News categories list

  • 06

    Mar

    wc4_remake84t.jpgThere's a big new update on the progress of WC4 Remastered! The WCRespace team is now well into building out the Masa System with the new ships and gameplay mechanics that the game introduces there. They've got shuttle docking working and DefianceIndustries has introduced his very impressive Tallahassee cruiser. Plus there's additional discussion on targets to get a closed beta going by the end of the year and a tentative initial release next year.

    While it’s still possible we’ll hit the February 12, 2026 target, we’re preparing for a slight delay to ensure we have enough time to polish the visuals. So we may be following in the original’s footsteps and delay the release to hit the 30th anniversary year, though possibly not the exact day.

    We plan to have a closed beta by sometime close to the 30th anniversary of the original advertised release date (December 8th this year). The feedback from that

  • 15

    Feb

    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 Judge Dredd (1995) which provided two ex-military vehicles to the 1999 Wing Commander moie! 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!

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  • 22

    Oct

    CountvonSchnaps has a new sketch: a wonderful Tallahassee class cruiser like the TCS Coventry in WC3. I really like what he's done with colors, paneling and detail across the hull. It adds some rich character! He originally drew a Southampton destroyer, which we highlighted last year. I missed the cruiser addition until Dragon1 pointed it out this week, but I'm happy to be able to share both now!

    countvonschnaps_art2t.jpg

    A redesign (slightly) of a cruiser featured in Wing Commander 3 and 4: the Tallahassee Class cruiser. Sporting 11 turrets (2x dual barrel heavy antimatter turrets, 1 x dual barrel tachyon gun turret and 8 laser cannons) it also has a front mounted axial gauss cannon and a torpedo/missile launcher. Similar to the Southampton it has a hangar bay located at the back which can house a full wing of fighter; typically, 4 Arrow light fighters and a shuttle.

    It is fun to make ships like these, in a sketchy and

  • 29

    Jul

    Here's a double shot of retro for your 'spective! These come from the Rowan J Coleman channel on YouTube, which has more than 120,000 subscribers, so we're happy to see such a wide audience get a peek at the highlights of the WC series. The author notes that he was born after these games was released, so it can be hard to fully appreciate everything from that frame of reference. Nevertheless, he's become quite a fan. Although we're quite familiar with everything shown here, watching these always makes me want to jump back in. There is a little bit of salty language peppered throughout, so steer clear Wedge!

    Here's a look at one of the few FMV games which wasn't sh*t, Wing Commander III Heart of the Tiger.
    Returning to the Wing Commander series now. While I appreciated Wing Commander III Heart of the Tiger a lot, I had heard Wing Commander IV The Price of Freedom was even better. Spoiler alert: it
  • 13

    May

    Here at the CIC, we're super lucky to have quite a few fan artists who are also professional 3D modelers in their day jobs. But everyone has to start somewhere, and we're also big supporters of Wingnuts who are just dabbling in these types of subjects. On that note, here are some early attempts at the TCS Tiger's Claw by Rictheron. He only first started learning to model last month, so I'd say these are a pretty cool first effort! He's shared these early renders in order to get some feedback from the community. And while he might be new to modeling, he's been visiting the CIC for a couple decades, so head over to the CIC Forums to let him know what you think!

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  • 27

    Oct

    Today we have a very sleek Heretic model built by AdamKop. As you can see from the comparison shots beneath, the design stays close to the in-game model. It's a little bit less weathered than most versions we encounter, which comes across as nice and clean. The motion blur and engine effects are also a nice bonus!

    privateer_heretic_adamkopt.jpgFrom left to right: the in-game model, the front box cover and a 1995 promo shot.

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  • 21

    Apr

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    Ever wonder how medals work in Wing Commander I? Well, I am putting together a guide anyway.

    It's not uncommon for discussions at the CIC Forums to touch on the concept of "medal points" and how this influences whether you are awarded a certain star or sometimes nothing at all. It often shows up in the news and on Discord too. Many fans have had a general understanding dating all the way back to Secrets of the Wing Commander Universe, but what exactly are the details? How many points do you get for taking out a Dralthi versus a Snakeir? Certain missions each make a single medal available, but we realized we didn't have a nice concise article that spelled out what that threshold was and how you achieved it. So LOAF finally went and did it! This then naturally led into topics like the hypothetical maximum medal slate that a pilot can earn based on their path through the game, which have been noted

  • 19

    Aug

  • 09

    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

  • 04

    Apr

  • 11

    Aug

    cake-2013t.jpgHappy Birthday to us! Today officially marks twenty-five years at wcnews.com! It's been a long road, getting from there to here. It's been a long time, but we're glad you're still here! It's been our privilege to be a part of the Wing Commander community for more than a quarter century, and we're looking forward to many more years here with you.

    While today is the formal anniversary of when we first unveiled the Wing Commander CIC, we'll be holding the big birthday party in a bit over a week on Saturday, August 19. The fun kicks off at 7:00 pm EDT (4:00 pm PDT and 11:00 pm GMT) in Discord #Wingnut.

    To commemorate today's milestone, LOAF will be hosting part four of four of his exhilarating Wing Commander Confederation Handbook series this evening. You can watch live and see exactly what goes into deep diving WC lore (also targeted to begin at the same 7 pm Eastern/4 pm Pacific). Stop back here for

  • 02

    Aug

    If you're like me and intensely follow the ups and downs of Wing Commander pricing across the internet, we have some very exciting news today! GOG.com has been regularly discounting Wing Commander games for many years, and for the vast majority of that time it's been very by the numbers: all eight packages discounted 75%. Just a couple weeks ago though, we noted that they were running a "Make Classics Last Forever" sale with Armada and Academy omitted. Now they're kicking off a week-long "Shooter Sale . Fortunately, all the DOS/Windows Wing Commander games are back this time, but Prophecy and Privateer 2 are just 70% off rather than 75%. That means they're $1.79 each instead of $1.49. Bizarre! Still, a wonderful chance to fill out your digital WC collection!

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  • 15

    Aug

    Everyone's got Wedge's website bookmarked for quick access to scripts from the various Wing Commander games... and while that's served us well for decades, we're ready to unveil your first look at something better! LOAF has spent the last year painstakingly extracting the exact text scripts from a wide variety of Wing Commander games. And we don't just mean titles like "WC1" and "WC2." As it turns out, there's differences between disk versus CD editions, console port versus original and so on. There's also more to the game than cutscenes. LOAF's also pulling in comm chatter and other peripheral text. There's still a lot to add, but the magnitude of what's already been gathered is incredible. You can find the live working file here! Enjoy, and let us know what you think!

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  • 04

    May

    Way back in 2005, we reported on the surprising find that the semi-official Wing Commander Movie website at wingcommander.gms.lu was still live and operational - albeit untouched since 1998. These days it's common to see corporate websites taken offline rather than sit idle for years in suspended animation, which owes to both the cost of maintenance and to avoid the appearance of stale content. Even if that doesn't happen, after five or ten years, somebody pulls the plug. But a few slip through from time to time, and the Carousel Picture Company and Global Media Systems' "Wingcommander Homepage" is one of them! You can visit for yourself here. It's a simple site that primarily focuses on photos taken from the set. This leads to some amazing shots of the Rapier fighters and Kilrathi suits. The cast list still lists Ken Bones as the "traitor," which was a subplot cut from the film, although the

  • 18

    Apr

    EpytronOmega has been diligently working on rendering Wing Commander ships over the last few months, and he's got several sharp models to show for it. His first two designs exist at opposite ends of the Confed spectrum: a Behemoth class dreadnought and Arrow light fighter. I used to love flying around the interior of that giant gun, so the angle that looks down the Behemoth's maw brings back some fond memories. The Arrow is also quite respectable, and his new Bearcat is coming along quite well. Epytron's main goal is to try to build assets for games like Sins of a Solar Empire, so it'll be interesting to see where these pop up!

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    • Here is my take on the Behemoth from Wing Commander 3: Heart of the Tiger.
    • This is my rendition of the Arrow Class fighter from Wing Commander. It is my first texture made in Substance painter, and I have to say that I am pretty pleased with it.
    • Here is the work I’ve done on
  • 25

    Nov

    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

  • 19

    Aug

  • 12

    Jul

    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 Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and you can find details on why we're watching it in the announcement post here (it's a weird one!). The movie will start about 7 PM PST/10 PM EST but feel free to drop by and hang any time!

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  • 31

    Dec

    alanbaker_art5t.jpgAlan Baker has been working with the Tiger's Claw, and the results have been interesting! He's attempting to make the Claw fit in with the visual style of WC3/4. I love the colorful tones and textures of WC1/2, but this kind of works. I especially like those WC3/4 era turrets. He's also paired the carrier with Klavs' Scimitar and Hornet to make a nifty vertical phone wallpaper.

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    Playing around with a concept for the Tiger's Claw from the first Wing Commander game, aligning it closer to the aesthetic of WCIII/IV.
  • 29

    Jun

    I love these European CD-ROM Classics that came in thick jewel cases. How cool would it be to have a collection of them in all the different languages? Here's a recent photo posted by Stephan:

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    I really appreciated the CD-ROM Classics and bought them regularly. If I remember correctly, they had their own EA displays at the POS. Great selection of excellent titles. I have kept a few to this day.

    I believe there were three Wing Commanders:

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