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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!
Dec
…Newsfeeds have published their reactions as the Thargoid Maelstroms launch fleets to overpower multiple inhabited systems.
Sol Today: "Be in no doubt: we are in a war for survival! Dark days are upon us. No more ridiculous ideas of peace with the aliens. No more time for politics or debate. The Thargoids have come to wipe us out unless we stand up and fight."
Old Worlds Gazette: "This is the most severe Thargoid attack ever recorded. Hundreds of thousands slaughtered. Millions more fleeing their homes. Stations and planetary ports bombarded, entire star systems conquered… all in a few days. Many fear that nowhere will be safe if these savage onslaughts cannot be halted."
Citizens' Chronicle: "The speed with which our navy responded to defend Imperial citizens against the Thargoids must be applauded. However, it is becoming harder to ignore the screams from less fortunate systems. Might their
Dec
…I’m concerned about what happens to all other human religions and cultures between now and 2634.
"Why not Confederation Day?" Joshua said slowly. "It'd be the logical time to really nail us. Half the crews will have the weekendoff.""Maybe, but I wonder if the Cats would be that crazy. Do that and it'd really get our blood up. It'd be an act sure to arouse our rage. That's the biggest holiday of the year outside of Christmas.'
In spite of this, let me simp hard for Action Stations: it is so much fun. It’s an in-universe Wing Commander prequel where the author literally just rewrites At Dawn We Slept but in space. You can’t read it without imagining F4F Wildcats and Zeroes and square jawed navy heroes. (Despite the cover of the ebook, it is not at all from Wing Commander V, the new release.)
Which is something that happened a couple times. Have you ever wondered what the weird paintings that showed up in
Dec
GOG has kicked off their big annual winter sale, and Wing Commander is once again on the list of discounts. It seems like the WC series spends more time on sale than not during this season, but that means it's a great time to finish your collection or get friends into the franchise. Each title is $1.49 - or less than $12 for the whole main DOS/Windows series!
Dec
…Pilots' Federation ALERT
The continued project to provide enhanced AX weaponry for all ships has announced its latest progress update.
Independent pilots have been tasked with establishing a manufacturing base at select locations in the core systems. Thanks to these focused efforts, the following weapons are now available for purchase:
Enhanced AX Multi-cannon (Turreted)
Enhanced AX Missile Rack (Turreted)
Enhanced AX Multi-cannon (Fixed)
These modules are offered at all rescue megaships, which can be found using the Galaxy Map filter. Ships looking to engage Thargoid forces are advised to equip these weapons, particularly in Maelstrom systems where Guardian-based technology has proven ineffective.
Work continues on the other enhanced weapons, based on designs by the engineers Liz Ryder and Zacariah Nemo which improve the original Aegis models. A further update will be provided next Thursday,
Dec
…*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
Sandra Corrs, CEO of the largest manufacturer of children's toys in the core systems, has requested help this holiday season.
Many parents will be familiar with Sandra's Workshop, recognising the company logo stamped across countless datapads, interactive suites and tactile play sets designed for youngsters. But the joy of this year's festive season is at risk, with the recent Thargoid invasion impacting the Workshop's distribution chain.
In an interview with Vox Galactica, Corrs explained:
"We typically use a fleet of transports provided by our partner company, Dolph's Routes, to deliver presents to good children all across the bubble. But those transports have been assigned to provide evacuation support to 63 Tauri. Entirely understandable, and I applaud the company for its brave work. But it does leave many presents without a sleigh, as my grandfather used to
Dec
…Aggressive Wing Commander pilots continue to shave minutes and seconds off their best Wing Commander times! When we first started reporting on the competitive sport of SNES speedrunning some five years ago, players were completing the game in the 41-46 minute range. Over the years, players perfected the route to Hubble's Star and Rostov. You can eject through the early part of the game, win a few key missions and then eject through Venice and still get the winning endgame. At the beginning of this year, the best runs were down to about 23 minutes, and now players are hitting times as low as 15:40, which is amazing! You can read about the specific choices that ShesChardcore made to accomplish the run below here:
This submission is for the SNES version of Wing Commander, a space/flight sim about a war between the Terrans (humans) and Kilrathi (cats.) This showcases the fastest route through the SNES
Dec
…*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
A further 13 systems have fallen under Thargoid control as the last of the Maelstroms materialise.
The three rogue signal sources – designated Thor, Raijin and Hadad – entered human-occupied space yesterday. As with the previous five anomalies, they manifested as colossal clouds of corrosive gas over 100 kilometres in diameter.
Pilots who attempt to investigate the Maelstroms have been warned that the highly caustic nature of the clouds can disable and destroy ships. Xenologists have speculated that the cloud is a defensive asset, maintained by the huge numbers of caustic generators clustered within.
All eight Maelstroms are now established at their destinations, positioned in a broad semi-circle along the fringe of the core systems. Each of these entities has become the centre of an expanding Thargoid sphere of influence. Populated systems in the surrounding
Dec
Oh man I never noticed how obvious it was that the Axius corridors were the Lexington set relit.
Dec
This 27th century press release was made for the Kilrathi Saga manual. It used the original concept sketches of the Strakha made for Wing Commander II… and they forgot to edit out the artist’s note identifying “meaningless pods”!
Also what a baller non-explanation for why the design changes so significantly between Wing Commander II and III. Up there with Worf not discussing it with outsiders.
Does the press release match the mission in the game (K’tithrak Mang B)? Yes, nine Strakha. Does it match the official guide’s in universe history? No, you shoot down seven of the Strakha and not six there.
Dec
…Deadline reports that Matthew Lillard, who starred as Maniac in the Wing Commander Movie, will soon have a role in the film conversion of Five Nights at Freddy's. Although Lillard has seen huge success in roles relating to Scooby Doo and the Good Girls TV show, he's also got quite a horror following thanks to his time in Scream and movies like Thir13en Ghosts. When he's not acting, Lillard also has a company that focuses on tabletop gaming. Last year they did a really great joke Wing Commander box set for April Fool's Day. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing how the Freddy's movie turns out!
The characters they are playing are not being specified. Production on the film is set to begin in February in New Orleans.Lillard recently starred on the NBC hit Good Girls opposite Christina Hendricks, Retta and Mae Whitman. He has appeared on great shows such as Bosch, Billions, Halt and Catch Fire,
Dec
…Thargoid vessels are interdicting human ships travelling through systems that have been occupied by their fleets.
The Thargoids' ability to force craft to drop out of hyperspace is well documented. Over the past couple of weeks, pilots have reported that the interdiction ability used by human ships in supercruise is also being utilised by the alien forces.
Colonel Bris Dekker, an engineer who specialises in frame shift drive technology, submitted his analysis to The Federal Times:
"Being intercepted by the Thargoids mid-way through an interstellar journey is certainly a disturbing experience, but not necessarily a fatal one. Many ships have survived such encounters, unless they happen to be carrying Guardian or Thargoid artefacts. By contrast, these more recent incidents are uniformly acts of aggression, with ships being wrenched out of supercruise and immediately fired upon."
"We don't know
Dec
Mac's upcoming End Run lore video is still in the cooker, but he's released this glorious wallpaper to help tide fans over in the mean time. It features one of Klavs' Rapiers screaming towards a planetary target. Top notch wallpapering!
The Wing Commander End Run video is being pushed to January. It needs to be done right, which requires more time. In the meantime I will see about uploading something smaller to appease the Youtube algorithm for this month. So here's a still shot.
Dec
One for the never noticed/can't unsee file: the destroyer that flies towards the screen in the Wing Commander Academy intro is traveling BACKWARDS!
Every other appearance has the conning tower in the back and the round... pod... in the front.
Another good backwards ship is the Vaktoth used on the Wing Commander card game packaging!
Dec
…On the Empire's homeworld Capitol, fears over imminent Thargoid invasion sparked a public gathering outside the Imperial Palace.
Cassia Carvalho, political journalist for The Imperial Herald, reported from the scene:
"The arrival of the Thargoid Maelstroms has triggered protests on many Allied, Federal and independent worlds. The Empire is rarely troubled by such disruption, so the spontaneous march by tens of thousands of citizens through Capitol's streets caught the media and security services by surprise."
"Chancellor Anders Blaine addressed the crowd, his image projected above us all. He spoke of the Imperial Navy's swift response to the Thargoid threat, making assurances that our systems were protected and we were all safe."
"But this wasn't enough to quell the increasingly strident demands that more should be done. I saw anger, frustration and fear etched into those shouting faces. The
Dec
MALF! You know, the common human expression that exists in plenty of other contexts all the time, “malf”.
The meta-malf of the MALF! cards is that their art is cropped so close that you can’t tell what ships they are. Thanks to the original art, it’s clearly an Arrow and a Darket!
Dec
Today we’ve got a set of video reviews by the Best Computergames channel. They’re going through and cataloging the top titles of the early ‘90s with extensive overviews of each game. As they’ve gotten more experience, the clips have gotten more elaborate. Privateer clocks in at 8 minutes, WC3 at 22 and WC4 is nearly a half hour long. Each piece discusses the highlights of the story, gameplay, technology and how everything comes together. Although these are in German, YouTube’s auto translate feature does work here, so everyone can turn captions on for their preferred language in order to follow along.
Dec
…There's very exciting news in the Crusader community today. Crusader was another Origin series that was played as a top down isometric shooter. There were only two main games released, but they've now found and archived a version that may have been a precursor to an unreleased sequel - or perhaps an unreleased console port! You can download a copy for yourself and stay up to date with all of the latest Crusader news at EchoSector.com.
Crusader 2 PSX Pre-Pre Alpha recovered and releasedIt’s a wonderful day for Crusader history, as I am proud to announce the recovery and preservation of a pre-pre-alpha build of Crusader 2 for the Sony Playstation. It has been uploaded online for all to enjoy.
Following the departure of Tony Zurovec from Origin Systems in late 1996, there was a bit of a scramble to keep Crusader going as both No Remorse and No Regret were financial successes for the company. You can
Dec
…Emil Pagliarulo, the lead designer of Bethesda's upcoming space RPG Starfield, has posted a thread about the inspirations that help shape the direction of the his current project. There are several classic Origin games on his list, including 2400 AD, Space Rogue and Privateer. Starfield is due out next year and looks very promising, and it's nice to see how Wing Commander games continue to influence the industry! You can see the full list with other great space sims on it here.
Time to talk about other (more) deserving folks. It's been impossible for me to work on Starfield for so long without constantly thinking about the devs and games that have served as so much personal inspiration, for so many reasons. Long, and long overdue post incoming.Origin Systems' 1988 gem 2400 AD. My God, I lost an entire summer to this game. One of the first real sci-fi computer RPGs I ever played. It informed a lot of
