Wing Commander, released in 1990 by Origin Systems, is a simulation style action game interwoven with a cinematic storyline set in the 27th century. In the first scenario, the player takes the role of a young Lieutenant who has just been assigned to the carrier ship Tiger's Claw, the pride of the Confederate Navy. As the primary goal of the game unfolds, you learn of the Confederation's campaign to take Vega Sector from the Kilrathi.

What made this game so popular was that it didn't attempt to model real-world physics with a completely accurate simulation of space flight, but concentrated instead on providing a fun, intense, first-person space dogfighting experience. Several things distinguished it from other games upon its initial release: the graphics, music, and sound were all revolutionary, surpassing most (if not all) other competing products in the industry at the time. The storyline, of which a short segment unraveled after each mission the player flew, had many plot devices rarely used before in a computer game of its type: character development, interpersonal conflict, ethics, and more

Wing Commander: The Secret Missions is a Space Combat Sim game, developed and published by Mindscape Inc., which was released in 1993.

The Tiger's Claw, on maneuvers in the Goddard System, receives an abortive distress call from Goddard colony. When the Claw arrives, though, nothing is left but wreckage and corpses; a quarter of a million colonists have been killed. Confed realizes that this is the work of a new Kilrathi weapon, the "Graviton weapon," which is able to increase the power of gravity by over a hundred times. Clever work by the Claw's crew and pilots allows them to capture a Kilrathi courier ship, which reveals that this weapon is mounted on an entirely new class of ship; CNC codenames it the Sivar-class dreadnought, after the Kilrathi god of war. Bluehair leads the strike against the Sivar and destroys it in the Vigrid system; for unexplained reasons, ships of that class and armament are never seen again.