News categories list

  • 30

    Jun

    ODVS has something slightly different for his latest video test. He's taken his enhanced video and edited in snippets of sample material from George Oldziey's Wing Commander tracks filmed by a live orchestra. It's the best of both worlds - incredibly high fidelity audio and video. George actually took his own stab at jazzing up the intro with his new music several years ago, but now we can enjoy it with the new 1080p visuals. A wholesale remaster with amped up audio isn't coming any time soon, since it's both time consuming and expensive to create, but this is a great teaser of what such an epic project would be!

    A first experimental effort at mixing George Oldziey's fantastic orchestral recording of his original Wing Commander IV score into my AI HD Remastered video.

    It's slightly wonky in places. While I do have the 5.1 channel audio to work with, I can't remove the original synth music entirely,

  • 27

    Jul

    We're excited to kick off a new week with another impressive enhanced Wing Commander 4 video release. Although at some point soon there are likely to be diminishing returns and the pace of new iterations will slow, ODVS has managed to crank out an even better looking package of the game's cutscenes. In this edition there's better character detail, improved CGI and restored audio aboard the Lexington. There's also just generally less compression visible and better handling of lower frame rate sections. All the clips are broken into two packages that are about four gigs each, and German/French versions are online too. If you're running a DVD edition of the game, such as the one available at GOG, all you have to do is unzip these in the VOB movie folder!

  • 14

    Jun

    ODVS is on a roll this week! Hot off the release of version 3 of the enhanced WC4 video pack, he's provided German and French translations as well. This is wonderful news for Wingnuts in Europe who get both high quality video and slick dubs as well now. Pedro has helped tweak the pack to make it easier to turn on alternate language support. There is also a fix for the English 3.0 files. The new 3.0.1 release corrects some aspect ratio issues that could potentially create problems on certain hardware. If you did encounter these issues, be sure to grab the new files (there is no patch - a full redownload is necessary). Even if you had no issues, we recommend unzipping the latest update into your video folder to ensure things run smoothly going forward. There's also a cool video that shows off the different languages in action. Note that the hot swapping between English, French and German is

  • 13

    Aug

    Today we're sharing a fairly rare budget release of Wing Commander. LOAF picked this one up a while back and we're finally getting around to sharing it with you! Most of the WC series was repackaged into numerous rereleases, compilations and bundles, but it's not that often that we come across new and unknown variants - especially in English-speaking regions. This one appears to be from a small 1993 run in the US cross-published by GT Interactive. It comes in a smaller box with a different form factor than most. While it's outwardly quite similar to the original WC1 design, the back features several differences such as more round corners on the screenshots and the removal of several lower images. Speaking as someone who owns at least 15 or so variations of WC1, you can never have too many!

    wc1_gt_interactive1t.jpgwc1_gt_interactive2t.jpgwc1_gt_interactive3t.jpg

    Here’s a eBay mystery! This copy of Wing Commander I came in a smaller, single piece box... a budget edition
  • 19

    Jun

    synthetic_pleasurest.jpgThe CIC was founded on the principle of "All Things Wing Commander," and we continue to try to live up to that every day! As such, LOAF has found a very obscure mention of Super Wing Commander in a 1995 documentary called Synthetic Pleasures. It features the "suit up" portion of the SWC launch sequence. And you don't have to hunt down the VHS like LOAF did - see it for yourself in the embed below!

    Alexa: “Your order of SYNTHETIC PLEASURES has been delivered.”

    The Super Wing Commander bit is just after the 44 minute mark (following footage of a robot labeled Robot Redford). It's the extremely-90s-cyber-stuff 'suit up' sequence from the takeoff cutscene.

  • 12

    Jun

    Here are the amazing takeoff and landing sprites from the original Wing Commander. Along with the cockpits these were absolutely essential in establishing the player's ship in their head (and showing-not-telling damage after a mission!).

    cockpit_comparisons1.pngHere are the Wing Commander II versions:

    cockpit_comparisons5.pngThis is an interesting comparison to the WC2 landing art, the similar (but decidedly different) side views used for the eject cutscenes. They didn't do these for the new ships in the mission disks!

    cockpit_comparisons6.pngAnd here's the kind of detail that makes a Chris Roberts game special: when the cockpit slides open you can see just a little strip of the tan cockpit... which matches the side view you have in flight!

    cockpit_comparisons2.pngcockpit_comparisons3.pngcockpit_comparisons4.pngYou can download a reference pack with dozens of cockpit images from WC1, WC2, WC3, Academy, Armada and Privateer here!

  • 05

    Mar

    The Star Trek Online Team is pleased to bring back the Breach special event. For the special event version of the Breach, Captains will be flying a streamlined route into and out of the Voth Fortress. From March 8th 8:00AM PST to March 29th at 10:00AM PST, Captains between levels 50-60 can queue up for our 5-captain “Breach Event” to defeat the Voth City Ship and earn one Voth Operative Transmission every 20 hours. After collecting 14 Voth Operative Transmissions, players can complete a new Event Reputation project to be rewarded with 50,000 Dilithium Ore, 500 Fleet Marks, 250 Marks of their choice, and a brand new Universal Console, Voth Phase Decoy. Completing this project on any character will unlock this new Universal Console for all characters across your account, and additionally the other characters can still complete the project to receive the Marks and Dilithium Ore. Activating the Voth

  • 04

    Sep

    The Star Trek Online Team is pleased to bring back the Breach Special Event. For the special event version of the Breach, Captains will be flying a streamlined route into and out of the Voth Fortress. From September 6th 8:00AM PST to September 27th at 10:00AM PST, Captains between levels 50-65 can queue up for our 5-captain “Breach Event” to defeat the Voth City Ship and earn one Voth Operative Transmission every 20 hours. After collecting 14 Voth Operative Transmissions, players can complete a new Event Reputation project to be rewarded with 50,000 Dilithium Ore, 500 Fleet Marks, 250 Marks of their choice, and a Bio-Engineered Furiadon Combat pet. Completing this project on any character will unlock this new Combat Pet for all characters across your account. Your other characters can also complete the project to receive the Marks and Dilithium Ore. The Bio-Engineered Furiadon Combat Pet can

  • 21

    Aug

    It’s been nearly a week since the demo for WC4 Remastered was released, and the game has been a big hit so far! Hundreds of fans have fired it up and the feedback is very positive. Players have been posting their recorded sessions online and word has spread to other news sites such as DSO and PC Gamer. If you haven’t yet tried it out, the WC4 Fan Remake team has posted helpful instructions on how to get things running. There’s even a tutorial on loading to a Steam Deck! Grab the main installer for yourself right here (900 Meg exe).

  • 20

    Dec

    Centaurianmudpig has made some neat progress on his WC-inspired space sim, Absolute Territory. To show off the flexibility of his new mission editor, he's mocked up the famous Enyo System missions. The game isn't a copycat of Wing Commander, but there are lots of clear similarities. It's come a long way in the couple years that mudpig has been working on it and looks pretty fun! You can learn more about it and how to eventually give it a try on Steam.

    Since the last update, I've been busy working on the Level Editor. The inspiration partly came from Wing Commander Academy, but I never got over how limited it was in creating missions. I wanted to make my own WC1 style missions, not just the drop some enemies and go skirmish.

    To that end, I've reached another milestone. To show what the level editor is capable of, I loosely re-created the Enyo 1 and Enyo 2 missions. These where made with the in-game

  • 27

    Sep

    Just in time for Wing Commander's 31st birthday, Christian Klein has constructed a wonderfully detailed Lego Epee. It's got everything: each wing and control surface, engine intake/nozzle and particle cannon is there. The colors are also wonderfully done, which is an extra challenge when working within the limitations of Lego bricks. Green and red accents are in the right places and the cockpit canopy is tinted purplish. Even the interior cockpit is well outfitted! I could never pull something like this off, so I bow to his talent. Follow Christian on Twitter for more Wing Commander and retro goodies.

    christianklein_lego1t.jpgchristianklein_lego2t.jpgchristianklein_lego3t.jpgchristianklein_lego4t.jpgchristianklein_lego5t.jpgchristianklein_lego6t.jpgchristianklein_lego7t.jpgchristianklein_lego8t.jpg

    Wohoo! It's finally done! This is my very first (own created) Wing Commander LEGO spaceship [639 parts]. The F-54C Epee. The design has changed a bit. I hope you like it :)

    Here's a few shots of the lovely Epee for comparison purposes:

    christianklein_lego9t.jpgchristianklein_lego10t.jpgchristianklein_lego11t.jpg

  • 10

    Oct

    We show off a lot of Wing Commander-themed mail calls and loot hauls here at the CIC, but this one's extra special! After more than 21 years, LOAF's managed to track down an original 35 mm reel of the Wing Commander Movie. It seems to be in good shape and comes with the associated optical sound track. What a find!

    wingcommander_filmreelt.jpg

    HERE IT IS! I am now the very proud father of a 35mm theatrical print of the Wing Commander movie. I never dreamed I’d get a chance to own one! I’d love to play it at least once, maybe rent out a theater and hold a big Wing Commander party when the pandemic is over! I’m also interested in looking into having it scanned.

    And now, back to preparations for the CIC Birthday Party. See you tomorrow!

  • 15

    Nov

    The Independent HIP 29241 Green Party has announced that its appeal to recover escape pods has been enthusiastically received by the galactic community. Hundreds of pilots supported the initiative by delivering pods to Felice Dock, and by protecting contributing ships in the Meene system.


    Security Chief Harper Vargas of the Meene Defence Force gave the following statement:


    "We have recovered a number of key figures within the mercenary group, and interrogations are underway. We will share more information when we have it."


    Pilots who contributed to the initiative can now collect their rewards from Felice Dock in the Meene system.

  • 04

    Aug

    Here's a few more shots of the glorious Tarawa model that Mac has been experimenting with lately. It's good to see people still putting Klavs' design to good use! The main purpose seems to pretty much be setting up for some prime B-roll in future lore videos on YouTube, but it still makes for gorgeous still imagery in the mean time.

    macs_lore4t.jpgmacs_lore5t.jpgmacs_lore6t.jpg

    Oof, looks like I'm gonna have to get back to work on getting the Tarawa fully working!

    Something that I didn't mention was that my work with the Tarawa, was actually based on the work of someone named littel_ludi on the Hard Light Production boards who imported Klav's models into Freespace/WCSaga and made it public on their forums here. At the moment all I've done is the retexturing, the glow points, and the bump maps, with the full intention of making the Tarawa into a fully working CapShip (It's missing a lot of functionality atm). Although I might end up abandoning

  • 29

    Jun

    I love these European CD-ROM Classics that came in thick jewel cases. How cool would it be to have a collection of them in all the different languages? Here's a recent photo posted by Stephan:

    european_cd-rom_classics1t.jpg

    I really appreciated the CD-ROM Classics and bought them regularly. If I remember correctly, they had their own EA displays at the POS. Great selection of excellent titles. I have kept a few to this day.

    I believe there were three Wing Commanders:

    european_cd-rom_classics2t.jpgeuropean_cd-rom_classics3t.jpgeuropean_cd-rom_classics4t.jpg

  • 08

    Oct

  • 13

    Jun

    Evangeline's Elite Expeditionary Force has revealed plans to build a megaship in the Shana Bei system.


    Archangel Evangeline, commander of the faction, made the following announcement:


    "The successful construction of the megaship EFS Archangel will serve not only the Federation, but the entire galactic community. EFS Archangel will provide a hub for our military operations, allowing us to bring the fight to our enemies and defend imperilled systems. Together, we will make EFS Archangel a safe place to trade and share knowledge. Long live humanity!"


    To ensure completion of the project, the organisation has requested superconductors, computer components and insulating membranes from the galactic community. Pilots who contribute these resources to the Force at Chu City in Shana Bei will be rewarded at the conclusion of the project.


    The campaign will take place between the 13th and 19th of June

  • 20

    Jun

    An appeal for materials from Evangeline's Elite Expeditionary Force has concluded successfully.


    Following coordinated efforts by the galactic community, a large number of deliveries were completed to Chu City in Shana Bei. The new megaship, EFS Archangel, has now been completed and is currently undergoing final quality checks from the technicians involved.


    The group's commander, Archangel Evangeline, provided the following statement:


    "Our command group is preparing the EFS Archangel for her shakedown cruise through the system. On behalf of Evangeline's Elite Expeditionary Force, we salute the galactic community for its support and generous efforts. Without their assistance, this would not have been possible."


    Contributors to the campaign can now collect their rewards from Chu City in the Shana Bei system.

  • 30

    Apr

  • 22

    May

    Today we've got the sequel to the Matthew Lillard art recently made by NMA Nekro. They've collaborated with dogseatdogstoo to start with one of the earlier pieces, colorize it and add some atsy WC (Secret Missions 2 to be exact) elements. What do you think? It's wild how many huge Lillard fans are out there!

    dogseatdogstoo_art1t.jpg

    Guys do you remember the movie Wing Commander 1999? Well @nma_nekro and I sure do.

    Lovely little art trade I had the privilege of working on :D @nma_nekro did the line art, of course, and I scribbled in the rest! Thank you again!

    dogseatdogstoo_art2t.jpgdogseatdogstoo_art3t.jpgdogseatdogstoo_art4t.jpg