From: davereed@wam.umd.edu (Michael Robert Bromery)
Subject: Re: Saw Wing Commander for Amiga in story last week - how is it?
Organization: University of Maryland, College Park
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 04:49:01 GMT

  I don't know about Wing Commander as of yet, but I'll be able to give you a
full review of it once I get it. One thing for sure is that I'm able to ask
this. Is it just me or is it pretty hard to get Wing Commander(amiga) in the
states before they leave the shelves?? I've found in quite a few places that
either didn't have it yet, or sold out and is in backorder for the thing.
I guess, once everybody has it, it'll be a lot easier to just order the game
without waiting a week o two just to ship it(Even with credit cards <- no
PCMIAs included -- Visa, Mastercard, etc... is all they'll take). You can say
this will be the first TRYE review of the Wing Commander from a point of
view comming from the lower ends, BUT with knowledge of how it works on
accelerated machines. So far, all games that usually like an accelerated amiga,
seem to play ok enough on an unaccelerated 2.0 ROM machine and then slower
and slower(unplayably) on unaccelerated systems as you go further back in the
ROM department. I would say, the (accelerator recommended games) would not
give swell results on an unacclerated 1.2 Kickstart machine. 
     Ultima 6 is the slowest I've encountered of the accelerator needed 
--- Sorry --- i mean the accelerated recommended games, though I believe that
it may be the program that gives the most amount of speed increase results
as you go up in accelerators. Chances are that it will increase playability
on an adspeed card much more than the comparison of it with some flight sims
in that era(I've been told the adspeed isn't bad with them as well, especially
Flight of the intruder).  In my opinion, it is better to go with the 68030+
accelerators for they not only have the fallback mode, you get all the advantages
   of 68030, the mapping of kickstart on most of them, and abilities to use
direct 32-bit ram and a Math coprocessor. Besides, you will want to get away
from the 68000 anyways, there seems to be a push in the support for greater
than 68000 based systems and even some PD software is written just to get
people away from the 68000. This means some were coded only to use the 68020
or above and possibly for the addition of a floating point unit for the
68020 and then above. 
      The review will tell just how unplayable on a stock A500 Wing Commander
is. If it is as fast as A10, then you have hope, much slower, I don't think 
so. I also mean A10 v1.5 <- Seems to go faster and smoother on 2.0+ systems.
Yes!!!!!! I will try to play a good bit through it without any accelerator
attached to my A500 to show an example. This game is a classic though and may
be well worth buying since alot of us (Those with stock systems for speed)
are pretty sure we'll have a faster amiga in the not too distant future.
The review will also be done with an AMIGA editor so it will be as short
as possible(with the details) and with a decent and readable format instead of
this --line noise-- riddin garble. Those with stock systems(Especially with
2.0 roms) should very well read this post.



    AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST!!!! It will be posted on comp.sys.amiga.reviews
and not this newsgroup for it shall be posted where it should be.

----- Hope this helps. -----
    Michael Bromery.
    Email: davereed@wam.umd.edu

P.S. --- For those of accelerated machines(A3000 quality or near it). It
should play like a dream. I hear that it is smooth and well done for those
machines to the point you almost forget the dithered colors from the 256
color version(I should say VGA <- 256 on screen colors is pushing it for 
even the IBM version of Wing commander I. They really don't utilize the
full on screen pallette ability, but they didn't have to did they?
For the feel of space fighting and the speed and reverence of downing them
bad bad kitties(Kilrathi), it seems to score a plus with some of the 
A3000 owners I've heard from. Also, I hear that the music is AWESOME!! Wait
and see. I'm probably the largest of judges when it comes to judging music
scores, I hope that if it seems great for the style in my report, than you'll
love it. But, human tastes can be soooo complex. <sigh>