Another Dralthi Expands the Lego Fleet

Attempted to build a minifig-able Dralthi. The stubby cabin is tricky.

CGM Looks At Celebrities In Games

Many 90s games also used full motion video as a way to create realistic theatrical cut scenes. Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom and Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun feature famous actors in real-life video sequences, which serve as cutscenes in the games...

Then there's fighting your way through space on the TCS Lexington in Wing Commander IV, between cut scenes of once-retired Colonel Blair (Mark Hamill)'s attempt to find and destroy the threats arising on the Border Worlds. Blair should consider himself lucky that Admiral Tolwyn (Malcolm McDowell) called him back to the military. His plan to become a farmer on a desert planet probably wasn't working out too well. WCIV's cut scenes account for nearly two full hours of celebrity-stuffed, full motion video action. Amazing.

The newest way to include celebrities in games is with motion capture and performance capture technology... This method not only features the voices of celebrity actors but the digitized movement of their bodies and facial expressions. Now celebrities can be fully active in video game cut scenes, like Hamill and Jones were in Wing Commander IV and Tiberian Sun, but act as the playable main character throughout the game as well with the digital capturing of their physical attributes and expressions.

Confed Dreadnought Reimagined as Sleek Powerhouse

Big Flat Universe Update Enhances Playable Alpha

Some of the most interesting features of the latest update:

1. New patching system. No more downloading and decompressing huge packages. Just start Flat Universe and our server will update your copy with the latest version.
2. Two new exciting ships have been added: Raptor and a Shuttle.
3. New animated Take Off sequences from Daedalus station.
4. Fly around our spectacular home system, "Destiny", on a free flight mode.
5. Now you can select your own missile loadout.
6. Missile Decoys are now available. No more extensive use of afterburner to avoid missiles.
   and last but not least
7. Finished turret AI. Now you can kill it before it kills you. A test flight will convince you. And as always, we need your feedback! Your opinion counts more than you can imagine. Have Fun!!!

   the MaslasBros

Video Highlights Benefits of EMS in WC1&2

Going to be making a few WC1 related videos for the anniversary, since I've not done this much before, figured I'd test out the software and my microphone with this oddball curiosity video.

Inspired by a thread from earlier this week, this one's aimed mostly at the kids that don't remember seeing Wing Commander in low memory environment, or even in EGA. The music I've used is from the Amiga version.

WC RPG Positioned For An Exciting 2015

Extensive Walkthrough Chronicles Super Wing Commander

Annual Contest Voting In Full Swing

Website of the Year
• Daedalus Station
• Hangars B & C
• HCl's Wing Commander Editing Site
• Online Ship Viewer
• Pix's Origin Adventures
• Wing Commander RPG

Fan Project of the Year
• Beat Hazard Ships
• Defiant Few
• Flat Universe
• Klavs' Model Archive
• Prophecy Movie
• Russian Translation of WC4
• ScoobyDoo's Ships
• Starship Tactics
• Whiplash's Hellcat
• WCDX for Kilrathi Saga

Chris Roberts Presents at BAFTA Screening

BAFTA Los Angeles is pleased host the first of several planned Games Masterclass events for 2015, featuring a presentation and Q&A from Chris Roberts, iconic game developer and founder/creator of the upcoming title Star Citizen.

During the session, Chris will delve deep into the convergence of creative and technology as he gives members an inside look at how you build a new gaming universe from the ground up, alongside a community that is not only intimately involved, but actively participating at a level never seen before in the entertainment industry.

CIC RSI Organization Turns One!

The continued financial support being given to the project is very impressive. They are roughly a quarter million dollars away from hitting $70 million! This money is being put to use in a number of areas which you can read about in the latest monthly report.

If you haven't joined the CIC organization, what are you waiting for? We're going to need every good pilot we have to stop the Kilra...err Vanduul hordes!

Wing Commander Demo Shows Off Unity Engine

Derek put together a neat tech demo for what's possible in the Unity engine. It's a concept video demonstrating what a Concordia TrainSim game might look like. The original plan was to make the project playable with a few waves of incoming enemies. There was even a goal for Oculus Rift support at one point, although this type of development is currently on hold. What has been done here looks really slick though! Hopefully the project continues to be refined so pilots can take it for a spin.

I'm working on a Wing Commander fan game using Unity as a robust 3D engine. With an eye to the future, and not being able to wait for Star Citizen, I wanted to create what amounts to what the original Training Sim was like.

I have the rudimentary pieces in: I added a Dralthi ship as my first enemy type, and I'm working on the AI to just destroy asteroids for now. Flight AI is something I'm new at, and seems to have a decent difficulty curve.

Confed Fighter Wing Takes Shape in Solar Empire

Since Wing Commander was all about the fighters, not the capital ships, and their fight against the Kilrathi, most of the models in the mod will be fighters. Sadly Sins restricts us to having 15 mandatory slots, so we can't pick this. Every slot has to have a roll. That being said, all of the 'frigate' and 'cruiser' classes of ships are being turned into fighters. Capital ships and the Titans will be the cap ships we have seen in the games, and thus we don't have to come up with too many extra designs. Like I said in my initial post, I would like to be able to use all the orginal game assets, as I plan to make everything spam like there is no tomorrow.

On a side note, I did change the stock menu music with that of the WC3 theme. :)

Sid Meier's Starships Announced

• Tactical space combat: Encounter unique tactical challenges in every mission, with dynamically generated maps, victory conditions, and foes.
• Fully customizable starships: Create an armada that fits your tactical plan with modular spaceship design.
• Diplomacy, strategy, and Exploration: Expand the influence of your Federation and gain the trust of the citizens of new planets. Use the unique abilities of the each planet to enhance your fleet and Federation, and keep your opponents in
• A galaxy of adventure: Explore the galaxy as you lead your fleet to distant worlds and complete missions to help the citizens of these planets. Fight pirates, protect colony ships, destroy rogue AI, and more.
• Multiple paths to victory: Will you win by conquering the greatest threat to the galaxy? Or will you unite a plurality of worlds in your Federation? Perhaps you will lead your people to push the frontiers of science. Each choice you make carries consequences on your path to victory

Annual Contest Voting Begins!

Website of the Year

• Daedalus Station - The home base of the Flat Universe mod is a slick destination in its own right. They publish the Destiny's Way in-game magazine and host all the previews for the top down shooter.
• Hangars B & C is a set of two virtual galleries to showcase his array of Confed & Kilrathi ships. Fans love to examine his designs, but without the site, most people wouldn't have an easy way to render up their own views to check out every angle.
• HCl's Wing Commander Editing Site has long been the place to grab some of the most exotic patches and hacks for the Wing Commander series. The latest enhancement drastically improves the playability of Privateer 2 on modern systems.
• Online Ship Viewer - HCl's newest website is another standalone virtual ship viewer. Modern browser technologies allow talented Wingnuts to set up web-based interfaces that would have required expensive specialized software in years past. This one lets fans check out the actual models from Armada, Wing 3 and Wing 4 - and not just fighter models!
• Pix's Origin Adventures is the place to go for anything and everything Origin. Wing Commander fans have close ties to many other classic Origin properties, and it's great that other franchises - along with WC - are getting the attention they deserve here.
• Wing Commander RPG has been one of the most steadily updated sites of the year. Capi is dedicated to near-weekly updates and status reports on the creation of the game's latest expansion campaign, Elegy of Sivar.

Fan Project of the Year

• Beat Hazard Ships - Shaggy spent a good part of 2014 adding the Confed and Kilrathi fighters from WC1 into Beat Hazard. The game is a top-down rhythm-based shooter, and the WC additions add a ton to the atmosphere!
• Defiant Few - The year began with a new chapter of Wing Commander: Defiant Few. The award winning audio drama follows a band of Confederation pilots as they struggle to push the Nephilim back from the Gemini Sector. In addition to new episodes of the regular story, they also put out a special April Fools edition.
• Flat Universe provided a steady stream of updates throughout the year, which culminated in a highly anticipated playable alpha test. The team has a ways to go before the game is complete, but they are already incorporating pilot feedback to improve the experience the next time out.
• Klavs' Model Archive - After first creating the slick virtual 3D gallery mentioned aboved, Klavs posted a huge collection of models for fans to use. He's amassed a very comprehensive look at the fleets of Wing Commander all in one place. Quite a windfall for other emerging projects!
• Prophecy Movie - This 2.5 hour presentation consolidates the highlights from both cutscenes and game flight into one package. Fans who are out of practice can now relive the experience from the comfort of their joystick-less desk or living room!
• Russian Translation of WC4 is an ambitious effort to patch The Price of Freedom in a new language. Some of the hardest parts, recoding the HUD and captions, are complete, so the work that remains is mostly just lots of actual translation. Along the way, a caption bug has been fixed for everyone.
• ScoobyDoo's Ships are creative new takes on classic Wing Commander ships. As dozens and dozens have been created, they've formed their own consistent style with some innovative new spaceframe elements.
• Starship Tactics is a WC capship simulator that's heavy on strategy. Although real life war in Europe slowed development in 2014, Arraen is now hard at work and the project is back on track.
• Whiplash's Hellcat - Whiplash's project to remake and restore his highly accurate wooden Hellcat model didn't cut any corners. Each step was carefully documented and shared with fans so they could see all the care and effort that goes into an art project of this quality. Fans who followed his construction could appreciate the final design more because they knew exactly what went into every tiny bit.
• WCDX for Kilrathi Saga - GOG may have lessened the need to rely on KS for the earliest WC games, but the Kilrathi Saga still has some advantages that make it worth playing. Stinger's patch fixes basic compatibility, multitasking, resolution and more.

New Freespace Game Nets $17K on Kickstarter

FreeSpace Tactics is a competitive game of space combat for 2-4 people in which players build hands of movement cards to dodge missiles and asteroids and flank opponents, employ pilot abilities and powerful Ace cards to gain advantages, and unleash devastating attacks unique to their ship miniatures.

FreeSpace Tactics is set during the timeline of the original FreeSpace PC game. In keeping with its origins, the stats for ship miniatures and weaponry, and features such as expendable afterburner cards, have been adapted directly from the digital games.

Smudo's Wing Commander Transcript

Behind me you can see a picture of the 34 year old Smudo who already liked playing video games back then.

Maybe I was even younger...

This is a very proud picture, you can tell by the battlefield injury and the A-1 sitting uniform on the TCS Tiger's Claw, ladies and gentleman, as a space cadet in Wing Commander five.

I had the honor to get a small - my first - background extra role.

It was very interesting, I was.... back then I just followed my crazes when they happened... offered a role in it by Electronic Arts.

Now I was such a big Wing Commander fan - who of you knows Wing Commander? (people cheering) Ah, so I don't have to explain it.

And I just couldn't say no. I had even watched the Wing Commander movie back in the days, with .... well, not many other people in the cinema. (people laughing)

And when Admiral Tolwyn said "I know a beautiful french fighter pilot who can help us" the five of us in the cinema all whispered "Angel Deveraux".

And I had the opportunity.. I unfortunately didn't meet her, but on the set I met that buffoon that also played in 'Back to the Future'... (quoting Biff) 'Hello? Anybody home?'

Anyway, I flew to Burbank. I got a ticket and boarded the plane, and I knew I was going to America, but I didn't know what or where Burbank was, there was no Google Earth back then.

So I just flew off, for quite a while, and then I learned that Burbank is some one hundred kilometers from Los Angeles.

And then I arrived there, and straight away got put into my uniform and "bamm!" A photo was taken, and then for about a minute in the movie - the movie was a bout a minute and I was visible in about 30 frames.

I was playing some science fiction card game, and then I flew home. And now I am here. Wing Commander. (applause)

We all remember, eight, or six, I don't know how much CD's it were. It were CDs, not DVDs, it were six or eight CDs!

Back then it was a big hit, nowadays that would be a browser game flop.

Throwback Thursday: The Rebel Assault Movie

Way back in 2000 some may remember the Wing Commander: Rebel Assault movie that was being made. I released a trailer for it and a year or so after that - due to my inactivity - "Tolwyn" of Wing Commander: Saga released a short clip on my behalf that I'd made of the Dragon assault on a Kilrathi fuel depot... and that was it, nothing more was said and it all vanished.

Well, it was ambitious for a completely solo venture and even moreso given that the project was the product of me learning to both model and animate at the same time from scratch. The biggest problem I encountered was not only time but quality control. As time went on my modeling and animation improved dramatically, so much so that the quality of later scenes was so much better than earlier ones that they just wouldn't fit together. I could also do things that I hadn't been able to achieve previously. I couldn't afford to continually remodel existing work and with life taking precedence I just gave up.

A whopping 15 years later, which is hard to believe, I decided to dig out some old archives from the PC I had back then. I figured that maybe some people would be interested in why the project vanished and what was made but never released. The data is fragmented over various drives but a lot of the animation is still there in all its glorious 320x240 resolution.

I had some free time and, while it's been a long time since I've touched 3D software, I decided that I'd attempt to re-render some of the work in a somewhat improved resolution with double the original frame rate. Given the leap in PC technology since 2000, what would've been a week long job with the PC running 24/7 now takes just a few hours. Much of the formatting was lost from the old version of software I was using and some textures are missing. Particle and lighting effects are also broken in many place also many of the scenes were designed for a 320 resolution and so even the new resolution is really pushing what's there without making defects. Ultra-low poly models and low res textures look too awful. I've provided a couple of 1080p renders of scenes where the level of detail was sufficient to allow such resolutions, while others struggle to look decent even at 480p...

I've uploaded a new version of the Rebel Assault trailer to youtube along with a reel attached immediately after the end of unreleased scenes that were either due to be included or had been scrapped totally for various reasons. There is a lot of other stuff related to Privateer, Starlancer and Jumpgate's Drakhai which I haven't yet gone through. If sufficient interest, I may look at reworking some of that.

Alex "Phoenix" of the late Wing Commander: Rebel Assault

WC Saga Plus Gets Home on the Web

Our project and team moved into a new home

This is now the official site for our "WCS Deutsch Team" and our projects "WCS Deutsch-Mod" and "WCS Plus". We've been using this domain since Summer 2014 for our beta webspace and now we are moving our internal developer forums to the new home. There are also already a few public forums. Further it is also the new home for all of my WCS tools I published over the last 3 years. A few I haven't published will be coming soon (TM).

A bit late: see you on the other side pilots and we wish you all a happy new year. :)

Larry Latham and the Lost Academy Footage

Back in 2011, I was contacted by Universal with a polite, informal cease and desist -- we own Wing Commander Academy and you have episodes on your site, blah, blah, blah. I wrote back that of course we would take down the episodes immediately (and politely let them know we actually posted them with their permission... it was just given twelve years earlier before anyone thought streaming full TV episodes would be a thing.) I mentioned in my note that we loved Wing Commander more than anything and that we very much wanted to help spread the word. Was there, per chance, a home video release in the works? The woman who had politely threatened to sue me wrote back. Her entire job was writing these letters to people, and none of them had ever replied nicely or offered to help with anything. She was so grateful and promised to write me back as soon as she could say something.

Almost immediately, I got a phone call from a fellow at a publisher called VEI. He'd just licensed Wing Commander Academy, and the rights search had been at his request. He was going to put the entire series on DVD, and wanted to make sure the marketplace was ready for it. We spent several weeks going back and forth; I provided him several gigs of key art from the series, wrote box and ad copy, suggested some extra material for the discs and so on. Then, he wrote to tell me: they'd received the raw footage from Universal and for whatever reason about ten seconds were missing from one episode.

Oddly, I knew exactly which episode it was going to be: On Both Your Houses, which had a strange, glitchy original airing. No one had any memory of the issue, but there was some trouble with the production somewhere along the line. But ten seconds of the episode were missing, and did I think he could get away with having a disclaimer? No, I said, we're going to find those ten seconds. I provided raw copies of the show and my highest-possible-for-a-teenager-at-the-time off-air dubs from 1996. But the result was pretty low quality, and obvious.

That's where Larry stepped in! I contacted him to ask if he had a clean copy of the show. Sure enough: he did! And he was willing to ship his personal BETA tape off to Canada for VEI to work from. Then, everything fell silent for a few weeks. Did it all get resolved? I wrote to Larry to ask. Actually, he replied, he kept trying to ship them the footage but he wasn't getting any response when he asked them to send him a mailer. I contacted VEI directly and found that the producer who was SO EXCITED about Wing Commander Academy had been fired suddenly and that his projects had been taken over by someone far less interested. I explained the situation and convinced him that we needed to do this even if it was "just" ten seconds. But of course the discs were being mastered the next week so it had to be done RIGHT NOW. Larry was game, we overnighted his tape to them and the episode is complete!

Anyway, long story short: you can see the brief 'lower quality' footage in the episode. That's Larry's tape, shipped off with no payment or other reward just to make sure that Wing Commander fans got to see the whole story. He was a genuine, stand-up guy, and we're poorer for having lost him. Larry sent me a package of Academy sketches before he died, which I'll try and get scanned and online as soon as possible.

Sins of Solar Empire Endeavor Seeking Ships

I am a long time fan of Wing Commander and have played through 3 and 4 countless times, and have a serious longing for the Kilrathi War. I am a modder of Sins of a Solar Empire, a 4X strategy game and was thinking not to long ago how awesome it would be to have a Wing Commander mod for it.

I am curious, can anyone give me a link, or possibly a tutorial to retrieve, for the models from the above mentioned games? I mean actual in-game models that were used by Chris Roberts and the team, as I want to bring the feel of the original games to a RTS setting. Thank you in advance for any help you can give.

WCDX Achieves 1.0 Release

Now that the beta has had some bake time, I've officially promoted it to 1.0, with only very minor revisions from 1.0 beta update 3. Wing Commander 1 is fully playable, but the mission packs are not.

Next up is Secret Missions 1. I've already converted the transfer program to use WCDX (although that's not part of the 1.0 release), but with the resumption of my normal workload following the holiday break, I have less time available for working on this project. I'll try to set aside some weekend hours; hopefully it won't be too long before we can start chasing the Sivar dreadnought.

Happy flying!

Smudo Talks Wing Commander

SpaceX Lands Rocket on Drone Ship

Internet Archive Adds Streaming DOS Games... with a Wing Commander Twist

There are heated arguments both ways that posting games like this can both help or hurt a long lost franchise. We're very proud of the fact that the CIC carefully avoided posting WC games online before modern digital distribution arrived - all the while working behind the scenes with EA, GOG and others to push for a legal way to obtain Wing Commander again. It'll be very interesting to see what comes from this latest development!

Orchestral Tracks Available in New Formats for Backers

If you've backed the project on either Kickstarter or Fundrazr, then don't forget to check your email or log into Kickstarter for the latest download info. If you haven't received your email yet, make sure to get in contact with George or us here at the CIC and we'll try and get you all sorted.

Greetings all! The wonderful team at the Wing Commander CIC website created both MP3 and AAC versions of the music for you all! Thanks to... the entire CIC staff for your generosity of time and talent!

If it were up to me to create a set list from what we have so far it would be...

1. Wing Commander Suite
2. WC4 Borderworlds
3. WC3 Defend
4. WC4 Battle Medley
5. WC Prophecy Mission to Alien Space
6. WC4 Mission 4
7. WC3 Behemoth
8. WC Prophecy Intense Combat
9. WC3 Strike
10. WC4 Winning Endgame

This order DEFINITELY does NOT imply an order of favorites, just what I think would be a good sequencing of the music. I'm sure there are lots of OTHER opinions out there! :)

BTW, I'm just now diving into the digital orchestrations of additional music, and will have those ready for you all in the not too distant future!

Musically yours,

George

Pearson's Pretty Prop Pics

Howard Day sent us some nifty Wing Commander movie prop pictures "from a super pack of Bill Pearson's work on many many different movies." Anyone interested in Checking out Bill's vast array of work can check out his portfolio website here.

This first set of images is probably the most interesting of the bunch. This is a very nice look at a Tiger Claw medkit. When the Tiger Claw makes the jump to the Ulysses Corridor, Angel is thrown against a bulkhead. We see her put her hand to her head and when she removes it there's a patch of blood on her forehead. In the theatrical cut, that's about all you will see. However, a number of shots were trimmed from this scene where Blair goes around the corner and gets a medkit - the one shown in these images - and takes out a tool to attempt to mend Angel's wounds. You can see it in action below courtesy of a few screenshots from the Movie workprint.

Listen To Your Chief Tech!

These FOFs always spook me. One hit on your ship's QIPID resonator and they go for the first thing they see. Big damage though.

Didn't get around to finishing repairs on your ship, kid. Sorry.

I'll cross the external energy inducers over the back-manifold heat shield, which should get you around 50 KPS higher cruising speed.

No idea why so many people like the Photon Cannon. I always thought the heat to divergence ratio was lame.

I've pushed the limits on those old Confed tractor beams you probably learned on at the academy. I doubled the axial frequency, added inertial retracors and pretty much tweaked the hell out of 'em. You'll be impressed your next salvage op.

If you've got mines on your ship, I recommend using 'em. I've see more than one bogie bite it because he didn't watch out for these creepers. They track, you know.

Eurogamer Digs Up Canceled Origin Games

Carl's Crazy Carnival: "This is a game made up of several small games that, together, allow the player to free 'Carny' Carl, owner of Carl's Carnival. He's been captured by a cartel of crazy clowns who have conspired to convert Carl's Carnival into complete chaos."

Armed only with a water pistol but with the ability to upgrade to better weapons through arcade-machine tickets, Carl's Crazy Carnival would have you defeat legions of amusing enemies in order to reach the Cosmic Comet Roller Coaster. There, you'd free Carl and save the day.

Reading the pitch, it's oddly unclear what sort of game Carl's Crazy Carnival would have been. There's mention of minigames, action and overhead maps, but nowhere does it specify a perspective or specific genre. Even Warren Spector seems unsure now, describing it only as a 'console-style game' pitched by one of the artists on his team, the late ZZ-Top and Ultima artist, Bill Narum. "I liked the idea of a funny game and pitched it to the exec team," says Spector. "It was rejected."

Strategy Mod Demonstrates Cruiser Engagement

New GUI, some additional shield effects. The Tallahassee class cruiser is fighting against two Kilrathi corvettes during attack on a Kilrathi station in one of the systems in Vega sector.

My main idea is to create a multiplayer war where each player should start from a small corvette and after endless battles and countless points of experience change ships like this: corvette -> destroyer -> cruiser -> battle cruiser -> battleship -> carrier. That's why I decided to develop some kind of sandbox game where you can play different tactics and different opponents each time.

Fill in the Gaps With Fan Fiction

My goals are to flesh out the war and produce a more extensive timeline, as well as explore other campaigns and sides of the war. A war is more than a single fighter pilot trying to win it all by his lonesome.

There are more ships out there than the Tiger's Claw, Concordia or even Victory. There are cruisers, battleships, destroyers, frigates, corvettes and so on. Wars might be fought in space, but they would be won on the ground. A planet is a large place, and its conquest could require millions upon millions of soldiers over a year to complete. Let us not forget the civilian side of the war, which was almost never touched. Lastly, each war has at least two sides. The Kilrathi perspective is left mostly untouched. I like much of what was developed for the Kilrathi, but in this reboot I strive to make them more like lions, more alien, and less like WWII's Japanese Empire. The reboot will see its share of carrier-based action, but that would be just the tip of the story.

Renowned Origin Artist Connecting With Fans

Denis Loubet, Origin's senior artist at the time, did the cover art, cockpit art and cinematic backgrounds for Wing Commander I and additional items for Wing Commander II, Super Wing Commander and Armada. He was with the Ultima series, far longer: he was originally hired to do the cover and startup screen graphics for Ultima I way back in 1980 and contributed all the way through Ultima Online in the early 2000s!

Happy New Year!