Extensive New Model Archive Now Available To Fans

Dear Wingnuts,

I've got to put Wing Commander plans on hold for the time being as I work three jobs and try and see my family every once in a while. Please follow our continuing work on Facebook at Hangar B Productions, and stay tuned for some aviation related awesomeness. I'll try to drop by the forums from time to time.

I get a lot of requests to share my models, and I usually decline. Mostly, I wanted to get a big enough pack of them together so that any mods or games that wound up using them would have a chance at a consistent art style. Not so much 'realistic' but semi-cartoony in a way that I feel does the early Wing Commander games justice. Given that I have to take a break from these for a while, I felt now was a good time to release them.

Enjoy, and please respect the models and the hideous amount of time I've put into them! You'll find a number of blank textures so you can build your own liveries.

Many thanks to Howard Day for the basis models for the Scimitar and Jalthi, and many many many thanks to the staff and members at wcnews.com for the amazing support and generosity shown over the years.

Cheers,

-Klavs

Cat Versus Kat: Who Wins?

Saga Pilot Manager Is Now Multilingual

Clone: The complete pilot profile can be copied. Optionally it's possible to copy only the pilot with his settings, but without campaign progress, statistic and medals. Ideally if the player wish to restart the campaign(s) only with his settings. The pilot name will be checked with the WCS rules.

Rename: A simple and safe way to rename all profile files with one single step.

Backup: With this it's easy to store single pilots or all pilots with only one mouseclick, after the backup folder was set. The player have the choice between separate archives for every pilot or one single archive for all pilots. Date and time of the last backup will be shown.

Delete: A complete profile can be deleted, like in WCS. But optionally the player can also delete all data except the settings.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wing Commander On Sale For Black Friday

Recap History of Game Graphics in New Documentary

Frightful Kilrathi Concept Art Surfaces

WC Strategy Mod Back On Track

Well, guys, the project is not dead yet :) Thank you for all of yours good wishes. While our war situation goes worse I'm trying to do my best with the game.

For now I'm working on interface and battle rooms. Hope to show you my progress soon. For now just want to show you one screen with new design.

Star Wars Trailer Rumors Stir WC Memories

Academy DVD Marked Down for the Holidays

A number of people have written in to report that Amazon is now selling the Wing Commander Academy DVD collection for just $7.99. It's not clear if this price reduction is in any way permanent, but with the holiday season fast approaching, this is a great opportunity to pick up some additional copies for gifts. Just this Summer, Amazon increased the price to full MSRP ($35) after their initial batch had sold out. It's been confirmed that the set is region locked to North America for licensing reasons, but overseas fans can pick up a Region 1 player for cheap, or explore more creative solutions.

Long-time visitors will know that you can watch Academy in three ways: storyline order, production order or by original air date. LOAF recently shared where he currently stands on the issue:

Yes, the episodes on the disk are in production order; that is, the order they were finished by Universal. With a live action show, production and continuity orders tend to be fairly similar... since shows are shot in a fairly linear fashion. With cartoons it's more complicated, since a swath of episodes are written and animated at once.

Order doesn't matter a GREAT deal on Wing Commander Academy. As AD notes, there is a proper 'timeline' order that you can watch them in, but much of that just won't matter.

Red and Blue comes first and the two-parted (Price of Victory/Glory of Sivar) comes last. The Last One Left should be second (since it's introducing the Tiger's Claw setting and several secondary characters) and then The Most Delicate Instrument third (since it introduces Archer's oft-referenced story arc.) Other aspects of watching in timeline order are more trivial... Blair mentions the events of Expendable in Chain of Command, Word of Honor in Recreation and so on.

I actually kind of like the production order regardless, though, as it gives you Chain of Command, the show's strongest episode, early in the run. When the show originally airead the early episodes were swapped around and you ended up having both the "they eject and are stuck on a planet" shows one after the other. Which sort of made manifest everyone's fears about fighter pilot shows, that they could only ever be coming up with excuses to get the characters out of the cockpit.

Another thing to note is that Red and Blue is by far the series' weakest episode... and it's very different in style and tone than the rest of the show. It's clearly FIRST, but you need to watch it with the understanding that that's not what the rest of the series is going to be like.

Wing Commander on German TV Saturday

The Wing Commander Movie will be broadcasting on the German station RTL2 this Saturday, November 22, at 2 PM. We frequently mention all of the streaming sources such as HBO Go, Amazon, Vudu, Google Play, XBox Video and iTunes, but occasionally people in certain countries have trouble accessing these. Even if fans don't have a problem going digital, the copies online may not be in their native language, so we especially like to point out opportunities to catch the movie on normal television in non-English speaking countries. And it's always fun to see how the plot synopsis's Google translation comes across.

The people are at war with a hostile alien race that is preparing an attack on Earth. A group of young fighter pilots receives the order to stop the invaders.

In a distant future, humanity is, which is now penetrated into the depths of space, at war with the evil Kilrathi. When the aliens invaded a space station while NavCom capture the navigation device, they gain a significant strategic advantage: With the help of the device they are able to get by Hyper jump directly to Earth.

The crew of the star cruiser Tigerclaw receives important order, the Kilrathi stop until the fleet of the earth has formed to defend. There is also the young fighter pilot Chris Blair and his hot-headed friend Todd Marshall on board. Together with their team mates they are the last hope of humanity ...

Germany is a special case when it comes to Wing Commander fandom. The franchise is popular around the world, but it has always been an extraordinary hit there. Even today, German Wingnuts make up one out of even eight visitors to the CIC - more than any other country outside the United States. If you were curious, the UK, Canada, Australia, France, Netherlands, Russia, Poland and then Greece (in that order) round out the rest of the top ten. People have logged in from 137 countries recently, including single visits from more than two dozen rather exotic places like Afghanistan, Namibia and the island of Tonga - Wing Commander is a truly global phenomenon!

Early Concept Art Hints at SC's WC Origins

WC Invasion Sees Renewed Interest on YouTube

GOG Sale Cuts Wing Commander Prices In Half (80% Off Tuesday!)

Good Old Games has a sale for every season these days, and that's a good thing for Wing Commander fans! Our favorite franchise has gone 50% off, which means each package is marked down to $3. All of the DOS and Windows WC games and expansions are included across eight different packages, so the series is available for $24. If you're reading this, there's a good chance you already own these games digitally by now, but you can still gift the set to a friend. It's also possible to buy the games for one of your own alternate email addresses now and save the download code to give away as a holiday present. Once in a while GOG squeezes prices even a little bit lower than this, but you can't go wrong getting so much Wing Commander for less than half the price of one of the games' original prices! As an extra bonus, Strike Commander, Ultima and other Origin classics are also half off. If free is even more your style, don't forget that Origin's Crusader No Remorse is still being given away free by EA.

Update: The series is a whopping 80% off for 24 hours starting Tuesday morning. Individual games not purchased in the series bundle are 60% off, but for less than $10 for all DOS & Windows WC games, it's time to complete your collection! Note that most games come with bonuses like the strategy guides, blueprints, a novel or similar. Wing Commander 4 even includes the DVD quality videos, and Prophecy can be patched to include them.

Kick Kilrathi Butt Like a Superhero

Aussie Site Takes Gamers Back

Wing Commander III starts with an intro cut-scene that is no less than 10-minutes in length. Let’s get that bit out there right away. And in this 10-minute sequence you’ve got credits, people dressed up in elaborate giant cat suits, the dwarf from The Lord of the Rings consoling Luke Skywalker amongst the ruins of a gigantic spaceship, a ritual sacrifice in a stadium filled with more cat people, more spaceships, a futuristic iPad, and finally another giant cat but this time in a weirdly tight flight suit. Basically, the stuff that would have been impossible to pull off on floppy disk.

Klavs Getting Ahead

It being Halloween and all, there sure are a lot of disembodied human heads lying around my desktop...

See Wing Commander Orchestra Up Close

Here's another perspective from the recording process in Bratislava; down with the orchestra and conductor. This is a little bit of combat music from Wing Commander 4. Bear in mind this audio is being recorded by the video camera, which of course isn't the best fidelity! One of the cellists you see, a long time WC fan named Bronislaw Madziar, traveled all the way from Germany to play with the orchestra!

Take Another Look at Wings of Saint Nazaire

Wings is designed to be an easy-to-play but hard-to-master game - that means you can jump in, fly around, kick ass and have a ton of fun as a newbie but the game also offers core players enough gameplay depth to keep even the veterans of the genre interested. Good players, for example, will use the afterburner in very short bursts for super quick acceleration, they will use the correct weapons against the enemies they are facing and they will always be on top of their ship energy flow, making sure that the systems that need the most power in any given situation, get that power.

ESA Lands Probe on Comet

The landing site, named Agilkia and located on the head of the bizarre double-lobed object, was chosen just six weeks after arrival based on images and data collected at distances of 30–100 km from the comet. Those first images soon revealed the comet as a world littered with boulders, towering cliffs and daunting precipices and pits, with jets of gas and dust streaming from the surface.

Over the next 2.5 days, the lander will conduct its primary science mission, assuming that its main battery remains in good health. An extended science phase using the rechargeable secondary battery may be possible, assuming Sun illumination conditions allow and dust settling on the solar panels does not prevent it. This extended phase could last until March 2015, after which conditions inside the lander are expected to be too hot for it to continue operating.

Science highlights from the primary phase will include a full panoramic view of the landing site, including a section in 3D, high-resolution images of the surface immediately underneath the lander, on-the-spot analysis of the composition of the comet’s surface materials, and a drill that will take samples from a depth of 23 cm and feed them to an onboard laboratory for analysis.

The lander will also measure the electrical and mechanical characteristics of the surface. In addition, low-frequency radio signals will be beamed between Philae and the orbiter through the nucleus to probe the internal structure.

Next year, as the comet grows more active, Rosetta will need to step further back and fly unbound ‘orbits’, but dipping in briefly with daring flybys, some of which will bring it within just 8 km of the comet centre.

The comet will reach its closest distance to the Sun on 13 August 2015 at about 185 million km, roughly between the orbits of Earth and Mars. Rosetta will follow it throughout the remainder of 2015, as they head away from the Sun and activity begins to subside.

Flat Universe Team Responds to Player Feedback

If you jumped right into the playable alpha of Wing Commander Flat Universe, don't forget that there's more in store at the game's elaborate website. In addition to a detailed reference card, there is a slick blueprint file with several of the game's craft included. There are also numerous back issues of the Destiny's Way in-universe magazine and gorgeous renders of the ships that are or will be in the game.

The Maslas brothers are incorporating fans' feedback, so be sure to let them know what you think. A number of Wingnuts have commented on how hard the game is, and the message has been heard. The good news is that the difficulty balancing is still in progress and will definitely be tweaked in subsequent updates. You can find more Q&A with the development team here.

The main concept of our game is to create a WC that will eventually put the pilots into the cockpit of ships from all the WC eras. We are under continual discussions and debates on how to normalize ship stats from every and each WC and this job requires a lot of field test. It is still premature to really say if the shields are too weak or the guns are too strong. We are hoping that when the multiplayer part will be available, the community's opinion will help us greatly to balance the game on this matter.

Transverse Concept Art Reveals Wing Commander Links

The following designs were done for Transverse announcement trailer by Piranha Games. As the sole concept artist, I worked closely with the creative director, art director, as well as the whole production team.

I had the opportunity to play multiple roles during the development process. While I mainly design the vehicles, props, and environments of the brand, I often provide lighting/color keys for the 3D artists. I also worked on visualizing gameplay UI as well as marketing contents.

Talented Wingnuts Patch Things Up

The [last one] is for the Thunderbolt VII. I'm not 100% sure on having the silhouette on the bottom, or just letting the main picture be "symbolic" on its own - thoughts?

Wing Commander Broadcasting Sunday On Syfy UK

Download the Prophecy Fan Movie

Years after Colonel Christopher Blair (Mark Hamill; Star Wars, Batman: The Animated Series) single-handedly ended the deadly war with the Kilrathi, a new enemy emerges from far cross the stars. Now, it is the duty of the TCS Midway and her crew to stop these deadly aliens before it's too late. This space combat adventure focuses on 2nd Lieutenant Lance Casey; the son of a legendary ace pilot and new recruit into the Confederation Space Force. Alongside veteran pilots Maniac (Thomas F. Wilson; Back to the Future) and Hawk (Chris Mulkey, Rambo: First Blood, The Purge) and his fellow new recruits, Casey will face a terrifying new enemy with ancient origins. Co-starring Peter Jason (They Live, HBO's Deadwood), Jeremy Roberts (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country) and adult actress Ginger Lynn Allen.

Star Citizen Reaches $60 Million!

Chris Roberts and the Cloud Imperium team have hit another incredible milestone. Their total crowdfunding total has now reached $60 million! October's $4 million haul, combined with an average of $2.5 million in each of the preceeding four months, helped push the game to today's mark. They're now 50% of the way past the point that earn them the Guinness Book achievement this year!

It's been a very busy couple of months for Roberts Space Industries. Both planetside MMO-style gameplay and intense first person shooting action have been recently revealed, plus the existing Arena Commander space combat simulator continues to see upgrades. A deep space long range fighter became available today, and they've committed to a stealthy boarding craft and passenger liner as future goals.

Wingnuts who've backed the game can form up in the game's CIC Organization or join the conversation at the CIC Forums.

The team is ecstatic that their efforts are being appreciated, and I think I speak for everyone on the team when we say it really feels like Star Citizen is starting to go from a series of modules to a single, coherent vision.

As always, thank you for your support. You are what’s making Star Citizen happen. I know it seems like we’ve shown a lot in the past few weeks, but I can promise you right here that there’s more to come! We won’t end 2014 without a few more surprises.

— Chris Roberts

Retro Gamer Tells The Story Of OSI

New Modding Tool Helps Display Texture Files

I just created a small web app that loads MAT files made for WCP/SO and displays them on HTML5 Canvas elements. This is a JavaScript/HTML5 app that reads VISION engine (Wing Commander: Prophecy/Secret Ops) MAT texture files, and displays them on HTML5 canvases.

How to use: Just select some MAT files using the file selector, and they will be loaded automatically, and displayed to you as they are being loaded. Once the load is complete, you can hover over each image rendered from the MAT file, and you can see which MAT corresponds to the image you are hovering over.

Known issues: External palettes are not supported yet.

RPG Expands Fan Fiction Links; All Modules Online Again

• Core Rules (22 MB)
• Enyo (5.6 MB)
• Prelude to Goddard (3.1 MB)
• Vespus (4.1 MB)

IN THE DISTANT FUTURE, MANKIND IS LOCKED IN A DEADLY WAR... The Wing Commander Role-Playing Game brings the wonder and grandeur of the ground-breaking video game series to the gaming table. Compiled using information gathered over two decades by fans of the original series, WCRPG has everything you need to create your own adventures in the Wing Commander Universe including.

-A simple, yet flexible character creation system allowing unlimited numbers of possible characters based on eighty unique archetypes and full details on sixteen unique sapient races.

-Full creation rules for characters, vehicles, ships, communities, planets and more.

-Flexible combat rules allowing players to fight with as much detail and complexity as they wish.

-Guidelines on creating adventures, including a list of adventure ideas and procedures for developing plots.

-A compendium and primer to the Wing Commander Universe, including a timeline of events, details on over 200 characters, and a list of lifeforms.

Live Wing Commander Recording Session A Resounding Success!

Thought I'd post a little teaser video from our Wing Commander Recording session that went amazingly well in Bratislava. Here is one where I'm checking out the recording process in real time, obviously digging the first read through. Sounded much better after a few more takes. The orchestra is on the other side of the glass.

Another Wicked Cool Wingnut!

Hey guys, I did it :) It needs some overwork but I'm really really happy about this tattoo :)
The first "A" letter got kinda "long" maybe because I twitched like hell :D It was super painful. But yeah, I did it and I love it :)

Saluting Space Pioneers