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It continues to be a good season for Wing Commander autographs. Despite the ongoing pandemic, there are quite a few conventions still planned for this year. Here's some highlights that will feature familiar faces:

The Texas Frightmare Weekend will provide a double opportunity in Dallas from April 29 to May 1 with both Ginger Lynn Allen and Matthew Lillard appearing. Lillard also has a solo appearance lined up at the HorrorHound Weekend in Cincinnati March 25-27 as well as a mail-in event via CPA Authentics in April. Francois Chau, who played Vagabond in WC3/4, also has a busy year with appearances at the Lexington Comic & Toy Con March 24-27, Huntsville Comic & Pop Culture Expo April 22-24 and Rangerstop & Pop Comic Con June 10-12. There is another neat mail-in option via Galaxy Con in March as well. Robert Rusler, who played Seether in WC4, will be at the Mad Monster Party Carolina February

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Somehow we're well into January, so our annual Fan Project of the Year vote will soon be coming to a close. There's still time to register your favorite, so here are the nominees one more time. Scroll down for the official poll entry!

• AI/Neural Net Enhanced Wing Commander Videos - ODVS has expanded on his award-winning enhanced WC videos by adding new language options for WC3, dabbling in 4K, experimenting with WC2/P2 and pushing image quality even further.
• Bonkus Maximus' Streams - Bonk has been publishing Wing Commander livestreams all year long. He's covered every main game in the series, plus spinoffs like Academy. In the words of his nominator, his streams are "both good quality and plentiful."
• Collectors: Rare WC Finds - This one is a different type of nominee. For the first time, we're recognizing the combined efforts of adventurous fans (such as, but not limited to, the work of Dennis Mull

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
The Aegis megaship Alexandria, which vanished in hyperspace seven months ago, has been found in the Wregoe TC-X B29-0 system.
A select group of independent pilots located the Alexandria following a search instigated by Professor Alba Tesreau, former head of research at Aegis. She was forced to resign as a result of the Baumann Report, which was instigated by the controversial loss of this megaship.
In June 3307, the Alexandria was pursued by Thargoid vessels due to a considerable number of Guardian artefacts held on board. It initiated a hyperspace jump to the HIP 30944 system to offload its cargo but never arrived. The megaship was assumed to have been hyperdicted by the Thargoids, resulting in the death of all four thousand crewmembers.
According to on-site witnesses, the remains of the Alexandria are currently scattered across the planetary rings of Wregoe TC-X

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A new update for Freelancer: HD Edition 0.5 where we've made some enhancements & added a bunch of new options so you can further tailor your Freelancer experience.

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EmuMusicFan has shared this collage of the many different Wing Commander characters that he's sketched out for his graphical novel project. He's been at it for almost two years and built up quite a stable. Many of the faces here will be familiar favorites, but some dig deeper into some of the novels' lore and haven't otherwise been pictured before. It's nice to see them all in one place for the first time!

I have drawn more than twenty WC characters appearing of being mentioned at least once in the official works.

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

President Zachary Hudson has delivered a speech to Congress on maintaining security for the Federation in the coming years.
Excerpts from his address include the following:
"In the last year, we have excelled at protecting Federal citizens from harm. The Proactive Detection Bureau proved its worth in locating terrorists before they could strike, and our security services played an instrumental role in the NMLA's defeat."
"3308 is already bringing many challenges. The war against the Thargoids could escalate at any time, and we face the challenge of replacing Aegis with our own anti-xeno taskforce. We are also deeply concerned about increased infighting within the Alliance and Empire, which could easily spill over into our territory."
"My administration is holding high-level discussions about how best to keep the Federation strong and secure. We will soon make some brave proposals to continue

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
The Caine-Massey corporation has beaten Torval Mining Ltd to retain a mining contract in the Dulos system.
Competing campaigns were waged by the two rivals for the rights to supply ore and mined materials to many local subsidiaries.
Johann Fleischer, vice president of Caine-Massey, declared their victory:
"We wish to thank the large number of pilots who delivered bromellite, samarium and gallite. Thanks to your hard work, our contract has been renewed for another decade. I like to think that we have also secured the honour of the Federation by stalling the Empire's plans."
Rewards for contributors to Caine-Massey are now available for collection at Smith Port in the Dulos system.
Torval Mining Ltd also received many deliveries of materials but in insufficient quantities to secure the contract. Constantia Torval has confirmed that the pilots who supported their

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Princess Aisling Duval has discussed growing concerns over Emperor Arissa Lavigny-Duval's lack of public engagements in recent months.
In an interview with The Imperial Herald, she said:
"Chancellor Blaine assures us that the Emperor has been kept in seclusion for nearly a year to protect her from the NMLA. But why has this prevented the Empire's ruler from engaging with her citizens? After all, Hadrian Duval and his family were placed under the same senatorial protection without disappearing altogether."
"We know that the Emperor has communicated with the Senate on various matters during this time. Government channels are generally trusted thanks to Imperial Intelligence's verification protocols. But Captain Landau's recent testimony, which links Imperial Intelligence to the NMLA, has me concerned. How can I be sure that a breach to our most secure networks wasn't responsible for the location

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

The new Mac's Lore video alluded to earlier this week has finally dropped! It's a focused look at the Wake class escort carrier TCS Tarawa. We start with a comprehensive overview of this ship type as well as some highlights from the 'End Run' that preceded the False Armistice. Most Wingnuts are pretty familiar with these early novel exploits, and fortunately there's also some really good False Colors history included that's less well known. Mac also created some really beautiful animations and scenes with Klavs' models that are wonderful to see here - don't miss it!

When 1/3 of the carrier fleet gets blown to hell by the Cats, the Terran Confederation looks to stealing ideas from World War 2 to keep them in the game. It ends up working astonishingly well.

Thanks for HotT for the rapid tip!

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In our continuing mission to share bits of Wing Commander history from around the world, today we have a review of Wing Commander from the January 1992 edition of the Spanish gaming mag Micromanía. This comes from the RetroManía30 Podcast. I used to love all those little insets describing the fighters and stuff like that. The little cuts on the corners of the screenshot boxes also give it kind of a spacey cockpit vibe. I'm not so sold on the pink background, but it was the '90s!

There goes the review of Wing Commander (1990), published in MicroManía # 44 (SE). It was the beginning of a long saga, which to this day continues to have a multitude of followers. A space flight simulator, with a spectacular cinematic setting. A great title!

As a double feature of Spanish content, The Game Abbey also has a Spanish language retrospective feature on the WC series. Language transition captions work on this

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The Alliance, Empire and Federation have accepted the Baumann Report's recommendation to permanently shut down Aegis.
The independent inquiry's findings on the organisation's failings will result in Aegis being immediately shut down. However, Chief Administrator Carter Armstrong has cautioned that "full demobilisation of staff, ships and resources might take several months".
Senator Denton Patreus has successfully obtained senatorial approval for an increased military budget, to allow the Imperial Navy to directly take on the role played by Aegis.
Fleet Admiral Tayo Maikori likewise confirmed that the Federal Congress has ordered the creation of a new naval strike force. On his own authority he has also commissioned an investigation into Salvation, following Ram Tah's testimony regarding the nature of the anti-xeno superweapon.
Admiral Nikolas Glass, who was recently appointed to the Council

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Mac reports that his next WC video is going to take a bit more time, but as a consolation prize, you get a snazzy new wallpaper! It once again features Klavs' escort carrier floating serenely in in orbit. I like the shift in color balance with emphasis on the blue tones this time around.

The next Wing Commander is gonna take longer then I expected. But, whatever, here's another rendered image I did for it that I totally did not rip off from a movie in another Sci-fi franchise.

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

There are claims that the Imperial Senate is preventing efforts to examine a potential link between the Empire's security services and the NMLA.
Captain Saskia Landau has publicly stated that the terrorists' dark-comms network is closely related to the Omega Grid system used exclusively by Imperial Intelligence. She expanded on her theory in a statement to Vox Galactica:
"Based on evidence and interrogation transcripts obtained by ACT, I believe that rogue elements within Imperial Intelligence were training and providing equipment to the NMLA. This would help explain the level of sophistication they achieved in coordinating their starport attacks and communicating without detection."
"There is certainly enough circumstantial proof to warrant a dedicated investigation. But the Senate is refusing to authorise this, which makes me wonder what they are trying to hide."
Senator Karl Nerva

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

GOG.com runs a lot of sales, and I'm always so surprised how popular each one is. You might think that by 2022 everyone who is going to buy Wing Commander already has their copy, but that's very much not the case! We keep hearing stories about new prospective fans dipping their toe in the Vega Sector waters through one of these events, so we'll continue to keep highlight them. As such, GOG is running a weekend sale on vintage Electronic Arts games. This extends to other Origin franchises like Ultima as well as some EA favorites like Sim City. Check it out and fill out your collection by Monday morning here!

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I'm not a Wordle player, so I can't claim to understand what's going on here, but LOAF has this historical WC nugget to share with Wordist Wingnuts everywhere. Yesterday's word was 'Tangy', which is a term with some associated Wing Commander trivia to it!

Saturday everywhere! So Origin’s Wing Commander Secret Ops page in 1998 included this screenshot that got fans talking. Who was TANGY, a new NPC wingman or just what the guy taking the screenshots chose as a call sign?

Soon after I was invited to tour Origin! At one point my tour guide brought me into a plain cubicle and excitedly announced “I knew you’d want to meet Tangy!”. It turned out Tangy was a random marketing guy and they thought the community was obsessed with HIM for some reason.

Here is an actual photo from the trip. That is me and Neil Young (not Tangy). Despite appearances I am a seventeen year old high school senior here and not a Tintin

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We recently reported on Malcolm McDowell's official website adding Wing Commander autographs to their online store. In case you were curious about the final product, here are the results! LOAF's copy came a few weeks after placing an order, and it's pretty nice! It's an odd choice of art, but that also makes this somewhat unique. You can add one to your collection for $65 plus shipping here.

Ta da! It’s a nice heavy stock paper with a semi-gloss printing. Why did they choose a 1995 Wing Commander III Playstation port ad? Who knows!

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George Sanger, aka The Fat Man, has just announced the immediate release of his Wing Commander I Complete Original Soundtrack: "MT-32 Archival Edition." Way back in 2007, George put out a fantastic album of WC1 music known as Wing One, and it's been on our highly recommended list ever since. This new edition scrubs Fat's archives for a complete reckoning of all the music in the game. Today's release clocks in with 55 tracks and 85 minutes of audio - compared to 27 tracks and 34 minutes in the original release fifteen years ago.

You can stream the entire album below or listen to all of the individual tracks at the publisher Xeen's YouTube Channel. I'm listening right now and it's wonderful! You can also buy a digital copy for $10 at Bandcamp to get access to high quality downloadable files - or just thank the team for their continuing commitment to Wing Commander! When you check out, there's a

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Prime Minister Edmund Mahon has invited Sirius Corporation to establish a permanent presence within the Alliance.
The Alliance Tribune's political correspondent Vanya Driscoll reported:
"Sirius Corporation's new role as a strategic defence partner has expanded swiftly, with a Sirius faction established in the Alioth system to represent the megacorp. In addition, several megaships have arrived in other Allied systems to provide support."
"The Alliance Defence Force and some government departments now have official advisors from Sirius Corporation on their staff. Prime Minister Mahon announced that these developments will streamline joint operations with the Sirius Navy, and in turn provide effective countermeasures against Thargoid aggression."
"But Councillor Nakato Kaine claims that the presence of Sirius Gov is illegal as it was not ratified by the Assembly. She has pointed out that since

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Cherno has shared a neat video of tech demo project he's put together. It's a top-down 2D space shooter with Wing Commander models. This reminds me a whole lot of the early Arena concept shots. Although it's conceptually pretty basic, there are some nice touches with familiar asteroids and damage sound effects included. Cherno's been toying around with different ideas to give the game some more meat, and we hope he continues to develop the idea further!

This project was started about two years ago using Unity, then abandoned and now (January 2022) I got back to it, fixed some bugs, and made this short gameplay video. What you see is all there is to it: just glorified placeholder assets using the original graphics and sounds of Wing Commander. I always wanted to make a top-down game but the limited field of view restricts the gameplay mechanics. Initially, I opted for a straight conversion of the

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
The third phase of Brewer Corporation's Colonia Bridge project has proven successful, according to a recent announcement.
Shipments of ceramic composites, computer components and thermal cooling units were transported in large numbers to Jaques Station in the Colonia system and Macdonald Settlement in the Alcor system. As a result, several new starports will be constructed along the travel corridor to Colonia.
Brewer Corporation released this statement regarding the initiative:
"Once again, we owe a great deal to the pilots who brought us so many vital resources. We can now proceed with constructing one starport in the vicinity of Colonia and 5 starports in systems branching out from Alcor. These will increase the value of the Colonia Bridge for travellers, tourists and commercial interests alike."
"The starport infrastructures are scheduled to be built by the 27th