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Cybot078 has returned with several new environments for Privateer fans. He's recreated Perry, New Constantinople and Oxford. Each one has been filled out with more scenery and photographed from a wider point of view. They're pretty imaginative pieces of art and help you appreciate the original scenes even more. I never really noticed the cloud-like bulges in the Perry ceiling or thought about how large the Constantinople space might be. The first image in each set is the original. Take a look below!

Perry Naval Base:

New Constantinople:

Oxford:

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It's time once again for... SNACKS OF THE TERRAN CONFEDERATION!

The famed TCS Victory's rec room always has popcorn on the tables...

The Grey Ghost, TCS Lexington, has little bowls of peanuts all around the lounge.

... and finally the megacarrier Midway has a megasnack: big cheeze doodlepuff type things.

The Victory's bar has some other options, too: bowls of peanuts, cherries, orange slices (only around when Flint is drinking!) and what I think are Tootsie Pops?!

Does anyone ever actually eat the bar snacks? There's a scene in WC4 where Blair palms a peanut and then puts it back while he's talking to Maniac... but I think Captain Paulsen is the only one who ever eats anything!

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We've got a delicious update today on WC4 Remastered. Pedro reports that the team is digging deep into the ground missions of the game. As is usual on a project like this, once they started peeling back the layers of the original, things got complicated. This has necessitated some clever solutions, which have been detailed in a new WCRespace article. A few options include taking some artistic license and deviating from the original experience slightly, but this should produce a more engaging product overall.

The first issue was to add support for loading the terrain and we had to ensure that the models which we had full transforms for lined up exactly as they did in the original game.Classic buildings and terrain.

We have accomplished this and added support for terrain collisions. The ~1 million vertex original terrain can be rendered on modern hardware in a single draw call – but still that’s

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We've got a couple of exciting updates on the Confederation engine makeover for Wing Commander 1. AllTinker shared his latest Raptor side art. He's also created a very cool 3D bubble of the Hornet cockpit to explore potential new features that can take advantage of this. Click into the thumbnail for a larger animated GIF video of the head movement in action!

I'm still working on the extended side views for the hangar sequence, but I've at least made a start on all five WC1 ships. The closest to being finished is the Raptor:

After pondering my wrap-around cockpits I've decided the best way to properly support ultrawide without the awkward (lack of) perspective is to bite the bullet and go 3D. This will just be another option. The wraparound 2D cockpits don't look so bad at 16:9, but really start to break down quickly beyond that. 3D cockpits also allow things like padlock view (something I've always

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Oh, did your version of Wing Commander III not have a mission where you escort two minelayers?

Lord Thrakhath sacrificed an entire Bhantkara carrier group in a feint at Torgo as part of his strategy to trap the Behemoth. Here: Thunderbolt 300 escorts a pair of dedicated minesweepers as part of the effort to cover the weapon’s approaches.

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Goge stopped by to share a very cool space sim tech demo that he's been working on lately. It's called Squadron: Mercenaries and he's got some very lofty goals in mind! The core portion starts as a traditional Wing Commander style sim, but there are larger secondary element planned as well. One really cool thing that jumped out at me is that it just runs in a browser window. You can visit the website here and be playing in a few seconds without installation. More info is on the page to get oriented. We hope to see some of his ambitious plans come together!

Squadron: Mercenaries

Squadron Mercenaries is a thrilling spacefaring epic that blends the adrenaline-pumping space flight combat simulation of Wing Commander with the intricate personnel and material management aspects of 'Mechwarrior Mercenaries.' In this immersive game, players will not only engage in intense dogfights and grand-scale space

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AD reminded me that Blair's callsign is DODGER in Kevin Droney's first draft script for the Wing Commander movie. I... don't hate it? The scene where they all explain their callsigns is fun, too:

Kevin Droney's First Draft (133 pages, 33 mb), which was written way back in 1995 (10/27/95)! It's very different from the later versions: it features many different proper nouns (Angelica "Angel" Devereaux), a strange callsign for Blair ("Dodger") and a very unusual twist on the traitor subplot. The Second Draft (9/21/97) and the Third/Shooting Draft (1/8/98) are also available. Along with the original Phoenix Pictures Memo, you now have all the tools to decide what went right and what went wrong with the Wing Commander movie's story!

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I'm comparing the UI in different Wing Commander III ports! Here's the callsign selection screen on the PC, 3DO, PlayStation and Macintosh. "Maverick" is my entry except on the PSX version which plugs in BLAIR automagically!

Here's the Victory's main menu on the PC, 3DO and PSX. The Macintosh port doesn't do any of this diegetically, it's handled all in the operating system's UI (boo).

Duty logs, aka save/load!

And here are the (gameflow) options screens.

Here's a really fun one: if you access the menu during the last two missions of the game (where you're flying from covert asteroid depots instead of the Victory) the menu changes to reflect the new location! And in the 3DO version only each depot gets its own name.

Vera: Are there differences in the Victory Streak too?

There are! They redid the layout so it would fit in the thin 3DO boxes and added all sorts of additional art. Even a System Shock

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Intense investment into research on Titan travel has been announced by the aerospace subdivision of the famed robotics company.
Their research has been centred on the method used by the Thargoid Titans to travel at speeds well beyond that of humanity's current technological capacity.
A spokesperson for Achilles Aerospace had this to say:
"For so long now, the means of space travel have been controlled by one company in a strict monopoly. Under that monopoly, progress seems to have stagnated entirely. But Achilles is a corporation built on the iteration and refinement of technology, and we intend to bring space travel into a new age."
"We have been limited to observational data alone so far, but that is no longer the case. The remnant of Taranis is now accessible, and within it lies the missing component to our work. We urge pilots to venture to the wreckage of the destroyed Titan and try to

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Nightball06 has been on a load road to go from 2D sketches to 3D model. After a couple years refining the design, the digital representation is nearly complete. He's spent a lot of time working to get the shape close to the original, but one area that he has taken some artistic liberties on were the engines. They look pretty cool! Now that he's got a file that can be manipulated, he's exploring where to take it next - either through 3D animation or maybe a physical print!

Some final updates. Haven’t gone far on the animation part yet & I am still looking for someone who could turn the Blender file into a 3D-printable file.

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GOG.com is starting to rollout their annual Spring Sale, and Wing Commander has gotten a nice price cut across the board. In order to keep things interesting, rather than a straight 75% off each title, Prophecy, Armada and Privateer 2 are each marked down 65%. Happy Wing Commandering!

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Thanks for the background, friends. Of course, I was curious for Wing Commander-related reasons. Specifically, I was fascinated to see the names of the Kray twins because... of Privateer 2's Bray twins:

Reggie Bray is the guy who is selling Uncle Kashumai's religious artifact. For that mission you have to look up their bio in the database and then find their business partner.

There's also a Joe scene where he warns you to look out for the Brays. And you kind of have to wonder: why, since Reggie isn't any particular threat in the auction scene. And heck, why are there two of them anyway? Is it just for the (unknown to me until last night!) joke?

In fact, it's a case of cut content! In the shooting script we see that the Brays were supposed to be the enemies in the Tamessa Ames cinematic mission and that Ronnie (the muscle, as in real life apparently!) was then supposed to continue trying to hunt you down.

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Titan Leigong in the HIP 8887 system has been eliminated, following the same tactical approach used against Taranis.
Vox Galactica's Jade Sanderlyn reported:
"Two of the eight Thargoid Titans have now been put out of action. Leigong suffered the same fate as Taranis, with its core being targeted by a sustained bombardment."
"Aegis is overjoyed at these results. Both Professor Palin and Ram Tah are being praised for their development of the Guardian nanite torpedo, which is crucial to these attacks. And word is spreading that the Thargoid war machine has suffered a critical defeat, one that may change the entire conflict. Can these victories be repeated a further six times?"

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If you kind of squint, it looks a little bit like a clover...

This is a repurposing of Music_Guru's green Dralthi, which is itself inspired by SNES Secret Missions' green Salthi/Jalthi.

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Today we have a jazzed up version of the Armada intro from Retrobear Diskette Quest. There's a little bit of DOSBox scaling happening that supposedly makes it look better at higher resolutions, but the visuals aren't the draw here. It also has some "Roland MT-32 emulation" turned on, and I do hear the extra notes associated with that! Armada is a wonderful game that doesn't get as much time in the spotlight as it deserves, so take this as a plug to fire the game up this weekend!

How do you think the video above compares to the version that FekLeyrTarg rebuilt from scratch with Origin model assets? They both have their particular charms!

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A lot of people (one guy on Discord) have been asking what the correct emblem for the Empire of Kilrah is. So let’s have a thread and find out!

Wing Commander I has matching emblems for factions on every ship. The Kilrathi have a red cat skull which we get to see close up thanks to the beautiful box shot of a high resolution Dralthi wing.

The ships are so low resolution that they’re just dots in flight, but you can pick them out every time. You can see the skull very clearly on the WC2 demo Bloodfang, which is its last appearance.

And there’s a black one on the Imperial Guard troops in The Secret Missions 2!

As an aside, we NEVER got a high res version of the WC1 Confed roundel. You can see it twice on the Drayman here. It looks like a TNG comm badge or maybe three ships orbiting a sun?

Now, this is the broad answer to the question. This is the emblem of the empire itself, the grouping of all eight clans.

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Aligned Peoples’ Manta-class heavy fighter. Initial concept by Mark Vearrier, finished concept sketch by Syd Mead...

Initial mesh blockout and then Alias "cinematic" model renders...

Final in-game assets for both the standard fighter and the deadly "red Manta" bomber variant!

Shout out to the OG.

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation Alert*
Titan Leigong is under siege. This is an urgent call to all independent pilots to aid in the complete defeat of a second Titan.
The key modules for the assault continue to be readily available at all Rescue Megaships:
• Thargoid Pulse Neutraliser – To break through the maelstrom defence wave.
• Caustic Sink Launchers – To protect your ship from caustic effects of the maelstrom.
• Guardian Nanite Torpedo Pylon – To hamper the Titan's vents and make it vulnerable to damage.
Rewards have been requisitioned for all Commanders able to participate in ending the Titan threat.
Good luck, Commanders.

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Dominus of Exult has some more cool collectibles to show off! He's managed to track down a pair of Wing Commander games localized in Portuguese. These rare copies of WC4 and Privateer 2 have a bit of warping and tearing damage, but it's still wonderful that they were saved. I'm still poring over the minute differences here despite not speaking the language! These should look great alongside his Portuguese copy of Privateer 1.

Got some new rarities. Portuguese Wing Commander IV and Privateer 2. Unfortunately the seller stored them in a very humid place. Trying to open the IV he destroyed the slide cover.

LOAF: Are they localized at all?

Dominus: Boxes and documents all in Portuguese. At least the intro has no subtitles. Look like the standard UK CDs. Even the quadruple CD case inlays are the UK ones and not translated (manual etc. are translated).

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The somewhat amorphous length of a generation is, give or take, about twenty-five years. This means that as of today, the Wing Commander movie is a generation old… and, it follows, so are those of us that once eagerly anticipated its coming. I've written extensively about whether or not it was good (it was not) and what it means to me (I love it dearly) and I don't need to relitigate any of that today. In fact, the war movie cliches about old soldiers are more accurate than ever: the guns have stopped, we're the old men, all quiet on the western front and alike. The bickerings and debates and once-so-important battles of our youth have passed us by as gracefully as such things ever do. No one in 2024 could conceive, for instance, of caring about the Tiger Claw's missing possessive or what the Ralari /really/ looks like or even particularly to complain about Freddie Prinze Jr.'s casting.

If anything,