[Bandit LOAF]

This month we're going to look back at some actual Saturday morning cartoons! That's because Ellen Guon Beeman (then Ellen Guon), who wrote for Wing Commander II and all four of the early expansions, got her start in Hollywood writing episodes of some of the shows we loved as kids. I'm excited to see how these compare to her novels and her Wing Commander games; she has always been quite a writer! Then we're finishing things off with a fun collection of bloopers that includes what would've been the first nationally broadcast footage from Wing Commander III…





MoonDreamers (Season 1, Episode 6 - "The Dreamkin"): I… don't know what MoonDreamers was. This is one of those 'multiple short episodes' style series so "The Dreamkin" is just a ten minute short. I happened to catch the theme song as I was organizing the files and I think this'll be a pretty interesting start to the day.





Jem (Season 1, Episode 19 - "The Princess and the Singer" & Season 2, Episode 8 - "Treasure Hunt"): Ellen Guon wrote two episodes of Jem, a show that's still well known today, with her writing partner Christy Marx. Ms. Marx would go on to show up in both Secret Missions 2 and Freedom Flight as the Confed marine who leads the capture of the Ras Nik'hra (and who later has to be rescued when her troop transport is boarded).





Dinosaucers (Season 1, Episode 44 - "The Trojan Horseasaurus"): And wrapping up this section we've got an episode of Dinosaucers, the Transformers knockoff about sentient dinosaurs that fight… let's say crime. I mentioned this one in chat and immediately found a few people who were VERY excited to see Dinosaucers and many who had never heard of it. Count me right in the middle!





New Return of TV Censored Bloopers (October 7, 1994): Finally, we're wrapping it up with one of those mid-90s bloopers specials… that includes footage from Wing Commander III! Interestingly, this aired over a month before Wing Commander III even came out so we couldn't have known what we were watching at the time.

We've all of the videos in a YouTube playlist to make the rest of the process easier. We've also uploaded a zip of all the videos in case you'd like to arrange them some other way yourself. You can get that here.

So JOIN US on Saturday, September 19th at noon Eastern when we'll do a little window shopping! Of course, you can feel free to drop in and out (or just stop by to talk Wing Commander).

How do we watch the shows together?

It's pretty low tech! Simply join the Wing Commander CIC Discord on Saturday and we will be chatting (in text) along with the shows in the main channel. Everyone who wants to join in should download their own copies from the CIC and we will count down to play them one at a time together starting with the short at noon EST on Saturday. Everyone is welcome and we encourage you to join in the conversation; sharing your thoughts helps make the experience better for everyone!

Will there be custom certificates made for the attendees this time?

Yes.





You can find certificates 1-10 here.

Hey this one actually is mostly cartoons!

That isn't a question.

I love these events but want to do better long term planning. Do you have any others coming up?

We do! Here's the upcoming schedule. And if you have any idea for a future lineup, please feel free to suggest it on the forums! We also have room for one more Star Trek episode next time around, if anyone has a Wing Commander-relevant suggestion.

• Marathon 16 - Star Trek Marathon 4 - November 20
• Marathon 17 - Music Videos: The Next Generation - December 18
• Marathon 18 - Day of the Titans - January 15

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Original update published on October 12, 2026

 

[Dondragmer]

Christy Marx has her own place in the history of game development, as seen on her Mobygames Profile. In particular, while Wing Commander 1 and 2 were being developed, she was at Sierra writing Conquests of Camelot: The Search for the Grail and Conquests of the Longbow: The Legend of Robin Hood.

Game development 1990s had a problem: as graphics quality went from 320×200×16 color EGA to 320×200×256 color MCGA to 640×480×256 color SVGA, the cost of drawing art went up rapidly. The number of people owning computers went up too, which kept the Wing Commander series in the black for some time. But for adventure games in particular, increased sales didn't keep pace with increased expenses. Designers needed to be careful how many art assets they asked for, and make efficient use of them.

By this measure, I submit that Conquests of the Longbow (1991) is the best-designed Sierra game of the MCGA era. Robin Hood starts each day in Sherwood Forest, then depending on the day a few other scenes will be available to explore. In modern game design terms, Sherwood Forest is a "hub" that other areas connect to.

Those other areas are usually just a few background screens each. But they feel big and consequential, because of the effort it takes to get to them. Usually Robin also needs a disguise to get in, but his past disguises are eventually exposed and can't be re-used.

Was this a consequence of Christy's previous experience in animated TV, where new backgrounds and cels are expensive, while reusing existing ones is cheap? Maybe!

Did this inspire later "Open World" games, like the Grand Theft Auto series that remains strong today? It would be nice to think so, but I doubt it. I have never seen a designer credit Christy Marx or Conquests of the Longbow as inspiration. So the most we can say that if later designers had studied it, they might have converged on modern open world design principles a few years earlier than they did.

Like most Sierra adventure games, Conquests of the Longbow has a lot of ridiculous deaths leading to a "Restore / Restart / Quit" message. But it has surprisingly few "walking dead" states, where Robin has lost a critical item and can't get it back. Christy Marx put in many additional conversations to give you a chance to recover from these. OneShortEye on YouTube has made a detailed video about some of the scripting to help get players back on track, although it will cost in points and sometimes in the end game.