29
Aug
Is there a better aesthetic than ~1994 Origin CD-ROM design?
Wing Commander
-
-
28
Aug
The TCS Victory has so many amazing locations. The jump to SVGA 'photorealistic' backgrounds is still seared in my mind. It's so hard to pick a favorite, but the bridge might be it. I love the bar, I love gunnery control, and the briefing room is freakin cool, but all of the little consoles and expansive window with your escort out front really take the cake. Scribbler has created one more ASMR/ambiance video so you can enjoy it for a solid hour in the background.
Today we return to the TCS Victory. She can already look back on a long service. As long as some work shifts in space. No missions and no attacks? It can also be quiet in space but be careful, everything can change quickly. So stay alert and keep an eye on your monitors. The bridge is the heart of every ship
For ASMR, radio plays or to relax
-
27
Aug
Did you know that Privateer 2 has two very different sets of manuals? The game had an internally tempestuous release and one side effect of that was that Origin's creative services group completely reworked all of the packaging for the US release.
I thought it would be fun to look at the changes in the introductory letter. And right off the bat you can see it's a lot more than removing the "u"s from the "colours". They even change the name of the writer... flirty Jessica Montpellier becomes straight-laced Ian Esperanto!
Anyway I did a quick diff on the text and here are the results. And my question for readers is: did any of these changes make things better? It sure feels like a lot of change for the sake of change!
-
26
Aug
Weird choice for a publication to rank games on a scale of 1 to 57, but it takes all sorts!
Team Nerd: Bill Walsh College Football (Mega Drive) / Wing Commander Secret Missions (Super Nintendo) - reviews from Computer And Video Games Issue 144 - November 1993. #RETROGAMING
-
25
Aug
We've got another very cool ultra widescreen art piece today by AllTinker. It depicts the harrowing scene at the McAuliffe VI Research Colony where the scientists either turn the tide against the Kilrathi - or are massacred. He's added a ton of detail to the sides. This will eventually make its way to the Confederation project. At first glance, you might think this is "just" a door and some walls, but it takes some superior artistic talent to pull something like this off! And to show exactly what that entails, Tinker also made a time lapse video. It's amazing to see the expanded scene come to life like this!
First pass down. Like a few of the others, I have to make them wider than 21:9 so that they can still scroll/parallax.
-
24
Aug
…There's some unfortunate news concerning the Xbox 360 and Wing Commander Arena. Microsoft has announced that the console's digital storefront will be closing in July 2024. This means some 220 games, including Arena, will no longer be available for sale in any form. Wing Commander's debut on the Xbox was part of a new digital-standalone push dubbed Xbox Live Arcade. The results were quite impressive given a variety of constraints such as a 50 megabyte download cap and $10 asking price. Arena was the platform's first 16-player game and made heavy use of features like matchmaking and online leaderboards. Although Arena never received a proper physical release, the "demo" of the game was included on the cover disc of the November 2007 issue of the Official Xbox Magazine. These demos could be "unlocked" into the full game, but that function will presumably be removed as well.
Since the game was -
23
Aug
We're still in recovery mode here, so the team is taking it easy today with another ASMR style ambiance video from Scribbler. This one's a little more laid back than his other recent WC3 additions. You can hear the familiar hum of the Victory's engines and the elevator opening in the background, but this time there's also music playing. It's not quite the swankiest of Oldziey tunes, but it's a nice background track!
Mission successful, report submitted, off to the bar and finally peace and quiet. Let's grab some snacks and good cocktails. A little card games or charming conversations? Or just chill. We're not doing anything tonight.
-
21
Aug
Thanks!
- Bot
- 84
- 0 Comments
And that's a wrap! We hope you've had a good time checking out what we've posted. And if you're reading this just as it went live, the party's still happening in #Wingnut on Discord. As always, this is a huge team effort. It takes all of the staff, all of the many talented Wingnuts who contribute to projects and submit news tips, and all of the many fans who visit each day to keep the community humming. We'll see you again Monday for the latest Wing Commander news!
-
21
Aug
This one's a repeat, but it's so glorious that we can't help but share it again (and will be doing so for many years to come!). Last year, Klavs commissioned this wonderful Cameo clip from Malcolm McDowell to celebrate our 24th anniversary. He fondly remembers both his role as Admiral Tolwyn and how his late friend, David Warner, also got to portray the character. If you missed this earlier, be sure to check it out now!
I must say, I did love Tolwyn. A really wonderful character in many ways. Strong. Very, really cool. ... I'm thrilled that you liked my interpretation of him, because I really went for it, enjoyed it.
-
21
Aug
It's time for our annual poll where we gauge how long fans have been visiting the CIC. Although this is our 25th anniversary at wcnews.com, we also have an option for people who've been following the team's Wing Commander news exploits for even longer than that! How long have you been visiting?
The old poll asked about the best Kilrathi ship recreation in the Wing Commander Academy television show. The Dralthi was the hands down winner, which is no surprise, but there were plenty of very well done craft in the show!
-
21
Aug
A you may know, we recently purchased a collection of Wing Commander IV continuity photographs which we've been researching for front page updates. In honor of the birthday we thought we'd jump ahead and share the full collection of photos. Stay tuned for more articles covering the unsung histories of these actors and characters! You can find the current slate of feature articles here.
-
21
Aug
…There's a joke in there about being old enough to need reading glasses these days, but these are the drinking kind! Back for our sixth birthday in 2004, we had a fun batch of clear tumblers with a Confed logo printed up as door prizes. They were a big hit, and we continue to get frequent questions about whether they are still available. Here's our second edition, which are now full pint size. And we'll be giving them out at the birthday party live on Discord! Our graphical skills are a bit rusty, so thanks to Defiance Industries for making sure our Confed star is on point.
We don't encourage anyone to buy these and we make no money whatsoever on them, but we are sharing the Zazzle link to anyone who might be interested in getting their own. It looks like they're about $15 normally, but there is a 20% off sale this weekend that brings the price down to about $12. If you do pick one up, send us a
-
21
Aug
FekLeyrTarg has a second clip that shows off his modern video editing acumen! He's been experimenting with a variety of tools to enhance his ability to merge Wing Commander settings and live action. This is just the beginning of what he's got planned, but it's already pretty neat!
Happy 25th birthday Wing Commander CIC!
Some work-in-progress test shots combining low-quality live-action footage with renders of Perry Naval Base as seen in "Wing Commander Privateer".
-
21
Aug
…AD has been hard at work recovering and restoring some of the scenes cut from the final version of the Wing Commander movie. Enjoy this collection of work he's done so far!
Paladin Ejects - Paladin is forced to eject from his Broadsword after sinking a Kilrathi warship.
Blair Leaves the Diligent - Blair, originally the turret gunner, is lured aboard the Diligent in search of the NAVCOM AI.
Tattoo - Blair asks Paladin what his neck tattoo means.
Kilrathi Compilation - All the Kilrathi footage originally intended for the film.
Pilgrim Chat - Paladin reveals more details about the Pilgrims.
Alternate Intro - An alternate cut of the movie introduction featuring an opening narration from Blair. (As of publishing time this video is blocked because of an incorrect copyright claim; it should be available soon!)
FPS Experiment - An experimental sequence shot first person for the shipboard combat sequence.
-
21
Aug
…Our archivists have been hard at work! Earlier this year we acquired Wing Commander Prophecy producer Billy Caine's archive of production documents; this consisted of seven folders containing hundreds of pages of internal documentation covering Wing Commander Prophecy's development from March 1996 to November 1997.
These documents, divided into the seven topics below, include correspondence, internal documents and reference material that Billy felt it was important to preserve physically at the time. All aspects of the game's development are touched on, but one document that will be particularly exciting to fans finally explains the intent behind the Aligned People and how it would have played out in future games! There are several early pitches and a long term product plan that includes never-before-seen summaries of canceled projects like Wing Commander 6, 7, Maniac Missions and the first person
-
21
Aug
Cake!
- Bot
- 40
- 0 Comments
It's a birthday party, so we've got cake! First up, some excellent brownies by Alexis!
And since it's an extra special birthday, we've got double cakes! Number two is a three layer wonder by Lacey!
-
21
Aug
…AllTinker has been hard at work making progress on his Confederation project to enhance the WC1 engine. He's put together this new status update with a handful of tantalizing new screenshots to share for the birthday. Enjoy!
Hi all, I was hoping to have a playable test ready for the CIC birthday, but a few too many things have gotten in the way sadly... I've made a lot of progress on my format-reading library; I have a fairly short list of things I want to wrap up before I put it (and the viewer) up on github - it may be after the first Confederation test release, I'm not sure.
Art-wise one silly thing I realised was that my old widescreen redraws hadn't taken into account the non-square pixels in WC1/2 (being 320x200), so I've also been redrawing those to be even wider, to match my original 21:9 widescreen goal - at the proper original aspect ratio this time. Here's a selection of those
-
21
Aug
…FekLeyrTarg has a beautiful remaster to share with fellow Wingnuts today. He's gone through the Wing Commander Academy game soundtrack and overhauled it with an SC-55 sound font. This is described as giving the game the "Kilrathi Saga treatment" based on the digital audio enhancements that those games received. He's matched up the new tracks with the appropriate in-game clips in a wonderful YouTube vid below. You can also separately download the new album in MP3 (18 meg zip) or WAV (131 meg zip).
Happy 25th Birthday Wing Commander CIC!
What if the PC game "Wing Commander Academy" (not to be confused with the animated TV-series) received a Windows port like the "Kilrathi Saga" version of "Wing Commander I" and "Wing Commander II - Vengeance of the Kilrathi" and George Oldziey re-orchestrated the music again? Find out in this video.
To render each music track with Patch93's Roland SC-55 soundfont in
-
21
Aug
The WC4 Fan Remake team is back with a thoroughly exhaustive overview of their recent progress. If you have any questions at all about the latest and greatest happenings with the project, this new video below has the details! It's full of information and beautiful WIP content. You should check out the clip for the full experience, but there is also a new article at WCRespace too with a bit more info... including a target release date! You can also find the recently updated playable demo here!
Happy Birthday, Wing Commander CIC!
As we don't have a new demo to release for this year's celebration, we thought that instead we'd share an in-depth update on the current state of the project: where we are, where we're going and, crucially, when we plan to get there!
-
21
Aug
The party has been rocking in #Wingnut on Discord, but we're taking it to the next level with a co-stream on YouTube! Check it out here!
