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AllTinker has a brand new exciting fan project to share with fellow fans. For quite a while now, he's been working on reverse engineering some of the original Wing Commander games in a new engine he's dubbed 'Confederation'. There's a lot of ambitious stuff he's got planned, and you can visit the CIC Forums to read up on all the details. One of the most eye-catching is the potential for enabling a proper widescreen mode. He's mocked up some terrific concept art of how that would look aboard the Tiger's Claw. It might only be a handful of pixels on the sides, but I really like what he's done here! Click on each of the thumbnails for an animation that compares the original to his new design:

Confederation is essentially a custom cross-platform engine which reads original data files from the Wing Commander (and Privateer) series - based on some of my own ("clean room") reverse engineering, but also

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An interview with Hadrian Augustus Duval has caused ripples in Imperial society for his direct criticism of Emperor Arissa Lavigny-Duval.
Speaking to Paresa News Network, the former Nova Imperium leader discussed the Empire's commitment to Aegis:
"I have always known that the Empire is stronger alone, especially when protecting our people from the Thargoid hordes. Supposedly, Emperor Arissa felt the same – until a visit from Princess Aisling turned her head. Suddenly her principles were cast aside, and our valuable resources pledged to more foreign military projects."
"I can only wonder when the Emperor became so easily swayed. Was it during her year in captivity? Did all that time in suspended animation drain her resolve? We cannot afford to allow the Empire to be governed by someone with a weak spirit. Our citizens deserve a strong, determined ruler."
Gudrun Vestergaard, royal correspondent

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Like most people, I can't walk down the street without someone stopping me and demanding to know: is System Shock set in the Wing Commander universe? Buddy, I tell them, no it isn't. But there's a lot of fun backstory getting there...

(System) Shocking but true: the game DID begin development as a game set in the Wing Commander universe! Here's a pitch by Warren Spector for 'Alien Commander' that might seem pretty familiar (and in other ways... pretty... alien).

That's right, System Shock could've taken place in the wreckage of the Tiger's Claw! This was a popular idea at Origin at the time. When the Baen package was first announced the third book was also scheduled to be about the end of the 'Claw! With an outline by Jerry Pournelle.

It was even the focus of the Wing Commander II team's shirt... which artist Paul Steed famously decided was so ugly that he volunteered to design the following shirts

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AtolmAzel is an artist over on DeviantArt who specializes in sci-fi art. Among their many galleries is a special section with sketches inspired by Wing Commander. Check out some of their slick pieces below! The sampling below shows off the Dralthi, K'ha'haf, Rapier, Longbow and a handful of capships. They incorporate some very distinct familiar themes with some smooth artistic license. You can find all of their sketches here!

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We’ve come down to the last day of the crowdfunding campaign to create a Deluxe vinyl pressing of the WING COMMANDER score. The tally at this point is around $6000, which is a fair bit under the stated goal, but we’re still very hopeful that everything will continue to progress and we’ll see the finished album. The current estimated completion is March 2024, and we’ll continue to follow the project closely and share any updates along the way. If you’d like to stake your claim on one of these records, you can still do so here through tonight!

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*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
An initiative in Rabh has enabled Aegis to begin manufacturing a module that gathers data about the Titans.
Deliveries of ceramic composites, polymers, gallium and indium were immediately put to use mass-producing the pulse wave xeno scanner. Distribution is underway and rescue ships have already begun stocking the module.
Professor Alba Tesreau, head of Aegis, released a statement:
"The Thargoid Titans represent not only the greatest threat to humanity, but also the greatest scientific opportunity in a generation. Learning more about these enormous constructs could be crucial to our understanding of the Thargoid species, which I still believe is the only path to ending the war."
"A coalition of Allied, Federal and Imperial technicians worked around the clock to modify Professor Palin's xeno scanner using pulse wave technology. Thanks to the dedication of independent

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It's well established that some of the earliest Wing Commander games had music that was built around specialty sound cards. People with the right Roland hardware could listen to the background tracks exactly as the composers imagined them. George Sanger recently capitalized on this by releasing a special MT-32 Archival Edition of his WC1 soundtrack, and even the SC-55 tracks for Privateer have gotten some renewed interest of late. But there is another! Wing Commander Armada was also composed using an SC-55, and it has absolutely glorious music locked behind this card as well. Nerdly Pleasures recently took the time to record it, and here it is for your audio enjoyment! I just listened to the whole thing straight through. Thanks to Anatoly Shashkin for the tip.

Wing Commander: Armada is a spinoff of the Wing Commander series with music composed by "Midian" (Marc Schaefgen, Dana Glover). Recorded

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Sprite sheets for explosions in Origin FX’s Armageddon mode (Left) versus Privateer (Right). I had not realized FX shipped nine months before Priv! You can see a few frames were cut in that time:

Armageddon is an Origin FX movie which displays a variety of explosions and damage effects on the desktop. There are six types of explosions, two of which are taken from Wing Commander Privateer. Three sound effects can play. The movie is named after the armageddon spell from the Ultima series.

"Be careful — if you stop typing for long, there could be trouble brewing. It’s a terrorist attack of the software kind . . . explosions everywhere, blowing away your application and clearing the screen with the violent beauty of detonation after detonation. Whether they leave pitch black craters, smoke or no trace at all is your own decision to make from the safety of your console."

Here are the other four explosions in

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AD found a neat beer being served at The Quakerhouse in Darlington, UK. Apparently they have an in-house microbrewery dubbed Mad Scientist, operated by Brian (The Scientist) Dourish and Rob (Egor) Brunton. Wing Commander is one of their creations. It's listed as a "spiced/herbed beer" and the little table card pictured below says it's a 4% ABV made with ginger. If anyone's nearby and able to check this out, definitely let us know how it is!

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Emperor Arissa Lavigny-Duval has responded to criticism from Hadrian Duval regarding her decision to contribute to Aegis.
During a public address at the opening of a naval research and development complex on Achenar, the Emperor stated:
"For the avoidance of doubt, my decree to halt interaction with the Alliance and the Federation remains in effect. Whatever advancements in weaponry or defence are made at these impressive facilities, they will be used exclusively by the Imperial Navy to protect Imperial citizens."
"Aegis's status as an independent agency makes it a legal exception under the Cornelius-Lasky Convention. Only a small fraction of the Empire's military expenditure is being devoted to Aegis's anti-xeno forces."
"As for Hadrian Duval, some may recall when his Nova Imperium extremists once threatened to trigger widescale civil unrest. I chose to spare him from the fate of his

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AllTinker has a variety of updates to the Confederation project that we shared last month. First up, there are more shockingly good graphical test assets to share. His extended take on the flight deck looks incredibly natural - it's surprising to check out the animated version that compares his take to the original. There's also a great interpretation of what a young Ralgha looked like. He was a pretty buff guy in his youth! This version was partially inspired by EmuMusicFan's sketches. There's also a handful of technical enhancements that have been made that you can read about in more detail at the CIC Forums. This includes some in-depth discussion about how visuals like the landing sequence below were made!

A quick update on the project: I've recently started work on splitting out the code for reading the original data formats into a separate C++ base library which will be open sourced as soon

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Did you ever wonder why Privateer's missions go from series 5 to 7 in the game's internal numerical sequencing? Series 6 was cut pretty late in the process... but now we've found an earlier version of the game's script that includes them! After finding the derelict, you take the gun to the ship dealer on New Detroit...

There a man named WILMER tells you that he can't install the gun because you need to talk to Roman Lynch again. Roman Lynch is the mob boss you last saw earlier in the game after he sent his henchman Miggs to murder you and steal your artifact.

Incidentally, this finally explains why there is a never used closeup background stored in the game for a conversation with the ship dealer!

Lynch runs this town and you can only get the gun installed if you fly a series of missions for him. The missions are especially immoral, attacking business rivals and civilians...

... and one of them is an

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AD has done a little digging and found some interesting new aspects to a wild Wing Commander 3 promotion. We've previously reported about the contest to win a flight aboard a "Russian fighter jet" that was part of the WC3 marketing campaign. It was apparently an even larger event than we knew with French adverts to fly a MiG rather than the Su-27 called out in English fine print (despite them using the same fighter jet image). They do seem to refer to separate trip rewards, however, based on slight differences in what the prize packages entail (different date ranges, mention of spending money, supplemental US trip details, etc). The images below also show how there was a red box sleeve band around certain copies of the game to advertise everything, which is pretty neat. These copies are still listed on eBay for collectors out there! English & French

And here's more detail from our previous posts!

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Today we've got a very thorough retrospective by Space Cadet Rewind. He set out to create an elaborate analysis of all the ins and outs of the original Wing Commander, and the resulting video came out to almost two hours! He covers a wide variety of topics including the history of the genre, mechanics of the game, mission rundowns, wingmen profiles, tips for each ship, info on the expansions/ports and more. I'm still going through it myself! If you've got a couple hours to wrap yourself in a thick WC1 blanket, give the clip below a watch!

A longform review/analysis of Wing Commander, the original space sim.

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The Alliance Assembly has submitted an appeal for clemency to Federal Congress for followers of the Order of the Far God.
The Thargoid-worshipping faith was outlawed by the Federation in October 3308, after a failed initiative in the Popontia system to outfit a megaship named the Dedicant. Every member of the 'True Chapters' sect on board was arrested and stripped of citizenship, with FIA agents rounding up known collaborators in subsequent days. This was in accordance with the Federal constitution which forbids supporting enemies of the state, which the Thargoids are legally classified as.
As part of the request, Prime Minister Edmund Mahon stated:
"The Alliance upholds the principles of religious tolerance, and our systems are free to develop their own laws regarding faith. This means we have always welcomed the Order of the Far God, regardless of its controversial nature. While many

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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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Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Studying the Thargoid Titans has become a priority for Azimuth Biotech, which is keen to learn more about the alien motherships.
Director Xavier Rousseau , head of the corporation's bioscience division, was interviewed by the tech industry ICE channel On/Off Switch:
"The Thargoid Titans present us with a range of exciting unknowns. What technologies were involved in their construction? We do not know. What exactly is a Titan's hull comprised of? We cannot tell. How do the glowing openings on its superstructure work? We are not certain. Do they perform the same function as our docking bays? We can only speculate."
"How can we find these answers? By analysing whatever fragments and residues can be obtained directly from the Titans themselves. What military breakthroughs will result? What scientific marvels could be unlocked? What commercial opportunities might arise? We at Azimuth Biotech will

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There have been some new developments with the Peacock service this month, and this could affect your access to stream Wing Commander Academy. As you know, Peacock added WCA to its slate of shows back in 2020. Although the series is readily available on DVD for cheap, there are a handful of improvements that make the streaming edition arguably superior, including better music/voice sound balance. A few items fixed on disc were not incorporated, however, and you can read all about these differences here. In 2021 a countdown appeared that implied the show would be moving to a higher paid tier, but this was soon dialed back. The ticker has now reappeared, which suggests it may only remain in its current form until the end of the month. Presumably, the show would remain in either the Premium or possibly Premium Plus category.

On a very much related note, there have also been some big changes in who

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Wing Commander Prophecy veterans: do you remember Lt. Anderson, the TCS Midway's comm officer? He showed up in briefings and other cutscenes as well in dozens of postage stamp videos in-flight.

So, Origin's Official Guide to Wing Commander Prophecy has a surprisingly extensive biography that claims that Anderson traces his lineage back to an RAF pilot who fought in World War II. Is there a historical figure who matches the clues?

We're looking for an RAF pilot (specifically an officer) who defended against the Blitz. Luckily, The Few are extensively memorialized online… which leads us to a clear candidate: Squadron Leader Michael Anderson!

Anderson commanded 604 Squadron during the Battle of Britain flying Bristol Beaufighter night fighters. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for shooting down a Heinkel 111 (and two probables). Here's a great painting of that encounter by Mark Postlethwaite!

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Here are the amazing takeoff and landing sprites from the original Wing Commander. Along with the cockpits these were absolutely essential in establishing the player's ship in their head (and showing-not-telling damage after a mission!).

Here are the Wing Commander II versions:

This is an interesting comparison to the WC2 landing art, the similar (but decidedly different) side views used for the eject cutscenes. They didn't do these for the new ships in the mission disks!

And here's the kind of detail that makes a Chris Roberts game special: when the cockpit slides open you can see just a little strip of the tan cockpit... which matches the side view you have in flight!

You can download a reference pack with dozens of cockpit images from WC1, WC2, WC3, Academy, Armada and Privateer here!