The game was first released for MS-DOS on September 26, 1990, and was later ported to the Amiga, CD32 (256-color), Sega CD and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and re-released for the PC as Wing Commander I in 1994.

The player takes the role of a nameless pilot (later referred to as Christopher Blair in sequels) aboard the TCS Tiger's Claw, a Bengal-class Strike Carrier.

Of the two endings, the "winning" path is considered canon by the game's two expansion packs as well as the sequel Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi.

In the add-on's plot, the Tiger's Claw is in the Firekka System, whose native intelligent lifeforms – the bird-like Firekkans – are negotiating to join the Terran Confederation.

This presence develops into a massive battle group, and though the Firekkans sign the Articles of the Confederation, the outnumbered Terrans have no choice but to retreat.

Finally, almost overlooked in all the chaos, Major Kien "Bossman" Chen is lost while flying on Jeannette Devereaux's wing; the nearby TCS Austin transfers over two pilots, Lieutenants Zachary "Jazz" Colson and Etienne "Doomsday" Montclair.

Seeing the chance to strike a heady blow to Kilrathi morale, the Confederation assigns its Firekka-sector resources the task of disrupting the ceremony.

Additional background elements about stealth fighters and Admiral Tolwyn were added to improve the continuity with Wing Commander II.

[7] Next Generation reviewed the 3DO version of the game, rating it four stars out of five, and stated that "Super Wing Commander succeeds at being what it was intended to be - a straightforward space simulator with an arcade spin".

Before the team could isolate and fix the error and they considered a work-around, one of the game's programmers, Ken Demarest, hex-edited the memory manager so it displayed a different message.

[12] Wing Commander shipped in 1990 for PC/DOS as the initial platform[13] and came with an instruction booklet styled as a shipboard magazine, Claw Marks.

[14] It provided tactical suggestions, statistics on fighters and weapons both Kilrathi and Terran, capsule biographies of notable pilots on both sides of the line, and general shipboard news (such as the discontinuation of the popular comic strip Hornet's Nest, due to the recent death of its artist, Lt. Larry "Tooner" Dibbles).

Notable contributors to the Claw Marks magazine include Captain Aaron Allston, Major Warren Spector, and Col. Chris Roberts.

[23] In 2006 Electronic Arts ported the Super NES version of Wing Commander to the PlayStation Portable as part of EA Replay, released in the United States on November 14.

[25] The long lost source code of Wing Commander was given to the fan-community in that year in August by a former developer for the purpose of long-time preservation.

[40] In a 1992 survey of science fiction games, the magazine gave the title five of five stars, stating that "the richness of the entire package makes this a 'must-have'".

[42][30] GamePro gave the Sega CD version a positive review, commenting that "a great story line with cinematic animation and digitized speech gives this game the feel of a big screen space opera".

[43] They regarded the Super Wing Commander remake for the 3DO to be "a tedious disappointment", citing missions that are "either too short or too repetitive", dramatic slowdown which interferes with the gameplay, poorly animated character faces, and low quality voice tracks.

[32] In 2011, Maximum PC included it on the list 16 classic games that need to be remade today, stating: "Chris Roberts and Origin really nailed the space opera with this series, which blended fast action and a fairly engaging (if hokey) story.

But it's a lot more than that, as it combines animated sequences, voice acting, and a great story to create the first example of that now-overused phrase, 'Interactive Cinema'".