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This is part of a series analyzing newly discovered Wing Commander IV continuity photographs. You can find the previous posts collected here.

We're stepping away from flight suits for today's Wing Commander IV Polaroid post. What we have here is something intriguing: a young woman in a non-standard uniform with a nametag that reads "LOATS". The picture is labeled only "Com. Specialist" and features no visible insignia patches, making this one an interesting challenge... or not, because despite two typos the start to our seach is right in the manual connected right to the text under the photo: "Circle V Comm. Specialist - Saxon Trainer". The 'Circle V' must actually be 'Circe V', an embattled planet you (optionally) visit midway through the game and a short Google search revealed that "Saxon Trainer" is really Saxon TRAINOR.

Who, then, is LOATS? If you tend to side with Panther over Hawk then you may

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VGDensetsu was posting about various Origin covers made for the Japanese FM Towns, and that led us to a bit of new info! We know a fair amount about most of the artists who did various WC works over the years, but their Japanese counterparts can be harder to pin down. VGDensetsu clarified who made the covers for the FM Towns and Super Famicon games:

Takashi Asada did the cover art for the FM Towns version of WCII. Yuji Kaida is credited for the cover of the SFC version.

And that gives us an excellent excuse for a Japanese art appreciation post! Here's WC1&2 for the FM Towns and the SFC version of WC1.

And here's some bonus advertisements from Japan where we also see some of this glorious art!

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Did you know Dekker’s assault shuttle has a name? It’s called Hermes in the game files but it’s never mentioned in on screen.

Here's an update created for WC4 Remastered:

This also happens with Prince Thrakhath’s fighter in Wing Commander II. It’s named Bloodfang but since you only ever encounter it flown by the Prince (an ace profile that supersedes the normal ship ID) you never see the name!

Another good one: the surplus Kilrathi ships in Righteous Fire display as unknowns but they are stored as SALTHI.IFF. And what do you know, that’s the Super Wing Commander Salthi model!

Huh, and two out of three of these had Ultima universe cameos too. Everyone knows the Bloodfang in the corn field but the Salthi also showed up attacking Trinsic in in an Ultima Online April Fools gag.

Ultima Forever had a Dralthi/Drakhri type ship crashed on an island but it was never accessible. They were kind enough to send us a

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Today we have a new set of scans from the Spanish OKPC magazine. Maxi de Sokar sent us the WC3 Preview about a month ago, and now we have the full review. It once again features that crazy Spanish WC3 art front and center and it also reuses the "La X Continua" theme. There's plenty of glorious screenshots throughout, and the game gets a whopping 96%. Check it out below!

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
The Proteus Wave's failure has resulted in Thargoid forces overwhelming the coalition fleet in HIP 22460.
Independent and military observers have confirmed that although Salvation's anti-xeno superweapon was activated as scheduled, it had only a temporary effect on the Thargoids. Soon afterwards, human ships in the system found themselves without power following a second unknown energy pulse and were rapidly targeted by hostile Thargoid vessels.
Vox Galactica announced that the reporter Jade Sanderlyn was able to jettison her escape pod before her drifting craft was destroyed. She delivered this summary:
"It didn't work. The Proteus Wave didn't work. I saw its energies ripple out from the planet, I felt it, we all did. The Thargoids reeled and went dark, but only briefly. Then something else occurred, a noise which shook our bodies, screeching through our skulls.

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

An overview of how Aegis was impacted by the rise of Salvation as a competing anti-xeno force.
"For now I cannot provide you with my credentials. Suffice to say that I am a man of science, unconnected with modern politics. I am recruiting agents to investigate the work undertaken by Azimuth Biochemicals two hundred years ago, which I believe to be of enormous scientific importance. Much has been lost in that time, but our dedication will allow us to rewrite history."
This was how the anonymous figure known only as Salvation introduced himself to Pilots' Federation members in April 3307. Faceless and voiceless, he remains unseen to the present day. His messages characterised him as a dedicated scientist, one with enormous confidence in achieving his goal to destroy the Thargoids and "save all of humanity".
It was clear that Salvation possessed detailed knowledge about Azimuth Biochemicals,

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The news of Russian's invasion of Ukraine has been a big distraction today, so our previously scheduled Wing Commander news is momentarily on hold. We recognize how lucky we are that it's only a distraction for us and not a life-or-death struggle as it is for people on the ground on Eastern Europe. We have friends and know Wingnuts in both countries, and we hope all remain safe. If you're looking for fellow WC fans to discuss the situation with, feel free to visit the #Wingnut Discord. With that being said, consider that it may be less stressful to focus on topics other than the war!

I am at least encouraged to see that Russian citizens have already started to speak out against the violence - even at their own personal peril. The more we realize our shared interests and how much we have in common, the sooner peace and stability can be restored. As such, here's a set of Russian videos about the WC

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The nomadic Scriveners Clan continues to resist Orion University's attempts to take possession of their dredger.
Freelance reporter Casey Kilpatrick published an update from the Oochost PC-C c29-0 system:
"Orion University's claim that the vessel is their property has been countered by Advocacy's reminder of laws preventing cultural contamination. So the question now is: who actually owns the dredger? Is it the families that have lived there for generations, or the organisation which originally built it?"
"Various solutions have been proposed to resolve this stand-off. These include an offer from Canonn Interstellar Research Group to purchase the dredger from Orion University, gift it to the Scriveners Clan then publicly share the contents of their mysterious Knowledge Core."
"However, two centuries of isolation have instilled this academia-focused society with a pathological need to protect

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Ever wonder why Righteous Fire had such an elaborate rendered intro focused on a mech you never see again? It was leftover content that was originally cut from the base Privateer game!

The scene was created as a losing endgame which would play if you landed with a negative credit balance. To save space, the design was tweaked to make that case impossible. RF’s writer wrote a new script for the existing footage explaining your Steltek gun was stolen!

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The Marlinist Colonies have offered to provide help for political refugees who sought sanctuary in Alliance space.
In 3306, the Empire's security forces began arresting followers of Marlinism, suspecting them of being linked to the NMLA. Many pro-republican Imperial citizens fled to the Federation, but some set course for the Alliance instead.
The situation has been highlighted by Prime Consul Kayode Tau of the Marlinist Consulate:
"Having made a desperate journey for survival, over a million Marlinists are now dispersed across Alliance territory. Most are clustered in small groups, lacking basic supplies and facing extreme deprivation. Some Alliance systems have offered citizenship, but others are attempting to expel them as illegal immigrants."
"The Empire wishes to repatriate these people, which means harsh interrogation for some and lifelong persecution for others. I hope to negotiate with

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On this day in 1998, we flipped the switch on WCNews.com and the Wing Commander CIC was born! It's been quite a ride full of fun, friends and fandom. Our first mission was to support the ongoing launch of Wing Commander Secret Ops, and then that transitioned over to lots of activity for the Wing Commander Movie. Although new products got more sparse in the 2000s, the community has filled the gap with all of their own incredible undertakings. The results have made the franchise better than ever. On our new platforms today (such as Discord) we're seeing record levels of activity and new Wingnuts are appearing all the time.

LOAF: Another birthday already?! That’s right, 23 years ago today ChrisReid and I started a fan site for our favorite game and it’s still running strong today thanks to an incredible team who are also my dearest friends. Hurray!

Next week we'll be officially celebrating our 23rd

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots Federation ALERT*
The Kumo Crew syndicate has procured enough materials to introduce a new product to the market.
The drug originated with the Blue Viper Club, a piratical travelling community whose dredger is currently in the vicinity of Kumo City station.
It was confirmed that enough shipments of agronomic treatment, liquid oxygen and performance enhancers were received to enable immediate mass production. Pilots also fought to protect haulage vessels from pirate ships, suspected to be Kumo Crew rivals.
The Interstellar Health Organisation has obtained a product sample and confirmed that, despite the name 'helix', it is a new variant of the recreational drug onionhead. As such, the product will be legally classified as onionhead gamma strain when it appears on the market.
Despite claims of medicinal and psychological benefits, it is likely to be illegal in most systems. President

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LOAF dug up a vintagel ad from issue #6 of The Duelist magazine. We've seen several takes on this same ad before, and it's centered on the key WC3 art, so no real surprises, but I wanted to pause and highlight the "Coming in August" part. This was long before most people were online, so print mags like this would have been how many Wing Commander fans found out that their favorite video game was getting a CCG. Can you imagine flipping to that page in 1995? So much exciting potential on the horizon! With that being said, there's still a lot of you out there on the fence about starting a CCG collection. I highly recommend it! eBay is your best bet for that first box, and then start here to trade with fellow fans. You can also learn everything there is to know about the game in our recently expanded WCPedia article! (Including this phenomenal post-launch ad.)

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LonewulfAH has shared the first couple shots of his new Minecraft TCS Victory build. It still needs some time in spacedock, but the interior shot does a great job of conveying the massive scale and amount of work already complete. It's interesting how the Victory is the crafting community's go-to ship of choice. Maybe it has something to do with how boxy and modular it is. We're anxious to see how this one turns out!

In 2014-2015 during MastersCraft Season 1 I began to build the TCS Victory from WingCommander III: Heart of the Tiger, a mega-build. Five plus years later on Limlight SMP Server I have started it once again. This time I'm going to finish it.

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There's already another neat addition to the high definition movie packs that ODVS released last week. While he was originally able to significantly upgrade the DVD quality movies for Wing Commander 4 and Prophecy, fans pointed out that there was also a small batch of clips excluded from the Prophecy DVD edition. This means that the source material we have for these few is only the lower CD quality, but Owen did his best to spruce it up anyways to make as complete a package as possible. In addition to higher resolution, the frame rate has been sync'd up with the rest of the game and brightness/contrast adjusted. If you previously downloaded the large Prophecy video packs, the extra clips can be added separately below. Everything has also been bundled into a "version 2.1" zip that has both last week's movies as well as these new clips. You can find instructions on how to patch WCP to the DVD

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

General: There is now a listed expiration date on the "Winter (Ended)" Event display of 4/2/20. After that date, players will not be able to use any partial progress to purchase the ship at a discount. Resolved an issue where some other Romulan Captains could look identical to Hakeev. Ships: Resolved an issue with the Discovery-Era Constitution in which the nacelle endcaps were very bright. Character: Added “Combed Back 2” as a hair option for Male Characters: This hair is only available to characters with a traditional “Humanoid” head type The “Combed Back” Hair option has been renamed to “Combed Back 1” Added the following additional Hair options for Female Characters: Short 04 – Version 2 Short 06 – Version 2 Short 07 – Version 2 The “Short Classic” hair style been renamed to “Short 05” Adjusted the Emanciaptor Upper so

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From now until 1/2/20 at 6PM CET, you'll be able to unlock bonus currency on the Arc platform for Perfect World titles! The bonus you can expect is listed in the chart below: This Charge Bonus is ONLY available for the following payment processors: Direct Credit Card (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover) Paypal Skrill (Formerly Moneybookers) BoaCompra Xsolla Paysafecard Steam (Steam Purchases receive the bonus but do not receive extra ZEN for buying in bulk)

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The long running Gemini Sector RPG is about to kick off a new campaign, so Rear Admiral Tarsus whipped up these spiffy propaganda posters to help drum up interest. The RPG has existed in various forms for nearly a decade, so Iceblade and team are sure to put together some fun events. You can get a little taste at the CIC Forums or head over to the project website for a full rundown. They've also recently added a Discord server for the real Wing Commander action!

Hi all, I've been making some WW2-style recruitment posters to celebrate the start of a new campaign in the Gemini Sector RPG. I just wanted to share them. Oh, and we have a great opportunity to join soon as we catching up may be easier.

• Inspired by the "Victory of the United Nations is certain" poster and Privateer art
• Inspired by Wing Commander Academy's Kilrathi, Bhurak's helm and the "He's watching you" poster

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GOG has kicked off a brand new Sci-Fi Sale to help you complete your Wing Commander collection. Each of the games is marked down 75%. There's actually almost 600 games that fall under the sci-fi definition over at GOG, so I did a check to see where Wing Commander places in the all-time best seller rankings. It looks like WC1&2, WC3, WC4 and Privateer are all in the top ten behind System Shock 2 and Masters of Orion 1&2. Prophecy, Privateer 2 and Crusader are close behind in the top 15. Armada and Academy make the top 25, with Star Trek 25th Anniversary between them. Those are excellent numbers!

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I FOUND A TRUCK! In the Wing Commander Academy finale when Maniac is flying through the Agon'Ra'Sivar he hits a Kilrathi fuel truck. You can barely see it under the explosion! It's a similar shape to the Kilrathi tanks in WC3!

I also made a quick graphic of the layout of the Agon'Ra'Sivar's flight deck as Maniac strafes it! You can see he hits a Sartha on the catapult followed by several loaded strike planes and then the truck to set off the secondary explosions that cripple the ship.

This was all in the service of another fun project: I went through the show and divided into missions like the games… and then I used that to do a kill board for the show! Here’s the episode-by-episode breakdown. I hope there’s somebody that counts HISS tanks like this.

You can read more about vehicles in Wing Commander below!

• Tanks
• Tractors
• Movie Refuel/Repair Truck
• Privateer Background Vehicles
• Privateer Refueler Truck