News Collection: On This Day in WC News

2023.126 (May 6, 2023)

WC4 Polaroids: Pirates

This is part of a series analyzing newly discovered Wing Commander IV continuity photographs. You can find the previous posts collected here.Today we're giving you two Polaroids for the price of one! What's going on here?

2022.126 (May 6, 2022)

Ambiance Video Transmits Shotglass Vibes

Scribbler has posted the first in a series of Wing Commander ambiance videos. These have gotten more popular in recent years with examples such as this hour of Borg cube humming from Star Trek Lower Decks. In this case we get an hour of Shotglass' bar aboard the Tiger's Claw. Scribbler has looped things a bit, played with some low key sound effects and added some less repetitive music to get to the end result.

2021.126 (May 6, 2021)

PC Zone Recaps Space Sim History

Today we've got a historical profile from the July 2000 issue of PC Zone. It works two ways: the article is a recap on the highlights of the PC space sim genre from 1984 to 2000, but at the same time, it's ancient history itself. While there was quite a lull in the space sims during the 2000s, the past decade has certainly seen something of a revival, and I look forward to reading that recap someday. I vaguely remember this article when it was new, and it's kind of amazing that more time has passed since it was published now than the mere 16 years of timeline that they were covering back then.

2020.127 (May 6, 2020)

Wing Commander Mod Emerges for Particle Fleet

Here's an interesting mod/map for the unusual RTS game Particle Fleet: Emergence. The enemy seems to be made out of red physics particulate, and friendly ships go wild attacking it. I actually can't find a whole lot of info on the project and how it came to be, but fortunately Josiah de Brueys made this nifty vid of him playing it. You can clearly make out Confed carriers and a Midway style design, among other ships.

2019.126 (May 6, 2019)

Check Out Origin's Long Term Plan Circa 1989

Here's a fascinating look at Origin's product plan as of 1989, just before Wing Commander changed things. It's amazing what could have been (a Star Wars RPG by Richard Garriott!) and also how far in advance they planned for projects like Ultima Underworld.Bad Blood: released Ultima 6: released Dinosaur Valley: became Ultima Savage Empire Squadron: became Wing Commander Time Travel: became Ultima Martian Dreams (?

2018.126 (May 6, 2018)

Exploratory WC1 Mod Tweaks Game's Graphics

There's been lots of great work in the last couple years on researching the file formats used in the original Wing Commander games. Digging continues on that front, so while there's some neat things to see, not much is playable yet. Rehsin has built upon some of that knowledge to create a proof concept mod for WC1. He doctored up some of the hairstyles, animations and backgrounds slightly just to begin to show what's possible.

Wing Commander Meme of the Day: Overly Attached Girlfriend

Ha, well, I have ramscoops...

2017.126 (May 6, 2017)

A Whisper of Games That Weren't

Here's a sad reminder of two games that weren't, straight from the pages of issue 12 of the United Kingdom's official 3DO Magazine. This issue follows a disappointing 1996 E3 presentation in which the 3DO company did not show any progress on their long-promised M2 console... the writing on the wall already being clear to everyone (except possibly the editors of the official 3DO magazine) that Sony's PlayStation had vanquished all competitors. But there was still hope for more Wing Commander.

2016.127 (May 6, 2016)

Korean Prophecy Article Explained

Forums member YPersonified has kindly provided a brief summary of the Korean Prophecy spread we reported on last month. Thanks!Wow. This is a brief review and game guides for WCP from April and May issues of the monthly game magazine called 'Gamepia' in 1998.

2015.126 (May 6, 2015)

Revisit the Golden Age of Space Sims

Arstechnica has published a fun article titled "The five space sims that defined my youth," which is an awesome topic that we can definitely get behind. The author touts the series interactivity, branching paths, engrossing cutscenes, awesome sound and high quality graphics as what put it on top. Other sections in the writeup are about singular titles in a franchise, but the entire Wing Commander series gets a nod here. Even when he moves on to Star Wars, he mentions WC and even Strike Commander at least half a dozen times throughout its portion.

2014.126 (May 6, 2014)

Supplemental Wing Commander Album Campaign Two Weeks In

More contributors have added to the campaign to lengthen the WC music album, but there is still a ways to go before the full target is reached. $20 secures your digital copy of Prague's Czech Philharmonic Orchestra playing classic Wing Commander music, and $100 gets you a collectible autographed disc. More than simply getting you a copy of the product, these pledges help make the project possible at all. The current length is slated to be about 30 minutes, but an additional $13,000 will help max out the disc with an additional recording session.

2013.126 (May 6, 2013)

"Whiplash, I want you on my wing..."

Whiplash's hand-crafted Hellcat has seen significant progress on its wings. Each section had to be carefully measured and cut to ensure a smooth fit to the fuselage and engines. A lot of effort went into getting the shape right with the vertical wingtip stabilizers, and the entire wingbox benefits from some new strengthening. You can find more pictures at the CIC Forums here.

2012.127 (May 6, 2012)

New WC Ship Viewer In Development

BOC_Havoc has put together a very sharp 3D ship viewer. The program is still in the prototype stages, but you can try out the current build here. The unity web player plugin is needed to see the model. Klavs' Ferret is available to manipulate in the current mockup, and it's already pretty cool.

2011.126 (May 6, 2011)

Every Wingnut Needs Star*Soldier

Lots of people ask us where they can get background information or fighter stats for Wing Commander Arena. The answer is right here (7.7 meg PDF)! The manual/magazine Star*Soldier introduces you to the world of Arena and fills you in on decades of new backstory for the end of the 27th Century.

2010.126 (May 6, 2010)

Hostile Frontier Kicks Off "Dev Diaries"

Kevin Caccamo has posted several updates to his addon/mod to the WC Saga Prologue. He's released shots of the latest texture updates to the WC Hostile Frontier Rapier and Raptor. Standoff fans should find the Raptor familiar, and the Rapier has been heavily inspired by Dean McCall's movie concept art. The blue and red roundels are intended to represent the Republic of Landreich.

2009.126 (May 6, 2009)

Space Sim First Look: Pulsar for XNA

Microsoft's XNA is a set of tools that enables hobbyists and independent developers to rapidly create videogames for Windows and the XBox 360. The XNA software suite makes it easier to render graphics or connect to the Live network. Laurence is putting together a Wing Commander-style shooter for the platform. The Pulsar development blog already covers a number of topics, from creating nebulas to multiplayer support.

Making the Game: Powerups

Here is another fascinating remnant of Wing Commander Prophecy's multiplayer which again mirrors that of Wing Commander Arena: the decision that it was necessary to include arcade-style "powerups" in the game. Clearly, the team knew longtime fans would take powerups poorly and wrote this "rational": "In Privateer and Armada, there was no problem with our player/customers flying through cargo that the ‘enemy’ ships dropped, and having that automatically stored onboard their ships. It was a natural game element. We are bringing it back.

2008.127 (May 6, 2008)

Making the Game - Part 1

We are proud to present a new daily feature which represents a major part of our mission -- the preservation and study of Wing Commander's history. Thanks to several very generous material donations we have been able to put together an impressive archive of documents relating to the development of Wing Commander Prophecy. Just over twelve years ago the development team first met to put together a plan for what was then called Wing Commander V. It was a project full of firsts -- the first Wing Commander game designed for the ground up for the PC and the Playstation simultaneously, the first one to include multiplayer and the first one without Chris Roberts at the helm.

Final Standoff Installment Creeps Closer

The Standoff website has been updated with a progress report on Episode 5, and the Characters page now has entries for Saxman, Popsicle and Henderson. It sounds like they are still hoping for a 2008 release. Here's the official word from Eder:Yet again, we've managed to go several months without an update. Honestly, every time we celebrate the release of another episode, it gets a little harder to get back to work ;-).

2007.126 (May 6, 2007)

BREAKING NEWS: New Arena Screenshots

Electronic Arts' Wing Commander Arena press site has been updated with four new high resolution screenshots (plus a nicer version of one from the last set)! These are the first full size shots of the 'closer' ship camera... and boy, do they ever look cool.

This Is The 'Pits!

Mousey333 is working on a Wing Commander IV movie edit... and he has a unique idea to spruce up the necessary in-game combat sequences - a new kind of widescreen cockpit overlay. He explains: "...using after effects I can actually trace out the space and put in real game spaceflight in 100% opacity.

Spam of the Tiger

We came across a strange blog article today -- it tells the story of a man investigating an unusual spam message only to find out that the strange text was a quote from Wing Commander: Fleet Action:On to the content. The line “In our plan we already have our agents at work, weakening their will to fight, ready as well to kill their leaders of war when the time is right.” comes from the book Wing Commander: Fleet Action. This appears to be a very popular book, and you can get it, besides from that website, from Amazon for 46 cents.

2006.126 (May 6, 2006)

Progress Continues With Prophecy Multiplayer Patch

April might have been a long month for fans awaiting the Prophecy Multiplayer Patch, but it probably seemed even longer for HCl. He has been tied up on a major work project lately, but some progress has been made on the Vision Engine upgrade. After another round of testing and analysis is finished this weekend, we'll hopefully have a better idea for an updated release window.News is good however, since I did manage to finish the project I was involved with, and with that milestone out of the way I will have a couple of days off that I will be able to divert to MP patch development.

Escapist Mag Details Gaming's Greatest Generation

The Escapist Magazine has written an article about the transitional era of games between Atari and the original Doom. They chose this period for a variety of reasons, but the core of the matter is that along with Mario, Tetris and Zelda, they consider Wing Commander one of the cornerstones that launched today's modern gaming genres. It gets right to the point, and WC1 is even followed by Origin's Ultima Underworld. You can find the full article here.

2005.126 (May 6, 2005)

Wing Commander 4 Videos Get Serious

TomGaines latest creation is a more serious music video based on Wing Commander 4. It chronicles a bit of the dramatic events leading up to Tolwyn's trial. The background track is the "Babylon 5 Season Three Theme" by Christopher Franke.There is a 9 meg standard quality avi here and a very high quality 40 meg mpg here.

Join The Black Lance

Another fan role playing game that has been around for a while is the Black Lance HQ. They use both message board and occasional chat style sessions to carry out their stories. In the past the club has also written various bits of fan fiction. Some parts of their web site are out of date, but they have been consistently trying to hold weekend story sessions for some time.

2004.127 (May 6, 2004)

WC Saga Goes Back To The Drawing Board

Over at the forums, Psych has unveiled the latest new ship to make it in to the WC Saga mod for Freespace. Once again they have managed to transform a ship from a drawing previously only seen on the "Making of WC3" CD-ROM in to a full 3D model.As mentioned in the artwork, this is a Kilrathi cruiser. But it’s very different from the notorious Fralthi II-class cruiser from WC3, so it’s assumed as a different ship class.

Electronic Arts Announces E3 Lineup

EA has announced that it will be showing 23 titles at next week's Electronics Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. These include their eight annual sports franchises, plus GoldenEye Rogue Agent, Battlefield 2, Battlefield Modern Combat, Catwoman, Def Jam Fight for New York, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, LOTR Battle for Middle Earth, LOTR The Third Age, Medal of Honor Pacific Assault, The Sims 2, The Urbz, Burnout 3, TimeSplitters Future Perfect, Armies of Exigo and Black & White 2. There will certainly be other surprises and minor announcements at the show as well. We'll be in LA next week to report live from the show.

2001.126 (May 6, 2001)

SWC Ship of the Day: Dorkir

Four days ago, I promised to end the transports with the most terrifying thing you'd ever seen...

Trivia Reminder

The usual reminder -- get in your Trivia Week 27 answers by midnight tonight, as the new scores and questions will be posted on Monday!

WCA Mirror, Episode 11

Tye has posted Episode 11 of Wing Commander Academy for those who haven't yet downloaded it... grab it this week! The episode, titled Invisible Enemy, is a chilling prequel to Wing Commander II's storyline... and you can get it here.

The Law's Delay

Word from the Invasion mod for ST:Armada is that the public release of the v1.0 Beta will be significantly delayed while the replacement of several Confederation ships is enacted -- no word on the new release date is currently available... but to tide us over, here's the first of a series of Invasion screenshots. Shown below are the starbases used in the games...

Tom Wilson Sings

And here's an appropriate Sunday morning update: C777 has found an interview with Tom Wilson (Maniac in WC3, WC4 and Prophecy) on the Eternal Word Television Network's "Life on the Rock" program. You can watch the segment online here. C reports that he sings, though, which certainly makes me wonder about God...

Where I'm Going for That Last Update

Apparently those new Confederation ship models will be worth it -- here are four shots of the newly update Hades class Quick Strike Cruiser model that will be used in Invasion!

Invasion Reviewed!

DarkAlpha has also sent... a review of Invasion! Here's the skinny on the Star Trek: Armada TC...The WC:Invasion Project Public Beta 1*************************************1) The Good Stuff2) The Not So Good Stuff3) Full Report************************************* The Best Bits!

1999.126 (May 6, 1999)

Pictures to Pass the Time

In the absence of regular news, we thought some might be interested in the latest round of screenshots for the upcoming Starlancer. Gamespot UK recently put up a gallery of thirteen shots that you can view here and Lanced.net has their ubiquitous Screen Shot Contest here. To me they look like what P2's engine would be if they'd had another year's development and incorporated hardware acceleration.