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Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

We've got a new poll up today that asks what ship you felt the best defended in. There's a lot of bombers on the list, although the options aren't exclusively limited as such. From time to time we might find ourselves in a heavy fighter or even merchant ship that feels extremely secure, and there are some good options for those tough craft! What's your favorite?

As many people seem to be growing tired of social distancing, it seems our old poll has run its course. It asked about the best way to get away and stay away from anyone who might be carrying a nasty virus. Of course, in the future that could take the form of anything from Watson's Disease to the Nephilim bio rash that might make you want to self quarantine. Signing on with the Exploratory Services to chart the frontier seemed to be the most popular option, and it was followed closely by being tucked away on a quiet ISS station for a few

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

There’s a new craze sweeping the galaxy, and it’s cold weather gear! For reasons beyond the understanding of the higher ups at the Alliance, soldiers have been gathering in small groups and taking pictures of themselves in the frozen wastelands about the galaxy in their best winter getups. And we want you to join in, too! From May 20th to June 3rd, take a screenshot of your character and their bridge officers on the brand new Priors’ World Character Select Screen, and send it to community@crypticstudios.com, with the subject line, “Winter Gear Contest.” Make sure you put together your favorite gear – our artists will be picking the winner based on the coolest costume you can put together. The grand prize winner will receive an STO prize package that contains: A retail copy of the game, signed by STO developers An MSD poster of the Defiant, signed by STO developers The exclusive STO badge

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

It’s been…very cold…in space…but you, Captains, have showered us in images of your best winter getups for keeping it warm. We couldn’t believe the amount of entries that came in for the Snow Gear Fashion Contest, and choosing the winners was incredibly difficult. But after a long debate, we’ve chosen our three favorites. Without further ado, here are the winners! Grand Prize – Fruit the Nazbuu! Runner Up – Darin Wolf! Runner Up – Susanne Peters! We had quite a few favorites that didn’t make the cut, but we wanted to show off anyway for creativity or hilarity. Check out the gallery below - click on the right or left side of the images to navigate! Nxt Prv

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

AD found this nifty review way back in the February 1993 issue of N-Force magazine. It's more than thirty years old, and everything from color choices to the hair style of the reviewer confirms its age. You can tell they had a lot of fun putting this spread together, which is why I'm surprised it only got an 84. They also ran a contest that gave away free copies of the game and other associated merch, which is pretty cool!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

AD came across some interesting videos by RetroShell. They're digitized versions of the SNES WC1 and Secret Missions manuals that have been turned into YouTube videos. At first, the concept is puzzling. Why do these exist rather than PDF scans? The more I think about them though, the more I lean towards these actually being kind of genius. Yes, downloadable files are great for archiving, but in many cases there isn't a great way to find reliable sources for docs like these. Players usually end up at sketchy (virus red flag) websites. YouTube, on the other hand, is readily indexed by Google and is itself an ever growing resource for technical information. The interface also makes for really easy and convenient scrolling/scrubbing through the pages. In this case, RetroShell has even added a nice page-turning animation and overlaid music from the game - which is a fantastic touch! After you

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Today we've got a new scan previewing the release of The Secret Missions on the Super Nintendo. AD found it in the November 1993 issue of Super Action. I love how colorful and exciting everything looks. We get plenty of screenshots of spaceflight, life aboard the Claw and of the special new War Hammer XII cutscene added to the game. The images repeat film-reel style across to top to sell how cinematic something like this was considered at the time. As was also common back then, there are also some basic tips for how to approach the different types of missions. You heard it here first: "a lot more technical," "big improvements all around" and "a lot more depth than the original!"

The sequel appears a lot more technical than the original, basically because of all the options and choices on offer. The amount of onboard information you can punch up with a slight slap of your joy pad is staggering.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

A real surprise today: Dennis Mull sent me an envelope of Smudo autographs! Smudo is a German hip hop artist who loved Wing Commander and so got to have a cameo in Prophecy! You can learn more about that here.

These images were part of a photo series that we've also cataloged here.

Now we are learning about the music of Smudo.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

The retro game site

Commodore4ever

has found another iteration of the Wing Commander 1 sell sheet advertisement. This one features a black banner with the words, "The award winning Space Combat Simulation. Available soon for the Amiga!" This poster-style image is a famous advert that actually predates WC - the earliest versions promote the game as

Wingleader

with the famous words, "What you SEE is what you PLAY!" Other iterations exist, including variants in different languages. Although this minor wording tweak may not seem super exciting, from a collector's point of view, it's fascinating to see just how many versions exist!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Oh wow, I love this perspective! I post videos from time to time of people playing Wing Commander Prophecy for the Gameboy Advance, but they're usually screen captures. It's very cool to see someone playing it in real time. The white gloves and arctic white console are nice touches too. There's a lot of cutscene and talking head content for the bulk of the video, but the clip includes some solid space combat towards the end too. Note that this unit has a screen mod that makes it really pop. You'd ordinarily need an Advance SP or original Nintendo DS to get a naturally lit up screen.

Handheld gameplay recording of Wing Commander: Prophecy (released in 2003) on the Nintendo Game Boy Advance (with IPS screen mod) without commentary.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

CustomGameCovers has a cool product for Wingnuts who own Prophecy for the Game Boy Advance. Since the game comes on a cartridge, it's very popular on the resale market - although it's commonly without a box. This solution fills that need with a reusable DS-style container that has a slip cover based on the game's original cardboard box. It's not really a collectible piece itself, but it could be a nice complement to the Prophecy Advance in your collection! You can order them for about $10 on eBay. There's also a deal where you can buy two and get one free.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Today we've got another amazing Wing Commander collectible found by Dominus of Exult. This one is a copy of Privateer potentially localized in Portuguese. It's got a really cool slip cover and a handful of local publisher markings on top of the translated text.

I found this on ebay: a Portuguese Privateer. A while ago I found a Portuguese Strike Commander and since then suspected there must be more... (it’s a slide cover and top/bottom are only black, no code).

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

No

ALL WINGS CONSIDERED

this week due to internet difficulties, but a neat discovery this morning: a promo shot of Privateer 2's Heretic dated October 1995, over a year before the game shipped. Compare it to the box art (with invasion stripes) and the in-game model (blue and yellow)!

Bonus Heretic content: the original concept sketch, a 3.5' study model built by the development team and screenshots from an early build where it's named the Deathshead Mk. II!

ALL WINGS CONSIDERED

will be back next week!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

While this may feel like an interminable week, Wing Commander fans keep creating and doing fun stuff to pass the time. Conrad Teves posted this excellent 3D printed Arrow. As the machines get more and more advanced, these designs continue to get larger and more detailed. There's a little bit more work to do to prep the ship before paint, but it's already looking great! We can't wait to see the final product!

Top and bottom of a Wing Commander “Arrow” fighter straight off the 3D printer with the support structure still attached. Much filling and sanding ahead before it sees paint, but an excellent print!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

We Are The Mighty has put together a mock fighter squadron with their favorite aces from any and all media. Mark Hamill makes the list, but in Star Wars' Luke Skywalker form. Christopher Blair also makes the cut as the younger Freddie Prinze Jr. iteration. Not a bad combo! You can see the full list here.

All Star One-Four – Christopher Blair from "Wing Commander"

He is fresh out of flight training but clearly has some natural ability. Like Skywalker, he is best suited as a wingman for now, but has the ability to rise through the ranks.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Mac is back with a belated but very much appreciated birthday gift! In honor of our 24th anniversary, he's put together another super slick wallpaper. This one is inspired by End Run and the adventures of the corvette TCS Johnny Greene. It's being harassed by a wing of Dralthi with a Rigakh in hot pursuit. Another fabulous scene - and ready to fill your 4K displays!

Happy Belated Birthday to the Wing Commander CIC! Without them, my job as a YouTube Lore Guy would be much harder.

I would have liked to say something the day of, but at the time I was somewhere over the Pacific. So here's part of a thing I've begun working on.

During a Kernel Update this night there was a malfunction of one of the HDDs on the SWAT Main webserver.

The HDD meanwhile got replaced and no data was lost

The few hours downtime has lead to market problems on the CF server which also should be fixed meanwhile (Freelancer restart is required).

Server statistics and player lists will update tomorrow.

Websites of the SWAT network should be a bit slower than usual at the moment as they require to do daily updates and maintenance now.

In a few hours everything should be normal again.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Justice has kicked off a live-streaming playthrough of Wing Commander Standoff. Standoff is a spectacular fan mod based on the Secret Ops engine. It takes place during the events of the Fleet Action novel, which were exciting times ripe for further exploration. The game was largely released in the 2004-2009 timeframe across five main chapters. While it was one of the most popular mods at the time, there's probably a lot of people these days that either missed it or just weren't into fan games back then. The two videos below get about halfway through the story, which is pretty good progress. Now's your chance to get a taste of what you might have missed!

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Sirius Corporation has claimed that the recent Thargoid incursions prove the necessity of its strategic defence pact with the Alliance.
The Didio, Novas and Sosong systems are currently withstanding a coordinated attack from large numbers of Thargoid vessels. Independent pilots have rushed to their aid while the three superpowers prepare their respective fleet responses.
A press conference was held by Admiral Nikolas Glass, the liaison between the Alliance Defence Force and the Sirius Navy:
"This unexpected onslaught only underlines the Alliance's need for military support. The Thargoids can strike anywhere at any time, and Allied systems such as Didio are vulnerable. Only with Sirius Corporation's help can we ensure their safety."
Journalists pointed out that the Council of Admirals had selected Admiral Rachel Ziegler to lead their anti-xeno taskforce instead of Admiral Glass, despite that

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Sirius Corporation has claimed that the recent Thargoid incursions prove the necessity of its strategic defence pact with the Alliance.
The Didio, Novas and Sosong systems are currently withstanding a coordinated attack from large numbers of Thargoid vessels. Independent pilots have rushed to their aid while the three superpowers prepare their respective fleet responses.
A press conference was held by Admiral Nikolas Glass, the liaison between the Alliance Defence Force and the Sirius Navy:
"This unexpected onslaught only underlines the Alliance's need for military support. The Thargoids can strike anywhere at any time, and Allied systems such as Didio are vulnerable. Only with Sirius Corporation's help can we ensure their safety."
Journalists pointed out that the Council of Admirals had selected Admiral Rachel Ziegler to lead their anti-xeno taskforce instead of Admiral Glass, despite that

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

A new member has been appointed to the Council of Admirals to represent Sirius Corporation as the Alliance's strategic defence partner.
Political correspondent Vanya Driscoll reported for The Alliance Tribune:
"There are always six seats on the Council of Admirals, taken by senior military commanders from the largest regional fleets. Not only is this the first time that a seventh position has been created, it's also the first to come from outside the Alliance."
"The new addition is Admiral Nikolas Glass, a highly decorated officer with the Sirius Navy. His new role is to coordinate the Alliance's anti-Thargoid operations, which from now on will be directly supported by Sirius Corporation."
"Prime Minister Edmund Mahon and Fleet Admiral Hayley Sorokin both endorsed this development as a way of strengthening the Alliance Defence Force, which lacks the might of the Federal or Imperial Navy. Many