Back in 2020, we informed you about a fan remaster of Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom. And today, we are happy to report that a demo for it is available for download.
Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom Remaster will offer a more modern experience by loading the files from the original game into a new engine, complete with specially created, high-definition assets.
This remaster promises to improve the cut-scenes and the game’s graphics. My guess is that the team will be using AI techniques in order to improve all of the FMVs. However, the game’s missions will remain the same. Furthermore, the remaster will support flight sticks, XInput compatible gamepads, as well as Mouse and Keyboard.
Do note that this is mostly a pre-alpha demo, and does not reflect the quality of the final game. For instance, the AI behavior is entirely placeholder. You may also encounter bugs and crashes. So basically, the team released this demo in order to get some feedback from the Wing Commander community.
You can download the demo for Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom Remastered from its official website.
Have fun!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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I’m intrigued. I might have to pull out my old DOS games and see if I can get this to work.
I wonder if it supports modern flight sticks.
Good luck with your project
Thank you! :^)
It’s looking pretty good, congrats!
Thanks, Martin :^D
I played DVD edition that was OEM with a Creative Labs DVD-ROM drive. Is your remaster based upon that?
Hi EvaUnit02 – kind of and kind of not. I DO use the DVD footage to remaster the AI upscaled HD video we’ll be including in the final game. The gameflow and gameplay itself, however, is all entirely new. We load the original game’s scripting files (mission profiles, nav maps, conversation choices etc.) into a new, modern engine called Usagi – along with entirely new, custom-made HD models of all the ships, weapons, effects etc.
This is why the original game will be required to play our final game – and why we package the original 1995 demo with our demo. The original scripts are loaded into our new environments to make the game work.
It’s our intention for the final game to work with whatever original version of the game you own – be that the CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, GOG Download or Origin Download – and for anyone who has never owned (or has lost) their original game, the good news is that the GOG version of the game is only a couple of Pounds, Euros, Dollars etc. – and frequently goes on sale for mere pennies.
no update for 6 months ? Was it abandoned ?
No, Jeff – we’re still working on it :^) We just all have lives that get in the way – and on top of that, we only show progress when things coealesce into something we can actually show. Most of the time, progress is happening but it takes a long time to result in anything tangible that we can screenshot/record/show. Trust me, this is pretty normal in game modding, especially with a team as small as ours. Still working, still proceeding, still progressing – and we WILL drop updates when we have things that we can actually show :^)
Very cool. I’ll give the demo a try and see if I like it.
Wing Commander Soap Edition
Hi Johnny – I’m going to assume you’re referring to the 60fps video giving rise to the “Soap Opera Effect”. If so, I’m sure you’ll be glad to learn that the 60fps FMV is optional within the game. If you so choose, you can turn it off and it reverts to the original 30fps of the game’s DVD edition.
Glad to hear ! I’m still shocked by Blade Runner Enhanced with same soap 60fps FMV ! My two cents : maybe 30fps in the trailer would be better
Very good idea!
I can’t wait to see the whole Wing Commander series in remaster
Looks pretty good. I’ll give it a try.
I legit lost it when I saw the transition to that nerd playing the game in the end. Yeah it’s a mod alright.
They should add some 400 dollar ship DLCs.