Hobbes Betrayal Crosses Over Language Barriers Update ID

Most people are familiar with the infamous video cuts that were made to fit all of the video on the Wing Commander 3 discs. Helpful sequences such as the TCN news bursts and Hobbes explanation were omitted due to space constraints. Fortunately, these are now available here at the CIC, but for a long time, the main way players could watch the Hobbes scene was to track down a copy of WC3 on the Playstation or 3DO. But how many people have watched this clip in German?! It's a cool recording, since the German voice actor behind Hobbes is nearly as good as the original. FekLeyrTarg has posted it to YouTube so you can see it now!
In dieser Szene, die wahrscheinlich aus Platzgründen nicht in der PC-Version aber dafür in der Playstation- und 3DO-Version sowie in der Romanfassung von "Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger" enthalten ist, entdeck Colonel Christopher "Maverick" Blair (Mark Hamill/Frank Röth) eine Videobotschaft von Ralgha "Hobbes" nar Hhallas (John Schuck/Thomas Rauscher), in dem er die Umstände seines Verrats an der Terranischen Konföderation und an seinen besten Freund erklärt.

Vielen Dank an Wingcenter.net, wo diese und andere Szenen aus der Playstation-Version auf Englisch und auf Deutsch zur Verfügung gestellt worden sind.

Check Out Spanish Wing Commander Armada Update ID

Christian Klein has found another rare and exotic Spanish Wing Commander translation by DROSoft. His last couple finds were for WC1 and the Secret Missions, but this jumps all the way forward to Armada. It would be a treat to see how they changed the Voices of War manual and how the English and Spanish versions would mesh over multiplayer. The Spanish Victory Streak is just there for fun and wasn't part of this set. Armada was ahead of its time and is a ton of fun, so it's great to see other regions that got it!
Just got this hard to find Spanish Wing Commander Armada. The box is in a good shape and the disks are still readable. It's added to the archive now. #DOSgaming

Trusty Tarsus Takes Shape Update ID

Now that the Talon's out in the wild, DefianceIndustries' focus shifts to the Gemini Sector's other workhorse, the Tarsus. It's kind of a shame you don't actually run into them out and about, because the design is just so darn charming. Perhaps some of the allure is simply because it's your own unique home away from home out in space for so much of the game. There have been some amazing looking Tarsus models made over the years, but this is certainly one to watch!
Sorry boys, I'm just a tourist with a fragged nav console - can you tell me where I am?

Well..... you can't have a Talon without giving it something to shoot at.

Nifty Video Game Music Podcast Highlights George Oldziey's WC Soundtrack Update ID

The Composers Play podcast's latest episode is about Wing Commander 3. Scott Tobin interviews the original composers of major video games in his series of video game shows, and he's got George Oldziey on the line for this one. There's lots of great backstory about how Mr. Oldziey got involved with Wing Commander and what it means to him to be supporting the fans still after all these years. It's definitely worth a listen! Check it out below, and if you like this one, their previous episode was about the Crusader series with composer Andrew Sega.
Composers Play - "Wing Commander 3" with the composer George Oldziey!

Apologies about the audio at the beginning. Check out and support George's music.

Classic Joystick Evokes Hardware Nostalgia Update ID

Dennis Mull came across a hardware setup from the mid '90s that's a pretty neat time capsule of the era. The Quickshot "Squadron Commander" QS-202 is a very early example of a Hands-On Throttle And Stick (HOTAS). Lots of joysticks at the time were sold as "compatible with Wing Commander," and this one includes pre-programmed controls for Wing Commander, Wing Commander 3 and Strike Commander. Given the rapid pace of PC advancement during that time, it's pretty cool that you could regularly find equipment that worked with all of these games. The box even advertises Windows 95 compatibility. And there's lots of other titles besides the WC series listed on the box, which gives you an idea of how popular the flight sim genre was at the time. TheSynrgy also put together a cool unboxing of the unit if you'd like to see more!

Comparing P2's Ship Seller Before & After Update ID

Check out this pre-release screenshot from Privateer 2 that AD discovered and compare it to one from the final game. The UI isn't as developed, ship icons are in color, BUY/SELL is named TRANS-ACT... and all of the ships have different names: JACKAL becomes Straith, FLEA becomes Shaman and MANTIS becomes Icarus. MULE and CORSAIR don't match ships in the finished game! Most interesting: your ship isn't pictured but is listed as a "TIGER SHARK." That's not in the final game, but it IS referenced in passing twice in the flavor text. Melissa Banks is said to fly a Tiger Shark named Fatale (she flies a Faldari when you rescue her).

This was part of the CD-ROM Interactive Entertainment previews recently discovered. It's worth comparing side by side here in greater detail, because the differences are so cool!

WC2 Modding Leads to New Discoveries Update ID

Fans continue to do amazing things by digging into the earlier Wing Commander games' code. One of the latest findings has led to the manipulation of the screen transitions between segments of the Wing Commander 2 cutscenes. They've found that there are ten possible ways to wipe the screen and launch the next clip - variants of wiping side to side, diagonally and circular from the middle. This is just one of many findings that Wingnuts have discovered recently, albeit a more visible one that's easy for us to highlight. If you'd like to learn about even more detailed hacking that UnnamedCharacter, delMar and lskovlun have revealed, check out the CIC Forums.
As for the wipe index, the following values are possible:

0: wipe down; horizontal line wipe (from top to bottom)
1: wipe left; vertical line wipe (from right to left)
2: wipe up; horizontal line wipe (from bottom to top)
3: wipe right; vertical line wipe (from left to right)
4: wipe diagonal (from top left to bottom right)
5: wipe diagonal (from top right to bottom left)
6: wipe diagonal (from bottom right to top left)
7: wipe diagonal (from bottom left to top right)
8: iris from center to edges
9: iris from edges to center

Brimstone Easter Egg Found 28 Years Later Update ID

LotsoRobbinBear has found a long lost easter egg built into Wing Commander 1. He was playing through the Vega Sector in such a way as to hit all of the losing track systems when he came across something odd in Brimstone 3. When he kills all the fighters, things proceed as expected. However, if he kills Maniac as well as all the fighters, he is awarded a Bronze Star! Normally, losing a wingman (even Maniac) results in a reduction in medal points that would often disqualify you from an award. In just this system, the opposite is the case. This isn't random either! Recall that at the start of the Brimstone series, Halcyon gives you permission during the mission briefing to shoot Maniac down if he disobeys. This is apparently not just idle chatter - the game mechanics have been slightly tweaked to reward the player for following through! It's pretty neat that this has been hidden in the code all this time! Check out the CIC Forums for all the investigation and math that verifies this.
So I had a very strange experience that no information I could find on the internet could explain. I've searched the forums here and couldn't find anything directly relevant (so my apologies if this has been asked before and I missed it). I'm currently doing a 'losing campaign' play-through of WC1 (i.e. so I can play all the series you miss if you win all the time). I met the full victory conditions for Brimstone 1 & 2, but in order to lose the series I am not killing the Dorkir in Brimstone 3 (provided I can retreat from it before Maniac kills it).

Now in trying to accomplish this, my aim was to get 8 kills (i.e. 2 Jalthis & 6 Krants) then get back to base, while keeping Maniac alive. However, on one of my attempts Maniac died before I could kill all the Krants, so I went back to base with the 8 kills (leaving the Dorkir alive) just to see what would happen. Of course I get dressed down by the Colonel for failing the mission (he didn't care about Maniac dying lol), however for my failures I am rewarded with both a Bronze Star and a promotion!

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