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Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

WARNING: This update contains imagery which may not be safe for work. We've redacted any thumbnails to remove nudity but there will be text links to the original images.

Back in 2019, we published a Visual Guide to Pin-Ups in Wing Commander which remains, as you might imagine, a popular resource. Last weekend, we received a question from ParadiseRegaind about the two Strike Commander pin-ups: they looked to be photo-realistic... were they based on real pictures?

We agreed that at least the female pin-up seem to be a paintover... but of whom? Our collected knowledge of early 1990s cheesecake was extremely limited and so I put the call out on Twitter: did anyone know this woman? A user named TNEQL answered the call: it's Pamela Anderson! Ms. Anderson had been a Playboy model in the early 1990s who became a massive international star after leading Baywatch. TNEQL had found the exact photo in an August 1994

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

We’re pleased to announce the return of the Research and Development Weekend! This event will run from Thursday, March 21st at 8AM PT to Monday, March 25th at 10AM PST, and features several bonuses throughout STO that will give Captains of all levels a leg up advancing their rank in the Research and Development school(s) of their choice. For those Captains looking specifically for extra help with their projects, all R&D packs throughout the game will give out an extra 25% of the items they currently disperse for the duration of this event. Queue R&D Material Reward Packages (Normal, Advanced and Elite) will reward 25% more R&D Materials and have a chance to reward a Catalyst. Alternatively, Captains wanting to advance through Research and Development schools as fast as possible should seek out Harvest Nodes, located in mission maps throughout STO, which will not only disperse 2 extra R&D Materials

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Here are this week's main stories.
The Alliance Festival of Culture has drawn to a close with a celebration of food and drink in the Diso system. Attendees sampled dishes prepared by celebrated chefs, and enjoyed a wide variety of complementary beverages. Suppliers managed to overcome initial concerns that low harvests in nearby systems would impact the festival. Prime Minister Mahon hailed the event as a huge success.
The Sap Core Legion faction has announced the successful conclusion of its initiative to outfit a new orbital medical facility in the Heike system. The installation, Swords Rest Medical Facility, is now operational around Heike 1.
And those are the main stories this week.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

The latest episode of ALL WINGS CONSIDERED is live now! All Wings Considered is the CIC's first ever streaming variety show which features news, conversation and gameplay relating to our favorite series. This week's Nav Points include:

• Wing Commander 3 - Locanda System - Flint Madness!
• Righteous Fire - Starting at Oxford
• SYSTEM SHOCK - What's hiding in the Citadel?
• And maybe an Armada battle for good measure...

Missed the stream? The replay will be available below once it has been processed by YouTube. You can subscribe to the AWC channel for future notifications here.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Beliaz has posted a copy of his giant Wing Commander livestream. The playthrough spans Episodes 19-21 of season 4 of his Retro Chaos series. A lot of people livestream retro games these days, so that's not particularly newsworthy in and of itself, but what caught my eye was the length of the initial stream. His first run clocks in at more than 4 hours and 15 minutes, which puts it up there in All Wings Considered territory. Few people have the fortitude to endure so much Wing Commander in one sitting! He manages to get from Enyo over to Port Hedland. Not a lot of people see Port Hedland, since it involves losing at least two systems beforehand. Wing Commander has an absolutely amazing mission tree though with more than half the game locked away in missions that you only encounter if you start losing some here and there. It makes for amazing replayability and sets this stream apart from most.

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

Second Officer’s Log, Supplemental My third night shift with the conn has been rather sedate thus far. Several members of the command staff are enjoying some off-duty entertainment in Holodeck Two; I believe it has something to do with a peculiar form of Terran mythology from the 20th century known as “super heroics.” The captain seemed amused by my tactical suggestions for the event, particularly regarding the inefficiency of capes in close combat situations. “All decks have reported in,” Ensign Chen said from the Operations station. “We’re ready to begin the system maintenance sweep at your command.” Second Officer Stoln nodded from the center chair while calling up a display to monitor the procedure. “Very well, Ensign. Begin the procedure, starting with deck 30.” The young Vulcan officer studied the holographic readout emitted from the command chair’s armrest and

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

The new Star Trek Picard series premiered last week, and the show is chock full of rich continuity. The crew putting it together have spared no detail, and that includes a number of connections with the last TNG movie, Star Trek Nemesis. Among them is that Romulans use a nifty knife with two blades. Star Trek fans have confirmed that this is the legendary Double Shadow knife designed by Gil Hibben in 1991. Wing Commander fans will also recognize it as Seether's iconic and deadly knife from 1996's Wing Commander 4. It's what he uses to threaten Blair on Nephele and also later kill Captain Paulsen.

LOAF profiled the prop in greater depth a couple years ago. It's certainly the go-to sci-fi exotic blade and shows up in a wide variety of productions, but it's cool to see it here too. And if you're not watching Picard, we can't recommend it highly enough! The first episode is streaming now - it's one

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Here's a nifty vintage scan from HotT. It comes from the November 1995 issue of Computer Player. At this point the game is still called The Darkening, and it's referred to as Origin's second blockbuster interactive movie since its Winter 95 release date puts it neck and neck with Wing Commander 4. The general references to places and setting are about right, but you get the vibe that they're still firming things up. As we mentioned last month, some of these previews that came before the Privateer 2 rebranding have gone under the radar, but there's always neat stuff to see. Just look at those crazy set pictures! They never get old...

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

It's another wonderful milestone in CIC history. Today marks 22 years since the CIC opened its doors at wcnews.com. We're thrilled to still be here reporting the latest in Wing Commander news every day. In the background, we're always researching the rich history of WC, helping out fan projects where we can and looking forward to the next big thing in the community. The best part is that we can do it all while having fun with you! As we recently mentioned, we'll be combining our annual CIC Birthday celebration with the 30th anniversary of Wing Commander on September 26. That event will be a blast, but you don't have to wait to join the fray. Stop by the CIC chat room #Wingnut on Discord any time!

Here's a fun throwback all the way to our 13th birthday in 2011. That year we got the opportunity to combine the birthday party with an archeological trip to the University of Texas Video Game Archive.

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Here's a slightly odd one. Some might ask, "Why?" AD ran across this and answered, "Why not?" Barnaby Jones has 'reimagined' the intro to Star Trek Discovery with two key changes: it's in black and white and is now set to the Wing Commander Overture. The track is fantastic and Discovery is wonderful too, so I guess I have no complaints.

Star Trek Discovery Title Sequence clips with Wing Commander Overture by Kevin Kiner & David Arnold.

Please, for god’s sake, don’t sue me.

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Imperator Hadrian Augustus Duval, leader of the isolationist group Nova Imperium, has married his consort Astrid Minerva in a closed ceremony.
Commander Minerva was a young Imperial pilot who aided Nova Imperium at the Battle of Paresa in 3305 and became a loyal supporter. Her official title is now Lady Astrid Minerva-Duval.
Princess Aisling Duval personally attended her cousin's wedding at a secure location. She referred to it as "a precious moment of joy in these bleak times".
The Imperial Palace and the Senate have sent congratulatory messages, and the event was covered by mainstream media.
Paresa News Network: "Astrid's well-deserved rise to nobility has made her fellow Paresans very proud. Everyone at PNN is overjoyed for the happy couple!"
Eye on Achenar: "It's an insult to the noble Duval bloodline when some trigger-jockey from a gutter system can sink her claws into the Emperor's own

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The election of the Alliance prime minister will take place on the 27th of May, having been postponed due to the Galactic Summit.
Vanya Driscoll, political correspondent for The Alliance Tribune, reported:
"Prime Minister Edmund Mahon's decision to postpone the election for three months caused enormous disruption and mass protests. This may have mortally wounded his campaign to be re-elected as head of government for a second six-year term."
"With hindsight it's clear that Mahon was prioritising the Sirius Treaty, a detailed proposal to unite the superpowers against the Thargoids. Unfortunately, the Galactic Summit was prematurely halted by the 'Nine Martyrs' bombings before the treaty could be agreed."
"Although there are several candidates, Mahon's only serious challenger is Councillor Nakato Kaine. She has been a vocal critic of his expansionist policies, and gained much public support for

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Shutdown procedures for the anti-xeno organisation are continuing, despite Aegis's warnings that Azimuth has returned.
Conrad Sterling reported on the situation for Vox Galactica:
"We now know that the Alexandria megaship was targeted by a hostile force that could be Azimuth Biochemicals, the 200-year-old corporation which owned the Adamastor and Hesperus. In the face of this new evidence, Aegis leaders have petitioned for it to be reinstated."
"Even while accounting for this new evidence, the Baumann Report has exposed a litany of organisational failures within Aegis. There is still a broad consensus among politicians that the organisation should have done more to repel the Thargoids."
"Many senior military figures have switched focus to Aegis's controversial rival Salvation, despite his mysterious nature. As one Imperial Navy admiral succinctly put it: 'Salvation's methods have proved more

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

You might think GOG's Summer Sale is still in full swing, but it actually came to a close on June 27. Don't despair, however, as a new Weekend Sale is discounting Wing Commander, Ultima and more! The GOG Twitter account also put out a little trivia message that included references to Ultima 8 and Wing Commander Academy. There's only about 24 hours yet to go as of this writing, so act fast! And if you miss it, don't worry, I'm sure there will be another Wing Commander sale in our near future.

Can you name the titles from our Good Old Games Weekend? No cheating! 😏

You can find more classics up to -90% here 👉 https://t.co/0ueswjwej9 | #GOGSale pic.twitter.com/xvJMQsjBWI

— GOG.COM (@GOGcom) July 3, 2022

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

FekLeyrTarg shared this neat clip of the German Amiga translation of Wing Commander 1. Both the Amiga and SNES editions of the game got proper German localizations, but the more common PC DOS version did not. Both FekLeyr and Dennis Mull confirm that the text comes across quite well here. If you're a PC player looking to try things out in a different language, Marty2Life made a German conversion package available here (also French and Spanish!).

Footage from the German Amiga version of WC1. And I must say the translation is pretty good.

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The concluding article in a series by historian Sima Kalhana, providing an overview of last year's key events.
"The aftermath of the Battle of HIP 22460 was an unsettling time. With Salvation dead, Azimuth Biotech fell under new management and struggled to maintain prominence. The Empire withdrew from further collaborations with the other superpowers. And despite widespread fears of Thargoid reprisals, a xeno-peace movement sought diplomacy with the aliens to prevent further conflict."
"September brought further mysteries with sightings of eight swirling anomalies in deep space, detectable by ship scanners within a certain range. Initially assumed to be stellar phenomena, these rogue signal sources were later discovered to be travelling faster than light."
"Professor Alba Tesreau continued to call for Aegis to be reinstated, and held a symposium in October to outline her plans. This was

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

LAZY SATURDAY SPACESHIP POST! I thought it might be fun to sort of roughly compare the Wing Commander Academy ships that originated in Wing Commander 2 with their original meshes. And you know what? It was fun! The Sartha:

The Kilrathi Jalkehi heavy fighter, which appears in a single episode! (Word of Honor)

The furball Grikath bomber, a series regular:

And the Kamekh corvette! The coloring is a little more like the all-tan Privateer version (which was the same mesh retextured).

On the Confed side, we've got the Ferret. This appears in only one episode BUT somewhere there existed an unseen toy prototype of it, the only one made for the series. Wish I knew more!

The Epee medium fighter. This one shows up a few times on the show but it always seems like it didn't get a fully fleshed out model sheet...

... which is also the case with the Sabre, which actually looks like a different design in its two

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Aegis has produced a prototype module that increases a ship's ability to survive within caustic environments.
Professor Alba Tesreau, head of the newly reformed agency, published this statement:
"The blueprints provided by Petra Olmanova have been rapidly developed by Aegis's newly acquired chemical engineers, metallurgists and ship technicians. Utilising their combined skills, they have constructed a working prototype."
"This new module functions along similar lines to a heatsink launcher. It is designed to channel the corrosive reaction experienced within a Thargoid Maelstrom to specific replaceable anodes prior to ejection, thereby extending a ship's range and operating time. We hope this will allow more data to be acquired about these mysterious objects."
"Aden Tanner has volunteered to personally pilot the ship in the live tests taking place this week. Time is of the essence, since the

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
A new type of Thargoid vessel, first encountered within the Maelstroms, is interdicting ships in Thargoid controlled systems.
Aegis highlighted the threat as part of its research into the Thargoid capital ships. Commodore Emil Varga, the Allied military liaison, gave this statement:
"The first explorers to breach the Maelstroms' inner regions encountered a previously unseen Thargoid vessel, larger than a scout but smaller than an interceptor. These medium-sized craft have been categorised as hunters, with this specific class designated the 'Glaive' due to its blade-like protrusions."
"The Glaives operated close to the motherships, so it was initially believed they acted as sentries. But in recent days they have appeared within systems under Thargoid control. Pilots lucky enough to survive these encounters report being forced out of supercruise by Glaives and

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
The Federation has begun voting to decide its next president, as a week of festivities in the Sol system are concluded.
Congress confirmed that any pilots who supplied rare goods for the celebratory events can collect payment from Li Qing Jao starport. All temporary system permits for Sol remain suspended for Pilots' Federation members for a further week.
The 3309 presidential election has now officially begun. More than one trillion Federal citizens are expected to submit their votes, which will be recorded and collated over the next four days via secure digital systems.
Vice President Jerome Archer is the Republican Party candidate, who is widely perceived as the political heir to President Zachary Hudson. His running mate is Congressman Niko Shirakawa, who has strong connections within the military.
Shadow President Felicia Winters, leader of the Liberal Party,