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January is quickly getting away from us, so it's time to pull together the nominees for our 2023 Fan Project of the Year awards! As always, we've got some fabulous options, so let's jump to it!

• 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 widescreen displays. He isn't just smashing or upscaling though, he's also hand-drawing new

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GOG has kicked off their big Winter Sale, and it's a weird one! We used to be able to predict what would happen pretty well, but things have been far less consistent this year. Sometimes we only see a few games marked down - or none at all in the case of Black Friday most recently. This time only Privateer 2 is on sale for 75% off. I looked around a bit and see Ultima has some similarly non-uniform pricing. The earlier games are on sale, but Ultima 8 and 9 are still full price. Both Crusaders are on sale, as is Strike Commander and others. I'm happy that at least The Darkening gets its price cut though!

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BOO! From us to you!

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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!

When 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...

Learn 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!).

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We've seen a ton of Rapiers out of Klavs' hangar over the years, but this one's a little bit different. It's the CF-117 Rapier from the Wing Commander Movie! There are a handful of Wingnut versions floating around, but this is probably the most beautiful one yet. The gritty wallpaper really gives you a nice sense of how these might have looked zipping around Vega Sector outside the context of the film. You can download a 3D model version for yourself here. Klavs' other recent designs are available on Sketchfab.

So... I couldn't sleep and then THIS happened. Also, if anyone uses Substance Painter and wants to have a go at your own markings, the spp file is here.

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The Great Wing Commander Movie in Real Time Event has begun! The @WCCIC Twitter account is now tweeting the events of the film in real time as they happened across March 15, 16 and 17 in the year 2654. As we mentioned yesterday, this is much more than little snippets posted to social media. Many tweets are accompanied with a link that has script notes, video samples, storyboards and more that go along with that point in the film. A few examples are below. Follow the full event as it unfolds live here.

Day 1 - 0900 Zulu - BREAKING NEWS FROM THE VEGA SECTOR: a fleet of forty Kilrathi capital ships have launched a surprise attack on Pegasus Naval Station in the Dakota System! MORE

Kilrathi marines have boarded Pegasus and made their way to the bridge in an apparent attempt to capture the NAVCOM AI! Admiral Wilson and crew are presumed dead.

Day 1 - 2100 Zulu - TCS Concordia, flagship of the 14th Fleet

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Today we have a very sleek Heretic model built by AdamKop. As you can see from the comparison shots beneath, the design stays close to the in-game model. It's a little bit less weathered than most versions we encounter, which comes across as nice and clean. The motion blur and engine effects are also a nice bonus!

From left to right: the in-game model, the front box cover and a 1995 promo shot.

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NightBall06 is back with a final final drawing of his advanced Hellcat V concept. Unlike the majority of ships that we showcase, this one is a digital sketch (from multiple angles) as opposed to a rotatable 3D rendering. This time he's got a friend lined up to make a full fledged model, so we'll look forward to seeing that next. After that, who knows?

So - that's it... I'm done. It's funny - I only wanted to add a bottom view but ended up reworking almost the whole frame because I felt the overall height to be too high and the wing/main body proportions to be somewhat off. But now it's finished, and quite honestly I'm pretty satisfied with it. It looks sharp and fast (at least to me). What do you think?

And yes - this is finally the end of my drawing time!I already made contact with a friend who's a 3D artist from Volkswagen... He'll help me visualize this baby.

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RedBahamut has put together a pretty epic remaster of one of George Oldziey's famous tracks. This is the music that sets the stage for escorting the Behemoth in Wing Commander 3. At five and a half minutes, it's a lengthy composition too! Give it a listen below.

I make remix of old video game music because I like it and it's awesome!

Oh, and if you're wondering about the thumbnail, the answer is that "the universe keeps... expanding." Here's the full spread ad:

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General: Lifetime Subscription updates: The following unlocks have been added to the Lifetime Subscription perks for Jem’Hadar characters: Veteran uniform options. A Veteran ship material option for Jem’Hadar Starships. The Jem’Hadar Vanguard Heavy Destroyer [T6] and Fleet Jem’Hadar Vanguard Heavy Destroyer [T6]. Note that your character will have to complete the tutorial mission before these perks will become available to your character. For more details, visit the, “Jem'Hadar Veteran Rewards!” blog at: Jem'Hadar Veteran Rewards! | Star Trek Online The ability to buyout the previous Coupon Progress Token Event, which is now called Event Campaign, has been added. Players can access the buyout in the Reputation UI where the old campaign progress is located. Any previous progress while playing Operation Riposte, Crystalline Cataclysm, and The Arena of Sompek

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We're at that time of the year when most Wingnuts get busy with holiday business and fan project activity briefly slows. Nevertheless, Pedro managed to share this new screenshot of the WC4 Fan Remake going ultrawide. It looks pretty darn sharp, and all of that gorgeous screen real estate will come in extra handy during a dogfight!

Been out of action with flu, work craziness and most significantly moving, I haven't even had chance to set up the server again yet so I'm afraid I've made very little progress... but with the extra desk space I got a new monitor so I can start testing Ultra Wide resolutions and HDR.

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Starfleet Engineers, in conjunction with the finest minds in singularity technology of the Romulan Republic, have finally made a breakthrough in investigating the incursions from the Galaxy of Great Sales, which occasionally merges with our own to set off the anomaly known as the “Flash Sale.” This newfound research has allowed Starfleet to create not one, not two, but three major sales over the next week! For our third and final sale, it’s time to head back to tradition. From November 27th at 10am PT to December 2nd at Midnight PT, you can save 25% on every item in the Zen Store! That means ship slots, XP boosts, ships, costumes, and anything else your heart desires! Head there now, Captains! .share-footer a { margin: 20px 10px 10px 0; background: url(d7afaaa14e96d0d973f76157ae31ec5b1466398539.png) no-repeat 0 0; opacity: .5; display: inline-block; height: 60px;

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Taja Gavaris, the new CFO of Rackham Capital Investments, has been accused of having a criminal background as a pirate leader.

Journalist Bryanna Blanco made this declaration in The Federal Times:

"During my reporting on multi-billionaire Zachary Rackham, I have become convinced that he and many others employed by Rackham Capital Investments were once pirates, who laundered their stolen money and moved into legitimate business."

"New research has proved that Taja Gavaris was once a criminal rival of Rackham. I believe that Gavaris used her knowledge of Rackham's past to blackmail her way into his organisation, and is now challenging for ownership by eliminating his loyal supporters."

"The Federal Times has published many similar revelations about 'Calico Zack' over the years, yet no criminal investigation has been established. Perhaps this time the authorities will investigate before Gavaris's

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Special delivery: it’s a rare Wing Commander port I didn’t have in my collection! Meet the 1993 ASCII release of The Secret Missions 1 & 2 for DOS/V.

DOS/V is an operating system developed by IBM for PC compatibles with VGA cards that adds Japanese character support. There were also DOS/V versions of Wing Commander, Privateer, Armada and Wing Commander III! This is by far the rarest one at least in western collecting circles. One of the reasons for that is probably that the box looks EXTREMELY similar to the 1991 DOS/V version of the original. Check them out, reunited!:

Another fun thing about Wing Commander for DOS/V is that you can pick it out in the background of an episode of Gridman.

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We've got a couple of exciting updates on the Confederation engine makeover for Wing Commander 1. AllTinker shared his latest Raptor side art. He's also created a very cool 3D bubble of the Hornet cockpit to explore potential new features that can take advantage of this. Click into the thumbnail for a larger animated GIF video of the head movement in action!

I'm still working on the extended side views for the hangar sequence, but I've at least made a start on all five WC1 ships. The closest to being finished is the Raptor:

After pondering my wrap-around cockpits I've decided the best way to properly support ultrawide without the awkward (lack of) perspective is to bite the bullet and go 3D. This will just be another option. The wraparound 2D cockpits don't look so bad at 16:9, but really start to break down quickly beyond that. 3D cockpits also allow things like padlock view (something I've always

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Some silly developer jokes slipped into the Wing Commander III PSX credits!

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Today we've got a retro review that AD found in the August 1995 issue of the appropriately named Man!ac magazine. It's a German publication, so we've provided a rudimentary translation. It's easy to get a sense of what they have to say: lots of excitement around the video cutscenes and some commentary about the cool spaceflight. The final score is 86%. I really like the 3DO screenshots here. You see a lot of the same PC images pop up in most reviews, so the more colorful comm VDU clips really stand out!

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Aegis xenologists are focusing their efforts on the mysterious alien growths reported on multiple planets and moons in the Trianguli sector.
These have been designated 'Thargoid barnacle matrix sites', due to their resemblance to the barnacles that produce meta-alloys, but are far greater in size and complexity.
Commander Yoselin Aquino described visiting one of these sites to Vox Galactica:
"This wasn't an easy place to explore, since I had to avoid Revenant drones and the occasional Thargoid scout. Once I did get up close, I found it unsettling as all hell. Each barnacle clump was a mound-like structure over a kilometre across, with several rounded peaks. Spaced around these were weird coral trees, which squeeze out a caustic sap-like stuff and dropped bizarre-looking 'fruits."
"What really made me nervous were the spear roots in the middle of the site. They're made of some toughened

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I did this quick for a Discord discussion and thought it was pretty interesting: the difference in resolution between a Wing Commander III cutscene (320x160!) and a 4K movie. (AKA why they couldn't just reuse the game costumes, props, fx, etc for the movie...)

You can find a complete index of downloadable source videos (again, in the original 320x160 format!) here. On the opposite end of the spectrum, ODVS has used his advanced AI editing techniques to enhance and upscale the footage to HD quality here.

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I’m reading the investment column in Victory Streak and there’s two things I don’t understand. I can’t tell if they’re meaningless or if it’s because I have absolutely no familiarity with finance...

1. In the subhead “Platolum Alloys + Prussian Retailers = Practical Thinking?” what does ‘Prussian Retailers’ refer to?
2. The last line of the article: “remember oil and carpets, two industries that enjoyed temporary fortune, then plummeted.” This has the cadence of a joke or an idiom... but it’s inscrutable to me. Anyone know what it’s referencing?

In case you were wondering, Colonel Blair did invest in platolum and it went pretty well! From the Kilrathi Saga scrapbook: