2019.059 (February 28, 2019)

All Wings Considered - Episode 2 - LIVE

The second episode of ALL WINGS CONSIDERED is live now! All Wings Considered is the CIC's first ever streaming variety show which features news, conversation and gameplay relating to our favorite series. This week we're taking on a head to head match in Wing Commander Proving Grounds, playing through the third series of Special Operations 1 and talking about the origins of the Kilrathi! If you're watching live, you can join the End Run book discussion through the voice chat channel of our Discord server here. Missed the stream? The replay will be available below once it has been processed by YouTube. You can subscribe to the AWC channel for future notifications here.

2019.058 (February 27, 2019)

All Wings Considered Returns Thursday!

The next episodes of ALL WINGS CONSIDERED is right around the corner! Join us this Thursday, February 28, at 7 PM Eastern US Time (4 PM Pacific). There's tons of fun stuff lined up, including an online multiplayer demonstration of Wing Commander Armada Proving Grounds. Follow the instructions in yesterday's news post and you can join in too! Whether you're ready to take on live space combat or not, join us for the stream on YouTube and in chat via the CIC's Discord Server.

Join us Thursday, February 28th on or about 7 PM Eastern for the second thrilling episode of All Wings Considered!

2019.057 (February 26, 2019)

How to Play Wing Commander with Friends (and Enemies!)

When Wing Commander Armada was released in September 1994 it was well ahead of the curve: the game featured multiple multiplayer modes that allowed players with modems or local area networks to go head-to-head or to fly together through the Gauntlet. The release of a free addon, Wing Commander Proving Grounds, expanded these significantly by adding six-player IPX play with more game modes and features like asteroids and pickups not available anywhere in single player. Unfortunately, this was a case of too much, too soon: without an internet for matchmaking, Armada's multiplayer never really took off.

There's some good news at the end of the tunnel, though: Armada and Proving Grounds are still just as much fun to play with human opponents today… and thanks to GOG they're easier than ever to get working! Gone are the days of dialing modems, configuring network drivers and praying. If you've never had the rush of gunning down your best friend then read on to find out how you can join the action in Armada just a quarter century late.

You will need a copy of the GOG release of Wing Commander Armada. After installing, look at your start menu for an additional icon labeled MULTIPLAYER. This is a special launcher the team at GOG have created that runs the game pre-configured to simulate a mid-1990s LAN. Starting the MULTIPLAYER launcher will give you three options: Start Single Player Game, Start Network Client Game and Start Network Host Game. To play a multiplayer game you will need one player to act as host and between one and five others to connect as clients. Instructions for both follow:

Network Host

The network host will need to do a small amount of additional work before starting the game. First, they must provide their IP to the other players so that they can connect. Don't know your IP? You can check it via What's My IP Address? at any time. Second, they must make sure their router is set to forward UDP port 213. This is a simple process although instructions vary slightly depending on the make and model of router you are using. You can find a guide to your particular hardware at Port Forward.

Once these steps are complete, launch the Wing Commander Armada MULTIPLAYER shortcut and select Start Network Host Game. You will launch to a text mode menu in DOSBox asking you to select between Wing Commander Armada or Proving Grounds (see below for a quick guide to the differences.) Both the host and the client must select the same option here in order to connect successfully.

Once the game has launched, select MULTI PLAYER and then NETWORK GAME in Wing Commander Armada or IPX NET PLAY in Proving Grounds. The game will prompt you for a callsign and then pause shortly as it configures. Once it's illuminated, select CREATE to start a new game and then follow the instructions on screen to select the desired mode. Once your players have joined press PLAY to start the action!

Network Client

To play as a client you will need to first have the IP of your host ready. Launch the Wing Commander Armada MULTIPLAYER shortcut and select Start Network Client Game. You will then be prompted to enter the IP address. After this, you will launch to a text mode menu in DOSBox asking you to select between Wing Commander Armada or Proving Grounds. Both the host and the client must select the same option here in order to connect successfully.

Once the game has launched, select MULTI PLAYER and then NETWORK GAME in Wing Commander Armada or IPX NET PLAY in Proving Grounds. The game will prompt you for a callsign and then pause shortly as it configures. Once it's illuminated, select JOIN to join your host's game and then follow the instructions on screen. Press PLAY once you're ready to start the action!

What's the Difference?

Here's a quick-and-dirty game mode checklist for those who aren't sure what they want to try first. Wing Commander Armada features:

Armada - 1v1 strategic mode with a randomly generated sector
Battle - 1v1 fighter combat
Campaign - 1v1 strategic mode with 11 pre-set sectors
Gauntlet - 2p co-op battle through a 15 mission story campaign

Wing Commander Proving Grounds features:

Battle - 6 player (any configuration) fighter combat
Proving Grounds - 6 player free-for-all with powerups

Play with Us!

Proving Grounds is one of the littlest-known Wing Commander titles and we aim to change that! LOAF and Dundradal will be going head to head (to head to head to head) in Proving Grounds as part of All Wings Considered this Thursday at 7 PM Eastern. Since Proving Grounds supports as many as six players, we're inviting the community to join in the action! The IP address and technical support will be available during the show on the WCCIC Discord Server. We look forward to reuniting you with an old friend: the thrill of battle!

2019.056 (February 25, 2019)

Reach Out and Touch Someone... With Your Flux Cannon

I picked up this magazine for its promise of Wing Commander Armada strategies... and 80% of the article ended up being about how you connect to the other player! The GOG release makes multiplayer easy on a modern machine, I’ve played more Armada in the last two months than I did in the previous decade combined. Stay tuned for more Armada news in the near future!

Okay, so you've bought Wing Commander Armada and you're ready to take on the head-to-head challengers. If you read last month's review, you know that this game's best feature is its two-player support. But if you've followed any of the message traffic on the on-line networks you've probably seen many messages titled "Armada Modem Play: HELP!!"
Why all the confusion? Despite advancing technology in virtually every other sphere of computing, telecommunications is still an arcane art requiring a mastery of fragile components, obscure modem strings, and sheer wizardry. I wouldn't be surprised to discover in my favorite RPG a spell called "Make Modem Connection." It's bound to happen.
The article addresses some of the arcana associated with producing a reliable modem connection. In particular, we'll focus on how to get a connection going in WC Armada. Finally, some hints and tips on strategies I've found effective against a human opponent.

2019.055 (February 24, 2019)

Hornet Model Gets Some Serious Air

AircPirateNinsei's second flying Hornet model has taken off. This one's a lot more stable in flight and manages to cruise for about two minutes. It almost made a smooth landing, but I can imagine it's pretty hard to glide those in remotely. Plans are already in the work for a third version with structural reinforcements and familiar decals to spice things up a bit. We can't wait to see! You can follow the development at the Flite Test Forums.

The Hornet is our contribution to the 2019 Flite Test Forum & Flite Fest Community Fantasy Aircraft Design & Build Challenge! For more information about this model please visit our website: http://airc-pirates.com
The maiden flight of V0.2 was successful. The Hornet flies fantastic and I think it is perfect for a FT Power Pack B setup. Unfortunately there was a small pilot error which led to a crash.

2019.054 (February 23, 2019)

Retro Gamers Connect with Wing Commander 3

Retro Game Connect has a new episode, and it's all about Wing Commander 3. RGC is a show that we can really identify with - just a couple of nerdy guys talking about the good old days of classic gaming. This is their 184th episode, and they're actually new to The Heart of the Tiger. In a series that was always ahead of its time, WC3 was perhaps more ahead than any other for the day, which combines with its intrinsic gritty charm to keep it very playable. The reviewers seem to enjoy the game, but they got stumped trying to land. Everyone's been there, especially in WC1 where you had to line up along the nose of the Claw. WC3 makes it much easier, but it still requires you to hit a couple buttons and/or slow down in the right spot. It's a good sign that they still liked it after ramming into the Victory!

Is this take on space dogfighting for cool cats or a messy hairball?

2019.053 (February 22, 2019)

Differences a True Collector Would Love

Red-Jackal recently posted a neat 1993 Privateer advertisement from Computer magazine. We've shown it off before, or so I thought, so I almost passed it by. It is a little bit sharper than the one we have in the archive though, so I decided to take a second look. Upon closer inspection, tiny little differences started to emerge. This one is listed as "Circle Reader Service Number 248" instead of Circle Reader Service #94." The text indicating the game was "Available at a software retailer near you" and that it's "A stand alone game made in the USA" were conspicuously missing. One word of the actual ad text is also different: enemies "also want your cargo" rather than "want your cargo too." Last, but not least, the word Privateer is no longer italicized before the awesome quote, "Where deals are made with a handshake and broken by the volley from a Meson cannon." Pretty neat!

2019.052 (February 21, 2019)

All Wings Considered - Episode 1 - LIVE!

The first episode of ALL WINGS CONSIDERED is live now! All Wings Considered is the CIC's first ever streaming variety show which will feature news, conversation and gameplay relating to our favorite series. This week we're taking on ground missions in Wing Commander IV and talking about the first four chapters of the novel End Run with members of the community. If you're watching live, you can join the End Run book discussion through the voice chat channel of our Discord server here. Missed the stream? The replay will be available below once it has been processed by YouTube. You can subscribe to the AWC channel for future notifications here.

2019.051 (February 20, 2019)

Streaming Live Thursday!

Our kickoff episode of ALL WINGS CONSIDERED is nearly here! Be sure to tune in on Thursday, February 21st, at 7 PM Eastern (4 PM Pacific) to watch our live streaming Wing Commander show. This works out to Midnight GMT, which we know is late on a school night, so the archived recording will be available later. We'll update this post with the actual YouTube link once we go live, but you can also stop by the CIC Discord Server where the link and associated #Wingnut chatroom will be available. It should be lots of fun!

The first episode of All Wings Considered will also include the first iteration of a Wing Commander book club! This week we will be discussing the first four chapters of Wing Commander: End Run and everyone is welcome to join the live conversation via the WCCIC Discord server. We'd love to hear your thoughts!

2019.050 (February 19, 2019)

Wing Commander Enters the Retro Zone

Pix recently came across a pretty neat article in the UK magazine PC Zone. I really like it's graphical layout with the Dralthis overflying the slick text. The author is a big fan of the WC series and uses it as an example for awesome '90s games that were outside the realm of his usual fare. I do wonder about the Hobbes blurb a bit, and I think the suggestion in the gray box is just that GOG exists. It's a little odd to not come out and just say that, but this is still a great quote:

Just give me a lantern-jawed, blue-haired hero fighting some big cats in space, and I'm as happy as a porcine covered in excrement.

2019.049 (February 18, 2019)

Homeworld Mod's Prologue Campaign Released

There's an exciting update to the Homeworld Remastered Mod, Flag Commander, today. L.I.F. has finished the prologue campaign with an exciting pre-WC3 mission. It follows the Victory in the aftermath of the Battle of Earth as they chase down a rogue Kilrathi fleet. It's pretty cool to interact with these characters on this scale from an RTS perspective! Grab the game at ModDb here.

Here's a new update to the single-player experience of Flag Commander: the final mission of the prologue campaign. Over the development of this campaign, I learned a lot in coding the events and logic of SP missions, which helped making the missions smoother and more reactive, so this update also includes some modifications of the first three missions to add proper backgrounds as well as character icons when someone is speaking.
This campaign is self-contained and follows the Victory soon after the Battle of Earth, in a series of skirmishes to deal with a strong Recon-In-Force Kilrathi raid unit that will allow the player to get familiarized with most of the gameplay features of the mod. Outside possible bug fixes, this should be the final release for this campaign, allowing me to shift to updating the WC 1/2 content to the current standards as well as using the experience to finally get End Run going. You can grab the game at ModDB here.
The prologue's missions are the following:

Raiders Sans Frontières: an escort mission where the Victory's air group must protect a convoy from cruise missiles then destroy a small group of capital ships by using the combination of allied ships and fighters.
The Great Hunt: a convoy attack mission where the Victory's forces must intercept a convoy and prevent any stragglers from alerting enemy forces beyond a jump point.
MineCraft, the McAuliffe's Legacy: the combination of a base defence to protect an InSys starbase and a seek-and-destroy where randomly-placed frigates will try to break through the Victory's blockade of the jump point and bring overwhelming reinforcements. Setting up a minefield in a limited time can turn the tables on an incoming force.
To kill a mockingcat: the final push against the heavy carrier that got progressively de-clawed with the destruction of its logistics and most of its escorts, yet still has many tricks up its sleeves. Recon, fleet defence and finally pursuit through a nebula to run down the carrier before it can escape.
I really hope people will enjoy playing it, as I do believe the RTS style can bring a lot to the Wing Commander experience.

2019.048 (February 17, 2019)

CIC Forums Upgraded

Frequent visitors to the CIC Forums have already noticed that our message boards got a big upgrade this weekend. We first switched over to Xenforo 1.0 back in 2011, and this brings us up to 2.1 (skipping right past 2.0)! There's a long list of basic quality-of-life tweaks that bring the forums in line with modern user interfaces. Graphical elements scale better to high res displays, a variety of post reactions are now available, more types of uploads can be added and the site displays much better on mobile devices. KrisV is still working on several additional features, including a more extended menu of emojis that will be available soon. We're also looking at a handful of neat optional upgrades that could be possible with the new setup - would people be interested in two-factor authentication? Check things out and let us know what you think!

Xenforo 2.0 highlights
Greatly-enhanced mobile-friendly style

Alerts in favicon

Enhanced message editing

Keyboard shortcut system and enhanced keyboard navigation

The "what's new" system

High-DPI imagery (smilies, avatars)

Extended media embedding features

Quick thread creation

and more...

Xenforo 2.1 highlights
Native push notifications on supported devices/browsers

Enhanced editor integration and advanced BB code option syntax

BB code and rich text editing for profile posts and comments

Last poster avatar on the forum list

Better support for smartphone displays with a notch

Password strength checking with zxcvbn

and more...

2019.047 (February 16, 2019)

Wing Commander Meme of the Day: Pills That Make You Stare

We just need to invent pills that make people play the WC CCG now...

2019.046 (February 15, 2019)

Tune in Thursday for ALL WINGS CONSIDERED

The Combat Information Center team is proud to announce that we will be launching the Wing Commander community's first-ever weekly streaming show. The first episode of ALL WINGS CONSIDERED will air on YouTube this coming Thursday, February 21st at 7 PM Eastern. All Wings Considered is a live, weekly and informal look at the Wing Commander universe and fandom which includes gameplay, behind the scenes stories, community news and an ever-growing collection of regular segments and features! We've been developing the show for several months now as an outlet for our love of the series and are excited to start sharing with the rest of the world.

The first episode of All Wings Considered will also include the first iteration of a Wing Commander book club! This week we will be discussing the first four chapters of Wing Commander: End Run and everyone is welcome to join the live conversation via the WCCIC Discord server. We'd love to hear your thoughts!

2019.045 (February 14, 2019)

Happy Valentine's Day

The Love Arrow continues to warm our hearts in this cold month. It seems physically smaller every year though.

2019.044 (February 13, 2019)

Empire at War Mod Creates Unique Matchups

SciFi at War is an interesting mod for Star Wars: Empire at War that we recently stumbled upon. It mashes up different franchises, such as Star Wars, Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica, into one mega game. The video below shows various Halo ships fighting craft from Wing Commander. It doesn't seem like the WC fleet is fully fleshed out, and I can't quite tell if the mod is still active, but it's a pretty cool concept! You can grab it at the Steam Workshop. If this just makes you want to play a WC RTS game, you can check out the WC Invasion mod, which is also for Empire at War.

2019.043 (February 12, 2019)

Wing Commander Performed by Another Swedish Orchestra

Wing Commander has once again appeared live in concert! This time the WC1 music was performed by the Malmö Symphony Orchestra at the February 9 Joystick 11.0 convention (translated). Did anyone happen to make it there in person? We haven't found a first hand account yet, but it could have sounded like the video below from the graduation ceremonies of the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. Crazy enough, these two instances weren't the only Swedish orchestra to play Wing Commander in the last few years. Sweden's apparently the place to be if you want to hear live classical WC tunes!

Welcome to the eleventh edition of Joystick, Malmö Symphony Orchestra's annual music music concert!
Experience a magical evening filled with powerful, imaginative music from the world of computer and video games. Today, the genre is well-established and is found in many orchestras repertoires worldwide. Joystick is one of our most visited events and appeals to both young and old gamblers and music enthusiasts. Production is a collaboration with Underscore Production AB.
PROGRAM
Bloodborne - Suite (Ryan Amon)
Final Fantasy VII - Main Theme (Nobuo Uematsu)
Final Fantasy IX - Suite (Nobuo Uematsu)
Conan Exiles - Main Theme (Knut Avenstroup Haugen)
Battlefield One - Flight of the Pigeon / Classic Theme (Johan Söderqvist / Patrik Andrén)
Horizon Zero Dawn - Suite (Joris De Man)
- break -
Everybody's Gone to the Rapture - Finding the Pattern (Jessica Curry)
Hitman 2 - Main Theme (Jesper Kyd)
Commodore Amiga - Medley (Various)
Wing Commander - Suite (Alistair Sanger / David Govett)
Shadow of the Colossus - Suite (Kow Otani)
The Last Guardian - Suite (Takeshi Furukawa)
The Witcher 3 Blood & Wine - Lullaby of Woe (Marcin Przyblowicz)
* Joiner, Melville, Land, Goldstein, Gesqua, Hubbard, Hülsbeck

2019.042 (February 11, 2019)

Italian WC3 Sports Sharp Clean Style

Check out this cool Italian budget release of Wing Commander III! I’ve seen Prophecy and several other Origin games in this same style. I love finding different Wing Commanders from around the world!

2019.041 (February 10, 2019)

Wing Commander Jazz Albums Shipped!

George Oldziey reports that the Wing Commander Jazz Albums have been shipped! If you haven't sent your address in - or you don't receive yours in a week or so, let George know what's up! The cover art by SabreAce just looks fantastic. Some of the initial plans for a future campaign to record even more Wing Commander music are in the very preliminary stages, so stay tuned in the coming months for that. It's been a long road to get all of this amazing music put together, but the results have been very impressive!

Greetings all! All the CDs for which I have received shipping instructions have been shipped. I sent off the last of them today, mostly overseas. So if you have not received them in a week or so let me know. Most of you should have already received them. I hope you are enjoying them!
I'll keep you all posted on when the next phase of Volume 2 orchestral recording begins.
Thank you for your patience, as well as your wonderful support!
Musically yours,
George

Here's a fun compilation collage of both physical albums by Pete Andrew:

Finally in my hands!!! I've listened to this music from the Wing Commander games since I was a child and now, thanks to Master Oldziey’s great job, I’ll be able to do it better... much much better!

2019.040 (February 9, 2019)

Wing Commander Overview has Impressive Depth

pahandav has created a MEGA Overview of the Wing Commander series. He covers each of the main games, which is all of the PC games except the expansions, Secret Ops or Arena. Of course it would be nice if those were included too, but it's still pretty impressive how exhaustive the video is as it takes nearly a full hour to cover the landscape. Lots of streamers hit WC1 or WC3/4, so it's a nice change to hear someone detailing out Academy nav points, Armada shipyards and the nuances of Privateer 2 videos. I suppose we'll just have to wait for the GIGA Overview for more!

In this video, I provide an overview of the 9 main games of the Wing Commander series released between 1990 and 1997.

2019.039 (February 8, 2019)

OldiesGames Returns to WC4 DVD

DocteurJ is back with another OldiesGamesTV episode in his long running French language series on Wing Commander. The focus for this segment is the epic introduction to Wing Commander 4 and associated early sequences. He uses the DVD edition to ensure quality is top notch. It's great to see Wingnuts keeping the fandom global!

2019.038 (February 7, 2019)

Cruiser Frame Completed, Makes for Great Fighter Base

Adm_Maverick took a break from his tabletop game to complete his impressive Tallahassee cruiser model. He's designed it so each subcomponent fits together tightly and the overall structure balances well. As an extra bonus, you can see how his miniature fighters scale nicely, so he'll actually be able to use the 24" capship in his future gaming endeavors. Sounds like fun!

I've had another project I've been working on for a while: Scratchbuilding. I started with the Excalibur... realized I was in way over my head, took it back a step and worked on the Tallahassee Cruiser... lost the materials for that... and decided to go for broke and started over on the cruiser but built to be 24" long. I threw on the last parts of the Tallahassee Cruiser last night. I learned a lot from this build, mostly in the way of bracing and how to square parts of the model up.
That's one of the Hellcat tokens I built for the game. The Cruiser is too small to be 'accurate' in terms of scale, but it does help show what my thinking is for involving cap ships in the game. The cap ships would basically BE the board while the Turrets would basically be immobile fighters that can't dodge and have really really good turn value to represent the rotational speed of the turret. The engines, bridges, launch bays, etc would all be similar to this with some different attributes to account for the different systems. In one-off games cap ships would likely be a 'destroy the target' sort of thing. Have something like 750 hull points that have to be reduced to 0.
In campaign games, things like Carriers would be critical to protect and would likely be the focus of the campaign itself, with it's destruction being the completion of the campaign.

2019.037 (February 6, 2019)

Bigger and Better Hornet on the Flightline

AircPirateNinsei has completed his enlarged flying Hornet fighter. This update has a larger wingspan to fit more effective control surfaces and a larger powerplant. He'll be getting it airborne soon, and we can't wait to see! There's a lot of talent and skill that's obviously going into this. Follow the development at the Flite Test Forums.

The Hornet with a wingspan of 1000 mm (39.37 in) is ready2fly! :) The AUW is 513 g (18.10 oz). The Dry Weight (without battery) is 370 g (13.05 oz). The battery is a Turnigy nano-tech 4s with 1300 mAh.

2019.036 (February 5, 2019)

Wing Commander Meme of the Day: Nerves of Peele

The anticipation is the worst

2019.035 (February 4, 2019)

Wing Commander Arena Released... in Japan!

This is a crazy story! Everyone's favorite officially licensed top-down Xbox 360 Wing Commander shooter was released back in July 2007. In the original press release announcing its launch, EA confirmed that Wing Commander Arena was coming out in all markets where Xbox Live Arcade existed - except Japan. Finally, it's now available for ¥ 1,188 or about $11.

In confirming this unusual turn of events, Music_Guru was able to find a cached copy of the page from several weeks ago that still shows just the theme packs for sale. Interestingly, the Confed and Kilrathi Xbox dashboard themes were released in Japan back in 2007, and websites even reviewed them separately at the time. Arena is also listed in various 'new release' listings with a January 24, 2019 debut called out. If you're in Japan and still have your 360 hooked up, we'd love to hear about your experience. Are there any localization tweaks made at all? Any other Japanese players hanging out in the Bearpit playing the Ring Game? Note that if you bought the game in one region already, you should already own the new release.

What could possibly have spurred a release after almost 12 years? It would be nice to think that there was a behind-the-scenes plan in motion here, but the most likely cause is that some sort of obscure contracting/rights issue finally expired in 2018 and the subsequent appearance in the XBox Live Marketplace was relatively automatic. Still, we'd love it if someone was consciously looking out for WC in EA. Gaining Xbox One backwards compatibility would be fabulous as there are enhancements in party chat, game recording/streaming and even resolution/graphical effects that could be relatively easily applied in 2019.

2019.034 (February 3, 2019)

Talon Tally Just Scratches the Surface

We have a new poll today that asks about the many flavors of the F-38 Talon fighter. Some people may not be aware there's actually five distinct paint schemes out there. As the story goes, the corrupt Gemini Sector Governor Menesch illicitly sold untold numbers of the craft to rogue groups such as the Church of Man. This explains how commonplace they are in Privateer as well as why they're equally flown by both the local militia, Retros and random pirates. The model is also reused as the Kilrathi Gratha in Super Wing Commander. Finally, it shows up in Privateer 2 as an easter egg ship you race the Papagod clan to investigate. Which is your favorite to blow up?

They're listed in the graph as follows: 1: Unknown Ship (Privateer 2), 2: Gratha (Super Wing Commander), 3: Church of Man Talon (Privateer), 4: Militia Talon (Privateer), 5: Pirate Talon (Privateer)

The old poll shows we still have a ways to go before all fans will be convinced we have an exciting year ahead of us. I know just the Wingnuts to help show them what's possible though!

2019.033 (February 2, 2019)

And the Winner Is...

...Wing Commander Flat Universe! The votes are in, and WCFU took the top spot in our annual fan project contest for the third time. The newest version of their top-down shooter features new fighters, new explosion & damage effects, new weapons and awesome new multiplayer modes. The Maslas Brothers previously won in 2014 and 2016. They seem to have even numbered years on lock - will they be able to keep it up in 2019?

In second place close behind Flat Universe, we have an actual literal tie this year. The first runner up is the Prophecy & Secret Ops Model Upgrade Pack! 2017's winner also had a big year with new ship models, impressive new Open/GL graphical effects and a neat iridescence effect for the Nephilim ships thanks to the unholy machinations of the MUP team: DefianceIndustries, Dark Sentinel, Pedro, PopsiclePete, Whistler and gr1mre4per

The other runner up is a newcomer this year: the WC1 Sprite Refresh! Goliath, Howard Day & UnnamedCharacter have achieved what was once thought impossible by implementing ship upgrades in the original Wing Commander engine. They've already got the Bengal, Exeter and Hornet looking great, so we can't wait to see what else they can do!

And that's a wrap on 2018! We're happy to be able to recognize these three projects, which are just a few of the many very cool undertakings by the Wing Commander community. Who knows what projects will make an impact in 2019? We can't wait to find out!

2019.032 (February 1, 2019)

Star Citizen: Past & Future

For those who haven't been closely following the development of Star Citizen lately, there have been a few interesting announcements on the project's financials and upcoming plans.

Cloud Imperium recently released an accounting document that details out how the company used its money form 2012 through 2017. They spent $193 million on development and other expenses during that time with more than $4 million per month going out in 2017. We know they hit $200 million in crowd funding in November, but they also have other resources such as $46 million in private investment raised in December.

The most visible development lately has been to bolster the game's persistent universe and core technology, but a roadmap to Squadron 42 has also been released. This is the single player campaign starring Mark Hamill and John Rhys-Davies, among others, which many Wing Commander fans have been waiting for. New details outline a number of milestones for this year with a target for achieving beta status in the second quarter of 2020.

Lastly, we have a blast from the distant past. Here's a snippet from a May 1995 article that challenged Chris Roberts to dream up his ultimate video game if there were no technological or financial constraints. Here's what he said!

What would I do if there were literally no limitations? If money and technology were no object, I'd make a game like, oh, Wing Commander III!
Seriously, I'm pretty fortunate right now in having access to enough resources to pursue many of my dream projects. But what I'd really like to do is a game where you could travel from planet to planet - and there would be hundreds of planets - with full 3D action. You could go down and explore each planet in detail and interact with all sorts of live-action characters. Plus, you could retool your ship with lots of different guns and engines.
The project would feature all the best elements of adventure and virtual reality, but with the same high production level of a Hollywood blockbuster. That means big-name stars and the look and quality of, say, Bladerunner. I guess my goal is to bring the superior production values of large Hollywood movies into the interactive realm - creating an environment that was really cool and really fun and where you could spend hundreds of hours exploring a virtual universe that seems totally lifelike down to the smallest detail. Sort of a SimUniverse on steroids!