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Is there anything more thrilling than the Wing Commander I box art? Despite the claim that “what you see is what you play,” it’s not a screenshot but a digital piece carefully composed by the incomparable Denis Loubet.

Back in the '80s, games would commission stunning traditional artwork for their boxes. The biggest purpose was to attract eyes in stores but they also served as a kind of ‘primer’ in an era of simple graphics. That green-and-black smudge you battle is actually a cool dragon!

Of course consumers are fickle and tastes change. By the end of the '80s games were more complex and their art had a much more distinctive style. Origin needed a new way to stand out. And their first answer was… male models.

Luckily, that experiment ended before Wing Commander! It looked so impressive that they felt showing the game itself was the way to go. So Mr. Loubet had to use the graphics that were ready to get

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The space sim Absolute Territory was released today on Steam! It's a classic '90s style shooter by longtime Wingnut centaurianmudpig. The cockpit UI is simplified a bit and borrows some of the streamlined slider bars from Wing Commander 4 or Arena, but all the familiar elements are there. Everything can be controlled by either keyboard, mouse or joystick, and the setup makes it very easy to switch between or combine control methods. Wing Commander fans should be able to jump right in, but there's also a helpful simulator and tutorial missions to get everyone up to speed on the basics quickly. The engine has some speed to it, so pilots need to be accurate with their shots, but that's all part of the learning curve. Absolute Territory is its own game, but there are also a handful of Wing Commander easter eggs thrown in for fun. You can try out the demo or grab the game for yourself here on Steam.

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Last year I tweeted a

long thread

about the Lightning jets used to build the Rapiers for the Wing Commander movie. I spent last night researching the BOMBER used in the film! Like the Rapiers played by English Electric Lightning interceptors, the Broadsword bomber in the Wing Commander movie was also a real aircraft. The cockpit is from a scrapped RAF English Electric Canberra B 2 bomber! Now join me for a space bomber history adventure...

Broadswords are flown by Paladin and Knight for the battle in act two. The real cockpit is visible in their close-ups but is usually cropped close since it doesn't match the CG scenes as closely as the fighters.

The plane: the Canberra was a jet-powered medium bomber originally intended to replace the famed de Havilland Mosquito. Development began in 1944, the first prototype flew in 1949 and the first production models entered service in 1951. The Canberra quickly

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It continues to be a good season for Wing Commander autographs. Despite the ongoing pandemic, there are quite a few conventions still planned for this year. Here's some highlights that will feature familiar faces:

The Texas Frightmare Weekend will provide a double opportunity in Dallas from April 29 to May 1 with both Ginger Lynn Allen and Matthew Lillard appearing. Lillard also has a solo appearance lined up at the HorrorHound Weekend in Cincinnati March 25-27 as well as a mail-in event via CPA Authentics in April. Francois Chau, who played Vagabond in WC3/4, also has a busy year with appearances at the Lexington Comic & Toy Con March 24-27, Huntsville Comic & Pop Culture Expo April 22-24 and Rangerstop & Pop Comic Con June 10-12. There is another neat mail-in option via Galaxy Con in March as well. Robert Rusler, who played Seether in WC4, will be at the Mad Monster Party Carolina February

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Lieutenant Lance Casey may have defeated a Nephilim invasion fleet, but now he's facing his biggest challenge yet: the novel coronavirus. The actor behind Wing Commander Prophecy's main character founded Steven Petrarca Events after transitioning out of acting about fifteen years ago. He's built the company up into a high end event planning business with some major customers in West Hollywood, California. Like many other industries, however, COVID-19 has severely impacted their ability to operate. Until the threat subsides, SP.E has published a line of at home tips and today advertised that they're gearing up to provide safe service when restrictions start to lift. I don't envy anyone trying to plan a wedding right now, but it's good to see that they're starting to adapt!

We're ready when the timing's right. Our service team will be following all necessary protocols to make sure you and your

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Howard Day

has made incredible progress this past week on his Unity

WC Remake

project. He's implemented AI piloting and made great strides on the interaction of weapons, damage and explosions. The animations below show off the impressive progression of the engine. Definitely don't take the static thumbnail at face value - you have to see everything in motion to appreciate to appreciate it all! To that end, there's also a nifty

web demo

which is super cool as well.

I've got a WebGL build up and running that plays itself via the new AI. It's quite fun to just watch. I've implemented laser collision, damage tracking and death/respawns! Watch 'em blow up! Most of the fighting basics are in there - Now I need to add the UI - Radar, shield and fuel displays, targeting, etc. I'm pretty happy with this.

Protip: Never afterburn your already damaged Hornet light fighter into the oncoming fire of 3 Dralthis.

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Wojo dropped off a picture of a couple new Lego Wing Commander creations, and these are pretty sweet. There's a chronically under appreciated Scimitar on the left and a very structurally accurate Drakhri on the right! Everyone loves the Dralthi, but we've seen a million of those, so it's wonderful to see the Drakhri properly represented here. I don't even think everyone will realize its silver and yellow color scheme is totally on point. In fact, they're both pretty color accurate. Not bad at all!

Imma just leave this here then...

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We see a lot of reviews of Wing Commander games, the movie and even the TV show, but there is not a lot of discussion online about the books. What little there is focuses on the novels, but there's a whole universe of content packed into the various Wing Commander strategy guides. Sticks, Stories and Scotch recently took a look at one of them, the relatively unique Ultimate Strategy Guide to WC1&2. This one differs from most of the other WC guides because it's told in narrative form. It gives the protagonist a name, Carl LaFong, and follows the adventures of the the first few games in the series. You can read their review here. It's so good that it got the author hooked before they even actually played Wing Commander for the first time!

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UnnammedCharacter

has released another big upgrade to the

WC Toolbox

. This update adds preliminary support for WC Privateer, which opens up a whole new sector of possibilities! Through a variety of screenshots and

tutorials

, UnnammedCharacter goes through how to access the core game assets, manipulate in-game text and pick apart the graphical elements. I can't wait to see what people do with this! You can grab the latest download package

here

.

Work on the toolbox has continued and this release begins support for Privateer 1.

This update adds the ability to create or edit many of the Privateer file types: IFF, PAK, PAL, PFC, SHP, TRE, VPF, VPK; it expands the number of image formats supported: BMP, GIF, PNG, and TIFF; and also provides the ability to create compressed files where appropriate. All of this new functionality is specific to the Privateer tools.

There are major changes introduced in

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The WC Toolbox is branching out to even further reaches of the Wing Commander universe. UnnamedCharacter's latest update adds the first features to help crack open console ports. WC3 is first up: on the 3DO, prospective hackers can extract .bun(dles) and .str(eam) data files. For WC3 on the Playstion, it's now possible to extract .lib(rary) and .tai (voice) files. Regular PC WC3 also gets .pak and .iff support as well. I wouldn't know the first thing to do with these exports, but the WC modding community is very excited to be able to get their hands on even more in-game assets from The Heart of the Tiger! You can grab the latest tool kit here or learn about how the new functionality work at the CIC Forums.

I was not planning on making a release just yet, but I have noticed some interest in the container formats for console versions of WC games. Since I have working code to handle some of these

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The WC Toolbox application has been expanded again and now supports digital analysis of Wing Commander Armada. UnnamedCharacter has added compatibility with a wide range of file types that make up the Armada data. He's also provided walkthroughs that illustrate how to extract things such as the game's cockpit art and complex font structure. On top of Armada, the program also works with WC1, WC2, Academy and Privateer. It's an invaluable resource for people who are interested in modding, extraction or just tinkering around in the classic games' data structure! Grab the new update at the CIC Forums here.

Work on the toolbox has continued. Took a little longer than I was hoping for, but this release begins support for Wing Commander Armada.

This update adds the ability to create or edit many of the Armada file types: IFF, PAK, PAL, SHP, TEP, and TRE. Most of the file types are common to Privateer

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Speaking of pinball, today we have a peek at fantastic start to a custom Wing Commander pinball machine. The project was built by dotmos over at the FlipperMarkt Forums. It was designed with both Privateer and WC1/2 concept art influences in mind. There are traditional wood and electronics throughout, but he also fabricated 3D printed ramps and rocks to simulate navigating an asteroid field. Unfortunately he's been silent on the machine for a couple years, so we might not get to see the finished product, but this is so cool that we had to share what exists!

Ideas haunt my head from time to time to time, but I haven't really nailed it down yet. There are a few concrete ideas on some things... but this is not really recorded anywhere.I find it an interesting idea to choose the wingmen or anchor them in the game and have never really thought about it. Thank you for the mental impetus! So far, my ideas

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Dardael

has created another YouTube video, and this one is highlights a number of similarities between Wing Commander and the classic Battlestar Galactica. This isn't necessarily to say that WC copied BSG - rather, WC plays on a lot of classic themes from Star Wars, anime, famous sci-fi novels and more. A few noteworthy ones here include the look of the initial intro logo, the fighter launch sequence and even Dralthi/Cylon Raider similarity. It's a fun comparison to see them side by side like this!

Comparative video between the famous 1978 series and the Origin Systems Space Game from 1990

In 2007, Auran Games and Sierra published a

Battlestar Galactica game

for Xbox Live Arcade, and numerous

reviews

noted how close it was to Wing Commander Arena.

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We now know why the Wing Commander series was left out of GOG's big annual winter sale... because it was being saved for the Classic Winter Sale! A whole host of games from a similar era are now on sale, especially from Origin and EA. You can complete your digital collection for less than $12 as the series is now 75% off.

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Earlier in the summer, we reported on a WC1 retrospective review that was especially comprehensive. At the time, we noted that it was well researched, covered a vast range of topics and was surprisingly entertaining for a lengthy two hour episode. My favorite thing was how earnest the author was about helping new audiences discover Wing Commander. And many people agreed! It's since gone out to rack up 115,000 views. It's been so successful that others have taken notice. In this new clip, vidIQ dissects what made it so popular, which is an interesting meta analysis. I think both creators underestimate how many Wing Commander fans are out there eager for more content! I've relinked the original vid below as well if you missed it in June.

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Artist Mike Winterbauer's has an update on his Wing Commander

Art Portfolio

project. Most of the rewards have started shipping. If you haven't received your items yet, you might want to check your Kickstarter message inbox for an update. The CIC Staff has received some of our items, and they're just gorgeous! We'll have more on the contents in the future. Here's a few more shots of the items preparing to ship:

Happy Holidays Cool Wing Commander Fans! Let us know how you like your rewards!

Thank you for bringing this awesome project to life! I am enjoying packing and shipping the beautiful rewards. Most rewards are shipped. I have some international books and metal prints left to ship and I plan on finishing shipping before Christmas.

Thank you again for your wonderful support.

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Lars Ivar Igesund tipped us off about a neat feature shown at NDC Oslo. It includes a brief segment on how Wing Commander leveraged its audio design in the "A Brief History of Computer Music" panel. It's an interesting topic overall, and Wing Commander fits right in! Jump to 29:38 below if you'd like to skip straight to the WC chapter.

Computer programmed music has come a long way since the CSIR Mark 1 played a scratchy Colonel Bogie back in the early 1950s.In this talk we'll go on a journey through the history of music made with code. We'll meet the pioneers who invented computer music, visit classic video game soundtracks, learn how computer musicians made big sounds with tiny tech, how algorithms create never-ending soundtracks and the huge impact computer music has had on popular culture. Expect lots of nostalgia, vintage code on vintage computers and a musical experience of epic proportions.

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Little discovery: the firefighting truck seen fleetingly in the Wing Commander movie is a rented Saracen tank. Now I have an excuse to own a tank.

More of the truck from AD!

AD: Don't forget to ask for the spray foam kit when you order yours! Off-camera, this vehicle is shoring up the breached bulkhead. It was shot at least twice with multi-cam setups to only show us the tires.

And its cousin, the fuel truck:

AD: I think this also settles that they used the same truck as the fuel truck in the movie, but dressed it differently with extra panels, wheel covers, and more tanks. You can spot it very briefly and a handful of flight deck scenes. You get a decent look at the back of it in an unused angle of Maniac's reckless landing, which apparently almost crashed into the fuel truck.

Concept art from the movie's set folks! You can see it's supposed to be an unmanned repair truck that sprays self-sealing goo

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ConMan1226 is creating a series of movie reviews called "From Pixels to Pictures," and now he's reached Wing Commander. He was unfamiliar with the series beforehand, so he played through the first WC game and based his comparisons on that, which gives this kind of an interesting point of view. The cast generally gets decent marks, and he says this is despite the lead actor not trying very hard. The author would have preferred more of the game's side characters to play a larger role and notes the death of Rosie as a high point of the story. Set design and spaceflight get quite a few compliments as well. He even though the Pilgrims worked, although they were probably too complicated. Based on some of his analysis of the contemporary reviews at the time, his final verdict is that it didn't get a fair shake and suffered in the wake of a general video game-based movie stigma at the time. Watch the

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80s Baby recently posted their review of the Wing Commander movie in honor of the film's 20th birthday. Back in 1999, the author was fortunate enough to stumble on a double feature of Never Been Kissed and Wing Commander bundled together. She recounts her review as a memory of the events all those years ago. The recollections meander about as much as the reviewer did when the NBK credits rolled, but it's honestly not the worst WC Movie review I've ever read. At least there's no nerd complaining about sound in space! Check out the full article here.

Ah, memories. They can be hazy and hard to trust, but some of them — some of the lucky ones — stay trapped in your brain as crystal clear as the day the experience happened right before your eyes.

In 1999, I was living it up in one of the best cinematic years of my generation. I feel like I was at the movie theater every weekend that year, with extra