Reminder: #Wingnut Movie Night Tonight!

This is a reminder that we have another fun #Wingnut movie night planned on Discord this evening! The ongoing theme will be movies that inspired Wing Commander in some way. Tonight's film is Tora! Tora! Tora! which informed Chris Roberts' vision for the Wing Commander movie… and which was essentially the first draft of Action Stations! You can find details on that as well as how to watch along with us in the announcement post here. The movie will start about 7 PM PST/10 PM EST but feel free to drop by and hang any time!

After Action Report: Return of the Jedi

Greetings WingNuts,

The Wing Commander movie club certainly enjoyed Return of the Jedi! It was great to see the original version (with the original songs!) again after so many years and it's just a tremendously fun, well made movie that continues to impact pretty much every space opera to this day in some way. There's always an argument that Empire Strikes Back is the 'smart' Star Wars sequel and that Return of the Jedi is somehow tainted because it feels more commercial… and it's hard to maintain that when you're actually watching the movie. It's a stunning piece of work that has as much artistry and thought as anything else in the Star Wars saga and I think it's particularly telling that Chris Roberts seems to come down on the Return of the Jedi side.

As we noted in the introduction post, Chris Roberts has credited the space battles in Return of the Jedi as inspiring combat in both the original Wing Commander and in the 1999 movie. And there's little question that that's true: Return of the Jedi's frantic third act fleet action was the gold standard for space combat for many, many years (and some would argue remains so). He had asked production designer Peter Lamont to consider Return of the Jedi's space battles alongside various World War II references and you can certainly see that in the work!

Wing Commander II takes two of its animated explosion from Return of the Jedi. The first one, which the game plays when a capital ship is destroyed, is taken from the shot where the Death Star first destroys a rebel ship. The Origin artist responsible for the theft mirrored the original shot. This explosion was then reused in Wing Commander Privateer as the 'player ship destroyed' explosion.

Here are 'sprite sheets' comparing all three explosions. The additional frames for the Privateer version were likely added by hand later and were not based on the original Return of the Jedi sequence.

The second explosion comes from a later shot where a TIE fighter crashes into the bridge tower of a Star Destroyer. This was used as the fighter explosion in Wing Commander II and then reused in Origin FX's 'Armageddon' module... and once again for Privateer's "big" explosion!

Here are the sprite sheets which remain pretty consistent from game to game:

Of course, those two explosions aren't the only thing the Wing Commander franchise borrowed from Star Wars…

Ride or Die

Back in April 1999, a company called Showscan announced that it was developing a Wing Commander motion simulator "ride film" under license from Digital Anvil. Unfortunately, the film never materialized and no one has ever come forward to tell the story behind it… though we do know that it was in active development for months! You can see the original press release that we reported twenty six years ago here.

I routinely trawl places like LinkedIn and the Internet Archive to see if I can find anything from the project (which we do know was in active development for at least four months and possibly for as long as a year before Showscan went into administration). I haven't found anything from Showscan directly but I did recently come across a pretty fun bit of ephemera: a news report from the July 1999 issue of GamePro covering the Showscan announcement that features a cartoon of a roller coaster being ridden by Street Fighter and Wing Commander characters!

While Wing Commander never happened, the Street Fighter II ride announced alongside it did! You can watch a copy here to get an idea of what the Wing Commander presentation might have looked like:

Temple of the Lost Addons

We received an e-mail with a question we thought was worth investigating: "I've been reading about Ultima VII: The Lost Vale and it got me thinking: were there any Wing Commander expansion disks in the works that didn't make it out? The short answer is yes, two Wing Commander addons were solicited in some capacity by Origin but very little is known beyond that. They've both been long the subject of rumor and speculation and so we thought we'd check the archives and at least prove they were technically announced!

Wing Commander II: Special Operations 3

In late 1991, Origin held a conference on CompuServe with Ellen Guon and Siobhan Beeman talking about the imminent release of Wing Commander II. One of the surprising things mentioned was that there would be THREE Special Operations disks. "Special Operations 3" was never listed for preorder and we have found very little mention of the concept over the years. Unfortunately, the original conference transcript seems to be lost to time so it has been difficult to establish the exact details (we'd appreciate it if any digital packrats would check their old files, the file name would likely be wing2.con). Luckily, we've finally discovered an echo that confirms our memories: a 1991 page from the "GIF News," a tech news outlet intended to be posted to BBSes at the time.

If you've finished Wing Commander II, do not delete the game just yet from your hard drive. Special Operations Disk #1, 2, & 3 will be released. The first one will introduce 2 new Confederation ships and 1 Kilrathi. You will be able to fly the "Crossbow" which is like a Broadsword but much more maneuverable. The storyline revolves around a mutinous group of Confederation pilots that you must fight. Future operations disks will involve "Space Pirates" as well as more Kilrathi political intrigue.

This is clearly news being reported from the CompuServe chat. Beyond this proof that Special Ops 3 was discussed there's almost no information available. Given the descriptions above it seems possible that the cut story could've been about "space pirates"... or it could be a case that Special Operations 3 (wherever it was to appear in the sequence) was compressed into one of the released expansions. After all, Special Operations 1 is essentially two separate stories!

Privateer Special Operation 2

Another long-rumored cancelled expansion is a second Privateer mission disk. Many simply assumed there would be a second expansion based on the cadence of the previous games but some actually remembered it being announced. And those that remember it are correct! Origin solicited a second Privateer expansion under the dummy title "Privateer Special Op 2" and it was listed in retailer computers (and sometimes included in magazine listings like the one below from an early 1994 issue of PC Zone). By the time Righteous Fire shipped, the CD-ROM version of Privateer was already scheduled for release so it's unlikely Special Operation 2 was still being considered at that point. Nothing else is known about what the intended content might have been.

Kilrathi Ace Finder

Want to challenge one of Kilrah's finest? Here's a guide to where you can find the various Kilrathi aces in the first three Wing Commander games. Wing Commander I and the 3DO port of III both have a system where aces will reappear if you miss them... up to seven times in some cases! Wing Commander II and III, on the other hand, only give you one shot at each. One neat situation is that if you let all the aces survive in the original Wing Commander they can all appear in the same final mission in Hell's Kitchen!

Wing Commander

Bhurak "Starkiller" nar Caxki (Salthi)

• McAuliffe 3
• Gateway 3
• Hell's Kitchen 2
• Hell's Kitchen 4

Dakhath "Deathstroke" nar Sihkag (Dralthi)

• Gimle 3
• Cheng-Du 2
• Rostov 1
• Hubble's Star 1
• Venice 3
• Hell's Kitchen 3
• Hell's Kitchen 4

Khajja "Machine" nar Ja'targk, aka "The Fang" (Krant)

• Brimstone 3
• Rostov 3
• Venice 1
• Hell's Kitchen 1
• Hell's Kitchen 4

Baktosh "Redclaw" nar Kiranka (Jalthi)

• Dakota 3
• Port Hedland 3
• Hubble's Star 3
• Hell's Kitchen 4

Wing Commander II

Rakti Blooddrinker (Sartha)

• Heaven's Gate 5D

Kur Human-Killer (Grikath)

• Ghorah Khar 3A

Khasra "Redclaw" nar Kiranka (Jalkehi)

• Tesla 6C
• Ghorah Khar 5C

Khasra will appear in Ghorah Khar 5C (in Special Operations 1) regardless of whether or not you shot him down at Tesla in the base game The debriefing dialogue in Tesla 6C specifically mentions that he may have ejected.

Prince Thrakhath nar Kiranka (Bloodfang)

• K'tithrak Mang 8D
• Gwynedd (Losing) 12D

Wing Commander III (PC)

Najji “Fireclaw” Ragitagha (Darket)

• Locanda D1

Bhuk “Bloodmist” nar Hhallas (Paktahn)

• Blackmane E1

Marjakh “Stalker” nar Kur’u’tak (Strakha)

• Alcor L3
• Kilrah P3

The game spawns unlimited Stalkers at the penultimate space nav point in Kilrah P3 until your final wingman is dead. He appears regardless of whether you defeated him at Alcor.

Prince Thrakhath nar Kiranka (Bloodfang)

• Loki VI K3
• Kilrah P3

If you choose to fight Prince Thrakhath at Loki you can not continue the game.

Ralgha "Hobbes" nar Hhallas (Thunderbolt VII)

• Alcor 3 (L3)
• Kilrah P3

Wing Commander III (3DO)

Najji “Fireclaw” Ragitagha (Darket)

• Tamayo B1
• Tamayo B2
• Tamayo (Losing) C1
• Tamayo (Losing) C2
• Caliban H1
• Torgo J2
• Kilrah P2

Dakhath "Deathstroke" nar Caxki (Dralthi)

• Locanda D2
• Locanda D3
• Blackmane E1
• Blackmane (Losing) F1
• Blackmane (Losing) F2
• Loki VI K3
• Freya M1

Kramm "Deathfang" nar Caxki (Vaktoth)

• Delius I2
• Delius I3
• Torgo J2
• Loki VI K3
• Freya M3
• Kilrah P1
• Kilrah P2

Bhuk “Bloodmist” nar Hhallas (Paktahn)

• Caliban H3
• Loki VI K3
• Hyperion N2
• Kilrah P2

Marjakh “Stalker” nar Kur’u’tak (Strakha)

• Blackmane 2 (E2)
• Blackmane 3 (E3)
• Alcor 1 (L1)
• Alcor 2 (L2)

Prince Thrakhath nar Kiranka (Bloodfang)

• Loki VI K3
• Kilrah P3

If you choose to fight Prince Thrakhath at Loki you can not continue the game.

Ralgha "Hobbes" nar Hhallas (Thunderbolt VII)

• Alcor 3 (L3)
• Kilrah P3

Wing Commander Movie Night: Tora! Tora! Tora!

You have to work pretty hard not to love Return of the Jedi… and frankly, we're not willing to do that much work; it was great! This week, we're back to World War II with Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970). Tora! Tora! Tora! is a spectacular retelling of the attack on Pearl Harbor that brought the United States into World War II. The movie's production is as much an epilogue to the story as it is a telling of it: the film is a massive international co-production divided between American and Japanese teams with directors from both countries filming their parts of the story. You can join us this Friday via Discord to watch along.

Chris Roberts discussed Tora! Tora! Tora! as an inspiration for the Wing Commander movie frequently during interviews. He repeatedly described Wing Commander as an attempt to update Tora! Tora! Tora! for a science fiction setting.

“For me, it's sort of like a classic, nautical World War II movie, taking elements of Das Boot, or Tora! Tora! Tora! and sort of updating it and putting it in a science-fiction universe.” - “3 Questions With Chris Roberts” in Cinescape (March 1999)

“‘Das Boot’ heavily influenced the film in terms of its look. Films like ‘Tora! Tora! Tora!’ [and] ‘Midway’ -- I tried to make my film in a sort of old-fashioned World War II sense.” - “‘Wing Commander’ Creator Takes the Director’s Chair” in Salon (12 March 1999)

The movie was also cited as specific inspiration for the movement of capital ships in Wing Commander. An April 1999 Cinefex article says:

"Seeking inspiration for the movement of the juggernaut capital ships, Digital Anvil viewed documentary footage and studied the war films Tora! Tora! Tora! and Midway."

… and of course Wing Commander's introduction with its surprise dive bombing of Pegasus is taken directly from Pearl Harbor via the visuals made popular by Tora! Tora! Tora!. So that's going to be a big one to watch! Chris even wanted to open the movie with a bit of a fake out where we would first see sailors on a tropical beach before spinning the camera to reveal it was actually an environment in the asteroid base.

But there's another beloved Wing Commander project that owes nearly the entirety of its existence to Tora! Tora! Tora!: the prequel novel Action Stations. Written as an in-universe story of Wing Commander's Pearl Harbor, the battle of McAuliffe, Action Stations takes copious amounts of material straight from the movie and its source. Here's one very easy example where Dr. Forstchen takes the famous 'sleeping giant' line… which comes from the film and not a real historical source!

Harga closed his eyes and Jukaga realized just how old his father's friend really was. His mane had gone nearly to white, the ripples of muscle on his limbs were melting away into nothingness.

Harga opened his eyes and looked back at Jukaga and his voice suddenly sounded distant and old, as if already whispering from the beyond. "I fear that all that the Crown Prince shall succeed in doing is awakening the sleeping giant."

Along those lines you might enjoy looking at the source for the film. Tora! Tora! Tora! was based on a series of articles by the same name by historian Gordon Prange. He served as historical advisor for the movie and his article and research was later expanded into a book called At Dawn We Slept (published posthumously). At Dawn We Slept is very much the 'real' Action Stations and anyone looking for more context for either the Wing Commander novel, the Tora! Tora! Tora! Movie or Pearl Harbor itself should be encouraged to read it!

Where can I find a copy of the movie for the watch party?

Tora! Tora! Tora! is available to download free from the Internet Archive (you may need to add subtitles to cover the Japanese sections of the movie). It is also available for rent or purchase on all the standard services. If you would like a physical copy, the movie was released on BluRay in 2012 and remains in print around the world. If you are not able to locate a copy please stop by the Discord and ping a CIC staff member before Friday's showing.

How do we watch the movie together?

It's pretty low tech! Simply join the Wing Commander CIC Discord on Friday and we will be chatting (in text) along with the film in the main channel. Everyone who wants to join in should bring their own copy and we will count down to play them together at 10 PM EST. Everyone is welcome and we encourage you to join in the conversation; sharing your thoughts helps make the experience better for everyone!

Wing Commander Albums Shipping, Some Addresses Still Needed

Greetings all. I'm still waiting on delivery of the vinyl LPs so I apologize for the delay. I've begun sending CDs out domestically, although I still don't have everyone's mailing address. If you live in the US and pledged for the CD level and have not received your CD within the next week please email me your name and mailing address.

Those who are outside the US I will be getting to those CD deliveries this week. Unfortunately I have to fill out a customs form for each, and then it takes the post office about 5 to 10 minutes per item to enter the data (you wouldn't believe this is the 21st century!). So I can only do a handful of those at a time. Again, thank you for your patience.

In the meantime, if you don't already have these links, here they are for the digital downloads of Vol. 1. Thanks!

Fatale Attraction

July 1998 issue of Femme Fatales magazine (offering "the luscious ladies of horror, fantasy and science fiction") has an interesting interview with Wing Commander III and Prophecy star Ginger Lynn Allen conducted while she was doing press for the latter game. It even features two photos of Ginger on set that we've never seen before (plus some fairly tame cheesecake from other parts of her career)! Scans are below; here's the Wing Commander-focused portion:

And, one year later, she rekindled her celebrity with an interactive CD game. The medium is full of X-rated divas, but Allen opted for some sci-fi extravagance with WING COMMANDER III: HEART OF THE TIGER. In lieu of moaning and heavy breathing, she was working with the likes of Tim Curry, Mark Hamill, John Rhy-Davies and Malcolm McDowell.

Debuting in 1989, WING COMMANDER — the first simulated 3-D space flight game — earned enough revenue to spawn a sequel the following year. AUen was cast as Chief Technician Rachel Coriolis when the franchise turned into a trilogy. The saga involved “Earth being overrun by the cat-like race of the Kilrathi” and the Terran Confederation delegating “the one man qualified enough to destroy planet Kilrah.” It was fueled by a p.r. blitz, and ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT was on the set interviewing Allen, “a pivotal player in the lavish interactive game, produced for millions.”

Two years later, another sequel — WING COMMANDER: THE PATH OF FREEDOM — hit the shelves but Allen’s absence in the game was con- spicuous. Why wasn’t she hired to reprise the Coriolis role? “It just made good sense,” explains producer Dave Downing. “Ginger was the lead in WING COMMANDER III and it was great to have her back in WING COMMANDER: PROPHECY (aka WING COMMANDER V) which was released last year. She wasn’t in Part 4 because it was a different story with different action, but she was quite a draw based on our consumer interest. We felt that she was something we could use from a marketing angle, and have for the interest of the young men.”

Ms. Allen opens the interview by insisting that I just call her Ginger. “I’m a nice girl from Rockford, Illinois and here we go by first names.” I mentioned that, as a student of entomology at the University of Illinois, I lived in the state for over nine years. Next thing you know, we’re rapping about bugs, corn and soybean pests and her current ant problem. In regard to the latter, she jokes, ‘T’m a great cook, I think that they just keep coming back for my cooking. It’s a huge colony. I don’t like the spraying of pesticide because I have a three-month-old baby, a dog and a cat.”

After shifting into a de- scription of her WING COMMANDER femme, Ginger noted, “Rachel is the Chief Technician on the ship, and she is kind of a tough, ballsy, confident, cocky kind of gal. She is not someone that you would really want to mess with and she knows what she is doing. She is in charge, she loves her weapons and keeps the ship up and running. She was introduced in WING COMMANDER III, but things got a bit overwhelming at the time — and she was quite new at the time — so Rachel went on hiatus and went after a more prominent position. So she came back on this mission, WING COMMANDER V, and is more mature and has really come into her own as a woman and as a technician.” I can’t help interject that “went on hiatus” sounds like a euphemism which translates to “wasn’t hired.” Ginger giggles. “What I am saying is that everybody missed me in Part IV and I am back in Part V by popular demand. I was amazed. I have a PC, but I’m not a hacker. WING COMMANDER is the first experience I’ve had with this kind of project, and I had no idea of how popular CD games are. Playing the actual game, I crashed and burned-up in no more than two seconds — as soon as I got out into flight. I was never one to even play with old video games like Pac- Man or the tennis game.

When I turn on my computer now, I have two options: one is the standard and the other is WING COMMANDER III. It takes up a lot of memory space because it is so advanced and much is going on in it. I do my own Website [www.gingerlynn.com] and, by chatting on-line, I discovered that so many people play the game and love the character. For me it was a wonderful experience. I rarely get to play a tough girl. I am somewhat of a small woman, and I have this girl-next-door face and come across as very nice. Sometimes, when I am auditioning, they say, ‘Okay, but she almost looks too nice.’ So to have the opportunity to play Rachel — she is really a bitch — was a wonderful chance. On the ship there aren’t that many physical conflicts, but I would love Rachel to have some fights.”

So what are the significant differences between shooting a B-movie and a CD interactive film? WING COMMANDER III was filmed entire- ly against a green screen. Most of the locales and props didn’t exist and were added in post-production. “They were all phantoms, and I felt like a mime,” grins Ginger. “Plus, so much of the emphasis was shot with three to five different endings so you would have to say, ‘Okay, who died in this scene?. ..I’m mad at this guy in this scene, so now I kiss him but not in this ending. . .” And so on.” That could be challenging. But you really have to do more preparation and studying than for other media because you not only have to develop your character, you have to know what is happening from scene to scene and from ending to ending. There are so many different endings in PROPHECY (WC-5), dependent upon how you are playing the game. 'Then there are scenes where our characters, unlike WC-3, are the basis of it and not the interactive parts.

“And WC-3 didn’t have what I like about this one, specifically, camaraderie between the characters. It’s more of how it affects you when they don’t come back from their missions. It has especially impacted Rachel. She gets the ships ready and every ship that doesn’t come back is like suffering the loss of one of her babies. Although she is tough on the outside, she suffers on the inside because she cares now much more than she did before. I loved that I was able to grow as Rachel has grown in this one. The challenge is Rachel continuously being tough and doing her job: be compassionate but don’t let the loss of a friend get to her too much.”

CAPTION: “WING COMMANDER was a wonderful experience. I rarely play tough girls & Rachel was a bitch.”

Reminder: #Wingnut Movie Night Tonight!

This is a reminder that we have another fun #Wingnut movie night planned on Discord this evening! The ongoing theme will be movies that inspired Wing Commander in some way. Tonight's film is Return of the Jedi which... you know Return of the Jedi, I don't need to explain this! You can find details on that as well as how to watch along with us in the announcement post here. The movie will start about 7 PM PST/10 PM EST but feel free to drop by and hang any time!

After Action Report: King Kong

Greetings WingNuts,

Going into the original King Kong, we weren't sure what to think. Some of the older films in our series have been pretty stodgy by today's standards (looking at you, Dam Busters)... and being from 1933, King Kong was the oldest of them all. But we were pleasantly surprised: once King Kong got into the action it was effervescent and as much fun as a modern blockbuster.

The direct Wing Commander connection comes to us from a USA Network commercial in which Wing Commander Academy's background artists share that the island on Pisces in Word of Honor was based on the one from King Kong. Here's a comparison!

We suspect the entire movement through the second act of the episode was based on King Kong, though. Our heroes must transit a dense jungle... beset by sea monsters... and then escape to a climactic scene on the ledge of the mountain.

And for good measure, here's the shot that Chris Roberts' game was based on! The game is a bit of a mix of the 1933 and 1978 versions, featuring the Empire State Building from the original but the helicopters from the remake.

Honoring PC Gamer's Dedication to Demos

Back when we were surfing the net at 14.4k bps, the only realistic way to test drive the latest Wing Commander games was by loading it from the cover CD of a magazine. In fact, Wing Commander III's then-massive demo was the centerpiece of the very first PC Gamer cover disc! To honor that history, here are all five of the PC Gamer discs that brought us bonus Wing Commander combat starting with Wing Commander III in 1994 and going all the way to the shocking free release of Kilrathi Saga WC1 in 2000!

December 1994 - Wing Commander III Demo

• ISO Download

January 1996 - Wing Commander IV Demo

• ISO Download

March 1998 - Wing Commander Prophecy Demo

• ISO Download

November 1998 - Wing Commander Secret Ops - Episode One

• ISO Download

July 2000 - Wing Commander I Kilrathi Saga

• ISO Download