News categories list

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

The results of an evening of hex editing! This is how Privateer figures the cost of repairs (and the prices for selling damaged components, which is never worth it!).

Every component has a damage rating from 0 (destroyed) to 100 (no damage). Repairs are a percent of the total item value times the damage rating.

The armor is the exception: it has four values (one for each side) and the total amount varies by armor type. It’s also super broken and rolls over so will charge you more for a tiny amount of damage. But the range is so small you never notice while playing!

The one component you can’t buy are the hated maneuvering jets. But from their repair costs we can see they seem to have a total value of 75,000 credits!

The maneuvering jets graphic was actually initially created to be an EMP shield. This was part of a cut game loop that would've let you disable enemy ships (and need such a shield to protect

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Fun Privateer 2 background element: Angus Santana has a model of a Bexian public transport balloon on his desk.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

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

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

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

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

AD found this nifty review way back in the February 1993 issue of N-Force magazine. It's more than thirty years old, and everything from color choices to the hair style of the reviewer confirms its age. You can tell they had a lot of fun putting this spread together, which is why I'm surprised it only got an 84. They also ran a contest that gave away free copies of the game and other associated merch, which is pretty cool!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

We're rounding out the third week of Origin composer George Oldziey's campaign to create a new album of Wing Commander music. The current tally is very nearly at $17,000. That's enough to ensure the project moves forward, which is great! As we previously reported, George has already scheduled time with the orchestra in Europe to record in August. However, it would be amazing if the live choral addition were added in as well. For that, we would need about $5,000 additional over what's been contributed so far. I still think it's very doable with all of your help! You can learn more about the project and pledge for a copy of the music when it's released here.

Here's a sample of reorchestrated WC4 track that George has already recreated on paper. The sound you hear is a digital recreation below, so the final result with live musicians will be even better!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Destro has a new update on what to expect in the future for the Wing Loader program. He added preliminary support for WC4, Prophecy and Secret Ops towards the end of last year, but there's still plenty to do for the earlier games in the series. Now that in-game speech is working in WC1, I might be most excited about what is happening with WC3. He's made some major breakthroughs regarding the ability to add ODVS' enhanced video footage. There's even the potential to add back in scenes like news clips and the Hobbes explanation that are only included in the console ports. It's all exciting stuff! You can download the latest version here.

I've got a few things planned for a new release. Currently I'm working on some memory fixes, better camera code to fix some jumpy issues I've seen online:

• A few changes to the scripting to make reading it easier.
• Added in Imgui support and making preferences so users

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Today we've got the sequel to the Matthew Lillard art recently made by NMA Nekro. They've collaborated with dogseatdogstoo to start with one of the earlier pieces, colorize it and add some atsy WC (Secret Missions 2 to be exact) elements. What do you think? It's wild how many huge Lillard fans are out there!

Guys do you remember the movie Wing Commander 1999? Well @nma_nekro and I sure do.

Lovely little art trade I had the privilege of working on @nma_nekro did the line art, of course, and I scribbled in the rest! Thank you again!

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

My friends! My benefactors! My, dare I say it, potential customers! Did I not say that Harcourt Fenton Mudd was the king of all deals? Over the past weeks of my establishment being officially open to the public – although a bit mobile to keep away from prying Federation eyes – I believe I have demonstrated the value you can only find here. And now, there are three new items becoming available! The Klingon’s own personal demons, the Fek’ihri, have granted me their S’torr Warship! It sounds like a sneeze to me, but I’m told it’s the ‘new hotness,’ if you will. And look at this, a holographic recreation of Federation legend Geordi La Forge! Wouldn’t you want an engineer of that caliber on your bridge crew? But that’s not all, folks, I’ve also made available a Crystal Prism Device from the mysterious world of Paahvo, and I’ll even throw in an amazing tech upgrade for your

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

The Washington Post (or more specifically, their Launcher video game section) has run an article about video game franchises they'd want raised from the dead. Wing Commander gets top billing as their first series on the list, which is always great to see! Since this is Halloween-themed, each game also gets a small piece of zombie artwork. In WC's case, there's a disembodied hand on a joystick with a familiar reticle superimposed on top. You can check out the full article here.

Wing Commander

We all know Mark Hamill once saved the universe while waving a lightsaber in a galaxy far, far away. But did you know he also saved Earth by dropping a tectonic bomb on the war-hungry planet of Kilrah? Then he followed up those heroics by staving off a civil war through exposing the plans of a warmongering admiral played by Malcolm McDowell, whose character’s motivations preceded those of Call of Duty’s

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Today we have another look at DefianceIndustries' gorgeous digital interpretation of the tabletop fan game TacOps. It's got a more purpose-built table now, and a variety of amenities are being implemented to make the game function and flow better. There's also two exciting additions: the Sartha and Ferret. The picture of them below looks almost real. With more quality of life improvements in place, Defiance is planning to start some playtesting soon. Sounds like fun!

To quote Gold Leader: "Almost there...." I revamped the game using the Chimera table which made more ergonomic sense. Currently it's set up for 2 players (with an option for 4, though the table seats 6 so you could go nuts)

I added a bowl of pegs so you can track the status on the ship cards easier, added a copy of the rules for each side, as well as all the missile tiles (DF, HS, IMREC, FoF, Torp). It's about 90% there for some

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

It's finally spring for the majority of Wingnuts, and GOG is welcoming the season with a big discount on Wing Commander games. The series is marked down a customary 75%, so that means all DOS/Windows games are available for less than $12. It's a steal for easy digital access - even if you already have physical copies! Also, we know there's quite a bit of overlap between Star Trek and WC fans, and GOG has recently added a slate of Trek games to their catalog. Those additions are all 20% off too.

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
The Reorte Pro-Alliance League's success over the Reorte Mining Coalition means the system will stay in the Alliance.
A greater quantity of advanced medicines, skimmer components and building fabricators were delivered to the Trobairitz megaship than to the opposing faction. As a result, Reorte will remain an Allied system.
Pilots who contributed to the Reorte Pro-Alliance League's initiative can now collect their rewards at the Trobairitz, along with the additional pre-engineered heat sink modules provided by Sirius Corporation.
Chief Administrator Louisa Leblanc proclaimed:
"I am deeply grateful to all those who helped convince our people that Reorte's future is more secure with the Alliance. We look forward to working alongside Sirius Corporation on increasing defences against the Thargoids."
The Reorte Mining Coalition's CEO Fergus Cassidy expressed his regret

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Greg14 shared this French preview of Wingleader from a June 1990 issue of Génération 4. It appears to be based off previews from the Consumer Elections Show in Chicago. The name change to Wing Commander happened relatively close to launch, so a lot of the prime promotional materials from this summer emphasize the 'Leader' name. Can you imagine how amazing these huge screenshots would have looked at the time? Also check out that small in-game Wingleader logo!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

If you haven’t filmed an exhaustive retrospective of the Wing Commander series on a hillside while sitting on a giant boulder, are you even a Wing Commander fine? Yes, if you’re reading this, you definitely are, but this is still one of the most unique takes on the WC series rundown video I’ve seen in a while. Where will the next Wing Commander fan vid take place?

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Here's Mike Winterbauer's wonderful Wing Commander SNES painting as a pin-up in a French magazine called Super Power!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

It’s a Shrike! Thank you to GeekToyLove for selling me this orphan torpedo bomber (and Thunder_Owl for sharing that it was available). Murphy Labs’ TB-81A Shrike was a four-person torpedo bomber (class B) developed for use aboard escort carriers during the post-war fleet modernization. They served with distinction during the first Nephilim incursions.

GeekToyLove also made this fabulous Arrow!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

This one's a repeat, but it's so glorious that we can't help but share it again (and will be doing so for many years to come!). Last year, Klavs commissioned this wonderful Cameo clip from Malcolm McDowell to celebrate our 24th anniversary. He fondly remembers both his role as Admiral Tolwyn and how his late friend, David Warner, also got to portray the character. If you missed this earlier, be sure to check it out now!

I must say, I did love Tolwyn. A really wonderful character in many ways. Strong. Very, really cool. ... I'm thrilled that you liked my interpretation of him, because I really went for it, enjoyed it.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

After learning about how Denis Loubet came up with Wing Commander's enduring radar display I've been looking into how the design developed over the series. I found a note in the WC2 manual I never picked up on: "In VGA graphics mode, the shade of the dot indicates its range."

I ran some tests and sure enough, it's true! Each dot has THREE shades reserved in the 256-color palette. Close is within 5,000 meters, medium is 5,000-25,000 and far is over 30,000! NEVER noticed in gameplay. So I made a chart:

Strange case I just remembered: Special Operations 1 has the Gettysburg escorted by Epees that show up as GREEN on your radar... for about a second and a half between cutscenes! What an odd addition that never shows up again.

I went on a little tangent experimenting with this. Trying to fly to the Gettysburg remotely to see them hits a bug, no ships spawn until you get to the exact nav point and suddenly

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

CountvonSchnaps has a new sketch: a wonderful Tallahassee class cruiser like the TCS Coventry in WC3. I really like what he's done with colors, paneling and detail across the hull. It adds some rich character! He originally drew a Southampton destroyer, which we highlighted last year. I missed the cruiser addition until Dragon1 pointed it out this week, but I'm happy to be able to share both now!

A redesign (slightly) of a cruiser featured in Wing Commander 3 and 4: the Tallahassee Class cruiser. Sporting 11 turrets (2x dual barrel heavy antimatter turrets, 1 x dual barrel tachyon gun turret and 8 laser cannons) it also has a front mounted axial gauss cannon and a torpedo/missile launcher. Similar to the Southampton it has a hangar bay located at the back which can house a full wing of fighter; typically, 4 Arrow light fighters and a shuttle.

It is fun to make ships like these, in a sketchy and