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Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
The eleven megaships coordinating evacuation efforts from Thargoid-invaded systems are set to move over the next few weeks.
Military analysis of the current front line has highlighted that the distance between active conflict areas and the megaships can be decreased with an acceptably low degree of risk. Vice Admiral Skylar Anderson, part of the Imperial delegation to Aegis, offered this comment:
"Shortening the distance between systems which require humanitarian support and the megaships responsible for coordinating that support is important. Until now we have urged caution to maintain their current safe positions, since these vessels are obvious targets for Thargoid attack. But as our brave pilots continue to regain territory and push the alien forces back, we feel confident that this is the right decision."
From September 7th, the following megaships will

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Today we have a gorgeous Lego interpretation of Prince Thrakhath's iconic Bloodfang fighter. It was built by edgeofhearing on Instagram. This person makes tons of inspiring and clever little Lego designs, so be sure to check out their gallery. I'm especially impressed with how authentic it looks given the relatively compact size. It even has the right hull markings! You've got to really leverage those bricks to get the right look with limited options!

I only ever played one Wing Commander game, Academy, which didn’t have much to it besides a collection of spaceships. That was enough for me; my brother and I played it a lot (even though we remained very terrible at it).

Anyways, I frequently imagined how cool it would be if I could add my Lego spaceships into it. In this case though, I’ve taken a ship from it (the Kilrathi Bloodfang) and made it out of Lego. My flame yellow collection is a bit too

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Master O dropped by to spread the word about a new alternative to DOSBox. DOSBox has been a tried and true workhorse of the retro gaming community for nearly twenty years, but updates have been very sparse since about 2010 or so. Although the program works fairly well to get games like Wing Commander running on modern systems, technology has continued to evolve and there's an enormous opportunity to add modern quality-of-life improvements. That's where DOSBox Staging comes in. A new team of developers have picked up where the old program left off. There is much improved support for modern video and sound setups, better controller and joystick integration, plus compatibility with a host of modern operating system features. The latest 0.81 test versions even add support for Voodoo 1 emulation for 3DFX graphics. You can try it out here. Be sure to share your experience at the CIC Forums!

If you

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Spiegel Online has posted a nifty 25th anniversary look back at Wing Commander 3. For the non-German speakers in the audience, SPON is an extremely popular and widely read news site, so it's a pretty big deal for the WC series to get such a mention. As you might expect, the article goes into detail about what set the Wing Commander games apart. The author is well versed in the franchise's history and has fond memories about the switch to live actors and 3D space combat. And although a lot has changed, the game is still a blast to play. You can find the original piece here and a pretty respectable Google Translate here. Thanks to Duke Nukum for the tip!

Even before the release it was clear to me: "Wing Commander III" would change the medium, I had to play that. At that time there were various multimedia projects in which filmed people were involved, but they mostly seemed involuntarily funny.

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

Resolved an issue that would sometimes prevent receiving daily progress towards the Borg Resurgence Event upon completing event TFO’s.

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

Console Event Campaign: Event Campaigns are a new multi-event system where players can participate in a series of upcoming events in order earn a coupon for a Tier-6 Starship of their choice from the Phoenix Prize Pack! To kick things off, the Kobayashi Maru Featured Task Force Operation will be the first of a series of events to contribute towards Event Campaigns. Players may earn 50 Event Campaign Progress for each day they participate in an eligible event. Additional Event Campaign Progress can be earned by participating in Bonus Days, after the Grand Prize of an eligible event is claimed. Updates include: There is an entire tab in the Events UI now dedicated to explaining and celebrating this ongoing activity, as it spans multiple Events that will come and go. The amount of Event Campaign Progress required to claim the prize is 2100. Buying out an eligible event will include up

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

Sometimes exploration of new ideas and new technologies leads to dark places. In Star Trek, we’ve seen many a cautionary tale about omniscient supercomputers, time travel, genetic manipulation, and telepathic oppression. The pursuit of knowledge isn’t always safe or pretty. Hearts and Minds is a mini-mission that explores the consequences of some unconventional research gone awry. This mission is a “story in one act,” so you can easily finish it in a quick play session, and it’s easy to complete it with any additional characters that you may have on your account – which is handy, because the mission offers a special reward. Since Hearts and Minds is a horror story, it will only be around for Friday the 13th, whenever that may fall on the calendar – and perhaps another sufficiently horrifying day that we might choose! Fortunately for the squeamish, Hearts and Minds is creepy, but not

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

PC PATCH NOTES New Episode added to J’Ula’s Discovery Arc - “Beneath the Skin”: Venture into the Mycelial Network and discover the power source of Ju’la’, the fierce and uncompromising Klingon warrior, and put a stop to her. For more information, please visit the “Awakening: Beneath the Skin” blog at: Awakening: Beneath the Skin | Star Trek Online New Task Force Operation – “Mycelial Realm”: Mycelial Realm is an all new Task Force Operation, where five captains will step through a rift and into the Mycelial Network, and shut down the Klingon probes that are gathering spores for J’Ula’s weapon. Mycelial Realm will be available to all Captains of level 10 and above that have completed the tutorial. For more information, please visit the “The Mycelial Realm Opens to You” blog at: The Mycelial Realm Opens to You | Star Trek Online New Event System: Accessing

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Privateer 2 developer Paul Hughes managed to do a little digging and come up with three cool concept posters for the game. These are pretty early works and predate The Darkening becoming a Privateer title, which sometimes means material from this era can be harder to come by. Check out those taglines: "The City of Lights" is kind of odd, but "In the Darkness Lies the Truth" is a really good one. We also get an excellent look at that prototype Heretic that pops up from time to time!

Digging around on some backup drives, I found some old unused concept art for Privateer 2 from Paul Chapman...

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Today we've got a triple-pack of hardcore reviews from Hardcore Gaming 101. We reported on their WC1, WC2 and Strike Commander retrospectives back in the day, but we missed how these three prime spinoffs to the Wing Commander series also go their own proper articles.

First up is Academy. Taken in a modern context, some players may not understand how a mission builder could be its own fully boxed (and nearly full priced) standalone game, but that fails to capture the situation at the time. Fans were clamoring for the ability to do this. Fan mods were years away from being a thing, and Academy made it easy to craft your own WC games with zero learning curve. Plus, it packed in new ships as well as a really fun (and challenging) gauntlet mode.

Armada also gets a lot of credit for doing something different in such a way as to expand the Wing Commander tapestry. There is a some discussion on how the

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

It's time for our annual poll where we gauge how long fans have been visiting the CIC. Although this is our 25th anniversary at wcnews.com, we also have an option for people who've been following the team's Wing Commander news exploits for even longer than that! How long have you been visiting?

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The old poll asked about the best Kilrathi ship recreation in the Wing Commander Academy television show. The Dralthi was the hands down winner, which is no surprise, but there were plenty of very well done craft in the show!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Is there a better aesthetic than ~1994 Origin CD-ROM design?

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

German friends! We are still looking for this diskette. Do you know any packrats or collectors?

Requesting assistance from the German retro gaming community! It looks like the October 1993 PC Player cover diskette had a Wing Commander Academy campaign on it. Does anyone have a copy?

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Space poetry! There’s a shot in a Wing Commander IV briefing (M2) where we get a block of text behind Mark Hamill… and it’s mostly legible on the DVD! I can’t find it printed anywhere… must be a stray transmission from the Vogons.

A whirlwind ride down the spiraling drains of desire drowning dying to breathe your air before the darkness settles in. Ahh, if I could wake next to the golden green pools of your eyes in the liquid hazel dreams of my imagination someday in the distant near future you will return to me in my dreams. Once again we {illegible}

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Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Has anyone ever noticed how many versions there are of the Strike Commander art? They seem to derive from two separate renderings. The one with painted flames on the F-16 is the older of the two.

There's also this version from the GOG release which... I think they made out of stock photos for some reason? Note that Strike Commander currently happens to be on sale for $1.49 for the rest of this weekend.

Tactical Operations variants go hard, too!

I need there to be a Strike Commander version of me that I can hand this responsibility off to...

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

AD reminded me that Blair's callsign is DODGER in Kevin Droney's first draft script for the Wing Commander movie. I... don't hate it? The scene where they all explain their callsigns is fun, too:

Kevin Droney's First Draft (133 pages, 33 mb), which was written way back in 1995 (10/27/95)! It's very different from the later versions: it features many different proper nouns (Angelica "Angel" Devereaux), a strange callsign for Blair ("Dodger") and a very unusual twist on the traitor subplot. The Second Draft (9/21/97) and the Third/Shooting Draft (1/8/98) are also available. Along with the original Phoenix Pictures Memo, you now have all the tools to decide what went right and what went wrong with the Wing Commander movie's story!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Just in time for the party, DefianceIndustries, PopsiclePete and team have released another exciting update to the Prophecy and Secret Ops Model Upgrade Pack. It includes multiple new Confed fighters, stations and Nephilim capshiips plus a variety of technical upgrades. It's really just in time this year - this post will be updated in a few minutes with the new package when the file finishes uploading!

And here (115 meg exe) it is!

1. Updated Panther
2. Updated Stations (Callisto, Confed starbase)
3. Updated Tshark
4. New Kraken ship killer
5. New Hydra (SO only currently - we're still working out bugs in WCP but it should be in a week or so)
6. tech fixes: Fixed the corvette bug: once shields fall, the ship actually takes hull hits.

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Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

General: Updated the Star Trek Memorial that is used on ESD, QonoS', New Romulus and DS9. Systems: Resolved an issue that prevented players with the Voth Rampart Command Flight Deck Carrier [T6] from purchasing Voth Heavy Fighters. Resolved an issue that caused “Raider Flanking” not to be listed in the ship description of the Vulcan Experimental Scout Vessel [T6]. Resolved an issue that prevented "Very Cold in Space" from benefiting from some +Exotic Damage boosts. Resolved an issue that could cause "Very Cold in Space" to end prematurely.

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

PC General: Updated Memorial plaque to include Robert Walker Jr. Updated Memorial plaque to include René Auberjonois. Ships: Updated the scale and orientation of the competitive engines in sector space and normal space on the Vulcan Experimental Scout Vessel. Systems: Added three new commands, which can be run through the chat window or keybound: /Cooldowns - opens or closes the "Reward Cooldowns" window otherwise accessible from the PvE Task Force Operations window. /Bridge - takes you to your Starship's Bridge. /ShuttleBridge - takes you to your Shuttle's Bridge. The "Hold Torch" Emote is now freely unlocked for all players, and as such as been removed as a prize option from the Anniversary Emote Box. Resolved an issue that prevented the Eject Red Matter universal console from being affected by the Unconventional Systems trait. Console General: Updated

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

This weekend, starting Thursday, September 19th at 8AM PT to Monday, September 23rd at 10AM PT, we are running a special event where Captains can earn bonus Marks by playing content throughout the game! During the event, content that provides Marks (Fleet or Reputation) will reward a 50% (1.5x) bonus above normal amounts – this bonus is available for all content that rewards Marks, including the three new reputations that came to Console with Agents of Yesterday. Start building your Fleet projects and reputations! We hope you enjoy this special event and we’ll see you in-game! .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: