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The Wing Commander movie club LOVED Hard Target. It's not a movie you can explain but it sure captivated us. For the next screening, we decided to revisit a previous director. And the winner of the vote was, improbably, Akira Kurosawa! (It is becoming a running joke on the Discord that RoboCop just barely loses every competition and this was the closest yet.) So following up on our previous viewing of Seven Samurai, we will be looking at the historical epic Kagemusha from later in his career. The movie, which tells the story of the ,1575 Battle of Nagashino, was famously saved by financing from George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola, both of who were indebted to Kurosawa's influence on their own successful films! You can join us this Friday via Discord to watch along. Note that because of the length of the movie we will start one hour early (9 PM Eastern/6 PM Pacific).

The Wing Commander connection,

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Last year, we started a second vote to create a Hall of Fame honoring some of the greatest Wing Commander fans and projects of all time. The award very appropriately went to Klavs last year. This year's winner is a little less bittersweet but still just as deserving: the second member of the Wing Commander community's Hall of Fame is–of course!--Mario "HCl" Brito!

HCl has been synonymous with Wing Commander modding since before some fans today were even born. His incredible ability to take apart files and figure out what makes games tick allowed for many incredible creations: movie players, mission buildings, ship editors and so much more. And he gave to the rest of the community by publishing his research on his wonderful website. Without his work there would surely be no Unknown Enemy or Standoff or video patches or even a Wing Commander CIC! It's appropriate that HCl enters the Hall of Fame in this

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We've said it before and we'll say it again: better late than never! We may have been a little slow again this year but Wingnuts everywhere still showed up to cast their votes for the Fan Project of the Year in record numbers. In a way, there were no losers this year. Thirty six years on, Wing Commander fans continue to do incredible things which gave us a fantastic slate of nominees for 2025. Fans are preserving Wing Commander's legacy, opening up its future, creating their own works of art and telling their own stories… you love to see it!

Our winner for Fan Project of the Year 2025 is very well deserved: the WC AllTinker Overhaul Mod! For almost as long as I can remember, playing Wing Commander I–one of the greatest games ever made!--has been an awkward and not-quite-satisfying experience. The lack of a frame limiting in the original game had us turning to turbo buttons, disabling caches, running

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This is a reminder that we have another fun #Wingnut event happening on Discord this morning! Join us at noon EST/9 AM PST for a fun filled morning of television... that all connect to Wing Commander somehow! This month we're starting a multi-part look at some of the many Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes that have inspired Wing Commander in some way! You can find details on the shows included as well as how to watch along with us in the announcement post here. Be sure to download the episodes so they're ready to play with the group!

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Everyone in the Wing Commander movie club seemed to be very excited to watch Mobile Suit Gundam with friends! And that's certainly something to be happy about. For something made from television episodes, the film looked incredible. Colorful and vibrant. And the story holds up maybe better than it ever did as what seems like a teenage fantasy about flying a robot to save the world (and your mom) meets the grim realities of war. Another one of those wonderful anti-war stories that it's too easy to convince yourself isn't.

We talked a lot about the influence Mobile Suit Gundam had on the style of the Wing Commander I concept art. Here's a good look at White Base and the Snakeir whose look it touched!

And here's a quick comparison of our Newtype heroes…

The movie's story opens at a human colony located at an Earth Lagrange point. The Wing Commander IV novel seems to reference this Gundam backstory exactly

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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 Hard Target (1993) 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!

And don't forget our seventh Wing Commander Cartoon party is early tomorrow!