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Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Anybody play Secret Ops when it was released episodically? Each one ended with a password based on your performance which changed the fiction on the website. All the codes were nerdy references: here TALOS IV is the planet from The Cage, ACHERON is the moon from Alien.

Episode 2 is two 2001: A Space Odyssey nods. AE-35 is the Discovery's antenna that doesn't need to be repaired and TMA-1 is the formal name for the Monolith on the moon (Tycho Magnetic Anomaly One).

Episode 3: this is the one I don't know! LAUMER is most likely SF author Keith Laumer... but I do not know CAIDEN! Anyone have an idea? [Chris: Maybe a misspelling of author Martin Caidin?]

Episode 4: LEONOV for cosmonaut Alexei Leonov (or the Soviet ship from 2010!) and KASPAROV for chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov.

Episode 5: BISSETTE and VEITCH are Stephen Bissette and Rick Veitch, horror comic creators (and frequent collaborators).

And

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Wing Commander Academy displays a little spinning ship on the selection screen. But take a look at the Crossbow bomber! Well, it's... er... it’s green.

The actual bomber sprites in Special Operations 1 are blue and white which is also how it looks if you fly it in Academy. The game uses different sprites for the spinning ship in the menu! But where did the change come from?

Turns out the mesh was originally built for Wing Commander II to be a human corvette also called the Crossbow. It was cut to save space and the Special Operations team retextured it to look smaller. Here are the specs from a work-in-progress Wing Commander II doc:

Turns out the SO1 artists didn’t back up the new textures though... so when the Academy team went to render the turnaround a year later they had the corvette instead! Here’s what the source model looks like, you can see it’s intended to be much larger than a bomber:

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

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

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

A new product being manufactured by the Kumo Crew could be a version of onionhead, the controversial recreational drug.
Dr Himari Grey, an independent healthcare analyst, published this review on Vox Galactica:
"Little is yet known about 'helix', but the persistent rumour that it is derived from onionhead has sparked keen interest from physicians, politicians and narcotics users alike."
"Onionhead's active ingredient is extracted from plant seeds found only on Panem in the Kappa Fornacis system. Its psychotropic and hallucinogenic qualities are well documented, but there is conflicting evidence regarding addictive strength and toxicology."
"This didn't stop it being banned in the Federation in 3300 by former President Jasmina Halsey, who was concerned about its popularity among youth culture. Political fireworks followed when Fleet Admiral Vincent bombed onionhead crops against her orders,

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Massimiliano Di Monda

, the co-founder and CEO of

Raylight Games

, has posted a neat

article

on the history of Wing Commander Prophecy for the Gameboy Advance. The company was founded in 2000, and the GBA port of WCP was a big deal in their initial portfolio. Thanks to their success in these early days, they are still active today and just recently announced several Nintendo Switch titles, among other products. They also continue to maintain an active

Wing Commander page

on their website and

credit it

as a major achievement in the company's history. For an extended look back at what Prophecy Advance meant to the WC community, also check out the CIC's 10 year retrospective

here

.

Wing Commander Prophecy - The story of Raylight Games

Massimiliano Di Monda
CEO at Raylight Games

Beginning in 2002 Raylight Games developed a demo on the GameBoy Advance based on the first Wing Commander, named Star Giants. The

Quote from Freelancer News-Bot

Chris Roberts announced Freelancer in 1997 once he was done with his saga Wing Commander. First scheduled for 2000, then reported to 2001, it was finally sold to Microsoft Game Studios who took control of its development because Chris Roberts was unable to finish what he started (Isn't that right, Star Citizen in development since 2012?) and released it in 2003 after having been waited for 6 years. Then Microsoft Game Studios started developing a sequel...

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

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

.

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

Starting July 18th, four new ships are being made available on the C-Store. These new vessels will be available in both Non-Fleet and Fleet variants, and additionally will be a part of the first-ever bundle with ships from four different factions! Special Introductory Pricing Discount! From July 18th at 8am PT to July 22nd at 10am PT, you can get these ships for 2400 ZEN each when purchased individually, or in a bundle with all four ships and a 50% off T6 Ship Coupon for the price of 6400 ZEN! Thereafter, they will return to their normal pricing at 3000 ZEN when purchased individually, or 8000 ZEN for the Bundle. Fleet versions of each of these starships will unlock upon completing your Fleet Starbase’s Tier 2 Shipyard. The standard Fleet Module discounts apply if you have purchased the ships from the C-Store. For the first time ever, non-Romulan characters will be able to fly the Warbird

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

AD, who is ever the finder of things, found an awesome Thai Wing Commander article today. We don't see many WC items in this language, so this is a nice treat! This issue is described as a "technique edition," and it includes strategy guide-style overviews of things like the game's guns. Very cool!

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

The Infinity Lock Box, containing prizes from nearly all previously-retired Lock Boxes, will be available again for an appearance beginning on PC on April 11th and on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 soon after. During this time, enemies defeated on both Ground and Space maps will have a small chance of dropping one of these prize-filled packages. When the Infinity Lock Box returns, we’re making some changes to make it easier than ever to acquire a Lock Box! Starting April 11th on PC, you’ll be able to get the current lock box – in this case, both the Emperor’s Lock Box and the Infinity Lock Box – for free in the Dilithium Store. We’re also adding a bundle of twenty of each box, also for free, in the C-store! Due to its popularity among players, we will not be following our usual pattern of retiring the Emperor Lock Box, when the Infinity Lock Box begins this run. Instead, both will continue

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

Nenid opened her eyes, only to see the worried face of Centurion D’mev staring down at her. “Status report,” she said hoarsely, having taken in a lungful of smoke during the last exchange of fire. Coughing, she got to her feet with the junior officer’s assistance and took a seat in the command chair. “Preferably before the Tholians manage to find and destroy us, if you please, Centurion. “ D’mev blanched before speaking. “Commander, we are under cloak, per your orders. A Tholian fleet is massing within the Azure Nebula; it seems we encountered their vanguard during our investigation of the temporal anomalies there.” Nenid nodded as she called up tactical data to the main viewscreen. And in a moment, a mission of science becomes a mission of war, she thought silently. “Engineering,” she said as she activated her command channel. “What’s our situation? That volley from the Tholians

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

Nenid opened her eyes, only to see the worried face of Centurion D’mev staring down at her. “Status report,” she said hoarsely, having taken in a lungful of smoke during the last exchange of fire. Coughing, she got to her feet with the junior officer’s assistance and took a seat in the command chair. “Preferably before the Tholians manage to find and destroy us, if you please, Centurion. “ D’mev blanched before speaking. “Commander, we are under cloak, per your orders. A Tholian fleet is massing within the Azure Nebula; it seems we encountered their vanguard during our investigation of the temporal anomalies there.” Nenid nodded as she called up tactical data to the main viewscreen. And in a moment, a mission of science becomes a mission of war, she thought silently. “Engineering,” she said as she activated her command channel. “What’s our situation? That volley from the Tholians

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

Nenid opened her eyes, only to see the worried face of Centurion D’mev staring down at her. “Status report,” she said hoarsely, having taken in a lungful of smoke during the last exchange of fire. Coughing, she got to her feet with the junior officer’s assistance and took a seat in the command chair. “Preferably before the Tholians manage to find and destroy us, if you please, Centurion. “ D’mev blanched before speaking. “Commander, we are under cloak, per your orders. A Tholian fleet is massing within the Azure Nebula; it seems we encountered their vanguard during our investigation of the temporal anomalies there.” Nenid nodded as she called up tactical data to the main viewscreen. And in a moment, a mission of science becomes a mission of war, she thought silently. “Engineering,” she said as she activated her command channel. “What’s our situation? That volley from the Tholians

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

DefianceIndustries is having more fun with spaceships, and the trusty Thunderbolt is the fighter on deck this week. He's spent a lot of time looking at different official TBolt art examples to help tackle the heavy metal textures. Wing Commander 3 earned the ship a lot of fans who are happy to see this one getting prepped. It's almost hard to believe we only really flew it in WC3, since it reappears in the CCG, WC4 and Secret Ops!

Fun Tbolt renders. Having fun playing with a Thud.

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Professor Alba Tesreau has again called for the anti-xeno initiative Aegis to be reformed by the superpowers.
"The arrival of the Maelstroms has escalated the Second Thargoid War beyond anything we have experienced before. The Thargoids are relentlessly attacking every human settlement within reach. And that reach is steadily expanding on eight fronts, spreading deeper into the core systems."
"In these dire circumstances, the decision to shut down Aegis seems to be a grave mistake. Now, more than ever, superpower-level resources are needed to establish large-scale research and defence projects. This is the surely the time for Aegis to be revived with as much funding and resources as possible."
"My symposium in October proved that there is an increasing appetite for collaboration. Many Allied and Federal military leaders have already discussed working together. Shadow President Winters recently

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

The Torturous Wing Commander Poetry Department

Editor's note: in honor of the pop culture Behemoth that is the release of Taylor Swift's Tortured Poet's Department and the fact that it is the author's birthday and he is allowed one needlessly self-indulgent Wing Commander article per year we present to you…

One of my favorite things in popular media is finding a reference to some classic aspect of literature. Growing up, I found that it was something particularly distinctive in Star Trek. From Kirk quoting John Masefield or D.H. Lawrence to Picard's love of Shakespeare, there was something that was both enticing and approachable about these little connections to our greater culture. Such moments have always served to both elevate and contextualize the media in a way I've found incredibly satisfying. It lets you connect with characters, understand storytellers and to my liking it gives you exactly my

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

It was a crowd funding project very similar to Star Citizen that was launched by Piranha Games way back on September 9, 2014. At the time, the game's director claimed that Electronic Arts had given them the Wing Commander license but that they had opted to turn the game into an original IP instead. This story didn't pass the smell test but it did seem clear that Transverse had, probably recently, been developed as a Wing Commander game: the space combat-filled trailer had little to do with the setting described by the crowd funding website and concept art and other behind the screens details revealed Wing Commander terminology throughout the material that had been created. Now, thanks to the website of art director Christopher M. Hunt we have better information about what really happened behind the scenes:

Electronic Arts contracted Piranha Games to create demo re-envision the Wing Commander franchise

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Salvation has confirmed that his anti-xeno superweapons successfully routed Thargoids from the Delphi, Maia and Merope systems.
The following message was submitted to all newsfeeds:
"The Thargoid spearhead into human space has been severely blunted. Commodore Halloran coordinated the operation with military precision, and many loyal pilots acted swiftly to provide components for my unique technology."
"At present, I am not able to deploy these weapons in other systems suffering alien infestation. Next year, we will deliver a decisive blow in the war against the Thargoids."
"I urge the peoples of the galaxy to unite behind my crusade. Aegis is finished. I am the only remaining defence for humanity. I am Salvation."
Independent pilots and anti-xeno squadrons have been asked to continue combating the remaining Thargoid vessels in the Coalsack, Pleiades and Witch Head Nebula regions. Repair

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Boy, what a year. Hopefully you all are safe and able to start settling into the holiday spirit. To help get everyone in the mood, here's a classic that we haven't pulled out of the archive in a very long time. Enjoy the Twelve Days of CIC Christmas below! I suppose it's rather dated today. We wrote this in 1998, so "episodes" refer to the then-newly released chapters of Secret Ops, and "updates" are what we would now consider a "news post." We were furiously writing them at a much more voluminous pace back then! Things like new novels and movie merchandise were also looming large on the horizon. Privateer 3 had only just been put on hold, and we were still holding out hope that it would be released in the near future. Everything made sense at the time. Johnny is, of course, Captain Johnny of Origin fame. He made us a little audio message that year too. All this makes for an interesting