Wing Commander

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John Nelson has a new Lego creation, and it's another beauty! His first Kilrathi design is this small and angular Darket. I'm once again super impressed by what he was able to accomplish given a limited number of pieces on hand. He mentions that he would have preferred to use more brown parts, but I think the orange is actually pretty accurate. If you look at the 'Fireclaw' Kilrathi ace model from WC3, it's covered in special red, yellow and orange accents.

As an experiment I built my first Kilrathi model and went with the Darket. I wasn’t planning on doing Kilrathi fighters but I went for it, going for not accommodating mini figures to save time space and parts. I really like the results. I’ll get some more brownish colors in the future so that this and other models won’t have such a Heinz ketchup and mustard color scheme.

Pliers (would) say, "The Darket is like a bug. Small and annoying on its

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The CIC archives include a massive trove of source models for nearly 600 ships and objects from the Wing Commander games made between 1991 and 1996. But up until this point, they've all been in one big package that could be a little daunting to explore. Fortunately, LOAF has recently taken the time to break them all out and discretely list each one in the WCPedia. Now you can easily tell that "DBRIG.3DS" are Rigakh Debris, "CLUNKER.3DS" is the trusty Tarsus and "STARS.3DS" is the TCS Lexington's launch tube animation. It's a great starting off point to get acquainted with some of Origin's most iconic model files! Check out the new WC3D Index here!

The WC3D Collection is an archive of largely Wing Commander-related 3D models and textures copied from a hard drive at Origin Systems by John Guentzel in late 1998. The collection includes 585 models and scenes from Wing Commander II, Wing Commander

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We've got great news to share today. Destro's fan project to add complete voiceovers to the original Wing Commander is complete and ready to release! He's managed to carefully map the speech files from the fully voiced Mega/Sega CD edition of the game and patch them over top of the familiar PC edition. While this fully voiced version of the game has existed for three decades, relatively few people have heard it due to the semi-obscurity of this console port. That's what makes this project so special!

The mod is specifically designed to work with the WCDX enhanced version of WC1 in Windows, and detailed instructions on how to get all that set up are available at the CIC Forums. We've mirrored the version 0.81 main file (342 meg zip) to make sure a permanent archive is available. All other necessary files are linked from this post. The reviews from fans so far have been fantastic, and what I've

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If you've been following some of our recent news posts, you've seen that LOAF has been making some incredible strides in finishing out the Privateer-related entries of the CIC wiki. Many of the recent discoveries and explorations have been crowdsourced in Discord #Wingnut, and new contributors are always welcome. Whether you'd just like to read up on the latest, or get a sense of what yet needs to be done, check out some of the major indices such as the main Privateer page, the components navbox and the ships/vehicles navbox. Did you know the shape of the radar changes by sensor type? The Maneuvering Jet art started out as an EMP Shield? The Paradigm Destroyer is internally coded as "Frigate"? And there are nine different color shades in the MFD damage display? All of this is just the beginning - learn more at the WCPedia!

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Today I'd like to share a few of EmuMusicFan's latest Kilrathi sketches. We've got several soccer themed pictures first. I can imagine that the inspiration for these began around the World Cup time, but I'll also point out that they arrived just in time for the new season of Ted Lasso. We also get a bonus Firekkan in the stands. There's a couple of buff shots of Ralgha and Jahkai as well!

"In the last minute of extra time, the goalkeeper made the save!"

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AI chatbots, AI generated art and AI everything else are super hot this year, and the CIC is always working hard to keep up with the latest trends. So we've put our best engineers and computer scientists (Kris) on developing our own Wing Commander generative art engine (beta). Type a Wing Commander topic in the box, hit the button, and see what you get! Keep in mind, there may be a few quirks...

 

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Here's a rarely seen difference between the original disk release of Privateer and the CD. The 'kill breakdown' was a feature added to Righteous Fire and then ported back to the original campaign by the CD-ROM team!

When extracting the assets from the game's files, the Quine plate has an extra button?! And the one that displays in the game is nowhere to be found. A new mystery to solve...

Learn all about the Quine 4000 line of Personal Computers in our newly updated Wiki page here! And if that leaves you wanting more, check out the expansive entry on the civilian Navigation System computer (with maps of every quadrant and system!).

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Here are the damage states for the Privateer cockpits, which can impact your various cockpit gauges and multi function displays. These range from pretty subtle on the Centurion to totally tearing apart your Orion.

One tiny detail that I have always loved about the Privateer cockpits: the three modern ships all have bright speed indicators that are projected on their HUDs... but the old Tarsus has big physical displays you can't see through and their text is a duller green.

But I couldn't figure out where this Tarsus damage went, though... and no amount of ramming things in the game until everything explodes triggered it. I thought it was maybe unused?

BUT I FIGURED IT OUT! It isn't triggered in the game because it's designed for an earlier version of the Tarsus cockpit... THE ONE YOU SEE IN THE INTRO CUTSCENE!

So this was the setup:

Where does this damage fit on the Tarsus cockpit?

The lower part prevents

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The GouldFish has posted a nifty review of the Wing Commander Prophecy Demo. His version comes from the March 1998 PC Format cover disc, but you can also download it here (plus movie pack). I like his setup with the Prophecy box in the background behind the vintage HP machine. Note that this is the full demo, not the 3DFX Test. As Gould notes, players who skipped over this and just played the actual game miss out on a whole three/four mission series. It's absolutely worth picking up for that extra bit of lore and gameplay! Check out the video below (jump to 14:00 if it doesn't autostart at that chapter):

Sure, you've played Prophecy... but did you ever play the demo? If not, you're missing out on a special little chunk of the game. Unlike most game previews, the Prophecy demo contains regular plot missions not available in the retail game. There are four missions that fit nicely in to the game's

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I couldn't find a legible scan of the Origin FX box online, so here's a quick one:

Beautiful Kamekh render, though!

Does Origin FX even have a Kamekh in it? Technically yes, since it includes a copy of Wing Commander II's post-credits cutscene and that is indeed a closeup of a Kamekh's hull:

Learn all about the Origin FX screensaver/theater at our newly expanded and upgraded wiki page here!

Origin FX is a 1993 screensaver package developed by Origin Systems and published by Electronic Arts. Origin FX comes with 26 different 'movies', the term it uses for screensavers. Several of the movies include elements from the Wing Commander Universe including an air show which has jets and spaceships zoom around your desktop and an asteroid field that soars through familiar Wing Commander space debris. The movies are all customizeable. Origin FX also includes an slideshow option which plays bitmap files; two

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This week's Picard of course reminded me of the Wing Commander IV introduction. "Can you believe it? It’s an orbital museum now. A relic of the War – like some farmers I know." What displays do you imagine are found on the Victory museum ship? Here's mine:

The Kilrathi War gallery has a Rapier II (serial #55-810419, formerly of the TCS Eagle's Talon) and a Dralthi (recovered by Operation Meatball during the closing days of the war). They're hanging posed in faux combat in front of a big backdrop of the G'wriss System.

They also have the front part of a Broadsword cockpit sliced off so you can see the crew positions. (A-17D, 443rd Bomb Wing, "Flak Magnet")

The WAR IN THE AIR gallery has, of course, a Sopwith Camel, a SB2C Helldiver and an F-16 Fighting Falcon (the first two are on loan from the Smithsonian, the F-16 was provided by the Istanbul Aviation Museum).

Controversy over plans to include a placard

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The introduce yourself in four starships meme has been trending this past week, but here's one better. Pixel artist extraordinaire Bildpunkt created five little Kilrathi fighters in pixel iconography. Look at those cute little guys! He even got the Kiranka logo in there. I would love a top down game built around this concept.

Introduce yourself in 5 starships #kilrathi #pixelart #wingcommander

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Here's another little detail I've never noticed in the Wing Commander movie before. [[ChrisReid: "Which is saying A LOT coming from AD!"]] In the Time Slice sequence there's a 3D effect layered over the lights on the panels behind Blair and Angel. Alas, it's nearly imperceivable in the final cut due to the matting. Here's the final film version compared to a wider shot:

You can see in the original takes from the rig that there's no effect in the shots. It was recorded on a separate pass and layered into the shot in post-production. It's an interesting effect and would have added another dynamic to the scene if we could have actually seen it.

Technically speaking, it's not exactly the matting that's the issue though. At some point - possibly to try and mask the transition between the regular camera and the timeslice footage - they cropped into the frame for the freeze effect.Still, some of the

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I *NEVER* do these, but what the hey! 1 like = 1 answer

The ESK rating for the Dart DF missile is... 11,000 ESK! What is ESK? The blueprints list it as the 'strength' rating for the missile and the numbers roughly correspond to the game's explosive force stat. In Secret Missions 2, Maniac proposes (suicidally) arming missiles with "a double load of ESK-5 explosives". So maybe its like TNT?

The max range of the Mass Driver Cannon is 3,000 mrrs... later listed as simply 3,000 kilometers! *plonk* *plonk* *plonk*

The ESK rating for the Pilum FF is... 9,500! Note also the Duck Dodgers reference on all the blueprint missile breakouts!

The velocity of the Dart DF is... 900 kilometers per second! That means you'll need afterburners to outrun one... or you can just move out of the way.

Oh, here's the rest of the answers!

1. What is the ESK rating for the Dart DF missile? 11000
2. What is the max range of the mass driver

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St3lt3k spotted a really cool interview with the lead designer of Wing Commander Privateer, Joel Manners. This is a person we have not heard a lot from over the years, so it's really great that badastroza at Steemit managed to have a lengthy conversation with him about how the game came to be. They talked about how Joel got started at Origin and how the concept for Trade Commander evolved. There were big discussions about whether to include the Kilrathi, and a big push to ensure the game still felt like a Wing Commander title despite the unique setting. Check it out for yourself here!

Sometimes you’re working on a game that has that incredibly distinct feeling and sometimes you’re not and you have to search for it, but Privateer was one of those times where it just had it. It was very easy to do – I wish I could tell you about our creative debates and pathos and struggle to find our golden

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Here's a really cool video of WC4 Remastered running at an impressive ultrawide 32:9 aspect ratio. We've known for a few years that the game would at least support 21:9, but this is a nice confirmation that the even wider 5120x1440 resolution will work. The example clip below might not scale up in the embedded version, so I'd recommend popping it out to a full YouTube screen for the entire effect. Also be sure it's running at at least 1440p so you can enjoy the game's beautiful graphics. If you haven't gotten a chance to give the updated WC4 Fan Remake for a spin yet, grab the demo here (900 meg exe).

Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom is probably the greatest example of the medium, with Hollywood budgets, real sets and an outstanding cast including Mark Hamill, Malcolm McDowell, John Rhys-Davies and Tom Wilson; and unlike many other FMV titles, each benefits from outstanding direction; which

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If you've been following LOAF's Wing Commander Privateer exploration lately, you've read about how the game's code refers to a Test Bed System that the Origin developers used while making the game. It's not linked from anywhere in the Gemini Sector, but it's still a "real" place that exists since it's pictured in the manual. To our knowledge, no players have managed to find it, until now! Rylex has accomplished an amazing feat by hex editing his way on over. There's not actually a whole lot to do - enemies spawn, but there are no asteroids or landing bases. But it's pretty incredible to be able to fly around in a previously undiscovered star system after nearly three decades. You can read up on the process and jump to the Test Best System yourself with these instructions!

So as you might know, it's possible in Righteous Fire to fly directly to Eden from the beginning of the game. Just go to Rikel

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Klavs has produced a new take on the venerable Wing Commander Movie universe map. About a year ago, he made an electrified version that really pops, and now he's got another novel recreation that looks like it was sketched on old paper. Both are based in the wonderful 275 megapixel corrected image photographed by LOAF and Thomas Hennessy and straightened by Jetlag. You can imagine this as some kind of Pilgrim artifact or even in-universe artistic interpretation. I also love that all the details like nebulas/galactic arms and Charybdis are there, although they look like they could be aged or degraded patches. Very cool!

Fidgeting with the star map today and I thought an ancient looking paper version might be cool!

Here's the older two versions I mentioned, so I don't miss a chance to repost them!

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John Nelson has another built another classy custom Lego fighter. Like his exquisite Longbow, this one also comes from Wing Commander 3. I like the bubble canopy and especially the lines of the aft fuselage. There's some forced scaling necessary for the gun pod, but that's a nice touch too.

While I gather parts to complete another project, here is the Arrow. This one is far from perfect. The canopy should be down further and the fuselage should end with a point and the back wings aren’t great but this is as close as it’s getting.

Plier (would) say, “The Arrow is a fine dog fighter that runs circles around anything in space but ConFed cheaped out on the missile racks. Give me the Banshee anyday.”

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Recently I extracted all of Privateer's gameflow screens (the planets and bases) and matched them to their correct palettes. 229 animations with over 5,000 frames! It's everything from flashing lights on the landing pad to the little cars that fly by on New Detroit. But behold my most exciting discovery: a never-before-seen ship! Thanks to the palette I knew it had to go, specifically, in the Perry Naval Base landing screen... but as far as I can tell it doesn't actually spawn there in the game. You can even see it says PNB (for "Perry Naval Base") on the side! This is about what it would've looked like, though it might've crossed the screen lower. Not such a bad day when you discover a new Wing Commander ship thirty years after it was made!