News Collection: On This Day in WC News

2024.202 (July 20, 2024)

Krant and Firekkan Fighters Reintroduced to Wing Leader

We've got two Wing Leader ships today for the price of one! Howard Day has made major refinements to both his Krant and Firekkan 'Valtar' design. Both have extremely spiffy new cockpit art for display in the project's rolling demo. Pay close attention to the Kilrathi fighter and you'll see specially designed kat claws and articulated legs, not to mention cockpit damage.

2023.201 (July 20, 2023)

GOG Sale Discounts Main WC Games Plus Privateers

GOG is holding a new "Make Classics Last Forever" sale, and Wing Commander is included. This one is slightly unusual. All of the main games plus both Privateer 1 and 2 are marked down as you might expect. Armada and Academy are oddly absent, however.

2022.201 (July 20, 2022)

New Gameplay Vid Highlights Diverse Arena Modes

Demon27248 has posted a nice capture of several rounds of Wing Commander Arena. Modern streaming content for WC Arena is sorely lacking, so clips like this are unfortunately few and far between. The foursome playing the game hits several different types events: they take down a Battlecruiser in capship combat, hunt down satellites and conduct a team deathmatch in the Boneyard. Arena is a unique WC experience and it's really a shame that it doesn't run on modern Xboxes.

2021.201 (July 20, 2021)

Blue Origin Successfully Launches Bezos Flight

For the second time in as many weeks, a private space tour company has launched their first fully crewed vessel (and their billionaire founder) into space. This time they had the audacity to do it on a work day, so we've posted some nifty photos and video below for the people who couldn't watch live. Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket reached an altitude of about 66 miles and produced a similar brief period of weightlessness as the Virgin Galactic experience last week. Unlike Richard Branson's specialized type of jet plane, today's craft was a more traditional vertical rocket.

2020.202 (July 20, 2020)

First Cut of Enhanced WC3 Clips Released

Due to popular demand, ODVS has put together and posted a complete set of enhanced Wing Commander 3 videos! There is not yet a method developed to integrate these directly into the game, but it's still an awesome trove of cutscenes to play around with. These are based off the Playstation version, so the source material is slightly higher quality. Then ODVS used his AI/machine learning process to increase the quality substantially.

2019.201 (July 20, 2019)

Happy Apollo Anniversary Day!

As most of you are well aware, today marks 50 years since the Apollo 11 landing on the moon. And although Earth's moon might not immediately jump to mind when you think about Wing Commander, it actually shows up quite a bit! LOAF recently went through the (often tragic) history of our natural satellite in Episode 19 of All Wings Considered. Check out the embedded clip below to go straight to the retrospective: If you haven't seen it yet, here's a nice video of the really cool show projected on the Washington Monument this week.

2018.201 (July 20, 2018)

Wing Commander Meme of the Day: Pompei Man

You know what they say, you're either an earthworm or a Wild Eagle...

2017.201 (July 20, 2017)

Arrow Kit for Sale!

Alfred Wong's Arrow model is here! The promised plastic model kit that allows you to build your own 1/48 scale Terran Confederation Arrow fighter is now shipping. The unfinished kit costs $165 Canadian plus shipping and measures 9.5" L by 7" W when constructed.

2016.202 (July 20, 2016)

WC RPG Wrapping Up Encounters, Mocks Up New Ships

capi3101 is back with quite a few WC RPG status updates as well as a sketch for some new fighters. First up, he's made lots of house cleaning type updates concerning things like category listings for different chapters in his project wiki. Additional Kilrathi translations have been made, and encounter scenarios are almost finished. These sound like a lot of work!

2015.201 (July 20, 2015)

Kilrathi RPG Expansion Bulks Up Story Component

It's been a while since we checked in with capi's Wing Commander RPG, and he's made consistent progress virtually every single week. In June he dived into the exposition that sets up the Kilrathi expansion module's backstory. It includes multiple scenes such as a flashback to the day Bloodeye N'Ryllis learned of Kilrah's destruction. Everything points to this aspect being pretty neat fan fiction in its own right!

2014.201 (July 20, 2014)

Krant Hardly Wait To Play

Shaggy's completed the Krant fighter for Beat Hazard that he mentioned earlier this month, but the Kilrathi fleet isn't quite complete. The fearsome Jalthi is now in the works to supplement the kats on the very high end, and then that should finish off the planned lineup. You can see all of the cool ships that have been designed for this scroller shooter game here. The Krant is now up and running in the Workshop.

2013.201 (July 20, 2013)

Three Weeks Until the Birthday Party!

Less than a month to go! The CIC's 15th Birthday Party is now three weeks away. Join us on Saturday, August 10, 2013 at 7:00 pm EDT (4:00 pm PDT and 11:00 pm GMT, early Sunday morning in Asia/Australia). Everything takes place in our IRC chatroom, #Wingnut.

2012.202 (July 20, 2012)

Otherwise, Treat With Caution

The November 1993 issue of Nintendo Magazine System contained a review of Wing Commander - The Secret Missions. It's probably one we could do without. The reviewer is snarky, to say the least. He gave the game a 64 overall, complaining the game "is less of a sequel to Wing Commander than a continuation of the original.

We Chose To Go To The Moon

Today is the 43rd anniversary of the human race first landing on the Moon. Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin descended to the lunar surface in the Lunar Excursion Module while Michael Collins remained in orbit in the Command Module. Wing Commander has a number of important lunar installations. Moonbase Tycho, the Vacuum Breathers bar, an anti-matter/matter production facility and a massive naval base, much of which was destroyed during the Earth Defense Campaign of 2668.

2011.201 (July 20, 2011)

One Step Closer to Flight Ops

Malcolm Reynolds has a more complete Tiger's Claw to show off. Over the last week, the model has gone from flat paper sheets to an actual three dimensional structure, and everything seems to be coming together well. The forward runway and flight deck are now a solid recognizable chunk. He's now sketching out some of the hull markings and then will work his way back.

2010.201 (July 20, 2010)

Steady Progress Made on Images & Missions

Dundradal has a quick status update on WCPedia updates. A few dedicated fans are hard at work, but more volunteers are always needed. Visit Crius.net if you'd like to help, or check out the most recent updates here.

Ascendant Pictures Acquired by Bigfoot Entertainment

Chris Roberts' Ascendant Pictures company has been acquired by Bigfoot Entertainment. Ascendant was an expansion of the Point of No Return endeavor, which was briefly involved in the preproduction of a Wing Commander live action television show. Some of the bigger movies to emerge from Ascendant were Lord of War and Lucky Number Slevin. Check out the full release here.

2009.201 (July 20, 2009)

Outside Help For WC4 Homeworld Mod

It's been some time since Aaron Thomas' awesome WC4 Homeworld 2 mod was last updated. L.I.F.

Even Better Birthday Party

There's less than three weeks left until the CIC's 11th Birthday party! Since this year also marks the tenth anniversary of the Wing Commander movie, we'll be hosting a special coordinated viewing beforehand. If you don't already have a copy of the film, we recommend you order the DVD as soon as possible! Amazon's virtual delivery service also offers a one-time rental for just $2.

2008.202 (July 20, 2008)

Technosaurs: Locked and Loaded

Ready for action! Our equipment is packed for a short trip to the Origin Museum tonight - and then on to Mythic Entertainment tomorrow morning, where it will be used to archive a large collection of Origin and Wing Commander artifacts. What's on the manifest? A desktop, eight laptops, four tape drives, two SyQuest drives, five SCSI adapters, two VHS-to-DVD decks, a scanner, camera equipment, a CD resurfacer, computer tools, a DVD-ROM drive, hard drive enclosures, roughly five terabytes of storage, enough A/V, SCSI and power cables to strangle a Kilrathi and more!

Making the Game - Part 76

Here's one for future historians: a big bundle of handwritten notes, emails and other documents fleshing out exactly how the MED (mission editor) software works. It will take some studying to appreciate, but this is a great indication of how the team worked together - check out the hand-written mission coding!

2007.201 (July 20, 2007)

CIC Birthday Party Just Around The Corner

The Wing Commander CIC turns nine years old next month, and that means we're just three weeks away from our annual online bash! Since our last big party, we've gotten EA Replay, Wing Commander games on GameTap, more fan project releases and all the exciting stuff surrounding Arena, so there's lots to celebrate. With all the other exciting news that's been happening all year, this is actually our first formal announcement, but we've already been working hard to prepare for the event. Check out last year's updates here to get an idea of what to expect.

She Moves On

The folks over at the Wing Commander: Against All Odds fan RPG have asked us to post a notice. In short, they've moved to a new location. Here's the official word: The forums based RPG Wing Commander: Against All Odds has a new address, the forums can now be found at www.wcaao.

2006.201 (July 20, 2006)

That's Gotta Hurt

The Escapist has published a very nice article about the history of Wing Commander development. Wing Leader starts with a very interesting story about Wing Commander's original unveiling and goes through the series' evolution -- through to the fan efforts that continue today. It's full of interesting anecdotes, including a great story about Chris Roberts being punched in the face during the animation shoot for Wing Commander II. Wing II also used rotoscoping for its cut-scene animations.

Placing Blame

Ars Technica is running an article called "Epic VP: Intel is killing PC gaming! Ars: Not really." The article is a reply to a recent speech by the president of Epic Games, who claims that Intel is responsible for the decreased size of the PC gaming market. Like all good rebuttals, it mentions Wing Commander: I'll end this article on a personal note.

2005.201 (July 20, 2005)

Party Count Down: Three Weeks To Go

The CIC's Seventh Birthday is getting closer! With three weeks left to go, it's time to announce some of the door prizes that will be given away to party attendees. Some of the items include Game Boys with a copy of Prophecy Advance, CIC polo and Eisen shirts, CIC hats, CIC glasses, CIC playing cards, copies of the WC Movie on DVD, the DVD version of Wing Commander 4, press kits, Wing Commander action figures, and various Wing Commander audio soundtracks, posters, books, and shirts. One of our grand prizes will be a replica Prophecy-style flight suit custom fit to the winner.

Rest In Peace James Doohan (1920-2005)

This morning James Doohan passed away from complications due to pneumonia and Alzheimer's disease. A lot of our visitors will mourn him as Scotty from Star Trek. He was getting old and had been sick for a little while, but losing familiar faces is always a bit sad. StarTrek.

Remembering Thirty-six Years Of Interplanetary Travel

Today is the 36th anniversary of the first moon landing. To celebrate, Google added a bit of NASA footage to its maps database. Check out the feature here, and don't forget to zoom in. If you're looking for something a bit more terrestrial, check out a satellite Google shot of where Dragon*Con is held.

2004.202 (July 20, 2004)

Come To The Birthday Party, Win Prizes

There are just three weeks to go until the CIC's Sixth Birthday! We're working hard to bring you some exciting new things this year. In the mean time, I thought I'd show you some of the prizes we have lined up for this year. Door prizes this year will include Game Boy Advances and copies of Prophecy Advance, CIC polo shirts, CIC playing cards, CIC pens, copies of the WC movie, WC4 DVDs, WC movie soundtracks, WC movie posters, WC movie shirts, WC movie action figures, WC novels and a Tom Wilson autographed Maniac photo.

Trivia Week 3 Begins Today

Trivia Week 3 Questions are now out for our special summer trivia game. The answers to Weeks 1 and 2 are up, and there is now a scoreboard to see how you rate. You have one week to answer the following questions. Question 5: What fighter's yaw rate is enhanced by a horizontally rotating thrust pod?

The TCS Paradigm, Not Just For OFX Anymore

Wing Commander veterans might recall the TCS Paradigm made its debut in the Origin FX Screensaver shortly after Wing Commander Privateer was released. It's a cool ship that we never learn much about. Ever wonder what happens when you type "TCS Paradigm" into Google and hit the "I'm Feelin' Lucky" button? Well, Bob did and he got some interesting results.

2003.201 (July 20, 2003)

Vega Strike Wins Major Award

The Wing Commander fan project Vega Strike has just received a trophy (literally) for coming in first place in the games category of a major French Software organization. Hellcatv's been working on this one for many years, and it's turned into quite a versatile and capable program. You might have caught us reporting on some of their awesome screenshots a few weeks ago. I'll let PeteyG translate the original article.

Birthday Party Only Three Weeks Away

The tension is building here as we ramp up our preparation for the Fifth Birthday party. In recent weeks crowds in #Wingnut have swelled to around half where we'd normally be at a special irc event, so we expect this year to be our biggest ever. I promised last time that we'd have more specifics on prizes soon. Though I don't have quantities yet, we will have several Game Boy Advances with Prophecy Advance, Wing Commander novels, action figures, rare collectible cards, copies of the Movie on DVD, Movie posters, and the like.

2001.201 (July 20, 2001)

DragonCon Report

DragonCon is America's largest Sci-Fi convention... and we're going to be there. Three CIC staff members -- LOAF, Cpl Hades and Death -- are making the trek... and the Origin Museum crew will have a table with various amazing things displayed.

A Day in the LOAF

Well, we always knew this day would come... thanks to the fact that the phone company is really really stupid, I won't be online for a whole weekend (the guy they send to look at our ISDN line didn't have an ISDN test kit... so he called and told them to send someone with said kit -- and then when the second person showed up, he didn't know how to use an ISDN test kit (but he did have one, by gum)! Anyway, the long and the short of it is that I'm screwed -- and that I can't update the CIC this weekend...

2000.202 (July 20, 2000)

Looking at New Conquests with DA

LOAF noted that Gamecenter has recently posted an interview with Chris Roberts here primarily on the upcoming Conquest, but with a brief mention of Privateer 2 and Warthog. Roberts also talks about the 'Lancers (Star and Free) and the possibility of X-box games from Digital Anvil. Overall it's a bit more PR and a bit less new content.GC: StarLancer is obviously out.

Did You Know Saffron Burrows Was in the WC Movie?

If you did, then you would have known enough to get through the Wing Commander questions at last night's Battlestar Commander SciFi.com Mindprobe trivia contest. The hourlong event was great fun.. for Battlestar Galactica fans, those interested in general trivia or good guessers.

1999.201 (July 20, 1999)

Contest Specifics

Apparently there's been some confusion relating to the Peter Telep Wing Commander Contest, with people questioning just what constitutes original artwork. Peter's web master has set up an explanation which can be read here.

Tolwyn Poll

Well, the highly anticipated poll results are in: apparently 40.69 % of people firmly believe that Tolwyn was wrong to rescue the Tarawa in End Run...