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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.
Dec
Check out this awesome Seahawk model that LOAF recently got 3D printed. The CIC staff love things like this, but none of us have the hardware or technical knowledge to make these ourselves. Fortunately, that's where the cottage industry of make-to-order prints comes in! Some sources can seem kind of sketchy, but LOAF found this one on Etsy (3Dwitha4Kface) and the results are solid. They also make a Dralthi, Scimitar, Kamrani Corvette, Centurion and Tiger's Claw in sizes from 1 inch to 12 inches. If you pick one up, keep in mind that some gluing and assembly may be required!
I got a huge Seahawk from Etsy’s Black Friday sale.
The SR-51 Seahawk Airborne Early Warning/Airborne Warning and Control Ship aka the SWACS.
Dec
It’s time to put the Hhriss back in Chhrisstmas.
Dec
Today we've got a retro review that AD found in the August 1995 issue of the appropriately named Man!ac magazine. It's a German publication, so we've provided a rudimentary translation. It's easy to get a sense of what they have to say: lots of excitement around the video cutscenes and some commentary about the cool spaceflight. The final score is 86%. I really like the 3DO screenshots here. You see a lot of the same PC images pop up in most reviews, so the more colorful comm VDU clips really stand out!
Dec
…The Alliance has ended medical isolation for all citizens who were rescued from the Titans after being abducted by Thargoid vessels.
Prime Minister Edmund Mahon's official declaration was published by all newsfeeds:
"The Assembly has agreed that quarantine procedures for everyone recovered from the Titans are no longer necessary. Those who hail from an Allied system are being transported from the secure facilities back to their families and communities. Their long nightmare is over. We are sending our people home."
"I call upon the governments of the Empire, Federation and independent systems to follow our lead with their own citizens. We must not treat these unfortunates as criminals or laboratory specimens. During this dark time of war, let our humanity shine through."
Some medical institutes such as Kamadhenu Medipure and Vandermeer Corporation opposed the Alliance's decision, claiming that
Dec
Display MoreThis is a new one for me: kyleisliving has posted a video of the SNES version of Wing Commander running on a Sony Mega Watchman. If it's the model I think it is, this one has a 4.5 inch black and white screen. It actually looks surprisingly good given the circumstances, and the music sounds great! Sony is also responsible for solving the need for something like this thanks to EA Replay on the Playstation Portable. We still love to see people finding new ways to play Wing Commander though!
Dec
Here's a quirky crossover mash-up of the different franchises that Mac incorporates into his lore videos. Hope it helps you cruise right into the weekend!
The Hangar at The End of The Multiverse
Dec
Here’s an interesting find! Very, very early Privateer screenshots released at ECTS in 1992 and published in the November issue of PC Games. All gameflow, probably just renders…
In-game versions of these same assets. You can see nothing was close to final!
Dec
…*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
The eccentric inventor Harald Harksing has been causing quite a stir on Angel Station in the Calhuacan system.
Recent reports suggest that the independent entrepreneur is experiencing problems with a corrupted database. This has prevented him from shipping his latest batch of inventions to their intended destinations. The commotion caused by his efforts to resolve the issue has brought both amusement and exasperation to the starport's inhabitants.
Lishan Abara, culture correspondent for Vox Galactica, published a profile piece on Harksing:
"Little of Harald Harksing's background has ever been confirmed. What is well known – indeed, highly publicised – is his annual sending of unusual gifts to individuals referenced in GalNet news articles. These mostly comprise of unique toys, gadgets or games that Harksing has designed and built himself, sometimes tailor-made
Dec
GOG has kicked off their big Winter Sale, and it's a weird one! We used to be able to predict what would happen pretty well, but things have been far less consistent this year. Sometimes we only see a few games marked down - or none at all in the case of Black Friday most recently. This time only Privateer 2 is on sale for 75% off. I looked around a bit and see Ultima has some similarly non-uniform pricing. The earlier games are on sale, but Ultima 8 and 9 are still full price. Both Crusaders are on sale, as is Strike Commander and others. I'm happy that at least The Darkening gets its price cut though!
Dec
Dec
Here are all the new components added to Righteous Fire. The 'booster' style upgrades don't have damage states, so they are either doubled up or they have weird little placeholder graphics! That little frowny face has been hiding for 30 years...
Here's the same sprite sheet but for Privateer, in case you want to scroll through all the damaged components you might never have seen!
The Wing Commander damage states are very cool! Here's an article from earlier this year about Privateer's cockpit damage - plus a comprehensive gallery of all WC4's flight deck damage views!
Dec
…Dave's garage has hosted an interview with Raymond Chen, one of the developers of Windows 95. He has a fun anecdote about Microsoft's mission to minimize compatibility issues with the operating system. When testing Wing Commander 3, they detected an error that would occur when pressing Control+C to cloak at the end of the game. The conflicting behavior highlighted some broken logic around accepting keystrokes, which spurred them to change how Copy/Paste was interpreted behind the scenes. It's a cool story! I'm not sure who managed to stumble across this scenario: WC3 DOS didn't really run in Windows - it was a classic "Reboot in MS-DOS Mode" game, but this could have come in handy by the time The Kilrathi Saga came around!
Microsoft developers once drove a truck to Egghead in order to buy ONE of EVERYTHING! Dave interviews Raymond Chen, Win95 developer, about the time they took a truck to EggHead
Dec
Found a pretty neat Wing Commander IV preview from the November 1995 issue of PC Power. Lots of cool set photos and a great one of Mark Hamill as Colonel Blair...
... but even more fascinating, look at that gameplay shot on the last page! That's the earliest build of Wing Commander IV I've ever seen. What's going on with the radar?!
Apparently the September 1995 issue (21) has a Privateer 2 preview which I'd love to see! Anyone out there have back issues of PC Power? I believe it's from the UK.
