What it is
Wing Commander Together is a browser-based DOSBox mod that adds cooperative multiplayer to the classic 1990 space combat game. It was built through 11 years of hand reverse-engineering the original game's memory layout.
From the developer
In the developer’s own words, from fireflyk64.github.io.
I've always wanted to play Wing Commander with friends, so we could fly the story missions together. In 2015, I hypothesized that the full game state fit in the data segment (only 64k), and I could do small position and orientation experiments with vbindiff to discover how the memory was organized. Some fun findings: the camera was in entity index 0x3D (a "3D" joke?). My brother, Patrick, figured out Borland's overlay loader crashed the game until we made our stub look like a real stack frame. To play you need your own copy (e.g. the GOG version) and you drag setup.exe into the browser. It's a DOSBox mod: no game files are hosted. We reversed the game by hand, but LLMs were used for the recent browser/peer-to-peer WebRTC with voice chat port recently, and we continue to use them for ongoing work. I'll be in the lobby for some hours if anyone wants to fly together.
Editor takes
“The original's chunky pixel art and synth score are preserved in all their DOS glory, but this is about reliving the past, not polishing it.”
“An incredible 11-year reverse-engineering feat that adds co-op to a classic, but its scope is razor-thin—it's a mod, not a game, and requires you to bring your own copy.”
“The real story here isn't the Kilrathi war, but the decade-long brotherly quest to share a cockpit, a tale of dedication that's more compelling than the game's own narrative.”
“This is a deep-dive project that demands setup and a spare hour, not a pick-up-and-play break filler, though the built-in voice chat makes it a social session if you have the time.”
How to play
You need your own copy of Wing Commander (e.g., the GOG version) and drag setup.exe into the browser. No game files are hosted; the mod runs entirely through a DOSBox wrapper with peer-to-peer WebRTC networking and built-in voice chat.
Tips
- The project began in 2015 with the hypothesis that the full game state fit in the 64K DOS data segment; coordinates were located by diffing memory snapshots taken while flying through empty space
- The camera entity was found at index 0x3D, and the developer's brother Patrick solved a crash caused by Borland's overlay loader by making a stub look like a real stack frame
- Recent browser and networking work used LLMs, but the core reverse engineering was done by hand
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