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The Wing Commander movie club has returned from our sojourn under the sea and let me tell you, life is indeed better down where it's wetter. The Little Mermaid remains a classic and generally a breathe of fresh air after some of the more dire and dramatic films that have inspired things in Wing Commander.

And as strange as it seems, I was ultimately convinced that the reference to The Little Mermaid in the Privateer 3 pitch was meant very literally. New Paris seems to have taken its design inspiration from the movie's underwater city and the planet's lore all matches, too: a constitutional monarchy on a water planet! If you are familiar with the surviving Privateer 3 development material, New Paris was renamed "Felicity" as development went on; in the script it's ultimately the location of a Kilrathi-themed casino where you'll meet various fixers.

New Paris
Type: Water Planet
Industry: Tech Planet

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

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 Amadeus (1984) and you can find details on why we're watching it in the announcement post here. The movie will start at 6 PM PST/9 PM EST but feel free to drop by and hang any time! Please note that this is one hour before the usual movie time.

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I love a great background star map more than anything and while working on the recent Wing Commander Academy atlas post I took a hard look at one most people miss. During the briefing at the start of Lords of the Sky, Tolwyn presents information about Dioscuri on the series of wall screens instead of the holotank. As he walks around the room we can see that a large map stretches all the way around the room with various indicators (mostly x's and o's) that seem to represent contested star systems. There are also a number of visible labels! I've gone through and programmer art'd the dark red markings that I could pick out with a brighter green color. You can compare the captures below!

SCREEN 1: Dioscuri-2, S1 & S2; 220 (might be Dioscuri), LV422, M1701, K12, D21, R101, C57D, C27
SCREEN 2: G36
SCREEN 4: BSA, G58

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Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The festival marking the tenth anniversary of the founding of Colonia has begun in earnest.
Colonists throughout the Colonia enclave are welcoming visitors with open arms, showcasing their achievements over the last decade in partnership with major corporations keen to invest.
Meanwhile, major starports are hosting events and parties to attract tourists and promote the region as a place for families to relocate and build a new life outside the core systems.
"If it weren't for the help of these kind souls, I doubt our anniversary celebrations would be as big as they are going to be," stated Jaques in a livestreamed interview. "And my bar stands ready to welcome anyone who has worked up a thirst!"
Magen Wolf, speaking on behalf of the Colonia Council, added "The number of commodities received has provided a boost to the markets across the region."
Local tourism chiefs have confirmed to Vox

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Some years ago, Andi Green found a great Wing Commander Easter egg in Ultima Underworld. This weekend, I decided I wanted to get some screenshots and figure out exactly where the Kilrathi graffiti is located. And thanks to Pix's save game archive, doing that wasn't too difficult! The graffiti is located on the deepest part of the Stygian Abyss, Level 8, towards the northwest corner. Here's the result, plus the in-game map to show the exact location:

Ultima Underworld was ported to the FM Towns, PC98, PlayStation and Windows Mobile… I'd be curious to see if/how this appears in those other versions! But probably not enough to do four nearly complete playthroughs of Ultima Underworld. But if you're interested in taking up that challenge, we'd love to hear from you!

(And yes, we know that it 'should' read Drakhai and not Drakhri; the former is the Kilrathi imperial guard and the latter is a type of fighter

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

A few weeks ago, we reported that Saffron Burrows, Wing Commander's Angel, would be guest starring in an upcoming episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. The episode in question turned out to be the season four premiere, Valles Marineris. We won't spoil it more than we have to, but it's a classic Trek outing! Burrows plays an alien ship captain who is sort of a war-weary counterpart to the Enterprise's Captain Pike. And she even gives a little speech that's pretty similar to her Wing Commander scene about having to shut out emotion to fight the enemy!

CBS currently has the episode available for free in the United States as a preview of the new season on YouTube.