Happy New Year 2006!

The Standoff Team has created a super wallpaper to help us usher in the new year. It's available in resolutions up to 1600x1200, but it's not based around your typical high polygon model. The image features a stylish green Sabre shadowing a white background. Standoff Episode 3 will be kicking 2006 off with a bang on January 8.

The CIC staff would also like to thank the thousands and thousands of dedicated Wing Commander fans who made 2005 so fantastic. If you're not going out at midnight tonight, feel free to drop by #Wingnut.

Resolution 1600x1200 1280x960 1024x768 800x600

Just dropping by to wish everyone a happy new year! The upcoming release of Ep 3 is surely a good start to the Wing Commander happenings of 2006, so let's welcome the year properly. I've added a wallpaper to the downloads section to celebrate the occasion... it's available in four different resolutions, ranging from the one that fits my desktop to a few others that fit monitors which I'll never be able to afford. :-P

I faked a cartoon shader by using some falloff maps in MAX and then adding a duplicate of the original model (with inverted normals, colored solid black, and made "fatter" by the Push modifier) to get the external outlines. Tried to bring back even more of that WC2 feeling than usual. This is the model which showed up in our Ep 3 release announcement a few days ago and which will be used in our splash screens and such.

This should make up for those low res graphics I've put out in the past. Go check it out, and again, have a happy new year!

Community Award Voting Ends Tonight

Fan Project of the Year Nominees
• Armada Online - A major Wing Commander milestone was reached this year when HCl's breakthrough patches allowed Wing Commander fans to fly together online for the first time. A wide variety of arena, deathmatch, cooperative and strategic multiplayer modes can now be played online in Wing Commander Armada and Proving Grounds.
• Flight Commander - The FC engine was created from scratch to allow a new generation of fans to create their own new adventures in the Wing Commander universe. It is regularly updated with more robust features, and developer eddieb is always on hand to walk new modders through the process.
• Holding the Line - HTL is the Wing Commander Aces Club's (and the Wing Commander community at large) longest running fan fiction arc. It has endured for over 200 chapters written continuously for more than six years. The writers are also devoted to promoting and archiving stories written by other Aces authors dating back more than ten years.
• PiArmada - This project utilizes the Pi4X strategy engine to recreate the look and feel of the original Armada. Announced on January 2, 2005, it is one of the year's promising new projects. Future versions may be expanded with integrated space flight for instellar clashes.
• Privateer Gemini Gold - This spin off of the open-source Privateer Remake continues to polish its look and strive for greater symmetry with the original Privateer. Part of its popularity can be attributed to its new graphical effects and broad support for Windows, Macintosh and Linux platforms.
• Standoff - Secret Ops editing was taken to new heights with the release of the Standoff mod. Utilizing the team's many years of Wing Commander modding experience, the makers of Standoff have added numerous features to the authentic Wing Commander Vision Engine. While creating a rich new story in the WC2 era, the team attentively works to stay within the framework of the established universe.
• Wing Commander 4 DVD Patch - gulikoza's impressive efforts to overcome the inherent hardware limitation of the WC4 DVD edition has allowed Wing Commander fans to experience Wing Commander's highest quality video productions for the first time. The game originally required a special Creative Labs decoder card, but anyone with Windows XP can now play the game with the WC4 DVD dxmci patch.
• Wing Commander Pioneer - WC Pioneer was one of the most ambitious new projects announced in 2005. The game they are creating with use an all new engine with high quality graphics and game mechanics. It will play out in Privateer style during the WC1 timeframe in the Landreich territories.
• Wing Commander Saga - Fans of the Freespace engine are in for a treat with the upcoming release of this project's Prologue Chapter. WC Saga takes advantage of new effects and abilities available in the Freespace 2 engine as it explores a gritty chapter near the end of the Kilrathi War.

Web Site of the Year Nominees
• Fleet Tactics - This influential site attracts many users because of its serious in-universe atmosphere and presentation. It's jam packed with the sort of technical information and propaganda that might be available at a major Confed installation in 2669.
• Origin Museum - Many of the world's most exotic and one-of-a-kind Wing Commander, Ultima and miscellaneous Origin collectibles are housed at the Origin Museum. Curators Joe and Paula Garrity go to great lengths to network with former Origin personnel to acquire and preserve important parts of our history in a central location.
• HCl's Wing Commander Editing Site - One of the undisputed masters at Wing Commander editing has a simple site that offers his vast collection of tools, tweaks and patches to the internet. The efforts represented there are used in a variety of other fan projects and can help enhance the experience of almost any Wing Commander fan.
• Wedge's Wing Commander - Wedge's site has been a major information repository for many years. Fan projects of all kinds call on it to provide quick access to detailed story scripts and centralized resources for individual games in the Wing Commander series.
• WingCenter - The "Center for all Wingmen" was one of the original community hubs that sprouted in the late 1990s. They now cater to the large German audience of Wing Commander fans and occasionally highlight other up and coming space combat sims.
• Wing Commander 3D - WC3D has long been a resource for both new and experienced Wing Commander 3d artists, modelers and texturers. Many different people's works have been collected and are made available here for general fan use.
• Wing Commander Against All Odds - AAO is another representative of the hip new 2005 breed of Wing Commander sites and projects. They have an active forum where players focus on fleet and capital ship role play. The group also supports other upstart RPG attempts.
• Wing Commander RPG - The Edge of Chaos RPG has its earliest origins in the AOL chatrooms way back in 1994, and many of its members have been an active part of the Wing Commander community for an entire decade. It continues to host regular role play sessions on IRC and its message boards.
• Wing Commander Saga - To coincide with renewed efforts to complete the Saga game, the new Saga website was unveiled with tons of information and a stylish new look. It's been an important portal for releasing the project's impressive CGI trailer and whetting fans' eager appetites.

And those are the nominees! Visit here to vote for the Web Site of the Year and here to vote for Fan Project of the Year. See you in 2006!

It's Arrow Against Arrow

Have Fun With Scissors And Glue

Relive The Kilrathi War's End

The video shows the history of the Lancelot Flight, the attack on Kilrah and its consequences. I used HCl's wc movie player to extract videos. Each time I listened to "Godspeed" from Starfox, I thought it would be a great one for WC, so there it is now.

Space Sim First Look: Space Cowboy

Ranger's Glory Christmas Pack Released

Like some WC projects around this time of year, Ranger's Glory is providing a Christmas gift. This package includes a number of the ships I have converted this year, most from UE. Also, you will find all the comm videos done for WCP, WCSO and WCUE. There are also a few edited FC files and an updated ship viewer.

This package is primarily for FC modders, but included in this package is the first simulator mission of Ranger's Glory. The package is broken up into a series of file folders to allow for selective additions to the engine. To add a ship, just open that ship's folder and copy and paste the files within to your main Flight Commander directory. Note that the ship viewer will not work unless all of the ship files have been pasted into the folder.

For those who just want to play the sim mission, just paste the contents of the following folders into your FC directory: "RGSim mission1," "Ranger," "Ferret," "Navbuoyobject" and the contents of the "UE-used-commvids" folder.

So enjoy the package and Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah or whatever holiday you keep at this time of year.

EA Receives First Official Postage Stamp

Despite continued success of the series and the recent launch of Sims 2 for consoles, Electronic Arts also recently announced that holiday sales will probably be lower than expected. This will be coupled with the dip in profitability generally associated with the costs of gearing up for a new console cycle.

"Holiday sales are not meeting expectations," said Larry Probst, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "For the December quarter, it is likely the industry will be down double digits on a percentage basis."

Howard Day's On Ice

The Murder Of Chris Todd

WING COMMANDER III
Origin (1993)

My first job out of college was working as one of the main programmers on Wing Commander III, a title widely credited with being the first "interactive movie" due to its extensive use of non-linear, live action cut scenes filmed by a professional crew in Hollywood. My job was to design a system that could integrate hours of movie footage with a 3D spaceflight engine and the user's input to create the illusion of a coherent story. The result was Scheherazade, a completely flexible multimedia scripting system. It was a hell of an introduction to the gaming industry -- like being handed a rifle and told that you're landing at Normandy -- but an achievment of which I'm still proud. WC3 was translated into several languages, ported to a number of other platforms, and went on to become one of the best-selling computer games of all time.

I graduated with a degree in computer science about the time I decided I'd like to do something different. But somehow something different led to programming computer games, and then starting a computer game company. I founded my company with a good friend and spent two years of my life on it, not all of it easy, but in the end I gained more than I lost in the form of many friends, old and new, who have become extremely important in my life. About the time the company went under, I decided to really do something different and I knew that meant becoming a writer -- and eventually a screenwriter.

Today I make things up and sometimes get paid for it. Not a bad way to make a living.

All of the previous could have been made up. But it's not. Really. You can trust me.

Saga's Task Force Graces Your Display

Cyberion Has A Simple Message

Merry Christmas 2005!

Happy Hanukkah!

WC Tactics Adds Scimitar And Waterloo

Flight Commander Fixes Now Available

• Fix choice of formation, doesn't always use 0 any more.
• Added a new script command Ship_setAIEnabled to disable the AI for a given ship. This is useful if a ship is flying in formation and you want it to stay put.

Standoff Episode 3 Coming January 8

The splash screens are nearly finished, the voiceovers are nearly finished, the music is nearly finished... see a pattern here? :-P In addition to that, while the missions are theoretically finished... well, the last of them was finished yesterday, so you can imagine we haven't had much time to test it for bugs yet.

We probably could have released this episode for Christmas, had we decided to cut a few corners and not worry about checking missions for last-minute bugs... but we will never, ever do that. And hey, look on the bright side - this episode has taken us only 50% of the time the previous episode took. Even with this last-minute delay, we're still damned proud of that result.

So, check back here in two weeks to download Episode 3...

Catch Up On Your Voting

The end of the year always brings about many "[Something] of the Year" awards. Many are a chance for you to show your appreciation for various things. We're no exception - the CIC's community awards are designed to celebrate the Fan Project and Web Site of the Year. Meanwhile eddieb is holding a vote for the Flight Commander mod of the year award. All you need to vote is a forums account. Outside of the WC community, the Greatest 50 Games site lists Wing Commander as a nominee for their list. WC is currently only six votes away from beating World of Warcraft, a game with 5 million subscribers worldwide. All four polls close on December 31, with the results being announced on January 1.

• CIC's Fan Project of the Year poll
• CIC's Web Site of the Year poll
• Flight Commander Mod of the Year poll
• Greatest 50 Games poll

Other sites have announced the results of their awards already. Gamespot are running their Best and Worst of 2005 awards. The only space sim up nominated was Nexus: The Jupiter Incident for their Best Game No One Played award, but it didn't win. Christopher Walken, known for playing David Hassan in Privateer 2, has the dubious honor of winning their Worst Use of Celebrity Voices award for his role in True Crime: New York City. The people at Spike TV may dispute this as they awarded Walken their Best Supporting Male Performance trophy for his performance in the game. Unfortunately such awards are always going to disappoint somebody.

Lorddarthvik Kicks Off Longbow Day

BradMick's Longbow Joins The Pack

They're all scaled to a 6ft figure sitting in the cockpit. Based on that the scales are fairly accurate with said figure. In so far as the shapes go, they're all accurate. Referencing the in game meshes with the high res renders from the Warbirds deal, I've made sure I've got all the proportions and what not correct. Now, there are differences between the WC3 and 4 versions of these ships. Little things in the details, and some things in the proportions too. That may be why it's a bit off to some folks. It seems most are more familiar with the WC4 versions than the WC3.

Scout's Honor

Just the Specs, Ma'am

More War...birds

The Premiere Edition of Wing Commander III included a number of special items, from a copy of Fleet Action to a 1995 calendar. Most unique, however, may have been its full color version of the Warbirds fold-out poster. The regular Warbirds poster features greyscale images of high resolution "FMV" renderings of ten Wing Commander III fighters - this version ups the ante by reproducing those same images in full color. Now, we've scanned them all! The images can be accessed below... but fans interested in working on high resolution models of their own can find 600 DPI scans (roughly 5 megabytes per ship) here.

Brainstorming Flight Commander

You Maniacs! You Blew It Up!

Eder has sent along the latest teaser for Wing Commander: Standoff... Earth as it looked under bombardment from a pair of Kilrathi cruisers! It's certainly a lot more realistic than same scene as stylized on the cover of Fleet Action -- and it's also all the scarier!

If you'd like to learn more about the cities destroyed by Baron Jukaga's cruiser squadron during the 2668 Battle of Terra, you can find them all charted on this helpful Frappr! Map.

A Book Database Update? Let Me Czech

Writing on the Walls

You stop by the Mercenaries Guild office to flirt with the scantily clad hostess and rifle through their stack of individual CDs containing bounties and patrol missions. On the wall, a projector flashes through a series of bizarre advertisements for sex, guns, missing children and... Saddam Hussein? Have you ever wondered exactly what those posters say? Of course -- you're a Wing Commander fan! Now, for the first time, you can see them in their original format. Marvel at the fact that that child has been missing for 43 years... or that in the futuristic world of Privateer, phone sex costs more than a 9,500 ESK missile. I know where I'd get my satisfaction!

We're No Lanced.Babes, But We Get By...

Goodbye, John Spencer

Rest in peace, Mr. Spencer. Our sympathies go out to his fans, family and friends. He will be well remembered as one of cinematic Wing Commander's brightest stars, if not one of its favorite characters. Yahoo has published an obituary, available here.

Spencer is the second Wing Commander actor to pass away this year - Privateer 2's John Vernon died in February. He is also the second Wing Commander Captain to die: the TCS Lexington's previous commander, actor Jason Bernard (Captain William Eisen), died tragically in 1996.

The Way Life Should Have Been

Origin Museum Adds New Collectibles

In Our Dreams

Top Priority No.1:
Start the development of Wing Commander 6

The sudden end of Prophecy makes clear that there's got to be a follow-up script to the story in the desk of some (former) employee. Although Origin is no more and there's no sign of evidence that there are plans to revive the Wing Commander series, it would be the perfect start of the day as the boss of EA to make this happen!

These Standoff Pictures Are Mine

Videos and graphics are now nearly complete. I just need to render a couple cutscenes and finish off one of the splash screens. Tempest has also made some good progress in the voiceover area, but we can't work miracles there since other parts of the game depend on other people as well. Apart from that, some missions still need to be debugged, and Michael still needs to finish all the cutscene music. So, Episode 3 is close, but not quite here yet...

Lend Your Voice

I'm in need of a few (three to be exact) voice actors to record a few lines for me for a little project I'm trying to do. It's nothing major I think the most I need is about 6 lines from anyone. I know there's some great voice talent out there in the CIC community as great mods like Standoff has shown. If you're interested shoot me an email at: daniel.goodwin@mchsi.com. If you could please include a couple of sample files with generic pilot lines like "He's on my six!" "All clear etc." That would help. I would greatly appreciate it. I'd love to give more details but right now I simply don't have them.

New Krant Shots Intercepted

Well, I lost my previous model of the Krant when a Hard drive failed a year or so ago. It wasn't that good anyway so it wasn't much of a loss. Anyway, I decided I would try to make a new one.

Christopher Walken Wins Video Game Award

NAME: Hassan, Cdr. David
AGE: 36
PLACE OF BIRTH: Hades
PROFESSION: CIS employee
BACKGROUND: Beta++ clearance required

Tiger's Claw Moves In For Attack

Don't Forget To Vote

Klavs Crams Fighters In

Upgrade Your SETI@home Client!

1. Read SETI@home's rules and policies.
   
2. Get a SETI@home account:
   • If you had an account in the original 'SETI@home Classic' project as of 15 March 2005:
     We've transferred your account, including profile and team information.
     You must now activate the account.
   • Otherwise: Create a new account
3. Download, install, and run the BOINC software used by SETI@home.

Pioneer's Tarsus Coming Together

Pioneer Planet Preview

Keep in mind that we've not even begun to touch clouds though. These planets will not have uniformly Californian weather when we're done. They're all procedurals mixed with satelite imagery, so they're infinitely randomizable.

Striker's Raptors Go On Patrol

See WC On BBC Tonight

The Wing Commander movie will be aired tonight in the UK on BBC1 from 11:50pm until 1:25am. That's only an hour and a half from the time of writing this so you'll have to be quick to catch it. Unfortunately we didn't know earlier. Thanks to Starman for the heads up.

WC Saga Wants Your Desktop

The cold vacuum of space has erupted into absolute chaos. Klaxons echo stridently across the flight deck, announcing the unexpected arrival of a Kilrathi strike force. The FORCAP fighters have already engaged the Kats and are taking losses, and enemy bombers have broken through the defensive line and are nearly within strike range. Time is of the essence. Footsteps ring against the deck, mingled with the urgent shouts of technicians making desperate final checks of the fighters.

The canopy of your Hellcat V slides into position and seals itself shut. Your VDU crackles, and the image of the comm officer clears you for takeoff. You jam your throttle forward and feel the acceleration slam you hard against your headrest. Your Hellcat streaks out of the fighter bay and you peel off towards the oncoming attackers.

More Updates For Space Sim Fans

I would really love to see the Wing Commander and Freelancer Community there, basically because I believe they can help bring ideas and suggestions to the game in order to recapture some of the "old" feeling most of us grew up with, something the team is really attempting to do and actually doing very well, especially when it comes to battle itself.

From the other side of the globe, StarCalibur, by Russian developer RevoltGames, has released a playable demo. It's a 130 megs download featuring both first and third person play modes. We covered the game last year when it was also known as Secret Sign. In addition to space fighter combat, the player occasionally controls planetary guns or carrier turrets. You can grab the demo here or here.

Selling the Movie Revisited

In 1997 we had our first hints that a Wing Commander movie was on the horizon. Chris Roberts had long spoken of his desire to develop a movie... and Wing Commander IV's release proved that he knew what he was doing.

First came the Phoenix Pictures Memo, a leaked document which included a description of the movie's script and of 1996 negotiations between Electronic Arts, Chris Roberts and a European film company. Was this an elaborate hoax? No one knew. Next came ten 'concept' screenshots, incorrectly published online by Origin, billed as Wing Commander Prophecy concept artwork. Insiders soon confirmed: these paintings were made to help sell the Wing Commander movie to a movie studio.

We're proud to return these unusual screenshots to our archive. Fans can now get an amazing view of how the movie might have looked with no budget or casting constraints. With the benefit of the recently discovered First Draft Script of the Wing Commander movie (available here, in PDF format, 33 megs), we can finally determine exactly what these are screenshots of.

From left to right: 1 - A Terran Confederation pilot. 2 - The Diligent attacks the Kilrathi ComCon. 3 - Detail of the Kilrathi ComCon. 4 - 2nd Lt. Christopher Blair. 5 - The Merchant Marine ship Dilligent. 6 & 7 - Space Combat. 8 & 9 - Dralthi class Medium Fighters. 10 - Saber class Fighters.

Choose Your Own Commander

The CIC's Community Awards aren't the only prestigious contest in town! Wing Commander: Flight Commander fan project creator eddieb is holding a similar event to decide on the best Flight Commander mod of the year. There's three in the running right now: Ranger's Glory, the Wing Commander I Remake and A Shot in the Dark.

Hopefully the easy modability and general Wing Commander stylings of the Flight Commander engine means that that list will be even longer next year! You can cast your vote at the Flight Commander forum here.

Kilrah Slings Some Arrows

I must say that this wouldn’t be possible without the help of Lorddarthvik and Zohrath. Thank you very much, guys. :)

A 1280x960 version of the Strakha/Arrow battle is also available here.

Music For The Rest of Us

We've had several requests for copies of the 'other' tracks from the ultra-rare Origin Soundtrack CD. They may not be Wing Commander... but they're still great, so we're happy to oblige. The CD has a single track for each game, which we've converted into mp3s below. Each track has multiple themes, listed below -- if Ultima and Bad Blood fans can figure out how to properly divide them up we'll be happy to host those as well. You can find their Wing Commander counterparts (alongside more Wing Commander music than you can shake a steak at) in our Albums Section.

Track 2 - Ultima Worlds of Adventure 2 - "Martian Dreams" (22.8 megs)

1 Main Theme / Tom Hollingshead
2 Daytime / The Fatman
3 Surface Combat / The Fatman
4 Victory / Dana Glover
5 Turn Back the Clock / Dana Glover
6 Dream Combat / Tom Hollingshead
7 Nighttime / The Fatman
8 Below Ground / Tom Hollingshead

Track 3 - Bad Blood (13.4 megs)

1 Tranquil Nature / Steve Morris
2 Main Theme - After The Holocaust / Steve Morris
3 Murmurings / Steve Morris
4 Choice For Hope / Steve Morris
5 The Decision / Steve Morris
6 The Send-Off / Steve Morris
7 Plains / Steve Morris
8 The City / Steve Morris

Track 4 - Ultima VI - The False Prophet (14.3 megs)

1 Can't Remove the Pain / Todd Porter
2 Rule Britannia / Herman Miller
3 I Hear You Crying / Todd Porter
4 The Wander / Todd Porter
5 Black Forest / Todd Porter
6 Fall Leaves / Todd Porter
7 Stones / David Watson 7 Kathleen Jones

Track 5 - Ultima Worlds of Adventure 1 - "The Savage Empire" (9.1 megs)

1 Main Theme - The Savage Empire / The Fatman
2 Jingle Of The Jungle / The Fatman
3 On The Surface / The Fatman

Privateer, Seen Here

Origin presents Privateer, a next generation space combat simulator for the IBM platform. You'll move through an intensely cinematic universe experiencing the two very different thrills of reaching a hard bargain and real time 3D space combat. Make your own alliances and choose the life of a pirate, a mercenary or a merchant. Customize your ship, modify your weapons, armament and systems. Explore a complete universe with more than fifty bases and planets in almost seventy systems!

Movie Blair Saves Television

Standoff Stands Up

Episode 3 is coming along - the missions are progressing nicely, we have implemented about 60% of the voiceovers, and both versions of the intro cutscene are done, except for the music... but that's because Michael's been busy working on the music for the video cutscenes, which is almost done! The fiction is not progressing because Quarto is doing other stuff, but he says the fiction will be done in a day or two when its turn arrives.

The World Says Goodbye to Digital Anvil

GameStop: Digital Anvil Melted Down
IGN: Hammer Falls on Digital Anvil
Joystiq: MS Brings Hammer Down On Digital Anvil
GameDaily: Microsoft Drops the Hammer on Digital Anvil
Voodoo Extreme: RIP Digital Anvil
XBox Circle: Digital Anvil Is No More
Pro-G: Digital Anvil Staff Redeployed
Playfuls: Microsoft Kills Digital Anvil
CVG: Microsoft Drops Digital Anvil
Gamasutra: Microsoft Confirms Closure Of Digital Anvil
1Up: Digital Anvil Shuts Down

Snips of Ships

Pick Your Favorite Music Next

The results for our minimum system requirements poll are in. Most people believed that a modern 2.0 GHz system with half a gigabyte of RAM and a standard 128 meg video card could be the minimum specs for the next PC based Wing Commander game. This reflects our community's continued optimism that more games will be arriving sooner rather than later. Less than 10% of people polled thought the next WC game would require components beyond the current technological envelope, but even if their opinion turn out to be correct, we'll still be here to welcome the future titles when they arrive. A similar proportion of fans thought the next game would only be released for consoles and handheld gaming devices. Who knows? How many people expected the wonderful Prophecy Advance's arrival?

Our next poll asks which Wing Commander products had your favorite music. Your options include Team Fat's classic Wing Commander 1&2 tracks, George Oldziey's popular orchestral base for Wing Commander 3 through Prophecy, Cobalt-60's techno background for Secret Ops, the unique style of Privateer & Academy, or David Arnold and Kevin Kiner's distinct Wing Commander Movie score.

Time To Kick Off Annual Community Awards

Fan Project of the Year Nominees
• Armada Online - A major Wing Commander milestone was reached this year when HCl's breakthrough patches allowed Wing Commander fans to fly together online for the first time. A wide variety of arena, deathmatch, cooperative and strategic multiplayer modes can now be played online in Wing Commander Armada and Proving Grounds.
• Flight Commander - The FC engine was created from scratch to allow a new generation of fans to create their own new adventures in the Wing Commander universe. It is regularly updated with more robust features, and developer eddieb is always on hand to walk new modders through the process.
• Holding the Line - HTL is the Wing Commander Aces Club's (and the Wing Commander community at large) longest running fan fiction arc. It has endured for over 200 chapters written continuously for more than six years. The writers are also devoted to promoting and archiving stories written by other Aces authors dating back more than ten years.
• PiArmada - This project utilizes the Pi4X strategy engine to recreate the look and feel of the original Armada. Announced on January 2, 2005, it is one of the year's promising new projects. Future versions may be expanded with integrated space flight for instellar clashes.
• Privateer Gemini Gold - This spin off of the open-source Privateer Remake continues to polish its look and strive for greater symmetry with the original Privateer. Part of its popularity can be attributed to its new graphical effects and broad support for Windows, Macintosh and Linux platforms.
• Standoff - Secret Ops editing was taken to new heights with the release of the Standoff mod. Utilizing the team's many years of Wing Commander modding experience, the makers of Standoff have added numerous features to the authentic Wing Commander Vision Engine. While creating a rich new story in the WC2 era, the team attentively works to stay within the framework of the established universe.
• Wing Commander 4 DVD Patch - gulikoza's impressive efforts to overcome the inherent hardware limitation of the WC4 DVD edition has allowed Wing Commander fans to experience Wing Commander's highest quality video productions for the first time. The game originally required a special Creative Labs decoder card, but anyone with Windows XP can now play the game with the WC4 DVD dxmci patch.
• Wing Commander Pioneer - WC Pioneer was one of the most ambitious new projects announced in 2005. The game they are creating with use an all new engine with high quality graphics and game mechanics. It will play out in Privateer style during the WC1 timeframe in the Landreich territories.
• Wing Commander Saga - Fans of the Freespace engine are in for a treat with the upcoming release of this project's Prologue Chapter. WC Saga takes advantage of new effects and abilities available in the Freespace 2 engine as it explores a gritty chapter near the end of the Kilrathi War.

Web Site of the Year Nominees
• Fleet Tactics - This influential site attracts many users because of its serious in-universe atmosphere and presentation. It's jam packed with the sort of technical information and propaganda that might be available at a major Confed installation in 2669.
• Origin Museum - Many of the world's most exotic and one-of-a-kind Wing Commander, Ultima and miscellaneous Origin collectibles are housed at the Origin Museum. Curators Joe and Paula Garrity go to great lengths to network with former Origin personnel to acquire and preserve important parts of our history in a central location.
• HCl's Wing Commander Editing Site - One of the undisputed masters at Wing Commander editing has a simple site that offers his vast collection of tools, tweaks and patches to the internet. The efforts represented there are used in a variety of other fan projects and can help enhance the experience of almost any Wing Commander fan.
• Wedge's Wing Commander - Wedge's site has been a major information repository for many years. Fan projects of all kinds call on it to provide quick access to detailed story scripts and centralized resources for individual games in the Wing Commander series.
• WingCenter - The "Center for all Wingmen" was one of the original community hubs that sprouted in the late 1990s. They now cater to the large German audience of Wing Commander fans and occasionally highlight other up and coming space combat sims.
• Wing Commander 3D - WC3D has long been a resource for both new and experienced Wing Commander 3d artists, modelers and texturers. Many different people's works have been collected and are made available here for general fan use.
• Wing Commander Against All Odds - AAO is another representative of the hip new 2005 breed of Wing Commander sites and projects. They have an active forum where players focus on fleet and capital ship role play. The group also supports other upstart RPG attempts.
• Wing Commander RPG - The Edge of Chaos RPG has its earliest origins in the AOL chatrooms way back in 1994, and many of its members have been an active part of the Wing Commander community for an entire decade. It continues to host regular role play sessions on IRC and its message boards.
• Wing Commander Saga - To coincide with renewed efforts to complete the Saga game, the new Saga website was unveiled with tons of information and a stylish new look. It's been an important portal for releasing the project's impressive CGI trailer and whetting fans' eager appetites.

And those are the nominees! Visit here to vote for the Web Site of the Year and here to vote for Fan Project of the Year.

Improved Gemini Released For Linux Users

BREAKING NEWS: RIP, Digital Anvil 1996-2005

Gamespot has announced that Microsoft will close their Austin Digital Anvil studios in the next month.

The professional news sites will probably eulogize Digital Anvil as the proverbial little engine that couldn't, an attempt by Wing Commander's Chris Roberts' to fight the power and set up a small studio in an era when good development meant big money.

That's a disservice: Digital Anvil was never small. They launched with three announced titles in the works and a fourth under wraps... and at the same time developed some of the highest quality film work in the world, basically in their spare time. Others may complain that Digital Anvil shipped only four games - but well note that all four were truly amazing, fun experiences that harkened back to the glory days of computer gaming.

I had the opportunity to visit both Digital Anvil studios several times. Their original base, at Third and Congress in downtown Austin, was a beautiful homage to all things Wing Commander -- game posters on all the wall, movie props on every flat surface. Digital Anvil was a classy operation. The new offices, also downtown and soon to be empty, were clean and professional... and they reminded me more of Origin's old offices than anywhere else in the world.

What's more, their employees were consummate professionals. Many have moved on since, but men like Adam Foshko, Martin Galway, John Guentzel, Jorg Neumann, Eric Peterson, Chris and Erin Roberts and Phil Wattenberger are the best in the business; friendly to an old Wing Commander fan such as myself and at the same time responsible for world class game development.

The Wing Commander community owes Digital Anvil several times over:

Many know that the studio assisted in the production of the Wing Commander movie; in fact, Digital Anvil was chiefly responsible for the two aspects of the movie that were universally lauded - the beautiful introductory sequence and the amazing 3D effects.

Further, Digital Anvil employees have continued to support our community for many years with no benefit for themselves; much of the fascinating development material currently found in our Archives was provided by Digital Anvil employees. During the release of the movie they were always happy to listen to us. During the development of the Wing Commander movie they would occasionally contact us to ask about tiny little pointless facts -- the mechanics of jump points, the proper names for types of laser rifles and such. I especially remember finding a typo in their Wing Commander Movie website (it was dated '2564' instead of '2654')... I called them up, asked to speak to the webmaster and they had it fixed within minutes. That's true dedication to our strange cause.

First and foremost, however, Digital Anvil continued the Wing Commander series' legacy and spirit with StarLancer and FreeLancer, a pair of first class space combat games developed in an era when making such games was not necessarily commercially viable.

They not only believed that the genre could be re-ignited when no one else thought it was worth the risk, they convinced the largest corporation in the world to back their attempt. The company should never be forgotten by Wing Commander fans for this alone.

Our hearts go out to everyone who has to relocate and everyone who cannot. Digital Anvil deserves better. It is a cold comfort at this moment, but our community happily recognizes the 'Lancer games as being the equal of any title that legally bore the Wing Commander name.

Instructions To Play Armada Online Summarized

Armada can be installed and played in Windows XP with DOSBox. Instructions on how to install and configure Armada can be found here. To play Armada, expanded memory must be set to ems=false in the dosbox.conf file, and ipx=false must also be changed to ipx=true before playing online. Specific configuration methods depend on your system and the version of Armada you begin with. Once the game is running for you, follow these steps to upgrade your game to play online.

1. Download the joystick/ipx patch for Armada and Proving Grounds and unzip it into your Armada directory. This will change the execution command from Armada to Armadadb (and pg to pgdb). You should test the game to see if it loads and you can play. DOSBox will probably need to be increased to around 6000 cycles (Control+F12) in order for the game to run smoothly. Calibrate the joystick by pressing ALT+O. This is the same patch that is required to use joysticks in single player Armada in DOSBox.
2. Download the DOSBox netbios patch and unzip it to the DOSBox directory. Back up the old dosbox.exe file, and rename HCL's executable to dosbox.exe. You will use this new file when running DOSBox.
3. If you have a router, you will probably need to forward port 213 to the computer you'll be playing on. Check the instruction manual or manufacturer's website if you've never done something like this before. The process varies depending on the router's brand. Make sure UDP data is being forwarded.
4. Find someone else to play from the Forums or #Wingnut. One player will have to type "ipxnet startserver" in DOSBox. The player types "ipxnet connect IP" with the IP address of the other player in place of IP. Both players start Armadadb, go to Multiplayer and select Net Play. After inputting callsigns, the players should see each other in the username pane. Use the in-game buttons and commands to select your game type and play!

WCU Hellcat Gets A Cockpit