Exciting Star Trek Prodigy Premiere Arrives Monday

Star Trek: Prodigy follows a motley crew of young aliens who must figure out how to work together while navigating a greater galaxy, in search of a better future.

Ginger Lynn Allen Keeping Busy

All girls feel fat some days. This painting was inspired by my ass.

WC1 Excellence Highlighted by French Gaming Press

The Stories Behind Those Secret Ops Passwords

Light Piranha Packs a Nice Punch

I just spent the last (counts)... 14 hours building a model of the F-106 Piranha in Tinkercad. I went some artist interpretation for some details, like the side mounted storm fire and the sensor array on the left side. Over all, I think it turned out well enough.

Easily ID Your Favorite Pilots With These Handy Helmet Codes

COBRA - A31
FLASH - A13
FLINT - A72
HOBBES - A99
MANIAC - A27
MAVERICK - A62
VAGABOND - A41
VAQUERO - A65

Vera: Do these numbers have a meaning?

LOAF: None that I’m aware of... save perhaps that fairly limited number of repeating integers suggests the art department bought as few sets of number stickers as they could!

Wing Commander Arena End of Life FAQ

There has been a fair amount of chat about the deadline to buy Wing Commander Arena with many fans confused about what the game is and how to play it. Many have also encountered a bug in which their Xbox does not allow them to buy the game. We hope to help by answering these questions and others with this quick FAQ.

What is Wing Commander Arena?

Wing Commander Arena is a spinoff game set in the Wing Commander universe. It was developed for the Xbox 360 and released on Xbox Live Arcade on July 25, 2007. It was produced by Electronic Arts and developed by the now-defunct Gaia Industries studio. Xbox Live Arcade titles were small and often experimental budget games; they were released digitally for a low price point. Players should be aware that Arena is not a traditional Wing Commander game with a first person cockpit view and an interactive story. It is a top-down shooter with a heavy focus on frenzied multiplayer battles. It's a wonderful game but it is a very different concept from much of the rest of the series. It is still heavily steeped in familiar Wing Commander lore!

Why should I buy Wing Commander Arena now?

Microsoft is closing their Xbox 360 Marketplace on July 29, 2024. This will be the last day digital content can be purchased for the Xbox 360. As a result, Wing Commander Arena will not be legally purchasable after July 29, 2024. If you ever want to play the game, you must have a copy on your Xbox Live account by this date.

Does this mean I won't be able to play Wing Commander Arena after July 29, 2024?

You will be able to play Wing Commander Arena after July 29, 2024. The game will continue to function for anyone who already owns a copy but there will be no way for additional players to add the game to their library.

Why does Microsoft continue to support Wing Commander Arena when many high profile Electronic Arts titles for the Xbox 360 have shuttered their multiplayer?

Unlike many full scale Xbox 360 games, Xbox Live Arcade titles did not use bespoke servers; instead they share a universal architecture between them. It is expected that Wing Commander Arena's multiplayer will continue to function for owners of the game until Microsoft shutters the entire Xbox Live Arcade system.

What do I need to play Wing Commander Arena?

To play Wing Commander Arena you must have an Xbox Live account and own an Xbox 360 game console. To access the multiplayer features you must have a current paid Xbox Game Pass Core or Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription (formerly known as Xbox Live Gold).

Can I play Wing Commander Arena on an Xbox, Xbox One, Xbox Series S or Xbox Series X?

No, Wing Commander Arena is only playable on an Xbox 360. It is not compatible with any other game console.

How do you buy Wing Commander Arena?

The only guaranteed way to buy Wing Commander Arena at this point is using the Xbox 360 Marketplace on an actual Xbox 360 console using an Xbox Live account. Some players have been able to purchase the game through the listing at the Xbox website but it seems to be largely non-functional at this point.

I'm getting an error when I try to purchase the game on my console!

There have been many instances reported of Xbox 360s no longer being able to process stored credit cards; so even if you have an account in good standing with a payment method on file the Xbox 360 Marketplace will not allow you to purchase the game. To solve this problem you should purchase a digital Xbox Gift Card through Microsoft's website (they can be had in denominations of down to one dollar). Use the website to add the gift card amount to your Xbox Live account. Then restart your Xbox 360 and use it to buy the game with the credit you have available.

What can I play in the full game if I don't have Xbox Live Gold?

If you do not have access to the Xbox Live's multiplayer features, four game modes are available:

• Melee is dogfighting with AI opponents in the Space Station map.
• Meteor Storm is a modern take on 'Asteroids' in which you must defend space stations from enemy fighters and deadly meteors.
• Gauntlet is a mission to defend a Midway-class carrier from attacking fighters which become progressively stronger each time you fend off a wave.
• Proving Grounds is a training mode which pits you against AI opponents in a unique map filled with powerups and other features to experiment with.

Is any Wing Commander Arena material available for purchase in the Xbox 360 Marketplace?

There sure is! Electronic Arts released three exclusive video clips about the game. These videos are free and can be added to your Xbox Live account using the same process listed above.

• Capital Ship Battle
• How to Capture a Satellite
• How NOT to Capture a Satellite

They also produced two Xbox 360 themes, one showing Terran ships and the other Kilrathi. The themes have been discounted to $0.63. Note that these themes were designed for the original 'Blades' Xbox 360 interface and they are somewhat diminished when used with updated system software.

• Wing Commander Arena - Terran Theme
• Wing Commander Arena - Kilrathi Theme

As with the game, you must add any of these extras you want to keep to your Xbox Live account before July 29, 2024.

What achievements can you earn in Wing Commander Arena?

Achievements are permanent badges added to your account when you accomplish a goal in an Xbox game; once you've earned an achievement it will display on your Xbox Live account forever alongside an accompanying score. Wing Commander Arena has twelve achievements; only the best pilots can earn all 200 points!

	Hot Dog (20) Complete each Ring Game difficulty level
	Commando (10) Earned ULF Commando Tattoo (15 frags in a Melee match)
	Dogfight (10) Shot down first pilot in a Xbox LIVE match
	Ace (20) Defeat 5 ships in a Ranked Xbox LIVE match without respawning
	Untouchable (20) Reach wave 10 in Gauntlet without ever taking damage to your hull
	TCS Tiger's Claw (10) Compete a 16 player Capital Ship game
	Hibernation (20) Reach a streak of 5 in a Bearpit game
	Gunfighter (20) Win a Ranked Duel with each ship type
	Navigator (10) Travel through every gold jump gate in the game
	Retro (10) Reach wave 20 in Meteor Storm
	Paladin (30) Shoot down 1000 pilots on Xbox LIVE
	Deathstroke (20) Finish in first place in any Ranked Free For All match

Most of these descriptions are self-explanatory but at least two could benefit from additional instructions:

Hot Dog - the 'Ring Game' is a series of hoops found in the outside layer of the Bearpit mid. You must use the game's special maneuver combos to move through them as quickly as possible; when you finish one set a new, more complex one will spawn. You must navigate through three sets of hoops inside the time limit. To play the Ring Game you must be at least the third player in an online Bearpit match, with the first two battling to the center of the map while you access the Ring Game in the dogfighting queue.

Navigator - The jump points for this mode can be found in Space Station (accessible via single player Melee or multiplayer Space Station matches), single player Proving Grounds and multiplayer Boneyard maps. You can effectively complete the achievement with no other players by starting a multiplayer Boneyard match and navigating through the jump points while it is waiting for additional players.

Which achievements require multiplayer?

Because there are not many multiplayer games available today, accomplishing many of the achievements requires active planning with other players. Three of the twelve achievements do not require access to multiplayer: only COMMANDO, RETRO and UNTOUCHABLE can be completed fully in single player modes.

Where can I find players for multiplayer games?

Right here in the Wing Commander community! You can post LFG messages to the Wing Commander Combat Information Center Chat Zone or feel free to join and ask in our Discord at any time. It can be tough to find players today but there are still dedicated pilots out there willing to take up the gauntlet! There are also various dedicated 'Xbox achievement' communities that work together to get achievements; they sometimes organize events for things like the TCS Tiger's Claw badge.

How do I unlock all of the flyable ship variants?

When you start Wing Commander Arena four ships are unlocked. Each ship has a specific unlock method similar to how achievements are awarded. These are generally much more simple to accomplish than the achievements but they are not documented in-game. A quick guide is available below.

BUG ALERT: two of the unlocks are tied directly to achievements which means that if you earn the achievement with the wrong side then the ship will not unlock. For example, earning the NAVIGATOR achievement as a Kilrathi player will block the Rapier Cavalier from unlocking. We caution new players to focus on earning NAVIGATOR in a Terran ship and HIBERNATION in a Kilrathi one otherwise it will be more difficult to unlock the Rapier Cavalier and the Paktahn Tusk (in that order). We STRONGLY RECOMMEND you focus on getting these two unlocks correctly because they can both happen accidentally through normal play. If you do miss out on these unlocks, scoring a number of kills in the single player Melee will sometimes cause them to unlock. This method can also unlock ships that are otherwise limited to multiplayer.

Arrow Scout: Unlocked at start
Arrow Eclipse: Score 10 kills in Melee
Arrow Guardian: Score 15 kills in Melee

Rapier Blade: Unlocked at start
Rapier Vanguard: Reach wave 5 of Meteor Storm
Rapier Cavalier: Earn the Navigator achievement (multiplayer access required)

Broadsword Executioner: Reach wave 5 of Gauntlet
Broadsword Warpig: Score 4 kills in ranked Duel (multiplayer required)
Broadsword Behemoth: Win a ranked Free-for-All (Boneyard or Space Station)

Darket Dragonfly: Unlocked at start
Darket Raptor: Score 10 kills in Melee
Darket Stalker: Score 15 kills in Melee

Dralthi Striker: Unlocked at start
Dralthi Shank: Reach wave 5 of Meteor Storm
Dralthi Rhino: Score 1 kill in ranked Free-for-All (Boneyard or Space Station) (multiplayer required)

Paktahn Phantom: Reach wave 5 in Gauntlet
Paktahn Tusk: Earn the Hibernation achievement (multiplayer required)
Paktahn Mauler: Destroy a capital ship in Capital Ship (multiplayer required)

How can I find the manual listed on the Xbox website?

You can download the game's in-fiction manual, Star Soldier, here. The booklet is patterned after the original Claw Marks and is overstuffed with classic Wing Commander lore!

Is any other Wing Commander Arena-related fiction available?

You can find a shortcut archive of our contemporary Wing Commander Arena reporting here. This includes archival marketing material produced by Electronic Arts for the game as well as screenshots, interviews, game footage, transcripts and more!

What will the future bring for Wing Commander Arena?

We anticipate that Microsoft will eventually shutter the entire Xbox 360 multiplayer ecosystem although no timeline for accomplishing this has been announced. At this time, the multiplayer features of the game will officially cease to function. Further down the line, we anticipate that Xbox 360 and Xbox Live Arcade emulation will eventually reach a point where the game can be played correctly again but this is even further in the future. The fact that XBLA multiplayer is game agnostic will hopefully make Arena support an inevitability rather than an unusual feature that must be added. So as with many things, we expect it will get worse before it gets better... but that it will be okay in the end!

Okay, level with us: it's seventeen years later. Did you actually love Wing Commander Arena or were you faking it because you loved Wing Commander and/or got to help out making the game?

We truly loved it. We're grateful to everyone who made the game possible, including and especially Electronic Arts producer Sean Penney who took the Wing Commander community's interests seriously throughout the entire project. We're sad to see the game go off sale but we're dedicated to preserving its history and making sure that future generations of fighter pilots will still get a chance to play this strange-but-delightful little piece of the Wing Commander canon.

Who Else Uses the Squadron TranSim?

A Thorough Exploration of Ranks in Wing Commander

So I thought that maybe in addition to that I should start doing longer form versions right here where people actually care about the tiniest bits of Wing Commander errata… and where I'd have some more space for explanatory notes. And I can answer questions and people who actually understand what they're talking about can contribute! Plus, the odds are that the CIC is going to long outlast Twitter as an archive. (And frankly, it was very nice to see folks asking after me after I did that movie post; like John Prine sang, everybody wants to be wanted.) So will I keep it up? Who knows! But let's get started… with a spreadsheet!

I was looking for something to think about last night and I decided it might be fun to 'update' the ranks chart originally published in Victory Streak for the 21st century. And I was right, it was fun! The overall reference needed some nips and tucks because of continuity introduced after Wing Commander III and I thought it would be fun to expand it a little beyond the original categories. Here's a snapshot:

The retcon for Wing Commander III forward in 1994 was that the Confederation is a /little/ different from the real world in that carriers are crewed by navy personnel but that they (can) have air wings that come from a different service, the Space Force. And the game included a rank chart that was originally put together for the costuming department showing the comparative ranks between the Navy, Space Force and the Kilrathi. You can find the original in Victory Streak, on page 8.

Keeping sense of this hasn't gone /great/ since then, though, and we've had various additions that have to be considered - like later seeing actual naval (and even marine!) aviators… and I feel like each one takes you a LITTLE further away from the original direct analogue. AND THAT'S GREAT! Wing Commander shouldn't just be American in space. (In fact as I look through the wikipedia for reference I see real rank systems have changed time and time again just in recent history… but I digress!) You can find the full sheet here. I've included columns showing the modern United States Navy and Air Force ranks from which the original systems were derived. You can unhide them at the top! I'm considering adding the US Army and the one thing that's stopping me is that I'm having trouble figuring out how their cadet ranks work out! (And maybe the RAF would be a good addition here? I'll circle back next post.)

ADDITIONS

• Marine ranks! Yellow ranks are ones that have not been identified in the WC canon. The names are taken from the real systems and can be contradicted in the future safely if needed. But it helps you see the structure of the thing, I think! Obviously we see far fewer enlisted ranks and ranks from services like the marines because of the usual perspective the stories are told from… so creating the marine column piecemeal from a bunch of sources was pretty fun!
• The movie establishes the rank of "Spaceman 2nd Class" among the Tiger Claw's crew. There was originally a more extended series of 'lower decks' cuts where we would follow missile loaders/engineers/etc. in the crew. You can see clips of these in the battles in the final film but there's a lot less than what was shot/imagined. The script introduces one of these characters thusly: "Spaceman RODRIGUEZ, 2nd class, a young Latino crosses himself." The novel makes that rank canon and unfortunately it isn't on the chart! The TCSN's O-1 rank was just "Spaceman" and per the logic used everywhere else Spaceman 2nd Class (as it is written in the novel) would be lower. So I've added that as an additional O-1 rank junior to the others. I'm not TOTALLY sold on this, though, since Rodriguez' emblem in the movie has three stripes which doesn't feel right for the lowest rank. Of course, perhaps there's an even lower Spaceman 4th class (one stripe) and 3rd class (two stripe) which would frankly explain everything perfectly. And it would help address the fact that the TCSN ranks are totally missing senior NCOs!
• The movie also refers to Blair and Maniac as "Lieutenant Junior Grade" (and confusingly 1st Lieutenant). There was no Lieutenant JG in the current setup and I opted to put it in the Navy schema to match the other movie ranks that are in the Navy (Lt. Commander Devereaux, etc.). And what do you know, that makes it the same as a TCSF First Lieutenant AND it reduces over to 2nd Lieutenant correctly (ie, the same as Angel, Hunter, etc.) when you convert the movie ranks to the game versions.
• WARRANT OFFICERS. The Wing Commander IV novel establishes that warrant officers exist in the TCSF so I've carried over the modern systems. We know very, very little beyond a single reference to Blair thinking that Seether might be a warrant officer. (Spoiler: he wasn't. Actually this is one of those writing-the-book-without-the-visuals things because if you actually play WC4 and look at Seether's uniform his rank is right there..)
• Officer Cadet ranks! This is super fun because we see cadet ranks at the TCSF flight school and we see an extensive explanation of naval academy's midshipmen in the Wing Commander I & II guide which matches right up with Annapolis (something Harrison researched specifically). The only confusing part is, of course, that Blair and Maniac explicitly went to the Space Naval Academy where they were midshipmen and not to some equivalent of the Air Force Academy… so again it seems like the service you end up in isn't as uniform as real life.
• Added "Hyilghar" as a Kilrathi O-1. From False Colors, describing Murragh who was on his first space assignment: "He was only a Hyilghar—the word translated very approximately as a lieutenant, but with a modifier that implied staff rather than combat duties and some sort of special aristocratic social status Graham didn't entirely understand—but despite his youth and modest rank he handled Kilrathi combat veterans three times his age with a natural aplomb that Graham still found himself envying after all these months."; I suspect the 'complete' Kilrathi rank chart would have many such variants for every rank.

OTHER NOTES

• Other services exist! In some cases, they use the same rank systems as the Confederation (the UBW Navy, InSys, etc.) and in others we just don't have reference to more than one or two ranks (the CIS from Privateer 2, the Confederation army, various pirate organizations, etc.)
• The double O-4 in Victory Streak used to bug me until I referenced the actual DoD rank charts which have plenty of double or triple ranks per grade per service sometimes. So I've continued that here with abandon to explain new ranks!
• Before anyone corrects it, Victory Streak does flip "Lieutenant General" and "Major General". This makes military historians cringe but WC has been pretty consistent with this since… it's still listed that way in Prophecy's design documents, for example!

Wing Commander III

• Rollins is only ever referred to as "Lieutenant" so his specific rank is unknown. I've marked him as a 2nd Lieutenant because it matches the WC3 TCSF 2nd Lt. insignia but that can be easily changed.
• Paladin is credited as "Major Taggart" but he does not wear the same insignia as Maniac. He has a gold version of Tolwyn's Admiral insignia and is obviously supposed to outrank you. He is specified to be a Brigadier General in the novel.
• Ralgha is said to be a Lieutenant Colonel in the novel. I don't believe this is ever established in the game but his rank insignia is (always?) flipped from Blair.
• Lieutenant is a bit confusing and has at least one Return of the Jedi-style error. Cobra, Flint, Vagabond and Vaquero are all called Lieutenants but never anything more specific (ie, 1st or 2nd Lieutenant). Flint, Vagabond and Vaquero all have the same insignia but Cobra has the same one as Flash and Maniac (who are both Majors). I've made the known insignia 2nd Lieutenant but it could easily be changed.
• I am listing Tolwyn as a Rear Admiral because that's his rank at the start of False Colors (and in the WC4 novel). I acknowledge that the production probably intended for him to be a full admiral here (or even a 'Sky Marshal' per the BTS notes).
• No live action characters are TCSF Captains. Presumably because the distinction would be too confusing!

Wing Commander IV

• The insignias I have assigned to TCN Lieutenant Commander and TCSF 1st Lieutenant are only visible on extras; they could be moved.
• Dekker has a very unusual double insignia (precursor to Blair's Commodore one in Wing Commander Prophecy?) seemingly made up of a Colonel above a 1st Lieutenant insignia. It's very tough to pick out but it does appear in multiple cutscenes.
• Flag ranks all seem to use the same (new) insignia. I'm considering Tolwyn to be a Rear Admiral (per the novel) and then a Space Marshal at the end, plus Wilford as a Vice Admiral.

Wing Commander Prophecy

• TCSF Lieutenant Colonel is only seen on extras (Bob-O-Matte!) and could easily be changed.
• Dekker's Colonel insignia (identical to the CAG) is visible only in the lost 'tiger in your tank' scene. But since it was published, it's canon!
• There's a major Major/Colonel problem that's likely a confluence of multiple factors. Maniac (Major), Spyder (Major) and Hawk (Colonel) all wear the same insignia which is mirrored from the Major rank from Wing Commander IV. The BTS material suggests Maniac was intended to have the same WC4 rank and that the others were intended for Colonels (with Spyder listed as such). My thought is that Maniac's is just worn backwards (it's visible only in the scene where he takes off his jacket) and that Spyder was only made a retcon in material published after the shoot. I think the 'right' thing is probably that Maniac should have his WC4 insignia, Spyder should have Maniac's insignia and Hawk is a Lieutenant Colonel rather than a Colonel (with Bob-O-Matte's insignia actually being Colonel). Or maybe Maniac was promoted to Colonel when he took over the Black Widows…

Wing Leader Gets Fabulous Graffiti Pirate Talons

This weekend I spent some time making a set of Pirate fighters - based on the F-38 Talon, these are supposed to be Wingleader-styled versions.

The custom loadouts for these are:
Type A: Photon Blaster, Meson Cannon (scavenged Kilrathi weapons)
Type B: Laser, Meson Cannon
Type C: 2x Laser
Type D: Mass Driver
Type E: Meson Cannon, Neutron Cannon
Type F (Boss/Ace): 2x Laser, Mass Driver

I'd love any feedback on these.

Gog Summer Sale Back With New Wing Commander Savings

Wing Commander Arena Discounted to Just 99 Cents in Final Month!

Bandcamp Supports Musical Outreach with Wing Commander Purchase

New Heavy Fighter Sketch Ready to Smash Some Kilrathi

I tried to stay close to the previous Longbow design esthetics wise and I think it turned out all right.

Always liked this fighter, albeit not so nimble it had a powerful punch and a rear turret against those Kilrathi that outmaneuvered me. This and the Arrow were for me the favorite craft you could fly in Wing Commander 3.

Seeing that someone was, again, so kind to provide me with a core membership I guess a new poll is in order as well. Need to think what should be made but will post that one as soon as possible.

Love Your Dad

Early Menu Mock-up Uncovered in Armada Code

Found this in the guts of Wing Commander Armada today! Looks like an early game select menu mock-up. The ship art is from Academy, WC2 and Privateer! That’s a Privateer Gothri.

Mike Winterbauer Shares His Famous Title Graphics

Some of the cool hand painted game box titles I did in the early 1990s! #illustration #popculture #movieart #boxart Ben “LOAF” Lesnick Wonderful! I did not know that you had done the titles for The Secret Missions. Mike Winterbauer Yes I did, I was disappointed I did not get to paint the box cover.

Getting Carried Away With 3D Printing

Have some carrier love for you today along with some same scale comparisons.

Wing Leader Gets Strakha and New Features

So now that the Strakha is done, I needed to work on the Cloaking effect. Solution? Cloaking Devices for everyone! Wheee! Eventually, the drive flares will be hidden as well. I also re-figured out how to capture Wingleader properly in 60fps, so I hope you enjoy that. :D

Party Invite Kept Pristine for Almost 30 Years

Shared from the ex-Origin Facebook: an invitation to the 1994 Wing Commander III launch party! I do not know who the artist is. It seems to be signed Amy—perhaps Amy Adams (Crusader series, Wing Commander Prophecy, art lead for an attempt at Privateer Online)?

Elusive DOS/V Secret Missions Added to the Collection

Special delivery: it’s a rare Wing Commander port I didn’t have in my collection! Meet the 1993 ASCII release of The Secret Missions 1 & 2 for DOS/V.

WC4 Remastered Jumps Into Hellespont With New Cockpits & Music

Getting the new cockpit in wasn’t smooth sailing, though. The Hellcat cockpit was held together by a number of hacks from our first trailer. Now, everything is data-driven and reusable, with no hardcoding in sight, making future cockpits much easier to implement.

Each ship can now have its own custom HUD layout, necessitated by the different cockpit designs. Like in Wing Commander III, the Longbow has a wheel rather than a stick. Defiance Industries even hopes we’ll have a permanently active turret camera. While I want to make him happy, we have higher priority work first.

The improvements didn’t stop with the cockpit model. With multiple types of missiles, we needed to implement all the variants and adhere to the game data.

We wanted to take a moment to show off some more of FilmCompos3r's amazing work on the project. He's been busy writing new, original, event-specific music for the game. These fantastic new musical themes are composed for specific mission events and serve to heighten the tension and immersion when playing.

It's worth noting that the music has been intentionally elevated over the vocals and SFX in the capture, since that's what we want to show in this video.

Mac Strikes with Swords of the Confederation

Well, I got that out of my system. Full-on animation is totally doable, but time-consuming af. Which is why I dont do it often. But I like it nonetheless.

Freedom Flight Comic Returns for Chapter 02

Scimitar Soars in Wing Leader Demo

I built myself a Scimitar-class medium fighter for Wing Leader! I'm pretty happy with how it turned out so far! I'm building it into the game demo now - pretty much just have to get the numbers right to make it really feel like the Centaurian Mud-Pig. It's been updated in the running demo!

Crewed Starliner Test Flight Reaches Orbit

Watch the Midway's Plasma Weapon Fire... Twice!

Your Regular Reminder That Prophecy Advance Rocks

It's definitely Wing Commander, complete with all its strength and flaws. The difference here is that instead of FMVs, you get text. A lot of text. And you don't have the option of a flight stick. That might be a dealbreaker for some.

Go on a Super Wing Commander Adventure

• WC1
• WC2
• WC3

Retro Reviewers Consider Award-Worthy Highlights of WC2