Wing Commander

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Awesome! We don’t stop to appreciate that Wing Commander Prophecy somehow managed to out-map Ultima.

Honor_KA: To all my Wing Commander fans and to those playing Star Citizen. Look what I just found doing some summer cleaning.

Here’s a born digital version of you want to pour over all the references and in-jokes. They even named some systems after especially handsome and well-liked fans!

The map was developed by John "Captain Johnny" Guentzel. He was a designer on Prophecy and Secret Ops who was also, as you can tell, a huge cool nerd. In 1997, Origin put a beta version on the WCP site for fans to comment on… and of course I saved it!

It was also the basis for the map used in the Wing Commander movie intro. Longtime Star Citizen fans may remember that this used to hang behind Chris Roberts in videos! This particular version was nicely relit by Klavs:

Shocking but true: this was NOT the first time a Wing

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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!

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AircPirateNinsei

has completed his enlarged flying

Hornet fighter

. This update has a larger wingspan to fit more effective control surfaces and a larger powerplant. He'll be getting it airborne soon, and we can't wait to see! There's a lot of talent and skill that's obviously going into this. Follow the development at the

Flite Test Forums

.

The Hornet with a wingspan of 1000 mm (39.37 in) is ready2fly! :)The AUW is 513 g (18.10 oz). The Dry Weight (without battery) is 370 g (13.05 oz).The battery is a Turnigy nano-tech 4s with 1300 mAh.

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We've shared lots of great pictures of Dennis Mull's Wing Commander collectibles as he's added to the hoard piece by piece. He's arranged a few new shots recently that show off how he's managed to track down different versions of some items. This can be a really daunting task, and I truly applaud the fans willing to go through the effort to hunt down editions available in different countries or languages. He starts off with some nice Privateer 2 and Prophecy spreads:

Privateer 2 German, English, Italian, Spanish, Greek, Polish and Special Edition Release:

He's also got United States and Australian Kilrathi Sagas as a whole bunch of Hit Squad WC1 releases.

He's even got a nice variety of Chris Roberts' Starlancer made by Digital Anvil. I love how they're such different shapes and sizes. Lastly, I wanted to be sure to include this lineup of Brute Force copies. Brute Force was a Halo-style first

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We're going to kick things off with a bang thanks to Fek'Leyr Targ!

"For the CIC's 20th birthday, I felt that a simple 'happy birthday' was not enough for an occasion of this magnitude. So I decided to take the opportunity to improve my animation skills by creating this small gift for all of you to enjoy as a mean to show my appreciation for this awesome community as well as saying 'happy birthday' and 'thank you'."

Meshes, Textures and Sound Effects: Origin Systems (Privateer 3D Archive)
Music: Nenad Vugrinec
Production and voice: Fek'Leyr Targ

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DefianceIndustries

has switched over from his recent streak of big flashy stations and capships to put together something from the other end of the spectrum. This is his take on the stealth Hellcats that we see pop up in the Wing Commander 4 novel. He's managed to pull off a neat hull effect that blends the standard gray durasteel with some kind of low profile coating. The result is pretty neat and helps make the case for the Hellcat remaining in service with the Black Lance into the 2670s.

After the war, the boys over in R&D and Special Projects started slapping a cloaking device on anything with wings. They were obsessed with trying to close the gap between us and the fur balls; even after their disarmament at Torgo they still had a big lead on us in cloaking technology. So when we heard Douglas was shipping us a new model of Hellcat to test out we were a bit...skeptical is probably the best word

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Fans have recently rallied to save The Tick after its cancellation by Amazon Studios last week. The superhero show stars François Chau, among many others, who played Vagabond in Wing Commanders 3 and 4. He's been a big voice in the campaign to bring the show back, and he's gotten some major support from Mark Hamill. Far from being a lost cause, the show's creator and cast have announced that they are signed on for more episodes, and their production partners are reportedly looking for another network willing to air a third season. Amazon Prime subscribers can catch the highly rated show for free on Prime Video. Mr. Chau continues to be active in a wide variety of sci-fi shows from Stargate SG1 to Lost to The Expanse to the new X-Files, but it's neat to see him remember his Wing Commander roots like this!

Hey Mark! This is your old pal Vagabond from our Wing Commander days. A big thanks for your

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Here's a funny little easter egg from Wing Commander IV: the pirate helmets (which you only see in a monochrome VDU postage stamp in the actual game) are the Confed helmet prop vandalized... with ROBERTS crossed out and replaced with "TRASHED"!

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Mac is back with another lovely Rapier wallpaper. This one is a crossover with a new Homeworld mothership model he's been working with. It's a lovely swirl of blues and purples. Enjoy!

"So I say it looks like a Croissant."
"No I think it's more like a banana."
"I think it's a ship sir."
"Ok Mav, you're out of the betting pool for being a smartass."

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...like this I suppose. Here's a scene by NeoSilverThorn. A few more of their creations are below. We hope you have a great weekend - and that you stay safe and healthy!

Bad, bad day: Things in Gemini Sector could be better. Sure, the Kilrathi jump the border, the Navy's over-stretched...but one normally doesn't find Bloodfang-class fighters this far from Kilrathi space, let alone away from the Imperial house. Yet, here they are, and one under-gunned privateer is unhappily dealing with that fact...

On a Wing Commander kick. Well, a scifi kick in general. So, have a somewhat cartoony Kilrathi pilot gal.

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It's a stressful time out there right now for a lot of people. Some are worried that a loved one might catch the deadly coronavirus. Others are being impacted by the devastating economic slump that it has caused. Schools are closing, and you can't even take the kids to Disneyland. Although we in no way can claim to be as inspirational as Tom Hanks, we can offer you a few light hearted moments of Wing Commander joy to help take your mind off things. Here's the blooper reel and 'making of' clips off the Wing Commander 3 Behind the Screens discs. It looks like the filming of the game's FMV was an absolute blast. You can find more in the CIC Holovids. Have fun with the videos!

Bloopers from various scenes and brief interviews with Mark Hamill, Tom Wilson and Ginger Lynn Allen.

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For the second time in as many weeks, a private space tour company has launched their first fully crewed vessel (and their billionaire founder) into space. This time they had the audacity to do it on a work day, so we've posted some nifty photos and video below for the people who couldn't watch live. Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket reached an altitude of about 66 miles and produced a similar brief period of weightlessness as the Virgin Galactic experience last week. Unlike Richard Branson's specialized type of jet plane, today's craft was a more traditional vertical rocket. It's been almost fifteen years since we first reported on their efforts, which once again highlights how challenging these milestones are to reach. In addition to space tourism, the company is also aiming to compete with SpaceX on moon missions in the future.

Beautiful launch from West Texas this morning. #NSFirstHumanFlight

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It's a lazy Sunday here at CIC central, which is a great opportunity to get ahead before starting up

Righteous Fire

. All the fancy new gear is not cheap, so LOAF's strapped into the cockpit to earn some extra credits!

Sunday afternoon grind in a special bonus All Wings Considered hangout! Join me for Privateer and conversation.

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Two cakes for two decades!! Music_Guru made this gorgeous cake as well. AND IT HAS A DRALTHI ON IT!

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Today we've got a glorious (4K!) wallpaper by Mac, of recent fan project fame. It's lit by an enormous explosion that highlights some immaculate texturing. Mac reveals that the reason we're looking at this particular view is because the underside isn't complete yet, but we'll take it!

Nothing makes for prettier fireworks then an exploding Kilrathi naval starbase as Admiral Tolwyn & Chris Blair will attest to. Good god, look at how pretty Hangar_B's Concordia is by the light of thousands of burning Kilrathi.

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It’s here! It arrived as a shipping bag full of parts. Good thing I bought the original instructions a month ago!

Let’s do this thing! Do I think it will be remotely right? No. But maybe they’ll surprise me!

Wow! Every piece was there. It looks great! Nice job, Chinese bootleg LEGO factory. About two to three hours to build!

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Here's a quick Banshee 3D printed by Knight26-77. The time lapse video may only be 30 seconds, but the real work (before, during and after printing) was certainly more time consuming. I do appreciate the slick results though!

Here is lightly modified 3d printed banshee. I mostly just stretched out the back end to make it look more like the game and cutscene model.

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OliverInk has put together another gorgeous wallpaper image, and this one features the distinguished Banshee light fighter. It's titled "Cry of the Banshee," and you can almost imagine it screaming over the surface of a cold icy world in this setting. Of particular note is the highly detailed source model for the ship. It's not a creation I'm immediately familiar with, and may be a new fan design - perhaps by an artist named Black Chilla? It's very cool, nonetheless. Either image would make a fantastic wallpaper!

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Here's a nifty advertisement courtesy of Game Magazine Print Ads and RetroMags. It comes from the January 1996 edition of Next Generation, which was prime time for getting everyone hyped about Wing Commander 4. A lot of the ads at the time doubled down on Mark Hamill and/or Malcolm McDowell, but this one is based on the game's prime box art. It's got a handful of nice screenshots and key bullets listed on the side. With such incredible production values to look forward to in the next game, these were very exciting to see in print as a WC fan! You can find other ads for The Price of Freedom in our document archive here.

Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom
Source: Next Generation 13 (January 1996)
Scan source: RetroMags

Also, check out that URL! origin.html was a very short lived site. By mid 1997 everything had transitioned over to www.origin.ea.com

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Guilherme Poggiali sent along this Ação Games scan of a vintage 3DO review of WC3 from Brazil. Look at that crazy header art! Classic '90s magazine formatting has such a distinctive style. It's always fascinating to see what they choose to point out, such as the detailed diagram of what each cockpit/HUD element is. That speckled starscape background doesn't help legibility, but again, it sure is a product of that era.