News categories list

  • 26

    Mar

    Here's another little detail I've never noticed in the Wing Commander movie before. [[ChrisReid: "Which is saying A LOT coming from AD!"]] In the Time Slice sequence there's a 3D effect layered over the lights on the panels behind Blair and Angel. Alas, it's nearly imperceivable in the final cut due to the matting. Here's the final film version compared to a wider shot:

    timeslice_3deffect1t.jpgtimeslice_3deffect2t.jpgYou can see in the original takes from the rig that there's no effect in the shots. It was recorded on a separate pass and layered into the shot in post-production. It's an interesting effect and would have added another dynamic to the scene if we could have actually seen it.

    timeslice_3deffect3t.jpgtimeslice_3deffect4t.jpgtimeslice_3deffect5t.jpgtimeslice_3deffect6t.jpgTechnically speaking, it's not exactly the matting that's the issue though. At some point - possibly to try and mask the transition between the regular camera and the timeslice footage - they cropped into the frame for the freeze effect.Still, some of the

  • 26

    Mar

    The introduce yourself in four starships meme has been trending this past week, but here's one better. Pixel artist extraordinaire Bildpunkt created five little Kilrathi fighters in pixel iconography. Look at those cute little guys! He even got the Kiranka logo in there. I would love a top down game built around this concept.

    Introduce yourself in 5 starships #kilrathi #pixelart #wingcommander

    pixellance_kilrathit.gif

  • 28

    Mar

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    Mar

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    Mar

  • 29

    Mar

    Vox Galactica correspondent Jade Sanderlyn reports on the latest developments regarding the war against the Thargoids.
    "In the broad sense, there have been few significant changes in Thargoid tactics. The eight Maelstroms continue to send waves of Thargoid vessels deeper into the core systems. Anti-xeno forces are certainly winning victories, and in some cases retaking previously occupied systems. But we are still losing more than we save."
    "Despite being reformed only recently, Aegis has hit the ground running. Its caustic sink launcher is now available following a successful trial by Aden Tanner. This ingenious device increases the amount of time that a ship can spend inside a Maelstrom before being impaired by corrosive damage."
    "The repulsing energy wave at the clouds' centres, however, remains impenetrable. I understand that Aegis has prioritised gathering data about this defence

  • 30

    Mar

    3dfxtest4at.jpgThe 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
  • 30

    Mar

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    Mar

  • 31

    Mar

    Johann Fleischer, the recently appointed head of the mining corporation Caine-Massey, has been shot and killed on Mars.
    Fleischer was attending a Federal Commerce Authority seminar at the Olympus Village Conference Centre. He was targeted in the audience by long-range plasma fire that proved immediately fatal. Security forces were unable to locate the shooter, but the weapon and other items were recovered.
    Philippa Barlow-Lyons , the COO of Caine-Massey, told the media:
    "I am saddened and sickened by this tragedy, as is everyone in the Caine-Massey family. Johann was approved as our new CEO late last year. He was a much-respected champion of enterprise, and a close personal friend. No effort must be spared in finding his murderer."
    Executive Agent Viola Trask provided a statement from the Federal Intelligence Agency:
    "At present, the assassin's identity and whereabouts remain unknown. The

  • 01

    Apr

    Here's a rarely seen difference between the original disk release of Privateer and the CD. The 'kill breakdown' was a feature added to Righteous Fire and then ported back to the original campaign by the CD-ROM team!

    quine_4000_1t.gifquine_4000_2t.gifWhen extracting the assets from the game's files, the Quine plate has an extra button?! And the one that displays in the game is nowhere to be found. A new mystery to solve...

    quine_4000_3t.gifquine_4000_4t.gifLearn all about the Quine 4000 line of Personal Computers in our newly updated Wiki page here! And if that leaves you wanting more, check out the expansive entry on the civilian Navigation System computer (with maps of every quadrant and system!).

    privateer_navigation_system1t.gifprivateer_navigation_system2t.gifprivateer_navigation_system3t.gifprivateer_navigation_system4t.gif

  • 02

    Apr

    AI chatbots, AI generated art and AI everything else are super hot this year, and the CIC is always working hard to keep up with the latest trends. So we've put our best engineers and computer scientists (Kris) on developing our own Wing Commander generative art engine (beta). Type a Wing Commander topic in the box, hit the button, and see what you get! Keep in mind, there may be a few quirks...

     
  • 02

    Apr

    Today I'd like to share a few of EmuMusicFan's latest Kilrathi sketches. We've got several soccer themed pictures first. I can imagine that the inspiration for these began around the World Cup time, but I'll also point out that they arrived just in time for the new season of Ted Lasso. We also get a bonus Firekkan in the stands. There's a couple of buff shots of Ralgha and Jahkai as well!

    emu_sketch100t.jpgemu_sketch101t.jpgemu_sketch102t.jpgemu_sketch103t.jpgemu_sketch104t.jpg

    "In the last minute of extra time, the goalkeeper made the save!"
  • 03

    Apr

    If you've been following some of our recent news posts, you've seen that LOAF has been making some incredible strides in finishing out the Privateer-related entries of the CIC wiki. Many of the recent discoveries and explorations have been crowdsourced in Discord #Wingnut, and new contributors are always welcome. Whether you'd just like to read up on the latest, or get a sense of what yet needs to be done, check out some of the major indices such as the main Privateer page, the components navbox and the ships/vehicles navbox. Did you know the shape of the radar changes by sensor type? The Maneuvering Jet art started out as an EMP Shield? The Paradigm Destroyer is internally coded as "Frigate"? And there are nine different color shades in the MFD damage display? All of this is just the beginning - learn more at the WCPedia!

    wcpedia_screenshot1t.jpgwcpedia_screenshot2t.jpgwcpedia_screenshot3t.jpgwcpedia_screenshot4t.jpgwcpedia_screenshot5t.jpgwcpedia_screenshot6t.jpg

  • 03

    Apr

    Azimuth Biotech has rejected Seo Jin-ae's unverified claim that Salvation survived by relocating his mind using advanced Guardian technology.
    CEO Torben Rademaker issued this statement:
    "I can officially confirm that Azimuth Biotech has no knowledge of any project related to a 'Nemesis Failsafe'. Frankly, suggesting that anyone could transmit their living mind across space stretches her credibility past breaking point."
    "Seo Jin-ae's absurd outbursts have justified our fears that she suffers from paranoid delusions, and has falsified data to support her personal vendetta. And she now seems to have an exalted position among the Far God cultists. Only those deranged unfortunates would take her flights of fantasy seriously."
    An article in the scientific journal The Empirical addressed the concepts featured in Seo Jin-ae's statement:
    "The field of exoneurology, whereby the human mind is isolated

  • 04

    Apr

    We've got great news to share today. Destro's fan project to add complete voiceovers to the original Wing Commander is complete and ready to release! He's managed to carefully map the speech files from the fully voiced Mega/Sega CD edition of the game and patch them over top of the familiar PC edition. While this fully voiced version of the game has existed for three decades, relatively few people have heard it due to the semi-obscurity of this console port. That's what makes this project so special!

    The mod is specifically designed to work with the WCDX enhanced version of WC1 in Windows, and detailed instructions on how to get all that set up are available at the CIC Forums. We've mirrored the version 0.81 main file (342 meg zip) to make sure a permanent archive is available. All other necessary files are linked from this post. The reviews from fans so far have been fantastic, and what I've

  • 04

    Apr

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    Apr

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    Apr

  • 06

    Apr