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Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Today is the McDanielist—or Pilgrim—Holy Day of Acclivity! It celebrates the disappearance of the first sloship to reach Sirius on this day in 2311. Pilgrim theology teaches that the lost ship was translated to a higher plane of existence where it continues to guide the faithful. You can read all about it in our full writeup here.

The Final Exodus

By 2309, the governing body of the outer planets, the Outer Planet Policy Council (OPPC) was under the control of McDaniel’s followers and preparations were made to begin launching Morvan Drive “sloships” to settle distant stars. The first, the Exodia under Hella Ti and a crew of devout McDanielists, was launched on February 19, 2311 carrying McDaniel himself and 1,199 other colonists to settle Sirius A-B. On March 23, the Exodia made the final .22 light year hop to Sirius successfully. The slowship had barely launched its single-person scout when

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The Marlinist Parliament has refuted widespread allegations of supporting or concealing members of the NMLA paramilitary group.
Fuelled by media speculation, many political and military leaders have suggested that the Marlinist Colonies should be occupied or destroyed to take revenge for the recent bombings. However, there is no evidence that these systems have any direct connection to the NMLA.
First Minister Jenna Fairfax gave this statement to Vox Galactica:
"The starport attacks were as sickening and terrifying to us as to the rest of the galaxy. The Neo-Marlinist Liberation Army follows a twisted creed that has no bearing on true Marlinism."
"We have sent our own intelligence team to join ACT, led by Captain Milo Castile of the Marlinist Constabulary. It is vital that we all work together to end the NMLA's campaign of terror."
There was also a comment from fellow parliamentarian Aaron

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

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.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Mark Gabby-Li has a great physical Banshee model to share today. It might look like it came out of a bespoke kit, but this is actually made just from Snapships parts! Last year we highlighted how these new space toys could be tweaked to build some more familiar designs, and it's wonderful to see fans taking up the challenge. And that papercraft Banshee on the side is pretty slick too!

My first attempt at a remix of a spaceship from (relatively) popular culture: Wing Commander IV's Banshee!

You know, making fan models of spaceships with Lego or Snapships feels a little like a sort of poetry.You are trying to capture the essence, as the pieces you have limit your ability to perfectly replicate it.

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The Affiliated Counter-Terrorism unit (ACT), formed by all three superpowers to combat the NMLA, has launched its investigation.
The organisation has been working closely with Alliance Interpol, the Imperial Internal Security Service and the Federal Intelligence Agency to collate data on the terrorist strikes against nine starports.
Captain Niamh Seutonia, one of ACT's joint leaders, told the media:
"Initial forensic results from the targeted stations suggest the use of a more compact bomb design than in previous attacks, possibly constructed on-site. Worryingly, the NMLA's new generation of weapons seem to be easier to transport and conceal."
"The good news is that a comparison of reports has revealed one very promising lead. I will personally take a team to follow this up, and we're hoping for an early breakthrough."
Inspector Mara Klatt also provided a brief progress report:
"Our working

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

I went back and compared those Wing Commander 2 WIP cockpits we recovered with the final assets. Check out these Broadsword turrets which lose, among other things, the hand graphics!

A set of three hard drives belonging to an unidentified Origin Systems employee was recovered by Joe Garrity of the Origin Museum and Dan Chisarick. The contents included installations of Wing Commander I and II and a copy of DeluxePaint with several Wing Commander II-related animation files saved.

While the images were originally stored as ANM animation files they are actually collections of static images, likely grouped together as animations for ease of organization and/or presentation. Inividual unique frames have been saved as PCX files and exported as PNGs for the galleries seen below.

Some are pretty similar, like the Epee...

... while others like the Ferret are very different!

You can find them all here!

Display

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Electronic Arts and Microsoft have announced that Xbox Game Pass (PC and Ultimate) members finally have access to the EA Play catalog on PC. We reported last year that this would include the five Wing Commander games on the service, however, it appears that they've been removed from the EA Play subscription as part of yesterday's big update. The screenshots below show what the WC pages looked like before and after the removal. It was also announced last year that EA's Origin storefront would be going away, but that transition is still in progress and the Origin-branded store portal still carries the WC games for $4.99 each. In comparison, GOG typically charges $5.99 each, but they bundle WC1&2 together into one. They also frequently have sales that bring each package down to $1.49. While this is a bummer for the (admittedly tiny) handful of WC fans who may have been holding out for the new Xbox

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

We've got lots of pretty ships in the news this week! The designs that we've shared the last couple days have been high quality digital models, but today's work is a little different. Nightball06 has returned to his hand-drawn Hellcat sketch. At first glance, it might look like these are different rotated perspectives of a computerized model, but they're actually digital sketches. He's taken a few liberties to streamline and enhance a few general elements and is looking for feedback below!

Hey folks, Well since Corona has its deadly clasp all over the world - I hope you're all well.And with all those Lock-downs, the one good thing that disease gave me is time to work on my design again... (As I mentioned before - it's also some kind of stress relief for me)

So here’s my latest attempt:
I went back to my first drawing (the perspective one / left upper corner) because that's where all my ideas

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Private investigators Erik Gunnarson and Francesca Wolfe review the Neo-Marlinist Liberation Army.
Gunnarson: "We don't usually get involved with political cases, but it's hard to ignore the largest terrorist attack in history."
"The NMLA is a radical offshoot of Marlinism, a democratic movement named after the Republic of Achenar's original ruler, Marlin Duval. Most are peaceful protester types, but Neo-Marlinists want to overthrow the government by permanently removing the Imperial Family."
"What nobody knows is how the NMLA went from minor troublemakers to interstellar terrorists. The starport bombings last September came from nowhere, and their assassins have killed many Imperial bigwigs including Prince Harold Duval."
"Smart money was on them being funded by Empire's enemies, but now the NMLA treat the Alliance and Federation as equal targets. Hitting all three superpower capitals was a

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Klavs is back with his latest take on the renowned Rapier medium fighter. He's made quite a few variants over the years, but his latest version sticks close to the original WC1 inspiration. Side by side, there are actually quite a few notable differences in the spaceframe from WC1 to WC2, so Klavs has worked out a creative approach to both the original and "G" variant. The 2660s version pictured below is strongly rooted in the 2650s design, and various changes are shown as outgrowths of that. The results are pretty slick!

Hi everyone, I got to liking the A model rapier so much I started thinking about incremental tech advancements rather than a whole new spaceframe for the C-G models, so I've envisioned that here and I'm really liking the results so far! I think the 'chunkiness' fits the WC-1-2 era much better than the swoopy Rapiers I've done before.

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots Federation ALERT*
Safeguard Interstellar requires deliveries of medicines to treat casualties from the NMLA's recent terrorist attack.
The humanitarian aid organisation is helping to coordinate relief efforts for the starports in the Alliance, Empire and Federation that were bombed last week. CEO Noel Beaumont announced:
"Hundreds of thousands of civilians still require urgent medical attention after being evacuated from the damaged stations. Many have severe caustic burns inflicted by the corrosive enzyme payload of the explosives. We have already exhausted the majority of supplies in nearby systems."
"To reinforce overstretched health services, we request shipments of basic medicines and advanced medicines. These can be delivered to three starports being used as staging areas: Krylov Ring in the He Bo system, Mackenzie Relay in the Cemiess system, and Davis Terminal in the Duamta

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The Alliance, Empire and Federation have created a centralised agency dedicated to investigating and eliminating the NMLA paramilitary group.
The new Affiliated Counter-Terrorism unit (ACT) is a direct result of the Cornelius-Lasky Convention, which was signed at the Galactic Summit.
This treaty requires the superpowers to share information on any large-scale threats to civilian populations. With a combined death toll rising over half a million, the recent starport bombings have obtained such status.
ACT will be jointly led by the veterans of the tri-superpower taskforce that defeated the League of Reparation in 3304: Captain Niamh Seutonia of the Imperial Internal Security Service, Inspector Mara Klatt of Alliance Interpol, and Senior Agent Tanya Ramirez of the Federal Intelligence Agency.
Captain Seutonia gave a brief statement:
"ACT is an independent organisation dedicated to bringing the

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

We've got a pair of fantastic new animated-style fighters from DefianceIndustries up today. The first is a Hellcat (featured in the first episode of WCA) in fancy green colors inspired by Tim Eldred's concept art. I like it. It fits the era when greens were much more prominent on ships like the Tiger's Claw or Exeter destroyers. On the Kilrathi side, we also get a nice orange Sartha. They're tiny weaklings, but you can't treat them like Salthi - those neutron guns will tear you up!

A bit of a grab bag. Got around to doing the WCA Sartha which should almost round out the fleet. Eventually I'll have to do the Jalkethi and I think that's all the fighters. Additionally I did a WC3 style Hellcat using the paint scheme from the Tim Eldred concept art that was posted here about a week ago. Enjoy as always.

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

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Political fallout has been intense after the NMLA simultaneously bombed nine starports in the Alliance, Empire and Federation.
The targeted stations are in the Achenar, Alioth, Eotienses, Gateway, Kamadhenu, Lave, Nanomam, Rhea and Sol systems. These were referred to by NMLA propaganda as the 'Nine Martyrs', a reference to the attack against Kepler Orbital last November.
All three superpowers are treating this as a major emergency. Top-level discussions have taken place between their chiefs of security, using communication protocols recently established at the Galactic Summit.
However, mainstream media has also reported on internal political tensions.
The Imperial Herald: "Senator Patreus proposed that all known Marlinists be arrested immediately as NMLA collaborators. He received a direct rebuke from Chancellor Blaine, who said 'Her Majesty views your blunt tactics as having been

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

AD found a really cool trove of movie concept art images! Costume designer Magali Guidasci contributed to films such as Leon, Zombieland, Armageddon and Wing Commander. And she's posted a fantastic gallery online that shows off how many of the film's most iconic outfits began. Perhaps most notably, there's even a mockup for the deleted Merlin character, Blair's holographic assistant! Check them out below:

AD: Found the WC movie's costume designer's site and she has some cools from the movie - including a concept for Merlin - that I hadn't seen before! Magali Guidasci is the talented artist behind the costumes on films like La Femme Nikita and Armageddon.

LOAF: True excitement tonight: this unused costume concept for the Merlin hologram! VERY different from the storyboards and other art we've seen.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

To keep the Wing Commander Movie's birthday train rolling another day, here's a medley by Illustrated Fiction. It condenses down many of the spaceflight scenes into a tight mini film. While the ship designs received an understandably mixed reception, the actual action-packed CGI portions of the movie were just great. Here's a chance to appreciate them together! They also paired this with a nice writeup, which you can find here.

Wing Commander (the movie) is a guilty pleasure and it is something of an oddity in that it feels both very much of its time - especially in terms of its casting - but also like a curious throwback to the 1970s and 80s.

The movie, based on the popular video game series, was released in 1999, in the middle of the CG revolution sweeping through cinemas by the late 90s (Matrix, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, etc). The movie is a mix of rubbery aliens rubbing shoulders with

Quote from Mass Effect News-Bot

You didn’t even know you needed an articulated Blasto the Hanar Spectre plushie, but here we are. Prepare to enkindle the love in your heart, or your enemies (we’re not here to judge) with this perfectly pink plushie of this Hanar gunslinger extraordinaire from the Mass Effect franchise. He even comes equipped with adorable M-6 Carnifex pistols for a mission complete. Check out the badass cuddle buddy below:

This latest Mass Effect plush stands 12 inches tall (30 centimeters), 10 inches long (25 centimeters), and a light 0.5 pounds (230 grams). He comes with two pistols that can be attached with snap press studs. According to Gaming Heads: “Get your Blasto plush now. Blasto the zany multi-pistol-wielding Hanar gunslinger with a dark past, a heart of platinum, and the tendency to shout, ‘Enkindle THIS!’ in combat, is ready to join your squad. Blasto is made using premium plush, detailed stitching and

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

It’s Friday here which means... happy 22nd birthday to the Wing Commander movie! 🎉🎉🎉

When the movie came out, I took my first ever cross country trip without my parents to attend the premiere in Austin, Texas. My best friend Chris Reid, also a rising high school student, flew in from the other side of the country. Before that week in March we'd been only IRC messages to one another and now we were flesh and blood humans. The whole experience had this sense of a jump to adulthood and to the next iteration our lives. And we did not care that the movie had changed the look of the space fighters or recast the heroes or even that last minute editing had made the plot incomprehensible to anyone who hadn't read the screenplay and the novelization beforehand. (Of course when you're eighteen you know that everyone has your same experiences so it stands to reason that everyone had read the screenplay and the

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Vice President Brad Mitchell and a number of Federal Cabinet members have been killed in the recent terrorist attack on a starport orbiting Earth.
The NMLA planted caustic enzyme explosives at Li Qing Jao station, where a government meeting was taking place. The VP and Cabinet members were confirmed to be among tens of thousands of casualties. Eight other starports across all three superpowers were simultaneously bombed.
President Zachary Hudson, who was attending the Galactic Summit during the attack, made this statement:
"This atrocity is nothing less than a declaration of war, and we will respond accordingly. For now, we mourn the loss of my close friend Brad Mitchell and other heroes of the Federation. I will personally appoint replacements to their positions soon."
The Federation has directly accused the Empire of being responsible, by allowing Neo-Marlinist bomb-makers to escape from a