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Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The anonymous figure known as Salvation claims that Thargoid forces will shortly launch an assault in the Cornsar system.
The following message was received by all major newsfeeds:
"This is Salvation. Authorities in the Cornsar system must evacuate the local population immediately. I believe a Thargoid invasion of the system is imminent."
"I became aware of this danger while developing a new interstellar xeno-detection network, which will be far superior to Eagle Eye. Although the network is not fully complete, we cannot dismiss this report as a false reading. Cornsar must act now."
Carter Armstrong, a chief administrator with Aegis, delivered an official statement:
"Aegis cannot validate this claim. There is no indication of a Thargoid presence in the vicinity, and Cornsar is too far from their known territories to be a viable target. As most of our operations are suspended due to the public

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

President Zachary Hudson's intention to remove the limit on his term in office has caused a deep rift among congressmen and voters alike.
Political correspondent Sofia Trevino analysed the situation in The Federal Times:
"Ever since the 77th amendment to the Federal Accord was ratified in 2594, no president has remained in office for longer than eight years. This is why the Hudson Contravention, as Congress officially refers to it, has turned up the heat on the simmering political division within the Federation."
"Members of the Cabinet and other leading Republicans have argued passionately that only Zachary Hudson has the experience and fortitude to guide the Federation through this eventful period in history. His supporters point to successes such as curtailing the secession crisis, ending the NMLA threat and introducing greater security via the Proactive Detection Bureau."
"However, others

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The leaders of the Alliance, Empire and Federation have publicly confirmed their support for Azimuth Biotech's anti-xeno operation in HIP 22460.
Prime Minister Edmund Mahon reiterated his position during an interview with the Old Worlds Gazette:
"It is our duty to protect the peoples of the Alliance. Since we currently lack a dedicated naval fleet, we must rely on partnerships with key military providers. With Salvation's advanced weaponry and Sirius Corporation's large-scale logistical might, Allied worlds have never been safer from Thargoid attack."
The Imperial Senate discussed Professor Alba Tesreau's accusations of criminality against Azimuth Biotech, to which Emperor Arissa Lavigny-Duval responded:
"Professor Tesreau remains a respected member of the Achenar Research Council, but a single viewpoint cannot eclipse the strategic significance of the Proteus Wave project. Our military

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Although the WC4 Fan Remake team just released the Remastered Demo, they're not slowing down at all. ODVS has published a new article at WCRespace.com about their resident musician, Greg “FilmCompos3r” Nicolett. You can read all about how he got started with Wing Commander, what his inspirations are for the remastered tracks and some thoughts on the future here. There's also a new video showing off the new battle music below!

Our resident Composer-In-Chief, Greg "FilmCompos3r" Nicolett, isn't just bringing the original score of Wing Commander IV up to modern snuff for our project. He's also extending it and improving on it where the technical limitations of 1996's audio technology fell short of George Oldziey's original vision for the game's soundtrack.

Here's a prime example: the game's original battle music was only 45 seconds long - which could get grating and repetitive during extended dogfights.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

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.

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
Full spectrum system (FSS) scanners are being updated with the aim of discovering the nature of the interstellar anomalies.
Cynthia Sideris, chairperson of Universal Cartographics, gave this statement to the press:
"The scientific community remains fascinated by the phenomena that we have classified as 'rogue signal sources'. At present we can calculate their approximate direction and velocity, but otherwise they remain a mystery. We have therefore worked with several corporations to enhance the ability of ships to analyse the signals."
"Engineers from Auger Vision, Jick Nackson Enterprises, Long Embedded Systems, LURP Ship Systems and other specialist companies collaborated to improve the long-range detection capabilities of FSS scanners. Their collaborative efforts produced a firmware upgrade that is designed to isolate these unique electromagnetic emissions."
"By

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

This is part of a series analyzing newly discovered Wing Commander IV continuity photographs. You can find the first post in the series' introduction here.

Our next continuity polaroid is a familiar face: it's Bob-O-Matte! Eagle-eyed Wing Commander players will recall that Bob-O-Matte is one of the three Border Worlds pilots who is ambushed and destroyed in the cutscene that opens the Peleus 'jammer' series of missions. Despite his apparent death at the hands of a Confederation Excalibur, Bob-O-Matte appears again in Wing Commander Prophecy reading a tarot deck in one of the game's most unusual transitions. Bob-O-Matte's flying scene takes place in the game's Banshee cockpit set which is a simple triangular backdrop (shots of the instrumentation are reused from the more elaborate Lance cockpit set). As you can see in the photograph, only the top portion of the flight suit was necessary since the shot

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The announcement that the rogue signal sources heading towards the core systems are Thargoid in origin has caused unease within the general public.
Protests in systems on the edges of human space have taken place, demanding assurances from local governments about their safety. The failure to establish a collective human fleet to counter Thargoid incursions has left many concerned about what the future may hold.
Casey Kilpatrick provided this report from Castellan Station in Lave:
"Colleagues across multiple systems have confirmed that the impending arrival of the rogue signal sources – termed 'stargoids' by some in network media – has led to a shared sense of anxiety. ICE networks are seeing high interest in topics related to Thargoids, with negative sentiment aimed at politicians and military figures seen as responsible for the Proteus Wave event which perhaps attracted the anomalies.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

On the left we have a pre-release Privateer 2 screenshot published in the December 1996 issue of PC Review, seemingly from a review build. On the right, the same wingman listing for Delphinius from the finished game.

What does this tell us? Someone very, very late in the process decided to remove a SPACE FIGHTER PILOT PORPOISE from the game's lore. The final version is such a weird joke, too... it almost feels like it was written to cover up a bug but... Delphinius is just a normal wingman?

Of course, we all know the Wing Commander universe has always been very, very careful to avoid borrowing anything from Larry Niven's Known Space.

I wanted to make sure I was right about Delphinius being a normally skilled wingman, so I hired him and there we go, he's happily battling a pirate.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

The Wing Loader project to add full speech to the original (Kilrathi Saga) version of Wing Commander 1 has been out for a couple weeks now. In that time, Destro and a number of fans have been able to put the mod through its paces and play through the Vega Campaign. The time has been put to good use to fix a handful of minor bugs and also add some new features. The user interface now supports the pilot transfer program, has menu elements for launching WC3 now includes in-flight speech comms for The Secret Missions. You can grab the update here (345 meg zip)!

I've just completed a run of Wing Commander using Wing Loader and fixed any issues I encountered.

New in Version 0.82
- Fix multiple issues with lines not triggering, including the final winning cutscene.
- Added Wing Commander 3 to the list of games.
- Added in-flight coms to all the Secret Missions. (Testing Phase)
- Added Wing Commanders Pilot

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Lady Florence Lavigny, the mother of Emperor Arissa Lavigny-Duval, has been placed under medical supervision following a sudden illness.
An official statement was released by the Imperial Palace:
"The Imperial Mother, Lady Florence Lavigny, has suffered an unexpected medical emergency. She is being cared for by a specialist team at her Lake Parisot estate on the planet Topaz . Details of her illness are not being shared at this time."
"Her Majesty the Emperor has cancelled all appointments and travelled to be at her mother's side. The latest report states that Lady Lavigny has undergone surgical treatment and is in a poor but stable condition. We know that all citizens will join us in wishing the best for this prominent member of the Imperial Family."
Royal correspondent Gudrun Vestergaard provided some background to the story:
"The Duvals always ensure that each Emperor's parents are afforded

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
A large naval squadron has gone rogue in the Shamash system, amid claims of widespread mental instability caused by an unknown signal.
Security forces for the Shamash Future faction were practising fleet manoeuvres, shortly before they turned their weapons against passing traffic. Lieutenant Commander Mackenzie Coates , one of the officers coordinating Fleet Exercise Grey Swan, told the media:
"All crews deployed for the exercise are now ignoring orders and attacking anything within range. The evidence we've gathered suggests they're suffering from violent mania, caused by some kind of mass psychological disturbance. They are still capable of operating the ships, making them a danger to civilians."
"Garrett Orbital outpost reported an anomalous multi-frequency signal during Grey Swan, which also broke through our primary comms network. We think it's related to the

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

Still striving to get the greatest performance out of your equipment? This weekend will be the perfect time to apply Tech Upgrades to your gear, as we’re doubling the amount of Technology Points earned from each one applied! From Thursday, May 9th at 8AM PST to May 13th at 10AM PST, every Tech Upgrade used will apply twice as many Technology Points toward your next Upgrade! This in turn reduces the amount of Dilithium that must be spent to reach each Upgrade threshold, allowing Captains additional chances to attain both Mark and Rarity increases on their favored load outs. .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

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

It's been quite a while since we regularly

covered new space sims

as they were introduced, but the industry has still been hard at work putting them together. We're going to try to get back into sharing interesting ones that we come across now and then, which leads us to

Between the Stars

. The game generates random universes, allows for lots of ship customization and is centered around a big single player story. A ship is outfitted with a variety of systems and multiple crew members, and characters are at risk of permadeath based on the decisions you make. Perhaps most importantly, combat looks pretty neat! Check it out below or find it on

Steam

.

Between the Stars is a space action video game with traces of RPG, management and roguelike elements. In it, we’ll live our adventure advancing in the universe and upgrading our ship, Captain and crew in order to be able to withstand the space war that

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The Leesti system played host to the second week of the Alliance Festival of Culture, where a new film production has caused minor controversy.

The Alliance Tribune's cultural correspondent Corinne Macintyre offered these details:

"A grand celebration of cinematic art took place at George Lucas station, featuring a wide range of traditional and interactive media from dozens of systems."

"The talking point was undoubtedly 'Unity', a historical drama from award-winning director Hal Raskin. It portrays Alliance founders Mic Turner and Meredith Argent as rivals who faked their romance to rally political support."

"More traditionalist audiences – and not a few critics – took issue with the suggestion that the couple's love was fraudulent, while others applauded it as bold and challenging. But this lively debate did nothing to dampen spirits at the event, which drew appreciative crowds."

The

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Indie Retro News

and

Cola Powered Gamer

have posted a review for Wing Commander. This one is a solid bread and butter review that covers all the bases: amazing production values, winning/losing paths, empathetic wingmen and more. It's a good length with secondary references to all the various ports and later spinoffs in the series. We like to highlight articles like this from time to time since it helps keep the series firmly in the collective gaming consciousness. There's a whole generation of new players out there today, and they're not all finding their way to the CIC. Reviews like this help to inspire new gamers to check out the classic space sim that we all love! Read it for yourself

here

.

When talking about space sims, sooner or later someone will mention Wing Commander. Developed by Origin Systems, Wing Commander can be considered one of the best and influential space sim ever created.

Wing

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Heart of the Tiger

found some old scans, including this neat PC Gamer review of Wing Commander 3. We've got

WC4

,

Prophecy

and many others in the archive, but my quick survey of things didn't turn up a WC3. Nevertheless, this is a famous article that's been periodically making the rounds for years, and with the game's 25th anniversary fast approaching, I wanted to make sure we posted it here. At one time, the 96% score below represented the

third highest

review rating in PC Gamer history. There were a great many

reinstalls

(print and

digital

) and

retrospectives

by the publication, but this was the original from the March 1995 issue. Brings back some fond memories!

I was rummaging though some of my very old HDDs when I found some very old(er) magazine scans. Enjoy!

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Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

A new agricultural fertiliser has been released by the Rockforth Corporation in response to growing concerns over low harvests in several systems.
Rex Whitlock, the company's marketing director, gave this statement to shareholders:
"We at Rockforth are deeply concerned by the recent reports of poor staple crop yields. We are determined to ensure that the food-supply chains are not impacted."
"Our new EX7 fertiliser has been synthetically enhanced to enrich soil, increase macronutrients and promote growth across all types of cropland. We have prioritised its development and are confident that it will help minimise the risk of future food shortages."
"Distribution of the fertiliser has started at Marshall Dock in the Riedquat system. We encourage traders to take advantage of our introductory prices."
Many farmers have already begun putting the new fertiliser to use, but Dr Genevieve Kane of the

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Share prices in the Rockforth Corporation have risen following the success of its latest fertiliser.
With key agricultural systems reporting crop failures over the past few weeks, the mega-corporation has capitalised on farmers' demands for new treatments. Sales of Rockforth's fertiliser have beaten expectations, with multiple systems importing large quantities of stock.
Rockforth marketing director Rex Whitlock provided this statement:
"I believe that our long-standing dedication to quality has played no small part in the success of this product. Since its inception, the Rockforth Corporation has represented the cutting edge of agricultural technology."
"Hard-working farmers facing this challenge require our support, and we have pledged to meet their needs. I am confident that the EX7 fertiliser will help to mitigate any further losses."
Meanwhile, Dr Genevieve Kane of the Interstellar

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

A collaborative body has been formed by the three superpowers to trace the source of the blight that is laying waste to crops on key agricultural worlds.
The development was covered by journalist Adalyn Cross for Vox Galactica:
"We know that the Rockforth fertiliser caused the advanced decay that has affected so many crops, but the specifics remain unclear. Was the corrupted fertiliser the result of an industrial manufacturing error, or perhaps sabotage by a rival company? Is there evidence of a deliberate effort to harm the people of the core systems?"
"With billions of citizens facing food shortages, departments from all three superpowers are collaborating to identify the origin of the blight and halt its progress. The speed with which the blight has spread is frankly stunning."
Rex Whitlock, marketing director at Rockforth Corporation, released this statement:
"This development has come as