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The Wing Commander movie club has traveled twenty minutes into the future to experience Max Headroom and... well, it was hard to see why this was such a big deal in 1984. This telemovie kicked off three separate televisions serieses and countless of ads and cameos for the character but it really feels like a 1980s Doctor Who or (complementary) a Privateer 2 cutscene. I also checked out the US version which retold this story as a 45 minute TV episode and found that although there was some more money spent on the sets it was pretty similar!

Max Headroom may not have been much of a movie but it helped us find some new Wing Commander history! You may recall that the big connection for our series was that the design pitch for the cancelled Privateer 3 listed Max Headroom as an influence on the game's world... which surely means that punk 1980s cyberpunk dystopia sense from the story's setting. But while

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This is a reminder that we have another fun #Wingnut movie night planned on Discord this evening! The ongoing theme will be movies that are referenced by Wing Commander in some way. Tonight's film is Air Force One (1997) and you can find details on why we're watching it in the announcement post here. The movie will start at 7 PM PST/10 PM EST but feel free to drop by and hang any time!

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Here's an interesting eBay find: an Australian press sheet for the Wing Commander movie. This document would've been set to film distributors that were interested in running the movie in their theaters. It contains a unique synopsis (with the correct year!) data about the film and information about what promotional support will be available.

TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX
FILM DISTRIBUTORS PTY LTD
PRESS SHEET

SYNOPSIS
Earth year 2654. The Confederation is engaged in a brutal war with the vicious, bloodthirsty alien race, the Kilrathl. The Kilrathi have captured a computer navigation device, which they plan on using to jump behind enemy lines and attack Earth. Only three brazen young space pilots and their elite fighter squadron stand in the way of their planet's destruction.

Christopher Blair is fresh from the Academy, but his inexperience belies his incredible navigational skills. He has a genetically driven gift

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For over a decade now, GOG has been the online home of classic Origin games. It has introduced countless new fans to series like Wing Commander, Ultima and Crusader. But... what's missing? Origin published dozens of games in its two decades of development and there are plenty of gems that simply aren't available today. So we've conducted a quick audit in the hopes of bringing some recognition to the titles that still can't be legally played today. We've attempted to Origin's output into three categories: the 1980s, 1990s and then an appendix of related titles that weren't developed by or published under the Origin label. The lists do not include re-releases or mission disks, assuming that any GOG release would be the most complete version of that particular title.

Publisher Era (1983-1990)

From 1983 to 1990, Origin was a workshop-style studio which partnered with independent creators to develop and

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The first publicly available study of Radicoida unica has been published following heavy pressure from the exobiological community.
Radicoida unica, a huge plant unique to the HIP 87621 system, has attracted intense speculation over its properties and applications. It has been deemed worthy of prolonged military action by major powers seeking to establish control of territory around the system.
Dr. Roy Casimir, chief researcher at the Holloway Bioscience Institute, has released a study of Radicoida unica based on data provided by October Consortium, which currently claims legal ownership of HIP 87621.
"Our findings indicate a remarkable genetic composition which I can only describe as mercurial. The cellular resilience and adaptability of Radicoida unica is breathtaking, even when compared to other notable stellar phenomena we have catalogued thus far."
"October Consortium researchers

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A NASA high-altitude research plane made a dramatic belly landing today at Ellington Airport in Houston, Texas today. Following a mechanical issue the plane was forced to land with its landing gear raised, showering the field with sparks and flame before it came to a stop. Luckily, the crew survived unscathed! Here's video of the incident:

But what does this have to do with Wing Commander? The plane in question is a Martin WB-57 Canberra which is a manufactured-under-license modification of a British Cold War bomber design: the English Electric Canberra. Behind the scenes fiends may already recognize that a B 2 model English Electric Canberra cockpit was used to build the Broadsword bomber set for the Wing Commander movie!

Even though the first Canberra flew over 75 years ago, several continue to serve in utility roles today as the type proved itself excellent for high altitude research and photo-recon