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Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

Captains, welcome to Awakening. This update is particularly special for me – since my tenure on Star Trek Online began, we’ve been working on bringing you the Age of Discovery expansion, to make sure we had a complete and polished experience for Captains in the 2256 Discovery-era of Star Trek. Now, we’re returning to 2410, bringing your Captains back to the story STO has been telling for almost ten years. It’s exciting to advance and blend the narrative established in Age of Discovery into our timeline. And what a playground it’s going to be. Awakening brings with it a brand new story, starring Anthony Rapp as Commander Paul Stamets, brought to life as a hologram and thrust into the future of 2410. With Stamets at your side, you’ll journey into the Mycelial Network, stopping the threat posed by J’ula and her House Mo’kai raiders. But that’s not all – this update also brings

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Form up, Wing Commander fans! Tonight we're taking a look at some spaceships that never were: the ones that were being built for Privateer 3 when it was cancelled in 1998. Thanks to years of game archaeology, we know quite a bit about them!

The CRUSADER (sometimes called FURY) was shaping up to be the big hero ship, equivalent to the Centurion:

Here's a shot of the Crusader in the game engine (a development of Prophecy's Vision technology):

The Crusader is actually 'canon' since EA reused its artwork for a recruiting ad in Star*Soldier. The concept artist, Ruben Garza, also submitted it to an art book called Spectrum 6 where it was printed as "Privateer--Black Star". (Available on Amazon!)

I should also mention the origin of the name! Privateer 3 was being developed by Origin's Loose Cannon team which had previously develoed the Crusader series of games.

Next up we have the VAKTOTH which is slotted here as

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

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

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Remember the story in the Privateer manual? It’s very well written but it’s a little odd since it opens the booklet with eight pages of uninterrupted text. And none of the backstory is ever referenced in the game!

It turns out Origin had originally commissioned a comic artist to illustrate the story. The work was developed and the contract was doubled after the first delivery… but it was all dropped from the design very late in development!

It’s all this super cool 2000 AD style stuff. Thirty pieces to cover the story! It actually adapts a longer draft which has another act setting up a rivalry between Burrows and another privateer.

So my contribution today is that I have organized it all and matched it to the descriptions from the art list! It’s like a Privateer comic book. It’s in the wiki along with copies of outlines and earlier drafts of the story!

You can also find all the other unused art from

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Today CMDBob has a stellar model of a Wing Commander 3 Southampton class destroyer. We've seen lots of gorgeous examples over the years, but this one goes in a new direction with a wonderful animated style. Even the weapon effect looks spot on. We love it!

I took an old, low polyish model of the Southampton destroyer I'd made a while back, and gussied it up. Ended up with a nice enough animated-ish render style using 3DS Max's ink and paint materials, along with some other material stuff.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Some wonderful soul uploaded an entire beautifully preserved Computer Shopper to the Internet Archive! Shall we take a moment to... shop for Origin games like it's 1994?! Let's see what we can find...

Hi-Tech USA has a Wing Commander / Ultima VI CD-ROM for just $18! This would've be an OEM copy published by Software Toolworks, which worked out a deal with pre-EA Origin to offset development costs on three CD-ROM games in exchange for rights to release OEM versions.

Hardware bundler Media Vision has a bespoke multmedia kit that comes with Ultima Underworld and Wing Commander II. EA developed this release and licensed it to a LOT of early PC and addon manufacturers. It doesn't include the Wing Commander II expansions!

Treasure Chest Peripherals is taking first generation OEM CD-ROMs and bundling them together for big bucks! $89 will get you the Software Toolworks Wing Commander Deluxe CD-ROM and a couple

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

We highlight a variety of Wing Commander streaming playthroughs from time to time, but I get really excited when fans are showcasing one of the less common entries in the franchise. Mufasa recently kicked off a new series that is going through Privateer 2. And he doesn't just play the games - he's reading portions of the game's unique documentation with each show as well. The first two episodes are linked below, and the next is scheduled for Wednesday evening, 8/17 at 7 PM Pacific time. Give them a watch!

I haven't played Privateer 2 in decades, so I started playing through it again on Twitch on Wednesday evenings. I start each stream reading some of the manual because it's so unique, different and includes some really interesting backstory and design choices.

Also, I forgot the days when there was zero in game tutorial. It just starts, and you have to know everything right out of the gate.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Wonderful! This is for Wing Commander III PSX which was localized for Japan.

This was posted by Japanese Magazine Ads and comes from the October 1996 issue of Jugemu magazine. You can find more advertising and promotional material in the CIC Document Archive.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Today we've got a very cool video unearthed by Sega City. It's a preview of the Mega CD version of Wing Commander in Japan that was included on the April 1994 issue of SEGA Video Magazine. Contrary to what the name implies, this wasn't a print magazine with a cover disc - it was a VHS tape that included various game preview clips. A video advertisement for WC1 from Japan is quite a special find!

A preview of 'Wing Commander' on the SEGA Mega CD. SEGA Video Magazine, April 1994.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Did you ever want a list of the helmet numbers from the Gold Squadron pilots in Wing Commander III? If yes then I have great news for you:

COBRA - A31
FLASH - A13
FLINT - A72
HOBBES - A99
MANIAC - A27
MAVERICK - A62
VAGABOND - A41
VAQUERO - A65

Vera: Do these numbers have a meaning?

LOAF: None that I’m aware of... save perhaps that fairly limited number of repeating integers suggests the art department bought as few sets of number stickers as they could!

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Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
The Federation has requested shipments of supplies in the Rhea system to help rebuild critical infrastructure.
Intense seismic activity across Rhea 3's largest continent demolished entire cities and townships late last year, causing widespread death and injury. Rescue operations have saved over a million people, but local infrastructure has been compromised and vital construction supplies are running low.
President-Elect Felicia Winters spoke publicly for the first time since leaving for Rhea 3 to announce a support initiative:
"I know that there are individuals out there who have tried to use my absence from office to undermine the will of the Federation's people by calling for a re-election. Of course they have. To them I say simply this: to care for your home planet, for your people, is not a weakness."
"But unfortunately, I have now reached the limit of what I

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

So, what is the biggest and baddest Wing Commander poster ever? While we've seen a lot of them, nothing compares to this beauty. Joe Garrity shows us that it's not the size of your Wing Commander III poster, it's how you display it! Mounted on a brushed plate steel disply board, this monolithic Wing Commander III advertising print is a whopping 8 feet long by 2 feet high and weighs in at over 40 pounds! Originally on display at Origin Systems in the mid-1990s, it was gifted to the Origin Museum by EA/Mythic when they closed in 2014. It was previously

displayed in the Mythic Lobby

along with other Origin/Wing Commander memorabilia. Joe's also provided a nice high res version of this photo

here

.

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

This weekend, starting Thursday, November 28th at 8AM PT to Monday, December 2nd at 10AM PT, we are running a special event where Captains can earn bonus Marks by playing content throughout the game! During the event, content that provides Marks (Fleet or Reputation) will reward a 50% (1.5x) bonus above normal amounts – this bonus is available for all content that rewards Marks, including the three new reputations that came to Console with Agents of Yesterday. Start building your Fleet projects and reputations! We hope you enjoy this special event and we’ll see you in-game! .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

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

Beginning on November 12th, 2019, the Voth Citadel Ship can once more be breached and assaulted, as part of our next Featured Task Force Operation. While this TFO is available, Captains may participate daily to earn progress towards a brand new Featured-TFO reward, as well as earning Event Campaign Progress toward a Tier-6 Starship Coupon. Continue reading for full details! Not Only a Task Force Alongside the triumphant return of the Task Force Operation “Into the Breach (Event Version)” players will be able to earn progress toward the completion of this Event by choosing to participate in a number of Patrol Missions that have been especially re-mastered for this Event. Face off against Voth forces in any of these re-imagined space encounters: “Blockade Runner” – Zahl System: Assist a colonial refugee fleet as they flee from attackers with space-based artillery “Tempting

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Look at the logos on that French Wing Commander ad: built by Origin, licensed for sale in Europe by Mindscape and distributed en France by Ubisoft! The early '90s were crazy.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

As January is already coming to a close, we're happy to announce the winners to our annual fan project of the year event! To start things off, we've got two fantastic projects that we are co-awarding Fan Project of the Year this time around.

The first is Wing Loader, which had a tremendous release in 2023 that fully integrated speech from the Sega/Mega CD version of WC1 into the PC version of the game. With the knowledge gained from achieving this milestone, Destro began work on a larger effort to expand compatibility to other games in the series. This includes the future potential to integrate higher quality video into Wing Commander 3, which we hope comes to fruition!

The other fan project of the year winner is WC4 Remastered. They released a new iteration of the game's playable demo this past year that incorporates a variety of fixes, better joystick support and new in-flight comms.. The team

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Today we're sharing Rylex's large, detailed and beautiful Arrow model. We first got a peek at it more than ten years ago when the craft was originally under construction by Klavs. It's nice to see what it looks like in its final home location. Rylex is a huge Arrow fan, and it's been an iconic showpiece in his collection for this entire time!

It is more than 20 cm long (about 21-22 cm I guess) ... I didn't take the glass cabin off to take the photos. I love it.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Here's a whole pile of 3D-printed carriers by Knight26-77. It's got your main classics from WC1-3 and their associated novels. I'm thinking the Victory is my favorite, but it's not a bad Concordia either!

Have some carrier love for you today along with some same scale comparisons.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

It's time for the GOG Summer Sale, and that means some nice discounts on Wing Commander! Instead of the typical blanket discount, there are a couple tiers to the markdowns this time. Most Wing Commander titles are 50% off their typical $5.99 price. Armada, Academy and Privateer 2 are curiously 66% off or just $2.03 each. Meanwhile, Strike Commander is 75% off at just $1.49!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Tomorrow's a big day for sci-fi fans! The second season of Star Trek Prodigy is dropping on Netflix July 1 with a huge 20-episode slate. This unprecedented release means we'll be marathoning the show on the CIC Discord all day Monday! If you were put off by the initial marketing that labeled it as a "kids show," we highly recommend you give it a second look! A better description of the show is a modern animated sequel to Star Trek Voyager. The starships and characters are gorgeous, and the storylines run the whole range from endearing to humorous to tragic and riveting. Stop on by to join the fun!

Star Trek: Prodigy follows a motley crew of young aliens who must figure out how to work together while navigating a greater galaxy, in search of a better future.