Display MoreWe have some extremely sad news to report today: per the Ex Origin Facebook group, veteran Wing Commander developer Kirk Winterrowd passed away suddenly this past weekend. Our hearts go out to his friends and family. If you'd like to share anything about him for posterity we would be happy to post any messages in a future update. By all accounts, he was both a talented game developer and a decent human being and we would like to take some time to celebrate his contributions to the Wing Commander universe. As we have after other tragic losses we hope that highlighting some of what he created–some of what we've enjoyed for decades now even if we didn't know it!–we will help keep his memory alive forever.
Like many people who attended 'Origin university', Mr. Winterrowd started in quality assurance and quickly proved how capable he was in a range of roles including production manager, music composer and sound engineer. He started his game development career just out of college in 1991 as an Alpha Tester on Wing Commander's second mission disk, Crusade. He went on to serve as Quality Assurance Project Leader on Wing Commander II and then Chris Roberts assigned him as one of the first 'TDAs' on Strike Commander, a role that would be called a junior designer today. In his seven years at Origin he would touch every major franchise and provide some critical pieces to the Wing Commander series that we continue to celebrate to this day. He seems to have been a major part of Origin's famed company culture, appearing frequently in Point of Origin and even working at the Britannia Manor haunted house in 1992!
Chris Roberts had the whole team credited like a movie in Strike Commander's advertising, including Kirk Winterrowd as a Technical Design Assistant. He is behind Richard Garriott and next to Beverly Garland in a 1991 team photo taken outside Origin.
He was also the original Maniac! When Special Operations 2 brought back the character, he was tapped to perform the voice acting. Maniac's crazed in-flight dialogue for the Morningstar missions remains firmly imprinted in the heads of Wing Commander fans, especially his post-credits Easter egg ("where the hell are you?!"). He went on to perform additional voices in the CD-ROM version of Wing Commander Privateer and several other Origin games including Bioforge, Ultima VIII Pagan and the famous 'talkie' FM Towns port of Ultima VI The False Prophet.
Your browser does not support the audio element. … and he produced, too. He was the project manager for the oft-forgotten (but also passionately loved) Origin FX screensaver for Windows 3. Origin FX was also his first audio credit. He would go on to work on audio on Wing Commander Armada and Wing Commander Prophecy as well as Strike Commander, Crusader, Bioforge, Longbow 2 and a host of Ultimas (Ultima VII, Serpent Isle, Silver Seed, Pagan, the Pagan SAP, The Black Gate SNES and Ultima Online). His audio work went well beyond just sounds, though: he made some great music! Mr. Winterrowd composed four very familiar tracks for Wing Commander Academy: the introduction, the mission builder theme and then the winning and losing gauntlet pieces. He went on to compose additional music for Ultima VII, Serpent Isle, Silver Seed, Crusader: No Remorse and Ultima Online.
Your browser does not support the audio element. Your browser does not support the audio element. Your browser does not support the audio element. Your browser does not support the audio element. After working through Origin's entire golden age, he went on to help develop Ares Rising at Imagine (Joel Manners' unofficial followup to Privateer) and then moved into public relations at Acclaim. After that he left the game industry to pursue the same sort of work in the automotive industry. But even Wing Commander fans oblivious to the work that went on behind the screens knew the name Winterrowd. That's because he was honored with a pretty major tuckerization on his very first project, a ship mentioned in a conversation with Iceman named the TCS Winterrowd! The Winterrowd is said to be the ship where the Society of Mandarins were first discovered. In Wing Commander II, Blair mentions there was a trial held there. And then in a Privateer bartender rumor we're told it was finally destroyed by the Steltek drone! One of those fun stories that would happen in the background across multiple games that only true fans would ever notice (and obsess over).
Your browser does not support the audio element. Your browser does not support the audio element. Wing Commander Credits
- Wing Commander The Secret Missions 2 Crusade - Alpha Tester (1991)
- Wing Commander II Vengeance of the Kilrathi - Quality Assurance Project Leader (1991)
- Wing Commander II Special Operations 2 - Maniac (1992)
- Origin FX - Project Administrator & Audio (1992)
- Wing Commander Academy - Music (1992)
- Wing Commander Privateer CD - Voice Talent (1994)
- Wing Commander Armada - Digital FX (1994)
- Wing Commander Prophecy - Additional Dialog Recording (1997)
