Fancy Prophecy Model Incorporates Moving Glowing Engine Pods Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Adm_Maverick has a very cool new model project to share! He's souped up a printable model of the Vampire and is making some very cool modifications to it. It's much larger than the original source and the engine pods rotate. As you can see from the pictures below, he's also adding lights so that the engines even glow! The sections that are complete so far look great. You can see more of the subcomponents come together with step-by-step captions at the CIC Forums here.
There comes a point in any project where you look at your in-progress work and you see the work coming together that you’re like “okay… this is looking friggen awesome!” Here is that moment with the Vampire model:
I decided to something crazy and I took the Vampire figure from Thingverse, and upscaled it to produce a roughly 14" long model. Now because of the size of my resin printer, I had to break the model down into segments. But then I also took a step further and wanted to make the engines rotate. So those needed to be separate parts, and the wing pylons needed to be modified to allow the rotation. But then I decided to make it even more involved and chose to install lights in the engines. So crazy enough? Well here is a record of my progress.

Tasty Wing Commander Articles from the Computer and Video Game Archive Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Here are a couple of fun treats from poking through an archive of Computer and Video Games magazines.

This review of Wing Commander SNES has a neat ship identification chart (where they've colored in the ships)!

Here's a June 1994 announcement for a Genesis port of Wing Commander II. It never made it out! A Wing Commander III preview with some set photography and storyboards. Interesting what they imagined for Angel before Yolanda Jilot was cast! Some new set photos from Privateer 2 back when it was just 'The Darkening'! And finally some Wing Commander IV set photos being used to fill out an article about how Windows 95... exists?
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Gemini Hot Spots Reimagined From New Point of View Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Cybot078 has returned with several new environments for Privateer fans. He's recreated Perry, New Constantinople and Oxford. Each one has been filled out with more scenery and photographed from a wider point of view. They're pretty imaginative pieces of art and help you appreciate the original scenes even more. I never really noticed the cloud-like bulges in the Perry ceiling or thought about how large the Constantinople space might be. The first image in each set is the original. Take a look below!

Perry Naval Base:

New Constantinople: Oxford:

Identification of Confed's Bar Food Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

It's time once again for... SNACKS OF THE TERRAN CONFEDERATION!

The famed TCS Victory's rec room always has popcorn on the tables...

The Grey Ghost, TCS Lexington, has little bowls of peanuts all around the lounge. ... and finally the megacarrier Midway has a megasnack: big cheeze doodlepuff type things. The Victory's bar has some other options, too: bowls of peanuts, cherries, orange slices (only around when Flint is drinking!) and what I think are Tootsie Pops?! Does anyone ever actually eat the bar snacks? There's a scene in WC4 where Blair palms a peanut and then puts it back while he's talking to Maniac... but I think Captain Paulsen is the only one who ever eats anything!
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WC4 Remastered Mod Enhances Planetary Missions & Solicits Assitance Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

We've got a delicious update today on WC4 Remastered. Pedro reports that the team is digging deep into the ground missions of the game. As is usual on a project like this, once they started peeling back the layers of the original, things got complicated. This has necessitated some clever solutions, which have been detailed in a new WCRespace article. A few options include taking some artistic license and deviating from the original experience slightly, but this should produce a more engaging product overall.
The first issue was to add support for loading the terrain and we had to ensure that the models which we had full transforms for lined up exactly as they did in the original game. Classic buildings and terrain.

We have accomplished this and added support for terrain collisions. The ~1 million vertex original terrain can be rendered on modern hardware in a single draw call – but still that’s not an insignificant number of poly’s. Going in I had expected to find a largely repeating landscape, but no, the team had a single heightmap that it took hours to fly across.

We want to stay as true to the original games as possible, but being too faithful to this geometry would inevitably be disappointing. As such we’ve decided we are going to work on creating more exciting terrain, something perhaps more inline with what PSX gamers were shown than what PC gamers actually got.

The team is also looking for some assistance to help process things more quickly. No technical experience is required! Learn more here.
What we need is for people to play a special build of the game which logs which room you entered, which videos played – and most importantly what variables were changed so we can identify what they are used for. We need people to then go through the original game and record which of the multiple background images are used for each conversation. If you can help let us know on the forums and we can provide you with a special build for tracking the variables in-game.

Confederation Mod Adds Expanded Raptor Art & 3D Hornet Cockpit Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

We've got a couple of exciting updates on the Confederation engine makeover for Wing Commander 1. AllTinker shared his latest Raptor side art. He's also created a very cool 3D bubble of the Hornet cockpit to explore potential new features that can take advantage of this. Click into the thumbnail for a larger animated GIF video of the head movement in action!
I'm still working on the extended side views for the hangar sequence, but I've at least made a start on all five WC1 ships. The closest to being finished is the Raptor:
After pondering my wrap-around cockpits I've decided the best way to properly support ultrawide without the awkward (lack of) perspective is to bite the bullet and go 3D. This will just be another option. The wraparound 2D cockpits don't look so bad at 16:9, but really start to break down quickly beyond that. 3D cockpits also allow things like padlock view (something I've always wanted in a WC game), and perhaps someday VR support.

It's very much work-in-progress (especially everything outside the cockpit), but this is how the Hornet looks so far:

I've had to mutate it a little from the 2D original just to make a little more physical sense, but I've done my best to keep it as faithful as I can though (with my terrible modelling/texturing :p ). It directly uses as much of the original art as possible.

The 3D cockpits will delay things a bit but I think they'll be worth it. The day job is also pretty busy at the moment, but progress continues. :)

Make Mine a Double Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Oh, did your version of Wing Commander III not have a mission where you escort two minelayers?
Lord Thrakhath sacrificed an entire Bhantkara carrier group in a feint at Torgo as part of his strategy to trap the Behemoth. Here: Thunderbolt 300 escorts a pair of dedicated minesweepers as part of the effort to cover the weapon’s approaches.
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Space Sim First Look: Squadron: Mercenaries Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Goge stopped by to share a very cool space sim tech demo that he's been working on lately. It's called Squadron: Mercenaries and he's got some very lofty goals in mind! The core portion starts as a traditional Wing Commander style sim, but there are larger secondary element planned as well. One really cool thing that jumped out at me is that it just runs in a browser window. You can visit the website here and be playing in a few seconds without installation. More info is on the page to get oriented. We hope to see some of his ambitious plans come together!
Squadron: Mercenaries

Squadron Mercenaries is a thrilling spacefaring epic that blends the adrenaline-pumping space flight combat simulation of Wing Commander with the intricate personnel and material management aspects of 'Mechwarrior Mercenaries.' In this immersive game, players will not only engage in intense dogfights and grand-scale space battles, but they'll also assume the role of a resourceful commander, managing a crew of diverse characters, upgrading and customizing their spacecraft, and navigating a dynamic galaxy filled with contracts, alliances, and political intrigue. With its seamless integration of strategic management and action-packed combat, this game offers a uniquely captivating experience that caters to both die-hard simulation enthusiasts and fans of deep, story-generating gameplay.

I've been working on this on my free time for a few months. I'm gonna take a break and go build something else for a game jam next week. Then I should be back to this with weekly updates :D

Wing Commander 3 Ports Side-By-Side Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

I'm comparing the UI in different Wing Commander III ports! Here's the callsign selection screen on the PC, 3DO, PlayStation and Macintosh. "Maverick" is my entry except on the PSX version which plugs in BLAIR automagically! Here's the Victory's main menu on the PC, 3DO and PSX. The Macintosh port doesn't do any of this diegetically, it's handled all in the operating system's UI (boo). Duty logs, aka save/load! And here are the (gameflow) options screens. Here's a really fun one: if you access the menu during the last two missions of the game (where you're flying from covert asteroid depots instead of the Victory) the menu changes to reflect the new location! And in the 3DO version only each depot gets its own name.
Vera: Are there differences in the Victory Streak too?
There are! They redid the layout so it would fit in the thin 3DO boxes and added all sorts of additional art. Even a System Shock screenshot for the movie review!
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Get the Heck Out of Dodger Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

AD reminded me that Blair's callsign is DODGER in Kevin Droney's first draft script for the Wing Commander movie. I... don't hate it? The scene where they all explain their callsigns is fun, too:
Kevin Droney's First Draft (133 pages, 33 mb), which was written way back in 1995 (10/27/95)! It's very different from the later versions: it features many different proper nouns (Angelica "Angel" Devereaux), a strange callsign for Blair ("Dodger") and a very unusual twist on the traitor subplot. The Second Draft (9/21/97) and the Third/Shooting Draft (1/8/98) are also available. Along with the original Phoenix Pictures Memo, you now have all the tools to decide what went right and what went wrong with the Wing Commander movie's story!
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Hellcat Leaps to the Third Dimension Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Nightball06 has been on a load road to go from 2D sketches to 3D model. After a couple years refining the design, the digital representation is nearly complete. He's spent a lot of time working to get the shape close to the original, but one area that he has taken some artistic liberties on were the engines. They look pretty cool! Now that he's got a file that can be manipulated, he's exploring where to take it next - either through 3D animation or maybe a physical print!
Some final updates. Haven’t gone far on the animation part yet & I am still looking for someone who could turn the Blender file into a 3D-printable file.

Learning About the Bray Twins’ Real Life Counterparts Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Thanks for the background, friends. Of course, I was curious for Wing Commander-related reasons. Specifically, I was fascinated to see the names of the Kray twins because... of Privateer 2's Bray twins: Reggie Bray is the guy who is selling Uncle Kashumai's religious artifact. For that mission you have to look up their bio in the database and then find their business partner. There's also a Joe scene where he warns you to look out for the Brays. And you kind of have to wonder: why, since Reggie isn't any particular threat in the auction scene. And heck, why are there two of them anyway? Is it just for the (unknown to me until last night!) joke? In fact, it's a case of cut content! In the shooting script we see that the Brays were supposed to be the enemies in the Tamessa Ames cinematic mission and that Ronnie (the muscle, as in real life apparently!) was then supposed to continue trying to hunt you down. All of the unique NPC encounters with conversations were dropped during development... but it happened late enough that you can still find the VDU graphics for both Brays in the game's files! Reggie Bray was played by British actor Tim Pearce who unfortunately passed away in 2017. I don't believe they recorded any audio for his brother but they do just double up his photo from the Uncle Kashumai cutscene for the in-game database. I guess they are twins! If you find the whole story intriguing and would like to know more, Tom Hardy starred as the Krays in 2015's movie Legend. And I guess the last time Tom Hardy played an identical twin he had Seether’s knife.
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Exploring Kilrathi Emblems Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

A lot of people (one guy on Discord) have been asking what the correct emblem for the Empire of Kilrah is. So let’s have a thread and find out! Wing Commander I has matching emblems for factions on every ship. The Kilrathi have a red cat skull which we get to see close up thanks to the beautiful box shot of a high resolution Dralthi wing. The ships are so low resolution that they’re just dots in flight, but you can pick them out every time. You can see the skull very clearly on the WC2 demo Bloodfang, which is its last appearance. And there’s a black one on the Imperial Guard troops in The Secret Missions 2! As an aside, we NEVER got a high res version of the WC1 Confed roundel. You can see it twice on the Drayman here. It looks like a TNG comm badge or maybe three ships orbiting a sun? Now, this is the broad answer to the question. This is the emblem of the empire itself, the grouping of all eight clans. It was introduced for Wing Commander III and used widely beyond. This emblem is also claimed by factions of the Kilrathi civil war (see Arena). Technicality number one is that Super Wing Commander had its own takes (Kilrah and Confed, respectively) which aren’t seen too often. The movie also had its own version derived from the font created for the Kilrathi text there. You can see it very clearly on the Confed kill markings! Your next question: what about this, which was introduced with Armada and has been used often since? This is the specific emblem of the ruling Kiranka clan. I should also note that Kiranka translates literally to red claw; hence Baron Baktosh Redclaw and the red claw clan insignia. What about the other seven ruling clans? You can see them here on the throne set from Wing Commander III! The WC3 lore also claims that the red markings on spacecraft represent which clan constructed them. That wouldn’t be limited to just the eight, though! The movie had these cool clan flag props that would hang on the backs of warriors’ armor. They aren’t too visible in the final version. More on clan banners from The Confederation Handbook! Finally, this is the emblem of the Kilrathi Assembly of Clans which is the political entity Confed recognizes after the war.
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Battle of the Armada Introductions Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Today we have a jazzed up version of the Armada intro from Retrobear Diskette Quest. There's a little bit of DOSBox scaling happening that supposedly makes it look better at higher resolutions, but the visuals aren't the draw here. It also has some "Roland MT-32 emulation" turned on, and I do hear the extra notes associated with that! Armada is a wonderful game that doesn't get as much time in the spotlight as it deserves, so take this as a plug to fire the game up this weekend!
How do you think the video above compares to the version that FekLeyrTarg rebuilt from scratch with Origin model assets? They both have their particular charms!

The Nephilim Manta: From Concept to Execution Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Aligned Peoples’ Manta-class heavy fighter. Initial concept by Mark Vearrier, finished concept sketch by Syd Mead... Initial mesh blockout and then Alias "cinematic" model renders... Final in-game assets for both the standard fighter and the deadly "red Manta" bomber variant! Shout out to the OG.
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Check out These Collectible Portuguese WC Games Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Dominus of Exult has some more cool collectibles to show off! He's managed to track down a pair of Wing Commander games localized in Portuguese. These rare copies of WC4 and Privateer 2 have a bit of warping and tearing damage, but it's still wonderful that they were saved. I'm still poring over the minute differences here despite not speaking the language! These should look great alongside his Portuguese copy of Privateer 1.
Got some new rarities. Portuguese Wing Commander IV and Privateer 2. Unfortunately the seller stored them in a very humid place. Trying to open the IV he destroyed the slide cover.
LOAF: Are they localized at all?

Dominus: Boxes and documents all in Portuguese. At least the intro has no subtitles. Look like the standard UK CDs. Even the quadruple CD case inlays are the UK ones and not translated (manual etc. are translated).

Wing Commander at 25 Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

The somewhat amorphous length of a generation is, give or take, about twenty-five years. This means that as of today, the Wing Commander movie is a generation old… and, it follows, so are those of us that once eagerly anticipated its coming. I've written extensively about whether or not it was good (it was not) and what it means to me (I love it dearly) and I don't need to relitigate any of that today. In fact, the war movie cliches about old soldiers are more accurate than ever: the guns have stopped, we're the old men, all quiet on the western front and alike. The bickerings and debates and once-so-important battles of our youth have passed us by as gracefully as such things ever do. No one in 2024 could conceive, for instance, of caring about the Tiger Claw's missing possessive or what the Ralari /really/ looks like or even particularly to complain about Freddie Prinze Jr.'s casting.

If anything, the Wing Commander movie has settled into an interesting little niche we didn't see coming: people kind of like it. It's not the second coming of George Lucas (sorry, Chris Roberts)... but it's also not really trash anymore, either. Every time it's mentioned on social media you get an inevitable host of people who view it as a guilty pleasure or a fun escape or a movie they thought deserved more attention. And that's kind of neat! Much of that is the sheer uncaring numbers of it: many, many more people can (fondly?) remember seeing Wing Commander the movie on DVD or cable TV than ever considered playing Wing Commander the game. Some frustrating old fictions remain–like the idea that including the Star Wars trailer printed money for the project (Wing Commander was a giant box office flop!) or the endless incorrect claim that the movie thinks the characters need to be quiet in space to escape the Kilrathi (thank you, Mr. Ebert)--but they're occasional bits of interest to politely point out instead of life-or-death challenges to nerd battle. The Wing Commander movie has improbably, probably done better for itself than anyone could ever have anticipated.

Instead, today I'd like to answer a question I'm asked regularly: why study Wing Commander today? On the surface there's not necessarily anything there. We aren't going to cure any diseases or change any minds or break open the universe in some shocking way. If we're lucky we might play a new game someday and that's about it. Even in the realm of liberal arts, there clearly aren't deep meanings or ideas to uncover. So why spend my time, say, charting out all the battles from the movie to make an accurate kill score, or tracking down all the background characters, or contacting costume makers to help identify illegible name tags? Why do these things that don't seem to add up to any satisfying whole?

It's because loving something this way is where the journey starts and not where it goes. We aren't celebrating Wing Commander because Wing Commander is the greatest movie or the best game or the most perfect story… we're celebrating it because it's ours and from the understanding we have of it we form connections to each other and to new ideas. We learn new things in every conceivable field because we take a harder look at some piece of Wing Commander. It's a compass or a Rosetta Stone: from considering the movie we come to new things we never could've considered otherwise. Whether that's diving into some piece of source material the movie references or learning how the game worked its magic under the hood, we start from loving Wing Commander and we come to know and think about other things. I've experienced art and music and political thought and ideas and an understanding of how other people create because I started from trying to understand Wing Commander. And that's even more important because the biggest lesson I've taken in three decades of fandom is that it is deeply important to surround yourself with people who love things regardless of what those things are.

The connections we've made over Wing Commander have made us better, more whole people and they've given us such important relationships. I did not feel like writing this update today. I've been having a bad time lately and I frankly would have rather hid in a hole somewhere. I was content to let the anniversary pass with the lazy man's option (some tweets). But my dear friend Chris Reid, who I have enjoyed Wing Commander with for all these years (including the movie on this day way back then!), messaged me and asked me if I could write a few words. He said he thought I would do a good job of capturing the anniversary. And immediately I was excited to contribute: to help my friend and to say something that someone seemed to want to hear. And when I can't manage to make anything else work right in this universe, I can still fall back on Wing Commander. And I know Chris BECAUSE of Wing Commander and we've come to have lives and families and dreams and hopes and all that bullshit together BECAUSE Wing Commander has been our lingua franca. And I remain so excited to find new ways to speak it and to see all the new places that will take me.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm needed at the edge of the universe. You see, all hell is about to break loose.

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Examining the Colors of Academy Pilots and Their Ships Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

I have watched Wing Commander Academy hundreds of times but I somehow never noticed that the pilot helmets are color coded. They nominally match the Scimitars: blue for Maverick, red for Maniac, purple for Archer, etc. It looks like they're forgotten or wrong a LOT... just like the ship colors. Hmm, maybe this is the kind of thing that needs a spreadsheet on a lazy Sunday afternoon... Well I said I was going to do this and for some reason I did. I tracked every Scimitar that appears in the show (by sortie) and noted its pilot, color and fate. There are 150 and 25 are destroyed (or stolen by the Warrior King)! Here are what seem to be the intended colors for the hero characters. Colors are repeated for extras (or are not visible). There are a couple of exceptions: the trainers in episode one are all either red or blue, per the story... and The Last One Left gives Blair and Maniac black and a never repeated lime green, respectively: Also if I had to see these goofy off model Scimitars then so do you:
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A Closer Look at the Original 12 Cadets of Wing Commander Academy Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

The Wing Commander Academy press kit says that there were twelve cadets transferred to the Tiger's Claw. Can you name them all? Alright, let's see if we can find them! We're looking for the original twelve cadets transferred to the Tiger's Claw's command school. So Victoria/Viking here and the veteran replacements from the Trafalgar who are added after Chain of Command don't count. First up, the three leads. Christopher "Maverick" Blair played by Mark Hamill and designed from his live action appearances in Wing Commander III and IV (minus 19 years). Bios are from the series' press kit: Todd "Maniac" Marshall voiced by Tom Wilson and also designed from his WC3 and 4 appearances (though a little bit more The Real Ghostbustersy). And new character Gwen "Archer" Bowman played by Dana Delany! She voiced Louis Lane on Superman that same season and it sure feels like both character designs were influenced by the actress in slightly different ways. Next: the secondary cast who show up pretty consistently through the show and occasionally get to be the focus of an episode. First is Hector "Grunt" Paz, the former Confed marine (voiced by Pat Fraley). In the show's original formulation he was Vaquero from WC3. Lindsay "Payback" Price stars in Expendable and generally shows up as a foil for Archer. Performed by Lauri Hendler. The character was originally intended to be Cobra in the initial "WC3 babies" concept. Last of the series regulars: Yulan "Hyena" Chang voiced by Kevin Schon. He survives the show... and his weird secret is that he's supposed to be Vagabond's brother! Now the ones that show up as kind of 'guest stars'. They get mentioned on the PA and occasionally seen in crowds but generally have one moment. Alan "Blizzard" Getz (also voiced by Pat Fraley) is the show's first casualty in 'The Most Delicate Instrument'. This is Emil "Easy" Zoharian. He's in the background a fair amount and is ultimately killed in 'Invisible Enemy', the first victim of the Strakha. He looks kind of like a larger, softer Maniac. "Jazzman" is a weird one because he is a major part of the first episode but then doesn't appear again until he pops up in the finale (where he's killed in the attack on the dreadnought). Ved "Pitchfork" Patel is cadet #10. He shows up in group shots eventually but you never really get a good look at his face. He's killed early in Chain of Command (prompting Pitchfork to swear revenge on the Kilrathi). That's ten, two to go--these are the tough ones! This cool '90s-looking female pilot never speaks but she shows up in a LOT of background and group shots. According to internal materials her name is BULLDOG. And here's the last one: WEASEL. He shows up only in group shots. He's yet another nod to WC3, though: Weasel is the redshirt who dies as you're taking off in the Tamayo scramble mission!
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New Prinze Autograph Offer Includes Wing Commander Options Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

LeHah spotted a new Wing Commander autograph opportunity. SWAU is offering Freddie Prinze Jr signatures via its website for the next month. There are a lot of photo choices associated with his role in Star Wars Rebels, but it's nice to see that they have five WC Movie options as well. The final press kit shot with Prinze in marine armor is less common to see, so that's a fun inclusion! You can place orders here. Prices are a bit steep at $95, but autographs are expensive these days!

Richard Riehle Reflects on Iconic Office Space Role Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Today we have an interview from the Hollywood Reporter with the cast of Office Space on its 25th Anniversary. Richard Riehle has a lot to say, and I thought it was fun to hear his perspective on various things even if there's no direct connection to Wing Commander. I was surprised to see that Mr. Riehle is 75 years old now, which would have put him in his early/mid 40s when portraying the role of Pliers in WC4. That sure makes me feel old! I've cut a few quotes below, but you can find the full Q&A here.
How does it feel to hit 25 years since Office Space?

Richard Riehle (engineer liaison Tom Smykowski): Hard to imagine it’s been that long. It seems like just yesterday, and people still talk about it. When I’m recognized, it’s one of the first things they ask about.

Riehle: Mike [Judge] always had things that he wanted to throw in — “Try this, try that.” He was the best host there in Austin, as well as director. He would take us to places where his band used to play and to places with good food.

Riehle: Maybe four months later or so, I was back in L.A. and doing upfronts with Fox, so Mike was there as well, and I said, “Mike, the strangest thing is happening. People on the street are quoting lines from Office Space to me.” And he said, “It just got picked up on Comedy Central, and everybody is loving it.”

Riehle: It certainly was a nice element. Unfortunately, it was sold outright to Comedy Central, I think. I never found out any of the details of that. But I’ve gotten more checks over a longer period of time for Free Willy than I have for Office Space. (Laughs.) But it certainly has been nice to get definitely a decent check for it a couple times a year.

Learning More About the Privateer 2 Factions Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Thinking about the Privateer 2 pirate factions today. Do their VDU images match the lore? I think so! The official guide has two that aren’t in the final game, too: an evil Crow T. Robot for the Chirichans and a space owl for the Papogods. Seems like Priv 2 must’ve gotten a ‘is this too crazy?’ pass. Maybe the same pass that robbed us of a space porpoise. It’s an old trivia item that all four groups are named after North American indigenous groups too:
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Famous WC1 Launch Recreated in Star Citizen Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Mr. Hasgaha recently shared this nifty video that he built for a "10-second Cinematic" contest in Star Citizen. He was able to use elements of the existing game engine to recreate the briefing room run, launch and death of a pilot in the original Wing Commander. It's a short clip, but it's very cool to see this modern take on a classic!

Learn About WC2 Demo Differences in the WCPedia Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

I added a WCpedia page for the Wing Commander II Demo with all kinds of neat history:
Wing Commander II Demo is a rolling demo of Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi. It features an early version of part of the game's introduction showing Prince Thrakhath's audience with the Emperor. It was the first Origin product to include recorded speech. The demo was created by Origin Systems to demonstrate the game at Winter CES 1991 (January 10 to 13 1991) and was released to the public via BBS afterwards. At the time it was published Wing Commander II was scheduled for a Summer 1991 releasee. It ultimately shipped in September, making the eight months between the demo and the final product the longest such stretch in Wing Commander history. The demo is not known to have received a physical commercial release.
Differences
  • The 3space engine section uses a version closer to the original Wing Commander. It uses Wing Commander's palette and several other assets (including the Dralthi and Star Post ships).
  • Prince Thrakhath's Bloodfang model is a distinct version created for the demo and it looks significantly different from the final version used in Wing Commander II. The sprites can be imported into the original Wing Commander but it does not include assets like a VDU graphic.
  • The scene is set at the "Imperial Palace", a Star Post, instead of at K'Tithrak Mang. K'Tithrak Mang is not mentioned in the dialogue.
  • The scene includes a longer introduction in which Thrakhath flies to the Imperial Palace and walks past rows of Imperial Guardsmen.
  • There is a 'talking head' view of an Imperial Guardsman announcing Thrakhath's arrival which does not appear in the final game.
  • The medium and closeup backgrounds for Prince Thrakhath and the Emperor are different from the versions used in the game. Both pieces are digitized from paintings by Daniel Bourbonnais.
  • The dialogue between Thrakhath is different although it retains the same general structure and many of the same ideas. It does not mention K'Tithrak Mang or the rebellion on Ghorah Khar.
  • The voice acting is performed by different people. Prince Thrakhath and the Emperor are played by developers Philip Brogden and Siobhan Beeman in the demo and writer G.P. Austin and actor Edwin Neal in the finished game. The Imperial Guard, played in the demo by Martin Galway, does not speak in the final game and is only referenced but not seen.
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New WC Ship Silhouette Discovered in Hebrew WC2 Translation Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Super cool news: Christian Klein discovered a piece of Wing Commander ship art previously unrecorded by history! Check out this cool silhouette art from the cover of the Hebrew translation of the Wing Commander II manual! It's done in the same style as the "World War II" silhouettes in the original manual... but it isn't one of them! There's a similar piece of mystery WC2 art in the FM Towns port packaging: line art of a Drakhri that's shown in part on the case, disc and back of the box. It has seven missiles instead of four! I need an art person to make a whole version of it. Discovering liminal art like this is one of my favorite things. A couple of other examples: the Czech cover of Fleet Action, Chinese disk labels for the original Wing Commander, the Korean 1999 movie poster and an early Privateer placeholder to fill out a '92 catalog! Here's another example of this: the banner GOGcreated for their release of Wing Commander Academy. What the heck even is this?! A stock image of Star Wars-style ships? I'm totally cool with cases where we're technically just absorbing art from other universes, too. It's Wing Commander now, suckers! A nearly complete set of manual page photos was posted to Facebo by Moran Weissman. You can view them here.
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