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For whatever reason, whatever corporation owns PC Gamer is especially good at hunting down issue scans online… which means there are some classic articles that influenced American PC gamers in the mid-90s that just aren't available anymore. Well, we've found the biggest of them all and are making it available here: their epic December 1994 preview of Wing Commander III. The sidebar interview with Chris Douglas is extra-special, too! And if you look carefully you'll find out exactly what happened with the dreadnought's length…

We also pulled out a couple of neat ads. Pay close attention to the classic Chips and Bits listing… Righteous Fire is currently listed as "Privateer Spec Op 1". Wing Commander III gets a highlight, too! And we close with one of Origin's kinda-disingenous CD-ROM-focused adds… all of the listed games but Wing Commander III and Wings of Glory were available on diskettes, too!

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Did someone say they wanted a small mystery? Check out this spread from an Alias Wavefront Power Animator V7 brochure:

That spaceship in the middle looks kind of familiar… and according to the document's credits, it was provided by Origin Systems! This is 1995 but it isn't from Crusader or Wing Commander IV… so what the heck is it? We asked the ex-Origin community if anyone remembered it. Most did not… but Wing Commander Prophecy producer Billy Cain recalled that it was something developed to promote the original version of Privateer 2. That's the almost-undocumented Privateer 2 game that was in pre-production with Chris Roberts and Tracy Hickman. So this seems to be an extremely rare look at a ship that wasn't from a game that also wasn't!

A reverse image search found a copy of the ship in one other place: a web 1.0-looking Russian website that seems to be reproducing a contemporary article about 3D

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Wow, we've had as many cartoon parties as the Catholics have had Popes Leo! August's music party was a smashing success and we're working on a followup (check the calender below)... but this time, we're trying something a little different! It's a long forgotten aspect of gaming in the early 90s, but it used to be that you could learn about new games you might want to by through VHS tapes you would order in the mail. We're going to look at one from Japan and one from the United States! And in between we've got a couple of odds and ends to check off, to… so come for the old video catalogs, stay for the time-travelling Terminator action!

The Simpsons - Another Simpsons Clip Show (Season 6 Episode 3): Why are we starting off with a Simpsoms clip show, one of the worst kinds of shows? Because a sound clip from this one actually appears in Wing Commander IV! It's hidden in in the game's executable and plays

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The Wing Commander movie club has made it through the Stargate! Turns out it's just more Egypt in there. Next up, we asked voters to select from the first half of the special group of fourteen classic sci fi writers previously mentioned. And the winner was… Jules Verne, which means this week we'll be watching the 1954 Disney classic 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea! This was one of my favorite movies growing up and I'm very excited to see it again. So join the club on Friday, September 18 at 10:00 PM!

The immediate Wing Commander connection to Jules Verne–other than his involvement in, you know, creating all of modern science fiction–is that he has a system in the name bank for Wing Commander Armada's Armada mode. And here's what that looks like!

Where can I find a copy of the movie for the watch party?

20,000 Leagues under the Sea is available for rent or purchase on all of the standard streaming services.

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Governing authorities of several star systems have reported unusually high traffic around prison reformatories during recent inmate transfers.
Known affiliates of local pirate factions have been spotted flying in formation near the prison ships, but so far have not engaged with local security forces or prisoner transports.
"Although no direct action has taken place, the pattern and frequency of their appearance suggest that these criminal elements are observing inmate transport movements," a spokesperson for The Independent Detention Foundation remarked to Vox Galactica. "Given that many of the identified pilots have seen the inside of our cells at some stage, it's unusual to be so brazen in their activity."
"For now there has been no conflict with these vessels, and pilots are complying with directives to maintain a minimum distance. We're working closely with local authorities across our

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Last year, the Portland Retro Gaming Expo premiered the first ever display of Roberta Vaughan's FMV Zone, a carefully curated and wonderfully impressive display of artifacts that tell the story of full motion video games. At the time, we were honored to loan a Wing Commander Prophecy flight suit so that Wing Commander could be included (where it certainly belong!). Last weekend, the FMV Zone was displayed a second time for PAX West… with a new, permanent addition to represent Wing Commander: Admiral Tolwyn's Black Lance uniform from Wing Commander IV! Here's a picture by Sam Machkovech that captures the uniform:

And here's a great video from Andy that walks through the whole display. So cool!

They asked us for an update to the sign and this is what I sent in; I'm not sure what might have changed before the final display! Here's hoping they run this show again real soon.

This uniform was worn by actor