Happy New Year!

It's stardate 2026.001 which means that we would like to wish the Wing Commander community a very happy new year! Sadly, the time has come to once again put away your Kilrathi Saga 1997 calendar... you won't be able to use it again until 2031! Despite this setback, we're hopeful that 2026 will be a better year for both Wing Commander and our enduring family of fans.

It goes without saying that we're moving closer to the Wing Commander timeline every day: it's just 603 years until (the official) first contact with the Kilrathi! And we're just 56 years to the day from… the Mongolian invasion of China? That's what Action Stations says, anyway!:

Washington did it at the Battle of Trenton and turned the tide of the American Revolution. Sure, the British and Hessians screamed foul, but it brought victory. The Arab states did nearly the same thing in the Yom Kippur War of 1973, and the Mongols did it in their Chinese New Year strike of 2082.

New Year, New Poll!

Chip Bits

We spotted a tantalizing reference to the lost console port of Wing Commander II. The March 1994 issue of German magazine Mega Fun has a short article about the upcoming Sega Virtual Processor chip... which mentions that Electronic Arts plans to use a similar chip with Wing Commander II for the Genesis. That project was cancelled over technical issues and not much is known about the special chip! The project was then completed internally for the SNES but never released!

Sega Virtual Processor

Virtual Racing will be the first MD game with a built-in additional chip (March). Sega's Virtual Processor (SVP) is also planned to be released separately in the future. The other games that use the chip will then simply be plugged in like with an import adapter. Electronic Arts is also working on a game with a co-processor: Wing Commander 2. However, the chip is not from Sega, but from ASICS. Argonaut Software, meanwhile, is working on the successor to the SFX chip for Nintendo. Who will ultimately win the race...

Last Chance for Year End Wing Commander Discounts

Wing Commander Movie Night: Class of Beverly Hills

For next week (and the week after), the club voted to do something a little different: we're going to kick off the year by looking at two very different TV pilot movies from the 1990s. This next week will be Class of Beverly Hills, the 1990 pilot for Beverly Hills 90210 and next week will be Babylon 5's The Gathering telefilm. If you're old enough to remember 1990 then you might recall the 90210 pilot kicking off the cool, brightly colored California summer vibe often associated with the era. It'll be fun to see how it holds up! You can join us this Friday via Discord to watch along.

Our Wing Commander connection here is pretty odd: one of the pre-slugged high scores in the TrainSim in Wing Commander I was… "BRAIN 90210". Is this a reference to one of the multiple Brians on the core Super Wing Commander team? Or the character of Brian on 90210? We'll find out!

We also have a couple of Wing Commander-adjacent actors! Ian Ziering (Steve Sanders) would go on to play the lead Edison Trent in Chris Roberts' Freelancer… and Luke Perry (Dylan) would eventually voice Sub Zero in Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm… which crossed over with Wing Commander Academy! Now that's a stretch.

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

Class of Beverly Hills is available to purchase on the standard streaming services. It is typically listed as episode one and two of the first season of Beverly Hills 90210. It is currently streaming on Paramount+ in the United States. 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!

How can I help pick future movie club movies?

The movie club movies are voted on each week by the Wing Commander Discord. The poll is typically posted 24 hours before each week's screening and the next movie is announced at the end. The choices for the poll come from a master pool of Wing Commander-related movies. If you would like to suggest a film for inclusion in that pool you can post it to this thread.

Count Snaps Back

We only just reported on their Bearcat and CountvonSchnaps is already back with two more classic takes on Wing Commander ships... this time the Dralthi and the Krant from the original game! That's right, they've gone furball. I'll always argue in favor of two cockpits for the Krant... but these are still pretty wonderful. Enjoy!

Wing Commander II: Dralthi (DeviantArt)

Another Wing Commander design and this time a Kilrathi design! Again thanks has to go out to Shoguneagle for commissioning me to make another iconic design.

The Dralthi medium fighter has seen many iterations during its long service history. The one depicted here is an early Mk I version. Armed with two laser cannons, 2x missile hardpoints and a mine launcher.

The Dralthi can be found at all frontlines during the Kilrathi-Terran war and was the most numerous medium fighter produced during the whole war.

Wing Commander II: KF402 - Krant (DeviantArt)

The second Wing Commander Kilrathi design made possible thanks to Shoguneagle for commissioning me not one but two iconic designs.

The Krant is like the Dralthi a medium fighter but is more capable as a light bomber then being a fighter. Armed with two laser cannons and 4x missile hardpoints or two Torpedo mounts.

When armed with the torpedoes the Krant is different compared to the regular doctrine of the Kilrathi Navy in that it will run when delivering its payload to re-arm instead of pressing the attack with its dual lasers.

Hope people like my view of the ship. Like the catamaran hull but lost the other cockpit in favor for additional sensors.

Print Your Own Fleet!

Isn't it great finding Wing Commander in the wild? I recently came across a BlueSky post from Tyrel Lohr about a 3D model they've been working on of a Dorkathi!

Finally, I also started on a version of the Kilrathi Dorkathi Transport from Wing Commander 2. The fins are not 100% perfect, and I had to ad lib a few details, but I think it mostly works.

Even better, though, tt turns out Tyrel Lohr has been building entire fleets! They build 3D-printable models of sci-fi ships that they offer on Cults. They've already build a host of fighters and capital ships from Wing Commander I and II for both the Confederation and the Kilrathi. Most are completely free and the most expensive is just a few dollars. If you pick one up, we'd love to see how it prints!

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 are referenced by Wing Commander in some way. Tonight's film is Arcadia of My Youth (1982) and you can find details on why we're watching it in the announcement post here. The movie will start at 7 PM PST/10 PM EST but feel free to drop by and hang any time!

After Action Report: It's a Wonderful Life

It's hard not to love It's a Wonderful Life, even if its specific vision of hope is increasingly specific to a 1940s America that we don't necessarily support today. As we noted, it's almost like a long Twilight Zone episode, complete with that same sense of our grandparents' nostalgia that that show is sometimes steeped in. It also flies by very quickly even though the 'point' of the movie isn't reached until very close to the end.

The major connection to Wing Commander is that Pilgrim Stars has a flagship named the TCS Bedford Falls after It's a Wonderful Life's setting. The two 'versions' of Bedford Falls are the crux of the story, with Jimmy Stewart's character seeing what an impact his seemingly small life had on his town (which becomes a dystopian nightmare in the timeline where he never existed). Wing Commander could take place in either world!

With that in mind, I thought I'd make a quick list of the other capital ships named by Pilgrim Stars... and it's pretty interesting! Where Dr. Forstchen and Andrew Keith use familiar 'military' terms (familiar things like Defiant or Gettysburg), Peter Telep chooses much more unusual names for capital ships. Many of them seem related to his own life in Florida... or they're outright unknown! Here's our quick attempt at identifying them all, we encourage you to try and figure them out on the forums.

• TCS Barnicket Light - Unknown - possibly the town of Barnegat Light, New Jersey, USA
• TCS Beacontree - Bengal class Strike Carrier - possibly the hamlet of Beacontree Heath, Essex, UK
• TCS Carraway - Exeter class Destroyer - Nick Carraway, narrator of The Great Gatsby
• TCS Chippewa - Unknown Destroyer - alternate term for the Ojibwe tribe of North America
• TCS Drayton - Unknown - a common name for places and people, impossible to specify further
• TCS Fosubius - Concordia class Supercruiser - unknown
• TCS Halstov - Unknown - unknown
• TCS Mitchell Hammock - Exeter class Destroyer - road in Oviedo, Florida, USA
• TCS Oregon - Exeter class Destroyer - US state
• TCS Rigaria - Unknown - unknown
• TCS Scrimshaw - Drayman class Transport - art made from whale bones
• TCS Talmud - Exeter class Destroyer - Jewish holy book
• TCS Tricaliber - Unknown - unknown
• TCS Windmar - Unknown Destroyer - unknown

Merry Christmas!

We would like to wish a merry Christmas to all wingnuts that celebrate (and a happy holidays to all that don't). The Wing Commander community remains a constant source of happiness in dark times for us and I can't rightly express how much your friendship, your contributions and your general existence makes our lives better. The WC:CIC staff sends you all love and hope.

Now: need some balls to decorate your tree? Here's a quick visual timeline of Wing Commander's most Christmas-y ship, the Super Wing Commander Dorkir. It was built from the Wing Commander II depot model and remains a very bizarre sight when you encounter them in the game.

Like everyone, we're absolutely exhausted this year so we'll leave it at that. But if you're in need of a big dose of Christmas cheer, we highly reccomend checking out last year's omnibus post which collects two decades of wingnut holiday celebrations!

Happy holidays, friends; better days are surely ahead.

Have You Xeen Me Lately?

Xeen Music, the mind behind the wonderful Wing Commander II and Academy soundtracks released earlier this year is back with two more exhaustive Origin Systems soundtracks! No Wing Commander this time around but they have put together the definitive scores for two classic Ultimas (Ultimae?): the first Ultima Underworld and Runes of Virtue, the GameBoy spinoff!

Both of these soundtracks are currently available only through Xeen Music's Patreon, though composer George "The Fatman" Sanger will make them available on other streaming services at some point in the future. They can be purchased on their own for $10 or accessed as part of their subscription option (which is a great deal!).

Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss

• Patreon Listing
• YouTube Samples

Ultima: Runes of Virtue

• Patreon Listing
• YouTube Samples