The recently released Super Wing Commander for Macintosh marked a re-emergence after years of absence by Origin Systems. And it looks like more is on the way. In fact, you will find some very specific information on the plans for the Mac in the following interview.
I. List of interview participants:
Joye McBurnett, Origin Associate Producer, Super Wing Commander (Macintosh)
Kevin Kushner, Origin Quality Assurance Project Leader, Super Wing Commander (Macintosh)
Douglas Grounds, President of Lion Entertainment, Inc., and Producer, Super Wing Commander (Macintosh)
Marci Tenpas, Lion Entertainment, Inc. Lead Programmer, Super Wing Commander (Macintosh)
Eileen McKeon Butt, Origin Associate Publicist, Media Relations
David Swofford, Origin Manager, Media Relations
IMG: Why is Origin suddenly publishing for the Mac market again after too long a dry spell?
Joye McBurnett: Primarily because the Mac market has become viable for our products. In other words, we can now make a profit at it. (Not to mention that there’s a few Mac-lovers left around here who just wanted to get some good Origin stuff out for the Mac.)
Doug Grounds: The installed base of Macintosh computers, combined with the relatively new buying trends within that market, provide a profitable platform. In the past, the Macintosh games market has been substantially smaller. The introduction of the Power Macintosh, combined with Apple’s recent introduction of the Performa lines and development of the Pippin platform, create a market today and promise of a future market for Macintosh OS-based entertainment products.
IMG: How does the Power Macintosh figure in development plans for Origin in terms of games?
Joye McBurnett: This will be addressed on a product-by-product basis, but it’s safe to assume that we’ll definitely be doing PowerMac-enabled games. Eventually, I’m sure we’ll move to PowerMac only, but that’s probably a while off yet.
Doug Grounds: The Power Macintosh is perhaps one of the best game platforms available for any price. In terms of performance, it is unequaled. This high performance allows development of games that play better than their PC-based cousins, even if the game is a conversion from another platform.
IMG: Are there any advantages to the Macintosh platform when programming a game like SWC?
Joye McBurnett: Yes and no. Had this been an original title, it could have been designed specifically for the strengths of the Macintosh. As it was, however, the more powerful Macs that have come out in recent years made it less difficult to port this game.
Doug Grounds: There are advantages, such as the performance of the very high end PowerPC-based Macintosh systems, and there are disadvantages, such as the amount of memory the OS requires, and the performance of the Macintosh in terms of graphic display speed on some models. The small number of installed sound cards and joysticks in the user base make it more challenging as well. Overall, development for the Macintosh is more difficult than for DOS, although easier than supporting the Windows platform. The Mac-based game has to do a lot more work than a DOS or Windows-based machine, which requires more horsepower, faster algorithms, or tighter code.
Marci Tenpas: The 3DO platform has direct hardware support for mathematics, 3D imaging, and graphic compression, which was not available to us on the Macintosh. The wide variety of Macintosh models — versus the single 3DO platform with one set of specifications — also affects the capabilities of the game, such as graphic resolution. All of these issues make it difficult to really take full advantage of the capabilities of the Macintosh.
IMG: Can you tell us about some Mac-specific features in Super Wing Commander?
Joye McBurnett: There’s a lot more keyboard-specific commands that of course could not be used in the 3DO version. We’ve also tried to maintain the Apple menuing that is so familiar to Mac users.
Doug Grounds: Super Wing Commander completely supports the Macintosh interface. The ability to access the menubar in the middle of a dogfight and adjust your options, for instance. Support for the mouse, keyboard, and joysticks were all implemented. We were also sensitive to the fact that a number of different monitors would be used by players, and supported that fact. We took a lot of care to balance playability of the game with support for the variety of Macintosh models that are available. Support for the 680x0-based Macintosh installed base was also given a high priority, to make the game playable by the widest section of Macintosh owners.
Marci Tenpas: We were also able to add features specific to the Macintosh that make the game easier to play, such as adding descriptions of saved games so that the user would be able to identify their saved games prior to loading them.
IMG: What do players of the Super Wing Commander games find so attractive?
Joye McBurnett: The feeling that you’re there, on board the Tiger’s Claw, getting to know the other pilots. Personally I love the feeling of wearing down a Dralthi with my guns and finishing him off with a dumb-fire missile as he sweeps in for the kill...
IMG: Any other hints about what Origin plans to port to the Mac in the near future?
Eileen McKeon Butt: Origin is in the process of gradually re-establishing ourselves in the Macintosh market, and the release of Super Wing Commander represents a move in that direction. We have several exciting titles coming out on the Macintosh platform in the fall/winter ’95 time frame, and we hope that Macintosh gamers will respond favorably to our efforts to support this platform. The next Macintosh game we plan to release will be Origin’s best selling game of all time, Wing Commander III, scheduled for fall release, followed by System Shock, the incredible “gamer’s game,” which won PC Gamer’s “Best Adventure Game” award last year, and will be released closer to the end of the year. Closely following that we’ll also be releasing Wing Commander IV, our next interactive movie, which features an incredible lineup of Hollywood talent, amazing graphics and sound, enhanced missions, and a brand-new and surprising storyline. We hope that the Macintosh community will show us their support so that we can continue providing them with games like these well into the future.
