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I’m working on a Righteous Fire walkthrough and while playing the last missions I noticed the Elite Salthi were firing fusion guns. But my increasingly old man memory was sure the big reveal was that they fired copies of the Steltek Gun. Was I misremembering because there’s dialogue about the gun being copied? I watched a dozen YouTube videos and they were all fusion guns. Huh!

Then I realized: I first played the expansion when it was released on disk in early 1994, just a few months before the CD-ROM came out and that became the de facto version of Privateer. Could there have been an intentional change? I installed the floppy version from disk images and… sure enough!

WHY? It’s not an accident as the Dralthi uses fusions in both versions. I’m guessing the support folks were sick of people asking how to get the gun back and decided not to tease players. Too bad, as it was a distinct enough moment

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Last month, we reported that Supercade was planning to manage a crowd funding campaign for a vinyl release of George Oldziey's Wing Commander Orchestral Recording Project. Now, it seems like the launch is imminent as Supercade author Van Burnham has just tweeted:

Just a heads up that the preorder campaign for Supercade’s first soundtrack release is launching SOON… a deluxe vinyl edition of the Wing Commander orchestral score by composer George Oldziey. So excited to share more details!#wingcommander #videogamesoundtrack #vinylcollector pic.twitter.com/DOWHWtyuZc

— Van Burnham (@supercade71) February 1, 2023

There's no additional information yet but we'll let you know the moment it's available. If you are curious about the promotional screenshot, it's actually from a Wing Commander Academy mod developed by HCl that adds a Hellcat V to the game! Want to try it for yourself? You can download te patch here.

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
Azimuth Biotech has commercially launched a new module that allows two additional AX weapons to be added to large ships.
The experimental weapons stabiliser increases the number of AX weapons which can be installed on a ship. The class 3 variant released last week increases the limit to five, whereas the class 5 variant released yesterday increases it to six.
Both versions entered mass production following Azimuth Biotech's highly successful resource drive in the LHS 1163 system. CEO Torben Rademaker issued a statement to accompany the product launch:
"Our proprietary technology has bypassed the inherent design flaws of Aegis's AX weaponry. The experimental weapons stabiliser will play a vital role in the ongoing defence of the core systems."
"I can only assume that the current chatter about reforming Aegis is due to misplaced nostalgia. How quickly people forget

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LOAF and the team are busy working on Privateer-themed projects over on the CIC Discord server, and that inspired me to share a quick comparison that some players might have overlooked. Everyone loves the Privateer intro. It's memorable, action-packed and showcases the cutting edge of 1993 multimedia prowess. "Who are you that flies so good!? Are you insane?!" And you can probably imagine Brownhair's quips as he cruises around the asteroid belt in his Tarsus, but did you know there are two different voiceover tracks? The original 3.5" disks had an intro with spoken dialogue recorded by local talent. When the game's speech was fully recorded for the CD edition, a new voice actor was brought in to read everything, including the intro. You can compare the two side-by-side below! The disk version is first and CD second:

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Princess Aisling Duval met with Emperor Arissa Lavigny-Duval in person to discuss an Imperial contribution to the reformation of Aegis.
The Imperial Herald's political journalist Cassia Carvalho reported on events:
"Aisling Duval's arrival at the Imperial Palace was completely unexpected, according to several dignitaries whose appointed meetings with the Emperor were abruptly cancelled. One senatorial aide described how the princess 'burst into the throne room so suddenly that I'm surprised the Imperial Guard didn't shoot her'."
"Despite visible irritation, Emperor Arissa acceded to Princess Aisling's demand for urgent talks. The two royals held a private conversation behind closed doors for many hours. I heard claims of raised voices at one stage, but nobody was willing to go on record to confirm this."
"Eventually, Her Majesty call for the media to assemble, which we did eagerly. The Emperor

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We've got a couple of very nice new updates to a pair of Klavs' WC2-era models. The Sabre that he's been working on this year has gotten a revamped TCS Tarawa texture with nods to the events of End Run. There's also an all new take on the Ferret, which you can tell is the P-64D Super Ferret variant thanks to the pair of heat seeking missiles. It gets a similar new livery to the Sabre based around the In-System Security paint scheme. The Sabre may win out on specs, but the Ferret sure is powerful for its size!

New livery for the Sabre! And some work on a reduxx'd Ferret!