News Collection: On This Day in WC News

2025.035 (February 4, 2025)

VGHF Launches Digital Library / Party Like It's E3 1999

This is the first in a series of updates that will highlight five fascinating items from our first search through the Video Game History Foundation's new Digital Library. We're sure there are countless treasures to uncover, so be sure to dive into their collection and post what you discover to the forums! The Video Game History Foundation has launched an impressive new initiative that aims to help out anyone interested in video game history… and you'd better believe that means us! The VGHF's new Digital Archive offers an impressive collection of preserved media that anyone can access without jumping through any hoops!

2024.035 (February 4, 2024)

Underutilized Privateer 2 Palette Swap Feature Visualized

Privateer 2's spaceflight has an interesting design where each ship model has just one set of textures... but they are designed to change their appearance based on which of ten or so palettes are selected. The odd thing is that it's barely used! Each faction has a distinct livery that it uses this to display...

2023.035 (February 4, 2023)

New Poll Takes a Good Look at Academy Ships

It's time for a new poll, and we've got a fun one here. LOAF recently put together a neat comparison of all the Wing Commander Academy ships alongside their game counterparts. It's a really stunning visual! Today's survey asks which one you think made the best transition from the PC to television.

2022.035 (February 4, 2022)

Start Your Weekend with a Throwback Academy Music Video

Here's something you don't see everyday. You don't really see them much at all anymore now, but long before Tik Tok was a thing, "music video" remixes with random visuals and someone else's music were a pretty popular YouTube pastime. They got extra bonus points if the visuals and the music actually sync'd up and loosely conveyed some narrative. We've got one such video today by Peter Plum.

2021.035 (February 4, 2021)

3D Printing Library Expands With Even More Ships

Today we've got another batch of beautiful 3D printed models. These came from the collection of Arrow81, who posted half a dozen well-built ships to his Thingiverse page. Each one is a winner: there's a Vakoth, Paktahn, Darket, Dralthi IV and Excalibur (so he's obviously a WC3 fan!).

2020.035 (February 4, 2020)

Wing Commander Bucks the Toilet Trend

Bathrooms are treated really weird in sci-fi. Plenty of shows, movies and games just pretend they don't exist at all. Sometimes you might get a sink and mirror aboard a space ship, but almost never a toilet. AD recently noticed that Wing Commander once again broke new ground by including one aboard the Tiger's Claw.

2019.035 (February 4, 2019)

Wing Commander Arena Released... in Japan!

This is a crazy story! Everyone's favorite officially licensed top-down Xbox 360 Wing Commander shooter was released back in July 2007. In the original press release announcing its launch, EA confirmed that Wing Commander Arena was coming out in all markets where Xbox Live Arcade existed - except Japan. Finally, it's now available for ¥ 1,188 or about $11.

2018.035 (February 4, 2018)

Tallahassee Cruiser Added To Papercraft Fleet

Adm_Maverick is well known for his paper model fighters, but now he's stepped up to take on one of the big boys. He's scratch building a Tallahassee cruiser, which is a fantastic choice and not one we see very often (if ever?) in physical models. The images below show three different iterations that he's already started on, and the results are already quite good.

2017.035 (February 4, 2017)

Get Your Privateer Fix Here

We've got a new poll today that asks about all the shady and interesting people of Wing Commander Privateer. If you haven't visited Gemini in a while, there might be more than you remember! With so much of the series focused on the military side of the war, seeing such a slice of civilian life is especially cool. Who's your favorite?

2016.035 (February 4, 2016)

Kilrathi Durasteel Polished For Homeworld Mod

L.I.F. has published another update to his Homeworld mod, Flag Commander, that significantly cleans up and brightens the Kilrathi capship textures.

2015.035 (February 4, 2015)

Glimpse the Wing Commander Universe through a Sketch Pad

NinjaLA has posted another pack of Wing Commander sketches. The first picture shows off a fearsome Gothi after an attack run on a Tarsus. A pair of Dralthi also circle the melee, but it's kind of nice to see them take a back seat once in a while. The second image is a more blueprint-style take on the Hornet, Raptor and a familiar Kilrathi medium fighter.

2014.035 (February 4, 2014)

Together Again for the First Time

Klavs spotted a fun pairing in the 1983 film Blue Thunder. Jason Bernard plays "The Mayor" while Malcolm McDowell is Colonel F.E. Cochrane in the film.

2013.035 (February 4, 2013)

Glad to See the A-15 Painted

The Last Line of Defense project is back with another new fighter. New shots below show off the Gladius in fun WC2 colors. This is a ship that we almost always see in predominantly metallic gray, so the extra highlights are nice. Note that the outer gun mounts are missing from the first shot, but they've been added in to the frontal view.

2012.035 (February 4, 2012)

Classic Style Ship Viewer Built for WC3

Farbourne has put together a neat app that compares the stats of Wing Commander 3 fighters. The numbers themselves are readily available, but the charm comes from the ability to pit two ships against each other. Each attribute is compared, and the fighter with the advantage in each category is highlighted. The program also gives tips on how each craft should take on each other craft, and it goes beyond the perspective of the four Confed fighters.

2011.035 (February 4, 2011)

Lego Squadron Poses for Group Photo

Here's a look at the full cast of Mr. Lee's nifty Lego project. What a sharp bunch! Can you name each of the Tiger's Claw pilots and crew depicted below?

Headshots Here to Help!

If identifying each of the Lego characters above sounds challenging, the CIC Headshot Collection can lend a hand. All of the classic characters from WC1 & WC2 are available at the links below, and as a special bonus, we've even gathered images of everyone from Super Wing Commander and the Japanese Claw Marks. Enjoy!

2010.035 (February 4, 2010)

Black Prophecy Channels Wing Commander

Black Prophecy is an upcoming massively multiplayer space sim that hopes to break itself away from games like Eve Online or some of the slower paced fantasy MMOs. Massively has recently conducted an interview with the game's developers to discuss its dynamic Wing Commander-inspired missions. Find out more on the game here or check out the full Q&A here. Massively: Can you tell me about Reakktor's approach towards the design of the Black Prophecy mission system?

Happy Birthday Sims!

EA's The Sims turns ten years old today! In its first decade, the series has sold more than 125 million copies and made more than US $2.5 billion. These span the original Sims and its seven expansions, Sims 2 and its eight expansions, Sims 3 and its single addon, plus spinoffs like The Sims Online and MySims.

2009.035 (February 4, 2009)

Help Pick Invasion's Station

Major Payne continues to make great progress on the Wing Commander Invasion mod for Star Wars Empire at War. He's added fighters over the last few weeks and is now trying to decide on a primary starbase model. Two options are below - Ella Superbase circa 2681 and the familiar station from the previous Invasion mod. Weigh in over at Crius.

Fired Up

The second installment in Wing Commander novelist Peter Telep's modern military fiction series, Special Forces Afghanistan, is scheduled to come out in July. The series follows a U.S. Army Special Forces team as it takes on some of the hardest missions imaginable in and around Afghanistan.

2008.035 (February 4, 2008)

Comic Concept Features Dralthi Render

NinjaLA has a couple more test renders for his Wing Commander comic. This time he's created a cel-shaded Dralthi and pitted it against a Hornet. You can see the progression from initial black and white concept to colorized space battle below. Ninja's currently on a business trip where he hopes to continue his drawing and make more progress on the project.

Point of Origin: Vol. V, No. 2

A computer virus hits Origin in this February, 1995 edition of The Point of Origin -- surely a sign of all that the newly charted information superhighway will eventually bring the company. Until that happens, though, there's lots of praise for Wing Commander III... A very special thanks to Joe Garrity of the Origin Museum for making this resource available and to Electronic Arts for sending them to him in the first place! In Ink has the reactions we knew were coming!

2007.035 (February 4, 2007)

Score One For The Empire

NinjaLA has just finished inking up a couple more Kilrathi sketches. The first drawing features a classic Kilrathi male that includes a variety of common physical features. It doesn't exactly look like a Kilrathi from any particular Wing Commander product, but it would probably fit in anywhere in the series. Ninja's second image shows the original Dralthi emerging victorious in a dogfight with a Scimitar.

Truly 3D Space Sim Demo Released

top-fit has released a cute little 3D space sim demo, but Stereoid doesn't just use three dimensional polygons. Players will need red/green or red/blue 3D glasses to see the game as intended. The game will probably be fairly disorienting to people looking at the screen normally, but at just 1.5 megs, it's small enough for anyone to try out.

2006.035 (February 4, 2006)

New WCSO High Res Patch Fixes Sound Distortion

HCl has released a minor tweak to the high resolution patch for Secret Ops. Players that encountered skipping and stuttering in the in-flight communications dialogue can use this new version to listen smoothly. If you already have the high res patch for SO installed and running properly, simply unzip and overwrite this file to your Secret Ops folder. Otherwise grab the whole 8 meg pack here.

This Arrow Has Teeth

To celebrate the addition of the Arrow in Standoff's Simulator, here are some fancy images from Kilrah Moreira. They're all 1024x768 shots that test out different graphical effects. He's looking for further suggestions to improve the design in the future, so head over to Crius.net to help him out.

2005.035 (February 4, 2005)

Goodbye, John Vernon

Actor John Vernon, best remembered for his role as the evil Dean Wormer in "Animal House," passed away on Tuesday. He was 72 years old. Wing Commander fans, however, knew him best for his role in Privateer 2: The Darkening. Vernon played Errendi "Fark" Farquharson, the assistant to Xavier Shondi.

Sony Online Entertainment Creates Seattle Branch

Tainen noticed that TeamXBox and GameSpot are reporting that a number of former Origin employees will be helping to establish a Seattle branch of Sony Online Entertainment. We know that a whole bunch of Wing Commander veterans worked for SOE-Austin, so it's probably that some got a promotion in this transition. The team most recently worked on the space combat expansion to Star Wars Galaxies.

Thanks For Visiting

You guys are amazing! Last month Wing Commander fans made over 67,000 visits to the main CIC site. While some were debating what type of year 2005 would be, we experienced our second busiest month of all time. Only during the Secret Ops launch in September 1998 did we get more guests to the site.

2004.035 (February 4, 2004)

Try Some Movie Themed Industrial Tracks

Shiryu has put together an electronic techno track inspired by the Wing Commander movie. Pilgrim clocks in at about 8 megs. If you like that one, there's a faster and more upbeat remix called Pilgrim Redux that he sent along for us too. It's just one of my many hobbies, music making.

What's Mark Hamill Up To?

PeteyG noticed that TheForce.net just conducted a full interview with Mark Hamill. It touches on a lot of his recent comic book related work and the parody film he's just written, directed and starred in. Hamill is always excited and fun to listen to, and that even comes through in interview transcripts.

2003.035 (February 4, 2003)

WCPolaroids: Extras (8/16) Part Two

Many German Wing Commander fans wrote in yesterday to let us know that they were well acquainted with the extras in our last polaroid shot. Obee and Catweasel replied to our post within minutes: Hello, the right one in the picture is Smudo and he's part of one of the greatest german HipHop bands called 'Die Fantastischen 4' aka 'Fanta4'. He is seen in one or two scenes in the backround playing cards, IIRC (which LeechMachine confirms). More about Smudo and Fanta4 can be found here: www.

DragonCon Prices Set to Increase Soon

Whew, just fixed some nasty computer problems this past week so I can get online and H'hrass everyone about DragonCon again. After February 14, tickets for the four day convention are going up. They are $45 right now and will ultimately reach $75 at the door. We also need to set up our grouped hotel suites soon, so if you have any questions about the Wing Commander gathering, we've made a forum thread here.

Never Find The Words To Say

It has been a hectic week for us here, so we're a bit late in acknowleding the Columbia tragedy. There's not really much for us to say or do, but we know that many of our frequent viewers are especially touched by events such as these. Perhaps even moreso than in other communities, we consider the astronauts that died on Saturday to be heroes and pioneers for our future. If the CIC is your favorite portal, feel free to send us a memorial note.

2002.035 (February 4, 2002)

Cheap Non WC-Update #1: mIRC 6.0 Released

It's beginning to feel a lot like... time for a new version of mIRC. Head over and grab a copy of version 6.0 -- it supports multiple servers and big fat line things now!

Cheap Non-WC Update #2: Free Ultima Comic

Chris reports that fans of Ultima Online can get a free Ultima Online: Lord Blackthorn's Revenge comic book if you stop by a Babbages/GameStop/Software Etc./etc. in the next few days. Or you can get it by pre-ordering the game...

2001.035 (February 4, 2001)

Invisible Enemy Available For Download

Nope, it's not the fan project, it's Episode Eleven of Wing Commander Academy! Episode Ten has been rotated off, and this week Invisible Enemy is up for grabs from BlackLance.org. Yay, stealth fighters!

WCA RMs Back Online

If you can't stand to download the large Divx episodes, or if you need a certain episode right away, Meson has graciously set up a new website with the original smaller realmedia files. You can download all thirteen original episodes at Meson Starport here.

Tells Us Where To Buy

We're currently overhauling our Where To Buy Section. If you know of any places that sell Wing Commander items that aren't on our list, please send them to TC here. It'll be much appreciated.

Trivia Reminder Number Fourteen

Don't forget that Week 14 Trivia responses are due today. You can find the questions here. This week the questions are relatively easy, so don't pass up the free points. You can send in your submissions here.

Ginger Lynn Allen On The Man Show Tonight

Ginger Lynn Allen, Rachel from WC3 and WCP, will be a guest on Comedy Central's The Man Show tonight according to Wildfire. It aires at 10:00 PM Eastern/9:00 PM Central time on the Comedy Central network. Apparently she has some guys take off their pants and whatnot.

2000.035 (February 4, 2000)

Prophecy Gold in the CGW Top Forty

Remember that Top 40 CGW Poll that ran throughout January? Shades noticed that the March issue of Computer Gaming World lists Prophecy Gold as 39th and Freespace 2 as 23rd. Freespace 2 is also ranked as top simulation while Prophecy Gold got 3rd place. While this shows FS2 was clearly the winner in this race, don't forget it was just a couple months old (and therefore made many Christmas presents) in this January poll and Prophecy Gold came out in Fall of 1998.

Persistent Environments Poll at Gamespot

The world still hasn't decided what exactly to call massively multiplayer games yet. Gamespot is currently running a poll to find out which genre of computer games people think would best fit a massively multiplayer game (many thousands of players in a universe that runs 24 hours a day). They cover all the main bases and even differentiate between "flight simulation" and "sci-fi combat simulation." Role-Playing Games (like Ultima Online) currently have a substantial lead.

Starlancer Tests May Come Soon

We may actually be seeing some Starlancerness one of these days. A number of places are reporting increasing activity at a number of key Starlancer locations online, www.zone.com/starlancer (which is being billed as "the Starlancer website" even) among them.

Grape Guru Blamed for Starving Masses

Kelly Lemon tells it like it is. Religious leader Aaron Strange was in hiding from angry supporters on Bex last night. Aaron converted millions to his Order of the Holy Vine, which advocated the transcension of worldly matters through the consumption of grapes and the destruction of all other, 'spiritually impure' foods. His followers lost faith in Aaron following the publication of photos showing him eating a steak.

1999.035 (February 4, 1999)

It's a Date

It's official - the release date for the Wing Commander Movie is March 12th, 1999. Let the countdown begin. (The CIC Countdown is thanks to the amazing Trelane).

Previewing an Interview

SXGlory knows everything. Well, he knows a lot of stuff. In particular, he knows that the February issue of Previews says that Starlog #263 will have an interview with Freddie Prinze Jr. on the WC Movie.

FOX Fights

Apparently FOX, source of both good (Wing Commander) and evil (Ally McBeal) decided to balk at the prospect of releasing the movie of the year before that new Star Wars film. So those intelligent people over at Digital Anvil did the only thing they could - looked for a new studio which would satsify their pre-Phantom Menace needs. Apparently some other studio thought that the WC movie would be a wonderful thing to put out right now -- possibly Sony, who showed an interest in the film long ago. This scared FOX into getting things right, and it now looks like the WC Movie will be out very soon.

Non-WC Kinda Update

Although this has nothing to do with WC, CZ poster Cav asks that we mention that Games Domain is running a petition to save the recently cancelled Star Trek game, Secret of Vulcan Fury. You can go fill it out here.

More from McCubbin

I asked Chris McCubbin, author of the Confederation Handbook, why he had to move the Kilrathi war up to starting in 2638 - his response makes a lot of sense, here it is... OK, since you asked.It's the damn Pilgrims' fault. EVERYTHING is the damn Pilgrims' fault.

Oldziey's Article

Wow, I finally found a copy of the January issue of Film Score Monthly - featuring an article by George Oldziey (who did the scores for WC3-WCP). Here's the article, which is rather well written and very interesting... there's a picture of the man himself at the bottom. Wing Command DiaryOne composer's experience writing in the Wing Commander Game Universeby George OldzieyI was living the quiet life of an Austin, Texas freelance musician during the spring of 1994 when a friend told me about a job opening for a composer at Origin Systems, a leading producer of interactive entertainment software.

Telep Reports Too

Well, I'm just happy that these people actually read the CIC. Peter Telep comments on the Confederation Handbook and how it relates to his upcoming books... I think this situation is probably just fine, and since I'll have extra time tomorrow (no braille on Fridays!) I'll do a new review of the handbook, assuming that the movie and the games are completely separate.