EA-sanctioned Wing Commander Saga project release date
A fan collaboration 10 years in the making.
The fan-made Wing Commander Saga: The Darkest Dawn project that's been 10 years in the making now has a release date: 22nd March 2012.
This has the blessing of IP holder EA, original creator Chris Roberts and developer/publisher Origin. That's what project co-creator Tolwyn told Gnome's Lair.
What's more, Wing Commander Saga: The Darkest Dawn will be free, according to the game's FAQ. Presumably the client will be available from the Wing Commander Saga website.
Wing Commander Saga, built on the Freespace 2 engine, begins before Wing Commander 3 and ends at the climax of the Terran-Kilrathi War.
This entirely new story of 55 missions and some 11,000 lines of dialogue and 70 cinematics has been brought to life by more than 60 voice actors. There's nine hours of audio chatter.
There are large-scale fleet battles, achievements and graphics to match the times we live in. What, an economic recession? No, the technology that's available today.
The minimum system requirements are low: Windows XP, 1Ghz CPU, 2GB RAM and 128MB DirectX 9 graphics card. The game download should measure around 3-4GB, and install to 8-9GB.
Wing Commander was originally a MS-DOS game for PC, released 22 years ago in 1990 - the same year the Ultimate Warrior defeated Hulk Hogan to win the WWF Championship.