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Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Channel 07 has intercepted footage of a violent attack on three talk show hosts, broadcast live on several Imperial newsfeeds.
The show came to an abrupt halt after the three were apparently fired upon by an assailant who gained access to the enclosed set. The perpetrator managed to flee the building before security could intervene.
Details on the status of the victims have not been provided, but first responders to the scene found a digital calling card pinned to the host's dressing room door. Police have authorised the publication of the card's contents, which consists of a single word:
TFZIRQRL
The word is thought to be encoded by a text cipher. It is hoped that by sharing the text, members of the public will be able to identify the perpetrator's next move.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Today we have a vintage 3DO advertisement that Takodan recently reposted. It's pretty classic art that we see in a lot of promotional material for Wing Commander 3, but a few subtle items are unusual compared to most ads. Instead of having its screenshots to the left side, right side or bottom, it splits the images on both sides. The lower right shot features an Arrow over the triangular Kilrathi transport that was cut from the game. There's also a little-used "Origin interactive movie" logo that seems to have roots in this marketing sell sheet. There's lots to love here!

Peep that weird version of Origin’s interactive movie logo!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

I woke up to a nice surprise from @XwingGameSeries: scans of ads for Super Wing Commander and Secret Missions SNES! I don’t think I’ve ever even seen a two page SM ad before. There’s some interesting stuff here...

Look at the SWC cockpit: it doesn't look anything like any of the five in the game! It also appears non-functional, missing standardized VDUs and other displays needed. It's also obviously a bullshot, the space section is a frame pasted from the rendered intro cutscene.

The final Super Wing Commander cockpits:

This cutscene of a Dralthi taking off from a Snakeir doesn't appear in the finished game (it was likely cut from the intro). But I believe it the clip is still on the disc!

If you're a PC veteran curious about this screenshot from the Secret Missions ad, it's from a new introduction cutscene Mindscape created especially for the port. You can watch it here.

Also "Enter the dark world of the

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

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.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

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.

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The acquisition of Lakon Spaceways by Core Dynamics has been revoked following revelations of illegal activity.
An inquiry by the Independent Commission for Market Equality stated that former Core Dynamics CEO Jupiter Rochester "exerted unduly influence on Lakon shareholders, including bribery and blackmail". This led to new appointees to the board of directors, who were paid to approve the hostile takeover.
The inquiry also factored in the recent Federal High Court trial, which proved that Jupiter Rochester was directly responsible for the destruction of Starship One in 3301. In both cases, he set up shell companies to move enormous funds via unregistered banking systems.
Core Dynamics refused to comment on the allegations, but its legal team has terminated the transfer process. The entire corporation is currently in disarray due to several departments becoming an independent faction under

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Yeah, yeah, I know this has been done to to death already, but we just couldn't resist. At least you can blame Rear Admiral Tarsus for the WC2 version.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Joe Garrity shared this awesome picture from Washington, D.C. today. Wing Commander fans don't really need a reason to dress up like they're about to take the fight to the Kilrathi, but in order to boost vigilance in his workplace's IT security, Joe donned his authentic WC4 flight suit. The extra attention helped promote two causes (info sec and WC fandom) at once!

"The Price of Freedom is Eternal Vigilance."

To help promote IT Security in the Federal Government (where I work), I took advantage of the Origin Museum's collections. This is one of the actual uniforms from Wing Commander IV. Thanks to the staff at Origin Systems, the legacy of Wing Commander lives on.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Drooling over these photos of Wing Commander III's costume shop. I wish we had high resolution images of all those Kilrathi sketches!

Massive kudos to Dundradal for figuring out that one of their references is the PLANET OF THE APES SOUNDTRACK!

Thought I found one in the prop book but it turns out it's Melek who is not in the photos!

Here's one! From the digital assets used for the Kilrathi Saga calendar. Sadly not in color.

Low resolution versions of two extracted from the Wing Commander III Behind the Screens CD. Someone who isn't as dumb as I am should science the color from the little one into the monochrome big version.

Here's one of the sketches! It was reused as the drawing of Sivar on the wall of the temple seen in the Prophecy intro... and was included with the Electronic Press Kit!

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Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

ETPC spotted a fun Digital Foundry video on the history of 3D acceleration. It details the transition from software rending in the early '90s to the emergence of the dedicated 3D card and how it transformed PC gaming. Wing Commanders 2 and 3 get called out as examples of the prime time in market when CPUs did the heavy lifting. Things rapidly changed with the introduction of the 3dfx/Glide cards and their adoption by Quake. Wing Commander fans were at the forefront of this evolution thanks to Wing Commander Prophecy. WC4 and Privateer 2 produced impressive visuals in 1996, but by late 1997 Prophecy was able to add even higher quality transparency, lighting, smoke and other effects. WCP and Secret Ops ran in "software mode" for people without 3D cards, and they received a partial effects set if you had another Direct 3D compatible board, but the real treat was when you had a proper 3dfx Voodoo.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

People post a lot of Wing Commander streams on the internet these days, but we don't report on most of them since they can tend to get repetitive. But it's not every day you run across a nice long Privateer 2 session. I was a little surprised to find this two hour tour of P2 posted by The Psycho Fox. He starts at the beginning and works his way through the unique storyline kickoff before orienting to the menus and interface. That's followed by a good amount of flying, shooting and upgrades. It's not until an hour and 14 minutes in that someone in the comments tips him off that this is a Wing Commander spinoff. Crazy times!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

SHARK MOUTHS! Although most famously applied to the Flying Tigers' Warhawks, pilots started painting fierce faces on their aircraft during the first World War... and it continues to this day! So today let's see how that tradition continues through the 27th (and 28th) Century...

Wing Commander's very first shark mouth isn't even human: Prince Thrakhath's Bloodfang fighter has one in both the Wing Commander II demo and when redesigned for Wing Commander II itself.

The first human shark mouth we see is the Arrow in Wing Commander Armada which soon after appeared with a similar livery in Wing Commander III...

Wing Commander IV drops them entirely but they return in Wing Commander Arena! All three Arrow types (Scout, Eclipse, Guardian) have them, which is some attention to detail given you can't really see them in a top down game.

Wing Commander III also gives us the Thunderbolt VII. We see an ensharkened

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Rhystic Gaming has created a thorough video review of Wing Commander Privateer. Playing through Priv and its spinoff, Righteous Fire, has been a popular activity in our live All Wings Considered streams. The clip below makes for a really solid overview of the major features, options and highlights of the game. Music and the satisfying gunplay get specific nods, which I also consider absolutely tremendous aspects of the game. Even though you're probably more than familiar with these elements, it's still a simple joy to hear others gushing over things that you have also had so much fun with.

Wing Commander: Privateer is the precursor of many open-world space simulators, and was widely praised when it released in the now-distant 1993.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

The GouldFish has posted a nifty review of the Wing Commander Prophecy Demo. His version comes from the March 1998 PC Format cover disc, but you can also download it here (plus movie pack). I like his setup with the Prophecy box in the background behind the vintage HP machine. Note that this is the full demo, not the 3DFX Test. As Gould notes, players who skipped over this and just played the actual game miss out on a whole three/four mission series. It's absolutely worth picking up for that extra bit of lore and gameplay! Check out the video below (jump to 14:00 if it doesn't autostart at that chapter):

Sure, you've played Prophecy... but did you ever play the demo? If not, you're missing out on a special little chunk of the game. Unlike most game previews, the Prophecy demo contains regular plot missions not available in the retail game. There are four missions that fit nicely in to the game's

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Here's some random Rigakh knowledge to help kickstart your weekend.These are the hand written design notes working out the ships for Wing Commander II... including the cut-for-space Rigakh carrier! It was the Kilrathi flagship, which appears only in cutscenes.

Here's the Rigakh 3D model. It was originally to be part of the final mission alongside K'Tithrak Mang (which is why you are given so many torpedoes!) After being cut from WC2, it was written in as the final boss in the first mission disk... and was then cut again!

A lot of folks assume the Kilrathi flagship is a Ralatha destroyer; they look very similar, but the Rigakh has six nacelles instead of five (and a flight deck in the front.) The similarity may be why it was such an easy cut.

You can see 'out' from inside the front of the flight deck in cutscenes where Thrakhath and Khasra are talking.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

NakaKen is back with a more thorough look at the incredible TCS Tiger's Claw he built in Space Engineers. This time he goes through each of the key locations - flight deck, bar, barracks and briefing room - and shows how the original compares to the new version. It's really impressive. The video narration is all in Japanese, but YouTube will attempt to auto translate captions into your language of choice with a few clicks. You can grab this for yourself in the Steam Workshop here.

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

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

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Taja Gavaris, the CFO of Rackham Capital Investments, has unexpectedly resigned from her position and subsequently emigrated from Federal space.

Several other employees who were loyal to Gavaris resigned alongside her. All chose to waive their final salaries and bonuses, which totalled approximately 365 million credits according to sources within the company.

Journalist Bryanna Blanco commented in The Federal Times:

"It has become apparent that the Federal Intelligence Agents who acquired our data on Zachary Rackham were in fact imposters working for him, employing fake credentials. With our research, Rackham would be capable of blackmailing fellow ex-pirate Taja Gavaris into resigning – the corporate equivalent of assassinating a rival."

"Naturally, we cannot prove this is what has occurred. But rest assured that we'll continue keeping a close eye on Calico Zack."

The Federal Times also

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Adm_Maverick

has mocked up a neat 'pilot console' for his Wing Commander

tabletop

game. He's built a template for the variety of fighter status that a ship would want to track, and it's been paired with a simple peg counter system so everything is neatly tracked. In the future, it could even be modified to hold the

miniature ship

and any associated cards. Something like this would even be pretty neat for the official

WC CCG

too!

I had posted a design idea for the pilot console the other day. Well I spent a decent amount of time cutting and drilling and came up with a sort of prototype of the pilot console. It's not perfect, and still nowhere near what I envision when I try to market the game, but then again at this point I'm nowhere near that stage anyway. This is just for alpha testing of gameplay mechanics.

The design is such that it's intended to allow you to track the information on each fighter