Wing Commander

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We've very happy to announce that Wing Commander End Run is finally released! We've come a long way to reach this milestone as this completes the Baen set of Wing Commander novels - all are finally available to purchase digitally. The CIC has been lobbying the publisher for these for some fifteen years at conventions, on social media and through direct communications. We were extremely happy when it was announced in early 2016 that Freedom Flight was coming. Other books in the series followed, but not End Run. This was disappointing since End Run had a bit of a history as a slightly harder to find book in the later '90s. One even sold at auction for $85 during peak demand. So we got to the bottom of this and helped Baen realize their omission. It took a year for them to find a slot in their publishing schedule, but we're finally there! Pick it up at any of the major storefronts or direct

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AD was recently exploring the Malaysian internet for Wing Commander products, as one does, and came across a couple of fun finds on DVD. The first is a hilarious bootleg that uses the Wing Commander Arena logo as its title art. You can tell it's a fake because of the tiny Super Wing Commander-inspired Rapiers streaking away from the word ‘Wing’. The back also uses shots of the pilot nose art. The second version seems slightly less suspect since it appears to be from Speedy Video, which appears to have had some official ties to Fox. While we would naturally recommend people seek out legit versions wherever possible, we can also appreciate the creativities of WC fans in places where there are no other options readily available.

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Great news for Wing Commander music fans!

George Oldziey

has finished processing the Wing Commander jazz and bar music

recorded

earlier this year by his awesome Latin jazz band, and the digital version is now available. If you backed his

Kickstarter

last year, you should have received a message with download links and a password, so log in and check it out! If you didn't back the project but still want to hear an awesome sample, the Victory's famous tune has been released as a teaser here. It's my favorite - I just love it! More goodies are still in the works, which George details below.

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

Greetings all. I'm terribly sorry for the LONG delay, but I just sent links to the digital media versions of the Wing Commander Bar Music recording to those that contributed at $20 and more to phase 1 of volume 2, so check your inboxes. The CDs

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I’ve been looking at the multi-game guide books that were popular in the mid-90s. This one has chapters on Wing Commander III and IV... but the very simple walkthrough only covers seven missions of the latter. These seem kind of silly today, but before the internet books like these were a neat way to find out about the games available for your system. They’re as much wishbook as they are hint book!

Prima updated this huge book of PlayStation game guides annually for years. Here’s WC3 and 4 still included the 2000 version!

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Death^_ tipped us off about a really cool advertisement for Dragon Con 1996 posted by Wade Haddock. The sheet shows off the various celebrities that would be in attendance, including Mark Hamill! Note that this is not "Star Wars' Mark Hamill." In fact, Star Wars isn't mentioned at all, which is funny since this appeared in a Star Wars comic. He is simply billed as

Colonel Christopher Blair in Origin Systems' Wing Commander IV.

Right on! That's what springs to my mind first too... Of course, this appearance happened just four months after WC4's release, so it was particularly relevant at the time.

Scan of an ad from the April 1996 issue of the comic adaptation of the Star Wars EU story "Splinter of the Mind's Eye" (third of four issues). Notice the Special Guest announcement on the bottom-right corner of the ad.

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ODVS has more big news on the video enhancement front. He's no longer pursuing 4K remasters of WC4 footage, but he reports that 1080p versions are looking better than ever. With the latest iterations of the AI/neural net tools at his disposal, he's reached new heights of quality in the footage. There's less artifacting and crisper lines, but best of all, even traces of uncanny valley in the augmented eyeballs have been virtually eliminated. The technology continues to evolve and there will likely be even further advances in the future, but the clips below are stunning examples of what's possible today.

After much, much experimenting, I've decided to abandon 4K FMV for the remake. My reasons are twofold:

1. The quality improvement over 1080p was neglible at best (it's just asking too much to upscale by 600%)
2. The file weight for all the game's FMV at 4K would have been excessive

When you combine those two

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EmuMusicFan has expanded on his artsy sketches of the Kilrathi featured in Wing Commander Action Stations. He's now experimenting with color. Based on feedback from some initial concepts, the tones have been tinted slightly more reddish and brown to sync with known Kilrathi aesthetics. These are continuing to shape up pretty well, and they'll help provide some interesting context when we get around to our Action Stations book club! You can help provide feedback at the CIC Forums.

At first I didn't even know how to start. Then I found an AI-assisted coloring project and used it as the first step. Fortunately, the following works seemed easier... a bit. Jukaga‘s eyes are really difficult to paint. The eye color should be dark, but totally dark is not... so good. So I painted his eyes with gray. I know there are still many problems, technically with color matching. Please criticize and correct me.

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The ever-creative Tarsus has created another fun Wing Commander distraction to bring you some holiday cheer. With resources from the new Head Museum, he's created an automatic advent calendar with your favorite original WC characters as the daily reveal. It's a simple concept, but I can't wait to see who's queued up for tomorrow! Check it out for yourself here.

I've taken the liberty of making an advent calendar out of your heads.

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We are again sad to bring you news that another Wing Commander veteran has passed. Artist Micael Priest died on Tuesday, September 18. Mr. Priest was an Austin legend who began drawing concert posters in the early 1970s. His artwork and connection to the music scene is recognized as a major factor in the 'weird Austin' sensibility that defines the town to this day. It should come as no surprise that Mr. Priest was also an employee of Origin Systems during the company's heydey. He worked extensively as an artist on the Ultima series, including Ultima VII, Serpent Isle, Ultima Underworld II, Runes of Virtue II, Ultima VIII and the first three iterations of Ultima Online. True to the all-hands-on-deck spirit of the era, he even posed as the model for Remarro Monik in Bioforge, one of the potential identities the player must discover (pictured.) Wing Commander fans will best know his work on the

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Character-defining knives are a theme in the FMV Wing Commander games. We've learned about Cobra's Marto-Brewer Explora from Wing Commander III and now it's time to take a look at Seether's significantly more distinct knife from Wing Commander IV. Depending on your choices, Seether can use his knife twice: during the introduction he will threaten Blair with it if you choose to rescue the man he is roughing up and then he uses it to execute Captain Paulsen after the Lexington is destroyed or crippled. The close-up shot of the knife slitting the Captain's throat was censored in the German release of the game.

Seether's blade is called the Double Shadow. The Double Shadow is a 5 1/2" stainless steel split blade "fantasy knife." It was released in 1991 and created by famed fantasy knife designer Gil Hibben. Seether's knife was almost MORE distinct: instead of a fantasy knife, the script calls for a

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Retro Rat

has put together an awesome diorama of a classic Wing Commander scene. He's posted a

whole bunch

of really clever video game settings where he's taken cardboard, foam or other materials and created a virtual 3D effect. In this case, he's highlighted a Hornet firing its guns at a Dralthi. The cockpit VDUs and windscreen have some wonderful depth and even the laser bolts cast a shadow. It makes me want to make one! You can find more of his innovative creations on

Instagram

or

Facebook

.

Wing Commander PC version diorama. One of my favourite PC games. I remember playing till the early hours of the morning with my buddies from school. #wingcommander #dosgames #pcgaming #oldschool #retrogaming #nostalgia #pixelart #pixel #papercraft #shadowboxart #spaceflight #spaceflightsimulator #tigersclaw #kilrathi

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Here's a couple of German gems provided by Deathsnake. First up is the review of Wing Commander 1 from the December 1990 issue of Power Play. It apparently gets a double "Super" and 88% rating. We previously posted the magazine's reviews of

WC2

and

Power Play

, and they all make great use of the games' screenshots. There's also a crazy GameStar video that uses Sinner's Inn briefly as a backdrop. I wish I knew what was going on there!

...with Heinrich Lenhardt (Founder Powerplay, Founder PC Player, Co Founder Gamestar) with Privateer 2 Background - the Bar ;D

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Avid Wing Commander collector

Christian Klein

has found another rare artifact. He managed to locate a British copy of the game on 5.25" low density disks that may be an earlier release than the mass produced copy most of us are familiar with. In it, Hunter is named "Dart," which we know was an original placeholder name for the character. The first screenshot below shows this, and the second is from the British 3.5" high density disk release. LOAF points out that the name change came late in development, and both Hunter and Maniac actually have "Dart" and "Joker" nameplates on their helmets in all versions of the final game!

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It's been a fun week for non-WC space sim news, so we'll keep that rolling today with another look at Star Wars Squadrons. We briefly highlighted the game back when it was announced in June, and now we're quickly coming up on release. In the intervening months, there have been new videos released that highlight both the gameplay and story. It looks to be shaping up quite well, and the price is decent too. It'll be just $39.99 when it ships October 2. A bunch of Wingnuts will be flying in the game's cross-platform dogfights when they arrive next month. Stop by #Wingnut on Discord to see who's playing and link up!

This is a story of daring pilots and a deep-seated rivalry. At the start of the game, you’ll create two customizable pilots: one flying for freedom as a part of the New Republic and the other imposing the Galactic Empire’s vision of order. From both their perspectives, you’ll get to

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Centaurianmudpig

has released a new look at his space sim project, and it's come a very long way since we saw it

last year

. The game has a new art style and a new name, Absolute Territory. There's also a neat behind-the-scenes look at the mission editor. The mudpig's looking for some Wing Commander fans to try the new playable alpha out and provide feedback. Grab it from

ModDB

or

Steam Workshop

and let him know what you think!

WE WANT YOU in the Imperial Space Force (ISF). Join us in protecting our borders from foreign and domestic opponents. Only in the ISF will you fly state-of-the-art space superiority fighters to protect the heavens with fortitude, skill and precision.

Become the best of the best by training in our Digitum XR Sim, our most advanced simulated combat environment. Adapt to the rigours of being a pilot in the ISF, learn the art of combat, and master every fighter and every weapon at

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Artist Alan Gutierrez has posted two more of the paintings that he created for the 1995 Wing Commander Collectible Trading Card Game. These two 'Luck' cards represent two of the fifteen paintings Mr. Gutierrez created for the game. You can learn more about his fantastic work on the card game here.

First up is Kilrathi Capture Pilot which was a Confederation Luck card that allowed the human player to take an enemy pilot from a destroyed fighter.

From the card game "Wing Commander", commissioned and published by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman, 1995

This Kilrathi is none too happy at being captured, and is one of 4 "Luck" cards I did, showing 2 of each adversary.

Gouache on masonite.

The second painting is its counterpart, Kilrathi Recovery Pilot, which was a Kilrathi card that allowed the alien player to recover a pilot from a destroyed ship.

From the card game "Wing Commander" commissioned and published

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Eagle-eyed ship spotter Doug Lee has found a squadron of familiar Wing Commander designs in an unlikely place: a mobile game called Stellar Patrol: Galactic Conflict! The top-down space game features a host of familiar Wing Commander designs... and even uses a Rapier as its app icon! This is likely not a case of licensing the IP from Electronic Arts as Stellar Patrol also includes a number of other familiar science fiction ships like Battlestar Galactica's Viper, Star Wars' A-Wing and Firefly's... Firefly. It's a fun little phone shooter reminiscent of Subspace. If you'd like to check it out, you can download Stellar Patrol for free on Android or iOS. Better hurry and get to it before the lawyers!

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Here's a peek at an interesting prototype of the Wing Commander Universe Map included with Wing Commander Prophecy. We first caught a glimpse of this during our 2012

trip

to the University of Texas archive. While the

final map

detailed many sectors where most of the main events happened in the series, this appears to be a little snippet that just traces through the events of WCP. Due to the number of differences, it appears to predate even the

preview map

that was released online during development, which is pretty cool! Extra bonus: Pix, ace and LOAF posing Texas-style with George Oldziey's CD!

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There's

more

Wing Commander cosplayers out there than we thought! st3lt3k found a pair of Kilrathi warriors who were on the scene at the Stuttgart Comicon just last year. A casual observer might be excused for thinking these are space cats from another series, but upon closer inspection, there are Kilrathi symbols on their shoulder patches and Kilrathi text on the front of their costumes. That's dedication! Pictures from

lavi_bookman_j

,

Andreas Kinder

and

Facing My Life

.

I think the cosplayers (cosplayerinnen?) are 2 sisters. Totally on point! It looks like there are even paw pads on the paws! They're downright menacing!

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PhilsComputerLab

has a new video on a program that slows down older machines. As early as 66 MHz started to come on the market, fans had to use programs like

moslo

to get the original Wing Commander smoothly playable. This presented an issue whereby a system powerful enough to run WC3/4 was too powerful to run WC1. In comes the 'setmul' app that specifically works with higher speed original Pentiums for some very granular adjustment. Wing Commander fans are able to do some amazing things today thanks to utilities like DOSBox that emulate DOS environments, but sometimes it's nice to get things going on the original '90s hardware. This could be useful for classic hardware collectors that don't have space for multiple machines tailored to each game. You can find also Phil's videos on tweaking GOG WC1-3 and Privateer

here

and

here

.

PhilsComputerLab had an interesting video today on how you can take a