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Here's an excerpt from the end of Privateer 2 where we see the player (and others) escape Kronos' doomed flagship. Unfortunately only the published 320x200 version survives so it can be hard to see some of the neat details. Let's try and identify the ships!

Since the player can choose from 18 different ships there was no way to know which they'd actually fly the last mission in. To hedge bets, the escaping fleet includes four of the most likely options. First out is a Drakkar!

Then we've got a Danrik in an all-grey livery. (And that's a good choice because you were probably flying a Danrik here!)

Then there's a Shaman...

And out in front but not identifiable until you get to the second shot is the game's signature Heretic!

Cinematics not knowing what ship to use wasn't a problem exclusive to Privateer 2, either. Wing Commander Prophecy gives the final hero flyby shot to the Devastator instead of the

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

OldTechAdverts recently reposted a spiffy advertisement sheet for Wing Commander Academy. LOAF took a moment to appreciate it and point out some interesting elements below. It can be hard for modern audiences to appreciate Academy today, but if you were there to see things like this in magazines back in 1993, you knew how cool this was! You can find more classic WC ads like this in the CIC Documents Archive here.

This ad is a master class in marketing copy. Everything fresh and appealing—“CyberSchool’s holodeck console,” “cybernet wingman”, etc.—is just describing the fictional setting and doesn’t touch the gameplay at all.

The bottom screenshot is one of my all-time favorite bullshots, too! None of these wingmen are in the game and that VDU face appears nowhere else! Final game doesn’t use “zealous”, either.

If you look closely at the Wraith cockpit you’ll see it isn’t finished... the left VDU is

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Spacedock

has put together a neat short clip on the nature of fighter space combat. Daniel talks about the need to turn into your enemy, avoid jousting and aim for large targeting surfaces among other things. Wing Commander isn't the focus of the video, but it may as well be as most of the topic is relevant to fighting in the WC universe. A second video talks about how hard it would actually be to evade missiles in space. Tough times for fighter pilots!

Spacedock gives some handy day-to-day advice on Space Dogfighting.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

The Wing Commander Academy press kit says that there were twelve cadets transferred to the Tiger's Claw. Can you name them all?

Alright, let's see if we can find them! We're looking for the original twelve cadets transferred to the Tiger's Claw's command school. So Victoria/Viking here and the veteran replacements from the Trafalgar who are added after Chain of Command don't count.

First up, the three leads. Christopher "Maverick" Blair played by Mark Hamill and designed from his live action appearances in Wing Commander III and IV (minus 19 years). Bios are from the series' press kit:

Todd "Maniac" Marshall voiced by Tom Wilson and also designed from his WC3 and 4 appearances (though a little bit more The Real Ghostbustersy).

And new character Gwen "Archer" Bowman played by Dana Delany! She voiced Louis Lane on Superman that same season and it sure feels like both character designs were influenced by the

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

I went back to see how the sprite-less Jalthi was mentioned in the original SNES Wing Commander. You can see it wasn’t mentioned in the US/EU manuals at all! And that as with everything else, the Japanese version is much, much better.The SNES version doesn’t have enough memory for five ships, so it tints the Salthi green and calls it a Jalthi! The US manuals pretend it doesn’t exist while the Japanese one embraces the weird change.They also had to drop the Exeter to include the Venture, so the Gwenhyvar becomes a corvette.

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Here's a couple of new items for EmuMusicFan's graphical novel project. The first sketch depicts his first take on a Kilrathi warrior's mane. It might not be something you ever think about as the viewer, but from an artist's point of view, drawing a Kilrathi from behind takes some extra skill with fur. This Kilrathi is supposed to be none other than Khitz nar Ki'ra. There's also a more lighthearted image showing a Kilrathi instructor teaching proper vocabulary to a youngster.

The plot I want to write is that the player is walking while checking the map on the cellphone without looking at the road, and then hits Khitz's back at a corner.

"Teaching our cubs to learn about human culture is not an easy job."

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

On July 11th, prepare your blood wine and your bat’leths. It will be a Day of Honor. In honor of our favorite warriors for Kahless, Star Trek Online, Eaglemoss, Modiphius, and the Streampunks are all teaming up to hold an all day streaming event, featuring some of your favorite Trek stars and a whole heaping helping of honorable battle. We’re excited to have you join us for the event, live on the Queue Times Twitch channel. We’ll be announcing more details about the stream, and more importantly our guests, as we get closer. But we wanted to make sure you saved the date, so here’s the schedule for the day, with all times in PT: Introduction 12:00-12:15 Come and say hi as the hosts of all of the days’ streams hang out and chat with you about what to expect from the day. And maybe shout at each other in Klingon. We’ll see. Modiphius – Featuring Rick Sternbach! 12:15 -

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

President Zachary Hudson has announced that today is a Federal day of remembrance for those lost in HIP 22460 on August 9th.
In a public address, the president formally acknowledged the recent tragedy:
"The Battle of HIP 22460 is a dark day in our interstellar nation's history. The crews of the FNS Bombardier, FNS Fortitude and FNS Varian Scott gave their lives with dignity and honour, as did many other courageous individuals. They will never be forgotten for as long as the Federation endures."
"We recognise this massacre of defenceless crew for what it was: the latest example of unrelenting hostility by our Thargoid enemy. Another event which leads me to believe no peace can be brokered with that species. I promise, under no uncertain terms, that the loss of over fifty thousand naval personnel will be avenged."
Shadow President Felicia Winters provided a statement to The Federal Times:
"I

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

After releasing six episodes of his Defiant Few audio series, Plywood Fiend has been out of the WC fan project world for a bit, but he's back with a new simpler take on amusing his fellow Wingnuts. It's essentially a live-streamed play through of the original Wing Commander, but it's been edited to include his own comedic take. He's already completed everything from Enyo to Venice, and they can be found in a Youtube playlist here. That's a lot to check out! The first mission and a couple of samples also embedded below.

My most recent whimsy-work is a bit humbler, but just a bit. I'm doing a let's play of Wing Commander 1, but one riddled with my own peculiar brand of humor in the (text only) commentary, and with peculiar, (usually) funny intro videos, snippets of which I'll include below, best I can. Rest assured that for those like myself who've played this game more times than they'd care to

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Today we have a short musical piece that was written as part of a film school project. The artist, Sean Sumwalt, used about a minute of footage from the end of the Wing Commander Movie right after Angel ejects and Blair is forced to keep moving. A new instrumental track accompanies the scene and attempts to set the tone. AD found it while looking for Overture covers, and it's definitely not that, but it's not bad.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Here's how a Privateer 2 ship - the

Shaman

- changed during development, from concept model to alpha build to marketing render to final game asset! Look how the monster face evolved away...

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

All of us at the CIC are in shock at the news of Klavs' passing. We all get caught up in the frenzy of our hectic lives, but moments like this really make you realize you don't know how lucky you are to have everyone in your life until it's too late. I had the honor of meeting Adam Burch in person once about ten years ago. He flew into town on behalf of the kit-built aircraft manufacturer that he worked for at the time. I couldn't believe how knowledgeable he was about all aspects of the plane, plus the marketing and business sides, and then he could even fly it! I work in aerospace myself, so I know how complicated this all was, and his expertise was astounding. He was also exceedingly generous and kept mentioning how he'd like to return some day so he could take me up on a flight. If you didn't know, he didn't just design Wing Commander ships - he was also a spacecraft artist/designer at

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

Good news, Captains! We're extending the R&D Promotion for one extra day - until November 1st at 10am PT. You still have a final chance to purchase and open R&D Packs for the chance at any of our Infinity R&D Ships, including the Discovery Constitution and D7, the original T6 Consitution, and the brand new U.S.S. Franklin! But that's not all - during these last 24 hours, we're putting R&D packs on sale for 30% off! It's the best possible time to take command of the ship of your dreams. .share-footer a { margin: 20px 10px 10px 0; background: url(d7afaaa14e96d0d973f76157ae31ec5b1466398539.png) no-repeat 0 0; opacity: .5; display: inline-block; height: 60px; width: 60px; padding: 0; border: 1px solid transparent; -webkit-transition: opacity .3s; transition: opacity .3s; } .share-footer .TI { background-position: 0 20%; } .share-footer .YT {

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

Good news, Captains! We're extending the R&D Promotion for one extra day - until November 1st at 10am PT. You still have a final chance to purchase and open R&D Packs for the chance at any of our Infinity R&D Ships, including the Discovery Constitution and D7, the original T6 Consitution, and the brand new U.S.S. Franklin! But that's not all - during these last 24 hours, we're putting R&D packs on sale for 30% off! It's the best possible time to take command of the ship of your dreams. .share-footer a { margin: 20px 10px 10px 0; background: url(d7afaaa14e96d0d973f76157ae31ec5b1466398539.png) no-repeat 0 0; opacity: .5; display: inline-block; height: 60px; width: 60px; padding: 0; border: 1px solid transparent; -webkit-transition: opacity .3s; transition: opacity .3s; } .share-footer .TI { background-position: 0 20%; } .share-footer .YT {

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

One of our favorite things to come out of the internet this past year has been the fantastic Shield of Tomorrow, the actual-play show run by Eric Campbell on Geek and Sundry’s Twitch Channel and Alpha. The crew of the Sally Ride, Aliza Pearl, Bonnie Gordon, Hector Navarro, Sam de Leve, Amy Dallen and Gina DeVivo, beamed themselves onto our computer screens each week with new tales of the Federation facing against the unknown. It even inspired some of the STO developers to do their own tabletop live stream. Sadly, Shield of Tomorrow's initial run is coming to an end, and while you won’t have to miss the incredible cast on the screen (they’ll still be around in a brand new show), we couldn’t let Shield of Tomorrow pass into internet history without our own little memorial. Starting July 13th, the Sally Ride will hanging out in Sector Space in Star Trek Online…somewhere. We’re not going

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Shadow President Felicia Winters has claimed that further systems declaring independence could severely damage the Federation.
Her statement was in response to the conflict in the Kuwembaa system, which resulted in more Federal factions seceding from the superpower. Dozens of others are now openly considering breaking away and becoming independent.
Addressing Congress, Shadow President Winters said:
"We now face the possibility of large-scale rebellion, as more citizens reject intrusion into their private lives. Unless these authoritarian surveillance laws are repealed, we risk many more factions and allies losing their trust in any Federal government."
Vice President Jerome Archer responded:
"The Proactive Detection Bureau provides increased security and decreased crime levels for all Federal systems. I deeply regret that a few have rejected its benefits, but we must concentrate on the bigger

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
Detective Erik Gunnarson has claimed that the Winking Cat thief has something planned for the weeks ahead.
"After our investigation into the Jokers' Deck gambling circle, Wolfe and I were hired to track down their stolen ceremonial playing card. The good news is that we now have the card in our possession. We can hardly claim credit, however: it was posted to us by the one who stole it!"
"The ancient joker card arrived via a courier service, with no data as to its point of origin. But the playing card now has text stamped on the back, which I'm convinced is intended to be a public message."
"It simply reads 'The hunt is on!' and is followed by two sets of numbers:
'1, 2, 3: 16th to 30th'
'4, 5, 6: 23rd to 6th'.
At the bottom is a drawing of – you guessed it – a smirking, winking cat's face."
"It's speculation, of course, but some of these numbers must be dates.

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The inhabitants of the generation ship Golconda have offered a token of gratitude to authorities in the Upaniklis system for their recent help.
The gift was a case of an alcoholic spirit labelled Apa Vietii, distilled only aboard the Golconda for many centuries. An accompanying note explained that the production technique has remained largely unchanged since the 22nd century.
Analysis of the beverage confirmed it was safe for consumption, although nothing is known of the raw ingredients or distillation process.
As yet very few people have sampled Apa Vietii, but the celebrated gourmet and critic Giles Cappelleo was invited to appraise the spirit:
"Well, what a delight this is – to experience a previously unheard-of libation! Apa Vietii is refreshing on the palate with a smooth, crisp flavour, but delivers a vigorous thump to the senses once swallowed. If it ever becomes widely available,

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Found a nugget tonight: an tiny uncatalogued Privateer pre-release screenshot in a 1993 Mindscape catalog! An earlier version of the New Constantinople landing pad.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Found a neat little Easter egg in the Wing Commander III 3DO texture files: the Confederation space station's textures are labeled BABYLON6.