Border Worlds: Flag vs. Roundel (March 12, 2025)

[Bandit LOAF]

The topic of Wing Commander IV's texture files recently came up and a question came up: what's that spiky logo on the side of the Vindicator? If it's intended to be the Border Worlds logo, why is it so different from the circular 'phoenix' seen elsewhere?





The answer is that it's a roundel which represents the Union of Border Worlds Navy! It differs from the more familiar Border Worlds logo which represents the entire Union of Border Worlds. Compare the United States flag to the roundel used on military aircraft, for instance:





The Border Worlds roundel is actually more common than you think. It appears throughout the game, including on many Border Worlds ships (including all the fighters):





It even shows up inside the Intrepid where it's intended to match the FMV... unfortunately the texture is mirrored incorrectly!





It's also pretty distinct in gameflow, where it represents an available mission briefing on and again shows up clearly on the Banshee.





It even appears on two ships cut from the final game but left in the files: a Border Worlds space station and an R-type shuttle in Border Worlds livery.





Its similarity to the band Metallica's ninja star logo also can't be ignored!





The 'flag' logo appears throughout the game, too. It's on the uniform shoulder patches, in the Intrepid's UI and shows as the default comm video for Border Worlds capital ships! I've always liked the amount of thought that went into the logo, with the colonies, a moon, appearing with a phoenix rising from the Confederation star.





The logo must predate the union, though, as it actually makes an appearance in the background of the Wing Commander movie! It's displayed on one of the Tiger Claw's bridge monitors and can be seen most clearly behind Captain Sansky when Blair delivers the message from Tolwyn. It's easier to pick out once you've seen it in BTS footage.




--
Original update published on March 12, 2025

 

[Bob McDob]

It also resembles a swastika; not that Origin would admit that even if that was their intent (which I rather doubt).

Actually, what it reminds me of is the square-sided Finnish roundel, which predates the Nazis and was painted on their planes to the end of World War II.

More than the shape it's the circumstances of a tiny country fighting a much larger industrialized one that it used to be a part of, and achieving massive kill ratios using aircraft and weapons a generation obsolete. Well, I'm sure I'm not the first one to think this.

The logo must predate the union, though, as it actually makes an appearance in the background of the Wing Commander movie! It's displayed on one of the Tiger Claw's bridge monitors and can be seen most clearly behind Captain Sansky when Blair delivers the message from Tolwyn. It's easier to pick out once you've seen it in BTS footage.

Could it be the Outer Worlds Fleet insignia? I know the star logo from the Victory appears too, which makes me wonder if the production team put any thought to it other than just collecting every piece of art they could find.

 

[Darkmage]

We could probably fix that Intrepid texture with the tools we have now. Would just need to flip the texture in a tool like gimp/photoshop and reimport it.

 

[Exteban]

Actually, what it reminds me of is the square-sided Finnish roundel, which predates the Nazis and was painted on their planes to the end of World War II.

Roundel of the Finnish Air Force between 1918 and 1945.

 

[Bandit LOAF]

Could it be the Outer Worlds Fleet insignia? I know the star logo from the Victory appears too, which makes me wonder if the production team put any thought to it other than just collecting every piece of art they could find.

Could be! If I had to lore it I'd make it the insignia of the Border Worlds Joint Planetary Defense Force, the group that coordinated militias during the war and eventually became the UBW military.

Edited to speculate about the logo: I think that's a yes in the case of the UBW logo and a no for the WC3 star one.

The stuff on the monitors was done during preproduction by, of all things, Cryo -- the French game company that did the first Dune CD-ROM game. I'm pretty sure they just grabbed the UBW logo clip which was available on Origin's website at the time and stuck it in there.

But the WC3 logo was done in post by the ex-WC artists at Digital Anvil under Chris' direct review and so it's much more like that it was chosen on purpose.