Here’s an unboxing that holds a very special place in my heart, Wing Commander 3. This was the game that really started the ‘Pentium Age’ for me, where computer specs actually meant something to me. Due to the beastly specs required at the time, I didn’t actually manage to play this until 1996, a whole 2 years after it was released.
I still believe that this is one of the best boxarts ever made for a video game. It’s got various cues from great movie posters such as the Indiana Jones and Star Wars series.
Inside you get 4 seperate CD jewel cases for all of the game discs, making WC3 one of the heaviest PC games of that era.
Underneath is a playguide for the game, which essentially contains intructions on how to play the game, like ship controls, hotkeys, and how to navigate around the TCS Victory etc.
You also get a whole double sided card which can be expanded to show the ships for both Confed and the Kilrathi.
Another seperate manual entitled the ‘Victory Streak’ is included, which is supposed to be the onboard magazine for the TCS Victory. Origin have really done a good job to provide a alot of good background material, such as a WC timeline, pilot profiles and tips in there, and there’s also a couple of cool extras, like Blair’s email, letters to the editor, and random ads for stuff.
Finally, you get an installation guide, a quick reference card with all the common commands, and a troubleshooting guide.
For 1994, the game had ridiculous system requirements. While a 486/50 may be the minimum system requirements, anyone with a 486/100 or below was treated with a slideshow in space combat, and if you had anything below a Quad speed CD-ROM drive, loading a mission could take up to 20 minutes if you didn’t do a recommended install. Which was especially salty if you failed a mission, as you’d need to wait another 20 minutes to have another go! This was definately one of the first games where a Pentium was pretty much necesary in order to get the full experience.
And finally, here is the entire contents of the box in one picture.