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We've said it before and we'll say it again... better late than never! Thanks to your suggestions we now have the official slate of nominees for both of our 2025 awards: Fan Project of the Year and Hall of Fame. For Fan Project, pick the one that you believe is most exciting today and for Hall of Fame put your mind back to the early days of Wing Commander and choose which classic fan or project to honor! We encourage you to vote for your choices before March 15th -- we'll announce the winners on first contact day. We had lots of great suggestions this year and we hope your preferences have made it to this stage.
Wing Commander AllTinker Overhaul Mod - Origin couldn't do it... a generation of fans couldn't do it... but 36 years after the release of the original Wing Commander, AllTinker has done it! They've produced a beautiful patch that limits the game's speed and makes it function as it was intended to at release... along with plenty of other long, long, long overdue bug fixes!
Mash's Patches - While AllTinker is having success with the early games, Mash seems to have the later ones well under control! They've put together wonderful patches that both allow modern play and enhance the original games for Wing Commander III, IV and now Privateer 2! Whether you want to escape that planetary slowdown or you want to plug in a HD video pack, we're all lucky that Mash has you covered.
Gemini Sector - This classic RPG has been going for many, many years now and it's still active! Not only that but they've continued to modernize and improve their tools over the years, now running on Discord with lots of resources like a wiki and a character creator available through the website.
Wing Commander 4 Remastered - The very impressive Wing Commander IV redux project continues forward in 2026! We haven't seen a release in a bit but we know the team is continuing to do world class work in their limited time. This one seems truly special and absolutely worth the wait.
Originator - AllTinker's other project made some great progress this year, too! Originator is an all-series, all-purpose Wing Commander exploration tool that lets us get closed to the game assets we're interested in than ever before. I use it daily and I am so eager to see further updates that will certainly benefit the community and our understanding of the Wing Commander universe!
XeenMusic - This one is music to our ears; XeenMusic has put out multiple archival-quality Wing Commander albums covering Wing Commander, Wing Commander II and even Academy! This is an exhaustive effort that has produced material we've never even heard before.
And here are your choices for the HALL OF FAME:
The Wing Commander Aces Club - The Aces weren't the first Wing Commander fan club but they were certainly the largest! If you're old enough to remember the internet in 1995 then you likely visited some part of AceNet, an impressive web of Wing Commander fan sites devoted to roleplaying, storytelling and celebrating the franchise.
Secrets of the Wing Commander Universe - What happens when you apply the thoroughness of a tech book publisher with a survey of the Wing Commander universe? This classic textbook by Mark Minasi (and delightful illustrations by Elizabeth Creegan) brings us the early CompuServe community's take on Wing Commander alongside a truly delightful guide to the series. It's 'fan fiction' in a sense... but it was surely formative for many of us!
HCl's Mods - Where would we be without HCl, the brilliant modder who allowed Wing Commander fans to do incredible things with the games back when no one else understood any of the tech behind the games. HCl's mission buildings, upgrade packs, movie viewers and more fueled the rise of Wing Commander modding and are part of the reason we're still here. Whether he was enabling Unknown Enemy and Standoff or just teaching how the games store ship specifications he was a lynchpin of the fandom.
Worlds of Origin / LadyWhisper - Gone, but not forgotten: Worlds of Origin was the 'official' Origin Systems fan club site established by the queen of the Ultima community at the time, LadyWhisper. Thanks to her connections to Richard Garriott and Origin, WOO was able to provide reliable information and resources about the game... and it introduced us to some pretty special inside baseball surrounding their creation.
Unknown Enemy - The first Wing Commander 'total conversion' style mod, Unknown Enemy was the creation of a group of fans that proved themselves smart enough to make their own Wing Commander story. It's a little clunky compared to later efforts like Standoff but its importance to the history of the Wing Commander fandom can't be questioned at all. And members of the UE team continue to do incredible things for the community today!
