Fatman Update

I got a first draft of the CD jacket art. It's AWESOME! Just in case, I ran it past my lawyer, who loved it, too, and assured us that there was nothing illegal about doing something in the style of Wing Commander. I thought you'd like to know that for the sake of your website!!! I'll try to get a picture of my lawyer doing shots with Bill Clinton for you...

And thanks for bugging me about the CD. It's very encouraging to think that people actually want this. I've finished up a lot of projects this last week. And my Brother the Record Company bugged me about it, too.

So, I'm hoping to finish the audio mastering this coming week. Then, it's deciding what to say in the jacket, finishing up the text and art layout, nd ship the sucker.

I don't know how long that takes.

I've also been asked to write some books, and I'm in a nice spot between submitting the proposal and having to actually do the work. So this is a good time for WC. Should we include "Nice Day for War?" http://www.fatman.com/mpegs/fatman05.mp3

Love to all Warmongers--please remember to hold your horses.

FAT

How Goes the I-War?

Space-combat games and me go way back -- I was playing some of the first-ever 3D space games when some of the younger members of the PC Gamer team were still messing their drawers. Star Raiders, Elite, the original Wing Commander, and X-Wing... ah, those were the days, when line-drawn "vector" graphics and a few well placeed white dots on a black background were all it took to transport you to strange new worlds. These days, of course, it's all very different. The genre has been at the forefront of the PC gaming's technological evolution -- Origin and LucasArts leading the way in the mid-'90s with ever more impressive-looking Wing Commander and TIE Fighter titles, before finally being overtaken in the last few years by the likes of FreeSpace 2, Starlancer, and Independence War. The race has been twofold -- keep improving the graphics and speed to the point where you can really begin to feel as if you're in a Return of the Jedi-style furball, while also providing an ever more rich and "alive" universe to interact with.

AYB Joke Goes Here

Looks like I'm still playing catch up -- since there's a whole mess of Wing Commander Invasion screenshots available... including a bunch of renderings of the Armada mod's various bases.