PC Games Reviews Wing Commander

German gaming magazine PC Games began covering the Wing Commander series when it launched in 1992, publishing a variety of articles and reviews. Today we've collected the latter, their detailed reviews of nine games running from Origin FX in 1993 to Wing Commander Prophecy in 1998.

May 1993 - Origin FX (nr)

October 1993 - Wing Commander Academy (76)

November 1993 - Wing Commander Privateer (92)

May 1994 - Righteous Fire (80)

September 1994 - Wing Commander Armada (75)

February 1995 - Wing Commander III (96)

April 1996 - Wing Commander IV (93)

December 1996 - Privateer 2: The Darkening (84)

February 19998 - Wing Commander Prophecy (90)

DefianceIndustries Breeds Raptors

DefianceIndustries is still doing what he does best: creating and updating high quality models of clasic Wing Commander ship designs! Today he shares his Vindicator and Raptor...

I started looking over some of my older stuff and found a few issues with my original Vindicator model. There were some scaling issues and a few misses from a modeling perspective (not tapering the fuselage into the cockpit section being the most egregious) So I set about making a new one. This version is closer to the FMV model, has a more accurate texture and paint scheme, and is alot lighter on the polygons.\

Next I started on a WC1 favorite of mine - the good ol' A-14 Raptor. Of all the WC1 ships this one gets the least love I suppose. but who doesn't love a X-wing/Gunstar hybrid? Besides, the combination of neutron and mass drivers makes it especially lethal in my book. I know most of you are Rapier fans, which is cool, but I love me some Raptor, of course, I also like the Scimitar, Iceman would be so disappointed in me.

Wing Commander Civics 101

The Templin Institute is a YouTube presentation with a neat gimmick: they offer documentaries about different fictional realities! This week they've premiered a new show called 'Audio Log' that presents the history of a fictional institution with a dramatic audio recording. And for the pilot episode they've chosen to talk about Wing Commander's Terran Confederation! It's a neat ten-minute look at Wing Commander's fictional history which you can find here.

Get Ready, Get Net

The American release of Wing Commander IV for the Playstation included two manuals: a 'Battle Book' which includes detailed controls for the flying portion of the game and a 'New Officer's Handbook' which shows new players how to navigate the game and lists specifications for several flyable ships (the European releases of the game had a single combined manual.) For today's update, we're looking at the cover of the latter booklet which is a little more interesting than it might seem!

The single most fascinating aspect of the New Officer's Handbook is that it introduces a small amount of lore in the form of the 'login text' which shows a new officer (not Blair as they are apparently an Ensign) logging into a Terran Confederation computer system. What is ReadyNet? Who knows - the conceit isn't followed up again... but it gives a little bit of additional flavor to the Wing Commander universe.

You have entered
CONFED READYNET

Unauthorized access
strictly prohibited

Password: XXXXXXXX
Welcome ENSIGN
This is your 1st
visit to READYNET

The rest of the cover is interesting for a different reason: a careful study reveals that both the front and the back are a paste-up of existing Wing Commander IV artwork. The cover uses a set photograph of Blair sneaking around Axius (previously released through Origin's website to promote the PC CD release of the game) and then several ship concept sketches are hidden in the background! Included are the Avenger and the Intrepid on the front and the Bearcat and the Banshee on the back.

You can read both Playstation manuals here.

Wing Commander Sprite Refresh Looks Promising

The original Wing Commander has never looked better! The fantastic work that UnnamedCharacter has been doing on the WC Toolbox is paying off in a big way. Goliath has begun adapting his work to increase the resolution of ship sprites in the game and the results, which use Howard Day's beautiful models, are looking very promising! So far, Goliath has created patches that update the Bengal, Exeter and Hornet and also utilize the fan-designed Tolmacs cruiser. Check 'em out:

Bengal (download)

Exeter (download)

Tolmacs (download)

Hornet (download)

Awesome stuff! A full update to the game in this style would be amazing; lets cross our fingers and hope these fan modders have the bandwidth to do just that!

PC Games Previews Wing Commander IV

End your week with a nice blast from the past: a German PC Games magazine with an EXTENSIVE preview of Wing Commander IV! The cover features an awesome clear shot of the Kilrathi guard seen in the background of Wing Commander III and the exhaustive preview is full of rarely reproduced Wing Commander IV set photos and concept art.

Familiar Fighters Found

Eagle-eyed ship spotter Doug Lee has found a squadron of familiar Wing Commander designs in an unlikely place: a mobile game called Stellar Patrol: Galactic Conflict! The top-down space game features a host of familiar Wing Commander designs... and even uses a Rapier as its app icon! This is likely not a case of licensing the IP from Electronic Arts as Stellar Patrol also includes a number of other familiar science fiction ships like Battlestar Galactica's Viper, Star Wars' A-Wing and Firefly's... Firefly. It's a fun little phone shooter reminiscent of Subspace. If you'd like to check it out, you can download Stellar Patrol for free on Android or iOS. Better hurry and get to it before the lawyers!

Victory! Moongate Kickstarter Hits WC Goal

There's great news out of the Through the Moongate: the first stretch goal has been reached, which means that there will be an extra chapter looking at the developing of Wing Commander II! Here's the official word:

A million thank yous to all our backers who made another achievement possible! We will have the pleasure to work with Siobhan Beeman, Ellen Guon Beeman, and other Originites on the Wing Commander 2 chapter, which will be delivered as a digital download to all backers from Honesty tier and higher. We are excited to dig into and tell many yet unknown stories of another legendary game from Origin!

The project has added a second strech goal which would add a rare Ultima print for backers at the Sacrifice (50 euro) level or higher. There are three days left, so if you want a copy for yourself you can pledge here! There are three days left on this one, so get in quick!