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80s Baby recently posted their review of the Wing Commander movie in honor of the film's 20th birthday. Back in 1999, the author was fortunate enough to stumble on a double feature of Never Been Kissed and Wing Commander bundled together. She recounts her review as a memory of the events all those years ago. The recollections meander about as much as the reviewer did when the NBK credits rolled, but it's honestly not the worst WC Movie review I've ever read. At least there's no nerd complaining about sound in space! Check out the full article here.

Ah, memories. They can be hazy and hard to trust, but some of them — some of the lucky ones — stay trapped in your brain as crystal clear as the day the experience happened right before your eyes.

In 1999, I was living it up in one of the best cinematic years of my generation. I feel like I was at the movie theater every weekend that year, with extra

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

The final design for Origin veteran Denis Loubet's nifty Wing Commander bookmark has been revealed! Mr. Loubet explains how the Kilrathi is a blending of Thrakhath and the Emperor, which I think makes for a pretty provocative 'Young Emperor' look. The Confed pilot is similarly inspired by Bluehair. There were several different color combos cooked up, and the slightly sepia toned version is what was picked. If you missed the recently successful Kickstarter where this awesome goodie was offered, there's still another way to secure one for yourself. Although they're not making the bookmarks available later as a standalone (we asked!), it's still possible to pledge for the hard cover version of the book at a supplemental IndieGoGo page here.

The book is ostensibly about Richard Garriott, Origin, and Ultima, but if you're talking about Origin, you're talking about Wing Commander!

For this

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

We'd like to wish Wing Commander 4 actress

Elizabeth Barondes

a happy birthday! Today is her 55th. She

shares

the occasion with Elon Musk, Mel Brooks and Felicia Day. Ms Barondes played popular Border Worlds Lieutenant Colonel

Tamara Farnsworth

. After WC4 she went on to star in numerous TV movies and shows, although it appears she's mostly retired from acting today. The only credit on her resume in the past decade was a role in

Bad Ass 2: Bad Asses

in 2014. Thanks to E. Lee Zimmerman for the

tip

!

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Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Switching gears today, LOAF found a Tumblrer named NMA Nekro who specializes in fan art of Matthew Lillard. That means we get to see their glorious take on Todd "Maniac" Marshall. It's pretty amazing that people are still making content like this after 25 years. The Buzz Lightyear-style action figure is also a nice touch. As a point of comparison, the actual action figure features Maniac in his shipboard uniform and not a flight suit!

How you doing? Allow me to introduce myself. Lieutenant Todd Marshall!

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Intense investment into research on Titan travel has been announced by the aerospace subdivision of the famed robotics company.
Their research has been centred on the method used by the Thargoid Titans to travel at speeds well beyond that of humanity's current technological capacity.
A spokesperson for Achilles Aerospace had this to say:
"For so long now, the means of space travel have been controlled by one company in a strict monopoly. Under that monopoly, progress seems to have stagnated entirely. But Achilles is a corporation built on the iteration and refinement of technology, and we intend to bring space travel into a new age."
"We have been limited to observational data alone so far, but that is no longer the case. The remnant of Taranis is now accessible, and within it lies the missing component to our work. We urge pilots to venture to the wreckage of the destroyed Titan and try to

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

It's a good week to buy Wing Commander games thanks to GOG's Sci-Fi Sale! Each of the WC titles is marked down 75% to $1.49. Since the theme is science fiction, the discount doesn't extend to games like Strike Commander, but it does include Bioforge, Crusader, System Shock and others. The sale should last all week.

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Fresh off the boat from Australia! I love weird compilations so much.

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 Wing Commander News-Bot

LOAF has been doing some intense research of peculiar quirks and rare occurrences built into Wing Commander 4. He's discovering that there are a number of exotic things you can trigger by taking very specific actions. For example, if you fly the mission in the Speradon System to capture the carrier, you get Mace Missiles. Then, if you let Catscratch die, Pliers will offer you an upgraded Avenger. Upon acceptance, you'll get the bomber with a fifth torpedo slot, which you can equip with five Maces! What an amazing thing to be so buried in the game!

My newfound Wing Commander IV gameflow knowledge has allowed me to make a very big boom.

If you play your cards right (capture the carrier, kill Catscratch, accept the upgrade) then you can make a really, really big explosion in Speradon L4B.

The first time I tried this the blast damage hit the Intrepid's escorts and I was immediately flagged as a traitor.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

New year, new Originator! AllTinker is kicking off 2024 with another release to his impressive Wing Commander modding and hacking tool. New features include a better reader for hex editing, support for more WC3 elements like cockpits, improved decompression of Privateer 2 contents and more. You can download the updated package here!

Version 0.2.03 (2024-01-01)

• Improved the hex viewer; added hover highlighting between hex/character views, also fixed an issue with larger font sizes.
• Added support for packed WC3 shapes (e.g. for cockpits), and more IFF-embedded shapes in general.
• Added automatic decompression for IFF chunks (QFS/Deflate), which is especially relevant to Privateer 2. As usual there are many palettes still requiring hook-up logic, so colours will be wrong in many cases for several games (including P2).
• Added "Experiments" (under "Tools") which I will be adding to over time. Currently the

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Happy New Year Wingnuts! We made it through another year. Some very cool projects got off the ground in 2023, and we're super excited where they go in 2024. Our annual new year's poll is live now. Got an idea for something that might interest Wing Commander fans in the year ahead? Or just want to hang out with a bunch of retro video game nerds? Stop on by the CIC Discord server!

LOAF also pointed out that we've got quite a few exciting 30th anniversaries on deck this year!

Some pretty big 30th anniversaries this year! 1994 was one heck of a year.

• Privateer: Righteous Fire - February 24
• Super Wing Commander - March 23
• Wing Commander (Sega CD) - March 24
• Wing Commander Privateer (CD-ROM) - June 13
• Wing Commander Armada - September 22
• Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger - December 8
• Wing Commander Armada Proving Grounds - December 20

And... here are the results from the birthday poll!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Binary Legends has posted an awesome 16-minute video featuring the intro and first mission from Wing Commander 2 - in EGA graphics mode! We've posted various screenshots before and LOAF has done some wonderful comparisons between EGA and other iterations of the games over the years, but I don't think we've ever shown off a raw clip like this. If you haven't seen it in motion, it's something to behold. There's an interesting contrast between the EGA visuals and digitized speech with beautiful music behind it. The game may not look quite like the WC2 that you remember, but it gives big vintage '80s Tandy/Sierra game vibes, which is pretty awesome!

Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi (EGA - Intro and First Mission). Running in EGA 16 color mode with Roland MT-32 for the music and Sound Blaster for the digitized sounds.

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
Councillor Nakato Kaine has announced that a delivery campaign in the Tionisla system has not reached its target.
Addressing the Alliance Assembly, she said:
"The purpose of this campaign was to demonstrate the core principles of the Alliance: independence, self-sufficiency and mutual support. While we received millions of units, our target quota was not filled. I believe there are important lessons to be learned here. We must not lose faith in the Alliance's ability to remain self-sustaining in military infrastructure."
The strategic defence pact between the Alliance and Sirius Corporation is being subjected to an independent inquiry. A vocal minority of councillors in the Assembly are critical of their corporate partner's inability to deliver anti-xeno ships or activities.
Sirius Corporation CEO Li Yong Rui offered this comment to reporters:
"Sirius Corporation's

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Whether you're looking for the perfect WC gift or trying to fill out your collection, here's a rundown of various Wing Commander items on the market today. You might be surprised to see how many things are still being sold! Although most items are digital, there are some fun physical items in the mix too. New additions this year include a stunning print of the End Run cover art by artist David Mattingly (pictured right) as well as the new CIC pint glass. The pint glass and coaster set are 25% off right now for Black Friday. If you see this after that coupon has lapsed, hold off until they issue their Cyber Monday coupon!

Print Art

End Run Cover by David Mattingly $20-$100 Malcolm McDowell Autographed WC3 PSX Print $65

PC Games ($5.99 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

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Hey all, the CIC staff is trying to have a low key Thanksgiving this year. To those who celebrate, we hope you stay safe and manage to connect with those you love. And if you're tired of hearing about terrestrial pilgrims and would rather read about the space variety, why not check out Wing Commander Pilgrim Truth? Check it out online or grab it in .mobi (Kindle) or .epub (iBooks and other) formats.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

CountvonSchnaps has a new sketch: a wonderful Tallahassee class cruiser like the TCS Coventry in WC3. I really like what he's done with colors, paneling and detail across the hull. It adds some rich character! He originally drew a Southampton destroyer, which we highlighted last year. I missed the cruiser addition until Dragon1 pointed it out this week, but I'm happy to be able to share both now!

A redesign (slightly) of a cruiser featured in Wing Commander 3 and 4: the Tallahassee Class cruiser. Sporting 11 turrets (2x dual barrel heavy antimatter turrets, 1 x dual barrel tachyon gun turret and 8 laser cannons) it also has a front mounted axial gauss cannon and a torpedo/missile launcher. Similar to the Southampton it has a hangar bay located at the back which can house a full wing of fighter; typically, 4 Arrow light fighters and a shuttle.

It is fun to make ships like these, in a sketchy and

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
A pulse wave xeno scanner upgrade that can detect human life signs on Thargoid Titans is now available.
Professor Alba Tesreau, head of Aegis, announced the campaign's successful conclusion:
"The upgraded pulse wave xeno scanner will isolate human life signs aboard the Titan motherships. If Seo Jin-ae is correct that some of our missing populations are being stored by the Thargoids, this could be the most important technological breakthrough in the war. I'm deeply grateful to all those who helped make it a reality."
"Aegis is already trialling potential methods to rescue abductees, providing they can be located. I have also accepted Li Yong-Rui's invitation to discuss the recovery methods already explored by Sirius Corporation, following majority approval from our superpower delegates."
Former Federal admiral and current Aegis military strategist Aden Tanner

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Starfield isn't even fully out yet, but those who purchase one of the premium editions have been able to play for the last few days. We've already seen lots of interest from Wing Commander fans, including the first designs inspired by Wing Commander ships!

One of the very first is a vessel based on the Banshee from Wing Commander 4, built by Chris Kabigting. You might recall that he was also one of the initial modders to create WC ships in Rebel Galaxy Outlaw among other projects. While these might not be pixel-perfect recreations of the originals, keep in mind that they are not conventional 3D models. This is what fans have been able to accomplish in just a day or two using the in-game ship customizer tools, which is amazing!

Here's another that is a great first attempt at a Kamrani corvette from LordTyrranus!

If you haven't kept up with the game otherwise, here's a trailer with what it looks like!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

We're going to wind down this week with another set of Spanish Pcmania scans from Maxi de Sokar. These compromise their preview, review and advertisement for Wing Commander 4. I like how their blue formatting matches the game's Confed uniform tones, but overall it's a lot less flashy than some of the magazine layouts from earlier in the decade. We've added translations again for folks who are curious about what they say, which is generally pretty positive with a 91% final score. You can also compare these to their WC3 article here.

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
Exploration of the inner regions of the Maelstroms has revealed the existence of colossal Thargoid constructs.
Alba Tesreau, head of Aegis, published a summary on behalf of the tri-superpower initiative:
"Our pathfinder missions have verified reports by the first manned ships that used the Thargoid pulse neutraliser. We know that the core environments of all eight Maelstroms are consistent in layout and extremely dangerous."
"Once past the energy wave, the initial hazard is an asteroid field that must be navigated. We cannot theorise an obvious reason why the asteroids have been gathered here. Thargoid vessels also patrol this region. Some reports indicate a previously unencountered class of Thargoid combat vessel accompanying interceptors and scouts."
"Beyond these, at the centre of each Maelstrom, is a gargantuan Thargoid structure. They dwarf any singular