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The Wing Commander movie club has put their seats up and their tray tables in the upright position following the conclusion of Die Hard 2. Next week, we're going a little further back in the past… to 1933 for the original King Kong! King Kong is a massively important film for how it defined the kind of blockbuster movies whose evolution continues to this day… and it's always fun to watch a giant ape wreck things. You can join us this Friday via Discord to watch along.

The direct connection to Wing Commander this time around is a fun one: the island that Blair, Grunt and Kulrag crash land on in Wing Commander Academy's Word of Honor is based on the island where Kong is discovered in the original movie (later named Skull Island). USA originally aired a 'Kids Club' bumper with the series' background artists explaining this; unfortunately, it has been lost to time!

There's also a big connection to Chris

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Last month, we held a special Saturday morning cartoon watch party in #WingNut where we watched the entire 'Warrior King' crossover saga that included Wing Commander Academy. Well, we had so much fun that we've decided to do it again! It's not possible to find anything quite as epic as the Warrior King saga so instead we've pulled together a collection of other Saturday morning shows that reference Wing Commander in some way! Here's the lineup:

Doug - Doug's Lost Weekend (1992, s2e25): This early episode of Doug (pre-Disney's Doug) will be extremely relatable to any Wing Commander fan: Doug becomes addicted to a space sim that is full of nods to the original Wing Commander!

Gridman the Hyper Agent - A Lonely Hacker (1993, s1e17): Gridman is a Japanese "tokusatsu" superhero show similar to the ones used as the basis for shows like Power Rangers in the United States. Watch carefully for the slightest of

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Having trouble reading PALCOMM.S and COMMUNIC.S37 in WC2? Not anymore! AllTinker has released a new bug fix update to Originator. Other recent updates have improved compatibility with WC3/4, Armada, Privateer 2 and even OriginFX and Strike Commander. If you wanted to peer into the code that makes up WC games, this is the app to get. Download the latest version here.

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I was leafing through False Colors the other day and happened to notice an unusual reference I wanted to explore a litle further. This paragraph is from when the Landreich fleet is assembling to recover the Karga and it introduces two of the ship captains thusly:

Diaz would be working closely with the captains of the tender Sindri and the huge factory ship Andrew Carnegie, a Mutt-and-Jeff pair whose names were Dickerson and Lake—Bondarevsky still wasn't entirely sure which one was which. Their commands, though non-combatants, would have the pivotal part in the Goliath Project, the tender serving as a deep-space repair platform for the supercarrier while the mammoth Andrew Carnegie, designed for semi-automated minerals extraction and fabrication work on unsettled frontier worlds, had been pressed into service to manufacture whatever the Kilrathi derelict might be lacking right on the spot.

Mutt-and-Jeff

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Tensions between Yuri Grom and Felicia Winters have erupted into open conflict around the mining system of LP 855-34. The system's platinum rush, triggered by local construction demands, has drawn forces from both Powers. Yuri Grom's representative accused Federal factions of "cornering the market" unfairly, urging loyal supporters to counteract the Federation's aggressive tactics. Combat Zones have appeared throughout the region as pilots clash over strategic mining sites. Pilots supporting Yuri Grom are encouraged to report to The Undeniable station in LP 855-34 to assist in industrial mining operations and help push back the Federal forces.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Origin composer George Oldziey's new Wing Commander album is one step closer. CD production is complete, and the finished units are in his hands! People who pledged for just the compact disc should be seeing them soon. If you are due to get other items such as the vinyl album, these will all be shipped together in a bundle at some point next month. Good things come to those who wait!

Greetings! The WC volume 2 CD's just arrived yesterday. Looks and sounds great! I will be sending these out to CD only backers very soon.

Unfortunately, due to longer processing time and popular demand for vinyl, the LPs will not arrive until at least the first week of June. So for those who are receiving both a CD and a vinyl version I'll be shipping those together in one package.

Thank you all for your patience. I know this has been a long process, but I am thoroughly pleased with the results, and hoping you will

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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 original King Kong (1933) which was reference for an episode of Wing Commander Academy… and where Chris Roberts' game development career started! 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!

And don't forget our second Wing Commander Cartoon party is early tomorrow!

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Greetings WingNuts,

The Wing Commander movie club has changed planes at Dulles! Die Hard 2 was a nice change of pace from our usual fare of war movies and science fiction classics. It holds up very well today, arguably better than any of the later Die Hard sequels. John McClane's path to superherodom seems to already be clearly established but it's pretty subdued compared to what is yet to come. And the overall idea of criminals hijacking an airport instead of a plane remains pretty neat, too!

As noted in the introduction post, the immediate Wing Commander creative connection is pretty tenuous. The original Privateer's character design document calls out Commodore Riesmann as being based on Die Hard 2's Colonel Stuart (William Sadler). Privateer was originally intended to have a 'Confederation versus Kilrathi' main plot which would end with you siding with one of the factions. That was dropped and the

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This is a reminder that we have another fun #Wingnut event happening on Discord this morning! Join us at noon EST/9 AM PST for a fun filled morning of cartoons... that all connect to Wing Commander somehow! Get ready to find out just how much a part of early 1990s culture the Wing Commander series was. You can find details on the shows included as well as how to watch along with us in the announcement post here. Be sure to download the episodes so they're ready to play with the group!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

A world desperate for good news (or at least news that isn't awful) is going pope crazy this week as the Catholic Church has named Leo XIV as the latest spiritual leader in their centuries-long tradition. Of course this has prompted many in the media to ask the big question: what's going on with the church in Wing Commander's distant future? Are there still popes? Well, the first movie spinoff novel, Pilgrim Stars, confirms that there are when Blair explains that the McDanielist (Pilgrim) church's highest office, called "protur", is their equivalent.

"She's not going to McDaniel to destroy it. That planet represents everything she stands for. Someday she'd like to see it as the hub and governing force in the universe, much like Earth is today. Yes, if I know her, she's going to McDaniel to see somebody, a man named Protur Carver Tsu the Second."

"Protur ..." Blair repeated, reaching into his memory.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

The Wing Commander movie club is back from Skull Island and King Kong turned out to be just what we needed (a giant ape). This week, we're going to revisit a true classic: Return of the Jedi, the epic conclusion to the original Star Wars trilogy. You can join us this Friday via Discord to watch along.

There's little question that Return of the Jedi influenced Wing Commander: it's spectacular third act space battle was the best in the business for decades. The Wing Commander I & II Ultimate Strategy Guide specifically calls out Return of the Jedi as one of Chris Roberts' major influences for the original Wing Commander game:

Roberts had always been fascinated by science fiction movies and television shows, especially those like Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica and Return of the Jedi. He liked the action elements of space combat, the dazzling special effects, and the variety of characters the

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While putting together the recent memorial update we extracted all of Maniac's in flight comms from Special Operations 2 to include in the post. After realizing how nice it was to be able to hear those lines on demand I decided to put together a complete archive of the comms from Wing Commander's infamous "Speech Accessory Packs". And so we did! You can find the complete index for four games below. Each site will let you read the script for each line and then play it right in your browser (or save it for later).

Wing Commander

The original Wing Commander didn't ship with speech but several later versions have added it. We've included the Super Wing Commander audio along with the scripts for several different ports; it's pretty interesting to see how things were censored for the Super Nintendo release! We'll add the Sega CD versions of the audio files once they can be extracted with Originator.

Wingmen

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

A surprisingly tense mining boom in LP 855-34 has concluded, with supporters of Felicia Winters claiming success over Yuri Grom's pilots.
A call for Platinum by the system's governing faction triggered an influx of ships representing the two powers. Longstanding issues between Yuri Grom and the Federation fed into the competitive aspect of the issue, and it is perhaps no surprise that it was the latter who claimed the greatest number of mined resources in the end.
Speaking on behalf of Winters' support base, a representative gave this statement:
"The efforts of our mining teams over the past two weeks have been nothing short of remarkable. We provided enough Platinum to ensure that LP 855-34's governing faction will meet its manifesto building projects. And, just as significantly, we showed that the Federation dominates all competitors in matters of industry!"
Those who took part in the

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Back when we were surfing the net at 14.4k bps, the only realistic way to test drive the latest Wing Commander games was by loading it from the cover CD of a magazine. In fact, Wing Commander III's then-massive demo was the centerpiece of the very first PC Gamer cover disc! To honor that history, here are all five of the PC Gamer discs that brought us bonus Wing Commander combat starting with Wing Commander III in 1994 and going all the way to the shocking free release of Kilrathi Saga WC1 in 2000!

December 1994 - Wing Commander III Demo

• ISO Download

January 1996 - Wing Commander IV Demo

• ISO Download

March 1998 - Wing Commander Prophecy Demo

• ISO Download

November 1998 - Wing Commander Secret Ops - Episode One

• ISO Download

July 2000 - Wing Commander I Kilrathi Saga

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Did you know that Cobalt 60's Prophecy album wasn't Wing Commander's first flirtation with electro-industrial music? The band Velvet Acid Christ actually composed a track in 1994 called "Furless Freak" for an album called Dimension 8 that heavily sampled Super Wing Commander. When we say heavily we mean it: you're going to hear the first briefing and what seems to be a playthrough of the following mission. It's weird and cool! Is it worth your time? Yes, this is objectively the greatest song ever recorded.

Download MP3

Dimension 8 was not released commercially at the time but it was included as a hidden bonus in mp3 format on VAC's 2000 album Twisted Thought Generator. It was later made available for free at the band's website and in 2020 it was remastered for a digital release which you can purchase today! Here's the official description:

Dimension 8 by Velvet Acid Christ follows their previous

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The Alliance Assembly has voted to end the strategic defence pact between the Alliance and Sirius Corporation.
The pact, agreed in January 3308, was a response to growing Thargoid hostility in the months prior to the alien invasion of the core systems. At the time, the Alliance Defence Force was seen as lacking adequate Anti-Xeno modules and defences. Sirius Corporation spent billions on refitting ADF vessels over the past three years, but has been accused of leveraging its position to secure profitable contracts in unrelated fields.
The motion to end the pact was raised by Councilor Nakato Kaine, seconded by Councilor Ainsley Niven of Reorte, and was approved by a slim majority. In her opening argument Kaine had called the pact an 'opportunistic ploy for military influence in Alliance space, with eyes on a monopoly over small corporations founded in Alliance member systems.'
Prime Minister

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 Return of the Jedi which... you know Return of the Jedi, I don't need to explain this! 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,

Going into the original King Kong, we weren't sure what to think. Some of the older films in our series have been pretty stodgy by today's standards (looking at you, Dam Busters)... and being from 1933, King Kong was the oldest of them all. But we were pleasantly surprised: once King Kong got into the action it was effervescent and as much fun as a modern blockbuster.

The direct Wing Commander connection comes to us from a USA Network commercial in which Wing Commander Academy's background artists share that the island on Pisces in Word of Honor was based on the one from King Kong. Here's a comparison!

We suspect the entire movement through the second act of the episode was based on King Kong, though. Our heroes must transit a dense jungle... beset by sea monsters... and then escape to a climactic scene on the ledge of the mountain.

And for good measure, here's the shot that Chris

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

July 1998 issue of Femme Fatales magazine (offering "the luscious ladies of horror, fantasy and science fiction") has an interesting interview with Wing Commander III and Prophecy star Ginger Lynn Allen conducted while she was doing press for the latter game. It even features two photos of Ginger on set that we've never seen before (plus some fairly tame cheesecake from other parts of her career)! Scans are below; here's the Wing Commander-focused portion:

And, one year later, she rekindled her celebrity with an interactive CD game. The medium is full of X-rated divas, but Allen opted for some sci-fi extravagance with WING COMMANDER III: HEART OF THE TIGER. In lieu of moaning and heavy breathing, she was working with the likes of Tim Curry, Mark Hamill, John Rhy-Davies and Malcolm McDowell.

Debuting in 1989, WING COMMANDER — the first simulated 3-D space flight game — earned enough revenue to spawn

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Origin composer George Oldziey has started shipping out copies of his new Wing Commander album! While production continues for the vinyl, people who opted for just the CD will be receiving their shortly. George put out a survey call earlier in the month for people to confirm their addresses, and there are still some folks who haven't done that yet. Log in to the project's Kickstarter page for contact details and links to digital files to tide you over until the physical copies arrive!

Greetings all. I'm still waiting on delivery of the vinyl LPs so I apologize for the delay. I've begun sending CDs out domestically, although I still don't have everyone's mailing address. If you live in the US and pledged for the CD level and have not received your CD within the next week please email me your name and mailing address.

Those who are outside the US I will be getting to those CD deliveries this week.