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Here's one for the history books: the original four-page story premise for the tenth episode of Wing Commander Academy, "On Both Your Houses". A premise document like this was the first step in developing an episode of the show. Once it was approved by the show's producers it would be expanded into a three act outline and then a full script (which would go on to be boarded and then animated).

The final episode is very close to this initial premise although it does feature some differences, including setting Archer's robot fight at the Greenhouse lab, having Maverick ultimately be the one to shoot down the Kilrathi pilot and ending with an unused coda aboard the Tiger's Claw. You can download the PDF here; a full transcription is available in the WCPedia.

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Displaced Gamers has put together a fascinating video that dives into the classic DOS game 320x200 pixel resolution. If you deal in old screenshots as much as we do, you'll notice the original Wing Commander games come in this slightly odd resolution and aspect ratio compared to the 4:3 640x480 stats of later games. The clip goes into the technical details of exactly why this is, and there's also comparisons between the vertical pixel stretch on PC versus the Super Nintendo's horizontal stretch. This is why the Super Nintendo characters look squished in the recent Head Museum update. LOAF has mentioned this in passing in a few episodes of All Wings Considered, but this video really dives into the topic. Wing Commander is depicted at the 12:17 mark, but it's a cool watch regardless of the WC mention. Thanks to ShadowArm for the tip!

Examination of the 4:3 aspect ratio of DOS gaming - primarily VGA

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Fun Privateer 2 background element: Angus Santana has a model of a Bexian public transport balloon on his desk.

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On July 11th, prepare your blood wine and your bat’leths. It will be a Day of Honor. In honor of our favorite warriors for Kahless, Star Trek Online, Eaglemoss, Modiphius, and the Streampunks are all teaming up to hold an all day streaming event, featuring some of your favorite Trek stars and a whole heaping helping of honorable battle. We’re excited to have you join us for the event, live on the Queue Times Twitch channel. Modiphius – Featuring Rick Sternbach! 12:15 - 1:15 Host: Jim Johnson Special Guest: Rick Sternach, legendary Star Trek designer Join Modiphius's Star Trek Adventures development team and writers and special guest Rick Sternbach for an hour-long discussion on Rick's experiences with Star Trek, and how we're supporting Clear Skies, Blood of the Void, and the Streampunks group with their new shows, future STA products, and any questions fans have regarding the

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

DefianceIndustries has another wonderful take on the Thunderbolt, and this one's destined for the WC4 Fan Remake. The game had a placeholder TBolt imported from the Secret Ops Model Upgrade Pack, but this one takes the fighter to the next level. You can see the new design in the first image below and compare it to Sean Murphy's render for WC4 promotional materials after that. The third pic is the original in-game model compared to today's version. Defiance details the process that went into upgrading the ship at a new article over at WCRespace. You can also provide feedback (and see a bonus render of the pirate version!) at the CIC Forums.

Art department here. We've closed out the new and improved HF-66 Thunderbolt and updated the turntable animations in the media section accordingly.

The original Tbolt (below) was a reskin from the Secret Ops Model Upgrade pack. The model was a fine workhorse

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

If you missed the big news earlier this week, be sure to check out the new WC4 Fan Remake demo! There are numerous fixes and updates, better joystick support and new in-flight comms. You can download it here (886 meg exe) and get right to playing! The WC Respace team has posted a full article with instructions and FAQs if you have any questions or issues. If you're not quite ready to jump in yourself, here's a video of The Eradicator checking the demo out. It's actually the original release, so the latest version is even better!

It looks like a team of modders are trying to remaster Wing Commander IV. In this video, we will check their work out.

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Rotten Tomatoes has put together a ranking of 47 movies based on video games. It's an interesting read to see all of the different films represented here, even if the Wing Commander ranking is atrocious. WC comes in at 35th place thanks to its 10% score. I get that it's not the type of film that a professional reviewer is going to rush to thumbs up, and there's plenty of reasons why casual fans may or may not like it, but it's just not that bad. Among the ranks of cringey awful video game movies, it should really be in the upper quarter. You can check out the ranking for yourself

here

.

Thanks to Robin Ward and Gordon Lucas for the tip!

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Defiance Industries' tabletop Clydesdale was a big hit last week, and he's quickly followed it up with a miniature Dorkathi. The fun doesn't stop there though! He's also finalizing the Gilgamesh destroyer and Confederation dreadnought models for his digital TacOps remake. And Kilrathi counterparts are in hot pursuit! I just love how realistic this looks - right down to the crisp shadows and reflections.

The Empire of Kilrah, your one stop shop for those really aggressive looking transports. William Tell and associated Gilgameshians are ready to go. Working on the Ralatha.

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BastichB 64K has posted a new video in his DOS Days series. This episode focuses on Wing Commander 2, and it's been a long time coming since his WC1 profile originally dropped way back in March 2020. This isn't a particularly long clip, but it's nice how the narrator tries to set the stage and describe the early '90s pop culture context. WC2 gets a lot of credit for its new gameplay mechanics, narrative-driven story, interesting characters and engrossing expansions. Check it out below!

A look back at Wing Commander 2 a classic sequel to the much beloved original space opera by Origin Systems.

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LeHah scored another impressive Wing Commander autograph this weekend. Matthew Lillard was signing at the CT HorrorFest yesterday, so LeHah brought his previously-signed movie poster in order to score a rare Lillard/Prinze duo. It sounds like they had to eventually shut the line off due to demand and capacity limits, so he's lucky to have gotten in! Mr. Lillard always speaks fondly of his Wing Commander experience, so this must have been a fun one to get!

I then had him sign my Wing Commander poster which first confused and then elated him. “Wow, I’ve never signed one of these before. Holy shit, is this an original? Holy shit, Freddie signed this already?!”

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It wouldn't be a CIC Birthday Party without cake, so here it is! This year Lacey made two mini cakes to commemorate the dual celebration of the CIC's 22nd and Wing Commander's 30th anniversaries!

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Attention! We’ve doubled our efforts to give Captains the necessary experience to deal with threats to the Galaxy. From Thursday, August 16th at 8AM PT, to Monday, August 20th at 10AM PT, players will be able to enjoy twice the experience! During the event, content that provides skill points and expertise will reward a 100% (2x) Bonus above normal amounts – this bonus will be available for all content that rewards skill points and expertise. .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 .3s; } .share-footer .TI { background-position: 0 20%; } .share-footer .YT { background-position: 0 40%; } .share-footer .YT {

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Attention! We’ve doubled our efforts to give Captains the necessary experience to deal with threats to the Galaxy. From Thursday, September 27th at 8AM PT, to Monday, October 1st at 10AM PT, players will be able to enjoy twice the experience! During the event, content that provides skill points and expertise will reward a 100% (2x) Bonus above normal amounts – this bonus will be available for all content that rewards skill points and expertise. .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 .3s; } .share-footer .TI { background-position: 0 20%; } .share-footer .YT { background-position: 0 40%; } .share-footer .YT {

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Attention! We’ve doubled our efforts to give Captains the necessary experience to deal with threats to the Galaxy. From Thursday, June 13th at 8AM PT, to Monday, June 17th at 10AM PT, players will be able to enjoy twice the experience! During the event, content that provides skill points and expertise will reward a 100% (2x) Bonus above normal amounts – this bonus will be available for all content that rewards skill points and expertise. .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 .3s; } .share-footer .TI { background-position: 0 20%; } .share-footer .YT { background-position: 0 40%; } .share-footer .YT {

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Attention! We’ve doubled our efforts to give Captains the necessary experience to deal with threats to the Galaxy. From Thursday, December 19th at 8AM PT, to Monday, December 23rd at 10AM PT, players will be able to enjoy twice the experience! During the event, content that provides skill points and expertise will reward a 100% (2x) Bonus above normal amounts – this bonus will be available for all content that rewards skill points and expertise. .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 .3s; } .share-footer .TI { background-position: 0 20%; } .share-footer .YT { background-position: 0 40%; } .share-footer .YT {

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Attention! We’ve doubled our efforts to give Captains the necessary experience to deal with threats to the Galaxy. From Thursday, December 19th at 8AM PT, to Monday, December 23rd at 10AM PT, players will be able to enjoy twice the experience! During the event, content that provides skill points and expertise will reward a 100% (2x) Bonus above normal amounts – this bonus will be available for all content that rewards skill points and expertise. .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 .3s; } .share-footer .TI { background-position: 0 20%; } .share-footer .YT { background-position: 0 40%; } .share-footer .YT {

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Attention! We’ve doubled our efforts to give Captains the necessary experience to deal with threats to the Galaxy. From Thursday, February 20th at 8AM PT, to Monday, February 24th at 10AM PT, players will be able to enjoy twice the experience! During the event, content that provides skill points and expertise will reward a 100% (2x) Bonus above normal amounts – this bonus will be available for all content that rewards skill points and expertise. .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 .3s; } .share-footer .TI { background-position: 0 20%; } .share-footer .YT { background-position: 0 40%; } .share-footer .YT {

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Attention! We’ve doubled our efforts to give Captains the necessary experience to deal with threats to the Galaxy. From Thursday, March 19th at 8AM PT, to Monday, March 23rd at 10AM PT, players will be able to enjoy twice the experience! During the event, content that provides skill points and expertise will reward a 100% (2x) Bonus above normal amounts – this bonus will be available for all content that rewards skill points and expertise. .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 .3s; } .share-footer .TI { background-position: 0 20%; } .share-footer .YT { background-position: 0 40%; } .share-footer .YT {

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Look what ChrisReid caught in the new episode of Picard: Seether’s knife in Picard’s collection!

I’m joking, it’s not really a Wing Commander reference. It’s a Gil Hibben Double Shadow knife which has been used in all sorts of sci-fi productions including Star Trek Nemesis as Shinzon’s knife. Here’s a cool history.

The Double Shadow also showed up last season on Picard as a Romulan dagger! They’re readily available for about $50 if you want a cool space knife that serves no practical purpose.

FAQ: the reason the WC4 novel calls it a “laser knife” is because it’s based on the script which describes “a mean looking instrument known as a laser-blade (a curved handle with a lethal thread of light that pulses from one end of the handle to the other)...".

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

Attention! We’ve doubled our efforts to give Captains the necessary experience to deal with threats to the Galaxy, and in the lead up to Victory is Life, we’re giving you an extended chance to do any catch up you might need! From Wednesday, May 23th at 8AM PT, to Monday, June 5th at 10AM PT, players will be able to enjoy twice the experience! During the event, content that provides skill points and expertise will reward a 100% (2x) Bonus above normal amounts – this bonus will be available for all content that rewards skill points and expertise. .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 .3s; } .share-footer .TI {