Monday - May 18th, 1998 (1998.138)

"The Man" is Hard at Work
As the headline says, "The Man" (you know, the guy you blame things on) is really working overtime tonight. What seems to be the root of the chatzone problems is worse than just that one symptom. Infact, I am not able to update anything on this site at all. It seems my provider is running some sort of strange backup of this page, so you will probably only see this once that is fixed. In other words, if you are reading this then things should all be back to normal. If not, then we are really in for a ride.
[Akkbar]

Withdrawal Pains
Well, I am sure most of you chatzone junkies have noticed by now that the it is not working. Well, I tried a couple of things to fix it and came up empty. I am attempting to get in touch with my provider and see if they have any ideas, but so far I have not been able to get connected with them. Anyway, as soon as we can fix it, we will. Maybe the planets are just out of alignment or something. Just blame it on "The Man". Also, on another note, I am finally out of the the most hellish week I have ever had in my entire life (busy is an understatement), so expect a little more action from the Akk man from now on.
[Akkbar]

Sunday - May 17th, 1998 (1998.137)

Jürgen Prochnow Interview
Revue, a weekly newspaper in Luxembourg, recently ran an article on Jürgen Prochnow (Commander Gerald). Check it out here. Thanks goes out to Rocker.
[LOAF]

Saturday - May 16th, 1998 (1998.136)

PC Gamer Article
Head on over to the web site of everybody's favorite Gaming magazine, PC Gamer (Well, at least one of everybodys favorites. CGW is nice too. Of cource they both beat 'Next Generation'... I'm not bitter, I'm not bitter). Anyway, they've got a nice little article on the Wing Commander movie, with some very reassuring comments from The Man himself (Chris Roberts). Too bad their 'exclusive' photos really aren't, as that WCHS already stole 'em from Dan's Movie Site weeks ago.
[LOAF]

Joystick Article
Aaaand here it is, the translated version of that French Wing Commander movie article. Check it out here. Hey, if Dan's Movie Site can do it, so can we. This article exists because of the efforts of Christian Magnin and Renato De Marchi.
[LOAF]

Thursday - May 14th, 1998 (1998.134)

Yet Another Gamespot Poll
Gamespot's instant poll for today is 'For which game would you like to see 3D positional audio?', and one of the choices is Wing Commander Prophecy. So go vote!
[LOAF]

No E3?
Word on the street is that Origin will not be previewing anything but Ultima IX at the E3 this year. No preview of the next WC product? Eck...
[LOAF]

Next Generation Article
Former WCHS web guy Wizzy sent me the following comment from Next Generation. Kinda insulting and silly, but who reads 'Next Generation' anyway? Plus, apparently *ALL* they saw of the Wing Commander movie was the two original models of a cruiser and a bomber -- things that won't even be used in the movie.

It's become a cliche to say of game cut scenes, "We'd rather just watch a movie." Now Chris Roberts of Wing Commander fame is doing just that, with Wing Commander: The Movie. Given the modest $27 million budget and the two production stills we've seen, we get the distinct impression it's going to look more like a 90-minute cut scene for a PC game (poorly done 3D models and all) rather than a blockbuster Hollywood production, but we give full credit to Roberts and Digital Anvil for giving it a try.

Wednesday - May 13th, 1998 (1998.133)

Excellence Newsgroupified
Just a quick congradulatory note, Chris "Stalker" Reid posted his ten thousandth posting to alt.games.wing-commander yesterday, a tremendous accomplishment for someone who is not some type of spam-bot. Congradulations Crid, never has so much been owed to so few. Except maybe during the battle of Britain.
[LOAF]

Survey Completed
Beserker79 has finished his Women of Wing Commander survey, and you can check out the results here.
[LOAF]

War Stories
Yes, there's more from Dan's Wing Commander Movie Site (Don'tcha just love the place?). The following is reported from someone who was on the WC movie set back when they were filming.

I was an extra on the Wing Commander film during the kilrathi scenes. Those were some serious costumes, weighing about 45 kilos and about 2.5 metres tall. I only remember one of the Kilrathi cast that I met, and his name was Ed Rice, a really cool guy. He played a variety of different Kilrathi characters. He would be just a cheery after 10 hours in the costume, even while pouring with sweat. He also introduced me to Matt Lillard who plays Maniac, and that made my day.

The set was huge, an old factory of some sort, and the enemy ships were convincingly slimy. Everything looked battered and oldish, perhaps too old for space, but cool anyway.

The Ratings Game
More from Dan's Wing Commander Movie Site! According to the WC movie's PR director Digital Anvil is hoping for a PG-13 rating for the Wing Commander movie.
[LOAF]

Confederation News Network
At least that's what CNN stands for in Wing Commander 1. Speaking of CNN, Dan's Wing Commander Movie Site reports that they're running an article on game based movies which includes Wing Commander. It's even got a new picture. Check it out here.
[LOAF]

WC Movie Release Date
According to the ever-incredible Dan's Wing Commander Movie Site the WC movie will be released in Iceland on January 8th.
[LOAF]

Trivia Delayed
Much apologies to all who are waiting for trivia, but #6 will be delayed until next week due to the fact that I'm really, really busy. Again, I'm very very sorry about this... anyone who wants to submit more answers to last weeks trivia may do so.
[LOAF]

A Kat by any other Name
And here are the pictures from that Joystick article about the Wing Commander movie, scanned by Christian Magnin and Renato De Marchi, words cannot express how much thanks I owe them.

• Image 1: The flight deck.
• Image 2: The bridge.
• Image 3: Long shot of the flight deck.
• Image 4: The plural of Kilrathi.
• Image 5: Close of of a Kilrathi warrior.
• Image 6: The fuel truck!
• Image 7: Chris Roberts.
• Image 8: Lifting a fighter.
• Image 9: Arming a fighter.
• Image 10: A Confederation pilot and his fighter.
• Image 11: Side of a fighter.
• Image 12: Christopher "Maverick" Blair.
• Image 13: Jeanette "Angel" Devereaux.
• Image 14: James "Paladin" Taggart.

Movie Spoilers Herein
Warning, this post contains sex, violence and Wing Commander movie spoilers. Well, at the very least it has Wing Commander Movie spoilers, so read on at your own risk. Again thanks to Christian Magnin and Renato De Marchi is a translation of the Joystick article! I need to contact Joystick about posting the entire article, but here are some of the most important points.

• Had they not filmed in Luxembourg the movie would have cost closer to 50 million dollars.
• The sets are not colorfull, to echo the mood of the movie. They're based on World War II ships.
• There will be a love story between Blair and Angel which will last through the movie.
• Paladin will have a French accent, Gerland will be German, Devereaux French and Blair American.
• Blair is 21 years old.
• The movie will be 'more' than just an action film, and will 'draw on the fears of our collected conscious'.
• Freddie Prinze is a long time Wing Commander fan!
• The actress who plays Angel mentioned the possibility of a second movie.

Friday - May 8th, 1998 (1998.128)

Akkbar Day
Yes, it's true... Akkbar is... DEAD. No wait, I mean a year older. Well, a day older at the very least. Anyway, it's his birthday and he'll cry if he wants to. He cries a lot. Happy birthday Akk!

Just in case you are wondering, I am 18 now. Now I can get all the porno I can handle... Oh happy day! - Akkbar
[WCHS Staff]

Trivia Notes
For those of you playing WCHS Trivia 5, just a reminder -- 'flag' officers are those holding the rank of Commodore or above.
[LOAF]

WCPEdit 1.31
The ever knowledgable Thomas Bruckner has released an important update to his widely popular WCPEdit ship editor. This new version (1.31) fixes a game crashing bug. Download a patch here, or the full copy of version 1.31 here.
[LOAF]

Worth the Price we Payed?
Apparently a British company is selling a product called Actionware 16 which is billed as having 'new missions for Wing Commander'. What the product actually includes is two sets of Wing Commander Academy missions, and a mess of other articles of shareware. Since this isn't exactly fair, we're posting the two sets of missions here and here, thanks to Dude. Note that since this product wasn't licensced by Origin, and since WCA missions are freeware, downloading these missions is completely legal. (For any completists, ActionWare 16 is apparently available only in England, and costs about 8 pounds).
[LOAF]

All Better Now
PopsiclePete sent me a new version of his WCMISED program for use with HCl's WC Mission editor this new one apparently fixes some serious bugs! Download it here.
[LOAF]

Clarifications
Just a quick note, absolutely nothing happened today in sector 83x9x12.
[LOAF]

A Call To Arms
WCHS is looking for any French readers to find and scan information from a magazine. According to João Pedro Santos the latest issue of Joystick includes some Wing Commander Movie information! If you have access to this magazine, and a scanner, please help out WC fans everywhere.
[LOAF]

Thursday - May 7th, 1998 (1998.127)

New Pure 3D II Drivers
Canopus just released new drivers for the ass whooping Voodoo2 Pure 3D II at their site. Here is the official low-down on the new drivers from the Canopus site:

Windows 95 driver version 1.01.01. This is the current shipping driver. Download this driver if you received your card before May 5th, 1998. Read the Release Notes for details. Double click on this self-extracting file to install the new drivers

WCPedit 1.3 Released
Thomas Bruckner has released version 1.3 of WCPedit. This new version adds these new features and bug fixes (according to the readme file): Default button, Import/Export ships, some error-checking code, add/remove guns. Click here for a local download of WCPedit 1.3. Check out the readme file for more information.
[Akkbar]

Sunday - May 3rd, 1998 (1998.123)

WCHS Mission Extravaganza
If you'd like your Wing Commander Prophecy mission posted at the upcoming Home Sector mission page, please mail a copy to the Nut-Boy, who's going to take care of making some cool looking briefing stuff for them! If you don't want a cool looking briefing, just mail your mission to me. Please remember to give your mission a name!
[LOAF]

Fighters, Bombers and Cruisers, Oh My!
Just a quick note -- the Confederation fighters in the Wing Commander movie will apparently be Rapiers, while the bombers will be Broadsword class. Plus, to clarify, that Confederation capital ship was a cruiser, and probably *not* the Tiger's Claw.
[LOAF]

A Very Special WCHS Trivia (#5)
Once again time for trivia! Last weeks turnout wasn't as good... my fault, I think I made the questions a bit too hard. Quite sorry about that; anyway, it's bonus week! This week has the very first B question! For every correct answer you list to the B question you'll get an additional point! So, even newcomers can beat that dashed Chris Reid...:) Check out current standings here and mail new answers to me. Oh, and if you need a reason to play, we're trying to figure out a prize to give to the top scorer at some set point... more on that later!

E5: Name one non-Terran sentient race in the Wing Commander universe.

M5: Name two more non-Terran sentient races in the Wing Commander universe.

H5: Name four more non-Terran sentient races in the Wing Commander universe.

X5: Name ten more non-Terran sentient races in the Wing Commander universe.

B5: One point for every Confederation Naval officer with a Flag Rank named.

E3: Name one of the wingmen simulated by the holo-simulator at the TCSNA.

Maniac, Lightspeed, Hobbes or Angel.

M3: What Kilrathi fighter introduced in Secret Missions 2 other than the Dralthi II does not appear in Super Wing Commander?

Trick question, there's only one Kilrathi fighter introduced in SM2 besides the Dralthi II! The answer was Hhriss.

H3: What is the Confederation 'code number' for the Caliban nebula?

I was looking for N-24C, but another acceptable answer was GMB-1005, because that may have fooled some people...

X3: What is the length of the Kilrathi Snakeir class carrier?

The correct answer is 600 meters, *NOT* 700 meters.

First Contact
It's a new batch of Wing Commander movie pictures, including the very first (drum roll please) picture of a cat! Check 'em out...

• Shot 1 - Blair and Lillard in zero G.
• Shot 2 - Maniac and Rosie in sickbay.
• Shot 3 - A fallen warrior.
• Shot 4 - Roberts and crew.
• Shot 5 - Filming fighter 35.