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In early 1993, Origin Systems signed a brand deal with a major technology player, Intel Corporation. At the time, Intel's processors were the industry standard and they were particularly interested in expanding their marketing to appeal to the new furor for multimedia entertainment. The initial deal allowed Intel to use Wing Commander II and Strike Commander to promote their i486 chips. The February 12, 1993 issue of Point of Origin (Vol. 3, No. 32) summarizes the original agreement:
ORIGIN and Intel
Intel Corporation will showcase their 486 chips at the Software Publishing Association (SPA) conference in March and the Comdex trade show in May by running Strike Commander. Strike will be the only entertainment product used by Intel to show off the speed of their chips. ORIGIN has also granted permission for Intel to use some of the game play sequences and screen shots from Wing Commander II and Strike Commander in upcoming TV shots and print ads.An expansion of the deal the next year would allow Intel to use a number of other Origin games to promote their new Pentium chips to consumers; this would result in some pretty fascinating and rarely remembered Wing Commander III marketing being published! Today we're going to take a look at both print and TV campaigns!
Print Campaigns
"Catch a Rising Star"
July to November 1993
Outlets: Business Week, Computerworld, Fortune, National GeographicThese are the earliest Wing Commander-related Intel ads we've been able to find, two page print spreads promoting the Intel486 DX2 processor. They use a screenshot from Wing Commander II showing a Rapier cockpit with Hobbes on the right VDU alongside other productivity software.
One fun aspect we noticed while researching this was that they cropped the software differently depending on the publication. Compare Business Week to Fortune to National Geographic! No alien cat faces allowed in the important world of finance.
"What's the Big Attraction?"
November to Spring 1995
Outlets: Business Week, The Computer Paper, PC Computing, GW2k: Gateway Magazine, WiredThis one is really exciting: a late 1994 two page spread that includes truly unique renders of two Arrow fighters from Wing Commander III!
"Boldly Go Where No PC Has Gone Before"
October to December 1994
Outlets: Edge (UK), PC Joker (DE), PC World (DE)This print ad was part of a European campaign that used the same format for a number of different applications. We've found the Wing Commander III version in English and German.
Here are some examples of the non-Wing Commander ads in the campaign in English, German, Spanish and Italian:
TV Spots
"Fall Into Place"
This 1993 commercial shows Intel-supporting software dropping like Tetris blocks. Watch carefully and you'll find both Wing Commander II and Strike Commander!
"Really Take Off"
This 1994 commercial features a kid doing his homework with Red Shift and then switching to "the Kilrathi sector" for (a mockup version of) Wing Commander III! It's even narrated by LeVar Burton.
Posters
Europe
European players received the biggest boon of the Origin/Intel partnership: these two "really fly" posters were widely distributed in English, French and German in a variety of different games (from Origin and other publishers). The Strike Commander poster was for 1993 and Wing Commander III replaced it in 1994.
CES 1994
Americans had a slightly different and significantly rarer Intel poster: these five prints showcasing different Origin games were distributed at CES in 1994.
And Beyond…
One funny side-effect of the co-branding deal is that while it was active Wing Commander's style guide used "intell", with two ls, for Confederation intelligence. It's visible throughout Victory Streak and continues sporadically all the way through the Pilgrim novels. Mag Force 7 didn't get the note, though, and actually had an 'Intel Inside' joke in a luck card:
Wing Commander had one more Intel campaign left in it: in 1996, a deal with Intel helped promote Privateer 2: The Darkening. The game even plays a brief Intel logo when it starts up! The partnership would vanish soon, though: when Chris Roberts started Digital Anvil and created the Wing Commander movie one of the biggest investors was Austin-based AMD, Intel's direct competitor.
