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Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

It's the battle of the mission briefings! Both Plywood Fiend and Real Admiral Tarsus have recently mocked up their own takes on these classic WC1 interludes. They both have their own distinctive art styles while paying homage to elements we love like Colonel Halcyon and the nav map.

Greetings all and Merry weekend. I've been trying to hone my skills with pixel art, animations and the like and have made the following scene, a reasonably elaborate mission briefing in the WC1 style.

The story here is of an Exeter, the TCS Tengu fleeing from a pursuing Kilrathi strike force. If they can link up with the TCS Vigil, another Exeter, they might just be able to overcome the pursuing fighters and possibly even strike back against their carrier.

Which one's better? It doesn't matter! It's just awesome that fans are still tinkering around and experimenting creatively like this, so if you like either one, let

Quote from Mass Effect News-Bot

BioWare managed to pull off what many consider to be a ‘perfect remaster’ with Mass Effect Legendary Edition, with the developer’s efforts being notably prevalent throughout the entire remastered trilogy. The game was so well made, in fact, that sales of the title have been “well above” the expectations of EA.

During a recent investors call, EA CEO Andrew Wilson spoke quite highly of Mass Effect Legendary Edition. “The launch of Mass Effect Legendary Edition – the remaster of the first three Mass Effect games – reignited the passion of fans around the world, driving sales performance well above our expectations,” Wilson revealed. There was no talk of specific sales numbers during the call, though we reported back in May that the trilogy reached a peak of 59,817 concurrent players on Steam, which is the 2nd highest concurrent player count for any EA game, surpassed by Apex Legends.

As for BioWare, the team

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots Federation ALERT*
In the Kuwembaa system, the Federation is fighting to prevent further factions from declaring independence.
New Kuwembaa Labour has broken ties with the Federation in protest against the government's civil surveillance programme.
Li Chotep for Equality, a local Federal faction, has been tasked to degrade the rebelling faction's military strength. President Zachary Hudson made a brief public announcement:
"I call upon all Federal auxiliaries to aid in this conflict. The reputation of the Federation cannot be so easily tarnished by such criminal action."
Governor Sonal Mishra, the leader of New Kuwembaa Labour, also requested assistance:
"The Federal Accord is no longer fit for purpose. We require support to make a stand against this violation of our constitutional rights."
Three other Federal factions are about to declare themselves as independent sovereign states:

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

LazyGameReviews posted this image of a teaser for Wolfenstein 3D. It's from the February 1992 digital Apogee catalog advertising the pending launch of the iconic first person shooter. It's a cool little artifact unto itself, but wow, check out that smack talk (plus spelling mistakes) in the footnote!

This is very first ever "texture-mapped" three dimensional (3D) game with REAL-TIME scrolling and panning! Most 3D games use the polygon fill method, such as the flight simulators available commercially. Wolfenstein 3D uses a 3D technology that has NEVER been seen commercially. (The Wing Commander games tried to fake tuxture-mapped 3D graphics, but the results didn't work very well.)

LOAF observes, "Odd, the only Wing Commander games at the time used the exact same solution as Wolfenstein: a 3D environment with 2D sprites for enemies that scale and rotate!" Whatever the underlying tech was, Wolf 3D

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

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.

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

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The Alliance, Empire and Federation have clarified their official positions regarding the emergence of onionhead gamma strain.
All variants of the popular psychedelic drug remain illegal within Federal space. Ambassador Jasmina Halsey, who was president in 3300 when the ruling was made, announced:
"I am pleased that my decision to outlaw onionhead stands. I still maintain that it leads to experimentation with more dangerous narcotics, and we must steer our youth away from that path."
The Empire has also declared onionhead illegal, despite rumours that it is imported by the wealthiest citizens for private use. Princess Aisling Duval told the media:
"It was insulting enough that Delaine was allowed into the Galactic Summit, but now he's peddling filthy drugs and pretending it's medicine! I only pray that nobody loses a loved one to such poison, as I have."
The Alliance has not made a broad

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

ZOmegaZ mocked up something pretty cool here. Challenge coins are collectible items with a strong connection to the military, so he figured they'd make a perfect WC tie-in. As custom build-to-print options have grown online, it's become increasingly possible for people to design and manufacture their own. ZOmegaZ's first cut at what a Wing Commander style coin would look like is pretty a sharp. It features the Confed star on one side while the reverse includes the Tiger's Claw. What do you think? Let him know if this might be something you'd be interested in if he manages to get a batch made.

So I've just become interested in challenge coins. I don't usually like random trinkets, but these are pretty neat. I have this crazy idea of making a kickstarter to get some Wing Commander challenge coins made, Vega Campaign design or something. Anyone else interested?

First pass design is below. I think it

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The NMLA's attacks against the Marlinist Colonies have caused mass casualties, disruption and political chaos.
More than 35,000 civilians were killed in the attacks, with twice as many suffering injuries and caustic burns. Safeguard Interstellar is providing vital supplies to survivors, and evacuations of Stillman Hub and Tilman Point stations are ongoing.
First Minister Jenna Fairfax has been confirmed dead. Minister Amrita Ross has temporarily assumed leadership, but the Marlinist Parliament has been destabilised by heated accusations between its members.
The Marlinist Constabulary has tightened security, and ACT is running urgent investigations. Captain Milo Castile told the media:
"This was undoubtedly the work of Theta Group, the NMLA's weapons specialists. We have found evidence that local Neo-Marlinist supporters provided logistical support, and arrests are forthcoming. However, as

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

We've been getting questions lately about when the next CIC Birthday Party will be held, and since it's almost August, it's time to firm up a date! This year we'll be holding the big event on August 21 - three weeks from now. The official start time will be Saturday evening at 7:00 pm EDT (4:00 pm PDT and 11:00 pm GMT). If that's not a good time for you, there will be plenty of people stopping in all day long to visit and catch up. Some details are still in the planning stages, but things will be similar to last year with the main festivities in #Wingnut on our Discord server. We'll have a night full of Wing Commander memories as well as a few new things to share. We hope to see you there - it'll be a ton of fun!

Speaking of website birthdays, WingCenter.de celebrated 20 years online earlier this month! They haven't updated in quite a while, but at least the site has remained in archival form

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Here's a little goodie that came in the mail this week. Many years ago we posted about the March 1998 review of Wing Commander Prophecy in PC Gamer. What we didn't show off at the time was that issue's nifty cover disc featuring the WCP demo. As far as WC-themed promotional discs go, it's pretty slick with a prominent Panther fighter and a Tiamat coming through the wormhole on the sleeve. Although it says "Not to be sold without magazine," I'm happy that someone broke the rules so that I could have one of my very own after all these years! And if you weren't aware, this isn't a tiny gauntlet. The full blown Prophecy demo includes four in-plot missions that weren't included in the game! You can download them (and many other awesome WC demos) here!

Sure, you've played Prophecy... but did you ever play the demo? If not, you're missing out on a special little chunk of the game. Unlike most game

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

There's even more Rapier news to report in addition to the massive rundown of LOAF's research. AD pointed out that we have a more recent bead on the whereabouts of an existing Rapier fighter. It seems that one of them - potentially the Planet Hollywood craft - apparently made its way to an automotive junkyard at some point in the last two decades. The owners didn't know what it was, so there it sat until The MIXX Radio came across it. It's missing the wings, rotary neutron gun and a few things, but it could be much worse. We're looking forward to seeing where it goes from here!

This is a reply to a many year old tweet, but I believe I have the whereabouts of the US Rapier that was in Planet Hollywood. It will soon be in my possession. Here is a pic from today. It’s missing some pieces. I hope to get some of it back to a Rapier state. I’m going to try and copy all your info on the background. I

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

New Kuwembaa Labour, which controls five systems, has triggered a second wave of secession by severing ties with the Federation.
Following the victory of the Azaladshu Free, a minority of Federal factions are breaking away from the superpower in protest against its civil surveillance laws.
Governor Sonal Mishra of New Kuwembaa Labour made this statement:
"The Federal government has granted itself draconian powers to spy on its own citizens. Regrettably, the only way to avoid this is to withdraw from the Federal Accord. I urge the president to respect our wishes and accept our sovereign status."
In response, President Zachary Hudson ordered Governor Mishra to abide by constitutional law or face the consequences. He has also redirected the Fortress Liberty megaship to the Kuwembaa system.
Political commentators believe that three other democratic Federal factions are ready to follow the example

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Sad to learn that Paul Alexander passed away last month. Mr. Alexander was a prolific science fiction artist who was responsible for, among many things, the four wonderful cover paintings for Baen’s initial package of Wing Commander novels.

Artist Paul Alexander, 83, died June 14, 2021 at the Brethren Retirement Community in Greenville OH.

Paul R. Alexander was born September 3, 1937, in Richmond IN, the son of the late Fred and Ora Olive Alexander. After graduation from Wittenberg University in 1959, and then the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, he found work in the art field with architectural firms, and then moved into advertising, concentrating mostly on still-life and “men and machines” subject matter.

In 1976 he began working with an art representative in New York who brought his work to the attention of Ace Books. Impressed by his command of hardware and machinery illustration, Ace

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots Federation ALERT*
Independent pilots have supported the Far God cult by delivering commodities to the Panjabell system.
The Pleiades Concordat paid for shipments of auto fabricators, emergency power cells and insulating membrane transported to Moore Hub station. These will be used to outfit megaships that will be populated by the Thargoid-worshipping cultists.
Local reporters spoke to one of the sect's newest converts, Leonard Yates from Agassiz Settlement, now known as the Eighty-Ninth Adherent of the Sixtieth Chapter:
"The beneficence of the galactic community is deeply appreciated. Our missionary megaship, the Testament, will help carry news of the oncoming apocalypse to every system."
"The other megaships – the Perdition and the Sacrosanct – will soon embark on a holy pilgrimage. They will carry thousands of us faithful worshippers into the void to commune with the Far God and

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots Federation ALERT*
The NMLA has bombed two starports in the HIP 22550 and Hyades Sector RO-P b6-6 systems in the Marlinist Colonies.
Explosive devices were detonated at both Stillman Hub and Tilman Point stations. As is characteristic of weapons used by the NMLA, caustic enzyme payloads caused widespread corrosive damage.
The combined death toll is in the tens of thousands, with many more injured. There are unconfirmed reports that First Minister Jenna Fairfax is among the fatalities.
The following message was broadcast via NMLA propaganda channels:
"Why are they bombing their own homes? Why would Theta Seven kill his own people? Because they are not our homes! Not my people! They are prisons, not colonies, where traitors to the cause beg for scraps from those who exiled them. True Marlinists will never stop fighting until the Republic of Achenar is restored."
The attacks are believed

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

GOG.com is having a special weekly sale this week, and the theme seems to be '90s classics. In addition to series like Warcraft, Myst and System Shock, both the Wing Commander and Ultima franchises have been included. Sometimes it seems like GOG sales come along pretty frequently, but I always hear about Wingnuts (like Zeether!) who finally take the digital plunge whenever there's a big discount like this. The whole DOS/Windows series under $12. If there's a game you're missing, now's your chance to add it to the collection!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Mac's Lore has an exciting new video in their series on Wing Commander history. Their latest clip covers covers the exploits of the TCS Victory with an emphasis on the events that concluded the Kilrathi War in Wing Commander 3. The clip is broken down into several sections: service history, technical details, the crew and conclusion. In addition to his own narrative, Mac was able to source his high quality visuals from the WC Saga engine and ODVS' high quality video among other fan resources. The result is a tight package that's a fun run through the ship's noteworthy accomplishments!

Backed up against the wall, the Confederation fleet begins hauling out rustbuckets to the front lines to battle the Kilrathi. In one spectacular case, one of those buckets helps to win the war.

On another note, when I was working on this, I initially kept getting bogged down in the details of what happened in 2669,

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The superpowers have partly suspended Aegis and authorised an inquiry into the Alexandria megaship, which disappeared in hyperspace.
Freelance journalist Alexei Keel reported on this development for Vox Galactica:
"Public opinion regarding Aegis has always been chequered, but its founding governments insisted that it played a vital defensive role against the Thargoids. The tragic loss of the Alexandria, carrying thousands of crewmembers and valuable Guardian artefacts, has now raised questions about the organisation's competence."
"The Alliance, Empire and Federation have jointly ordered an independent inquiry to determine the facts about the Alexandria. Many Aegis operations were shut down, and detailed investigations have begun. Professor Alba Tesreau and other senior members have already been forced to resign."
"Part of the reason for such scrutiny is the emergence of the anonymous

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

We've got some more Krant updates for Howard Day's Wing Leader project today. First up is a short and sweet video of the Kilrathi medium fighter biting the dust in a hail of laser fire. The next clip shows the perspective from the Hornet cockpit with the targeting VDU now fully updated to reflect damage on the ship's frame. Finally, there are full sprite sheets of all the different angles that come together to show the craft in flight!

Quick clip - Hornet blows up a Krant

Got the MFD icon for the Krant in there

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Communications intercepted by the Proactive Detection Bureau are being used to prevent further factions from leaving the Federation.
A report by the civil rights organisation Advocacy proves that the Federal Intelligence Agency is targeting pro-independence individuals via their private messages. In many cases, they are being arrested for planning to commit crimes against the constitution.
Deputy Director Bethany Blake, who runs the PDB, gave a statement to the media:
"I can confirm that gathering such intelligence is within our legal remit. Unilateral declarations of independence are criminal acts that violate the Federal Accord. Therefore we are identifying perpetrators before they cause harm, which is precisely what our surveillance network was established to do."
In Congress, Vice President Jerome Archer defended the PDB for boosting arrest rates and saving lives. However, Congressman Bai