You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In NowSign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountJun
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 Hell in the Pacific which inspired the look and feel of the Wing Commander movie. 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!
Mar
…Actor Christopher Walken recently made headlines when he revealed in an interview that he did not watch streaming video and didn't even own a cell phone. Well, this November 1995 Computer Game Review interview seems to suggest that's nothing new--here he says he's never even seen a CD-ROM (after shooting two of them)! This was published as a sidebar to an article about Ripper (which is now old enough that we should call it Bossman) but he talks about his work on Privateer 2: The Darkening, noting that he shot his role there for two days. And look how much fun he's having on the cover!
A small bonus from this issue: a previously unarchived version of the Wing Commander CTCG release advertisement with the tagline "Available Everywhere!"; sadly, this was not true!
One on One Exclusive Interview with Walken
“This guy can convey a character in a situation so well, it’s just unmatched.”
-Mark Semeret,
Sep
Happy birthday to Wing Commander I, which was released 33 years ago today! It marked an epochal shift in how computer games were played, made and sold... and I guess you could say it has been pretty big in my life, too!
It is often hard to assign a single date for when a game was released in the early 90s; it could be days to weeks to go from sign off to duplication to actually arriving in stores. There was no concept of a set ‘street date’ - but Origin celebrated “ship day” internally and that’s what we cite as a birthday when it’s known. Here’s an account of that day from Mike Harrison’s excellent contemporary making of piece:
Aug
A mobile game called Ultimate Golf is having an event called ‘Swing Commander’. And so I played 18 holes of internet golf to see if there was anything more to it than the name. And there was not. And I’m terrible at internet golf.
Aug
If you missed the big news earlier this week, be sure to check out the new WC4 Fan Remake demo! There are numerous fixes and updates, better joystick support and new in-flight comms. You can download it here (886 meg exe) and get right to playing! The WC Respace team has posted a full article with instructions and FAQs if you have any questions or issues. If you're not quite ready to jump in yourself, here's a video of The Eradicator checking the demo out. It's actually the original release, so the latest version is even better!
It looks like a team of modders are trying to remaster Wing Commander IV. In this video, we will check their work out.
Jun
…A summary of key events around the rise and fall of the tri-superpower organisation Aegis.
The Alliance, Empire and Federation created Aegis in 3303 to lead xenological research and coordinate defensive actions against the Thargoids. With fears that the alien species might one day overwhelm human-controlled space, Aegis's role was to spearhead the resistance against a common enemy.
There were concerns that Aegis might adopt the same unethical practices as its notorious predecessor INRA, which had been formed back in 3125 during the First Thargoid War. But the new agency was welcomed by most, providing intelligence on Thargoid activity as well as advanced weapons.
Since capital ships were vulnerable to the Thargoid shutdown field, Aegis soon had no choice but to rely heavily on independent pilots to perform ship-to-ship combat. And despite its effectiveness at coordinating defence, it was
Dec
LOST SHIPS! While Wing Commander 3 is chock full of completed-but-unused assets, Wing Commander 4 has very few. And here they are! First up, this Black Lance carrier is pretty sleek:
Here's a Confederation carrier under construction; it's NOT the TCS Princeton (CV-48) which appears in the Speradon series so it's not clear at all where this would've been used.
And the last one I've found so far, a unique Border Worlds starbase.
Aug
I've been slowly working through the Wing Commander footage to work out what a version of the movie that represents the shooting script and the vision Chris Roberts had in his head when setting out to make the WC movie might have looked like. While this clip isn't polished in the way a theatrical release would be you get a sense of the overall ambition of the project. I think it represents well the overall scope of changes you can expect in nearly every scene once we release a full cut of the movie for everyone to enjoy. Everything in the film is recontextualized and worked to better highlight the various character arcs. I hope you enjoy it.
Apr
…We have some extremely sad news to report today: per the Ex Origin Facebook group, veteran Wing Commander developer Kirk Winterrowd passed away suddenly this past weekend. Our hearts go out to his friends and family. If you'd like to share anything about him for posterity we would be happy to post any messages in a future update. By all accounts, he was both a talented game developer and a decent human being and we would like to take some time to celebrate his contributions to the Wing Commander universe. As we have after other tragic losses we hope that highlighting some of what he created–some of what we've enjoyed for decades now even if we didn't know it!–we will help keep his memory alive forever.
Like many people who attended 'Origin university', Mr. Winterrowd started in quality assurance and quickly proved how capable he was in a range of roles including production manager, music composer and
Apr
…November 16, 1996: eager young wingnuts turned on the USA Network to watch the latest episode of Wing Commander Academy, typically the third of four action shows aired in a block. But on this particular Saturday what we found was... Mortal Kombat? Had Wing Commander Academy been cancelled, pulled early? No, it turned out the episode was airing a half hour later. But it was a pretty crazy one, with Michael Dorn playing a... space viking?
Thus we were introduced to the Warrior King saga, an entirely insane (and unpromoted) cartoon crossover between four licensed IPs: Street Fighter, Savage Dragon, Mortal Kombat and Wing Commander Academy. The four shows went together to tell the story of the Warrior King, the aforementioned space viking, as he sought a magic orb that would restore his destroyed homeworld. Each show followed the rules of its universe, and the familiar characters and settings never
Aug
It may be the dog days of summer in the northern hemisphere and the throes of winter in the south, but GOG is ready to kick off fall today. The Autumn Sale runs from August 28 through September 11. We've noted a few quirks and omissions in the discount rate this year, and they've stepped it up a bit this time. Wing Commanders Prophecy and Privateer 2 are discounted by 70%, and Armada plus Academy are each 55% off. All other DOS/Windows Wing Commander games get the regular 75% markdown from the normal $5.99 price. Just for fun, I checked Strike Commander and it's on sale for 50% off!
Aug
Here, have a YouTube short of Happy Gaming House settling down to a nice game of Wing Commander 3 on the 3DO! It's a vertical vid, so you might want to go full screen for the complete effect!
Jan
…We've got a new poll up today that asks about your favorite communications options to send while in flight. There's a few tried and true ones that have been around since WC1, and some of the later games introduce a couple more that are less well known. The Comm VDU isn't generally considered a central element of Wing Commander, but I would argue it's a critical aspect to the immersion that we all feel in the game. So now we're giving you a chance to think about what comm selection you rely on or enjoy the most - vote below!
Our annual new year's poll has been running neck-and-neck over the past week, so we decided to call it today with a tie. Overall, the optimistic responses got more votes than the pessimistic ones, and the results were generally typical for the last few years' results. Although there's a fair number of fans who have doubts about what 2020 holds, there's some tremendous potential
Dec
…Attention! We’ve doubled our efforts to give Captains the necessary experience to deal with threats to the Galaxy. From Thursday, December 19th at 8AM PT, to Monday, December 23rd at 10AM PT, players will be able to enjoy twice the experience! During the event, content that provides skill points and expertise will reward a 100% (2x) Bonus above normal amounts – this bonus will be available for all content that rewards skill points and expertise. .share-footer a { margin: 20px 10px 10px 0; background: url(d7afaaa14e96d0d973f76157ae31ec5b1466398539.png) no-repeat 0 0; opacity: .5; display: inline-block; height: 60px; width: 60px; padding: 0; border: 1px solid transparent; -webkit-transition: opacity .3s; transition: opacity .3s; } .share-footer .TI { background-position: 0 20%; } .share-footer .YT { background-position: 0 40%; } .share-footer .YT {
Nov
…The seasonal favorite from years past is returning once more to Star Trek Online! Q proudly invites personnel of all ranks, allegiances, species, cosmological variances, and molecular stabilities (or lack thereof) to ring in the holiday season, and visit his Winter Wonderland for fun, frivolity, and prizes! Participate in your choice of Winter Wonderland Activities to work your way toward obtaining the fabulous new Fek’ihri Fe’rang Dreadnought Carrier [T6]! Complete details of this ship’s capabilities will be obtained in a separate Dev Blog. This year’s festivities will be integrated into our recently released Event Interface, as part of your Mission Journal. Now that this seasonal event has migrated to its new home, it has also undergone a significant update: Beginning this year, Daily Progress toward earning your new starship can be obtained by participating in any of the following
May
…
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
Apr
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... specifically, the infamous "Warrior King" crossover that tied together Street Fighter, Savage Dragon, Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm and Wing Commander Academy. How did it happen? Why did it happen? You'll learn that and more as we run the cycle together... so get ready to see just how dedicated the Warrior King is to his precious Orb! You can find details on that 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!
Jan
It's almost new year - Lunar new year that is - so GOG is celebrating with a big new round of discounts on Wing Commander games! Each package is 59% off or $2.45 per package. Finish out your digital collection some time in the next ten days!
Aug
The TCS Victory has so many amazing locations. The jump to SVGA 'photorealistic' backgrounds is still seared in my mind. It's so hard to pick a favorite, but the bridge might be it. I love the bar, I love gunnery control, and the briefing room is freakin cool, but all of the little consoles and expansive window with your escort out front really take the cake. Scribbler has created one more ASMR/ambiance video so you can enjoy it for a solid hour in the background.
Today we return to the TCS Victory. She can already look back on a long service. As long as some work shifts in space. No missions and no attacks? It can also be quiet in space but be careful, everything can change quickly. So stay alert and keep an eye on your monitors. The bridge is the heart of every shipFor ASMR, radio plays or to relax
Aug
…Having a grand time tonight flipping through Wing Commander I & II: The Ultimate Strategy Guide. This book is so cool. It’s written as an in-universe memoir with the main character (here named Carl LaFong) at age 73 looking back on his training and military career. There’s a neat meta layer too, he’s writing this memoir because he has just served as the technical advisor for 28th Century ‘holovid’ versions of Wing Commander I and II made by “Tristan Roberts”.
This kind of guide written as a novel wasn’t uncommon at the time. X-Wing and TIE Fighter had great ones, as did a bunch of the Sierra adventure game series.
Whoever owns the rights to these in 2023 should serve them up as ebooks; I bet there’s a mint to be made from retro gamers and general nostalgia fans. Despite being written by an Origin marketing executive the prose is wonderful. It captures the more limitless 1991 version of the IP
