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The first three pages of EmuMusicFan's newest Freedom Flight comic have now been posted! These form the beginning of the story's second chapter. The first chapter followed Lord Ralgha nar Hhallas' interrogation. Chapter 02 is a decidedly different take!
Be sure to check out all the original pages if you didn't catch them last year!
Jun
Today we've got an awesome new animation by Mac. You can see quite a few of Klavs' famous models throughout from the large Snakeir carrier to the sleek patrol Ferret. He says he started work on it over a year ago, so he's excited to finally be able to share with everyone. I really can't fathom how much effort it takes to put something like this together, but I definitely enjoy the results!
Well, I got that out of my system. Full-on animation is totally doable, but time-consuming af. Which is why I dont do it often. But I like it nonetheless.
Jun
…We're happy to kick off the new week with another exciting update from the WC4 Remastered team! They've posted a new article where they dig into the development of the game's third mission. It's the first time players get to experience a new fighter, so this includes deploying a second cockpit and implementing alternate HUD locations for certain items. There's also new information about the ability to play bespoke music at certain contextually relevant points during a mission. There's even a video about this in more depth! Check out the full article here.
Getting the new cockpit in wasn’t smooth sailing, though. The Hellcat cockpit was held together by a number of hacks from our first trailer. Now, everything is data-driven and reusable, with no hardcoding in sight, making future cockpits much easier to implement.Each ship can now have its own custom HUD layout, necessitated by the different
Jun
Special delivery: it’s a rare Wing Commander port I didn’t have in my collection! Meet the 1993 ASCII release of The Secret Missions 1 & 2 for DOS/V.
DOS/V is an operating system developed by IBM for PC compatibles with VGA cards that adds Japanese character support. There were also DOS/V versions of Wing Commander, Privateer, Armada and Wing Commander III! This is by far the rarest one at least in western collecting circles. One of the reasons for that is probably that the box looks EXTREMELY similar to the 1991 DOS/V version of the original. Check them out, reunited!:
Another fun thing about Wing Commander for DOS/V is that you can pick it out in the background of an episode of Gridman.
Jun
Shared from the ex-Origin Facebook: an invitation to the 1994 Wing Commander III launch party! I do not know who the artist is. It seems to be signed Amy—perhaps Amy Adams (Crusader series, Wing Commander Prophecy, art lead for an attempt at Privateer Online)?
Jun
…It's been a good month for fans of Wing Leader! Howard Day has another new ship and a handful of new prototype features to share. First up is the Strakha stealth fighter. It's inspired by Arne's Android Arts sketch of the ship with some additional WC3 elements brought in. Howie's also recorded several videos that show off new features such a cloaking effect to complement the new Strakha. There's also a preliminary communications systems that allow the pilots to talk with each other. On the graphical side, separate visual effects for project impacts against the hull rather than shields have been added, among other similar tweaks that make the gunplay pop.
So now that the Strakha is done, I needed to work on the Cloaking effect. Solution? Cloaking Devices for everyone! Wheee! Eventually, the drive flares will be hidden as well. I also re-figured out how to capture Wingleader properly in 60fps, so I
Jun
Here's a whole pile of 3D-printed carriers by Knight26-77. It's got your main classics from WC1-3 and their associated novels. I'm thinking the Victory is my favorite, but it's not a bad Concordia either!
Have some carrier love for you today along with some same scale comparisons.
Jun
Artist and designer Mike Winterbauer is well known for his classic '80s and '90s art that graced the covers of a wide variety of media. He's recently arranged some of the most famous examples to show off the variety of bespoke typefaces that he drew by hand. These include the nameplates for both Wing Commander and The Secret Missions for SNES. It's well documented how he made the whole box art for the SNES WC1, but his SM contribution is news to us! The central sketch for the game was made by Greg Winters.
Some of the cool hand painted game box titles I did in the early 1990s!#illustration #popculture #movieart #boxartBen “LOAF” LesnickWonderful! I did not know that you had done the titles for The Secret Missions.Mike WinterbauerYes I did, I was disappointed I did not get to paint the box cover.
Jun
Found this in the guts of Wing Commander Armada today! Looks like an early game select menu mock-up. The ship art is from Academy, WC2 and Privateer! That’s a Privateer Gothri.
Jun
…CountvonSchnaps has another tough looking design to share. His latest creation is the Thunderbolt VII from Wing Commander 3. It's got lots of detail with vents and ports throughout. The forward area with engine intakes, guns and a translucent cockpit are particularly nice. Sharp-eyed fans will note the "301" on the tail, which is a deep cut. It follows the naming convention from the Heart of the Tiger novelization where Blair is assigned Thunderbolt 300. Check out the rest of his gorgeous art here.
I tried to stay close to the previous Longbow design esthetics wise and I think it turned out all right.Always liked this fighter, albeit not so nimble it had a powerful punch and a rear turret against those Kilrathi that outmaneuvered me. This and the Arrow were for me the favorite craft you could fly in Wing Commander 3.
Seeing that someone was, again, so kind to provide me with a core membership I
Jun
It’s the one day a year you can post this! Happy day, fathers!
Jun
Bandcamp has announced that they are once again holding a fundraiser to support a charity associated with the Juneteenth holiday. This year's recipient will be The Soulsville Foundation, "which perpetuates the soul of Stax Records by preserving its rich cultural legacy, educating youth to be prepared for life success, and inspiring future artists to achieve their dreams." If you've been thinking about picking up Team FAT's Wing Commander I Complete Soundtrack, MT-32 Archive Edition, now is a great time. It's a fantastic deal at just $10! And while we definitely think you should buy a copy of your own, it's also available for streaming on YouTube as well as Spotify. Give it a listen below!
Jun
…We've been reporting for a while now that Wing Commander Arena's days are numbered in the Microsoft XBox Live Marketplace. The game has had an incredible 17 year run, but all Xbox 360 games that aren't forward-compatible with the Xbox One/Series systems will be delisted from the company's digital storefront on July 29, 2024. The good news is that owners will be able to continue to play online for the foreseeable future, so we've been strongly recommending people buy the game while they have the chance. If you have yet to secure your own copy, there's no time like the present. Microsoft is in the process of heavily discounting a variety of the affected games, which includes a whopping 90% reduction for Arena. It's now only $0.99! You can buy it on the web, but there have been mixed reports of the store hanging and timing out. Try a different browser or return later if you have an issue. See you
Jun
It's time for the GOG Summer Sale, and that means some nice discounts on Wing Commander! Instead of the typical blanket discount, there are a couple tiers to the markdowns this time. Most Wing Commander titles are 50% off their typical $5.99 price. Armada, Academy and Privateer 2 are curiously 66% off or just $2.03 each. Meanwhile, Strike Commander is 75% off at just $1.49!
Jun
…Howard Day is branching into new territory with the introduction of a pirate fighter for his Wing Leader project. He's settled on the Talon, which makes a lot of sense. There's some wonderful variation in paint schemes and weapon loadouts to mimic some of the chaotic design seen by pirates elsewhere in Wing Commander. As much as I like the blues and greens, the purples and oranges really pop here! You can help provide feedback and see some earlier work-in-progress photos at the CIC Forums.
This weekend I spent some time making a set of Pirate fighters - based on the F-38 Talon, these are supposed to be Wingleader-styled versions.The custom loadouts for these are:
Type A: Photon Blaster, Meson Cannon (scavenged Kilrathi weapons)
Type B: Laser, Meson Cannon
Type C: 2x Laser
Type D: Mass Driver
Type E: Meson Cannon, Neutron Cannon
Type F (Boss/Ace): 2x Laser, Mass DriverI'd love any feedback on these.
Jun
…For a few years I've been sharing random Wing Commander deep dives on Twitter. There's nothing I love more than taking some specific question or subject that maybe no one cares about and then looking at it as thoroughly as I can… and Twitter has always fit like a glove for that because it lets me kind of project out what I'm thinking about to the world and the inevitably forget about it when I lose steam. I'm a very long winded cross-every-dot writer and just doing stream of consciousness posts that forced me to think about what I was saying was a lot of fun.
So I thought that maybe in addition to that I should start doing longer form versions right here where people actually care about the tiniest bits of Wing Commander errata… and where I'd have some more space for explanatory notes. And I can answer questions and people who actually understand what they're talking about can contribute! Plus, the
Jun
…There has been a fair amount of chat about the deadline to buy Wing Commander Arena with many fans confused about what the game is and how to play it. Many have also encountered a bug in which their Xbox does not allow them to buy the game. We hope to help by answering these questions and others with this quick FAQ.
What is Wing Commander Arena?
Wing Commander Arena is a spinoff game set in the Wing Commander universe. It was developed for the Xbox 360 and released on Xbox Live Arcade on July 25, 2007. It was produced by Electronic Arts and developed by the now-defunct Gaia Industries studio. Xbox Live Arcade titles were small and often experimental budget games; they were released digitally for a low price point. Players should be aware that Arena is not a traditional Wing Commander game with a first person cockpit view and an interactive story. It is a top-down shooter with a heavy focus on frenzied
Jun
Ever wonder about the callsigns in the Wing Commander TrainSim? They're selected from a bank of options when you start a new game. They include all the wingmen plus SEGALLION, DIBBER, ZORO, GRYPHON, SUTEK and POTSHOT. These are all the callsigns of members of the dev team.
Segallion gets a star system in WC1, too. Sutek was Paul Isaac’s callsign but I’m not sure who the original Segallion was. Learn about the many variants of the TrainSim here!
Sep
It's an EA Weekend over at GOG.com. Dozens of games from Electronic Arts are discounted 75% through Monday morning. You might have the Wing Commander games, but there's also discounts on the Crusader series, Strike Commander, Ultima and more. GOG.com makes it very easy to launch your WC favorites, so if there's a gap in your digital collection, this is another good chance to fill it! Check out the full sale listing here.
Give these other Origin games a try if they're new to you!
Oct
…L.I.F. has completed his campaign run Freelancer port with Wing Commander ships, which marks a big milestone for the project! As he went through one set piece to the next, he's been steadily stamping out miscellaneous bugs and glitches so that Wingnuts can play through the whole story now with a huge dose of WC immersion. The next stage of the project is massively ambitious and potentially changes the entire dynamic of the core game. Similar to Privateer, he's going to start working in a greater ability for ships to customize their weapons, engine power, cargo space and more. This should allow most all ships to stay relevant and be competitive as players move throughout the various factions' home regions. One of the biggest gripes about the original Freelancer was that it had an unrealistic progression of each fleet's relative strengths as the main character made progress. Rather than
