Wing Commander 4 – Movie Theatre Trailer

Back when Wing Commander 4 came out in 1996, Origin took the highly unusual step of promoting it in cinemas with a short 60 second trailer that was produced on 35mm film stock. After the trailer had it’s run in however many theatres, the film was then returned back to Origin and several of these have found their way into the hands of people like myself.

I’ve been curious as to whether it was any different to it’s digital equivalent all the time I’ve had it but the cost of a transfer has been prohibitive with quotes as high as £250. I managed to source a far cheaper alternative though and here on Youtube are the results of a 1080p HD transfer:-

The answer is that it’s exactly the same 60 second trailer we all know and love. The quality isn’t what I might have hoped. It turns out that despite being on celluloid the trailer was first computer generated and then scanned onto film meaning that it’s nowhere near as sharp as 35mm is capable of. All in all, possibly not the best £50 I’ve ever spent but now we know.

2 thoughts on “Wing Commander 4 – Movie Theatre Trailer

  1. Nice trailer.
    By the way, any update on whether we’ll see rest of your strategy guides in Downloads section, and probable timeframe if possible?

    • You’ll see Freelancer in the next day or two. Other than that, your guess is as good as mine. It’s not all that high up the priorities right now but I’ll see if I can’t get another done next week.

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