Prophecy Keyboard Cover Review

Here's my review of the Prophecy Keyboard Cover by Cockpit Collection. It retails for $15 US and we're still waiting on finding a cheap shipping rate to Europe through simw.com.

When I opened the shipping box it seemed rather frail and asked to be handled gently. But it survived being bent in two for shipping really well and didn't have a mark when you layed it out, so it actually seems rather durable on closer inspection. All the main keys fit great on both my and Celina's keyboards. The function keys can vary in position, so they're the only ones that aren't a tight fit. Although it's not really necessary, if you're going to use the Cover to play, you should probably use the adhesives they provide and tuck the edges under the board. Not only does the Cover stay in place better, you feel more confident about pushing on the keys. Naturally the keys wont be as smooth covered as uncovered at first, but the effect is worth it. That's probably my biggest concern. You have to get used to pushing through a thin plastic to get to your keys. Controls where you have to hold a key (Tab/Ctrl/Alt) will feel a bit funny because you wont want to put much strain on the Cover, and this might slow you down a bit. But this would be the case for just about any new keyboard or joystick that you were unaccustomed to.

The computer circuitry background is different. Maybe a sleek blue would have been nice, but I suppose Cockpit Collections has to get a bit imaginative or else all their Covers would end up having pretty similar generic "cockpit backgrounds." There's some nice color coding that works well with the background too. Thruster related things have their distinctive colors, things that require the Control or Alt keys are appropriately color bracketed, weapon related functions are marked in bright red and so on. The Print Screen key is even detailed. There's only about a dozen keys off a "104 key" keyboard that don't have a designated function. For newbies, they even have small boxes in the bottom and upper right for Nav Map and Wingman Comms information.

Even if you play with a joystick the Cover is a nice item to have. You'll never have all your keys mapped to your stick, so you'll have your keyboard there anyway.

It really adds to the feel of the game to play with the Cover and adds to the feel of the room to have such memorabilia nearby. I'm thinking about digging up an old keyboard and leaving it set up on that as a display when I'm not playing.

Book Signing Pictures Up

You can now check out a few sets of pictures from yesterday's Book Signing with Peter Telep in Florida. You can find the pictures linked from here. In somewhat related news, I was finally able to get ahold of a few copies of the novel for myself. Looks good so far.

Western Australia Release Date

I am a Wing Commander fan in Western Australia and it would appear that the movie won't be released here until September 23. I believe it was only released in Victoria on the 16th.

Regarding advertising, back in about March april I saw a poster at one particular complex and that's it. Posters have only begun popping up at all major theater complexes in the last few weeks. There have been no ads on television and I saw the trailer once at a screening of Star Wars. I saw Star Wars four times at four different theaters and the trailer was only played at one of them. A couple of weeks ago a radio station played a commercial for the movie, but was more of a promotion for a competition where you could win tickets. Advertisements in the paper haven't even begun yet and the movie is supposed to open in four days! I will let you know if the movie actually does open here on the rumored date.

Australian Wing Commander Review

I just got back from seeing Wing Commander here in Brisbane. You'd hardly know that it was showing at all. The small independant cinema I went to only had two screenings each day for weekends and three for weekdays. With holidays on, you'd think there'd be more. But, with so little advertising, the distributors mustn't be expecting much to come of this movie.

After dodging all the munchkins and their parents who were there to watch Tarzan (which I hope to see) and Elmo in Grouchland (which, strangely I also hope to see... Hey don't judge me, I'm a child of the 80's!) I and my dad finally got into the cinema, which was relatively empty. Interestingly enough, I think I was one of the youngest people in there.

I've been waiting for this movie since February, so I was excited. I was also cautious, after having read and heard so many negative reviews. After seeing this movie, I have vowed never to listen to a film reviewer or critic again.

This was a brilliant movie. The opening was beautiful, with the star map tracing out humanity's exploration of the stars, and the voiceovers narrating history as it sped along, before the dark cloud of the Kilrathi Empire merged into the map. Absolutely gorgeous.

As for complaints about a lack of plot, there was plenty here. Earth's gonna get wiped out: someone's gotta stop it. What more do you need? And space has probably never looked so good, the team that did the SFX work for this movie should be commended.

I'm not sure if the Pilgrims were always part of Chris Robert's vision for Wing Commander, but I felt they contributed well to the universe he's created here. It also an alternative explanation as to why Paladin liked Blair so much. That was another thing: I had to put most of what I knew about the games aside here. This is not a movie of the game, but based on the game, and its still great.

The cast was wonderful; everyone portrayed their characters well, especially Freddie Prinze Jr. and Mathew Lillard. I loved the friendship these two shared: I was expecting them to hate each other, a la WCIII, though this was much better. Maniac's still a psycho, but he's got a compassionate side as well that gives him more depth.

I only have two minor complaints, why did they have to send Blair in with the marines, unless I missed something. Are pilots crossed trained as marines in this Confederation? Also, I was disappointed that they didn't show us more of Blair's genius as a pilot. Sure, what they did show of him proved to us he is very good, but I would have liked more.

I hope this does get a sequel. While it has a muted ending, which I liked, the war is still on. I'd love to see how they'd incorporate plot elements of WCII into this WC universe.

Speculating about a sequel also made me ask myself a question I didn't think I would: would I want the game cast (Mark Hamill, Tom Wilson, Malcolm McDowell and others) to star in future sequels? While I'd love to see Mark Hamill have a crack at this new version of Blair's character, I felt Freddie Prinze Jr. and co. did such a great job that I wouldn't mind if he and the others stuck around.

Anyway, I gonna recommend this movie to everyone I know. Sure, some of them might not like it, but most of them will. Hopefully we'll make enough noise to make the distributors realise they have a good movie on their hands here, and they should advertise it like one. But then again, one newspaper described this as "Star Wars Episode I, but without the hype." Fair description that, considering how much I like both Wing Commander and Star Wars.

Anyway, any Australians that are reading this, GO SEE THIS MOVIE! Sure, its not the games, but its still Wing Commander, and I love it to pieces.