Movie Ephemera Down Under

Here's an interesting eBay find: an Australian press sheet for the Wing Commander movie. This document would've been set to film distributors that were interested in running the movie in their theaters. It contains a unique synopsis (with the correct year!) data about the film and information about what promotional support will be available.

TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX
FILM DISTRIBUTORS PTY LTD
PRESS SHEET

SYNOPSIS
Earth year 2654. The Confederation is engaged in a brutal war with the vicious, bloodthirsty alien race, the Kilrathl. The Kilrathi have captured a computer navigation device, which they plan on using to jump behind enemy lines and attack Earth. Only three brazen young space pilots and their elite fighter squadron stand in the way of their planet's destruction.

Christopher Blair is fresh from the Academy, but his inexperience belies his incredible navigational skills. He has a genetically driven gift - an inate feel for the stars and for space-time itself. Blair's buddy, Todd 'Maniac' Marshall, is a brash, irresponsible fighter jock with a slightly crazed gleam in his eye. He likes to do things his way, and if he breaks a few rules, so much the better.

Their wing commander is the strong-willed and beautiful Jeanette 'Anger Deveraux, the leader of the fighter squadron. Deveraux's laser-like focus and leadership skills mask her growing attraction for Chris. With nothing but their own rebellious ways in common, Deveraux, Blair and Maniac will come together to face a seemingly invincible enemy — with the future of mankind at stake.

FILM FACTS
Censorship: PG
PARENTAL GUIDANCE RECOMMENDED FOR PERSONS UNDER 15 YEARS
MEDIUM LEVEL VIOLENCE
MEDIUM LEVEL COARSE LANGUAGE.
SEXUAL REFERENCES
Time:100 minutes Process: Cinemascope, SR, SRD Spools: 6

ACCISSORIES
One Sheets, Daybills
Advertising ....As Shown.
Trailer

What's Missing from GOG?

For over a decade now, GOG has been the online home of classic Origin games. It has introduced countless new fans to series like Wing Commander, Ultima and Crusader. But... what's missing? Origin published dozens of games in its two decades of development and there are plenty of gems that simply aren't available today. So we've conducted a quick audit in the hopes of bringing some recognition to the titles that still can't be legally played today. We've attempted to Origin's output into three categories: the 1980s, 1990s and then an appendix of related titles that weren't developed by or published under the Origin label. The lists do not include re-releases or mission disks, assuming that any GOG release would be the most complete version of that particular title.

Publisher Era (1983-1990)

From 1983 to 1990, Origin was a workshop-style studio which partnered with independent creators to develop and published their games in exchange for a stake in their release. In that time they released 20 games ranging from Ultima III and Caverns of Callisto in 1983 to Bad Blood in 1990. Eight of these games have been published digitally on GOG, primarily from the Ultima series. Of the remaining games, two do not have MS-DOS ports (Caverns of Callisto and Ring Quest). The other 10 games would be easy to release from a technical standpoint but depending on the individual deals they may not be owned outright by Electronic Arts (this is the case with Space Rogue, which has been published on GOG independently). Two of them, AutoDuel and Omega, are adapted from pen and paper games developed by Steve Jackson Games which may make a digital rerelease more difficult. Two of these games, Moebius and Windwalker, represent a series. Ring Quest is a text based adventure game by Dallas Snell which was the sequel to a game called The Quest which was never republished by Origin. Knights of Legend is a standalone game which has notable connections to the Ultima games. 2400 A.D., Times of Lore, Omega, Tangled Tales and Bad Blood are standalone IPs; Times of Lore and Bad Blood might be particularly interesting because of their place in Chris Roberts' storied career.

• Caverns of Callisto (1983)
• Moebius: The Orb of Celestial Harmony (1985)
• Ring Quest (1986)
• AutoDuel (1986)
• Ogre (1986)
• 2400 A.D. (1988)
• Times of Lore (1988)
• Knights of Legend (1989)
• Omega (1989)
• Tangled Tales: The Misadventures of a Wizard's Apprentice (1989)
• Windwalker (1989)
• Bad Blood (1990)

Studio Era (1990-2004)

The second half of the Origin story is as a more familiar development studio that owned its own IPs (and later was owned and financed by published Electronic Arts). Wing Commander and Ultima VI were the titles that changed their police and everything after 1991 was published by EA rather than Origin directly. During this time, Origin released 40 games. 25 of these games are available through GOG. Of the remaining 15 titles, 5 do not have MS-DOS or Windows 9x ports (Ultima: Runes of Virtue, Origin FX, Ultima: Runes of Virtue II, Metal Morph and Super Wing Commander), one is an MMO (Ultima Online) and one was released free online (Transland). The final eight games include three in the Jane's series of military simulations, two titles developed by other studios (Shadowcaster and Abuse) and three truly essential in-house games whose lack of releease is baffling: Pacific Strike, CyberMage and Wings of Glory. Any of these would be easy wins for GOG and EA!

• Ultima: Runes of Virtue (1991)
• Origin FX (1992)
• Shadowcaster (1993)
• Ultima: Runes of Virtue II (1993)
• Pacific Strike (1994)
• Metal Morph (1994)
• Super Wing Commander (1994)
• CyberMage: Darklight Awakening (1995)
• Wings of Glory (1995)
• Abuse (1996)
• Jane's AH-64D Longbow (1996)
• Transland (1996)
• Ultima Online (1997)
• Jane's Combat Simulations: Longbow 2 (1997)
• Jane's F-15 (1998)

We've also collected a list of 'related' games like Wing Commander Arena and Lord of Ultima which you can find in this spreadsheet. These games are either connected narratively to Origin games (like Wing Commander Arena) or they are releases where Origin had something to do with the development (like the Jane's and Zero Pilot serieses). Of these 23 games, one is available on GOG (System Shock 2), though two of the non-Origin Jane's games are available via Steam.

Any Landing You Can Walk Away From

A NASA high-altitude research plane made a dramatic belly landing today at Ellington Airport in Houston, Texas today. Following a mechanical issue the plane was forced to land with its landing gear raised, showering the field with sparks and flame before it came to a stop. Luckily, the crew survived unscathed! Here's video of the incident:

But what does this have to do with Wing Commander? The plane in question is a Martin WB-57 Canberra which is a manufactured-under-license modification of a British Cold War bomber design: the English Electric Canberra. Behind the scenes fiends may already recognize that a B 2 model English Electric Canberra cockpit was used to build the Broadsword bomber set for the Wing Commander movie!

Even though the first Canberra flew over 75 years ago, several continue to serve in utility roles today as the type proved itself excellent for high altitude research and photo-recon work. Up until today, NASA operated three as part of their climate research efforts.

Wing Commander Movie Night: Air Force One

Last Friday was the birthday of movie club member and good friend Trelane so he was allowed to pick from the queue for next week's movie. And he picked… Air Force One (1997)! He explained the choice: "In an effort to make myself not feel 45, it will be one that reminds me of being a teenager." It's hard to argue, my memory of being a teenager certainly includes Air Force One being a perfect action movie. Will it hold up? And what does it have to do with Wing Commander? We'll find out! You can join us this Friday via Discord to watch along.

Air Force One is another case from where Chris Roberts sourced music to temp track the Wing Commander movie. This time the track in question is called Free Flight. It was used for the scene early in the film where Blair delivers Admiral Tolwyn's message to Sansky and Gerald. You can listen to it below!

... and that was a good choice since Air Force One also stars Jürgen Prochnow! Wing Commander fans know him as both Commander Gerald in Wing Commander and Xavier Shondi in Privateer 2... here he plays General Radek, the terrorist leader whose capture prompts the hijacking of Air Force One.

There's also a pretty big behind the scenes connection you might not know about. The prime VFX house for Air Force One was Boss Films, a studio with roots going back to Industrial Light and Magic in the 1970s. They were responsible for many of the CG and model shots in the movie, including the establishing shots of the plane itself! Their line producer was an artist named Chris Brown. Boss Films closed shortly after Air Force One was released and Brown's next project was Wing Commander where he served as both VFX supervisor and Second Unit Director. He brought with him a VFX team formed from his former colleagues at Boss Films, including artists Quentin Frost, Hector Dante Tantoco, Mark Lambert and Sarma Vanguri and producer Erik Strauss. Another Air Force One and Boss Films veteran, Cory Bedwell, worked on Wing Commander as a CG artist for Pacific Title/Mirage Studios.

Where can I find a copy of the movie for the watch party?

Air Force One is available to purchase on the standard streaming services. It is currently streaming in the United States on Sony Pictures Core, which no one has ever heard of. If you are not able to locate a copy please stop by the Discord and ping a CIC staff member before Friday's showing.

How do we watch the movie together?

It's pretty low tech! Simply join the Wing Commander CIC Discord on Friday and we will be chatting (in text) along with the film in the main channel. Everyone who wants to join in should bring their own copy and we will count down to play them together at 10 PM EST. Everyone is welcome and we encourage you to join in the conversation; sharing your thoughts helps make the experience better for everyone!

How can I help pick future movie club movies?

The movie club movies are voted on each week by the Wing Commander Discord. The poll is typically posted 24 hours before each week's screening and the next movie is announced at the end. The choices for the poll come from a master pool of Wing Commander-related movies. If you would like to suggest a film for inclusion in that pool you can post it to this thread.

Snow Day!

Much of the United States is facing a major snow storm today so we thought we'd recognize that by unboxing a Kilrathi cold weather survival kit! As seen in The Price of Victory, this package stored aboard your average Dralthi medium fighter contains survival equipment necessary for navigating an icy moon...

First up, these Kilrathi hooded jackets don't just look smart, they're essential for staying warm in a hostile environment. One size apparently fits all!

You've also got a handy laser pistol. Blair seems to prefer this to his own sidearm, as he ignores the one in his own human survival kit to brandish this. It's the same model seen throughout the series arming a variety of types of Kilrathi soldiers.

Finally, we've got a transciever that is capable of audio communication with nearby spacecraft allowing them to locate you for rescue.

Free Trader Flight

We've shown you some of Cybot's Wing Commander work before... and now they're back with an original take on Wing Commander II's Free Trader civilian freighter re-styled as it might appear in Wing Commander Privateer! You can download a copy of the model for yourself:

• Free Trader Mesh
• Hangar Mesh
• Textures

Cybot has also posted a collection of additional textures for cargo done in the Privateer style. There's some funny stuff here!

Reminder: #Wingnut Movie Night Tonight!

This is a reminder that we have another fun #Wingnut movie night planned on Discord this evening! The ongoing theme will be movies that are referenced by Wing Commander in some way. Tonight's film is Max Headroom: 20 Minutes into the Future (1985) and you can find details on why we're watching it in the announcement post here. The movie will start at 7 PM PST/10 PM EST but feel free to drop by and hang any time!

After Action Report: Heaven's Gate

We've made it through Heaven's Gate! Going into it, the run time was really all we could think about; 3.5 hours?! And of course the ancient claim that it was the worst movie ever made didn't help. But the truth is that it's a brilliant, beautiful movie that is more relevant today than it ever was. A government run by the rich deciding the poor are terrorists and must be eliminated so their land can be taken? Seems familiar! In the end the run time is nothing, it ebbs and flows in front of your eye and you do not lose interest because it's so beautifully done.

My biggest question going in: is there some reason the system/starbase in Wing Commander II is named Heaven's Gate? And after watching the movie carefully I think I have the answer. In the film, Heaven's Gate is the name of the skating rink in Casper. We first see it when the townspeople celebrate and Averill and Watson dance together. It's the emotional high point of the story and it represents the utopia that should've been possible, the world the townspeople created. But it's also ominous: you know already that this is the end and that that same place will soon serve as the centerpiece for this world's destruction. And that's exactly the same role the space station plays in the climax of Wing Commander II's second act. It's both the hope that Spirit's lost fiance has survived… and the knowledge that both are soon doomed.

We also couldn't help but see a thematic connection between Heaven's Gate director Michael Cimino's obsessive perfectionism and that of Chris Roberts. Both directors have a 'project first' view that ignores the limitations of investors, budgets, calendars and the like… and both have been heaped scorn for that and also been viewed as geniuses in the long run. We will watch The Deer Hunter in a future meeting… and now I'm genuinely looking forward to it!

Here are the two actors Heaven's Gate improbably shares with Privateer 2: The Darkening. Christopher Walken plays lead Kris Kristofferson's rival Nathan Champion and John Hurt his college buddy Billy Irvine. Both put in world class performances, adding to the surprise that 25 years later they would be appearing in CD-ROMs!

This is a reference we missed in the first post: Heaven's Gate is also one of the joke names for Privateer used by the game's artists when creating storyboards. The joke was that the company had been unable to settle on a name for the project (going through Free Trader and Trade Commander already) and so they would give it the names of famous entertainment industry debacles on various options screen storyboards. Here's Heaven's Gate:

Rock Out Wing Commander III Style

We recently mentioned that Wing Commander III's quotes file includes lists of media that inspired the team. One of these is a "team soundtrack" which lists off 38 different musical artists that were apparently enjoyed by the team while they were hard at work on the game:

TEAM SOUNDTRACK
Tori Amos ; Concrete Blonde; Nine Inch Niles ; Holzt ; Kodo Drummers ; Fabu ; Ryuichi Sakamoto; Nirvana; Machines of Loving Grace; Chick Corea; Poi Dog Pondering ; Vangelis; Sarah McLachlan; Seal; Carmina Burana; Melissa Ethridge; Arrested Development; Patty Larkin; Bunny Wailer; Dazed and Confused; Peter Gabriel; Flash Gordon; Cranberries ; Alice in Chains; John Williams; Siouxsie and the Banshees; Pat Benatar; Duran Duran; Bob Marley; Wagner; Miles Davis; Bill Evans; Indigo Girls; John Gorka; Orlando; Jimi Hendrix; STP; William Orbit

Armed with this background, I decided to try to put together a playlist that could let people feel like they were back at Origin making Wing Commander III! I picked one song from each group/artist that would've been available before the game shipped in December 1994. I prioritized tracks that charted and if none were available I went with the most played era-correct song on iTunes. We're still missing "Fabu" and "Orlando" which I couldn't match to anything commercially available at the time. Do you remember either of these? Let us know on the forums! You can access the Apple Music playlist here and if you aren't an Apple Music user, I've included the list as a spreadsheet.

It's Hip to be Square

Psst! Hey buddy, want to see a slightly different Claw Marks? The rumors are true: the version of Claw Marks included with the European version of Super Wing Commander for the 3DO has a very different form factor! That's because 3DO games game in 'tall' boxes in the United States but traditional jewel cases in Europe... necessitating a smaller, thicker manual!

The text itself seems to be identical... but all the little changes in layout can lead to the occasional surprise, like this unblocked image of the Super Wing Commander Confederation logo used as a spacing page in the European version:

You can read through both versions below:

• Super Wing Commander Claw Marks, USA
• Super Wing Commander Claw Marks, Europe