Wing Commander

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NightBall06 has taken the wraps of his latest set of Hellcat drawings. As previously noted, these are some fancy 2D digital creations as opposed to a rotatable 3D model, which is a different way to do it. This one is referred to as the "final version," but NightBall notes that some changes around the canopy and with the guns are probably still likely. What do you think? Let him know at the CIC Forums!

And yes, indeed - in my imagination, with these new engines and the Jump-Drive, it was meant to be some sort of "modern reinterpretation" set during or shortly after WC Prophecy...

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I found a copy of Privateer 2 on, of all places, Etsy! Here’s why used big box games can be so much fun... I grabbed this copy because I noticed a neat extra: a patch disk! The original owner had written to Origin and been sent a copy of the patch on a diskette. How could I say no to a Privateer 2 floppy?!

Upon receipt I discovered the original owner had saved some other treasures. Here’s the original receipt Fry’s (in January 97!) and the price tag and seal stickers. He must have been a fellow Thrustmaster fan: he filled out his own HOTAS control sheet and left an enticing joystick flyer (I want that simpit badly...). And he included all of his notes on commodity and ship pricing! Reminder: in any other situation, do not sell your handwritten lists of human organ prices on Etsy.

Finally, this coupon for $10 off Wing Commander IV is pretty swank. And useful since I do buy a few copies of Wing

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The final countdown starts now for this weekend's big Wing Commander

Flat Universe

tournament. It happens at

16:00 UTC

June 23-24, and interested players should

register

by Friday. There are some very cool multiplayer modes that will be deployed in the new version of the game and even a spectator mode. A few previously

announced

new ships will also be making their debut. Be sure to check it out!

Two days are left before we load our fighters with dangerous arsenals and start to hit each other with guns and missiles. What you already know is the date of the event (23rd/24th of June). What you don't, however, is the hour. We are really sorry for not being able to determine the exact time sooner, but we had to collect enough data from the Enlisted FlatPilots to make the best possible decision for every time zone out there. So let me enlighten you:

Red Flag 2678 starts at 16:00 UTC

Those of you who

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There's great news out of the Through the Moongate: the first stretch goal has been reached, which means that there will be an extra chapter looking at the developing of Wing Commander II! Here's the official word:

A million thank yous to all our backers who made another achievement possible! We will have the pleasure to work with Siobhan Beeman, Ellen Guon Beeman, and other Originites on the Wing Commander 2 chapter, which will be delivered as a digital download to all backers from Honesty tier and higher. We are excited to dig into and tell many yet unknown stories of another legendary game from Origin!

The project has added a second strech goal which would add a rare Ultima print for backers at the Sacrifice (50 euro) level or higher. There are three days left, so if you want a copy for yourself you can pledge here! There are three days left on this one, so get in quick!

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To beat Kurasawa 2, you just have to believe...

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Dowlphin

spotted a couple of nifty easter eggs in a recent World of Warcraft quest. Wing Commander Black and a blue-haired Kilrath make appearances as a couple of Orcs in a story mission. These aren't random gaming references either - WoW executive producer

J Allen Brack

is a major Wing Commander vet. He got his start in the industry as a QA tester on Wing Commander 3 and went on to work on P2, WC4, Kilrathi Saga, Prophecy and Secret Ops. There are likely numerous such gems hidden in the game. Another player spotted

Wing Commander Mulverick

a while back too.

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pahandav

has created a MEGA Overview of the Wing Commander series. He covers each of the main games, which is all of the PC games except the expansions, Secret Ops or Arena. Of course it would be nice if those were included too, but it's still pretty impressive how exhaustive the video is as it takes nearly a full hour to cover the landscape. Lots of streamers hit WC1 or WC3/4, so it's a nice change to hear someone detailing out Academy nav points, Armada shipyards and the nuances of Privateer 2 videos. I suppose we'll just have to wait for the GIGA Overview for more!

In this video, I provide an overview of the 9 main games of the Wing Commander series released between 1990 and 1997.

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Herman Rosy Du Preez recent came across an object and did a double-take. From the right angle, a stray head massaging device can bear an uncanny resemblance to the Nephilim Tiamat dreadnought or dry dock structure. I certainly see the family resemblance! Who knows what really inspired

visual futurist Syd Mead

?

I just realized.... Nephilim dreadnought looks like a head massager. Inspiration can come from ANYWHERE!

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The fifth episode of ALL WINGS CONSIDERED is live now! All Wings Considered is the CIC's first ever streaming variety show which features news, conversation and gameplay relating to our favorite series. This week we're heading to the most difficult mission in Wing Commander history, Ghorah Khar 2D... and likely failing miserably! If you're watching live, you can join the End Run book club discussion (chapters 9-12) through the voice chat channel of our Discord server here. Missed the stream? The replay will be available below once it has been processed by YouTube. You can subscribe to the AWC channel for future notifications here.

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Spacedock

is back with a new video on the top five carriers of all science fiction. Wing Commander manages to snag TWO of the slots with the Bengal class strike carrier at #3 and Vesuvius heavy carrier at #1. As we've previously mentioned, Daniel from Spacedock covers a wide array of sci-fi content on his channel and happens to be very well versed in the WC franchise. For this reason, we get a real thorough discussion on the merits of these two models compared with other WC favorites like the Yorktown or Midway as well as other series' efforts. His videos have really surged in popularity over the past year or two, and this clip is currently over 84,000 views on its way to 100K+ likely soon. That's a lot of folks out there learning about the finer points of WC lore!

Spacedock breaks down five sci-fi carrier designs.

There's also a handful of

merchandise

items you can get based on the subjects that

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The year is quickly drawing to a close, so Wingnuts once again have a chance to pick their top fan projects and/or websites of the year. Before the voting gets going later on, everyone has a chance to nominate some of the undertakings that they think should be recognized. Send your recommendations to

news@wcnews.com

and let us know! Here's a rundown of the past winners to jog your memory.

2017	Secret Ops Model Upgrade Pack	Homeworld Remastered / Flat Universe
2016	Flat Universe	Homeworld Remastered / Secret Ops MUP / Enhanced Soundtracks
2015	Homeworld Remastered Mod	Flat Universe / Secret Ops MUP / Klavs' Model Archive
2014	Flat Universe	Klavs' Models / Prophecy Fan Movie
2013	Collected Works of HCl / Klavs' Models	Defiant Few
2012	WC Saga	Klavs' Models
2011	OpenGL Patch for WCP & Secret Ops	TacOps Online & Standoff
2010	Astro Commander's Mini Models	DirectDrawHack

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Episode 3 of

ALL WINGS CONSIDERED

is coming in hot! Tune in this week for an in-depth discussion on the Hellcat medium fighter as well as another exciting roundtable for the End Run Book Club. And that's just scratching the surface! Join us this Thursday, February 28, at 7 PM Eastern US Time (4 PM Pacific) on

YouTube

and

Discord

.

Join us Thursday, March 7 on or about 7 PM Eastern for the second thrilling episode of All Wings Considered!

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The

Games on Film

podcast has recorded an episode that's all about Wing Commander. They spend more than 80 minutes talking about the franchise's background and the environment that existed in 1999. Then the commentators spend quite a bit of time talking through the highs and lows of the film itself. One thing that sets this review/discussion apart from the cliche comments you frequently see is that they thought the space action was on the boring side but were actually intrigued by the Pilgrim angle. Since their focus is all about video games that have crossed over into theaters, they make a good point that FMV-centric series seem to have an inherently difficult time gaining acceptance since it's so easy to break with cinematic styles that their fans are used to. You can check out the full episode

here

.

Harry and Rory journey into the deep reaches of space - and the even deeper reaches of the DVD

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Mark Gabby-Li has a great physical Banshee model to share today. It might look like it came out of a bespoke kit, but this is actually made just from Snapships parts! Last year we highlighted how these new space toys could be tweaked to build some more familiar designs, and it's wonderful to see fans taking up the challenge. And that papercraft Banshee on the side is pretty slick too!

My first attempt at a remix of a spaceship from (relatively) popular culture: Wing Commander IV's Banshee!

You know, making fan models of spaceships with Lego or Snapships feels a little like a sort of poetry.You are trying to capture the essence, as the pieces you have limit your ability to perfectly replicate it.

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Ha, well, I have ramscoops...

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Classic gamer Dennis Mull has had a productive winter so far by adding a wide range of fantastic additions to his collection. What I'm most envious of is his German special edition of Wing Commander 3. Check out that t-shirt it ships with! Compare with the all black version that came in the Sam's Club edition, which he also recently obtained. There's also a double-pack of the Secret Missions. These used to be the type of thing that would eventually find their way into bargain bins in the mid '90s, but now they are a pretty nice find. After that it's a Greek release of Privateer 2, which is also really neat. Last, but not least, is a German set of Wing Commander novels.

Moving on from Wing Commander items, there's also some great aerial sims from Origin. His latest Strike Commander find is a Spanish copy of the Tactical Operations expansion, which looks good along with its siblings. He's also

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Christian Klein

posted these neat pics of the Secret Missions made for China/Taiwan. We've

previously posted

about a number of Chinese ports in the past, including WC1, SM2, WC2 and the Special Operations, but it's possible that I've not seen the SM1 before. It's nice to close the loop on that! The packaging is nicely colored, and those white 5.25" disks are pretty swanky!

Taiwanese #WingCommander - The Secret Missions 1+2 / Publisher: Soft-World

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The days keep ticking down to the CIC's 20th Birthday Party! The big event is now just three weeks away, and preparations are in full swing. Because this year we're moving to

Discord

to chat, you might want to come visit beforehand. Install the

program

and use

this invite

to visit the new #Wingnut channel. There's already lots of activity there, so you're more than welcome to join the fun now! Then you'll be all set when the party starts on Saturday, August 18, 2018 at 7:00 pm EDT (4:00 pm PDT and 11:00 pm GMT). See you there!

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This is the last in a series of interesting video features published in the mid '90s by the CD-ROM "magazine" Interactive Entertainment. Their Wing Commander 4 review appeared in issue 23. The CD-ROM interface displayed screenshots from the game and overlaid them with low resolution videos. That experience has been recreated here rather than displaying the videos full screen. Again, while it looks pretty dated today, the setup was really cool for the time. The vast majority of internet access out there was still dialup, so this was the only practical way to experience something like this!

Text article that accompanied the video review on the CD:

The Commander Returns to Battle

A rogue band of pilots from the border worlds descends upon an innocent civilian transport and its escorts and destroy them by unleashing a mysterious device. Cut to our hero, Christopher Blair, once again played by the

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Fabien Sanglard has posted a great podcast interview with former Origin programmer Frank Savage. The main purpose of the conversation was to learn more about Strike Commander, but there's also wonderful information about Origin as a company, the technology of Wing Commander 3 and Mr. Savage's later work on Xbox. The whole recording close in at more than 70 minutes, but there's also a transcript you can skim to get the gist of it. Check it out here!

Frank Savage: So at that time I was a hobbyist game developer. I taught myself C and C++. My education was in Electrical Engineering. So I knew the mathematics behind 3D stuff, but I had never applied it. I never tried to do anything with it except for a couple of courses in college. I was a huge fan of the Wing Commander series. I had Wing Commander license plates on my car in Illinois where I was living in Chicago at the time. I would go to GenCon every