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Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

The crowdfunding campaign for the Deluxe vinyl pressing of the WING COMMANDER score is in full swing, and the project has now passed 25% of its goal with more than $3800 pledged so far. To get even more fans to join in on the excitement, if a few more people add to the total this weekend and get us over $5000, LOAF will do a live Wing Commander Movie commentary.

The Wing Commander vinyl record campaign is at 25%! To sweeten the pot in absolutely no way, I’ll do a Twitter Space watch-along of the movie if we get to $5k this weekend.

The $75 Deluxe Edition seems to be the most popular so far, but a standard LP is just $35! Learn more about the project here.

Supercade's exclusive new LP editions of the Wing Commander Orchestral Recording Project will mark the first time George Oldziey's orchestral score is available on vinyl. Working with a celebrated independent record press, we'll be sure these records

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

NakaKen has an incredible creation to share! He's been building the TCS Tiger's Claw in Space Engineers, the game that gives you the building blocks to put together your own intricate spaceships! The new video below is a fly through that shows off all of the amazing little aspects of the design. From afar, the ship almost gives off some WC Arena Battlecruiser vibes. This is super cool as is, but it gets even more amazing when you go inside. There's a fully fleshed out flight deck stocked with Hornets on elevators. They can launch through the main bay or out the side ports. Digging in a little further, there's a bar with a TrainSim, a red light briefing room and more! What fabulous attention to detail. You can download the blueprint/mod for the ship at the Steam Workshop here.

There are also multiple videos that show off the construction process necessary to get this far:

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

A summary of key events around the rise and fall of the tri-superpower organisation Aegis.
The Alliance, Empire and Federation created Aegis in 3303 to lead xenological research and coordinate defensive actions against the Thargoids. With fears that the alien species might one day overwhelm human-controlled space, Aegis's role was to spearhead the resistance against a common enemy.
There were concerns that Aegis might adopt the same unethical practices as its notorious predecessor INRA, which had been formed back in 3125 during the First Thargoid War. But the new agency was welcomed by most, providing intelligence on Thargoid activity as well as advanced weapons.
Since capital ships were vulnerable to the Thargoid shutdown field, Aegis soon had no choice but to rely heavily on independent pilots to perform ship-to-ship combat. And despite its effectiveness at coordinating defence, it was

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

The procession of physical Wing Commander models continues! Today we've got a magnificent Border Worlds Avenger torpedo bomber made in Lego by John Nelson. While the ships featured over the last few days have been amazing, the creativity and talent on display here shines through in a unique way. It's quite a constraint to be forced to build within the limits of the physical Lego bricks at your disposal, which makes color-matching to a fighter's particular paint scheme like this super impressive. He's got the silhouette there - and if anything, this version is slightly sleeker than what we saw in Wing Commander 4. The turret is also an especially nice touch! We'd love to see him build more!

Hello. I finally got around to a project I’ve wanted to tackle and that’s making Wing Commander fighters from Legos.

My first go was the Border Worlds Avenger. The colors aren’t perfect and the proportions

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

I've been staying busy with a little CIC housekeeping. Enjoy a newly-transcribed Wing Commander II development document featuring very early (December 1990) character descriptions! You can find the whole document here.

Wing Commander II Characters is a development document created during the making of Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi. It is dated December 3, 1990 and is an early description of Wing Commander II's characters and their planned story arcs. The document is part of the Warren Spector Papers at the University of Texas at Austin's Briscoe Center for American History (box 2008-091/6).

Much of the material planned in the document is significantly different from the finished game including plans for significantly more missions to take place before the arrival of the Concordia. Some of the characters were ultimately cut or referred to only in dialogue; others, like Bear and Minx,

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

The News Collections section is where we package up sets of news updates that follow a specific theme for easier consumption. Here are a few we've just added:

• Point of Origin, the internal newsletter of Origin Systems, Inc. from 1991 to 1998.
• Star*Soldier Gloss, a page-by-page breakdown of Arena's manual.
• Wing Commander Props, a closer look at various objects from the live action shoots.
• And Wing Commander on the 3DO takes a closer look at two remarkable titles.

Previous collections include our memorials for developers and artists that have passed away, an overview of our anniversary updates and the April Fools slates.

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

A recent behavioural change in the Thargoids has prompted urgent discussion among Aegis researchers and strategists.
Since the fall of the fourth Titan, Hadad, there are increasing reports that the Thargoid expansion efforts have been growing weaker. While Thargoids are continuing to expand outwards from the Titans, they are no longer reinforcing their spire sites. Further, independent squadrons dedicated to defeating the Thargoid threat like SNPX, AXI, and MUDD, have noted increasing ease in thwarting attempts to probe and invade systems.
Dr. Ivano Colombera, Imperial Science Academy's director of xenological studies and Empire liaison to Aegis, gave their view:
"I have heard the strategy reports touting words like 'weakening Thargoid presence', and I must urge caution. I hypothesise that this change signals a strategic defensive response, not an enemy on their last legs."
"I believe that

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

We noticed something very special in an unexpected eBay listing about two week ago: an account listing deleted materials from Pinewood Studios which had posted a used copy of the script to "Darkside". Darkside is the little-remembered original name of Privateer 2: The Darkening, the one it had when the live action film shoot began in 1995. Material from behind the screens of Privateer 2 is rare and special so we were anxious to win the auction and scan the script for the community. Luckily, it worked out!

We have previously preserved a nearly-complete Draft 7 script donated by Erin Roberts. This is a slightly earlier Draft 5 script and it is complete, including the introduction missing from the last version. We've noticed a number of other smaller changes (like missions being set at different bars) but have not had time for a thorough comparison yet. Watch this space!

You can download a PDF of the

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

And here’s a fascinating Wing Commander I behind-the-screens story I had never heard from Denis Loubet! We alluded to this in our big post about how radar works, but never reported on the original anecdote:

LOAF: Is there anything more thrilling than the Wing Commander I box art? Despite the claim that “what you see is what you play” it’s not a screenshot but a digital piece carefully composed by the incomparable Denis Loubet!

Loubet: I invented the radar display as a super-quick way to know which direction to turn to bring a target into view! I think it worked really well.

LOAF: Wow, I had no idea! It felt so natural to me, I could never go back to the Elite-style radar.

Loubet: I had to do some fast-talking to get it in the cockpits! I’m glad I did! The idea sprang from an idea I had for a flat 360 degree display, where the image got more and more compressed and distorted toward the screen edges

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

The widescreen Confederation images that we posted last week were a big hit, and now AllTinker is back with a whole set of expanded background plates for Secret Missions 2: Crusade! These include some great Firekkan scenes as well as some well-outfitted Kilrathi. He's got a great eye for continuing out the scene in the style of the original art.

Secret Missions 2 more or less done for now. Not everything is visible here because of animation/parallax in the real deal.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

GOG is kicking off a belated new year's sale to help you start 2024 with a complete set of digital Wing Commander games! The entire series is on sale, but the exact discount varies. Most titles are 75% off ($1.49), but Armada, Prophecy and Privateer 2 are 65% ($2.09). Hop to it!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

I got curious about one of the transports from Secret Ops; turns out "Kyoto Rose" is a kind of tea! So we ordered some from Amazon to try. And it was just fine! Make your own fun!!!

You can also listen to all of the Kyoto Rose's comm transmissions in the WCPedia Holovids section here!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Here's a scene cut from Privateer 2! It's from the main plot (between your visit to the hospital and Taffin Reclamation) and has Lev flying a mission for the police to find the Canera's registration number.

Interestingly, there's a space for this in the game's internal file structure. I wonder if they shot it! I also initially read the 'menace to navigation' line as a Babylon 5 nod... but this predated the B5 finale by several years!

The scene was boarded, too!

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

With human life-signs now confirmed beneath the hulls of the Thargoid Titans, the urgency to mount a rescue mission has intensified.
Many pilots equipped with the updated pulse wave xeno scanner detected signals that match living humans on every Titan mothership. As a result, Aegis has prioritised finding a way to recover the abducted. A potential solution has emerged, reportedly via a low-ranking engineer within Sirius Corporation.
Director Ivano Colombera, the Empire's scientific liaison to Aegis, explained:
"Li Yong-Rui has shared Sirius Corporation's projects to counter Thargoid abductions, and this has accelerated our work. Among their research was a blueprint that repurposes sub-surface displacement missiles – a commonly used mining tool – to breach Thargoid vessels and expose captured escape pods."
"These missiles were originally designed to extract mineral deposits from within

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Zachary Rackham has officially ended his election campaign, following the discovery of evidence that supported claims of his criminal past.
Federal Times journalist Bryanna Blanco published the results of an investigation by the Wallglass Investigations Agency, which included a message archive found on Zeta Trianguli Australis A 7 a. These findings strongly support a long-standing rumour that the trillionaire operated as notorious pirate lord 'Calico Zack', prior to inheriting his family's wealth.
PR consultant Anya Blackriver delivered a statement, in her role as campaign manager:
"Mr Rackham has decided that these attempts at defamation are a regrettable distraction from his election campaign. His amused tolerance of the nickname 'Calico Zack' – a nickname assigned to him by the media, I should point out – is not an admission of any true link to that despicable outlaw. Rather than allow

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

AD, who is ever the finder of things, found an awesome Thai Wing Commander article today. We don't see many WC items in this language, so this is a nice treat! This issue is described as a "technique edition," and it includes strategy guide-style overviews of things like the game's guns. Very cool!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Today we have a couple of neat animation tests by AllTinker. He's exploring the potential use of voxel creations to help update some of the old school designs into 3D models. They take some work to do, but the results are fairly decent for an initial test. This would just be one potential aspect of what Tinker's Confederation project is attempting to do. You can read up on the effort here.

I mentioned a few posts back that I was looking at voxel conversion as a potential option for adding full 3D rotation to the original 2D sprites. My early tests are pretty positive; here's an early (pretty rough) test of the WC1 Dralthi, converted (manually) to voxels from the original sprites. Each one seems like it will take a fair chunk of work, but it seems far from a prohibitive amount... Some will certainly be more difficult than others though.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Some fifty Wingnuts have now pledged towards the Deluxe vinyl pressing of the WING COMMANDER score, and that's brought the total up past $5300. There's still a few weeks left to get in on this special collectible, but if you're planning to jump in, there's no time like the present! The album takes advantage of George Oldziey's Wing Commander 3/4/Prophecy music that was rerecorded by a live orchestra several years ago. You can watch a short documentary on the making of this great WC music below. And contribute to the crowdfunding campaign to make this new album happen here!

Supercade Press is offering three new editions of the soundtrack:

• Deluxe Edition Gatefold with 180g Starfield Splatter Vinyl
• Special Edition with 180g Marbled Bi-color Vinyl (new colors may be issued)
• Standard Edition with 180g Classic Black Vinyl

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots Federation ALERT*
The Cornsar system has been attacked by Thargoid forces, causing severe damage to two starports.
Direct assaults against Chadwick Port and Ito Market stations have resulted in over ten thousand casualties. Local reports state that Thargoid vessels have also appeared elsewhere throughout the system, placing millions more lives at risk.
The anonymous figure known as Salvation recently warned that Cornsar was in imminent danger of being invaded, having been alerted by his new xeno-detection network. Aegis could not verify Salvation's claim and saw no evidence of any Thargoid presence.
The system's ruler, Marshal Noah Sharrow of the Allied Cornsar Constitution Party, transmitted this message:
"This is a call to any pilots in the vicinity of Cornsar. We urgently need ships to defend our people from the Thargoids, and to rescue civilians trapped within Chadwick Port and Ito

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

Nenid opened her eyes, only to see the worried face of Centurion D’mev staring down at her. “Status report,” she said hoarsely, having taken in a lungful of smoke during the last exchange of fire. Coughing, she got to her feet with the junior officer’s assistance and took a seat in the command chair. “Preferably before the Tholians manage to find and destroy us, if you please, Centurion. “ D’mev blanched before speaking. “Commander, we are under cloak, per your orders. A Tholian fleet is massing within the Azure Nebula; it seems we encountered their vanguard during our investigation of the temporal anomalies there.” Nenid nodded as she called up tactical data to the main viewscreen. And in a moment, a mission of science becomes a mission of war, she thought silently. “Engineering,” she said as she activated her command channel. “What’s our situation? That volley from the Tholians