News Collection: On This Day in WC News

2025.005 (January 5, 2025)

Intel Everywhere

In early 1993, Origin Systems signed a brand deal with a major technology player, Intel Corporation. At the time, Intel's processors were the industry standard and they were particularly interested in expanding their marketing to appeal to the new furor for multimedia entertainment. The initial deal allowed Intel to use Wing Commander II and Strike Commander to promote their i486 chips. The February 12, 1993 issue of Point of Origin (Vol.

2024.005 (January 5, 2024)

Save Archive: Wing Commander IV

We've got a new project intended to help out Wing Commander fans in 2024: save game archives that allow you to jump as close as possible to any given point in a game! We're kicking things off with a couple of playthroughs of Wing Commander IV which will allow you access to every single mission with every single ship and loadout option possible. We flew as "Maverick" and saved each game as soon as the previous mission ended to allow you to view any cutscene as easily as possible. Simply drop the contents of the archive in your Wing Commander IV folder; they should work on the MS-DOS, Windows 95, DVD and Macintosh versions (including the GOG and non-GOG releases).

2023.005 (January 5, 2023)

What's in a Name?

Did you know Dekker’s assault shuttle has a name? It’s called Hermes in the game files but it’s never mentioned in on screen. Here's an update created for WC4 Remastered: This also happens with Prince Thrakhath’s fighter in Wing Commander II. It’s named Bloodfang but since you only ever encounter it flown by the Prince (an ace profile that supersedes the normal ship ID) you never see the name!

2022.005 (January 5, 2022)

Sport That 1996 Style

Last week we shared a cool Australian promotional shirt for Wing Commander 4, and now LOAF's found one from Singapore. The design is markedly different with the Black Lance symbol over the WC4 logo on the front. Classic Blair, Tolwyn and Seether art is featured on the back side on a lightly stone washed background. Very nice!

2021.005 (January 5, 2021)

Goodbye, Bill Pearson

Here is some bad news that I totally missed at the time: the great prop maker Bill Pearson passed away back in March. Here's a quick summary of material covering his work on Wing Commander by ways of a tribute. First of all, a lot of this history is possible because Mr. Pearson maintained a wonderful online archive of his work.

2020.005 (January 5, 2020)

New Cerberus Model Ready to Launch

The Prophecy & Secret Ops Model Upgrade Pack is kicking 2020 off with a bang. There's a brand new Cerberus model churning the waters that's even more accurate to the original model while being more efficient at the same time. It's already humming along in the game's engine ready to headline the project's next release. The new update should be forthcoming soon after DefianceIndustries makes some upgrades to the Midway and other capships.

2019.005 (January 5, 2019)

Heir to the Throne... Suitable for Framing

There are many members of the Wing Commander community that are talented artists, but this one comes from even closer to home! Check out this nifty Thrakhath sketch drawn by none other than LOAF's wife, Alexis! * Prince of Kilrah * Fang of Sivar * Destroyer of Worlds!

2018.005 (January 5, 2018)

IMDB Takes Video Games To The Movies

The Internet Movie Database has posted a photo gallery collage to highlight the history of video games crossing over to movies. There are 96 examples highlighted (a significant fraction of which are Resident Evil films), which is surprising in itself. Even more so, Wing Commander is chronologically listed in the first fifteen movies, so the genre has really exploded in recent years. The ones preceding WC do include quite a few turds, so it's no wonder that video game movies had such a strong stigma in the '90s.

2017.005 (January 5, 2017)

Wojo Wows with Map Mojo for Pilgrim Project

Wojo has been working on his Pilgrim Legacy mod for quite some time, and although we haven't seen too many updates recently, he popped him to provide this nifty New Year's update. First up is an absolutely gorgeous starmap depiction of Pilgrim space in the shadow of the Confederarion. It's done in the style of the WC Movie's opening credits map and is quite stunning. Perhaps this might inspire other artists to take on other slices of the WC universe in a similar fashion.

2016.005 (January 5, 2016)

Wing Commander Album To Begin Shipping

There's great news from Origin composer George Oldziey. The physical copies of his Wing Commander music album have arrived from the manufacturer, and he's now prepping them for shipment. Copies should start going out over the next week for Wingnuts who pledged back in 2014. One of the most frequent questions we've seen over the last year is from fans who missed the original campaign but are still interested in obtaining a copy.

2015.005 (January 5, 2015)

Eurogamer Digs Up Canceled Origin Games

Eurogamer has posted a new article on the unreleased games of Origin Systems, Inc. It's an interesting look at both conventional and off-the-wall ideas that never made it to production. They highlight what would have been a number of new IPs rather than the defunct sequels of the established franchises. Carl's Crazy Carnival: "This is a game made up of several small games that, together, allow the player to free 'Carny' Carl, owner of Carl's Carnival.

2014.005 (January 5, 2014)

WC2 Video Playback Technique Developed

The ingenious hacking of WC1/2 continues! HCl's latest achievement is understanding how the video sequences play in the WC2 engine. Items such as the games' intro movies and landing clips are a type of FMV scripted into the game. By adjusting how this is coded, HCL has managed to take bonafide live action movies and make them play in game.

2013.005 (January 5, 2013)

Annual Awards Contest Begins

A busy year in the Wing Commander community has come to a close, so it's time for another annual tradition. The CIC Web Site & Fan Project of the Year contests help to recognize the numerous contributions of our fellow Wingnuts. Below is a list of major undertakings that made an impact in 2012, although it's certainly not an exhaustive list of all the incredible things that fans accomplished over the past year. On to the nominees!

2012.005 (January 5, 2012)

Everyone Loves a Good Dralthi

Zohrath has a couple more ships to show off, and these are both beauties. The first is a classic Dralthi with a fantastic weathered texture. It's even sharper than the Jalthi from last year. His second fighter is a Gratha, and although it's not quite as far along, it's an excellent start.

2011.005 (January 5, 2011)

Confed Fleet Bulks Up

Here's the second batch of Wing Commander models by Starman©. This is a pack of later year Confed capships: the Wake, Murphy & Midway, plus a cool size comparison. The 3D designs ended up being a little too detailed for use in a mod's game engine engine, so they're mostly for looks now. He's already got a little help texturing the UBW fighters, and anyone interested in assisting with these designs should head to Crius.

2010.005 (January 5, 2010)

WC Saga German Audio Book Released

The WC Saga team has released an audio story. It's available as a 23 minute mp3 file voiced completely in German. The events are based on the fiction associated with the mod's prologue chapter. Check it out here (40.

Happy Birthday Spirit!

Not Mariko Tanaka - the other Spirit! NASA's famous Mars rover Spirit has survived to see its sixth birthday. It first touched down on January 4, 2004 with an expected life of just ninety days. Its twin, Opportunity, landed on January 25, 2004.

2009.005 (January 5, 2009)

Xbox Live Arcade Sales Figures Compiled

There's an interesting chart over at vgchartz.com that claims sales statistics on Live Arcade titles to date, which includes Wing Commander Arena. The total units sold is listed at 22,970 with $228,152 in revenue. Although such numbers would be low for a modern retail release, if accurate, these figures would apparently put Arena well in the middle of the pack on Live Arcade.

Wing Commander Scene Seen on the Small Screen

Jacob was one of many fans who caught a surprise showing of the Wing Commander movie on broadcast TV this past weekend. What makes this one particularly noteworthy was that it was also broadcast over-the-air as an unencrypted high definition transmission. There are no additional showings scheduled within the next couple weeks, but the MyTV listings would be one to watch for anyone looking to record a high def copy for themselves. "Just for the record, Wing Commander was shown on My Network (a TV network similar to CW) on Saturday night at 8 PM EST.

2008.005 (January 5, 2008)

Mod Contest Winners Announced

Eddieb has announced the winners for the 2007 Flight Commander Mod of the Year contest. The Wing Commander 1 Remake and Ranger's Glory tied for first place. A Perfect Plan came in a very close second. Congratulations!

Point of Origin: Vol. III, No. 48

Privateer has been released! At this time, October 13, 1993, it's too early to tell how it will sell or how it will be reviewed... but the early signs are positive! 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!

2007.005 (January 5, 2007)

Classic Battle Brewing

Space Pirate was inspired by all the pretty fan art that Wingnuts produce, so he's begun a new animation based around some of his favorite ships. The contrasting whites and blacks of his preliminary renders already look pretty classy. These models are just the first step on the way to a battle scene that he's planned out. My money's on the Centurion.

Amazon Founder Unveils Spacecraft

The founder of Amazon.com, Jeff Bezos, has unveiled the first results from his new company's attempts to reach space. Bezos' company Blue Origin posted a video from a test launch of their development vehicle "Goddard". Starting from a launchpad, the craft managed an altitude of 285 feet before beginning its descent back to the ground.

2006.005 (January 5, 2006)

View Virtual Victory Video

AD's been working hard on his Wing Commander themed Half Life 2 level, and this time he's got videos to prove it. The first video is a 7 meg wmv that explores an access duct under the deck. The second clip clocks in at 18 megs and shows some of the weaponry in action. While you're waiting for those to download, check out AD's status report and screenshots below.

Fan Fabricates Fantasic Figure

If you've ever wanted a WC4 style Christopher Blair action figure, AD may have stumbled across the answer. In a move reminiscent of Sid from Toy Story, a guy called Dedcat has ripped the head off of a Luke Skywalker figure and stuck it on the body of an AT-ST driver figure. After adding some uniform decorations and paint to touch up the head, the work is complete. You now have a WC4 Blair action figure.

2005.005 (January 5, 2005)

Wing Commander DVD Reaches UK Shores

Not only was the UK robbed when it came to the theatrical release of the Wing Commander movie, but fans have also been without a DVD release all this time. Fortunately Fox has decided to right this wrong, and released the movie on DVD in to British stores on January 3. You can now find it for sale for around £12.99.

Freelancer Midway Base Files Released

Everyone's favorite Freelancer & Dungeon Siege site, Lancers Reactor, has reported a bit on the accidental creation of a base designed like the TCS Midway. Its creator, Aldebaran, thought he was making a Star Wars ship, so now his creation isn't useful to his current project. This set of files is mainly useful for mod teams, as the actual files can not be automatically applied to the game. However, it would be a shame to see it go to waste so I have uploaded it here in case any of the other mods out there would like to use it.

Ultima Online Players Donate Virtual Gold

Slashdot is running a pretty funny article about UO players donating towards Tsunami Relief. Crazy Joe has houses set up on every server in Ultima Online to accept the donations. You can take your character to the houses to donate your gold in-game. He's raised hundreds of millions of gold which in turn can be converted to thousands of dollars.

2004.005 (January 5, 2004)

And The Winners Are..

We've tallied the votes and figured out who the winners are for our annual Site of the Year contests. As usual, voting was close. Thanks to all our active Wing Commander sites for contributing to the community this year. All our nominees worked hard in 2003 to enhance the image of Wing Commander.

Wing Commander Battle Stations First Peek

Dbrito sent us a preview shot of a little arcade shooter he's working on entitled Wing Commander Battle Stations. This is the first public image of a little game I'm creating using Game Maker 5. I call it Wing Commander Battle Stations! Is a vertical shooter.

2002.005 (January 5, 2002)

WCA Art 4: Quit Staring at my Dreadnought Hole

Today's art shows the underside docking port of Prince Thrakhath's dreadnought, the KIS Agon Ra Sivar. The ship appears in Expendable, Chain of Command and Glory of Sivar (from which the second picture was taken). The difference in color scheme is interesting...

Jump FAQ, baby! (That's Where It's At)

It's been several years since the original Jump Theory FAQ was updated by Philip Langdale... and so, as a result of a drunken boast at the Chat Zone, I've begun writing an entirely New Jump FAQ. It's still in the early staged -- please send any changes, suggestions and additions to loaf@wcnews.com!

2001.005 (January 5, 2001)

Scene Three, Take One

Rylex has sent a beta screenshot from Scene 3 of Final Conflict. Interesting stuff...

Invasion Plans

The Wing Commander Invasion mod for ST: Armada has announced plans to release 18 new fighters -- starting in the near future, two ships a day will be published for a period of nine days. Following this, a pack of all 19 Armada ships with WC weapons and a damage indicator graphic will be released.

2000.005 (January 5, 2000)

England Finally Gets It!

Mohammad Dabiri reports at agwc that Wing Commander will be released on video in England from Global Video on January 17th! A trailer is currently attached to the release of Entrapment. Read about it here.

Game Ideas Ranked by the Master

Snake sends this translation of an article in the latest PC Games. The 'experienced designers' apparently include Chris Roberts. Designers Evaluate Reader Ideas You have a great idea for a game, but no one wants to have it? We do!

HCl for the Holidays

PopsiclePete has put up a mirror of HCl's late Wing Commander Editing Site here so as to allow his work to remain online. Thanks, from WC fans everywhere!

Translation Correction

Nighthawk notes that "Der Preis der Freiheit" means "The Price of Freedom" in German -- not False Colors as reported yesterday. The book listed at Amazon.de, however, lists Andrew Keith, and not Ben Ohlander, as the co-author. Which makes everything very confusing...

Out of the Woods

Word from Chris! Attempts to regain lost data on his doomed hard drive have been successfull! He's now working hard to set up everything again and get back online. Very good news...

Suffering From Uncomfortable Seat Sores?

It's every pilot's curse... You sit, glued in the cockpit, for three hours as you battle off a horde of marauding pilots, only to spend the rest of your journey with an aching back and red raw buttocks. Well, no longer! Comfi-rear Inc.

1999.005 (January 5, 1999)

Chris Roberts Speaks

Yet more proof that Brits aren't fools, like some Americans would have you believe, Gamespot UK have scored an interview with Chris Roberts about the upcoming WC movie. You can read what Chris has to say here. Thanks to the ever wonderful ATFW for the news.