News categories list

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

We've got an exciting triple pack from Klavs to share today. First up is the new Hornet that Klavs has been perfecting recently. It looks nicely battle worn without being dirty, which is a slick effect. There are also two wallpaper-style images. The first has both old and new flavors of Bearcat. It's also a good looking fighter. Finally, you've got a couple of Rapiers providing ground support for a handful of landing craft. Perhaps a Vukar Tag inspiration?

Probably a little TOO subtle with all the effects, streaks, rivets and fasteners, but here she is!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Bathrooms are treated really weird in sci-fi. Plenty of shows, movies and games just pretend they don't exist at all. Sometimes you might get a sink and mirror aboard a space ship, but almost never a toilet. AD recently noticed that Wing Commander once again broke new ground by including one aboard the Tiger's Claw. Some viewers may have been distracted from the background, since it's in the middle of the Rosie/Maniac romance scene, but there it is! There's even a toilet paper holder with a Confed logo on it, which is amazing. Wouldn't that have made for an amazing collectible/merchandising?

Since everyone loves toilets in space, here's one from the Wing Commander movie. In shot 2 you can spot a TP holder behind Holder's head. Shot 3 shows some junk in Maniac's medicine cabinet. The last is the original opening to Maniac and Rosie's bed scene...

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Christopher Lee has been learning how to use the Maya and After Effects programs for graphics animation, and here's one of his recent tests. He used the Wing Commander 3 introduction as a model to emulate. The results are pretty close! Of course, this also gives us an excuse to post the fantabulous actual WC3 intro for comparison, so enjoy that too. It never gets old.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Welcome to the Twenties! That feels so very weird to type. As we step into a whole new decade, we'll take one more look back today at all of the wonderful things that happened in the world of Wing Commander in 2019. It was another big year! First up, here's the recap of the news:

Right off the bat, it was a time of discovery as we learned new things. We finally figured out what the mystery fighter in Academy was intended to be and added a couple of the show's scripts to the archive. A tantalizing bit of phonetic script was discovered in the Secret Missions and a fun easter egg in SNES SM1. And shockingly, a new Wing Commander game was released in Japan! Wing Commander Arena finally debuted on the Xbox 360 in January after almost 12 years in limbo. In February, LOAF and Dundradal kicked off the first season of All Wings Considered, the CIC's weekly streaming variety show. The team produced

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

LeHah reports that his Roku is now advertising the Wing Commander Movie as a $2.99 Redbox rental. This is an interesting development as new deals appeared frozen after 2016 as the rights reverted from Fox to Chris Roberts. Hard copies of the film went out of print and it got relatively harder to find. Hopefully this means that the wheels of commerce are starting to thaw and we'll see Wing Commander start to pop up in more places again soon!

Roku has informed me the WC movie is now available on Redbox

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Hardcore Gaming 101

has kicked off a lengthy two-part Wing Commander retrospective. It's not too uncommon to find a classic review of Wing Commander here or there, but author AB Silvera has gone into considerable depth this time around. The piece starts with a nice introduction to the history of Origin and how the company went from being Ultima-centric to branching out to games such as Wing Commander. That's followed up with some solid backstory on how Chris Roberts found himself making the game in Austin. The article also goes into detail concerning ports and expansions, which is subject we're particular fond of. This includes five-way screenshots to show how people and places could differ from one platform to the next. It's great to see someone spend so much time to scratch beneath the surface! Check out both segments below:

• Wing Commander
• Wing Commander II

'In the distant future, mankind

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

AircPirateNinsei

's second flying

Hornet model

has taken off. This one's a lot more stable in flight and manages to cruise for about two minutes. It almost made a smooth landing, but I can imagine it's pretty hard to glide those in remotely. Plans are already in the work for a third version with structural reinforcements and familiar decals to spice things up a bit. We can't wait to see! You can follow the development at the

Flite Test Forums

.

The Hornet is our contribution to the 2019 Flite Test Forum & Flite Fest Community Fantasy Aircraft Design & Build Challenge! For more information about this model please visit our website: Airc Pirates – the sky is our ocean

The maiden flight of V0.2 was successful. The Hornet flies fantastic and I think it is perfect for a FT Power Pack B setup. Unfortunately there was a small pilot error which led to a crash.

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The first ever ship built entirely around Achilles' new Frame Shift Drive has released today, the Python Mk II. Marketing materials are pushing the tagline: "Built for Supercruise Overcharge".
Faulcon DeLacy, the widely respected manufacturer behind this new ship, released a statement this morning:
"The original Python is an incredibly versatile ship, serving countless pilots in countless roles around the universe. For the Mk II, we wanted to create something more specialised and focused, and so we are coming to market with a ship that truly excels in battle conditions... but that's not all."
"Thanks to a fruitful collaboration with our friends at Achilles Aerospace, the Python Mk II has been designed from the ground up to better handle their new Frame Shift Drive."
"It has improved heat management, better handling, reduced fuel consumption, and even better acceleration and deceleration

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

We recently spent some time dissecting and analyzing the Wing Commander preview for the Amiga. Now we've followed that up with the same treatment for the Wing Commander II rolling demo! The Wing Commander II demo was put together by Origin for Winter CES 1991 and was first shown on January 10 of that year. It was the first Wing Commander to include speech (featuring voices recorded by the developers) and remains the release with the most time between the demo and the final product (roughly eight months). It's most famous for some of the wonderful extra graphics it contains, including an alternate model for the Bloodfang, a closeup of a Kilrathi guardsman and an animated scene in which Prince Thkrahath enters the Emperor's throne room. We've collected videos, assets, history and even hehind the scenes stories from the development team!

There's even a new patch available for download for the community,

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

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

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Mac is on a roll with fabulous Wing Commander renders this month, and his latest is a spectacular Super Ferret as originally modeled by Klavs. His new scene is vertically oriented with a lot of hard angles and implied speed. There's also some great interplay between the engine flare, background nebula gases and other light sources. The new image is below, and you can see it assembled with two of his similar pieces as well!

Ferret model by Hangar B Productions. Which now completes the poster series I started way back. Now to see what they'll look like printed.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Here's a neat translation of the Privateer 2 cheats that LOAF found in a Chinese game guide. Did you know that Privateer 2 even had cheats? Here's what each of them do. To enter the codes, open the navigation screen by pressing Alt-N. Then press F and type one of the following. Press enter to initiate:

• NO TALENT (Invincibility)
• REP ME UP (Repairs armor and shields)
• NAPALM (Unlimited nukes)
• PETY PETY (Full afterburners)
• CHILL OUT (Lasers produce less heat)

Privateer 2 cheats from a Chinese game book!

You can find more codes for Wing Commander games here!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Here's a little detail you might miss in Wing Commander IV: Colonel Blair and Seether have the same three ribbons on their uniform but they wear them in reverse order!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Crazy discovery! Ever wonder what the scene on the cover of the Privateer manual is? It's not one of the regular landing pads. But look closely at the 'buildings' in the background... they're being reused from the asteroid base mesh to make it look like a cityscape!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

The GouldFish has posted a nifty review of the Wing Commander Prophecy Demo. His version comes from the March 1998 PC Format cover disc, but you can also download it here (plus movie pack). I like his setup with the Prophecy box in the background behind the vintage HP machine. Note that this is the full demo, not the 3DFX Test. As Gould notes, players who skipped over this and just played the actual game miss out on a whole three/four mission series. It's absolutely worth picking up for that extra bit of lore and gameplay! Check out the video below (jump to 14:00 if it doesn't autostart at that chapter):

Sure, you've played Prophecy... but did you ever play the demo? If not, you're missing out on a special little chunk of the game. Unlike most game previews, the Prophecy demo contains regular plot missions not available in the retail game. There are four missions that fit nicely in to the game's

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
Aegis's initiative in the Duamta system has kick-started production of a ship module designed for caustic environments.
Shipments of advanced catalysers, heatsink interlinks and palladium were delivered following a request from Professor Alba Tesreau. Pilots also provided tissue samples extracted from the caustic generators inside each Maelstrom, which are a vital component of these modules. Manufacturing bases have now been established, allowing stocks of the caustic sink launcher to reach the public market.
Dr Maximo Fonseca, head of xenological research at Gateway Laboratories, published a statement on behalf of Aegis:
"The Thargoids have developed powerful defences to prevent their enemies reaching the heart of the Maelstroms. The dangerously caustic gas clouds are an effective deterrent, and have sadly claimed the lives of many intrepid pilots."
"So, the

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Klavs has a few new updates to his impressive Sabre design. The center aft fuselage has been streamlined with sleeker curves for a sharper look. The results speak for themselves! It's really nice to have a high quality model like this where even the turret guns and exquisitely modeled.

I purposefully made the turret smaller/remote operated, but it's still there. The Sabre just seems like such a hotrod to me, it's a waste to haul around all that badonkadonk. Second pilot operating the turret remotely makes more sense, or even the primary pilot while the secondary pilot handles the torpedo lock.

Still, it's big enough back there you could imagine a gunner being back there if you really wanted to!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Gen Con, the largest tabletop gaming convention in the US, starts today. In 1995, Mag Force 7 gave out these stunning Wing Commander promo cards at the show… and special guest Mark Hamill was on hand to autograph them!

There was even some new lore on the show floor! Mag Force 7’s staff made these cool shirts for the event complete with a new Terran Confederation Marines fighter squadron designation!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Here's the nav map from the original Wing Commander. That "Sector: Vega XR-231.3" is my favorite kind of texture... you know what the Vega Sector is and you assume the designation makes sense to the character; the world is implied to have history and rules beyond what you see.

Unfortunately, the mission disks let us down by not changing it (they're set in the Deneb and Antares sectors, respectively). The name is stored in WC.EXE so it couldn't easily be changed for Thor's Hammer... while Secret Missions 2 is probably a case of just forgetting about it.

HOWEVER! We have to again praise the Mindscape team that did the SNES ports... they thought to swap it to XR-41.8 for The Secret Missions. Which is not only right, it continues the implication that there's some sector classification system we don't understand.

The folks adapting Super Wing Commander, on the other hand, solved the problem the opposite way:

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Each year we talk a lot about the CIC Discord chat room in the lead up the CIC Birthday Party, but that's not the only time the place is hopping. In fact, it's a great place to hang out year round! The service suffered an unusual outage a week or so back, and it really drove home how much we missed everyone while it was briefly unavailable. With this invite, you are able to log in via the web or the native phone/table/PC app. While we do talk about Wing Commander all day long, we don't just talk about Wing Commander. There's lots of chatter around video games and sci-fi in general. There's also space for focused topics like modding and fan fiction. Hope to see you there sometime!