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Here's a short but fascinating followup to our article on the partnership between Origin and Intel: st3lt3k added that an Internet Archive contributor named Star Raider has uploaded beautiful scans of all five of the 1994 CES posters! Origin wasn't promoting Wing Commander at the time but these is artwork worth studying nonetheless...
Jan
…Welcome to 2025, where retro gaming is "hip". And when something becomes popular it can start to generate a lot of useless, hastily assembled money-grabbing crap. Case in point is this 2025 "Retro Games Classic Gaming Calendar" from Red Rock Publishing:
The ultimate gaming calendar for all gamers, whether young or old! Here, the most legendary games of all time are brought back to life, whether for PC, Amiga, SEGA, PlayStation, XBOX, or other platforms - all through the new year!
Classics like WarCraft, Doom 3D, Monkey Island, Pacman, StarCraft, Super Mario, Quake, Diablo or Dune: In this calendar, the unforgettable giants of gaming history will accompany you throughout the new year, 365 days in a row.
Including a fold-out mega poster, all public and religious holidays as well as plenty of space to add your own notes, birthdays, etc. Format: Large Wall Dimensions: 59cm x 29.5cmSounds great, except…
Jan
…
The Wing Commander movie club watched The Fifth Element on Friday and it certainly wasn't Boron! (everyone laugh) Next up, we're going back to World War II… but in the Pacific this time! We're going to be watching the 1976 film Midway and you can join us this Friday via Discord to watch along.
Midway is a star-studded, big budget war movie about the 1942 Battle of Midway, a naval engagement that changed the direction of World War 2 in the Pacific and which enshrined the aircraft carrier as the centerpiece of naval doctrine. Midway attempts to tell the story of the battle, a challenging thing for a conflict where the two sides rarely encountered each other.
Wing Commander's Kilrathi War has always been patterned after World War II in the Pacific so it's not a surprise that there are some clear connections to look out for! We'll talk about some connections to the real battle shortly, but first the 1976
Jan
Sad news today: French voice actor Benoît Allemane passed away on Sunday. To say that M. Alleman was prolific would be an understatement; he performed the French voices for characters from Doctor Claw to Baloo and in the process dubbed countless film and genre roles over the years. He was likely best known as the official French voice of actor Morgan Freeman, who paid tribute to him on Instagram.
You can find an obituary here. He is best known to Wing Commander fans, however, as the French voice of Captain William Eisen in localized releases of Wing Commander III and IV. Here's a briefing from Wing Commander IV showing his dub work in action:
Our thoughts are with M. Allemane's family, friends and fans.
Thank you to Sergorn for reporting this news.
Jan
…A few weeks ago, we reported the welcome surprise that The Fatman had released the "Just the FAT" edition of the Wing Commander II soundtrack… and we mentioned that a complete release was on the way from Xeen Music! And now, that release is here!
These are, in a word, incredible. Andrew Harrington of Xeen Music has spent months researching and restoring the music of Wing Commander II and Academy and has produced an incredible collection with everything you know… and whole a lot you don't! He has reached out to the original composers, tracked down cut music and music that was simplified to save disk space… and he's collected it all alongside comprehensive notes about what you're listening to. And it's all properly licensed through Electronic Arts, this is an official release. This is surely the isometal standard for video game music releases!
Jan
…Greetings WingNuts,
We are back from our long sea tour! After two weeks, the Wing Commander movie club has watched the director's cut of Das Boot. Most in attendance had seen at least the theatrical version before so we had a good idea what we were getting into… but it was certainly a tough watch! Unlike some of the war films we've watched in this series, Das Boot's impact has not diminished over the years. It's a hard edged story that portrays the reality of warfare: that most of the people fighting aren't there supporting an ideology but because society offers them no other choice. It's not an easy watch but it's a valuable one.
Of course there were a lot of Wing Commander connections to discuss given the film's importance in inspiring the Wing Commander film's look, feel, specific scenes and even… well, its captain. AD provided this excerpt from Chris Roberts' original Wing Commander film pitch
Jan
This is a reminder that we have another fun #Wingnut movie night planned on Discord this evening! The ongoing theme will be movies that inspired Wing Commander in some way. Tonight's film is a fun one: The Fifth Element, a movie that shares a cinematographer with Wing Commander! You can find details on that as well as how to watch along with us in the announcement post here. The movie will start about 7 PM PST/10 PM EST, but feel free to drop by and hang any time!
Jan
A squadron of AX pilots have planned to sustain pressure on the lingering Thargoid presence in the HIP 22460 system.
Led by the respected AXI and XSF combat fleets, the blockade seeks to push Thargoid craft from the area from January 12th.
HIP 22460 was the staging ground for Salvation's Proteus Wave weapon, which sought to end the Second Thargoid War in August 3308 but resulted in disaster. Prior to this it is believed to have hosted several clandestine research operations hosted by Azimuth Biochemicals and protected by the notorious Black Flight.
More updates will be provided as the story develops.
Jan
…We've taken a look under the hood of Wing Commander II and come away with more questions than answers! This collection of sprites is the 'mid' character artwork, the ones that show up in establishing and group shots punctuated by the more familiar animated portraits. Let's take a look and maybe you can help identify some of the mystery images!
The Kilrathi sprites include Khasra and the guard that appears next to him in one cut scene… and one kil we can't put our finger on! Does the older Kilrathi ever actually show up in the game? He might have been intended to stand in for Khasra in the final mission cutscene… but in the final game Khasra being shot down doesn't stop him from talking to Thrakhath later.
Duty uniforms from the base game: Angel, Hobbes, Stingray, Downtown, Doomsday, Jazz, Shadow and Spirit. Pay attention to Hobbes' boots, which are accurate to the ones seen on his physical costume in
Jan
…Imperial agents have been charged with attempting to seize political influence deep in Federal territory following the Battle of Sol.
With the aftermath of the Thargoid Invasion still causing upheaval across populated space, there has been a marked effort by many factions to establish themselves in systems impacted by Titan Cocijo's assault in December.
Sofia Trevino wrote a summary for the Federal Times:
"In recent weeks there has been turmoil in Sol, as political, corporate and military interests come to terms with the impact of Titan Cocijo's arrival – not to mention the civilian cost, with billions of refugees still displaced in surrounding systems."
"But an unexpected element has emerged, with ports and outposts reporting a significant increase in positive Imperial sentiment. This has been tied to Princess Aisling Duval in particular, currently enjoying a good reputation among
Jan
…Late last year we posted a guide to the weapons of Wing Commander Academy. One of the topics was the slight differences between the 'generic' Kilrathi capital ship design created for the show. Star*Soldier divided these similar ships into different sizes: the Kamar-class blockade-runner, the Dorkar-class transport, the Ralar-class destroyer and the Naukar-class carrier.
We decided it would be interesting to go through the season and see how many of the capital ships we could identify in-continuity. We learned that the model appears on the show a total of 18 times, although six of these are briefing holograms and one, a carrier, is a TrainSim opponent. The remaining 11 are one Kamar, two Ralar, two Dorkar, three Naukars… and two cruisers and a corvette?! That's right, in the process of trying to identify each ship's class (first from dialogue and failing that by looking at outlines, scripts and
Jan
We recently posted a scan of the 1997/2673 Kilrathi Saga calendar, a classic Wing Commander document that hasn't been available online. But wasn't there another Wing Commander calendar? There was! The fancy Premiere Edition of Wing Commander III came with a trilingual calendar that shows off high resolution stills from the game's FMV. It's not quite as cool as the Kilrathi Saga calendar because it doesn't have any original lore... but it sure is pretty! But we've scanned the whole thing anyway and you can get either the high resolution version here (298 megs) or a smaller reading copy here (12 megs). You can take your time, though: you can't use this one again until 2034!
Jan
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The Wing Commander movie club has run both silent and deep through Das Boot! We were certainly impressed… with the film and with just how much of the film Chris Roberts managed to work into Wing Commander. Next up we're going to watch something a little more fun: as suggested by Vera, Friday's movie will be The Fifth Element! You can join us this Friday via Discord to watch along.
The Fifth Element is a 1997 science fiction film from French director Luc Besson. It tells the story of a futuristic taxi driver who inadvertently becomes the key to stopping an incredible weapon capable of destroying the Earth. That plot description is reductive, though: the film is celebrated for both its slick storytelling and its stunningly visualized world (with visuals inspired by the likes of Moebius and Mézières) that seemed like nothing we'd ever seen before at the time. Do you think it will hold up now that some
Jan
…Wing Commander II famously opens with now-Captain Blair being reassigned to an InSystem Security squadron at a base called Caernarvon Station. Caernarvon is an impressive space station but it's clear that Blair is now just a two-bit cop in a backwater system unlikely ever to encounter the Kilrathi. The story quickly expands beyond Caernarvon Station but its familiarity led a number of later stories to attempt to reference the location again… every time with some kind of error! In fact, it has been referred to by as many as four different names. We're going to look at the origins of the station and then each of these references to try and figure out exactly what's going on. It's a thrilling quasi-typographical space station adventure, today on the Combat Information Center!
Namesakes
The space station in Wing Commander II is named after Caernarfon Castle, the eventual form of a fortification established
Jan
…
In early 1993, Origin Systems signed a brand deal with a major technology player, Intel Corporation. At the time, Intel's processors were the industry standard and they were particularly interested in expanding their marketing to appeal to the new furor for multimedia entertainment. The initial deal allowed Intel to use Wing Commander II and Strike Commander to promote their i486 chips. The February 12, 1993 issue of Point of Origin (Vol. 3, No. 32) summarizes the original agreement:
ORIGIN and Intel
Intel Corporation will showcase their 486 chips at the Software Publishing Association (SPA) conference in March and the Comdex trade show in May by running Strike Commander. Strike will be the only entertainment product used by Intel to show off the speed of their chips. ORIGIN has also granted permission for Intel to use some of the game play sequences and screen shots from Wing Commander II and Strike
Jan
…This is a reminder that we have another fun #Wingnut movie night planned on Discord this evening! The ongoing theme will be movies that inspired Wing Commander in some way. Tonight's film is the continuation of last week: the second half of Das Boot! You can find details on that as well as how to watch along with us in the announcement post here. We'll be starting at the two hour mark. The movie will start about 7 PM PST/10 PM EST, but feel free to drop by and hang any time! Anyone is welcome, even if you didn't catch last week's first part of the film.
The Story So Far...
The movie begins with Jürgen Prochnow's captain driving Warner, a war correspondent, to meet the submarine's crew who are celebrating the night before their next cruise in a French bordello. The sailors are drunk and chaos ensues after another U-boat captain gives a speech insulting Hitler. Rowdy men harass the French singer and fire
Jan
It's that time again! As the calendars flip over to another new year, our annual New Year's Poll asks what your outlook is. We have two major music albums on the near horizon, plenty of promising fan projects forthcoming, and are sure to have some big surprises along the way. It seems like 2025 is shaping up to be one of the biggest years in quite a while, but what do you think?
Our old poll ran in the wake of the CIC's 26th Birthday. As usual, it shows a very sizable portion of our audience dates back to the turn of the millennium, yet there's a pretty good size group that's just found us recently too!
Jan
…Happy Wednesday, January 1st! How the heck did we know the date so accurately?! Well, it turns out that the days in 2025 match up to those in 1997 and 2673... which means that you can reuse the calendar included with The Kilrathi Saga this year! The Kilrathi Saga calendar is a wonderful manual produced by Origin as a 'feelie' for the game. It shows off concept art from across the trilogy and even includes lore dates from all over the timeline. A fair amount of Wing Commander continuity was introduced by this document, from the identity of the Rigakh cruiser to Colonel Blair's birthday! You can find January below and we've scanned the whole thing and you can download the entire calendar here (220 megabyte archival quality PDF. Compressed 9 meg PDF also available). Better enjoy now--you won't be able to do this again until 2031!
Why 2673? For one thing, it does correctly match up to 1997 (and 2025) so
Jan
It's been a hectic holiday for a lot of folks, so today we're re-upping two recent stories to make sure they hit your feed.
GOG's big annual winter sale end January 2. You've got just over a day or so to save 59% off the Wing Commander series. Each set is $2.45. Time to finish off the digital collection!
The CIC is also taking nominations for our annual Fan Project of the Year Awards. We're exploring two categories this year: a traditional 2024 contest and also accepting your "hall of fame" nominations for projects from the last 25+ years. Email nominations to news@wcnews.com! You can find past winners here.
Dec
…
On Friday, the Wing Commander movie club watched the first two hours (exactly!) of Das Boot, taking us from occupied France right through a strikingly familiar depth charge scene. We noted a lot of elements Chris Roberts borrowed for Wing Commander (including the Captain) and we'll collect them all in a final after action report next week. But first, we need to finish the tour! You can join us on Discord on Friday for the screening and you're more than welcome to be part of the fun.
Das Boot is a 1981 film which follows the crew of a German U-boat fighting in the Atlantic in 1941. It is known for its realistic depiction of submarine life and for telling a story that isn't about heroes winning glory but ordinary men living through a terrible time. The film's success introduced director Wolfgang Petersen to the world; he would later go on to direct films like Outbreak and Air Force One.
Where can I find a
