News categories list

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Today we're sharing the Official Oscarinas "nominations video" for Wing Commander 2. There's lots of retro reviews and playthroughs of games on the internet, but this one stands out in a crowded field. This clip is technically part of an elaborate award season that they put together to recognize various retro games for their accomplishments, but I actually like it just because it's a couple of guys really geeking out about how great the game is for over an hour. I'm not sure why it only has 50 views (as of this writing). That seems criminally low - give it a watch!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

How about some super adventures for your Sunday? Today we're sharing a pair of lengthy overviews from the Super Adventures in Gaming blog. It's really refreshing to see such an old school website operating in 2024, and I'm not just talking about their focus on classic games of the past. Their site itself is still styled after websites of old, not drastically unlike the CIC. They're also still dedicated to the art of long form text articles, which you don't see so often anymore (and if you do, you then need to weed out the AI cruft!). You can find pieces on both Wing Commander II and Wing Commander III at their site (plus Wing Commander I, which we reported on years ago). Both earn the honorable "Not Crap, Would Play Again" award. Don't let my comments about text scare you away, each article is chock full of gorgeous images from each game as well!

• WC1
• WC2
• WC3

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Today we have another very cool find by Dominus of Exult. He happened to stumble across a pin in a vintage collectible shop. It's very possible that this was some kind of localized promotional giveaway in Germany from the '90s. I'm definitely in love with this simple retro design!

Another "LOOK WHAT I FOUND" - a Wing Commander needle pin (or whatever it's called). Sold by a shop that specializes in selling those kinds of things (originals, not reproductions).

For comparison, there was a department store in Germany that included metal dogtags with Wing Commander 4.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

When Maniac and Blair first arrive on the Tiger Claw they're wearing CSS Concordia patches on their peacoats. It's not really clear why unless the only other option was a Tiger Claw one.

He changes sweaters between acts, too! Or I guess maybe he just hot glues a different patch onto the same sweater.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

The clock continues to tick down towards the formal delisting of Wing Commander Arena from the Xbox 360 Marketplace. As of July 29, 2024, all Xbox 360 games that aren't forward compatible to the modern Xbox One/Series consoles will no longer be sold. This is a bittersweet (more bitter than sweet) milestone for those of us who thoroughly enjoyed the game when it launched in the summer of 2007, but it's also pretty incredible that it's had an uninterrupted 17 year run of official support. The good news is that you can still buy the game now and continue to play it online for the foreseeable future. Even if you don't own a 360 console, it's just $10 on the web. Pick it up now, or else you may find yourself chasing down that November 2007 OXM cover disc for the physical copy! It does seems likely that Microsoft will eventually also sunset 360 online support as well, but we're cautiously optimistic

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Tonight we have a serene Hornet flyby arranged and rendered by Mac. The fighter models themselves were originally designed by Klavs. I like this scene for today's news because the color palette seems to match the common tones of Star Trek Discovery, which will be flying off into the bluish purple sunset late tonight. Stop by the CIC Discord with us if you're planning to watch the finale too (we'll be up for the live stream)!

It's a #WingCommander kind of night.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

One of the biggest television shows of the year is Fallout, which is based on the classic video game series. It has a handful of endearing and memorable characters, including Walton Goggins' The Ghoul. But did you know this wasn't his first time acting in a video game-based production? As we reported a while back, Goggins portrayed the character "Moose" in Wing Commander 4! He's a Banshee pilot who's shot down by a flight of Excaliburs. Here's the clip:

More on his appearance:

While the label on the photograph reads "BW Pilot Garret 'Moose'", the actor in question is none other than Walton Goggins (credited as Walt Goggins). Moose appears in the Peleus jamming scene, one of the three Border Worlds Banshee pilots that are ambushed and shot down by a flight of Excaliburs. The Polaroid gives us a great look at a Border Worlds flight suit, which the production dyed grey from the original tan

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Hey, who wants some new Cybot ships and scenes? They might be a little weird, but they're always amusing and some are available now to help kickstart your project! New downloads include the Niven Base and Steltek Assortment. Be sure to let Cybot know if you find any of these designs useful!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

How many people here know about the Maniac?

Some lesser known Maniac variations, pixel edition:

Fine art edition. Wait did he start out as just... Luke Skywalker? And Tom Wilson auditioned for Blair... *X-Files theme*

It turns out a fair number of people were already aware of the Maniac.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

This is probably the best photo of Flint and a Kilrathi extra with tiny hands that you're going to see tonight.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

One of the many exciting fan projects that legendary artist and programmer Howard Day has created over the years is Wing Leader, a modern WC1 remake in the Unity engine. During the 2019-2021 time period, Howie shared a lot of awesome concept material, art and engine demonstrator content, but priorities got in the way and development has significantly slowed these past few years. In order to potentially kick start community development and make sure the source content is available to fans in the future, Howie has now publicly released the project's assets on GitHub. Although he hopes to continue making improvements at some point, other Wingnuts are free (and encouraged!) to take the reigns and see what they can do with what's been developed so far. You can find out more here!

I figure I should do this, since I don't know when I'll get back to it. I've made the project public. Adam's passing has

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation Alert*
Titan Hadad is under siege. This is an urgent call to all independent pilots to aid in the complete defeat of the fourth Titan.
The key modules for the assault continue to be readily available at all Rescue Megaships:
• Thargoid Pulse Neutraliser – To break through the maelstrom defence wave.
• Caustic Sink Launchers – To protect your ship from caustic effects of the maelstrom.
• Guardian Nanite Torpedo Pylon – To hamper the Titan's vents and make it vulnerable to damage.
Rewards have been requisitioned for all Commanders able to participate in ending the Titan threat.
Good luck, Commanders.

Display More

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Frequent readers of the Tri-System CCN booth news will find about ten stories written about Zakariah_Skintight and his hit band, The Buttock Men. But who is Zak Skintight and why is he featured so prominently? LOAF recently caught up with Privateer 2 developer Paul Hughes and finally got the answer!

I think that was Paul “Stitch” Chapman - the chap that did all the UI and box covers/ manual. He used to play bass in a band in his uni days.

Stitch was a brilliant UI designer - he was so shocked at how bad the box art and manual were shaping up, he took it upon himself to do it and knocked it out of the park. He proper pushed us to make a really cool UI (for 1995!).

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Today we've got an unusual stealth GOG deal that slipped in under the radar. Most Wing Commander discounts are tied to a theme or event, such as a "Sci-Fi Sale" or "Spring Sale," but we can't seem to find a corresponding association this time. We also have a much more limited selection of WC games that are included: Wing Commander 1&2, WC3 and Privateer are each marked down 75% to $1.49 for the next week. We'll happily take anything we can get though!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Today we've got the sequel to the Matthew Lillard art recently made by NMA Nekro. They've collaborated with dogseatdogstoo to start with one of the earlier pieces, colorize it and add some atsy WC (Secret Missions 2 to be exact) elements. What do you think? It's wild how many huge Lillard fans are out there!

Guys do you remember the movie Wing Commander 1999? Well @nma_nekro and I sure do.

Lovely little art trade I had the privilege of working on @nma_nekro did the line art, of course, and I scribbled in the rest! Thank you again!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

We've got a new poll today, and the topic is the Wing Commander Collectible Trading Card Game. Our specific focus is on the Weapon Systems aspect of the game. Some people might have a black and white interpretation of ship specs based on what they're used to playing, but there's plenty of variability that happens in the universe. This can range from mention of an Epee with a torpedo in WC2, Rachel/Pliers offering to upgrade your loadout or straight arcade-style pickups that appear in several games such as Arena, Armada Proving Grounds and the WC4 demo.

The CCG allows players to enact their version of this by modifying the stats of particular flights with the upgrades below. To limit the poll options, we didn't include Kilrathi variants of most things except for the Skipper. It's functionally the same as the Tachyon Cannon in-game, but since the in-universe device is so different, that's on the list

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

We reported earlier this week on the untimely passing of Wing Commander superfan Adam "Klavs" Burch. It can be hard to find the words to appropriately express people's thoughts at a time like this, so some fellow fans have turned to more visual attempts. Both tributes below features Klavs' famous Rapier models in a classic 'missing man formation'.

The first is a beautiful scene by Mac:

In remembrance of Adam "Klavs" Burch.

Thank You Adam, for everything.

Kevin Caccamo also featured this honor to Klavs in today's Spacey Saturday stream.

Display More

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

AD spotted a phenomenal pair of art pieces by AEdwardBaker. He's just created a beautiful take on the TCS Victory. This test render is only available in 1080p, but there's already so much great detail in everything down to the laser turrets and weathering on the hull paint. It's really slick! You can give him feedback or check out his many other gorgeous space scenes here.

"She's a fine carrier with a long history of service to the Confederation."

"Yes sir. A very long history."

A test render of my model of TCS Victory from Wing Commander III.

Done in Blender

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Yesterday we reported on Mash's spectacular patch to increase Wing Commander 3's resolution and integrate enhanced videos. As we also mentioned, this was something that Destro was working to incorporate into Wing Loader. With the success of Mash's program, Destro has officially stopped trying to integrate that into his mod. He's instead released a new version of Wing Loader that seamlessly supports both apps side-by-side. It's also packed with fixes and improvements for Wing Commanders 1&2! Grab version 0.92 here!

Wing Commander III HD Video playback via Wing Loader has been cancelled. I was planning to release this a couple of weeks from now but I ultimately cancelled the project... Why? Someone did it for me!!! And in my testing, theirs works better. :p

Mash has created an Enhancement Pack for Wing Commander III that includes adding in the HD Videos and this is what I'm going to recommend using

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Today we have an exciting release by Mash. He has managed to upgrade the Kilrathi Saga edition of Wing Commander 3 to accommodate modern high resolution displays as well as incorporate ODVS' enhanced video files. This has long been high on the list of fan requests, so it's pretty incredible to finally see. It's not just something he's working on - there's a playable release ready for you right now! Give it a try and let him know what you think!

Hi, I've been working on a patch for the Windows version of WC3 which came in the Kilrathi Saga compilation. It's finally reached a point where it seems playable so I thought it might be a good time to share it here.

My initial goal was to increase the resolution of the game so as to see more detail in space scenes. This has turned out quite well I think, with a few minor issues to work out.I then turned attention to adding support for the HD movies created