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Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

st3lt3k found a fun LifeHacker article with Origin founder Richard Garriott on work habits. His video game development studio,

Portalarium

, is based in Austin, Texas, but his family currently lives in New York. Yet he maintains a daily presence in the office thanks to his

Beam

telepresence robot. Mr. Garriott's actually been using robots to get around for quite some time - he showed us an older model when we visited the studio almost a decade ago. He used to use an

Anybots

model. The interview also talks about some of the other stuff he's been up to lately, which is always a hoot. Check out the full article

here

.

Take us through a recent workday.

When I awake in NYC, I am an hour ahead of my Austin staff. This allows me to help get the kids off to school without a rush. I then log into my Beam and teleport to Austin from my home office desk in NYC. I then go about starting my dayâs

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

Second Officer’s Log, Supplemental My third night shift with the conn has been rather sedate thus far. Several members of the command staff are enjoying some off-duty entertainment in Holodeck Two; I believe it has something to do with a peculiar form of Terran mythology from the 20th century known as “super heroics.” The captain seemed amused by my tactical suggestions for the event, particularly regarding the inefficiency of capes in close combat situations. “All decks have reported in,” Ensign Chen said from the Operations station. “We’re ready to begin the system maintenance sweep at your command.” Second Officer Stoln nodded from the center chair while calling up a display to monitor the procedure. “Very well, Ensign. Begin the procedure, starting with deck 30.” The young Vulcan officer studied the holographic readout emitted from the command chair’s

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

Happy New Year fellow Captains! On behalf of Star Trek Online, I am very proud to announce that our voyage has just reached its 9th Anniversary. Our continuing mission: to explore exciting new and familiar worlds, to create new stories and gameplay, to boldly go where no player has gone before. Welcome to the celebration! It’s been a wonderful journey. 2018 saw the acclaimed release of Star Trek Online’s 4th major expansion – Victory is Life! It was here Captains explored the Gamma Quadrant and encountered the Hur’q threat alongside our beloved DS9 characters, voiced by the original actors in the largest cast ever assembled for Star Trek Online. For the first time, players created Jem’Hadar Captains, battled heroically in one of our most ambitious Battlezones to date and walked the promenade on our faithfully recreated Deep Space Nine station. We are incredibly

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

Rule of Acquisition # 74: Knowledge equals profit. Any wise Captain knows that when a sale this good comes your way, it’s best to take advantage of it. We’re pleased to announce that Ferengi Merchants are putting a 15% sale on Keys from January 23rd at 8am PT to January 31st at 10am PT. Now is the best time for Captains to load up on your Keys and grab those ships you’ve been eyeing. Remember Captains, Rule of Acquisition # 22: A wise man can hear profit in the wind. Now is the time to act. For a limited time only starting today, players will be able to purchase the Key Ring Bundle! This special pack includes 20x Master Keys (used to open any Lock Box) for the price of 2250 Zen. As an additional special promotional offer when purchasing this bundle, every pack also includes a single Ultimate Tech Upgrade. Applying this item to any upgradeable piece of equipment will instantly

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

New Features: 9th Annual Anniversary Celebration! Join Star Trek Online’s 9th Anniversary Celebration by visiting Q at Qo’Nos or Earth Space Dock. Earn rewards in the Omega Molecule Stabilization Game that will help you gain access to special crafting materials and Anniversary Prize Vouchers. 1000 Anniversary Prize Vouchers will earn the player a brand new T6 Starship: The Vulcan T’Pau Scout Ship as seen in Star Trek Discovery. Players can also earn 200 Anniversary Prize Vouchers on the first play of our 2 new episodes: “Para Pacem” and “Illusion of Communication” for a total of 400 Vouchers. For more information, please visit the Anniversary Events blog at: Celebrate our Ninth Anniversary! | Star Trek Online New Story Arc: Mirror of Discovery The new story arc “Mirror of Discovery” has been added to the missions list in the journal. Discover

Quote from Star Citizen News-Bot

Writer’s Note: Brothers In Arms: Part One was published originally in Jump Point 3.5.

The heads-up display on Gavin Rhedd’s Cutlass dimmed at the edges. Green triangles representing the members of his security team distorted to form horizontal spikes of flickering static. He smacked the side of his helmet. It was a practiced move, and one that had snapped the HUD back into focus in the past. This time, the display flickered, faded and then died.

A heavy breath sent a thin veil of vapor climbing the visor of his helmet. Condensation obscured the view of black, empty space ahead.

Empty like the dead heads-up display.

Empty just like it had been for weeks.

There were brigands and marauders plaguing every planet in the ’verse and he couldn’t find one damned gang. Nothing was working out like he’d planned.

On the navsat, the other three members of Rhedd Alert Security fanned out to

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Pix

and

Dennis Mull

have both recently found an interesting compilation by Empire Interactive. The set bundles together Wing Commander, Civilization, War in the Gulf and Frontier: Elite II all in one pack. Two of them are space sims, plus there's a tank sim and a classic turn-based 4X - not unlike hundreds of various '90s packs. However, this one is titled "Strategy 4 in one." In fact, the back of the box claims you can

"build an empire on earth or fly across the galaxy, you can do it all with this pack - 4 of the greatest strategy games of all time."

Now you know!

WING COMMANDER puts you in the middle of the most intense starship action you've ever experienced outside of a movie theatre. But in WING COMMANDER you're the star! "WING COMMANDER changed the way that other developers thought about designing games. This is more than ever an essential addition to any self-respecting PC

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

We’re making some changes to the character art in STO, which you might notice in our upcoming Mirror of Discovery update. We spoke with Robert Quinn, one of the FX Artists for STO, about the details of these changes. Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do for STO My name is Robert and I am one of the FX artists on STO. However, I do a bit of technical art and shader work on the side. What are the changes we’ve made to player characters for this update? Our graphics team made a new shader for soft alpha that does not use Multi-sample anti-aliasing (MSAA). MSAA is very computationally expensive and it does not work on low-end PCs or consoles. This made the Hair in STO look bad on low-end PCs or consoles. I updated all of the hair in STO to use the new soft alpha without MSAA. The result of this is that all the hair will now look the same on all platforms and will have

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

Hello once again from the Tardigrade Adoption Agency! We hope you’ve all had an excellent time reading all about your Tardigrade’s adventures over the holidays. We had a wonderful time sharing them with you. But now, it’s time for our little space babies to grow up and go out into the world. And who better to guide them than you? That’s right. Starting with the launch of Mirror of Discovery on PC (and coming soon on Console), you’ll be able to purchase your very own Tardigrade pet from the Lobi Store in game. Each one of our five unique Tardigrades will be available as a non-combat pet for any of your Captains. They’re eager to get to know you. So who will you be adventuring with – Smarty, Skipper, Party, Arty, or the Lieutenant? .share-footer a { margin: 20px 10px 10px 0; background: url(d7afaaa14e96d0d973f76157ae31ec5b1466398539.png) no-repeat 0 0; opacity: .5;

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

With 2018 now well in the rear view mirror and 2019 well on its way, it's time for us to jump into our annual fan project contest. We took nominations over the last couple months and have come up with this list of noteworthy endeavors to recognize. Of course, the standard disclaimer applies: this is by no means an exhaustive list of super cool things that Wingnuts have been up to lately. There were some

jaw dropping

one-off items that didn't make the cut. This list is somewhat weighted towards the longer running projects that have demonstrate an enduring commitment from their creators and a steady communications clip so fellow fans stay engaged and know what's going on. For more variety, do check out our

year in review

. And now on to the nominees! (And don't forget to scroll to the bottom and vote!)

• Adm_Maverick's Papercraft Adventures started off with humble beginnings. We

Quote from Star Citizen News-Bot

http://

Hello everyone,

Happy Monday! A few members of the CIG team spent their weekend exploring PAX South and attending the annual Bar Citizen event on the River Walk. We had an absolute blast, as usual, and want to thank everyone who came out and said hello.

Now, let’s see what’s going on this week:

Tuesday welcomes another detailed lore piece with Brothers in Arms Part 1, where we follow two brothers as they struggle to go legit by opening a private security outfit.

Thursday will welcome another episode of Around the Verse where we’ll take a look at the latest Star Citizen news.

Friday will see a Roadmap update and the RSI Newsletter delivered right to your inbox. Haven’t subscribed yet? Head to your Account Settings right away and never miss one of our newsletters again!

We’ve also got some fun activities planned for this weekend! First, we’ll be kicking off another

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

During Star Trek Online’s 9th Anniversary event you will be able to obtain 9th Anniversary Prize Vouchers by participating in the event. These 9th Anniversary Prize Vouchers can be spent on an Event Reputation project to obtain the Tier 6 Vulcan T'Pau Scout Ship! This project requires 1000 9th Anniversary Prize Vouchers. 200 of these Prize Vouchers can be earned by completing the new episode “Para Pacem” for the first time, and an additional 200 can be earned by completing the new episode “Illusion of Communication” for the first time. Once this starship is obtained by any character on your account, all of the characters on your account will be able to claim the Vulcan T'Pau Scout Ship [T6] from the Account Claim tab within the Event Store (in the Event Reputation window). We are also excited to announce that this starship will be available January 23rd on PC, and Xbox One

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Former Origin artist

Denis Loubet

has completed another portrait. This one is a tribute to his friend and fellow Wing Commander veteran Aaron Allston. Sadly, Mr. Allston passed away about five years ago. He was known to us as the original creator of the famous Claw Marks magazine and a designer of The Secret Missions, but he was also an extremely accomplished novelist. You can read more about his life

here

. You can also find high resolution versions and behind-the-scenes material on Mr. Loubet's work at his

Patreon page

. He does a lot of cool stuff for Wing Commander and Ultima fans there!

Here is a stealth portrait I've been working on for the last few weeks. It's a portrait of Aaron Allston, my late roommate, premiere game designer, and New York Times bestselling author.

He is most famous for his many Star Wars novels, and yes, Wedge Antilles was a major character. Doc Sidhe is an

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Christian Klein

posted these neat pics of the Secret Missions made for China/Taiwan. We've

previously posted

about a number of Chinese ports in the past, including WC1, SM2, WC2 and the Special Operations, but it's possible that I've not seen the SM1 before. It's nice to close the loop on that! The packaging is nicely colored, and those white 5.25" disks are pretty swanky!

Taiwanese #WingCommander - The Secret Missions 1+2 / Publisher: Soft-World

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The disappearance of famous actor Consuela Knight and the crew of her luxury yacht has sparked a flood of rumours.

Independent reporter Flint 'Firemaker' Lafosse discussed the mystery on the Rewired news feed:

"The scientists say this might be an anomaly that only affects organic tissue. But that doesn't explain the discovery of Consuela Knight's half-eaten meal, does it?"

"Others think it could be a new Thargoid weapon that disintegrates humans while leaving ships intact. Or maybe the cultists were right, and the Far God has started snacking on individuals before it arrives to eat the whole universe."

"For all we know, this has been happening to ships for years. Maybe it usually gets hushed up, which is harder to do when a big-name celebrity vanishes. Which of us might be next? Think about that next time you jump into hyperspace…"

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Here are this week's main stories.

The conflict in the Paresa system has ended with Nova Imperium being defeated by Imperial forces. As the conflict drew to a close, Senator Denton Patreus declared that the isolationists' forces had been significantly depleted.

In related news, Imperator Mordanticus, the leader of isolationist group Nova Imperium, has been captured by the Empire. His arrest was made during the conflict between Nova Imperium and the Empire in the Paresa system. The Imperator will be brought before the Senate on Friday the 25th of January to answer charges of treason against the Empire.

The Interstellar Health Organisation (IHO) has approved Vitadyne Labs's nanomedicines as a legal medical product. The IHO has lifted all restrictions, with the caveat that distribution must be handled by an established pharmaceutical company.

The disappearance of famous actor Consuela

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Imperator Mordanticus, the leader of isolationist group Nova Imperium, has been captured by the Empire. His arrest was made during the conflict between Nova Imperium and the Empire in the Paresa system.

Chancellor Anders Blaine made a pronouncement on behalf of Emperor Arissa Lavigny-Duval:

"With its fleet destroyed, Nova Imperium's seditious agenda has been halted. The so-called Imperator, Duke Kaeso Mordanticus, will be brought before the Senate on Friday the 25th of January to answer charges of treason against the Empire."

Political journalist Cassia Carvalho commented in The Imperial Herald:

"For the emperor to assemble the entire Senate is a rare occurrence. It seems likely that she will make an example of Mordanticus, perhaps with a public trial."

"lthough Nova Imperium survives in the Paresa system, the loss of both its fleet and military commander may have delivered a

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

It’s almost time for our Ninth Anniversary celebration! While we’ll have more details later today on the brand new episode you can experience, and the brand new ship you can earn, we know you want details on how you can get involved with the party. From January 23rd to February 11th, you can take part in our annual anniversary festivities! Here’s how they work: Omega Molecule Stabilization Game Q is up to his annual shenanigans. You’ll be required to stabilize Omega Particles found in various social zones in Star Trek Online. Talk to Q to get the mission “Omega Stabilization (Daily)” and you will be given three zones to visit where you must stabilize an Omega Particle by playing a minigame. The minigame is simple - Omega molecules will fall in from the left in one of four channels. Captains will use either the keyboard or the mouse to move the capture device into the

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

There's good news on George Oldziey's live Wing Commander

jazz album

. The production copies have finally come back, so George is ready to ship discs out to project backers. Very cool

album art

was created by SabreAce, which you can see below. If you pledged for a physical copy during the original campaign and didn't receive an email with shipping confirmation instructions, log into the Kickstarter's

updates page

for instructions on how to get your album. These have been a long time coming, so it's great to see they're finally here!

Greetings all! I'm so TERRIBLY sorry that this has taken so long, but I FINALLY received the CDs that feature the WC Bar Music and recordings of the MIDI mockups and I'm ready to ship them to you!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Massimiliano Di Monda

, the co-founder and CEO of

Raylight Games

, has posted a neat

article

on the history of Wing Commander Prophecy for the Gameboy Advance. The company was founded in 2000, and the GBA port of WCP was a big deal in their initial portfolio. Thanks to their success in these early days, they are still active today and just recently announced several Nintendo Switch titles, among other products. They also continue to maintain an active

Wing Commander page

on their website and

credit it

as a major achievement in the company's history. For an extended look back at what Prophecy Advance meant to the WC community, also check out the CIC's 10 year retrospective

here

.

Wing Commander Prophecy - The story of Raylight Games

Massimiliano Di Monda
CEO at Raylight Games

Beginning in 2002 Raylight Games developed a demo on the GameBoy Advance based on the first Wing Commander, named Star