News Collection: On This Day in WC News

2022.027 (January 27, 2022)

Go For a Quick Excalibur Run

Mac's got a short clip today, but what it lacks in length is more than made up for by its awesome subject matter! He's taken Klavs' glorious Excalibur model and run it through its paces. There's even a rousing soundtrack thanks to George Oldziey's live orchestra recording. Enjoy:I've become fascinated with 3d Animation from doing the Tarawa Video.

2021.027 (January 27, 2021)

GamesMaster on the Hamill 'Frenzy'

Here's a time capsule from May 1997 as featured in GamesMaster. The preview is short and sweet, but the larger context is almost as interesting as the core message. It refers to "everyone getting worked up" about the Star Wars re-releases. I had to think for a moment about what that was: the original trilogy was remastered and put back in theaters in 1997 prior to the prequel debut in 1999.

2020.027 (January 27, 2020)

And the Winner Is...

The votes are in, and another round of project winners has been decided! The Prophecy & Secret Ops Model Upgrade Pack has come out on top as the 2019 Fan Project of the Year! Congratulations! Fans were clearly compelled by the steady stream of status updates that culminated in another impressive beta release.

2019.027 (January 27, 2019)

Model Hornet Takes to the Air

AircPirateNinsei has flown his Hornet model for the first time. Total duration aloft was just under ten seconds, but it really zooms. And even this brief flight provides valuable information. He's now in the process of remaking the craft about 25% larger in order to give it a bigger battery and more effective control surfaces.

2018.027 (January 27, 2018)

Stick it in Kilrathi

Fallout Hobbies is a company which produces custom stencils, decals and other items to support miniature wargaming hobbyists. Their line of water slide decals includes liveries for use with a variety of different factions and alien species... which now include the Kilrathi! The sheet called "Kilrathi Glyphs Transfers" (Product 038) is 5.

2017.027 (January 27, 2017)

2016 Community Contest Voting Still Open

This is a reminder that you can still cast your votes in the CIC's Website and Fan Project of the Year contest. You can find a complete rundown of the 2016 nominees and their contributions in the original news report. If you feel that a website or project stood out from the rest and deserves special recognition, you can vote for them through the polling forms below. The winner will be announced soon!

2016.027 (January 27, 2016)

MetalJesusRocks The Price Of Freedom

Today we have Metal Jesus Rocks' review of Wing Commander 4. This was actually created a while ago, and despite MJR's popularity, managed to stay under our radar until now. The quirky reviewer covers retro gaming with a dash of his own heavy metal soundtrack tossed in. Despite the odd theme, he's actually very good at what he does!

2015.027 (January 27, 2015)

Video Highlights Benefits of EMS in WC1&2

danr has put together a neat video that shows off some of the differences between pilots that played WC1&2 with and without expanded memory. In our modern world of DOS emulators and glide wrappers, carefully tuning a struggling PC to get the best experience is a bit of a lost art. Getting games properly running in the early '90s required a pretty good working knowledge of boot disks, conventional memory optimization, loading device drivers into extended memory, taking advantage expanded memory and more. And the rewards for a good setup were great!

2014.027 (January 27, 2014)

Kilrathi Capships Strike an Imposing Stance

Here's a new terrifying trio of Kilrathi capships by Klavs. First up is the workhorse Fralthi. The curvy 'wings' help convey a sense of sleek speed that's fitting for a cruiser or light carrier. It's a stark contrast to the Snakeir which uses heavy, hard lines to suggest massive strength.

2013.027 (January 27, 2013)

Passionate Modeler Brings Wing Commander to Life

Klavs tipped us off about the amazing creations of John Douglass. He's been building physical spaceship models for more than fifteen years, and many of them have been carefully catalogued on his website. His designs are inspired by many different things, and several have a Wing Commander basis. The first ship below is the classic Drayman.

2012.027 (January 27, 2012)

Orchestral Remix Strikes a Different Note

Shiryu, who authored some hip Wing Commander Movie-themed techno tracks back in the day, has a new composition to share. Orchestral Wing Commander has a much more classical and decidedly mainstream tone than his first WC songs. He's synchronized the tunes to WC1's intro, briefing and launch below. Hit the discuss link to let everyone know what you think.

2011.027 (January 27, 2011)

Know Your Sagas

WC Saga has kicked off a set of people profiles that show off the new character models and share background info. They've started with "Sandman," the mod's primary protagonist.Our hero of Wing Commander Saga: The Darkest Dawn, this young man is first seen in the Prologue as he finishes up his flight training. With his training complete, while much earlier then expected, he is now a fully qualified combat pilot.

2010.027 (January 27, 2010)

Fighter Models Measured Twice & Cut Once

Herr Koos has scratch-built several impressive Wing Commander models. The high quality ships show off the time and effort he put into the designs prior to starting construction. The Banshee, Hellcat and Excalibur are hollow, and the more curvy Vampire is made out of solid balsa wood.Let me start with a bit of background: I'm a long time model builder.

New Wilson Movie Coming Soon

Tom Wilson is still busy on the comedy circuit. The Maniac will be visiting a couple hot spots in the southern US this spring from February 4-7 in Alabama and March 4-6 in Kentucky. He's also just finished shooting a film called Yohan - The Child Wanderer. Here's why...

2009.027 (January 27, 2009)

Malcolm McDowell Returns For EA's Next Film Shoot

Electronic Arts has announced the new stars that will be featured in the upcoming movie sequences of C&C Red Alert 3: Uprising. Most prominent to CIC visitors will be the addition of Malcolm McDowell to the game's cast. EA's press release spends most of its time talking about how live-action movies are considered a critical component to the Command & Conquer franchise's storytelling. It then goes on to mention McDowell's previous acting role in the Wing Commander series.

Complete Set Of Classic WC Wallpapers

Kilrathikiller has added 4:3 aspect ratio versions of his recent high res Wing Commander 2 wallpaper. The new 1920x1440 versions are available for people with standard square monitors. Here are all of his recent designs.

2008.027 (January 27, 2008)

BREAKING NEWS: Rumors of New Wing Commander

Surfer Girl Reviews Star Wars, a credible and industry-respected game rumor blog, is reporting something that we've all been waiting to hear: "That epic space game from EA [referring to an earlier rumor] is a new Wing Commander." This is only a rumor at this stage, so we do not want to overstate anything. It does match some other unofficial talk heard in recent days -- this could be the big one. Surfer Girl does seem to be the real deal - we can confirm that the information she posted on FreeLancer 2 several months ago is absolutely genuine.

Point of Origin: Vol. IV, No. 59

September 9, 1994 and the release of Wing Commander III is getting closer! We're also starting to see the first mentions of Crusader, another future-classic currently in development. In terms of actual WC mentions, though, it's the calm before the storm...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!

2007.027 (January 27, 2007)

Das Erwachen Stille Cover Released

Deacan continues to make progress on his next fan novel, and he's just released the cover art for it. The colors for his Das Erwachen series will be blue, red and green to match the Privateer 2 disc included with the original German release. The colors actually varied considerably depending on the region they were released and the version of the game. Below you can compare the brown, blue and maroon of a US P2 Deluxe and the orange, red and blue of a US P2 DOS version.

Something Old, Something New

Ed was looking around at old experimental fighters and found one design that looked familiar. He had come across a 1950s VTOL jet with special rotating pods on the wings. If the physical similarities weren't enough to consider it the inspiration for the Vampire, both share the same numerical designation. The original was known as the Bell XF-109, and the Wing Commander variants are the F-109A and F-109S.

2006.027 (January 27, 2006)

Red Point Gains More Ships

Less than a week since announcing that work is due to resume, the Red Point mod for Secret Ops has already had a couple of big additions. First of these is a cockpit for the Stealth Black Panther that is due to feature in the mod. It's quite a huge change from the Panther cockpit you are used to.The second addition is the TCS River Plate, one of the ships where you'll be assigned during the game.

Armada For Windows Project Maturing

ZOmegaZ has been working on the new 0.9 release of PiArmada since this Summer. He posted a quick overview of the improvements and additions that players can expect to see in the next version. The game can be downloaded from Sourceforge.

2005.027 (January 27, 2005)

Cyberion Builds WCA Epee

After a couple of months break to try his hand at projects such as wallpapers and websites, Cyberion has gone back to modeling ships. This time he has decided to show off his talents with a model of an Epee, but it's not what you think. This Epee is based on the Wing Commander Academy animated series design, which is a lot more boxy than its WC2 counterpart. You can download the model in Lightwave format here.

Get Your Corny Quotes Here

We've all cringed at really bad lines in movies. Most of us forget about them and move on, but MovieWavs prefers to record them and let people download them. The WC movie hasn't escaped their attention, and a small selection of quotes from the movie can be downloaded here. Now we can all relive the moment Maniac introduces himself to the Claw's rec room again and again!

2004.027 (January 27, 2004)

Retro Interview: Making the WC CCG

In the early days of Scrye magazine, Jeff Grubb created an article on the making of the Wing Commander Customizable Card Game. This dates back to Issue Ten in 1995. It goes into great depth on the background and implementation of this project. The layout is fun, so I've got some relatively high quality (half meg) scans of each page to preserve the full atmosphere.

Fleet Tactics Moves to Solsector

The 7th Fleet Headquarters has a new location. We're proud to be the new hosts for Psych and Jibbo's impressive Fleet Tactics site. They've been making lots of improvements and fixing things up since their original debut a month ago. If you missed their initial introduction, you're in for a treat.

2002.027 (January 27, 2002)

Vega Strike Jumps Out

The Vega Strike web site has been updated several times over the last few days... with technical details that make my small brain spin. You'd better head over and check it out for yourself.

2654: A Space Odyssey

You've seen the ugly American poster... you've seen the nifty European poster... but have you seen... the most confusing Wing Commander Movie poster of all?

2001.027 (January 27, 2001)

Improved Prophecy Graphics Possible with FSAA

Hadrian has done some experimentation lately, and he's also got some good screenshots of the differences between Wing Commander Prophecy with and without Full Screen Anti-Aliasing turned on. FSAA is one of the newer technologies available on the latest generation of 3D acceleration cards. These shots were taken with a GeForce 2 MX. I just picked up one of those cards myself, so I can't wait to try it out.

Macross TC For Starlancer Seeks WC Help

BlackWolf thought some Wing Commander fans might be interested in a Macross mod for Starlancer that is currently in production. They have various models and such done, but they need help for the textures. If you're interested in texturing, modeling, sound work or mission editing or have any questions, be sure to send him an email here.

Dreamcast Joystick Designed With SL In Mind

MadCatz is now manufacturing a joystick for the Dreamcast gaming console that is said to work great with Starlancer. There's even a little screenshot on the box. If you weren't aware, SL came out for the Sega system a few months ago and is playable online with PC gamers. If you'd like more information, SegaWeb has a bit of a review here.

2000.027 (January 27, 2000)

In Search of a German Magazine

The CIC is currently in search of a number of copies of the February 2000 issue of PC Games, a German magazine that did a little feature that mentioned us. If you have any questions or would be able to find one or more copies (or know of a way for us to order online), we'd appreciate it if you let us know. Even a scan of the "unmissable internet sites" section would be great. Below is a picture of what we think the cover looks like.

Slight Swiss Release Date Clarification

Reaper let us know that the upcoming February 25 Swiss release of the movie is for the German speaking part of Switzerland. He explained to us that Switzerland is divided into three regions, Suisse Romande (French speaking), Suisse Allémanique (German dialect speaking) and SuisseItalienne (Italian speaking). The movie came out in the French portion back in June 1999. And this has been today's geography lesson.

Now All We'll Need are the Novels in these Languages

Peter Telep's Official Site is undergoing yet another neato expansion. There are plans to translate it fully into German and Russian (two big Wing Commander markets by the way). Official webmaster Richard Bowden is currently getting help from McFly and Jens, who have Russian and German Descent sites respectively here and here. They are now involved in translating the Wing Commander pages.

Just a Little Heads Up

We anticipate hopping web servers within the next couple or three days here. In the best case scenario nobody will notice a thing, and we're currently working to make the transition go virtually unnoticed. But just in case there's a brief disruption in service, we'll be back as soon as possible.

Candid's Camera

Film critic Shame Tone reports. Last night I was treated to a preview of Filbert Candid's latest addition to his 'Kino-Neu' oevre, and a spectacular piece of Vid-u-lite it is too. Called 'One morning I noticed blue stuff was lodged in my abdominal orifice', it strongly challeneges all our precepts of the Vidflik's modus operandi. For a start, it commences with the end credits rolling in reverse down the screen, so that we are privy to the identity of the Grips, Best Persons and Loafers before we know who the stars are, an exception that is dashed when we discover that these people are the stars of the piece.

1999.027 (January 27, 1999)

Belated Happy Birthdays

Well, exams are over and the CIC is back to business. Hopefully there'll be some exciting movie news any day now... over the last few days we've missed a few important birthdays - check 'em out.January 22 - Hadrian, CIC staff member and inventer high quality natural spring water, is 17.

Desparately Seeking... Anyone

LOAF needs your help to stop him from talking in the third person! Also, he's looking for anyone with a copy of the documentation to Secret Missions for Super Nintendo, to ask a few questions for the encyclopedia project. An encyclopedia preview is in the works right now -- the topic? Confederation Capital Ships.