Prophecy, Armada & Academy Included in Unusual Weekend Sale
This is a reminder that we have another fun #Wingnut movie night planned on Discord this evening! The ongoing theme will be movies that inspired Wing Commander in some way. Tonight's film is Star Trek: The Motion Picture which inspired the music in the original Wing Commander. You can find details on that as well as how to watch along with us in the announcement post here. The movie will start about 7 PM PST/10 PM EST but feel free to drop by and hang any time!
Greetings WingNuts,
Epic war movies haven't fared great with the Wing Commander movie club so far; a lot of classic air combat movies have come off as either extremely slow (The Dambusters, Battle of Britain) or kind of silly (Midway). Surprisingly, Tora! Tora! Tora! didn't share that fate. It's an incredibly literal telling of Pearl Harbor that abandons any pretense of character drama but it still reads as an impressive spectacle and a story that feels worth telling. The fact that it was so significantly a Japanese and American co-production also makes the film itself an interesting part of the event itself!
The Wing Commander movie references Tora! Tora! Tora! Immediately as it starts, basing the Pegasus attack on the Pearl Harbor bombing. Here's how some of the angles of the attack compare. The movie was actually intended to reference Pearl Harbor even more by opening with a 'fake out' that would've had sailors relaxing on a beach only to reveal that it was buried deep inside an asteroid base.
The name of the movie, Tora! Tora! Tora! refers to the code phrase the Japanese used to begin the attack. Tora translates literally to tiger but it's actually an abbreviation of 'lightning attack'. Action Stations uses "Jak-ta Ga!", derived from the Kilrathi word Jak-tu which also refers to a surprise attack. This is even used as the prose extract from the start of the book!
"Jak-ta Ga! Jak-ta Ga! Jak-ta Ga!"
The triumphal cry, announcing the destruction of the reactors and the lowering of the main base shields, erupted from the speakers on the bridge, greeted an instant later by wild shrieks and roars of unspeakable joy as those around the Crown Prince broke into a mad demonstration. Fists were raised to the heavens, talons extended, some of the warriors turning the talons on themselves, slicing open their own veins so that they might smell blood and then drink it.
Speaking of Action Stations, it would take more space than we have to point out how the book borrows scene after scene from the movie. From the Japanese torpedo tests to the machine that decodes enemy communications to the letter to the Pentagon outlining the state of the war, it's shameless (and wonderful). But since Action Stations is based on the real story of Pearl Harbor there's a little plausible deniability… until we get to the famous scene in which Admiral Yamamoto says the attack has simply 'awakened the sleeping giant'. The line itself first appears in the film, not in any of the actual history. Dr. Forstchen puts it in the mouth of Harga, the young Jukaga's mentor:
Harga closed his eyes and Jukaga realized just how old his father's friend really was. His mane had gone nearly to white, the ripples of muscle on his limbs were melting away into nothingness.
Harga opened his eyes and looked back at Jukaga and his voice suddenly sounded distant and old, as if already whispering from the beyond.
"I fear that all that the Crown Prince shall succeed in doing is awakening the sleeping giant."
Pilgim Truth also references this quote at one point, referring to a mysterious Pilgrim fleet:
“This is but a small representation of the fleet that's headed our way,” Space Marshal Gregarov said, coming forward to gaze threateningly at Bellegarde. “If we begin the bombing, then it's safe to assume that we'll awaken this sleeping giant.”
Another piece of trivia is that the Japanese portions of the film had been scheduled to be directed by famed filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. Kurosawa was famously credited with a star system in the original Wing Commander… and Action Stations, appropriately, has a little tuckerization that surely exists because of the connection to Tora! Tora! Tora!:
"Nothing to sink our teeth into," Joshua replied. "You saw my report on what happened to the Beta team?"
Skip nodded and sighed. Of course their deaths would be listed as a training accident, bodies unrecoverable. They'd been nailed trying to slip into Kilrathi space near the Ingraya system in order to set up a listening post.
"That's the third team in as many months," Joshua said bitterly, looking into his mug of coffee. "One of them is Akiko Kurosawa's daughter, captain of Gibraltar. We've lost thirty good men and women for nothing."
If you want to experience the battle yourself in a Wing Commander engine, Origin's Pacific Strike opens with a mission in which you and your wingman join the desperate flight to defend the base. You can even change history by saving the USS Nevada, prompting it to follow your carrier like the William Tell in Wing Commander II!
And this item is more history than the film itself, but those pre-war Navy flag officer uniforms certainly inspired the one worn by Admiral Terrell in Privateer!
Sully did not return his copy of Pacific Strike.
Here's a neat discovery courtesy of a brief memory someone mentioned on BlueSky. A documentary where Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven played Wing Commander? It sounded too specific not to be real and sure enough, a quick search revealed that the pair appeared in the second episode ("To The Brink of Eternity") of a 1992 British documentary called Pandora's Box.
The documentary itself is about much heavier things than Wing Commander and Pournelle and Niven are appearing not as science fiction authors but because of their involvement in proposing the Strategic Defense Initiative (aka "Star Wars") to the Reagan administration. But as part of their interview, the film crew captured Pournelle very eagerly playing Wing Commander to use as coverage. Here's that clip:
It's worth noting that based on the ship flown (Rapier), the skybox objects (red nebula, blue planet) and the progression of enemy ships (a Gratha followed by Salthi with a Fralthi) that he is clearly playing the second mission in the Venice series… approaching the last mission of the game! That's because in addition to his writing and his work on SDI, Jerry Pournelle was a very early advocate for Wing Commander. He repeatedly mentioned his love of the game in his BYTE column, Tales from Chaos Manor. He was at one time assigned to co-author the third Wing Commander novel which was intended to be a story about the destruction of the Tiger's Claw. Pournelle died in 2017. And here's Larry Niven, namesake of Wing Commander II's Niven System and the ostensible creator of the Kilrathi, who seems to have been watching his friend and co-author play the original Wing Commander between takes.
The entire episode has been posted on YouTube or if you are in the UK it is available on iPlayer. We've archived a copy here (714 meg).
The main new feature is a controller setup utility which you can access in-game by pressing Alt+J on the Victory, via the Main Terminal under controls\joystick calibration or during space flight using the Alt+O menu\calibrate. This is the visual part of a general controller overhaul replacing the old Multimedia Joystick API with the newer Windows Gaming Input. It looks a little complicated but I hope it's fairly intuitive to use. You should be able to setup multiple controllers, peddles and such. You can also save your configurations as presets which can be shared with others, I'd be happy to include some of these in future releases of the patch for common joysticks\controllers.I've added linear filtering when scaling GUI and Cockpit/Hud elements to make things look a bit smoother especially a lower resolutions. If you hate the look you can always disable it in the ini.
We recently posted a guide to where to find all of the 'named' Kilrathi aces across the first three Wing Commander games. Once it was published I was immediately inspired to expand the guide to include all of the 'Drakhai' pilots that appear in the first two games. Drakhai are the Kilrathi Imperial Guards, ace pilots that must have killed eight Confederation ships in order to receive the assignment. The Drakhai are introduced in Secret Missions 2 (replacing the named aces for that campaign) and then appear throughout Wing Commander II and its addons. In Wing Commander II they have distinct pilot profiles but they aren't labeled as Drakhai on your VDU–making it more difficult to know where to find them all!
Firekka System Mission 1 Alpha Wing
Firekka System Mission 2 Kappa Wing
Firekka System Mission 3 Epsilon Wing
Firekka System Mission 5 Delta Wing
Firekka System Mission 6 Chi Wing
Corsair System Mission 1 Beta Wing
Corsair System Mission 2 Gamma Wing
Near Firekka Mission 1 Psi Wing
Near Firekka Mission 2 Theta Wing
Corsair System Mission 1 Sigma Wing
Corsair System Mission 2 Mu Wing
Corsair System Mission 3 Omicron Wing
Corsair System Mission 4 Omega Wing
Border Zone Mission 1 Iota Wing
Border Zone Mission 2 Upsilon Wing
Wing Commander II
Gwynedd System Series 1 Mission 3
Niven System Series 2 Mission 2
Niven System Series 2 Mission 3
Enigma System Series 7 Mission 2
K'tithrak Mang Series 8 Mission 1
K'tithrak Mang Series 8 Mission 2
K'tithrak Mang Series 8 Mission 4
Novaya Kiev System Series 10 Mission 1
Tesla System Series 11 Mission 2
Tesla System Series 11 Mission 3
Gwynedd System Series 12 Mission 4
Special Operations 1
Pembroke System Series 1 Mission 1
Pembroke System Series 1 Mission 3
Ghorah Khar System Series 3 Mission 1
Ghorah Khar System Series 3 Mission 2
Ghorah Khar System Series 3 Mission 4
Pembroke System Series 5 Mission 1
Special Operations 2
Canewdon System Series 1 Mission 1
Canewdon System Series 2 Mission 3
Canewdon System Series 3 Mission 2
Canewdon System Series 3 Mission 4
Canewdon System Series 5 Mission 1
Canewdon System Series 5 Mission 2
Against all odds, we enjoyed Tora! Tora! Tora! Which makes the score Wing Commander movie club one, war movies fifty. This week we've voted to travel back to the future with Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979). ST:tMP is a sometimes-misunderstood masterpiece that we've found has improved greatly with age… and we're eager to see if that remains the case today! You can join us this Friday via Discord to watch along.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture is full of spectacular effects and incredible spaceships… but the connection to Wing Commander is the music. Back when Chris Roberts was developing the original Wing Commander he told composer George Sanger (The Fatman) that he wanted the game to have an epic score similar to Jerry Goldsmith's work on Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Here it is mentioned in a recent recent interview with The Fatman!
We had the creative brief that was that we should do something that's sort of like Star Wars and sort of like Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Chris Roberts was a very cinema oriented guy and this was the first time to my knowledge that anybody asked a game audio person to imitate John Williams or to do a movie like soundtrack. Before that nobody kind of bothered with that. It was like video, it's got to sound like a video game or just put music in it.
A sample of the original Wing Commander score from the Origin Audio CD:
Where can I find a copy of the movie for the watch party?
We will be watching the recently restored "Director's Edition" of Star Trek: The Motion Picture which is available for streaming in the United States on Paramount+. It is also available for rent or purchase on all the standard services. If you would like a physical copy, the movie was released on UHD in 2022 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!
Archive sites have recently preserved a new swath of gaming magazines. I found a pretty interesting general Origin preview in this issue of Computer Games Strategy Plus (February 1993)... but as I went to post about it, I got to thinking: just how much of this issue is covering games from Origin? The answer surprised me!
The issue's cover story is a preview of Origin's Pacific Strike, a game that ended up not having the simplest birth. It's all sunlight here, though, as the game promises to be a followup to Strike Commander that actually lets you drool over the textured aircraft in longer gunnery-based dogfights.
This is the preview itself which covers Origin's entire lineup at the time. Some of these projects, like Bioforge and Wings of Glory, would end up being over a year away! The fact that they intended to have a disk-based SKU for Bioforge is itself fascinating but Wing Commander fans will be most interested in Chris Roberts' early descriptions of the Wing Commander III interaction system and of Wing Commander Academy. There's also a great shot of the Super Wing Commander shuttle as it appears in Bioforge!
The 1993 Strategy Plus Game Awards give Simulation of the Year (General) to X-Wing with Privateer and Wing Commander Academy as runners up. Strike Commander loses out in Simulations (Flight) to Tornado... and Serpent Isle loses the CRPG award to Betrayal at Krondor. Always a bridesmaid!
There's also a pretty positive review of Shadowcaster, a game developed by Raven but published and supported by Origin:
There's also a multi-page strategy guide for Privateer! Unfortunately, every copy online seems to be missing the last page.
Origin advertised heavily, too, with THREE full page slots! The three Ps, Privateer, Pagan and Pacific Strike:
Finally, I tbought it would be fun to list out the Origin games that appear in the standard issue six-page Chips & Bits advertisement. Chips & Bits was known for running these 'list' ads in countless magazines... and for taking preorders for games sometimes before they were even announced! Still waiting for my copy of Ultima X...
Quarterdeck Game Bund $62 (included Privateer)
Ultima Trilogy $39
Ultima Trilogy 2 $48
Wing Com 1 Dlx or CD $48
Shadow Caster $45
System Shock $54
System Shock CD $54
Ultima 9 or 10 CD $54
Ultima Underworld 1 $ 2 CD $59
Wing Commander 3 CD $54
Wing Command Ultima 6 CD $57
Wing Command Ult UW CD $55
Martian Dreams Hint Book $15
Quest Clues 2, 3 or 4 ea $21
Quest Clues 5 Bk Orbs $16
Qust Clue 6 Man Swrds $16
Savage Empire Hint Book $10
Shadow Caster Hint Book $18
Strike Commander Of Bk $15
Ultima 4-6 Hint Book ea $10
Ultima 7 Hint Book $12
Ultima 7 & Underworld Bk $16
Ultima 7.5 Blnce Scales Hint Book $16
Ultima Avatar Advs Book $16
Ultima U Stygian Abyss $12
Martian Dreams $37
Savage Empire $34
Ultima 4 Quest of Avatar $35
Ultima 5 Warriors Dest. $35
Ultima 5 Warriors Dest. $38
Ultima 6 False Prophet $19
Ultima 7 Black Gat $48
Ultima 7 Forge of Virtue $18
Ultima 7.5 Part 2 Silv Sd $20
Ult 7.5 Serp Isle Spc Pk $18
Ultima 7.5 Serpent Isle $48
Ultima 8: Pagan $48
Ult 8: Pagan Spc Acc Pk $17
Ultima 9: Ascension $52
Ult. Uworld 2 Labyrinth $46
Pacific Strike $52
Pacific Strike Spch Pak $18
Privateer $47
Privateer Special Op $22
Privateer Speech Pack $17
Strike Commander $41
Strike Comnd Spec Op1 $20
Strke Cmnd Spch Pk $16
W C 2 Operation 1 $22
W C 2 Operation 2 $22
W C 2 Speech Mod $13
W C Secrt Mission $20
W C Sec Mis1&2 Bundle $20
W C Secret Mis 2 HD $20
Wing Armada $54
Wing Commander $19
Wing Commander 2 $29
Wing Commander 3 $52
Wing Command Acad $32
Today we're taking a new look at some unusual 3DO magazine advertisements from Electronic Arts. These 'high concept' pieces ran in magazines in the UK in the first half of 1995 and they are... something. But underneath that something there are some interesting Wing Commander stories! This one, "Moist Mullet," is especially interesting because it seems to be the only source of an unusual 'bullshot' of a Super Wing Commander Cockpit which doesn't match anything in the game (aside from the Rapiers, which are renderings from the intro!).
The second one, "EA Lard," doesn't include any Wing Commander but we're including it for posterity.
The third one features Wing Commander III, showing a Hellcat V cockpit from the PC version...
... which is likely why it got this running change, swapping the Hellcat cockpit for the Emperor!
Electronic Arts also used the 'EA Lard' version to present their physical 3DO catalog in 3DO. These booklets were included with 3DO games and include a page for each of Electronic Arts' current titles. You can download a PDF of the complete booklet here.
Finally, here's an early 1995 magazine advertisement from 3DO themselves that also includes screenshots from Super Wing Commander (available now) and Wing Commander III (coming soon). Look closely at this one, too: the Super Wing Commander screenshot is from a pre-release build! Note the original Hornet graphic on the right VDU.
Bonus! Here's a 1994 Goldstar ad for their 3DO system... with Super Wing Commander visible!
This is a reminder that we have another fun #Wingnut movie night planned on Discord this evening! The ongoing theme will be movies that inspired Wing Commander in some way. Tonight's film is Tora! Tora! Tora! which informed Chris Roberts' vision for the Wing Commander movie… and which was essentially the first draft of Action Stations! You can find details on that as well as how to watch along with us in the announcement post here. The movie will start about 7 PM PST/10 PM EST but feel free to drop by and hang any time!
Greetings WingNuts,
The Wing Commander movie club certainly enjoyed Return of the Jedi! It was great to see the original version (with the original songs!) again after so many years and it's just a tremendously fun, well made movie that continues to impact pretty much every space opera to this day in some way. There's always an argument that Empire Strikes Back is the 'smart' Star Wars sequel and that Return of the Jedi is somehow tainted because it feels more commercial… and it's hard to maintain that when you're actually watching the movie. It's a stunning piece of work that has as much artistry and thought as anything else in the Star Wars saga and I think it's particularly telling that Chris Roberts seems to come down on the Return of the Jedi side.
As we noted in the introduction post, Chris Roberts has credited the space battles in Return of the Jedi as inspiring combat in both the original Wing Commander and in the 1999 movie. And there's little question that that's true: Return of the Jedi's frantic third act fleet action was the gold standard for space combat for many, many years (and some would argue remains so). He had asked production designer Peter Lamont to consider Return of the Jedi's space battles alongside various World War II references and you can certainly see that in the work!
Wing Commander II takes two of its animated explosion from Return of the Jedi. The first one, which the game plays when a capital ship is destroyed, is taken from the shot where the Death Star first destroys a rebel ship. The Origin artist responsible for the theft mirrored the original shot. This explosion was then reused in Wing Commander Privateer as the 'player ship destroyed' explosion.
Here are 'sprite sheets' comparing all three explosions. The additional frames for the Privateer version were likely added by hand later and were not based on the original Return of the Jedi sequence.
The second explosion comes from a later shot where a TIE fighter crashes into the bridge tower of a Star Destroyer. This was used as the fighter explosion in Wing Commander II and then reused in Origin FX's 'Armageddon' module... and once again for Privateer's "big" explosion!
Here are the sprite sheets which remain pretty consistent from game to game:
Of course, those two explosions aren't the only thing the Wing Commander franchise borrowed from Star Wars…
Your Jedi mind tricks don't work on Sully. But treats do!
Back in April 1999, a company called Showscan announced that it was developing a Wing Commander motion simulator "ride film" under license from Digital Anvil. Unfortunately, the film never materialized and no one has ever come forward to tell the story behind it… though we do know that it was in active development for months! You can see the original press release that we reported twenty six years ago here.
I routinely trawl places like LinkedIn and the Internet Archive to see if I can find anything from the project (which we do know was in active development for at least four months and possibly for as long as a year before Showscan went into administration). I haven't found anything from Showscan directly but I did recently come across a pretty fun bit of ephemera: a news report from the July 1999 issue of GamePro covering the Showscan announcement that features a cartoon of a roller coaster being ridden by Street Fighter and Wing Commander characters!
While Wing Commander never happened, the Street Fighter II ride announced alongside it did! You can watch a copy here to get an idea of what the Wing Commander presentation might have looked like:
We received an e-mail with a question we thought was worth investigating: "I've been reading about Ultima VII: The Lost Vale and it got me thinking: were there any Wing Commander expansion disks in the works that didn't make it out? The short answer is yes, two Wing Commander addons were solicited in some capacity by Origin but very little is known beyond that. They've both been long the subject of rumor and speculation and so we thought we'd check the archives and at least prove they were technically announced!
Wing Commander II: Special Operations 3
In late 1991, Origin held a conference on CompuServe with Ellen Guon and Siobhan Beeman talking about the imminent release of Wing Commander II. One of the surprising things mentioned was that there would be THREE Special Operations disks. "Special Operations 3" was never listed for preorder and we have found very little mention of the concept over the years. Unfortunately, the original conference transcript seems to be lost to time so it has been difficult to establish the exact details (we'd appreciate it if any digital packrats would check their old files, the file name would likely be wing2.con). Luckily, we've finally discovered an echo that confirms our memories: a 1991 page from the "GIF News," a tech news outlet intended to be posted to BBSes at the time.
If you've finished Wing Commander II, do not delete the game just yet from your hard drive. Special Operations Disk #1, 2, & 3 will be released. The first one will introduce 2 new Confederation ships and 1 Kilrathi. You will be able to fly the "Crossbow" which is like a Broadsword but much more maneuverable. The storyline revolves around a mutinous group of Confederation pilots that you must fight. Future operations disks will involve "Space Pirates" as well as more Kilrathi political intrigue.
This is clearly news being reported from the CompuServe chat. Beyond this proof that Special Ops 3 was discussed there's almost no information available. Given the descriptions above it seems possible that the cut story could've been about "space pirates"... or it could be a case that Special Operations 3 (wherever it was to appear in the sequence) was compressed into one of the released expansions. After all, Special Operations 1 is essentially two separate stories!
Privateer Special Operation 2
Another long-rumored cancelled expansion is a second Privateer mission disk. Many simply assumed there would be a second expansion based on the cadence of the previous games but some actually remembered it being announced. And those that remember it are correct! Origin solicited a second Privateer expansion under the dummy title "Privateer Special Op 2" and it was listed in retailer computers (and sometimes included in magazine listings like the one below from an early 1994 issue of PC Zone). By the time Righteous Fire shipped, the CD-ROM version of Privateer was already scheduled for release so it's unlikely Special Operation 2 was still being considered at that point. Nothing else is known about what the intended content might have been.
Want to challenge one of Kilrah's finest? Here's a guide to where you can find the various Kilrathi aces in the first three Wing Commander games. Wing Commander I and the 3DO port of III both have a system where aces will reappear if you miss them... up to seven times in some cases! Wing Commander II and III, on the other hand, only give you one shot at each. One neat situation is that if you let all the aces survive in the original Wing Commander they can all appear in the same final mission in Hell's Kitchen!
Wing Commander
Bhurak "Starkiller" nar Caxki (Salthi)
Dakhath "Deathstroke" nar Sihkag (Dralthi)
Khajja "Machine" nar Ja'targk, aka "The Fang" (Krant)
Baktosh "Redclaw" nar Kiranka (Jalthi)
Wing Commander II
Rakti Blooddrinker (Sartha)
Kur Human-Killer (Grikath)
Khasra "Redclaw" nar Kiranka (Jalkehi)
Khasra will appear in Ghorah Khar 5C (in Special Operations 1) regardless of whether or not you shot him down at Tesla in the base game The debriefing dialogue in Tesla 6C specifically mentions that he may have ejected.
Prince Thrakhath nar Kiranka (Bloodfang)
Wing Commander III (PC)
Najji “Fireclaw” Ragitagha (Darket)
Bhuk “Bloodmist” nar Hhallas (Paktahn)
Marjakh “Stalker” nar Kur’u’tak (Strakha)
The game spawns unlimited Stalkers at the penultimate space nav point in Kilrah P3 until your final wingman is dead. He appears regardless of whether you defeated him at Alcor.
Prince Thrakhath nar Kiranka (Bloodfang)
If you choose to fight Prince Thrakhath at Loki you can not continue the game.
Ralgha "Hobbes" nar Hhallas (Thunderbolt VII)
Wing Commander III (3DO)
Najji “Fireclaw” Ragitagha (Darket)
Dakhath "Deathstroke" nar Caxki (Dralthi)
Kramm "Deathfang" nar Caxki (Vaktoth)
Bhuk “Bloodmist” nar Hhallas (Paktahn)
Marjakh “Stalker” nar Kur’u’tak (Strakha)
Prince Thrakhath nar Kiranka (Bloodfang)
If you choose to fight Prince Thrakhath at Loki you can not continue the game.
Ralgha "Hobbes" nar Hhallas (Thunderbolt VII)
You have to work pretty hard not to love Return of the Jedi… and frankly, we're not willing to do that much work; it was great! This week, we're back to World War II with Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970). Tora! Tora! Tora! is a spectacular retelling of the attack on Pearl Harbor that brought the United States into World War II. The movie's production is as much an epilogue to the story as it is a telling of it: the film is a massive international co-production divided between American and Japanese teams with directors from both countries filming their parts of the story. You can join us this Friday via Discord to watch along.
Chris Roberts discussed Tora! Tora! Tora! as an inspiration for the Wing Commander movie frequently during interviews. He repeatedly described Wing Commander as an attempt to update Tora! Tora! Tora! for a science fiction setting.
“For me, it's sort of like a classic, nautical World War II movie, taking elements of Das Boot, or Tora! Tora! Tora! and sort of updating it and putting it in a science-fiction universe.” - “3 Questions With Chris Roberts” in Cinescape (March 1999)
“‘Das Boot’ heavily influenced the film in terms of its look. Films like ‘Tora! Tora! Tora!’ [and] ‘Midway’ -- I tried to make my film in a sort of old-fashioned World War II sense.” - “‘Wing Commander’ Creator Takes the Director’s Chair” in Salon (12 March 1999)
The movie was also cited as specific inspiration for the movement of capital ships in Wing Commander. An April 1999 Cinefex article says:
"Seeking inspiration for the movement of the juggernaut capital ships, Digital Anvil viewed documentary footage and studied the war films Tora! Tora! Tora! and Midway."
… and of course Wing Commander's introduction with its surprise dive bombing of Pegasus is taken directly from Pearl Harbor via the visuals made popular by Tora! Tora! Tora!. So that's going to be a big one to watch! Chris even wanted to open the movie with a bit of a fake out where we would first see sailors on a tropical beach before spinning the camera to reveal it was actually an environment in the asteroid base.
But there's another beloved Wing Commander project that owes nearly the entirety of its existence to Tora! Tora! Tora!: the prequel novel Action Stations. Written as an in-universe story of Wing Commander's Pearl Harbor, the battle of McAuliffe, Action Stations takes copious amounts of material straight from the movie and its source. Here's one very easy example where Dr. Forstchen takes the famous 'sleeping giant' line… which comes from the film and not a real historical source!
Harga closed his eyes and Jukaga realized just how old his father's friend really was. His mane had gone nearly to white, the ripples of muscle on his limbs were melting away into nothingness.
Harga opened his eyes and looked back at Jukaga and his voice suddenly sounded distant and old, as if already whispering from the beyond. "I fear that all that the Crown Prince shall succeed in doing is awakening the sleeping giant."
Along those lines you might enjoy looking at the source for the film. Tora! Tora! Tora! was based on a series of articles by the same name by historian Gordon Prange. He served as historical advisor for the movie and his article and research was later expanded into a book called At Dawn We Slept (published posthumously). At Dawn We Slept is very much the 'real' Action Stations and anyone looking for more context for either the Wing Commander novel, the Tora! Tora! Tora! Movie or Pearl Harbor itself should be encouraged to read it!
Where can I find a copy of the movie for the watch party?
Tora! Tora! Tora! is available to download free from the Internet Archive (you may need to add subtitles to cover the Japanese sections of the movie). It is also available for rent or purchase on all the standard services. If you would like a physical copy, the movie was released on BluRay in 2012 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!
Greetings all. I'm still waiting on delivery of the vinyl LPs so I apologize for the delay. I've begun sending CDs out domestically, although I still don't have everyone's mailing address. If you live in the US and pledged for the CD level and have not received your CD within the next week please email me your name and mailing address.Those who are outside the US I will be getting to those CD deliveries this week. Unfortunately I have to fill out a customs form for each, and then it takes the post office about 5 to 10 minutes per item to enter the data (you wouldn't believe this is the 21st century!). So I can only do a handful of those at a time. Again, thank you for your patience.
In the meantime, if you don't already have these links, here they are for the digital downloads of Vol. 1. Thanks!
July 1998 issue of Femme Fatales magazine (offering "the luscious ladies of horror, fantasy and science fiction") has an interesting interview with Wing Commander III and Prophecy star Ginger Lynn Allen conducted while she was doing press for the latter game. It even features two photos of Ginger on set that we've never seen before (plus some fairly tame cheesecake from other parts of her career)! Scans are below; here's the Wing Commander-focused portion:
And, one year later, she rekindled her celebrity with an interactive CD game. The medium is full of X-rated divas, but Allen opted for some sci-fi extravagance with WING COMMANDER III: HEART OF THE TIGER. In lieu of moaning and heavy breathing, she was working with the likes of Tim Curry, Mark Hamill, John Rhy-Davies and Malcolm McDowell.
Debuting in 1989, WING COMMANDER — the first simulated 3-D space flight game — earned enough revenue to spawn a sequel the following year. AUen was cast as Chief Technician Rachel Coriolis when the franchise turned into a trilogy. The saga involved “Earth being overrun by the cat-like race of the Kilrathi” and the Terran Confederation delegating “the one man qualified enough to destroy planet Kilrah.” It was fueled by a p.r. blitz, and ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT was on the set interviewing Allen, “a pivotal player in the lavish interactive game, produced for millions.”
Two years later, another sequel — WING COMMANDER: THE PATH OF FREEDOM — hit the shelves but Allen’s absence in the game was con- spicuous. Why wasn’t she hired to reprise the Coriolis role? “It just made good sense,” explains producer Dave Downing. “Ginger was the lead in WING COMMANDER III and it was great to have her back in WING COMMANDER: PROPHECY (aka WING COMMANDER V) which was released last year. She wasn’t in Part 4 because it was a different story with different action, but she was quite a draw based on our consumer interest. We felt that she was something we could use from a marketing angle, and have for the interest of the young men.”
Ms. Allen opens the interview by insisting that I just call her Ginger. “I’m a nice girl from Rockford, Illinois and here we go by first names.” I mentioned that, as a student of entomology at the University of Illinois, I lived in the state for over nine years. Next thing you know, we’re rapping about bugs, corn and soybean pests and her current ant problem. In regard to the latter, she jokes, ‘T’m a great cook, I think that they just keep coming back for my cooking. It’s a huge colony. I don’t like the spraying of pesticide because I have a three-month-old baby, a dog and a cat.”
After shifting into a de- scription of her WING COMMANDER femme, Ginger noted, “Rachel is the Chief Technician on the ship, and she is kind of a tough, ballsy, confident, cocky kind of gal. She is not someone that you would really want to mess with and she knows what she is doing. She is in charge, she loves her weapons and keeps the ship up and running. She was introduced in WING COMMANDER III, but things got a bit overwhelming at the time — and she was quite new at the time — so Rachel went on hiatus and went after a more prominent position. So she came back on this mission, WING COMMANDER V, and is more mature and has really come into her own as a woman and as a technician.” I can’t help interject that “went on hiatus” sounds like a euphemism which translates to “wasn’t hired.” Ginger giggles. “What I am saying is that everybody missed me in Part IV and I am back in Part V by popular demand. I was amazed. I have a PC, but I’m not a hacker. WING COMMANDER is the first experience I’ve had with this kind of project, and I had no idea of how popular CD games are. Playing the actual game, I crashed and burned-up in no more than two seconds — as soon as I got out into flight. I was never one to even play with old video games like Pac- Man or the tennis game.
When I turn on my computer now, I have two options: one is the standard and the other is WING COMMANDER III. It takes up a lot of memory space because it is so advanced and much is going on in it. I do my own Website [www.gingerlynn.com] and, by chatting on-line, I discovered that so many people play the game and love the character. For me it was a wonderful experience. I rarely get to play a tough girl. I am somewhat of a small woman, and I have this girl-next-door face and come across as very nice. Sometimes, when I am auditioning, they say, ‘Okay, but she almost looks too nice.’ So to have the opportunity to play Rachel — she is really a bitch — was a wonderful chance. On the ship there aren’t that many physical conflicts, but I would love Rachel to have some fights.”
So what are the significant differences between shooting a B-movie and a CD interactive film? WING COMMANDER III was filmed entire- ly against a green screen. Most of the locales and props didn’t exist and were added in post-production. “They were all phantoms, and I felt like a mime,” grins Ginger. “Plus, so much of the emphasis was shot with three to five different endings so you would have to say, ‘Okay, who died in this scene?. ..I’m mad at this guy in this scene, so now I kiss him but not in this ending. . .” And so on.” That could be challenging. But you really have to do more preparation and studying than for other media because you not only have to develop your character, you have to know what is happening from scene to scene and from ending to ending. There are so many different endings in PROPHECY (WC-5), dependent upon how you are playing the game. 'Then there are scenes where our characters, unlike WC-3, are the basis of it and not the interactive parts.
“And WC-3 didn’t have what I like about this one, specifically, camaraderie between the characters. It’s more of how it affects you when they don’t come back from their missions. It has especially impacted Rachel. She gets the ships ready and every ship that doesn’t come back is like suffering the loss of one of her babies. Although she is tough on the outside, she suffers on the inside because she cares now much more than she did before. I loved that I was able to grow as Rachel has grown in this one. The challenge is Rachel continuously being tough and doing her job: be compassionate but don’t let the loss of a friend get to her too much.”
CAPTION: “WING COMMANDER was a wonderful experience. I rarely play tough girls & Rachel was a bitch.”
This is a reminder that we have another fun #Wingnut movie night planned on Discord this evening! The ongoing theme will be movies that inspired Wing Commander in some way. Tonight's film is Return of the Jedi which... you know Return of the Jedi, I don't need to explain this! You can find details on that as well as how to watch along with us in the announcement post here. The movie will start about 7 PM PST/10 PM EST but feel free to drop by and hang any time!
Greetings WingNuts,
Going into the original King Kong, we weren't sure what to think. Some of the older films in our series have been pretty stodgy by today's standards (looking at you, Dam Busters)... and being from 1933, King Kong was the oldest of them all. But we were pleasantly surprised: once King Kong got into the action it was effervescent and as much fun as a modern blockbuster.
The direct Wing Commander connection comes to us from a USA Network commercial in which Wing Commander Academy's background artists share that the island on Pisces in Word of Honor was based on the one from King Kong. Here's a comparison!
We suspect the entire movement through the second act of the episode was based on King Kong, though. Our heroes must transit a dense jungle... beset by sea monsters... and then escape to a climactic scene on the ledge of the mountain.
And for good measure, here's the shot that Chris Roberts' game was based on! The game is a bit of a mix of the 1933 and 1978 versions, featuring the Empire State Building from the original but the helicopters from the remake.
Sully is the real eighth wonder of the world.
Back when we were surfing the net at 14.4k bps, the only realistic way to test drive the latest Wing Commander games was by loading it from the cover CD of a magazine. In fact, Wing Commander III's then-massive demo was the centerpiece of the very first PC Gamer cover disc! To honor that history, here are all five of the PC Gamer discs that brought us bonus Wing Commander combat starting with Wing Commander III in 1994 and going all the way to the shocking free release of Kilrathi Saga WC1 in 2000!
December 1994 - Wing Commander III Demo
January 1996 - Wing Commander IV Demo
March 1998 - Wing Commander Prophecy Demo
November 1998 - Wing Commander Secret Ops - Episode One
July 2000 - Wing Commander I Kilrathi Saga
Did you know that Cobalt 60's Prophecy album wasn't Wing Commander's first flirtation with electro-industrial music? The band Velvet Acid Christ actually composed a track in 1994 called "Furless Freak" for an album called Dimension 8 that heavily sampled Super Wing Commander. When we say heavily we mean it: you're going to hear the first briefing and what seems to be a playthrough of the following mission. It's weird and cool! Is it worth your time? Yes, this is objectively the greatest song ever recorded.
Dimension 8 was not released commercially at the time but it was included as a hidden bonus in mp3 format on VAC's 2000 album Twisted Thought Generator. It was later made available for free at the band's website and in 2020 it was remastered for a digital release which you can purchase today! Here's the official description:
Dimension 8 by Velvet Acid Christ follows their previous album Electrospasm, serving as a bridge to the unique sound that would define VAC. During this transitional period, the band went by the name Vortex and focused on creating electro dance music without vocals. Drawing inspiration from influential bands such as Orbital, The Orb, The Black Dog, and Aphex Twin, Vortex crafted instrumental tracks that showcased their experimental and boundary-pushing approach to electronic music. The result was an innovative blend of atmospheric soundscapes, intricate rhythms, and hypnotic melodies that captivated listeners and set the stage for Velvet Acid Christ's evolution into a pioneering force in the industrial and darkwave genres. This lp was mastered to standard Cassette tape.
While putting together the recent memorial update we extracted all of Maniac's in flight comms from Special Operations 2 to include in the post. After realizing how nice it was to be able to hear those lines on demand I decided to put together a complete archive of the comms from Wing Commander's infamous "Speech Accessory Packs". And so we did! You can find the complete index for four games below. Each site will let you read the script for each line and then play it right in your browser (or save it for later).
Wing Commander
The original Wing Commander didn't ship with speech but several later versions have added it. We've included the Super Wing Commander audio along with the scripts for several different ports; it's pretty interesting to see how things were censored for the Super Nintendo release! We'll add the Sega CD versions of the audio files once they can be extracted with Originator.
Wingmen
Enemies
Wing Commander II
All of the in flight speech in Wing Commander II comes from the Speech Accessory Pack with the exception of several profiles that were added in the expansion packs (including Maniac).
Wingmen
Capital Ships
Enemies
Wing Commander Academy
Wing Commander Academy shipped with five sets of Kilrathi taunts. The free downloadable speech pack adds the four wingmen and Candar. All of this speech was repurposed from Wing Commander II.
Wing Commander Privateer
The generic faction speech for Privateer was added for the Speech Accessory Pack. This did not include mission-specific comms which remained as text in the disk version. For the CD-ROM almost all of the audio was re-recorded and the mission-specific NPCs had audio recorded too (the need for the latter caused the former!). We've got both sets below and it's pretty fun to compare them! The original speech pack versions of the faction audio also includes four files for each that aren't ever played: two for retreating and two for jumping out.
Factions
NPCs
The Wing Commander movie club is back from Skull Island and King Kong turned out to be just what we needed (a giant ape). This week, we're going to revisit a true classic: Return of the Jedi, the epic conclusion to the original Star Wars trilogy. You can join us this Friday via Discord to watch along.
There's little question that Return of the Jedi influenced Wing Commander: it's spectacular third act space battle was the best in the business for decades. The Wing Commander I & II Ultimate Strategy Guide specifically calls out Return of the Jedi as one of Chris Roberts' major influences for the original Wing Commander game:
Roberts had always been fascinated by science fiction movies and television shows, especially those like Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica and Return of the Jedi. He liked the action elements of space combat, the dazzling special effects, and the variety of characters the creators had imagined in future worlds. He wanted to bring those elements to the computer.
The excitement of Jedi's space battle was still in Roberts' head when he was putting together the Wing Commander movie eight years later. Here's mention of it from the movie's original treatment:
Although the heroes become trapped deep behind enemy lines and ultimately must battle their way back out again, the combat will be infrequent...yet always lurking in the background. There will probably be no more than four set combat pieces, but they'll be spectacular ones, with incredible effects done exclusively with high-end computer graphics-think Return of the Jedi on steroids!
He continued to cite Jedi's importance for the movie throughout production. Here's another quote from a April 1999 Cinefex article promoting the film:
Roberts began development on the feature while still working for Electronic Arts. The film's deliberate retro look - featuring spacecraft that bore a strong resemblance to aircraft, battleships and submarines - arose from the director's desire to do a World War II movie in space. "I wanted to see spaceships going toe-to-toe, slugging it out and blowing up," Roberts remarked. "I hadn't seen any movie pull out all the stops and deliver that kind of action since Return of the Jedi. fortunately, production designer Peter Lamont got on board with this approach right away, showing up with ten huge illustrated volumes containing blueprints and detail of various warships.
Of course, there are some more direct connections, too. A huge one is that Wing Commander II actually stole its explosions directly from Return of the Jedi! Both types that appear in the game were traced from different scenes straight from the laserdisc release of the movie. Don't tell the lawyers!
Where can I find a copy of the movie for the watch party?
We are planning to watch the "despecialized" version of Return of the Jedi which is a careful recreation of the original theatrical version of the film; this should best match what the Wing Commander team would've enjoyed in 1990! The despecialized version is not available commercially but can be found easily on the internet. A copy is currently available for download on the Internet Archive. 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!
A world desperate for good news (or at least news that isn't awful) is going pope crazy this week as the Catholic Church has named Leo XIV as the latest spiritual leader in their centuries-long tradition. Of course this has prompted many in the media to ask the big question: what's going on with the church in Wing Commander's distant future? Are there still popes? Well, the first movie spinoff novel, Pilgrim Stars, confirms that there are when Blair explains that the McDanielist (Pilgrim) church's highest office, called "protur", is their equivalent.
"She's not going to McDaniel to destroy it. That planet represents everything she stands for. Someday she'd like to see it as the hub and governing force in the universe, much like Earth is today. Yes, if I know her, she's going to McDaniel to see somebody, a man named Protur Carver Tsu the Second."
"Protur ..." Blair repeated, reaching into his memory. "That's the title of the Pilgrim elect's most powerful leader. Kind of like the Roman Catholic Church's pope or the Vegan Victorists' kreek-son."
This is also a great small example of the classic 'sci fi list' trope that we've talked about before. It's not clear what a Vegan Victorist is but it's possible Peter Telep is connecting to the "Vegan Victory Award with diamonds" that Doomsday is said to have been awarded in Fleet Action. As for the pope, Pilgrim Truth brings up this comparison again and in the process mentions that the pope in the year 2654 is now "little more than a figurehead". Sorry, pope fans!
Protur Carver Tsu III held the Pilgrim theocracy's highest office, and while the Catholic religion's pope had in recent centuries become little more than a figurehead, the protur's authority remained well intact--even after the first Pilgrim war.
Another potential detail is that the Wing Commander Armada manual, Voices of War, includes a log entry about the Kilrathi by a Lexington pilot named 2nd Lieutenant Niekro Hammond. While talking about the Sivar-Eshrad cult he mentions that women have been holding high church offices since the late 1990s. While some religions have moved in that direction, most--including the Roman Catholic Church--have not.
As strict as the cats are on social “rules,” they sure aren’t the chauvinistic type! All of their religious factions have females in charge. I find this interesting – after all, it wasn’t until the late 1990s that we even let women hold high church offices on Earth.
We haven't seen any details beyond this on the 27th Century pope but the Wing Commander universe is no stranger to newly created religions with interesting leaders! Beyond the Pilgrims and the deep lore surrounding them we've got Princess Zukara and the Sivar priestesses, Mordecai Jones of the Church of Man (Retros), Uncle Kashumai of the Avuncular Order of Hom (itself a spinoff of the Anhurian Original Humanists) and so on... but those are all topics for future updates!
This is a reminder that we have another fun #Wingnut event happening on Discord this morning! Join us at noon EST/9 AM PST for a fun filled morning of cartoons... that all connect to Wing Commander somehow! Get ready to find out just how much a part of early 1990s culture the Wing Commander series was. You can find details on the shows included as well as how to watch along with us in the announcement post here. Be sure to download the episodes so they're ready to play with the group!
This is a reminder that we have another fun #Wingnut movie night planned on Discord this evening! The ongoing theme will be movies that inspired Wing Commander in some way. Tonight's film is the original King Kong (1933) which was reference for an episode of Wing Commander Academy… and where Chris Roberts' game development career started! You can find details on that as well as how to watch along with us in the announcement post here. The movie will start about 7 PM PST/10 PM EST but feel free to drop by and hang any time!
And don't forget our second Wing Commander Cartoon party is early tomorrow!
Greetings WingNuts,
The Wing Commander movie club has changed planes at Dulles! Die Hard 2 was a nice change of pace from our usual fare of war movies and science fiction classics. It holds up very well today, arguably better than any of the later Die Hard sequels. John McClane's path to superherodom seems to already be clearly established but it's pretty subdued compared to what is yet to come. And the overall idea of criminals hijacking an airport instead of a plane remains pretty neat, too!
As noted in the introduction post, the immediate Wing Commander creative connection is pretty tenuous. The original Privateer's character design document calls out Commodore Riesmann as being based on Die Hard 2's Colonel Stuart (William Sadler). Privateer was originally intended to have a 'Confederation versus Kilrathi' main plot which would end with you siding with one of the factions. That was dropped and the more elaborate character plans were shuffled into the background, rendering Reismann simply a VDU image in the last mission. But watching Die Hard 2 it's clear what the intention was for his character: an Oliver North-style military officer who is willing to do immoral things if it means winning.
… and then there's the device! It turns out Die Hard 2 and Wing Commander Prophecy share a prop, seen below. In Die Hard 2 they're part of Colonel Stuart's rogue air traffic control set up… and one of them goes on to be the mission computer that Casey uses after each flight in Prophecy!
The reason this prop appears in both productions is because it's a rental. There are large companies with warehouses full of background props like this that can be rented to fill out a particular production when time or budget doesn't allow for a custom fabrication for everything. These light-up consoles were built by the now defunct Master Props and likely appeared throughout genre productions in the 90s. In fact, Star Trek super site Ex Astris Scientia has preserved Master Props' catalog listings for such pieces AND found this particular one in an episode of Star Trek The Next Generation (Unnatural Selection, season 2 episode 7)!
Finally, Dulles airport makes a brief appearance in a scene in Pilgrim Truth where the president of the Confederation meets with the leaders of the Pilgrims. Die Hard 2 wasn't actually shot at Dulles and most of the action is at night… but here's a quick comparison between the movie and the real life view of the tarmac from the air traffic control tower!
The communications link defied conventional physics, and while Confed scientists struggled to figure out how the invaders had accomplished the feat of establishing instantaneous connections with every Confederation and Kilrathi system, President Harold Rodham stood on the tarmac at Washington Dulles Air and Space Port, waiting to receive one Ivar Chu McDaniel, purported leader of the Pilgrims.
One of the invaders' more nondescript troopships landed. An orifice appeared in the quavering fuselage, and out stepped a kindred spirit, a man who, like Rodham, carried himself too timidly to suggest that he led billions. Surprisingly enough, he came unarmed, without guards, and seemed unfazed by the Marines who hustled up beside him. “Mr. President,” he called in a thin lilt, then advanced and extended his hand.
Rodham took it. “If you'll follow me?”
“I was disappointed that you called in those two battle groups from Saturn. Still, I admire your fortitude.”
Jerking his hand away, Rodham glowered at the wiry man. “We won't go down easily.”
“You won't go down at all, sir. Has the senate convened? I'm looking forward to explaining everything.”
“They're waiting for you.” Rodham said, and you’ve made it all too easy, you bastard. “This way.” He led McDaniel back toward the waiting hover.
Sully heard there was someone named Mr. Falcon.
Greetings! The WC volume 2 CD's just arrived yesterday. Looks and sounds great! I will be sending these out to CD only backers very soon.Unfortunately, due to longer processing time and popular demand for vinyl, the LPs will not arrive until at least the first week of June. So for those who are receiving both a CD and a vinyl version I'll be shipping those together in one package.
Thank you all for your patience. I know this has been a long process, but I am thoroughly pleased with the results, and hoping you will be as well.
Yours truly,
George
I was leafing through False Colors the other day and happened to notice an unusual reference I wanted to explore a litle further. This paragraph is from when the Landreich fleet is assembling to recover the Karga and it introduces two of the ship captains thusly:
Diaz would be working closely with the captains of the tender Sindri and the huge factory ship Andrew Carnegie, a Mutt-and-Jeff pair whose names were Dickerson and Lake—Bondarevsky still wasn't entirely sure which one was which. Their commands, though non-combatants, would have the pivotal part in the Goliath Project, the tender serving as a deep-space repair platform for the supercarrier while the mammoth Andrew Carnegie, designed for semi-automated minerals extraction and fabrication work on unsettled frontier worlds, had been pressed into service to manufacture whatever the Kilrathi derelict might be lacking right on the spot.
Mutt-and-Jeff stuck out to me as a very odd reference for the 27th century. Mutt and Jeff was one of the first daily comic strips which ran from 1907 to 1983. The reference specifically is to how the characters are a mismatched pair, one tall and one short. But as far as pop culture goes, the memory has already faded in our time!
"That's where we come in," Dickerson—or was it Lake?—put in. "The quicker your gang gets things secured and calls us in, the sooner you'll have all the comforts of home, courtesy of the good ship Sindri."
Later we learn that this was, indeed, Dickerson and that his first name is Charles. Sadly, we see him only briefly as the Sindri is destroyed by pirates. Lake is the captain of the Carnegie and he does show up again later in the book at another planning meeting. But what we never learn is which was Mutt (tall) and which was Jeff (short).
The Wing Commander movie club has put their seats up and their tray tables in the upright position following the conclusion of Die Hard 2. Next week, we're going a little further back in the past… to 1933 for the original King Kong! King Kong is a massively important film for how it defined the kind of blockbuster movies whose evolution continues to this day… and it's always fun to watch a giant ape wreck things. You can join us this Friday via Discord to watch along.
The direct connection to Wing Commander this time around is a fun one: the island that Blair, Grunt and Kulrag crash land on in Wing Commander Academy's Word of Honor is based on the island where Kong is discovered in the original movie (later named Skull Island). USA originally aired a 'Kids Club' bumper with the series' background artists explaining this; unfortunately, it has been lost to time!
There's also a big connection to Chris Roberts' history. His very first game, programmed in BASIC and printed in a magazine in 1983, was… King Kong! It's a simple arcade game that pits you against the fearsome ape in a take on the film's final climactic battle atop the Empire State building. You can read all about the game's history at Pix's Origin Adventures and even play it in your browser here. Let's compare high scores this week! We've mirrored a copy of the King Kong tape here for anyone wanting to use an emulator.
Where can I find a copy of the movie for the watch party?
King Kong is available to download free from the Internet Archive and to stream via YouTube. It is also available for rent or purchase on all the standard services. If you would like a physical copy, the movie was released on BluRay in 2010 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!
Last month, we held a special Saturday morning cartoon watch party in #WingNut where we watched the entire 'Warrior King' crossover saga that included Wing Commander Academy. Well, we had so much fun that we've decided to do it again! It's not possible to find anything quite as epic as the Warrior King saga so instead we've pulled together a collection of other Saturday morning shows that reference Wing Commander in some way! Here's the lineup:
Doug - Doug's Lost Weekend (1992, s2e25): This early episode of Doug (pre-Disney's Doug) will be extremely relatable to any Wing Commander fan: Doug becomes addicted to a space sim that is full of nods to the original Wing Commander!
Gridman the Hyper Agent - A Lonely Hacker (1993, s1e17): Gridman is a Japanese "tokusatsu" superhero show similar to the ones used as the basis for shows like Power Rangers in the United States. Watch carefully for the slightest of cameos from an unusual port of the original Wing Commander!
Viper - Ghosts (1994, s1e04): Viper was part of the mid-1990s 'magic vehicle' craze kicked off by earlier programs like Airwolf and Knight Rider. The producers contacted origin asking for a free copy of Privateer when it came out… and then everyone was surprised by just how much the game featured in the final show!
ReBoot - The Tearing (1994, s1e01): The very first episode of Canada's famous ReBoot, the show that introduced full CG to television, pays a pretty big tribute to Wing Commander by having a parody of the series be one of the very first 'games' Bob and company have to enter!
So JOIN US on Saturday, May 10th at noon Eastern when we'll enjoy them all together! Last time we had big fun wearing pajamas and eating cereal… so we recommend you plan to do the same again! You will need to download the episodes from the CIC before we start. Like last time, we're going to start things off with a classic Looney Tunes short… the sequel to the original Duck Dodgers, Duck Dodgers in the Return of the 24½th Century from 1980! Here are the links:
We've also uploaded a zip of all five shows together for ease of downloading. You can get that here.
How do we watch the shows together?
It's pretty low tech! Simply join the Wing Commander CIC Discord on Saturday and we will be chatting (in text) along with the shows in the main channel. Everyone who wants to join in should download their own copies from the CIC and we will count down to play them one at a time together starting with the short at noon EST on Saturday. Everyone is welcome and we encourage you to join in the conversation; sharing your thoughts helps make the experience better for everyone!
Will there be custom certificates made for the attendees this time?
Yes.
Why are you still calling it a 'cartoon party' when two of the shows are live action?
Shut up.
Warning: This update contains spoilers for the ending of Privateer 2: The Darkening.
As is often the case, the topic several nights ago on Discord turned to Privateer 2. While talking about the game's conclusion, Chris Reid thought to ask: is there any significance to the 'Arris' in his fake name?
To back up: the reveal close to the end of Privateer 2 is that you are not, in fact, Lev Arris but Vell Ricaud II, the long lost first son of the founder of Ricaud Interplanetary. The head of the Kindred, "Kronos", is really your twin brother Sar Ricaud. The booth system will eventually tell you that Ricaud Interplanetary is "the largest industrial concern in the Tri-System" and there are various small hints that Sar has turned it into the Kindred. When you decode the memory solid later in the game the report says that "also the names Larn Regis and Vell Ricaud occur over 150 times, as well as the name Ricaud Interplanetary."
So, the "Lev" in Lev Arris (which is the name that had been printed on his cryo pod) is (almost) "Vell" reversed. But is there a meaning to "Arris"? We speculated for a while but couldn't come up with one that felt satisfying (the closest guess was 'heir is'). Luckily, The Darkening's screenwriter Diane Duane seems to have a memory like a steel trap! We asked her on BlueSky and she was kind enough to reply:
Nope. In the early stages of writing I was just feeling around for a name that seemed easily memorable. For some reason "Harris" suggested itself, and I just dropped the initial H off it so it wouldn't sound so ordinary.. :)
(Want to read more from Diane Duane? Check out her bookstore, Ebooks Direct!)
So there you have it! I did find an interesting joke while I was looking through the ingame text to see where 'Ricaud' was actually mentioned. Check out this characteristically goofy CCN booth update about the Yummiechow's slogan contest:
But then that story continues in another update! You can also get this story which talks about how the Munchems line has failed because, in part, of a pirate attack! The implication seems to be that the Kindred is targeting the Yummiechow corporation because Kronos didn't win the snack contest!
Greetings all, and thank you for your amazing patience. Both the CD and vinyl products are (finally) in production as we speak. In the meantime I want to share all the cover art as well as the vinyl audio files for you to check out. The vinyl audio is obviously divided into two long audio files which will give you the opportunity to listen to the tracks in sequence without having to click on individual files. One note about the side A file; it starts with a 60 second tone necessary for production, but after that it is smooth sailing!Rest assured that as soon as the products arrive here I will be sending them out.
You are all the best!
George
This is a reminder that we have another fun #Wingnut movie night planned on Discord this evening! The ongoing theme will be movies that inspired Wing Commander in some way. Tonight's film is Die Hard 2 (1990) which informed a very minor character in Privateer. You can find details on that as well as how to watch along with us in the announcement post here. The movie will start about 7 PM PST/10 PM EST but feel free to drop by and hang any time!
Greetings WingNuts,
The Wing Commander movie club is pretty universal in this one: Aliens is as close to a perfect movie as you can make! We greatly enjoyed revisiting it last week and it's such a good film that we could probably do it again soon.
In the treatment for the Wing Commander movie, Chris Roberts described it as being like Alien in that the character drama emerges from the fact that everyone is totally cut off from reasonable rescue or help. And he was right, both movies certainly do chase that goal… although the isolation you feel in Aliens is much more effectively delivered. Of course, Aliens' greater legacy to Wing Commander and across most science fiction was the colonial marines. James Cameron's mixing of future space warfare with Vietnam-styled American soldiers feels like a lightning bolt… they would be aped endlessly including in Wing Commander III, IV and Prophecy.
Here are the two quotes we talked about being used as nods in Wing Commander games in the intro. I was shocked to learn that the actual line is 'Drake, we are leaving' and not 'marines, we are leaving'.
Aliens and Wing Commander Prophecy share a visual futurist: artist Syd Mead worked on both, designing the aliens in Wing Commander Prophecy. His design of the Sulaco troopship is also referenced in the Wing Commander movie; the prows of the Sivar and the Snakeir are extremely similar!
Aliens' APC design also looks pretty familiar: it was clearly the inspiration for the Hercules LC seen in Wing Commander Prophecy. Once again, this is Wing Commander borrowing directly from Ron Cobb.
Before we started watching AD said we should pay special attention to the 'scanners' at the start of the film. Sure enough, they're an extremely similar effect to the one used on the ConCom in Wing Commander.
Along those same lines, we noticed that the soundless shot of Ripley and Newt futilely trying to alert the marines from inside a sealed room was pretty similar to the shot of Admiral Wilson trying (?) to destroy the NAVCOM AI.
Chris noticed that the 'above' shot of the elevator in the third act was very similar to the one used in Wing Commander III (and then referenced again in the third episode of Academy). I'm not sure if this shot originates with Aliens or not but it's possible particularly given Chris Roberts' enjoyment of the film!
And surely the armored pleasure planet police mech from the Righteous Fire introduction owes more than a little to Ripley's exoskeleton loader! (Interesting fact, the Righteous Fire cutscene was originally rendered as the 'out of money' losing endgame for the original game. It was cut for space and was given entirely new dialogue to introduce the mission disk!)
I also thought the shot of the red lit alien crawling through the ducts looked a lot like one of the shots from the Super Wing Commander takeoff cutscenes… but that one may be a coincidence!
Sully doesn't know about this guy.
Here's a first: a bit of Wing Commander-adjacent history reported by my wife! She came across a cover story about Freddie Prinze Jr. from the February 2000 issue of Seventeen on an Instagram account called imstuckin.1999 which provides a bit of a look at how he was marketed to teenage girls around the time of the Wing Commander movie! It even quotes Matthew Lillard and notes that they became friends on set in Luxembourg. And great news for collectors: the magazine had two different Freddie Prinze Jr. covers!
During the release of Wing Commander I remember working closely with the "fan girls" running news sites like ours but for Freddie Prinze Jr. and Matthew Lillard… and frankly, it was a lot more interesting way to interact with people than bickering with other gamers! And while we're at it, here's something else to preserve for posterity that doesn't really fit anywhere: a Freddie Prinze Jr. gag list from film critic's Richard Roeper's book "10 Sure Signs a Movie Character is Doomed, and Other Surprising Movie Lists" (the joke being that it's just his filmography).
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