Space Commando III
By Christopher Lee. I dig it.A school project where I used the title sequence form Wing Commander III as inspiration
A school project where I used the title sequence form Wing Commander III as inspiration
Wing Commander: Vega Campaign 2" (limited quantities)
I really appreciated the CD-ROM Classics and bought them regularly. If I remember correctly, they had their own EA displays at the POS. Great selection of excellent titles. I have kept a few to this day.I believe there were three Wing Commanders:
Let's look at some chalkboards! The kill board in Wing Commander I is one of those great immsersive touches: instead of scoring points like an arcade, you stay in the game world and compete with the characters you recognize.
All the characters' kills increase as the game progresses but they start from the same numbers. It's nice environmental storytelling, too: you can tell right off that Maniac is the rookie, Iceman is the top gun, etc. There's a million untold stories in this picture! That environmental storytelling started to become linear storytelling as the series went on: here's a bit added to the Super Wing Commander Claw Marks that tells the story of how Maniac became an ace (as had already been reflected on the original board): Quick aside: the kill board is based on actual 'scoreboards' used aboard aircraft carriers, particularly in World War 2. Here's a neat article with some history and pictures. So I thought that it would be fun to emulate all the ports and compare their killboards. Starting with the obligatory EGA vs VGA! Wing Commander generated its EGA graphics programmatically so there aren't any artsy details to look for. Here are the SegaCD and SNES versions. Very similar, except the former forces your name as HOT SHOT (or STARBUCK in Japan) and the latter allows only a user selected callsign and no last name. The Kilrathi Saga, Amiga and CD32 versions are identical to the PC so I kind of assumed the FM Towns would be too... and boy was I surprised! The counts are all much higher and this version removes a rank! It has a single LT. grade and promotes all the other characters! Then I captured the Super Wing Commander version and it's not only different but it has the same starting numbers as the FM Towns release! What's going on here? Did they intentionally up the challenge for players in these ports? The answer is... no they did not! What happened is that the starting values are stored in wc.exe. Origin updated the executable for Secret Missions 2 and thought to plug in new starting values since the mission disk takes place two campaigns later. The FM Towns, 3DO and Macintosh teams then worked from that codebase (which added things like a much needed frame limiter) and didn't think to change the hard values back. An old error echoing through eternity! The standalone release of Secret Missions for SNES also thought to update the values (no others did). Which means we have canonical kill counts for the characters at the start of WC1, SM and SM2! Neat coincidence. Quick aside: the dates work the same way. WC1 always starts on 2654.110 (4/20!) and then moves forward with a random element as you play. Most releases of the mission disks just leave this as is: Even the FM Towns versions (note the change in rank!) always start at 2654.110 no matter which campaign you select. But LOOK! The SNES version remembered when no one else did! The hard date, 2656.289 (October 16) doesn't really fit with later timelines but it's so cool that someone took the time to set it. Also, have you ever noticed that the closeup of the killboard looks nothing like the one you see in the gameflow screen? ... but they caught that when they redid the graphics for Super Wing Commander! I thought it would be fun to take this screenshot in every port, too. It's the one that every magazine article and retrospective uses since it's the first place you can stop to grab an image! Here's EGA vs. VGA: Amiga vs. CD32: Sega CD and SNES... someone took Shotglass' TV! And his plate of chicken wings! Then here's the PSP version, which is really just the SNES one stretched out. Next I wondered if there was any difference in the starter kill board in Wing Commander III. Here's the PC version, with no entry for Blair since I hadn't entered my callsign yet: Sure enough, the values change from port to port! Here's the PSX version and the Macintosh version (which really surprised me!): But the best discovery here was the 3DO port which starts with drastically higher numbers... and a different 'saying' for the total?! Scratch that, it's not one new saying... I was able to find sixteen different version, some of which were extremely funny. And one is a reference to Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, so good on you TCS Victory IT team.Woe, calamity and me, for I have returned with more stuff. Specifically I've gone back to do a play through of Secret Missions 1 in my own peculiar fashion; the playlist can be found here (scroll down for the new material, I'm currently up to the Gwenhyvar mission.) Below are a few samples of the added extras I've twisted in, most notably is a pixel art animation I made showing a fateful distress call from the TCS Johann which, suffice it to say, was not the luckiest of vessels, as you may recall.
Anyhow, take care of yourselves out there. Hit us up on Discord if you need someone to talk to.
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— Electronic Arts (@EA) June 24, 2022
They're using Gigapixel AI with its new Facial Recovery algo (which was just released). I'm already doing a deep-dive into experimenting with it for motion. It's impressive, but you hit the uncanny valley pretty hard. Sadly, they've currently only trained it for static images. I suspect it will be a while before it gets incorporated into their motion-friendly models, but I have no doubt that's coming. I am already doing experiments, though. :DEven if this isn't quite ready to actually animate videos with, the technology remains incredibly impressive!
With the help of EmuMusicFan I believe we now have some minimum specs. He helped test with low GPU memory and movie playback optimizations to get 60fps 1080p h265 running at speed with only 2 cores.On a similar note, Pedro is also looking for some common flight stick setups that fans are using. More customizable options will be added later, but if you'd like your joystick to make the initial cut, post your specs and details at the CIC Forums!Minimum specs: (No shadows, no post process)
2 Core CPU
2GB GPU (Probably 860M/750Ti)
8GB MemoryRecommended specs:
4 Core CPU
6GB GPU (Something like a 980Ti)
8GB MemoryIdeal specs:
4 Core CPU
8GB GPU (Something like a 1070Ti)
16GB MemoryIf these specs seem too high for anyone give a shout out.
I'm trying to add good default keybindings for different flight sticks/ HOTAS setups to the Wing IV Remake Demo.Would people mind posting the string that appears in USB Game Controllers (*exactly* as it appears) here, including the name of seperate rudder/ throttle if you have them. Finally if you could take a photo of the stick and label the buttons as they show up in the properties (or ideally an online image someone has already done).
Long term we want to have customizable mappings but for now if you want good default mappings for your favourite stick this is the way :)
The Wing Commander Confederation Handbook is a book that's presented as a fake web browser... and since it's from 1999 it's full of absolutely garish banner ads. And here they are, collected from the book's layout files! I could sure go for a warsop egg.
The last of my Lego updates, the Avenger. I went ground up to give it a more game accurate boxy and thicker look and the front cockpit cover had to change and I found the parts to do it. Enjoy.
I’ve been working on my dad’s Father’s Day gift. It’s a F-103 Excalibur from Wing Commander. He and I used to play it a lot so I hope he likes it.
Alexa: “Your order of SYNTHETIC PLEASURES has been delivered.”The Super Wing Commander bit is just after the 44 minute mark (following footage of a robot labeled Robot Redford). It's the extremely-90s-cyber-stuff 'suit up' sequence from the takeoff cutscene.
Way back in 2007, George put out a fantastic album of WC1 music known as Wing One, and it's been on our highly recommended list ever since. This new edition scrubs Fat's archives for a complete reckoning of all the music in the game. Today's release clocks in with 55 tracks and 85 minutes of audio - compared to 27 tracks and 34 minutes in the original release fifteen years ago.
I'm probably long overdue in tossing fans of the #wingcommander movie a bone after my recent adventures with the other Rapiers.
I teased it awhile ago. Finally done and no not perfect but the most Barney badass Wing Commander fighter ever, the Dragon, is done. I needed more pieces and really wanted to scrutinize the wings and fuselage. No part of this super craft was an easy build. Please enjoy.
We hope you love building spaceships as much as we do. pic.twitter.com/WK4ExkYepk
— Bethesda Game Studios (@BethesdaStudios) June 12, 2022
Yes, you can fly it. pic.twitter.com/xqrN3SkXmb
— Bethesda Game Studios (@BethesdaStudios) June 12, 2022
Chorus does an excellent job of cutting out the dull parts of space dogfighting, getting right to the flashy fun of blasting through enemy fighters and capital ships with superpowered abilities. Its large and pretty map is filled with fleshed-out side quests, and they're varied enough that it's easy to cruise around for a few dozen hours and really get the hang of the combat system. The story behind it all isn't half bad once you've waded through a flood of sci-fi mysticism, and Nara and Forsaken are interesting characters to spend all that time with - which is a relief, because they're the only ones we ever get to see.
Today I received a box with some nice items: One of them is the Qemm & 2 hot games bundle including #WingCommander Privateer and Shadow Caster. Special thanks to Bandit LOAF.
Brb, me and the boys are going to the store to buy milk. #wingcommander And by "Buy Milk," I mean we're going to hit a Kilrathi capital ship.
Ideas haunt my head from time to time to time, but I haven't really nailed it down yet. There are a few concrete ideas on some things... but this is not really recorded anywhere. I find it an interesting idea to choose the wingmen or anchor them in the game and have never really thought about it. Thank you for the mental impetus! So far, my ideas have always been more player-related (destroy a spaceship, escort a freighter, jump into a new system, change your ship, get a weapon upgrade, escape the Kilrathi), so more towards a Privateer than Wing Commander 2.
A couple of weeks ago I decided to try my hand at Freespace Open modding. Well, I have something to show for: a short demo of the campaign I've currently named "Vega Assault" consiting of the first two missions Enyo 1 & 2.What is Vega Assault?
Vega Assault is a reimagining of the first Wing Commander campaign. It aims to provide a cohesive narative of the Vega Campaign. The WC1 campaign tree will be the framework Vega Assault is built arround. The individual WC1 missions will be starting point and inspiration for the missions in Vega Assault.What is Vega Assault NOT?
Some kind of WC 1 HD remake. This may sound strange considering the campaing will have the exact same structure as the WC 1 campaign. But the tone and gameplay goals will diverge greatly from the original.Do you need a copy of Freespace 2?
Nope. This mod is built from a WC Saga base using Klav's WC 1 Ships.Try it out! :)
Interviews and behind the scenes with Mark Hamill and Chris Roberts from this very rare german TV report on May 1995. Enjoy!
Hello! I got it done!It took awhile but Confed's Flying Fortress, the Broadsword, was my next challenge. I pored over images constantly and did my best to match colors to get it down as close as I could and to its Concordia livery. The underside of the fuselage and turrets aren’t perfect but the port and starboard turrets move and mini figs ALL fit! I’m proud of this one.
Pliers (would) say, “The Broadsword is a big fat gunslinger that goes nowhere fast, but it’ll take forever to shoot down. Only the biggest Border Worlds installations can hold them and have the manpower to run them.”
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