News categories list

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

The Valiant has conducted a very thorough interview with the WC4 Remastered developers. In a really congenial conversation, they start out meeting several members of the team. The discussion talks about what's available to see in the recently released demo, how things are going currently and what's in store for the future. Everything goes on for more than an hour, so it really provides a lot of wonderful insight into what things are like behind the scenes. It's also just kind of awesome to hear a group of people excitedly talking in great detail about Wing Commander. Check it out below! If you haven't gotten a chance to give the updated WC4 Fan Remake for a spin yet, grab the demo here (900 meg exe).

A few days after the release of their demo in August, we had a nice little chat with the team about the project and it's future.

The project is a fan attempt to allow owners of Wing Commander IV: The

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The rise of the xeno-peace movement has caused a number of public figures to discuss coexisting peacefully with the Thargoid race.
With military options currently under discussion in the political capitals of all three superpowers, calls for diplomacy have sought to keep pace. Professor Shamus Madigan, Head of Xenology at Olympus Village University, is one of several figures to have weighed in on the matter:
"The ancient records of the Guardians, as deciphered by Ram Tah, describe how they learned enough of the Thargoids' language to make peaceful overtures. These were rejected in favour of total war. Though millions of years have passed, it seems improbable that the Thargoids will view humanity any differently - particularly since we actively deploy Guardian-based weaponry against them."
Federal Governor Dalton Chase:
"Assuming the communications barrier can be broken, I see no reason why

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Thanks to Kultpower, we've come across another variation of the popular "What you SEE is what you PLAY!" sell sheet for the original Wing Commander. The ad dates back all the way to pre-release times when the game was still known as Wing Leader. We've seen it pop up for Amiga ports as well as other European translations. This one is for the German Amiga release. It's a great ad, and it certainly got a ton of use back in the day!

This poster-style image is a famous advert that actually predates WC - the earliest versions promote the game as Wingleader with the famous words, "What you SEE is what you PLAY!" Other iterations exist, including variants in different languages. Although this minor wording tweak may not seem super exciting, from a collector's point of view, it's fascinating to see just how many versions exist!

Here's a few other versions:

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Azimuth Biotech has announced a campaign in the Wandrama system to expand its military and surface facility capacity.
The controversial weapons developer has seen a recent downturn in fortunes, due to fierce opposition by independent pilots protesting Azimuth's history of illicit research. The failure of Salvation to bring an end to the war has also soured public sentiment towards the corporation.
Azimuth Biotech CEO Torben Rademaker announced the initiative:
"After a period of reflection, it is time for Azimuth to once again step forward and assume a position of support for the brave pilots engaging Thargoid forces wherever they are encountered. To do this, we shall establish a new megaship equipped to operation in Thargoid-tainted systems. The tragic loss of the Bright Sentinel and Heart of Taurus in HIP 22460 must not hinder our ambition any further."
"We also intend to operate several

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
It has been confirmed that the mysterious anomalies known as rogue signal sources are all converging on the core systems.
Professor Yaro Kenyatta , a noted academic in astronomy-related fields, has been collaborating with Professor Ishmael Palin and Ram Tah on analysing the unexplained objects. He published a summary of their work in the scientific journal The Empirical:
"The first of these distant objects was detected on the 31st of August 3308, but several more have since been identified. It was quickly apparent that they were travelling through interstellar space at faster-than-light speed. Full spectrum system (FSS) scanners were upgraded to allow more pilots to detect their electromagnetic emissions."
"Data on these phenomena has been analysed by many respected organisations such as Canonn Interstellar Research Group, Orion University and Universal

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

We have purchased a little bit of Wing Commander history and are passing the information on to you! Artifacts from the Origin Museum are currently being auctioned on eBay which has the excellent effect of revealing some interesting Wing Commander material we did not know survived! In this case, a set of twenty seven polaroids from Wing Commander IV's Second Unit shoot which are full of fascinating behind the screens and lore information, including some better-than-ever looks at some of the game's different costumes and never-before-recorded identities of various background characters! We're studying each polaroid and collecting what we can about how it relates to the game and will be updating one at a time. Wing Commander IV's Second Unit shoot took care of things like shipboard transitions and comm videos. In the case of the latter, actors were typically filmed in front of a single small backdrop

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Last week, we decided to spend some time looking into the details of how some of Privateer's gameflow systems work. One of these was the Repair and Upgrade bay screen, which displays a unique render of your ship that can change based on your purchases. Four types of upgrades can make visible changes to your ship: sensors, engines, weapons and guns. The game stores these in a sort of 'paper doll' which pastes the appropriate graphic over the base image of an empty ship. Other upgrades, like turrets or repair droids or shield generators, do not alter the appearance of the ship. Righteous Fire does not add any new graphics to this system: the higher engine upgrades repeat their previous highest settings and the fusion cannons reuse the plasma gun art.

As we extracted all of the game's component graphics, we made a fascinating discovery: the Centurion had not the available two but four upgrade graphics for

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

EmuMusicFan is back with a crafty new artistic endeavor. A little teaser is below. It's obviously a Wing Commander comic, but there are a few hints that suggest what specifically is being depicted here. If you've got a guess about where this is headed, or would like to provide any feedback, let Emu know at the CIC Forums!

While the above sketch is a cool tidbit, Emu has also not abandoned his graphical novel project. A couple new character portraits are pictured below, including one with some very slick purple robes! I really like the unique colors here - everything the Kilrathi touch isn't just brown and red!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Today we have a beautiful new take on the Wing Commander title theme fanfare. Grazia Pizzuto is on the piano and she's accompanied by Filippo Tramontana with a French horn. I love how well they nailed the original soundtrack with just these two instruments. It's a wonderful rendition that you need to give a listen to! You can find more of her video game musical takes here.

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Dalton Chase, the former governor of Andavandul 1, has become a Federal congressman following victory in the recent special election.
Despite his relative youth and inexperience, many voters within the congressional district were influenced by Chase's charm and positive campaign message. His enthusiasm for opening diplomatic relations with the Thargoids resonated with younger voters. The Liberal Party also ran a creative PR campaign across social channels, which was amplified by many counter-cultural ICE-casters.
After formally swearing in and taking his oath of office, Congressman Chase proclaimed:
"I'm conscious that some view me as unorthodox or contrarian, perhaps even 'soft on Thargoids'. But I take the security of the Federation as seriously as any of my honourable colleagues. Achieving peace with another species, and thereby saving the lives of countless Federal citizens, would be

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

This is part of a series analyzing newly discovered Wing Commander IV continuity photographs. You can find the first post in the series' introduction here.

Our next continuity polaroid is a familiar face: it's Bob-O-Matte! Eagle-eyed Wing Commander players will recall that Bob-O-Matte is one of the three Border Worlds pilots who is ambushed and destroyed in the cutscene that opens the Peleus 'jammer' series of missions. Despite his apparent death at the hands of a Confederation Excalibur, Bob-O-Matte appears again in Wing Commander Prophecy reading a tarot deck in one of the game's most unusual transitions. Bob-O-Matte's flying scene takes place in the game's Banshee cockpit set which is a simple triangular backdrop (shots of the instrumentation are reused from the more elaborate Lance cockpit set). As you can see in the photograph, only the top portion of the flight suit was necessary since the shot

Quote from No Man

Hello everyone,

Thank you to everyone playing the Waypoint Update, especially those taking the time to report any issues they encounter via Zendesk or console crash reporting.

We are listening closely to your feedback, and have identified and resolved a number of issues. These fixes are included in patch 4.06, which will be live on all platforms soon.

Bug fixes

• Story summaries for the various NPC base specialists have been added to the Collected Knowledge page of the information portal.
• Plaque interactions will no longer loop back to the first piece of history for that planet’s race after completing every interaction.
• Abandoned building interactions will no longer loop back to the beginning of the first story after completing every interaction.
• Fixed an issue that could cause some journey milestone guidance missions to become stuck in a loop.

Players joining a friend’s game directly from the frontend but without a valid

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Computer Game Review (later Computer Game Review and 16-Bit Entertainment and then Computer Game Review and CD-ROM Entertainment) was an American gaming magazine published from 1991 to 1996, covering much of Wing Commander's heyday. A sister magazine to the better-known console-focused Electronic Gaming Monthly, CGR was on friendly terms with Origin Systems and their editorial content frequently defended their high system requirements and delayed games. The Internet Archive has recently added almost the entire run... and we've combed through it for Wing Commander content! For those curious: the missing issues are 11/91, 12/91, 2/93, 4/92, 2/93 and 4/93 if anyone has copies in their collection!

What follows are Computer Game Review's 'previews' of Wing Commander games. These articles were typically the result of a reporter visit or a press junket covering a game in development. As Origin and the games

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

The WC4 Remastered team has a new article on their journey to improve in-flight comms. The videos that come across your VDU in flight are far smaller and more compressed than the game's regular FMV, so getting these tiny clips to look good is an extra challenge. So, ODVS has incorporated several technologies to try to bring them up to modern standards. Check out the new video below to see how they look!

A future release of the project's demo will share these in action. In the mean time, if anyone is an expert at extracting Playstation videos and would like to contribute to research in this area, let them know!

Aside from the miniscule resolution of the source material, another major problem is compression. In order to fit all those thousands of frames onto the game’s CD-ROMs, they were quite heavily compressed using mid-90s techniques. The unfortunate side-effect for us is that they’re blocky

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Professor Alba Tesreau, Professor Ishmael Palin and Ram Tah have released a joint statement regarding the alien sound heard at HIP 22460.
"There has been much speculation about the mysterious noise that was recorded following the Battle of HIP 22460, which is clearly of Thargoid origin. Thanks to the help of Seo Jin-ae, formerly known as Subject D-2, we have started to comprehend some of its meaning."
"What was audible to humans was only part of a complex multi-frequency transmission, amplified by the energy surging through the Thargoid surface site which housed the Proteus Wave weapon. Its specifics remain indecipherable for the moment, but certain aspects were isolated with the aid of Ms Seo, whose unique neural implants were designed to interface with Thargoid technology."
"She believes there is a 'call and response' element, as if the signal was a reply to the Thargoid forces in HIP

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The recent Azimuth Biotech initiative to expand its operation assets has been described as a 'partial success'.
A primary goal of obtaining sufficient resources to establish a new anti-xeno megaship has been met, Azimuth CEO Torben Rademaker announced. The megaship is expected to be operational within the next few weeks.
Opponents of the weapons research corporation, seeking to disrupt the campaign, mobilised forces to engage Azimuth security vessels. While unable to prevent sufficient deliveries from reaching the Musashi, it is thought these pilots inflicted significant losses on the Azimuth fleet.
"We are delighted with the support shown to Azimuth Biotech by independent pilots, and look to the future with optimism," said Rademaker. "We will soon deploy a new AX megaship to lead our mobile operations. Setbacks inflicted by anarchic opponents of progress have delayed our plans to establish

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

This update is part of a series covering Wing Commander content from Computer Game Review magazine. You can find the introductory post here. This update covers the magazine's reviews of Wing Commander games from 1991 to 1996 which were, by and large, very positive! It's a fascinating leap back in time...

October 1991 - Wing Commander IV

August 1992 - Special Operations 2

October 1993 - Wing Commander Academy

December 1993 - Wing Commander Privateer

December 1994 - Wing Commander Armada

February 1995 - Wing Commander IV

May 1996 - Diamond Multimedia Kit (with Wing Commander II)

May 1996 - Wing Commander IV

Display More

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
A version of the FSS scanning software used to track the Thargoid anomalies has been made available to the Pilots' Federation.
Commanders should experience reduced interference when using the full spectrum system (FSS) scanner to focus on the anomalies. The team leading the development of the software, however, warned that the resultant clarity has done little to ease the concerns of Professor Palin, Ram Tah and other leading scientists.
Lori Jameson, an engineer contributing to the FSS scanner's software calibration, commented:
"We're pleased with the update and are happy to share it with Commanders, who have provided much of the data used by the institutions researching the rogue signal sources. Representatives of Canonn Interstellar Research Group, Orion University and Universal Cartographics have also helped greatly. I just wish the results generated a more

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Today we've got a really awesome physical Wing Commander model that popped up on YouTube. capi spotted the Tarsus from Privateer in an episode of Me, Myself and Die! The ship becomes the centerpiece of a game of Five Parsecs From Home. We see the host, Trevor Devall, play around the table and get really into the action. The game itself looks cool, but I can't get enough of that gorgeous ship! capi asked about its origin, and apparently a viewer of the show sent it in previously. What an awesome find!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Zounds: the sketchy Chandrilan banker on the latest Andor is played by Richard Dillane... who was Hunter in Wing Commander! I did not notice this at all, credit to AD!

Let's think through other Wing Commander movie veterans in Star Wars... Hugh Quarshie was Mr. Obutu and Naboo's Captain Panaka in The Phantom Menace! 1999 was a BIG year for Quarshieheads.

Freddie Prinze Jr. went on to voice Jedi Knight Kanan on Star Wars Rebels! Which is the reverse of how that happened before.

In the opposite direction, Mark Hamill voiced Merlin (the Rapier's bitchin' betty) in Wing Commander and... I feel like I don't have to explain who Luke Skywalker is.

Cyril Nri is Pegasus' Security Officer in Wing Commander and he's credited as a First Order Officer in The Rise of Skywalker. I think that's him at the meeting where Kylo Ren confronts the First Order leadership. (RIP Boolio)

The internet tells me that the late, great