all, but the Tiger's Claw was quite damaged.

Next mission is the finale. I will do the secret missions in another thread I think.

 

[Neckbeard Shitlord]

In the future I will have to space out the pics a lot more. It's just too crowded on this page. I will post a few empty messgaes just to clear to the next page for the finale.

 

[Neckbeard Shitlord]

Clear.

 

[Neckbeard Shitlord]

 

[Neckbeard Shitlord]

cleaaarrrr....

 

[Neckbeard Shitlord]

 

[Neckbeard Shitlord]

Cleeaarrr....

 

[Neckbeard Shitlord]