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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!

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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

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It's a new year, but we're turning back the clock today with a new batch of retro reviews found by Maxi de Sokar. The first is a wonderful five page spread in PC Review for Wing Commander 3. It starts off with a couple pages of "behind the scenes" info before launching into the actual review. Then we have a quick take on Super Wing Commander for the 3DO by Micromania. Finally, there's a six page spread in OKPC about Wing Commander 4. I love how much space was dedicated to these new releases at the time!

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Emperor Arissa Lavigny-Duval has decided that all Imperial citizens recovered from Thargoid Titans will remain in quarantine indefinitely.
An official pronouncement on behalf of the Emperor was distributed by the Imperial Palace:
"Every subject of the Empire who was abducted by the Thargoids is receiving the highest possible quality of treatment and support. The Emperor has ordered that they will be given exemplary medical and psychological care, for as long as they remain in medical isolation."
"As is always the case, the security of our society is paramount. Protective sanctuary is being provided for tens of thousands of individuals, in order that billions are spared the prospect – however unlikely – of an alien influence taking root within the Empire. That is the honourable path, and the Emperor is confident her people will understand the wisdom of this decision."
The Imperial Herald's

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Today we have a very cool flythrough of a set of Space Engineers maps by Jason Musgrave. We've seen a handful of impressive designs over the year from Wing Commander 1 to Privateer to WC4, but WC3 was relatively untapped territory. Now we're getting three-in-one by way of a fantastic TCS Victory, plus a Confed cruiser and Kilrathi carrier. There are even fighters across the deck that you can get inside. Phenomenal effort on display here!

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We've got a new project intended to help out Wing Commander fans in 2024: save game archives that allow you to jump as close as possible to any given point in a game! We're kicking things off with a couple of playthroughs of Wing Commander IV which will allow you access to every single mission with every single ship and loadout option possible. We flew as "Maverick" and saved each game as soon as the previous mission ended to allow you to view any cutscene as easily as possible. Simply drop the contents of the archive in your Wing Commander IV folder; they should work on the MS-DOS, Windows 95, DVD and Macintosh versions (including the GOG and non-GOG releases). Please note that if you have your own saves you want to preserve you should back them up first; they're the files with the .WSG extension. (Warning: if you have your own saves you don't want to replace, be sure to back them up first; they're

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We now know why the Wing Commander series was left out of GOG's big annual winter sale... because it was being saved for the Classic Winter Sale! A whole host of games from a similar era are now on sale, especially from Origin and EA. You can complete your digital collection for less than $12 as the series is now 75% off.

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Li Yong-Rui, CEO of Sirius Corporation, has addressed the Alliance Assembly as part of its formal inquiry into the strategic defence pact.
The inquiry was proposed by Councillor Nakato Kaine, who highlighted the lack of military support provided by the megacorp against the Thargoids.
When invited to explain why most of Sirius Corporation's plans have not materialised, Li Yong-Rui said:
"Many new anti-xeno ship configurations were designed for the Alliance Defence Force and have been applied to thousands of ships. But we have encountered many obstacles along the way, which have severely undermined our progress."
"Usually these obstacles are bureaucratic in nature, but sometimes we simply cannot communicate effectively with the necessary individuals. I find it hard not to conclude that our progress is being deliberately impeded by forces within government departments. Sadly, not everyone shares

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IronWolf1970 recently posted this fun little anecdote from the set of Wing Commander IV. The scale of the WC4 film shoot is vast: real sets, tons of extras and lots of practical effects. However, coming hot on the heels of WC3, it often seems like the earlier game got a lot more press and analysis due to the novelty of FMV at the time. The Price of Freedom has a grand setup and much larger group of people that were involved, but the behind-the-scenes aspect wasn't always supersized to match. So that's why even though this is a brief recollection, it's still fun to get a peek into what went down!

IronWolf: My buddy and I were background on Wing Commander IV. It was the bar scene. He got to hang out next to Mark Hamill.

LOAF: Totally cool! Do you know if you're visible in the final cut?

IronWolf: I found myself... big surprise it was at the pool table... lol... I'm the tall blur in the background with

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Binary Legends saw our recent post about their WC2 EGA video and offered up some more. While EGA clips are relatively uncommon, Secret Missions and Special Operations are even more rare! I know the typical video game archetype is to aim for the highest resolution and fanciest graphics options, but from an artistic and historic perspective, it's very cool to see how they made the game work with so few colors to choose from. Just check out that amazing EGA Waterloo class cruiser (the TCS Centurion!).

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I'm short on time today, so here's a couple of Wing Commander shorts for you! They caught my eye because the videos below depict an Xperia Play (originally conceived as the Sony Ericsson "PlayStation Phone") running SNES Wing Commander and The Secret Missions. At first I wondered if there was some kind of EA Replay situation at work, but downloadable versions of that game were limited to the European-exclusive Playstation Network Store circa 2009. It's appears that these are straight emulations, which wouldn't be much different since EA Replay includes the Super Nintendo console editions anyhow. It's always fun to see Wing Commander pop up on a new kind of screen!

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The Imperial Senate has formally welcomed back Senator Zemina Torval, following an absence of several months.
Torval's reappearance put an end to rumours that she was suffering from ill health. Her youngest daughter, Senator Petra Torval, had been standing in for her mother by representing the Imperial populace of the Synteini system.
Addressing the Senate, Zemina Torval said:
"I am grateful to this august body, and to Her Majesty the Emperor, for permitting me a short respite from my duties. I have used this time to fully discharge my corporate responsibilities. As is common knowledge, ownership of Torval Mining Ltd has been transferred to my eldest daughter Constantia. She will ensure that Imperial industries continue to be supplied with vital mineral resources."
"My attention is now fully focused on my senatorial work. This is where I have best served the Empire, and will continue to do so

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.

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It’s here! It arrived as a shipping bag full of parts. Good thing I bought the original instructions a month ago!

Let’s do this thing! Do I think it will be remotely right? No. But maybe they’ll surprise me!

Wow! Every piece was there. It looks great! Nice job, Chinese bootleg LEGO factory. About two to three hours to build!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

LeHah reports that GalaxyCon has a new Wing Commander autograph opportunity with Matthew Lillard. Fans can order either an 8x12 inch photo or 11x17 poster with his signature. If you happen to have a particular piece of Wing Commander memorabilia that you'd like him to sign, you can also send that in! These items have to be confirmed by February 11 and the regular orders get a bit more time. Hit the links below for more info!

• Photo $95
• Poster $110
• Send-in $105

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Has anyone ever noticed how many versions there are of the Strike Commander art? They seem to derive from two separate renderings. The one with painted flames on the F-16 is the older of the two.

There's also this version from the GOG release which... I think they made out of stock photos for some reason? Note that Strike Commander currently happens to be on sale for $1.49 for the rest of this weekend.

Tactical Operations variants go hard, too!

I need there to be a Strike Commander version of me that I can hand this responsibility off to...

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

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

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

AD found this nifty review way back in the February 1993 issue of N-Force magazine. It's more than thirty years old, and everything from color choices to the hair style of the reviewer confirms its age. You can tell they had a lot of fun putting this spread together, which is why I'm surprised it only got an 84. They also ran a contest that gave away free copies of the game and other associated merch, which is pretty cool!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

There's a new version of Originator ready for your modding and extraction pleasure! In the latest builds, AllTinker has added enhanced support for Prophecy formats, streaming for Red Book audio and an enhanced hex viewer. There's also an aspect ratio compensator in the image viewer - an example is below. AllTinker still has lots of ideas for future improvements, so let him know what you think! Grab the latest version here.

This update adds supports for a few more Wing Commander Prophecy formats; MGI streaming audio for music, bitmap images (should cover everything including textures), and I also added a handler for some of the text content. No models yet, but soon!

It also adds support for streaming/extracting Red Book audio from plain ISO images, i.e. music from Wing Commander 1/2 and Space Rogue for FM Towns and Wing Commander for SEGA CD. I've also improved the hex viewer with some extra tools

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
The engineer Ram Tah requires urgent deliveries of Guardian relics and Unclassified relics to the Meene system.
Professor Alba Tesreau, head of Aegis, made an announcement to launch the initiative:
"Since the arrival of the Thargoid Titans, we have developed several new modules to bypass their defences. But these motherships remain a constant presence in our space, continuing to unleash never-ending swarms of Thargoid vessels."
"A recent theory presented by Ram Tah has the potential to change this situation. Although details of his research remain classified for the moment, the theory is derived from the Thargoids' inherent vulnerability to the technologies of their ancient enemy, the Guardians. Having witnessed Ram Tah's laboratory tests only yesterday, I was hugely encouraged that his work could lead to the end of this devastating war."
"Aegis is doing everything