Relive those late summer nights spent with friends, battling through the games that defined your childhood. Reconnect with the classics you loved and the memories they carry - it’s time to play like you used to.
Here's a little treasure: a Swedish magazine article about flight tactics in the original Wing Commander that has had a series of original maneuvering diagrams commissioned for it! They feature original 3D models of the Hornet, Dralthi and Dorkir (!) that seem to have been created for this purpose and not seen again. Even if you can't read Swedish, this one is worth a look! The article originally appeared in a 1993 issue of Datormagazin (Number 12, July 15 to August 11).
In 1994, Origin Systems recognized that they needed to cash in on the nascent first person shooter craze. For roughly a decade, Origin had been the star of the game development pantheon, known for pushing the limits of technology and making cutting edge games that had no comparison. The long running Ultima series had established the company's street cred and the surprising success of Wing Commander had made their mark legendary.
Now, that was changing. Young upstart Id Software's DooM had set the world on fire and everyone in the industry was racing to follow it up. Origin, now a corporate subsidiary of Electronic Arts, was starting to seem stodgy in comparison. DooM grew the PC gaming audience in leaps and bounds and at the same time conditioned them to expect a new kind of game. What specifically made DooM magic? The snappy gameplay, the clever level design, the aesthetic and its ultraviolence, the sheer pick-up-and-play simplicity, the first-one's-free shareware release model? No one knew for sure but everyone thought they had an answer.
But even in 1994 the idea of a "DooM clone" had already become established as a net negative for selling your game. A DooM-inspired game needed to bring something unique to the table or it would disappear into the morass of hundreds of similar games already starting to flood the market. If Origin wanted to carve out their own part of the FPS pie they would have to come up with a gimmick, something that set it apart from the likes of DooM and Heretic. Confusingly, Origin's answer to DooM would have two wholly separate gimmicks. For the first, Origin brought in a celebrity game designer: David W. Bradley. Bradley had been responsible for some of the high points of the famed Wizardry series of RPGs, close competitors to Origin's own Ultima. Bradley left Sir-Tech in 1994 in a dispute over royalties and Origin was eager to bring him into the fold. Bradley would be credited for both the design and the writing on the game.
The second gimmick was about fifteen years ahead of its time: instead of demons from hell or medieval knights, the game would feature superheroes. You would play a character who not only fired shotguns and rocket launchers but also magic spells and the like. The game's aesthetic would be patterned after the indie superhero comics that were incredibly popular at the time. The clear hope was that this wouldn't seem like a copy of DooM but a totally new sort of game simply inspired by DooM's mechanics.
The result of all this was July 1995's CyberMage: Darklight Awakening, one of Origin's least remembered games. To its credit, CyberMage is a fine game and it does a lot of things very well, the least among them introducing the kind of interactivity and storytelling that would establish Half Life as DooM's true heir a few years later. But it entered a market full of DooM clones and despite an expensive marketing campaign it failed to do numbers. CyberMage isn't so much forgotten as it was never experienced in the first place. At the risk of editorializing, despite the quality of the game the entire effort came off as trying too hard, the sort of thing that's decided by committee rather than representing some artist's vision.
But back to that gimmick: as part of CyberMage's very expensive rollout, it was decided there should be a real comic book to go along with the game. In the tradition of feelies like Ultima's runes and Wing Commander's blueprints, CyberMage would ship with a full length, full color comic book: CyberMage #1. And it did! The art is excellent,the dialogue is good, the story is… the story of CyberMage… and at the end of the day it's a quality piece of packaging from people that clearly did care about their project. Origin's creative services group under the legendary David Ladyman did not miss.
This is where our mystery starts. The final page of the comic book promises you that CyberMage #2 is coming soon:
In fact, Origin's marketing played heavily into the point that there would be a real CyberMage comic from "Eden Matrix Press" alongside the game. It was mentioned in magazine advertisements, interviews about the game and so on.
But there was no issue 2. And there is no record of "Eden Matrix Press" ever publishing a single comic beyond the one included in the box. It was never available on its own in stores and nothing indicating that a second issue was ever solicited has been found to exist. So why does a publishing label exist for what is effectively a manual printed by Electronic Arts just like Victory Streak or Voices of War?
It turns out there's a little bit more to the story. While searching for "Eden Matrix" and comic I made a pretty surprising discovery: a series of comics published in 1994 by Adhesive Comics named Eden Matrix. What's more, their logo is identical to the Eden Matrix Press logo included with the CyberMage material! The credits for Eden Matrix the comic book are to the same people credited with CyberMage #1, Aubrey McAuley and Ashley Underwood. What's going on here?
Adhesive Media was an Austin-based small press comic published started by the person behind 90s indie classic Too Much Coffee Man. They published a number of short runs of comics by members of Austin's artsy counter-culture. And their story is a little crazy because, specifically, of this Eden Matrix comic.
Eden Matrix (the comic) had its own unusual gimmick: if you were a big fan of the comic there was a special BBS you could call to interact with fans and access bonus materials. The BBS quickly became very popular not because people loved the comic but because it had a pipe to the newly popular world wide web. In a story straight out of Halt and Catch Fire, the Eden Matrix BBS transitioned into becoming one of Austin's biggest local internet service providers!
If Eden Matrix is forgotten today it's probably because Austin had another legendary local ISP that's even more closely connected to Origin: Illuminati Online, or IO. IO was founded by Steve Jackson and represented the same chunk of Austin nerd culture as Origin (they would go on to provide Origin's corporate internet in the late 90s; back in the day we'd track "io" IP addresses on wcnews so we'd know when Origin was looking at Wing Commander). IO was Eden Matrix's number one competitor, though they would both fall to national ISPs in the long run.
Eden Matrix was a spit-and-glue operation that wasn't afraid to take crazy risks on the future, presumably owing to how they came to be in the first place. Eden Matrix Press, officially a trademark of Adhesive Media, was an aborted attempt to return to comics around the launch of CyberMage. It was apparent CyberMage wasn't going to be a hit immediately and the project was dropped.
… but the sort of thing it was dropped in favor of was pretty incredible. Eden Matrix has one big claim to history: they streamed the first theatrical film on the internet! In June 1995, roughly six weeks before CyberMage shipped, Eden Matrix partnered with another tech company to stream the movie Party Girl live from a screening in Seattle. So if you think about the Wright Brothers when you fly an airliner today you should think about CyberMage every time you stream a movie!
(An aside: there is also a black and white 'ashcan' version of CyberMage #1. Origin wanted to emulate DooM's viral shareware release by making a similar version of CyberMage available. However, instead of releasing a chunk of the game online they opted to sell a demo version on CD in stores. For roughly $15 you could play the first level of the game and you would get a comic book. Origin's marketing was not beating the out-of-touch accusations!)
You can read the CyberMage comic here or the ashcan version here. A 1996 version of Eden Matrix's website is available on the Internet Archive.
The Wing Commander movie club survived our trek to Altair IV! Forbidden Planet was a pretty fascinating movie, a prototype for the modern 'serious' science fiction film… and a huge part of the DNA of Star Trek, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and more. This week, we're headed back to Earth… the Earth of the near future! This week's movie is Demolition Man, an extremely fun action movie from 1993. So plan to order some Taco Bell and form on our wings for a modern… masterpiece, I guess. You can join us this Friday via Discord to watch along.
The Wing Commander connection here is that music from Demolition Man was used during the production of the Wing Commander movie as a 'temp track'. Temp tracking is a process by which a film is given temporary music before it has its own score in order to show everyone a sense of what is being worked towards. In the case of Demolition Man, a Elliot Goldenthal track called Subterranean Slugfest was used for the scramble scene in Wing Commander! You can listen to it here:
Where can I find a copy of the movie for the watch party?
Demolition Man is available for rent or purchase on the standard streaming services. If you would like a physical copy, the movie was released on BluRay in 2011 and remains in print around the world. A copy is available for download from 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!
In our recent update archiving articles from Aint it Cool News there was a story which mentioned Wing Commander movie storyboards in the January 1998 issue of Ultimate PC, a UK-based magazine. I decided to look up the article and it is... something! It's an extensive and interesting piece on the merging of Hollywood and game development which includes both a focus on Wing Commander Prophecy and a fascinating sidebar interview with Chris Roberts (then in pre-production on the movie). It also features an extremely 1990s layout and what may be the least flattering photograph of Chris Roberts ever published! Most interesting of all, the media is clearly all sourced from the Wing Commander Prophecy EPK... which accidentally included the 'test' storyboards Origin developed for the movie while Chris was still putting it together there. So the AICN report is actually accidentally correcting that error and seeing that they were for the still-to-be-shot movie!
Back in 2020 we featured some of the Wing Commander fan art of EpytronOmega, who was working on ship models to mod into Sins of a Solar Empire. While looking through ArtStation and DeviantArt I noticed a few of his renders we didn't have in the archive -- enjoy!
Wing Commander: Arrow Class Fighter (ArtStation)
This is my lower poly model of the Arrow Class fighter featured in Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger, as well as Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom.
Model built for a modification for Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
3,483 Polies
Dralthi4 baked Textures (DeviantArt)
Here is some work that I have been doing with Baking textures. Not to bad if you ask me, hope for more to come.
Kilrathi Fighters (DeviantArt)
Shown here, from right to left, we have the Dralthi MK 2, Darket, Strakha, and Dralthi MK 4.
TCS Vesuvius (DeviantArt)
Here is the final mesh for the Vesuvius.
This is a reminder that we have another fun #Wingnut movie night planned on Discord this evening! The ongoing theme will be movies that are referenced by Wing Commander in some way. Tonight's film is Forbidden Planet and you can find details on why we're watching it 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,
We weren't going to do after action reports for movies that were just referenced by Wing Commander… but there's so much we noticed in The Empire Strikes Back that we decided to keep it going and at least post what was referenced each week. Plus, we have to have a place for the weekly Sully picture!
Here's the "we found them" line that's quoted in Wing Commander Prophecy:
Hoth itself gets a nod on Wing Commander Academy. Mark Hamill again faces a snow cave in The Price of Victory:
And then there's the appearance of the Super Star Destroyer echoed in Prince Thrakhath's enormous dreadnought. Like the 22km Wing Commander ship, fans have spent decades bickering about the length of the SSD (it's 19 km).
Darth Vader famously executes an officer during the attack on Hoth. Dr. Forstchen first has Prince Thrakhath do the same in End Run…
“Now tell me this, Jamuka,” Thrakhath said quietly, looking up at the messenger. “Did you walk or run from the communications center?”
“I walked, sire.”
“You lie, you are breathing heavily.”
The messenger was unable to reply.
“Consider what is now occurring aboard my ship. You are seen running, your expression one of agitation, something is therefore wrong. In your hand is a message bearing a top-secret code stamp, and I am willing to venture that you carried it with the code marking face outward because you wanted others to see just how important you were, bearing a secret communication to my office. Am I not right?”
The messenger hesitated.
“Am I not right?” Thrakhath snarled.
“You are right, my lord.”
“Fine. Do you now realize what is happening aboard this vessel? Already a rumor is flying that something has gone wrong, that I have received a top-secret message and it bears bad news. Before this watch is finished that word will have spread to all two thousand of this crew. Rumors will become fact, speculation of what disaster has befallen our Empire will gain embellishment, morale will decline, fighting efficiency will drop.”
He paused for a moment, looking down at the message.
“All because of your agitated, childlike stupidity.”
Ashamed, the messenger lowered his head.
“What does the message say?”
“Perhaps you should read it, sire.”
“You know its contents. I am willing to venture that the moment you leave my quarters you will be bombarded with requests concerning the contents. You will show your anxiety and, I am willing to venture, will whisper what is written on this scrap of paper to show off your importance, especially to impress some female that you wish to mate with.”
“I have never spoken a word of what I transcribe,” the messenger said indignantly.
“You don’t need to speak; your face reveals it,” Thrakhath replied, his voice cold. “Now tell me.”
“Sire. A burst transmission was picked up from the planet Vukar Tag. Nine Confederation troop ships attacked the planet, escorted by two light carriers of a new design.”
Thrakhath felt a cold chill but revealed nothing, his features set.
“Go on.”
“The scum landed on the planet with a full strike force and destroyed the ancestral home of the emperor’s Dowager mother. A holo image of the attack was transmitted with the message and is attached to the memo.”
Thrakhath was silent, looking at the messenger.
“You have disgraced yourself by your agitated demeanor. You are to leave my presence, speak to no one, and retire to your cabin. I think you know the only alternative you now have in order to redeem your honor. Now leave me.”
The messenger’s eyes grew wide with astonishment and fear at what he had just been commanded to do.
“But sire—”
“You know what you need to do,” Thrakhath said coldly.
“But sire, my family, I am the only son . . .” and his voice trailed away.
“Then don’t disgrace the ending of your line by groveling,” Thrakhath snapped, turning away as if the messenger no longer existed.
The young messenger attempted to compose his features and he bowed low. Walking slowly, he left the room.
... and then he lampshades it in Fleet Action, with Thrakhath realizing it's not in his best interests to kill his officers.
Prince Thrakhath stood up, extending his arms and groaning.
"So what you are telling me is that you cannot speed up the completion of the fleet."
"No, my lord," and the admiral before him lowered his head to the ground.
"Stand up and stop this groveling, I'm not going to tear your throat out. I need leaders, not dead bodies just because you bring bad news."
The admiral came to his feet.
"It's the problem with the transports," the admiral said. "We simply don't have enough to keep moving the material out to the Hari at the rate you wish for."
The famous AT-AT "walkers" nodded in End Run's amphibious assault scene:
Wing Commander III turns the attack on a planetary shield generator into a mission!
Like the Millennium Falcon, the Scimitars on Wing Commander Academy have a useful chin turret for defending themselves on the ground (from "On Both Your Houses"):
There's little doubt the Diligent scenes in the Wing Commander movie were inspired by the lengthy Millennium Falcon escape in Empire!
... and it was also a touch point for the asteroids in the early Wing Commander games!
This one is actually not an inspiration: artist Beverly Garland has explicitly said that the Crusader character (who appears in a movie ad in Star Soldier) was based on knight armor and not Boba Fett:
Blair crash lands on Pisces on Wing Commander Academy and it looks just like his crash on Dagobah in ESB!
Last and also least, the Twin Pod Cloud cars are a nice parallel to the Krant in Wing Commander I with its two cockpits.
Sully would've fought the worm.
Movie news aggregator ScreenRant recently interviewed Freddie Prinze Jr. on a red carpet and asked him if there were any roles he'd like to revisit... and you won't believe his answer! "If Wing Commander would have made money then maybe that would be fun to do another one. But nobody saw it, so it'll never happen." Hey, you never know! Exactly the right amount of time has passed between the 1998 Wing Commander shoot so that Prinze is now the right age to play Commodore Blair in Wing Commander Prophecy. Let's make it happen!
Archived: Download
Relive those late summer nights spent with friends, battling through the games that defined your childhood. Reconnect with the classics you loved and the memories they carry - it’s time to play like you used to.
I'm always excited to discover a new piece of Wing Commander-related advertising... and we've got a big one today! Baen ran these unique magazine advertisements for Wing Commanders End Run and Fleet Action in Science Fiction Chronicle in December 1993 and January 1994, respectively. There's some pretty unique copy in here: "soil words from a soft Kilrathi mouth." (?!) It's crazy to think that there was a time when the two biggest Wing Commander novels came out just months apart; the Wing Commander universe certainly grew by leaps and bounds in 1994!
There's probably no point in reviewing The Empire Strikes Back, but it's safe to report that we all loved it. This week, the Wing Commander movie club is going back to the 1950s to take a look at the beginning of our future. We'll be watching Forbidden Planet, a movie that spawned (among many other things) the original Star Trek! You can join us this Friday via Discord to watch along.
Wing Commander Academy's Lords of the Sky opens with Tolwyn briefing the cadets. He shows a map of the Dioscuri system which they'll be patrolling and if you look very carefully you can see the background painters have added a number of labels to surrounding stars. One of them is a nood to Star Trek (M1701) and one is a reference to Alien (LV442). And at the top left of the image you can find C57D… a reference to the hero starship in Forbidden Planet, the United Planets Cruiser C-57D!
Privateer 2 doesn't just name ships after soccer players… it also sneaks in multiple alien races from movies. And one of those is the Kiowan heavy fighter, the RPHB Krell. The Krell is named after the mysterious dead alien race from Forbidden Planet!
Where can I find a copy of the movie for the watch party?
Forbidden Planet is available for rent or purchase on the standard streaming services. If you would like a physical copy, the movie was released on BluRay in 2010 and remains in print around the world. A copy is available for download from 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!
Just thought I’d pass along that if anyone who didn’t participate in the Kickstarter drive for Volume 2 can now obtain both the Volume 2 CD and digital downloads from my website https://www.oldzieymusic.com/store/Of course I’m still waiting on the vinyl version. Once I obtain those and send them out to the backers I will also make that available.
Hope all is well in your world!
George
I made a terrible discovery while looking through our archive: we have not updated on the incredible Privateer 2 artwork of Jayden Morris (ArtStation) in years and they have recreated at least two truly incredible ships in that time. We reported on their stunning remake of the Anhur landing cutscene and recreation of the Jincilla Veldor using Star Citizen assets... but not their modern-game-quality models of the Straith and the Heron. We'll collect all of it in this update for posterity!
Morris has created a wonderful set of renders and animations of both ships, presenting them similar to a Star Citizen concept sale with different liveries, animations showing how they work and even some associated lore!
Privateer 2 - Straith (ArtStation)
Remake of the Straith light fighter ship from Privateer 2 (1996).
Original: wcnews.com/wcpedia/Straith_Light_Fighter_PL01
Using weapon models from Star Citizen.
Privateer 2 - Heron (ArtStation)
Remake of the Heron pirate ship from Privateer 2 (1996).
Original: wcnews.com/wcpedia/Heron_Medium_Fighter_ML04
Using weapon models from Star Citizen.
Chirichan Pirate Clan
Heron Enforcer
In Action
Draknor Pirate Station Hangar
Lore
Animations
Privateer 2 - Anhur Entry Cinematic Remake (ArtStation)
Re-interpretation of the planet Anhur's landing cinematic from the 1996 PC game Privateer 2: The Darkening.
Fly through Audio is from the original cinematic.
Uses ship models from Star Citizen as replacements for some of the original Privateer 2 ships. As these two games are related in a few ways, it became a blending of each, remixing Privateer 2's creativeness with Star Citizen's universe.
You can watch a version of the original cinematic here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUxZkeZv8fU...
This was an experimental learning exercise in animation, landscaping and Unreal Engine features.
Terrain sections were created using Quadspinner Gaea and enhanced with Megascans textures in UE4.
Rocks were modelled in 3DS Max with box modelling and displaced using a Megascans rock surface.
Full scene composition and animation tracks were built in 3DS Max over the original animation footage, then exported to UE4 using Datasmith before further animation and scene arrangement in UE4.
Rendered at 24FPS. Animated HUD elements and post-processing in Photoshop & After Effects.
Fly Though
No HUD
Scenery Demo
Captures from the Scenery Demo
Captures from the Fly Though
Extra Scenery Shots with a Cleaner Atmosphere
Veldor Model (Sketchfab)
Speedy kitbash recreating the Privateer 2 ‘Veldor’ pirate star fighter using parts of Starcitizen’s Drake Buccaneer and Drake Corsair models.
You can download the Veldor 3D model here.
This is a reminder that we have another fun #Wingnut movie night planned on Discord this evening! The ongoing theme will be movies that are referenced by Wing Commander in some way. Tonight's film is The Empire Strikes Back and you can find details on why we're watching it 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 found the Search for Spock worth the effort! It sometimes feels like Star Trek III gets a bad rap just to fit together the 'even good, odd bad' Star Trek movie joke. The reality is that it only ever falters at the very end with a final ten minutes of dull Vulcan resurrection that loses more and more meaning the further we travel from the tastes of 1980s fandom. But everything else, what a movie! And not only that, Star Trek III takes the world of Star Trek II and twists it into what it will become for the next thirty years. The 'tone' of Star Trek TNG and its spinoffs is born in Search for Spock's first act… as are a huge number of the models, sets and ideas (including the modern Klingon) that will go on to fuel an enormous franchise. And a rousing story, to boot.
The big connection to Wing Commander is that Star Trek III was the origin of the "Spacedock". The Enterprise returns to this massive enclosure in Earth orbit early in the film and then in the second act Kirk and his crew must steal the Enterprise from its depths. The Spacedock model was constructed by Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) for the film. Their artists created a distinct and impressive model which would go on to serve in a number of Star Trek roles. Additional footage of the Spacedock was shot for Star Trek IV and Star Trek VI. Star Trek V reused stock footage as did several episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation which matted the new model of the Enterprise on top of Kirk's ship. In recent years, it has appeared on Discovery, Lower Decks and Picard. Here are some great behind the images from Memory Alpha:
Per tradition, we've put together a gallery of shots of the station. You can absolutely see how Chris Douglas adapted the idea into Privateer's distinct Perry.
It looks particularly like Perry in wireframe form on Uhura's bridge readout aboard the Enterprise!
And if you're interested in some of the contemporary lore for the station, here's a page from FASA's Star Trek III sourcebook that covers the new installation:
Did you know there are only two images of Perry in all of the original Privateer? The one from the front of the box and the one that appears in the game itself!
Perry's closed off internal bays are not based on the Spacedock's open area… but the little animated shuttle that was ultimately cut from the game does seem to reference the shuttlepods that fly around the Spacedock.
Sully also got so large because of the Genesis device.
StarfleetDesign is a prolific and talented illustrator known for recreating obscure Star Trek-related graphics... and sometimes imagining new ones! That's exactly what happened here, with a Wing Commander-styled take on the Star Trek logo.
Star Trek / Wing Commander Mashup Logo (ArtStation)
A custom Star Trek logo in the style of the Wing Commander logo from the original game box art. This is entirely vector art created with Affinity Designer, but wit texturing and other adjustments made using Affinity Photo.
Star Trek in the style of the Wing Commander logo. Vector art created with Affinity Designer
A horizontal version, created mainly for anyone that wants to use it as a header image on social media
I actually don't know much about Wing Commander, but I am a fan of the STOP typeface created by Aldo Novarese (1971)
Detail of texture effects
Detail of raw vector art
This one is straight outta the Wing Commander Discord! Talented regular user Friend Computer has created three Wing Commander fonts for everyone to use. They say: "You might want to note there are minor differences to improve readability and kerning. Otherwise the fonts are free to use in projects as people see fit." Awesome! They've created a font based on the one used in computer menus in Wing Commander III and IV and then two more based on ones seen in Privateer: the Quine 4000 font and the in flight nav computer font.
Wing Leader
Note: "This is my version on Wing Commander Font. There are minor changes to the font to improve readability and kerning There's a few style choices I made as some of the letters didn't feel consistent.
Download
Quine 4000
Note: "Here's the Privateer font from the QUINE 4000 computer with some small adjustments for readability. I had to guess on the extra characters.
Fragged Nav Computer
Note: "Here's the Privateer Nav Computer Style Font."
We recently put together an article covering the names of the different transports in Wing Commander II. A few weeks later I was surprised to discover I had received a pretty fascinating anonymous message about it:
I was just reading the Wing Commander II transports article, and noticing the breakdown with the comm portraits I remembered: have you guys ever written about how those portraits are originally from Ultima VI (Gwenno and Nomaan)? I can't be the only one who noticed that, right?
We had not written such an article because we had never noticed the connection! But sure enough, it's 100% true: both of the VDU images for the male and female freighter pilots in Wing Commander II are reused from NPC portraits in Ultima VI! To the best of my knowledge (and despite the huge amount of crossover between Wing Commander and Ultima players, myself included) I've never seen anyone else point this out. Kudos, what a find! Here they are:
For those not familiar with Ultima lore, Nomaan is a more minor NPC who appears in Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny and Ultima VI: The False Prophet. He runs Naughty Nomaan's, a weapons shop in the city of Jhelom in both games. Like many Ultima characters, he is based on one of Richard Garriott's friends from the Society for Creative Anachronism, Jerry Self. Self's SCA character was named Nomaan Bucharde.
Gwenno, on the other hand, is one of the most significant characters in the Ultima series. She appears in some form or another starting in the original game, often as a potential party member and the wife of crossbow master Iolo. She is based on Kathleen Jones, the wife of the real Iolo, David Watson. Both were old friends of Garriott (again from the SCA) and together they composed Ultima's most famous piece of music, Stones. Mrs. Jones sadly passed away in 2000 and is memorialized in the world of Ultima Online. Her appearance seems to vary from game to game.
This is not the first time we've known about plans to reuse Ultima VI material in Wing Commander II. You can read about a cut feature that was designed for WC2 which would've reused the TV animations from the Ultima VI opening.
Spock has been found – and guess what, he regenerated and lived his whole life and happened to end up exactly as old as he was the first time. What luck! In all seriousness, we loved Star Trek III and talked a lot about how important it was in setting up the next twenty years of Star Trek storytelling.
This week, things are changing just a little bit: we're moving from the previous collection of films, which were exclusively ones which inspired Wing Commander, to add a new set of movies that are referenced in Wing Commander stories (either in front of or behind the screens). If we come across another reference to a movie that inspired Wing Commander, we'll prioritize that in future weeks. Until then, enjoy a new batch of films with a little more variety… and some interesting Wing Commander connections that we'll explore in these intro posts.
With that in mind, we're kicking things off with the Star Wars movie we didn't already do: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)! You can join us this Friday via Discord to watch along.
So what's our very first Wing Commander reference? Wing Commander Prophecy gets the honor by featuring a quote that references The Empire Strikes Back during the T'lan Meth E2 pilot rescue. The SAR pilot deliberately echoes a line from ESB when he finds Maniac's wingman: "We found him, sir! Repeat: we've found him!". The original line, spoken by a snowspeeder pilot upon discovering Han and Luke, is "I found them. Repeat, I found them." Here's Wing Commander Prophecy's audio clip:
There's also a great sequence in End Run that is clearly referencing the Imperial attack on Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back. During the Confederation's amphibious assault on Vukar Tag, we get a neat description of how the landing craft drop off 'walkers' like the ones invented for Star Wars! Too bad we didn't get to see that in Wing Commander III…
He pulled up to a hundred meters above the plateau and swept over it. Mongol and Chamberlain were lower down, weaving S-turns back and forth, waiting for targets to crop up. In the dust and confusion, he saw the grunts clambering out of their ships, racing through the wreckage, ground fighting vehicles pouring out the forward hatches, hovering up, and then skimming away. The heavy weapons landers touched down, disgorging their massive “walkers” which could traverse any terrain and earned as much armaments as a light corvette. There was a flurry of laser rifle fire, more secondary explosions, one of the landing craft, now serving as a medevac, already taking off and heading back out to space.
Where can I find a copy of the movie for the watch party?
The Empire Strikes Back is available for rent or purchase on the standard streaming services. It is currently streaming via subscription on Paramount+. If you would like a physical copy, the movie was released on UHD in 2020 and remains in print around the world. If you are not able to locate a copy please stop by the Discord and ping a CIC staff member before Friday's showing.
For the previous Star Wars films, we made a point of watching the theatrical versions. Because The Empire Strikes Back's theatrical version is so close to the later special edition, everyone can choose which they'd prefer on their own.
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!
Here's a piece of fan art I never expected to see: a chibi version of the Kilrathi priestess from Secret Missions 2 by DeKreteOne on DeviantArt!
This is one that is a little less than usual, but I still wanted to try. I've enjoyed the Wing Commander series since my dad showed me the games when I was a kid. The Kilrathi always stuck in my mind as such a neat villain race, and the Priestess of Sivar, one of the only female Kilrathi ever to be seen (in a cutscene in Secret Missions 2 for the first game), has remained in my mind since I first saw her.
I drew this a while back, and just got around to wrapping up the colors/shading. Even though it is a little obscure of a concept, and not everyone enjoys the idea of more than one pair of breasts, I will probably draw some more art of her when I come up with some new concepts. I liked drawing her, and exploring what she would look like under the (admittedly skimpy) outfit.
I also posted this up on my X/Twitter page, with a screenshot of the original pixel art I based this on. Go check it out if you want. Also, go play Wing Commander, it is really fun.
I have more fanart and more chibis coming soon, I'll have to make a separate fanart folder on her soon enough.
More of this kind of fun, please! Here's her original appearance from 1991:
Last month, we posted some cool Hornet art by ulimann644 on DeviantArt. At the time we wondered what they were going to do next… and now we know, one of my favorite Wing Commander ship designs of all time: the original Fralthi!
Fralthi-class Carrier (DeviantArt)
This is my second WING COMMANDER mesh. The FRALTHI-CLASS Cruiser/Light Carrier of the Kilrathi in WING COMMANDER 1.Ulimann644 also posted two work in progress versions which show how much effort when into this ship.
Hope you like it.
Software:
- Lightwave 2024
- Photoshop
Fralthi-class Carrier (DeviantArt)
This is a second WIP-Picture of my second WING COMMANDER mesh.
I made some changes at the basic-colors and added a few new details. The Light Carrier/Cruiser has also it's gun-turrets now.
Hope you like it.
Software:
- Lightwave 2024
Fralthi-class Carrier WIP 1 (DeviantArt)
This is a first WIP-Picture of my second WING COMMANDER mesh - a few others will follow this year.
The FRALTHI-CLASS light carrier from the first WC-PC-Game. I plan to make some minor modifications to the original in the hope that the carrier will look better than in the templates.
Hope you like it.
Software:
- Lightwave 2024
It sounds like a Wing Commander I Dralthi is next… I can't wait to see how it turns out!
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 III: The Search for Spock and you can find details on why we're watching it in the announcement post here (it's a weird one!). 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 has traveled to distant galaxies and lived through some of the most deadly warfare in human history… and now we can add surviving high school in Los Angeles to our list of accomplishments! Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a movie that never quite comes together: it's endlessly promising a slightly better film that you sincerely wish you were watching. It's perfectly pleasant and certainly plenty of fun… but you come away wondering why there wasn't just a little more there.
As previously noted, the Wing Commander connection is slight: the original introductory story for Privateer included a character named Jake Rubio, a sketchy privateer who attempts to take advantage of the player when he is just starting out as an independent operator. Rubio's appearance was to be based on actor Paul Reubens' appearance in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Reubens plays vampire henchman Amilyn and he makes quite an impression!
Sully did not like the part where Lothos ate a kitten. Sully wants to eat a kitten!
You all can identify any fighter in space at this point… but what about the small arms? Today we've put together a guide to the smaller weapons of Wing Commander Academy: handguns, rifles, grenades and more! Animated shows like Academy create a sort of visual bible of model sheets of "props" that can be reused from episode to episode… resulting in a consistency where the same weapon can appear each time that type is needed. It's interesting to see where Academy does this and where it creates new weapons for particular stories! We've divided everything by faction: Space Force, Marines, Kilrathi, Dioscuri and then unique weapons that appear only once associated with a particular character. Enjoy!
Terran Confederation Space Force
The Space Force pistol is the most common weapon to appear on Wing Commander Academy, used by six different episodes. Like the similarly prolific Kilrathi Pistol, it has more design work than the average prop and seems to be intentionally toyetic. It is carried by shipboard security and seems to be part of the survival kit carried by the Scimitars. Implied to be non-lethal, though this is not explicit. In Red and Blue, Burroughs uses one to dispatch a guard during his escape. In The Most Delicate Instrument it is carried by security aboard the Tiger's Claw and onoe is used by Blizzard to break into Archer's quarters. Maverick (and later Grunt) carry one stored aboard Blair's Scimitar in Word of Honor and Maniac has one aboard his fighter that he uses to dispatch at least one Dioscurian in Lords of the Sky. Archer uses hers to destroy a robot in On Both Your Houses and finally Maverick carries one in Price of Victory after he is shot down. In Red and Blue, when used at close range, it causes a blue electrical discharge. In The Most Delicate Instrument and Word of Honor it fires thin blue bolts, in On Both Your Houses it fires wide blue bolts and in Lords of the Sky it fires wide yellow bolts.
The second type of Space Force pistol appears twice. Maya reveals in Recreation that she never goes anywhere without one. All three cadets carry them in holsters during the mission to Greenhouse in On Both Your Houses. Fires a long blue bolt. Seems to be lethal (it explodes a Greenhouse robot).
The Space Force Submachine Gun appears in only one shot, carried by the helmeted guard assigned to protect the flight line on Sirius in Red and Blue. Not fired.
The Space Force blaster appears twice, carried by security personnel in The Most Delicate Instrument and pilots assigned to guard duty in Recreation. It fires non lethal blasts in both situations. Referred to as a "blaster" in the The Most Delicate Instrument script and a "laser rifle" in the Recreation outline. It fires both long yellow bolts (when used by the cadets) and long blue bolts (when fired by security) in The Most Delicate Instrument and an unspecified blue discharge in Recreation.
The imposing rifle appears in two episodes: Grunt carries it in his Scimitar and uses it to fight the Dioscurians when he lands in Lords of the Sky. Blair and Grunt both carry them when they land on Dolos in Glory of Sivar. It fires long yellow bursts in the first appearance and long blue ones in the second. Note that it is NOT the custom marine rifle Grunt had in Word of Honor; it may be the equivalent of a rifle carried for hunting during a survival situation.
Terran Confederation Marine Corps
Word of Honor begins with a flashback to trench warfare on Repleetah and in the process shows us several weapons that are specific to the marines. The most significant of these is the laser rifle, which Grunt refers to by name later in the episode. It appears later in the story (Grunt having saved his from his marine service) and then shows up in two other places. In Recreation, it is carried by the guard protecting the Warrior King in the Tiger's Claw's brig. And then in Glory of Sivar it is, strangely, used throughout the episode by Kilrathi soldiers. It is used by different Kilrathi throughout the episode: the party that searches the crashed Sartha, the guards at the labor camp, the soldiers that capture Maverick and Grunt, the guards on the flagship and the soldier that the cadets encounter while trying to escape. It fires long blue bolts in its first two appearances and long red bolts when used by the Kilrathi.
Most of the marines also carry a distinct type of pistol in holsters on their chests or hips. We do not ever see the pistol unholstered but the visible portion does not seem to match the unique pistol Grunt carries in the third act of Word of Honor or either of the types used by the Space Force.
One marine fires a bazooka which destroys a Kilrathi tank. It fires a large, circular blue energy bolt.
Another marine has a pair of grenades attached to his uniform. We do not see them used.
Grunt picks up a timed explosive charge carried via shoulder strap to destroy a Kilrathi tank. It seems to be a nod to the tricorder from the original Star Trek television series. It generates a large yellow explosion which causes the tank to combust.
Empire of Kilrah
Like the Space Force, the Kilrathi have a distinct pistol and rifle which appear consistently across the run of the show; they also seem to be toyetic, designed to look less like 20th century guns and more something that a toy company could release in a roleplaying line. The Kilrathi pistol first shows up in The Last One Left, brandished by Gharal to capture Blair (it seems to be holstered on his back). It returns in Word of Honor carried by Kurlan when he escapes from his downed Dralthi. In Price of Victory, Blair acquires a Kilrathi pistol from a survival kit; the enemy pilots trying to prevent his escape also have them. The pistol fires red bolts.
The standard Kilrathi rifle features a distinct double barrel. Gharal's troops carry these rifles in The Last One Left while the Kilrathi soldiers on Dioscuri use them throughout the episode in Lords of the Sky. In Price of Victory they are carried by the Kilrathi party searching for Maverick. The rifles fire yellow bolts in Lords of the Sky and red bolts in Price of Victory.
The Kilrathi soldiers that board the Pleiku in Walking Wounded carry another unique type of rifle which has a fixed bayonet. We do not see these fired but they double as a cutting torch at one point during the boarding.
Dioscuri
The inhabitants of Dioscuri-2 use a variety of types of Stone Age weaponry, both in combat and for ceremonial purposes, as part of their role in Word of Honor. These props appear in four different scenes and each time they are unique! The party which captures Maniac carried long spears tipped with stones that had been carved into pincers. One Dioscrian throws a bolas, a trio of weighted balls connected by a cord, to capture Maniac.
The party which attacks Grunt is armed primarily with hand axes. Most are smooth but at least one seems to have markings. One of these Dioscurians is carrying a wooden club.
The chieftain that speaks to Maverick and Maniac carries a ceremonial staff topped with a skull and a beard of feathers that match the ones he wears. His escorts carry torches.
Finally, when it comes time to sacrifice the cadets, the chieftain brandishes a two-handed halberd which has distinct markings carved in its blade.
Unique
Grunt has an unusual pistol in the third act of Word of Honor. It's not either of the Space Force sidearms and it doesn't seem to match the marine pistols seen in the episode's flashback. It's not really clear at all where he gets it, but it appears extensively and clearly has a model sheet it's working from.
Zurakh, the Strakha pilot, flashes a blade when insulted by his commander. We get a closeup look at the middle of the weapon but never really see the whole thing.
And last but not least, we can't forget the Warrior King's staff from Recreation! It fires bolts of green energy that surround their target in tendrils of similarly colored light. As used it is non-lethal but he implies it can kill Maverick. He actually leaves the staff on the carrier after he's captured so it's not clear what its current disposition is!
We hope this guide has been useful. It's really interesting seeing how a model sheet can be used across a whole show to build continuity… and what happens when that doesn't happen correctly! Did you catch any small arms we missed? Let us know in the comments and we'll update the guide.
Thirty years ago this month, Electronic Gaming Monthly pulished this short but interesting preview of the upcoming Wing Commander III 3DO. Wing Commander III 3DO had a playable build ready fairly early in development... but a lot of aspects changed before release, including a complete redo of the video player. If you look closely at the gameplay screenshots in this preview you will notice they're a lot darker and some aspects of the interface are closer to the original PC release. And check out that destroyed labeled Exeter, another indication of how WC3 3DO retains some Super Wing Commander DNA!
Buffy the Vampire Slayer didn't quite live up to the highs of the franchise that followed but it was an interesting little movie… just one that fell short of the premise or its colorful cinematography. This week, we're returning to space with one more movie in 'part one' of our series: Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. You can join us this Friday via Discord to watch along.
Our connection to the making of Wing Commander once again comes from the March 1992 art list composed for Wing Commander Privateer which notes the following for the external design of Perry Naval Base: "Perry Naval Base: Perry looks very similar to the orbiting base in Star Trek." This would be the massive orbital starbase facility first created for Star Trek III and then reused extensively in later features and serieses. Perry Naval Base is one of the signature designs in the game, making a significant appearance on the box cover. It plays a major role in Privateer and the same type of base (later established to be Halsey-class) made a surprise return in Wing Commander Arena. This is actually the second Wing Commander starbase to be inspired by Star Trek; the massive star bases in Wing Commander II were inspired by Franz Joseph's Star Fleet Headquarters (which never appeared on screen).
Where can I find a copy of the movie for the watch party?
Star Trek III is available for rent or purchase on the standard streaming services. It is currently streaming via subscription on Paramount+. 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!
Like most people, I constantly find myself needing to refer to the ship sprites from the original Wing Commander games. Four (or five, depending on how you count Super Wing Commander) different Wing Commander games used an engine called 3Space which stored ships not as 3D objects but as collections of sprites that were resized and rotated to simulate 3D. This allowed the earliest games to have ships that appeared to have textures or details beyond what was possible on home computers when they were released.
Over the years, we've collected plenty of orthographics and sprite sheets to show off this material extracted from the games... but it just occured to me: why not just upload all the source images in galleries? So that's what we've done! All 3,362 in game sprites are now accessible via the WCPedia links below! Whether you're studying up on Kilrathi insignia or just need a side view of a Gratha for a project they're all here.
Here's a little gem from the Internet Archive: scans of a Polish gaming magazine called Computer Studio. This is an April 1993 article covering the current state of Origin Systems. It's largely focused on Richard Garriott's Ultima group but there's an interesting section about Privateer as well. It's cool to have a snapshot of the game from a very different perspective! A translation of the Privateer section is included below.
Another pair of important figures at Origin are Joel Manners and Scott Russo. The former previously collaborated with Roberts during the creation of "Wing Commander" and now he has decided to use the knowledge he acquired to benefit a proven idea. Together with Scott Russo he is currently working on a spinoff game game titled "Privateer". Many aspects of it will come straight from "Wing Commander" but the action of "Privateer" goes further than in Roberts' program: it is not limited to just taking part in combat patrols in space.
The player takes on the role of a spaceship pilot and will have complete freedom of action and travel in any diretion. Initially, "Privateer" was defined as a cross between "Wing Commander" and "Elite". The fabulous (even by today's standards) graphics complete the picture of a dream game. Unfortunately, this miracle will be available only to those who have computers with 386DX processors or higher, SVGA and sound cards. Maybe there will be versions "Privateer" for new computers like the Atari Falcon or the Amiga 1200, but these are early ideas.
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 Buffy the Vampire Slayer and you can find details on why we're watching it in the announcement post here (it's a weird one!). 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 has explored Los Angeles of the… recent past… and if there was ever any doubt, we all love Blade Runner. It's an incredible movie whose aesthetic grabs you from the first frame and carries you through even the film's weaker moments (which include the meat of the climactic third act fight and in the theatrical version we watched the well-intentioned-but-poorly-done narration.
The big story when it comes to Wing Commander is Blade Runner's connection to Privateer's New Detroit environment. We thought it would be fun to walk you through exactly how we go from one of Syd Mead's stunning concept paintings to the finished animation in Privateer.
And here's how that concept was realized by director Ridley Scott:
Here is an excerpt from a March 18 1992 art list by Privateer's lead designer Joel Manners. He describes the planet, then known as New Chicago instead of New Detroit and specifies how each "options screen" should look and what the player should be able to do with it. Street Level, called Main Street at this point, is described: "The main street of New Chicago is a dark, wet, rainy place full of neon signs, traffic (in the air and on the ground) and so on. Blade Runner rip off in the worst way. The player can go to: Weapons dealer, Bar, both guilds, the commodities exchange, the mission computer, and the ship dealer."
Wing Commander Privateer's concept artists used this description to design the screens that would be used in New Detroit. From the composition it's extremely likely they were referencing Syd Mead's concept painting directly. The New Detroit sketches are not credited but several others from this set were signed by the late, great Paul Steed.
Origin Systems' 3D artist Jake Rogers took this sketch and turned it into a 3D environment and animation that was then rendered into what you see in the final game. You can explore these and other 3D models created for the early games via the WC3D Collection Index.
The 3D model has a great deal more detail than could ever have been visible. Take a look at some of the textures which were too small to be seen, including signs on the hotel, a street sign, the elevator button labels and a funny message on the ATM screen!
And here's the final animated screen, credited to Chris Roberts' Wing Commander Privateer!
That wasn't quite the end of the story: just four years later Origin would hire Syd Mead himself to work on Wing Commander Prophecy. If you compare the concept art you'll see that it's a surprisingly short jump from his design for Blade Runner's Spinner to the Nephilim fighters in Wing Commander Prophecy!
Chris Roberts would return to the Blade Runner well one more time. The environment was chosen as a good selling point for some of Star Citizen's first bespoke artwork (distinct from the Wing Commander material reused for the Squadron 42 pitch). Here's the familiar concept piece which was ultimately turned into an interactive previz animation!
Here's the same progression for New Detroit's other Blade Runner inspired options screen, the New Detroit landing pad.
Hangar. The landing berth for the player is located on top of a landing platform which is supported high above the city on a very slender pole. There is a large repair and refueling facility on the edge of the platform, and an elevator attached to the side, but not much else. From here the player can go to the Main Street.
Sully has seen things you people wouldn't believe.
Wing Commander author Dr. William Forstchen has found quite an audience with his most recent writing, the "One Second After" series. The books tell the story of the aftermath of a horrific EMP attack which renders modern technology useless and they've become very in vogue among "preppers" who are concerned about surviving major disasters. And now they're making a movie! Dr. Forstchen is executive producing the film which shoots in September. Here's the press release:
Movie Adaptation Just Announced for Apocalyptic Bestseller One Second After: Shooting to Begin in September
WASHINGTON, D.C., DC, UNITED STATES, April 21, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Author William R. Forstchen, Ph.D., announced that his New York Times #1 bestseller, One Second After, about an EMP strike against the United States, is being adapted into an MPI Original Film (Motherland, Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game) in association with Startling Inc. (Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon). The feature film is penned by legendary sci-fi screenwriter J. Michael Straczynski (Changeling, Sense8, Jeremiah, Babylon 5), with Forstchen serving as an executive producer. Scott Rogers is directing the film, which is scheduled to begin shooting in Bulgaria this September.
Long regarded as a foremost expert on EMP technology, Forstchen has been consulted by numerous federal, state, and local governments and private entities and has spoken at conferences all over the United States.
His book One Second After was the first to give readers a realistic look at an EMP strike and its awesome power to destroy the entire United States, literally within one second. One Second After spawned three sequels, each of which is a fictional exploration rooted in the cold, solid facts of how an EMP strike above U.S. soil would impact society.
“I believe the threat of America being hit by an EMP weapon is the single greatest danger to our survival,” Forstchen said. “Electricity is the fundamental building block of our society. Everything is predicated on electrification.”
An EMP causes widespread cataclysmic damage to power grids due to what’s called the Compton effect, he explained.
“An electromagnetic pulse is the byproduct of detonating a nuclear weapon. When a nuclear weapon is detonated 200 to 250 miles above the Earth, the gamma ray burst when it hits the upper atmosphere sets off the Compton effect. In essence, a giant electrostatic discharge hits the earth’s surface and wipes out electronic devices as well as entire power grids, leaving affected areas in the dark,” he said.
For more information, please visit https://www.onesecondafter.com/.
More About William R. Forstchen
William R. Forstchen is a New York Times bestselling author and a Professor of History at Montreat College, in Montreat, North Carolina. He holds a doctoral degree from Purdue University with a specialization in military history and technology. He is the author of more than 50 books.
A noted expert historian and public speaker, he has been interviewed on FOX News, C-SPAN and many others on topics ranging from history to technology and cultural issues, to space technology development, to security threats.The other interesting aspect of all this is that the novel was adapted for the screen by J. Michael Straczynski, best known as the mastermind behind Babylon 5. Straczynski has a slight connection to Wing Commander: in an August 8, 1996 GENIE post he mentioned that he had met with Chris Roberts 1n 1995 to discuss working on what would become the Wing Commander movie: "Actually met Chris Roberts last year, when we were in some preliminary discussions about us doing a Wing Commander movie or series. He definitely wants to be a film-maker." Pretty neat crossing of the streams! (JMS' Wing Commander bona fides had already been established at that point; he had previously posted asking for cheat codes for Wing Commander III!).
Greetings all. Just to let you know I'm not "slacking off" here. I'm in contact with the company making the vinyl deliverables. Vinyl is a very hot format these days. Here is the latest reply from the company making your vinyl discs...Hi George,So, as soon as they arrive I will let you know! Thanks for your patience!I'm so sorry I did not get back your voicemail yesterday, I was unexpectedly out of the office.
I want to also apologize for how late your order is running, and our lack of communication regarding the timeline. Things are running very late across the board right now due to production delays at the 3rd party facility that handles all of our stamper plating. They have been having some technical issues with their equipment that have put them very behind and we're currently waiting on your stampers to arrive back here so we can complete your pressing. As soon as they do arrive, the pressing and packing follows quite quickly. I am pushing them for status updates and to get our highest priority orders including yours to us as fast as they possibly can, and I will let you know as soon as I have an update for you. We appreciate your continued patience as we work through this delay.
George
Back in August of last year, Wing Commander composer George Oldziey graciously live streamed the orchestral recording sessions for his spectacular new Wing Commander album. If you missed out on the chance to see them, we've added screen recordings of both to YouTube. They aren't a substitute for the real thing but hopefully they'll be useful for reference in the future!
Session One
Session Two
... and also he was Prince Thrakhath. The May 1994 issue of Electronic Games magazine brings us a pretty interesting profile of an Origin writer who doesn't get enough credit these days, Gilbert Austin. Credited as G.P. Austin for his work at Origin, he served as a writer on Wing Commander II, Strike Commander and Privateer (and provided voice work for Wing Commander II and Ultima Underworld 2!). At the time of the interview he had just moved on to write and design his own game, Harvester, for a newly formed studio. The most interesting note is that his last project for Origin was an outline for Wing Commander III, which it notes was finished before Strike Commander released. He's not credited on Wing Commander III so I'd be very curious to know what his plan for the game had been so early on!
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