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 accountAug
We used to celebrate the party on the CIC's original August 10 anniversary, but often that doesn't work out for us logistically anymore. Nevertheless, this year we managed to time the party to fall on Dundradal's actual birthday. Happy Birthday Dund! Hope it's been a good one so far!
Sep
…Happy birthday to... WING COMMANDER ARMADA! Armada was released 25 years ago today. It was a spin-off project that added multiplayer, turn based strategy and a true 3D engine to the Wing Commander canon!
And in a series full of incredible lore manuals, Armada had perhaps the greatest of all time: Voices of War, a kind of Rashomon-like collection of documents which presented the Terran-Kilrathi war as it was seen by both sides. You can read it here.
Armada is available digitally on GOG today and thanks to their work the multiplayer is even easier to get running than in 1994. Look me up if you ever want to dogfight or take on the Gauntlet!
Armada also had a free add on called PROVING GROUNDS which you could download by dialing Origin's BBS. It added new game modes, six-player IPX multiplayer, in-flight pickups and ASTEROIDS! PG is pre-installed in the GOG release.
Origin made a big push for Armada in
Oct
…A tri-superpower group has identified the cause of the blight that has ruined crops on multiple worlds.
Gino Borstein of the Federal Intelligence Agency delivered a report on behalf of the cross-superpower taskforce:
"Working with the Rockforth Corporation, we have confirmed that the EX7 fertiliser was deliberately contaminated with a chemical compound shortly after mass production began."
"The contaminant has a unique synthetic composition specifically designed to introduce a highly aggressive pathogen that quickly destroys plant matter. Our investigations have uncovered several potential leads, and we expect to identify the contaminant's point of origin soon."
Vox Galactica journalist Adalyn Cross commented:
"Taken at face value, this seems to absolve Rockforth of causing the blight. But there may yet be culpability issues, considering the company's cavalier attitude towards regulatory
Nov
The long running Gemini Sector RPG is about to kick off a new campaign, so Rear Admiral Tarsus whipped up these spiffy propaganda posters to help drum up interest. The RPG has existed in various forms for nearly a decade, so Iceblade and team are sure to put together some fun events. You can get a little taste at the CIC Forums or head over to the project website for a full rundown. They've also recently added a Discord server for the real Wing Commander action!
Hi all, I've been making some WW2-style recruitment posters to celebrate the start of a new campaign in the Gemini Sector RPG. I just wanted to share them. Oh, and we have a great opportunity to join soon as we catching up may be easier.
- Inspired by the "Victory of the United Nations is certain" poster and Privateer art
- Inspired by Wing Commander Academy's Kilrathi, Bhurak's helm and the "He's watching you" poster
Dec
…The Tzenkethi are not known for making idle threats. They promised that they would return with better weapons, and return, they did. The Tzenkethi Red Alert is a space-based 5v5 Red Alert-style queue in the Alpha Quadrant. The Tzenkethi have found a new way to Protomatter-bomb planets and its up to you to stop them. The genocidal Tzenkethi will be unleashing a new super weapon at unsuspecting planets while you and 4 allies will have to do everything you can to prevent the catastrophic destruction. If you dont work together, the deaths of billions will be on your hands. The event is for level 50-60 players of all factions. Like all Red Alerts, this TFO rewards 35 marks, and has no cooldown. It will be available from December 12th at 8am PT to December 16th at 10am PT. Good luck, Captains! Its all up to you. Ryon Melange Levitt Staff Content Designer Cryptic Studios .share-footer a {
Dec
…Greetings Captains! Star Trek Online is proud to partner once again with Humble Bundle’s December Bundle – YogsCast Jingle Jam 2019! Starting December 14 at 9am PT, STO will be offering the Federation Elite Starter Pack for this great cause! The Pack contains the following: T6 Reliant Class - Advanced Light Cruiser (Scales as you level) 12 Inventory Slot 12 Bank Slots 2 Bridge Officer Slots 1 Borg Bridge Officer 13 Mark II Very Rare Space Gear 7 Mark II Very Rare Ground Gear Starfleet Academy Uniform Your contributions will go to help some amazing organizations! This year, by purchasing the bundle and paying what you want, you can again help a mix of charities across a variety of causes. For more details, please head to Yogscast Jingle Jam 2019 (pay what you want and help charity). .share-footer a { margin: 20px 10px 10px 0; background: url(
Feb
…Four Score and Seven Years ago, a cry went out from Captains across the galaxy. They had seen the epitome of style, the grandest of Space Barbie, and they wanted it. And now, The Emancipator costume can be yours – for free! From February 13th to February 17th, you’ll be able to pick out the most presidential of outfits for free in the Zen Store. Wear the stylings of Abraham Lincoln on all races, with the Long Coat, Bowtie, and Top Hat that the man himself made famous in The Measure of Morality. Not only that, but if your style is a little more jaunty, you’ll find the Top Hat Mini in this package as well, for all of your fanciest party needs. Enjoy Captains, but grab the costume now, you only have a limited time! .share-footer a { margin: 20px 10px 10px 0; background: url(d7afaaa14e96d0d973f76157ae31ec5b1466398539.png) no-repeat 0 0; opacity: .5; display: inline-block;
Aug
…Mike Winterbauer is back with another Kickstarter based on his famous Wing Commander art! There are some old favorites in the mix as well as a set of new high end metal prints to add to your collection. In the lower tiers of the campaign, there is another chance to get his softcover book on video game cover art (fewer than 25 left!) or his hardcover Wing Commander portfolio. A larger 14x20 inch giclée of his original Hornet cockpit painting is available, or you can pledge to receive an all new 16x24 inch metal collage of the piece and how it's been used across multiple printings. This is a great opportunity to grab some of the earlier collector's items or add another showpiece to your wall. I know where I'll be hanging mine! Some of the smaller/lighter prints are $34-35 plus shipping, and the large aluminum spread is $150 (plus $30 for shipping). Read up on all the details here.
Wing Commander
Sep
…*Pilots Federation ALERT*
The Haithis Purple Dynamic Group has fought off the Kumo Council assault, securing the completion of Neomedical Industries' onionhead project.
The pharmaceutical corporation had received deliveries to Haithis to begin producing onionhead gamma strain for medicinal purposes. In response, the Kumo Crew syndicate attacked Neomedical's corporate partner but failed to achieve its objectives.
Neomedical Industries confirmed that investment in its project to mass-produce onionhead gamma strain has increased following the conflict's resolution. The news was eagerly received in many Alliance and independent systems, which have expressed interest in the new healthcare treatment.
Olwyn Kendrick, CEO of Neomedical Industries, told the media:
"We owe a huge debt to the galactic community for defending our operation. Large-scale manufacture of onionhead gamma strain can now
Nov
Ever wonder why Righteous Fire had such an elaborate rendered intro focused on a mech you never see again? It was leftover content that was originally cut from the base Privateer game!
The scene was created as a losing endgame which would play if you landed with a negative credit balance. To save space, the design was tweaked to make that case impossible. RF’s writer wrote a new script for the existing footage explaining your Steltek gun was stolen!
Feb
Crazy find on the Internet Archive: an article from Soft World that's the 1992 Trade Commander press releases translated to Chinese... and the pen-and-ink art has been recolored in pastels! COOL!
Here's the original art. This was the first announcement of what would become Privateer and it features a lot of details about a much earlier version of the game's storyline. It's also the (only) source of 'Grayson Burrows' as the player character's name. I found the Chinese text by searching for "Tolnidan," the original name for the Gemini Sector and a word that's very close to being a googlenope.
Feb
…Klavs has wrapped up the exquisite Sabre and Ferret models that he showed off last month. There are two styles of Ferret - one P-64C in In-Sys colors and a Super Ferret in active Confed gray. The Sabre is also on display with plenty of heavy ordnance. Both have also been posted in high quality on SketchFab for potential fan project use. Klavs has also talked about the texturing process in greater detail. Here's a snippet:
I've started using Substance Painter for the textures, it's really intuitive after you get the hang of it. I'll typically draw panel lines, vents, fasteners, thermal protection materials, and other details. I'm really just trying to think about how the ground crews would access stuff, how the complex shapes would be manufactured, and assembled how the pilots get in and out (hand holds, ladders, etc). I'll then add placards and other details. The grunge is largely determined by
Mar
Here's a Wing Commander/Origin ad I don't think I've seen before. Unfortunately, it's... not great. From the May 1995 issue of Wired:
And here's an Apple ad from 1996 with Wing Commander IV! All that empty space is because the Macintosh only had these ten games in 1996.
Apr
…Wing Commander Armada comes with one of the greatest game manuals in history, an all-the-more impressive achievement given Origin prided themselves on producing wonderful lore material. That manual is Voices of War, a fascinating and evocative look at both sides of the Terran-Kilrathi conflict. For a game with very little internal narrative it's impressive that Armada's lore manual has been so massively influential on the rest of the Wing Commander universe. But Armada had TWO similarly sized manuals! Voices of War is dedicated only to world building while a second Play Guide offered all the details on how to actually interface with the game. It was only ever available digitally in an ancient 'VEBE' format which does not open with any kind of modern viewer. For whatever reason, GOG did not bother to include a copy with their release. Not having access to a copy hasn't been a huge problem for Wing
May
Good Old Games is running a variety of new sales, and there latest discount is marking down the Wing Commander series by 75%! The theme revolves around games that are 10+ years old. This is an especially welcome event because GOG skipped the WC games in their big Spring Sale last month. Cheap Wing Commander is always a big hit, so we're glad folks get another chance to grab the franchise on the cheap. You can fill out your digital collection via the links below. Grab them before the end of the weekend!
May
The month of May is blazing by, and that means the campaign to create a Deluxe vinyl pressing of the WING COMMANDER score has just a week left to go! Pledges have dropped off a little bit in the later half of this month, but Supercade Van is using the "flexible goal" model where all proceeds are collected no matter what the final number is so that the funds can be put towards still making the project a reality. You can still put in for a $35 contribution which nets you a dedication in the liner notes and the standard edition of the vinyl album. More deluxe editions are available at $50 and $75, and there are some bonus categories above that for extra swag. You can learn more about the campaign here!
Jul
Benjamin over at BigBoxCollection has made one of his biggest updates yet! Thanks to a generous donation from Dominus of Exult, they were able to 3D scan in a whole bunch of new Wing Commander titles! The new additions even include a little peek at some of the internal contents, which is a great touch. Check them out here.
And here's a look at the shipment when it arrived:
Aug
…Development of the WC4 Fan Remake is picking up again, and the team has a new update today on comm videos. If you were thinking the clips that play in the communications VDU were simply upscaled, that's just the tip of the iceberg! It was quite a process for AllTinker to extract the colorful Playstation versions and then sync them with the PC version which are higher resolution. They aren't even cropped to the same frame. Then all of that was given to ODVS for an advanced enhancement based on color channels. It was quite a process, and you'll need to read the full article at WC Respace for the details. There's also a video that walks through the comparison.
Oh, and last - but not least - there's a whole new playable demo! Grab it here (886 meg exe). It showcases these new comms, and also a whole bunch more:
- Prioritize GPU based on maker if multiple are found
- Support for 128 button joysticks
Oct
…DO YOU think that these--seen in Wing Commander III, IV and Prophecy--are supposed to be the same space station?
The answer is: maybe? It's a classic case of the individual game's developers probably intending them to be the same station but the endless march of lore deciding otherwise. Let's take a closer look...
The script refers to the WC3 base only as "Confed HQ" with no location specified. The novelization, however, decided that it was Epsilon Sector HQ, located at "the Confed HQ complex on Torgo III." (A reasonable choice since the Victory picks up Tolwyn at Torgo later.)
The folks doing the Kilrathi Saga manual don't seem to have been aware of that, though, as we have orders sending Blair to "Addington Station, Border World 8, Leyton Sector" for his new assignment. Must've been a stopover!
The story behind the WC4 base is a bit messier. The script calls for the shuttle to appear near the rings of
Dec
…Seo Jin-ae has returned from a visit to Utopia following an invitation from Simguru Pranav Antal to discuss the possibility of Salvation's survival.
The leader of the Utopia commune invited her to review the schematics that she recovered from an abandoned Azimuth Corporation facility in March. The schematics detailed a mysterious Guardian-based device named the Nemesis Failsafe. Seo Jin-ae believes this was used by Salvation to transfer his living mind to a remote location before his death in HIP 22460.
Aegis confirmed that it has no information about the meeting in Utopia, and that Seo Jin-ae refused to discuss the matter with them upon her return.
Pranav Antal transmitted a message that was shared across public newsfeeds:
"My sincere thanks to Seo Jin-ae for allowing me to explain my theories about Salvation's 'Nemesis protocol'. We have agreed not to disclose our conclusions. I must respect
