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I couldn't find a legible scan of the Origin FX box online, so here's a quick one:

Beautiful Kamekh render, though!

Does Origin FX even have a Kamekh in it? Technically yes, since it includes a copy of Wing Commander II's post-credits cutscene and that is indeed a closeup of a Kamekh's hull:

Learn all about the Origin FX screensaver/theater at our newly expanded and upgraded wiki page here!

Origin FX is a 1993 screensaver package developed by Origin Systems and published by Electronic Arts. Origin FX comes with 26 different 'movies', the term it uses for screensavers. Several of the movies include elements from the Wing Commander Universe including an air show which has jets and spaceships zoom around your desktop and an asteroid field that soars through familiar Wing Commander space debris. The movies are all customizeable. Origin FX also includes an slideshow option which plays bitmap files; two

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Welcome to the CIC's 23rd Birthday Party! When we opened our doors here at WCNews.com in August 1998, we never imagined we'd still be here now. The pandemic still looms and did directly affect a few items we had planned. This has not been the year of recovery that we'd envisioned, but I'm happy that we managed to still pull together a few fun things to share. Like you all, we're still making the best of it and having a blast hanging out (digitally, per social distancing guidelines) with friends. If you're not already there, stop by Wingnut and join the party!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

EmuMusicFan has made more progress with his graphical novel project. There's a new update to the mockup website to show the story in action. It now includes an appearance by The Emperor! Otherwise, Emu's up through about chapter 4 in his march through Action Stations. You can follow all the latest updates at the CIC Forums.

A new portrait. Baron Qazkar. "And how will the carriers managed to achieve victory?" Qazkar appeared in Action Stations, Chapter 4.

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

Content: The "Mycelial Realm" TFO is no longer eligible to be chosen for Random TFOs. Systems: Resolved an issue that caused updated Delta patrols to reward more skill points on completion than intended. This does not reduce points earned for starship mastery. Increased the XP/MasteryXP modifier present on Patrol maps in the new Patrol System from 2x to 3x. Resolved an issue that prevented Unstable Anomalies from working with some Anomalies.

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

We have exciting news! Captains on PC will be able to enjoy a bonus on purchased ZEN! Is there a ship in the C-Store that is tempting you? Now is the perfect opportunity to grab ships, keys, and whatever else has caught your eye. From November 22nd at 9am PT to December 2nd at 9am PT, Captains will earn an extra bonus on purchased ZEN when you charge through Direct Credit Card, PayPal, Skrill, BoaCompra, Xsolla, Paysafecard, or Steam. *Please note that this Charge Bonus offer is ONLY available for the following payment processors: Direct Credit Card (Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover) PayPal Skrill BoaCompra Xsolla Paysafecard Steam .share-footer a { margin: 20px 10px 10px 0; background: url(d7afaaa14e96d0d973f76157ae31ec5b1466398539.png) no-repeat 0 0; opacity: .5; display: inline-block; height: 60px; width: 60px; padding: 0;

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

We are excited to announce the return of the Phoenix Prize Pack, which return to Star Trek Online on PC from November 25th at 10AM PT til December 2nd at 10am PT. Just like Zefram Cochrane’s experimental vessel, the Phoenix Prize Pack blazes a trail into new frontiers! And, following in the model of its mythological namesake, the Phoenix Prize Pack also represents the return from the ashes of items, ships and other rewards that have been retired from Star Trek Online, and are no longer accessible by any other means. Purchasing and opening this promotional prize pack will offer players the unique opportunity of obtaining many otherwise inaccessible items, ships and equipment, which were previously available from events or promotions, or as other limited-availability rewards. (Check further below for complete prize information!) How it works is simple: Players may visit the Dilithium Store to

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

The seasonal favorite from years past is returning once more to Star Trek Online! Q proudly invites personnel of all ranks, allegiances, species, cosmological variances, and molecular stabilities (or lack thereof) to ring in the holiday season, and visit his Winter Wonderland for fun, frivolity, and prizes! Participate in your choice of Winter Wonderland Activities to work your way toward obtaining the fabulous new Fek’ihri Fe’rang Dreadnought Carrier [T6]! Complete details of this ship’s capabilities will be obtained in a separate Dev Blog. This year’s festivities will be integrated into our recently released Event Interface, as part of your Mission Journal. Now that this seasonal event has migrated to its new home, it has also undergone a significant update: Beginning this year, Daily Progress toward earning your new starship can be obtained by participating in any of the following

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

Thank you for helping us reach AND surpass our goal! Because of your generosity, we raised $12,325! Those who qualified for rewards have been contacted via email. If you donated anonymously, please go here for further instructions on how to claim your reward. Cryptic Studios is proud to participate in the Extra Life Charity Gaming Event once more! On December 7 and 8, from 10am to 10pm Pacific Time, Cryptic Developers will be playing video, tabletop, and board games live to raise money in support of UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals! You can tune in on Cryptic’s Twitch Channel, win in-game prizes, and donate to help children in need! Take a look at our schedule and see below for more details on the event and prizes! You don’t have to wait for the event to donate! Click here to donate right now! PRIZES & DONATIONS During the livestream, players can donate in support of Extra Life.

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

Sometimes exploration of new ideas and new technologies leads to dark places. In Star Trek, we’ve seen many a cautionary tale about omniscient supercomputers, time travel, genetic manipulation, and telepathic oppression. The pursuit of knowledge isn’t always safe or pretty. Hearts and Minds is a mini-mission that explores the consequences of some unconventional research gone awry. This mission is a “story in one act,” so you can easily finish it in a quick play session, and it’s easy to complete it with any additional characters that you may have on your account – which is handy, because the mission offers a special reward. Since Hearts and Minds is a horror story, it will only be around for Friday the 13th, whenever that may fall on the calendar – and perhaps another sufficiently horrifying day that we might choose! Fortunately for the squeamish, Hearts and Minds is creepy, but not

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

We have exciting news! Captains on PC will be able to enjoy a bonus on purchased ZEN! Is there a ship in the C-Store that is tempting you? Now is the perfect opportunity to grab ships, keys, and whatever else has caught your eye. From December 19th at 9am PT to January 2nd at 9am PT, Captains will earn an extra bonus on purchased ZEN when you charge through Direct Credit Card, PayPal, Skrill, BoaCompra, Xsolla, Paysafecard, or Steam. *Please note that this Charge Bonus offer is ONLY available for the following payment processors: Direct Credit Card (Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover) PayPal Skrill BoaCompra Xsolla Paysafecard Steam .share-footer a { margin: 20px 10px 10px 0; background: url(d7afaaa14e96d0d973f76157ae31ec5b1466398539.png) no-repeat 0 0; opacity: .5; display: inline-block; height: 60px; width: 60px; padding: 0;

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

The seasonal favorite from years past is returning once more to Star Trek Online! Q proudly invites personnel of all ranks, allegiances, species, cosmological variances, and molecular stabilities (or lack thereof) to ring in the holiday season, and visit his Winter Wonderland for fun, frivolity, and prizes! Participate in your choice of Winter Wonderland Activities to work your way toward obtaining the fabulous new Fek’ihri Fe’rang Dreadnought Carrier [T6]! Complete details of this ship’s capabilities will be obtained in a separate Dev Blog. This year’s festivities will be integrated into our recently released Event Interface, as part of your Mission Journal. Now that this seasonal event has migrated to its new home, it has also undergone a significant update: Beginning this year, Daily Progress toward earning your new starship can be obtained by participating in any of the following

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

From December 3rd to January 2nd, we are running a promotion that will provide an additional bonus when opening a Research and Development Pack. When you purchase a Research and Development Pack from the C-Store and open it, you will receive either 10 Lobi Crystals or a Special Requisition Choice Pack - Tier 6 Promotional Ship Choice Pack in addition to the Research and Development Pack. We are excited to announce a new addition to this Promotional Ship Pack: Vulcan Experimental Scout Vessel! Also known as the Jellyfish, this exciting vessel uses both new and old tricks, like Red Matter and Pilot Maneuvers, to keep it a Slippery Target. It also features a new Torpedo Launcher as a powerful defense mechanism. ** Complete stats/abilities of the Vulcan Experimental Scout Vessel are included at the end of this Dev Blog – keep reading for more information! In addition to this new starship,

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Twelve years ago, HCl rolled out a major update to his Prophecy multiplayer patch. When users entered their credentials for Crius.net (then the home of our vBulletin-powered discussion boards) into the the launcher, the game would report back typical game statistics like kills/deaths, ejections and time played to the CIC server where they would show up in our

Multiplayer Scoreboards

section. As time moved on, the forums were relocated to our primary domain at wcnews.com and the software powering them was changed as well (look

here

if you are interested in Chat Zone history leading up to the 2011 Xenforo upgrade). If you signed up for our Forums after this transition, there was no way for you to have your results included in our scoreboards. There's a fix for this issue now and it takes just a few easy steps:

• Sign in on the Chat Zone, or sign up for an account if you don't already have one.
• Visit the

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

So, what is the biggest and baddest Wing Commander poster ever? While we've seen a lot of them, nothing compares to this beauty. Joe Garrity shows us that it's not the size of your Wing Commander III poster, it's how you display it! Mounted on a brushed plate steel disply board, this monolithic Wing Commander III advertising print is a whopping 8 feet long by 2 feet high and weighs in at over 40 pounds! Originally on display at Origin Systems in the mid-1990s, it was gifted to the Origin Museum by EA/Mythic when they closed in 2014. It was previously

displayed in the Mythic Lobby

along with other Origin/Wing Commander memorabilia. Joe's also provided a nice high res version of this photo

here

.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

When Maniac and Blair first arrive on the Tiger Claw they're wearing CSS Concordia patches on their peacoats. It's not really clear why unless the only other option was a Tiger Claw one.

He changes sweaters between acts, too! Or I guess maybe he just hot glues a different patch onto the same sweater.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Alright, I can't think of a good reason for this, but here's the Wing Commander knife post. To start, WC always loved using knives to show a character was troubled. The one Cobra is sharpening in WC III is a Marto-Brewer Explora, a Spanish survival knife from the 1980s.

Hawk’s thematically similar knife in Wing Commander Prophecy is called a hunting knife in stage directions but the actual prop is a United Cutlery Bushmaster survival knife. These are still made!

Seether’s knife in Wing Commander IV is a Hibben Double Shadow, a design often used in sci fi productions including Star Trek and Babylon 5. The script calls it a “laser-blade” which it describes as “a curved handle with a lethal thread of light that pulses from one end of the handle to the other”. As a result, the novelization refers to Seether’s blade as a “laser knife” and says they are “plunging weapons that could also

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Today we've got a wonderful pile of old reviews from Maxi de Sokar. First up is a WC2 from the Spanish OKPC magazine. They give it a solid 85% and comes with lots of gorgeous screenshots. There's also a Special Operations preview, and although it's short, it packs in tons of great little references that really date game development to the era (1991-1992). Then we shift gears into a PC Review review of WC Academy. The game only gets 5 (out of 10, I suppose), but they had enough to talk about to fill a two page article. We often point out that there was genuine demand for something like this and it filled a niche that was pretty unique back in the day. With all that being said, the same author returns to review Wing Commander Privateer... and he also gave it a 5/10! So maybe that says something more about him than the game. In the end, I guess I'm not mad about Academy being rated on the same

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Did you know that Privateer 2 has two very different sets of manuals? The game had an internally tempestuous release and one side effect of that was that Origin's creative services group completely reworked all of the packaging for the US release.

I thought it would be fun to look at the changes in the introductory letter. And right off the bat you can see it's a lot more than removing the "u"s from the "colours". They even change the name of the writer... flirty Jessica Montpellier becomes straight-laced Ian Esperanto!

Anyway I did a quick diff on the text and here are the results. And my question for readers is: did any of these changes make things better? It sure feels like a lot of change for the sake of change!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

If you missed the big news earlier this week, be sure to check out the new WC4 Fan Remake demo! There are numerous fixes and updates, better joystick support and new in-flight comms. You can download it here (886 meg exe) and get right to playing! The WC Respace team has posted a full article with instructions and FAQs if you have any questions or issues. If you're not quite ready to jump in yourself, here's a video of The Eradicator checking the demo out. It's actually the original release, so the latest version is even better!

It looks like a team of modders are trying to remaster Wing Commander IV. In this video, we will check their work out.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Today I'm going to pop around on a thread that starts with author Diane Duane. She's a very well known sci-fi author who's written lots of Star Trek novels, various video game books as well as her own series. Of particular interest to WC fans: she also wrote the screenplay to the cinematic story of Privateer 2! And just yesterday, she had this to say on the topic:

I was a busy girl on this one. It remains the single longest screenplay (at 300+ pages) I've ever done. And had the BEST cast. Brian Blessed, Clive Owen, David Warner, so many more...

Now to jump franchises, we're also still gushing about the fantastic final season of Star Trek Picard. The show's production designer, Dave Blass, also recently shared that one of the many ships featured in the show is the USS Inaieu, which is 'a nod to the Defender class ship from Diane Duane's [1984 Star Trek novel] "My Enemy, My Ally"'. Dave also posted