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Great job, everyone! Once again, hundreds of Wingnuts have come together to pull off a successful crowdfunding campaign! The finally tally was $24,300, which is more than 50% over the $16,000 target. This means that a live orchestra will be able to record the entire Wing Commander album in Budapest and it will be supplemented by a live choir in Salt Lake City. The entire project will come to more than $40,000 when combined with a separate mega donation from Matt Hiltner, so Wingnuts will truly be in for a treat. When all is said and done, the effort will include reprintings of the prior albums on CD as well as vinyl editions of both orchestra pieces. This will be a collectible set for the ages! Even if you're only interested in hearing the final product digitally, it will surely be a treat. Composer George Oldziey has already started placing deposits to secure time with the musicians later

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We are truly brokenhearted to announce that Adam "Klavs" Burch, a true giant of the Wing Commander community, has passed away unexpectedly. He was a dear friend to many and always a positive voice, a kind person always eager to help. His creative work was unbelievable. The artwork he created and the people he inspired and supported over the years will carry his legacy forever, cold comfort though that may be. He was a great person gone far, far too soon; we are so much poorer for having lost him.

Klavs was a true inspiration; he was someone who honed his incredible talents for artwork and aerospace in the fandom and went on to turn them into an astounding career doing the sorts of things most would only dream of. And despite the fact that he went on to design real airplanes and spaceships and imagine better tomorrows for everyone he stayed dedicated to the Wing Commander community, always giving

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All of us at the CIC are in shock at the news of Klavs' passing. We all get caught up in the frenzy of our hectic lives, but moments like this really make you realize you don't know how lucky you are to have everyone in your life until it's too late. I had the honor of meeting Adam Burch in person once about ten years ago. He flew into town on behalf of the kit-built aircraft manufacturer that he worked for at the time. I couldn't believe how knowledgeable he was about all aspects of the plane, plus the marketing and business sides, and then he could even fly it! I work in aerospace myself, so I know how complicated this all was, and his expertise was astounding. He was also exceedingly generous and kept mentioning how he'd like to return some day so he could take me up on a flight. If you didn't know, he didn't just design Wing Commander ships - he was also a spacecraft artist/designer at

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Master O dropped in to share that a new version of DOSBox Staging has been released. We've previously reported that while development of the original DOSBox largely stalled out years ago, fans are still in need of a high quality emulation environment to play classic games. As modern computers continue to advance, there are many improvements and quality-of-life tweaks that can make the retro emulation experience much better. This includes support for modern video and sound setups, better controller and joystick integration, plus compatibility with the features of modern operating systems. And with all that, versions 0.81.1 has a specific fix incorporated to properly display the video from Wing Commander 3! You can try it out for yourself here.

Summary:

The main focus of this maintenance release is to fix a couple of regressions introduced in 0.81.0, most of them related to game compatibility, and

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After any dismal event, it's hard to shake off, pick yourself up again and continue. It doesn't feel right to just go on about your lives. The silver lining has been that it's nice to hear your thoughts about Klavs though, so please keep that coming. We're also always on Discord for anyone that would like to talk. Without trying to lean too hard into an obvious cliche, I also know that you all would want us to continue reporting Wing Commander news even if you weren't here to read it, so that's what we'll do.

I thought a simple and engaging news post today would be this terrific graphic that LOAF recently extracted. It's the targeting VDU images for Wing Commander. But there's a few mixed in that you may not have seen before!

The Wing Commander III target images! Do you know which three don't appear in the final game?

If you think you know which three don't appear in-game, hit the Comments link to

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Today we have an exciting release by Mash. He has managed to upgrade the Kilrathi Saga edition of Wing Commander 3 to accommodate modern high resolution displays as well as incorporate ODVS' enhanced video files. This has long been high on the list of fan requests, so it's pretty incredible to finally see. It's not just something he's working on - there's a playable release ready for you right now! Give it a try and let him know what you think!

Hi, I've been working on a patch for the Windows version of WC3 which came in the Kilrathi Saga compilation. It's finally reached a point where it seems playable so I thought it might be a good time to share it here.

My initial goal was to increase the resolution of the game so as to see more detail in space scenes. This has turned out quite well I think, with a few minor issues to work out.I then turned attention to adding support for the HD movies created

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Yesterday we reported on Mash's spectacular patch to increase Wing Commander 3's resolution and integrate enhanced videos. As we also mentioned, this was something that Destro was working to incorporate into Wing Loader. With the success of Mash's program, Destro has officially stopped trying to integrate that into his mod. He's instead released a new version of Wing Loader that seamlessly supports both apps side-by-side. It's also packed with fixes and improvements for Wing Commanders 1&2! Grab version 0.92 here!

Wing Commander III HD Video playback via Wing Loader has been cancelled. I was planning to release this a couple of weeks from now but I ultimately cancelled the project... Why? Someone did it for me!!! And in my testing, theirs works better. :p

Mash has created an Enhancement Pack for Wing Commander III that includes adding in the HD Videos and this is what I'm going to recommend using

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AD spotted a phenomenal pair of art pieces by AEdwardBaker. He's just created a beautiful take on the TCS Victory. This test render is only available in 1080p, but there's already so much great detail in everything down to the laser turrets and weathering on the hull paint. It's really slick! You can give him feedback or check out his many other gorgeous space scenes here.

"She's a fine carrier with a long history of service to the Confederation."

"Yes sir. A very long history."

A test render of my model of TCS Victory from Wing Commander III.

Done in Blender

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We reported earlier this week on the untimely passing of Wing Commander superfan Adam "Klavs" Burch. It can be hard to find the words to appropriately express people's thoughts at a time like this, so some fellow fans have turned to more visual attempts. Both tributes below features Klavs' famous Rapier models in a classic 'missing man formation'.

The first is a beautiful scene by Mac:

In remembrance of Adam "Klavs" Burch.

Thank You Adam, for everything.

Kevin Caccamo also featured this honor to Klavs in today's Spacey Saturday stream.

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We've got a new poll today, and the topic is the Wing Commander Collectible Trading Card Game. Our specific focus is on the Weapon Systems aspect of the game. Some people might have a black and white interpretation of ship specs based on what they're used to playing, but there's plenty of variability that happens in the universe. This can range from mention of an Epee with a torpedo in WC2, Rachel/Pliers offering to upgrade your loadout or straight arcade-style pickups that appear in several games such as Arena, Armada Proving Grounds and the WC4 demo.

The CCG allows players to enact their version of this by modifying the stats of particular flights with the upgrades below. To limit the poll options, we didn't include Kilrathi variants of most things except for the Skipper. It's functionally the same as the Tachyon Cannon in-game, but since the in-universe device is so different, that's on the list

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Today we've got the sequel to the Matthew Lillard art recently made by NMA Nekro. They've collaborated with dogseatdogstoo to start with one of the earlier pieces, colorize it and add some atsy WC (Secret Missions 2 to be exact) elements. What do you think? It's wild how many huge Lillard fans are out there!

Guys do you remember the movie Wing Commander 1999? Well @nma_nekro and I sure do.

Lovely little art trade I had the privilege of working on @nma_nekro did the line art, of course, and I scribbled in the rest! Thank you again!

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Today we've got an unusual stealth GOG deal that slipped in under the radar. Most Wing Commander discounts are tied to a theme or event, such as a "Sci-Fi Sale" or "Spring Sale," but we can't seem to find a corresponding association this time. We also have a much more limited selection of WC games that are included: Wing Commander 1&2, WC3 and Privateer are each marked down 75% to $1.49 for the next week. We'll happily take anything we can get though!

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Frequent readers of the Tri-System CCN booth news will find about ten stories written about Zakariah_Skintight and his hit band, The Buttock Men. But who is Zak Skintight and why is he featured so prominently? LOAF recently caught up with Privateer 2 developer Paul Hughes and finally got the answer!

I think that was Paul “Stitch” Chapman - the chap that did all the UI and box covers/ manual. He used to play bass in a band in his uni days.

Stitch was a brilliant UI designer - he was so shocked at how bad the box art and manual were shaping up, he took it upon himself to do it and knocked it out of the park. He proper pushed us to make a really cool UI (for 1995!).

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation Alert*
Titan Hadad is under siege. This is an urgent call to all independent pilots to aid in the complete defeat of the fourth Titan.
The key modules for the assault continue to be readily available at all Rescue Megaships:
• Thargoid Pulse Neutraliser – To break through the maelstrom defence wave.
• Caustic Sink Launchers – To protect your ship from caustic effects of the maelstrom.
• Guardian Nanite Torpedo Pylon – To hamper the Titan's vents and make it vulnerable to damage.
Rewards have been requisitioned for all Commanders able to participate in ending the Titan threat.
Good luck, Commanders.

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One of the many exciting fan projects that legendary artist and programmer Howard Day has created over the years is Wing Leader, a modern WC1 remake in the Unity engine. During the 2019-2021 time period, Howie shared a lot of awesome concept material, art and engine demonstrator content, but priorities got in the way and development has significantly slowed these past few years. In order to potentially kick start community development and make sure the source content is available to fans in the future, Howie has now publicly released the project's assets on GitHub. Although he hopes to continue making improvements at some point, other Wingnuts are free (and encouraged!) to take the reigns and see what they can do with what's been developed so far. You can find out more here!

I figure I should do this, since I don't know when I'll get back to it. I've made the project public. Adam's passing has

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This is probably the best photo of Flint and a Kilrathi extra with tiny hands that you're going to see tonight.

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How many people here know about the Maniac?

Some lesser known Maniac variations, pixel edition:

Fine art edition. Wait did he start out as just... Luke Skywalker? And Tom Wilson auditioned for Blair... *X-Files theme*

It turns out a fair number of people were already aware of the Maniac.

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Hey, who wants some new Cybot ships and scenes? They might be a little weird, but they're always amusing and some are available now to help kickstart your project! New downloads include the Niven Base and Steltek Assortment. Be sure to let Cybot know if you find any of these designs useful!

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One of the biggest television shows of the year is Fallout, which is based on the classic video game series. It has a handful of endearing and memorable characters, including Walton Goggins' The Ghoul. But did you know this wasn't his first time acting in a video game-based production? As we reported a while back, Goggins portrayed the character "Moose" in Wing Commander 4! He's a Banshee pilot who's shot down by a flight of Excaliburs. Here's the clip:

More on his appearance:

While the label on the photograph reads "BW Pilot Garret 'Moose'", the actor in question is none other than Walton Goggins (credited as Walt Goggins). Moose appears in the Peleus jamming scene, one of the three Border Worlds Banshee pilots that are ambushed and shot down by a flight of Excaliburs. The Polaroid gives us a great look at a Border Worlds flight suit, which the production dyed grey from the original tan

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Tonight we have a serene Hornet flyby arranged and rendered by Mac. The fighter models themselves were originally designed by Klavs. I like this scene for today's news because the color palette seems to match the common tones of Star Trek Discovery, which will be flying off into the bluish purple sunset late tonight. Stop by the CIC Discord with us if you're planning to watch the finale too (we'll be up for the live stream)!

It's a #WingCommander kind of night.