Annual Contest Voting Begins!

January is already starting to get away from us, so without further delay, we're happy to kick off the annual Wing Commander Fan Project & Website of the Year contest. It's all for fun and there's no prize (besides a spiffy award graphic!), but we like to take this chance to recognize just a few of the fans who are out there year-round keeping up the war effort! The nominees are listed here, and you can vote once for each contest right from the page below.

Website of the Year

• Daedalus Station - The home base of the Flat Universe mod is a slick destination in its own right. They publish the Destiny's Way in-game magazine and host all the previews for the top down shooter.
• Hangars B & C is a set of two virtual galleries to showcase his array of Confed & Kilrathi ships. Fans love to examine his designs, but without the site, most people wouldn't have an easy way to render up their own views to check out every angle.
• HCl's Wing Commander Editing Site has long been the place to grab some of the most exotic patches and hacks for the Wing Commander series. The latest enhancement drastically improves the playability of Privateer 2 on modern systems.
• Online Ship Viewer - HCl's newest website is another standalone virtual ship viewer. Modern browser technologies allow talented Wingnuts to set up web-based interfaces that would have required expensive specialized software in years past. This one lets fans check out the actual models from Armada, Wing 3 and Wing 4 - and not just fighter models!
• Pix's Origin Adventures is the place to go for anything and everything Origin. Wing Commander fans have close ties to many other classic Origin properties, and it's great that other franchises - along with WC - are getting the attention they deserve here.
• Wing Commander RPG has been one of the most steadily updated sites of the year. Capi is dedicated to near-weekly updates and status reports on the creation of the game's latest expansion campaign, Elegy of Sivar.

Fan Project of the Year

• Beat Hazard Ships - Shaggy spent a good part of 2014 adding the Confed and Kilrathi fighters from WC1 into Beat Hazard. The game is a top-down rhythm-based shooter, and the WC additions add a ton to the atmosphere!
• Defiant Few - The year began with a new chapter of Wing Commander: Defiant Few. The award winning audio drama follows a band of Confederation pilots as they struggle to push the Nephilim back from the Gemini Sector. In addition to new episodes of the regular story, they also put out a special April Fools edition.
• Flat Universe provided a steady stream of updates throughout the year, which culminated in a highly anticipated playable alpha test. The team has a ways to go before the game is complete, but they are already incorporating pilot feedback to improve the experience the next time out.
• Klavs' Model Archive - After first creating the slick virtual 3D gallery mentioned aboved, Klavs posted a huge collection of models for fans to use. He's amassed a very comprehensive look at the fleets of Wing Commander all in one place. Quite a windfall for other emerging projects!
• Prophecy Movie - This 2.5 hour presentation consolidates the highlights from both cutscenes and game flight into one package. Fans who are out of practice can now relive the experience from the comfort of their joystick-less desk or living room!
• Russian Translation of WC4 is an ambitious effort to patch The Price of Freedom in a new language. Some of the hardest parts, recoding the HUD and captions, are complete, so the work that remains is mostly just lots of actual translation. Along the way, a caption bug has been fixed for everyone.
• ScoobyDoo's Ships are creative new takes on classic Wing Commander ships. As dozens and dozens have been created, they've formed their own consistent style with some innovative new spaceframe elements.
• Starship Tactics is a WC capship simulator that's heavy on strategy. Although real life war in Europe slowed development in 2014, Arraen is now hard at work and the project is back on track.
• Whiplash's Hellcat - Whiplash's project to remake and restore his highly accurate wooden Hellcat model didn't cut any corners. Each step was carefully documented and shared with fans so they could see all the care and effort that goes into an art project of this quality. Fans who followed his construction could appreciate the final design more because they knew exactly what went into every tiny bit.
• WCDX for Kilrathi Saga - GOG may have lessened the need to rely on KS for the earliest WC games, but the Kilrathi Saga still has some advantages that make it worth playing. Stinger's patch fixes basic compatibility, multitasking, resolution and more.