Saga Shuttle Assaulting A Target Near You

Regarding the model, WC Saga aims to provide a wide variety of mission types. Among the sorties that the player will fly will be escort and close support missions for Confederation Marines operating out of this sturdy combat transport.

Apply For Darkstar Beta Beginning This Week

Justice Prevails In The Standoff Tournament

Impress Your Friends With CIC Gear

Ghost Recon: Advanced Starfighter

Chris, ace and I came across something fun while exploring the junkyard map in Ghost Recon: Advance Warfighter -- some CF-117b Rapiers! The two pictures on the left are from Ghost Recon... and the picture on the right is the first ever from the set of the Wing Commander movie, the arrival of the Rapier canopies. The scrapped cockpits in Ghost Recon actually belong to a pair of MiG-21 Fishbeds. Because of the extreme similarities, rumor has persisted that the Rapiers were also modified from MiG cockpits. In fact, the Rapier sets were built from a pair of British Electric Lightning jets.

History Lesson: Electronic Arts Buys Origin

Electronic Arts to Buy Origin Systems

SAN MATEO, Calif. (UPI) -- Electronic Arts said Thursday it has agreed to buy interactive video game producer Origin Systems Inc. in a stock-swap deal for $35 million.

Electronic Arts said it will exchange 1.3 million shares for all outstanding securities of Origin, of Austin, Texas.

Origin was founded in 1983 by Robert and Richard Garriott to capitalize on the popularity of Richard Garriott's Ultima series of fantasy role-playing games. It currently has 160 employees and has published more than 30 titles for home computers and compact discs.

Origin posted pre-tax profits of $3.2 million on sales of $13 million in its fiscal year ended Feb. 28. Its ``Ultima VII: The Black Gate'' is currently on best-seller lists of software retailers.

Origin will be operated as a wholly owned subsidiary and Robert Garriott, president and chief executive officer of Origin, will continue in this role and become a vice president of Electronic Arts. Richard Garriott, senior vice president/creative director of Origin, will continue in this role and become an executive producer of Electronic Arts.

Correction: Googly Eyed Sea Monsters

Eldred Scrolls

For Pete's Sake: Last Chance to Enter!

April 28th is coming, Cardinal's the only one who managed to get an high score from Sternenwind: the Hornet score for the Kilrathi gauntlet.

No one else is up to the challenge? Some ships didn't see much scoreboard action and show scores that should be relatively easy to beat: the Ferret for mission 1, for example.

Now's your last chance!

Next Year, in the TCS Jerusalem

Standoff Bursts At The Seams

With most of the graphics done and most of the cutscene voiceovers still missing, I've only had to fix a few graphical glitches (like on the Arrow's HUD) and work on the occasional new ship. Everyone else's been working hard as usual, though, and you can check the progress page to learn more about that. We already have a few missions underway, and Tango is once again able to help Pierre with the coding, which should help us progress faster specially in the debugging stage later on. We've also done a few tests to see how many capships we could put in the same battle without killing the framerate, and it seems like it might take a bit of creative coding to allow big battles to take place without making the game unplayable. We're still trying to figure out what the critical factor is here, though, so that we can keep the game playable without sacrifing the original plans we had for these battles. Apart from that, a few of the voiceovers have been delivered already, so I've already been able to start working on some of the pre-rendered cutscenes. Unfortunately, I still don't have a whole set of voiceovers for any one scene, so right now what I have is mostly a few monologues that make no sense. :-P

Sean Murphy For The Win!

The ride went great; we got in yesterday [Sunday] afternoon/evening. My son did an awesome job - he rode every inch of the 173 miles without walking his bike or riding the support van once.

I'm working on a blog with some photos from the ride and I'll send you the link once that's up. I'll also get you a total on the donations from CIC. I hope to start on the wallpapers this week, so I should start sending stuff to you guys soon!

From Achilles to Zarkowsky

Shining Movie On A Hill

Resident Evil, Wing Commander, Doom, Alone In The Dark, Super Mario Brothers - five reasons why Silent Hill was never going to be any good. It's a proven fact that great computer games always make rubbish films and this tragic horror movie is, alas, no exception.

Angel Victrix

Famous Gemini Hangar Rebuilt

It Pays To Run EA

Adds Electronic Arts Chairman and CEO Larry Probst, "We have long believed the best-selling Wing Commander franchise was the perfect vehicle to move our compelling interactive content to a broader entertainment medium."

Arrows Sail The Sky

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More Updates For Space Sim Fans

There haven't been a whole lot of new space sims announced recently, but a couple of in-production ones are nearing completion. Today's pair of games are developed in Germany and Russia, which still seem to have relatively robust markets for space sims. Both titles also borrow heavily from Digital Anvil's Freelancer.

Star Rush has been renamed since we initially reported on it. The title has been changed to Tomorrow War to tie in with the novel trilogy it is based on. Action takes place both in space and above ground with a seamless transition between the two environments. Intense battles will include more than a dozen warships and some sixty escort fighters in a single event. Players have the option to control their ships like in Wing Commander or simulate gravity and inertial effects. The proportions of space are also realistically modeled. Without the use of teleporters to jump between nav points, it would require days of travel to reach new locations. One of the images below shows off an example of the character models and environments that exists for portions of the story that take place outside the cockpit. The Official Site has more information for Russian readers.

Centuries have passed since the great galactic war. Since then, the numerous races within the universe have attempted to live peacefully next to each other. The Great Council is watching over the peace and the powers of the empires. However, recently, a small and reclusive race from the edge of the universe called "Thul" has begun to repeatedly violate the peace.

The galactic peace has been in grave danger ever-since as the races grew increasingly suspicious and began to blame each other for these attacks. The Great Council seems to be on the verge of falling apart. A new war seems inevitable.

In all this turmoil, the hero of the game - the young escort pilot Kayron Jarvis - discovers clues about a secret that his murdered father was apparently hiding. An unknown technology that is hidden within the Darkstar One appears to be the key - but then an unforeseen twist changes the course of events dramatically ...

Time For More Bible Study

Ships List Again

TCS Behemoth Enters Cyber Space

EA Announces Command & Conquer 3

It is 2047 and the stakes could not be higher. Kane's secret society turned superpower is bent on using Tiberium to take control and transform humanity into his twisted vision of the future. All-out war rages over Tiberium and the fate of the planet rests in the balance.

"Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars combines fast-paced gameplay with new ways to tell a story in an RTS game," said Mike Verdu, Executive Producer at EA Los Angeles (EALA). "We're building a next generation Command & Conquer game that is true to the spirit of this classic franchise, but is updated with state-of-the-art visuals, added strategic depth, and gameplay innovations that will move the genre forward. I am very excited to be working on this amazing game."

Experience a revolution in RTS gaming with a breakthrough single player campaign that rewards you for your gameplay style. Add layers of strategy to your gaming experience by building mobile bases, wielding the power of terrifying Ion Storms on the battlefield, or customizing your armies by combining units.

New Ship Shots Day After Day

This ship's role is that of a gunboat/armored transport. As some of you have noted, the cockpit beams are a bit thick. However, I don't believe that will be much of an issue, given how much overall visibility you have. I've done a rough pass on coloration and the controls. The lighting is temporary, and the controls will change based on the feedback I get from you guys. Enjoy, and as always, feedback is welcomed!

Happy Birthday LOAF!

Important: Wing Commander for Charity

I don't know if you're familiar with the MS150, a charity fundraising bike ride that's taking place next weekend; it's an organized fundraiser in which about 12,000 riders pedal from Houston to Austin over two days. I've ridden it before in 2003, and my wife has ridden it pretty much every year since 2001.

This year I'm riding it again with my wife, and this year our nine-year old son is going to be joining us. He's excited, but of course we'll see how it goes - 180 miles is a long way!

I know it's not specifically WC related, so here's my offer: for every donation I receive over $20, I'll create a custom wallpaper-quality render of one of the ships I've still got files for - the Shrike, Devastator, Midway, Murphy Destroyer, Vindicator, and Stingray. I'll send them to you guys to post on the site for public download, to use as you want.

http://ms150.org/ms150/donate/donate.cfm?id=185739

You can also learn more about the MS150 and Multiple Sclerosis at their home site: http://www.ms150.org/ms150/

Last year riders raised about nine and a half million dollars for MS research and for assistance for those with MS. This year they're shooting for 10 million in donations.

Thanks!

Sean Murphy is a former Origin artist who worked on Wing Commander IV, Prophecy and Secret Ops; you can find his online portfolio here. More importantly is that he's always been there for us - he's been keeping up with Wing Commander fandom, sending us artwork and answering our obscure questions about Wing Commander development for many years now.

Sean is a great guy and this is an excellent opportunity to show your support for both a good cause and for the Wing Commander community! We'll match his awesome rendering offer in so much as we can: anyone who donates $20 may have an avatar at the forums -- $20 is easier to come up with than the 2,000 posts ordinarily required!

Sean asks that anyone donating through the CIC please add one cent to the total -- ie, $25.01 instead of $25. That way he'll be able to track how many wallpapers he needs to make! Feel free to contact us with any questions. Let's earn some awesome graphics and do some good at the same time. Here's some of Sean's past work:

Time Running Out To Win Pete's Presents

There are only ten days left until PopsiclePete's birthday on April 28. On that date, you could well be the person receiving the gifts as Pete is hoping to give away prizes. To be in with a chance of winning, all you need to do is play Standoff's gauntlet missions in the simulator where your score will be automatically submitted to the Scoreboard.

The challenge is to steal one of Sternenwind's #1 ranks away from him and hold the top spot until April 28. If more than one person does this, the player with the most number of new high scores wins. There will only be one winner, unless there is a tie. The winner will receive $20 worth of CIC Merchandise of the winner's choosing. As things currently stand, Cardinal has managed to beat Sternenwind's top score for the Hornet in the Kilrathi gauntlet. Sternenwind still holds the top spots for the Kilrathi Gauntlet with the Wraith, Morningstar, Rapier, Arrow, Crossbow, Epee, Stiletto, Broadsword, Sabre, Gladius, Talon, and Ferret. He also holds the top Confed Gauntlet places with the Epee, Ferret and Sabre.

If you don't fancy that challenge, there's also an instant win prize for the first person to score over 10,000 with Pete's favorite ship, the Epee, in either of the two gauntlets. Good luck! If you need instructions on how to play Standoff and participate in the Simulator Scoreboard, you can find directions here.

If Brooks Could Kill

I had worked with Ralph Sanchez and the Mark & Michael Edens on "ExoSquad." They liked my work (did 4 episodes). WCA was in the same arena as ExoSquad, so they asked me to write one. Mark Edens came up with most of the story lines (as he did on ExoSquad). My father was career navy, so ships, aircraft and the military atmosphere were part of my childhood. I tried to put that ambiance into my scripts.

There was one big difference between ExoSquad and WCA. On ExoSquad we wrote as we liked and only got notes from the story editors and studio. On WCA there was another layer - the network. If you compare my first draft to the aired episode (and forgive me, it's been a decade since I've seen it) you'll note the military atmosphere (jargan, etc.) is more prevalent on the page than screen. I got the impression that the network exec (and I don't know who it was) was uncomfortable with things military and those aspects were toned down. At least that was my impression.

Happy CIC Easter

Action Picks Up In Comic Story

Poll: Deathstroke Takes A Holiday

V-K Day (September 24th) is the anniversary of the Terran Confederation's victory over the Empire of Kilrah. The events of the day, Col. Blair's famous raid, took place in Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger... but the holiday itself was not named until False Colors. V-K Day is patterned after the Allied victories in World War II: VE Day and VJ Day (for Victory in Europe and Victory in Japan respectively).

The Ritual of Pukcal is a Kilrathi religions ceremony of atonement. Kilrathi attend the ceremony at the Temple of Sivar. The royal family attend the ceremony together at the temple on Kilrah's moon, Largkza. The Ritual of Pukcal was introduced in Fleet Action, as part of Baron Jukaga's scheme to assassinate Thrakhath and the Emperor.

The Sivar-Eshrad Ceremony (October 20th) is the most sacred Kilrathi religious ceremony, in which all Sons of Kilrah who are able must report to the site of Holy Dedication chosen by the Priestess' of Sivar to sing the praises of Lord Sivar by offering sacrifices in battle. If the ceremony is performed properly the War God will favor the Warriors of Kilrah in battle for the next year. If not, they are doomed to be defeated by their enemies until they can atone for their failure. The Way of Lord Sivar may not be observed by non-believers. The Sivar-Eshrad Ceremony was introduced in Secret Missions 2: Crusade and has played a major part in Kilrathi mythos in many other stories.

Barbie is a holiday in Privateer 2's Tri-System where... well, the in-game news report says it best: "Hot Digger-ty Dog! Antipodean authority Professor Norm Packer reports. G'day folks, it's beaut here on Hephaestus as we celebrate the mythical annual festival of Barbie, the roots of which are lost in the mists of time. All the members of the Crian University Oztralian research group are here, following the Barbie ritual to the letter, as laid down in the legendary vid-flick Gone Walkabout and Back. We've been knocking back plenty of the amber nectar all day long, which the Sheilas have been busy putting the meat to the heat; so far they're torched a good hundred tonnes of tucker, and all that's been edible so far are three measly shrimps. So, we've blown all the Livestock, and we're down to our last few tinnies - how much can a Koala bear!"

Confederation Day (August 23rd) celebrates the anniversary of the birth of the Terran Confederation in 2416, similar to the United States of America's July 4th Independence Day holiday. Confederation Day Eve is traditionally marked by drinking and general celebration. Confederation Day was introduced in Action Stations, where the Kilrathi use the holiday in their plans to begin a full scale war against the Confederation.

The Holy Day of Acclivity (March 23rd) is the Pilgrim holiday commemorating the ascension of Ivar Chu McDaniel into a higher form of being in 2311. For the seven days following, the current Protur goes into hiding on McDaniel's World, where he prays and fasts to seek communion with Ivar Chu McDaniel. The Holy Day of Acclivity was introduced in Pilgrim Stars, where Captain Aristee uses the holiday as an excuse to replace the current Protur with someone who will support her radical war plan.

Tuhaga is the anniversary of the founding of the Empire of Kilrah. It is mentioned briefly in Action Stations.

... and here are the results from the last poll, which asked for a favorite Wing Commander Academy episode. Chain of Command, which added backstory to both Tolwyn and the Confederation fleet, won hands down with 170 votes. The series finale, Glory of Sivar, came in a close second with 151. The loser was the odd crossover story Recreation, which ended with only 9. Who loves you, Warrior King?

New 3D Models Ready For Action

Video Game Movies in a Nutshell

"Wing Commander" : In the 27th century Earth is at war with the feline-like Kilrathi Empire. When the Kilrathis manage to steal the coordinates to Earth, a brave fighter pilot and his squad must find a way to stall the Kilrathi fleet long enough for reinforcements to arrive. I guess Freddy Prinze Jr. and Matthew Lilliard [sic] needed a break from their romantic comedies team-ups so they worked together on this Sci-Fi flick. A near-miss in my opinion. It lacked the budget and dialogue to really make it memorable. I almost completely forgot about this one when I was making this list. But granted it could have been worse.

Historic Erin Roberts Interview Available Again

WCHS: Now, before we get into your current project, What other computer entertainment projects have you worked on? Did you ever work on any of your brother, Chris Roberts's, projects?

Erin Roberts: I worked with my brother pretty much all my life until I came back to England two and a half years ago. I worked on all the projects that Chris worked on while we still lived in England back in the early eighties. When Chris started working at Origin I used to work there part time during holidays while I was in College, and then after I graduated I became a full time employee at Origin. While there I worked on Times Of Lore, Wing Commander 1 & 2, Stike Commander, Privateer and then I spent a period of time working with Richard Garriott and his projects before I moved back to England.

Celebrate Easter With The Movie

Wing Commander (14+)
<LOAF> Blair, a fighter pilot, joins an interstellar war to fight against the evil Kilrathi who are trying to destroy the universe.

Gemini Gold Adds Authentic Mission Computer

Just a little movie flick of how the new mission computer interface for Privateer Gemini Gold works.

Tomb Raider is Now Legend, Nothing Else Changes

Peek Inside Pioneer's Editor

Want to start off by again thanking everyone for their patience! Work has still been progressing, but there have been delays on my end because of classes/exams. I'm really happy with how things have been going, however. The editor is now working quite nicely for handling all importing, tweaking properties, creating shaders, and much more.

Yes, we fully intend on releasing the editor so that people can build onto it and create expansions in the form of custom missions, models, new games modes, etc. Scripting will be available to aid in that. I may also release an SDK, but that will be much further down the road.

Hydra Comes Together Inside

It took a bit of fiddling before I got it into a layout I liked - there were numerous versions that sucked. Anyhow, you can see the basic controls, and general size reference thanks to the biped dummies. The back wall and it's doors are not yet designed and placed. All that's left on the modelling side beside the doors are bits and pieces of tech-widgets. It's currently at 4500 polies (without the bipeds) and the goal is 8000-9000.

Watch Latest WC Saga Build In Action

• Fighter Launch
• Rough Capship Engagement
• Destroyer Destroyed
• Dralthi Takedown

GameSpy Gives Tabula Rasa A Tough Look

The team was comprised of numerous game development veterans, including, among others, Garriott himself and NCSoft's star programmer Jake Song. Collectively, the team had hundreds of years of development experience under its belt, not to mention some very distinguished titles: Ultima Online, Lineage, Wing Commander, and others.

It was a recipe for disaster.

Not quite what anyone was expecting, but to hear Garriott tell it, it sounds like the most logical thing in the world. The famed game designer gave a very candid lecture on the MMO's turbulent development history...

Garriott unabashedly stated that, once upon a time, Tabula Rasa was intended to be the be-all, end-all MMO. It was to be the one that unified the then-disparate Eastern and Western audiences, and it would marry the expansiveness of the MMO with the sense of individual empowerment that the single-player RPG grants to users. The means by which the team hoped to achieve all this seem quaint at this point, because it's all been realized already; Asians and Westerners play together in games like Guild Wars and Final Fantasy XI, and, to varying degrees, it can be said that a multitude of games are approaching single-player RPGs in terms of narrative immersion.

Galactive Civilizations Mod Builds Its Fleet

WC4 Pair See Action In '24'

Robert Rusler plays an assassin for a government faction that engages in terrorist acts with illegally-developed weapons in order to pursue a self-described patriotic agenda. His assignment is to kill the hero, a legendary soldier who has saved the day many times before, but has recently gone renegade.

DOSBox Improves...

... And HCl Ups the Ante

First of all, the dynamic core is now stable enough so that you can play Armada with it, so even if you don't have a bleeding fast system, you may still want to give DosBox a try. Also, improvements made on 0.65 no longer prevent Armada from loading when IPX is enabled, which makes my old IPX patch for Dosbox unnecessary.

Furthermore, although not part of the 0.65 release, a patch that fixes a timer flaw was released recently (today!) by a DosBox programmer (h-a-l-9000). This means three things for Armada: the game now works at the correct speed (no, lasers don't fire that fast ;-) ) , the joystick now calibrates properly without the help of my armadadb patch and there is increased stability in multiplayer games.

In order to make these improvements available to WC players eager to play Armada online, I combined the DosBox 0.65 codebase with a new version of my NetBIOS code and added hal's timer code into it. The result is available here. Give it a try, it should make online Armada matches a bit more pleasant :-)

Base-ic Instinct

Fantastic Fic

WC Saga Ramps Up Production

Vote or Fred-Die

Margaret Weis Confirmed For '06 DragonCon Appearance

Status Update On Multiple Projects

A number of major Wing Commander fan projects have seemed a little quiet for the last couple weeks, but work is still steadily progressing across the community. Here's a little status update for several popular projects.

There was a small delay introduced on my development schedule for MP. Nothing to worry about, though. With most bugs out of the way, the most important tasks left are to optimize and increase the stability of the net code, as well as integrating a small launcher which will link all players with minimal hassle (right now you have to edit a text file with the IP address of the server and with team information).

We keep getting closer and closer to having the editor done and ready. Bugs still keep popping up delaying a release. So on the code side - we're getting there. We've got 80% of the assets I've made art-wise in the engine and all the materials built. We've got the engine running with HDR, Antialiasing, Motion-blur, and advanced GLSL shaders. We still have the various Sector, System, Planetary, and Base editors to create, but most of these will be fairly simple (I hope).

I'm currently working on the Hydra cockpit, as well as the Krant fighter. I've got the Krant blocked out - but not textured - and the Hydra cockpit is almost to the point where I'll be posting it on Crius.net. It's still in rough draft form, but I'm looking at doing the same iterative process that I've done with the last couple of cockpits.

So we are making progress... but nothing is probably going to be shown besides that cockpit before we release a demo to everyone. I wish we could do more, but it's very difficult to show programming progress in a meaningful way. I can say - "This is working!" - but that statement is not really solid till you've experienced it.

We certainly hope to add multiplayer functionality eventually (...after it's actually ready to be used), but we have no immediate plans as to when this will happen. My personal estimate would be that it won't happen in episode 4, and it may even end up being done in a patch after episode 5 is done. Time and again, we've learned that adding a new feature when you're half-way through an episode leads to very big delays, and at this point, we're not big fans of delays - with an episodic storyline, it's just not fair to leave people hanging for longer than necessary between episodes. This is especially important when you consider that we'll want our multiplayer to be done as well as possible - which means it won't be something we can do overnight.

Gemini Gold's next version is currently awaiting engine upgrades. In the mean time, the team has improved how cutscenes will work, optimized speech and written a new damage system for the game.

Team members from WC Saga have mentioned the updated size estimate for their upcoming package. The current target is between 200 and 250 megabytes.

And last, but not least, a new version of Flight Commander is at least a few months off.

Work on real flight missions takes priority over Flight Commander. Work has been really busy lately, maybe things will cool down in the summer.

Play Standoff & Win Pete's Birthday Presents

Show off your skills at our online SCOREBOARDS! Holy Crap! Yes, that's right! Thanks to the combined efforts of our staff member PopsiclePete and the CIC staff's KrisV, Standoff's simulator will now send your score to an online ranking system provided that you have a registered username at the forums and that you turn this option on in the game's launcher. You can check out the Scoreboard link... everything you need to know about our exciting new feature should be explained there! (And if it isn't, just drop by the forums and ask us :-P)

Warren Spector Announcing Next Product Soon

Let me be clear. I don't believe we're going to go away - gaming isn't a fad like the hula hoop or Nehru jackets. It's hard to imagine a scenario where gaming just... fades away. We're gonna be OK. It's just that it's relatively easy for me to imagine scenarios where mainstream audiences get sick of us, sick of the product we offer them, sick of repetitive, seemingly-but-not-really interactive, emotion-free, slam-bang, U.S.-centric, urban, hip hop action games and alien invasion scenarios.

In other words, I can see us limiting ourselves to the same subset of adolescent male players we've always reached. And if we do that, it's back to the margins for us.

FiringSquad: What is the significance of the name of the studio?

Warren Spector:The obvious genesis of the name stems from the time I was with LookingGlass, in the mid- to late-90s. We worked on a game whose working title was Junction Point—a small-group, online-only SF game, with an interesting persistent element. It was similar in some ways to Guild Wars, I guess. I always liked the name and, as I thought about what to call the new studio, it occurred to me that “junction point” also described the kind of games I like to make and play. I like games that represent the coming together of a lot of genres and playstyles… and I like games that force players to (conceptually) stand at a crossroads and choose which path to take. Both ideas are encompassed by the idea of a “junction point.” So, the name really fit.

Dekker's Blaster Gets Around

OGame Light Fighter Looks Familiar

Raylight Studios Still Shining Bright

Walks Like A Duck

Making the logo resemble an upside-down Wing Commander logo is a good thing. Makes me feel good about this game, that no one really has any idea about. What have they done to it? Last year at E3 it was a Planetside clone. The year before that it had fairies that flew around in space or something. Really, just give us Privateer Online already. I don't care who has to be paid what to get it done, just do it.

GameSpot Promotes Wing Commander Like Few Others

A lot of classic Wing Commander previews and features from the 1990s come from print magazines, but there are a handful of major gaming websites that predate the CIC and were around to cover the series. GameSpot, which has existed almost as long as the web itself, reviewed Wing Commander IV and Kilrathi Saga a full ten years ago in 1996. By the time Prophecy was hot stuff in 1997, GameSpot was ready with an exclusive preview of the game. This eight-page whopper summarized the setting, provided detailed biographs and exclusive pictures of each of the fighters, discussed the guns and missiles in great detail (don't miss the fancy renders provided by Origin), biographied the cast and even summarized a few missions. It was a substantially more weighty preview than many "hands-on impressions" done for modern titles today and gave us all a tantalizing look at the amazing new game.

Their editorial staff gave the game a solid 8.6 in the review (and a 7.4 for Prophecy Advance in 2003) and then went on to create an in-depth online strategy guide. This clocked in at almost three times the length of the preview and included specifics on every weapon, enemy and mission in the game, plus tactics and tips for successful pilots. Since the site's format and layout have changed significantly over the years, I'm actually surprised that these pages still live on to today. With the surge in popularity of WCP this year, both this guide and the CIC's original walkthrough can continue to help fans today.

In 1999 GameSpot created a big fancy feature to celebrate the release of the Wing Commander Movie. The development of the film itself was analyzed, a thorough history of all the games was written and the site conducted a huge trivia contest. The game feature was compiled by none other than GameSpot's current editor-in-chief, Greg Kasavin, and the contest's grand prize was a signed copy of each major game in the series!

The sheer number of articles relating to Wing Commander, combined with GameSpot's massive popularity, have helped the franchise to maintain its prominent spot in gamers' minds over the last few years. The overwhelming response to readers' feedback features has provided a glimpse at the huge base of fans the series still has today. Here's a look at a handful of their other updates that have promoted Wing Commander.

Other Feature WC Articles
• Favorite WC Game - August 10, 1998
• Ten Best Endings - December 20, 1999
• Ten Best Heroes In Gaming - September 11, 1999
• Ten Best Game Soundtracks - June 15, 1999
• Ten Best Readers' Endings - January 23, 2000
• Ten Best Sidekicks - April 16, 2000
• Ten Best Readers' Sidekicks - May 8, 2000
• Ten Best Female Characters - June 11, 2000
• Games To Make Massively Multiplayer - August 29, 2000
• Readers' Best Game Cinematics - September 9, 2000
• Top Fifteen Most Influential Games of All Time - October 23, 2000
• Chris Roberts Guest Writer Feature - February 5, 2001
• Ten Best Looking Games - June 25, 2001
• Game Collector on Prophecy Gold - July 15, 2001
• Classic Series You'd Most Like Revived - December 17, 2002
• New Life At Origin - June 24, 2003

So what's the bottom line? To be perfectly honest, after playing Wing Commander: Prophecy, we were more excited about the WC series than we had been in a very long time. The team has really gotten back to the game's roots, designing a product that is more engrossing, playable, and suspenseful than any offering the series has made in quite a while..

There aren't a lot of licenses that have made it as far as Wing Commander has.. Boasting a fresh design team that is dedicated to gameplay above all else.. Wing Commander: Prophecy has been given a fresh new lease on life, one that could take the venerable series well into the next millennium.

It's Only A Paper Fool

Yesterday was April Fools Day. We try to do updates that are outrageously fake and fun... but if you didn't get that, we apologize: Joe Garrity still runs the Origin Museum, no one will ever sell Freespace 2 and Akkbar wasn't right. It's necessary to point this out because, despite everything, we still get regular e-mail from people asking for more information about Freelancer 2 following an April Fools update we ran in 2004.

Rounding out the day in Wing Commander foolishness, eddieb posted a fake Flight Commander update which supposedly "runs on all hardware from macs to linux to gameboy to HP calculators." If you fell for that one, shame on you.

Please note that the 3DO demo update is real. Despite the fact that it was posted on March 31st and contains the actual demo .ISO it somehow made its way to various 'fake news' lists around the internet.

New CIC Themed Wallpaper Available

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Origin Museum Sold!

The famous Origin Museum collection has changed hands! Following a brief period of negotiations, the museum has been purchased by gaming media giant IGN Inc. The startling $10 million transaction transferred a plethora of amazing artifacts to IGNs control, including an original Akalabeth, a Mount Drash cassette and over five thousand copies of Ultima 7: The Black Gate.

Former curator turned shipping magnate Joe Garrity, posing below with part of his new fleet of 'Privateer' luxury yachts, said that the sale occured because it was in the best interests of preserving Origin history. For their part, IGN hopes to refocus Joe's incredible work from recording Origin's history towards promoting the future... of McDonalds' new Dollar Menu. $1 Double Cheeseburgers? Space Rogue is lovin' it!

Freespace Returns!

Hot on the heels of Electronic Arts' recent release of Command & Conquer: The First Decade comes exciting news for space sim fans: Volition, Inc. plans to repackage and resell the second most popular Descent spinoff as Freespace: The Only Two Years. Lead developer Mike Kulas, who still feels his exceptionally large capital ships are underappreciated, says the company hopes that the new release will bring in money from freeloading Lunix junkies who became attracted to the series because it was released for free years after its genre-deadening flop rather than because of its actual gameplay. The game will retail for $59.99 and will include a collectable Freespace coaster.

Features will include:

* Nebulas that look like toothpaste (Freespace 1) and nebulas that look slightly less like toothpaste (Freespace 2).
* Much of the gameplay of Wing Commander: Prophecy, without the constant worry of interesting plot or character interactions.
* The Wing Commander Saga mod (coming 2011)
* Precious little else.

Akkbar Was Right!

Today, April 1st, 2006, marks the 8th anniversary of Dan "Akkbar" Hardwicke's fall from grace over a WCHS April Fools update claiming that Origin would release a multiplayer patch to Wing Commander Prophecy. Well, for once, it's time to admit we were wrong: fooling aside, nearly a decade later there actually will be a multiplayer version of Prophecy.

This means big things for the CIC: if Akkbar was right all these years, he must also have been right about everything else. To that end, we will now be selling out for advertising space and promoting terrible MMP games that aren't related to Wing Commander because we're allowed to play them for free. In order to better emulate whatever prescient brilliance that allowed Akkbar to see so far into the future, staff members will be leaving their succesful careers to become vagrants and alcoholics.

You may also notice that we won't be covering Wing Commander Academy anymore -- it's just a cartoon!... but you can expect a lot more football commentary, since that's very manly.

Hail, Akkbar!