Sci-Fi Teenage Daydream Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

In the lead-up to the Wing Commander movie, Starlog magazine covered the film extensively. After Starlog shut down in 2009, the powers that be offered scans of the entire run of their flagship magazine. This included a Wing Commander cover story and three feature articles which we reported at the time. What they did not include in their archival efforts, however, were two spinoffs that covered Wing Commander: a cover story in Sci-Fi Teen (#5, March 1999) and their dedicated Wing Commander Movie Official Magazine. Today we're adding the former to the collection! Sci-Fi Teen was a short-lived spinoff of Starlog aimed at a younger audience that was starting to take an interest in increasingly popular science fiction media like X-Files and Star Trek Voyager. Here's the Wing Commander material:

We have also scanned the individual pages of the centerfold 'pin-up' poster. Perfect for your locker!

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Save Archive: Wing Commander Armada Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

More reference saves for the collection! We've played through both Armada campaigns and saved a game at the start of each sector. Want to explore unfamiliar regions of the Wing Commander universe or maybe see the ending cutscenes without playing a full evening of Armada? Here's your ticket! Drop these in your Armada folder (but be sure to make a backup copy of your saves first as these will replace them). Because Armada only has eight save 'slots' per game mode, we've divided this archive into three sets. Pick the one you want and go save the galaxy!

Stay tuned for additional packages! Privateer and Privateer 2 are coming soon. Previous releases:

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Save Archive: Wing Commander III Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

The promised Wing Commander III saved game reference pack is here! As with our previous releases we've tried to include a saved game after each mission with multiple variants wherever alternate cutscenes are available. It's a great excuse to explode some of the game that you may never have seen before... or a nice quick way to track down a screenshot in a hurry! If you are playing the GOG version, drop these in the "cloud_saves/WC3" folder (but be sure to make a backup copy of your saves first as these will replace them).

One that we know is missing is a version of Hyperion 2 where cutscene N0BARFHS plays with the 'low morale' version. The scene requires that Flash be alive to discuss the Kilrah mission and theoretically has a 'bad' version where he isn't hopeful. As far as we can tell there's no way to have Flash's morale actually be low at this point in the game! Let us know if you've encountered this one and we'll keep experimenting.

Stay tuned for additional packages; we're working on Privateer, Privateer 2 and Armada right now! Previous releases:

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Wing Commander II SNES Box Art Simulated Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Yesterday's shocking Wing Commander II SNES painting news wasn't just of interest to the Wing Commander community. Hardcore fans of Nintendo history were also all over the reveal! John Rairdin of Nintendo World Report even went right to work creating an image that simulates what the game's box likely would've looked like:

This is a case where the artist is the bigger expert to begin with but it looks pretty accurate to us! The real game probably would've had a different tagline but since we have no idea what it would've been reusing the original is a smart choice. Nintendo World Report also published an article on the find as did Go Nintendo. It's great to see coverage from the serious Nintendo community; when the game is someday located, I suspect they will be prime movers! For those unfamiliar with SNES branding and who would like a point of comparison, here are box scans for FCI's other Origin ports from SNES Central:

We're also thinking about the artwork itself! One question I always ask myself about paintings like this is: what material was the artist provided as reference. Michael Winterbauer's Wing Commander SNES painting is based on the PC game's box art while Greg Winters' Secret Missions piece famously referenced the Super Famicom manual's ship artwork (hence the green Salthi). This one is a little harder to determine: the Scimitar and the Star Post are extremely on model while the Kilrathi capital ship and the Dralthi are not. But what reference available for an artist in 1994 would've had artwork of the Star Post and the Dralthi? Our Discord's own DeerGazer came up with a pretty good answer: Mike Harrison's Secrets of the Wing Commander Universe, which features artwork that matches the Scimitar and the base very closely but only has a single side view of the Fralthi. Again, seems pretty likely to us!

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BREAKING NEWS: Lost Box Art Surfaces Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Heritage Auctions has posted a preview of a November video game art auction and their slate includes a stunning, almost-never-seen-before piece of Wing Commander art:

Here's how they describe it:

Steve Lang

Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger Unpublished Video Game Original Box Art (Electronic Arts 1994).

Although the publisher ultimately selected a different image for the cover of Wing Commander III, this breathtaking painting offers a rare glimpse into an alternate vision for the game's box art. It depicts a colorful, action-packed outer space battle scene, showcasing the grandeur of the Wing Commander universe. Rendered in acrylics on Crescent all-media board measuring 20" x 17," it is signed and dated by the artist along the bottom border. Debuting on home computers in 1994 and ported to the 3DO in 1995 and the PlayStation in 1996, Wing Commander III is a landmark title, notable for its full-motion video cutscenes starring actors like Mark Hamill and Malcolm McDowell, and its groundbreaking blend of space combat and cinematic storytelling. This unique piece of art is a stunning tribute to the franchise's legacy.

That description, however, is wrong: this painting is the cover art commissioned for FCI's unreleased Wing Commander II port for the Super Nintendo! Eagle-eyed wingnuts will notice that the piece is dated weeks after Wing Commander III shipped, making it unlikely that this was in competition with Sam Yeates' Wing Commander III painting (additionally, all of the vehicles are from Wing Commander I and the faces do not match the live action characters at all). We've also seen (much lower resolution) clippings from this composition used as a header for Game Pro's review of the game:

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Really Digging These RetroAchievements Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

I started emulating Wing Commander SNES with RetroAchievements and am having a great time! I picked up a Bluetooth SNES controller and having the intended form factor really improves the experience. They’ve got cheevos for the SNES, PlayStation and Sega CD ports all set up! I’m going to try and earn them all. Onward to Gimle! Weird note for posterity: no Silver Star for McAuliffe 3 despite scoring every kill and logging every victory point. Checked some let’s plays and it was the same for all. Something changed or broken in the port?
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Be Safe, Floridians! Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Sending good thoughts to folks in Central Florida. The region has a little history with Wing Commander: novelist Peter Telep is a professor at UCF. First he highlighted Florida in the movie novelization... though the actual scene being described is maybe not so detailed! In the followup novel, Pilgrim Stars, he turned his university into a Pilgrim concentration camp. In that vein I tried to honor Mr. Telep by establishing in Star Soldier that the crazy liberal professor from Fleet Action also taught there (and he’s an awful conservative now, as happens to old men.)
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A Hardcore Look back at Wing Commander 3 Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Earlier this week I neglected to mention that there was a huge accompanying article for the WC3 livestream. Maru Malandra has penned a thorough overview of the game in anticipation of its upcoming 30th anniversary. The article sets the stage for the rapidly evolving state of technology in the mid '90s, introduces the epic shift to interactive movies and talks about the game's stunning 3D engine. It's also another chapter in a whole series of Wing Commander retrospectives that were initially posted back in 2019. Check them all out for the full rundown!
The leap from Wing Commander II to III feels enormous, even with the ‘missing link’ that is Strike Commander. It almost feels ludicrous that we went from mute talking heads and short pre-mission cutscenes to full-motion video and a complex storyline where choices outside the cockpit can affect both story events and relationships with other characters. On release, the game felt like an incredible jump in gaming technology. Origin and EA pulled out all the stops with the box contents too, indicating their confidence that this was as momentous a game as the original Wing Commander: Ship blueprints, a manual themed as an in-flight magazine, and an enormous poster were all included. While Wing Commander III is often discussed in terms of its FMVs, it is still a space combat simulator first and foremost, and in this aspect it does not disappoint.

Armada Ad Leads to a Closer Look at Armada Promo Shots Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

That Armada ad earlier sent me down a rabbit hole. I noticed two screens were likely bullshots. In the first, look at the more complex fighter icons, the DEPLOY button, the labeling in the map, the border around enemy space and how everything is named NGC-2877-R (a real lenticular galaxy!). In the second, which only appears on the sales sheet so we only have in lower resolution, the base graphics are missing, the ship order is changed and most interestingly the planet and the system no longer share the same name (hard to read but it looks like 'Planet 75' or similar)! Looking for high resolution scans led me to a surprise reveal: the 3.5" and CD-ROM boxes have two screenshots that switch despite shipping together! It looks like for the CD they replaced two early shots, including the map, with ones from ones much closer to the release build. Next I compared those two some other releases and was surprised to find even more screenshots in the European and Japanese versions! I decided to make a spreadsheet comparing them all. The biggest surprise was this one which is used in the European release. Most of the other changes are upgrading from earlier builds to the finished version... but this one is crazy because that is NOT an Armada cockpit frame! In fact, it doesn't match any known Wing Commander cockpit art. I've talked about these three before but I should mention them too - these are all from an earlier build with significant differences: the control surfaces on the Shok'lar cockpit, especially, but also the use of the Wing Commander III Dralthi model instead of the Armada one!
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