Wing Commander

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Wing Blender

has gotten its first update in more than a year. The program is a

Blender

importer/exporter for ship models that allows for easier manipulation of the items in Wing Commander Prophecy or Secret Ops. It's been a useful app for fan project modders, and the new version 2.2.1 can easily cut import time in half! You can grab the program

here

and get tips on its use at the

CIC Forums

.

Anyway, if you've tried to use the importer, you'll know that it is sluggish as hell. I've been trying to work on that. I made a few optimizations to the importer recently, which mostly involve using flat typed arrays instead of lists of lists, and it turned out to be MUCH faster than what I had. With my most recent optimizations, I was able to cut the import time in half! Well, at least for the more detailed meshes. AST_S_01.IFF hasn't shown much improvement in terms of import time, but that's because the other

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Today is Wing Commander creator Chris Roberts' birthday! He's looking pretty good for fifty - video game development seems to suit him well. Still, hopefully he's able to take a break and enjoy the weekend!

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BritizenCon

is an annual event for fans of Star Citizen in the UK. In conjunction with

JR Design & Fabrication

, the main panelists at the event were able to sit behind a really cool desk inspired by a setting in the game. On top of that, the WC fans there also built a really cool arcade style kiosk with built-in Wing Commander games! They designed a cabinet around a 27" monitor and loaded up Wing Commander 2, Armada and more on the systems. Everything was topped off by a keyboard and joystick built into the frame so that fans could simply walk up and jump into the games. You can read up further on how everything came together

here

.

Second on the list was to recreate some of the trading consoles and re-purpose them as Wing Commander arcade machines. As soon as we had this idea it had to be done!!

Painted and in place at the event they certainly went down well with the crowd and the people we spoke

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Just kidding. Today actually marks fifteen years of continuous daily WC news updates. The last day we missed was May 25, 2003, short of the occasional technical issue that may have slightly delayed the daily news a bit. Back in the spring of 2003, we were all eagerly awaiting the imminent release of Wing Commander Prophecy for the Gameboy Advance.

Not every day features major breaking stories or unearths startling revelations, but there's always something happening in the Wing Commander community. That's thanks to how engaged and dedicated you all are every day. Where will we be in another five, ten or fifteen years? Probably looking back and wondering what the heck the headline on this post meant.

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Nerds that Geek has posted a quick flashback on the majesty of Wing Commander 3. The article's not long, but it captures the essence of what made The Heart of the Tiger great. The author credits the game for kickstarting FMV and next-level storytelling in games without compromising on the gameplay. He leaves off by encouraging people to pick up a cheap digital copy and relive the adventure. That's advice we can certainly stand behind! Check the full piece

here

.

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Atherin has been busy recreating nearly every ship in the Wing Commander film using

SketchUp

. There's really not much missing - we don't see the Kilrathi Concom, Diligent or some of the small background items, but just about all of the other major stuff is there. It's a pretty nice lineup! He's been uploading everything to do the

3D Warehouse

so you can download copies for yourself

here

. Or you can find more comprehensive info on the ships that appear in the Wing Commander movie

here

.

SivarSnakierRalariFralthiConcordiaTiger ClawRapierBroadswordDralthiKilrathi

His own design: the

Gwenhyvar

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Check out this pre-release screenshot from Privateer 2 that AD discovered and compare it to one from the final game. The UI isn't as developed, ship icons are in color, BUY/SELL is named TRANS-ACT... and all of the ships have different names: JACKAL becomes Straith, FLEA becomes Shaman and MANTIS becomes Icarus. MULE and CORSAIR don't match ships in the finished game! Most interesting: your ship isn't pictured but is listed as a "TIGER SHARK." That's not in the final game, but it IS referenced in passing twice in the flavor text. Melissa Banks is said to fly a Tiger Shark named Fatale (she flies a Faldari when you rescue her).

This was part of the CD-ROM Interactive Entertainment previews recently discovered. It's worth comparing side by side here in greater detail, because the differences are so cool!

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Dennis Mull came across a hardware setup from the mid '90s that's a pretty neat time capsule of the era. The Quickshot "Squadron Commander" QS-202 is a very early example of a Hands-On Throttle And Stick (HOTAS). Lots of joysticks at the time were sold as "compatible with Wing Commander," and this one includes pre-programmed controls for Wing Commander, Wing Commander 3 and Strike Commander. Given the rapid pace of PC advancement during that time, it's pretty cool that you could regularly find equipment that worked with all of these games. The box even advertises Windows 95 compatibility. And there's lots of other titles besides the WC series listed on the box, which gives you an idea of how popular the flight sim genre was at the time. TheSynrgy also put together a cool unboxing of the unit if you'd like to see more!

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The

Composers Play

podcast's latest episode is about Wing Commander 3. Scott Tobin interviews the original composers of major video games in his series of video game shows, and he's got George Oldziey on the line for this one. There's lots of great backstory about how Mr. Oldziey got involved with Wing Commander and what it means to him to be supporting the fans still after all these years. It's definitely worth a listen! Check it out below, and if you like this one, their previous episode was about the

Crusader

series with composer Andrew Sega.

Composers Play - "Wing Commander 3" with the composer George Oldziey!

Apologies about the audio at the beginning. Check out and support George's music.

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Now that the Talon's out in the wild,

DefianceIndustries

' focus shifts to the Gemini Sector's other workhorse, the Tarsus. It's kind of a shame you don't actually run into them out and about, because the design is just so darn charming. Perhaps some of the allure is simply because it's your own unique home away from home out in space for so much of the game. There have been some

amazing

looking

Tarsus models made over the years, but this is certainly one to watch!

Sorry boys, I'm just a tourist with a fragged nav console - can you tell me where I am?

Well..... you can't have a Talon without giving it something to shoot at.

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Christian Klein

has found another rare and exotic Spanish Wing Commander translation by DROSoft. His

last

couple

finds were for WC1 and the Secret Missions, but this jumps all the way forward to Armada. It would be a treat to see how they changed the Voices of War manual and how the English and Spanish versions would mesh over multiplayer. The Spanish Victory Streak is just there for fun and wasn't part of this set. Armada was ahead of its time and is a ton of fun, so it's great to see other regions that got it!

Just got this hard to find Spanish Wing Commander Armada. The box is in a good shape and the disks are still readable. It's added to the archive now. #DOSgaming

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Most people are familiar with the infamous video cuts that were made to fit all of the video on the Wing Commander 3 discs. Helpful sequences such as the TCN news bursts and Hobbes explanation were omitted due to space constraints. Fortunately, these are now

available here

at the CIC, but for a long time, the main way players could watch the Hobbes scene was to track down a copy of WC3 on the Playstation or 3DO. But how many people have watched this clip in German?! It's a cool recording, since the German voice actor behind Hobbes is nearly as good as the

original

.

FekLeyrTarg

has posted it to YouTube so you can see it now!

In dieser Szene, die wahrscheinlich aus Platzgründen nicht in der PC-Version aber dafür in der Playstation- und 3DO-Version sowie in der Romanfassung von "Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger" enthalten ist, entdeck Colonel Christopher "Maverick" Blair (Mark Hamill/Frank

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Fans continue to do amazing things by digging into the earlier Wing Commander games' code. One of the latest findings has led to the manipulation of the screen transitions between segments of the Wing Commander 2 cutscenes. They've found that there are ten possible ways to wipe the screen and launch the next clip - variants of wiping side to side, diagonally and circular from the middle. This is just one of many findings that Wingnuts have discovered recently, albeit a more visible one that's easy for us to highlight. If you'd like to learn about even more detailed hacking that UnnamedCharacter, delMar and lskovlun have revealed, check out the

CIC Forums

.

As for the wipe index, the following values are possible:

0: wipe down; horizontal line wipe (from top to bottom)
1: wipe left; vertical line wipe (from right to left)
2: wipe up; horizontal line wipe (from bottom to top)
3: wipe right;

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LotsoRobbinBear has found a long lost easter egg built into Wing Commander 1. He was playing through the Vega Sector in such a way as to hit all of the losing track systems when he came across something odd in

Brimstone 3

. When he kills all the fighters, things proceed as expected. However, if he kills Maniac as well as all the fighters, he is awarded a Bronze Star! Normally, losing a wingman (even Maniac) results in a reduction in medal points that would often disqualify you from an award. In just this system, the opposite is the case. This isn't random either! Recall that at the start of the Brimstone series, Halcyon gives you permission during the mission briefing to shoot Maniac down if he disobeys. This is apparently not just idle chatter - the game mechanics have been slightly tweaked to reward the player for following through! It's pretty neat that this has been hidden in the code all

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FredDude posted this nifty sneak preview of Privateer 2 from the October 1996 issue of Computer Gaming World. You can see they're pretty excited. The author spends quite a bit of time talking about the dark and cutthroat environment that the game exists in. There's also some hints of the devious storyline highlighted by a number of star actors. They're almost more optimistic about it than WC3/4, and it's perhaps these lofty expectations that affected the general perception of the final game. You can find their somewhat disappointed final review

here

(although they did still end up being jazzed about the unique story).

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The

Maslas

Brothers

have announced the first multiplayer tournament for Wing Commander

Flat Universe

. They will be holding the big contest over the weekend of June 23-24 next month. More details will be announced as the date approaches, but pilots can register for the event

here

now. Head over the Daedalus Station to

download

the game and start practicing. It should be lots of fun!

The wait is over...

The first Wing Commander Multiplayer Tournament will become a reality only if... YOU JOIN US

Do you feel the heat?
23/24 June 2018

Let's find out!

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DefianceIndustries

is hard at work cranking out the most plentiful peashooter of the Gemini Sector, the F-38 Talon. Unfortunately, they're mostly up to no good on behalf of the Retros or pirates, but occasionally the Confed Militia will trot a few out as well. The Talon might be a bland workhorse in Privateer, but these updated renders are gorgeous!

I finally finished up my F-38 Talon. These things litter the Gemini sector and everybody has at least ten. From the Retros, to pirates, to in-system security - you can't throw a rock and not hit one; even the Kilrathi have a few. But I currently only did two paint schemes. By far the most famous - and obnoxious:

DIE BY THE VERY WEAPONS YOU ADORE!!!!!

And to counteract the crazies - here's a Confed ISS version: Best not be carrying any contraband around these guys - oh, who am I kidding, they're made entirely of tissue paper. Anyway - enjoy!

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The Now Playing Podcast's latest episode is all about Wing Commander. They are obviously a movie show, but this installment actually approaches the subject from a comprehensive Wing Commander franchise angle. At least one of the commentators has a long history with the series including the games, knowledge of the TV show and the back story of the WC Movie itself. They poke fun at some of the sillier elements of the film, but they credit things like its pioneering first use of time slice "bullet time," which is cool. They spend a full 90 minutes hashing everything out, so they cover quite a bit of ground. Check it out for yourself

here

.

Game developer Chris Roberts was on course to deliver the first major science fiction film of 1999 when he personally piloted his massively popular flight simulator Wing CommanderPhantom Menace and The Matrix. Do fighter pilots Freddie Prinze Jr. and Matthew

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Friday night score! Happened across several pre-release Super Wing Commander screenshots. Note the older VDU graphics and the early cockpit that's more TIE Fighter than Hornet!

A preview build seems to have been provided to magazines in early 1994... wonder if it's floating around somewhere! Here's what the finished cockpits looked like.

And here's some footage of a pre-release build, from a VHS trailer. You can see the same WIP VDU images... plus a cut enemy ship at the 28 second mark!

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George Oldziey

checked in again to provide fans an update on his Wing Commander jazz album, which was

recorded

a couple months ago. He's recently overcome some delays and is now ready to check off some of the few remaining production-related tasks. One thing he's asking fans for help on is the cover art. Anyone who has ideas or input should hit the comment button below and let him know. The sooner this gets finalized, the sooner fans who supported his recent album

campaign

can get their music! Listen to a preview below.

Your browser cannot play this file. Click here to download the track.

Greetings WC music fans! Firstly, I have to apologize for not being very present here. Some life's challenges took my attention, but they have been resolved and I now have the music for the WC bar music CD ready to be manufactured.

But first! I would love suggestions for art work for the CD. If you have