well I have a little problem... seems like a little problem - but after thinking of 2 hours... it is a big problem. I need names for the main actors of "Final Conflict". I already have the name for the main actor. I'll call him "Lightspeed"... but what names could I use for the other pilots? 3 persons play the main part of the movie... (Lightspeed is already done)Please help me finding some good names for the pilots of "Final Conflict" !!!!!! The names should be associated with space and Wing Commander... like "Hawk", "IceMan", "Panther" ...
Since Pedro is absent for two weeks, it falls to me to thank everyone who has voted for Unknown Enemy in the CIC's Fan Projects competition. It is quite amazing that, in spite of the fact that UE is one of the oldest fan projects, and still remains unfinished, we received so many votes. Nonetheless, this shows that in spite of all our setbacks, the WC community believes we are making good progress - which indeed is the case. Over the recent months, UE has finally managed to build up some momentum, and it really looks like we will finish within two or three months. Take this with a grain of salt, because fan projects are strange creatures which can sometimes grind to a halt for no apparent reason. Still, I'm certain that UE WILL be finished, and sooner rather than later. See to it we shall... So, once again, thank you to everybody who voted for us, and of course to the CIC for organising this contest.Quarto
Eagle-1: Mark... did Blair die in WCP... or did he live? (your opinion) :)
Mark Day: He lived. That's the way Adam and I had it planned...
Eagle-1: Mark, how was he getting out of that? Kills the bug, then runs to his ship, right?
Mark Day: The bugs never wanted to kill Blair. They wanted Blair. The Bugs were never the main threat
Eagle-1: Mark... what was the main threat... if not the bugs?
Mark Day: ....the Bugs were merely one of three races under the command of an entity. The entity was never well described or thought out because it wasn't necessary for WCP. The entity had become interested in the human race and it's natural abilities for killing death and destruction. Blair was a perfect specimen in its opinion. How many men have been responsible for wiping out an entire homeworld of a race?
Eagle-1: Blair!!!
Mark Day: And imagine being Blair... Living with the guilt and memory of all that had been lost... ... and all that he had done. Actually he minded quite a bit (IMHO). Then Blair gets captured... and suddenly everything seems so clear. Suddenly someone tells him that its ok to be a Natural Born Killer. No more feeling alone... no more guilt.
Eagle-1: ok...
Mark Day: He didn't hang back at the end of Prophecy because he was being stupid. He hung back because he wanted to.
Eagle-1: well... sure he did what he had to do... but still it may have gnawed at him. Possible?
Mark Day: .......the plan was to have Blair alive with the bad guys. Whether a prisoner or a member was unclear. But I had planned that he would return to the Border World to enlist new recruits. And become the third horseman......
Welcome to Game Three, Week Nine Trivia. We play each week. Every Monday two main questions and one bonus question are posted to alt.games.wing-commander and listed at the CIC. Please email answers to CReid1701@aol.com or ChrisReid@wcnews.com. Be sure to include a name you would like to be known under for the Scoreboard that will be up soon. Have your answers in *before* this coming Sunday (December 17, 2000) to ensure your answers are recorded. Answers submitted early may be returned and you may be able to fix incorrect answers, time permitting. Main questions answered correctly are good for 5 points, bonuses good for 3.-------
Answers to Questions from Week 8 (starting December 18, 2000):Question 15: Who was Etienne Montclair?
Most Common Answer: Maori pilot by the callsign of Doomsday. Served aboard the Austin, Tiger's Claw, Concordia, Tarawa and more. Capable leader. Friend of Bear Bondarevsky.Question 16: Who was Robert Sykes?
Most Common Answer: Border Worlds Chief Tech known as Pliers. Served aboard the Intrepid during the Black Lance Affair. Loved to steal goodies from Confed.Bonus 8: Who was Slade "Tex" Carver?
Most Common Answer: Famous CIS Black Watch colonel. Had a knack for surviving disasterous situations. Highly decorated with low tolerance for incompetence.------
New Questions for Week 8 (starting December 25, 2000):Question 17: On what major holiday did the Kilrathi choose to launch their first massive assault against the Terrans?
Question 18: Where was the 2654 Sivar-Eshrad ceremony held?
Bonus 9: Where was the 2621 Sivar-Eshrad ceremony held?
Submissions are due by December 31st 2000.
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Please email answers to ChrisReid@wcnews.com and do not post directly to the Newsgroup. Thanks,
Winner
For all you people wondering what's happening to the Wing Commander mod, well here's the latest. I'm releasing a new ship pack! it will include ALL Wing Commander 3 and 4 fighters. For all those wondering about capships, not a single capship is going to be done unless I get some major help. I can't get any of the models to load in freespace. And I still need to add turrets to them.
Nominees
Nominees
To all who have been trying to access the WCA episode files:In the past few weeks, the connectivity provider for nohbody.com, Telocity has been having intermittent problems with their network routers, often resulting in go-nowhere router loops.
This, unfortunately, has affected my ability to serve the Wing Commander Academy episodes. Repeated attempts to get Telocity to fix the problem have resulted in the net result of precisely zip being done.
As of 12:00am EST on January 1st, 2001, I will be no longer able to serve the WCA files. Nohbody.com will be moving to a third-party web host (none of those I have looked at have the bandwidth options to support the traffic that the episode files have generated), and I will be discontinuing my Telocity access shortly thereafter, switching to BellSouth's FastAccess ADSL service, which doesn't allow users to run servers on their dynamically assigned connections.
I apologize for the inconvenience this may cause, but I cannot in good faith continue to offer a service (the episode files) that circumstances beyond my control have made impossible to provide.
Sincerely,
Hey guys! Okay, this isn't really directly WC, but it might interest some folks who were children of the late 70's and into the 80's space shows, or have a particular interest in early Japanimation that had an influence on Wing Commander.I found quite by accident that the old STAR BLAZERS series is available on DVD! Well, partially, anyway. The initial series -- The Quest for Iscandar -- is being released 5 episodes at a time. It appears that the first set (ep. 1-5) was released back in September. How I missed it I have no idea. The second set (ep. 6-10) is scheduled for release today, 12/19.
That is all!
Apparently the below is the unique box art for the Wing Commander SNES in Japan... anyone have any more information on this one?
Last year we were chomping at the bit to get our hands on this puppy--Chris Roberts of Wing Commander fame was given free rein to make the space game of his dreams, with Microsoft giving his Digital Anvil development studio tons of cash to do the job right. Well, we've seen the game at a couple of E3s, and what we're seeing isn't a whole different from what we saw when the game was first unveiled. Add in the fact that Digital Anvil's Conquest was dropped by Microsoft, it's anyone's guess as to what's going on over there.
I've got some little problems with the movie "Final Conflict". I've rendered the scenes again in MPEG1 (Radius Cinepak Codec) and some pictures of the scenes have very low detailed graphics. The problem is, that I need to use this codec for the movie (because I want to show it on TV) !!! I even tried to convert good MPEG4-movies to MPEG1 (using Adobe Premiere, cause VirutalDub creates Graphic errors). But this converted MPEG1 movie was even worse !!!I sent you two pictures of the movie showing the detail. Both pictures show the same movie (both MPEG1), but they show different frames. As you can see the one frame is looking very bad and poor detailed :-( !!! The other frame is looking very good... it seems like a mixture of some bad and a lot of good frames. I hope this detail will be accepted by the people, because I have no better MPEG1 Codec I could use...
Is there anybody out there, who could send me Codecs as Install-packets?? I need some codecs, but I want them as file-packets, which are easy to install. If there's anybody out there, who has some experience with Codecs, then please mail me at: finalconflict@gmx.de !!!
Thanks !!!
Welcome to Game Three, Week Eight Trivia. We play each week. Every Monday two main questions and one bonus question are posted to alt.games.wing-commander and listed at the CIC. Please email answers to CReid1701@aol.com or ChrisReid@wcnews.com. Be sure to include a name you would like to be known under for the Scoreboard that will be up soon. Have your answers in *before* this coming Sunday (December 17, 2000) to ensure your answers are recorded. Answers submitted early may be returned and you may be able to fix incorrect answers, time permitting. Main questions answered correctly are good for 5 points, bonuses good for 3.-------
Answers to Questions from Week 7 (starting December 11, 2000):Question 13: What was a popular fighter in 2654 that had at least two of its guns replaced by Particle Cannons in later versions?
Most Common Answer: Rapier IIQuestion 14: What was a popular fighter in 2669 that had at least two of its guns replaced by Ion Cannons in later versions?
Most Common Answer: ExcaliburBonus 7: What was a popular fighter in 2681 that had at least two of its guns replaced by Ion Cannons in later versions?
Most Common Answer: Tigershark------
New Questions for Week 8 (starting December 18, 2000):Question 15: Who was Etienne Montclair?
Question 16: Who was Robert Sykes?
Bonus 8: Who was Slade "Tex" Carver?
Submissions are due by December 25, 2000.
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Please email answers to ChrisReid@wcnews.com and do not post directly to the Newsgroup. Thanks,
Invasion has posted a load of new screenshots -- the first 12 are of the TigerShark in action... the last three are concept art for the mod's Confederation Titan class ship.
 | Apeshredder (CCG) - Pilot onboard the KIS Skabak Ra Sivar. Adds one support point. |
 | Longshot (CCG) - Pilot onboard the KIS Skabak Ra Sivar. Adds one medal point. |
 | Motley (CCG) - Pilot onboard the KIS Skabak Ra Sivar. Adds one defense point. |
 | Rogue (CCG) - Pilot onboard the KIS Skabak Ra Sivar. Adds one attack and one support point. |
 | Skitz (CCG) - Pilot onboard the KIS Skabak Ra Sivar. Adds one attack point. |
 | Wise Hunter (CCG) - Pilot onboard the KIS Skabak Ra Sivar. Adds two bombing points. |
 | Kahl (RF) - The commander of the Sixth Fleet of the Claw -- the Kil who sold Salthi to the Retros in Gemini. Flies a Dralthi. |
| Danthrax (Armada) - Pilot onboard the KIS Shiraak. Skill level 2. Flies a Jrathek. Appears in the 4th mission of both the Terran and Kilrathi gauntlets. | |
| Kar-Pak (Armada) - Pilot onboard the KIS Shiraak. Skill level 4. Flies a Kor-larh. Appears in the 11th Kilrathi mission of the gauntlet. |
Flight commander is a wing commander style game engine written by and for the fans. As you can see from the screen shots, Flight Commander can import ships from existing Wing Commander games. FC is OpenGL accelerated, and is already fully playable. The cool feature is that anybody can easily edit missions, campaigns, weapons, sounds, and ship stats. We have a ship importer tool for using ships from the Prophecy engine, and we have a working graphical mission editor. On a public release, we will also post the source code.This winter we will be making the push to a public release of Flight Commander. I'm looking for others to join the effort:
Sound Engineer--Provide sounds for additional weapons.
Mission Designers-- Use the graphical mission editor to create missions.
Game designers-- Import statistics for wing commander ships
2d/3d Artists-- We could use a raytraced picture of the inside of a kilrathi carrier. Also, kilrathi and nephilim launch sequences could be created. Any other creative graphical work.
Beta testers
C++/OpenGL programmers are always welcome, too
Right now mission designers and game designers will be the most critical tasks. If you would like to contribute in any way to flight commander, I'll do whatever I can to get you started. To contribute, please email Eddie Benowitz, eddieb@ucla.edu for more details.
Thanks,
Eddie
Because of the fact that fan-made Wing Commander projects have become such an important part of our daily lives, we would be remiss without awarding one for its achievements. Pick your favorite project from the list below and e-mail us here to vote! The voting period is one week. Next year, the Fan Project contest and the Fan Site contest will be run simultaneously. To qualify nomination, a project must be currently active and have provided some sort of non-text media within the past six months.
Nominees
The staff of AceNet Central wishes to thank all those who voted for our site in the recent Fansite of the Year contest. We are deeply honored. It's quite a thrill for myself (Designer/Developer, Webmaster), Shaun "Iceman" Rashid (Webmaster), and Brandon "Avatarr" Alspaugh (Webmaster, Server Administrator) to see our work recognized by the WC community. We thank the CIC for their efforts in running the contest, but especially offer our gratitude to those who voted for the site.
... with 100% of precincts reporting in... AceNet Central! The race was close! The runner's up (in order) recieve the Runner Up award... you don't actually have to display the image -- it's just fun (credit for the nifty new graphics goes to Hadrian).
Runner's Up
This is the last day to vote for the Wing Commander Fan Site of the year! The nominees are listed below -- send your choice here. The winners and their awards graphics will be posted on Friday.
Nominees
Important reminder: tomorrow is the last day to vote for the Wing Commander Fan Site of the Year award! E-mail your choice here. Winners will be announced on Friday.
Nominees
Welcome to Game Three, Week Seven Trivia. We play each week. Every Monday two main questions and one bonus question are posted to alt.games.wing-commander and listed at the CIC. Please email answers to CReid1701@aol.com or ChrisReid@wcnews.com. Be sure to include a name you would like to be known under for the Scoreboard that will be up soon. Have your answers in *before* this coming Sunday (December 17, 2000) to ensure your answers are recorded. Answers submitted early may be returned and you may be able to fix incorrect answers, time permitting. Main questions answered correctly are good for 5 points, bonuses good for 3.-------
Answers to Questions from Week 6 (starting December 4, 2000):Question 11: Who was a Captain of the TCS Tiger's Claw?
Most Common Answers: Sansky & Geoffrey TolwynQuestion 12: Who was a Captain of the KIS Ras Nik'hra?
Most Common Answer: Ralgha nar HhallasBonus 6: Who was a Captain of the FRLS Blitzkreig?
Most Common Answer: KruegerSubmissions are due by December 10, 2000.
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New Questions for Week 7 (starting December 11, 2000):Question 13: What was a popular fighter in 2654 that had at least two of its guns replaced by Particle Cannons in later versions?
Question 14: What was a popular fighter in 2669 that had at least two of its guns replaced by Ion Cannons in later versions?
Bonus 7: What was a popular fighter in 2681 that had at least two of its guns replaced by Ion Cannons in later versions?
Submissions are due by December 17, 2000.
We currently have a whole load of models that are using multiple textures. Since Armada only supports the use of a single texture so we are currently limited to using the fighters in Prophecy. We really want to use capships and WC3-4 fighters too so we need to make each model only use a single texture. If anyone out there knows how to make our ships use a single texture by any method please mail me at wildcat@wcinvasion.net.And here are three shots of the fully textured Tigershark in action, thanks to Ladiesman!
The first round of voting is complete. The best eight of the entered sites have been selected as nominees -- and now it's up to you to pick who'll win! Pick the best site from the list of eight nominees and e-mail us. Voting ends next Thursday at midnight. The other nominated sites are listed below -- they're all great, but we could only choose eight for this next round.
Nominees
Runners Up
GS: Looking back, do you wish you could revisit the Wing Commander universe, or do you feel you've taken that series as far as it can go?CR: I still love Wing Commander. Given the right opportunity, I would definitely revisit it.
Those readers who are members of the Cult of Sivar already know that today is the annual Ritual of Pukcal, the annual Kilrathi ceremony of atonement at the Temple of Sivar. Have a good one!
MICROSOFT TO ACQUIRE DIGITAL ANVILQuoth Rollins, "Well, the good news is it won't take too long to shower off the bullshit around here."Addition of Austin-Based Development Studio Continues Microsoft Games Division Growth
REDMOND, Wash. - Dec. 5, 2000 - Microsoft Corp. today announced it has reached a preliminary agreement to acquire Digital Anvil Inc., a premier games developer based in Austin, Texas. Under the terms of the pending acquisition, Microsoft would gain the rights to select Digital Anvil titles, including "FreeLancer," the highly anticipated space-combat simulation game, as well as a yet-to-be-announced title currently in development for the Xbox(tm) video game system, scheduled for release by Microsoft in fall 2001.
Microsoft and Digital Anvil have worked closely since 1997 to develop ground-breaking games for the PC platform. The addition of Digital Anvil comes on the heels of other successful game acquisitions by Microsoft, including FASA Interactive Technologies Inc., creators of the best-selling "MechWarrior(tm)" franchise; Access Software Inc., creators of "Links(tm)" golf simulation titles, the most popular PC golf franchise; and Bungie Software Products Corp., creators of the upcoming "Halo," recognized as one of the best original games coming to market. Following the planned acquisition, Digital Anvil will continue to create titles from its Austin headquarters as part of Microsoft's growing pool of in-house development talent.
"The acquisition of Digital Anvil will strengthen our commitment to producing top-quality PC and Xbox titles," said Ed Fries, vice president of games publishing at Microsoft. "'FreeLancer' is a true expression of Digital Anvil's innovative spirit. By combining our internal resources with the Digital Anvil team's development talent, we will ensure the realization of their creative visions."
In a related announcement, Chris Roberts, founder and CEO of Digital Anvil, said he would be departing the company to pursue other creative endeavors. Roberts will, however, continue to work with Digital Anvil through the completion of "FreeLancer." Serving as creative consultant, he will continue to craft the game's intricate storyline and serve as an adviser to the development team.
"This acquisition is a positive growth opportunity for Digital Anvil," Roberts said. "Under the Microsoft umbrella, 'FreeLancer' and other games will be supported by a strong infrastructure and realized in the spirit in which they were conceived."
Slated for release for the PC in late 2001, "FreeLancer" was honored with four of the coveted "Game Critics" awards at the 1999 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), including Best of Show; Best Game, PC; Best Simulation; and Outstanding Achievement in Graphics. "FreeLancer" features a detailed 3-D sci-fi universe and innovative gameplay intertwined with an intriguing storyline.
About Microsoft Games Division
The Microsoft Games Division is a leading worldwide games company with three core businesses: games development and publishing, Xbox, and Zone.com. The company's award-winning PC game titles excite the imaginations of casual gamers and appeal to the passions of hardcore players. Xbox, the video game system, is a future-generation platform that inspires developers to create better games, faster. Zone.com (http://www.zone.com) is the Internet's largest game site.
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software - any time, any place and on any device.
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Microsoft, Xbox, MechWarrior and Links are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
The Lancers Reactor is reporting that the following is Microsoft's official line regarding FreeLancer: "Freelancer will be released by Microsoft, and will be a breakthrough game!"
Noticed over at Blues News that the lead animator for Digital Anvil's Brute Force has started a forum at Developer's Corner, billing it as "It's the closest thing to an "Official" DA forum on the internet." Check it out here here.
Another interesting rumor from a less familiar source is that Chris Roberts has a movie script that he is trying to get backing for. Could this be what raised Microsoft's ire? Could it be the rumored second Wing Commander movie? All just speculation at this point.
Still no sign of Microsoft's promised press release -- presumably their lawyers are still head-locked with Roberts over this issue.
Welcome to Game Three, Week Six Trivia. We play each week. Every Monday two main questions and one bonus question are posted to alt.games.wing-commander and listed at the CIC. Please email answers to CReid1701@aol.com or ChrisReid@wcnews.com. Be sure to include a name you would like to be known under for the Scoreboard that will be up soon. Have your answers in *before* this coming Sunday (December 10, 2000) to ensure your answers are recorded. Answers submitted early may be returned and you may be able to fix incorrect answers, time permitting. Main questions answered correctly are good for 5 points, bonuses good for 3.-------
Answers to Questions from Week 5 (starting November 27, 2000):Question 9: What was a planet or base that Geoffrey Tolwyn engaged in intelligence/spy/reconnaissance work on?
Most Common Answer: Gar's EmporiumQuestion 10: What was a planet or base that Winston Chang engaged in intelligence/spy/reconnaissance work on?
Most Common Answer: Orestes Comm StationBonus 5: What was a planet or base that John Dekker engaged in intelligence/spy/reconnaissance work on?
Nist Common Answer: Telamon------
New Questions for Week 6 (starting December 4, 2000):Question 11: Who was a Captain of the TCS Tiger's Claw?
Question 12: Who was a Captain of the KIS Ras Nik'hra?
Bonus 6: Who was a Captain of the FRLS Blitzkreig?
Submissions are due by December 10, 2000.
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Please email answers to ChrisReid@wcnews.com and do not post directly to the Newsgroup. Thanks,
Orlando, Florida, December 16, 2000: Author Peter Telep will be at the Barnes & Noble located at 481 North Alafaya Trail, Orlando, Fl 32828 407.275.1765 on December 16th, 2000 from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. You can also bring your own books written by Peter and have him sign them. Peter Telep, a professor at UCF, has written many books including the novelization of the movie Wing Commander, and Wing Commander: Pilgrim Stars. He has also written a novelization of the popular PC game Descent from Interplay Productions and written two sequels in the 3-book series: Stealing Thunder and Descent: Equinox, which was released October 1999. Peter has also written novelizations of the TV show Space: Above and Beyond and several other original novels called the Squire series.The novel Red Planet is based upon the Warner Brothers film starring Val Kilmer and Carries Anne Moss. The film promises to be this Fall season’s big hit!
Laura Jones, who is the Community Relations Manager at Barnes & Noble located at 481 North Alafaya Trail, Orlando, Fl 32828 407.275.1765 will be selling the books.
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