At the Edge of the Universe... Share on Bluesky Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

A BlueSky user named revenant was recently noodling around with the SNES port of Wing Commander and made a pretty exciting discovery and a cool tool for taking a closer look at the game's assets! Revenant turned ROMs of the two surviving SNES ports into in flight object viewers that let you explore the in-game background layers, essentially letting you scroll through the different ships and objects stored in the game! Their first thread starts here.

completely pointless activity of the week: hacking a Mode 7 object viewer into the janky SNES port of wing commander
(d-pad cycles objects/frames, start button exits)

right now this only shows the 'up close' frames for ingame objects (which are background layers rather than the sprites used for distant objects)

also the displayed names of objects come from the list of text strings which doesn't always match the actual object - i.e. unused Venture graphics are called Hornet, and some non-ship objects show names of expansion-only ships instead

These text strings, which include Spikeri and Snakeir (a corvette cut from the original game and the Kilrathi carrier from Secret Missions 2) seem to suggest that the SNES version at least started with the PC codebase! You can download the viewer ROMs below and explore them using your preferred SNES emulator:

These tools are, on their own, fascinating. I am so excited to get this small look into the SNES ports, which is something I'd love to see more of; wouldn't it be cool to explore Wing Commander Prophecy GBA or the Sega CD port of the original? Or more SNES material! And I had not realized how close to the bone some of the cuts were; for instance, capital ships in the SNES version have five angles each instead of 37! Compare the Lumbari across both versions of The Secret Missions:

But the viewers led to something even more interesting being revealed: a graphic logo labeled "The Edge of the Universe / No Flash Photos". Huh?! Luckily, revenant was able to discover exactly what it was for: if you travel to the very edge of displayable space, the game displays an 'edge' to the map! From the screenshot it looks like that edge is over 8 million klicks from your starting point... which means you'll need to fly in a straight line at top speed for well over five hours to see this.

But wait, there's more! Revenant checked the Secret Missions SNES and found that not only did it upgrade to a fancier 'edge of the universe' graphic but it included an unusual object: the face of a moustachioed man wearing a helmet labeled GRENO!

From there, they dug into the game to find out what was going on. And the answer was a pretty incredible Easter egg that you can activate on the original hardware if you have a second controller! Here's the original thread.

silly new discovery in the SNES version of Wing Commander: The Secret Missions

pressing L+R+Sel+Start on both controllers at once unlocks "The Really Really Secret Missions", adding a photo to the credits, replacing asteroids w/ former Mindscape CTO David "Greno" Grenewetzki...
...and after completing the game, you get an additional couple of scenes based on what I can only assume is a 100% true story

Wow! The cutscene part of this egg was uncovered several years ago by Music_Guru but his solution involved accessing it directly with an in-game password or Game Genie... so we never saw the asteroids or the alternate introduction! Hard to believe something like that could stay hidden for so long.

This also lets us get a great look at the famous 'green Salthi' Jalthi, so look forward to another update summarizing that story!

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Cyber Tuesday: WC Edition Share on Bluesky Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Hopefully you were able to secure some great deals over the weekend, but if you're still looking to check things off the list for the Wing Commander fan in your life, here's a rundown of WC items for sale!

Print Art
PC Games ($2.99 each through 12/2)
Audio Albums
  • Team Fat's Wing Commander 1 Complete MT-32 Archival Edition Bandcamp $10
  • Team Fat's Wing One: Amazon $7.99 | iTunes $9.99
  • Team Fat's Wing Commander 2 & Academy Soundtrack Bandcamp $7 | Xeen
  • George Oldziey's Volume 1 & 2 Orchestral Albums + Jazz Album Store
  • Wing Commander Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Amazon $9.49 | iTunes $9.99
  • Cobalt 60: Prophecy EP iTunes $3.96 | Twelve with Prophecy Bonus Tracks iTunes $10.99

Movies & TV
Novels ($6.99)
CIC Stuff

Wing Commander Movie Night: Crash Share on Bluesky Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

The Wing Commander movie club had a good time with Westworld; it's a movie that spends most of its time just explaining its setup... but that's just fine because that setup is delightful. For this week we asked members to select a type of thriller (as defined by the Wikipedia) from our queue and the surprise winner was the 1996 erotic thriller Crash. It's a David Cronenberg movie about people that are sexually attracted to car crashes, so this should be an interesting one! (You know, Star Trek Discovery star David Cronenberg.) You can join us this Friday via Discord to watch along. Please note and plan appropriately: Crash is rated NC-17 for "explicit sex scenes" (but not car crashes?).

Crash is another movie that was used to temp track the 1999 Wing Commander movie. A track from Howard Shore's score, Triton, was chosen to play from Blair's fight with Hunter through to his conversation with Angel in the hallway outside. Truly the definition of a weird pull! Here's the piece:

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

Unfortunately, owing to its NC-17 rating Crash is not available for rent or purchase on the standard streaming services. A copy is available for download from the Internet Archive. If you would like a physical copy, the movie was released on UHD Blu-ray in 2020 and remains in print around the world. 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.

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A Woman's Place is the Tri-System Share on Bluesky Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Here's a great story from Privateer 2: The Darkening screenwriter Diane Duane. She posted the entry below as a reply on her Tumblr back in 2013 in response to a social media post about a man being obnoxious about women that play video games. If you aren't familiar with Diane Duane's incredible body of work, she's written for properties ranging from Star Trek (extensively!) to Marvel, Doctor Who, My Little Pony, Gargoyles, X-COM, seaQuest DSV and many others... all in addition to her own original properties like the ongoing Young Wizards. There's a good bet you have something she worked on in your collection right now! Her story has a timeless message and it manages to share some interesting behind-the-screens trivia about our favorite Privateer sequel:

I had to do this once with Privateer II: The Darkening. It gained a bit when he said "I bet you didn't play it through, I bet somebody just told you how..." and I was able to smile gently and say "God, possibly, since I wrote the game." And plainly the Deity was with me that day, as I happened to be carrying docs from my UK agent (who'd done the deal) that showed not only that I was the writer, but the five-figure sum I had been paid. ...It was a happy day for me. Not so much for him. I'd never had a referent for the word "slink" for a full grown male before. As in "slink away in utter dejection." I smiled for at least three days without stopping. And am smiling now...

What's funny is that until reminded just now, that moment had slipped my mind. I don't take any particular pride in smacking down fools. But when the Universe drops them so blatantly in front of me -- it being, as any Sherlock fan knows, rare for it to be so lazy as to stoop to coincidence -- it's the least I can do to cooperate.

...You have to understand that I felt, and still feel, very possessive about that game. It wasn't my first [Star Trek: The Kobayashi Alternative was] but it was the first time I worked with a really big team [all of whom I liked] and it gave me the opportunity to write for the most amazing cast: Clive Owen, David Warner, John Hurt, Brian Blessed, many other lovely people. [Try getting them all in a movie now.] For this work, though, I got to suffer the pains of Hell in that I spent nearly six weeks [in a couple of tranches] away from Peter, immured near EA UK in a Holiday Inn in Slough. ["OH LOVELY BOMBS COME FALL ON SLOUGH", etc.] It was fun and happy work, but I missed Peter like oxygen. (There were minor compensations, though. On the days when I was in-house at EA, my temp desk was around the corner from Erin Roberts', and the "alert" sound he had running in his computer at that point was the anguished cry of "Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man!" from William Shatner's pop-music album of years before, and now I can't ever hear that song without thinking of EA.)

But then after all that work, and the game itself released to not-so-bad reviews (though everybody raved about the footage, the game engine was said forever after to have been a bit buggy, but that wasn't my fault)... then, that afternoon in Oriel (it was a nice bar/restaurant in Sloane Square, gone now alas), remembering the pains that work had cost me -- to have some snotnosed baby-boy gamer in a shiny suit and a cheap tie come try to tell me that I did not understand the game structure that I can still remember whiteboarding for Erin Roberts and the rest of the team...?

I. Think. Not.

#boys #don't own #gaming #now #or ever

It seems like the only way to end this post... is with William Shatner's cover of Mr. Tambourine Man!

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I Love It When a Scimitar Comes Together Share on Bluesky Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Cpt. Streets is back to kick off another cool Wing Commander 3D print project... and this time it's everyone's favorite heavy gun slug, the CF-105 Scimitar! The model is 11.5cm (4.52") long and Streets promises to share more as painting and detailing happens. We're looking forward to it! You can also see their impressive Hornet here.

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Reminder: #Wingnut Movie Night Tonight! Share on Bluesky Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

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 Westworld (1973) 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!

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After Action Report: Zulu Share on Bluesky Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Zulu was a more interesting film than we expected; certainly closer to Lawrence of Arabia than The Dambusters. The production values are spectacular, the story isn't a familiar one to Americans in 2025 and the acting is great. It's a big, bold movie that suffers less because it's a boring war movie and more because it's about the sort of war we no longer find familiar. Wing Commander movie club member bob was the person that found the Zulu reference in Action Stations in the first place and he noted that it's one of his favorite movies. We asked him if he wanted to say a few words about the film... and here they are!:

It's fitting that the line "because we're here" was the impetus to watch Zulu: it sums up the entirety of the film. William Forstchen may have reused it but the contexts could not have been more different. The pilots in Action Stations are fighting for not only their own lives but those of their families and country. The men of the 24th Regiment of Foot have no such noble motives: they're explicitly fighting for themselves and nothing else. They know nobody in this country and they give little thought to their own, except for the Welsh who we possibly learn more about than the Zulus. As for their cause, we can't judge it because the reasons why the war broke out are never explained. No appeals to Empire and the Queen here, or even any mention of them.

And yet despite, or perhaps because of, all this, there's a somber poignancy in the film's final moments. Michael Caine's character, Gonville Bromhead, is an aristocrat from a family of soldiers. At Caine's urging, he was rewritten from the pompous twit he starts out as to a more introspective character, who wishes, as the Zulus first attack, that he was not an officer and a gentleman, but a "damn drinker". And at the very end, surveying the battlefield after the British victory, he chokes out that he feels "sick" and "ashamed". It's not a sentiment that appears much in Forstchen's writing, nor in Wing Commander in general, with the notable exception of Academy.

And here's the scene that Action Stations... borrows...:

Sully and his sister will hold the bed, no matter what.

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Happy Thanksgiving, WingNuts! Share on Bluesky Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Today is Thanksgiving in the United States and so the Wing Commander CIC team would like to wish everyone a happy holiday. Thanksgiving is a time to stop and remember what we're grateful for and in these trying times, that is more and more the love and support of the Wing Commander community. Whether you're posting to the forums or watching movies with us on Discord or chatting back and forth on social media, our old group is still a bright light in my life. Thank you all!

Of course, a big part of Thanksgiving is... Pilgrims! With that in mind, we're reprinting the Confederation Handbook's history of the Pilgrim War, complete with the original illustrations. Did you know that the Pilgrims (or should we say McDanielites?) had this much backstory?

| query "pilgrim war, history" media=encyc, level=UNCLASSIFIED sort=bestmatch | return=1

(Excerpts from The Student's Encyclopedia, 123rd Edition, HarperCollins, Bonn, TERRA, 2653)

The first major interstellar military conflict, the Pilgrim War was fought between forces of the Terran Confederation and the colonial Pilgrim Alliance from 2631 to 2635, beginning with the Battle of Titan and ending with the fall of Peron. The Pilgrim Alliance surrendered unconditionally on 2629.334, after which all Alliance worlds were absorbed into the Terran Confederation.

VIEW ARTICLE

REF PILGRIM ALLIANCE/TERRAN CONFEDERATION/BATTLE OF TITAN
SIEGE OF PERON
>> ref pilgrim alliance

Thank you. Referencing PILGRIM ALLIANCE . . .

The Pilgrim Alliance

The Pilgrim Alliance was the first organized effort by humanity to colonize other solar systems. Between 2311 and 2588 they colonized 12 systems in Sol and Vega sectors, using hopper-drive "sloships." Radical religious separatists, the Pilgrims believed that they were the "elect" of humanity, with the exclusive divine right to live outside the Sol system. In 2635 a Pilgrim fleet attacked the Terran Confederation Port of Titan starbase in an attempt to cripple Confed colonization efforts. Over the next four years the resulting conflict brought about the end of the Alliance. In 2635 the Pilgrim Alliance was formally dissolved, and all extant Pilgrim worlds were brought into the Confederation as protectorate colonies.

Background Graphic: Pilgrim Cross

The Pilgrim dagger-cross is the most sacred symbol of the sect. The dagger represents divine judgement against unbelievers, and the cross symbolizes the salvation of the elect.
Pilgrim crosses worn as jewelry (like the highly ornate one pictured here) traditionally keep the sharpened dagger blade feature. For safety's sake, the blade can be sheathed, or recessed into the cross with a springtrigger release. Some of the more ornate crosses are believed to have been chemically treated so that they glow or shimmer in response to the wearer's body chemistry.

History

The historical roots of the Pilgrim Alliance lie in the solar expansion of the 22nd century and the ecocatastrophe of the 23rd. In 2167 the United Nations established Olympia Station, the first permanent human settlement on another planet. Supported by space stations on Phobos and Luna, the Olympia colony became the primary staging area for humanity's migration to the outer planets of the Sol system. By 2215 the U.N. had established further permanent colonies on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, placed research facilities on the satellites of Uranus and Neptune, and landed on Pluto. In that same timespan Terra became ever increasingly reliant on the outer planets for heavy industrial metals.

In 2219 the first of the Great Pandemics appeared. After the loss of Luna Station, the outer planets sealed themselves off entirely from earth. The rules were simple―for the duration of the medical emergency, no one from Terra could travel beyond the Legrange transit stations. Any colonist who chose to return to Terra could not return to space until such time as the quarantine was lifted.

It was possible for the outer planets to seal themselves off, because by this time the colonies were virtually self-sustaining. Oxygen and water could be obtained from the rings of Saturn and the ice caps of the larger outer moons, while mineral resources were prolific on Mars and the asteroid belt, with the resources of the outer moons held in reserve. More exotic compounds were being siphoned from the outer atmospheres of Jupiter and Saturn.

Terra, struggling against the ever rising tide of disease and famine, became increasingly reliant on the mineral wealth of the outer planets to sustain the remnants of its faltering production infrastructure. With fossil fuels virtually exhausted and the biosphere turning ever more hostile, Terra became completely dependent on the outer planets for fuel and the raw materials for self contained hydroponic systems that provided. Terra's only safe food supply.

Mars was the site of Olympia Station, the first Terran settlement on another planet.

Mining colonies— such as this early one on Mar's inner moon, Phobos— supported the planetary bases as humanity expanded outward.
Eventually, such colonies would allow the outer planets the self-sufficiency they needed to maintain the quarantine of Terra.

These imports were dropped impersonally down Terra's gravity well, with no physical contact between Terra and her colonies. At first, Terra could trade data and cultural resources for these raw materials. However, the colonies became more self-sufficient and their indigenous culture continued to evolve, while Terra's data and cultural industries fell prey to the general economic and social chaos. The colonies were faced with an ever-increasing demand from Terra, but ever-diminishing expectations for fair payment. Meanwhile, on Terra, popular resentment was growing against the rich, healthy, and aloof extraterrestrials.

The Final Exodus

The emergent culture of the outer planets was ripe for new and radical philosophies. The most successful of these new worldviews arose from the writings of Ivar Chu McDaniel (2257-2311?), an organic chemist and lay- preacher assigned to the Neptune research base.

While stationed on Neptune, in 2294, McDaniel began to experience ecstatic visions. He believed that in these visions he experienced direct communion with the Divine, receiving prophetic revelations. He wrote of his experiences to friends on Mars, who encouraged him to collect and publish his insights.

McDaniel claimed that he had been chosen to receive his visions because he was a spiritually receptive individual located at the very fringe of human settlement of Sol system. McDaniel taught that the prophesied apocalypse had occurred, but divine judgment was confined to Terra itself. Those humans who had migrated to other worlds constituted an "Elect," destined for physical and spiritual salvation and protection. However, because of the pervasive corruption of Terra, the divine presence could not fully empower the Elect as long as they remained in the Sol system. To complete their salvation, the Elect must undertake the "Final Exodus," leaving Sol system entirely to seek spiritual and genetic perfection among the stars. In McDaniel's mystical cosmography, Terra was Hell, the universe at large was Heaven, and the remainder of Sol system constituted a sort of Limbo where the chosen remnant could prepare itself.

McDaniel's views gained momentum in 2304, with the discovery of the Morvan Drive (popularly known as the "hopper" drive), which allowed interstellar distances to be covered in a matter of months or years, rather than generations. By 2309 the Outer Planets Policy Council was firmly in the control of the McDanielites. In 2311 the first Morvan Colony ship was launched. Bound for the Sirius system, it contained 1200 colonists, including Ivar Chu McDaniel. The ship never arrived at its destination―orthodox pilgrim theology teaches that McDaniel and his crew were translated directly to a higher plane of existence, from which McDaniel continues to spiritually direct his followers.

Subsequent sloship efforts,were successful, however, to a degree that modern historians find frankly amazing. Missions to Alpha and Proxima Centauri, Cygnus and a second Sirius mission all arrived at their destinations and successfully established self sustaining settlements. By 2350 regular trade routes were being established between Titan and the Centauri colonies. It was during this time that the McDanielists began to refer to those who took passage on the colony ships as "Pilgrims."

As the interstellar colonies grew, Sol system continued to send out new sloships. It was the sacred duty of all McDanielists to emigrate, and only devout Pilgrims were permitted to participate in the exploration and colonization program. By the end of the 24th century the Exodus was complete all McDanielists had abandoned the Sol system. The effort depleted the Sol system colonies― outer planet populations in 2400 were less than a quarter of what they'd been a century before. Occasionally a semicovert trading mission from Sirius or Alpha Centauri would arrive at Mars or Titan, but little news would be exchanged.

Some time before 2450, the administrative center of the Pilgrim Alliance was established on Beacon, with the spiritual authority headquartered on McDaniel's World. From there, the Pilgrims began to push into the Vega sector.

Map of the Sol Sector

Meanwhile, back on Terra, the ecocatastrophe had finally played itself out, and humanity began to reestablish its social order. In 2423 the quarantine of Earth was formally lifted and Earth began to once more interact with the rest of the Sol system. While the mineral resources of the outer planets were absolutely essential to the rebuilding of the Terrestrial industrial base, throughout most of the 25th century Solar humanity had little leisure to devote to exploration or pure research.

Nonetheless, the Pilgrims noted with some alarm that Terrestrials were once more venturing beyond the orbit of their own moon. In 2462 a heavily armed Pilgrim sloship entered orbit around Luna, demanding a meeting with Terra's leaders. The result of the following summit was the Treaty of Luna, which established Pilgrim title to all habitable worlds within 50 years sloship travel of Terra. Terra agreed to forsake all sloship exploration of other systems, and the Pilgrims agreed to a policy of strict non interference with Sol system affairs. A few, strictly limited trade agreements were also arrived at.

(lt is believed that sometime around 2500 the Pilgrims discovered the propulsion system that would come to be known as the Akwende, or "jump" drive. However, this development was kept secret from Terra.)

So matters stood for more than a century, until Terra's discovery of the Akwende Drive in 2588. A new breed of humanity began to reach out beyond its own star. Losses of exploratory missions were high far higher than for the early Pilgrim expeditions but 26th century Terra had the wealth and population to easily absorb the losses. Terrestrial explorations respected Pilgrim space, but jump routes were soon established that reached beyond the Pilgrim sphere. Sol began to establish colonies of its own, leaving Vega sector to the Pilgrims but expanding out towards Hawking and Gemini sectors. The Pilgrim alliance vigorously protested this expansion as a violation of the Treaty of Luna, but the newly christened Terran Confederation took the stance that the Luna accords only prohibited sloship colonization and direct encroachment on Pilgrim space, neither of which described Confed's current policy.

In 2615 a militant faction seized political and religious control of the Pilgrim Alliance. To this day, most Confed citizens remain bewildered by the intense Pilgrim hostility towards Terra. It must be understood that, to Pilgrims, Terrestrial humanity was divinely cursed by definition (in fact, although the leadership knew better, many Pilgrim colonists had been led to believe that humanity was completely extinct in the Sol system). That anyone other than the Elect (Pilgrims) should venture beyond the orbit of Pluto was at best blasphemous and at worst diabolic. On a more pragmatic note, the Pilgrim leadership was suddenly faced with having to share a galaxy which they had hitherto regarded as their personal domain.

The Pilgrim War

The Pilgrim leadership decided to cut off Terrestrial incursion at the source. At the time, all jump-capable ships were being built and launched from the Port of Titan space station. The Pilgrims assembled a jump-capable battle fleet and mounted a massive assault on the Port of Titan.

Evidence suggests that the Pilgrims expected to destroy Titan in a quick, surgical assault, then move on to a major show of force against Earth itself before returning to Beacon. On 2631.244, the fleet jumped into the Sol system. The Pilgrims planned for a overwhelming assault on a primitive and unprepared foe.

Instead, the Pilgrims discovered Confed to be strong, rich and ready for trouble. After three days of intense fighting around Saturn, the Pilgrims were repulsed with the Port of Titan station still intact. Believing they had proven their point, Confed offered a renewed round of negotiations with the Alliance. This offer was ignored.

The Pilgrims began an aggressive guerrilla action into Confed space, attacking colony worlds and disrupting shipping. On 2632.017, Pilgrim forces destroyed the Confed military outpost at Celeste, along with a mining colony on that world. One day later, Confed formally declared war against the Alliance.

Confed adopted a defensive posture and mobilized its industrial resources into a full war footing, while the Alliance, encouraged by early successes, continued its offensive against the more remote colonies. Confed colonials on worlds occupied by Pilgrim forces were placed under harsh and oppressive conditions. Mass executions were common, and millions were pressed into slave labor. While colonies still under Confed control were aggressively defended, little effort was expended to liberate occupied worlds. This was misinterpreted by Pilgrim leaders as a sign of weakness.

Instead, Confed was concentrating its resources on assembling a massive invasion force in the Sol system. Confed strategy was to not be drawn into an expensive and drawn-out hit-and-run battle with the Alliance, but instead to mount a coordinated invasion targeted on the center of Pilgrim power. On 2633.235, the Grand Fleet was launched. Over the course of the next five months Centauri, Sirius, Cygnus, Frase, and Bradshaw fell in rapid succession. Faced with mounting expenses and devastating losses, the increasingly desperate Pilgrims staked everything on an all-or-nothing defense of the agricultural colony of Peron, in the Luyten system. The siege of Peron held for seven months, while each side mounted increasingly brutal sorties and counter offensives, each trying to find some crack in the other's defenses.

After three days of intense fighting around Saturn, the Pilgrims were repulsed with the Port of Titan station still intact.

In the end, it was the Confed industrial machine and the resource wealth of the Sol system that carried the day. On 2634.288 the remnants of the Confed Grand Fleet were reinforced by a new strike force almost half again the size of the original. Peron's defenders were overwhelmed in two weeks of brutal fighting, and when the Confed joint fleets jumped into Beacon system on 2634.359, they were met with an offer of surrender. The Pilgrims offered to immediately stand down their military and dissolve the Alliance government in return for guarantees of the safety of Pilgrim civilians, and certain limited rights to autonomy for non-military Pilgrim worlds, particularly McDaniel, the spiritual center of the Pilgrim religion. After six weeks of negotiation, peace accords were signed at Cygnus on 2635.049, at which time the Pilgrim Alliance officially ceased to exist.

Post-War Pilgrim Remnants

Since the treaty, many former Pilgrims have been re-integrated into Confed society, either as individuals or on a system-wide basis. At this writing, three systems and five colonial enclaves remain semi-autonomous, with severely limited contact with the rest of the Confederation (although they remain subject to CSF observation and inspection against renewed military activity). Shortly after the surrender, the order went out from McDaniel that all remaining Pilgrims were to refrain from any space travel, as a collective penance for the war or, more specifically, for losing the war. Consequently, all practicing Pilgrims have applied for conscientious objector status in the Kilrathi conflict, and all Pilgrim colonies remain officially neutral. So far, even the loss of two Pilgrim systems to Kilrathi aggression, and ongoing Kilrathi incursions into former Pilgrim space, have done nothing to shake the order's neutrality.

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New Lance Boils Share on Bluesky Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

CountvonSchnaps is back with even more thrilling takes on classic Wing Commander ships! This time they've updated the A-14 Raptor from Wing Commander I and the F-107 Lance (aka Dragon) from Wing Commander IV in their distinctive, wonderful style. Check 'em out!

Wing Commander I - A14 Raptor (DeviantArt)

As a request made for Shoguneagle depicting a lesser known Wing Commander fighter the A14 Raptor heavy fighter.

Armed with 2x Neutron Cannons, 2x Mass Driver guns and up to 6 hardpoints the Raptor was the mainstay for Confederation Space Forces during the early to middle part of the Terran-Kilrathi War.

After the war many of the fighters were sold to Landreich and even to the civilian market.

A fun design, which I rarely have seen so tried to stay close to the main layout and feel of the designs but making it a bit more in line of previous designs.

Wing Commander IV: F107 Lance (DeviantArt)

Another Wing Commander design made for Shoguneagle showcasing the Lance.

The F107 Lance, also known as Dragon, was employed by the shadowy black ops organization Black Lance in WIng Commander IV The Price of Freedom.

Sporting jump capabilities and a cloaking device the fighter was capable to both engage fighters and capital ships thanks to a weapon called the flash pack. A mine like device tat would attach to the enemy vessel's hull and would ignite the breathable atmosphere inside the targeted vessel.
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Wing Commander Returns to 50% Discount, Academy Added to Preservation Program Share on Bluesky Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

It's already been a big month for sales, and Wing Commander discounts are back with GOG's Black Friday Sale. The WC series is once again a familiar 50% off to help ring in the holiday season. Make your gift-buying experience easier with Wing Commander for everyone! Additionally, Wing Commander Academy is the latest addition to GOG's preservation program of classic games. Here's the update:
What improvements we made to this game:

1.01 GOG v2 changelog (25 November 2025)

  • Optimized the DOSBox configuration for better performance.
  • Enabled Cloud Saves support.
  • Fixed a crash that occurred when starting a non-gauntlet game.
  • Stability validated.
  • Fully compatible with Windows 10 and 11.

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