EA Brings Back 25 Classic PC Games, Including Road Rash and Wing Commander

Electronic Arts has brought 25 classic games back to PC without much advance warning. The lineup includes Road Rash, six Wing Commander Anniversary Editions including Privateer 2, nine mainline Ultima games, both Ultima Underworld titles, Theme Hospital, and the Crusader series. The games are available on Steam, GOG, and the EA App, with the collection making its Steam debut.The re-releases fall into two groups. Seven Anniversary Editions, Road Rash and six Wing Commander games, have been adapted for modern systems with improvements to compatibility, controls, and performance. Wing Commander III and IV also support 60 frames per second and incorporate patches originally created by the community. The Road Rash release is based on the 1996 PC version, which had never previously been available digitally. The other 18 titles are largely faithful ports, with their original content preserved.The restoration work also extends to the video sequences. Wing Commander III and IV became famous for their live-action FMV scenes featuring actors such as Mark Hamill. Back in 2022, EA senior producer Jim Vessella found a vault at the Redwood Shores campus containing almost 20,000 pieces of media, including Betacam, VHS, and D1 tapes. The materials were sorted by summer 2023, digitization began in early 2024, and by April 2026 roughly 2,500 hours of footage had been digitized and more than 1,500 video scenes restored. Players can choose between enhanced versions and the original 1990s footage. Road Rash also has its soundtrack licensed again, so Soundgarden, Monster Magnet, Paw, and Hammerbox can once more accompany the races.Steam and GOG are offering a 50% discount until November 19, although the games are not available for purchase in the Russian region. Players who already own the relevant Wing Commander releases on GOG or the EA App will receive the corresponding Anniversary Edition upgrades automatically.