Hefty Update to Originator Released Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

You asked for more options to hack into Prophecy, Secret Ops and Privateer 2 - and AllTinker has delivered! The latest update to Originator add support for extraction of the more complex models in the later Wing Commander games. There's also better support for alternate disc formats such as the 3DO, recognition of P2's xmidi music format and much more. You can grab the latest version of the tool here!
Version 0.3.00 is a fairly broad update.

Support has been added for Prophecy/Secret Ops and Privateer 2 models. The former took longer than I thought - I forgot many models included polygonal faces, which required triangulation - the details of which are quite complicated and probably not that interesting. :D

Prophecy models are quite modular; eventually I may add a specific Ship Viewer, which combines the various models for viewing - also handling things like the WC3/4 hangars. A task for another day! I've added a "Global Search" mode (under Tools -> Global Search), which allows searching for hex or text strings across all loaded game files. Double-clicking on a result will jump to the IFF or raw hex where the instance was found.

I noticed there was some confusion about what disc image formats could be used for games (e.g. ports) which expect images. Originator will now search for .iso or .bin extensions, in addition to .img. Most PC (and 3DO) disc images should be detected and loadable, regardless of extension. Some proprietary formats (e.g. .nrg) aren't supported; nor are Mac images. Support for Mac images might happen eventually, but probably not any time soon.
Oh, and Originator doesn't just pull the curtain back on Wing Commander games. Here it is analyzing the guts of Bioforge!
I realised I could hook up Bioforge model viewing with minimal effort. :) Animations aren't currently viewable.

Summary of major changes:

  • Added support for Prophecy / Secret Ops models, including triangulation of polygonal meshes.
  • Added support for Privateer 2 textures/models.
  • Added "Global Search" mode, which allows searching for text/hex across all loaded game files.
  • Disc images will be detected with .iso or .bin extensions, in addition to .img.
  • Added support for Pacific Strike text content decompression.
  • Fixed the solid backdrop scaling for VGA aspect mode.
  • Fixed 3DO STR container support.
  • Improvements to FLX container support.
  • Better support for partial palettes (mostly for Strike Commander).
  • Some palette hookups for Strike Commander (work in progress).
  • Fixed texture coordinates for OBJ export.
  • Improved generation of normals for 3D models.
  • Added support for Privateer 2's XMIDI music.
  • Fixed terrain elevation export for WC4; more general terrain support will happen later.
  • Some UI improvements, e.g. showing what's selected in tree navigation panes.

Acknowledging the Inventor of WC Radar: Denis Loubet! Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

And here’s a fascinating Wing Commander I behind-the-screens story I had never heard from Denis Loubet! We alluded to this in our big post about how radar works, but never reported on the original anecdote:
LOAF: Is there anything more thrilling than the Wing Commander I box art? Despite the claim that “what you see is what you play” it’s not a screenshot but a digital piece carefully composed by the incomparable Denis Loubet!

Loubet: I invented the radar display as a super-quick way to know which direction to turn to bring a target into view! I think it worked really well.

LOAF: Wow, I had no idea! It felt so natural to me, I could never go back to the Elite-style radar.

Loubet: I had to do some fast-talking to get it in the cockpits! I’m glad I did! :) The idea sprang from an idea I had for a flat 360 degree display, where the image got more and more compressed and distorted toward the screen edges until the edge pixels were all directly behind you.

It sort of simulated peripheral vision, where the motion of pixels near the edge of the screen let you know which direction to turn to bring whatever it is into view.

The evolution of the radar display!
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And the Winner Is... Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

As January is already coming to a close, we're happy to announce the winners to our annual fan project of the year event! To start things off, we've got two fantastic projects that we are co-awarding Fan Project of the Year this time around.

The first is Wing Loader, which had a tremendous release in 2023 that fully integrated speech from the Sega/Mega CD version of WC1 into the PC version of the game. With the knowledge gained from achieving this milestone, Destro began work on a larger effort to expand compatibility to other games in the series. This includes the future potential to integrate higher quality video into Wing Commander 3, which we hope comes to fruition!
The other fan project of the year winner is WC4 Remastered. They released a new iteration of the game's playable demo this past year that incorporates a variety of fixes, better joystick support and new in-flight comms.. The team also released a handful of articles detailing specific enhancements that the team is working on going forward, which gives anxious fans a great taste of what's to come.

Our runner up this year is the Confederation project to enhance WC1! We've seen it a lot in the news in recent weeks, but AllTinker was working diligently throughout 2023 to share updates with his talented artwork and digital reverse-engineering. As a big honorable mention, Tinker also was the only person to have two projects on the nominee slate this year. His Originator tool to extract assets from WC game code is a CIC staff favorite!
Thank you again to all the fabulous nominees and their dedication to keeping the community fresh and vibrant. Onwards into 2024!

See the Firekkan System - Now in Widescreen Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

The widescreen Confederation images that we posted last week were a big hit, and now AllTinker is back with a whole set of expanded background plates for Secret Missions 2: Crusade! These include some great Firekkan scenes as well as some well-outfitted Kilrathi. He's got a great eye for continuing out the scene in the style of the original art.
Secret Missions 2 more or less done for now. Not everything is visible here because of animation/parallax in the real deal.

Originator Expands Support for RealSpace Engine Models Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

There's a new version of Originator out now that helps extra models from RealSpace engine games like Strike Commander, WC3, WC4 and Armada. AllTinker has built a little animator within the model viewer, which makes it easy to see animated textures like the explosion below. Pretty cool! You can grab the latest version here.
Version 0.2.06 - mostly improvements to the existing RealSpace model support, including:
  • Support for TXMV (inbuilt shape) and TXMK (external PAK shapes) textures.
  • Added TXM texture support for terrain, both standalone (WC4) and in PAKs (Strike Commander).
  • Added support for sprites along with loading/viewing untextured models.
  • Added a tool in the model viewer to select the current frame for animated textures.
I think all 3D models from Armada, WC3 and WC4 should be viewable/exportable - let me know if not! There are some objects (specifically the LASR and BEAM types) which aren't actually 3D models, just info for the renderer. These might be viewable eventually perhaps, but are very low priority.

I'm in the process of doing a bunch of work with the terrain data, which will be viewable in a future version. Currently WC4 heightmaps are exportable again (load the IFF file, select File->Export), but after the new terrain stuff goes in WC3 and Strike Commander should also work (and with colours/textures, hopefully objects).

GOG Discounts Wing Commander Series by 71% Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

GOG is kicking off a belated new year's sale to help you start 2024 with a complete set of digital Wing Commander games! The entire series is on sale, but the exact discount varies. Most titles are 75% off ($1.49), but Armada, Prophecy and Privateer 2 are 65% ($2.09). Hop to it!

Super Wing Commander Shuttle Observed in Bioforge Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Not only does Bioforge reuse the shuttle model from Super Wing Commander but the opening shot of their respective intro cutscenes is very similar! Bioforge's art director, Bruce Lemons, had worked on SWC. BioForge's Mondite dropship (left) vs. Super Wing Commander's shuttle to the Tiger's Claw (right)! BioForge uses it several times (and you see the interior at one point!) so I really need to go back and get some more reference shots. AD noticed that the '05' on the front of the ship appears in a SINGLE FRAME of the Super Wing Commander intro. Neat!
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Digital Anvil Annex Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Following our Wing Commander references in StarLancer we thought it would be a good idea to archive the other major Wing Commander reference in a Digital Anvil game: this loading screen from Conquest: Frontier Wars which claims the game is "Loading Pegasus NavCom AI". This references the Confederation space station that appears at the start of the movie (and it's related MacGuffin, the NavCom AI device that will allow the Kilrathi to reach Earth). Conquest, a real time strategy game set in space, was the second Digital Anvil game released, published by Ubisoft in 2001. The NavCom message is one of several that flip by while any of the game's maps are loading. It's currently available on GOG for anyone interested in trying it themselves (though we'll warn you the 'Pegasus' loading message now passes too quickly to be seen with the naked eye!).

We've also learned that a higher quality version of the StarLancer introduction referenced in the previous update is currently available on YouTube posted by the game's talented composer Ian Livingstone! He notes that it is sourced from the "uncompressed original source movie (5gb)". Pretty neat! We've put a backup copy in our archive here (28 mb).

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Fan Project Vote Under Way Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

January continues to afterburner along - as does our annual Fan Project of the Year contest voting period! If you missed it last week, there's still time to get your vote in. Check out the nominees below and cast your ballot towards the project you were most impressed by in 2023!

  • First up, in alphabetical order, are the series of Ambiance videos by Scribbler. This isn't the flashiest project, and that's by design! He's taken it upon himself to craft a variety of scenes inspired by the first three Wing Commander games, set them to calming music and add the hum of daily life aboard a Terran Confederation carrier. I really appreciate when fans do something different like this!
  • The Confederation project is an all new mod that hit the scene in 2023. AllTinker is working to reverse engineer aspects of the original Wing Commander and build in numerous enhancements, such as making them support modern widescreen displays. He isn't just smashing or upscaling though, he's also hand-drawing new pixel art in the style of the original to fill out the space!
  • It was yet another big year for Custom Models. This one is a big tricky to categorize. Lots of people made very cool 3D prints, but I especially wanted to focus on ships like John Nelson's Lego creations, LYP's Centurion and Cpt. Streets' Tarsus. These projects take an enormous amount of time, talent and care to come to life. It's also kind of hard to compare most single designs to some of the other items on this list, so they've been combined here into one!
  • The first chapter of the Freedom Flight comic was completed this past year. EmuMusicFan has been doing Kilrathi sketches for a variety of projects for years, but all of that hard work really came together in 2023 to pull together a tight visual look into the exciting events of the first WC novel!
  • Klavs' Art & Models spanned a wide spectrum of creative endeavors this past year. From his vintage universe map early in 2023 to the more recent open release of his next gen models, Klavs is a perennial contributor to the fan project community!
  • Mac also had a huge year with his stylized art and informative lore videos. He made extensive productions for the Broadsword and Concordia and took on the gargantuan task of chronicling End Run. Along the way, he dropped plenty of fancy renders to keep Wingnuts happy!
  • Originator is a brand new tool developed this past year and AllTinker's second entry on the list. Although still in early beta form, the program allows modders and curious fans to hack into the assets of various Origin games and extra different format files for examination and personal use. It's very cool and we're anxious to see where it goes next!
  • The Wing Commander 4 Remastered team released the second major iteration of their playable demo this past year. It added numerous fixes and updates, better joystick support and new in-flight comms. This year the team focused on gameflow, menus and user interface in order to firm up the structure that will be filled in during future updates.
  • Wing Loader had a tremendous year. In the early part of 2023, Destro released the "complete" version of the project that adds official speech from the CD-based Sega version of Wing Commander 1 and hooks it into the PC edition. Along with a number of improvement updates, the project also grew to add support for the later games in the series. Among many other planned features, Destro hopes to add the ability to play enhanced and upscaled video in Wing Commander 3 at some point!

Written in the StarLancers Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

As the saying goes, great artists steal... and what we're looking at today is a case of great artists stealing from themselves! We thought it would be interesting to take a closer look at StarLancer's cutscenes to pick out assets and finished footage that it reuses from the Wing Commander movie. StarLancer's cinematics were developed by the same artists at Digital Anvil who worked on the Wing Commander movie with the two projects overlapping for a time. As a result, a number of 3D models made it from one to the other and (in the case of the game's various act breaking interstitial news reports) several completed sequences from the movie were used to sort of decorate the background of StarLancer! Let's take a closer look...

Intro

StarLancer's introduction shows the Coalition's dastardly Pearl Harbor-style attack on the Alliance and it includes several reused Wing Commander assets! The cinematic model for the Alliance command ship destroyed in the first wave is a modification of the Snakeir or Sivar model from the Wing Commander movie. It's especially clear when we see the drive section at the rear. The cinematic model for the ANS Reliant, which appears elsewhere, also 'feels' like it's derived from those designs though there's no clear evidence beyond the similar shapes.

... and then watch very carefully as the camera pans over a flight line of Alliance fighters at an airstrip scrambling to take off. One of them is being towed by the bulldozer that was used to push Rosie's Rapier off the Tiger Claw's flight deck (with the front removed)!

There's also a sequence that must be called an homage to Wing Commander IV in which a Coalition fighter decloaks behind an Alliance escort and destroys it while they both accelerate down the spine of a capital ship.

Finally, the asset for Jupiter (which is reused throughout the game) looks to be taken from Wing Commander's Planet 415 which is used as a background plate in CG shots throughout the second and third acts of the film. It sure is pretty!

Chapter 1

The Chapter 1 ACN sequence opens using a 'Kilrathi ships burning' shot from the end of the movie where the Concordia's fleet ambushes the Kilrathi as a background.

It also reuses something even more unusual: the 3D model of a construction ship seen in Wing Commander IV! The twin cabin towing spacecraft that carries a girder towards a carrier under construction does exactly the same thing behind Admiral Tolwyn in the WC4 intro!

Chapter 2

The first of the ACN stories for Chapter 2 is an easy one to spot: it's the TCS Vanguard leaving Pegasus Naval Base at the start of the movie!

The second news story is played over footage of the initial Kilrathi attack on the Tiger Claw that happens while the Black Lions are away intercepting a decoy convoy. They were a little trickier here and mirrored the footage... which is also a little too dark to easily make out the Tiger Claw in the background!

Admiral Foster Midgame

In the climax of StarLancer's first half, Admiral Foster rams your home carrier, the ANS Reliant, into Admiral Kulov's flagship, the CS Volga. The epic scene doesn't reuse any Wing Commander footage but it does reveal that the CS Volga is... a Ralari-class destroyer! The footage includes several new renders of the Ralari including a closeup of a missile being fired and a hologram version seen from the Reliant's command center. The bridge of the Volga is also seen in the intro but there are no exterior shots. The Volga is never encountered in combat so there is no in-game 3D model.

Chapter 4

The Chapter 4 ACN broadcast is a weird one: it reuses footage of Blair's Rapier positioned next to Angel's escape pod to represent the wreckage of the 'Dark Reign' space defense tower!

Chapter 5

Chapter 5 is absolutely chock full of Wing Commander footage! The story covering Admiral Foster's escape is played over a reversed clip of the Diligent docking with the Kilrathi ConCom ship!

Then, the story on the destruction of the CS Varyag uses not one but THREE different Wing Commander scenes from the movie's third act in rapid succession mirrored and with a StarLancer ship composited on top of them through the transitions. The first is the Tiger Claw being hit with the Kilrathi broadside:

Then the Fralthi taking hits and exploding from above:

And finally footage of the Confederation fleet destroying a Ralari:

... but wait, there's more! The final news story reuses the same 'Kilrathi ships burning' footage that also appeared in Chapter 1.

Chapter 6

An option story in the Chapter 6 broadcast uses the same Kilrathi ambush footage as Chapter 2 under a rendering of Coalition ace Ivan Petrov.

Trailer

Finally, StarLancer's first trailer was cut primarily from the game's cinematics... and a shot from Wing Commander of the Skipper missile exploding (0:35)! The Skipper explosion scene does not seem to appear in the final game.

One final disclaimer: there's an old rumor that claims the Wing Commander footage appears in StarLancer as part of a scheme to defraud Microsoft which paid for the game's development; this is not at all the case. Chris Roberts (and not FOX) owned the Wing Commander movie's assets and as a result Digital Anvil was well within their right to use them to texture StarLancer. This is a fun case of reused special effects, something incredibly common throughout science fiction history. Look at the endless films that reused footage shot for the Battlestar Galactica pilot!

Have you noticed any other asset or footage reuse in StarLancer or other Digital Anvil games? Let us know on the forums! If you'd like to study the footage yourself you can download a complete set of extracted StarLancer clips in the original format here (836 mb).

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If April Showers Bring May Flowers, What Do Mayflowers Bring? Pilgrims! Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

And now Klavs can ponder the routes of Pilgrim expansion throughout the galaxy every time he steps into the shower. I love that it's easier than ever to have things custom printed and manufactured with your own art on them. People have gotten really creative with this, and today's topic is no exception! Klavs has taken the awesome relit universe map that he made a couple years back and had it printed extra large across a shower curtain. Amazing!
I daresay this is the most epic shower curtain I have ever owned! :)
I wonder what other shower curtains were in contention...

Anyhow, here's the digital source for comparison:

History of the Wing Commander IV Box Art Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Lots of cool chatter about the bold, risky and nearly perfect choices for the Ultima 7 and 8 box art today. So let me add some background on another very interesting Origin box art decision, Wing Commander IV!

For the WCIV marketing campaign, Chris Roberts wanted to focus on a broader audiences. Gamers would play the new Wing Commander… so the spend focused on selling the interactive movie experience to a wider audience. This meant stuff like radio and TV spots, trailers in movie theaters and advertising in non-traditional places like in-flight magazines.

Game advertising was in transition in 1995 anyway but you can see the Wing Commander IV stuff is VERY distinct from previous titles. So for the box, Chris wanted something similarly distinct. What they came up with was this, a quasi in-universe design with only the mysterious enemy logo (teased throughout the print campaign)… all in totally distinctive colors. Basically, as far from Star Wars as possible. This was by the brilliant Trey Hermann who was fresh off earning a genuine advertising industry award for the stunning Bioforge box art: There was a LOT of pushback though and in the end the game shipped with a slipcover around the logo design that kept the unusual style but added a more traditional piece of painted art: The painting was by Austin artist Sam Yeates, who also did the talking heads for Super Wing Commander! EA Europe refused to even entertain the crazy colors and instead did their own much more totally traditional take: … but a matter of months later the situation was totally reversed: Origin declined Europe’s surreal Privateer 2 campaign in favor of a traditional one. Could be the timeless tradition of interdepartmental sniping or a case of different lessons learned from the same event! By the way! The addition of the slipcover resulted in a little typo you probably never noticed. You can tell if you have a first printing of WC4 if it warms you of a “BIOLOGIGAL HAZARD”! I will end by encouraging you to follow @UltimaDragons for more of that Ultima box art content mentioned at the start! The Ultima Dragons have been at this even longer than I have.
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Visual Reference Archive Reveals Full Privateer Background Plates Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Have you ever wanted to study the gloriously 1993 3DS closeup background plates in Privateer but can't stand those damn characters getting in the way? Have I ever made the visual reference for you! A couple of these are appearing for the first time; they're stored in the game's files but they're for places where a third angle is never used... like these fixer backgrounds for Oxford and the pleasure planets, respectively: You'll also notice some are higher resolution and have more of 4:3 aspect ratio versus Privateer's usual 16:9 for the conversations. Some are designed to 'open' when you have to make a choice. Since many choices were cut, you're seeing some tops and bottoms for the first time! Also: so, so much space booze. You can also find all the Privateer 2 background plates here!
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New Extraction Tools Added to Originator Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

There's a new version of Originator ready for your modding and extraction pleasure! In the latest builds, AllTinker has added enhanced support for Prophecy formats, streaming for Red Book audio and an enhanced hex viewer. There's also an aspect ratio compensator in the image viewer - an example is below. AllTinker still has lots of ideas for future improvements, so let him know what you think! Grab the latest version here.
This update adds supports for a few more Wing Commander Prophecy formats; MGI streaming audio for music, bitmap images (should cover everything including textures), and I also added a handler for some of the text content. No models yet, but soon! It also adds support for streaming/extracting Red Book audio from plain ISO images, i.e. music from Wing Commander 1/2 and Space Rogue for FM Towns and Wing Commander for SEGA CD. I've also improved the hex viewer with some extra tools for searching and data inspection. VGA aspect ratio compensation for the image viewer. This is currently done in a pretty basic way, but should look fine at zoom values around 2-3 or higher. Most images will auto-sense and turn this on as appropriate, with WC3/4 being the main exception for now. Here's a few more shots of content viewable since the last couple of updates:

SNES WC1 Review Unearthed from N-Force Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

AD found this nifty review way back in the February 1993 issue of N-Force magazine. It's more than thirty years old, and everything from color choices to the hair style of the reviewer confirms its age. You can tell they had a lot of fun putting this spread together, which is why I'm surprised it only got an 84. They also ran a contest that gave away free copies of the game and other associated merch, which is pretty cool!

Fan Project Vote Kicks Off Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

January is quickly getting away from us, so it's time to pull together the nominees for our 2023 Fan Project of the Year awards! As always, we've got some fabulous options, so let's jump to it!
  • First up, in alphabetical order, are the series of Ambiance videos by Scribbler. This isn't the flashiest project, and that's by design! He's taken it upon himself to craft a variety of scenes inspired by the first three Wing Commander games, set them to calming music and add the hum of daily life aboard a Terran Confederation carrier. I really appreciate when fans do something different like this!
  • The Confederation project is an all new mod that hit the scene in 2023. AllTinker is working to reverse engineer aspects of the original Wing Commander and build in numerous enhancements, such as making them support modern widescreen displays. He isn't just smashing or upscaling though, he's also hand-drawing new pixel art in the style of the original to fill out the space!
  • It was yet another big year for Custom Models. This one is a big tricky to categorize. Lots of people made very cool 3D prints, but I especially wanted to focus on ships like John Nelson's Lego creations, LYP's Centurion and Cpt. Streets' Tarsus. These projects take an enormous amount of time, talent and care to come to life. It's also kind of hard to compare most single designs to some of the other items on this list, so they've been combined here into one!
  • The first chapter of the Freedom Flight comic was completed this past year. EmuMusicFan has been doing Kilrathi sketches for a variety of projects for years, but all of that hard work really came together in 2023 to pull together a tight visual look into the exciting events of the first WC novel!
  • Klavs' Art & Models spanned a wide spectrum of creative endeavors this past year. From his vintage universe map early in 2023 to the more recent open release of his next gen models, Klavs is a perennial contributor to the fan project community!
  • Mac also had a huge year with his stylized art and informative lore videos. He made extensive productions for the Broadsword and Concordia and took on the gargantuan task of chronicling End Run. Along the way, he dropped plenty of fancy renders to keep Wingnuts happy!
  • Originator is a brand new tool developed this past year and AllTinker's second entry on the list. Although still in early beta form, the program allows modders and curious fans to hack into the assets of various Origin games and extra different format files for examination and personal use. It's very cool and we're anxious to see where it goes next!
  • The Wing Commander 4 Remastered team released the second major iteration of their playable demo this past year. It added numerous fixes and updates, better joystick support and new in-flight comms. This year the team focused on gameflow, menus and user interface in order to firm up the structure that will be filled in during future updates.
  • Wing Loader had a tremendous year. In the early part of 2023, Destro released the "complete" version of the project that adds official speech from the CD-based Sega version of Wing Commander 1 and hooks it into the PC edition. Along with a number of improvement updates, the project also grew to add support for the later games in the series. Among many other planned features, Destro hopes to add the ability to play enhanced and upscaled video in Wing Commander 3 at some point!

Strike Commander Art Compared Side-By-Side Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Has anyone ever noticed how many versions there are of the Strike Commander art? They seem to derive from two separate renderings. The one with painted flames on the F-16 is the older of the two.

There's also this version from the GOG release which... I think they made out of stock photos for some reason? Note that Strike Commander currently happens to be on sale for $1.49 for the rest of this weekend. Tactical Operations variants go hard, too! I need there to be a Strike Commander version of me that I can hand this responsibility off to...
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Matthew Lillard Autographs for Sale Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

LeHah reports that GalaxyCon has a new Wing Commander autograph opportunity with Matthew Lillard. Fans can order either an 8x12 inch photo or 11x17 poster with his signature. If you happen to have a particular piece of Wing Commander memorabilia that you'd like him to sign, you can also send that in! These items have to be confirmed by February 11 and the regular orders get a bit more time. Hit the links below for more info!

Neat Trick Allows Avenger to Carry Five Mace Missiles Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

LOAF has been doing some intense research of peculiar quirks and rare occurrences built into Wing Commander 4. He's discovering that there are a number of exotic things you can trigger by taking very specific actions. For example, if you fly the mission in the Speradon System to capture the carrier, you get Mace Missiles. Then, if you let Catscratch die, Pliers will offer you an upgraded Avenger. Upon acceptance, you'll get the bomber with a fifth torpedo slot, which you can equip with five Maces! What an amazing thing to be so buried in the game!
My newfound Wing Commander IV gameflow knowledge has allowed me to make a very big boom.

If you play your cards right (capture the carrier, kill Catscratch, accept the upgrade) then you can make a really, really big explosion in Speradon L4B.

The first time I tried this the blast damage hit the Intrepid's escorts and I was immediately flagged as a traitor.

Watch SNES Wing Commanders Emulated on an Xperia Phone Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

I'm short on time today, so here's a couple of Wing Commander shorts for you! They caught my eye because the videos below depict an Xperia Play (originally conceived as the Sony Ericsson "PlayStation Phone") running SNES Wing Commander and The Secret Missions. At first I wondered if there was some kind of EA Replay situation at work, but downloadable versions of that game were limited to the European-exclusive Playstation Network Store circa 2009. It's appears that these are straight emulations, which wouldn't be much different since EA Replay includes the Super Nintendo console editions anyhow. It's always fun to see Wing Commander pop up on a new kind of screen!

More EGA Clips Highlight SM/SO Graphical Range Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Binary Legends saw our recent post about their WC2 EGA video and offered up some more. While EGA clips are relatively uncommon, Secret Missions and Special Operations are even more rare! I know the typical video game archetype is to aim for the highest resolution and fanciest graphics options, but from an artistic and historic perspective, it's very cool to see how they made the game work with so few colors to choose from. Just check out that amazing EGA Waterloo class cruiser (the TCS Centurion!).

Nephele Bar Patron Reflects on WC4 Film Shoot Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

IronWolf1970 recently posted this fun little anecdote from the set of Wing Commander IV. The scale of the WC4 film shoot is vast: real sets, tons of extras and lots of practical effects. However, coming hot on the heels of WC3, it often seems like the earlier game got a lot more press and analysis due to the novelty of FMV at the time. The Price of Freedom has a grand setup and much larger group of people that were involved, but the behind-the-scenes aspect wasn't always supersized to match. So that's why even though this is a brief recollection, it's still fun to get a peek into what went down!
IronWolf: My buddy and I were background on Wing Commander IV. It was the bar scene. He got to hang out next to Mark Hamill.

LOAF: Totally cool! Do you know if you're visible in the final cut?

IronWolf: I found myself... big surprise it was at the pool table... lol... I'm the tall blur in the background with the funny hat. My "then" girlfriend is the little goth looking girl checking out Mark Hamill (she and I were big Animated Batman fans) as he walks by.

LOAF: Fascinating, thank you! I've always wondered who the people are in scenes like this. And I'll bet this specific scene still has some record for most extras on screen at once in a full motion video game... they packed that bar set!

IronWolf: We're the unnamed ones lol

Save Archive: Wing Commander IV Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

We've got a new project intended to help out Wing Commander fans in 2024: save game archives that allow you to jump as close as possible to any given point in a game! We're kicking things off with a couple of playthroughs of Wing Commander IV which will allow you access to every single mission with every single ship and loadout option possible. We flew as "Maverick" and saved each game as soon as the previous mission ended to allow you to view any cutscene as easily as possible. Simply drop the contents of the archive in your Wing Commander IV folder; they should work on the MS-DOS, Windows 95, DVD and Macintosh versions (including the GOG and non-GOG releases). Please note that if you have your own saves you want to preserve you should back them up first; they're the files with the .WSG extension. (Warning: if you have your own saves you don't want to replace, be sure to back them up first; they're the files with the .WSG extension.)

In the future weeks we're hoping to add Privateer, Privateer 2, Wing Commander III and others. If you'd like to make your own save games available, feel free to submit them to us or post them to the forums for collection!

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Impressive WC3 Ships Modeled in Space Engineers Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Today we have a very cool flythrough of a set of Space Engineers maps by Jason Musgrave. We've seen a handful of impressive designs over the year from Wing Commander 1 to Privateer to WC4, but WC3 was relatively untapped territory. Now we're getting three-in-one by way of a fantastic TCS Victory, plus a Confed cruiser and Kilrathi carrier. There are even fighters across the deck that you can get inside. Phenomenal effort on display here!

Vintage Reviews Highlight WC's Mid '90s Excellence Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

It's a new year, but we're turning back the clock today with a new batch of retro reviews found by Maxi de Sokar. The first is a wonderful five page spread in PC Review for Wing Commander 3. It starts off with a couple pages of "behind the scenes" info before launching into the actual review. Then we have a quick take on Super Wing Commander for the 3DO by Micromania. Finally, there's a six page spread in OKPC about Wing Commander 4. I love how much space was dedicated to these new releases at the time!

Originator Update Helps You Create Worlds Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

New year, new Originator! AllTinker is kicking off 2024 with another release to his impressive Wing Commander modding and hacking tool. New features include a better reader for hex editing, support for more WC3 elements like cockpits, improved decompression of Privateer 2 contents and more. You can download the updated package here!
Version 0.2.03 (2024-01-01)

  • Improved the hex viewer; added hover highlighting between hex/character views, also fixed an issue with larger font sizes.
  • Added support for packed WC3 shapes (e.g. for cockpits), and more IFF-embedded shapes in general.
  • Added automatic decompression for IFF chunks (QFS/Deflate), which is especially relevant to Privateer 2. As usual there are many palettes still requiring hook-up logic, so colours will be wrong in many cases for several games (including P2).
  • Added "Experiments" (under "Tools") which I will be adding to over time. Currently the only experiment is a (quite rudimentary for now) "sector dump" tool for Privateer.
  • Fixed the about screen for New Years. :D
I haven't done the IFF chunk support for the Bulk Exporter yet; hopefully in the next release!

Happy New Year! Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Happy New Year Wingnuts! We made it through another year. Some very cool projects got off the ground in 2023, and we're super excited where they go in 2024. Our annual new year's poll is live now. Got an idea for something that might interest Wing Commander fans in the year ahead? Or just want to hang out with a bunch of retro video game nerds? Stop on by the CIC Discord server!
LOAF also pointed out that we've got quite a few exciting 30th anniversaries on deck this year!
Some pretty big 30th anniversaries this year! 1994 was one heck of a year.
  • Privateer: Righteous Fire - February 24
  • Super Wing Commander - March 23
  • Wing Commander (Sega CD) - March 24
  • Wing Commander Privateer (CD-ROM) - June 13
  • Wing Commander Armada - September 22
  • Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger - December 8
  • Wing Commander Armada Proving Grounds - December 20
And... here are the results from the birthday poll!

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