News Collection: On This Day in WC News

2025.195 (July 14, 2025)

Wing Commander Movie Night: The Empire Strikes Back

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).

2024.196 (July 14, 2024)

Countdown Warning: Two Weeks Before Arena Delisting

Time marches ever forward and that means Wing Commander Arena's delisting from the Xbox Marketplace store is fast approaching. Some 200 digital-only games for the Xbox 360 will no longer be available for purchase after July 29. This will leave the demo on the November 2007 OXM cover disc as the only circulating version out there. The good news is that Microsoft has slashed the price to just 99 cents in the game's final days.

2023.195 (July 14, 2023)

Ultima Online Still Thriving More than 25 Years Later

Here at the CIC, we used to keep pretty close tabs on Ultima Online. As a product that was developed alongside contemporaries such as Wing Commander Prophecy at the famous Austin studio, it was a big deal to see EA continue the MMO long after Origin's closure. When Electronic Arts finally did decide that they were done with it in 2014, that could have very easily been the end, but the game has somehow continued to thrive for another decade under Broadsword. So I was really happy to see this recent PC Gamer blurb about high turnout for the game's summer barbecue event.

2022.195 (July 14, 2022)

Rare Origin Prophecy Poster up for Auction

Wing Commander Prophecy lead designer Billy Joe Cain has an exciting new auction up and running. He's been steadily releasing items from his personal stash to support REEF, the anti-human tracking charity that he founded. A handful of fellow Origin teammates sold their posters back in the early 2000s, but Billy has held on to his for almost twenty-five years. But now's the time for it to go - with proceeds going towards a noble cause!

2021.195 (July 14, 2021)

PC Gamer Celebrates Universe's Best Cockpits

PC Gamer has posted a new article about the coolest cockpits in gaming. There's a lot of new stuff in there, as you might expect, with some of the slickest UIs from Star Wars Squadrons, Titanfall 2 and Rebel Galaxy Outlaw throughout the piece. There is precisely one retro throwback though: the Hornet from Wing Commander 1. It's hard to argue it's not among the most iconic cockpits in gaming history, but it still doesn't show up in that many modern articles.

2020.196 (July 14, 2020)

Academy Launch Imminent, Last Day for Peacock Deal!

The NBC streaming platform Peacock launches tomorrow, July 15, and with it comes Wing Commander Academy streaming for the first time. All thirteen episodes of our favorite television show will be available sandwiched between Will & Grace and World of Dance. It's normally $5 a month, but if you preorder it tonight it comes to just $30 for the first year, which is quite a markdown. An ad-free version is $80 for the year.

2019.195 (July 14, 2019)

Howard's Hornet Cockpit Comes to Life

It's time for another exciting update to Howard Day's WC1-inspired engine. These new animations really show off how much features and systems have been integrated into this functional test. Most of the cockpit elements such as the radar, shield and armor display, speed indicators, gun capacitor and more are fully active. Even the legs move during intense maneuvers!

2018.195 (July 14, 2018)

Wing Commander Jazz Album Marches On

Following up on his recent release of the jazz and bar music digital recordings, veteran video game composer George Oldziey has sent out three more updates to his backers. George has exported the sheet music for several tracks from volume 2 of the orchestral project to video format. You can follow the score as the music notation is played back through the Sibelious sound fonts. The second update shows a preview of the artwork for the physical copy of the jazz album.

2017.195 (July 14, 2017)

Early Wing Commander II Footage

The University of Texas at Austin's Briscoe Center for American History has digitized several VHS tapes donated by famed Origin producer Warren Spector including a VERY interesting tape previewing Origin's 1991 lineup. The tape, likely created for a trade show or as a preview for distributors, walks through all of Origin's current releases. It includes a lengthy trailer of the already-released Wing Commander I, The Secret Missions and The Secret Missions 2: Crusade… and then a VERY exciting preview of Wing Commander II. Why is it so exciting?

2016.196 (July 14, 2016)

Wing Blender Updated, Now With Fewer Collisions

Kevin Caccamo has released version 1.6.3 of his Wing Blender tool. This latest version fixes a few issues that may occur when importing files, such incorrect positioning of certain spheres, and issues related to importing multiple models.

2015.195 (July 14, 2015)

What's Cookin' In Hell's Kitchen?

When we last checked in with Wvlfy, he had emerged victorious in the Vega Sector, conquered both Secret Missions campaigns and was well into the Niven System in WC2. Not only has he now made it to Ghorah Khar, he's also circled back to the losing missions of WC1 in Hell's Kitchen. With few exceptions, most YouTubers stick more or less to the winning path. Destroying the Star Post feels better than retreating from the sector, but there's some very interesting missions on the losing track!

Probe Performs Pluto Pass

The New Horizons spacecraft made its historic flyby of the Pluto this morning. There have already been some fun pictures of the dwarf planet and its moon, Charon, in the news, but these are just the previews shot with a long range camera! The real close-ups should be trickling out in the next few days. We can't wait to see!

2014.195 (July 14, 2014)

Starlancers' 45th Volunteers Remain Vigilant

Here's a story fifteen years in the making: way back on August 26, 1999 (coincidentally the one year anniversary of Secret Ops' release), we reported on the "Star in Starlancer" contest. Lucky fans could win the opportunity to be featured in a digital promo poster for Erin Roberts' space sim game. Jaev73040 was one of the winners, and he recently came back to share the results - a pretty nifty squadron render! He's pictured in the bottom right.

2013.195 (July 14, 2013)

Go To Your Room!

There's a new poll today that asks about the best room aboard the classic Wing Commander carrier. Each game has a slightly different set of available options, but there's a basic set that stands out. Which place was your favorite? The old poll asked how long it'd been since you were back in the cockpit.

WC-Inspired Space Sim Releases New Playable Test

A brand new downloadable alpha build of the space sim Wings of St. Nazaire has been released! There are a bunch of improvements in this update relating to waves of enemies, their reaction to the player and a new external camera. A Wing Commander-style cockpit joystick and throttle have also been added.

2012.196 (July 14, 2012)

Wing Commander Rules Ok

It's always fun to look back and remember that there were times when Wing Commander had to stave off challenges from other space sims. It's even better to read a review written by someone who is clearly a wingnut. Chris Anderson of PC Zone wrote a defense of the supremacy of Wing Commander and what's new and great in Righteous Fire. Check out the full review below.

2011.195 (July 14, 2011)

Zohrath Supplying Star Slayers

Zohrath has been working on a recreation of the original Wing Commander 1 ships that are pretty accurate to the game's blueprints. The designs are built in Z's distinctive style, and he's experimented with a variety of metallic textures. His Rapier and Raptor are fairly well along and pictured below. The Hornet is in development next.

2010.195 (July 14, 2010)

"Hey, that's a Kilrathi on the screen!"

Highball is still plugging away at a playthrough of the Wing Commander series, and he's made great progress. The commentary on mission structure, interesting twists and high/low points makes good reading, but it's also a lot of fun to see scores of pictures gracing the page for each new game. Wing Commander, The Secret Missions, Crusade and Wing Commander 2 have all been covered so far. The mission continues next in The Special Operations.

Ultima Online Receives Technical Upgrade

Ultima Online was down briefly this week for maintenance, and the systems updates that were conducted are a big deal. A major upgrade to the underlying databases that run the game has been in the works for years and was finally conducted this week. The investment represents a nice commitment to future of the game! Why is this significant for us the team at Bioware Mythic?

2009.195 (July 14, 2009)

Homeworld 2 Mod Looks & Plays Great

It's been some time since we've seen a progress update on the WC4 Homeworld 2 Mod, but the existing playable game is still making waves. Fwiffo has made an exciting video demonstrating an epic battle between Confed and the Border Worlds. Check it out here. If you haven't seen the game in action before, the massive fleet battle shown should really impress.

Leech Lasers Light up the Dark

|BoH_Havoc|'s multiplayer space sim has a cool new gun with an impresive blue tendril effect. Team member Germanunkol describes it as a "tactical weapon" similar to Leech Guns in the Wing Commander series. It's currently designed to disable enemy weapons for a set period of time. They would also like feedback on what types of additional weapons to add to the game.

2008.196 (July 14, 2008)

Tarawa Hat Orders Open Up

McGruff has posted the details for an upcoming order for new Wing Commander hats. He's polled the audience at Crius.net and come up with a TCS Tarawa hat featuring the silhouette of a Wake class escort carrier by Eder. Their design includes the CVE registry number on the front and "First to Kilrah" written across the back.

Making the Game - Part 70

This document marks the end of our 'undated' collection - which puts us at two thirds of the way through this feature. Today we have a very cool image provided by Captain Johnny himself: it's a detailed map of the H'rekkah System, presumably generated as part of his project to map the Wing Commander universe (which resulted in the Wing Commander Universe Map included with Prophecy.) Tune in tomorrow to see the first section of Wing Commander Prophecy's designer's bible.

2007.195 (July 14, 2007)

Dirty Little Secret Missions

Goliath has a cool scan for our collection. It's an article about Wing Commander: The Secret Missions SNES from the October, 1993 issue of Nintendo Power. This is pretty cool - it's Nintendo Power's typical 'in depth' commentary on the game... and I can't get enough of that Green Salthi cover artwork!

Gaia's Shy-A About-A 'Rena

The folks at Gaia Industries are making the rounds to promote Street Trace NYC! Unscripted 360 conducted an interview with Gaia's Damon Branch and Jeff Cameron last week, and naturally Wing Commander Arena was touched on. We've put together a transcript of the brief mention below. The entire show is available in mp3 format from U360 here - the Gaia interview starts around the 31 minute mark.

2006.195 (July 14, 2006)

Dozens Of Dashboards At Your Fingertips

A lot of aspiring modders or Wing Commander fans who are thinking about getting into fan projects ask about reference material to start with. Not a lot of people have a back stock of screenshots and resources like this available however. Howard Day has made it slightly easier for these fans now with a thorough Cockpit Reference Pack. He's collected art from virtually every flyable craft from WC1, WC2, WC3, Academy, Armada and Privateer.

Reactor Leak, Many Dead And Missing

bakedpotato called to let us know that the Lancers Reactor community hub for the Freelancer and Starlancer games is currently suffering technical difficulties. Their main server had a hard drive fail, and it will probably be a couple more days before the site is up and running again. TLR and the CIC have a similar reader base because of Chris and Erin Roberts' involvement with Digital Anvil. They continue to maintain a very active modding community for Freelancer, and the site occasionally carries news for games such as Dungeon Siege 2 and Darkstar One.

2005.195 (July 14, 2005)

WC Tactics Rumbling In-Game

Chevieblazer has released some in-game shots of the WC Tactics Nexus mod. The Snakeir and Bengal go at it in an explosive battle in the first two shots. A Dralthi makes a fly-by in the third picture, and a special weapon effect fires from a Confed capship in the fourth. The Nexus engine is pretty decent looking, and I'm certainly looking forward to the next Wing Commander game having modern shield flares and lighting like this.

EA Hires Former Origin Expert To Develop New Games

GameSpot is reporting that Doug Church will soon begin working at Electronic Arts' Los Angeles compound. He will be an executive producer, under former OSI General Manager Neil Young, in charge of promoting new games and franchises. Church began his career at Origin working on Ultima Underworld and System Shock games. He later moved with Warren Spector to the Looking Glass and Ion Storm studios where he helped Deus Ex, Thief and other titles.

2004.196 (July 14, 2004)

SO Guide Better Than Ever

Wow, it was nearly six years ago that I sat down and put together the original Secret Ops guide. Looking back at it now, it was pretty horrible. The MS Word version I later made was much better. Then it got converted to a PDF file, and now courtesy of Shades we present to you the latest and greatest version.

Holding The Line Chapter 186

What's this? HTL on a Wednesday? How odd. Well, we didn't want to keep you all waiting for this latest chapter.

2003.195 (July 14, 2003)

Trivia Game Four, Week Three Questions

This week will mark the half way point through our summer trivia game. Click the link below to get started. The latest scores and answers are in, and you can check them out here. Please email answers to trivia@wcnews.

Two Sites Help Out Francophone Wingnuts

It's recently come to our attention that two major French websites are trying hard to help Wing Commander fans in France communicate and gain exposure to the series. I'm not quite sure I understand how/if these sites have given themselves a proper name, so we'll call the first one Alpha.Super-One's French Wing Commander site here. It focuses primarily on Wing Commander 3, 4 and Prophecy with a variety of universe information for those games in French.

2001.195 (July 14, 2001)

All Fired Up

Three new screenshots were recently posted to the Vega Strike home page... and here they are! They show off the new releases ability to fire weapons.

That's Just Odd

From Ladiesman: "Hey! I took a trip to the USS Intrepid in New York, and took a picture of the CIC. I turned it into an ad for THE CIC. I've sent it along with this.

From: Military Prison Pits, Hades.

We have a delicate, rather embarrassing matter which needs swift, discrete action. Three criminals who were due to be sent to the pits for murder, stealing, and destruction of CIS property, have managed to poison their guards and escape, each in a ship. They must be stopped before they commit more crime, and our reputation is damaged. They were last spotted at Nav Point 20.

2000.196 (July 14, 2000)

Spice Up Your ICQ Sounds

Twister sent us two sound themes for ICQ. These will replace the standard sounds you hear when there's an incoming message, a file transfer request, etc. with bits of Wing Commander sounds. There is a WC Secret Ops one, and another one consisting mainly of samples from the Privateer 2 radio ad.

John Rhys-Davies to Portray Short, Stocky Dwarf

Pierre 'PopsiclePete' Deshaies let us know that John Rhys-Davies (James 'Paladin' Taggart in Wing Commander III and IV) will be playing the part of 'Gimli' in an upcoming movie trilogy based on Tolkien's Lord of the Rings novels. Here's a picture of that Gimli character, from TheOneRing.net: They do look alike a bit. The aforementioned website has a page with personal information on John Rhys-Davies here, and one on the Gimli character here.

1999.195 (July 14, 1999)

Help WCUE!

Asterix asked that I post this...I have some news here about the voices in the game. As you may know we are going to have speech for each pilot for this game. The other characters will have their own voices as well.

Captain Panaka Toy

Here's the upcoming Star Wars toy based on Hugh Quarshie's Captain Panaka character from Episode 1. Quarshie also played Mr. Obutu in Wing Commander, so a bit of customizing may be just what the doctor ordered...

More Action Figure Mistakes

SX Glory reports that he's found a Marine Blair marked as Pilot Blair. It's interesting to note that the figures all appeared normal at first, but the ones released later had more packaging mistakes and improperly mounted collectible cards...

Divx Version

Various reports indicate that the Divx version of Wing Commander was printed and is available. If you have a Divx player, it's worth the three dollars. Also, if you have cold drinks and want to avoid damaging your fine wooden table, it's worth the three dollars.

New SETI@Home

Version 1.06 of SETI@Home has been released for Windows and Macintosh. If you're part of the CIC's SETI@Home Team you'll probably want to grab a copy!

Czech Movie Release

NITRATE reports that Wing Commander trailers are now being regularly shown on TV. The Czech magazine CINEMA gave the film a good review, including an 11 out of 10 for CGI. The posters call the movie 'a film based on the best computer game of all time', and I can't disagree.

Read About ATFW

There's an interesting interview with the duo who run ATFW (Motto: "The Space-Sim Portal") over at the StarFighter League (Motto: "The Online Space Sim Community Center"). Check it out here. (Naturally, we noticed this over at Lanced.net (Motto: "Provoking the CIC into giving us 25% of our page referrals")).