News categories list

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

A familiar favorite is still out on patrol. Klavs is plugging away at his Hornet when he has time, and it looks better than ever. This relatively recent iteration moves away from his previous unibody design in favor of a space frame that's a bit more skewed towards the original model. Since we last saw it, this version has more realistically textured hull plating and great little accents like warning labels and the Confed logo. It's a real joy to look at!

Slowly picking away at the details on this thing!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

80s Baby recently posted their review of the Wing Commander movie in honor of the film's 20th birthday. Back in 1999, the author was fortunate enough to stumble on a double feature of Never Been Kissed and Wing Commander bundled together. She recounts her review as a memory of the events all those years ago. The recollections meander about as much as the reviewer did when the NBK credits rolled, but it's honestly not the worst WC Movie review I've ever read. At least there's no nerd complaining about sound in space! Check out the full article here.

Ah, memories. They can be hazy and hard to trust, but some of them — some of the lucky ones — stay trapped in your brain as crystal clear as the day the experience happened right before your eyes.

In 1999, I was living it up in one of the best cinematic years of my generation. I feel like I was at the movie theater every weekend that year, with extra

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Today we're taking a new look at some unusual 3DO magazine advertisements from Electronic Arts. These 'high concept' pieces ran in magazines in the UK in the first half of 1995 and they are... something. But underneath that something there are some interesting Wing Commander stories! This one, "Moist Mullet," is especially interesting because it seems to be the only source of an unusual 'bullshot' of a Super Wing Commander Cockpit which doesn't match anything in the game (aside from the Rapiers, which are renderings from the intro!).

The second one, "EA Lard," doesn't include any Wing Commander but we're including it for posterity.

The third one features Wing Commander III, showing a Hellcat V cockpit from the PC version...

... which is likely why it got this running change, swapping the Hellcat cockpit for the Emperor!

Electronic Arts also used the 'EA Lard' version to present their physical 3DO catalog

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

The Wing Commander movie club has sailed the Atlantic with the Titanic and now it's time to get back home… to space! This week's movie is a true classic with some deep ties to Wing Commander: Alien. You can join us this Friday via Discord to watch along.

Alien needs no introduction, but just in case: Ridley Scott's 1979 sci-fi/horror film is about a group of interstellar truckers who must battle a relentless monster in close quarters aboard their starship. From the gritty, realistic environs of the Nostromo to the biomechanical alien itself, the spectacular film earned a level of respect that far outstripped the standards of its genres. Countless aspects of Alien are deeply rooted in most any science fiction film made since.

Wing Commander is, of course, no exception. From the chairs in the spacecraft in the original games through to the characters of the movie itself (with a little creative crossover

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Greetings WingNuts,Midway represents another decade forward in our exploration of war movies that influenced Wing Commander and while several of us remembered it fondly from our youths what we found was that it was very, very slow. The first hour plus is a lot of Dambusters-style maneuvering to get us to Midway and it just isn't something you'd see in a movie today. And then the battles themselves are nowhere near as spectacular, a mix of colorized stock footage and not-quite-believable airplane props. We haven't gotten to Tora! Tora! Tora! yet but I'm betting it's going to hold up better. I also want to especially thank Dundradal, who showed up for the night to offer his experience as a professional Pacific War historian despite being a new father! Get some sleep, pilot.

While several interviews and other production material notes that Midway was used as reference for the Wing Commander movie's VFX

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Wing Commander III composer George Odziey has posted a memory on Facebook in honor of the game's 30th anniversary. And if there's one person who deserves to celebrate that milestone it's George--he's remained so active with the fandom and we're expecting the second volume of his orchestral Wing Commander recordings early next year!

Thirty years ago I was living in Austin, TX scratching out a living playing piano gigs, teaching some piano lessons and teaching the jazz band PT at Southwestern University. I happened to bump into sax player/arranger-composer and great guy Paul Baker who told me he'd been hired to score video games for EA/Origin. I was intrigued and thought to myself, "I could do that", having never done it before and barely knowing how to use a computer. Paul graciously accepted a demo cassette tape that I threw together and submitted it to Chris Roberts' development team at Origin who

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

This is a reminder that we have another fun #Wingnut movie night planned on Discord this evening! The ongoing theme will be movies that inspired Wing Commander in some way. Tonight's film is 633 Squadron, a movie Chris Roberts credits with inspiring Wing Commander's score... and a thematic followup to The Dam Busters, our first movie night selection. You can find details on that as well as how to watch along with us in the announcement post here. The movie will start about 7 PM PST/10 PM EST, but feel free to drop by and hang any time!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Today we have a jazzed up version of the Armada intro from Retrobear Diskette Quest. There's a little bit of DOSBox scaling happening that supposedly makes it look better at higher resolutions, but the visuals aren't the draw here. It also has some "Roland MT-32 emulation" turned on, and I do hear the extra notes associated with that! Armada is a wonderful game that doesn't get as much time in the spotlight as it deserves, so take this as a plug to fire the game up this weekend!

How do you think the video above compares to the version that FekLeyrTarg rebuilt from scratch with Origin model assets? They both have their particular charms!

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

Master O dropped by to spread the word about a new alternative to DOSBox. DOSBox has been a tried and true workhorse of the retro gaming community for nearly twenty years, but updates have been very sparse since about 2010 or so. Although the program works fairly well to get games like Wing Commander running on modern systems, technology has continued to evolve and there's an enormous opportunity to add modern quality-of-life improvements. That's where DOSBox Staging comes in. A new team of developers have picked up where the old program left off. There is much improved support for modern video and sound setups, better controller and joystick integration, plus compatibility with a host of modern operating system features. The latest 0.81 test versions even add support for Voodoo 1 emulation for 3DFX graphics. You can try it out here. Be sure to share your experience at the CIC Forums!

If you

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Fun Privateer 2 background element: Angus Santana has a model of a Bexian public transport balloon on his desk.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

We've reported in the past on the sale of the Origin Museum collection and today we're happy to report that the new owner is serious about preserving Origin's history! Dominus Dragon has begun digitizing Origin Museum material and he has been kind enough to share the Wing Commander-related discoveries with us... including an enormous Wing Commander Prophecy producer's bible! We're very grateful for the effort and the thought that went into sharing this for the Wing Commander community. Here's an index to 17 new documents added to our digital archive... plenty to explore and it sounds like there may be more to come!

Wing Commander I:

• Best Sound Presentation award
• Advertisement Draft

Wing Commander III:

• Concept Board Photo
• Hire and Quantity List
• Production Notes

Wing Commander IV:

• Bug Report
• Team Patch Design

Privateer 2:

• Customer Service Issues
• New QA Tester Information

Wing Commander Prophecy:

• Anderson Costume

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

There's some unfortunate news concerning the Xbox 360 and Wing Commander Arena. Microsoft has announced that the console's digital storefront will be closing in July 2024. This means some 220 games, including Arena, will no longer be available for sale in any form. Wing Commander's debut on the Xbox was part of a new digital-standalone push dubbed Xbox Live Arcade. The results were quite impressive given a variety of constraints such as a 50 megabyte download cap and $10 asking price. Arena was the platform's first 16-player game and made heavy use of features like matchmaking and online leaderboards. Although Arena never received a proper physical release, the "demo" of the game was included on the cover disc of the November 2007 issue of the Official Xbox Magazine. These demos could be "unlocked" into the full game, but that function will presumably be removed as well.

Since the game was

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

This one's a repeat, but it's so glorious that we can't help but share it again (and will be doing so for many years to come!). Last year, Klavs commissioned this wonderful Cameo clip from Malcolm McDowell to celebrate our 24th anniversary. He fondly remembers both his role as Admiral Tolwyn and how his late friend, David Warner, also got to portray the character. If you missed this earlier, be sure to check it out now!

I must say, I did love Tolwyn. A really wonderful character in many ways. Strong. Very, really cool. ... I'm thrilled that you liked my interpretation of him, because I really went for it, enjoyed it.

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
The missing megaship Dedicant is close to being located after fragments of its distress call were tracked down.
The scrambled messages were discovered on comms beacons in the LP 714-58, Wuniez, Olurung and Kwakimo systems. Combined decryption efforts eventually led to another beacon in the HIP 19912 system, where the Dedicant's original transmission was revealed:
FEDERAL ESCORT TEAM ALPHA
ASSIGNED TO ORDER OF THE FAR GOD MEGASHIP 'DEDICANT'
PRISONER TRANSFER MISSION HAS FAILED
SIGNIFICANT NON-LETHAL DEFENSIVE MEASURES ENCOUNTERED
MAJORITY OF ORDER OF THE FAR GOD PRISONERS ESCAPED
PRISONERS INITIATED DEDICANT HYPERDRIVE
ESCORT TEAMS ALPHA, BRAVO, CHARLIE AND CULTISTS REMAIN ON BOARD
'DEDICANT' CURRENT LOCATION UNKNOWN
ADVISE TRACING METADATA COORDINATES TO THIS MESSAGE
REQUEST IMMEDIATE FEDERAL NAVY ASSISTANCE
Vice Admiral Amir Rafiq of the Imperial Navy provided an

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Emperor Arissa Lavigny-Duval has outlined a plan for the Marlinist Colonies to be officially reconnected with the Empire.
The Marlin Standard published an exclusive report from Prime Consul Kayode Tau, after he attended a diplomatic meeting on Capitol:
"The essence of Emperor Arissa's proposal is a pledge to grant the status of Imperial protectorate to the Marlinist Colonies, in return for swearing allegiance to the throne."
"In practice, local government would remain autonomous but the Imperial Navy and security agencies would have a permanent presence. There would be investment in trade, with Empire-based companies as preferred partners. New channels of transportation and communication would be opened between Marlinist and Imperial systems."
"Emperor Arissa and I discussed the issues at length. Following her experience with the Lords of Restoration, Her Majesty now accepts that most

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
Commanders have worked alongside Federal authorities to destroy criminal ships in the Gliese 868 system.
The pirate gang was responsible for multiple raids while Federal security services were distracted by public protests around the Hudson Contravention. To help protect shipping and eliminate the threat, bounties were placed on all criminal vessels.
Gliese 868 Services, which organised the counter-offensive against the pirates, announced:
"The combat expertise of Federal Navy auxiliaries and independent pilots has succeeded in driving back these ruthless criminals. We will be pleased to reimburse bounty vouchers at Bacon Port in Gliese 868."
The Federal Times reported on the political repercussions from these events:
"It is not just the security agencies that are embarrassed at relying on volunteers to protect trade in Gliese 868. Members of both the Republican and

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Today we've got another tiny peek at the incredible Dralthi model under construction in elend's workshop. When we last saw the ship, it was evident how beautiful and faithfully accurate the design was to the original Claw Marks drawing. Now we can get a sense of what the fine panel detail looks like - we can even see within some of the structure down to the plumbing and piping within. I can't wait to see things come together even more!

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots Federation ALERT*
A new starport has become operational in the LTT 198 system, following Senator Zemina Torval's mining initiative.
Torval Orbital will serve as the administrative headquarters for Torval-Mastopolos Mining. The company successfully competed against Wreaken Corporation to establish a presence within LTT 198.
Marlon Royce, business analyst for Vox Galactica, observed:
"Mastopolos Mining should be boasting about the positive start for its new subsidiary. Instead, its reaction has only confirmed the widening rift between the Mastopolos family and their corporation's majority shareholder, Zemina Torval."
"CEO Gabriella Mastopolos officially distanced herself from the offshoot company, claiming it 'hijacked our name with the intention of luring our clients'. And speaking to Imperial media, both Adrian and Elena Mastopolos criticised Constantia Torval's suitability to act as

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

It's that time of the year! E3 is in full swing, and all of the digital storefronts are having their summer sales while video games are on people's brain. GOG.com is no exception, so that means the Wing Commander games are available at a hefty discount. At 75% off, individual packages are just $1.49 or under $12 for the vast swath of DOS/Windows WC titles. Of course, we're huge proponents for collecting the physical boxes as well, but it's hard to beat the ease of digital copies at your fingertips!