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How would you like some French retrospectives on the early Wing Commander games? Well, we're all gearing up to watch the surprise drop of tonight's Strange New Worlds episode (join us on Discord to talk about it!), so this is what today's news post will be. These are actually really good overviews though. They talk about the games at length, of course, but they also hop around and share what some of the magazines were saying, what the documentation was like and give you a more complete time capsule look. It looks like YouTube will do auto-translated captions as well, so anyone can enjoy. Thanks to Greg14 for sharing. Have fun!

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The guy organizing the Origin Museum sale has some great original artwork listed on eBay right now! The auction is for two wonderful Wing Commander II demo paintings! Too rich for my blood but these were among the coolest items in Joe’s collection. It would be great to see them go to a good home. You can find the listing here.

The WC2 demo is essentially a non-playable prototype of the WC2 intro. You can see that it differs a bit from the throne room depicted in the final game in the video below:

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GOG is holding a new "Make Classics Last Forever" sale, and Wing Commander is included. This one is slightly unusual. All of the main games plus both Privateer 1 and 2 are marked down as you might expect. Armada and Academy are oddly absent, however. Still, it's a wonderful chance to add the majority of the series to your collection, and it's a good bet that the missing pair of spinoffs will make their way into a different sale soon! Each discounted title is $1.49 for 75% off. Thanks to LividLiquid for the tip!

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Kotaku recently reported on a massive leak of Sega documents from the 1990s. One interesting bit for me: Sega's release calendar lists a Saturn port of Wing Commander IV for October '96. I don't believe that was ever announced (or otherwise leaked).

A Saturn port of Wing Commander III, not mentioned here, WAS announced and was supposedly shown in some capacity at the first E3 in 1995. Little else is known!

The leaked documents also have Sega's internal estimated release dates for the Playstation ports of WC3 and 4. They're just a month off for 3 (February vs. March '96) but way off for 4 (September '96 vs May '97). It's unlikely that a Saturn port could've shipped in October '96!

You can download the document leak directly from Sega Retro here (61 meg PDF).

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
Rare goods delivered to Xi Wangda helped ensure that Azimuth Biotech's arms convention was a success.
CEO Torben Rademaker confirmed the initiative's completion:
"From today, the Overcharged Gimballed AX Multi-Cannon with Auto Loader is available at all rescue megaships, as well as Azimuth Biotech's core markets. I am confident that this will prove useful those brave pilots who enter combat with Thargoid ships. Once again, my company has proved that its ingenuity and experience in developing anti-xeno weaponry cannot be surpassed."
"I would like to offer my heartfelt thanks to all of the corporate, financial and military representatives who attended the convention. Many fascinating proposals were discussed, most of which must remain commercially confidential for now. Suffice to say, the future for Azimuth Biotech and our partners looks bright."
"Finally, the event

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
Traces of a distress call from the Dedicant megaship have been detected in the LP 714-58 system.
Vice Admiral Amir Rafiq, a spokesperson for the Imperial Navy, broadcast an announcement on all public channels:
"An Imperial scout ship travelling through LP 714-58 has intercepted several fragmentary signals. Their identifying markers confirmed that they originated from the Dedicant. We believe there has been an encryption error in the system's communication beacons, which prevented the distress call from being rerouted to its intended destination in the Federation."
"Officially, the Imperial Navy no longer performs joint operations with our Federal counterparts. Nor do we involve ourselves in the activities of the illegal Far God cult. Nevertheless, we are sharing this information as a humanitarian gesture. Our hope is that this may aid a rescue mission for those

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If you were hooked by LOAF's deep analysis of the Confederation Handbook over the weekend and can't wait for more, the time is now! Part two of the stream is live! Check it out below:

In 1999, HarperEntertainment published the Wing Commander Confederation Handbook. Was it the greatest book ever written in the history of the world? Yes. Let's talk about it! AGAIN.

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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 Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The three candidates in the Federal presidential election have taken part in a second live debate to discuss policies.
The event was more closely moderated than the first debate in June. The candidates discussed their campaigns in detail, with minimal interruption from their rivals.
Republican Party candidate Jerome Archer is the current vice president and a former director of the Federal Intelligence Agency. He explained his intentions to tighten security and increase military spending:
"Shielding citizens from external threats, whether human or alien, is always my top priority. Ms Winters lacks any significant achievements in her political career, if we're honest. Whereas I can refer to many successes – such as the Proactive Detection Bureau – which prove I am a man of my word."
Shadow President Felicia Winters, leader of the Liberal Party, was previously the secretary of state in Jasmina

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

It's been several years since our All Wings Considered live Wing Commander show has been in production, but LOAF is trying to get his space legs under him again. He's messing around on YouTube this evening in a totally unstructured stream about the WC Movie's Confederation Handbook. Check it out below!

In 1999, HarperEntertainment published the Wing Commander Confederation Handbook. Was it the greatest book ever written in the history of the world? Yes. Let's talk about it!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

We're quickly cruising through the year here, so it's time for us to officially announce the next CIC Birthday Party! It's a big one this time as it will commemorate 25 years at wcnews.com! Mark your calendars for Saturday, August 19. The official event kicks off at 7:00 pm EDT (4:00 pm PDT and 11:00 pm GMT) on that night, but there will be plenty of people hanging out well before and after. You can join the fun in Discord #Wingnut. Feel free to stop by any time beforehand to get acquainted with how everything works. We'll see you there!

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Here at the CIC, we used to keep pretty close tabs on Ultima Online. As a product that was developed alongside contemporaries such as Wing Commander Prophecy at the famous Austin studio, it was a big deal to see EA continue the MMO long after Origin's closure. When Electronic Arts finally did decide that they were done with it in 2014, that could have very easily been the end, but the game has somehow continued to thrive for another decade under Broadsword. So I was really happy to see this recent PC Gamer blurb about high turnout for the game's summer barbecue event. The game has been continuously running for more than 25 years now, so the fact that it exists at all is impressive - but all the more so that they're still having fun events in their tight knit community! You can skim through a few recorded streams below to see what the game's like in 2023:

Ultima Online still boasts an active

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

EmuMusicFan's super artsy take on the famous interrogation scene from Freedom Flight has been greatly expanded. Pages 8 through 12 now detail Prince Thrakhath and Lord Ralgha's interaction - and it's quite intense now with the visual. I've included the whole scene below so you can enjoy it as one! Let Emu know what you think at the CIC Forums!

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Wing Commander II has some excellent tuckerizations! This is from Special Operations 1. Denis Loubet is the famous Origin artist, and the Miller is Craig Miller, who designed the Wing Commander II box.

General Snell of Niven Colony was Wing Commander II's executive producer Dallas Snell (who is likely well known to many Origin Systems fans)!

Lady Blue, CO of the Concordia's Ferret wing, is writer/assistant diretor Ellen Guon (who you probably know first as the co-author of Freedom Flight).

Ghorah Khar Sabre pilot "Ladyman" is the man behind the manuals, David Ladyman.

Blair's gunner Lieutenant Haley is programmer Richard Haley.

Ghorah Khar rookie pilot "Cafrelli" is programmer Charles Cafrelli (who also voiced a Kilrathi admiral!).

Do you know any others?

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Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
Azimuth Biotech has requested shipments of rare commodities to Xi Wangda, as luxury supplies for its business convention.
Torben Rademaker, CEO of the anti-xeno corporation, announced the initiative via public channels:
"We expect this prestigious gathering to be attended by many representatives from research groups, manufacturing companies and military forces. To ensure that our esteemed guests are made welcome, we will pay handsomely for shipments of Albino Quechua Mammoth Meat, Gilya Signature Weapons and Harma Silver Sea Rum."
"The cornerstone of this event will be the commercial launch of Azimuth's newly modified ship-mounted weapon: the pre-engineered Overcharged Gimballed AX Multi-Cannon with Auto Loader. Our proprietary redesign will make a significant contribution when engaging Thargoid vessels in combat. Those who contribute the greatest number of rare

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

The WCRespace team is back with a new update on the WC4 Fan Remake. There's a whole new article by Pedro that goes into great detail about the game's user interface. He says it's not the most glamorous subject, and it might be tedious to design and program, but I love these liminal console screens. They're critical glue that helps sell the total experience. An especially big deal this time around is the adjustment to accommodate 16:9 widescreen settings. It takes some finesse to make them look authentic compared to the original 4:3 shape. The fourth and fifth images below are especially stark - they compare the original loading screen with today's update!

Now brute forcing in new UI wouldn’t be impossible but that removes some of the nostalgia. No problem, we’ll just upscale them like we do the rooms… except we optionally support 16:9 by zooming in on the gameflow rooms, and there is no way

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Destro has returned with a spectacular announcement for the future of Wing Loader, which is a program he built to add audio speech to the Kilrathi Saga's WC1. The next evolution seeks to add high resolution video to KS WC3. The videos already exist. ODVS massively upscaled and enhanced the footage from WC3, WC4 and Prophecy a few years back, but at the time, it was only possibly to integrate these cutscenes into the latter two game. Destro's patch will finally close the loop and make it possible to enjoy the improved video in the game. There are many challenges to overcome still, but his success with WC1 shows that he has what it takes to make this happen! You can download the latest working version of Wing Loader here.

Hey everyone! I hope you are all having a great summer so far! This is my busy time of year but I'm keeping my head up and messing around with the next big feature of Wing

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Cybot has returned with a variety of exotic renders. This set is based on familiar WC2 and Privateer-centric scenes with a little bit of creative flair. Cybot's also made a handful of model files available to download, including the Drayman cockpit and some of the guns. You can grab those at the CIC Forums!

A Drayman cockpit. I think it works.

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Azimuth Biotech has announced an invitation-only event for prospective business partners and military liaisons.
CEO Torben Rademaker provided a statement to the media:
"New opportunities have emerged for Azimuth to resume the lead in anti-xeno operations. With Thargoid fleets rampaging through the core systems, and Aegis's questionable policy of providing utility modules over increased firepower, humanity's defence once again falls to us. But our organisation will no longer work in solitude."
"I have extended the hand of partnership to selected financiers, military figures, research groups and manufacturing companies. They are invited to convene and discuss methods of helping us to resist the evil of the Thargoids."
Business analyst Marlon Royce published this report via Vox Galactica:
"Ostensibly, this appears to be a public relations exercise for Azimuth Biotech. However, the company's

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Wow, look who is trending! Mothers, lock up your ejected pilots.

To be clear: there are two Deathstrokes. They are similar but they are different kils. Dakhath nar Sihkag is the Wing Commander I ace, Dakhath nar Caxki is the WC3/CCG/Arena ace.

The original Deathstroke flew a Dralthi during the Vega Campaign. He was ultimately shot down at Gimle by Spirit! Color art from the SFC manual:

The later Deathstroke flew a Dralthi IV (and later a Dralthi Striker). The red livery is from WC3 but never actually appears since he isn’t really in the PC version!

Some clever and handsome fellow did think to lampshade the similarities in their backgrounds:

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