Display More
We've said it before and we'll say it again: better late than never! We may have been a little slow again this year but Wingnuts everywhere still showed up to cast their votes for the Fan Project of the Year in record numbers. In a way, there were no losers this year. Thirty six years on, Wing Commander fans continue to do incredible things which gave us a fantastic slate of nominees for 2025. Fans are preserving Wing Commander's legacy, opening up its future, creating their own works of art and telling their own stories… you love to see it!
Our winner for Fan Project of the Year 2025 is very well deserved: the WC AllTinker Overhaul Mod! For almost as long as I can remember, playing Wing Commander I–one of the greatest games ever made!--has been an awkward and not-quite-satisfying experience. The lack of a frame limiting in the original game had us turning to turbo buttons, disabling caches, running Moslo and hacking around the Secret Missions 2 executable as early as we switched to 486s around 1994. And nobody could ever seem to fix any of that… and it just got worse as computers advanced. Even big commercial releases like Super Wing Commander and Kilrathi Saga couldn't get the experience right.
Enter AllTinker, as authentic a genius as this community has ever seen! They have pain painstakingly learned how the original Wing Commander worked and used that knowledge (and a whole lot of computer programming talent) to build a stunning patch that gives people a way to party just like it's 1990. We old men can play the game of our youth again… and kids tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow get to know what it was like. A successful project like this takes selflessness, talent and dedication… and it's rare that all three combine to make such a release possible. The Wing Commander community thanks you, AllTinker!
... now about Wing Commander II…
This year's runner up just proves how unfair the universe is… because it also absolutely deserved to win (and came very close)! The hopefully still-coveted second place award goes to another project that is helping preserve Wing Commander's legacy for decades to come. Congratulations to Mash's Wing Commander Patches! Mash has developed incredible patches that help to modernize Wing Commander III, Wing Commander IV and now Privateer 2: The Darkening! When your grandchildren take up Wing Commander someday, it's likely going to be thanks to the brilliance and dedication of both AllTinker and Mash.
We also want to recognize that the Wing Commander IV Remake which again drew lots and lots of votes! They've been working close to the ground these past months but we've all played the demo and seen the quality of what they're putting together… so it's totally understandable that this is one people are eager to get their hands on. And we're people, too!
Nice job, everyone! Thank you for keeping the Wing Commander movie a vibrant and wonderful place. You are the giants upon whose shoulders we at the CIC stand; we can't thank you enough for choosing to be part of this. Now let's do some even more thrilling Wing Commanding in 2026! Maybe we'll even hold the vote on time this year…
