News Collection: On This Day in WC News

2025.184 (July 3, 2025)

Dr. Forstchen Goes to Hollywood (via Bulgaria)

Wing Commander author Dr. William Forstchen has found quite an audience with his most recent writing, the "One Second After" series. The books tell the story of the aftermath of a horrific EMP attack which renders modern technology useless and they've become very in vogue among "preppers" who are concerned about surviving major disasters. And now they're making a movie!

2024.185 (July 3, 2024)

Evil Pixel Highlights Search for Lost SNES Port of WC2

Evil Pixel has posted a new video to highlight the plight of Wing Commander 2 for the SNES. This is a cause near and dear to our heart as we have long campaigned to help this port see the light of day. The Super Nintendo variant of WC2 was built from the ground up to be an enhanced version of the game, and it was sadly canceled after it was completed due to the high cost of cartridge production at the time. Videos like this help publicize the hunt for a long lost copy, and we'll keep searching until it's found!

2023.184 (July 3, 2023)

Space Sim First Look: A-Spec First Assault, Capship Combat Inspired by Wing Commander

centaurianmudpig is back with a new space sim game to show his fellow Wingnuts. He previously released Absolute Territory, which was a more traditional WC-style shooter. Now he's branched out into a hybrid sim that blends newtonian physics and large capital ships with a variety of familiar concepts to WC fans. It sounds like a cool experience for people who would like to try something different just a little bit different!

2022.184 (July 3, 2022)

Language Lesson: Grimalkin

Embarrassing discovery: “grimalkin” is a real word which means cat, often a witch’s familiar. This means I have been missing a joke in Special Operations 2 for THIRTY YEARS. Paladin renames a captured freighter the Grimalkin for the titular special operation. I always assumed it was just a second Kilrathi name because the cats knew the Gamal Gan had been captured!

2021.184 (July 3, 2021)

Gemini Sector RPG Preps Ground Forces Ahead of New Sector Kickoff

The Gemini Sector RPG will soon be launching ground actions, so they need some Kilrathi tanks to fight against. We've seen some wild designs in Wing Commander Academy, so we know exotic Kat tanks are certainly a thing. Rear Admiral Tarsus put together four mockups by way of WC1-style VDU graphics. You may or may not be in a position to suggest some names for these, but it's very cool that fans are playing around with the awesome VDU art style.

2020.185 (July 3, 2020)

WC Underdogs Get Lego Treatment

Wojo dropped off a picture of a couple new Lego Wing Commander creations, and these are pretty sweet. There's a chronically under appreciated Scimitar on the left and a very structurally accurate Drakhri on the right! Everyone loves the Dralthi, but we've seen a million of those, so it's wonderful to see the Drakhri properly represented here. I don't even think everyone will realize its silver and yellow color scheme is totally on point.

2019.184 (July 3, 2019)

Arrows Swiftly Arrive in WC4 Era

To tie into yesterday's WC4 Remake news, DefianceIndustries continues to pump out some very impressive post-war ship designs. He's got two new flavors of the Arrow up today, including the rich Confed green and red/blue Pirate variant. They'll fit nicely with his Black Hellcat, Southampton destroyer and Caernaven frigate. Be sure to zoom in on these to see all the great detail.

2018.184 (July 3, 2018)

End Run Ebook Released!

We've very happy to announce that Wing Commander End Run is finally released! We've come a long way to reach this milestone as this completes the Baen set of Wing Commander novels - all are finally available to purchase digitally. The CIC has been lobbying the publisher for these for some fifteen years at conventions, on social media and through direct communications. We were extremely happy when it was announced in early 2016 that Freedom Flight was coming.

2017.184 (July 3, 2017)

Ubisoft on the Mindscape

During the process of collecting French Wing Commander reviews from Joystick, we collected several interesting French advertisements! Before the Electronic Arts buoyout, Origin games were published in other territories (such as Europe) by other companies on a case-by-case basis. Wing Commander was published by Mindscape in Europe, with Ubisoft (!) handling distribution on France for the first two games.

2016.185 (July 3, 2016)

Countdown To Party Time!

In case you missed our announcement last month, this year's CIC Birthday Party will be on Saturday, August 13! That's just about six weeks away. We'd love to have you join us for a fun night full of games, new features and stories from your fellow Wingnuts. It's easy to pop into our web chat or join #Wingnut on irc.

2015.184 (July 3, 2015)

Sharp Kilrathi Pencil Drawing Surfaces

A few years ago, we did a brief rundown of the wealth of Wing Commander inspired imagery that can be found on the DeviantArt website. AD's come across a new pencil sketch of a Kilrathi, created by AirenWoodmoon. Like most Kilrathi drawings on DeviantArt, this one seems to draw mainly from their Wing Commander 3 appearance. I'm so stupidly proud of this one.

2014.184 (July 3, 2014)

BREAKING NEWS: Wing Commander in Concert Tomorrow!

There's some exciting news concerning George Oldziey's reorchestration of Wing Commander music. Although last year's Wing Commander Concert was cancelled, the Austin Symphony has asked to perform George's original suite at Friday's big Fourth of July celebration. It will be held at Austin's Circuit of the Americas at 8:30 PM Central Time. The event is free to the public, and it'll even be broadcast online at the Majic 95.

2013.184 (July 3, 2013)

Evaluation: Total Loss...

We posted quite a few pictures of the sunken Concordia earlier this week, but we still managed to miss one! This particular image is just too gorgeous not to share, and it's only been seen by a limited audience to date. "Mistral Coast" was created a while back by Klavs. It features a pair of his original Rapier designs scouting a less harsh looking sky.

2012.185 (July 3, 2012)

Ship Showcase: Hornet, Come On Down!

Recently, the WCPedia team has focused on improving the Ship pages on the project. We've been working hard on compiling and organizing all the information for each ship. The first area we've started to tackle is Confederation fighters. We thought it only prudent to show that information off to the whole community.

2011.184 (July 3, 2011)

Classic Designs Making a Comeback

FekLeyrTarg has been working on some new Wing Commander models for various projects. The first is a supply depot that could find its way into the WC2 Remake. A Salthi is also coming together and doesn't appear to have a destination use yet. FekLeyr's looking for feedback, so hit the Discuss link and let him know your thoughts.

2010.184 (July 3, 2010)

OBJ 2 WCP 2 U

Kevin Caccamo has updated his program for streamlining the conversion of OBJ files associated with Wing Commander Prophecy/Secret Ops modding. Version 1.0 now takes advantage of and requires the Java 3D API. Download the program here (13 k zip).

2009.184 (July 3, 2009)

Eve Online Gets Mini-Expansion

Back in March, the MMO space sim Eve Online (now in its sixth year) got a graphical upgrade and new gameplay features through the Apocrypha expansion. While the next major expansion is still half a year away, some new features and content will be patched into Apocrypha over the Summer. Version 1.5 is due out mid-August.

Making the Game: Spaceflight Audio

This is a very early internal e-mail about audio specifications for the new game. One interesting thing is that this may be the final death knell of MIDI music: "MIDI is not suitable because of the vast differences between the quality of samples on different sound cards". Too bad! I never had a problem with the digital music in Wing Commander (in fact, it was beautiful) -- but the Redbook tracks sure ruined the later Star Wars space sims.

2008.185 (July 3, 2008)

Dawn of the Morningstar

Wingnuts over at the CIC Forums are steadily hacking away at Special Operations 2, and now they've eagerly taken up a new tool to do it with - the advanced Morningstar prototype. Here's a sample of Lorien's experiences in Canewdon. DaveO grabbed some awesome fighter shots as well. Canewdon 5: I meet Paladin on the Concordia, a welcome sight in some ways but I hope he hasn't got us into as much trouble as we were in during the Ghorah Khar compaign.

Making the Game - Part 59

Up for offer today is the first Wing Commander 5 (Prophecy) "Game Design Document". This sixteen-page doc includes the initial proposal and argument for the game, as well as early notes on things like keyboard layout and new gameplay elements. It starts with an interesting counterpoint to yesterday's comments as to just who decided to include Privateer 2 in the Wing continuity: "The Wing Commander 5 story will be the basis for an expanded fictional universe full of potential. Including a sustainable core product line (Wing Commander 6, 7...

2007.184 (July 3, 2007)

Just One Word Off...

No news is good news, and this is no exception: XBLArcade reports that the Xbox Live Arcade release for Wednesday, July 4th will be... Missile Command. There wasn't really much chance that a major release like Wing Commander Arena would occur on a major US holiday, but we still held out hope. Those interested can pick up Missile Command, an update of the classic arcade game, for only 400 MSPoints ($5).

Tabula Rasa Round-Up

I bet you're thinking to yourself: what did Origin founder Richard Garriott spend last month doing? The answer is: he was conducting interview after interview about his new MMPORPG game, Tabula Rasa. Want to know what Lord British thinks about the state of modern gaming? Want to know how Tabula Rasa is going to change the way we think about massively multiplayer games?

2006.184 (July 3, 2006)

Chris Roberts Is Keeping Busy

For those who haven't been keeping a close eye on Wing Commander creator Chris Roberts, AD came across the production notes for the recently released Lucky Number Slevin. They include an updated version of the biography posted to his Ascendant Pictures production company website. The document has various quotes about his involvement with with Slevin project and boasts about his success with the Wing Commander series. You can grab the small pdf here.

EA Mythic Personnel Helping Out With UO

It doesn't take long for EA to put people to work. It's been less than two weeks since the acquisition accouncement was made, and it already appears that personnel from EA Mythic will be joining the folks at EALA to assist with Ultima Online. This is just a simple creative partnership for now, but it sounds like the UO Live team is eager to see what sort of ideas their East Coast counterparts can come up with. These are exciting days for MMORPG fans here at EA.

Countdown To Launch

Despite some issues that were originally a concern, it seems that the Space Shuttle Discovery is still set for a July 4th launch. This'll be the first shuttle launch on the US Independence Day, and hopefully it goes off without a hitch. As with all events of this nature, fans are welcome to count down with us in #Wingnut. If you'll be out doing other things on Tuesday, stay safe.

2005.184 (July 3, 2005)

Tactics Mod Adds A Dralthi

The Wing Commander Tactics mod for Nexus has just added another ship to its arsenal: the humble Dralthi MkII. It's loosely based on the nonstandard Dralthi on the right. Work to get the model in to the game's engine is still ongoing, and the fighter will probably end up more powerful than expected since Nexus doesn't support giving fighters missiles. The guns will be boosted instead.

Space Sim First Look: Eve Online: Exodus

The team behind Eve Online has announced an expansion to the space based massively multiplayer game. The Exodus package will be a free online addition to subscribers of the main game that sets the scene for an upcoming retail expansion. Routes into some ares of space will become disabled as newer links open up. Freighters, dreadnoughts and outposts will make an appearance.

2004.185 (July 3, 2004)

WC Replacement Documentation Mirrored

Last year we reported about ReplacementDocs hosting a variety scans for Wing Commander game manuals. Unfortunately, earlier this year a malicious hacker broke into their site and wiped their server. They are recovering some of their material now, and in the mean time, downloads are suspended. So we're mirroring the Wing Commander related manuals for people to enjoy.

Rare Freedom Flight Poster Found

We like to sometimes mention WC items that are so rare, most people will have never seen one, and since LOAF just bought a Freedom Flight poster on eBay, we figured that would be a good one to cover. It was produced in 1992 by Baen to promote the Freedom Flight novel. Baen weren't able to tell us anything about the poster, but we do know that there was also a poster to promote End Run. The reverse of this one apparently contains novel details ad promotional plans.

2003.184 (July 3, 2003)

Sailor Moon Crossover Fiction

We've seen some interesting fiction over the years. We've seen club fiction such as Holding the Line, parodies such as Wing Commander 4.123106, and even continue-the-story threads which were once popular on the Forums. Now we have..

One Hell-cat Of A Crash

Tolwyn sent us a nice piece of art which makes for a great background image. It features a Hellcat that has been shot down and has crash landed with two Ekapshi fighters flying in the background. You can read the comments on this artwork or contribute yourself in this thread. The moral of this story is: Don't fly Hellcats.

2001.184 (July 3, 2001)

You May Resume Fireing

Here's some more of those crazysexycool resume shots of Barbara Niven and Ginger Lynn... stolen off of eBay.

Armada Sector of the Day: Sector 7

Here's part seven...

From: Chirichan Guard Captain

We are looking for a pilot who can competently carry out a defend mission for us. At present, we have a secret truce with the CIS, and have tipped them off about an attack planned by the Papogods on their Capitap ship, The Patriot, currently at Nav Point 20. We are unable to defend it ourselves, because if the Papogods find out about the truce, they will destroy us. It is vital that the carrier survives, or our newly found relationship will be ruined.

2000.185 (July 3, 2000)

Can You Email Me WC4?

For starters today we've got a mini faq up to help make communication more efficent. We get quite a few of the same questions emailed in each week so Kris updated our contact link with a few of the most frequently asked ones. If you have something beyond the faq, feel free to drop us a line however. You can reach us here.

Poll Shows Pop Drop After Enforcement Bill

Trend analyst Jiles Gretner reports. A recent pan-system poll has shown a significant loss of faith in the Interplanetary Congress, and an electoral referendum may be in the offering. The drop is attributed to the recent System Enforcement Bill, which was declaimed by liberals everywhere as a gross infringement of personal liberty. The Bill gave the CIS much further-reaching powers of investigation, arrest and weapons-use; sold to the populace as the only solution to rampant crime, it was not long before the man-in-the-street realised the very profound effect it had on everyday life.

1999.184 (July 3, 1999)

Same Old Reminder

Want WC games on DVD? Keep the mails coming! It's very very important! For more specific information check out the intial post here.

DVD Out!

According to DVD Express, Wing Commander DVD is out and available to ship! They've just over 1,000 copies in stock, and the number is steadily going down. Order yours today! Thanks to all who noticed this.

More from the Store

People from cities all over the US have written to say that their Blockbuster's have gotten in LARGE shipments of Wing Commander. John P. Wilson reports that the Blockbuster in South Austin has up two WC posters, and prominently displays the name on the 'Coming Soon' list. I'll head to my local store with the digital camera as soon as possible...

Keen XvT Ships

Epsilon9 discovered a page with patches for X-Wing Alliance which allow you to fly several different Wing Commander fighters. Go here to check 'em out. There's a Hellcat, Banshee and Dralthi.

French Review

Here's a Wing Commander review from Viper -- it's from a magazine called Ciné-Live.In 655 years, space adventures of a team of shock confronted with an unpleasant species of small beasts, the Kilrathi, on corridors of navigation in the hyperspace, trapped as an underwood in period of the hunting and, worst undoubtedly, with a production whose budget would make laugh many credit institutions. This film is before intended for all those, rather young, who liked the video game which it takes as a starting point. One would expect to find the shiver sympathetic nerve of the pleasure of playing ...

Sticking it to WCP

John P. Wilson also reports that Prophecy and Prophecy Gold boxes at Wal-Marts and Targets now sport 2x2" stickers shaped like film frames identifying them as "The Game Series Which Inspired the Movie "Wing Commander!". I'll try to get a picture...