News from Bot

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Awesome resource via Dennie Edwards! I found Wing Commander III in the 1996 catalog. And Strike Commander in 1993, which was the result of a boots-on-the-ground sales campaign from Origin that got massive preorder numbers for Strike (on the back of WC1's smash hit status) from Radio Shack and Walmart.

RadioShackCatalogs is an excellent resource for nostalgia-craving tech fans! The site offers high quality scans of 66 years worth of Radio Shack catalog. We've done the hard work for you, though, and have located the one listing for a Wing Commander game: Wing Commander III in the 1996 catalog! Chris Roberts' Strike Commander appears in the 1993 catalog, which was at the time an especially important new distribution deal for Origin.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

While taking apart Wing Commander Arena I discovered that there are four different wrecked fighter models in the Boneyard map!

Charon System — The Boneyard

Welcome to hell! The Boneyard is the largest debris field in the sector. It began in 2655 when the Tiger’s Claw squadron fought a hard retreat through the area, riddling the asteroid belt with military debris. Since that time, it has come to encompass thousands of derelict ships and millionsof asteroids. The Boneyard is for expert pilots only: success here requires that a pilot navigate between rocks and through the channels and tunnels that riddle larger planetoids. It’s also an excellent chance to turn a profit as the field is littered with useful salvage and even the rocks themselves are overflowing with priceless Gotherian crystals.

Analysis: In an example of galactic irony the home of the hellish boneyard is also the location of the largest

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Reports that Aegis special advisor Seo Jin-ae has woken from a week-long coma were followed by a statement by Seo, which was sent to all major newsfeeds.
Aegis medical personnel had confirmed earlier in the day that Seo had abruptly woken from unconsciousness, following a significant seizure on October 18th. There were no long-term physical concerns, and she was expected to make a full recovery.
However, less than two hours later, Seo released a statement via ICE-cast. The raw footage was self-recorded and is believed to have been made without Aegis command's authorisation.
"I hate making these public announcements, so don't expect it to be good", she explained. "But everyone keeps telling me how important I am to the war effort, so why not test that and see if anyone listens? There's something everybody needs to know. What happened to me wasn't an accident or an illness."
"Right before I

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Modern Vintage Gamer has done a wonderful retrospective on the original Wing Commander from the perspective of 2024. The channel has a huge reach and the video has been seen some 80,000 times in just its first day. Since a lot of these will be younger viewers, the clip provides some vital context for how groundbreaking the game was when it arrived in 1990. The narrator walks through all of the features and highlights and even details how several WC1 ports differ, which is always nice to see. Check it out below!

Wing Commander is a 3D Space Combat Simulator game that released on the IBM PC in 1990 - over 34 years ago as of this episode - and it one of the finest games ever made. It took advantage of the IBM PC to maximize the immersion of a space combat simulation. Its game design had no equal. In today's episode we take a closer look at how Wing Commander came to be, its technology, game design,

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Look at this Wing Commander movie prop AD found. I can't believe how cool this is.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Origin composer George Oldziey reports that the choral recording that he conducted last week was a big success! Backers of the project's crowdfunding campaign can log in here to download and listen to a brief sample. Mr. Oldziey recently traveled to Salt Lake for an exciting session with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. With this complete, all of the live components necessary for his new album of Wing Commander music are complete! The next milestone will be the elaborate sound engineering/processing, which will begin in January with expert Bruce Botnick.

Greetings all. I just got back from Salt Lake City after a wonderfully successful day of recording the choir parts to the Wing Commander Volume 2 project. The singers were great, the engineer was spot on, and the conductor and fellow composer/orchestrator Philip Klein kept everything moving with artistry and finesse. Here are a few shots from the

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Azimuth Biotech CEO Torben Rademaker has claimed that Seo Jin-ae's current medical situation is 'dangerous' for humanity.
Last week, Aegis' special advisor Seo fell into a coma following a violent seizure. Head of Aegis Alba Tesreau confirmed the incident shortly afterwards, stating that Seo was receiving the best possible care at an Aegis medical facility.
Following a request for comment statement by Vox Galactica's Conrad Sterling, Rademaker discussed his views on the latest developments in the Thargoid war and the status of Seo:
"The original whistleblower of this tragic event did everybody a huge favour. No doubt Aegis would have hidden the truth otherwise, as the initiative has done so many times over the years."
"One thing I noticed from Ms. Tesreau's statement was the lack of any reference to the 'incredibly high brain activity' mentioned by the whistleblower. Surely if this detail were

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Good Old Games skipped Wing Commander in their recent fall sale, but they're now running a new Back to '00 Promo that cuts the price of the WC series in half. It's a funny link, because all of these games came out in the '90s, and the early 2000s were actually a really difficult time to run most WC titles. A lot of people had moved on to Windows 95/98/XP and didn't have a good setup for their DOS collection. New options like DOSBox and MyJEMM did appear and start to gain popularity by around 2005, but it took a while for everyone to catch up with emulation's processing power needs. Each WC game is marked down to $2.99, except for Privateer 2 which is $2.69! (Ditto for Strike Commander)

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Last month we took a close look at the various spacecraft weapons identifiable in the Wing Commander movie. The resulting field guide helped show me the incredible level of detail and consistency that went into the background of the world… and of course it's pretty neat to catalog more of the Wing Commander universe, too! With that in mind, I decided to take a similarly close look at the weapons of Wing Commander Academy. Like movies, TV shows have a detailed preproduction process where style sheets showing the characters, vehicles, props and sets would look. These would then inform writers, storyboard artists and the animation production companies at all stages of making the show. Coming through all thirteen episodes has let us take a sort of 'space telescope' look backwards in time to learn more about what those style guides must have included!

PART ONE: GUNS

Laser Cannon

As in the original game it

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Seo Jin-ae, special advisor to the Aegis initiative, has suffered a 'significant medical emergency' according to reports from the Duamta system.
A leak from within the Aegis medical facility reached media outlets early yesterday evening, claiming that Seo had suddenly fallen ill. The source also claimed that Seo was registering incredibly high brain activity while unconscious.
The intense speculation resulted in a surprise response from Head of Aegis, Alba Tesreau, only hours later.
Her brief statement was delivered by a spokesperson outside the facility to gathered journalists:
"While it is unfortunate that a member of our staff decided to leak this information, the news is true. I have chosen to confirm the claims myself, rather than let speculation and falsehoods grow about Seo's condition."
"Approximately sixteen hours ago, Seo experienced a generalized tonic-clonic seizure. The

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation Alert*
Titan Raijin is under siege. This is an urgent call to all independent pilots to aid in the complete defeat of the seventh Titan.
The key modules for the assault continue to be readily available at all Rescue Megaships:
• Thargoid Pulse Neutraliser – To break through the maelstrom defence wave.
• Caustic Sink Launchers – To protect your ship from caustic effects of the maelstrom.
• Guardian Nanite Torpedo Pylon – To hamper the Titan's vents and make it vulnerable to damage.
Rewards have been requisitioned for all Commanders able to participate in ending the Titan threat.
Good luck, Commanders.

Display More

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Quick, what's that missile? I was studying Wing Commander Prophecy recently and realized I had never taken a good look at the alien missile graphics. Missiles are visible for perhaps a few frames at most so it's hard to get an idea of how they look in the game… but it turns out there was a lot of effort put into distinct missile textures, especially in Wing Commander Prophecy! Not only do the unusual alien weapons all have unique, organic graphics but almost every single Confederation missile and torpedo has a unique design. More, even, than were included in the high resolution renders in the manual and official guide!

From there I decided to look at the other games where I found lots of interesting missiles! I put together the following charts so that everyone can enjoy taking a longer look at the different objects than is usually possible. It also includes several cut weapons that you can't see in

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Yesterday we looked at the March 1999 issue of Sci-Fi Teen, one of four Starlog publications that covered the Wing Commander movie during its release. That might not seem unusual today but remember that Wing Commander was up against The Matrix and Star Wars Episode One for limited print space in world where most people weren't yet getting their news from the internet. Today we're looking at the most exciting of the bunch: STARLOG Movie Hits Wing Commander The Official Movie Magazine is a 72-page officially licensed magazine covering the actors and techniques behind the scenes of Wing Commander. It contains a lot of broad promotional writing and you've seen many of the set photos before... but there are also some real gems hidden in there! We're very pleased to finally have a digital copy available online as prices for once-ignored physical back stock seem to be rising. You can download the PDF here

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Aegis scientists have recently held a public forum to discuss ongoing research into the wreckage left behind by Thargoid Titans.
The Xenological Science Symposium on Procyon B 7 discussed topics including technological advances made since the start of the Second Thargoid War, their potential application to non-military industries, and hypothetical future-tech in the event of victory against the Thargoid invasion force.
Keynote speaker Professor Shamus Madigan, part of the Federal delegation to the Aegis Initiative, chose to discuss the Thargoid Titan wreckage and potential advancements from the components thus far recovered from them.
"Obviously, we've seen huge strides in human aerospace technology with the SCO frame shift drive. Achilles Aerospace has delivered a marvellous device which greatly amplifies the travel speeds of small spacecraft within a star system."
"But the reality is that

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

In the lead-up to the Wing Commander movie, Starlog magazine covered the film extensively. After Starlog shut down in 2009, the powers that be offered scans of the entire run of their flagship magazine. This included a Wing Commander cover story and three feature articles which we reported at the time. What they did not include in their archival efforts, however, were two spinoffs that covered Wing Commander: a cover story in Sci-Fi Teen (#5, March 1999) and their dedicated Wing Commander Movie Official Magazine. Today we're adding the former to the collection! Sci-Fi Teen was a short-lived spinoff of Starlog aimed at a younger audience that was starting to take an interest in increasingly popular science fiction media like X-Files and Star Trek Voyager. Here's the Wing Commander material:

We have also scanned the individual pages of the centerfold 'pin-up' poster. Perfect for your locker!

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Zorgon Peterson has delighted fans and investors alike with the confirmation of its first new vessel in six years.
At an extravagant launch party, the Mandalay was introduced to an enthusiastic reception. Presented as an exploration-focused vessel, Zorgon Peterson chief marketing officer Devin Kaneda provided the following details:
"With the Mamba, Zorgon Peterson's team showed we can match all other manufacturers in terms of speed. With the Fer-de-Lance, we demonstrated our understanding of excellent military design. Now, with the Mandalay, we aim to provide consumers with a premium exploration option."
"Our design division has focused on specific performance advantages once again. The Mandalay brings a significant jump range for a medium-sized vessel. Careful attention has also been placed on improving ship handling in atmospheric environments."
"We've also listened to explorers regarding

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

More reference saves for the collection! We've played through both Armada campaigns and saved a game at the start of each sector. Want to explore unfamiliar regions of the Wing Commander universe or maybe see the ending cutscenes without playing a full evening of Armada? Here's your ticket! Drop these in your Armada folder (but be sure to make a backup copy of your saves first as these will replace them). Because Armada only has eight save 'slots' per game mode, we've divided this archive into three sets. Pick the one you want and go save the galaxy!

• Wing Commander Armada Saved Games (24kb .ZIP)

Stay tuned for additional packages! Privateer and Privateer 2 are coming soon. Previous releases:

• Wing Commander III
• Wing Commander IV
• Prophecy and Secret Ops

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

The promised Wing Commander III saved game reference pack is here! As with our previous releases we've tried to include a saved game after each mission with multiple variants wherever alternate cutscenes are available. It's a great excuse to explode some of the game that you may never have seen before... or a nice quick way to track down a screenshot in a hurry! If you are playing the GOG version, drop these in the "cloud_saves/WC3" folder (but be sure to make a backup copy of your saves first as these will replace them).

One that we know is missing is a version of Hyperion 2 where cutscene N0BARFHS plays with the 'low morale' version. The scene requires that Flash be alive to discuss the Kilrah mission and theoretically has a 'bad' version where he isn't hopeful. As far as we can tell there's no way to have Flash's morale actually be low at this point in the game! Let us know if you've encountered

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Yesterday's shocking Wing Commander II SNES painting news wasn't just of interest to the Wing Commander community. Hardcore fans of Nintendo history were also all over the reveal! John Rairdin of Nintendo World Report even went right to work creating an image that simulates what the game's box likely would've looked like:

This is a case where the artist is the bigger expert to begin with but it looks pretty accurate to us! The real game probably would've had a different tagline but since we have no idea what it would've been reusing the original is a smart choice. Nintendo World Report also published an article on the find as did Go Nintendo. It's great to see coverage from the serious Nintendo community; when the game is someday located, I suspect they will be prime movers! For those unfamiliar with SNES branding and who would like a point of comparison, here are box scans for FCI's other Origin ports

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

I started emulating Wing Commander SNES with RetroAchievements and am having a great time! I picked up a Bluetooth SNES controller and having the intended form factor really improves the experience. They’ve got cheevos for the SNES, PlayStation and Sega CD ports all set up! I’m going to try and earn them all. Onward to Gimle!

Weird note for posterity: no Silver Star for McAuliffe 3 despite scoring every kill and logging every victory point. Checked some let’s plays and it was the same for all. Something changed or broken in the port?