2023.059 (February 28, 2023)

Comparing the Various WC Academy Logos

USA used this first 2D Wing Commander Academy title for all the print ads, commercials and bumpers... but they swapped it for a kind of incongruous 3D version in the actual show. I like the original better!

The EARLIEST print ads reuse the titles from the (narratively unrelated) game of the same name.

Members of the production team received a snazzy crew jacket. It used the original 2D logo!

2023.058 (February 27, 2023)

Fan Trailer Riffs on Top Gun Maverick Theme

Scribbler was inspired by that other Maverick and his new Top Gun movie to make this fun fan trailer. "Wing Commander Maverick" is presented in both English and German for your enjoyment. Check it out below. There's a lot of good cuts in there!

Tom Cruise is celebrated, Top Gun Maverick might get an Academy Award? Our Maverick was probably forgotten last year. Here is our version of Maverick. ;) In English and German (including a new scene that nobody knows yet. Not even the actors :) ). Have fun :D

2023.057 (February 26, 2023)

Vintage PC Gamer Teases Return of the Kilrathi

Here's a fantastic gem from the February 1995 issue of PC Gamer in the UK. The cover is all about Wing Commander 3 with a stellar piece of Kilrathi art. We haven't been able to track down the big four page review inside, so if you have a copy of this buried away, let us know! This time capsule was surfaced by none other than the official PC Gamer Twitter itself with the caption, "It's time to bring back Wing Commander with Mark Hamill. We deserve it."

2023.056 (February 25, 2023)

Supertitle Mega Post: Through the Workprints

Yesterday's look at the supertitles was a big hit, so here's a closer look at how they evolved throughout production.

To start with, the approach to the Claw doesn't change much at all. Most of the preliminary titles are also green instead of blue as depicted here in the final cut:

The Pegasus attack at the beginning of the movie probably morphs the most in some ways. Some of the early edits start with a flyover of a destroyed Pegasus and then flash back in time to the attack. The final cut of the film is linear and so does away with a lot of the supertitles. There were at least two alternate cuts of the opening, both opened on the Pegasus debris field after the attack.

The more straight forward version has a flyby over the debris and then jumps back in time to show the attack:

The second is a more condensed version that intercuts the debris fly-over with flashbacks to the attack. The titles are divided into three parts.

The most interesting supertitles in the rough cuts are the ones that got completely eliminated with the loss of the traitor subplot. There's a number of establishing shots of the Kilrathi fleet that got excised from the movie because they were lead-ins to scenes that never made it into the final cut. It's a shame because it would have helped sell the size of the Kilrathi threat but it also helped keep the ticking clock of the plot more in mind during the more character heavy first half of the film.

This one is an establishing shot of the Kilrathi fleet and prefaces the scene that would introduce the Pilgrim Traitor on board. (Variations are included mostly to show the evolution of the title look and CG)

Pretty much all of the Diligent's approach on the Claw have C.S.S. Tiger Claw in the workprints.

The interstitial with the Concordia was supposed to take place a little later in the film than it does in the theatrical cut. In the early versions you can see the time to Earth is 12 hours instead of 18.

When the traitor plot was cut the section before the jump to the Ulysses Corridor had to be reworked to improve pacing and to remind the audience of the Kilrathi threat. One of the loses was an exterior shot of the claw that would have prefaced some of the map room discussions.

Another victim of the traitor plot removal, a scene after Blair and Angel's initial encounter with the Comcon would have had a prefacing Kilrathi fleet shot - 10 hours from Earth.

A third Kilrathi fleet establishing shot existed between Maniac's injury during the decompression scene and before Blair talking to Angel. The Kilrathi admiral sends the Pilgrim traitor to the Comcon to get the jump coordinates ready since they're only 2 hours out from the jump

The Concordia Battle Group title near the end of the film doesn't change much. The final CG shots are a different angle versus the preliminary animatics. The oldest version interestingly calls the fleet at venus just "Confederation Battle Fleet," which is subsequently changed to "Concordia Battle Group. The original versions are also reversed from the final version and have more interesting camera movement IMO...

And last of all, we also lost another fleet scene right at the end with the hero ships in earth orbit. I feel the movie really would have benefited from those fleet scenes throughout

And that's it! I think they're neat, and maybe nobody else does, but that's ok. It's a fascinating look into the evolution of the film from pre-production to post. A lot of the CG shots in the movie were mocked up in pre-vis and used to fill in during the early edits of the film and replaced as finished or newer versions of the shots came in.

2023.055 (February 24, 2023)

Superb Titles From the WC Movie

I just thought all four of the supertitles from the Wing Commander movie would be a good post. And I was right.

2023.054 (February 23, 2023)

Fan Remix Revitalizes WC3 Soundtrack

RedBahamut loves George Oldziey's classic Wing Commander 3 music, but he wishes there was more of it! Since there aren't all that many fan remixes to add to the variety, he's created his own remastered album. Back in 2021 he released a test track, and now he's ready to share the entire composition. I'm listening to it right now. It sticks closely to the tone of the original while adding some refreshing flourishes here and there. Give it a listen below!

I started playing Wing Commander 3 a few years ago and the first thing that really got me was the absolute fantastic soundtrack. After checking a bit on Youtube, I am quite surprised of not finding much music related to WC3 or even remakes from remixers, so here is my take and my contribution to the Wing Commander community, hope you enjoy, Cheers!

2023.053 (February 22, 2023)

GamesMaster Doubles Down

Doubles is best! Or at least so says the April 1996 issue of GamesMaster, a UK-based gaming magazine that ran from 1993 to 2018. It features a cover story promoting not one but two big Wing Commander reviews: the PlayStation port of Wing Commander III and the original PC release of Wing Commander IV. But the biggest story here is surely the stunning 1990s magazine layouts seen throughout which are sort of like a mesmerizing surrealist landscape that you can't stop from staring it:

2023.052 (February 21, 2023)

Privateer Easter Egg Bottled up for Thirty Years?

I think I might have found a neat reference. Ultima fans, follow me for a moment. Here are screenshots of (some of) bartenders from Privateer. The heads are animated in front of a background that was rendered in 3D Studio.

A larger version of each background is actually stored in the game which gives you a better view. They're for a cut feature so don't ever actually display. But if you look closely there are four different labels for the liquor applied to a variety of different bottle shapes.

But we can get even more detail because the original 3D models and their textures have survived all these years in dev material we've recovered at the CIC!

So Ultima fans: is that last bottle not a map of Britannia?!

2023.051 (February 20, 2023)

Ferret and Sabre All Wrapped Up

Klavs has wrapped up the exquisite Sabre and Ferret models that he showed off last month. There are two styles of Ferret - one P-64C in In-Sys colors and a Super Ferret in active Confed gray. The Sabre is also on display with plenty of heavy ordnance. Both have also been posted in high quality on SketchFab for potential fan project use. Klavs has also talked about the texturing process in greater detail. Here's a snippet:

I've started using Substance Painter for the textures, it's really intuitive after you get the hang of it. I'll typically draw panel lines, vents, fasteners, thermal protection materials, and other details. I'm really just trying to think about how the ground crews would access stuff, how the complex shapes would be manufactured, and assembled how the pilots get in and out (hand holds, ladders, etc). I'll then add placards and other details. The grunge is largely determined by the locations of the panel lines, so the nice thing there is if you want to add another panel somewhere, the grunge will follow along when you add a new line! There's also a lot of hand placed weathering and grunge. Gun exhaust, leaks, battle damage, etc etc.

2023.050 (February 19, 2023)

Translated Trade Commander Publication Includes Snazzy Colored Concept Art

Crazy find on the Internet Archive: an article from Soft World that's the 1992 Trade Commander press releases translated to Chinese... and the pen-and-ink art has been recolored in pastels! COOL!

Here's the original art. This was the first announcement of what would become Privateer and it features a lot of details about a much earlier version of the game's storyline. It's also the (only) source of 'Grayson Burrows' as the player character's name. I found the Chinese text by searching for "Tolnidan," the original name for the Gemini Sector and a word that's very close to being a googlenope.

2023.049 (February 18, 2023)

Jam Out to the Behemoth Theme

Here's another fun oddity by FekLeyrTarg. He's composed George Oldziey's WC3 Behemoth track in the MIDIS2Jam2 program. The instrument effect is kind of cool, and it sounds great!

George Oldziey's Behemoth theme from "Wing Commander III - Heart of the Tiger", performed by a virtual orchestra in MIDIS2Jam2 using Patch 93's SC-55 soundfont.

2023.048 (February 17, 2023)

Strike Commander Intro Expertly Recreated in DCS

Sylvester found this very fun Wing Commander-adjacent video to share. DCSWorld PL created a impressive high fidelity version of the Strike Commander introduction in the Digital Combat Simulator engine. It's super sharp and features an authentic reproduction of things like the game's iconic F-16s. Strike Commander has many diehard fans out there and it's cool to see what they're churning out almost thirty years later!

Waiting hopelessly for the remake or sequel of one of the most beloved games - STRIKE COMMANDER - I decided to start by myself. Here it is the intro from the original version (floppy disk, not CD), recreated to the letter in DCS World.
I made skins for Wildcats squadron based on Sudden Death magazine included in the big box and added some from myself.
The clip is one to one recreation of the original scenes using Mission Editor in DCS World. The music and sound effects are from Strike Commander game for nostalgia effect. Big thank you to Origin and Chris Roberts for creating such a great game back in the days!

I think this might be a case where the slick video above is what the original Strike Commander intro felt like in our heads at the time - or through the filter of memory. In reality, this is what it looked like (and even this is an HD upscale!). Quite a difference:

2023.047 (February 16, 2023)

GalaxyCon Offering Virtual Lillard Autographs on WC Posters

AD reports that GalaxyCon is hosting another virtual autograph event with a Wing Commander star! Back in 2021, they had an arrangement with Freddie Prinze Jr that included the option to buy autographed WC posters. A similar deal is now running for Matthew Lillard. This time the the artwork has been updated: the Blair offer used the newer blue-tinted "DVD reprint" art while this is the original theatrical poster for Maniac. There are several options ranging from an 8x10" photo for $85, 11x17" mini posters for $100 or custom items that you send for $95-115. Send Ins need to be figured out by March 5, but you have until March 16 to order one of their WC photos or posters. This is a very cool opportunity for autograph collectors!

2023.046 (February 15, 2023)

Game Store Highlights Wing Commander Trade Ins

Here’s a fun new (to me) type of video! I’m familiar with people making vids about the hauls and treasures that they discover at stores, including retro game retailers. Another emerging scene is where the store owners themselves are growing their YouTube/Twitch/social media presence with videos that showcase impressive or exotic customer trade-ins. Obviously this is a type of commercial advertisement since these go right on to being sold, but it’s pretty cool to see the variety of items that they run across. This particular clip has everything from 8 bit NES games to relatively new Xbox One titles, plus hardware. And the person here absolutely gushes about Wing Commander 3 and 4 for the PlayStation. You can catch that bit just about a minute and twenty seconds in.

2023.045 (February 14, 2023)

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day, Wingnuts! Love is in the air, and so are the Kilrathi! Whether you're spending this special day with your sweetheart or flying solo, we've got some romantic treats for you.

First, check out this passionate animation that LOAF extracted from Privateer, featuring a Gemini Sector couple in a tender embrace. We love how they captured the chemistry between these two star-crossed lovers.

Here's a tiny kiss for Valentine's Day! These lovers can show up in the background of the bar on New Detroit in Privateer.

Second, we've got the fabulous return of the Love Arrow! We hope you enjoy this famous icon and have a wonderful Valentine's Day. Remember, the Heart of the Tiger is always with you!

2023.044 (February 13, 2023)

Comic Sketch Reveals Hobbes' Resolve

Last fall we introduced a creative new project where EmuMusicFan began sketching out Freedom Flight's interrogation of Ralgha nar Hhallas in comic book form. We only had one page to go off then, but now Emu has released an additional six. It's enough to set up a pretty suspenseful scene! Check them out below and give you feedback to Emu at the CIC Forums.

2023.043 (February 12, 2023)

Dropping by the Ascii Sector for a Visit

Today we've got a look back at Ascii Sector. The project began in the 2000s as a novel ASCII art take on Wing Commander Privateer. If you've been following us for a long time, you'll recall that the project actually won Fan Project of the Year for 2008. However, a few years later, the project removed "Privateer" from the name and started to change up the internal assets to avoid a sense of direct copyright infringement/overlap. I would have argued that there was no practical concern, since the project was fairly low-key and EA has a long history of not worrying about fan projects and mods, but I get it. And then we lost track of things for the past decade!

Fast forward today, and I see that development continued into 2016. Unfortunately, the game's website and associated materials appear to have gone offline in 2022, but you can still find a copy and download the latest version via archive.org. There's also an extensive Wiki that you can access for more information. I posted two clips below that show off how things eventually turned out. The first is a lengthy play through, and there is also a rundown of the Ascii Sector soundtrack. Although it's always a little sad when things go quiet, I'm happy to see the game enjoyed a good ten years of solid development with many happy players!

2023.042 (February 11, 2023)

Listen to a Wing Commander Track Like an Amiga Pro

Here's a video of the vintage Amiga ProTracker software running a Wing Commander module. I'm not super familiar with this program myself, but it's got great WC music and some cool '90s aesthetic going on, so I'm running with it. Have a great weekend and enjoy!

Protracker Modul (mod)
Creator: Mark Knight
Titel: Wing Commander
Year: 1990

2023.041 (February 10, 2023)

LTT Talks Emulation in Retro Gaming

This evening we've got a video from Linus Tech Tips about the reasons why you might emulate old hardware compared with building up a a classic PC of your own. There are pros and cons each way, and it's a good discussion about some of the many challenges than can go into getting vintage games running. I'm not a fan of these goofy thumbnails, but it's a charming video. It's really nice to see someone navigate those retro Windows 95 and DOS interfaces. Wing Commander appears at the 13:55 point in a brief anecdote about how some games could run too fast on newer hardware. It's kind of funny/amazing that that's an obscure enough bit of information in 2023 that it's worth calling out!

2023.040 (February 9, 2023)

Check Out Gemini Sector's Unique Ship Dealers

Here's one you might never notice: Privateer has four different gameflow backgrounds for the ship dealers! New Constantinople (stripe), Oxford (wood floor), New Detroit (darker wall) and everything else!

2023.039 (February 8, 2023)

A Little Tchéky Karyo Exploration

Again, it should be pretty obvious that this is a photo from the set and not a frame from the movie. But it did get me thinking about Tchéky Karyo headshots...

This picture shows up as a lobby card and in other promotional material... but it turns out it's NOT the same as the headshot that's used in the movie!

But here's some neat continuity: that in universe one DOES match the photo in the Confederation Handbook for Paladin's psychological profile.

I also checked the archive of the movie's official site, which had this little bit of lore we've saved all these years. A third photo!

... but here's another great touch: the signature on the letter at the movie site matches the one used for a letter he authored in the Handbook! Now THAT is attention to detail.

On a separate note, Mr. Karyo was born in Turkey, which suffered a terrible earthquake this week. You can help donate to relief efforts in Turkey and Syria here.

2023.038 (February 7, 2023)

Spanish Preview Highlights WC3

Maxi de Sokar has come across another vintage Wing Commander article from the Spanish press. This one is preview of Wing Commander 3 from Issue 78 of Micromanía. It features the wacky Spanish art and early engine screenshots. I always say that you don't have to speak the language to appreciate the artistic and historic merit of scans like these, but I also included a Google Translation to help convey a bit more of what they're saying. As you might expect, they really play up the size and scale - from shipping on multiple (ultimately four rather than two) CDs and featuring a big budget live shoot. It's really hard to recreate the sense of how mind blowing all of this was to gamers in 1994, but this gives you an idea!

2023.037 (February 6, 2023)

Polish Wing Commander Includes Unique Blueprints

Dominus of Exult is back with another neat Wing Commander collectible find! It's a copy of WC1 localized for Poland. There are several fascinating elements. The blue box denotes the 'deluxe edition' that would normally include both Secret Missions, although the presence of just three disks implies the expansions are not included (unless there are missing disks). Various documentation bits have been translated, including a copy of Claw Marks. Especially cool are the non-graphical blueprints. They're just glossy blue fold-outs with stats! You would have needed them for the copy protection, but omitting the fighter diagrams is an interesting choice.

Found another odd WC in Poland. Slide cover, 3 floppies, even got the blueprints specs translated but no actual blueprints ;)

2023.036 (February 5, 2023)

Casey's Console Spotted in Die Hard

StarvingPilot shared this nice catch from a recent watch of Die Hard 2. A techie console from the film appears to be a perfect match to a console aboard the TCS Midway. It's the one that Lance Casey taps on after his missions. There's probably a ton of things like this out there! Companies like Modern Props widely supply futuristic machinery and gizmos to all manner of movies, television shows and game shoots. If anyone spots any other crossovers like this, let us know!

2023.035 (February 4, 2023)

New Poll Takes a Good Look at Academy Ships

It's time for a new poll, and we've got a fun one here. LOAF recently put together a neat comparison of all the Wing Commander Academy ships alongside their game counterparts. It's a really stunning visual! Today's survey asks which one you think made the best transition from the PC to television. Make your pick below:

The last poll was our annual evaluation of what people think the year ahead will be like. I think it's a surprisingly positive result! It's still early, and already we've got exciting things like the vinyl album on the horizon. Of course, the community is what we make it, and we can all help make the year great!

2023.034 (February 3, 2023)

Ferrets Hit the Front Lines

What a nice way to start the weekend! Klavs has wrapped up the texturing on his updated Ferret model. There are two variants. One is a familiar paint scheme based on what you might find in WC2/In-System Security. There's also a more muted gray set in End Run/the TCS Tarawa. They make a potent pair!

Calling this done for now.

2023.033 (February 2, 2023)

Watch the Entire End Run Story Here

Mac is back with his biggest, baddest and most epic Lore Video yet! In recent months he's covered several adjacent topics such as the Broadsword Bomber and TCS Johnny Greene, which have helped set the stage for the main event: Wing Commander End Run. If you've read the novel, you know the story. The video starts out as the mother of all book reports, but it's much more than that! Mac uses a variety of WC2 talking head models and backdrops to convey the character interaction. He's also built a huge library of animations to visualize the story's fleet actions and fighter combat. It's quite a tremendous package. Block out some time and watch below!

The Terran Confederation is losing the war against their long time enemies, the Kilrathi Empire. What follows becomes the tale of "The Little Escort Carrier that Could", aka The "End Run".

2023.032 (February 1, 2023)

BREAKING NEWS: Wing Commander Vinyl Campaign Imminent

Last month, we reported that Supercade was planning to manage a crowd funding campaign for a vinyl release of George Oldziey's Wing Commander Orchestral Recording Project. Now, it seems like the launch is imminent as Supercade author Van Burnham has just tweeted:

Just a heads up that the preorder campaign for Supercade’s first soundtrack release is launching SOON… a deluxe vinyl edition of the Wing Commander orchestral score by composer George Oldziey. So excited to share more details!#wingcommander #videogamesoundtrack #vinylcollector pic.twitter.com/DOWHWtyuZc
— Van Burnham (@supercade71) February 1, 2023

There's no additional information yet but we'll let you know the moment it's available. If you are curious about the promotional screenshot, it's actually from a Wing Commander Academy mod developed by HCl that adds a Hellcat V to the game! Want to try it for yourself? You can download te patch here.