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Today we have a very cool flythrough of a set of Space Engineers maps by Jason Musgrave. We've seen a handful of impressive designs over the year from Wing Commander 1 to Privateer to WC4, but WC3 was relatively untapped territory. Now we're getting three-in-one by way of a fantastic TCS Victory, plus a Confed cruiser and Kilrathi carrier. There are even fighters across the deck that you can get inside. Phenomenal effort on display here!
Jan
…Emperor Arissa Lavigny-Duval has decided that all Imperial citizens recovered from Thargoid Titans will remain in quarantine indefinitely.
An official pronouncement on behalf of the Emperor was distributed by the Imperial Palace:
"Every subject of the Empire who was abducted by the Thargoids is receiving the highest possible quality of treatment and support. The Emperor has ordered that they will be given exemplary medical and psychological care, for as long as they remain in medical isolation."
"As is always the case, the security of our society is paramount. Protective sanctuary is being provided for tens of thousands of individuals, in order that billions are spared the prospect – however unlikely – of an alien influence taking root within the Empire. That is the honourable path, and the Emperor is confident her people will understand the wisdom of this decision."
The Imperial Herald's
Jan
It's a new year, but we're turning back the clock today with a new batch of retro reviews found by Maxi de Sokar. The first is a wonderful five page spread in PC Review for Wing Commander 3. It starts off with a couple pages of "behind the scenes" info before launching into the actual review. Then we have a quick take on Super Wing Commander for the 3DO by Micromania. Finally, there's a six page spread in OKPC about Wing Commander 4. I love how much space was dedicated to these new releases at the time!
Jan
…New year, new Originator! AllTinker is kicking off 2024 with another release to his impressive Wing Commander modding and hacking tool. New features include a better reader for hex editing, support for more WC3 elements like cockpits, improved decompression of Privateer 2 contents and more. You can download the updated package here!
Version 0.2.03 (2024-01-01)
- Improved the hex viewer; added hover highlighting between hex/character views, also fixed an issue with larger font sizes.
- Added support for packed WC3 shapes (e.g. for cockpits), and more IFF-embedded shapes in general.
- Added automatic decompression for IFF chunks (QFS/Deflate), which is especially relevant to Privateer 2. As usual there are many palettes still requiring hook-up logic, so colours will be wrong in many cases for several games (including P2).
- Added "Experiments" (under "Tools") which I will be adding to over time. Currently the
Jan
Happy New Year Wingnuts! We made it through another year. Some very cool projects got off the ground in 2023, and we're super excited where they go in 2024. Our annual new year's poll is live now. Got an idea for something that might interest Wing Commander fans in the year ahead? Or just want to hang out with a bunch of retro video game nerds? Stop on by the CIC Discord server!
LOAF also pointed out that we've got quite a few exciting 30th anniversaries on deck this year!
Some pretty big 30th anniversaries this year! 1994 was one heck of a year.
- Privateer: Righteous Fire - February 24
- Super Wing Commander - March 23
- Wing Commander (Sega CD) - March 24
- Wing Commander Privateer (CD-ROM) - June 13
- Wing Commander Armada - September 22
- Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger - December 8
- Wing Commander Armada Proving Grounds - December 20
And... here are the results from the birthday poll!
Jan
…We've come to the end of another year, but before we say our last goodbyes to 2023, it's time to take a look back at the highlights from the past twelve months!
The year began, as many do, with lots of glorious fan art and beautiful creations. Mac and Klavs had another very prolific year with a steady stream of gorgeous sights. Many of Klavs' designs were later released as 3D models while Mac took his renders all the way to multiple full fledged lore videos on YouTube.
It didn't take long to get our first "official," WC release when Google finally added Freedom Flight to their digital bookstore in January. Although it's been available for years on competing platforms, having this one title missing from such a major outlet was a constant annoyance to completionists.
Fan projects like WC4 Remastered and many different impressive Lego builds were frequently in the news through the (northern) spring.
Jan
…StarvingPilot shared a cool tip for anyone with a Playstation 2 and PSX Wing Commander 3 or 4. There's a neat backwards compatibility feature for people who have the original Playstation versions of these two games. The PS2 supports "fast loading" and "texture smoothing" that adds bilinear filtering. This means the textures appear slightly less blocky and pixelated. If you've got the right hardware, it's a neat trick to check out!
I found that texture smoothing can be enabled for old PS1 games. This includes the PlayStation version of WC3 (tested), and possibly WC4 (which I don’t own). This is done for any PS1 game without emulators on original hardware, although I imagine anyone running a PS emulator has been doing this for years.To get to the option, just enter the main menu for the console, highlight Browser and press triangle to enter the Version Menu. Using the menu options, Texture Mapping
Dec
Sorting through Wing Commander Prophecy's cutscenes means stopping everything each time I come across another exterior shot of the Midway hidden in a longer cutscene.
Where ya goin tonight???
In response to your many cards and letters:
- The G'wriss jump doesn't have text
- The G'mar jump isn't on the DVD (everyone boos forever)
- There's no H'rissith jump scene
Visit the massively expanded Prophecy Holovids video archive here!
Dec
Binary Legends has posted an awesome 16-minute video featuring the intro and first mission from Wing Commander 2 - in EGA graphics mode! We've posted various screenshots before and LOAF has done some wonderful comparisons between EGA and other iterations of the games over the years, but I don't think we've ever shown off a raw clip like this. If you haven't seen it in motion, it's something to behold. There's an interesting contrast between the EGA visuals and digitized speech with beautiful music behind it. The game may not look quite like the WC2 that you remember, but it gives big vintage '80s Tandy/Sierra game vibes, which is pretty awesome!
Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi (EGA - Intro and First Mission). Running in EGA 16 color mode with Roland MT-32 for the music and Sound Blaster for the digitized sounds.
Dec
…As the year draws to a close, Jade Sanderlyn reflects on humanity's ongoing conflict against the Thargoids in a summary for Vox Galactica.
"We began 3309 reeling under the colossal impact brought by the Maelstroms, which had arrived on the fringes of the core systems. Unleashed from within these corrosive clouds were Thargoid attacks on a scale never seen before. Hundreds of systems fell rapidly, with the current death toll over a billion. Billions more were forced to flee from their burning homes."
"It was months before the Thargoid motherships within the Maelstroms were revealed. The Titans remain in place to this day, seemingly indestructible. Their unearthly horror was enhanced when it became clear that they are also prisons for living humans abducted by the aliens."
"With a reformed Aegis in place, our resistance to these invasions grew stronger over the months. Many fallen systems were
Dec
Found a Wing Commander III bug! In the first scramble mission (B1 or C1) you are automatically assigned three wingmen: Weasel (a scripted death) and then Maniac and Mitchell. If one is shot down, they're replaced by a rotation: Vagabond, Bacon Boy, Hobbes, Flint, Cobra, Vaquero, Maniac, Vagabond. But it doesn't check for duplicates, so you can end up with two Maniacs or two Vagabonds! It's unlikely to ever happen during regular gameplay because there isn't really anything in the mission that will kill six of your wingmen.
Dec
…Federal citizens who were captured by Thargoids then rescued from the Titans will not yet be permitted to leave secure medical facilities.
The decision comes after the Alliance ended quarantine restrictions for returnees from their systems, with newly rescued civilians expected to spend no more than a week in observation. Prime Minister Edmund Mahon has called on other governments to do the same.
President Zachary Hudson discussed the situation during a press conference:
"The consensus of Federal medical experts is that it would be foolishly optimistic to allow these people – some of whom were held aboard the Titans for months – back into the general population. When at war with such an implacable enemy as the Thargoids, we simply cannot afford to take any risks."
"Rest assured that Federal citizens are not suffering in any way. They are allowed to receive visitors, albeit without physical
Dec
…If you're still in a post-holiday brain daze, maybe you need a shot of funky electronic music to get the body moving again! (In the event that it's Covid, we recommend instead getting a prescription of Paxlovid.) George Sanger and Team Fat are here to deliver with a brand new digital album titled Project Shish Kebab 2023. You can listen to and buy the album at Band Camp, and it's also available for free on YouTube below with an accompanying video to show off how it was all recorded.
The Fat Man and Team Fat just released Project Shish Kebab 2023, check it out here.“Another New Years' Bonus: Welcome back to The Jam That Looks Like a Chess Match(R)!!
In case you missed it, this is our annual "Project Shish Kebab" get-together. It's exactly how we make videogame music according to our parents' imaginations.
It's a spin-off from 25 years of bloop-and-bleep jams at the legendary Project BarBQ audio
Dec
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to Wingnuts everywhere! We hope you're able to enjoy a safe and comfortable day. We know that's not always possible, so if you're ready for a break from it all, feel free to drop by Discord #Wingnut. Whether it's discussion about the new Doctor Who special or Star Trek Prodigy dropping on Netflix, we're here to take your mind off all the holiday stress!
Dec
…We've got another great update to a new fan tool today. AllTinker has released a new version of Originator, his multipurpose extraction tool that can decipher all manner of internal assets from within the code of classic WC games. He aims to support a broad cross section of Origin and Wing Commander titles, so today's update improves the program's ability to read certain formats. It will also read more types of information, including text content within the games. This all builds on an impressive list of supported games and audio/visual file types from the first release. You can learn more and download the app at the CIC Forums here.
Version 0.2.02 (2023-12-25)
- Improved the IFF parser to cope with various quirks and non-standard features (e.g. Privateer's "table" structures).
- Quite broad support for "shape" images - although there are palettes remaining to hook up for numerous games, so colours may
Dec
…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
Dec
…Destro has released a new update of Wing Loader with a host of new features! The original project sough to bring voiceovers from the Sega CD version of WC1 over into the PC edition. He's since expanded his goals significantly with plans to add features such as the ability to incorporate high definition video into Wing Commander 3. This new version also adds preliminary support for WC4, Prophecy and Secret Ops in advance of offering new features for those games in the future. There is compatibility with Stinger's wcdx package of improvements to the Kilrathi Saga games, and the program now works with all the common GOG packages. You can find more details and installation instructions here. The main installer package is also mirrored here (800 meg zip).
Happy Holidays Everyone!!!Got a ton of fixes, upgrades and new features to share. Most notably, a fix for error 267 that causes folders to be
Dec
Most of the Wing Commander games may be excluded from the holiday sale at GOG this year, but Electronic Arts didn't forget about them! The five WC games sold directly from EA.com (formerly the Origin Store) have been marked down as a part of the Player Favorites Sale. Each game is only $0.99, which is a pretty slick 80+% discount. Other Ultima and Origin games are included in a similar price range. There are some other hot titles as well like Star Wars Squadrons for $1.99 and the Command & Conquer Remastered package for $4.99, which are also good pickups!
Dec
…Seo Jin-ae has returned from a visit to Utopia following an invitation from Simguru Pranav Antal to discuss the possibility of Salvation's survival.
The leader of the Utopia commune invited her to review the schematics that she recovered from an abandoned Azimuth Corporation facility in March. The schematics detailed a mysterious Guardian-based device named the Nemesis Failsafe. Seo Jin-ae believes this was used by Salvation to transfer his living mind to a remote location before his death in HIP 22460.
Aegis confirmed that it has no information about the meeting in Utopia, and that Seo Jin-ae refused to discuss the matter with them upon her return.
Pranav Antal transmitted a message that was shared across public newsfeeds:
"My sincere thanks to Seo Jin-ae for allowing me to explain my theories about Salvation's 'Nemesis protocol'. We have agreed not to disclose our conclusions. I must respect
Dec
Did you know that Wing Commander III has THREE different official guides?!
I thought it would be fun to compare what ships, wingmen and loadout each book recommends for each mission. And I was right, it was extremely fun.
