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Another wonderful Origin ad layout from 1993! What are the odds? I wonder if there's anything interesting in here...

Academy's stunning key art is by Chris Douglas (again!) and Jake Rodgers, another one of Origin's talented early 3D artists. It has two Return of the Jedi explosions, too! The oddest part is the ships which... aren't in the game at all, no "Dralthi MK VII" in Academy.

These ads started running late summer 1993 and continued through the end of the year. There was a pretty significant running change towards the end of the campaign that's worth comparing to the scan above:

The first one: "holodeck console" becomes "holographic simulator". I've worked in game marketing long enough to know EXACTLY how that conversation with legal went.

The other one is that "The Wave" becomes "The Gauntlet"... that's clearly a development change and it is a much better name!

The screenshots are fascinating.

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Bandcamp is once again having Juneteenth fundraiser. This means that their share of the proceeds from each sale go towards advocacy for racial justice. They are the prime retailer for the MT-32 Archival Edition of Wing One, the album of original Wing Commander music, so this is one of the rare opportunities for your WC purchases to go towards a charitable cause. If you don't own a copy, this is a wonderful audio experience to fill out your WC collection with! Grab it here for $10 (and do it on Monday for the Juneteenth benefit!).

On Monday, June 19th, from midnight to midnight Pacific Time, we’ll hold our fourth annual Juneteenth fundraiser, where we donate 100% of our share of sales to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, a racial justice organization with a long history of effectively enacting change through litigation, advocacy, and public education.

There is also a publisher-authorized free streaming

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... how did it take me 26 years to realize that John Hurt's character in Privateer 2 was named after his Alien role?! Turns out I am not actually the world's second greatest Wing Commander detective. He's just "JOE THE BARTENDER" in the shooting script, so it's possible this was just quietly slipped into the in-game database.

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Privateer 2 is great and you can't tell me it's not. I love the weird aesthetic and the novels worth of bizarre world building in all the booth and mission text.

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I think you could use a little Prophecy Advance today. Talking heads might seem like a step back, but it's amazing what Raylight did to compress the story down to fit on a GBA cart. And that 240x160 mobile 3D spaceflight engine is impressive to this day! Unfortunately, I missed the game's twentieth anniversary (on May 28!) a couple weeks back, but you can read my big post celebrating the game's first decade here!

Raylight Games is a leading European videogames development studio based in Benevento and in the sunny Napoli, south of Italy.Funded in 2000. Raylight Games has developed dozen of games ranging from Handheld Consoles. Home Consoles. Mobiles and PC. In 2001 we started the development of BlueRoses, our own multiplatform framework on which our core team develops games.Originally developed for the Nintendo GameBoy Advance, BlueRoses has been used to develop Wing Commander: Prophecy. which has

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The Dedicant has disappeared from Popontia, just a few hours after thousands of Far God cultists boarded the megaship with a Federal escort.
The cultists were due for transfer aboard the vessel from Federal to Allied space, where amnesty has been offered by Prime Minister Mahon. In exchange for their release, the True Chapters sect agreed to unlock access to its secretive databanks and sacred texts prior to departure. The Dedicant instead initiated a hyperspace jump ahead of schedule, failing to arrive in the Mullag system as planned.
The Federal Navy and the Allied Defence Force both deployed search parties along the route between systems. Their initial reports stated that no signals were detected, and have found no evidence that the Dedicant was intercepted or destroyed. The megaship's current location and status remain unknown.
Executive Agent Jalen Locke of the Federal Intelligence Agency

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We remember it taking FOREVER for each new Wing Commander game to come out... but how long did it actually take to develop them? It's pretty crazy compared to how long it takes to make a AAA game today!

This is production to release only, though, so it's not the full story. For instance, Chris Roberts spent several months developing the technology behind the original Wing Commander on his own before it became a budgeted Origin project. Similarly, Wing Commander Arena signed off months before it was released and it sat in a crowded XBox Live Arcade release queue. For further comparison, Strike Commander's famously endless delays meant that it spent... 18 months in production! That's nothing today.

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*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
Requests for tissue samples obtained from the Thargoid Titans have been made by Aegis and Azimuth Biotech.
Leon Banerjee, science correspondent for Vox Galactica, reported on the rival initiatives:
"The Titans offer a tremendous opportunity for xenological research, but carry equally significant risks. These involve passing through the Maelstroms' caustic clouds and energy barriers, avoiding Thargoid patrols, and escaping with tissue samples intact. Only the most determined pilots would undertake such missions, and the two leading anti-xeno organisations seek to attract these individuals with considerable payouts."
"There are numerous unique materials identified so far. In this campaign, both Aegis and Azimuth Biotech are looking to acquire a large stock of tissue samples. These are recovered using research limpets at various points on the Titan's architecture,

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Today we have a couple of neat animation tests by AllTinker. He's exploring the potential use of voxel creations to help update some of the old school designs into 3D models. They take some work to do, but the results are fairly decent for an initial test. This would just be one potential aspect of what Tinker's Confederation project is attempting to do. You can read up on the effort here.

I mentioned a few posts back that I was looking at voxel conversion as a potential option for adding full 3D rotation to the original 2D sprites. My early tests are pretty positive; here's an early (pretty rough) test of the WC1 Dralthi, converted (manually) to voxels from the original sprites. Each one seems like it will take a fair chunk of work, but it seems far from a prohibitive amount... Some will certainly be more difficult than others though.

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Van Burnham has posted an update on the next phase of the campaign to produce a Deluxe vinyl pressing of the WING COMMANDER score. While the initial Indiegogo effort didn’t hit the funding goals necessary to kick off production, Van is working the numbers and determining what it will take to move forward from here. The album was initially projected for next year, so there's still time to work through options and figure out how to close the gap and make this a reality. Of course, Wing Commander fans are nothing if not patient. Stay tuned for future updates!

Hi everybody... thank you so much for supporting this project. I'm incredibly excited to make the Wing Commander orchestral score on deluxe vinyl a reality. That said, it goes without saying that I'm disappointed the campaign did not reach it's minimum funding goal and am in the process of sorting out some issues with this platform as a result. I

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The Federation has agreed to the expulsion of all adherents of the Order of the Far God to the Alliance.
President Zachary Hudson issued a statement alongside the government decision:
"Any ideology that worships the Thargoids is destructive and treasonous, especially now we are at war with that species. I believe that rather than waste taxpayers' money keeping these deluded individuals incarcerated, the Federation is better off without them."
"This morning I accepted Prime Minister Mahon's proposal. All former citizens known to have pledged themselves to this toxic religion will be transported beyond our borders and into the care of the Alliance."
Security services have prioritised the True Chapters cultists currently imprisoned in the Popontia system, labelling them as high-risk compared to orthodox Far God followers. They will be escorted to Alliance space aboard the Dedicant, having agreed

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Here are the amazing takeoff and landing sprites from the original Wing Commander. Along with the cockpits these were absolutely essential in establishing the player's ship in their head (and showing-not-telling damage after a mission!).

Here are the Wing Commander II versions:

This is an interesting comparison to the WC2 landing art, the similar (but decidedly different) side views used for the eject cutscenes. They didn't do these for the new ships in the mission disks!

And here's the kind of detail that makes a Chris Roberts game special: when the cockpit slides open you can see just a little strip of the tan cockpit... which matches the side view you have in flight!

You can download a reference pack with dozens of cockpit images from WC1, WC2, WC3, Academy, Armada and Privateer here!

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Wing Commander Prophecy veterans: do you remember Lt. Anderson, the TCS Midway's comm officer? He showed up in briefings and other cutscenes as well in dozens of postage stamp videos in-flight.

So, Origin's Official Guide to Wing Commander Prophecy has a surprisingly extensive biography that claims that Anderson traces his lineage back to an RAF pilot who fought in World War II. Is there a historical figure who matches the clues?

We're looking for an RAF pilot (specifically an officer) who defended against the Blitz. Luckily, The Few are extensively memorialized online… which leads us to a clear candidate: Squadron Leader Michael Anderson!

Anderson commanded 604 Squadron during the Battle of Britain flying Bristol Beaufighter night fighters. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for shooting down a Heinkel 111 (and two probables). Here's a great painting of that encounter by Mark Postlethwaite!

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There have been some new developments with the Peacock service this month, and this could affect your access to stream Wing Commander Academy. As you know, Peacock added WCA to its slate of shows back in 2020. Although the series is readily available on DVD for cheap, there are a handful of improvements that make the streaming edition arguably superior, including better music/voice sound balance. A few items fixed on disc were not incorporated, however, and you can read all about these differences here. In 2021 a countdown appeared that implied the show would be moving to a higher paid tier, but this was soon dialed back. The ticker has now reappeared, which suggests it may only remain in its current form until the end of the month. Presumably, the show would remain in either the Premium or possibly Premium Plus category.

On a very much related note, there have also been some big changes in who

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Studying the Thargoid Titans has become a priority for Azimuth Biotech, which is keen to learn more about the alien motherships.
Director Xavier Rousseau , head of the corporation's bioscience division, was interviewed by the tech industry ICE channel On/Off Switch:
"The Thargoid Titans present us with a range of exciting unknowns. What technologies were involved in their construction? We do not know. What exactly is a Titan's hull comprised of? We cannot tell. How do the glowing openings on its superstructure work? We are not certain. Do they perform the same function as our docking bays? We can only speculate."
"How can we find these answers? By analysing whatever fragments and residues can be obtained directly from the Titans themselves. What military breakthroughs will result? What scientific marvels could be unlocked? What commercial opportunities might arise? We at Azimuth Biotech will

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Today we've got a couple of cool 3D takes by Tore Gettoni. He's taken the 2D sprites from a pair of famous WC2 ships and visualized them in rotating three dimensions as a type of pixel art. The result is a neat hybrid of modern and classic visuals styles. We'd love to see more material like this with a similar aesthetic!

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Wing Commander II - TC Fighter F-44 Rapier II

Flying high with my brother @boldyfrenk and his beat straight from the shadiest systems in the Enigma sector

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Wing Commander II - Kilrathi Empire Fighter Drakhri

Second joint with my brother @boldyfrenk and his beat recovered from a covert operation behind Kilrah's lines in the Enigma sector

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Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The Alliance Assembly has submitted an appeal for clemency to Federal Congress for followers of the Order of the Far God.
The Thargoid-worshipping faith was outlawed by the Federation in October 3308, after a failed initiative in the Popontia system to outfit a megaship named the Dedicant. Every member of the 'True Chapters' sect on board was arrested and stripped of citizenship, with FIA agents rounding up known collaborators in subsequent days. This was in accordance with the Federal constitution which forbids supporting enemies of the state, which the Thargoids are legally classified as.
As part of the request, Prime Minister Edmund Mahon stated:
"The Alliance upholds the principles of religious tolerance, and our systems are free to develop their own laws regarding faith. This means we have always welcomed the Order of the Far God, regardless of its controversial nature. While many

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Today we've got a very thorough retrospective by Space Cadet Rewind. He set out to create an elaborate analysis of all the ins and outs of the original Wing Commander, and the resulting video came out to almost two hours! He covers a wide variety of topics including the history of the genre, mechanics of the game, mission rundowns, wingmen profiles, tips for each ship, info on the expansions/ports and more. I'm still going through it myself! If you've got a couple hours to wrap yourself in a thick WC1 blanket, give the clip below a watch!

A longform review/analysis of Wing Commander, the original space sim.

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AD has done a little digging and found some interesting new aspects to a wild Wing Commander 3 promotion. We've previously reported about the contest to win a flight aboard a "Russian fighter jet" that was part of the WC3 marketing campaign. It was apparently an even larger event than we knew with French adverts to fly a MiG rather than the Su-27 called out in English fine print (despite them using the same fighter jet image). They do seem to refer to separate trip rewards, however, based on slight differences in what the prize packages entail (different date ranges, mention of spending money, supplemental US trip details, etc). The images below also show how there was a red box sleeve band around certain copies of the game to advertise everything, which is pretty neat. These copies are still listed on eBay for collectors out there! English & French

And here's more detail from our previous posts!

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Did you ever wonder why Privateer's missions go from series 5 to 7 in the game's internal numerical sequencing? Series 6 was cut pretty late in the process... but now we've found an earlier version of the game's script that includes them! After finding the derelict, you take the gun to the ship dealer on New Detroit...

There a man named WILMER tells you that he can't install the gun because you need to talk to Roman Lynch again. Roman Lynch is the mob boss you last saw earlier in the game after he sent his henchman Miggs to murder you and steal your artifact.

Incidentally, this finally explains why there is a never used closeup background stored in the game for a conversation with the ship dealer!

Lynch runs this town and you can only get the gun installed if you fly a series of missions for him. The missions are especially immoral, attacking business rivals and civilians...

... and one of them is an