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We have exciting news! Captains on PC will be able to enjoy a bonus on purchased ZEN! Is there a ship in the C-Store that is tempting you? Now is the perfect opportunity to grab ships, keys, and whatever else has caught your eye. From November 21st at 9am PT to November 27th at 9am PT, Captains will earn an extra bonus on purchased ZEN when you charge through Direct Credit Card, PayPal, Skrill, BoaCompra, Xsolla, Paysafecard, or Steam. *Please note that this Charge Bonus offer is ONLY available for the following payment processors: Direct Credit Card (Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover) PayPal Skrill BoaCompra Xsolla Paysafecard Steam .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;

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

We have exciting news! Captains on PC will be able to enjoy a bonus on purchased ZEN! Is there a ship in the C-Store that is tempting you? Now is the perfect opportunity to grab ships, keys, and whatever else has caught your eye. From July 3rd at 9am PT to July 8th at 9am PT, Captains will earn an extra bonus on purchased ZEN when you charge through Direct Credit Card, PayPal, Skrill, BoaCompra, Xsolla, Paysafecard, or Steam. *Please note that this Charge Bonus offer is ONLY available for the following payment processors: Direct Credit Card (Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover) PayPal Skrill BoaCompra Xsolla Paysafecard Steam (Steam Purchases receive the bonus but do not receive extra ZEN for buying in bulk) .share-footer a { margin: 20px 10px 10px 0; background: url(d7afaaa14e96d0d973f76157ae31ec5b1466398539.png) no-repeat 0 0; opacity: .5;

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

KrisV noticed that the popular LGR video game Youtube channel frequently provides a glimpse at a retro poster that seems to sport a Vampire from Wing Commander Prophecy. Upon closer investigation, apparently a lot of people ask about that art, and so there's a whole video covering it! It turns out to not actually be a proper poster, but rather, a spread from the February 1998 issue of Next Generation magazine. One side has a table of dozens of new 3Dfx-enabled games while the reverse is a trendy collage with some of the hottest stars to be enhanced by the Voodoo chipset. This includes a nice Vampire nose and nacelle! There are also a handful of Prophecy screenshots intermixed throughout as well. We get a close look at the Midway's bridge as well as a Panther trailing a Hydra cruiser in these. Check out the full video below!

Checking out the 3Dfx poster thing hanging up beside my IBM PC AT, since

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Entartika

posted this look back at a physically distributed patch for Special Operations. Apparently in regards to an autopilot glitch, the team at Origin modified the SO1 executable and sent it to people to copy over their existing WC2 installation. Origin did have a BBS in the early '90s with a few things like this, but relatively few people had modems to access it, so they had to send out updates in the mail. We've sure come a long way! Thanks to JJ2078 for the tip.

How games used to be patched, in the olden days

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Chronocidal Guy's recent 3D printed Excalibur model was a big hit, and fans wanted to get a closer look at the actual model renders to appreciate the design in all its beauty. They look wonderful, and Mr. Guy has provided a variety of angles to give everyone a great view. He has a few additional notes about areas that he had to tweak for producibility, but the fighter still looks pretty spot on!

The 3D model is currently a mess of assembly structures and supports, but drawings I can absolutely do. Fully orthogonal, instead of those odd perspective renders we've had for so long.

The second side view has the near tail and missile bay moved and flipped around to show their backsides, and give a clear view of the rest of the ship behind them, with the back engine bank moved down to show the inner surface. No markings yet, and I don't have the details built for the darker access panel areas, but those

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Christian Klein has added another phenomenal set to his collection this week. All of the Wing Commander games localized for South Korea come in really cool box shapes and sizes. WC4 has an especially tall and narrow package, and it manages to fit most all of the marketing copy into the smaller space by squeezing everything in. Everything down to the install guide and discs gets the Korean text overhaul. These are wonderful to see!

Here it is next to a more typical Wing Commander 4.

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Here are all the new components added to Righteous Fire. The 'booster' style upgrades don't have damage states, so they are either doubled up or they have weird little placeholder graphics! That little frowny face has been hiding for 30 years...

Here's the same sprite sheet but for Privateer, in case you want to scroll through all the damaged components you might never have seen!

The Wing Commander damage states are very cool! Here's an article from earlier this year about Privateer's cockpit damage - plus a comprehensive gallery of all WC4's flight deck damage views!

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Today we've got a very thorough retrospective by Space Cadet Rewind. He set out to create an elaborate analysis of all the ins and outs of the original Wing Commander, and the resulting video came out to almost two hours! He covers a wide variety of topics including the history of the genre, mechanics of the game, mission rundowns, wingmen profiles, tips for each ship, info on the expansions/ports and more. I'm still going through it myself! If you've got a couple hours to wrap yourself in a thick WC1 blanket, give the clip below a watch!

A longform review/analysis of Wing Commander, the original space sim.

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

We’re pleased to announce that we’re teaming up with Pinny Arcade to provide an STO themed pin to attendees of PAX West this year! If you’re heading to the convention, make sure to stop by the Perfect World booth, #1115! You’ll be able to sit in the Captain’s Chair that we debuted at STLV, and if you take a photo in the chair, play one of our games, and share your email with the PWE team, you’ll earn a Victory is Life themed pin! Take a look at the design: You can see the design process that Lead Ship and UI Artist Thomas Marrone went through to arrive at the pin below. We can’t wait to see you at PAX West! .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;

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I am very excited to finally be writing this announcement: We are moving the events to a new home in the UI! Moving and updating the event system is something we have been discussing internally for quite some time. As you all know, the events used to live as a single tab within the reputation section of the UI. This was fine but always felt like we had hijacked another (more complicated) system for what should be a fun and simple part of the game. I am incredibly happy that we are finally updating this system. Seasonal Events are one of my favorite things about MMOs. The best part is all the hype and excitement; “The Winter event starts today! Wee!!! Everyone log in and let’s go /dance in the snow!” I always felt that the STO events were lacking this extra bit of presentation, they never felt “special” enough. I am happy to say we have finally carved out a space to make them feel more

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

Four Score and Seven Years ago, a cry went out from Captains across the galaxy. They had seen the epitome of style, the grandest of Space Barbie, and they wanted it. And now, The Emancipator costume can be yours – for free! From February 13th to February 17th, you’ll be able to pick out the most presidential of outfits for free in the Zen Store. Wear the stylings of Abraham Lincoln on all races, with the Long Coat, Bowtie, and Top Hat that the man himself made famous in The Measure of Morality. Not only that, but if your style is a little more jaunty, you’ll find the Top Hat Mini in this package as well, for all of your fanciest party needs. Enjoy Captains, but grab the costume now, you only have a limited time! .share-footer a { margin: 20px 10px 10px 0; background: url(d7afaaa14e96d0d973f76157ae31ec5b1466398539.png) no-repeat 0 0; opacity: .5; display: inline-block;

Quote from EVE Online News

With the holidays fast approaching, what better time to pick up your Fanfest 2018 tickets, or pick up a ticket for that special wingman or friend?

From April 12-14 next year, we’re back at Harpa on the Reykjavik ocean front, the home of EVE Online’s development team, to celebrate the fifteenth anniversary of EVE Online!

We’ll have presentations and roundtables galore as we celebrate the fifteenth anniversary, and start off the process of charting a course that will take us toward the third decade.

The fifteenth anniversary celebrations are set to take Reykjavik by storm, with the pub crawl, party on top of the world, and recent confirmation that the world’s first internet spaceships parade will be hosted in downtown Reykjavik during Fanfest 2018!

Tickets are now on sale on the EVE Fanfest website.

Deals are also available from our Fanfest partners at Icelandair, Reykjavik Excursions, Sixt Car Rental and

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Here's a gem straight out of the 1999 time capsule! It's from the May 24 issue of Video Business, a trade publication for the home video market that shut down in 2010. Everything about it screams "late '90s." TODAY'S HOTTEST YOUNG STARS! Freddie Prinze Jr. & Matthew Lillard of SHE'S ALL THAT!Trailered on Pushing Tin, Waking Ned Devine and Office SpaceAvailable Day and Date on DVD!The actual release happened on July 6. I remember we were all pretty darn excited that day, but not as excited as this poster ever was!

"Starship Troopers" Meets "Top Gun" in this $12 Million Box Office Blast! is a trade advertisement announcing the VHS release of Wing Commander.

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At long last, LOAF had finally hunted down a rare thorough magazine profile of the music associated with Wing Commander 4. It appeared in the April 1996 issue of Mix, a professional audio publication. More than just a preview of a video game, the piece goes into quite a bit of technical depth about how the music was made and recorded. It includes numerous quotes from composer George Oldziey and provides an exciting glimpse into the still nascent field of high end music for games. You can find full scans and a proper transcript in the WCPedia here.

eBay victory! After several years of watching I have the April 1996 issue of Mix, a sound mixing trade magazine. It has an in-depth five page feature on the sound work on Wing Commander IV! My only clue in this chase was a mention in the April 1996 Point of Origin that Mix had done a big feature ‘last month’ so I had to try a few issues. Worth it,

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Here's a super retro mag shot from Super Retro Gamers. It dates back to the February 1993 issue of Nintendo Game Zone in the UK. Some of the edges are cut off, but you can get the gist of it. What I really like about these old timey Nintendo previews is just how unabashedly bold and colorful they are - just like the original Wing Commander itself! We get some nice screenshots here, which would have been really eye-popping back in the day. It also really sells the game well. Based on these descriptions of the game's features, I'd definitely want to play!

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The American release of Wing Commander IV for the Playstation included two manuals: a 'Battle Book' which includes detailed controls for the flying portion of the game and a 'New Officer's Handbook' which shows new players how to navigate the game and lists specifications for several flyable ships (the European releases of the game had a single combined manual.) For today's update, we're looking at the cover of the latter booklet which is a little more interesting than it might seem!

The single most fasscinating aspect of the New Officer's Handbook is that it introduces a small amount of lore in the form of the 'login text' which shows a new officer (not Blair as they are apparently an Ensign) logging into a Terran Confederation computer system. What is ReadyNet? Who knows - the conceit isn't followed up again... but it gives a little bit of additional flavor to the Wing Commander universe.

You have

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

Greetings Captains, Tim ‘Suricata’ Davies here! One of the highlights of my job as a marketing artist is when I occasionally get to work on the Okudagrams for Star Trek Online. Back in 2014 I created the MSD for the Voyager bridge, and over the years I helped out here and there, such as with the Engineering LCARS for the Galaxy class interior and, more recently, with the huge array of Cardassian panels on the DS9 revamp. With the upcoming Expansion ‘Victory is Life’, it seemed like a good time to take on a side project I’d had on the backburner for a while, a new Defiant MSD to give out as a poster at our conventions! I’ve always been a huge fan of the Defiant so it was great to finally get around to working on this poster. Instead of just releasing the wallpaper though, I thought it might be interesting for some of our players to actually see the process that goes into creating these

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

LOAF has been mining Super Wing Commander this month and has extracted lots of great cutscenes. Lots of fans are familiar with the classic Wing Commander remake, but there's a good chance they haven't seen these videos unless they've got a 3DO or vintage Mac. Check out a whole playlist for more and some highlights below!

I've put together some Super Wing Commander videos! Don't you just love that we-just-discovered-3ds-Max aesthetic? Here's a playlist with all the midgames plus all the takeoffs and landings!

For example, here are the winning and losing versions of a "mid game" cutscene. The Confed ships are an Exeter and Venture as they begin an orbital bombardment. The difference is whether we were able to hold up a Kilrathi missile shipment!

You've got to love these takeoff and landing clips!

Last, but not least, damage states!

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There's now a playable demo for longtime Wingnut centaurianmudpig's space sim Absolute Territory. The project has come a very long way since the first prototype a few years ago. As you can see from the new gameplay trailer below, the game's engine is shaping up with respectable graphics and solid action. There's an especially nice crackle to the gunplay. You can find out more and grab the demo here. The full game will be coming to Steam later this year.

The thrill of space combat with infinite replayability:
Absolute Territory takes inspiration from classic space combat simulation games from the '90s and '00s and adds features for modern gameplay and offers expanded replayability with Steam Workshop support.

Singleplayer Campaign:
Download and play to enjoy the first 3 missions from the Absolute Territory campaign (all 100% created with the in-game mission editor). Before jumping in, be sure to

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AD reminded me that Blair's callsign is DODGER in Kevin Droney's first draft script for the Wing Commander movie. I... don't hate it? The scene where they all explain their callsigns is fun, too:

Kevin Droney's First Draft (133 pages, 33 mb), which was written way back in 1995 (10/27/95)! It's very different from the later versions: it features many different proper nouns (Angelica "Angel" Devereaux), a strange callsign for Blair ("Dodger") and a very unusual twist on the traitor subplot. The Second Draft (9/21/97) and the Third/Shooting Draft (1/8/98) are also available. Along with the original Phoenix Pictures Memo, you now have all the tools to decide what went right and what went wrong with the Wing Commander movie's story!