Paint Your House in Wing Commander Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

What are you up to on this Wing Commanderific Friday night? If you're like us, it involves searching for Wing Commander in creative and bizarre new ways. AD stumbled upon this paint color called Wing Commander. Was this created by an interior designer with a passion for Chris Roberts game? No, Wing Commander as a color is an actual thing that long predates video games. It's based on the blue gray hue of the Royal Air Force!

Retro Collector Honors Wing Commander Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Here's a cute little Wing Commander tribute by Esteban Martinez. It may be only a few seconds long, but what it lacks in length it makes up for with clever little touches. At first it looks like just space is moving - watch the clip again and you'll notice the animated WC logo, lock signal and even hand on the joystick! This is a very cool idea. He also posts awesome retro hardware on Instagram, and who doesn't love that? Check that out here!
Hello Commanders.

My name is Esteban, and this is my tribute to one of my favorite game of all time: Wing Commander! I am a retro collector, and of course Wing Commander occupies a place of honor in my collection. Have a nice day

Music by: Li Huang of Improbable Cadence

Tiger's Claw by: Howard Day

Title vectorized by: elend

Dig This Dralthi Drawing Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Today we've got a Dralthi sketch by DingoPatagonico. I suppose I have no idea how long sketches are supposed to take, but this one apparently took under an hour, which seems impressive. It's really smooth for a freehand drawing, and by my eye, this one runs very close to the Claw Marks lineart. You can't go wrong with that as your inspiration!
Done in 50 mins in the calm of the work. I think looks a quite good X3

Spanish Translation Test Provides Privateer Proof of Concept Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

L@Zar0 has a new update on his Spanish Wing Commander translations. This time it's a proof of concept for Wing Commander Privateer. He's managed to get the audio to play while overlaying subtitles, which can be edited to show other languages. And he picked a wonderful scene for this example - if it's been a while since you've heard the Steltek talk, be sure to give this a listen!
Ok, I've checked some things, and finally I'm thinking on leave SUBS+VOICES for in-flight comms in WC Privateer. They are not perfect, but are very intuitive. The last message normally lasts 1-2 seconds in disappear, but I think the result is pretty good.

For in-game dialogues I used the texton thing. It works very well. And for intro cinematics I have done the voices with text-to-speech with spanish speaker, and they are good (but not professional :( ). So, I have now all the game with voices + subs or spanish voices. Maybe the intro can be modified also to present voices+subs, but I don't want to check this, there are only a few voices and they can be done easily.

Legendary Tiger's Claw Gets Her Due Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Mac's Lore has posted a new video, and this is a fun one! It's an overview of the TCS Tiger's Claw, which is an awesome story. He cover's the ship's origin, extensive service history and untimely end. Mac beautifully weaves together several sometimes-confusing threads from the game, movie, television show and Star*Soldier for a single compelling narrative. There's also a rundown of the carrier's stellar crew, with extensive backstory provided there as well. Give it a watch below!
The first carrier of the Wing Commander games, she would set the standard for all other ships in the Confederation going forward.

Wing Leader Tests Show Off CRT Shader & Character Models Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

A frequent question we get is to ask what's up with Wing Leader, Howard Day's impressive tech demo in the Unity engine. It's been in suspended animation for a bit, but Howard recently posted some shots of what it looks like with Mattias_G's CRT shader in place. It gets quite a retro vibe! He's also been playing around with some character models. His Hunter and Angel are below. I especially like the recreation of the flight suits. Howard was careful to point out that this wasn't a restart of the project, but it's always good to see him tooling around with Wing Commander stuff! Here are some more direct side by side shots of the shader enabled.
My very early take on some talking heads for Wing Leader. Rendered in 3dsmax 2022, using Fessler's index painting technique!

This time with "Angel" Devereaux! The face model is by Damon Czanik. Straight renders outta 3dsmax. :D

Hellcat Art Takes WC Sketches to New Heights Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

NightBall06 has taken the wraps of his latest set of Hellcat drawings. As previously noted, these are some fancy 2D digital creations as opposed to a rotatable 3D model, which is a different way to do it. This one is referred to as the "final version," but NightBall notes that some changes around the canopy and with the guns are probably still likely. What do you think? Let him know at the CIC Forums!
And yes, indeed - in my imagination, with these new engines and the Jump-Drive, it was meant to be some sort of "modern reinterpretation" set during or shortly after WC Prophecy...

Extended Excalibur Enters the Arena Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

It's been an excellent week for Excalibur models! The Wing Commander community has its own version of the twin movie phenomenon where it seems like fans develop similar items in totally separate bubbles. As is often the case, the result here is that we have double the amazing eye candy to enjoy! In his latest masterpiece, Defiance_Industries designed a slightly beefed up Excalibur based on the Secret Ops version as a bridge to the concept version meant for Wing Commander Arena. There are some very handsome shots of it parked in the Victory's flight deck - plus pics alongside a classic Excalibur and Midway megacarrier. Last, but certainly not least, Defiance has mocked up an entire virtual history of this variant in an ICIS style recap. You can read up on that in a PDF here.
While Pedro is providing quality digital entertainment to the masses, I needed something to keep my skills sharp. So I revisited my WCP-ized version of the Excalibur. I decided to make it a demonstrator, similar to the Super Tomcat or the F-20 Tigershark in the real world. Designs that, for any number of reasons, were never purchased. In this case it's sort of a missing link between the F-103D's you see in Secret Ops, and the unseen Arena variant.

Initially I was going to add these images to the fun little fiction I put together, but I'm not really that crazy. Well, ok maybe I am. So we have the launch tube test from the TCS Mistral Sea circa 2683, an initial flight test image with an Excal D circa 2682, and images taken of F-103 EX #7 in its forever home aboard the TCS Victory museum (along with Tensabarriers of the future (tm)) in 2701. As always enjoy, and C&C welcome.

AP Revisits Video Game Movies Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Trelane spotted something that you don't see every day: Wing Commander mentioned in the lede of an Associated Press article. It's not the most auspicious mention by any means, but it turns into an article talking about the potential merit of video game movies as a genre. We've been saying this all along. Movies don't have to be high art to be fun. Sometimes you just have to take your thinking cap off and enjoy the show. You can find the full article here!
NEW YORK (AP) — Is there a more woebegone movie genre than the video game adaptation? This is the pantheon of “Max Payne,” “Wing Commander” and “Assassin’s Creed.” In the 27 years since the first video game movie, “Super Mario Bros.,” these adaptations have been so regularly mocked that you might think the genre was -- like a teetering fighter in “Mortal Kombat” surrounded by chants of “Finish him!” -- on its last legs.

And yet, Hollywood is increasingly viewing video games as one of the ripest, richest veins of intellectual property outside of comic books. Even as much of the film business slowed over the last year, the hunt for the kind of IP that has fueled an overwhelming share of worldwide box-office ticket sales has continued unabated.

The video game movie isn’t finished. It might even be just pressing “Start.”

I'm going to have to find ways to insert "woebegone" into more sentences...

Get a Good Look at Detailed Excalibur Model Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Chronocidal Guy's recent 3D printed Excalibur model was a big hit, and fans wanted to get a closer look at the actual model renders to appreciate the design in all its beauty. They look wonderful, and Mr. Guy has provided a variety of angles to give everyone a great view. He has a few additional notes about areas that he had to tweak for producibility, but the fighter still looks pretty spot on!
The 3D model is currently a mess of assembly structures and supports, but drawings I can absolutely do. :D Fully orthogonal, instead of those odd perspective renders we've had for so long.

The second side view has the near tail and missile bay moved and flipped around to show their backsides, and give a clear view of the rest of the ship behind them, with the back engine bank moved down to show the inner surface. No markings yet, and I don't have the details built for the darker access panel areas, but those aren't hard to pull from the old pictures we already have.

As an FYI, there are two things I think aren't quite accurate. First, the CGI model seems to pinch the tails narrower at top and bottom. I've just kept the leading and trailing edges as flat quadrilaterals, since a twist would have just been harder to sand smooth. Second, I am not sure if the panel lines on the tails are right, but that's the best I can make out with the stripes covering so much in the originals.

Polish WC1 Translation Well Under Way Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Apparently 2021 is the year of the WC1 translation! Rehsin is making progress on a Polish version. He's running it through testing now to ensure everything is accurate, which is a great excuse to have to play through the game! Here are some examples of the game in action.
Hello WCNews staff and all wingnuts.

After a long break I returned to WC1 for a while and took care of translating the game into Polish. At the moment I have translated graphics files, messages and the Vega campaign. Now I'm testing the game and if necessary I'll make corrections to the translation.

Count 'Em: One, Two, Three WC4 Mouse Pads Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Wing Commander mouse pads are relatively rare, but they do exist and they're crazy cool. Most people would be lucky to have one in their collection, but Dennis Mull now has three different ones just for Wing Commander 4! He is undoubtedly the coolest kid on his block!
New old mousepad arrived <3

Another Wing Commander IV Promo Mousepad

Ingenuity Takes Off Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Look at that little thing go! The Mars Perseverance team successfully flew the Ingenuity helicopter today. The first powered flight on another planet. Despite all the Earthly setbacks of the past year, it's just wonderful to see the progress still being made.

George Oldziey on Orchestrating Wing Commander Music Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Here's a recorded copy of the George Oldziey live streaming event last year. We had posted about the interview in the run up, but never shared the final link. George talks with the Los Angeles College of Music where is is part of the Composing For Visual Media faculty. This was at the height of the summer coronavirus wave and they were finding creative ways for people to connect. It's an hourlong conversation, and most of the first twenty minutes or so are on his history with Wing Commander. They talk about how he got hired into Origin and into detail on how he orchestrated the games' music. There's even footage of the live WC orchestra recording that he crowdfunded several years back. It's a fun and informative watch!
Composing For Visual Media Faculty GEORGE OLDZIEY, gives us a behind-the-scenes look into his creative process for film scoring and orchestration! George is an award-winning composer and orchestrator who has worked on films such as 'Sin City' and 'Kill Bill Vol. 2,' and he has also scored video games such as 'Wing Commander' and 'Ultima Ascension.'

PC Games Mag Gets Excited About WC3 Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Here's a nice preview of Wing Commander 3 from the October 1994 issue of the UK PC Games magazine. I don't see the connection between the "Resistance is Useless!" headline and anything else in the article, but everyone was still enamored with the Borg and all back then. The tone of the article is infectious and really gets readers pumped that WC3 is the start of something big. And for a time, it really was! The main scans are from Pix and AD found the cover. They sure picked a funny game to lead with that month - not a lot of people still talking about Inferno these days!
It has to be said that Wing 3 looks like it's the closest you're going to get to taking part in a sweeping space opera. Forget Battlestar Galactica, skip Star Wars - if Origin delivers everything it promises, Wing 3 looks set to be the start of the next generation of PC CD games.

If the 7th Guest was the excuse people needed to take the plunge and buy a brand new CD-ROM drive, then you know that 90 MHZ Pentium PC you wish you had, well, now might be be a good tie to start saving.

Google Translate Takes on Enyo 1 Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Plywood Fiend has a new video inspired by Google Translate memes. When you translate a string of text from one language to another and then back again to the first language, the results can be bizarre. While there are a handful of hilarious results, it's also almost as interesting to see how much lines stay pretty close the original despite the double translation. See what happens when the first Enyo mission gets wrung through the wringer below:
Earlier I chanced upon some google translate parody videos and, ever a slave to my passing whimsies

3D Printed Excalibur Gets Socially Distanced Enhancements Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Chronocidal Guy has returned with an update on his elaborate 3D printed Excalibur model. He's taken advantage of valuable stay-at-home time over the last year to refine the design into a number of purposeful modules that come together into a highly accurate representation, complete with exquisite panel lines. The guns, engines and other components have also been finely modeled to closely resemble the originals. His finished product looks superb, but there's always room for further tinkering and enhancement in the future!
Hey folks, I figured I'd drop an update on this project after all this time. The pandemic gave me a lot of time to work from home, so it was a big opportunity to let my printer operate in the background. I didn't want to necro any old print threads, or derail someone else's, but if any mods think it's appropriate, feel free to merge this one with another topic. I mostly didn't want to take away from the beautiful Hornet model posted more recently.

I think my first attempt at this model was through Shapeways back in 2012 or so, and at that time, it was about $70 for a 7-inch model. That version can still be found there, but it's a completely blank model, with no panel lines or other details. Also, in the years since I uploaded it, the price has ballooned to over $150 for what is basically their lowest quality print.

After trying to manually engrave panel details into that Shapeways print, I decided it made more sense to embed them in the model. Come 2019, I picked up a larger enclosed printer, and used that model as my first test project. That's where that bright red Excalibur came from. It came out really well, though being in a single piece made sanding it smooth an insane prospect.

So, I set to breaking that model out into a better set of solid parts that could be printed, and then slid together with interlocking tabs. After two years of working on and off on refining the model and details, and roughly 120 hours of printing, I'm happy to finally have a nice display-worthy sized model of this ship.
The original red version was a little under seven inches long, so I scaled this one up 50%, and it comes out to just about ten inches. Game stats say that's about 1/125 scale, but I think that number was inflated, since I think a 1/100 scale cockpit would fit easily in the nose. Maybe the next version will have a full cockpit, if I can get a vacuformed canopy made. I'd love to shoot for a 1/48 version.

Details are all taken as best as I can grab them from the highest resolution images of the Excalibur I could find, either from Victory Streak, or screenshots. One thing that did give me a few fits though.. I cannot for the life of me figure out exactly how the reaper cannons are supposed to be shaped. The tachyons are clearly visible in the CGI renders we have, and I've approximated the shape to make it printable. The reapers actually look like a tri-barreled design in the front schematic view, with a small shield on the inner side, so that's what I went with.

Parts all slide together with a satisfying squeak from the printed ridges rubbing in the plastic. I'm currently starting the process of sanding some of the parts down to remove the print texturing, and hope to have that done sometime in this decade. :)

While I did upload this model at Shapeways as a test, I cannot recommend getting it there in this size, because it looks like the full print would cost somewhere in the range of $300-$600 total, depending on the material used.

I'm currently debating whether to re-engineer the model with deeper recesses in the spots that contain darker detail panels, so I can make some panel inserts there. I might be able to print something to fit in them now, since the printer can go down to 0.1mm, but the insets are only about 1mm deep. I'm just not sure if I want to go through the process of printing another to make any improvements at this point.

All in all, I think the whole thing came out really close to the target. :D

Will try and keep more progress updates coming here, as well as where you can get the actual model for download, once I get it where I like it.

Also, one funny tidbit I discovered while researching this.. the Excalibur CGI model used in the Kilrathi Saga intro cinematic was incomplete. It's entirely missing the reaper cannons, and the door panels over the front pods (what I assume are missile bays).

Prinze Signing Event Fast Approaching Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

GalaxyCon's Freddie Prinze Jr. signing event is happening soon! The cutoff is this weekend for fans who would like to get an autographed Wing Commander poster. It's not cheap, but there aren't very many opportunities to have Wing Commander stars sign things these days. A simple/personalized autograph is $92, and a short quote adds an additional $30. It comes on a cool 11x14" sheet, which is itself nice to have and suitable for framing. Get your order in here by Sunday!

For Those Who Krant Quite Make It Out Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

KRANT! It’s time to answer one of the great universal questions: do they have, y’know... two?

Short answer: yes? There are two cockpits on the VDU and if you look closely at the sprites you can see two distinct cockpits on the 3D model. And here’s what the Claw Marks art looks like mirrored so you just see the top. Head canon: they’re bubble canopies and the Kilrathi pilot and weapons officer (maybe?) can give each other thumbs ups. But nothing twin-cockpit can stay: when the Krant was redesigned for Super Wing Commander it lost its most distinct feature. Designer Sean Murphy, who would go on to create the TCS Midway, said he was asked not to refer to the original. Even the Nintendo Power comic parodying Wing Commander I has only a central cockpit: The Krant shows up in the Wing Commander movie script but I don’t think any serious concept art was developed. It was dropped early to save the overworked FX team time. This placeholder does show up in early storyboards: It’s inclusion in the script did mean that it shows up in the novelization... and the Confederation Handbook, finally giving us the rich Krant lore all souls crave:
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WC1 Text Cleaned Up With Gamedat Tweak Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Thanks in no small part to UnnamedCharacter's WC Toolbox, we've seen lots of fans undertake some pretty amazing WC1 hacks from inserting new ships to whole language conversions. YPersonified has another slick project, which is a straight clean-up of the original game's text and dialogue. WC1 has a handful of typos, misspellings, mixed up grammar and odd formatting. You might not have even ever noticed it, but there's room for improvement, and (after more than 30 years) YPersonified is doing the improving! Some examples are included below. You can try out what he's fixed so far by unzipping the contents of this file (211 k zip) into your gamedat folder. Help share feedback or point out additional items here.
Wing Commander - Improved GAMEDAT Files

The project of fan-edited GAMEDAT files from Wing Commander for better gameplay experience. The work is mostly focused on slightly demanding but basic editings like dialogue/conversation script issues, using features of Wing Commander Toolbox. Editing of fundamental or technical aspects is unfortunately beyond my level. Download and un-zip the files on GAMEDAT folder for application - recommend backing your original files up first. Feedback is always appreciated.

Contents

- BRIEFING files - WC(000), SM(001), SM2(002)
- Dialogue typos or apparent grammar errors fixed, missing punctuation marks added.

- Entry dialogue(gray-colored text) in several missions are now properly spaced for coherence.
- Several misgrouped sets of background image and talking-head fixed for coherence.
- Several missing lipsync phonetics added.
- Miscellaneous minor adjustments done.
Some of the tweaks are a matter of taste, such as the CSS Suffolk tweak. You can read about the debate on that point here.
- All lipsync phonetics in SM and SM2 are now replaced with new ones, properly reflecting written dialogue.
- All dialogue delay time in SM and SM2 scripts are reset and more facial expression codes are added for a natural pace of conversation.

- Several wing designations in conversations set to match with in-flight designations(MODULE files 001 and 002) to avoid discrepancy.

* Note: Unskipped 'Mission Briefing Conversation' may cause the infamous endless music loop - which you must manually skip to continue - depending on your DOSBox CPU cycles. May work on text delays in case you experience this in GOG.com default config of 4000 cycles.

- COMMUNIC files - WC, SM
- Script typos fixed, missing punctuation marks added.

Work In Progress
- BRIEFING.002 - Editing in progress (Lipsync phonetics, Delay time settings, Possible ideas for script improvisation)

There's also a video of a playthrough including these fixes!
While working on these files, I thought it would be nice to try entire playthrough and upload them steadily on Youtube for a showcase. Click on my playlist and check out the gameplay if you're interested.

Spanish Translations of WC1, WC2, SMs and SOs Released Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Inspired by UnnammedCharacter's WC Toolbox and Marty2Life's recent German translation, L@Zar0 has put together a brand new Spanish translation! He's been steadily making progress for the past month, so releases are available for both Wing Commander 1&2, plus both Secret Missions and Special Operations. This is a wonderful surprise for fans trying to play the classics in their native language, and there's even hope that he might tackle Privateer in the future. You can download the WC1/SM package here (4 meg zip) and the WC2/SO package here (5 meg zip). Readmes are included with more instructions or you can learn more at these pages at his site. This should work for either the original DOS or GOG versions. Even if you're not up for playing through the game in another language, check out these juicy images of it in action!
I want to give the thanks to UnnamedCharacter (and the members) that have been made possible WCTools. I'm a former translator of videogames (retro videogames) in www.clandlan.net, in Spanish language. I know what difficult is to do a set of tools that makes the complete possibility of translate a game into another language. So. THANKS A LOT for these tools.
Now I want to translate the last game not sold in Spanish language of this series, Wing Commander: Privateer.

PC Games Magazine Highlights New Wave of Space Sim Games Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

We're rewinding the clock back a few more years today with a classic article from the December 1991 issue of PC Games. The First and Final Frontier talks about the surge space-themed games hitting the market in the early 1990s, including Wing Commanders 1 & 2. There are a few other promising games of the day mentioned, but there are big throwbacks and comparisons to the WC series. It's also got some really funky early '90s art, which was also typical of the day.

Gaming Press Warms to P2 Over Summer 1996 Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Today we've got a double feature of articles from Computer Games Strategy Plus. The first one is a brief blurb in the follow-up to E3 that year. There's not much info on the game, but a few elements really date the article. First, in 1996, we were still a ways from E3 being a giant online spectacle. Given standard lead times, it would just be natural that news from the springtime event would be trickling out in the August issue (which would have appeared on shelves 1-2 months afterwards). Also on the game picking up the "Privateer" title, they note gamers have "always wanted an updated version of that classic." That's a funny take from our perspective nearly thirty years after P1's release.

The second article is the big one. It's got a fantastic cover celebrating the game, plus a huge two-page feature with plenty of exotic art. They talk about the interactive movie's story, open world setting, fancy new engine and more.

'Hidden Gem' Wing Commander Celebrated in '90s Rundown Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Marvelous Videos has put together a feature on underappreciated sci-fi films from the 1990s. Yeah, it's a little click-baity and their pronunciation of certain terms is just bizarre, but they lead off with Wing Commander as the first must-see film on the list. I also wholeheartedly agree that "fans will be amazed to see how loyal the story is to the film," but perhaps not in the same manner as they intended it.
Given how extensive the subject matter actually is, there is no other film genre that can match up to the creativeness and originality of science fiction. Thanks to this particular genre, we have been able to witness an exciting array of remarkable, mind-boggling movies. But, while it is true that we fondly remember flicks like The Terminator, Independence Day, Men In Black, The Matrix, Inception, and Avatar amongst many others, there also seems to be an entire range of the sci-fi genre that has simply been brushed aside. So, in today’s video, we are going to take a peek at 11 of these underrated gems from the ’90s that undoubtedly deserve your time.

Raptor's Last Stand Streamed to the World Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

AD found this spectacularly awesome clip of doctorcdcs playing The Secret Missions 2. We've all been there before: head to head against a Dralthi, guns destroyed, out of missiles, out of afterburner fuel, no more front armor and splash damage erupting all around. But do we call it quits? No! doctorcdcs demonstrates exactly what makes the original Wing Commander such a perfect game. You can just feel the tension right through your screen as if you were there. Watch the one-minute snippet to see how it ends!

Who needs guns and afterburners when all you really need is a ship and a dream?

Wing Commander Added to Movies Anywhere Sale, Watch Parties Also Available Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

AD came along an interesting Wing Commander sale at Movies Anywhere. As we reported a number of years ago, Movies Anywhere is a unifying service that allows your digital purchase from one storefront to appear in your library at many others. This includes Apple/iTunes, Amazon, Microsoft/Xbox, Google/YouTube and Vudu. Today's sale offers up free access to one of ten films if you buy one of a corresponding movie, including Wing Commander. Interestingly enough, WC is included in the Disney/Fox category, although the distribution rights have been a bit murky since reverting to Chris Roberts a few years back. Wing Commander briefly disappeared from storefronts and the disc copies went out of print, but it's since become widely available in digital format again for about $10.

As we continue into year two of the coronavirus pandemic, a small number of virtual conveniences have cropped up that I hope are here to stay. Movies Anywhere and Amazon, for example, give viewers the ability to host a "watch party" where groups of friends across several households can jointly control (play/pause/stop/rewind) the viewing experience and watch together over chat/phone/video calling. We used to do this together manually ("3, 2, 1, play!") in #Wingnut twenty years ago, so it's neat to see the rest of the world catching up! Generally, everyone needs to buy or rent a copy themselves, but Movies Anywhere gives owners several "screen passes" to digitally loan to friends or add to a party for free, which is a nice bonus. Hopefully this feature sticks around. This, and drop-off food delivery. I love not having to talk to the delivery person.

Animated Hornet Flying in WC1 Engine Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

DefianceIndustries has managed to insert another animated-style Wing Commander ship to the original WC1 engine. This time it's the Hornet, and the process turned out to be a little bit trickier than the Tiger's Claw import. The results are very cool though!

On the subject of a larger conversion pack, Defiance has some thoughts on how to integrate the different fleets. Some of the ships, like the Tiger's Claw, Scimitar or Fralthi are directly depicted in the cartoon show. But there's no Rapier or Salthi - would a WCA Sabre or Sartha be a good replacement? Check out the proposed swaps and share what you think would be a good fit!

So I continue my playing around and started working on fighters. Fighters are different beasts a bit from the WC1 capships as they have to be scaled appropriately (if you render the sprite too large, they appear giant in the game). My experiments yielded the best results at a 120x120 px render, then cropping the images down to less than 100 px on the long side. Unfortunately this causes the loss of some fine detail, but the result is pretty good. You also have to manually reposition the thruster exhaust sprites. The toolbox does a good job exporting everything into XML, but you have to open each image and establish the position by counting pixels. (It's exciting work believe me).
At some point I'll write up a guide on how to do this. It's a time consuming process as there isn't a lot of automation currently, so there's a lot of cropping, saving, and using the repal function in the toolbox that has to be done manually. I think it takes about 3-4 hours to do a single sprite currently.

However if I were to do a complete pack I had some ideas as there isn't a 1-for-1 match between Academy and the game below are my thoughts, but feel free to weigh in if you feel differently. Just some thoughts, anyone with an opinion please feel free to weigh in (especially where gaps exist).

Lillard Table Read Online, Beadle ad Grimm's Posts Great April Fools Set Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

If you missed Matthew Lillard's Wing Commander Movie script reading on Friday, the segment has been archived on Twitch. It's not overly hammy, which is impressive, and it's genuinely nice to hear what fond memories Mr. Lillard had of the film's production. Most of the Beadles and Grimm's team tried to get into the atmosphere with WC backgrounds and do their best with material that they're not as intimately familiar with as you or I might be. It was also fun to hear Lillard's recollections on the differences between early script and finished movie.

And that's not all! They really got into the spirit of things with a full scale Wing Commander-themed April Fools joke on Thursday. It's the perfect kind of prank where you wonder for a split second if it's real, but without any kind of crushing letdown that mocks the reader or anyone else. The idea is that they were putting together a "Platinum Maniac Edition" box set. They created artwork, a map, orders, a minidisc and more. Check it out here! Since awesome things like this on the web have a habit of disappearing eventually, we've also archived it for future generations. I would definitely be down for one of these if it were real!

'Cliffs Notes' Take on Wing Commander Makes for Efficient Viewing Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Interested in the Wing Commander Movie but not willing to commit the 95 minutes it takes to watch the whole thing? Or do you have a friend you need to quickly get up to speed without watching the entire film? The Movie Fanatic channel has you covered with a five-minute mini cut with key scenes and a comprehensive story overview. The weird content farm nature of their channel and the computerized narration voice comes across as pretty sketchy, but it's actually not the worst summary edit of the film I've ever seen. If it's been a while since your last viewing, this is a nice quick watch to jog your memory.

BREAKING NEWS: Matthew Lillard WC Table Read Today! Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

There's a very cool event happening this evening on the Beadle & Grimm's Twitch stream. Matthew Lillard and the streamers will be doing a table read of key scenes from the Wing Commander Movie! This could be a ton of ridiculous fun. Head over to their channel here at 7 pm Pacific time / 10 pm Eastern and tune in!
Come tune in for a table read of select scenes from Wing Commander tonight at 7pm PT!

You might recall this 1999 sci-fi film was preceded by the first-ever trailer to Star Wars: A Phantom Menace.

Now you get to see it again, but with a *slightly* smaller budget.

Trailer Drops for WC4 Video Enhancement Pack 6.0: Cinematic Edition Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

ODVS is always on the forefront of video editing technology, and his latest explorations have enabled a new level of visual fidelity here. Except this time, he's given version 6.0 a more modern cinematic flair...
I'm very excited to reveal this sneak preview of the upcoming Wing Commander IV HD Pack V6.0 - Cinematic Edition.

I've reconfigured the aspect ratio to cinematic widescreen and painstakingly recreated all the visual improvements that come from shooting with expensive, high-end anamorphic lenses. This is how WCIV would look if it were a modern day Hollywood blockbuster!

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