News categories list

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

The topic of Wing Commander IV's texture files recently came up and a question came up: what's that spiky logo on the side of the Vindicator? If it's intended to be the Border Worlds logo, why is it so different from the circular 'phoenix' seen elsewhere?

The answer is that it's a roundel which represents the Union of Border Worlds Navy! It differs from the more familiar Border Worlds logo which represents the entire Union of Border Worlds. Compare the United States flag to the roundel used on military aircraft, for instance:

The Border Worlds roundel is actually more common than you think. It appears throughout the game, including on many Border Worlds ships (including all the fighters):

It even shows up inside the Intrepid where it's intended to match the FMV... unfortunately the texture is mirrored incorrectly!

It's also pretty distinct in gameflow, where it represents an available mission briefing on

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 Run Silent, Run Deep (1958) which was one of the sources for the Wing Commander's submarine and crew drama elements. 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

Greetings WingNuts,

We have watched Silent Running and agree that it's an interesting movie but that it doesn't quite come together (like Wing Commander?). The special effects are incredible, the sets and costumes are excellent, the setup is an excellent story… but it never quite comes together into anything satisfying. A lot of that comes down to the lead, we thought, who ends up being somewhat difficult to root for. It's a movie I'm glad to have seen but it's definitely more cult than classic.

This will be a short report, though, as the movie had no known creative connections to Wing Commander beyond being incorrectly referenced in the film's original treatise. But we did note a few little genre connections! One little coincidence is that both films have acts set in ring systems! Silent Running's director famously used the film as an excuse to do the Saturn special effects he had envisioned for 2001:

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

In a shocking turn of events, the Wing Commander games on GOG have been included in yet another big sale! This month's theme is "Shooter Game Promo," which frankly isn't really trying that hard. This time around everything is a whopping 75% off, or $1.49 per package. That's about as cheap as it gets for these releases! You can find all the games at the links below or indexed here.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Last year, we had occasion to put together a set of working notes on Downtown, celebrating the legacy of a lesser known Wing Commander character to display some of the depth of established lore players might not be familiar with by putting together a thorough in-universe biography and walking through some of the common continuity issues surrounding him. With the recent passing of actor Peter Jason, we thought it would be worthwhile to put together a set of notes on Admiral (or is it Captain?) Wilford.

Character Biography

This writeup is done in the style of a wiki entry and takes into account all existing sources in an attempt to construct a singular story. It does not represent the specific intent of any one author; details on the development of Wilford's character and a discussion of the various changes to the story that have occurred over the years are discussed in further sections below the history.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

The Wing Commander movie club is home from the (check notes) Bungo Straights and we can confidently say that yes, the Wing Commander movie does owe quite a bit to Run Silent, Run Deep. This week, we're taking the DEDFLASH space/time cruiser back to the future… the distant future of the original Planet of the Apes! You can join us this Friday via Discord to watch along.

The original Planet of the Apes sends Charlton Heston to the distant future as a lone astronaut stranded on a… well, planet of apes. Adapted from Pierre Boulle's novel by the brilliant Rod Sirling, Planet of the Apes' mix of clever plotting, allegory and action helped set a new standard in quality for science fiction blockbusters that had previously been treated more like childrens' fare. It's bold and engaging even when the entire world already knows the twist ending!

With regards to the Wing Commander connection, we normally pick movies

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Today's a great day! Origin composer George Oldziey has digitally released his second full album of Wing Commander music performed by a live audience! This initial package is available to people who pledged in last year's Kickstarter campaign. The physical CD and vinyl album are still being finalized and should also be available in the near future. For now, existing backers can log in to the update for download links. Everything about George's projects have been an absolute joy to listen to, and this latest release is no exception!

Greetings all. The CD master is about ready to submit for replication. We are currently in the process of deciding on the best way to master the vinyl version. The artwork is complete for both products. We are VERY close to finishing the physical products for volume 2, but in the mean time, here are links to the digital files.

They are in FOUR formats; high

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The Trailblazer fleet announced by Brewer Corporation last month has been deployed to strategic locations on the edges of the core systems.
Described as 'colonisation support hubs,' the Trailblazer fleet provides a bespoke trade market focused on colonisation materials and goods. The first wave of independent colonisation efforts has been described as 'overwhelmingly popular' by Brewer COO Mark Rennik.
The fledgling public arm of Brewer's claim management service has been inundated with requests, and Rennik confirmed that the number of claims had proved challenging. "The speed at which new systems have been settled and expanded is frankly astonishing," Rennik said in a recent interview, "and I'm delighted that so many pioneers have taken full advantage of this opportunity."
The Trailblazer fleet has been deployed to the following star systems:
Trailblazer Dream - HIP 90578
Trailblazer Song -

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

This is the kind of e-mail you like to find in your inbox: Rémi LEONARD is working on a modernized remake of Strike Commander and there's some wonderful progress to see! Strike Commander was Chris Roberts' major project after the original Wing Commander, a combination of a realistic F-16 simulator and an interactive movie styled after an '80s action flick. It was a great game but one that's often forgotten today.

Hello, I am Rémi LEONARD, currently developing a remake of Strike commander, i wanted to report somes updates in case you are interested.

The project is going well, I have implemented somes of the mission scripts logic (thanks to the mission design documentation of wing commander IV found on CIC. The game is starting to be playable, with the possibility to complete somes missions. I have released a gameplay video of the first mission on my youtube channel.

Strike commander Remake Gameplay First

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Vagabond says that we have better things to do than practice our salutes... but we don't have better things to do than collect salutes! We went through the games to pick out as many salutes as we could find--and they make great reaction images online! Can you find any of the ones we missed? Let us know and we'll add them to the collection!

Wing Commander I & II

In Wing Commander I you and Colonel Halcyon salute at medal ceremonies and funerals. Wing Commander II just has the wide shot at funerals.

Wing Commander III

WC3 has plenty of salutes, typically when characters are arriving or leaving the Victory.

... Blair also salutes in all 39 briefing videos, too. Eisen usually does as well, athough if he's annoyed he makes a point of not doing it. Blair salutes Tolwyn throughout the game but Tolwyn only retruns the salute once, before the Behemoth is destroyed. And then Rollins joins in only in the last

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 Planet of the Apes (1968) which was a reference for the Kilrathi costumes made for Wing Commander III. 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

After Action Report: Run Silent, Run Deep

Greetings WingNuts,

We're back from the depths of viewing Run Silent, Run Deep and it was a solid experience! Despite the age and the subject matter, it was a taut film loaded with compelling character relationships and a satisfying story. And while everyone is happy that it's (probably) the last submarine movie of the series we didn't have any real complaints about the film itself! One thing it has over Wing Commander is that it gives all of this room to breathe instead of needing to devote much of its run time to the 'Top Gun' part of the story.

Now let's talk about how it is Wing Commander! When we first started looking at the reference to "Silent Running" in the original Wing Commander movie treatment I suspected that there was an additional mistake: that Chris Roberts was not thinking of Run Silent, Run Deep but the somewhat more prestigious Enemy Below.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

The WCRespace team has an exciting new feature to show off: volumetric nebulae for WC4 Remastered! In other words, the pink screen filter of decades past has been replaced by swirling fog that slowly reveals objects out in the distance as you approach. There have also been enhancements to the backgrounds so that starfields in the distance also match this environmental art. Check out the full article on what's new here.

A nebula was just a palette switch in ’96, even by ’99 Freespace 2 had made WC4’s nebulae look incredibly dated.

As always we aren’t polishing before moving on so that we can get the complete game up and running ASAP, but we thought you might like a glimpse at the volumetric fog in its current state. I think it’s already a huge improvement, and the simplicity of the effect doesn’t feel out of place as a replacement for the old palette change.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

We've got a new poll, and it's a perfect one for 2025! The wonderful calendar included with The Kilrathi Saga was designed to sync up with 1997 and 2673, then the upcoming new year as well as the year the just-released WC4 takes place. It also works for 2025! LOAF recently rescanned the calendar as a very high quality PDF, which you can get here: 220 archival quality PDF or 9 meg compressed PDF. Each month gets a special piece of concept art. The new poll asks which one you like best, and they're all represented on the back cover for quick reference!

---

Our annual new year's poll concluded with pretty positive results! We've already seen some fantastic new releases so far this year, including both Team Fat and George Oldziey audio albums. And there is surely more in store as the year unfolds!

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

An unusual and turbulent situation has arisen for residents of the station Lantern Light in the Lalande 25224 system. The architect, CMDR Lavelain, commissioned the station nearby a neutron star. However, the station was inadvertently deployed deep within the star's gravitational well. As a result, the station's movement and rotational speeds far exceed safe limits – time should be taken for caution when attempting docking.
Brewer Corporation has received numerous requests for support from the station's residents and is mobilising to correct the station's violent and turbulent movement. The operation is currently undergoing careful planning to ensure the orbit is not destabilized further into catastrophe, and is expected to take several weeks to accomplish.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

The Wing Commander movie club has returned from that horrible Planet of the Apes with a shocking revelation. But we won't spoil that, so instead we'll just prepare for next week's fantastic space outing: we'll be watching The Last Starfighter (1984). You can join us this Friday via Discord to watch along.

The Last Starfighter is a movie that Wing Commander fans are likely to know because it tells a favorite fantasy: a man becomes especially good at a space arcade game which turns out to have been a recruiting device for real space war! That storyline has been referenced ad nauseam in pop culture in the decades since so much so that you probably know the story even if you've never seen the movie itself… a bit like Citizen Kane for nerds. And there's lots to appreciate even if the final film doesn't quite come together like Planet of the Apes, from one of the earliest uses of CG for VFX to a very

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

In November, GOG announced something called the "GOG Preservation Program" which aims to make sure the site's most popular offerings are constantly updated to remain available on ever-changing modern operating systems. This week they've added both Wing Commander 1 + 2 and Privateer 2: The Darkening to the program.

As promised, another wave of classics joins the GOG Preservation Program!

To preserve gaming history, we’re adding horror, action, and strategy icons from legendary franchises—ensuring they remain playable in their best versions and yours to keep forever.

Let’s welcome...

Silent Hill 4: The Room – being the only PC version with previously missing content restored.

F.E.A.R. Platinum – honoring Monolith’s legacy by ensuring this legendary FPS horror lives forever.

And alongside them, even more masterpieces:

Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption
Tomb Raider: Anniversary, Legend, Underworld
Alone in the

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

We have a small treasure for you today! We've acquired a set of storyboards used to develop the Wing Commander Academy intro sequence. This covers the original animation created for the intro. Like many cartoons of the era, Academy's intro was a combination of high quality bespoke animation mixed with a series of quick clips from the show. These storyboards even include several intended shots that didn't make in into the final version! Let's take a look...

These first three pages do not appear in the final version (although the transport shot is similar to one we will see later). It would've been interesting to see Thrakhath's dreadnaught so early, too!

It's not clear what "photo ID inserts" would've been but we're guessing it would've been images of the real Mark Hamill, Tom Wilson and Malcolm McDowell.

You can find another breakdown of the Academy intro which shows the origin of the reused clips here.

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 The Last Starfighter (1984) which inspired the Raptor fighter in the original Wing Commander. 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

Greetings WingNuts,

Maybe I'm biased because I love Planet of the Apes but we loved Planet of the Apes! It's a fantastic film: the script (by the great Rod Serling!) is a vast improvement on the original novel, adding cutting then (and sadly now)-current social commentary that at no time feels like a weight. The cast is amazing, the cinematography is still stunning and the ape costumes that the entire thing hinges on are pulled off perfectly.

To compare to Wing Commander III we thought we'd put together a quick rogue gallery showing all the Kilrathi costumes from the game as clearly as possible that you can compare to the ape costumes. You can find some great behind the scenes photos of the workshop that built the Kilrathi here.

There are three basic types of apes in Planet of the Apes: chimpanzees, orangutangs and gorillas. This lets the costumes start to distinguish between different characters pretty