News Collection: On This Day in WC News

2025.032 (February 1, 2025)

We Found the Champion

Last year, we reported about the discovery of the original stock photo behind Blair's pinup in the Wing Commander movie. Today, we've discovered another one: meet... "The Champion!".

2024.032 (February 1, 2024)

Most Impressive Arrow in the Quiver

Today we're sharing Rylex's large, detailed and beautiful Arrow model. We first got a peek at it more than ten years ago when the craft was originally under construction by Klavs. It's nice to see what it looks like in its final home location. Rylex is a huge Arrow fan, and it's been an iconic showpiece in his collection for this entire time!

2023.032 (February 1, 2023)

BREAKING NEWS: Wing Commander Vinyl Campaign Imminent

Last month, we reported that Supercade was planning to manage a crowd funding campaign for a vinyl release of George Oldziey's Wing Commander Orchestral Recording Project. Now, it seems like the launch is imminent as Supercade author Van Burnham has just tweeted: Just a heads up that the preorder campaign for Supercade’s first soundtrack release is launching SOON… a deluxe vinyl edition of the Wing Commander orchestral score by composer George Oldziey. So excited to share more details!#wingcommander #videogamesoundtrack #vinylcollector pic.

2022.032 (February 1, 2022)

Dralthi Enters the Paint Hangar

elend has taken the next step in creation of his wonderful physical Dralthi model. The spacecraft itself is now complete - it looks fabulous! I could never make something so detailed. The primer coat is now being applied, and a full up brown Dralthi paint scheme is coming soon!

2021.032 (February 1, 2021)

Armada Intro Transformed into Visual Treat

FekLeyrTarg has been teasing us about his Armada video for a while now, and it's finally here! He's taken advantage of the high quality files in the WC2/Privateer/Armada-era Origin 3D Model Archive to recreate the Armada introduction in glorious 4K. Be careful: it might make you want an actual Armada update in 4K now. Those ships are simply gorgeous, and the music and logos aren't half bad either!

2020.032 (February 1, 2020)

WC3 Inspires Text Test

Christopher Lee has been learning how to use the Maya and After Effects programs for graphics animation, and here's one of his recent tests. He used the Wing Commander 3 introduction as a model to emulate. The results are pretty close! Of course, this also gives us an excuse to post the fantabulous actual WC3 intro for comparison, so enjoy that too.

2019.032 (February 1, 2019)

Star Citizen: Past & Future

For those who haven't been closely following the development of Star Citizen lately, there have been a few interesting announcements on the project's financials and upcoming plans. Cloud Imperium recently released an accounting document that details out how the company used its money form 2012 through 2017. They spent $193 million on development and other expenses during that time with more than $4 million per month going out in 2017. We know they hit $200 million in crowd funding in November, but they also have other resources such as $46 million in private investment raised in December.

2018.032 (February 1, 2018)

Confed Destroyers Serve As Last Line Of Defense

There have been quite a few capship developments lately that have helped the Last Line of Defense project round out its Confed fleet. A little work on texturing and the hangar bay still needs to be done, but the video below shows what happens when three new Exeters take on a pair of heavier Kilrathi warships. Although brief, it's a pretty exciting battle! We can also see a jump test with an Exeter and one of the Bengals revealed last month.

2017.032 (February 1, 2017)

'Making Of WC3' Brought Into The Future

Jim Leonard has done a bit of digital alchemy and produced an upgraded version of the Making Of documentary included with the Premiere Edition of Wing Commander 3. He's used special filter and conversion techniques to remove a lot of the grainy noise and choppiness associated with the VHS format. So if you haven't seen this in a while, or especially if you've never watched it through at all, this looks like the best way to experience the footage. A before and after screenshot is also provided below.

2016.032 (February 1, 2016)

Star Citizen Fan Creates Wing Commanderific Squadron 42 Box

Illusive_Man has mocked up a pretty clever Squadron 42 box based on the classic Wing Commander 3 art. It mirrors the original fonts, backgrounds and all of the arrangement. Mark Hamill and John Rhys-Davies' positions are the same, as is the placement of the catlike alien and their exploding ships. Gillian Anderson appears to be in Flint's spot and Gary Oldman takes the place of Admiral Tolwyn.

2015.032 (February 1, 2015)

Wing Commander Explosions Digitally Dissected

Last week danr put together a nifty video that showed off the differences a pilot would see playing the original Wing Commander games with and without expanded memory enabled. By all accounts, EMS definitely kicks the graphics and effects up a notch. But Owyn_Merrilin asked, "Is it weird that I actually like that explosion better than the ones you see on a system with enough EMS? They kind of remind me of the explosions in WC2, but smaller.

2014.032 (February 1, 2014)

Starship Tactics Mod Focused on the Action

Arraen has provided a brief update on the status of his WC Tribute strategy game. Things like the final name and platforms that it will be available on are still to be determined, but he's clarified that this uncertainty is made possible because he's using the flexible Unity 3D engine. He is trying to prioritize development in such a way that gets a playable demo out to fellow fans more quickly. You can read more about the direction he's going below and at the CIC Forums.

2013.032 (February 1, 2013)

Carrier Design Ensures Fighter Capacity

Most Wing Commander artists are driven by the external look of the series' iconic warships, but Lars is trying to figure out how the internal layout works. He's started by making room for the Tiger's Claw's 104 fighter craft, and the result is a pretty tight fit! In these early mockups, he's made fighter stalls light gray, transportation areas red and supply storage green. The result takes up quite a bit of the carrier's internal volume.

2012.032 (February 1, 2012)

Mission Accomplished!

Origin founder Richard Garriott's mission to space has been well documented in the CIC news archives, but a whole lot more people are learning about the story thanks to the premiere of the Man on a Mission documentary about the trip. Rather than just a vanity film to commemorate his space tourism, the story has been highly-rated as an excellent adventure about a man realizing his dream to become the first second-generation astronaut. There are a handful of streaming options for fans who'd like to check it out, and theatrical premieres across the country are taking place now. The streaming rentals run about $7, and eventually it'll be sold in digital format for about $15.

Garriott Wins Release of First Sci-Fi Movie Actually Made in Space

Man on a Mission wasn't the only movie recording during Garriott's time in space! In addition to gathering footage for the documentary, Richard also taped a short horror flick - the first science fiction film made in space! After years of lobbying NASA, Garriott has finally gotten approval to release Apogee of Fear, and distribution details should surface soon. After his talk at the conference last year, Garriott gave a private screening of "Apogee of Fear.

2011.032 (February 1, 2011)

P2 Cargo Bug Offers Infinite Wealth

It's not every day that someone discovers a new trick to a 15 year old game, but the very clever Lin Kuei Ominae has found a bug that allows players to quickly amass unlimited credits. All of the built-in cheats relate to space combat, so this is pretty neat. Of course, his comprehensive save game editor allows tons of instant tweaks, but there's a certain charm to finding something like this in the game itself. Check out his instructions below.

Congrats Lt Cdr Finley!

Aurora Finley doesn't spend all her time converting alien technology into new fighter weapons. In real life, Mindy Hester is a popular kids' musician! Mindy Hester & The Time Outs have a new CD, Juice Box Hero, which they have been performing lately at major venues around the US Midwest. A video of them recently at the Mall of America has been posted to Youtube.

2010.032 (February 1, 2010)

Marvelous Midway Model Made

Challenger sent in a photo of an incredible physical TCS Midway model he's working on. I can't quite tell if it's resin or wood, but the shape looks superb and the detailing already begins to bring the ship to life. We're anxious to see how this one turns out! Heya, I thought this model that I'm building at the moment could be interesting for you at the WC CIC.

2009.032 (February 1, 2009)

Batman Strangles Mark Hamill

Death reports that Mark Hamill is reprising his role as The Joker in an upcoming Batman video game, Arkham Asylum. It's great to see Hamill working in video games - hopefully a Wing Commander relaunch could be done with the same type of voicework/realistic CGI combination. Kotaku says: The big star, though, is Mark Hamill as The Joker. I’m glad they got him instead of going for a Heath Ledger sound-alike –- it solidifies Arkham Asylum as a Batman game that stands apart from the movies.

When You're Write You're Right

Develop, a European game development magazine, has collected a "writers roundtable" of developers to discuss 'the future of the cutscene'. One of the panelists, Rhianna Pratchett, brings up Wing Commander in Part Two: RP: I think Westwood’s use of them in the Command and Conquer series was always pretty stylistic, as were the Wing Commander games with Mark Hamill. This is another argument for having writers and narrative designers in from the start – you really have to design structure so well to be able to tell a story without cutscenes, or with very few, or with interactive ones. It’s a really high bar for developers to reach, and I think the cutscene, while it has become overused, definitely can be blended with other storytelling techniques.

2008.032 (February 1, 2008)

New Bengal Roars To Life

Howard Day has built another very impressive Wing Commander ship. This amazing Bengal class carrier was made with the same care and attention as his Dralthi, Drayman, Salthi and Hornet. The primary inspiration for this version of the classic carrier is the WC1 in-game view with some further detail gathered from the WC1 cutscenes and Academy. The shots below represent only a preliminary release, and Howard continues to tweak the design.

The Art of Wing Commander Arena - Part Sixty-Three

Here's the 2D to go with the last update: concept art as to exactly what a Kilrathi warrior should look like. I think we're all glad that they went with a classic Wing Commander II-style appearance rather than a puppet or a hairless rubber cat. This is part of a series of beautiful Wing Commander Arena concept images graciously provided by Gaia Industries. You can find the original article here.

2007.032 (February 1, 2007)

Wing Commander On Lamp

Mark Williams wrote to tell us that he's been working on a browser-based strategy game set in the Wing Commander universe. He sent along a project overview and some early screenshots. CTA is a completely contained Real-Time Strategy Game playable on any computer with an internet connection and a browser (Must support at least a 1024x768 resolution). It takes place in the Epsilon sector in the Wing Commander universe and gives players a chance to explore two different ship trees and over 40 unique systems.

The History of Space Simulation

WingCenter's Obee has written an article on the history of the space sim genre for Swiss online magazine GBASE. The Wing Commander series is featured prominently. Visitors that don't speak German can find a computer translation here. Das ursprünglich als Wingleader angekündigte Spiel erblickte 1989 das Licht der Welt und erschien sowohl für Amiga als auch für PC und bot dem Spieler eine noch nie gesehene Detailverliebtheit.

2006.032 (February 1, 2006)

Up To Our Knees in Ships

The Ships of the Wing Commander Universe document has been updated with an amazing find: nine new ship names, all discovered by AD during a careful study of the Wing Commander movie's surround sound audio tracks. The new ships are the TCS Ally, TCS Avalon, TCS Barracuda, TCS Bradley, TCS Darwin, TCS Jean Louis, TCS Langston, TCS Miranda and TCS Vega. This version also corects a long-standing error which listed the TCS Altair as the TCS Apache. TCS Chinook and TCS Altair were the names of the two asteroid depots that Col.

And By A Scout To Say We End

Last week we reported that it was your absolute last chance to fly the Tarsus-class Merchant Scout in Wing Commander: Standoff's simulator. Well, now Quarto says we actually mean it: Well, this patch has taken a little longer than we anticipated (mainly because we're trying to also kill the gauntlet-crashing bug once and for all - and it takes a lot of testing to kill a bug that only appears rarely at random times), but we think we may be almost there now, hopefully we'll release it during the next few days, and before the end of the coming weekend at the latest. So... you know, if there's any last takers for the Tarsus (though it doesn't seem to be an especially popular ship...

2005.032 (February 1, 2005)

New PiArmada Version Released

ZOmegaZ's project to recreate Armada which made a sudden appearance last month seems to have made huge improvements since the original release. A new version 0.6 is now available from Sourceforge, and includes features such as vastly improved graphics, and the sector map now lists system names making navigation a whole lot easier. Separate fighter screen eliminated: It really was pointless to have a screen just for telling what fighters were in the system, when the carrier screen did that anyway.

Convention Prices About To Rise

You only have two weeks left to register for DragonCon 2005 for the low, low price of $50 before the prices go up to $60. The price gradually increases as the year progresses until it reaches to full $85, so if you book now you're getting a good deal. In case you've forgotten, DragonCon takes place in Atlanta, Georgia on September 2-5, and is where our annual convention takes place. In previous years we've met Tom Wilson (Maniac), John Rhys Davies (Paladin), Aaron Allston (Claw Marks author) and other WC celebrities.

Tom Wilson Encore Tonight

If you're planning to go see Tom Wilson at tonight's Back to the Future encore presentation, tonight is the night. Sadly if you haven't booked a ticket yet you're probably too late but you still may be able to grab an autograph. Bonus points if you ask him something Wing Commander related during the Q&A session.

2004.032 (February 1, 2004)

Galactic Conflict Adds Border Worlds

The forum-based role playing game WC Galactic Conflict has added the Union of Border Worlds to their roster of playable factions. This presents a new opportunity for potential new players to find a spot and fit in. The Kilrathi Conflict forum seems to be where the action is now. The TCS Santa Cruz takes up an Orbit around Earth, matching the orbit of the move.

Freespace 2 Special Rerelease Coming

It looks like Interplay is giving Freespace 2 another shot. Although a Freespace 3 has been discounted for a long time (and developer Volition has split from their publisher), Freespace 2 got some of the best review scores of the recent space sims. On top of that, the source code was released and distribution of the game was made legal. Not a lot of actual copies of the game were made however, so supply and demand has made boxed Freespace 2s somewhat rare.

2003.032 (February 1, 2003)

Last Call For Contest Entries

If you're thinking of entering our fantabulous (best fake word ever) contest to design a new Chat Zone.. uhm, I mean Forums logo, time is running out! Starting on Monday, we'll be opening the voting for you to choose your favorite entry. If you want details on how to enter, you can read up here.

Holding The Line: Chapter 151

Holding the Line continues here on the CIC. Here's Raptor with the introduction to the latest chapter: Hey all, Raptor here. HTL continues with the second chapter of "End Of The Spiral", Part 1. As you saw in the last chapter, the remaining ships of the Forge's battle had finished regrouping after the loss of their carrier, but the survivours still have long way to go in dealing with the deaths of so many crewmates.

WCPolaroids: Extras (8/16)

Does anyone remember actually seeing these people in the game? No, me neither.

2002.032 (February 1, 2002)

WCA Art 12: As Different as Day...

Hurrah, Wing Commander Academy artwork is back -- for two (and possibly three) more days! This is a shot of the volcano from Episode 4 - Word of Honor... in the daylight!

German Guides Update

There was a great response to my request for German WC guide help -- and I've put all the new information at the German Guide Page. Thanks to Christian, Obee, Stefan and chris_mungo@gmx.de for providing all the information now available!

2001.032 (February 1, 2001)

Final Conflict One-Ups 3D Animation, Switches to 4D

Rylex of Final Conflict fame sent us the following status report. I've got some news to my WC-movie "Final Conflict". Because I had very much problems creating the perfect ship-engine under 3D-Studio Max 3, I will now change my working program. Thanks to Pheonix (who is producing a WC-Movie as well) I will continue working with Cinema4D.

2000.032 (February 1, 2000)

Wing Commander Debuts on Canadian TV

Michel Béland reports that the movie has been aired twice already on Canal Indigo, a Quebec Pay-per-View channel. It retained its original title, and the (French) dubbing was even acceptable. The company says it's not impossible that it will be aired again one of these days.

Nothing Beats a Wing Commander

Looney Games' Freespace 2 review makes a couple of references to Wing Commander 3. Here's a nice snippet:But none of this is news - all of these things could be done with Wing Commander 3.You can read the whole review here.

DVD's Appearing in Indonesia

Arvin Chandra sends word that the movie is now available on DVD in Indonesia. The price ranges around $45 US. If your DVD player accepts region 1 DVD's, you can get two copies for less than that. Details can be found in the Where to Buy section.

Wing Commander Movie Takes Berlin

According to Stardust the movie is doing quite well in Germany. After only one week it's drawn over 40,000 fans to theaters. It's currently ranked 8th on the German cinema charts.

KriskArms Presents... the Femme Fatale

For the lady dressed to kill It's a problem faced by many women... they want to go out armed, but the gun they want is too large to fit in a manu-sac, or so chunky that it ruins the line of their outfit; no longer. Now KriskArms brings you the Femme Fatale, a stylish and discreet handlaser with the following features: 15mm hi-intensity beam that'll fry even the most persistent attacker. 40-shot Powerpack, re-chargeable at all standard power outlets.

1999.032 (February 1, 1999)

LOAF Makes A Visit

This week ace, Byydo and special guest star LOAF answer intelligent questions about the WC Movie, WC novels and make absolutely no mention of WC4 vs WCP. Check out the February 1 edition of the Mail Bag here.