Last Chance To Rock The Vote! Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

We're already a month into the new year, so it's just about time for our annual fan project contest to wrap up. If you haven't voted yet, there's still time! Lots of fans are out there making a difference in the WC community, so we know it can be hard to just pick one. Here are the nominees again. Vote below!
  • Adm_Maverick's Papercraft Adventures started off with humble beginnings. We initially got to see some cool cardboard hobby ships, but his work grew quite a bit in 2018 to include reproducible miniature models and a tabletop game using these small ships.
  • Dark Sentinel's Art is well known as the best Nephilim showcase in the known universe. It's most prominent in the WCP/SO MUP, but that's not the only project his efforts have helped!
  • DefianceIndustries' Art is also synonymous with the high quality ships in the WCP/SO MUP, but that's just the beginning. His gorgeous ships also grace the fleets of multiple major fan projects.
  • Flat Universe had a big year with new releases that contained multiple new ships like the Banshee and Talon, new graphical effects and multiplayer features. This culminated in an exciting tournament in October.
  • The Homeworld Remastered Mod made the game prettier with new backgrounds, added the Black Lance faction, boosted the AI and added new gameplay mechanics like the Wasp's swarmer missiles.
  • Last Line of Defense had a productive year with quite a few different animation samples being released. It's not often that a project can successfully pivot from something like a playable mod to WC animation, but Deathsnake is using what he's learned to successfully springboard to bigger and better WC undertakings.
  • The Prophecy & Secret Ops Model Upgrade Pack also had a big year. Numerous ships were upgraded and new engine effects were rolled out here as well - everything really pops in version 0.41!
  • Rehsin's WC1 Mods started out as some simple graphical tweaks to our favorite characters. Then Hobbes was added as a playable wingman and finally a special mini-campaign was released!
  • The WC Toolbox expanded from a WC1-centric utility to include preliminary modding support for WC2 and Privateer. It's been a major part of the expanding modding scene for the oldest WC games!
  • The WC1 Sprite Refresh represents even more exciting WC1 potential. Goliath, working with Howard Day & UnnamedCharacter, have pulled off some very exciting ship swap experiments that let fans upgrade the look of some of their favorites. We can't wait to see where this goes in the future!

All About Origin's CD-ROM Editions Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Shout out to Origin’s 1993 “CD-ROM Edition” graphic. That’s how you know it’s a CD-ROM Edition!

They went with a much more subtle version from 94 to 95. Wings of Glory is so handsome!
And by 1996 you didn’t need to advertise that a PC game came on a CD. It shows up on the European Wing Commander IV box but not the domestic release.
They also had something called a CD>Hard Drive release. These didn’t have any CD-specific enhancements and instead just installed the disk version without all the swapping.
author avatar
LOAF

Krant Emerges from the Shadows Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

DefianceIndustries is back to modeling, and he's finished his long-awaited Kilrathi medium fighter. The Krant is a bit of an odd dog with its twin cockpits and unique styling. Everyone thinks of the Dralthi as a big bullseye in the sky, but I always thought the Krant made really good targets despite their heftier armor. Their name also works great in puns, but Defiance already beat me to it.
I've had a half-finished Krant laying around forever, and I krant leave things in a half-finished state. So, here it is: the Vega sector's medium bomber and general target. Enjoy!

Model Hornet Takes to the Air Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

AircPirateNinsei has flown his Hornet model for the first time. Total duration aloft was just under ten seconds, but it really zooms. And even this brief flight provides valuable information. He's now in the process of remaking the craft about 25% larger in order to give it a bigger battery and more effective control surfaces. It's all very cool, and he's a very talented model maker!
Here a short video of the maiden crash.

The Hornet flies, but it needs more thrust and larger surfaces for the elevons. To fit a bigger battery (4s) in the small nose I will increase the wingspan from 800mm (31.5 in) to 1000mm (39.37 in).

The Hornet with 1000mm wingspan is almost finished. The lower part of the fuselage is still missing. A maximum of one 8" propeller fits. As motor I will try a RCTimer/DYS BC2830/8 1300KV (Max Power: 275W) with a 4s battery. Because of the larger area of the elevons I use two 9g servos.

I'm so sorry there won't be an F-Pack setup, but maybe a B- or C-Pack setup? I'll test the 52g 2830 motor first, before mounting the 70g 2836 motor.

Tabletop Game Grows Networked Fleet Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Adm_Maverick has done quite a bit of work with his WC tabletop game. One focus has been the creation of quite a few new ship cards. Each one has a snappy header graphic, and he's created numerous variants to add additional flavor. A neat focus will be the interoperability of ships from different eras without the artificial constraints that each game's specific stat ranges bring. He's working on normalizing the specs now so there's a reasonable comparison of each craft regardless of when we see them in the games. You can see this detail and help provide feedback at the CIC Forums here.
One of the things I want to do with this game is to have a 'complete universe', by that I mean while it can have expansions that introduce new figthers and new group, it won't get new rules to segment it. Wing Commander 1 figthers should be able to operate in the same system as Wing Commander Prophecy ships. I can not think of any good reason why the system should be setup to prevent you from having a half dozen Hornets escorting a Devastator for instance.

New Gemini Sector RPG Begins Preflight Checks Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Iceblade is looking at setting up a new dynamic WC RPG and is now polling for interest. He's got extensive experience in past role playing games including both MUSH and Forums based adventures. This time, he's looking at using Discord, which has surged in popularity these past few years (the CIC's #Wingnut chat room is also on Discord!), so he's keeping up with the times. If you have questions or would like to let him know you're game, stop by the CIC Forums.
I am looking into setting up a Discord-based text roleplaying game with a mixture of scheduled events and free-form roleplaying by players. The game would be wiki-supported for information and logs.

Set in Gemini Sector, players will primarily play pilots onboard a carrier caught behind the enemy lines of a massive Kilrathi offensive throughout the sector. The carrier must push back to the front lines, gathering and rescuing surviving vessels along the way.

The time frame will be 2659 to 2661. Epees, Stilettos, and Sabres along with Rapier IIs are well deployed throughout the fleet (carriers at least).

Watch a Genre Launch in WC Throwback Vid Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

The Eternall Newbie has made a quirky retrospective video about Wing Commander 1. The author goes through the game's setting and physical box contents and highlights what made it so great at the time. Aside from some wonky input controls issues, he says it still holds up pretty well!
Join me as I look back at the granddaddy of all space combat sims, the game that launched a genre, Wing Commander 1.

Lord British Loving Life in his Robot Body Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

st3lt3k found a fun LifeHacker article with Origin founder Richard Garriott on work habits. His video game development studio, Portalarium, is based in Austin, Texas, but his family currently lives in New York. Yet he maintains a daily presence in the office thanks to his Beam telepresence robot. Mr. Garriott's actually been using robots to get around for quite some time - he showed us an older model when we visited the studio almost a decade ago. He used to use an Anybots model. The interview also talks about some of the other stuff he's been up to lately, which is always a hoot. Check out the full article here.
Take us through a recent workday.

When I awake in NYC, I am an hour ahead of my Austin staff. This allows me to help get the kids off to school without a rush. I then log into my Beam and teleport to Austin from my home office desk in NYC. I then go about starting my day’s work, while leaving my robot body present in my Austin office, just as I would be if physically present in Austin. This allows me to welcome employees as they arrive, and participate in the natural flow and rhythm of the office.

I attend the morning standup reports (either as a human or robot) daily. When people want to speak with me, they visit me normally, I participate in hallway chatter and even loiter in the kitchen wishing I could share in the snacks when I am a robot.

The 3-D Space Combat Strategizer Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Pix and Dennis Mull have both recently found an interesting compilation by Empire Interactive. The set bundles together Wing Commander, Civilization, War in the Gulf and Frontier: Elite II all in one pack. Two of them are space sims, plus there's a tank sim and a classic turn-based 4X - not unlike hundreds of various '90s packs. However, this one is titled "Strategy 4 in one." In fact, the back of the box claims you can "build an empire on earth or fly across the galaxy, you can do it all with this pack - 4 of the greatest strategy games of all time." Now you know!
WING COMMANDER puts you in the middle of the most intense starship action you've ever experienced outside of a movie theatre. But in WING COMMANDER you're the star! "WING COMMANDER changed the way that other developers thought about designing games. This is more than ever an essential addition to any self-respecting PC gamer's collection." -PC Review
It is pretty cool how much play Wing Commander got in bundles like these. This was probably released in late 1994 or 1995 - in the era of Wing Commander 3!
I just ran across it and it's a new one on me. Kind of curious to see Wing Commander in a strategy game bundle.

[The manual] has a shrunken reproduction of the playing Wing Commander section and all the other docs but missed the rest of Claw Marks. According to the back of the box WC was one of the 4 greatest strategy games of all time circa 1995.

The DSG on the back is Dixons Group so it was probably only sold in Dixons, Currys and PC World. Would explain why there don't seem to too many about.

Annual Community Vote Begins! Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

With 2018 now well in the rear view mirror and 2019 well on its way, it's time for us to jump into our annual fan project contest. We took nominations over the last couple months and have come up with this list of noteworthy endeavors to recognize. Of course, the standard disclaimer applies: this is by no means an exhaustive list of super cool things that Wingnuts have been up to lately. There were some jaw dropping one-off items that didn't make the cut. This list is somewhat weighted towards the longer running projects that have demonstrate an enduring commitment from their creators and a steady communications clip so fellow fans stay engaged and know what's going on. For more variety, do check out our year in review. And now on to the nominees! (And don't forget to scroll to the bottom and vote!)
  • Adm_Maverick's Papercraft Adventures started off with humble beginnings. We initially got to see some cool cardboard hobby ships, but his work grew quite a bit in 2018 to include reproducible miniature models and a tabletop game using these small ships.
  • Dark Sentinel's Art is well known as the best Nephilim showcase in the known universe. It's most prominent in the WCP/SO MUP, but that's not the only project his efforts have helped!
  • DefianceIndustries' Art is also synonymous with the high quality ships in the WCP/SO MUP, but that's just the beginning. His gorgeous ships also grace the fleets of multiple major fan projects.
  • Flat Universe had a big year with new releases that contained multiple new ships like the Banshee and Talon, new graphical effects and multiplayer features. This culminated in an exciting tournament in October.
  • The Homeworld Remastered Mod made the game prettier with new backgrounds, added the Black Lance faction, boosted the AI and added new gameplay mechanics like the Wasp's swarmer missiles.
  • Last Line of Defense had a productive year with quite a few different animation samples being released. It's not often that a project can successfully pivot from something like a playable mod to WC animation, but Deathsnake is using what he's learned to successfully springboard to bigger and better WC undertakings.
  • The Prophecy & Secret Ops Model Upgrade Pack also had a big year. Numerous ships were upgraded and new engine effects were rolled out here as well - everything really pops in version 0.41!
  • Rehsin's WC1 Mods started out as some simple graphical tweaks to our favorite characters. Then Hobbes was added as a playable wingman and finally a special mini-campaign was released!
  • The WC Toolbox expanded from a WC1-centric utility to include preliminary modding support for WC2 and Privateer. It's been a major part of the expanding modding scene for the oldest WC games!
  • The WC1 Sprite Refresh represents even more exciting WC1 potential. Goliath, working with Howard Day & UnnamedCharacter, have pulled off some very exciting ship swap experiments that let fans upgrade the look of some of their favorites. We can't wait to see where this goes in the future!

Denis Loubet Remembers Aaron Allston Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Former Origin artist Denis Loubet has completed another portrait. This one is a tribute to his friend and fellow Wing Commander veteran Aaron Allston. Sadly, Mr. Allston passed away about five years ago. He was known to us as the original creator of the famous Claw Marks magazine and a designer of The Secret Missions, but he was also an extremely accomplished novelist. You can read more about his life here. You can also find high resolution versions and behind-the-scenes material on Mr. Loubet's work at his Patreon page. He does a lot of cool stuff for Wing Commander and Ultima fans there!
Here is a stealth portrait I've been working on for the last few weeks. It's a portrait of Aaron Allston, my late roommate, premiere game designer, and New York Times bestselling author.

He is most famous for his many Star Wars novels, and yes, Wedge Antilles was a major character. Doc Sidhe is an original urban fantasy series homage to Doc Savage. Both characters are seen here.

I tried to do this piece in the style of Drew Struzan, an artist famous for his many high-profile movie posters. I'm thinking it's not quite there yet. The elements don't fit together effortlessly as in Drew's work. I'm still learning.

Commissioned by one of my thoughtful patrons, I hope it will serve to remind people of Aaron and his magnificent body of work.

Chinese Secret Missions Now a Little Less Secret Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Christian Klein posted these neat pics of the Secret Missions made for China/Taiwan. We've previously posted about a number of Chinese ports in the past, including WC1, SM2, WC2 and the Special Operations, but it's possible that I've not seen the SM1 before. It's nice to close the loop on that! The packaging is nicely colored, and those white 5.25" disks are pretty swanky!
Taiwanese #WingCommander - The Secret Missions 1+2 / Publisher: Soft-World

Wing Commander Jazz Album Discs Ready to Ship! Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

There's good news on George Oldziey's live Wing Commander jazz album. The production copies have finally come back, so George is ready to ship discs out to project backers. Very cool album art was created by SabreAce, which you can see below. If you pledged for a physical copy during the original campaign and didn't receive an email with shipping confirmation instructions, log into the Kickstarter's updates page for instructions on how to get your album. These have been a long time coming, so it's great to see they're finally here!
Greetings all! I'm so TERRIBLY sorry that this has taken so long, but I FINALLY received the CDs that feature the WC Bar Music and recordings of the MIDI mockups and I'm ready to ship them to you!

The Story of Raylight Games - Straight from the Source! Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Massimiliano Di Monda, the co-founder and CEO of Raylight Games, has posted a neat article on the history of Wing Commander Prophecy for the Gameboy Advance. The company was founded in 2000, and the GBA port of WCP was a big deal in their initial portfolio. Thanks to their success in these early days, they are still active today and just recently announced several Nintendo Switch titles, among other products. They also continue to maintain an active Wing Commander page on their website and credit it as a major achievement in the company's history. For an extended look back at what Prophecy Advance meant to the WC community, also check out the CIC's 10 year retrospective here.


Wing Commander Prophecy - The story of Raylight Games
Massimiliano Di Monda
CEO at Raylight Games

Beginning in 2002 Raylight Games developed a demo on the GameBoy Advance based on the first Wing Commander, named Star Giants. The demo uses the first implementation of our Blueroses 3D Engine.

By the same period, Destination software signed an agreement with EA to port several games on the GameBoy Advance (Wing Commander was not included into this agreement), so we sent Star Giants for evaluation to their technical director.

After one month or so, we were invited at the Landmark Hotel in London (a 1K UK Pounds per night hotel) for a breakfast meeting together with DSI managing director Stuart Kaye (R.I.P.), former director of Virgin Interactive Europe.

"These guys have the tech to make AAA games on the Gameboy Advance" said the technical director to Mr. Kaye, who took the phone and after a 2 minutes call we were granted the license of Wing Commander Prophecy for GBA and a development contract for the game by EA.

EA asked to Raylight a further demo based on Wing Commander Prophecy itself as playable version for the contract, in case of failure the contract would have been cancelled. We worked hard for 1 month delivering with success on the tiny Gameboy Advance a perfect porting of the 1st mission of the game!

We did not get any assets from EA except the original 4 CDs game, but we received the great help from the CIC guys (https://www.wcnews.com/wcpgba.shtml), they extracted for us all the 3D models, dialogues and missions details!
We included all the missions and ships from the original PC title with the addition of multiplayer co-op missions and deathmatch for up to 4 players using gameboy advance link cables!

Wing Commander Prophecy reached second place at the 2003 E3 IGN Pocket awards for the best technological excellance (right after Sega Monkey Ball).

"Just wait until you see this game in action, folks...the 3D engine does the game extreme justice on the small screen...and it's expected to feature all the missions of the PC game (sans FMV, of course) and four player link as well."

-IGN, May 30, 2002

The Game was released on June 4, 2003. Mission Accomplished!

--------------------------------------

Raylight Games is a leading European videogames development studio based in Benevento and in the sunny Napoli, south of Italy. Funded in 2000, Raylight Games has developed dozen of games ranging from Handheld Consoles, Home Consoles, Mobiles and PC. In 2001 we started the development of BlueRoses, our own multiplatform framework on which our core team develops games. Originally developed for the Nintendo GameBoy Advance, BlueRoses has been used to develop Wing Commander: Prophecy, which has been nominated as runner up game for the best technological excellence at the 2002 E3 IGN Awards, and also the much acclaimed Resident Evil 2 demo. Since 2001 BlueRoses expanded on other emerging platforms and is currently available for PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Microsoft Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo 3DS, mobile platforms (Android, iOS, Windows Mobile) and PC.

Academy Script: Walking Wounded Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

As promised, a second Wing Commander Academy episode is now available! Today's script covers episode nine, "Walking Wounded." The episode starts with a cut scene that was intended to better establish Maniac's character for the episode, a scene taken from Wing Commander IV where he uncomfortably hits on a new Tiger's Claw bridge officer. You'll find everything from confirmation that the long-suspected captured Confederation ship design is intended to be a Sabre to the names of the doctors and nurses aboard the hospital ship! You can download the script in PDF form here.

author avatar
LOAF

Hands-On Hot Hardware Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

LOAF has recently been accumulating some neat '90s hardware with a connection to Wing Commander. The first is a customizable keyboard device with different profiles for various sims. The Katt "Games Master Keyboard" also supported Strike Commander, X-Wing and a couple of Ultimas. He's also picked up a couple of Thrustmaster sticks with WC fighters on the box. The X-Fighter joystick sports a Dragon and the Top Gun has a Heretic from Privateer 2! Even without explicit tie-in features, adding a WC ship to your box was a good way to pick up some PC street cred back in the day.

It's here! The world's first new product.

WC3 Review Covers PSX Highs and Lows Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

OurStorySoFar has posted a video review of Wing Commander 3. This one focuses on the Playstation port. While this is decidedly not the best version of the game, there's some neat things such as color VDUs and other interface changes that are interesting to see if you're most familiar with the PC version. The author specifically cites inclusion of the Hobbes explanation clip as one of the reasons to play it on consoles and describes their exclusion on PC as a 'bug'. Amazingly, this was a conscious decision due to disc space limitations, but being able to see all of the extra scenes is definitely a plus here. You might consider going for the 3DO version if you're going to try a port out though. The game was actually enhanced in a variety of ways to better suit the console pacing there - in addition to the extra video content.

WC vs History: Deep Diving the Broadsword Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Last year I tweeted a long thread about the Lightning jets used to build the Rapiers for the Wing Commander movie. I spent last night researching the BOMBER used in the film! Like the Rapiers played by English Electric Lightning interceptors, the Broadsword bomber in the Wing Commander movie was also a real aircraft. The cockpit is from a scrapped RAF English Electric Canberra B 2 bomber! Now join me for a space bomber history adventure...
Broadswords are flown by Paladin and Knight for the battle in act two. The real cockpit is visible in their close-ups but is usually cropped close since it doesn't match the CG scenes as closely as the fighters.
The plane: the Canberra was a jet-powered medium bomber originally intended to replace the famed de Havilland Mosquito. Development began in 1944, the first prototype flew in 1949 and the first production models entered service in 1951. The Canberra quickly proved to be effective in the early days of the Cold War as it was fast and had a high service ceiling which allowed it to avoid interceptors. The B 2 was the initial bomber version introduced in the early 1950s. It was also a very successful export aircraft with some even being produced in Australia and the US. The USAF version, the B-57 Canberra, was produced by Martin and had its own distinct variants. (This cool picture is for my fellow Marylanders, a B-57 high above the Bay Bridge!)
Believe or not, several Canberra are still in active service today. NASA continues to operate former WB-57 reconnaissance aircraft out of Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. These planes conduct environmental research focusing on weather and the atmosphere.
Paladin's Broadsword was made from the cockpit of Canberra B 2 WJ640, which served with the Royal Air Force for almost forty years. WJ640 began life as a spy plane! She joined 192 Squadron at RAF Watton in 1954 where she was fitted for what were called "Radio Proving Flights." In reality, that meant she acted as a 'ferret,' flying near Soviet airspace. The reaction to these flights (radar, communications, etc.) would be recorded by a Boeing Washington (the RAF version of the B-29 Superfortress) mothership full of ELINT gear holding station further out.
In 1958, 192 Squadron became 51 Squadron and in 1963 moved to RAF Wyton. Her spy career came to an end in 1966 when she was transferred to 85 Squadron at RAF West Raynham for use as a tow vehicle in fighter interception training. In 1975, 85 Squadron was combined with 100 Squadron. 100 Squadron flew multiple international deployments. WJ640 assisted with multiple training exercises in Malta, towing targets for ships and (appropriately) English Electric Lightning jets!
WJ640 flew her last mission in 1981. She was given the maintenance serial 8722M and assigned to RAF Cosford for ground instruction. She served in that role until 1991 when she was cut up for scrap.
In 1997, Pinewood Studios bought the scrapped cockpit from a dealer who had saved it and the rest is history! Here are some more 1991 scrap photos found online:
Concept artist Ron Cobb did the first pass at the movie Broadsword design which was rejected in favor of ultimately building a ship around a real cockpit. His version was followed by this sketch and a proof-of-concept kitbash model.
To create the set, the crew scrubbed WJ640 to her base metal. The cockpit was decorated with Confederation wings and other graphics, though these were never visible in the finished film. It appears only in flight, used as both Paladin and Knight's ships.
Where is WJ640 now? It's not clear whether the cockpit was returned from Luxembourg after the film shoot or not. There's some scuttlebutt online that it was purchased by a film producer and moved to the United States but no actual evidence that this happened.
The spaceship: the A-17 Broadsword was introduced in Wing Commander II, bringing with it a new kind of gameplay built around treacherous torpedo runs. The Broadsword was a lumbering fortress without any afterburners that you had to keep alive until you could achieve target lock.
Lots of other mechanics went into the Broadsword: players could man turrets, refuel and jump to new star systems for the very first time.
The Broadsword returned in Wing Commander Privateer, now a heavy gunship flown by the military for contraband patrols. The model is the same as Wing Commander II with a new coat of paint! Broadswords show up in four of the seven Baen novels: End Run, Fleet Action, The Price of Freedom and False Colors. False Colors reveals that by 2672 Broadswords are being retired and now only serve with reserve wings.
Broadswords show up in seven episodes of Wing Commander Academy. The design here is lankier and has lots of seats (including two abreast for a pilot and co-pilot.) Dialogue tells us it has torpedoes, image recognition missiles and a rear facing particle cannon!
The movie's Confederation Handbook gives us a little backstory for the design, here designated CF-131: it was introduced in the 2630s because of the Pilgrim War and has been upgraded over the decades (like the B-52!)
Wing Commander Arena for XBox Live Arcade returned the Broadsword to active duty to fight the Nephilim in 2701! Three new variants are playable: the Broadsword Executioner, Warpig and Behemoth. WARPIG! It's featured prominently on the Arena "box art," too!
Here's a little UI comparison: the yoke and VDUs from the movie version and the cockpit from Wing Commander II. That looks like the CH Products flight yoke I had as a kid!
Here are the targetting VDUs for the three games that include the Broadsword. These always bring back memories for me!
You know I mentioned Paladin and Knight, but there is one more star Broadsword pilot in the movie! (Even more obscure fact: the novelization names the character who rescues Blair Lt. Chris McCubbin, so it's a double cameo.)
That's it for your Broadsword update, I hope you enjoyed this little diversion into airplane and pretend space airplane history!
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LOAF

Android Arts Reimagines Wing Commander with Awesome Sketches Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Arne from Android Arts has been bitten by the Wing Commander bug lately and the result has been a wide ranging gallery of WC sketches. He put together some interesting mockups about a year ago that focused heavily on the WC1/2 timeframe, and now his new work spans virtually the entire series. This time he's got aliens in addition to ships, and this lineup includes Confed soldiers, Kilrathi, Firekkans, Steltek and even the Mopoks! His fighter sketches also have grown to include works from both Privateers, and there's a Tri-System Melissa Banks-inspired outfit! The Tarsus first person cockpit also makes an appearance. These are super fun, and I'm anxious to see what else he makes in the future. You can read more about his specific inspiration here and follow the creative process on Twitter.
I have some fond memories playing Wing Commander 1 on the Amiga. A sticker on my box says it works on the A1200, so it must have been in 1993-94. I'm not sure if I enjoyed playing it as much as I enjoyed the cohesive immersion though. The blueprints, different cockpits, enemy aces, hit-debris flying off, debriefings, medals, bar, arcade, etc..

Decades-Old Fighter Mystery Solved! Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

We've solved a small Wing Commander mystery! This unidentified ship appeared in a single act of an episode of Wing Commander Academy ("Invisible Enemy.") It wasn't an obvious match for a fighter from the games and it was only seen the once. Well we’ve tracked down the original script for the episode and discovered that it was meant to be... a FERRET!
For reference, this is the P-64C Ferret (and P-64D Super Ferret!) patrol fighter as introduced in Wing Commander II:
author avatar
LOAF

Hornet Model Ready to Take Flight Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

AircPirateNinsei is building a real life flying Hornet model! He scaled and hand built the fighter with lightweight foamboard, and the design is pretty spot on. There's a six inch propeller in the rear and all of the associated battery and electronics are contained in the cockpit area. At this point, the version you see here is pretty much ready for its first test flight. After the basic aerodynamics are validated, AircPirateNinsei is planning to add the ship's iconic laser cannons. You can follow along for updates at the Flite Test Forum. Thanks to st3lt3k for the tip!
The Hornet is a light fighter for the Terran Confederation during the Terran-Kilrathi War in the game "Wing Commander". Maybe some of you played this game in the nineties. Wing Commander is the eponymous first game in Chris Roberts' science fiction space flight simulation. The game was first released for MS-DOS in the year 1990. Thanks to DosBox this game still works for me. Here are a few screenshots. I think the Hornet is a good choice for this challenge. Maybe someone will build a Kilrathi Dralthi for a dogfight.

Instead of the originally planned F-Pack electronics I installed A-Pack compatible electronics and a 6" propeller. As battery I use a Turnigy nano-tech 3s with 850 mAh. The AUW is 258 g (9.1 oz) and the Dry Weight 187g (6.6 oz).

GUNSHIP Music Video Montage Features Wing Commander Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

The British synthwave band GUNSHIP has a new song titled "The Video Game Champion." The track's official lyric video features footage from a wide variety of '80s and '90s video games and movies. There's a lot of vintage arcade and SNES in there, but DMJC spotted Wing Commander in the mix as well. You can see a Hornet walloping a Dralthi at 3:43 in the clip. It doesn't stay up for long, but if you want your classic video games video to have any credibility, it's got to have Wing Commander in there somewhere!

Heir to the Throne... Suitable for Framing Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

There are many members of the Wing Commander community that are talented artists, but this one comes from even closer to home! Check out this nifty Thrakhath sketch drawn by none other than LOAF's wife, Alexis!

* Prince of Kilrah
* Fang of Sivar
* Destroyer of Worlds!

Spanish Review Uses Artistic License with Box Art Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Here's a crazy Spanish article that LOAF recently found. It comes from the now-defunct magazine PC Manía. On the surface it looks fairly typical - like hundreds of other printed reviews of WC3 at the time. But boy is that box art weird looking! They've photoshopped it to change the look of the characters and even the ships. Maybe this was intended to Spanish-ize the cast? What an odd thing to do!
What the heck is going on with the Wing Commander III cover art in this Spanish magazine article?

A Look Back at 2018 Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

As the calendar crosses over into another new year, we took a look back and were once again amazed at all of the happenings in the world of Wing Commander. You guys were busy! And so were we - here's a look back at some of the highlights of 2018.


One of the more surprising things to me was how much happened with WC1/2. UnnamedCharacter's WC Toolbox opened the door to some pretty fun stuff. In conjunction with Goliath and Howard Day, they're working on amazing model upgrade tests. Sheppard developed Wing Hard to adjust game difficulty. Rehsin is adding characters and creating campaigns. Some of this is bleeding into WC2 and Privateer 2, and it was pretty neat to see a WC2 arcade cabinet at Britizencon. We continue to learn a lot about these games even after 28+ years, including the recent discovery of multiple easter eggs buried in WC1. And it's neat to still see WC easter eggs pop up elsewhere in modern games today.


On the new products front, it was wonderful to finally get End Run in digital ebook format. We're proud to have been able to help push this to become a reality. George Oldziey was finally able to record his live WC jazz album, which produced some fabulous tunes. WC also appeared in concert again in Europe. And Mike Winterbauer's art portfolio project netted a bunch of fans some very cool artwork. Raph Koster also published his book, Postmortems, which discussed the interesting development of the (canceled) Privateer Online game.


This was a great year for prerelease, prototype and behind the scenes material. All of the alternate WC Movie time slice sequences were really cool - not to mention the interesting take on Kilrathi POV. Sleuthy Wingnuts managed to track down more sightings of the film's Rapiers. We got to see a prototype WC1, a prototype WC4 box, concept Fralthi art, early SWC cockpits, a mockup New Constantinople hangar and original P2 booth computer screens. The CD32 also contributed some new artwork via its WC bundle box.


A handful of fan projects featured prominently throughout the year. The Homeworld Remastered Mod significantly boosted the prominence of fighters, smartened up the AI, implemented advanced fuel & ammunition monitoring and added new ships like the Wasp. Adm_Maverick's papercraft adventures ranged big and small with his work on a cruiser scale ship as well as small fighters. The fighters then took center stage in his new miniature game. The WCP/SO Model Upgrade Pack had a huge year with several major releases. On top of many new models, the project added various engine enhancements as well. DefianceIndustries contributed numerous gorgeous models for both the upgrade pack and other projects, and Dark Sentinel created everything from the tiny Nephilim capship missile to massive warships. Flat Universe had a similarly successful year with new ships and a big tournament for players to look participate in. Even Last Line of Defense saw half a dozen or so updates with some cool previews of the ship models and animation in work for the project.


It wasn't just the large scale projects in the limelight either. Lots of smaller undertakings made important progress as well. CentaurianMudpig got his shooter project off the ground, the SNES speed run record was broken twice, Wing Blender got much faster, a WC4 remake/model upgrade was teased, Shaggy got us flying in Simple Planes, the Sins of a Solar Empire Mod got an important compatibility update and WCDX for Kilrathi Saga was further refined.


The rise of 3D printed models is not new, but fans definitely took this art to new heights. Hendrik's Hornet was killer. In some cases with some inspiration from the source, there were beautiful ships recreated from Privateer and beyond. A large Arrow kit became available, and someone finally made an authentic set of WC medals even!


The gaming industry at large continued to take notice of the WC community. The creation process behind the WC Movie was profiled in Lights, Camera, Game Over. The CIC was mentioned in the video on GOG's anniversary, Rock Paper Shotgun talked about the fandom, Digital Antiquarian weighed in and TechRaptor did a piece of Originites' influence on the industry. Space Game Junkie and Upper Memory Block also began their trips down memory lane with extensive playthroughs. WC also hit it big with some of the prominent sci-fi YouTube channels, including the popular Spacedock which had videos on warship roles, the Intrepid, space combat and carriers. The Templin Institute similarly profiled the Terran Confederation. And it was super fun to see fans dressed up in WC cosplay at multiple conventions.


Lastly, the CIC celebrated its 20th year at wcnews.com! We launched our nifty Prop ID line of backstory articles, tested out the in-browser Game Cabinet, re-mirrored some of our old layouts, hosted more original art, and kicked off our infamous meme series. Sadly, we said goodbye to some very talented people such as Christopher Stasheff, Micael Priest and Stephen Hawking. But we organized our memorials so that it was easy to find our various tributes. Fortunately, on a positive note, we're still here and more excited than ever to kick off the new year. We can't wait to see what 2019 brings, and we're working on some of our own surprises to unveil soon!

Academy Script: The Most Delicate Instrument Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

We have an exciting new addition to the archives today: a script for the third episode of Wing Commander Academy, "The Most Delicate Instrument." Over the years we've preserved shooting scripts (and a number of drafts) for all of the Wing Commander games and the 1999 film... but tracking down Wing Commander Academy teleplays has proven much more difficult. Until today, only two of the thirteen episodes were represented in the archive. These documents are especially fascinating for hardcore Wing Commander fans as they include not only scenes cut for time but also names of characters, places and ships in stage directions which were never spoken in the aired episode. You can download the The Most Delicate Instrument script in PDF form here. Stay tuned, two more episode scripts and several treatments will be added in the coming days.

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Happy New Year! Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Another year is here! As we go back through the archives and see all of the amazing things that happened over the past year, it gives us great optimism about the future ahead. You can chime in with your own predictions about 2019 in our new poll below.

The old poll centered on all of the impressive modding happening recently. It asked which games and engines people were more excited about having enhanced. WC1/2 took the lead with nearly a third of the vote, but Prophecy/Secret Ops were a close second with more than a quarter of the tally. Privateer also had a good showing!

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