EA producer found 20,000 archival media assets in secret physical vault at its HQ
Electronic Arts Senior Producer Jim Vessella discovered a secret physical media vault at EA's Redwood Shores campus containing nearly 20,000 archival assets, including Betacam, VHS, and D1 tapes.
The vault contained various media formats including Betacam, VHS, D1, Film Reels, and CD-ROMs. Vessella discovered the collection in 2022 and spent six months outside his regular work hours unpacking the room, which was later reorganized chronologically with help from Greg Roensch of the EA Story initiative.
Digitization and Remastering
Vessella, who previously worked on the Command & Conquer Remastered Collection, proposed digitizing the organized collection in 2024.
This archival work enabled the creation of the Wing Commander III: 30th Anniversary Edition using original master tapes. The project expanded beyond simple remastering as Vessella engaged with the Wing Commander community to enhance the games for modern systems.
Community Collaboration
EA collaborated with several community members to improve the remastered games. Matt Wells created an Enhancement Patch for the Kilrathi Saga version, Owen Davies advised on FMV restoration for damaged tapes, and Ben Lesnick addressed the infamous insta-kill missile spam in Wing Commander IV.
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