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We have a small treat for you today: a significantly higher quality version of the Wing Commander IV 'making of' featurette that was released on German magazine cover discs! It's also slightly longer, with an additional minute of behind-the-screens footage. Check it out!
Oct
…The WC3 footage is great, but the enhanced WC4 footage is absolutely exquisite. This is the game where we have some of the best source material to start with, and it's also super easy to upgrade your copy of the game to play these high res clips. Just drop the files into the video folder of the DVD version of the game. GOG carries the DVD version by default, so it's cheap and readily available. Today's release is the fifth and "definitive" launch. It incorporates all of ODVS' extensive learnings and techniques and even includes some fixes for broken/omitted clips on the DVD. It truly is the definitive way to play the original (at least until the WC4 Fan Remake is finished!).
- Wing Commander 4: version 5.0, English, Pack 1 (3.3 gig zip)
- Wing Commander 4: version 5.0, English, Pack 2 (3.2 gig zip)
- Wing Commander 4: version 5.0, German, Pack 1 (3.2 gig zip)
- Wing Commander 4: version 5.0, German, Pack 2
Jun
The news continues in the world of Wing Commander streaming. Zeether noticed that the Academy television show has a little clock icon next to it on the Peacock service. After some further investigation, it seems that this means the show will be moving from the free to the paid version of Peacock in July. Note that Comcast Xfinity Flex and X1 customers can get the $5/month Peacock Premium plan for free, so that's one way to continue getting your Wing Commander fix. Alternately, the series is available on DVD for $16.49 currently. Owning the DVD is great, but the streaming version has better quality audio.
Jul
It appears that the pending removal of Wing Commander Academy wan't a false alarm. The show is no longer listed for streaming on the Peacock service. With the removal of great shows from a number of platforms and new paywalling/gatekeeping happening all over, it feels like the hits just keep coming. Fortunately you can still pick up the DVD for about $11. And never fear, the Wing Commander CIC remains free and there's no limit the number of forum posts you can view in a day. You can also always join us in Discord #Wingnut!
A peek back at better days:
Jun
There's good news on the streaming front! Last week we reported that a countdown ticker had appeared next to the Wing Commander Academy episodes on the Peacock streaming service. The Peacock support account suggested that this meant the show was moving from a free to a paid tier. However, Zeether noticed that the countdown has vanished and the show appears as it originally did. While it's possible the CIC's considerable clout and influence swayed some executives at NBCUniversal, it's far more likely that this was some kind of mistake or glitch. Note the two comparison shots below of the Exosquad lineup. Random episodes were briefly showing the clock icon, although they've since all gone back to normal. While it's great that everyone will continue to have access for the foreseeable future, it's also still not a bad idea to grab the show on DVD for a more permanent copy.
Apr
…AD came along an interesting Wing Commander sale at Movies Anywhere. As we reported a number of years ago, Movies Anywhere is a unifying service that allows your digital purchase from one storefront to appear in your library at many others. This includes Apple/iTunes, Amazon, Microsoft/Xbox, Google/YouTube and Vudu. Today's sale offers up free access to one of ten films if you buy one of a corresponding movie, including Wing Commander. Interestingly enough, WC is included in the Disney/Fox category, although the distribution rights have been a bit murky since reverting to Chris Roberts a few years back. Wing Commander briefly disappeared from storefronts and the disc copies went out of print, but it's since become widely available in digital format again for about $10.
As we continue into year two of the coronavirus pandemic, a small number of virtual conveniences have cropped up that I hope are
Dec
The ever-creative Tarsus has created another fun Wing Commander distraction to bring you some holiday cheer. With resources from the new Head Museum, he's created an automatic advent calendar with your favorite original WC characters as the daily reveal. It's a simple concept, but I can't wait to see who's queued up for tomorrow! Check it out for yourself here.
I've taken the liberty of making an advent calendar out of your heads.
Apr
…
We were originally planning to mix up the news a bit to start the week off, but George Oldziey’s campaign is off to such a roaring start that it’s become newsworthy again! In barely over a day since going live, the campaign to create a new live album of Wing Commander music has hit the 50% funding mark! This means more than $8000 of the $16,000 target has been achieved. When combined with Matt Hiltner’s previously mentioned large donation, we are very much well on the way to making this a reality! Things are going so well that George is already starting to firm up plans for some of the hypothetical stretch goals that have been on his mind. No one expected to be talking about that so soon, but it’s a wonderful situation to be in. All of this is made possible by the ongoing support from so many dedicated Wing Commander fans. This is just the beginning; so we’re very anxious to see where
Jan
…Last week we reported on the new Wing Commander II and Wing Commander Academy albums from Xeen Music. The albums are absolutely wonderful, including newly uncovered versions of tracks that no one has heard in almost 35 years! We've noticed some confusion about the different albums and versions currently available, so we've put together a quick cheat sheet and a master index to purchase or stream each version where available. Here's a quick cheat sheet:
Wing One - Music from Wing Commander I (27 tracks): This is The Fatman's 2016 release of the Wing Commander I music recorded from an authentic MT-32. This is NOT the release put together by Xeen Music.
Wing Commander I - Complete Original Soundtrack - MT-32 Archival Edition (55 tracks): This is the 2022 Xeen Music release of the Wing Commander I score. It is offered by The Fatman directly on some services. Every release listed below has the same music.
Jan
…We have another update on the road towards Origin composer George Oldziey's next great Wing Commander album. Unfortunately progress intersected with the devastating fires in California recently. Mr. Oldziey happened to be on the ground near LA as things were happening. He and his friends are safe, but some of the folks he was visiting sadly lost their homes, and the audio studio where they were set to work on the album mix was also without power for the trip.
Although this will slightly slow completion of the project, work still continues remotely as George continues to finalize the sound with expert audio engineer Bruce Botnick. He's also put together this impressive sample to give fans a taste of what's to come!
Greetings all. I wanted to offer a quick update as to the progress of the project. As I mentioned in a previous update I was planning to fly to LA to have the great Bruce Botnick mix all
Jul
…Origin composer George Oldziey is back with a new status update on the latest vinyl album of Wing Commander music. While CD production was completed earlier this year, the larger vinyl records have been trickier to produce. George is still pushing the producer hard to deliver in a timely manner, but forces outside his control have pushed the timetable of complex modern manufacturing out a bit. In the mean time, see below for a very cool behind-the-scenes look at how Mr. Oldziey worked with the live orchestra in Budapest to craft his latest musical delight!
Greetings all. Just to let you know I'm not "slacking off" here. I'm in contact with the company making the vinyl deliverables. Vinyl is a very hot format these days. Here is the latest reply from the company making your vinyl discs...Hi George,I'm so sorry I did not get back your voicemail yesterday, I was unexpectedly out of the office.
I
Apr
…It's been another productive day for George Oldziey's campaign to make a new live recording of Wing Commander music. We're less than five days in, and the project has hit $13,500. That's 5/6th of the target amount! During the planning phase, it wasn't clear exactly how difficult it would be to reach $16,000, so stretch goals were a secondary consideration. With the continued productive nature of the campaign, however, some of those additional opportunities for the project are coming into focus and will be firmed up very soon.
Ahead of that, I thought it would be nice to walk through some of the different tiers and highlight what is available. I know this information is readily available inside of the Kickstarter interface, but I also know how Exhausted Millennial Brain works. Reposting the details here removes one layer of mental friction so you can more easily see if something appeals to you.
May
…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
Oct
…
There's an incredible new update to Origin composer George Oldziey's project to make a new live orchestra Wing Commander album! Mr. Oldziey is traveling to Salt Lake next week to record the choral elements of his new album. He would then transition into the mixing and editing phase. On that front, he's managed to partner with a world renowned audio engineer, Bruce Botnick, who has worked on the audio of numerous Star Trek films and other sci-fi classics. They won't be able to formally begin their work together until early next year, but it still feels to me like the project is on an excellent track. It's still been less than five months since the crowdfunding campaign ended!
Greetings all. I just wanted to post an update about what's happening with this amazing project. I am about to head out to Salt Lake City next week to record the choir parts for the music. I will then have everything
May
…The physical copies of Origin composer George Oldziey's new Wing Commander album are now being mass produced, so Mr. Oldziey has shared a few samples of what to expect. He's posted the finalized graphics files for both the CD and vinyl album art. There's also sample audio copies of the vinyl album so you can get a taste of what it will sound like in long form! Backers can log in to the project's Kickstarter updates for the links.
Greetings all, and thank you for your amazing patience. Both the CD and vinyl products are (finally) in production as we speak. In the meantime I want to share all the cover art as well as the vinyl audio files for you to check out. The vinyl audio is obviously divided into two long audio files which will give you the opportunity to listen to the tracks in sequence without having to click on individual files. One note about the side A file; it starts with a 60 second
May
…
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.
Jun
…We've been reporting for a while now that Wing Commander Arena's days are numbered in the Microsoft XBox Live Marketplace. The game has had an incredible 17 year run, but all Xbox 360 games that aren't forward-compatible with the Xbox One/Series systems will be delisted from the company's digital storefront on July 29, 2024. The good news is that owners will be able to continue to play online for the foreseeable future, so we've been strongly recommending people buy the game while they have the chance. If you have yet to secure your own copy, there's no time like the present. Microsoft is in the process of heavily discounting a variety of the affected games, which includes a whopping 90% reduction for Arena. It's now only $0.99! You can buy it on the web, but there have been mixed reports of the store hanging and timing out. Try a different browser or return later if you have an issue. See you
Jun
…There has been a fair amount of chat about the deadline to buy Wing Commander Arena with many fans confused about what the game is and how to play it. Many have also encountered a bug in which their Xbox does not allow them to buy the game. We hope to help by answering these questions and others with this quick FAQ.
What is Wing Commander Arena?
Wing Commander Arena is a spinoff game set in the Wing Commander universe. It was developed for the Xbox 360 and released on Xbox Live Arcade on July 25, 2007. It was produced by Electronic Arts and developed by the now-defunct Gaia Industries studio. Xbox Live Arcade titles were small and often experimental budget games; they were released digitally for a low price point. Players should be aware that Arena is not a traditional Wing Commander game with a first person cockpit view and an interactive story. It is a top-down shooter with a heavy focus on frenzied
Feb
…This is a crazy story! Everyone's favorite officially licensed top-down Xbox 360 Wing Commander shooter was released back in July 2007. In the original
press releaseannouncing its launch, EA confirmed that Wing Commander
Arenawas coming out in all markets where Xbox Live Arcade existed - except Japan. Finally, it's now available for
¥ 1,188or about $11.
cached
In confirming this unusual turn of events, Music_Guru was able to find a
copy of the page from several weeks ago that still shows just the theme packs for sale. Interestingly, the Confed and Kilrathi Xbox
dashboard themeswere released in Japan back in 2007, and websites even
reviewed them separatelyat the time. Arena is also listed in various '
new release' listings with a January 24, 2019 debut called out. If you're in Japan and still have your 360 hooked up, we'd love to hear about your experience. Are there any localization tweaks made
Oct
…We've got good news to report today for Wing Commander Arena fans! Back in August, people started to notice that the Xbox achievement records for certain games were no longer showing properly. This was distressing to us, since Arena was one of the games that appeared to be suffering from this predicament. Players' total point score seemed unaffected, and the achievements still appeared to show up at third party websites that had access to the source data, so we were hoping that this was just some kind of technical glitch. Additionally, other classic Xbox Live Aracade games like EA's Boom Boom Rocket were still appearing normally. Fortunately, we noticed this week that the game was one again showing up properly in Xbox gamertag profiles. You can now see all 12 Wing Commander achievements on your console, the web or mobile app. Check out how your score stacks up here (may need to log in to an
