Happy New Year's Eve! (A Look Back at 2022) Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Wow, another year has come to an end! As we chase these final few hours before 2023, here's a look back at some of the noteworthy stories of the past year.

If you can remember far back enough, the year actually began with a new official WC product release! The MT-32 Archival Edition of the WC1 soundtrack was published by The Fat Man and Team Fat. Also in early 2022, people started to receive their Malcolm McDowell autographs printed on WC3 Playstation adverts. Fan projects also started to deliver in January, including the custom WC Challenge Coins that ZOmegaZ commissioned. It was a great way to kick off the year!

Wingnuts filled their collections with older vintage items as well. LOAF found this super rare Singaporean WC4 promotional shirt and Dennis Mull framed and mounted a variety of really awesome Wing Commander art pieces. And sometimes what Wingnuts are looking for just doesn't exist, so elend made his own gorgeous Dralthi this year as well. Fan projects hit it hard all year long with numerous steady updates from Klavs, Mac's Lore, WC4 Remastered and more. As most everyone is aware, a fantastic WC4 Demo was released for the CIC Birthday in August, so fans also got a chance to play the enhanced version of the game. Modders really got into making WC ships in Space Engineers and there was a return to Kerbal Space Program and Lego designs. Arena turned 15 this year, and we were fortunate that its achievement glitch was short lived. Some really smart people also made excellent progress on getting Arena to run in an emulator to protect against a possible future when the game is no longer supported on Xbox Live. Even Super Wing Commander emulation, Free DOS and WC4 Linux compatibility made further progress as well. I was also surprised to see how retro portable handhelds took off this year. A few other fan favorites were the conclusion to the Gemini Sector RPG's latest campaign, a new set of WC3 set photographs and the phenomenal birthday message that Klavs got Mr. McDowell to record for our birthday.
Of course, I would be incredibly remiss to not mention LOAF's many many articles that deeply explored a wire range of Wing Commander topics. This went into much more depth than our typical news posts and uncovered fantastic connections, revelations and history for all to enjoy. Here's a sampling:
Last, but not least, we ended the year on a high note with the announcement of a Wing Commander vinyl album in the works! We have this and more exciting things to look forward to in 2023, and we'll be here to share the news as it breaks!

Myth Busting The Price of Freedom Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Origin: Wing Commander IV taught us what the price of freedom was... but where does the quote originate? It is commonly but incorrectly attributed to American founding father Thomas Jefferson. While the line sounds like something Jefferson might have written, it does not appear in any contemporary reporting or in his extant writing. It brings to mind another of his actual famous quotes that "the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants" but is in fact a fundamentaly different idea. The quote actually derives from an 1790 speech by Irish lawyer John Philpot Curran: "It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt." Countless variations have been written since! Destination: Another increasingly common misattribution is crediting the line to either Colonel Christopher Blair or actor Mark Hamill. Even speaking only of the game, this is not correct! The line is spoken four times, once by down-on-his-luck veteran Evan Bean (Peter Marquardt, credited as Canteen Vet) and then three times by Admiral Tolwyn (Malcolm McDowell). Tolwyn speaks it once in the intro and then in two possible variations during the final debate. The closest Blair ever comes to the line is asking Tolwyn "is that the price of freedom?" during the ending cutscenes, prompting the Space Marshal to repeat the quote.
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BREAKING NEWS: Wing Commander LP Inbound Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

It turns out 2022 isn't going to go out without a little bit of good news! Supercade has just announced that they will be launching a campaign to offer a vinyl record version of George Oldziey's Wing Commander Orchestral Recording Project:
Wing Commander III, IV, Kilrathi Saga and Prophecy composer George Oldziey crowd funded a beautiful album of Wing Commander tracks recorded with a live orchestra several years ago which was offered at the time as a CD. Supercade began as a lavish history of video games with a project titled Supercade: A Visual History of the Videogame Age 1971-1984. They've since funded a second history book covering 1985 to 2001 and produced a variety of video game-related merchandise; this will be their first vinyl record. In fact, this would be the first Wing Commander music ever released on vinyl, a format which has seen a surge in popularity in recent years both because of its unique sound and for the more impressive presentability of the records and their larger format art. From the looks of the teaser image, this new release may be a limited edition that's minted in an impressive nebula-like colorway. We'll bring you all the details as soon as they're available!
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AI Algorithm Enhances WC1 Characters Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

We've stayed pretty far away from the recent AI art craze, but Patrick Buechner found a phenomenal use for it this week. He's run several of the original Wing Commander characters through the Stable Diffusion package with stellar results. These are an interpretation, of course, and you may or may not like the specific output character, but it's very cool to see a new realistic take on these iconic pilots (yes, Shotglass used to be a pilot "till the fleabags shot me up so bad I couldn’t fly"). Even the backgrounds and choice of collar detail on their clothing is pretty interesting!
It's raining so I'm playing with Wing Commander 1 characters in #stablediffusion #AIart
Patrick has a long resume as an Electronic Arts executive among many other roles in the gaming industry. You can find more on his accomplished background here.

Gemini Sector 'Schematic Map' Breaks Down Jump Lines Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

apocalyptech has put together a neat abstract take on the Gemini Sector map from Privateer. They've taken all the jump lines and attempted to spread all the systems out without overlap. It appears to be possible with just one exception. It's a very cool analysis and reminds me very much of the Tri-System Schematic Map.
It's entirely possible (probable?) that this has been done in the past but a tiny amount of Googling didn't bring anything up and I enjoy this sort of tinkering, so I just went ahead with it. I got curious during a recent replay of Privateer about the "logical" structure of the game map. As in: if you detangled the mess of jump points without regard to their actual "physical" location on the map, would it be possible to draw the map on a 2D Euclidean plane without having any of the jump lines intersect?

In the end, it looks like there's a single unavoidable crossed-jump-line in the map. This could be arranged in a number of different ways, of course. In the layout I went with, it's the jump between XXN-1957 and 119CE which conflicts with the jump between New Constantinople and Newcastle.

I've attached the map to the post; you can also find it (and its source file) at: https://apocalyptech.com/games/privmap/

It was done in the Linux editor Dia, though, so the source file probably won't help most folks.

Anyway, enjoy!

Update: And here's version 2!
So I'd expected to be done with this but couldn't escape the feeling that I maybe should've made an attempt to keep the systems closer to where they actually appear in-game. So, some more reworking today yields an alternate layout! Objectively speaking I think this is probably the better one by far: more compact, and the quadrant placements are kept much more intact. I still kind of prefer my original aesthetically (that golden-spirally thing from Rygannon to DN-N1912 is especially pleasing) but this one ain't bad either. Oxford / Shangri-La end up on the "wrong" side of Potter Quadrant, and I'm not fond of the way Varnus just sticks out at the bottom there, but what're ya gonna do?

New Preview Teases End Run Video Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Mac has a special gift for Wingnuts this week. It's a new preview of his upcoming End Run lore video. The clip is chock full of new cuts and scenes that will be used to highlight the epic battles from the Vukar Tag campaign. There's some absolutely majestic fleet action depicted and very explosive combat in store. Check it out below!
The past month has been an utter journey of making 3d scenes for the upcoming End Run video, and learning new skills for use in said video along the way.

Merry Christmas! Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Merry Christmas and a happy CIC holidays to all of you Wingnuts out there! We would like to wish you peace and safety from our little corner of the internet. Join us in #Wingnut if you'd like to share in the holiday cheer. It helps keep us grounded in these crazy times!

This year EmuMusicFan put together this wonderful sketch. There are a couple of inspirations behind it. The art style is reminiscent of the classic blue and white scheme from Claw Marks. It's also a spiritual successor to Denis Loubet's Christmas card from a few years back where Hobbes receives endless balls of gift wrapped yarn. This time he gets a (timely because of the World Cup?) soccer ball instead!

Wing Commander: The Perfect Last Minute Gift Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

If you're up late Christmas Eve and still scrambling to complete your list - we've all been there, and the CIC is here to help! Give the gift of Wing Commander. The entire series is discounted to $12 as part of their winter sale. There are also great digital options that can virtually deliver the movie, music albums and ebooks. Whether you're done shopping or not, if the holiday stress has been too much to handle, head over to Discord #Wingnut and decompress with your fellow fans!

Starfield Designer on Origin Influences Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Emil Pagliarulo, the lead designer of Bethesda's upcoming space RPG Starfield, has posted a thread about the inspirations that help shape the direction of the his current project. There are several classic Origin games on his list, including 2400 AD, Space Rogue and Privateer. Starfield is due out next year and looks very promising, and it's nice to see how Wing Commander games continue to influence the industry! You can see the full list with other great space sims on it here.
Time to talk about other (more) deserving folks. It's been impossible for me to work on Starfield for so long without constantly thinking about the devs and games that have served as so much personal inspiration, for so many reasons. Long, and long overdue post incoming.

Origin Systems' 1988 gem 2400 AD. My God, I lost an entire summer to this game. One of the first real sci-fi computer RPGs I ever played. It informed a lot of who I am as a designer.

Another Origin game, this time from 1989 - Space Rogue. So much Love. But, holy hell, in finding the images for this tweet, I learned it was designed by none other than Paul Neurath of Looking Glass. How did I not know this?! Hi Paul! And thank you! Wow. Next, Origin's and Chris Roberts' 1993 Privateer. I was a Wing Commander fan because I had a PC and a pulse, but it was Privateer that truly captured my heart. Grayson Burrows was my perfect protagonist, a cool ginger badass. And that gameplay! Timeless.
The Grayson Burrows comment is interesting. It's nice to see that bit of lore has started to propagate, but it's also a retcon codified by Star*Soldier in 2007. Of course, back in 1993, he was just us - or "Brownhair."

Unreleased Crusader Pre-Alpha Revealed Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

There's very exciting news in the Crusader community today. Crusader was another Origin series that was played as a top down isometric shooter. There were only two main games released, but they've now found and archived a version that may have been a precursor to an unreleased sequel - or perhaps an unreleased console port! You can download a copy for yourself and stay up to date with all of the latest Crusader news at EchoSector.com.
Crusader 2 PSX Pre-Pre Alpha recovered and released

It’s a wonderful day for Crusader history, as I am proud to announce the recovery and preservation of a pre-pre-alpha build of Crusader 2 for the Sony Playstation. It has been uploaded online for all to enjoy.

Following the departure of Tony Zurovec from Origin Systems in late 1996, there was a bit of a scramble to keep Crusader going as both No Remorse and No Regret were financial successes for the company. You can peruse some of the design documents of this time. Ports of No Remorse to the Playstation and Saturn came out in December 1996, but nothing else ever did after that. The release today shows that there was at least some developmental effort during this period. Dated February 11, 1997, the pre-pre-alpha has interesting differences between both the original games and even the console version of No Remorse. It’s hard to say if this was intended to be No Regret on console, since the levels are iterations of No Remorse levels, or if it’s one of the undeveloped Crusader ideas.

I tested it via original hardware, DuckStation, and MiSTer FPGA, and all work wonderfully. Bear in mind it is a pre-pre-alpha and can easily break. Big hint: use L2 + R1 to switch weapons.

For other preservationists, I have dumped the disc according to Redump.org standards and will be submitting it to their database.

I’m always looking for Crusader history to save. If you were involved with the game and–somehow–still haven’t heard from me, please reach out to keenan@echosector.com and I’ll make sure what you have is saved forever!

German WC Review Vids Go In Depth Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Today we’ve got a set of video reviews by the Best Computergames channel. They’re going through and cataloging the top titles of the early ‘90s with extensive overviews of each game. As they’ve gotten more experience, the clips have gotten more elaborate. Privateer clocks in at 8 minutes, WC3 at 22 and WC4 is nearly a half hour long. Each piece discusses the highlights of the story, gameplay, technology and how everything comes together. Although these are in German, YouTube’s auto translate feature does work here, so everyone can turn captions on for their preferred language in order to follow along.

Got MALF? Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

MALF! You know, the common human expression that exists in plenty of other contexts all the time, “malf”.

The meta-malf of the MALF! cards is that their art is cropped so close that you can’t tell what ships they are. Thanks to the original art, it’s clearly an Arrow and a Darket!
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Back That Achilles Up Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

One for the never noticed/can't unsee file: the destroyer that flies towards the screen in the Wing Commander Academy intro is traveling BACKWARDS! Every other appearance has the conning tower in the back and the round... pod... in the front. Another good backwards ship is the Vaktoth used on the Wing Commander card game packaging!
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Rapiers Begin Their Attack Run Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Mac's upcoming End Run lore video is still in the cooker, but he's released this glorious wallpaper to help tide fans over in the mean time. It features one of Klavs' Rapiers screaming towards a planetary target. Top notch wallpapering!
The Wing Commander End Run video is being pushed to January. It needs to be done right, which requires more time. In the meantime I will see about uploading something smaller to appease the Youtube algorithm for this month. So here's a still shot.

Matthew Lillard to Star in Video Game Movie Adaptation Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Deadline reports that Matthew Lillard, who starred as Maniac in the Wing Commander Movie, will soon have a role in the film conversion of Five Nights at Freddy's. Although Lillard has seen huge success in roles relating to Scooby Doo and the Good Girls TV show, he's also got quite a horror following thanks to his time in Scream and movies like Thir13en Ghosts. When he's not acting, Lillard also has a company that focuses on tabletop gaming. Last year they did a really great joke Wing Commander box set for April Fool's Day. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing how the Freddy's movie turns out!
The characters they are playing are not being specified. Production on the film is set to begin in February in New Orleans.

Lillard recently starred on the NBC hit Good Girls opposite Christina Hendricks, Retta and Mae Whitman. He has appeared on great shows such as Bosch, Billions, Halt and Catch Fire, and many more. His previous movies are the iconic Scream and most recent reboot of He’s All That. He continues to voice ‘Shaggy’ for the Scooby Doo Franchise.

The Meaning Behind Meaningless Pods Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

This 27th century press release was made for the Kilrathi Saga manual. It used the original concept sketches of the Strakha made for Wing Commander II… and they forgot to edit out the artist’s note identifying “meaningless pods”! Also what a baller non-explanation for why the design changes so significantly between Wing Commander II and III. Up there with Worf not discussing it with outsiders. Does the press release match the mission in the game (K’tithrak Mang B)? Yes, nine Strakha. Does it match the official guide’s in universe history? No, you shoot down seven of the Strakha and not six there.
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Wing Commander Speedrunners Get Even Faster Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Aggressive Wing Commander pilots continue to shave minutes and seconds off their best Wing Commander times! When we first started reporting on the competitive sport of SNES speedrunning some five years ago, players were completing the game in the 41-46 minute range. Over the years, players perfected the route to Hubble's Star and Rostov. You can eject through the early part of the game, win a few key missions and then eject through Venice and still get the winning endgame. At the beginning of this year, the best runs were down to about 23 minutes, and now players are hitting times as low as 15:40, which is amazing! You can read about the specific choices that ShesChardcore made to accomplish the run below here:
This submission is for the SNES version of Wing Commander, a space/flight sim about a war between the Terrans (humans) and Kilrathi (cats.) This showcases the fastest route through the SNES version while still getting the good ending which involves finishing only 5 out of 21 levels and immediately ejecting in the other 16.

GOG Winter Sale Discounts Wing Commander Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

GOG has kicked off their big annual winter sale, and Wing Commander is once again on the list of discounts. It seems like the WC series spends more time on sale than not during this season, but that means it's a great time to finish your collection or get friends into the franchise. Each title is $1.49 - or less than $12 for the whole main DOS/Windows series!

The Story Behind Those Odd WC Connections Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

I’m concerned about what happens to all other human religions and cultures between now and 2634.
"Why not Confederation Day?" Joshua said slowly. "It'd be the logical time to really nail us. Half the crews will have the weekend off."

"Maybe, but I wonder if the Cats would be that crazy. Do that and it'd really get our blood up. It'd be an act sure to arouse our rage. That's the biggest holiday of the year outside of Christmas.'

In spite of this, let me simp hard for Action Stations: it is so much fun. It’s an in-universe Wing Commander prequel where the author literally just rewrites At Dawn We Slept but in space. You can’t read it without imagining F4F Wildcats and Zeroes and square jawed navy heroes. (Despite the cover of the ebook, it is not at all from Wing Commander V, the new release.) Which is something that happened a couple times. Have you ever wondered what the weird paintings that showed up in magazines about Wing Commander Prophecy were? Here’s an example from Ultimate PC: Once you know the game it’s pretty obvious they don’t correspond to anything in it. In fact, they’re storyboards for a 1996 Wing Commander movie test shoot planned by Origin! The plan was to film the first concom fight to prove the company could do the level of fx work needed. For whatever reason they were included on the EPK for Prophecy the next year, long after Chris Roberts (and the movie) had moved on to Digital Anvil. Magazine editors assumed they were Prophecy conceit art and they were published widely. The full set.

Chris DID finish the test using props leftover from Wing Commander IV for the composite shots and it was used to shop the movie! It’s extra cool because it uses the original Rapier and Dralthi designs, imagining full CG ships for the film:

This was shown to the public at SXSW in 1998 (as unbelievable as it must be to anyone who has ever lived in Austin that anything good ever happened at the event).
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The Borst There Is Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Today's update is one of those 'under our noses the whole time' events! It turns out that Wing Commander III and IV co-writers Terry Borst and Frank De Palma actually wrote and spoke quite a bit about the game at the time. Both gave lectures and provided interviews for academic books relating to interactive storytelling... and we've found three fascinating ones that were published in the wake of Wing Commander IV that go into detail we've never seen before about the process behind scripting the game!

The first and most detailed is Chapter 10 of a book called The Multimedia Scriptwriting Workshop (Douglas J. Varchol, Sybex, 1996). The book spends a full 50 (!) pages walking through the development of Wing Commander IV's script, complete with screenshots and script extracts. Even more shocking is the fact that it was published in January 1996... some six weeks before Wing Commander IV even came out! If only we'd been reading screenwriting self help books as teenagers. The book also reproduces the games credits as an appendix which surely wasn't at all a move to fill space. You can download the chapter and appendix as a PDF here here.

Next up is a comprehensive 1996 interview with Terry Borst which appears in a similar book called Interactive Writer's Handbook, Second Edition (Carronade Group, Jon Samsel and Darryl Wimberley, 1996). The book also prints a script page from the game! You can download the chapter as a PDF here here.

Finally, there's one straight out of the most obscure depths of academia: Euphoria and Dystopia: The Banff New Media Institute Dialogues (Sarah Cook, Riverside Architectural Press / ABC Art Books Canada, 2020). It's a recent collection of archival material created over the past several decades for Canadian university Banff's media school. Of interest to us is a presentation about interactive media (and his experiences with Wing Commander) which was given by Mr. Borst in September 1998 as part of a lecture series called The Big Game Hunters (September 19-21, 1998). You can download the chapter as a PDF here here.

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French Preview Teases Upcoming 'Wingleader' Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Greg14 shared this French preview of Wingleader from a June 1990 issue of Génération 4. It appears to be based off previews from the Consumer Elections Show in Chicago. The name change to Wing Commander happened relatively close to launch, so a lot of the prime promotional materials from this summer emphasize the 'Leader' name. Can you imagine how amazing these huge screenshots would have looked at the time? Also check out that small in-game Wingleader logo!

New Preview Hints at Upcoming Operation Back Lash Overview Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Mac has posted a couple of teasers for his next Wing Commander lore video. This one is shaping up to be bigger and more elaborate than his usual episodes, so he's posted these snippets to tide fans over while work continues. The first image sets up the ground attack on Vukar Tag with a couple of Rapiers. There's also a Ferret furiously dodging laser bolts from an entire wing of Kilrathi. Although I'm already quite familiar with what happens in End Run, I can't wait to see the video come together!

Confusing Carrier Confirmed! Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

In Wing Commander IV, the TCS Lexington's Officer's Lounge features a prominent image of a historical aircraft carrier at sea. The photograph, part of a framed presentation of some sort, is easily visible in the gameflow scene and in other passing shots. It then appears more closely during the cutscene where Captain Paulsen attempts to recruit you.

But what's the carrier? Conventional wisdom was that it must be the USS Lexington (CV-16); after all, the Wing Commander IV team had spent time aboard the Lexington doing research for the game and they'd named the TCS Lexington (CV-44) in her honor. But that didn't pass the visual test: the carrier in the lounge is a modern supercarrier rather than one that served in World War II. For a long time, the image was thought to be the USS Enterprise because of her unique conning tower which seemed to match the footage... but it turns out that was a false positive resulting from the low resolution of the picture.

We're happy to report that, at long last, the original image has been located! The carrier in the photo is actually the USS Nimitz (CVN-68), America's longest-serving nuclear powered aircraft carrier. The photograph is credited to International Stock Photography's Ronn Martea, himself a former Intruder pilot (and, later in life, the source of a great deal of stock photography used in textbooks, posters and other places). If it looks familiar to you it's because the photo was used as a popular poster in the late 1980s. Scandecor published it as "1718 Aircraft Carrier" and it was the sort of fun 'boys' poster that would've been sold to teenagers at book fairs and in head shops. We've found printings from both the United States and Germany dated 1987 and 1988.

This isn't the carrier's first appearance in science fiction: the USS Nimitz played a staring role in the 1980 film The Final Countdown, in which it travels back in time to the start of World War II! It's not clear why it's pictured in the lounge or what the rest of the presentation says... but that's a mystery for another day!

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The Inside Story on Wing Commander III Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

We've got another vintage magazine review of Wing Commander III today... but this time, with a twist! This 'technical review' was printed in the June/July 1995 issue of Game Developer magazine, an industry publication which ran from the dawn of the multimedia age in 1994 all the way until 2013! This review doesn't just tell you how good the game is, it tells you how it works under the hood. And as an added bonus, it's actually written by Wayne Sikes, the man responsible for the beloved PREDIT Privateer editing tool.

The article also mentions an earlier feature on Pacific Strike's related file structure that had been printed in the December 1994 issue. This information is also likely of use to Wing Commander III modders and so we've reproduced it below:

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Wing Commander Movie Gets on the Kill Board Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

The popular Carnage Counts channel has done their thing with Wing Commander. The YouTube channel profiles various shows and movies and adds a real time counter with the number of kills depicted in each product. The rules are a little bit weird - a capship detonation counts the same as a fighter destruction or Rosie being pushed off the flight deck - but I suppose that's not much different than how most Wing Commander games do it! The official tally here is 64. Check them out below!
Welcome to Carnage Counts, where we count and compare death in television shows and movies! Today we are covering Wing Commander!

Ultima VI Intro Provides Glimpse at TV Feature Proposed for WC2 Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Wing Commander II had a plan to include a TV you would watch between missions to get broader story updates. The design called for it to be the same dimensions as the Ultima VI intro TV so they could share art! This can be seen in a recent Tweet from the crazy ass moments in furry history account or watch it on YouTube here.
The opening of Ultima VI prominently features a pixelized recreation of a Keith Berdak illustration of a zebra centaur pole dancer(?) as a late replacement for what was originally a Patrick Nagel painting they couldn't get cleared. (1990)
This was part of a dropped character they’d imagined named Jerry Rivers who was a kind of ‘90s dramatic TV host, Hard Copy/Geraldo style. His arc would’ve ended with an interview where Tolwyn punches him in the face!

You can find an early script outine with all the Jerry Rivers sequences at this link. Jerry IS canon, Shotglass mentions watching him in Secret Missions 2 (and Bluehair tells him it'll rot his brain).

In what is probably a coincidence, Wing Commander IV uses the same device, having the characters watch an interview with Admiral Tolwyn to help move the story along. (Tolwyn does not punch Barbara Miles, though, he just acts like a smug jerk.)

In another coincidence, the characters in Wing Commander IV also watch their news on a small CRT TV from 1991.
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Read About Ginger Lynn's Other Profession Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

You’ve probably heard whispers that Ginger Lynn is famous for something other than Wing Commander, so here’s a wonderful interview about her paintings! The initial interview linked to from that one has a great Wing Commander reminiscence, though!
Johnny: Speaking of sci-fi, you played Rachel Coriolis in several of the mid-90s "Wing Commander" games. What was your favorite part of those games?

Ginger: I loved playing Rachel Coriolis in the "Wing Commander" series. I got to be the weapons load-out officer, so when you're playing the game, any time that you go into battle, you have to come to me. We shot a lot of it, not everything, but most of it was on green screen. My favorite memory was my grandmother came down to the set one day, and we were shooting something with green screen. My grandmother walked in front of the camera not knowing, and the entire cast and crew was laughing at my grandmother because all you could see was the top half of her body walking around on set.

Malcolm McDowell was wonderful to work with, but very grabby with his hands. Mark Hamill... Not my favorite actor to work with. Tom Wilson was fabulous. The director, Chris Roberts, fantastic. I would work with him again in a heartbeat. The disappointment that I had working on "Wing Commander" was when they finally decided to make it into a Hollywood movie, they made the mistake of not hiring the original cast and crew. People who get attached and addicted to a game, they want to see the characters they're familiar with. They want to see Rachel Coriolis. They want to see Mark Hamill. They want to see John Rhys-Davies. They want to see all of the original characters, and instead they hired "Hollywood actors", which I think destroyed the popularity of the film.

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WC3 Credited for '90s Graphical Fidelity Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Today we've got a video about graphically impressive videos from the 1990s. It includes a pretty straightforwards clip from Wing Commander 3. While I never get tired of an opportunity to watch some WC footage, I think the interesting part here is seeing so many of its contemporaries side by side. There's some great and great looking games in this clip, but it also really makes you appreciate how Wing Commander was so ahead of its time! WC3 is the finale chapter at 15:30.

I thought I would spoil you guys with something bigger than usual - an impressive list, if I don't say so myself. A lot of research went to this. The editing was a pain in the rear, but ultimately I think you will find it informative.

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During the nineties pc gaming was king, pushing the boundaries of what we considered to be cutting-edge. MS-DOS was still the predominant operating system for gaming, only to be superseded by Windows 98 later in the decade.

Annual Call For Award Nominations Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

It is somehow December already, so it'll be the end of the year in no time fast. This means it's time for our call for nominees for our annual contest to recognize top fan projects of the year. Now's your chance to suggest which community undertakings were your favorite. Everyone is welcome to email news@wcnews.com with your potential suggested nominees. Also check out some of our illustrious past winners below!
  Fan Projects of the Year Runners Up
2021 WC4 Fan Remake AI Enhanced WC Videos / Wing Leader
2020 AI Enhanced WC Videos WC4 Fan Remake / wcdx
2019 Prophecy & Secret Ops Model Upgrade Pack WC4 Fan Remake / Wing Leader
2018 Flat Universe Secret Ops Model Upgrade Pack / WC1 Sprite Refresh
2017 Secret Ops Model Upgrade Pack Homeworld Remastered / Flat Universe
2016 Flat Universe Homeworld Remastered / Secret Ops MUP / Enhanced Soundtracks
2015 Homeworld Remastered Mod Flat Universe / Secret Ops MUP / Klavs' Model Archive
2014 Flat Universe Klavs' Models / Prophecy Fan Movie
2013 Collected Works of HCl / Klavs' Models Defiant Few
2012 WC Saga Klavs' Models
2011 OpenGL Patch for WCP & Secret Ops TacOps Online & Standoff
2010 Astro Commander's Mini Models DirectDrawHack
2009 Standoff Gemini Gold
2008 Ascii Sector Flight Commander
2007 Standoff & WC Saga Ascii Sector
2006 WC4 Homeworld 2 Mod Das Erwachen
2005 Standoff Privateer Gemini Gold
2004 Standoff WC Saga
2003 Standoff & WC Saga Holding the Line & Vega Strike
2002 Unknown Enemy Kilrathi Empire & WC Saga BS
2001 Unknown Enemy Holding the Line & Vega Strike

  Web Sites of the Year Runners Up
2016 WCSaga.org Daedalus Station
2015 Daedalus Station WCSaga.org
2014 Daedalus Station Wing Commander RPG Wiki
2013 Concordia Hangar Daedalus Station
2012 Pix's Origin Adventures Wing Commander RPG Wiki
2011 Shotglass' WC Saga
2010 Paper Commander Prelude to Darkness
2009 WC Saga Standoff & Paper Commander
2008 Paper Commander Standoff & WC Saga
2007 HCl's Wing Commander Editing Site Pericles' Paper Inside
2006 HCl's Wing Commander Editing Site Wedge's Wing Commander
2005 WC Saga Fleet Tactics
2004 Fleet Tactics Wedge's Wing Commander
2003 Wing Commander in Russia WC3D & Wedge's Wing Commander
2002 Wing Commander in Russia BlackLance HQ & WingCenter
2001 Wing Commander in Russia Acenet Central
2000 Acenet Central Wing Commander in Russia
1999 Wing Commander in Russia Acenet Central & HCl's WC Editing Site

WC4 Polaroids: Hacker Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

This is part of a series analyzing newly discovered Wing Commander IV continuity photographs. You can find the previous posts collected here.

You knew he was coming! Today's Polaroid is Border Worlds Pilot #2, Lester Barrie. Like Moose and Bob-O-Matte, Hacker appears briefly in the Peleus jammer introduction where his Banshee is shot down by a group of Excaliburs. His continuity Polaroid gives us a great look at a grey Border Worlds flight suit and a bit of a cheat the production used frequently: since Hacker was only ever seen from the shoulders up he doesn't have a full flight suit... just the top!

Mr. Barrie's story is a little different from many of the actors we've previously identified: while he had several guest spots in TV and small film roles in the 1990s, he gave up acting in favor of two other passions: standup comedy and preaching! Today he is Reverend Barrie, assistant pastor at the Atherton Baptist Church in Hawthorne California! He appears regularly giving sermons at the church which are streamed live via its YouTube channel.
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