Thanks for celebrating our seventh anniversary with us! Take a look around, talk to other fans and enjoy being a Wing Commander fan.
The highly anticipated Standoff Episode 2 is now available! There are two download packages available. Players who don't yet have Episode 1 can download the combined 126 meg Standoff package here. The 67 meg Episode 2 addon can be downloaded here for people who already have Ep 1. Everyone also needs to have downloaded and installed Wing Commander Secret Ops. Questions and comments can go straight to the Standoff forums.
Have fun!
We have an exciting brand new fan project to announce today! Wing Commander Pioneer should be making lots of headlines in the coming months, and here is the first look. It's being created by a talented team of experienced Wing Commander fans. Howard Day, Brad McKinstry and Michael Ward are responsible for the art. Eric Blondin is the team's character artist and Joel VanEenwyk is working on programming.
It’s Privateer set in the WC1 timeframe. We’ve tried to use art references from the original WC when we created the look for the game. The game will be completely first-person (with a possibility of a few cutscenes here and there – launching, landing and the like). We’ve got the majority of the ships finished, and we need to still do environmental, base and object artwork (cargo and the like).
The Hunchback is your starter ship – it’s the WC Pioneer equivalent to a Tarsus. The Tarsus is also available to purchase, but it’s more of a high-range ship – equivalent to the demon from Priv. You can also take a look at the normal/spec/glow maps in action, and take a look around the Hunchback’s 360 real-time cockpit (shot 5 below).
Oh, and the reason none of those ships have guns/weapons is because all those objects are going to be interchangeable and individually destroyable. So you can blow the guns off a Jalthi. Nothing but little smoking stumps would remain.
We're making good on our promise to add a fun new feature to the Forums. The iBProArcade add-on for vBulletin Forums lets you play Flash games and transmit your score to the server. Compete against other Forum members for the High Score!
More games will be added soon. Since this is all experimental, please let us know if something goes wrong.
We have upgraded and expanded the CIC Background section with more in-depth introductions to more games and products in the Wing Commander series. This area is far from a comprehensive list of all the various Wing Commander items, but it should provide a great primer for people who need a basic history on the core products. Certain parts of the section will be upgraded with more screenshots, better scans and detailed information in the near future, but for now, check out the revamped section. Hopefully it inspires many of you to seek out new Wing Commander experiences with classic items.
Shades2585 brings us an updated and expanded version of the CIC Secret Ops Strategy Guide. He searched high and low for every bit of news and every press release that trickled out in 1998. The result is a big section on the history of Wing Commander Secret Ops. Gun charts, ship data and mission flowcharts and walkthroughs are all there and have been checked and rechecked. Hyperlinks connect you to the SO Fiction that we have online at the CIC. At 159 pages, this is the most thorough version of the Secret Ops game guide yet. Shades has even thought of front and back covers, so you can take it right to the printers.
Download CIC Secret Ops Strategy Guide Version 2.0 (8.5 Megs)
There's a lot of exciting Fan Project activity going on these days and our projects section was showing its age. Information on Unknown Enemy, Standoff, Flight Commander and WC Saga has been updated. Abandoned projects have been shelved and we've added working download links for partially finished games. Most important of all, new projects that have sprung up these last few months have been added. A quick rundown:
Wing Commander: Tactics for Nexus -- More information
Ranger's Glory for Flight Commander -- More information
Red Point for Secret Ops -- More information
Wing Commander 2634 for Nexus -- More information
Wing Commander Pioneer -- More information
Wing Commander: Battle Stations -- More information
Privateer Remake: Gemini Gold -- More information
Wing Commander: Universe -- More information
Never one to miss a party, Raptor has sent in his own contribution to the celebrations on behalf of the HTL team. Don't forget to read on past the chapter description for the latest news on the new HTL site.
Hey all, Raptor here
Happy Birthday and many happy returns to the Wing Commander CIC, from me and
all the HTL crew. You guys have done more than anyone to keep the Wing
Commander community on the Internet thriving over these past few years.
We're proud to have been associated with you in that time, and look forward
to continuing the partnership in the future.
Our CIC birthday chapter is the first of a four-parter called "Check And
Mate", written by myself and Joe "Wraith" Guida. This story signals the
beginning of the end of the Nifelhiem battle, as the Yorktown and the
Valeria begin closing in on the last of the Nephilim carriers. The sharp
eyed among you will notice a gap between the last Valeria story (which had
us preparing a strike against a Nephilim group codenamed Epsilon) and this
one, which starts just after that strike. The chapter that slots in there is
still being written, and will be published after "Check And Mate". Please
send any and all comments to me at or to Joe at
captpowell1@earthlink.net.
The story is at: http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~theraj/archives/ch204.htm
The second half of our birthday present is a promisary note. As you know,
we've been working hard on Holding The Line Dot Net, and were hoping to
debut it for the CIC's birthday. Unfortunately, the site isn't quite ready
yet. When it is ready though, it will be unveiled to the public here at the
CIC, even before it is released on the Aces Mailing List.
Best, Raptor
Raptor has prepared another two entries for the Encyclopedia. Not just any two; End Run's Kevin "Lone Wolf" Tolwyn and Jason "Bear" Bondarevsky! The On This Day feature has been restored and improved. You can again find out what happened around this day in Wing Commander history. We'd also like to thank all the members of the community who over the years have helped out with this undertaking. Wedge009, Shades, TC and Raptor together with the CIC staff have written up what is now almost 1,600 records.
CasperXJ has sent another delicious cake for the CIC Seventh Birthday Party! This one looks pretty good.
The CIC Mail Bag has added another exciting update. You can check out today's new chapter here. In this issue the CIC staff takes a look at a case of mistaken identity, fans upset with technical issues, embarrassing real life encounters that have come back to haunt us and more!
A couple of years ago we had a regular WCPolaroid news feature. Pictures were taken during the filming of Prophecy to make sure that everything looked the same between shots. We've now put all of them on one page for easier browsing. Enjoy Article 51!
It's been a few years since we did a poll about when CIC visitors began frequenting the site. There were quite a few new additions to the community back then, and we continue to grow. Some of our readers might even remember when ace, LOAF and I worked on the Wing Commander Home Sector for a couple years before the CIC opened.
It looks like most people thought that having a new game announcement would get them to come to a Wing Commander fan gathering. The next biggest factor was money. Hopefully the financial situation of our fellow fans will improve in the next few years and more people can get together at our annual meeting at DragonCon. A new game would be great, but playing Armada, Prophecy Advance and the Customizable Card Game with other fans is pretty neat too.
The biggest people we have to thank this year are all the Wing Commander fans who continue to join our community. 2005 is our busiest year yet, and it's amazing that everyone is so enthusiastic about what we're doing. There are a great many active fan projects and eager fans ready to make the future an exciting place to enjoy Wing Commander. We hope you enjoy some of the things we've updated with today, and we really appreciate all the people who contributed to this event. I won't close by saying, "See you next year," because we'll be here tomorrow, and hopefully you will be too!
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