News Collection: On This Day in WC News

2023.117 (April 27, 2023)

BREAKING NEWS: Wing Commander Vinyl Campaign Still Imminent

Back in February, we reported on a teaser post from Supercade announcing an upcoming crowd funding campaign to release an LP (vinyl record) of George Oldziey's Wing Commander Orchestral Recording Project. The good news today is that the campaign is still happening and it sounds like it's launching soon. Supercade founder Van Burnahm tweeted in response to a question that it was launching in just four days, on May 1st!It’s launching May 1st!!!

2022.117 (April 27, 2022)

Super Famicom Manual Includes Special Halcyon Welcome

Goofing around with image translators I discovered that the Super Famicom Wing Commander manual has a section where Colonel Halcyon welcomes you aboard. Also how crazy is the future?I am Colonel Halcon, commander of the carrier fighter squadron.Permission to board Tiger's Claw.

2021.117 (April 27, 2021)

Spanish Translation Test Provides Privateer Proof of Concept

L@Zar0 has a new update on his Spanish Wing Commander translations. This time it's a proof of concept for Wing Commander Privateer. He's managed to get the audio to play while overlaying subtitles, which can be edited to show other languages. And he picked a wonderful scene for this example - if it's been a while since you've heard the Steltek talk, be sure to give this a listen!

2020.118 (April 27, 2020)

Check out the Japanese PSX Combat Booklet

EmuMusicFan recently added a Japanese copy of Wing Commander 3 for the Playstation to his collection. This version has some absolutely gorgeous documentation that I don't think we've posted before, so here's the Combat Guide instruction manual in its entirety! It's in full color, which is really sweet. I always always like to see what bits of the game and interface remain in English after the rest is translated.

2019.117 (April 27, 2019)

Wing Commander Nook Complete

We just finished a space-themed reading nook for the kiddos, and that gave us a great opportunity to display a piece of Wing Commander art. Mike Winterbauer's slick metal print of the WC1 SNES box art fits right in! It's a cozy place to curl up with a Wing Commander ebook. What do you think?

2018.117 (April 27, 2018)

WC3 Reviewer Has Lots To Say About Doors

It's Friday, so listening to some grumpy gripes seems like a fitting end to a rough week. Gray Ghosts Old Grizzled Gamers has written a quasi-review of Wing Commander 3, and as you might expect, they have some strong thoughts about it. The author is actually harkening back to the 3DO version of WC3, which has some exciting differences compared to the PC and Playstation editions. He starts off making fun of all the repetitive transitions, and while most of us quickly turned these off, I don't actually recall off the top of my head if this option was readily available on consoles.

Wing Commander Meme of the Day: 10 Guy

2017.117 (April 27, 2017)

New Screenshot Found

A new screenshot from the long-lost SNES port of Wing Commander 2 has been discovered! Like previous discoveries, this screenshot appeared in 1995 gaming magazine... but it is not attached to a review of the game. Wing Commander 2 was completed by a team at Origin Systems and then shipped to FCI for duplication.

2016.118 (April 27, 2016)

Tweak Guides Help Maximize The Wing Commander Experience

In addition to his guide to Wing Commander 3, PhilsComputerLab has published helpful "tweak guides" for Wing Commanders 1 and 2 as well as Privateer. GOG does a good job of preconfiguring their games to automatically run on most people's systems, but there are a small percentage of folks who encounter compatibility or speed issues. It's not difficult to optimize a setup to run on a specific computer, but people who buy the game at GOG for the convenience factor may not be familiar how to do this. Phil also has some tips on how to potentially improve the graphics and integrate sound emulation to enhance the audio, which could be helpful for everybody!

2015.117 (April 27, 2015)

Homeworld WC Mod Gets Even Bigger

L.I.F. has big news for players of his WC mod for Homeworld Remastered.

2014.117 (April 27, 2014)

Wing Commander Academy Translated into Arabic!?

AD found a very odd translation of the Wing Commander Academy television series being advertised on YouTube. "Star Dima" appears to have converted the show into Arabic - Wing Commander logo and all. Cadet Blair has been renamed 'Mazen', Maniac is 'Ravi' and Archer is called 'Khawla'. We wouldn't normally link to what looks like some kind of sketchy pirate site, but this is too bizarre not to share.

2013.117 (April 27, 2013)

Ultima Codex Interviews Serpent Isle Lead

Ultima Codex has conducted an interview with Bill Armintrout, a former Origin vet who worked on Ultima VII Part 2, Pacific Strike and Bioforge among other games. The conversation starts with a discussion about Bill's role in designing Serpent Isle, but it also goes into some great Origin history. There's also a couple cool Wing Commander anecdotes that sneak their way in, as is common when talking to any ex-Originite. That's a great use of the phrase 'Wing Commander emergency'!

2012.118 (April 27, 2012)

Tiger's Claw Gets Its Engines

Malcolm Reynolds has completed the engines on his Tiger's Claw model and is now entering the final stretch. These new shots show how the propulsion system has gone from one partial tube to seven large thrusters. Only minor fairings and touch-ups remain before the ship is complete! This is my final post before the big reveal.

2011.117 (April 27, 2011)

Big Bug Guns Add to Nephilim Power

Astro Commander has some bigger Nephilim baddies to share with everyone this week. The Hydra cruiser and Kraken "ship killer" complement the existing fleet of corvettes, destroyers and wormhole gates. A fearsome Tiamat was also built last year. The intricate shimmering paint job never ceases to amaze!

2010.117 (April 27, 2010)

Prelude Part 9 Now Playing

Part 9 of Frontier - Prelude to Darkness is out! This chapter is lighter on the combat, but does more to advance the story. Fans who are eager for more space battles won't have long to wait though. The next release is already written and about a quarter complete.

UO Team Pushes Good Versus Evil

The Mythic dev team that maintains Ultima Online posted a small update to shed some light on how they continue to push where the background story goes after more than a dozen years. Check it out in "Lost & Found" Part 1 and Part 2.The development team wanted to offer some background into the creative process for making the next chapter in UO Lore, enjoy!In February of this year we had a Saturday meeting.

2009.117 (April 27, 2009)

Concordia Down Further

Klavs' recent Concordia wallpaper was a big hit last year, but that wasn't his only scene featuring this famous Confederation class dreadnought over Vespus. The image below shows the ship tumbling further down into the atmosphere from a different camera perspective. It's smaller than some of his other images, but just as cool!Somehow, I just can't resist beating up on the old girl just a little bit more.

Making the Game: Mission SS3

Mission SS4 teaches the player to fly the Panther. There are a few interesting references in the dialogue - especially to the Panther's particular role (on escort carriers) and the fact that she carries (or carried at this point in development) a nose-mounted mini-turret. Also interesting, the appearance of a Paktahn bomber from Wing Commander III.These updates are thanks to John "Captain Johnny" Guentzel, who provided several CD image archives of material used by the Wing Commander Prophecy development team!

2008.118 (April 27, 2008)

Vampire State Building

Sometimes we just need to sit back and look at what's around us... like this awesome background-quality Wing Commander Prophecy image found at Origin-artist Mark Vearrier's portfolio website. There's something great about it that I can't quite put my finger on -- maybe it's just interesting to see the 'Prophecy' and the 'Wing Commander' separately... or maybe it's just still a beautiful piece of artwork after all these years.

Get Your Game On

Blitz wanted to share a new auction site with people who might be searching for Wing Commander games. Chase the Chuck Wagon is dedicated to cheaper listings of video games in general. There aren't many Wing Commander auctions yet, but it's good to see this additional source. If you weren't already aware, Half.

2007.117 (April 27, 2007)

Razor's Edge

Following on the footsteps of the recent Centurion easter egg, long-time contributor AD has another Arena ship note: the EA Arcade features clip art of a fighter that looks like Wing Commander IV's Razor light fighter. This one is probably not intentional... but it's still worth thinking about!

Talon's Tip

Space Pirate has a new update to his 'Centurion vs. Pirates' movie project. He recently released a Centurion blueprint... so, naturally, a Talon image was next!

2006.117 (April 27, 2006)

Correction: Googly Eyed Sea Monsters

It has come to our attention that an article posted on October 12th, 2005 inadvertently referred to the unusual creatures in Wing Commander Academy's Word of Honor as "googly eyed sea monsters". The proper term for the creatures, per the series press kit's glossary, is in fact "Piscean Arthrosquids". We regret this error and promise that it will never happen again.On the subject of the creatures, the glossary says: "the size of small car, these creatures resemble a disgusting cross of a crab, a squid and a sea slug".

Eldred Scrolls

Here's one we missed from a few weeks back: Anime New World Order has conducted a lengthy audio interview with Tim Eldred, whose credits include character designs and storyboards for Wing Commander Academy. Daryl Surat, who runs the site and forwarded us the interview, notes that the interview is primarily about Japanese animation and comics, so Academy is not a key point of discussion... but they do link to the CIC! The Tim Eldred show is #14, which is available through links here.

For Pete's Sake: Last Chance to Enter!

The clock is about to strike midnight, Standoff fans: April 28th is the last day to submit a score for PopsiclePete's gauntlet contest. Here's the man himself:April 28th is coming, Cardinal's the only one who managed to get an high score from Sternenwind: the Hornet score for the Kilrathi gauntlet.No one else is up to the challenge? Some ships didn't see much scoreboard action and show scores that should be relatively easy to beat: the Ferret for mission 1, for example.

2005.117 (April 27, 2005)

That's Just Super

BradMick reports that the latest version of the FreeDO emulator is capable of running the 3DO version of Super Wing Commander! There are still some problems: Since 3DO BIOS files are not available as legitimate downloads, erstwhile players will have to provide their own. Brad has also encountered some unfortunate graphical glitches - see the third screenshot! (For comparison, Brad is running the game on a 3.

Concordias in Harmony

Cadet Tolwyn flew missions off the Concordia-class TCS Concordia during the McAuliffe Ambush... it blew up, but twenty years later Tolwyn was a Commodore commanding a battlegroup onboard another Concordia-class TCS Concordia. Then a few years later he personally took command of... the TCS Concordia (CVS-65) - flagship of the 14th Fleet.

2004.118 (April 27, 2004)

Pictures Back From LOAF's Austin Visit

A few weeks back LOAF visited Origin in Austin for the last time. Here are some beautiful pictures of the building where so much great Wing Commander stuff was created. Don't be too sad though, the third picture has moving vans reflected in the windows, not demolition trucks. The building will be up for lease and elements of the old Origin team and material will be moved to EA's main campus in California.

The Broken Hellcat Lives On

Tolwyn reminded us about an old Hellcat that tangled with some Ekapshi fighters last year. If you're missing something in your Wallpaper collection, this one's formatted for 1024x768.The link in our Wallpaper Section to Perry has been updated. Thanks Black Joker.

2001.117 (April 27, 2001)

SWC Ship of the Day: Dralthi

Day four of Super Wing Commander Ship of the Day -- hey, that's just ripping off the... oh, right.

WCA Backup

There's apparently been some trouble downloading the current episode of Wing Commander Academy -- until Tye figures out what's wrong, you can grab it here.

2000.118 (April 27, 2000)

Looking Back at a Memorable Classic

Federation HQ looks back at Wing Commander Privateer. A little snippet from the very positive article:However, the game did have a linear mission-based story built-in. In bars you would be able to pick up clues and get special assignments that were related to the story line and which tied in to the mysterious alien ship that was briefly visible in the Privateer intro sequence.It really makes you want to fire up the game.

It May be a Wing Commander Clone

That's what Electric Playground fears, according to their Starlancer preview. They mention Chris and Erin Roberts' previous games of course...Erin Roberts is no stranger to the arena of space combat. His brother, Chris, pioneered the genre with his Wing Commander series way back in the 20th century, and Erin’s experience, as head of development for Privateer II, has given him all the edge he needs to make the next great space combat sim.

All-Stars do it Again

Sports correspondent Doug Rostrum reports. The legendary Karatikus All-Stars Basketball team have once again clinched all four titles in the inter-system championships. This season they won every single match they played - not unreasonable, considering the average height of the team is 3.06 metres (their closest rivals, the Bexian Basketeers, have an average height of 2.