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Did you ever wonder why Privateer's missions go from series 5 to 7 in the game's internal numerical sequencing? Series 6 was cut pretty late in the process... but now we've found an earlier version of the game's script that includes them! After finding the derelict, you take the gun to the ship dealer on New Detroit...

There a man named WILMER tells you that he can't install the gun because you need to talk to Roman Lynch again. Roman Lynch is the mob boss you last saw earlier in the game after he sent his henchman Miggs to murder you and steal your artifact.

Incidentally, this finally explains why there is a never used closeup background stored in the game for a conversation with the ship dealer!

Lynch runs this town and you can only get the gun installed if you fly a series of missions for him. The missions are especially immoral, attacking business rivals and civilians...

... and one of them is an

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AllTinker has a variety of updates to the Confederation project that we shared last month. First up, there are more shockingly good graphical test assets to share. His extended take on the flight deck looks incredibly natural - it's surprising to check out the animated version that compares his take to the original. There's also a great interpretation of what a young Ralgha looked like. He was a pretty buff guy in his youth! This version was partially inspired by EmuMusicFan's sketches. There's also a handful of technical enhancements that have been made that you can read about in more detail at the CIC Forums. This includes some in-depth discussion about how visuals like the landing sequence below were made!

A quick update on the project: I've recently started work on splitting out the code for reading the original data formats into a separate C++ base library which will be open sourced as soon

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Emperor Arissa Lavigny-Duval has responded to criticism from Hadrian Duval regarding her decision to contribute to Aegis.
During a public address at the opening of a naval research and development complex on Achenar, the Emperor stated:
"For the avoidance of doubt, my decree to halt interaction with the Alliance and the Federation remains in effect. Whatever advancements in weaponry or defence are made at these impressive facilities, they will be used exclusively by the Imperial Navy to protect Imperial citizens."
"Aegis's status as an independent agency makes it a legal exception under the Cornelius-Lasky Convention. Only a small fraction of the Empire's military expenditure is being devoted to Aegis's anti-xeno forces."
"As for Hadrian Duval, some may recall when his Nova Imperium extremists once threatened to trigger widescale civil unrest. I chose to spare him from the fate of his

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

AD found a neat beer being served at The Quakerhouse in Darlington, UK. Apparently they have an in-house microbrewery dubbed Mad Scientist, operated by Brian (The Scientist) Dourish and Rob (Egor) Brunton. Wing Commander is one of their creations. It's listed as a "spiced/herbed beer" and the little table card pictured below says it's a 4% ABV made with ginger. If anyone's nearby and able to check this out, definitely let us know how it is!

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Sprite sheets for explosions in Origin FX’s Armageddon mode (Left) versus Privateer (Right). I had not realized FX shipped nine months before Priv! You can see a few frames were cut in that time:

Armageddon is an Origin FX movie which displays a variety of explosions and damage effects on the desktop. There are six types of explosions, two of which are taken from Wing Commander Privateer. Three sound effects can play. The movie is named after the armageddon spell from the Ultima series.

"Be careful — if you stop typing for long, there could be trouble brewing. It’s a terrorist attack of the software kind . . . explosions everywhere, blowing away your application and clearing the screen with the violent beauty of detonation after detonation. Whether they leave pitch black craters, smoke or no trace at all is your own decision to make from the safety of your console."

Here are the other four explosions in

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It's well established that some of the earliest Wing Commander games had music that was built around specialty sound cards. People with the right Roland hardware could listen to the background tracks exactly as the composers imagined them. George Sanger recently capitalized on this by releasing a special MT-32 Archival Edition of his WC1 soundtrack, and even the SC-55 tracks for Privateer have gotten some renewed interest of late. But there is another! Wing Commander Armada was also composed using an SC-55, and it has absolutely glorious music locked behind this card as well. Nerdly Pleasures recently took the time to record it, and here it is for your audio enjoyment! I just listened to the whole thing straight through. Thanks to Anatoly Shashkin for the tip.

Wing Commander: Armada is a spinoff of the Wing Commander series with music composed by "Midian" (Marc Schaefgen, Dana Glover). Recorded