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Here's a new technical update on the Confederation project by AllTinker. He was aiming to deliver a release in time for Wing Commander's birthday on September 26, but that's looking pretty sporty now. Wing Commander fans are nothing if not patient, so we're just happy to get the status update on all the latest progress!

Just thought I'd post a quick progress update, mostly probably-dull semi-technical stuff - sadly some contract work is kicking my butt at the moment, so the 26th is looking kind of dubious... But things are still progressing steadily!

I'm currently knee-deep in the revised audio system, which (amongst other things) I'm hoping will be able to render the OPL2 (Adlib) sound effects and music purely from the original data. Things seem positive, but I'm not finished with it yet. My previous effort involved using some external data to send to the OPL chip emulation code, but it was a little

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Today we've got another shortie from Retro Shorts. The Playstation version of Wing Commander 4 is noticeably less crisp in spaceflight than the PC edition, but there are some nice input (joystick) improvements and enhancements to the cutscenes. Also regarding the date, the original Playstation was released in North America in late 1995. It was the WC3 port that was released in 1996, and WC4 made it to the system in 1997.

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You've probably heard of the famous 'thank you for playing Wing Commander' story. It claims that a programmer on the original Wing Commander was stuck getting an error message when the game unloaded its memory during a quit. Pressed for time, instead of fixing the issue he simply hex edited the memory manager's error reporting to print 'thank you for playing Wing Commander' instead. A funny and relatable story! The anecdote has made the rounds on the internet for the past decade and has even started to make the phrase "thank you for playing Wing Commander" synonymous with a dirty-but-functional hack. The most common version looks like this, sourced from Reddit's /r/shittyprogramming:

Engineers immediately recognize this as a funny and relatable story; it's the exact sort of thing that anyone who has ever worked in software development can recognize immediately. A perfect example of the old aphorism

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Today we have several new pages from EmuMusicFan's slick retelling of the Hobbes interrogation scene in Freedom Flight. Now that Prince Thrakhath has ended the imminent threat, Lord Ralgha nar Hhallas turns his attention to dealing with Jahkai!

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The Federal Times has published evidence that trillionaire and presidential candidate Zachary Rackham was once the pirate lord 'Calico Zack'.
The newsfeed featured a detailed exposé by financial journalist Bryanna Blanco:
"The Wallglass Investigations Agency has confirmed my long-held suspicions about Zachary Rackham's past. With the timely assistance of independent pilots, we have unearthed a message archive concealed in the Zeta Trianguli Australis system."
"This was created as insurance by a pirate named Angelo Defries. Wallglass's analysis revealed that Defries learned of Zachary Rackham's alter-ego over sixteen years ago, and threatened to transmit evidence to several newsfeeds – including, ironically, us here at The Federal Times."
"While Defries seems to have disappeared around 3992 with his evidence withheld, conversations from that period were traced to the Wishbone Point facility.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Today we've got an old recording of Mark Hamill being interviewed on the Craig Kilborn talk show to promote Wing Commander Prophecy. Wing Commander was a rare crossover hit in the mid '90s with promotion on television shows like this. The interviewers would typically not have any experience with the material, which contributes to how out of touch they seem. The humor is super cringe and Kilborn is obnoxious, but it's an interesting look at the time. I do appreciate that it would be lost if not for people like jahwilly transcribing their old VHS tapes!