Remember Back To Winter '96-'97

PROTIP: Save your torpedoes. They're the only ordnance that can take out certain rebel ships.

Read Some Religious Reviews

There were somewhat graphic battle deaths, some sex talk and innuendo, some booze and drinking, and a few other issues of unacceptable programming such as the usual plethora of foul language. One of the male pilots was seen atop a female pilot with his face on one of her breasts. Though both were fully clothed I suppose the comments and implications were strong enough to leave nothing to the imagination, which I suppose was the reason for the PG-13 rating.

Wing Commander followed somewhat closely from the computer games series. Some of the characters were the same. A lot of it seemed very different from the game play...

In short, not a good movie for Christians. [ If our reviews have been helpful to you, please prayerfully consider a donation to help pay the expenses for making this service available to you and your family! Donations are tax-deductible. ]

Rapier II Gets A New PaintJob

Forstchen Moving Away From Science Fiction & Fantasy

I will confess to a tad of disenchantment with the SF & F field these last few years. I feel we’ve or maybe now its they, have lost a sense of vision that the old masters such as Clarke, Heinlein, Sprague de Camp and others carried. Positive or cautionary tales of the future, independent works, not driven by the latest craze or media phenomena, and a field wherein a wide variety of political views were accepted, as it should be accepted by all Americans. It seems that political correctness and deconstruction have crept in and far too much formula writing. I think there are far too many book #xxx in too many series, rather than new and original ideas. My friend Sprague de Camp use to tell me no series should go for more than four books, unless you radically shift characters and POVs...

My many thanks for your kind thoughts and speculations. It stuns me at times and really means the world to me. . .honestly, it really does. In fact I’m stunned to the point of not even being able to reply. I hope that what comes next will not disappoint and know that your kindness really strikes to my heart and is deeply appreciated.

War Of The Worlds Open Today

Asked in an interview with the tabloid daily Bild if he believed in aliens, Cruise said: "Yes, of course. Are you really so arrogant as to believe we are alone in this universe?

"Millions of stars, and we're supposed to be the only living creatures? No, there are many things out there, we just don't know," Cruise, 42, said in the interview published in German.

Standoff Releases Progress Report And Screenshots

The updated files will be included in the episode 2 package, and they will also affect episode 1. The same holds true for most changes we've been making to the game: as long as you have the latest episode installed, the entire game will be as up-to-date as possible.

Come And Join Us

The late addition of New Constantinople to our last poll turned out to be quite popular, but Perry Naval Base came out on top. Every option had its fans, and no choice completely bombed out. Maybe you can keep a Blackmane down though.

Our next poll asks what sort of thing would be most likely to get you out of your house or across the planet to a Wing Commander fan gathering. If it's just money holding you back from attending DragonCon each year, the first option is for you. The other choices were popular requests in our old convention survey.

Watch Wing Commander's Pioneering Special Effect

The 'Josephine' Rig
This camera gives a five-metre long 90 degree circular tracking shot in time-slice®, live-action, long exposure, high-speed shutter or any combination. The camera performs like a compact motion-control rig. The optics are multi-coated, allowing the camera to perform to wide screen feature film standards. Again the construction is robust, enabling the camera to travel to far flung locations and work under the harshest conditions (as has proven the case with natural history work).

One of the most innovative of these effects is the Time Slice sequence, which involves a series of 60 cameras placed in a 120-arc around the subject, allowing the crew to take two seconds worth of footage moving around the action that's essentially frozen in space. Though a similar effect has been seen in TV commercials, it hasn't been successfully utilized yet in a theatrical feature. "When I was in pre-production, you didn't see it everywhere, and I haven't seen it in features yet," says Roberts. "There was a bad attempt in Lost in Space, but that's very different from what we're doing."

"There are about three points in this movie where people go through jump points. In the Wing Commander Universe, you can't go faster than light. You go through faults in space called jump points, and as you go through a fault in space, everyone freezes in time, and so at the time we started pre-production, it seemed like a really great effect. The sequence itself works quite well -- the closer they get to the jump, everything is shaky and it's all going to hell in a handbasket. Then as soon as they breach the jump, bam! It's like everyone is frozen and it's sort of serene."

WCU Needs A Splashy Artist

The new screen will be displayed at the beginning of the standalone installer process, as well as every time the game loads. Since WCU is attempting to encompass the entire Wing Commander mythos, a good splash screen should have some of the following:

A space background
A fighter-class ship (Confed, Kilrathi, or both)
A capital-class sihp (Confed, Kilrathi, or both)
'Wing Commander Universe' in a font that compliments the WC games and the other items on the screen.

Second Nexus Mod In The Works

Helicopter Delivery at EAHQ For Battlefield 2

HoTT Brings In The Cats

DOS Environment Package Updated

Cyberion has updated his DOS Environment Package. The latest version includes bug fixes, optimizations and support for VIA sound cards. Although the program was specifically created for Origin's Crusader series, it's another decent alternative if you happen to have any sort of problem with DOSBox and similar utilities.

Cyberion also wanted to mention that the UK/Scandinavian version of Space Rangers 2 has been released. It's supposed to be a great 2D mix of space combat, RPG action and RTS gameplay. You can find more at the official site here.

Say Hi To Your Own Rapier

New Ultima Online Expansion Announced

Q: Can you give some more details on Community Collections?
A: Community Collections are designed to provide a means for players to voluntarily participate in large-scale cooperative activities. Community Collections allow individuals to donate and earn points based on their direct participation towards the group effort.

Q: What kinds of containers can be labeled?
A: Just about everything! New labeling tools have been created for metal containers, wooden containers, leather containers and spellbooks. Some examples of containers that can be labeled include: backpacks, bags, pouches, crates, potion kegs, chests, SOS chests, etc.

Q: Will cooking get any changes/additions?
A: Yes! There will be new cooking recipes. Cooks will be able to make food and drink that increases the regeneration rate of stamina and if eaten while poisoned, it reduces the number of “ticks” remaining on the poison. Other new food removes curses, increases damage (both melee and spell) for a brief burst of time, and grants a blessing when eaten.

There will also be a Food Decoration Tool that can decorate cakes, cookies and pizzas.

Say Hi To The WC3 Trailer

Standoff Outlines Upcoming Episodes

Episode 1 is almost entirely linear... in the end you get a different mission depending on the ship you choose to fly and a different ending cutscene depending on a choice you make in the cockpit. This choice also affects the inflight dialogue and the cutscenes for most of the rest of the game.

Episode 2 is also almost entirely linear. Near the end there's a different mission you might get depending on your performance. This affects your *entire* episode 3 (all missions, the story, all dialogues, etc).

All subsequent episodes work the same way... Meaning there's basically two different episodes 3, two different episodes 4, and two different episodes 5. The path you will get depends on your performance in each episode.

Then, in episode 5, your performance will affect the ending scenes. Some (all?) endings are shared between the two versions of episode 5, so that there's no such thing as a dead-end losing path.

Memories From DragonCon: 71 Days To Go

Modern Solar Sail Launched

Mark Hamill: Voice Actor Extraordinaire

SCN: Looking back at Wing Commander, another show that you voiced. That was kind of similar to the original Robotech that ran in 1985, as they were both geared towards older audiences but they fell into timeslots that only kids could find them in. Now that more and more animation is being targeted towards adults, like Adult Swim, how do you think a show like Wing Commander would have done today?

MH: Well, now that you’re in this era of 500 channels, I think that you can be more successful with what you might call “niche” products. In other words, more adult-orientated animation. I mean, Batman [The Animated Series] was really sort of ground-breaking in that area in terms of taking what was nominally thought of as a children’s product, and giving it a more mature edge.

I think Wing Commander was a great project; I love Chris Roberts and really enjoyed the challenge of doing a multi-scenario, interactive game, (which is how I first was involved, the animated series came later). I think that one of the things that surprised me about Wing Commander was that the demographics were so broad, and I love working on projects that appeal on many levels.

You Win Some, You Lose Some

PROTIP: When a Kilrathi ship flies past, spin your ship 180 degrees and it should be in view.

Tactics Bengal Model Complete

More Ships To Test In Space Combat

Flight Commander Gets New Ship Viewer

The second addition is the ability to read 3D Wavefront .obj files directly in to the game, without needing to go through the traditional special Flight Commander conversion. As an example, eddieb has been able to directly import Cyberion's Rapier II model which was released a few days ago.

CIC Fan Fiction Forum Goes To Hell

Flight Deck - TCS Tiger's Claw (CV-07)
Dakota System - 2645.155 (June 4th, 2645)
0455 Hours

Loud noises of varying type echoed through the vast flight deck of the TCS Tiger's Claw. The fighters of the strike carrier were lined up neatly in a row for the morning sorties that soon would be leaving her. Multitudes of Scimitars, Hornets, Raptors and the soon to be retired Wildcats sat quietly, waiting for their pilots. Some of the craft looked abused, metal plates covering laser hits, and miscolored parts taken off a fighter that wasn't so lucky on the last mission it went out on.

Happy Anniversary ace And blonde!

Revisit Our First Ever Dragon*Con

CCG History Unearthed

The computer game WING COMMANDER III cost over four and one-half million dollars to produce, making it the most expensive and the most exciting computer game ever created. Its cast of Hollywood stars include Mark Hamil, John Rhys-Davies, and Malcolm McDowell. The card game will feature these stars with their own cards--not as stills, but as photo-realistic paintings by some of the most talented science fiction artists working in the field today! The card game will be sold in a single-deck format, featuring Red Decks for the Kilrathi--the giant cat-like aliens of the WING COMMANDER universe--and Blue Decks for humanity's defenders, the Terran Confederacy. Booster packs will contain a mix of both Kilrathi Red and Terran Blue cards.

Real Wing Commander Props Are A Click Away

Out of all our Merchandise, we get the most questions about flight suits. We're now working on coming up with a new batch of Prophecy-style suits for people to order, but some people might be interested in getting the real thing. A very small number of screen-worn suits are in circulation for Wing Commander fanatics to add to their collections. Because of the limited nature of these items, most of the units left around are from the Wing Commander Movie and exist in various prop houses around Europe.

The Propstore of London has several types of flight deck jumpsuits and vests. They sell blue duty uniforms and crew jackets for a reasonable price as well. Movie Bits has a variety of technicians' tops, jumpsuits and a full red flightsuit. They stock a marine backpack as well. Rare Props also has a couple technicians' gear. Costume Junkie is where you can find a Movie naval officers' uniform, though not for cheap. And if you need a Rapier, Weird and Wonderful is the place. They have two F-117Bs in stock with rentals beginning at £2000.00. Word is that they'd probably be willing to sell one for £8000.00.

Everyone Needs A Kilrathi Statue

A Marquette of a Kilrathi warrior as seen in the sci-fi movie Wing Commander. The model was pulled from the original mould for the original Marquette. It has been professionally painted with great detail paid to the metal effect armour. It comes with a custom made wooden stand. The figure stands 70 cm (28") tall. This stunning display piece is strictly limited to just 5.

Cyberion's Rapier II Model Released

Never Enough Pictures Of Robot Flightsuits

While the access time is minimal, it sometimes breaks up a really good dog fight... The Cinemas and game play in this one are top-notch! Definitely one to watch for.

GameFan Gives SWC A Glowing Review

This game takes the basic idea of Wing Commander and adds more animation, more speech and communication, fluid movement and an AI systems for the Kilrathi that has to be played and played to be truly appreciated. Super Wing Commander is a rare game that will have you completely engrossed in its story telling and its ability to keep you involved in its combat scenarios... The story is rich and deep and, because of the complex control system and the importance placed on communication between Confederate pilots, there are many pieces of information that you are going to need before you hit deep space... The beauty of this game is in the details. If you get to a point where you can begin to appreciate the tremendous depth in this game, then you are playing SWC like Chris Roberts and his team intended.

Dr. Forstchen Ends The Civil War

Stealth Attack In New Wallpaper

Privateer Remake Update Released

- "t" no longer targets everything. "t" only targets ships, and you must use "n" or the nav map to select destinations for navigation.
- Radar targetting cone limitations are implemented when playing on medium and hard difficulty. This means that you must turn your ship to place the target near your front before you can use any of the targetting keys to select it.
- The faction of your target is no longer displayed on the targeting MFD. Use the communication choices to determine what faction you have targetted.
- The universe state is mostly reset when you land and launch again. This should avoid massive groupings of ships.
- Asteroids are destroyable, impart more collision damage, and in general behave a lot better than asteroids in 1.0. They also require more computer resources, and in some systems contaning a lot of asteroids, the 1.0-style asteroids will be used for performance reasons
- Cargo and mission pricing has been tweaked.
- Enemy flight AI has been made more Privateer-like.
- Milspec ships are no longer available for purchase.
- Torpedo mounting capability per mount has been reduced from 20 to 10.
- 2D wireframe images have been added for all targetable objects.

High Quality Drayman Completed

Wing Commander Credited With id's Leisure

"(Carmack) had been experimenting with 3-D graphics since making his wire-frame MTV logos on his Apple II. Since then several games had experimented with first-person 3-D points of view. In 1980, Richard Garriott employed this perspective in his very first role-playing game, Akalabeth. Two years later an Apple II game from Sirius Software called Wayout wowed gamers and critics with a first-person maze game. But it was flight simulations, putting the player in the cockpits of a variety of airplanes, that exploited this kind of immersion. In 1990, Richard Garriott's company, Origin, released a space-themed combat flight simulator called Wing Commander, which became a favorite around the id lake house."

Enjoy Our Biggest Year Yet

Wing Commander Tactics Modding Nexus

New Flight Commander Mission Editor Released

Lev Arris Loves You

I know some people don't like the game, but to me it was a personal favorite... I loved the eerie weird vibe to it.

Report From UO Town Hall In DC

Joe Garrity, Curator of the Origin Museum, was done setting up his fantastic display of Origin related artifacts. No, not the kind you can steal from Doom, but the real kind. Included were a GM Robe complete with "I cannot help thee with that..." sign, Iolo's crossbow - crafted by David "Iolo" Watson himself, a reagent display, some original Ultima boxes still in mint condition, and many, many other wonderful displays. As a long time Ultima and Origin fan, I was very excited to meet Joe a bit later in the evening and have the chance to check out what he had brought with him.

Mark Your Calendars For August 10

Get CIC Gear Early

Memories From DragonCon: 84 Days To Go

Ranger's Glory Beginning Summer Jam

GamePro Reviews The Secret Missions

In Wing Commander by Mindscape you literally kicked tail as you blasted the evil cat people of the Kilrathi Empire out of the galaxy. Well, the cats are back and this time they possess the purr-fect planet-busting weapon! They'll stop at nothing to turn the Terran Federation into cosmic kitty litter.

Usage Problem:
1) Really; actually: “There are people in the world who literally do not know how to boil water” (Craig Claiborne).
2) Used as an intensive before a figurative expression.
For more than a hundred years, critics have remarked on the incoherency of using literally in a way that suggests the exact opposite of its primary sense of “in a manner that accords with the literal sense of the words.”

Space Sim First Look: Enosta Discovery Beyond

A young courageous space pilot is an eye-witness of last days of his Galaxy. Trying to save his world, he starts to research the upcoming cataclysm of cosmic waste that swallows up the universe part by part like a giant black hole. The hero goes to an extreme fantastic and very dangerous world flying between dead planets finding cemeteries of spaceships, anomalies, artifacts and fighting against human enemies who have chosen the Dark Way many milleniums ago.

He has to find legendary Enosta world, the one which is free of Darkness.

Holding The Line Chapter 202

Hey all, Raptor here

HTL continues with the third and final chapter of Scraps Of Honour 15, Death Of A Thousand Cuts. As you saw in the last chapter, the Border Worlds reserves had launched a strike against the Nephilim strike group coming in from Loki. The initial attack is a feint, intended to draw the Nephilim fighters into an ambush. This chapter picks up from there, and is written by Nick "Chaeronea" Deane. Please send any and all comments to Nick at Chaerone@bigpond.net.au, not to me.

The story is at: http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~theraj/archives/ch202.htm

On another note, most of the grunt work of programming Holding The Line Dot Net has been done, so now it's simply a matter of adding the stories, artwork and other content. I've unveiled the beta to the writers, and we hope to have the final site ready to go live in July. This site has been in development a long time, but I think it'll be worth the wait.

Best, Raptor

Funny XvT Mod Uses WC Ships

The Coalition was also at work developing a totally original starfighter design, meant to serve as the backbone of its infant fleet. This fighter, a symbol of the Coalition's resolve much as the X-Wing embodied the Rebel Alliance, is the F-106 Piranha.

Choose Your Favorite Station

They're something that's taken for granted, but you'll be glad they're there if your carrier ever gets blown away. Space stations in WC may not have giant lasers, but we still get attached to them and have our favorites. Now it's your chance to pick the best in our latest poll. There's a nice range of options from various games and factions so you're spoiled for choice. Don't forget to click the discuss link below and let us know why you chose what you did.

Our last poll asked how much money you have spent on Wing Commander in your lifetime. The $100-$250 and $251-$500 choices together accounted for over 60% of the vote. That means that even if the 700 or so people who voted in just those two groups spent the lowest amount within their band, they will have spent well over $100,000 in total.

Get Your Wing Commander Role Play On

Wing Commander: Battle for Enigma is a free-form RPG based on character development and telling stories. We don’t roll dice or use any other kind of system aside from the honor system. Our game has been active since December of 2001, and we meet every Sunday at 9pm EST. In between meetings, role-playing continues on our message boards (which have logged a little over 6,000 In-Character posts since ’01). We are one of the most active, if not the most active, Wing Commander RPG around and we take a lot of pride in that. People can join either by posting in the open chat section of the message board, using the form on our website, or PMing me directly.

Going strong since 1997, Wing Commander: The Edge of Chaos is an interactive role-playing game focusing on the character and story development of pilot life post-Wing Commander IV. Beginning during the final bloody days of the Terran-Kilrathi War, The Edge of Chaos has continued into the year 2676. The Edge of Chaos deals with life after the Terran-Kilrathi War and new threats in the frontier regions of space. Based on our own IRC server, the WCRPG is one of the oldest and most active role-playing games in the Wing Commander community. With weekly sessions, high quality story posts on our forums, and dozens of members, both new and old, The Edge of Chaos is here to stay. Those interested can easily join by going to the forums at http://www.wcrpg.com

Unlike many RPG's, Wing Commander included, AAO focuses on Fleet and Capital Ship based combat, rather then the more often preferred role of a signal character. While some may believe this detracts from the chance for a person to get in character, we at AAO disagree. There are many chances for our players to get into character with Forums such as the Logbooks and Communications Forums on our boards. If you'd like to join WCAAO it's as simple as following the link to our Forums and registering there, where our members will happily assist you in getting started with the RP.

Compile Your Own Flight Commander

Space Sim First Look: Parkan 2

Parkan II is a 3D space simulator combined with first-person action. In the game players will get an opportunity to explore a vast universe, visit different planets, their satellites, huge space stations and immense space destroyers. Players can do this in the cockpit of a spaceship, inside a tank or just with a laser rifle in hand. Gamers will have to fight against multiple enemies in outer space, on planets' surface, inside military bases or even in the debris of some ancient civilizations.

Read The Fiction Behind The Comic

2654.288 A.D.
Proxima System, Douglas Quadrant (Vega Sector).
TCS Falcon

Captain Hermann “Baron” Vorchstein eyed the cards in his hand coolly, they hadn’t been favorable to him lately and it was certainly looking like his luck wasn’t going to change anytime soon. Tearing his eyes away from his dismal hand of cards he eyed his opponent seated directly across from him. Poker peer, Lt. Jonathan Craft was still intensely focused on whatever hand he held. Hermann had no doubt that whatever the young lieutenant was holding it had to be better than his own cards. Hermann had almost bowed out last round and now that he had seen what he had been dealt he regretted his decision to stick it out for another hand. Well, here was yet another week’s salary gone down the drain with nothing but a rotten spirit to show for it. What a disgrace…Hermann shifted his gaze to his immediate left to see longtime flying partner, Sarah Molynieux, looking entirely too pleased with her cards. Perhaps that wasn’t such a bad thing, if he was going to lose his money it might as well to Sarah, better her than the silent Jonathan Craft. Hermann could swear the man didn’t have a tongue, he rarely spoke a word even when it was important. There was no way Hermann could tell what Jonathan was holding in his hands but it was clear that Sarah was packing a winner, she typically didn’t let her emotions show during the game. Then again, she could be bluffing, it wasn’t entirely unlike her, she was a habitual risk taker.

Jumpgate EU Server To Shut Down, US Server Now Worldwide

The loss of the EU server means that the US server will now become the worldwide server by default. Provisions are being made to transfer active EU server accounts to the remaining Jumpgate server. Current EU players who wish to keep flying may do so. NetDevil expects a somewhat bumpy transition period as the billing and support teams, as well as the community, all adapt to the new situation. NetDevil will alter the Terms of Service for Jumpgate to remove the article prohibiting European players on the former US server, which had been required by contract with Mightygames.

Bonuses Hidden In Wing Commander 4

Command Line Arguments and Game Responses
wc4 -mitchell : Mitchell don't work here no more. He work for Bazooka Joe now.
wc4 -mitchell2 : I told you he don't work here no more! You call Bazooka Joe!
wc4 -chicken : Chicken mode: [ON] Boc Boc! (then use Control-W to kill your current target in game, or Control-Alt-W to kill all enemies)
wc4 -test : Test okay!!! (then crashes)

Terminal Easter Eggs
Type the following at the game's terminal the first time you start the game while the gray text is scrolling *before* it asks for your callsign:
chicken - Different version of the game credit with strange comments. See screenshots 1-9 below.
animal - Animal Gump mini-game. See screenshot 10 below.

Wing Commander Movie On Sci-Fi Tomorrow

Freddie Prinze Jr. and Saffron Burrows star as elite fighter pilots on the front line of a 27th-century war for interstellar domination.

Joans Supplement Blueprint Art

I recreated these three blueprints of the Snakeir, Sivar and Star Post over the weekend when I caught a cold. It took about 2-3 hrs each with the exception of the Snakeir - probably closer to 4-5 hrs. I also fixed some errors in the original drawings as the fins on the Snakier were way off in the drawing, and some details were completely missing in other areas... Anyways, let me know what you all think... I know there are some other Blue prints out there that can be completed!

Mark Hamill Appearing In Hungary Next Week

Standoff Increasing The Difficulty

Happy ace's Happy Month

Ultima Town Hall To Feature Origin Museum

DC Town Hall Meeting Details
When: Thursday June 2nd 7:30PM – 10:30PM
Where: Doubletree Hotel and Executive Meeting Center (7801 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, VA 22043)
Who: Lead Designer Maria “Cerdith" Hamilton, Live Team Lead Peter "Fertbert" Phillips, Producer Jessica “Lady Lu" Lewis, Product Manager Aaron “Darkscribe" Cohen, the Community team of John “Wilki" Wilkinson and Chris “Binky" Launius and most importantly YOU!