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Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Here's a peek at an interesting prototype of the Wing Commander Universe Map included with Wing Commander Prophecy. We first caught a glimpse of this during our 2012

trip

to the University of Texas archive. While the

final map

detailed many sectors where most of the main events happened in the series, this appears to be a little snippet that just traces through the events of WCP. Due to the number of differences, it appears to predate even the

preview map

that was released online during development, which is pretty cool! Extra bonus: Pix, ace and LOAF posing Texas-style with George Oldziey's CD!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Here's a peek at an interesting prototype of the Wing Commander Universe Map included with Wing Commander Prophecy. We first caught a glimpse of this during our 2012

trip

to the University of Texas archive. While the

final map

detailed many sectors where most of the main events happened in the series, this appears to be a little snippet that just traces through the events of WCP. Due to the number of differences, it appears to predate even the

preview map

that was released online during development, which is pretty cool! Extra bonus: Pix, ace and LOAF posing Texas-style with George Oldziey's CD!

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots Federation ALERT*
The values of combat bonds and anti-xeno bonds have been increased, as factions focus on bolstering defences.
Financial instability and the current political tensions have led to factions upscaling their rewards for combat bonds, as well as bonds received for destroying Thargoid vessels.
These increases to anti-xeno and combat bonds will be in effect across Alliance, Federal, Imperial and independent space. They can be processed as usual at any starport offering the relevant services.
This follows a turbulent period in many marketplaces that has impacted commodity prices, as well as producing a boost to the value of bounty vouchers.
The changes were remarked upon by Professor Ophelia Kaufmann, head of economics at Orion Independent University:
"As anticipated, the ongoing volatility of financial markets has led to further widespread revaluation. With heightened

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

We talk a lot about the Super Nintendo ports of Wing Commander here, because they were a major vector for many people to get hooked on the series in the early '90s. Despite that, there were a few major things that generally fly under the radar and haven't been widely seen. One such change is the intro to The Secret Missions. It features an entirely new cutscene talking about the march of the Kilrathi and the development of their new super weapon (which ends up being the graviton weapon employed by the Sivar dreadnought at Goddard). I love the WC1 intro below for its clippy music and downscaled graphics, but you have to check out the second clip with the new Secret Missions vid! You can find more classic game intros at Retro Opening Games. Nintendo World Report TV also recently put out an exhaustive overview of WC on Nintendo platforms, which you can find here!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Some cool bespoke menus from Wing Commander IV for the Macintosh.

I was surprised to realize tonight that the gauntlet demo for the Mac is actually different from the PC version... it's ALL Arrows!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

AD found a neat new Lego creation over at Bricklink. It's a mini Banshee created by CBSNAKE. A lot of Lego miniatures make compromises and don't resemble their intended inspiration particularly well, but wow, this just nails it! All the key features are depicted, and the colors are even spot on. This would be a fun project to actually source the pieces and build!

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

A thermonuclear weapon, launched over a thousand years ago during Earth's Third World War, has been discovered.

The intercontinental ballistic missile was found beneath the Pacific Ocean, during construction of new undersea habitation off the coast of California.

Lieutenant Commander Page Patterson, a munitions-disposal specialist for the Federal Navy, gave this statement:

"The missile was partially embedded in the ocean floor when aqua-engineering teams found it. Erosion of the casing makes identification difficult, but the design is consistent with strategic ordnance of the mid-21st century. Its thermonuclear warhead would have had an explosive yield of 45 megatons."

"Robotic avatar units have successfully disarmed the missile's uranium core, so the risk to local populations has been nullified. We are now treating the area for radiation leakage. The remains of the missile will be scrapped."

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
Reports from independent explorers indicate that an unusual visual phenomenon has appeared in deep space.
A distant point of light, described as a reddish-orange flare with faint radial patterns, has been observed close to the Barnard's Loop nebula. It is thought to have appeared only recently. Universal Cartographics has confirmed that the location of this 'flare' does not match any previously catalogued stellar body or star.
Early attempts to verify these reports have noted a strange response when the same region of space is observed through a full spectrum system scanner (FSS). No definitive target can be isolated, but claims of a faint background noise generated by FSS audio converters have been asserted.
Commander Eva Llewellyn, speaking to Vox Galactica, remarked:
"I'm used to the FSS making all sorts of strange noises, but listening to this thing – comet,

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

The Infinity Lock Box, containing prizes from nearly all previously-retired Lock Boxes, will be available again for an appearance on PC During this time, enemies defeated on both Ground and Space maps will have a small chance of dropping one of these prize-filled packages. This run of the Infinity Lock Box will feature the addition of the Undine Cheirax Bio-Warship [T6], and the Borg Lockbox contents! Meanwhile, the Undine Kiwavi Bio-Cruiser [T6] will be joining the Lobi Store! Continue reading further on for the full details on these new offerings. Updated Prize Lists! Along with the undine ships and all of the prizes offered in previous appearances of the Infinity Lock Box, additional prizes originally seen in the Borg Lock Box have been added to the rewards! They now include all of the following: Liberated Borg Command Juggernaut [T6] Console - Universal – Retrofitted

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Privateer 2's spaceflight has an interesting design where each ship model has just one set of textures... but they are designed to change their appearance based on which of ten or so palettes are selected.

The odd thing is that it's barely used! Each faction has a distinct livery that it uses this to display... but the game itself never actually changes them so you end up only ever seeing each ship with just one look.

I'm not sure why it works this way at all, but it sure is cool to go back and see familiar ships in other colors!

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Professor Alba Tesreau, Professor Ishmael Palin and Ram Tah have released a joint statement regarding the alien sound heard at HIP 22460.
"There has been much speculation about the mysterious noise that was recorded following the Battle of HIP 22460, which is clearly of Thargoid origin. Thanks to the help of Seo Jin-ae, formerly known as Subject D-2, we have started to comprehend some of its meaning."
"What was audible to humans was only part of a complex multi-frequency transmission, amplified by the energy surging through the Thargoid surface site which housed the Proteus Wave weapon. Its specifics remain indecipherable for the moment, but certain aspects were isolated with the aid of Ms Seo, whose unique neural implants were designed to interface with Thargoid technology."
"She believes there is a 'call and response' element, as if the signal was a reply to the Thargoid forces in HIP

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Here's a magazine ad for the version of QEMM that came bundled with Privateer and Shadowcaster... and look, there was an Ultima Underworld version, too! Neat.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Today we have a couple of hand drawn sketches by AirenWoodmoon. They're both based on RPG notebooks that the artist drew years ago starring the characters from Wing Commander. We don't see nearly as many sketches like this as we used to, but of all the inspirations for such drawings, WC3 has clearly been the most popular. These are based on settings from WC1/2 and Prophecy, which makes them pretty cool and unique. I mean, Shadow and Doomsday? Stiletto and Kevin Tolwyn? What a deep throwback!

So every notebook needs a back cover, right? One of the original Pilots' Notebooks had an insert cover that I had done of the first group I started playing with in the Wing Commander Universe, way back when I was a kid. I've been obsessed with Wing Commander off and on my entire life, and I was indoctrinated watching my dad play the first two games on the Amiga, and playing myself when I was old enough.

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The anti-slavery charity Unchain has officially purchased the 4,000 Imperial slaves who were forcibly freed on Eotienses A 3.

Princess Aisling Duval, the charity's patron, gave the following statement to the press:

"The contracts of all those liberated against their will have been acquired by Unchain. They will be properly cared for while they work to build a new Unchain headquarters in Port Isabelle. This will allow them to pay off their debts and become free citizens once more."

When pressed further by journalists, Princess Aisling offered a wry smile along with her explanation:

"I'm well aware of the irony of an anti-slavery organisation hiring Imperial slaves. We do this only to prevent further suffering at Port Isabelle and undo some of the damage caused by Autonomy. Allow me to specify that this is a practical solution to a problem of the Empire's own making."

"The indentured servitude

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The purchase of shipbuilding company Lakon Spaceways by Core Dynamics is in doubt after allegations of illegal business practices.
Irfan Karim reported on the recent developments for The Alliance Tribune:
"The Independent Commission for Market Equality has confirmed that several Lakon shareholders sold their stock to shell companies, which were covertly established by departments within Core Dynamics. Furthermore, two serious accusations of blackmail have been referred to Alliance Interpol."
"Trent Delaney, Lakon's newly installed chairperson, has dismissed these claims. But coupled with serious rumblings from the Council of Admirals over losing a military supplier, this hostile takeover now looks less certain."
In the Federation, the newsfeed Sol Today ran an editorial piece on the situation:
"Acquiring Lakon is another bold triumph for manufacturing colossus Core Dynamics. It's a shame that

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

I usually try to shake things up a bit more, but we've been on kind of a roll this week with unboxing videos. Dare I share a third one in a row? I will! Yesterday we saw one of the big box/film can versions of Wing Commander 3 opened up, and today we have its exotic cousin - the German big box film can WC3 special edition! You can find a photo of its contents in Dennis Mull's collection here. Or watch CometMatti open his below! It's in German, but the excitement is clear in any language!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

UnboxingHands has done an unboxing video for Wing Commander. I like these types of videos because Wing Commander arrived before modern YouTubing, and these are such fun games to open up! A couple things caught our eye in this case. It's the Amiga version of WC1, which isn't vastly different than more common iterations, but there are a few unique elements such as the styling on the floppy disks. It also comes with the nice single-sided fighter blueprints. It's got some funky music in lieu of a voice track, but I really like the video editing technique he employs: after zooming in on each screenshot on the back of the box, the clip cuts to an animated in-game version of that sequence. It's a nice effect!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

quasardeep shared a neat photo of an incredibly elaborate Russian bootleg of Privateer 2. It has a color manual, printed disc and fully translated instructions. As there was no official Russian version, this was the only way for them to be able to play decades ago. It sounds like they've since acquired an officially boxed copy, but this is a fun and priceless artifact in its own way. You can now get P2 and the rest of the WC games at GOG for $5.99 or less.

I was a big fan in the 90s. Discs with Wing Commander were not sold at all. With great difficulty I was able to buy this pirate disc. But considering the Wing Commander legacy, I was eventually able to buy the official box.

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Exotheologian Dr Alfred Ulyanov has commented on the abandoned Far God outposts recently discovered in the Etain system:

"This fascinating discovery implies that the missing chapters of the Far God sect were not arrested or killed, but instead fled to secret outposts to avoid persecution."

"According to personal logs recovered from the sites, the sect's members planned to wait in suspended animation for the coming of the Far God. The logs also reveal surprising details about what motivated these individuals to devote themselves to the faith."

"Evidence suggests that the settlements on Etain 4a and 4c both came under attack, but whether by Thargoids or human forces is unclear. Mysteriously, no trace remains of the inhabitants."

"I am indebted to the explorers who discovered these sites. This information will significantly contribute to the book I am co-writing with Gethin Okonkwo about the Far

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Dr Alfred Ulyanov, a leading exotheologian and an authority on the Far God cult, has been apprehended as a suspected Thargoid sympathiser.

The arrest took place at Dr Ulyanov's home in the Rana system, where he and his family were taken into custody by the Federal Intelligence Agency. Research materials and computer systems were also removed from the property, according to witnesses.

Professor Siobhan Vogel of the Interstellar Association of Universities registered a formal complaint:

"For Dr Ulyanov's academic studies to be viewed as evidence that he is some kind of Thargoid agent is utterly ridiculous. This violation of his rights sets a dangerous precedent."

Federal Intelligence Agency Senior Agent Micah Whitefield gave the following statement:

"When it comes to possible Thargoid allies, we cannot afford to overlook anything. Dr Ulyanov's involvement with the Far God cult makes him a valid