Cast of characters: Christopher Blair (though this doesn't become the character's official name until the third game, here the name is user-defined), Col. Peter Halcyon, Maj. James "Paladin" Taggart, Capt. Jeannette "Angel" Devereaux, 2nd Lt. Todd "Maniac" Marshall, Maj. Michael "Iceman" Casey, Maj. Kein "Bossman" Chen, 1st Lt. Mariko "Spirit" Tanaka, Capt. Ian "Hunter" St. John, Capt. Joseph "Knight" Khumalo, 1st Lt. Zach "Jazz" Colson (only appears in the Secret Missions 2 expansion pack); 1st Lt. Etienne "Doomsday" Montclair (only appears in Secret Missions 2) and Shotglass the bartender.
The only game in the Wing Commander series where the player earns medals and advances in rank according to their performance in missions. The player starts off as a Second Lieutenant and may go up 4 ranks to Lieutenant Colonel. Although at the end of Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi (1991) the player is promoted from Captain to Colonel and in Wing Commander: Prophecy (1997) Casey is promoted from Second Lieutenant to First Lieutenant and is awarded two medals during the course of the game, in these games this isn't connected to the player's actual performance in missions, other than simply completing them.
As PCs back in 1990 couldn't render polygons properly, two-dimensional sprites were used to simulate a realistic environment. The graphics turned out so impressive that this game was regarded as the most advanced at the time.
In this game there is no audio available for the characters' dialogue, so this is the only game in the series where the characters are not performed by anyone. Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi (1991) included a speech pack for the characters (with a voice cast of unknown actors and members of the game's production staff) and Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger (1994) replaced the animated cutscenes with full motion videos (ie. live action) featuring Mark Hamill, Malcolm McDowell, John Rhys-Davies and Tom Wilson.
The story of the Wing Commander series was inspired by science fiction author Larry Niven's Man-Kzin Wars stories. Both are about a future space war between mankind and an aggressive alien race of giant bipedal felines. In the second game, part of the action takes place in a solar system called Niven, presumably a homage to the author.