GOG has issued the first update to their sales rankings since the EA licensing deal was announced... and the numbers are good! Out of the 290-game GOG catalog, Privateer is now in 146th place--meaning that in under two weeks it has sold more downloads than half of the games ever released through the service. More telling, Privateer is also far and away the best selling of the Origin games released to date. Crusader: No Remorse ranks #204 and Ultima Underworld 1+2 ranks 284th. Privateer is also the top-selling EA game, beating out Alpha Centauri at #172 and Dungeon Keeper's sad last place. If you haven't picked up Privateer yet--keep buying so we keep flying!
EA on GOG - Sales Rankings
146 - Wing Commander: Privateer
172 - Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
204 - Crusader: No Remorse
284 - Ultima Underworld 1+2
290 - Dungeon Keeper
Looking for a franchise to relaunch, EA?
In the United States, June 14th is celebrated as the anniversary of the 1777 adoption of the familiar 'stars and stripes'. So, what better day to look at some flags of the Terran Confederation?
The end of Wing Commander I offers up the first flag in Wing Commander history, with soldiers erecting it on Venice in reference to the famous Iwo Jima photograph. Unfortunately, the scene is all done in silhouette, so the details were unknown. The first visible flag in the Wing Commander canon appears in a cutscene in The Secret Missions 2: Crusade. The Firekkans stand under a bejeweled rock column and the Terrans under a distinct blue flag with two white five-point stars and a red stripe:
It's worth noting that the Confederation went without a single distinct emblem for quite a while. Both a five-point star and the distinctive "Origin logo" roundel appear at various places in the earlier games. In Wing Commander II, Ferrets have red Origin logos on their wings but Terran capital ships have yellow stars. In Wing Commander III, the familiar logo is more prevalent but pilots also wear a 'sword in star' logo on their uniforms. Super Wing Commander even has a different elongated star!
Special Operations 2 shows us an interesting flag--it's derived from the Wing Commander I flag but swaps the five-point stars for 'Origin logo' style jump points:
Wing Commander IV created a flag for the Confederation by placing the now-familiar roundel on a blue field (sometimes with a white trim).
Wing Commander IV has another treat for flagophiles: 16 other flags hanging above the assembly, likely representing different Confederation members:
Then came the Wing Commander movie! The wonderful opening sequence actually shows another Confederation flag, one that is almost a mix of the Secret Missions 2 and Wing Commander IV versions (and part Texas State flag). Unfortunately it is only a faint image that is overlayed over a map of the galaxy. Star*Soldier uses a version of the Wing Commander movie flag on two pages, offering a canonical color scheme:
Later, concept art of the sketches from the movie intro were discovering--allowing Bob McDob to create an image of how he believes that flag should be colorized!
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