News Collection: On This Day in WC News

2024.186 (July 4, 2024)

Happy Fourth

The CIC staff would like to wish everyone a safe Fourth of July and a home that's still standing in the morning. Hopefully our readers in the US enjoy the fireworks and our readers outside the US enjoy the figurative fireworks from afar.

2023.185 (July 4, 2023)

This Post Is Blowing Up

My 4th of July contribution is a quick resource with the extracted fireworks graphics from Wing Commander I. The first three are VGA, and EGA is below. You can also find the sprite sheets here. Stay safe out there!

2022.185 (July 4, 2022)

Weekend Sale Discounts WC Games 75%

You might think GOG's Summer Sale is still in full swing, but it actually came to a close on June 27. Don't despair, however, as a new Weekend Sale is discounting Wing Commander, Ultima and more! The GOG Twitter account also put out a little trivia message that included references to Ultima 8 and Wing Commander Academy. There's only about 24 hours yet to go as of this writing, so act fast!

2021.185 (July 4, 2021)

Happy Fourth!

Last year our headline update ended with a question mark rather than our typical exclamation point. It's been a hard year, but we are in a decidedly different place this summer compared to last. Some of us have had to put off funerals for the people we've lost, while at the same time many are welcoming new additions to the family. The omnipresent dread has made way for cautious optimism.

2020.186 (July 4, 2020)

Happy Fourth?

We usually take a break from Wing Commander updates on the Fourth of July and just wish our visitors from the US a happy and safe Independence Day. For obvious reasons, 2020 is markedly different. Unlike every other year, this time I hope you don't go out and watch a fireworks show. Just stay home with a close circle of family and friends.

2019.185 (July 4, 2019)

Happy Fourth!

We'd like to wish our visitors from the US a happy and safe Fourth of July this year. If you're partaking in fireworks, keep water or a fire extinguisher handy and protect your eyes and hands. I, for one, will be indoors celebrating our army's ability to take over the airports 243 years ago.After last week's cancellation due to technical limitations, LOAF and Dundradal had a full slate of material queued up to share in this week's episode of All Wings Considered.

2018.185 (July 4, 2018)

Happy Fourth!

Today a larger than normal percentage of Wing Commander fans are outside lighting off explosives and various rocketry. If you're among them, please stay safe! Might want to keep a Super Soaker handy... or leave the pyrotechnics to the professionals.

2017.185 (July 4, 2017)

Joystick Previews & Guides

Following up our earlier update, here is a great selection of Wing Commander articles from French magazine Joystick, including interviews with developers and actors, game previews and even some impressive game guides!

2016.186 (July 4, 2016)

Happy Fourth of July!

Today is Independence Day in the US, which means we get to pull out this nifty Origin graphic again! I'm sure far too many people are making jokes about "the original Brexit" today, so we'll spare you. Hopefully many of you out there are enjoying some time off, and to our visitors around the world: only four more get-ups until the weekend!

2015.185 (July 4, 2015)

Happy Fourth of July!

239 years ago, the 13 American colonies declared themselves a nation, independent of the British Empire. Many of our visitors and staff are out enjoying a weekend filled with family gatherings, barbecues, carnivals and fireworks. To our international visitors, have a great weekend wherever you are!

2014.185 (July 4, 2014)

Happy Fourth of July!

Today is the 238th anniversary of the founding of the American Republic. Many of our visitors and staff are out enjoying a long weekend filled with family gatherings, barbecues, parades and fireworks displays. To our international visitors, have a great weekend wherever you are!

Celebrate the Fourth in #Wingnut

Wing Commander fans from around the world have a reason to celebrate this 4th of July. Tonight's live Austin Symphony performance of Wing Commander music should be a blast. If you're listening online, feel free to pop over to #Wingnut to enjoy it with us. You can use the web interface to log in if you're new to IRC chat.

2013.185 (July 4, 2013)

Happy Fourth!

Happy 4th of July to our Wingnut visitors from the United States. Most of us are taking it easy today, but we hope all of you out there worldwide are happy and safe. Today is also Origin founder Richard Garriott's birthday. Happy 52nd to you sir!

2012.186 (July 4, 2012)

Happy Fourth of July!

Happy Independence Day to our American wingnuts! Today is the 236th anniversary of the founding of the American Republic. Enjoy a safe holiday and a night filled with fireworks! To our non-American visitors, enjoy a great day wherever you are!

2011.185 (July 4, 2011)

Wing Commander Thrustmaster Profiles Posted

Dundradal found some useful files over at Nightsolo's website. He's built complete profiles for the Thrustmaster FLCS joystick for each of the main Wing Commander games and Privateer 2. If you've got one of these sticks sitting around and aren't playing because you don't want to map everything, here's your shortcut! Grab each of the profiles here and hit the flight deck.

Happy Fourth!

Happy 4th of July to Wingnuts in the United States today, and to everyone else: happy Monday! Here's your fireworks!

2010.185 (July 4, 2010)

Happy Fourth!

Happy Independence Day to our American visitors out there today! Visitors from the US make up the majority of Wingnuts, but we've upgraded our Origin FX fireworks for all. To Wing Commander fans everywhere, have a great day!

Happy Birthday Richard Garriott!

We'd also like to wish Origin founder Richard Garriott a happy birthday! He turns 49 today. To celebrate, Mr. Garriott is flying Zero-G Parabolas over Washington DC and will watch the Smithsonian's fireworks tonight.

2009.185 (July 4, 2009)

Happy Fourth!

Happy Independence Day to our visitors from the US! If you don't happen to be an American, you can still join the fun with an awesome Super Soaker fight or explosive game of Boom Boom Rocket. Have a good weekend everyone!

Making the Game: Task Template

A short boring update today -- just the simple 'task template' that a team member would have filled out to report on their current objective. The strangest thing, though, is that these updates always get the most commentary at the forums...These updates are thanks to John "Captain Johnny" Guentzel, who provided several CD image archives of material used by the Wing Commander Prophecy development team!

2008.186 (July 4, 2008)

Happy Fourth of July!

The Combat Information Center would like to wish a happy Independence Day to all of our American readers. Why not sit down with a copy of Wing Commander IV and experience a conflict modeled after the one that gave rise to this holiday some 232 years ago? Whatever you do, have fun and stay safe.

Making the Game - Part 60

Today you learn exactly how difficult a job mission designer is - with this large document containing forty-six pages of mission layout diagrams. Each has symbols representing what appears at each nav point alongside objectives, conditions and other mission criteria. Just look at how complex even some of the early missions are (some of them are quite beautiful, too.

2007.185 (July 4, 2007)

Look For A Way Out

Kevin Caccamo is working on a Wing Commander themed cubic panorama. Ken Silverman gives this description of a cubic panorama:Imagine taking a snapshot of everything around you and then projecting the mosaic of images onto the inside faces of a cube. Then put yourself in the center of this cube. You could look around in any direction, and as long as you didn't change your position, you would never know that you were inside a cube.

Happy 4th!

Happy 4th of July to our American visitors out there today. Independence Day is a time for fireworks in the US, but anyone with an Xbox can get in on the action with EA's Boom Boom Rocket. Send a few friend requests to fellow Wingnuts and compare your scores on the leaderboards. BBR is a single player game, but all Arcade games have online leaderboards for offline modes.

2006.185 (July 4, 2006)

Ranger's Glory Getting a HUD

Iceblade is working on a HUD design for the Border Worlds faction in Ranger's Glory. The game is built on the Flight Commander engine; it looks and feels like Prophecy, but modding is made comparatively easy. You can also look at some HUD designs for Flight Commander that Venom submitted a couple of weeks ago.

Happy Independence Day!

Today our American readers celebrate 230 years of independence. Shuttle Discovery blasted off earlier today, carrying the first European to live on the International Space Station. Happy Fourth, everyone!

2005.185 (July 4, 2005)

Death From Above

The Reckoning veteran Bob McDob got us some screenshots of a fun little mod for another classic game. Now fans of cult-classic Total Annihilation can enjoy Wing Commander IV's Vindicator-class medium fighter. Those who recall the Vindicator's awesome anti-tank performance in the Circe System will realize that they're the perfect addition to a real time strategy game! Here they are in action:You can download the file here or here.

Happy Fourth!

A sky full of fireworks is a good way to celebrate the end of the original Wing Commander... and it's also a great way for Americans to celebrate their country's birthday. Happy Fourth of July to all of our American readers -- have a great night!

2004.186 (July 4, 2004)

Happy Fourth of July

Happy Fourth of July to everyone around the world. If it's not Independence Day for you, at least grab some Super Soakers and have some fun. That's what I'll be doing.

Pencil Drawn WC Comic Sample Up For Comments

Theunis Dijkman has sent in a frame of a potential Wing Commander comic he is working on. He would appreciate some constructive criticism and feedback to help him potentially smooth out the piece and release some more. Click on the "discuss" link below this update and tell him what you think.

2003.185 (July 4, 2003)

Secret Ops Main Package Back Up

Some people have been asking us to mirror the primary Secret Ops package because the EA FTP servers hosting the file appear to be offline. You can now get the file from our FTP here. It's 112 megs, so a download resuming utility is highly recommended. Sometimes it takes a few seconds longer than usual to connect to our FTP during peak times.

Don't Forget Your Trivia Answers

If you missed the update Monday, you have the weekend to answer the CIC's trivia questions. We're currently running a six week game that will end at the Birthday. This week we have several important quotes from the Wing Commander universe, and you get to figure out who said/wrote each. For the exact questions and our submission form, check out the Trivia Section here.

2002.185 (July 4, 2002)

Happy Independence Day!

It's not quite Confederation Day, but today Americans across the world celebrate 226 years of goodness. There'll be some nice fireworks tonight.

CIC Chat Zone Expands Horizon

Your favorite bulletin board is not just for discussing Wing Commander anymore! Our brand sparkly new Off-topic Zone lets you share anything you want with your fellow Wing Commander fans. Talk about your favorite movie or outdoor activity, what you did at band camp, or just complain about how miserable your life is! We're even letting you decide which users can co-moderate the place.

2001.185 (July 4, 2001)

Happy 4th of July

Happy America day, people. I'm gonna head down to DC for the fireworks tonight -- drop me a line if you're going to be there, and we'll get together and make bad Wing Commander 1 references.

Things That Aren't Scimitars

Pedro has set out to provide proof positive that Unknown Enemy is not The Scimitar Project... these screenshots are pretty darned cool(!) -- but they still have Scimitars in them...

Great Job, Brad!

Brad McKinstry head is full of Demons... really well rendered Demons! (Vega Strike, WCU and others will all benefit from his work!

Adding to the Addons

Mike12 has announced an addon for Wing Commander: Invasion... here's the quote!Ladiesman and I have been finishing up the Addon story to Invasion. It is a 24 mission campaign/ 6 missions per race( so there 4 races).

Vega Strike World Report

Here's the latest from Vega Strike -- which has really done an impressive job of becoming a serious game engine over the past several months...Somehow last time the README didn't get included. You can grab it here: README.If you would like to get up-to-the-minute information about vegastrike progress, you can look at the comments I put to the right of the source code.

Armada Sector of the Day: Sector 8

Here's part eight...

From: Harding Construction - Karatikus HQ

We need a volunteer to patrol the shipping rounte between CS:Reva (NAV 136) and SS:Tersa (Nav 147). There have been a lot of attacks on innocent ships recently, and these pests must be destroyed. We will pay 520CR per kill on this one.

2000.186 (July 4, 2000)

Happy Fourth!

Today the United States of America celebrates its Independence Day. This is also a good time to wish our Canadian visitors a belated happy Canada Day. And we hope everyone else will have a good day too.

Talk Sci-Fi With Peter Telep

Richard Bowden lets us know that Peter Telep, author of 3 Wing Commander novels, will be talking about writing science fiction novels. This will happen this Saturday (July 8), in the Oak Room on the third floor of the Orlando Public Library. You can find more information on Mr. Telep's official website.

1999.185 (July 4, 1999)

Another Reminder!

As always, keep mailing me if you want Wing Commander 4/Prophecy and Kilrathi Saga DVDs!

First DVD Report

Darkener reports that his Circuit City (in Atlanta) has already put out their copies of Wing Commander DVD. He grabbed a copy (at $30) and reports it has the trailer (a different trailer) and two television ads on it. It does not, however, contain the expected production notes or filmmaker bios. WC should hit the shelves everywhere on Tuesday.

Save a Dollar

Kris reports that The Movie Store has Wing Commander DVD for $23.99... yay.

An Exciting Contest!

Richard Bowden (Peter Telep's webmaster) informs be that there will be a contest to design a banner for Mr. Telep's Wing Commander site. The contest will run from July 15th to September 15th, and the prize is an autographed copy of Pilgrim Stars. Keen!

Aftermath

Equalizer asks that I post this -- about a project to create a Privateer addon... sounds cool, let them know if you can help!Greetings Everyone. Well we've all waited a long time and there has been no Privateer 3.

Copying a Copy

Several people (thanks!) have reported that the 'gold plate' VCD is simply a copy of a normal VCD burned with your average CD burner. If that's what you want, head over to VCD Paradise.

Happy Fourth!

To all you Americans out there, here's to hoping you have a good 4th of July. I'm off to DC to watch the fireworks...

Who Says WC Is Dead?

Story time...once upon a time (Read: 5 minutes ago) I was searching with the domain search engine.. and what I found is the first real evidence that work on an online WC game has been started! All but 3 days ago, Origin registered two domain names : privateeronline.