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Shot97 has snapped a fun preview from a 1990 edition of Dragon Magazine. At this point in time, the game was still sporting its Wingleader title after Squadron was nixed due to potential copyright concerns. Ultimately Wing Commander was selected over all. I love how the Kilrathi are called "vicious militarists" and the Friend or Foe missile is held up as a "deadly" weapon. And thirty years later, we're still trying to make ray tracing a thing!

Also coming from Origin is Wingleader. Mankind is locked in a deadly war with the Kilrathi in the 27th century. Battling these vicious militarists are the daring pilots of the Terran Confederation. With his faithful wingman flying at his side, the fearless Wingleader battles with Kilrathi aces in heated deep-space dogfights. The game features Panaview, 3-D technology that employs highly detailed, ray-traced, bit-mapped images modeled in 256 VGA colors.

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This has been a really good year for space toilets. AD managed to screen cap some really good shots of the toilets in the Wing Commander Movie a couple months back, and now LOAF has discovered the Wing Commander Academy equivalent. Or rather, since this is Damon Karnes' holding cell from the episode The Last One Left, these are borderline space holes-in-the-ground. He recently got ahold of a concept art piece which shows a pair of basins at the foot of their cell beds. From this angle, their purpose seems fairly obvious. They're actually pictured in the episode itself, but with all the other action going on, nobody has ever called these out as far as we can tell. Now you know!

This is a Wing Commander Academy concept painting. These were done in the US as reference for animators in Japan and Korea painting the production backgrounds. It's from The Last One Left and reveals the pirate prison has

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Surveys have been released for Through the Moongate, from Wing Commander and Ultima VII to Portalarium. This means that people who pledged for the book on Kickstarter can now go in and confirm their addresses for shipping. There are two big points associated with this, however. First, the team has made it super easy to add supplemental items. Fans can add €30 for a cool piece of cloth art that includes a Kilrathi warrior and Dralthi fighter. It's also just €3 to add one of Denis Loubet's Wing Commander bookmarks! You can even put in €6 for two more. These are only available via this campaign, so I would take all you can get of this awesome collector's item!

All artworks are done. The back cover by Manda is ready and beautiful with a lot of references to the history of Origin Systems Inc. It will be printed on every edition of Part II and it will also be printed on cloth. Also Denis Loubet's

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Often forgotten is the fact that the 1999 Wing Commander film features truly incredible set design. From the minutely detailed Rapier cockpits to the cramped, submarine-like environs of the Tiger Claw, the movie's sets succeed far beyond expectations. That's courtesy of Oscar-winning production designer Peter Lamont. Lamont, fresh off his work on James Cameron's Titanic, turned a warehouse in Luxembourg into a 27th Century Confederation space carrier full of don't-blink-and-you-still-miss-them details.

One of these wonderfully crafted details is the series of propaganda posters created to decorate the Tiger Claw's pilot's mess. At least eight different posters were designed by the art team to adorn the walls of the mess, which called for them directly in the shooting script:"MESS is an apt adjective for these cramped quarters. Defaced propaganda posters, and pin-ups, male and female, line the walls."

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

PC General: Updated Memorial plaque to include Robert Walker Jr. Updated Memorial plaque to include René Auberjonois. Ships: Updated the scale and orientation of the competitive engines in sector space and normal space on the Vulcan Experimental Scout Vessel. Systems: Added three new commands, which can be run through the chat window or keybound: /Cooldowns - opens or closes the "Reward Cooldowns" window otherwise accessible from the PvE Task Force Operations window. /Bridge - takes you to your Starship's Bridge. /ShuttleBridge - takes you to your Shuttle's Bridge. The "Hold Torch" Emote is now freely unlocked for all players, and as such as been removed as a prize option from the Anniversary Emote Box. Resolved an issue that prevented the Eject Red Matter universal console from being affected by the Unconventional Systems trait. Console General: Updated

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It's Black Friday today, and if the deals out there didn't help you check off your list, maybe your friends and family need Wing Commander gifts! Here's a roundup of actively sold WC products. Most are digital, but that makes things easier in certain situations. As we reported last year, the WC Movie is harder to find these days, but we are lucky to still have the Academy television show readily available for a whopping $8 still. The Baen ebooks series is also complete, and GOG is in the midst of a holiday sale that's slashed its already low prices by 75%.

Games ($1.49 each)
Wing Commander 1&2 Wing Commander 3 Wing Commander 4 DVD Wing Commander Prophecy & Secret Ops	Wing Commander Privateer Wing Commander Privateer 2 Wing Commander Academy Wing Commander Armada

Movies & TV

Academy DVD $7.99

Novels ($6.99)
Freedom FlightBaen EbookAmazon KindleApple iBooksB&N NookKobo	End Run

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

The fantastic new CIC Head Museum is now even better! LOAF has just added the distinct look of the Super Nintendo characters to the database. These are, of course, very different than the portrayals from Super Wing Commander on the 3DO/Mac, which are also on display. Plus, you can find many other characters from Christopher Blair to Bruiser McDoozer, which are all neatly categorized according to the Wing Commander game they starred in. Check them out here.

I've added the Super Nintendo heads to the museum! A few interesting notes:

• The heads look very 'thin' because the SNES renders an 8:7 image which your TV would then stretch somewhat to 4:3.
• Hunter's cigar is removed, almost certainly a victim of Nintendo's then-very-strict content policy.
• Angel's earrings are removed, likely because of the more limited number of colors available (presumably not a strange content cut as Spirit still has her

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Here's a quick Banshee 3D printed by Knight26-77. The time lapse video may only be 30 seconds, but the real work (before, during and after printing) was certainly more time consuming. I do appreciate the slick results though!

Here is lightly modified 3d printed banshee. I mostly just stretched out the back end to make it look more like the game and cutscene model.

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The Titan known as Oya appears to have deployed a large fleet of Orthrus vessels into star systems farther from their own territory breaking expected behaviour.
Analysts noted that the locations in which Orthrus vessels have been tracked didn't appear to have any particular importance, instead suggesting that this may be a new tactic or possibly a simple panic response to the mounting pressure on its fleet.
Titan Oya has been steadily losing territory to large numbers of AX-equipped human forces. These forces, spearheaded by coalitions known as 'AXI' and 'XSF' have been reclaiming ground from the Titans successfully for some time and were pivotal in the recent successful campaigns against the now-destroyed Titans, Taranis and Leigong.
The Pilots' Federation have issued an alert to all independent pilots for each of the star systems where Orthrus vessels have been detected:
"If Oya can be

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If you wanted to buy GOG's $5.99 Wing Commander I & II pack from Origin’s catalog in 1991 the total would’ve come to $309.65. That’s over $700 adjusted for inflation!

And the whole package is still on sale through the weekend for just $1.49!

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January continues to afterburner along - as does our annual Fan Project of the Year contest voting period! If you missed it last week, there's still time to get your vote in. Check out the nominees below and cast your ballot towards the project you were most impressed by in 2023!

• First up, in alphabetical order, are the series of Ambiance videos by Scribbler. This isn't the flashiest project, and that's by design! He's taken it upon himself to craft a variety of scenes inspired by the first three Wing Commander games, set them to calming music and add the hum of daily life aboard a Terran Confederation carrier. I really appreciate when fans do something different like this!
• The Confederation project is an all new mod that hit the scene in 2023. AllTinker is working to reverse engineer aspects of the original Wing Commander and build in numerous enhancements, such as making them support modern

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Here are storyboards for an establishing shot in Wing Commander IV that would've had Colonel Blair arrive at the Nephele bar on a speeder bike.

"I bet they didn't want it to look TOO much like Star Wars!"... the final version of the bar exterior would beg to differ.

The establishing shot ended up not being necessary because they dropped a previous scene where we see Blair as a sad drunk haunted by the war. So instead they match cut from the Senate scene to a news broadcast in the bar and pan over to Hamill entering, which is a neat trick! (I'm VERY curious what the backlit poster to the right is; sadly, not much set photography has survived!)

Here are boards for the dropped scene. You would've gotten a brief 'dear John' video from the lady you chose in Wing Commander III. This was on the schedule up through when the shoot started, so it must've been dropped very late!

I always wondered if they had

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The Federal Times has hired the Wallglass Investigations Agency to prove that presidential candidate Zachary Rackham was once a pirate lord.
Financial journalist Bryanna Blanco has long claimed that the business magnate obtained his initial fortune via piracy. Wallglass, an independent firm that is much respected in the intelligence community, is seeking evidence to validate this accusation.
Harlan Turk, Rackham's running mate in the election, has lobbied for Congress to halt the investigation. He asserted: "The Federal Times is breaching the impartiality rules of journalism, and violating the security measures afforded to all presidential candidates."
Political ICE-caster Sura Oyekan also voiced her objections: "This is an outrageous attack on the reputation of a respected public figure, a great man who has contributed so much to Federal commerce and culture."
There was a more speculative

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
Wreckage from a past conflict between the Guardian and Thargoid races has been found in the Wregoe BU-Y b2-0 system.
The crashed remains of Thargoid vessels, alongside structures of Guardian origin, are located on Wregoe BU-Y b2-0 1 c. Conflict between the two species occurred millions of years ago, but physical evidence of this is extremely rare. The only comparable site, in the Trapezium Sector YU-X c1-2 system, was initially found two centuries ago by the Azimuth Biochemicals ship Proteus and rediscovered in 3307.
Wregoe BU-Y b2-0 was one of several systems under investigation following a report by Commander Renia Rakowski, who encountered a Thargoid interceptor in nearby Wregoe GA-X B3-0.
The Holloway Bioscience Institute has sent teams into the area to explore the possibility of xenoarchaeological research. Dr Jeong-Hui Shin gave a statement to The Sovereign

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
A mining campaign organised by Kokoller Limited has drawn to a close, with the organisers declaring it a success.
The Federal corporation requested deliveries of bertrandite, coltan and praseodymium to supply the Kokoller system's refinery base, ostensibly to manufacture supplies for the Federal Navy's anti-xeno war efforts.
Spokesperson Paul Dyson provided a message to participants:
"It is genuinely a pleasure to see so many pilots respond to our call for raw materials. Harvesting those asteroid belts is no easy task, but the performance has been remarkable. I can promise all those involved in the campaign that the profits raised from refining and distributing these resources will go to a very worthy cause. Those credits are in good hands."
Kokoller Limited has confirmed that all contributors to the campaign can now collect their rewards from Utley Hub in the

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Today we've got a couple of cool 3D takes by Tore Gettoni. He's taken the 2D sprites from a pair of famous WC2 ships and visualized them in rotating three dimensions as a type of pixel art. The result is a neat hybrid of modern and classic visuals styles. We'd love to see more material like this with a similar aesthetic!

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Wing Commander II - TC Fighter F-44 Rapier II

Flying high with my brother @boldyfrenk and his beat straight from the shadiest systems in the Enigma sector

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Wing Commander II - Kilrathi Empire Fighter Drakhri

Second joint with my brother @boldyfrenk and his beat recovered from a covert operation behind Kilrah's lines in the Enigma sector

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The Digital Antiquarian has completed his long-awaited analysis of Wing Commander 4. He started digging into the series way back in 2017 and covered the first couple of games in a series of articles. His WC3 review dropped in 2021 and now he's dug into WC4. It's a long article that's far more thorough than most overviews in print, although it doubles down quite a bit on the somewhat overplayed criticism than too much money went into the film shoots compared to the spaceflight engine. I would argue that there was little more to iterate gameplay-wise given the very short production time. WC4 was slated to arrive just one year following WC3 - right after Origin had spent a considerable amount of time (starting with Strike Commander and then forking into Armada) making the leap into proper 3D. Until the arrival of 3D accelerator hardware later in the '90s, there just wasn't much more they were going

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Independent presidential candidate Zachary Rackham held a gala ball for some of the Federation's wealthy and influential elite.
The Federal Times published a report from political correspondent Sofia Trevino:
"The extravagant gathering at Fort Rackham (formerly Fort Falkenrath) on Taylor Colony felt more like a party than a fundraiser, but its ambitions were clear. Campaign finance laws forbid Zachary Rackham from using his own wealth to pay for his presidential bid, and so connections are being forged to entice donations and other types of support."
"Mr Rackham's campaign manager – and the originator of his 'Just Like Me' slogan – was revealed to be celebrity PR consultant Anya Blackriver. She organised many famous attendees including media barons Elias Metaxas and Neive McFarlane, the youthful but popular ICE-caster Sura Oyekan, and flamboyant business magnate 'Sir' Randolph Plaskett of

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

The Wing Commander Movie turns twenty-four today! As crazy as that sounds, it also means we're just a year away from it being a quarter century old. The film may be getting up there in age, but there's still plenty to learn about it. Check out the list below for some of our recent analyses and stories from just the last year!

• A Visual Guide to Uniforms
• Star Wars Actor Crossover
• Counting Ships of the Fleet
• On Declaration of War
• Vintage TV Spots
• The Diligent in Space Engineers
• Odd Connections
• Flight Suit for Sale
• Supertitle Megapost
• Tweeting in Real Time
  • Day Zero
  • Day One
  • Day Two
  • Day Three
  • Epilogue

For a nice visual pop, here's an upgraded trailer that AD put together as well as a gorgeous Rapier wallpaper by Klavs:

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Bear with me here, this is one I did not expect. Here's a picture of former President Trump and his wife with his ambassador to the United Kingdom, New York Jets owner Woody Johnson and his wife Suzanne...

... the press tells me that Mrs. Johnson is close friends with former First Lady Melania Trump. She's done a lot to use her position to support Ukraine this past year which is pretty neat...

... but in 1995 her maiden name was Suzanne Ircha... and she was an actress... who played Confed Redshirt #4 in Wing Commander IV! She's one of the young pilots in awe of Colonel Blair when he arrives on the Lexington! (Along with the always noticeable Casper Van Dien.)

She also had a similarly brief cameo in an episode of Star Trek Deep Space 9.