Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger is the third main game in Chris Roberts' Wing Commander science fiction space combat simulation video game series, developed and released by Origin Systems in December 1994. It was a departure from previous games in the series in that it uses extensive live action full-motion video to add an interactive movie-style presentation to the space combat gameplay, emphasized by its advertising slogan, "Don't watch the game, play the movie!".

The Story Behind Wing Commander III - Heart of the Tiger

A number of branching ("interactive") conversations allow the player to choose what response his character will give; the choice may affect the other person's attitude towards the character, or even the morale of the entire crew. After the end of the official support by Origin the fan community began to provide support for the game themselves. Roberts said, "We're not afraid to lead hardware sales a little, and we believe that Pentium will soon be the standard." In June 1995, Atari Corporation realized a deal with EA to bring select titles to the Atari Jaguar CD, with Wing Commander III among the selected games.

Forstchen and Andrew Keith was published in 1995. It was released in 1994 for DOS and Mac OS, in 1995 for 3DO, and in 1996 for PlayStation.

How Wing Commander III - Heart of the Tiger Plays

The resulting explosion destroys Kilrah and wipes out nearly the entire Kilrathi armada assembled in orbit, but damages Blair's fighter as well; a surviving Kilrathi capital ship tractors him in. Blair, by orders of Admiral Geoffrey Tolwyn, is transferred as Wing Commander to the TCS Victory, a Ranger-class carrier twice as old as Blair. Among those on board, Blair meets Lieutenant Robin "Flint" Peters and Chief Fighter Technician Rachel Coriolis.

Before they can complete the bomb, Hobbes kills one of the Victorys pilots, Lt. He reveals that before Angel was captured, she transmitted data indicating that the Kilrathi home world is seismically unstable. Immediately afterward the Victory is rerouted to the Locanda System, where the Kilrathi are deploying a potent pair of new weapons: the "Skipper" cruise missile, equipped with a cloaking device, and a genetically-engineered bioweapon for use against the Locanda colonies, the home of Flint.

Why Players Still Load It Up

While mostly following the plot outlined above, authors Keith and Forstchen made a number of decisions and changes to increase the tension of the novel: On the planet Vespus, Blair and Brigadier General James "Paladin" Taggart inspect the downed wreckage of the TCS Concordia. Blair launches against Kilrah, with up to three wingmen of the player's choice.

His original personality was reactivated by the code phrase "heart of the tiger", the Kilrathi name for Blair. Either way, afterwards Blair finds Hobbes left a message locker, explaining that he was brainwashed long before he met Blair, and this brainwashing led him to defect to the Confederation. In 1996, Computer Gaming World ranked it as the 54th best game of all time for its "thrilling space action in the first successful interactive movie", and the ninth most innovative computer game.

Every console has a life of its own — a launch, a fight for shelf space, a few years when its best work appears, and a long afterlife in the hands of people who never stopped playing it. This one is no exception.

Wing Commander III - Heart of the Tiger — Frequently Asked Questions