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Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

We've got a couple smaller updates for the WC4 Fan Remake today based on questions from fans at the CIC Forums. The first request was to add VR headset support, which the team was surprisingly open to. There are existing tools out there that facilitate conversion to VR, but they are rapidly evolving, so it would be something the team revisits much later on when the mod is closer to release. There were also questions about cockpits, and we got another beautiful shot in reply that shows off their potential. They look like a good mix of classic WC style with information embedded while being rather inobtrusive like in Prophecy. As designed by Origin, WC4 reacted hard to the popularity of invisible HUD cockpit options in Armada, WC3 and Kilrathi Saga. While they may have been the predominant way people were playing in 1995, the game loses a little something by not having them as an option. It's nice

Quote from No Man

Hello!

We have been overwhelmed by the positive reaction of the community as travellers new and old have been exploring our last big update, No Man’s Sky Origins. Thank you all so much for your kind words and feedback, it was so satisfying for the team to watch your reaction.

Hopefully this year has been a mix of things you wanted to see in the game and a few surprises along the way. But we are not done yet. There is one more surprise…

Today we are announcing perhaps our most important update of the year, No Man’s Sky Next Generation, coming to PC, PlayStation 5, XBox Series X/S.

This has been a huge undertaking for us, in the works for over a year. We wanted to do the next generation of consoles justice. For us that meant:

• A free upgrade for our millions of existing console players
• An impactful graphical upgrade on next generation consoles
• All graphical upgrades available for high end PC players too
• Save game transfer and

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

EmuMusicFan has another new character to share from his graphical novel project, and this one's kind of unique. He's working out angles on a new camera person for a TCN news crew that's going to interview a famous Kilrathi. The character will be a Firekkan, which confers certain advantages in his line of work! You can watch a visual example of what the end project(s) will look like on YouTube here.

The gist of Chpter 3: TCN is producing a historical documentary program. A presswoman and a intern Firekkan cameraman interviewed a retired Kat pilot, Haga Kaligara...

As for the character, I would design him like this: Rarely does a young Firekkan, who has left home, come to TCN as a trainee cameraman. His race talent allows him to be more flexible for many filming assignments. By completing this documentary work on Pasqual with other staff members, he would be able to turn into a full member soon. But

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Imperator Hadrian Augustus Duval has been severely wounded in an assassination attempt by Neo-Marlinist extremists.
The attack took place at Dyson City in the Paresa system, headquarters of the isolationist organisation Nova Imperium. A small team of armed intruders broke into the command deck and opened fire. Three people were killed and four injured, including Hadrian Duval, before his Praetorian Guard eliminated the assassins.
The NMLA has claimed responsibility. On propaganda channels, the paramilitary group vows to "sever every head of the Duval hydra", and calls for all citizens to rise up and demand democracy.
Praetor Leo Magnus, Nova Imperium's head of security, gave this statement to Vox Galactica:
"The Imperator is in a critical condition but receiving our finest medical care. I am personally overseeing an investigation into how the NMLA infiltrated our starport and bypassed security

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

John Rairdin was looking at old game trailers and reminded us about the wonderful little teaser for Prophecy on the Game Boy Advance. We reported on it back in December 2002, but that was years before YouTube was founded, so it was just a downloadable wmv file. Since most of you probably haven't seen it before, here it is again! Sure, it's not quite as pretty as the 3dfx version, but keep in mind this was running on a 16 MHz handheld with 256 kb of ram. Three CDs had to be compressed down to less than 32 megabytes - it was quite a technical achievement! You can find this clip, other Prophecy trailers and many more Wing Commander videos in the CIC Holovids section.

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The Federation will grant sanctuary to Marlinist political refugees from the Empire, following a congressional vote in favour of Felicia Winters.
President Zachary Hudson had stated that illegal immigrants in the Federal systems Charunder, Ennead, HIP 36081, LTT 1935, LTT 3607 and Thetis would be detained and returned to Imperial space. This was challenged by Shadow President Felicia Winters, who argued that they deserved a more compassionate response.
Congress debated and then voted on her proposal, which received majority support. Government funding will soon be released to provide resources and accommodation for the refugee population.
Shadow President Winters told the media:
"Charities such as Safeguard Interstellar are already doing excellent work, but now we can officially offer safe haven and temporary citizenship to all Marlinists."
"These innocent people only seek what we in the

Quote from No Man

Hello Everyone!

Even though the drama, adventure and exotic colours of Origins are still fresh in our minds, as the nights have drawn in and the skies have darkened we can’t help but be drawn back to the lost ships and haunted wrecks of the Desolation update.

With Halloween around the corner, we wanted to give players a reason to return to the darkest corners of the galaxy. The corroded hulls of derelict freighters can now be mined for a strange new material – Tainted Metal – and rumours abound that highly valuable Quicksilver has begun to leak from their lost cargo holds…

• 

• 

These crumbling space hulks are more dangerous than ever. The aliens that lurk within have mutated into stronger, faster, deadlier versions; the security systems are in overdrive; and the haunting freeze of their sub-zero environment will chill you to your bones.

• 

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Those brave enough and strong enough to collect Tainted Metal from these

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Plywood Fiend has wrapped up another complete stream of a Wing Commander game. This time he played through the popular Secret Ops mod Unknown Enemy. If you haven't watched his previous material, he's spiced up the footage a bit with his own brand of humor. Check out the full UE playlist here. Having also completed a successful run through the original Wing Commander last month, he's doubled back around now and is picking up some of the losing track systems. You can find those additions here.

Port Hedland and Hubble's Star are done. (Saved both Drayman (Draymen?)... eventually.) The missions themselves are nothing new to anyone here most likely, but the peculiar humour and freakish intros are, like this one:

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

A lot of Wing Commander fans missed out on Super Wing Commander, so we like to highlight it from time to time to showcase its unique style. The game was a remake of the original Wing Commander with a modified Secret Missions campaign, but it was only released for the 3DO and Macintosh in 1994 and 1995 respectively. The art style is revamped and there's some considerable cross-pollination of 3D assets between SWC, the original Privateer and Armada. It also has full speech and was therefore among the first WC games to require a CD-ROM.

This particular stream is by the Japanese Youtube channel retronome. Japan is the only country to get an alternate language translation of the game, so this provides a neat glimpse at this port of a port. The main cutscene/briefing speech is still in English, but Japanese subtitles are included throughout. Small bits of spoken Japanese are included for the game flow

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

I was organizing some things into a new cabinet recently and thought you might like to take a peek!

Here's a rundown of what's pictured, starting from the top left.

• Top Row: Wing Commander novels, including three copies of the Junior Novelization and seven Pilgrim Stars
• Second from Top: Super Nintendo versions of WC1 and The Secret Missions in US, UK PAL and Japanese Super Famicon configurations, random publications like the Starlog Movie magazine, printed copies of Star Soldier, Mike Winterbauer art magnet, 35 mm film trailer for WC4, binders with sets of Wing Commander CCGs, a mini bottle of Prophecy water, stack of WC audio albums
• Third from Top: Wing Commander DVDs (1999 Fox release, 2013 Fox reprint and Anchor Bay reprint) and VHSes (WC Movie and WC3 Behind the Screens), WC Blu-rays, Academy animated series DVD, loose promo cards (from Nintendo Power and for the CCG), a handful of 3D printed models

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

There's been a lot of talk in the news lately about the enhanced footage that ODVS has made for Wing Commander 3, 4 and Prophecy, but we've also heard from some folks who haven't downloaded the large (but not too large) file packs with the remastered clips. For all those folks, he's released this dazzling sample: the WC4 cinematic trailer. It's just gorgeous - even with YouTube's compression factored in! Owen made an entirely new set of clips for the CIC's recent birthday, and all the download links are available below.

• Wing Commander 3: version 2.0 (3.7 gig zip)

• Wing Commander 4: version 5.0, English, Pack 1 (3.3 gig zip)
• Wing Commander 4: version 5.0, English, Pack 2 (3.2 gig zip)
• Wing Commander 4: version 5.0, German, Pack 1 (3.2 gig zip)
• Wing Commander 4: version 5.0, German, Pack 2 (3.1 gig zip)
• Wing Commander 4: version 5.0, French, Pack 1 (3.2 gig zip)
• Wing Commander 4: version 5.0, French, Pack 2

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots Federation ALERT*
An aid charity is requesting deliveries of vital supplies to help Marlinist refugees that fled from the Empire to the Federation.
Safeguard Interstellar, a humanitarian aid organisation, has announced a campaign to help refugees requesting political asylum in the Federation.
Several Imperial factions sympathetic to Marlinism were placed under martial law, leading to civilians emigrating in huge numbers to the Federal systems Charunder, Ennead, HIP 36081, LTT 1935, LTT 3607 and Thetis. Local authorities have warned that without additional support, these refugees may trigger public unrest or food shortages. There is also a risk of unfamiliar contagions reaching the population.
Noel Beaumont, the CEO of Safeguard Interstellar, made this statement:
"These ex-citizens of the Empire have suffered at the hands of their own government, and now seek freedom from persecution.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Youtube and Twitch streamers ValiantClan have hosted a big interview with part of the WC4 Fan Remake team, ODVS and DefianceIndustries. The conversation spans a full hour, so it covers a lot of interesting topics! They start out casually talking about the Wing Commander series and then get into the details associated with the remake project. There's plenty of technical discussion mixed with fun anecdotes from the Wing Commander series, so it's a good listen. Check it out below!

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Wing Commander we invited the developers of the Wing Commander IV - Remake Project. We had a nice little chat about their project, the franchise, Star Citizen and Star Trek. The project is a fan attempt to allow owners of Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom to enjoy a more modern experience by loading the files from the original game into a new engine, complete with specially

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots Federation ALERT*
Thargoid forces defeated in an Alliance-controlled system within the Witch Head Nebula.
The galactic community has responded to a call for aid from the Witch Head Enclave and successfully resisted an attack by the Thargoids. The majority of the alien vessels were destroyed, forcing the remainder to retreat.
Captain Warren Lamar, head of security for the Alliance Expeditionary Pact, announced:
"Everyone in Onoros and our neighbouring systems owes an enormous debt to the courageous pilots who met the Thargoids in battle. The whole of the Witch Head Enclave is breathing a sigh of relief that this resurgence was prevented from spreading any farther."
The Alliance Expeditionary Pact offered financial rewards for those who took part in the system's defence, and these payments can now be obtained at the Golden Stag.
To help celebrate this victory, the technology broker at

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

quasardeep shared a neat photo of an incredibly elaborate Russian bootleg of Privateer 2. It has a color manual, printed disc and fully translated instructions. As there was no official Russian version, this was the only way for them to be able to play decades ago. It sounds like they've since acquired an officially boxed copy, but this is a fun and priceless artifact in its own way. You can now get P2 and the rest of the WC games at GOG for $5.99 or less.

I was a big fan in the 90s. Discs with Wing Commander were not sold at all. With great difficulty I was able to buy this pirate disc. But considering the Wing Commander legacy, I was eventually able to buy the official box.

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The Empire has formally demanded that the Federation extradites all Marlinist political refugees that have fled into their space.
Hundreds of thousands of believers in the republican ideology evacuated their homes following anti-terrorism lockdowns. The Imperial blockade in Ackwada prevented ten megaships from escaping, but others carrying huge numbers of Marlinists have appeared in the Federal systems Charunder, Ennead, HIP 36081, LTT 1935, LTT 3607 and Thetis. Many smaller vessels are also thought to have spread far and wide.
Imperial Ambassador Imogen Luciana sent the formal request:
"The Federation is harbouring potential criminals who are connected to the NMLA terrorists. We insist that they are detained and returned to us to face justice."
Federal Ambassador Jordan Rochester, who was once engaged to Princess Aisling Duval, provided an official response:
"There is no extradition treaty

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

ODVS got a lot of feedback on his first attempt at remastering the Privateer 2 video footage. A frequent request was that he use the higher quality footage sourced from Privateer 2 director Steve Hilliker's 25th Anniversary video released in May. There's no doubt that this content, derived from Beta SP tapes, is much nicer than the original CD-ROM footage, but there are certain tradeoffs inherent with using an analogue source for the AI/neural net processing. This new example video shows off all three side-by-side. The version enhanced from the CD has more crisp detail while the Beta remaster segments have better frame rate and color. It's a little hard to say which is better overall as it depends somewhat on the specific scene in question. Let ODVS know wha you think at the CIC Forums!

Because people on the CIC forums kept asking, I did an experiment remastering Steve Hilliker's footage from his

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Political support for Federal President Zachary Hudson has plummeted after the results of a trial concerning Starship One's destruction.
Fleet Admiral Lucas Vincent was charged with sabotaging the presidential vessel, leading to hundreds of deaths. His close relationship with Hudson has triggered a public outcry and accusations of a conspiracy to assassinate then-President Jasmina Halsey.
Political analyst Vihaan Niven reported on the situation:
"The Republican Party is officially in a state of crisis. President Hudson has refused to make any statement regarding Fleet Admiral Vincent, despite pressure piling up from all corners of the Federation. Over a dozen congressmen have resigned in protest, refusing to be associated with what some newsfeeds are calling 'the crime of the century'."
"Shadow President Felicia Winters has stopped short of making direct allegations against Hudson but, in

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

It's easier to play your classic Wing Commander games today with DOSBox, GOG and compatibility patches like wcdx readily available, but there's also a certain magic to getting an old 386 or 486 running. Not everyone has the time or space to make that happen though, so Philip from RadioShack put together this video of the game running on a vintage Tandy 2500 SX/25. This would have been a pretty good system for getting the original Wing Commander going back in the day!

The planets aligned and I was able to get Wing Commander running on my Tandy 2500 SX / 25 Hard Drive model computer - a 25mhz 386 running DOS 6.2 with Sound Blaster audio. RadioShack pro tip - add EMM3686 to your config.sys file!

He's got an in-depth review of the machine here that's also a fun watch!

My first computer was a 1987 era Tandy 1000 that ran at about 4.77 MHz, so I find this fascinating.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Wing Commander fans looking for new desktop wallpaper have been a little spoiled in recent years as fellow Wingnuts turn out practically professional grade renders based on new high quality assets. It wasn't always that way though, and there used to be a time when anyone with Microsoft Paint could (and did) kick out their own simple artwork and collages. Maze59077 set out to make something similar with a set of four vintage-style pieces. They commemorate key scenes in the three Kilrathi Saga adventures as well as a bonus setting from the Prophecy intro. Let him know what you think at the CIC Forums!

Hi Everyone, I have edited some special Kilrathi Saga art. Hope you like them.