News Collection: On This Day in WC News

2019.268 (September 25, 2019)

GOG Goes Interstellar for Freespace Anniversary

Freespace 2 shipped on September 30, 1999, so GOG is having a big space game party to celebrate the game's twentieth birthday. Their Interstellar Sale discounts games like Space Quest, Wing Commander, System Shock, Homeworld, Masters of Orion, the X series and more by up to 85% off. As an extra bonus, Freespace 2 itself is FREE for the next 36 hours, so jump on that quick! While it's no Wing Commander, FS2 got good reviews and continues to have a following after all this time.

2018.268 (September 25, 2018)

Goodbye, Christopher Stasheff

We are sad to report that Wing Commander author Christopher Stasheff passed away June 10, 2018 after a battle with Parkinson's Disease; he was 74. Mr. Stasheff was an extremely talented writer and anthologist known for blending science fiction, fantasy and humor together. He was responsible for several long-running, well known novel series including Warlock of Gramayre, Wizard in Rhyme, Rogue Wizard and Starship Troupers.

2017.268 (September 25, 2017)

Solar Empire Mod Back In Business

Nomada_Firefox is back to make another big push towards completion of the Wing Commander Mod for Sins of a Solar Empire. The space strategy game has Confed and Kilrathi implemented with growing Nephilim and Border Worlds factions in work. New images released this past weekend show some of the user interface that each side will see. There's also a video from earlier in the year that we missed that shows more of the battleship and star system action in motion.

2016.269 (September 25, 2016)

Cruise Through The Border Worlds Carefree At 7692 Klicks Per Meganewton

DefianceIndustries is back from a well earned vacation with a gorgeous new model. He's hand crafted the imposing F-107 Black Lance fighter, commonly known as the Dragon. There's even a sell sheet that's similar to the famous Playstation advertisement that portrays it like a car ad. The model is destined to wind up in the Homeworld Remastered mod, but it would add a menacing heavy hitter to any project!

2015.268 (September 25, 2015)

AtV Interviews Roberts For WC's 25th Birthday; Big Livestream Saturday!

Wing Commander turns 25 years old tomorrow (!!!), and Episode 62 of Around the Verse is celebrating in style! Sandi Gardiner and Ben Lesnick's news desk is decorated with WC1 memorabilia, and they conduct an extensive interview with Chris Roberts about his thoughts on how the series came to be: what the early days at Origin were like, how the first missions were drafted and what his tips to save the Ralari are! Jump straight to 22:00 for the Q&A.

2014.268 (September 25, 2014)

Wing Commander in Concert This Weekend!

Here's a reminder that George Oldziey's Wing Commander suite will be performed this weekend by the Austin Civic Orchestra. The show will be Sunday, September 28, 2014 at 3:00 PM at the Anderson High School Performing Arts Center. Austinites are really lucky to be so close to this! There will be other video game-inspired music performed, including a selection from World of Warcraft.

2013.268 (September 25, 2013)

Daedalus Station Gets Its Second Issue

The Maslas Brothers have posted the second edition of the Destiny's Way magazine. This Claw Marks or Star*Solder-style booklet is intended to maintain interest in their highly anticipated Flat Universe mod, but it's completely awesome as a standalone publication by itself. The artsy layout is well done and it's chock full of clever references. There's a long article writen by Troy "Catscratch" Carter in this issue, plus a bunch of fun nods on the cover and advertisement pages.

2012.269 (September 25, 2012)

HD WC Movie Available for Digital Purchase!

After more than thirteen years waiting, there's finally a convenient way to buy the Wing Commander Movie in high definition! There's been an HD broadcast that's occasionally aired for some time, and in just the last couple years, the movie became available to digitally rent in HD. Several companies have now simultaneously launched a digital HD version that can be purchased.iTunes and Amazon.

RSI Team Adds Another Former Originite

George Oldziey has joined Chris Roberts and David Swofford as another Wing Commander veteran working on the Roberts Space Industries project. George confirmed on twitter yesterday that he is working on the new game.

2011.268 (September 25, 2011)

Arena's Lost Lore

Here's a document that sadly never saw the light of day: flavor text written for EA's official Wing Commander Arena website. Each of these paragraphs was to appear with a wallpaper of the ship in question as a "DID YOU KNOW?" fact. Each ship type had one 'in game' and one 'in universe' description and they were supposed to change from day to day.

Treasures of the Archangel Quadrant: Freighters

Today's Privateer 3 update is another Wing Commander mainstay--a redesigned Drayman-class freighter, seen in several high resolution renders and an exciting action shot that places it alongside Piranhas and other escort ships (including what looks like Wing Commander IV's Hermes shuttle.

2010.268 (September 25, 2010)

Automated TacOps Game Moving Full Speed Ahead

Avacar and the team testing the online version of Wing Commander TacOps have made considerable progress this month. Phase 4, which implements major foundational game coding, is now complete. Other milestones that were planned for later on also had to be finished to get this far, so the next steps will involve coding in a system for players and pilots into the game. A fairly solid playable 'beta' could come as soon as next month.

2009.268 (September 25, 2009)

Arena's Concept Excalibur Added to WCCD

Wing Commander Collateral Damage now has a beefed up version of the Excalibur. Since the game takes place around the time of Wing Commander Arena, the ship has been supplemented with additional structural armor and modified fins as seen in the original concept art. JasonRocZ has named this variant the Excalibur Wyvern.

Get Your Fan Project Fix Here

Collateral Damage is just one of many Wingnut endeavors currently keeping the fires burning. And the recently upgraded Fan Projects section puts them all right at your fingertips! Read about "finished" games such as Flight Commander, Gemini Gold and Unknown Enemy, or see what you can do to support titles like Ascii Sector, the Homeworld Mod, WC Saga, Invasion and more. Each page has general background information, screenshots and contact data on both active and inactive projects.

2008.269 (September 25, 2008)

Dralthi Get Your Gun

Remember the original Dralthi model that NNM was building? It's now nice and colorful... and armed! The original fighter's twin lasers are now on display (so we know it isn't a Dralthi Mk.

Star*Soldier Gloss: Page 43

This is the Star*Soldier gloss for the fourth timeline page: CONCEPT: See the previous post! "2654.185" - My addition, describes "Recreation"."2654.

2007.268 (September 25, 2007)

One Must Phalanx

Howard Day has posted a status update and three new ship images from the WC Pioneer fan game. The ship is the 'Phalanx', an original ship created for the project. Looks nice - I like the external missiles! These Phalanx shots show how the model has changed with the addition of a visible cockpit...

Point of Origin: Vol. 1, No. 2

We're back with the second archived issue of Point of Origin, Origin Systems' in-house newsletter. This one focuses on the 1991 Summer CES show where Ultima VII and Strike Commander were shown... but it also touches on Wing Commander licensing and the technical and promotional issues leading up to the Wing Commander II launch.A very special thanks to Joe Garrity of the Origin Museum for making this resource available and to Electronic Arts for sending them to him in the first place!

2006.268 (September 25, 2006)

AD Demonstrates Creative Editing Process

AD is still hammering away at his attempt to create a full length Wing Commander 4 movie, and he's come up with an interesting clip that demonstrates his editing process. If Blair defects earlier in the game, the player misses a chilling scene involving Captain Paulsen. It includes references to the defection, so simply allowing the viewer to watch the scene earlier is not an option. But by strategically cutting bits and pieces of the segment, he's managed to make it possible to fit earlier and still make sense.

Space Sim First Look: Project Sylpheed

Fragland.Net has posted an article about Project Sylpheed, a new space combat game that follows up on a popular franchise from the 80s and 90s -- a good role model for future Wing Commanders! In fact, that's how they describe it: "Especially think of the Wing Commander, with missions that can have changing objectives while you're accomplishing them, shields to take care of, different weapons and in-game movies on your communication screen." An HD Trailer is available here.

2005.268 (September 25, 2005)

Zohrath Modeling Sharp Vaktoth

Zohrath is working on another detailed Wing Commander model. His next project is a high quality Vaktoth. He's now looking for suggestions on how to finalize the design. Front and back shots are below.

Zearching Through Zohrath's Past

Zohrath has been recreating Wing Commander ships for quite a while. He completed the Fralthi II last year, but some of his designs date back to 2001. We have extra pictures and a fly-by movie of the Kilrathi Dreadnought, and you can find more in our archive.

2004.269 (September 25, 2004)

Virtual Reality Chat Project Announced

Flap is working on a 3D chat environment for Wing Commander fans. Here is the announcement that he sent in. You can check out the project here.Hi everybody.

Ships of the Animated Series: Light Cruiser

Next up we'll be identifying the ships created specifically for the animated series - from Confederation battleships to Kilrathi stealth fighters to unusual fighters no one has managed to conclusively identify! First up are the nine original ships of the Terran Confederation!The TCS Manassas, a light cruiser, appears as part of Admiral Bergstrom's battlegroup in "Chain of Command." Unfortunately, we are never given a clear view of the ship -- so its complement and capacities remain largely unknown.

2003.268 (September 25, 2003)

Wing Commander Movie DVD Back In Stock at Amazon

Amazon has gotten a new shipment of the budget priced FOX Classics Wing Commander movie DVD. I know a number of people had been itching to get a copy but not interested in searching too much or eBaying one. Their price is $9.98 and shipping is free in the US if you go over $25.

Earth & Beyond Birthday Parties This Saturday

Privateer Online's sibling Earth & Beyond has made it to its first birthday. On Saturday, September 27, 2003 live parties will be held in eight locations across the United States. There will be three West Coast parties, two East Coast parties and three Middle Coast events. One is actually behind held a few miles from here where Hades, Justin and I met Tycho from Penny Arcade last month.

GameCubes Drop Below $100

Nintendo has announced that they're dropping the GameCube MSRP to $99.99 in the US. If you were thinking about using the GameCube GameBoy Player to play Prophecy Advance on your TV, this isn't a new deal since the Cube no longer comes with a free item. Nevertheless, $99 is a great price.

2002.268 (September 25, 2002)

Drawing nUEar

Good news from the Unknown Enemy front: the team hopes to release the final mod in "mid-October". Lets cross our fingers and hope that's true! You can see all sorts of crazy details at their news page.

WCPolaroids: Blair (3/11)

Here's... Commodore Blair's chest! As you can see, his rank insignia is upside down... Fun fact: In Wing 4, Blair and Seether wore the same sets of ribbons -- arranged in the opposite order.

2001.268 (September 25, 2001)

Fatman Update

LeHah forwarded a message from The Fatman regarding the upcoming CD -- since you're all clamoring for more information...I got a first draft of the CD jacket art. It's AWESOME! Just in case, I ran it past my lawyer, who loved it, too, and assured us that there was nothing illegal about doing something in the style of Wing Commander.

How Goes the I-War?

TC found a Wing Commander reference in the November issue of PC Gamer... This is from Gary Whitta's review of I-War 2 (p. 88)...Space-combat games and me go way back -- I was playing some of the first-ever 3D space games when some of the younger members of the PC Gamer team were still messing their drawers.

AYB Joke Goes Here

Looks like I'm still playing catch up -- since there's a whole mess of Wing Commander Invasion screenshots available... including a bunch of renderings of the Armada mod's various bases.

1999.268 (September 25, 1999)

Double Plus Good

Scrapper has released a new version, 1.20, of his Prophecy+ utility for WCP. The program, which adds to the difficulty and diversity of the original game, requires WCPEdit 1.8 to work.

UE On The Approach

Pedro sends this bit of information on the upcoming fan project Unknown Enemy. He was also kind enough to send the staff a beta version of the first part -- expect further reaction on that soon.Wing Commander: Unknown Enemy is nearing completion with nothing more but the editing of the fiction and the integration of the last few voice-overs to be done before the internal beta so expect to see it in the next few weeks. Unhappy with our current location of http://www.

More Multima

The Ultima Online 2 has been launched... its FAQ contains the below topic, which almost certainly applies to a future Wing Commander online game as well. The site also notes that UO2 has been in development since September of last year -- compared to the believed March or April of this year for the next WC.Why wouldn't you talk about UO2 before?

It's A mIRCacle

The latest version of mIRC, 5.61, has been released with all the usual new features and fixes. Grab your copy here and drop by #WingNut on the DALnet.

1998.268 (September 25, 1998)

A Funny Thing Happened...

... to me on the way to the TCS Cerberus. While watching the introductory video to Secret Ops Episode 5 hit F1... you'll be transported into the cockpit of a Devestator bomber in the middle of the cut scene!

Interviews!

Exciting new CIC exclusive! For the next several days we'll be putting up responses to questions asked to Secret Ops team members. Today: WC Artist Sean Murphy (Just guess what he designed...).

Danger, Danger, Lance Casey!

Wing Commander extraordinare HCl warns people using his cool Secret Ops Mission Manager that they should back up their Secret Ops history files beforehand, just in case.

Avenger Me!

What's editing wizard HCl up to? As usual, it's something really cool... we've scored exclusive shots from a project he's working on to put ships from Wing Commander III and IV into Prophecy's vision engine! Apparently the Avenger and Darket have already been achieved and are having their bugs worked out...

Graphic Evidence

Jump FAQerific alt.games.wing-commander regular Philip Langdale notes that the graphics drivers included with Secret Ops are backwards compatible with those of Prophecy! Just replace the old files...