News Collection: On This Day in WC News

2024.357 (December 22, 2024)

Ship Confusion: Gettysburg and Waterloo

Last week, we took a look at some Civil War-related Wing Commander references… and we forgot a pretty big one: Special Operations 1's TCS Gettysburg, named after the dramatic Pennsylvania battle that marked a turning point in the war. To cover our mistake, we've decided to took a very close look at some of the confusion surrounding the TCS Gettysburg and the confusingly separate Gettysburg-class cruiser referenced in Freedom Flight. And in order to tell that story, we're going to have to start by taking a look at the TCS Austin. Gone to Texas The Secret Missions 2: Crusade (1991) introduces us to the Austin, another Confederation capital ship which is working alongside the Tiger's Claw during the treaty signing at Firekka.

2023.356 (December 22, 2023)

New Wing Loader Fixes Bugs & Adds WC4/P/SO Support

Destro has released a new update of Wing Loader with a host of new features! The original project sough to bring voiceovers from the Sega CD version of WC1 over into the PC edition. He's since expanded his goals significantly with plans to add features such as the ability to incorporate high definition video into Wing Commander 3. This new version also adds preliminary support for WC4, Prophecy and Secret Ops in advance of offering new features for those games in the future.

2022.356 (December 22, 2022)

Unreleased Crusader Pre-Alpha Revealed

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.

2021.356 (December 22, 2021)

Caxki and Ki'ra Clans Caricatured

Here's a couple of Kilrathi sketches to brighten your day. EmuMusicFan has created B'shras nar Caxki as a a dishonored and brooding noble. On the other hand, Uza nar Ki'ra is an intellectual - complete with small round glasses. The coloration really does wonders to complete the look here!

2020.357 (December 22, 2020)

It Came From 2016: Wing Commander-mojis

ShinyMan0 has created a set of cute little Wing Commander caricature portraits. They remind me a lot of Bitmoji style creations, but for the cast of Wing Commanders 1 and 2. It's impressive that they're pretty in line with the Bitmoji style while simultaneously being accurate to the original WC art. He even nails the uniforms.

2019.356 (December 22, 2019)

Does This Aspect Ratio Make Me Look Fat?

Displaced Gamers has put together a fascinating video that dives into the classic DOS game 320x200 pixel resolution. If you deal in old screenshots as much as we do, you'll notice the original Wing Commander games come in this slightly odd resolution and aspect ratio compared to the 4:3 640x480 stats of later games. The clip goes into the technical details of exactly why this is, and there's also comparisons between the vertical pixel stretch on PC versus the Super Nintendo's horizontal stretch. This is why the Super Nintendo characters look squished in the recent Head Museum update.

2018.356 (December 22, 2018)

Miniatures Games Adds More Player Characters

Add_Maverick has put together another big batch of pilot cards for his new tabletop WC game. A handful of samples are below. They're fairly rudimentary, but it's neat that Maverick pulled from a variety of sources such as Claw Marks, WC1/2 and even the Academy cartoon. The simplicity here is also kind of the point.

2017.356 (December 22, 2017)

Guitar Medley A Tribute To Ultima Theme

We know a large chunk of Wing Commander fans out there are also Ultima fans, so here's a sweet audio treat. ChequerChequer put together this beautiful guitar cover that mixes the main themes from Ultima V through IX. Give it a listen and enjoy - even Richard Garriott liked it! You can follow the links in the video's description to find an mp3 download.

2016.357 (December 22, 2016)

Rescue Shuttle Here To Save Us From Low Res Models

The year is quickly winding down, but DefianceIndustries is still pushing hard on new models for the Secret Ops model upgrade pack. His Condor SAR is now ready for action. This nearly completes out the fleet of utility craft that the mod will need. Just the refuel shuttle and marine landing craft remain.

2015.356 (December 22, 2015)

SpaceX Lands Orbital Booster Rocket For The First Time

We once again interrupt our regularly scheduled Wing Commander programming to share some phenomenal news. Last night SpaceX managed to successfully land a rocket vertically after it delivered a commercial payload in orbit. Such a feat is so common in science fiction that it wouldn't be surprising if the average person just assumed we could already do this, but in fact this type of landing has never been done before. It was only last month that Blue Origin managed to land a rocket after briefly touching the boundary of space.

2014.356 (December 22, 2014)

Wing Commander Album Orchestral Pieces Released!

Check your e-mail inbox if you backed George Oldziey's live orchestra Wing Commander album on Kickstarter or FundRazr, because the orchestral pieces are now available for download! There are ten high quality tracks (48kHz 24 bit masters!) for a total run time of about 32 minutes. The remaining (digitally sampled) tracks and the physical album are due out early next year.

2013.356 (December 22, 2013)

It's Nomination Time Again

Incredibly, this year is already winding down and a new one is nearly upon us! That means it's also time for our fifteenth annual Wing Commander Web Site/Fan Project of the Year awards. The CIC doesn't rely on original content to keep the news page full - it's the daily activities of thousands of Wingnuts, dozens of active projects and a network of other dedicated websites that keeps everything going. In order to help recognize the efforts of a few of these hard working fans, our tradition is to take nominations and then vote on the people and places who've done the most for Wing Commander over the past year.

2012.357 (December 22, 2012)

Play Prophecy, Standoff on Mac or Linux

Forums member Magamo reported a few weeks ago that the Windows 95 editions of Wing Commander I through IV run well on current versions of WINE. WINE is a compatibility layer for running Windows applications on POSIX operating systems such as Linux and OSX. He's now also tested Prophecy and Secret Ops as well as fan games Unknown Enemy, Standoff and Saga. The investigation did encounter a few glitches or oddities, so his findings may be helpful if you want to give this a shot.

2011.356 (December 22, 2011)

Clock Ticking Down on GOG Sale

Still out searching for a last minute Christmas gift? What could be better than the gift of Wing Commander? And right now, the classic WC trilogy and Privateer are just a few dollars! GOG's big holiday sale is half way over, so don't miss your chance to pick up Wing Commander hits for just $3.

2010.356 (December 22, 2010)

Ek'rah Skabak erg Thrak'Kilrah maks Rag'nith!

Astro Commander has taken his miniature models to the next level with a gorgeous styrofoam Kilrah. There's lots of nice detail here, but what really seals it is the paint job. And while the Kilrathi Dreadnoughts are huge, they're obviously not to scale. Astro's expertise also extends beyond the physical.

2009.356 (December 22, 2009)

New X3 Mod Blasts Off

Lc4Hunter is working on a new Wing Commander mod for X3: Terran Conflict. He has already converted a number of Confederation and Kilrathi ships and put them into an action-packed promotion trailer. The mod will eventually include every ship from Wing Commander 3 and 4. Each of the ships pictured so far look great, and the background "environmental" effects are amazing.

'Origin Museum' Opens to the Public

A resident of Britannia named Diablo has opened a new museum on the Origin shard of Ultima Online. The structure has two wings and is full of "unique and rare" artifacts. Public tours are available now! Below are some Stratics shots of the museum's sneak preview.

2008.357 (December 22, 2008)

Standoff Episode Five Draws Closer

Standoff status reports are coming out in quick succession these days, and there's more good news from the team this time. In a recent website update, Eder indicates the final episode is making good progress across the board. And we get a first look at the new cutscenes! The team is also hunting for stray bugs in the first four episodes, so drop them a note if you've encountered any.

Best Replay Deal

The Fry's Electronics online store has EA Replay in stock for just $4.99. For those unfamiliar, EA Replay is a PSP collection which includes ports of Wing Commander and The Secret Missions, as well as twelve other classic SNES and Genesis titles. EA Replay is a great collection that turns your PSP into a full arcade.

2007.356 (December 22, 2007)

Everything Ship Shape

Sean Murphy was kind enough to send some amazingly detailed pictures of Brian Smith's famous spaceship model. Just look at all the details -- it's incredible... and it really looks like the sort of thing that belongs in the Wing Commander universe. It would be pretty neat if one of our intrepid artists were to model this ship in Wing Commander Prophecy!

Point of Origin: Vol. III, No. 51

Goodbye, 1993 - you were a good year for Wing Commander. Issue 51 marks the last Point of Origin of the year, meaning that we're about to move on to Volume IV! Many consider 1993 to have been the greatest year of Origin's history... and it was certainly the most successful we've seen to date.

2006.356 (December 22, 2006)

Quickest Paint Jobs in the Quadrant

Some months ago, Marc showed us his WC2 style Victory-type Carrier, Ajax-type Cruiser and Sheffield-type Destroyer. Now he's created some animations for us to help compare the two paint schemes. Click the thumbnails below to check them out! More of Marc's work can be found in the news archive.

Remember to Vote

This is a reminder that voting for our annual Site/Fan Project of the Year awards is in progress now. Your favorite website needs your support and there are only a few votes between the leaders, so every vote counts. Send yours in via e-mail. You can find a complete list of the nominees here.

2005.356 (December 22, 2005)

Lorddarthvik Kicks Off Longbow Day

Lorddarthvik has completed his latest work - his own Longbow model based on one found at WC3D. He has even used it to create a 1024x768 resolution desktop wallpaper. Lorddarthvik is still hoping to tweak things a little bit, but what he has right now still looks good.

BradMick's Longbow Joins The Pack

BradMick has been continuing work on his WC3 model pack, with the Longbow being the latest addition. As with the previous models, the Longbow is designed to have a low polygon count so it is suitable for use in games. You can see the Longbow alongside the other ships below. They're all scaled to a 6ft figure sitting in the cockpit.

2004.357 (December 22, 2004)

Maj. Striker Builds a Bengal

Just because we haven't seen any new models from Maj. Striker for a few months doesn't mean that he has hung up his modeling tools. He has produced this model of a Bengal class carrier. It's still work in progress, but it still looks pretty damned good.

Get Ready For Standoff

Tomorrow is the big day, Standoff gets released. The best thing you can do now is to make sure that you're ready for it. Make sure you have Secret Ops, downloading it if need be. Then install it and make sure that it runs.

2003.356 (December 22, 2003)

Site Of The Year Voting In Progress

If you missed it last week, you can still vote for your favorite Wing Commander website and fan project. If you're new to this, we run annual awards in two categories. You may submit one vote from each of the listings below. The nominees for general Site of the Year are..

Unknown Enemy 2 on the Horizon Post-Standoff

Last month we missed a little bit of info on the upcoming Unknown Enemy 2 project. For those who have been following Fan Projects and mods, UE is considered by many to be the first completed full-length full-featured mod for a Wing Commander game. A variety of newly introduced ships take you through an exciting campaign in the Secret Ops engine. UE won our "Fan Project of the Year" award in 2000, 2001 and 2002.

2000.357 (December 22, 2000)

UE'll Be Coming Round the Mountain

More screenshots from Unknown Enemy, showing some of their recent exceptional progress. The fully functional ship pack is also now available here -- it includes the Avenger, Bengal, Durango, Fralthi, Gratha, Ralari, Salthi, Scimitar, Shuttle and Space Lab.

Invasion Proceeds

Another shot from the WC Invasion, showing off their Titan class dreadnaught -- now nearing completion.

Voting Reminder

Just a reminder, the deadline for voting in the Fan Project of the Year elections is Saturday at midnight EST. Pick the best project from the below list of nominees and e-mail your vote here.

1999.356 (December 22, 1999)

Dream Job Advertised at the Newsgroup

Wing Commander veteran Anthony Sommers posted this Origin job request to alt.games.ultima, alt.games.

Aye, There's The Reference

Congrats to everybody who found the University of Central Florida reference in Pilgrim Stars. You win a GOLD STAR. For those who didn't find it: "Ancient brick buildings with signs identifying them as Library Administration, Biological Sciences, Offworld Sciences, and Humanities and Fine Arts gridled an oval reflection pond about thirty meters across. The captain read: DESIGNATED PILGRIM SAFE ZONE: UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA, EARTH.

X := Privateer 2?

Computer Games Online's review of X compares it to the oft disputed Privateer 2. As seen at ATFW.

Starlancer Article

Twister was kind enough to translate and type up this article on Starlancer from Power Unlimited. It compares the new game to Wing Commander...At the beginning of the year I got a glimpse of Starlancer. Now I've gotten to play the early Beta - and it didn't look all that bad.

Lists, Lists, Lists

It's time to compile some new Wing Commander lists! I'm looking for obscure foods, diseases, races, characters, drugs, and weapons! You will receive credit!

Hermes in Toxin Turmoil

Tony Knox writes. CIS officials last night reported a huge increase in the amount of Nerve Toxins that were being confiscated on Hermes. The captures are thought to be only the tip of the iceberg, and a large -scale manufacturing operation is suspected to be in progress. Police patrols are on the lookout for any smugglers attempting to take advantage of the situation.

1998.356 (December 22, 1998)

Upcoming Article

Kevin Martin of Cinefex magazine reports that the Spring issue of Cinefex will have an article on the making of Wing Commander's 3D effects! Sounds pretty cool, especially since the movie will hopefully be out by then. The magazine should go on sale April 1st.