Melek 2.0 Added to Graphical Novel Project Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

EmuMusicFan has a few fun updates to share his graphical novel project. The big addition is a sketch of Chancellor Melek. He doesn't directly fit into the Action Stations era, but it's a fun character regardless. This is based off the best parts of the WC3 and WC4 appearance, and some might even argue it looks better than the original. There's also a colorful young Jukaga as well as several more story snippets that do a good job of sharing what the story will eventually have to offer.
Now my styling skills are probably improved a little, so I've upgraded Melek's portrait to version 2.0. I am trying to combine Melek's WC3 style and his WC4 style, and there are of course some considerations of my own. I guess the less intimidating-looking Melek might have seemed more persuasive when he said "My race no longer presents a threat".

Contraband Detected: All Units Close and Terminate! Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

LOAF recently acquired an interesting and well made copy of Wing Commander on VHS. It's not uncommon to see bootlegs with surprisingly sophisticated production values at conventions or some counterfeit markets. The first release of the movie on VHS was priced to rent at a whopping $103.99, so it's no shock that pirated copies popped up here and there. A more budget-conscious $9.99 home version became available in 2001.
Here is a glorious 1999-vintage VHS bootleg of the Wing Commander movie. All the artwork is taken from the long dead official site!

High Quality Wing Commander 4 Trailer Found (with Bonus Hellcats!) Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

All the talk about enhanced videos this week reminded me of a very cool high quality trailer for Wing Commander 4 that we unearthed a while ago. This is a slick version of the Original Trailer that was produced for glorious 35 mm presentations. It's a real beauty that I wish I could have seen in theaters back in the day! We have long carried a copy of the clip here in the CIC Holovids archive, but it's quite a bit blurrier with high compression. It does have music in the first minute or so that's missing from this new HQ encode though. Both include a CGI scene of a Hellcat taking off from a planet that doesn't appear in the final game, so it's nice to finally get a clearer shot of that here too!
This is a recently uncovered version of this trailer that features higher quality visuals but is missing some of the music in the first minute of the clip. This trailer is also notable for featuring at least one brief clip of a scene not found in the game itself.

Check out the Japanese PSX Combat Booklet Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

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. It's very cool all around!

Significant Wing Commander 4 and Prophecy Video Upgrade Available! Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

We've got a fantastic video upgrade to share with you today! ODVS has spent the past month toiling away to create incredibly detailed video remasters of the cutscenes in Wing Commander 4 and Prophecy. Over the years, we considered ourselves extremely lucky to be able to provide access to high quality DVD versions of both games, and while these were some four times as detailed as the clips originally included on CD, they're still "standard definition" editions that look quite dated compared to today's modern footage. For many years we resigned ourselves to thinking that these were as good as it was ever going to get. "You can't create detail where none exists," we thought. But we live in the future now, and Star Trek's "Enhance" feature has become astonishingly real. Through the use of advanced machine learning/AI filters and techniques, it is now possible to recreate old content with a sharper cleaner look. This isn't just old school upscaling and smoothing - new image data is generated as part of the process. Of course, it's not perfect, but the results are surprisingly good. We actually previewed a bit of this technology just last month, and we're seeing that it will be used to upscale the videos of the upcoming Command & Conquer Remastered Collection as well. ODVS has also made several great preview videos to show the improvement side-by-side. Note that the actual downloads look even better as YouTube has introduced a bit of compression back into the mix.
Continuing on to the good news: Owen's upgraded videos are ready and released! What's more is that he's been working closely with fellow Wingnuts at the CIC Forums to refine the encodings and has already put out a version 2.0 that incorporates a number of new learnings, better audio, frame rate improvements and general quality tweaks. These latest files are a solid release that will probably last for a while so that Owen can explore the potential of upgrading WC3 FMV as well. Preliminary results are promising, but it would be a lot more work to take that older material and then find a way to get it to display in the game. Anyhow, to take advantage of the awesome new clips that are available, simply unzip the following packages into the VOB movie folders of the DVD editions of either WC4 or Prophecy. The GOG release of WC4 is already the DVD edition, and you'll need to patch Prophecy to take advantage of those high res files. We also have a patch or the CD edition of WC4 if that's what you happen to have handy. Hit the comment link to join the ongoing discussion on this exciting topic at the CIC Forums!
Hello all, Total Newbie here - my name's Owen. First of all, thank you to everyone in this community - although I've only just joined, I have fond childhood memories of WC and I've called by WCNews occasionally over the years to make use of assets, patches and all the other wonderful things this community has come up with.

The reason I set up an account is I think I might actually have something to share. Having bought WC4 in the recent GOG sale, I decided to see if I could improve the DVD video. I set about using Machine Learning/AI to remaster the FMV footage in HD.

I've upscaled it to native 1080p Full HD (not just a scalar/smoothing solution - extra image data is actually added to create "true" HD footage) as well as removing the DVD interlacing, cleaning up the MPEG compression artefacts and remastering the colour of all footage. If you'd like to see the results, I put together a short comparison video which you can view on YouTube here.

Thanks to the wonderful work that's previously been done to bring the DVD footage into the GOG release, it was surprisingly easy to get the remastered HD footage working in-game. So if anyone would be interested, let me know and I'll see about sharing the remastered footage with anyone who'd like it - all you have to do is backup your original VOB folder in your Wing4 installation and drop my replacement video files in place.

Looking forward to any feedback!

Regards,

Owen

P.S. Do watch the YouTube video all the way through - YouTube's compression algorithms actually lowered the quality of the remastered HD footage and you get a better idea of the improvements if you watch all the examples - but the versions I dropped in-game are actually higher quality than YouTube displays.

Docteur J Concludes French WC4 Run Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

After a yearlong battle fighting for humanity, Docteur J has wrapped up his epic French language playthrough of Wing Commander 4. Through his YouTube channel Oldies Games TV, J is a prolific gamer and Wingnut who has long been helping spread appreciation of the WC series to an underserved audience. He's even covered the translated version of Prophecy for the Gameboy Advance. While most of our visitors may not understand exactly what he's saying, the emotion, excitement and fun come across in his vids very well. It's also really cool to see what the game's like in a different language, and WC4's high quality sets and videos are always a joy to watch. You can find more of his vids here.
C'est avec une certaine émotion que nous voici arrivé a la fin de cette incroyable jeu :-)

It is with a certain emotion that we have arrived at the end of this incredible game :-)

Revisiting the Capships of Wing Commander Arena Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Shout out to the oft-forgotten capital ships of Wing Commander Arena!
Shout out to LOAF for this elegant reminder that the capships from Arena definitely exist - and they're wild! A Midway class ship appears in the game's gauntlet mode where you must defend the ship from aggressors. Note that this particular example is the TCS Port Broughton, which was a famous carrier from the Nephilim War. It now serves a critical lifeline in the Epsilon Sector. The shots below compare the original render from Sean Murphy to the embellished model in Arena. The Indomitable and Kiranka class battlecruisers are next. Between the ship renders and a handful of in-game screenshots is NinjaLA's cool sketch of the game's capship battles. Read up on their backstory from Star*Soldier below. Which one do you like better?
Battlecruisers - Pure Firepower

As the war against the Nephilim grew bloodier, both humans and Kilrathi realized the need for a heavy weapons platform capable of facing down the massive alien hive fleets.Thus was born the bat- tlecruiser, a new kind of warship for a new kind of war. Built for broadside actions and designed to operate in giant squadrons, battlecruisers consist of row after row of plasma cannons powered by ex- ceptionally strong engines. All power is focused on these central weapons, abandoning classic shield- ing in favor of heavy layers of armor plating. Anti-starfighter defense is provided by laser and missile turrets which dot their hulls in record numbers..

Overpowered, overloaded and requiring a new naval doctrine reminiscent of the one developed for Texas-class battleships of the 2630s, battlecruisers nevertheless left an indelible mark on the war: from the signing of the Terran-Kilrathi alliance on the deck of the TCS Conqueror to the last desperate line during the defense of Ardai. At Dakota a single human battlecruiser held four Kraken squadrons at bay until reinforcements could arrive. During the evacuation of Torgo, the KAS Vrax’hmal alone closed the alien wormhole long enough for the transport fleet to escape. It was a proud fleet of bat- tlecruisers, painted white and blue, which carried President Harrison to Kabla Meth on .222.

The most famous battlecruiser of all was unquestionably the TCS Lawrence, which rescued the TCS Midway after Zhrtx’s Doublecross. Her sudden arrival at the height of the battle prompted Colonel Casey himself to exclaim that she was “the ugliest, most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.” The Lawrence went on to serve as the head of the 34th Task Force, the first group which penetrated 100,000 ly into the Aligned People’s homeworlds. She continues to serve today, defending Farragut Naval Station from foreign foes.

Two primary battlecruiser designs served with the allied navies: the Terran Confederation’s Indomi- table-class and the Kilrathi Assembly of Clans’ Kiranka-class. Both ships are visually similar, owing to the technology-sharing agreement established by the alliance treaty — though the natural ‘battering ram’ purpose of the ships makes their similarities less jarring than the so-called ‘Kilrathi Midway’. The indomitable brings additional plasma guns to the fight while the Kiranka expends additional armor to include an elaborate system of vacuum tight hull compartments.

Produced by the thousands, war-surplus battlecruisers now occupy hundreds of boneyards and mothball facilities across the galaxy. The staggering amount of Durasteel used in their construction is enough to provide armor for an entire fleet of starfighters. Many others have become the center- pieces of private fleets on the frontier. Crewed by warlords, mercenaries and pirates, the ships have given a literal meaning to the concept of gunboat diplomacy.

Get in the Wing Commander Mix Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

At long last, LOAF had finally hunted down a rare thorough magazine profile of the music associated with Wing Commander 4. It appeared in the April 1996 issue of Mix, a professional audio publication. More than just a preview of a video game, the piece goes into quite a bit of technical depth about how the music was made and recorded. It includes numerous quotes from composer George Oldziey and provides an exciting glimpse into the still nascent field of high end music for games. You can find full scans and a proper transcript in the WCPedia here.
eBay victory! After several years of watching I have the April 1996 issue of Mix, a sound mixing trade magazine. It has an in-depth five page feature on the sound work on Wing Commander IV! My only clue in this chase was a mention in the April 1996 Point of Origin that Mix had done a big feature ‘last month’ so I had to try a few issues. Worth it, the making of articles in trade magazines are solid gold compared to the usual gaming PR stuff!
"In Wing III, all the music was composed as MIDI files," says Oldziey. "There were three different versions---one version for General MIDI, another version for Roland MT-32, and also an Ad-Lib version that could be played on SoundBlaster. Each version has certain parameters in terms of the number of notes the sound card will play simultaneously. General MIDI is the best, but even so you can only hear 24 notes at the same time, and some of the sounds I like to use, such as the strings, will use up as many as three or four notes for one sound. So if you want an orchestral sound, you have to be very conservative with picking just the right sound to get a whole effect."

Fortunately for Oldziey, Roberts had decided that for Wing IV all of the music was to be prerecorded, eliminating the limitations of MIDI regeneration. Oldziey first composed the space-flight music heard during "game play" and completed the music for the space-flight portion in April or May. Game-play music, unlike the score that accompanies the filmed sections of the game, may be extended almost indefinitely. Oldziey therefore composed minute-long sequences that can be repeated. "The last part of a one-minute piece sounds like it's segueing to its beginning," he says. "But anywhere within that piece you could be triggered by an event to go to some other piece. For instance, if you blow someone up or get engaged in combat, you could jump to another piece of music that had more tension or is faster-paced."

Catch Up On Everything Wing Commander 2 Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Shot97 has completed his absolutely massive hourlong review of Wing Commander 2. As you might imagine, it's a rather exhaustive look at many different aspects of the game, its expansions, gameplay, story, development and more. Fortunately, if you pop out the clip in a proper YouTube window, the video description has a full index that lets you jump around if there are certain elements that strike your fancy more than others. This allows you to cut straight to different magazine perspectives, character analysis or a peek at the SNES edition. So if you want to learn all the ins and outs there are to know about WC2 and you've got an hour to spare, fire up the full vid below. Alternately there's a written version with tons of great screenshots here. You can also find Shot's comparable video review of WC1 on the Amiga here.
Despite coming out just a year after the original in 1991 and featuring the same game engine, the second installment in the Wing Commander franchise brought much to the table. Completely redrawn graphics, some pre-rendered scenes, speech in select areas, a deeper look at our kitty enemies. In my review we'll be sharing some memories, looking at the manual, showing off some reviews from back in the day! - Shown on actual DOS hardware, recorded directly off a 4:3 CRT as designed!

Graphical Novel Project Adds More Creative Range Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

EmuMusicFan is starting to branch into new territory with his graphical novel project. So far he's created a lot of regal, stoic or deceptive-looking Kilrathi, but there are more active emotions needed to fully convey a good story. In particular, he's managed to pull off a very decent laughing Kilrathi. There's also been general progress advancing the narrative. These different elements look like they're all starting to gel really well. You can see how it's coming together here.
First attempt at drawing an open-mouthed, laughing expression. It's very tough indeed. It's important to make the character laugh and not overdo it, but also to be aesthetically pleasing. Once again, FF14 Hrothgars are really good models!

Revisiting Wing Commander Miniatures Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Cherno wanted to share a review of the 5150 Fighter Command ruleset as the backdrop for a tabletop Wing Commander game. The Javier at War article dates back a few years when there was a real boom in 3D printed miniatures, but the fun is just as current as ever. Check out the writeup on the experience here. If this gets you thinking about starting up your own games, and you're up to the challenge of painting your own awesome ships, stop by the Dream Foundry to pick some up! These just never get old.
I loved the PC game Wing Commander and I played all its sequels. I loved it so much that since then I wondered about the possibility of playing it with miniatures on a board. I wanted to play it solo as with the PC game, but I never could find an appropriate ruleset for this. But then 5150SA was released, and I bought it and played it, and I realised that its campaign system was so good and robust, that I could easily adapt it for anything. Well, I have adapted it for Wing Commander and here is the first official test.

WC1's Medal System Fully Explained Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Ever wonder how medals work in Wing Commander I? Well, I am putting together a guide anyway.
It's not uncommon for discussions at the CIC Forums to touch on the concept of "medal points" and how this influences whether you are awarded a certain star or sometimes nothing at all. It often shows up in the news and on Discord too. Many fans have had a general understanding dating all the way back to Secrets of the Wing Commander Universe, but what exactly are the details? How many points do you get for taking out a Dralthi versus a Snakeir? Certain missions each make a single medal available, but we realized we didn't have a nice concise article that spelled out what that threshold was and how you achieved it. So LOAF finally went and did it! This then naturally led into topics like the hypothetical maximum medal slate that a pilot can earn based on their path through the game, which have been noted as well. You can now check out the helpful WCPedia article here. There's also a design document that spelled out how the concept would work, which LOAF has also transcribed!

Fun Finding Brings Belated Christmas Cheer Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

More_Boom_Boom recently unearthed this Christmas card from his sister. It dates back a few years to when he was building a Star Citizen computer, but his sister didn't know all those details. Nevertheless, if he's anything like me, all of his family and friends are well aware of his affection for Wing Commander. I'm very impressed by the attention to detail here. It's a pretty recognizable Hornet cockpit targeting a Dralthi. What a great sister!
She had the right idea. Just a couple decades off.

WC4 Wallpapers Ready for High Res Screens Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

KilrathiKiller stopped in to share the latest in a series of Wing Commander wallpapers. This one commemorates Wing Commander 4! They feature nice high resolution 4K logos that look crisp against a space backdrop. If you don't recall his previous iterations, that might be because they date back to 2008 and 2009. We're always happy to see someone come back around and keep plugging away on a project. Hopefully he completes his Prophecy artwork before 2030 - but in case he doesn't, we'll be here when he's ready!
So was sitting here with some time on my hands and decided to make a little 4K wallpaper for fans of Wing Commander 4. Possibly my favorite of the series. Hope you like. I have both just the logo and one with a background. If anyone remembers I always had a version with the characters in background but finding pics for 4K that don't look terrible is really tough from something that old. I think I found maybe 2 and just wasn't worth it so decided to do this if you want some color.

Large or Small, We Love Them All Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

EpytronOmega has been diligently working on rendering Wing Commander ships over the last few months, and he's got several sharp models to show for it. His first two designs exist at opposite ends of the Confed spectrum: a Behemoth class dreadnought and Arrow light fighter. I used to love flying around the interior of that giant gun, so the angle that looks down the Behemoth's maw brings back some fond memories. The Arrow is also quite respectable, and his new Bearcat is coming along quite well. Epytron's main goal is to try to build assets for games like Sins of a Solar Empire, so it'll be interesting to see where these pop up!
  • Here is my take on the Behemoth from Wing Commander 3: Heart of the Tiger.
  • This is my rendition of the Arrow Class fighter from Wing Commander. It is my first texture made in Substance painter, and I have to say that I am pretty pleased with it.
  • Here is the work I’ve done on the Bearcat from Wing Commander 4. It’s close to done, but not 100% yet. Still things to clean up, but I’m happy where it’s going.

Meet the WC2 Characters... as of 1990! Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

I've been staying busy with a little CIC housekeeping. Enjoy a newly-transcribed Wing Commander II development document featuring very early (December 1990) character descriptions! You can find the whole document here.
Wing Commander II Characters is a development document created during the making of Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi. It is dated December 3, 1990 and is an early description of Wing Commander II's characters and their planned story arcs. The document is part of the Warren Spector Papers at the University of Texas at Austin's Briscoe Center for American History (box 2008-091/6).

Much of the material planned in the document is significantly different from the finished game including plans for significantly more missions to take place before the arrival of the Concordia. Some of the characters were ultimately cut or referred to only in dialogue; others, like Bear and Minx, would reappear in other forms in the Special Operations missions. The role planned for Iceman would largely go to Stingray in the finished game. Other notable changes include early references to Hobbes as "Tomcat" and different first and last names for many of the secondary characters.

author avatar

WC Movie Reviewed From WC1 Perspective Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

ConMan1226 is creating a series of movie reviews called "From Pixels to Pictures," and now he's reached Wing Commander. He was unfamiliar with the series beforehand, so he played through the first WC game and based his comparisons on that, which gives this kind of an interesting point of view. The cast generally gets decent marks, and he says this is despite the lead actor not trying very hard. The author would have preferred more of the game's side characters to play a larger role and notes the death of Rosie as a high point of the story. Set design and spaceflight get quite a few compliments as well. He even though the Pilgrims worked, although they were probably too complicated. Based on some of his analysis of the contemporary reviews at the time, his final verdict is that it didn't get a fair shake and suffered in the wake of a general video game-based movie stigma at the time. Watch the whole review below!
This is a video game adaptation that not a lot of people talk about, but it's noteworthy for being directed by the same man who created the original game. How does it hold up?

NOTE: The disclaimer at the beginning of the video was recorded one week before this video's publication. It took me a while to get around to editing this video.

Meet Baron Qazkar... and The Emperor Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

EmuMusicFan has made more progress with his graphical novel project. There's a new update to the mockup website to show the story in action. It now includes an appearance by The Emperor! Otherwise, Emu's up through about chapter 4 in his march through Action Stations. You can follow all the latest updates at the CIC Forums.
A new portrait. Baron Qazkar. "And how will the carriers managed to achieve victory?" Qazkar appeared in Action Stations, Chapter 4.

Happy CIC Easter! Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

This year is a year unlike any other, obviously, and everyone is making do with what they can. We might not have any Wing Commander-themed eggs to share this time, but here's a colorful next best thing. Hope you all are staying safe and healthy out there!

Armada Streams Strike Strategic Sectors Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Hercxena is big into Wing Commander streaming. His avatar is even a Bluehair-looking guy, and he gets good crowds for it on Twitch. We shared his Righteous Fire stream back in 2016, since that's less common on most platforms, and now he's been digging into Armada. He's cross posted the first few Twitch streams over to YouTube, which are potentially a little easier to check out. I admit I haven't watched the whole thing myself yet, but it looks like he takes a good crack at the lengthy campaign. There's so many wonderful things about this game. The cockpit sounds are great and the explosions are gorgeous. A lot of people consider the strategic aspect to be on the basic side, but it's still a joy for me. It's really nice to see people playing still playing it! (And it's fun to see that my box scan from 2005 is still circulating around the internet)

Madlib Script Targets Kilrathi Pilots Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Rear Admiral Tarsus put this little script together. It's hypnotically simple. I keep clicking reload to see what Kilrathi I'm going to learn. What's their favorite ship and flying style? Click here and found out who's next.

WC1 Speech Mod Marches Through Vega Sector Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Destro has posted an update on his exciting project to add official speech recordings into the original Wing Commander. The project began with the audio files off the Sega CD WC port, but he's since gotten ahold of the audio from Super Wing Commander as well. Although he's managed to get this to work, the Sega sound appears to be of higher quality and fit, so he'll plan to stick with that for now. There have also been a variety of coding enhancements made that reduce CPU load and improve overall functionality. The first two systems, Enyo and McAuliffe, are complete and Gateway is in progress. You can check out the full update here or the original prototype demonstration below.
Messed around with Super Wing Commander Audio files (Thanks GuybrushSF) and played around with getting them into the game. Was easy enough to swap and I might make an option to toggle between SegaCD and 3DO versions. They are quite low quality and don't sound that great with the background music but I'm gonna keep this in mind as I so forward and see what I can do.

Completed Enyo, McAuliffe and partially complete of Gateway. Had some issues where if a Wingman is dead during a briefing then the player would say the exact same line. Because the strings would be the same I needed to have a way to tell them apart. For now I simply changed the Wingman's dialog to have an extra period but I'd like to find a flag for if Wingman is alive or not and use that.

Tested to see if I could inject translations into the dialog. Sorry to say EmuMusicFan but the way that the game works it has each line of dialog in it's own unique section of memory then a function moves it to be converted to an image to be displayed. I cannot read it until after that move which means it is already called to draw before I can replace it. I could get it before then but I need to search and map as many memory blocks as there are lines of dialog in the game and it does seem worth it. Alternatively you can make edits to the dialog via WCMissionEditor so the memory doesn't need to be mapped but I tested this with German and Chinese characters and it caused broken graphics and in some cases crashes so I don't think the game can support other languages.

That's it for now. Stay save everyone and I'll try to keep you all posted every now and then. Cheers!

Kilrathi Saga Celebrated in Comprehensive Review Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

GouldFish On Games has posted a video review of 1996's Wing Commander: The Kilrathi Saga. The various component games of the series have seen their fair share of attention over the years, but it's fairly uncommon to see specific focus on the actual KS compilation. We get to see the beautiful discs and the reviewer has the edition with the fancy spiral bound manual and calendar. There's even a moment to call out the efficient Windows 95 launcher. As you might expect, the technical enhancements regarding sound, game speed and input methods get credit, but you can tell he's really done his homework because things like WCDX, DDHack and the space background bug are referenced too. Good Old Games has spoiled us lately, but Kilrathi Saga is certainly a viable alternate way to play. Check out the full video below to see why!
Origin remastered the first three Wing Commander games for Windows 95 and released them in one big box, called the Kilrathi Saga.

'90s Tech Show Covers The Darkening's Film Shoot Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

LOAF found a really cool video from a 1995 episode of the British show Bad Influence!. It follows the last day of filming on the set of Privateer 2: The Darkening, however, at the time, it was still just known as The Darkening. Because of this, a lot of cool behind-the-scenes stuff from the early days of development fell through the cracks and hasn't been properly cataloged. They make a big deal about it being the first video game interactive movie being filmed in Europe, and they're impressed by the cast. There's even a brief interview with Clive Owen where he explains how his PADD works. Jump to 5:35 if the video doesn't start at the Darkening's segment.
Found a small treasure!!!

A Message From John Rhys-Davies Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

John Rhys-Davies has started a new YouTube channel, and one of his first videos is a reflective piece on the impact of the coronavirus. He talks a bit about his personal history and describes how humanity will endure through tragedy as it always does. Mr. Rhys-Davies is an eloquent speaker and it's nice to hear his perspective on things!
21st March 2020. John Rhys-Davies shares his thoughts from his home in the Isle of Man. He reflects on the experience of his family during the war and what we can learn from a generation that faced the greatest adversity of the 20th century.
Not all the clips that he's planning to post will be nearly as heavy. Here's the easygoing intro he posted a couple weeks back. Thanks to capi for the tip!

Extracted WC3 Images Reveal Captain Eisen's Chair, Cramped Barracks and More! Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

UnnamedCharacter has extracted some fantastic images from the core files that make up Wing Commander 3! He has been experimenting with the programs in his WC Toolbox package to dig deep into the game. While exploring some of the background scenes used during game flow, he has come across a variety of alternate settings that appear to be preliminary prerelease versions of most locations.


The barracks are smaller with beds lining the walls. The bridge has significantly more glow from the various screens and safety lighting around the edges. Its framing has also been pulled back farther to reveal the central captain's chair as well as steps to the upper level. Flight Control pulls in closer to Rachel's terminal, and the loadout screen has been replaced with a video feed of the hangar. TrainSims are also not yet present. We see the flight deck from a more central viewpoint that looks out the bay doors. Gunnery Control is relatively unchanged, but the computer consoles were updated. Even the elevator got some tweaks in perspective and how the interface UI is presented. As previously mentioned, the bar (and barracks) furniture is an overlay, but the lighting seems to have been microscopically altered at some point as well. It's amazing what discoveries continue to be made after more than 25 years!

No updates to the toolbox, but I have been digging through the WC3 dataset and found what looks like early room designs. I do not recall ever seeing these before.

Meet Denis Loubet Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Artist Denis Loubet has put together a thoroughly badass video biography that covers the numerous highlights of his storied career. His latest venture is to help with a crowdfunded vampire film called Captive. The movie wouldn't have ordinarily caught my attention, but Denis' video is so great that I had to give it a look. And it looks pretty cool! If you'd like to check it out, there's a few days left on its Kickstarter campaign. No matter what, check out Mr. Loubet's clip below!
Denis Loubet is most prominently known for his work on the Ultima franchise, as well as Wing Commander, but he artist presence extends into the world of comics, table top rpgs, and more.

Denis was kind enough to lend his considerable talents to the crowdfunding efforts of Captive - an upcoming vampire film. In addition to designing the art of the campaign, he has also contributed two unique perks.

  • A custom credit card style bottle opener with a graphic designed by Denis available for $20.
  • Limited Edition Graphic Print of one of the panels from the main Kickstarter promotional video. Signed by Denis himself and available for $750.

Wildcat Strikes a Defiant Tone Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

DefianceIndustries has textured his retro Wildcat model. As a hypothetical Hellcat predecessor, it shares a lot in common with the later medium fighter, but it also has some wonderful throwback flourishes like the the trailing vane extensions on the fins. The colors are a nice homage to a classic era as well. You can just kind of imagine it going out on a dangerous patrol alongside a flight of Scimitars!
I finally got around to texturing my Wildcat model. I like how it turned out, although it looks like if you try and anime-style a Hellcat, you get a Super Rapier. :) Still though, it was fun little exercise. I went with the WC1 style paint, but I may revise it and go for a more 60's style raw aluminum look, it makes the heat distressed panels around the engines look a bit less jarring. But given the lore that the engines on a Wildcat are old, inefficient, and due an upgrade, I figured I'd channel the Super Saber and make it look like the techs just gave up painting the housings because they have to pull the engines so often and that the waste heat keeps peeling off the paint.

Enjoy fellow wingnuts C&C as always is welcome.

Stay Home Sale Discounts Wing Commander Games Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

The Spring Sale may be over, but GOG is rolling right into a handful of smaller specialty sales to help give gamers who are sheltering at home something to do. A particularly fun deal running right now is dedicated to space games of all types. This ranges from Space Quest to the X series (wow, they made an X4?) to Wing Commander. If you have a friend stuck at home right now, gift them a Wing Commander game and help them get through the quarantine! You can find the GOG midweek sale here.

Is April Fools Canceled? Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Here at the CIC we're all about spreading the latest Wing Commander news and archiving all WC knowledge, but telling in-jokes is a very close second calling. As such, in light of the current pandemic, the CIC has announced the following measures:
  • All CIC Complete content will be made available for free so that you can have full unblocked access to sections like the Ships Database, Fan Directory and Listicals in this time of need.
  • All outstanding payments due to CIC Finance are suspended for 60 days. This way you can keep plenty of liquid KilrathiKoin handy.
  • All prior episodes ALL WINGS CONSIDERED are now streaming free - over a hundred hours of prime Wingnut video content ready for your eyeballs on demand!
  • Storage and bandwidth caps on fans' Ralph McCloud Drives have all been removed.
  • CIC crowd funding engine WingStarter will be matching donations today to help shore up the backbone of America's medical system, GoFundMe. This is possible thanks to our Mega Millions winnings.
  • Physical CIC Staff gatherings of 3 or more people have been suspended for the time being.
  • CIC Staff members with Kilrathi masks on hand will begin wearing them whenever out in public.
  • With barbershops and salons closed down, you may soon be forced to give yourself a trim. We have collected some out of this world hair styles to inspire you.

Our phone operators are working from home at reduced efficiency, so please reach out via Chat or the Tech Support Forum for fastest service! Follow us on Twitter for real time news updates - the feed turns ten years old today. Note that the above benefits only apply to non-Akkbar affiliated Wingnuts.


Please protect yourself from the coronavirus and stay safe out there!

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