Wing Commander

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Pix

has expanded his Wing Commander archive with a scan of the relatively rare

Wing Commander III: The Ultimate Strategy Guide

. It's decidedly the fourth best guide book for WC3 after

Origin's Official Guide

,

The Authorized Combat Guide to WC3

and the

Japanese Guide to WC3 on Playstation

. But while the other two English books are included freebies with the game on

GOG

, the Ultimate Strategy Guide is lesser known and harder to find. It's certainly a very interesting artifact in its own way. Hopefully more fans can

check it out now

!

I recently realised I'd missed it out so if the other 3 guides weren't enough for you, there is now a scan of the Wing Commander 3 Ultimate Strategy Guide in the disorganised list that I call a downloads page.

Display More

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Howard Day

's

cockpit test

last week quickly turned into something much more. He's maintained the retro visual style plus added extra Hornets and Dralthi to contend with. The result looks like a really awesome Wing Commander shooter! The fun ship designs may look familiar as they are inspired by

Arne from Android Arts

. Click into each of the thumbnails below for an animated gif of the engine in action!

Hey, folks. Playing with some ideas in Unity. if I can get it working well, I'll release it to the community to make your own campaigns and games.

I'd much rather make a system that's simple to read and create with, lightweight, and easily used to make new stuff. You should be able to 1-1 remake the original, but some things... I would recommend against? Faster projectiles, multiplayer options, etc. Anyhow, I dunno. I'm definitely just screwing around at this point, we're a long way away

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

We have a new poll today that asks which of the famous major faction logos is your favorite. We threw in the

Church of Man

's eyeball sigil for good measure too. There are a few more obscure ones out there, but we think one of these five will be the winner.

DefianceIndustries

also made these pretty graphics for us a while back, so it's a great opportunity to get some more use out of them!

The old poll asked about your favorite feature in our streaming web show

All Wings Considered

. The portions where LOAF streams gameplay came out on top, which is good, because there's been lots of exciting cockpit action in the mix lately! The Cargo Bay where we show off newly acquired collectibles of the week has a lot of fans, and people also like the Afterburner Slideshow where the team shows off a variety of neat pictures to address Q&A topics or share other significant subjects of interest. You

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

The latest episode of ALL WINGS CONSIDERED is live now! All Wings Considered is the CIC's first ever streaming variety show which features news, conversation and gameplay relating to our favorite series. This week's Nav Points include:

• Privateer and conversation! Chat live while we earn an Orion.
• Did Colonel Blair really take a vacation to the same beach he found the Concordia at?
• Zathras, yes. Zathras.
• Your first look at the 3D printed Pewter Planet!
• Privateer 2 ship of the week: the Icarus

Missed the stream? The replay will be available below once it has been processed by YouTube. You can subscribe to the AWC channel for future notifications here.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Re.Enthused

has posted a video of getting Wing Commander going on the FM Towns

Marty

. The Marty was a console variant of the Japanese PC variant

FM Towns

. The two shared limited cross-compatibility, so it's really interesting to see that it runs! It requires the optional keyboard just to get past the initial screen where players input their name and callsign, but everything seems to load. Speed and smoothness definitely take a big hit and most sound seems broken, but it's still pretty neat. If you're not as familiar with this version, it's also fascinating to see the minor differences. Overall graphics are pretty similar, but the load screen displays "Start Secret Missions 2" alongside the normal prompts for Vega Campaign, Continue and Secret Mission 1. On PC, SM2 has its own separate executable. Overall, I'd say this is a successful experiment!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

It's E3 week, so that means the news has been full of gaming announcements. There's lots of new AAA games and cutting edge hardware that grab the most headlines, but a minor note in the Microsoft lineup caught our attention. The

latest batch

of Xbox/Xbox 360

backwards compatibility

updates for Xbox One will be the last. This means that Wing Commander

Arena

won't be making the jump to the current generation of consoles. It was always a long shot, but with more than 600 games ported over in the past several years, there were some really awesome

obscure

titles included that gave us some hope. There would have been some nice advantages such as enhanced team/party chat, built-in screenshot/video capture and just an overall commitment to sustained longevity on the platform. As it is, it's already quite impressive that the game is still fully supported on Xbox Live after nearly

twelve years

.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Howard Day

took a break from his

day job

to show off an interesting new illustrating technique. The result is a remarkable pixel art reproduction of the Hornet cockpit. We've seen later WC designs imported to the earlier engines as well as plenty of upgrades that take the original designs to the next level, but this is something in between. It would be interesting to imagine a retro pixel space sim that looks more like the original Wing Commanders at a higher resolution. It could be something like this!

Well, I bet DanFessler never thought I'd try his Index Painting technique in #3DSMax... to my complete delight it works wonderfully! Here it is working well on an upgraded 2x scale WC Hornet cockpit. Near perfect pixel art, no tweaking!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

DefianceIndustries

has another beautiful

WC4 capship

to share, and this time it's the Caernaven class frigate. We don't see too many frigates in the Wing Commander universe, so it's good to see them out in full force in The Price of Freedom. They're a slightly less beefy build than most designs, but Defiance has nicely modeled their side missile pods to give them a potent punch. He has quite a talent for giving these ships some real personality!

My WC4 era kick continues. We did a destroyer, now we get a frigate. Hooray for the Caernaven class frigate. Apparently these guys are the Talons of capships - just about everybody has one. We have Confed (which in WC4 livery is really plain. boo for post-war color schemes!). We have the Union, and my personal favorite the Pirate version.

I took the most liberties with the pirate version. The original one was just solid orange. This version

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

It's hard to believe, but we're already well into June and the (northern) summer is practically here. That means that it's once again time for us to start getting ready for the CIC Birthday Party! Just like we have for the last few years, we'll be shifting the observed date slightly to accommodate various conflicts. We hope you can join us on Saturday, August 17, at 7:00 pm EDT (4:00 pm PDT and 11:00 pm GMT). This year we'll be celebrating the CIC's 21st, which is hard to believe!

The party will take place in #Wingnut on our Discord server. As always, you're welcome to drop by the chat room any time beforehand to join in the fun. We're still working out the specifics, but for the first time, there's a chance we might also have an accompanying simultaneous live stream to take the excitement to a whole new dimension! Stay tuned for more details as the event approaches.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Ryanek

has a YouTube channel dedicated to a novel concept: opening a pack of cards/collectibles each day and filming the results. Wing Commander was recently up, so we got a chance to see what treasure's in store. I really love this. I've heard this type of video is really popular with young kids, but now I can start to understand the appeal! In fact, I'd really enjoy a stream of someone opening up a whole box of

WC CCG

boosters and carefully recounting what they find.

Today I opened a 14 card pack of Wing Commander CCG, pulling a Luck: Shift in Battle Rare! Fun little game I played long ago. I will list the pack contents on ebay under ryanek-- thanks for watching!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

The latest episode of ALL WINGS CONSIDERED is live now! All Wings Considered is the CIC's first ever streaming variety show which features news, conversation and gameplay relating to our favorite series. This week's Nav Points include:

• More Privateer grind! Privateer grind forever!
• Dundradal takes on the Gauntlet
• Fleet Action Book Club, Chapters 8 & 9
• Privateer 2 ship of the week: the Jendevi

Missed the stream? The replay will be available below once it has been processed by YouTube. You can subscribe to the AWC channel for future notifications here.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Adm_Maverick

is back with a new publication of his

tabletop WC game

's handbook. It includes new details on the 'activation phase' as well as new rules for communications abilities. There are also special effects for certain weapons as well as standard cannon engagement range tweaks. Everything works in conjunction with the

3d prints

he's developing to complete the experience. You can grab the update and check it out for yourself

here

.

Okay this took a bit longer then I had intended it to take, but got the player handbook updated.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

AircPirateNinsei

's impressive

Hornet model

flies great, and now it looks even better. He's designed a handful of slick decals based on the original WC1 cutscenes to give the fighter even more flair. A local print shop was able to turn these into adhesive foil labels for about $20. There's even a nifty QR code that can be applied so other people can easily scan the craft and find directions on how to build their own. You can find the instructions online

here

and follow the ongoing development at the

Flite Test Forums

.

I've reworked the decals again and especially included the KILLER BEES Logo, which can be seen in the game, when the canopy closes. The decal sheet has a size of 800 x 550 mm (31.5 x 21.65 in). I have also added Airc Pirates logos if anyone wants to use them. And I created a QR code with the URL to the download page. I will stick it on my new Hornet and interested people

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

DefianceIndustries

' latest model is the stalwart Southampton class destroyer. The solid stubby look is fully intact, and you can really see in these shots how well armed it is for its size. I don't usually say this, but I even like the dark look in the third image since it's got a really great glowing illumination effect from the engine intakes. There's even a Border Worlds paint scheme, and that variant is the star of a bonus wallpaper where the ship takes a few shots at a harassing Bearcat.

Well if you're gonna do a Lexington, you also need to do an escort, I mean you can't have a fleet carrier floating around unescorted can you? So here you go, one WC4-style Southampton DDG. Complete with a variety of paint jobs. We have your Confed variety, and of course, the Union gets one too.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Famous Origin artist

Denis Loubet

is back with a new Wing Commander item. He's been experimenting with 3D printing for some time, and we've been excited at the possibility of something out of the WC series. The Terran Confederation

Medal of Honor

has been at the top of our list, and that's exactly what's on the docket here. A prototype design has been put together as a type of pin, but LOAF has gone one step further and found the exact type of ribbon necessary to make it perfect. They still need to work out the details of how the two components might be attached, but this is already a great start. We can't wait to see the finished product!

Sorry for the long wait, but I finally created a 3D printing file for the Terran Confederation Inter-Congressional Medal of Honor! You can order it now, but before you do I want to ask the forum what kind of attachment to the ribbon do you want on

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Woah! I’ve never seen this ad before:

It's part of a mid-90s cross-promotion between Origin and Intel. Most of the print media focused on Origin’s air combat games, Pacific Strike and Wings of Glory. But WC did show up in a commercial narrated by Levar Burton!

The shot in the magazine ad above uses one of the first published pre-release screenshots from Wing Commander III which features an Arrow and a triangular Kilrathi transport.

The triangle transport didn’t make it to the finished game! PC (and Mac and PlayStation) pilots know the Kilrathi transport as a sort of long latticework ship.

The design shows up in Wing Commander IV... but again only in a cutscene, you only see Kilrathi shuttles in-engine.

It even shows up as the Kilrathi transport in the Wing Commander TCG!

What’s happening here? Turns out it was cut late because of a clipping issue and replaced with the model for the

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

It's GOG's Summer Sale Festival, so that means discounts on your favorite Wing Commander and Origin games. It's a 75% savings in most cases, so individual titles (plus expansions and extras!) are $1.49 or the entire series is $11.92, which is a flippin' steal. As we noted earlier in the year, most of the series has

Cloud Saves

for people using the GOG Galaxy client. We know the vast majority of you already own all these, but if there's one missing from your collection, now's the time to try it. It's also a great opportunity to buy a digital WC gift for friends.

Give these other Origin games a try if they're new to you!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

The latest episode of ALL WINGS CONSIDERED is live now! All Wings Considered is the CIC's first ever streaming variety show which features news, conversation and gameplay relating to our favorite series. This week's Nav Points include:

• Going for an ORION in Privateer
• Ben vs. Ali in the Gauntlet Challenge
• Kissing in Wing Commander - a history
• Privateer 2 ship of the week: the Karnenan

Missed the stream? The replay will be available below once it has been processed by YouTube. You can subscribe to the AWC channel for future notifications here.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Dark Sentinel

is well known for his high quality

Nephilim models

, but he's back this time with a Kilrathi makeover. His focus this time is the Grikath heavy fighter from Wing Commander 2. For whatever reason, ships from WC2 tend to be underrepresented in fan art and fan projects compared to the other mainline games, and that's quite a shame - some of them are tremendous! The Grikath is a beautiful fighter and very deserving of this slick update. Although the implied lineage suggests a successor to the Gratha, you can also see hints of the

Vaktoth

in the design. The Gothri gets all the attention at the high end, but

the Grikath is actually better protected and has very comparable weaponry. It's not a ship you want to mess with!

There are fighters underrepresented in mods and elsewhere and they need some love. Those that are, like, not as iconic as Dralthi. Yes, today we're talking

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Today marks sixteen years since Wing Commander Prophecy for the Game Boy Advance started shipping. As one of the handful of WC products from the 21st Century,

Prophecy Advance

holds a special place in our hearts. We actually

began

covering the game when it was just a tech demo stylized after Wing Commander 1.For over a year, we covered the excitement of its development, which culminated in a lively

launch day

here at the CIC. After release, some of the CIC staff even flew half way around the world to try out

multiplayer

. For a full rundown, check out our ten year anniversary memories

here

and a recent retrospective written by Raylight co-founder Massimiliano Di Monda

here

. LOAF managed to pick up one of the snazzy

Backlit GBA SPs

a little while back and got these glorious shots! They sure make you want to dig out your link cables and hop in the tiny cockpit!

Oh that magnificent