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Unread News

  • 21

    Mar

    If you've been following LOAF's Wing Commander Privateer exploration lately, you've read about how the game's code refers to a Test Bed System that the Origin developers used while making the game. It's not linked from anywhere in the Gemini Sector, but it's still a "real" place that exists since it's pictured in the manual. To our knowledge, no players have managed to find it, until now! Rylex has accomplished an amazing feat by hex editing his way on over. There's not actually a whole lot to do - enemies spawn, but there are no asteroids or landing bases. But it's pretty incredible to be able to fly around in a previously undiscovered star system after nearly three decades. You can read up on the process and jump to the Test Best System yourself with these instructions!

    privateer_testbed0t.jpgprivateer_testbed1t.jpgprivateer_testbed2t.jpgprivateer_testbed3t.jpgprivateer_testbed4t.jpg

    So as you might know, it's possible in Righteous Fire to fly directly to Eden from the beginning of the game. Just go to Rikel
  • 21

    Mar

    Klavs has produced a new take on the venerable Wing Commander Movie universe map. About a year ago, he made an electrified version that really pops, and now he's got another novel recreation that looks like it was sketched on old paper. Both are based in the wonderful 275 megapixel corrected image photographed by LOAF and Thomas Hennessy and straightened by Jetlag. You can imagine this as some kind of Pilgrim artifact or even in-universe artistic interpretation. I also love that all the details like nebulas/galactic arms and Charybdis are there, although they look like they could be aged or degraded patches. Very cool!

    klavs_models406t.jpg

    Fidgeting with the star map today and I thought an ancient looking paper version might be cool!

    Here's the older two versions I mentioned, so I don't miss a chance to repost them!

    klavs_models373t.jpg

    wing_commander_movie_map_hight.jpg

  • 20

    Mar

  • 20

    Mar

    Lego Arrow Zooms In

    John Nelson has another built another classy custom Lego fighter. Like his exquisite Longbow, this one also comes from Wing Commander 3. I like the bubble canopy and especially the lines of the aft fuselage. There's some forced scaling necessary for the gun pod, but that's a nice touch too.

    johnnelson_legos50t.jpgjohnnelson_legos51t.jpgjohnnelson_legos52t.jpgjohnnelson_legos53t.jpgjohnnelson_legos54t.jpgjohnnelson_legos55t.jpg

    While I gather parts to complete another project, here is the Arrow. This one is far from perfect. The canopy should be down further and the fuselage should end with a point and the back wings aren’t great but this is as close as it’s getting.

    Plier (would) say, “The Arrow is a fine dog fighter that runs circles around anything in space but ConFed cheaped out on the missile racks. Give me the Banshee anyday.”

  • 18

    Mar

    Recently I extracted all of Privateer's gameflow screens (the planets and bases) and matched them to their correct palettes. 229 animations with over 5,000 frames! It's everything from flashing lights on the landing pad to the little cars that fly by on New Detroit. But behold my most exciting discovery: a never-before-seen ship! Thanks to the palette I knew it had to go, specifically, in the Perry Naval Base landing screen... but as far as I can tell it doesn't actually spawn there in the game. You can even see it says PNB (for "Perry Naval Base") on the side! This is about what it would've looked like, though it might've crossed the screen lower. Not such a bad day when you discover a new Wing Commander ship thirty years after it was made!

    perry_pnb1.gifperry_pnb2.gif

  • 18

    Mar

    Happy Birthday Chris!

    Transmission Interrupted! I’m taking over your normal Wing Commander feed to wish a very happy birthday to CIC founder Chris Reid! Chris is the reason you’ve seen a new update in the space every single day for the past twenty years. Heck, most of the time you see my byline it’s because he’s taken the time to find something I was fooling with on Discord or Twitter. None of this site would be possible without Chris and he’s also one of the most thoughtful and competent people I’ve ever known. So in the greatest old IRC style, please put down your trouts and raise a virtual mug of Goddard Special to a real legend! Now, back to your regularly scheduled commlinks…

    7C75E54C-05AD-4C9F-8AB4-73B3258B365At.jpg7B687AF8-90F8-4C08-BB51-91BB54B9F247t.jpg

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