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The 8-Bit Guy has posted a neat video of a recent road trip to Austin to explore the area's rich tech history. He checks out places like the Dell headquarters and the building where they filmed Office Space. There's a fun stop at a Globe Theater reproduction sponsored by Richard Garriott. Of course, he also had to highlight Origin's old offices - both campuses - which is very fun to see (start at the 13:30 point to jump ahead). Extra bonus points for making the trip in a Chevy Bolt EV! Thanks to Rustic Dragon for the tip, who also makes an appearance. Check it out below!

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The original DOS versions of Wing Commander I and II included a handy debugging feature for instantly killing your current target (alt-delete) or every enemy on radar (alt-insert). You would activate these special keys by passing Origin as an argument to the game executable. Also passing -k would activate invincibility without changing your pilot name to CHEATER. Playtesting certain aspects of the game would have been a lot easier with these keys at your disposal.

When the Windows 95 ports came out as part of the Kilrathi Saga box set, this method no longer worked. Eventually, players figured out that you had to put Origin -k -b in Wingcmdr.cfg and WC2.cfg. This made sense, since passing arguments to the executable would have been a little less straightforward in Windows 95, and would have required players bypass the Kilrathi Saga launcher menu. For the next 23 years, we assumed that these "finger of

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AD spotted an awesome rendition of the Dralthi IV over at Bricksafe. Malcav put this together based on the ace variant, which is pretty slick. I don't know how people have the patience and talent to pull creations like this off, but it's very impressive! He's got plenty of other designs from Star Trek and Star Wars that look great too.

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*Pilots Federation ALERT*
Multi-billionaire Zachary Rackham's new orbital outpost at the galactic zenith is now operational.
Rackham's Peak is situated in the HIP 58832 system, one of the highest practical locations above the galactic plane. Its construction was funded by Rackham Capital Investments, in conjunction with Universal Cartographics and other scientific research companies.
Traders have been welcomed, although the increased distances between stars at the galaxy's fringes mean that vessels with a high jump range are recommended. Rackham's Peak is currently offering high prices for deliveries of beer, liquor, wine, Bast Snake Gin, Centauri Mega Gin, Chateau De Aegaeon, Eranin Pearl Whisky, Gerasian Gueuze Beer, Harma Silver Sea Rum, Indi Bourbon, Kongga Ale, Lavian Brandy, Leestian Evil Juice, Saxon Wine, Thrutis Cream and Wuthielo Ku Froth.
Mr Rackham officiated at the outpost's

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

A coalition of Lakon Spaceways shareholders has voted to replace several members of the company's board of directors with new management.
At an emergency general meeting, investors put forward a resolution to remove selected directors, in accordance with Lakon's articles of association. The majority vote was in favour of this resolution.
New appointees to the board have already stated that the rejected bid by Federal shipbuilder Core Dynamics will be reappraised. Jupiter Rochester, the corporation's CEO, has welcomed the opportunity for fresh discussions.
Chairperson Naomi Landseer, who is one of the directors being replaced, told Vox Galactica:
"It's no coincidence that the board members being voted out are the same ones who were against Core Dynamics owning the company. I am convinced that Rochester's people are bribing or threatening our shareholders to make sure this hostile takeover goes

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Core Dynamics CEO Jupiter Rochester has been accused of collaborating with Fleet Admiral Vincent to orchestrate Starship One's destruction in 3301.
As reported by Ethan Takahashi for The Federal Times:
"Financial data was presented to the court showing that Vincent, along with others in government and the Federal Navy, received colossal payments via shell companies created by Jupiter Rochester's loyalists."
"The prosecution claimed that Rochester and Vincent were reacting to then-President Jasmina Halsey's intention to scale back military spending, which would impact Core Dynamics's profits. They arranged to assassinate her and lay groundwork for Zachary Hudson to be voted into power, knowing that his policies would result in further naval contracts."
"The defence argued that Halsey's testimony was unreliable, and that the financial data was obtained via improper methods so should have been

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We've got a lot of YouTube in this week's news slate! Today's video is a huge nostalgia trip by Lazy Game Reviews. LGR managed to get ahold of a brand new sealed Creative Labs bundle with a Sound Blaster, double speed CD-ROM, speakers and tons of awesome games. While quad speed drives were starting to hit the market and WC3 was starting to light up the sales charts, this would have still been a very nice set in early 1995. The $380 MSRP (nearly $700 in today's money) was a bit pricey, but not a bad deal. It was everything you needed to turn your boring old PC into a multimedia powerhouse! He goes through the unboxing of the exquisite machinery, then hardware installation and software setup. The included games are a win: Ultima VIII, Strike Commander, Syndicate Plus, Wing Commander II and more. And it's fun to see how much fun he's having opening all this!

2X CD-ROM! Sound Blaster 16! Speakers!

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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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*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
The HIP 12314, Dan and Nauni systems have come under heavy attack by Thargoid vessels.
Vox Galactica featured this report by freelance war correspondent Jade Sanderlyn:
"The Thargoids have been unusually aggressive in recent months, as attested by the drifting wreckages of many independent ships. When Salvation repelled their forces from the Delphi, Maia and Merope systems in December, some believed it was only a matter of time before the aliens retaliated. It appears that time has come."
"Although the Thargoid species is often viewed as territorial, on this occasion they have pushed further towards human space. Authorities in all three systems were unprepared for the incursions and have sent out a general call for assistance."
"The superpowers are still in the process of forming their anti-xeno taskforces, and thus unable to help. Fortunately, despite Aegis being

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Various Imperial allies, ambassadors and nobles have been summoned to Capitol for a series of meetings with Emperor Arissa Lavigny-Duval.
Political journalist Cassia Carvalho provided details for The Imperial Herald:
"There are rumours of many behind-the-scenes changes among the upper echelons of power since Emperor Arissa returned. But this latest event was mostly in the public eye and seemed designed to reassure the citizens of her physical presence."
"Members from all echelons of the Imperial aristocracy arrived at the palace with their entourages. Court ceremonies were held to reaffirm their fealty to Emperor Arissa, all with as much spectacle and grandeur as possible."
"Less public were Arissa's closed sessions with representatives from the Imperial Diplomatic Corps. Laurentin Sharpe, the Empire's senior ambassador to the Alliance, said: 'The purpose of these briefings is to update Her

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It's a new week, and we've got a new Lego starfighter by John Nelson! This time he's built the Hornet light fighter. There are some excellent elements here: the vertical stabilizers, large laser cannons and engines are spot on. I think the top-down curve of the wings also shows what a challenge this art is. Sometimes you have to make some compromises given the parts you have at your disposal (or exist at all!). Kudos again to John for making a recognizable and color accurate recreation of this iconic design!

Next off the assembly line is everyone’s first joyride the Hornet

The top of the fuselage I know is more slanted like a ramp on the blueprints but mine has that rounded look. Should I think of a better way with bricks out there I will re-model. Again, going from my best guesses from models and other artwork. Please enjoy.

Pliers (would) say, "For its day the Hornet was a prime light fighter.

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Today was Microsoft and Bethesda's big summer games showcase was this morning, and they had a big profile on one of the mostly highly anticipated space games of the next year: Starfield. It was first announced way back in 2018 and has been frequently described as "Skyrim in space." Today's reveal is the first time that people have gotten to take a look at the game's actual gameplay. There's plenty of action RPG excitement, but they finally confirmed that there will also be a major space combat element. Ships will be extremely customizable and players will be able to fly to over a hundred star systems and a thousand planets. There are some distinct similarities to No Man's Sky or Star Citizen, although this is purely a single player experience. We know quite a few Wingnuts out there are very excited for this, and we're happy to see more space sims coming out!

We hope you love building spaceships

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Today we've got a new video of the awesome 2017 Mountbatten Festival of Music concert where the Bands of HM Royal Marines performed the Wing Commander Overture. A few clips have been posted over the years, but this is a nice capture posted by their official YouTube account relatively recently. It's been five years since this first hit the news, but it's no less thrilling today!

The dramatic, high impact piece Wing Commander, which proved to be the perfect opening fanfare for the Mountbatten Festival of Music at the iconic Royal Albert Hall London.

In 2018 the group performed the piece again at the Beating Retreat parade.

The TV theme Wing Commander composed by Kevin Kiner & David Arnold, arranged by WO1 Ivan Hutchinson RM and performed at Beating Retreat at Horse Guards Parade.

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This update is part of a series covering Wing Commander content from Computer Game Review magazine. You can find the introductory post here. This update covers the magazine's reviews of Wing Commander games from 1991 to 1996 which were, by and large, very positive! It's a fascinating leap back in time...

October 1991 - Wing Commander IV

August 1992 - Special Operations 2

October 1993 - Wing Commander Academy

December 1993 - Wing Commander Privateer

December 1994 - Wing Commander Armada

February 1995 - Wing Commander IV

May 1996 - Diamond Multimedia Kit (with Wing Commander II)

May 1996 - Wing Commander IV

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Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Thargoid vessels are interdicting human ships travelling through systems that have been occupied by their fleets.
The Thargoids' ability to force craft to drop out of hyperspace is well documented. Over the past couple of weeks, pilots have reported that the interdiction ability used by human ships in supercruise is also being utilised by the alien forces.
Colonel Bris Dekker, an engineer who specialises in frame shift drive technology, submitted his analysis to The Federal Times:
"Being intercepted by the Thargoids mid-way through an interstellar journey is certainly a disturbing experience, but not necessarily a fatal one. Many ships have survived such encounters, unless they happen to be carrying Guardian or Thargoid artefacts. By contrast, these more recent incidents are uniformly acts of aggression, with ships being wrenched out of supercruise and immediately fired upon."
"We don't know

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

President-elect Felicia Winters has discussed her election victory and other topics during an interview with The Federal Times.
On defeating Vice President Jerome Archer:
"One cannot dispute that Archer played his campaign straight, with none of the underhanded tricks utilised by some of his predecessors. But the election results prove that the citizens want a change from the Republican Party's bombastic approach."
On the priorities for her forthcoming administration:
"Our government will expand investment in the Federation's soft infrastructure, pulling the economy's focus away from military projects and corporate profits. Many systems are in dire need of improved healthcare, housing and work opportunities. Billions of people need temporary financial support as refugees from the Thargoid invasion. We are not the Empire – we serve our people rather than rule over them."
On the Proactive

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Professor Palin's biological impurity has proved effective against the Thargoid spire sites, and is capable of halting their functionality.
Independent war reporter Gus LaChappelle published an on-the-scene report of the site in the Hyades Sector ST-Q B5-5 system for his ICE-cast channel Muzzle Flash:
"The eerie stillness surrounding me now is even more unnerving than when I visited this horror factory before. Bioluminescent nodules no longer pulse their sickly glow. Spires blot out the stars above, twisted towers made from solid night. Mega barnacles have ceased producing their foul byproducts. I'm walking through an alien cemetery."
"The soldiers escorting me constantly perform pirouettes with their weapons, trigger-twitchy. But there are no black-hulled monstrosities spitting fire from the shadows or wheeling across the sky. Only rotted mineral sacs drooping from mechanical vines, and

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Master O dropped in to share that a new version of DOSBox Staging has been released. We've previously reported that while development of the original DOSBox largely stalled out years ago, fans are still in need of a high quality emulation environment to play classic games. As modern computers continue to advance, there are many improvements and quality-of-life tweaks that can make the retro emulation experience much better. This includes support for modern video and sound setups, better controller and joystick integration, plus compatibility with the features of modern operating systems. And with all that, versions 0.81.1 has a specific fix incorporated to properly display the video from Wing Commander 3! You can try it out for yourself here.

Summary:

The main focus of this maintenance release is to fix a couple of regressions introduced in 0.81.0, most of them related to game compatibility, and

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One of the biggest television shows of the year is Fallout, which is based on the classic video game series. It has a handful of endearing and memorable characters, including Walton Goggins' The Ghoul. But did you know this wasn't his first time acting in a video game-based production? As we reported a while back, Goggins portrayed the character "Moose" in Wing Commander 4! He's a Banshee pilot who's shot down by a flight of Excaliburs. Here's the clip:

More on his appearance:

While the label on the photograph reads "BW Pilot Garret 'Moose'", the actor in question is none other than Walton Goggins (credited as Walt Goggins). Moose appears in the Peleus jamming scene, one of the three Border Worlds Banshee pilots that are ambushed and shot down by a flight of Excaliburs. The Polaroid gives us a great look at a Border Worlds flight suit, which the production dyed grey from the original tan

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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!