One of the defining games of the full-motion video era is coming back. EA producer Jim Vessella revealed a Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger 30th Anniversary Edition during a talk at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo this weekend, and the project grew out of a discovery in EA’s own archives.
Vessella has been working to digitize EA’s video archive, and along the way he turned up the original source tapes for Wing Commander III’s live-action scenes. PC Gamer reports he found 600 source tapes for the game. Video Game History Foundation board member Steve Lin, who attended the talk, posted a photo of the slide and later said Vessella’s presentation put the full archive at 16,000 tapes.
What’s in the anniversary edition
According to the slide Lin shared, the 30th Anniversary Edition includes:
- Kilrathi Saga integration
- The full-motion video mastered from the original tapes, in both source and upscaled versions
- The Community Enhancement Patch
- Gameplay running at up to 60fps
- Controller support
- A native Steam version, plus releases on GOG and the EA App
That last point matters for longtime fans. Wing Commander III has been playable on modern PCs for years, but in versions built on the original release and its video. Going back to the source tapes means the cutscenes, which were a huge part of the game’s appeal, could look far better than they ever have.
Wing Commander III launched in 1994 and was directed by series creator Chris Roberts. It was famous for its Hollywood-style cast, led by Mark Hamill, with John Rhys-Davies also among the stars. Roberts went on to found Cloud Imperium Games, and both actors are part of his upcoming Squadron 42.
There is no release date, price or trailer yet. Still, it is a rare bit of good news for fans of the series, which has not had a new release in a long time.
Classic games keep getting a second life on modern platforms. RCG recently reported that The Wolf Among Us Remastered is dated for October 29.
