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</ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> </li> </ul> </nav> </header> <div id="container-site" class="clearfix"> <div id="content-news"> <section class="daily-content"> <header> <a href="/news/2024/11/26"> <time datetime="2024-11-26">2024.331 (November 26, 2024)</time> </a> </header> <article class="news-post" id="16723"> <h1> <a href="/news/2024/11/26/du-doo-doo-or-when-numbers-get-not-particularly-serious">DU Doo-Doo (or: When Numbers Get Not-Particularly-Serious)</a> <span class="permalink"> <a href="/news/update/16723"><img src="https://cdn.wcnews.com/design/icons/if_link.png" height="20" alt="Update ID"></a> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wcnews.com%2Fnews%2Fupdate%2F16723&t=DU%20Doo-Doo%20%28or%3A%20When%20Numbers%20Get%20Not-Particularly-Serious%29"><img src="https://cdn.wcnews.com/design/images/buttons/if_facebook_2581819-20.png" title="Share on Facebook" alt="Share on Facebook" width="20" height="20"></a> <a href="https://twitter.com/home?status=DU%20Doo-Doo%20%28or%3A%20When%20Numbers%20Get%20Not-Particularly-Serious%29%20https%3A%2F%2Fwcne.ws%2F16723"><img src="https://cdn.wcnews.com/design/images/buttons/if_twitter_2112797-20.png" title="Share on Twitter" alt="Share on Twitter" width="20" height="20"></a> </span> </h1> <P><A HREF="/chatzone/members/sharpshooter.4564/">Sharpshooter</A> recently noticed an interesting little background thread in Wing Commander IV and <A HREF="/chatzone/threads/wc4-du.32123/">decided to pull at it</A>. The game's ship selection screens, which shows specifications for each flyable ship in the game when they are available for a mission, includes an interesting figure not included in other locations: "Dmg/Salvo". This measurement, listed in du or damage units, shows how much potential damage one single salvo from a ship's main guns can cause (not accounting for outside modifiers like windows or interiors on capital ships). Four of them match the game's internal gun damage values exactly: the Hellcat (2 Ion Cannons & 2 Particle Guns = (43x2)+(30x2) = 146 du), the Banshee (4 Lasers = (18x4) = 72 du), the Bearcat (4 Light Tachyon Gun = (4x50) = 200 du) and the Lance (2 Plasma Gun & 2 Tachyon Gun = (67x2)+(70x2) = 274 du). </P> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/WC4_DU_Hellcat.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC4_DU_Hellcatt.jpg" WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC4_DU_Hellcatt_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/WC4_DU_Banshee.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC4_DU_Bansheet.jpg" WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC4_DU_Bansheet_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/WC4_DU_Bearcat.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC4_DU_Bearcatt.jpg" WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC4_DU_Bearcatt_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/WC4_DU_Lance.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC4_DU_Lancet.jpg" WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC4_DU_Lancet_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <P>The remaining three ships, however, do NOT match the in-game data. And it's from noticing this that we can learn a little bit more about Wing Commander IV's development! Upon investigation, we learned that the specifications shown in these screens are stored in LOADOUT.IFF separately from the gun values used in gameplay. What that means is they can be wrong without it impacting anything else; they're static values that aren't calculated from the 'real' numbers. So what we're seeing isn't an indication of something misunderstood about the game's inner workings… it's a sort of sensory echo of how the game was balanced!</P> <P>Things like weapon damage values and ship specifications were always one of the last things locked when making a Wing Commander game. That's because they're an element that can be easily edited based on the Quality Assurance's playtesting. If testers find that a gun makes the game too easy or a ship's speed makes it too hard, those values could be easily altered right up until the game went gold (and today, well after!). However, there was one knock-on: printed material like manuals and hint books needed to be locked weeks earlier in order to be printed. So any changes to the game's simple balances made after these went to print would not be reflected. In the 90s, many hardcore Usenet jerks complained that Origin's manuals were 'notoriously inaccurate' as if the writers were lazy; the actual truth was that they were very accurate… for the latest build of the game they could possibly have referenced. </P> <P>Today this means that we can look at differences between the values printed in those sources and the ones in the game and get an idea of how things were initially balanced… a bit like how a space telescope looks back in time by capturing light generated eons past! Let's compare the gun damage values from <I>Origin's Official Guide to Wing Commander IV</I> with the ones in the game itself:</P> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/wc34guidechart.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wc34guidechartt.jpg" WIDTH="149" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wc34guidechartt_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <P>By including the numbers from Wing Commander III we can see that the base set stayed the same between both games… which means that the balance work on Wing Commander IV would've focused on the game's new 'heavy' gun variants. And indeed we can see that two values were changed after the guide went to print: the Heavy Ion Gun damage increased by ten and Heavy Photon Gun decreased by ten! This immediate explains the discrepancy in the Longbow screen. Using the guide numbers: 2 Plasma Guns & 2 Heavy Ion Guns = (2x67)+(2x50) = 234 du (versus the real in flight value, 254 du)! </P> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/WC4_DU_Longbow.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC4_DU_Longbowt.jpg" WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC4_DU_Longbowt_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <P>The Vindicator tells us a slightly different story! The screen gives a value of 184 du while the final in-game guns, two Tachyons and two Lasers, only add up to 176. What most likely changed where was not a rebalancing of the gun values (which as we noted above remain the same as they did in Wing Commander III). Instead, we're seeing a full gun REPLACEMENT: the earlier iteration of the Vindicator must have had Heavy Photon Guns instead of Tachyons! This actually makes a little sense as the lore makes a point that tachyons guns are brand new while photon guns are more common on the workhorse fighters. </P> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/WC4_DU_Vindicator.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC4_DU_Vindicatort.jpg" WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC4_DU_Vindicatort_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <P>The Avenger, however, still isn't completely understood. The game lists a mysterious 267 du, an unlikely number in any of the scenarios we've thought through since the gun values should always be even numbers. A ship could theoretically get an uneven number if it had an odd number of guns but all evidence indicates that the Avenger was designed for four from the concept forward:</P> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/wc4_concept_comparison9.jpg"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wc4_concept_comparison9t.jpg" WIDTH="207" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wc4_concept_comparison9t_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <P>Our best guess here is that… it's an error. The Avenger carries two Heavy Photon Guns and two Heavy Mass Driver Cannons. Using the final in-game values that should be 248 du, a reduction of 19 from the screen which suggests a weapons change. But the earlier number in the guide gets us much closer: 268, a difference of just one (and matching the earlier guide's stats for Heavy Photon Guns and Heavy Mass Drivers). </P> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/WC4_DU_Avenger.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC4_DU_Avengert.jpg" WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC4_DU_Avengert_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <P>Thanks for traveling to the past to help us learn how Wing Commander IV balanced its guns! </P> <div id="comments-16723" class="container-comments"></div> <footer> <div class="outer"> <div class="author-avatar"> <img class="news-author-avatar" src="https://cdn.wcnews.com/design/avatars/5.png" alt="author avatar"/> </div> <div class="author-info"> <a href="mailto:news@wcnews.com">LOAF</a> </div> <div id="comment-count-16723" class="comment-bubble discuss-link" data-updateid="16723" data-threadid="32123"> Comment on this </div> </div></footer> </article></section> <section class="daily-content"> <header> <a href="/news/2024/11/25"> <time datetime="2024-11-25">2024.330 (November 25, 2024)</time> </a> </header> <article class="news-post" id="16721"> <h1> <a href="/news/2024/11/25/wing-commander-movie-night-star-trek-vi">Wing Commander Movie Night: Star Trek VI</a> <span class="permalink"> <a href="/news/update/16721"><img src="https://cdn.wcnews.com/design/icons/if_link.png" height="20" alt="Update ID"></a> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wcnews.com%2Fnews%2Fupdate%2F16721&t=Wing%20Commander%20Movie%20Night%3A%20Star%20Trek%20VI"><img src="https://cdn.wcnews.com/design/images/buttons/if_facebook_2581819-20.png" title="Share on Facebook" alt="Share on Facebook" width="20" height="20"></a> <a href="https://twitter.com/home?status=Wing%20Commander%20Movie%20Night%3A%20Star%20Trek%20VI%20https%3A%2F%2Fwcne.ws%2F16721"><img src="https://cdn.wcnews.com/design/images/buttons/if_twitter_2112797-20.png" title="Share on Twitter" alt="Share on Twitter" width="20" height="20"></a> </span> </h1> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/Star_Trek_VI_Poster.jpg"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/Star_Trek_VI_Postert.jpg" WIDTH="202" HEIGHT="300" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/Star_Trek_VI_Postert_2x.jpg 2x" CLASS="align-right"></A> </div> <P>Top Gun? More like Top Fun! The <A HREF="/news/2024/11/18/wing-commander-movie-night-top-gun">third meeting</A> of the Wing Commander movie club was a great success; we all had a great time finding out that Top Gun maybe wasn't the perfect film we remembered from our youths… and noting its massive influences on the entire Wing Commander franchise, of course! This week instead of going for a broad inspiration, we're going to be zeroing in on a very specific one in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991). You can join us <A HREF="https://discord.com/invite/vwKE8Tc">this Friday via Discord</A> to watch along.</P> <div class="lazyframe" data-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RYA2q2Sm_Jo" data-vendor="youtube"></div> <P>It's a good bet you're already familiar with Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. It's the last of the films spun off of the original Star Trek television series. It tells a story about old soldiers conspiring to prevent newly possible peace between the Federation and the Klingon Empire with the Enterprise heroes there to save the day. Considered by many to be a favorite in the series, Star Trek VI is a suitable swan song for a beloved starship and her crew.</P> <P>So what does this have to do with Wing Commander, as if we needed an excuse to watch more Star Trek? While Top Gun broadly influenced even the original Wing Commander, Star Trek VI wasn't even out when the series started (though the development team were famously Trek fans, breaking their crunch on the game only for an hour a week to watch new episodes of The Next Generation! Our basis for the pick is a very specific mention of the movie's influence on the Wing Commander film's explosive effects in an April 1999 Cinefex article (<A HREF="https://download.wcnews.com/files/wcm/Cinefex77-April1999-Wing_Commander_Article.pdf">full article</A>):</P> <blockquote> Seeking inspiration for the movement of the juggernaut capital ships, Digital Anvil viewed documentary footage and studied the war films Tora! Tora! Tora! and Midway. "After viewing these films," Brown stated, "Chris Roberts was adamant about holding on shots of these big ships coming across screen for a long time. That was more daring an approach than I was at first comfortable with, but in the end these long-duration shots worked very well, and they went a long way toward establishing the necessary sense of spectacle." This sense of spectacle - in the best Victory at Sea tradition - is particularly well illustrated partway through the film, when Tiger Claw is led into a trap and badly damaged during the ensuing battle. This sequence, along with the action in the movie's climactic scenes, featured vessels firing broadsides into one another, thus requiring extensive pyrotechnics to capture the grandeur of mighty ships in combat. Initially the idea had been to shy away from this scientifically inaccurate approach, since in reality, flames and fireballs would not long exist in the vacuum of space. "Pyro has been used extensively in space films, even prior to Star Wars," Chris Brown remarked. "So a lot of R&D went into developing an alternate look. But none of it worked for our traditional World War II kind of story. Our R&D didn't go entirely to waste, however, since the digital shockwave accompanying the pyrotechnic blasts only came about because of it. The idea was to do something in the vein of Star Trek VI's exploding planet shockwave, but then supplement it with rippling effects that enhanced the scale," Brown budgeted a pyro shoot into the schedule, but upon returning from Luxembourg, he discovered that the Digital Anvil team had created a viable and much less costly alternative. "They'd been experimenting with Pyromania's package of explosions on CD-ROM, and their tests were looking great. Rodney Brunet had tailored a number of the shots to make these generic explosions work for us in the context of our scenes.' </blockquote> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/StarTrekVI-Explosion1.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/StarTrekVI-Explosion1t.jpg" WIDTH="267" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/StarTrekVI-Explosion1t_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/StarTrekVI-Explosion2.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/StarTrekVI-Explosion2t.jpg" WIDTH="267" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/StarTrekVI-Explosion2t_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <P>There should be lots of other things to talk about, though: Wing Commander and Star Trek VI are both products of the closing days of the cold war and they both express that influence in interesting ways. And as The Undiscovered Country is a roughly contemporary film, our franchise even shares a couple of actors!</P> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/StarTrekVI-Dekker.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/StarTrekVI-Dekkert.jpg" WIDTH="300" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/StarTrekVI-Dekkert_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/StarTrekVI-Rhinehart.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/StarTrekVI-Rhinehartt.jpg" WIDTH="267" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/StarTrekVI-Rhinehartt_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/StarTrekVI-Tolwyn.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/StarTrekVI-Tolwynt.jpg" WIDTH="267" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/StarTrekVI-Tolwynt_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <P><B>Where can I find a copy of the movie for the watch party?</B></P> <P>Star Trek VI is currently <A HREF="https://www.paramountplus.com/movies/video/AtBd4BsgKlfG7fSmV_f4DK370okC98sR/">streaming on Paramount+</A> in the United States and is available for rental or sale digitally at all storefronts. If you're interested in tracking down a physical copy, a UHD version featuring a striking new transfer was released in 2022 which remains in print. If you are unable to track down a copy please ping a member of the WCCIC staff on the Discord in advance of the watch.</P> <P><B>How do we watch the movie together?</B></P> <P>It's pretty low tech! Simply join the <A HREF="https://discord.gg/vwKE8Tc">Wing Commander CIC Discord</A> on Friday and we will be chatting (in text) along with the film in the main channel. Everyone who wants to join in should bring their own copy and we will count down to play them together at 10 PM EST. Everyone is welcome and we encourage you to join in the conversation; sharing your thoughts helps make the experience better for everyone!</P> <div id="comments-16721" class="container-comments"></div> <footer> <div class="outer"> <div class="author-avatar"> <img class="news-author-avatar" src="https://cdn.wcnews.com/design/avatars/5.png" alt="author avatar"/> </div> <div class="author-info"> <a href="mailto:news@wcnews.com">LOAF</a> </div> <div id="comment-count-16721" class="comment-bubble discuss-link" data-updateid="16721" data-threadid="0"> Comment on this </div> </div></footer> </article></section> <section class="daily-content"> <header> <a href="/news/2024/11/24"> <time datetime="2024-11-24">2024.329 (November 24, 2024)</time> </a> </header> <article class="news-post" id="16722"> <h1> <a href="/news/2024/11/24/wildcat-thing-i-think-i-love-you">Wildcat Thing, I Think I Love You</a> <span class="permalink"> <a href="/news/update/16722"><img src="https://cdn.wcnews.com/design/icons/if_link.png" height="20" alt="Update ID"></a> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wcnews.com%2Fnews%2Fupdate%2F16722&t=Wildcat%20Thing%2C%20I%20Think%20I%20Love%20You"><img src="https://cdn.wcnews.com/design/images/buttons/if_facebook_2581819-20.png" title="Share on Facebook" alt="Share on Facebook" width="20" height="20"></a> <a href="https://twitter.com/home?status=Wildcat%20Thing%2C%20I%20Think%20I%20Love%20You%20https%3A%2F%2Fwcne.ws%2F16722"><img src="https://cdn.wcnews.com/design/images/buttons/if_twitter_2112797-20.png" title="Share on Twitter" alt="Share on Twitter" width="20" height="20"></a> </span> </h1> <P>A few days ago we <a href="/news/2024/11/20/wing-commander-cover-paintings-detailed">showed you the cover art</a> for the Czech language editions of six Wing Commander novels. One thing that's always particularly interesting to think about is what the cover of any given Wing Commander novel is showing… and these are no exception! Case in point: the Czech version of Action Stations shows a wing of Raptor-like fighters with some kind of space station complex and/or group of ships in the background. We've run the numbers and we think there's only one scene this could be: a squadron of Wildcats from the Concordia (including young Geoffrey Tolwyn and Vance Richards) leading the counterattack against the Kilrathi at McAuliffe or perhaps defending the Concordia. The main station may be Alexandria and the surrounding ships (if they are separate objects) would be Terran and Kilrathi warships engaged in the battle. </P> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/Czech_Cover_5.jpg"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/Czech_Cover_5t.jpg" WIDTH="105" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/Czech_Cover_5t_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <P>What is a Wildcat? Action Stations gives us a brief look at the Terran Confederation two decades before Wing Commander I. One thing it includes is a totally different lineup of starfighters, the prior generation of ships flown by human and Kilrathi fighters. The two main human fighters are the Wildcat space interceptor and the Hurricane surface-to-space fighter escort. The relationship between the two ships is based on that of the Spitfire and the Hurricane during World War II. The Hurricane is the old reliable fighter that pilots swear by and the Wildcat is the top of the line, most modern type. There isn't really an action scene with the Hurricane, though, seeming to rule it out as a possibility here. The idea that the ships might resemble the Raptor also seems appropriate given the Raptor's appearance in another prequel scenario, the background story of the Enyo Engagement (and there's a further tie-in there as a young Tolwyn flew the Wildcat at McAuliffe and then the Raptor at Enyo five years later.) </P> <P><B>Wildcat History</B></P> <P>The Wildcat is a Terran Confederation carrier-based space interceptor that entered service in 2604 with the Terran Confederation Navy. Wildcats were designed to serve for twenty-five years but remained the Confederation's front line interceptor when the Terran-Kilrathi War began. The spacecraft cost fifty million credits. In 2630, the fleet board requested funding for a ten million dollar upgrade to replace outdated engines and repair increasingly common stress flaws which had been responsible for an increasing number of accidents (roughly one in three pre-war Wildcat pilots were killed in accidents if they flew for five years). Political machinations blocked the upgrade program and delayed the Wildcat's intended replacement until 2639 (a crash program after the war's start would ultimately introduce the Corsair to serve as a stopgap). </P> <P>The Wildcat served extensively during the Pilgrim War and in the first days of the Terran-Kilrathi conflict. At the time of the McAuliffe Ambush, Wildcat squadrons were considered the most prestigious in the fleet with pilots requiring advanced training and five hundred hours of flight time in the spacecraft before being assigned to combat units. The first dogfight between human and Kilrathi carrier planes was fought at McAuliffe between Wildcats and their Kilrathi equivalent Kala-class fighters. Like the Kala, the Wildcat's primary armament consisted of two laser cannons and two mass driver cannons (though the ability to maintain full guns had not yet been developed). The Wildcat carried seven missiles including one dumb-fire and six with locking mechanisms. Despite its age, the Wildcat had a slight edge over the Kala in terms of speed and its shields and armor could sustain significantly greater damage. </P> <P>Noted Wildcat pilots include Major Tanaka "Go-Devil" Shun, father of Lieutenant Colonel Tanaka "Spirit" Mariko, Lieutenant Vance Richards, who would go on to serve as the navy's spymaster and an admiral in three navies and Ensign Geoffrey Tolwyn. Tolwyn had not yet begun his advanced training to fly the Wildcat when the fighting at McAuliffe overtook him. Nevertheless, he volunteered to join Richards' Green Squadron aboard the TCS Concordia when the fighting broke out. In his first mission he shot down an enemy fighter, scored a partial kill on a bomber and intercepted a torpedo in space before it could hit Concordia. He suffered extensive injuries during the battle and an ensuing crash during landing but recovered from surgery and burn treatment in time to join Green Squadron for their part in the Confederation's counterattack. During that second sortie he shot down an enemy bomber and scored five hits on landing craft, destroying at least one. He also shot down a Kala flown by Prince Ratha nar Kiranka who, unknown to Towlyn, subsequently committed Zu'kara over the defeat. Tolwyn was awarded the Pewter Planet and the Medal of Honor for his heroics, kickstarting his rapid rise. </P> <P><B>Fan Lore</B></P> <P>Prior to this though, a cool piece of fan lore was the idea that the Wildcat might look just like the Hellcat V introduced in Wing Commander III. This thought was based on two things. The first is that the real world Wildcat and Hellcat also look extremely similar and seem to have a similar story with the Wildcat as the most advanced American carrier plane at the start of the war that found itself well countered by the Japanese Zero and the Hellcat as the newly designed replacement capable of outflying the enemy.</P> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/Wildcat_Hellcat_Bearcat.jpg"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/Wildcat_Hellcat_Bearcatt.jpg" WIDTH="177" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/Wildcat_Hellcat_Bearcatt_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <P>Adding to this idea, the jump between the F-90 Hellcat and the F-104 Bearcat also seems to intentionally mirror the late war jump from Grumman's F6F Hellcat to the more advanced and aerodynamic F8F Bearcat. </P> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/wildcat-hellcat.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wildcat-hellcatt.jpg" WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wildcat-hellcatt_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/wildcat-bearcat.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wildcat-bearcatt.jpg" WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wildcat-bearcatt_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <P>The other half of this theory relies on something really neat: the presence of the Hellcat on Wing Commander Academy. Since it's never identified on screen, fans have long theorized that the simulated fighters and the gate guardian seen in "Red and Blue" were not Hellcats but their predecessor the Wildcat. It especially seemed to fit that the gate guardian would be an older design rather than a top-of-the-line one. Additionally, the F-90 designation is seemingly far ahead of the F-44 Rapier II we know was introduced the same year we see Academy's Hellcats.</P> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/tcsf-sirius.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/tcsf-siriust.jpg" WIDTH="506" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/tcsf-siriust_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <br> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/wca_hellcat_statue_1.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wca_hellcat_statue_1t.jpg" WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wca_hellcat_statue_1t_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/wca_hellcat_statue_2.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wca_hellcat_statue_2t.jpg" WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wca_hellcat_statue_2t_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/wca_hellcat_statue_3.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wca_hellcat_statue_3t.jpg" WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wca_hellcat_statue_3t_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/wca_hellcat_statue_4.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wca_hellcat_statue_4t.jpg" WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wca_hellcat_statue_4t_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <CENTER><I> Hellcat gate guardian at the Terran Confederation Space Force Flight School, Sirius </I></CENTER> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/tcsf-sirius-flight-line.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/tcsf-sirius-flight-linet.jpg" WIDTH="727" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/tcsf-sirius-flight-linet_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <CENTER><I> Flight line, 145th Training Wing, Terran Confederation Space Force Flight School, Sirius </I></CENTER> </P> <P>A gate guardian is typically a military vehicle (usually an airplane) that has been decommissioned and put on display at the entrance to a base. They are usually mounted on a pylon or similar display so they appear to be flying.</P> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/gateguardian.jpg"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/gateguardiant.jpg" WIDTH="317" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/gateguardiant_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <P><B>The Academy Hellcat</B></P> <P>We do now know the intent behind the Hellcat on Wing Commander Academy and why it came to appear only in the first episode: it was designed and animated for an earlier iteration of the show! The ship WAS intended to be a Hellcat… but that's because the original plan for the show was that it would be a sort of 'Wing Commander 3 babies' that ignored older continuity in favor of simply adapting the Wing Commander III setting. Characters like Maya, Grunt, Payback and Archer were then intended to be Rachel, Vaquero, Cobra and Flint (you can find the series bible which details much of this <A HREF="/wcpedia/Academy_Television_Series_Bible">here</A>.</P> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/Eldred_WCA03.jpg"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/Eldred_WCA03t.jpg" WIDTH="233" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/Eldred_WCA03t_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/Eldred_WCA05.jpg"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/Eldred_WCA05t.jpg" WIDTH="235" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/Eldred_WCA05t_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <P>The plan to instead use Wing Commander I & II ship designs and original characters came about very late in the process after model sheets (the things animators base what they draw on) for the different ships were already created and some animation tests had already been produced. The change had several impacts on the show including the appearance of some later ships in early cameos; there are similar blink-and-you'll-miss-them appearances from the Avenger, Longbow and Arrow during the series' first few episodes. </P> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/wildcat-avenger.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wildcat-avengert.jpg" WIDTH="225" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wildcat-avengert_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/wildcat-longbow.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wildcat-longbowt.jpg" WIDTH="225" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wildcat-longbowt_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/wildcat-arrow.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wildcat-arrowt.jpg" WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wildcat-arrowt_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <P>This additional work also delayed other needed model sheets, especially those for capital ships. That's why the show uses a Kilrathi dreadnought-inspired design for everything from transports to blockade runners to destroyers and carriers. You can also tell that specific episodes that needed ships but didn't have sheets ready actually used the line art in Claw Marks. This is especially apparent when we see the Dorkir in "The Last One Left" and a Fralthi in "Expendable" (the same ship changes into a Ralari the next week). </P> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/wildcat-dorkir.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wildcat-dorkirt.jpg" WIDTH="225" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wildcat-dorkirt_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/wildcat-fralthi.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wildcat-fralthit.jpg" WIDTH="225" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wildcat-fralthit_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <P>Keeping the simulated Hellcats at the start of the show is also a nod to the show's namesake, Wing Commander Academy the game. Academy makes a pretty big deal about how the Academy's training simulator lets pilots fly and fight the NEXT generation of fighters that aren't actually in service yet, the F-97 Wraith and the Kilrathi Jrathek.</P> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/WCA_Wraith_Intro.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WCA_Wraith_Introt.jpg" WIDTH="240" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WCA_Wraith_Introt_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/WCA_Wraith_Cockpit.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WCA_Wraith_Cockpitt.jpg" WIDTH="240" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WCA_Wraith_Cockpitt_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <div id="comments-16722" class="container-comments"></div> <footer> <div class="outer"> <div class="author-avatar"> <img class="news-author-avatar" src="https://cdn.wcnews.com/design/avatars/5.png" alt="author avatar"/> </div> <div class="author-info"> <a href="mailto:news@wcnews.com">LOAF</a> </div> <div id="comment-count-16722" class="comment-bubble discuss-link" data-updateid="16722" data-threadid="32131"> Comment on this </div> </div></footer> </article></section> <section class="daily-content"> <header> <a href="/news/2024/11/23"> <time datetime="2024-11-23">2024.328 (November 23, 2024)</time> </a> </header> <article class="news-post" id="16720"> <h1> <a href="/news/2024/11/23/bluesky-s-ahead">Bluesky's Ahead</a> <span class="permalink"> <a href="/news/update/16720"><img src="https://cdn.wcnews.com/design/icons/if_link.png" height="20" alt="Update ID"></a> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wcnews.com%2Fnews%2Fupdate%2F16720&t=Bluesky%27s%20Ahead"><img src="https://cdn.wcnews.com/design/images/buttons/if_facebook_2581819-20.png" title="Share on Facebook" alt="Share on Facebook" width="20" height="20"></a> <a href="https://twitter.com/home?status=Bluesky%27s%20Ahead%20https%3A%2F%2Fwcne.ws%2F16720"><img src="https://cdn.wcnews.com/design/images/buttons/if_twitter_2112797-20.png" title="Share on Twitter" alt="Share on Twitter" width="20" height="20"></a> </span> </h1> <P>Want another way to get Wing Commander news and interaction? We're happy to announce that we have set up an official Bluesky account for the Wing Commander Combat Information Center! Think of it as an updated version of Twitter that features a lot fewer Admirals Tolwyn and quite a few more adult depictions of Prince Thrakhath. And hey, bonus, they got the color of the sky <i>just</i> right.</P> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/wc-blue-space.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wc-blue-spacet.jpg" WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wc-blue-spacet_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <P>You can <A HREF="https://bsky.app/profile/wcnews.com">access the profile here</A>. We'll be posting news and updates and interacting with the community as much as we can. And if you're new to the service here's a very short directory of Wing Commander-relevant accounts that are already posting to the service. If you'd like to be added, please let us know in the comments!</P> <UL> <LI> <A HREF="https://bsky.app/profile/richardgarriott.bsky.social">Richard Garriott</A> - Origin Systems founder and assistant designer for the Wing Commander TCG. <LI> <A href="https://bsky.app/profile/profbeeman.bsky.social">Siobhan Beeman</a> - designer on the original Wing Commander and director Wing Commander 2 <LI> <A HREF="https://bsky.app/profile/markhamillofficial.bsky.social">Mark Hamill</A> - the actor behind Colonel Blair (among other roles) in Wing Commander III, IV, Academy and Prophecy <LI> <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/diane.dianeduane.com">Diane Duane</a> - noted sci-fi author and the writer of Privateer 2's cinematic screenplay <LI> <A HREF="https://bsky.app/profile/davidarnold.bsky.social">David Arnold</A> - composer for the Wing Commander film <LI> <A HREF="https://bsky.app/profile/pauliehughes.bsky.social">Paulie Hughes</A> - lead programmer for Privateer 2 <LI> <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/ogmatthewlillard.bsky.social">Matthew Lilliard</a> - actor who portrayed Maniac in the Wing Commander movie <LI> <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/timeldred.bsky.social">Tim Eldred</A> - renowned storyboard artist who did concept work for the Academy television show <LI> <A href="https://bsky.app/profile/taser8.bsky.social">Sean Murphy</A> - animator and artist for SWC, WC4, WCP & SO - also the face of SWC Jazz and SQ5's <A href="/news/2005/10/24/from-roger-wilco-to-zach-colson">Roger Wilco</a>! <LI> <A href="https://bsky.app/profile/vearrier.bsky.social">Mark Vearrier</A> - artist and production designer on WC3, WC4, KS, WCP & SO <LI> <A href="https://bsky.app/profile/davidmattingly.bsky.social">Dave Mattingly</A> - legendary painter of the <a href="/news/2023/11/04/true-origins-of-end-run-covert-art-revealed">End Run cover</a> </UL> <P>And of course, the WCCIC staff have personal accounts as well!</P> <UL> <LI> <A HREF="https://bsky.app/profile/chrisreid.wcnews.com">Chris Reid</A> <LI> <A HREF="https://bsky.app/profile/banditloaf.wcnews.com">LOAF</A> <LI> <A href="https://bsky.app/profile/wcnews.com">Official CIC Account</A> </UL> <div id="comments-16720" class="container-comments"></div> <footer> <div class="outer"> <div class="author-avatar"> <img class="news-author-avatar" src="https://cdn.wcnews.com/design/avatars/5.png" alt="author avatar"/> </div> <div class="author-info"> <a href="mailto:news@wcnews.com">LOAF</a> </div> <div id="comment-count-16720" class="comment-bubble discuss-link" data-updateid="16720" data-threadid="32129"> Comment on this </div> </div></footer> </article></section> <section class="daily-content"> <header> <a href="/news/2024/11/22"> <time datetime="2024-11-22">2024.327 (November 22, 2024)</time> </a> </header> <article class="news-post" id="16718"> <h1> <a href="/news/2024/11/22/reminder-wingnut-movie-night-tonight">Reminder: #Wingnut Movie Night Tonight!</a> <span class="permalink"> <a href="/news/update/16718"><img src="https://cdn.wcnews.com/design/icons/if_link.png" height="20" alt="Update ID"></a> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wcnews.com%2Fnews%2Fupdate%2F16718&t=Reminder%3A%20%23Wingnut%20Movie%20Night%20Tonight%21"><img src="https://cdn.wcnews.com/design/images/buttons/if_facebook_2581819-20.png" title="Share on Facebook" alt="Share on Facebook" width="20" height="20"></a> <a href="https://twitter.com/home?status=Reminder%3A%20%23Wingnut%20Movie%20Night%20Tonight%21%20https%3A%2F%2Fwcne.ws%2F16718"><img src="https://cdn.wcnews.com/design/images/buttons/if_twitter_2112797-20.png" title="Share on Twitter" alt="Share on Twitter" width="20" height="20"></a> </span> </h1> <P>This is a reminder that we have another fun #Wingnut movie night planned on <A HREF="https://discord.gg/vwKE8Tc">Discord</A> this evening! The ongoing theme will be movies that inspired Wing Commander in some way. Tonight's film is Top Gun, which has been inspiring the series since the very first game. You can find details on that as well as how to watch along with us in <A HREF="/news/2024/11/18/wing-commander-movie-night-top-gun">the announcement post here</A>. The movie will start about 7 PM PST/10 PM EST, but feel free to drop by and hang any time!</P> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/TopGunPoster.jpg"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/TopGunPostert.jpg" WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="300" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/TopGunPostert_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <div id="comments-16718" class="container-comments"></div> <footer> <div class="outer"> <div class="author-avatar"> <img class="news-author-avatar" src="https://cdn.wcnews.com/design/avatars/70.gif" alt="author avatar"/> </div> <div class="author-info"> <a href="mailto:news@wcnews.com">ChrisReid</a> </div> <div id="comment-count-16718" class="comment-bubble discuss-link" data-updateid="16718" data-threadid="32128"> Comment on this </div> </div></footer> </article> <article class="news-post" id="16719"> <h1> <a href="/news/2024/11/22/after-action-report-dam-busters-wrap-up">After Action Report: Dam Busters Wrap Up</a> <span class="permalink"> <a href="/news/update/16719"><img src="https://cdn.wcnews.com/design/icons/if_link.png" height="20" alt="Update ID"></a> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wcnews.com%2Fnews%2Fupdate%2F16719&t=After%20Action%20Report%3A%20Dam%20Busters%20Wrap%20Up"><img src="https://cdn.wcnews.com/design/images/buttons/if_facebook_2581819-20.png" title="Share on Facebook" alt="Share on Facebook" width="20" height="20"></a> <a href="https://twitter.com/home?status=After%20Action%20Report%3A%20Dam%20Busters%20Wrap%20Up%20https%3A%2F%2Fwcne.ws%2F16719"><img src="https://cdn.wcnews.com/design/images/buttons/if_twitter_2112797-20.png" title="Share on Twitter" alt="Share on Twitter" width="20" height="20"></a> </span> </h1> <P>Greetings WingNuts,</P> <P>In honor of last week's premiere meeting of the Wing Commander Movie Club (name pending) we've decided to start posting after action reports talking through what the group thought about and discussed with each movie. If all goes according to plan we'll run them in the news on Fridays alongside the reminder posts! Now what did we think about The Dam Busters…</P> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/WC-DB-Bomber-Establishing-DB.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC-DB-Bomber-Establishing-DBt.jpg" WIDTH="207" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC-DB-Bomber-Establishing-DBt_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/WC-DB-Bomber-Establishing-WC.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC-DB-Bomber-Establishing-WCt.jpg" WIDTH="267" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC-DB-Bomber-Establishing-WCt_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <P>In general, we found the movie to be extremely dry… especially the first half, which focuses on the development of the bouncing bomb and the training for the attack. Audience sensibilities have changed a lot in sixty-nine years: the thought of starting a war movie with old men talking about math and then not getting to an actual air battle until the very end would be unthinkable now. That's not to criticize the movie itself, it's just very difficult for a younger viewer to connect with today. Along the same lines, it's fascinating to see how a prestigious movie made with the war in sharp living memory is structured... and particularly how much more strongly they felt the need to stick to the real story as it was understood rather than updating it for a more satisfying narrative structure. Seeing how it assumes we are going into the story already familiar with extreme details of the war and how it expects we will view the morality of things like exploding dams is pretty fascinating. And then there's the third act, which is still fairly spectacular today. The extended raid sequence, which as noted in the introduction post was a major inspiration for Star Wars' Death Star battle, holds up very well. A fleet of actual war-era Lancaster bombers allowed for the kind of realism that modern CG is only just catching up to… seeing actual RAF bombers still puts the most expensive Masters of the Air sequences to shame.</P> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/WC-DB-Techbrief-DB.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC-DB-Techbrief-DBt.jpg" WIDTH="207" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC-DB-Techbrief-DBt_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/WC-DB-Techbrief-WC_01.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC-DB-Techbrief-WC_01t.jpg" WIDTH="300" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC-DB-Techbrief-WC_01t_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/WC-DB-Techbrief-WC_02.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC-DB-Techbrief-WC_02t.jpg" WIDTH="300" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC-DB-Techbrief-WC_02t_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <P>But what about the connection to Wing Commander? We had gone into the movie asked to pay special attention to the score, which Chris Roberts had asked David Arnold and Kevin Kiner to study for the 1999 film. What we found was… very little music! It became a bit of a running joke how little music was actually in the film until the famous Dam Busters March during the climax. </P> <div class="lazyframe" data-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eFmjGnN4jlo" data-vendor="youtube"></div> <P>It's hard to say the march sounds particularly like Wing Commander's overture but its role in the film and the way it stands out does come across. ace, who is more of an expert on such things than I could even imagine, reviewed it thusly: "Wikipedia mentions how the composer's son claims that he was trying to write something that sounds like one of the Pomp and Circumstance marches, and it really, really does. You could listen to all of them together and not pick them apart. It's the kind of thing you'd go to the concert hall to listen to and smile very loudly at. And a mostly ceremonial, self-congratulatory, militaristic sound that calls back to the glory days of pre-Great War England seems to be the perfect choice for The Dam Busters."</P> <P>It seems telling that The Dam Busters March has been played by British military bands for generations… and that those same groups now sometimes include Wing Commander's overture in their performances! Even if the two don't sound the same, they captured a very similar imagination. </P> <P>The bigger connection to Wing Commander that we picked up was that the very structure of the air raid is extremely similar to a Wing Commander mission… down to the specific camera angles used in the pilot's briefing! From the similar uniforms to the same shot of everyone standing up, the Dam Busters' briefing could've easily stood in for one of Colonel Halcyon's on the Tiger's Claw. </P> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/WC-DB-01_Behind-DB.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC-DB-01_Behind-DBt.jpg" WIDTH="207" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC-DB-01_Behind-DBt_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/WC-DB-01_Behind-WC.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC-DB-01_Behind-WCt.jpg" WIDTH="240" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC-DB-01_Behind-WCt_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <br> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/WC-DB-02_Halcyon-Mid-DB.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC-DB-02_Halcyon-Mid-DBt.jpg" WIDTH="207" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC-DB-02_Halcyon-Mid-DBt_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/WC-DB-02_Halcyon-Mid-WC.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC-DB-02_Halcyon-Mid-WCt.jpg" WIDTH="240" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC-DB-02_Halcyon-Mid-WCt_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <br> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/WC-DB-03_Halcyon-Close-DB.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC-DB-03_Halcyon-Close-DBt.jpg" WIDTH="207" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC-DB-03_Halcyon-Close-DBt_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/WC-DB-03_Halcyon-Close-WC.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC-DB-03_Halcyon-Close-WCt.jpg" WIDTH="240" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC-DB-03_Halcyon-Close-WCt_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <br> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/WC-DB-04_Spirit_Close-DB.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC-DB-04_Spirit_Close-DBt.jpg" WIDTH="207" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC-DB-04_Spirit_Close-DBt_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/WC-DB-04_Spirit_Close-WC.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC-DB-04_Spirit_Close-WCt.jpg" WIDTH="240" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC-DB-04_Spirit_Close-WCt_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <br> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/WC-DB-05_Blair_Close_DB.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC-DB-05_Blair_Close_DBt.jpg" WIDTH="207" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC-DB-05_Blair_Close_DBt_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/WC-DB-05_Blair_Close_WC.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC-DB-05_Blair_Close_WCt.jpg" WIDTH="240" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC-DB-05_Blair_Close_WCt_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <br> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/WC-DB-06_Pointing-DB.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC-DB-06_Pointing-DBt.jpg" WIDTH="207" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC-DB-06_Pointing-DBt_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/WC-DB-06_Pointing-WC.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC-DB-06_Pointing-WCt.jpg" WIDTH="240" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC-DB-06_Pointing-WCt_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <P>And then the mission itself is literally a Wing Commander mission complete with an orchestrated takeoff sequence, a flight to the nav point, an air battle and then a return to base with a shot of how much damage the hero bomber has suffered! If the Wing Commander I team weren't consciously thinking of this movie they were thinking of something that was visually and narratively influenced by it at some point. </P> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/mission-starting-bm.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/mission-starting-bmt.jpg" WIDTH="207" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/mission-starting-bmt_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/mission-starting-wc.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/mission-starting-wct.jpg" WIDTH="240" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/mission-starting-wct_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <br> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/mission-ending-bm.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/mission-ending-bmt.jpg" WIDTH="207" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/mission-ending-bmt_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/mission-ending-wc.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/mission-ending-wct.jpg" WIDTH="240" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/mission-ending-wct_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <P>We also see a very early example of the 'leaders nervously waiting for word at headquarters' trope that air combat stories introduced. As Harris and company wait around the radio for word of the squadron's fate you can't help but think of something like Wing Commander Academy's "Red and Blue" with Tolwyn and company waiting to hear from the cadets in the nebula as its great, great, great grandson. </P> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/WC-DB-Waiting-DB.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC-DB-Waiting-DBt.jpg" WIDTH="207" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC-DB-Waiting-DBt_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/WC-DB-Waiting-WC.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC-DB-Waiting-WCt.jpg" WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC-DB-Waiting-WCt_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <P>And then there's the elephant in the room… which in this case is a black dog with an unfortunate name. Volumes have been written on the subject and they aren't particularly interesting but if you aren't familiar, the historical squadron leader's dog was named an egregious racial slur which was then used as the code word to announce over the radio that the attack had been successful. The end result in the film, which kept with its theme and stuck as close to reality as possible, isn't so much something offensive that no one should watch as it is an endless series of cringes as British soldiers happily shout something awful to greet the dog. It is the rare situation where you breathe a sigh of relief when a dog is finally hit by a car. That said, Wing Commander DOES also have a story in which a heroic wing commander happens to have a (contemporarily) offensively-named cat… False Colors, where we meet Kevin Tolwyn's black cat Thrakhath! </P> <blockquote> He tossed his bag on the bunk and did a double-take as something moved against the space-black blanket. "Well, hello, who's this?"<br> Tolwyn reached down and picked up a bundle of black fur. "The official Independence reception committee. Jason, meet Thrakhath. He's one of our ship's cats."<br> The black cat opened a pair of startling green eyes and studied Bondarevsky suspiciously. After a moment the cat started to purr loudly, obviously glad of the attention Tolwyn was giving his neck and ears.<br> Bondarevsky chuckled. "Thrakhath, huh? Does he know he's royalty?"<br> "Absolutely," Tolwyn replied, returning the cat to the bed. "He finds his way into just about every corner of the ship, usually through the ventilation system . . . though some of us think he can walk through walls when he wants to. But he's staked out this deck as his personal territory. If you don't want him slipping in here and bothering you, we'll install a screen he can't get through."<br> "Nonsense," Bondarevsky replied. "I can use the company." </blockquote> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/sully-in-window.jpg"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/sully-in-windowt.jpg" WIDTH="113" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/sully-in-windowt_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <P><I>Aside: the accuracy of the description of Thrakhath disappearing into a black blanket tells me that Andrew Keith absolutely had a black cat. Thank you to our Thrakhath model: Sullivan T. Cat.</I></P> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/WC-DB-Claw_Marks-DB.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC-DB-Claw_Marks-DBt.jpg" WIDTH="207" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC-DB-Claw_Marks-DBt_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/WC-DB-Claw_Marks-WC.jpg"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC-DB-Claw_Marks-WCt.jpg" WIDTH="95" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC-DB-Claw_Marks-WCt_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <P>Want to join the club but can't be around for the group watch? Just watch the movie and share your thoughts on Discord or the forums to earn your wings!</P> <div id="comments-16719" class="container-comments"></div> <footer> <div class="outer"> <div class="author-avatar"> <img class="news-author-avatar" src="https://cdn.wcnews.com/design/avatars/5.png" alt="author avatar"/> </div> <div class="author-info"> <a href="mailto:news@wcnews.com">LOAF</a> </div> <div id="comment-count-16719" class="comment-bubble discuss-link" data-updateid="16719" data-threadid="32130"> Comment on this </div> </div></footer> </article></section> <section class="daily-content"> <header> <a href="/news/2024/11/21"> <time datetime="2024-11-21">2024.326 (November 21, 2024)</time> </a> </header> <article class="news-post" id="16717"> <h1> <a href="/news/2024/11/21/the-scout-is-out">The SCOUT is OUT!</a> <span class="permalink"> <a href="/news/update/16717"><img src="https://cdn.wcnews.com/design/icons/if_link.png" height="20" alt="Update ID"></a> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wcnews.com%2Fnews%2Fupdate%2F16717&t=The%20SCOUT%20is%20OUT%21"><img src="https://cdn.wcnews.com/design/images/buttons/if_facebook_2581819-20.png" title="Share on Facebook" alt="Share on Facebook" width="20" height="20"></a> <a href="https://twitter.com/home?status=The%20SCOUT%20is%20OUT%21%20https%3A%2F%2Fwcne.ws%2F16717"><img src="https://cdn.wcnews.com/design/images/buttons/if_twitter_2112797-20.png" title="Share on Twitter" alt="Share on Twitter" width="20" height="20"></a> </span> </h1> <P>Caliban System, 2669; second mission. Captain Eisen has ordered you to clear every single nav point to prevent the Kilrathi from reporting the Victory's jump point. You battle through two nav points of fierce fighters and then find… four capital ships, unescorted? There's a light destroyed, two corvettes and a…</P> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/wc3pc_scout_caliban.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wc3pc_scout_calibant.jpg" WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wc3pc_scout_calibant_2x.jpg 2x" class="twittercard"></A> </div> <P>… it's a transport? No, it's a… "scout"? The existence of the scout has long been recognized but to the best of my knowledge no one had really looked into /why/ it was there. So I did… and learned some interesting things in the process, including a pretty significant change to something we had previously thought about the making of the game! </P> <P>Wing Commander III famously shipped on time… but to make this happen the developers had to cut some broken features rather than spend time to get them working. A number of these changes were related to an item attachment bug which caused issues in some cases when models were supposed to be connected to a ship. This resulted in a number of otherwise completed ships and vehicles being dropped from the game at the eleventh hour. The team removed the intended Kilrathi transport, the Confederation frigate, the Kilrathi missile tank and others because they couldn't be made to work correctly with the time allowed.</P> <P>Some small item attachments DID work, however, and I started my investigation by looking at one. Kilrathi carriers have lines of blank fighters on their deck, the Victory has little trucks and barrels and the Clarkson-class transports in Wing Commander III carry a variety of cargo pods along their triangular superstructure. This allows for a total of up to ten cargo pods on any given transport: three along each side of the triangle plus a fourth pod in the extra space at the front on top. First, I studied the internal filenames and models to identify each type of container:</P> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/chart-confedmodules.jpg"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/chart-confedmodulest.jpg" WIDTH="121" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/chart-confedmodulest_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <P>Next, I decided to chart out the possible transport configurations. I learned that there are three different configurations seen in Wing Commander III: fully laden with a variety of containers in every slot, partially loaded with only four containers in the forward slots and then completely empty. Here are all three configurations:</P> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/wc3_042.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wc3_042t.jpg" WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wc3_042t_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/wc3_039.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wc3_039t.jpg" WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wc3_039t_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/wc3_044.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wc3_044t.jpg" WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wc3_044t_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/chart-sportlayouts.jpg"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/chart-sportlayoutst.jpg" WIDTH="224" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/chart-sportlayoutst_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <P>Further organizing, I found eighteen different transports in Wing Commander III missions. Almost half of them are from the losing Blackmane series and two appear in the simulator. Interestingly, the only time we see the fully laden variant is in Orsini A4 (the Skipper mission) and in the sim. The others are all the partial configuration except for the booby-trapped ones, which are empty (a sign of danger!). Additional fact: the first transport you escort in Orsini A3 is labeled 'cargo' instead of 'transport'. </P> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/chart-transports.jpg"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/chart-transportst.jpg" WIDTH="178" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/chart-transportst_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <P>Aside: Wait what? Booby-trapped? It's easy to miss: in either version of the Blackmane series you come across a pair of transports to escort home only to find that they explode and damage your ship when you approach them to link up (followed by an attack from decloaking Strakha). These transports were captured by the Kilrathi and then set to explode to ambush you. How was the audience supposed to know this? It isn't mentioned anywhere in the final PC game; instead, the warning about these transports came in a TNC news segment that was cut late for space. </P> <div class="lazyframe" data-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0ct_PmbOATg" data-vendor="youtube"></div> <blockquote> This is Barbara Miles with another TNC InfoBurst. Reports have surfaced that captured Confederation transports and freighters have been used by the enemy as decoys, luring in unsuspecting fighter pilots who are then ambushed by the enemy. </blockquote> <P>This demonstrates an issue with Wing Commander III's design that speaks to all of this: as it was not possible to rework the briefing and debriefing scenes ones they were shot, planners had to be as generic as possible to allow mission designers to adapt to the ordinary challenges that come up between an initial implementation and release. It becomes increasingly difficult to have missions where, say, Captain Eisen tells you you're going to encounter a particular fighter or Rollins congratulates you for sinking a carrier because the film shoot happened before any of that could've been built, much less playtested. Occasionally, this works the other way around, where a briefing or debriefing seems to indicate the game intended you to have done something that never happened. And that's where this sort of Wing Commander archaeology begins!</P> <P>The attach bug actually carries over to Wing Commander IV where they decided to simply not include any cargo containers on the Clarkson… which neuters the feel of the early escort missions just a little bit! </P> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/wc4_confed_transport.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wc4_confed_transportt.jpg" WIDTH="209" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wc4_confed_transportt_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/wc4_union_transport.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wc4_union_transportt.jpg" WIDTH="228" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wc4_union_transportt_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <P>Wing Commander IV does do some additional development of the transport, though. In the introduction we see a high res cinematic model of the Clarkson configured as the Amadeus, a medical transport. The 'rungs' each have two inhabitable modules filled with civilians (briefly). </P> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/Amadeus_1.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/Amadeus_1t.jpg" WIDTH="300" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/Amadeus_1t_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/Amadeus_2.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/Amadeus_2t.jpg" WIDTH="300" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/Amadeus_2t_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/Amadeus_3.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/Amadeus_3t.jpg" WIDTH="300" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/Amadeus_3t_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/Amadeus_4.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/Amadeus_4t.jpg" WIDTH="300" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/Amadeus_4t_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <P>There's no in-game Amadeus model other than the damaged hulk you discover early in the game. But you can see here that instead of attaching a separate set of boxes they've simply created a single model of the transport and the cargo together. The same thing occurs with the Peleus jammer which uses a Clarkson base and attaches weird evil antennae to it. </P> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/WC4-Medical-Transport.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC4-Medical-Transportt.jpg" WIDTH="195" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC4-Medical-Transportt_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/WC4_Jammer.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC4_Jammert.jpg" WIDTH="201" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WC4_Jammert_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <P>Wing Commander IV does have an abandoned Clarkson cargo pod in its files, though! This set of military pods was intended to be applied to the transport in order to serve as a marine troopship. It would've been present around the Lexington in the Tyr series as the home of the troops used to seize the ground installations (or, for Playstation fans, the three identical space labs). </P> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/wc4_camo_cargo.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wc4_camo_cargot.jpg" WIDTH="198" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wc4_camo_cargot_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <P>And here's an interesting bit of Amadeus-related archaeology. A prototype of the 'attached habitation pods' are actually visible in a rendering included in the 1995 Wing Commander card game. This art was done by Origin and likely represents the state of the cinematic quality model between Wing Commander III and IV. So you're essentially looking at the Amadeus for the introduction as she took shape! If you zoom in to the scan you can even read the ship's registration number, TCV 147-52, something not present in the WC3 art. </P> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/WCTCG_Modifier_Transport.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WCTCG_Modifier_Transportt.jpg" WIDTH="108" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/WCTCG_Modifier_Transportt_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <P>This all brings us to the Kilrathi "triangle transport" which was famously cut from the game because of the attachment bugs. For many years, the accepted story has been that there were two freighters designed for Wing Commander III: one triangular transport and one boxy one connected with a series of latticeworks. The triangular transport was later named Dukara in Star Soldier and the multipart ship was named the Sha'kar, both in honor of transports specced out for Privateer Online. Both transports are present in the games' files but only the Sha'kar ever appears in the original PC version of the game. </P> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/wc3-cut-transport.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wc3-cut-transportt.jpg" WIDTH="168" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wc3-cut-transportt_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/wc3-transport-final.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wc3-transport-finalt.jpg" WIDTH="197" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wc3-transport-finalt_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/manual_SS_classes.jpg"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/manual_SS_classest.jpg" WIDTH="430" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/manual_SS_classest_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <P>The story went that the Dukara was intended to be the game's transport and the Sha'kar was designed specifically as a tanker for the Torgo series Behemoth refueling mission. Because of the attachment error, the Dukara was replaced in both roles by the Sha'kar (mirroring, interestingly, Wing Commander 1 and 2 which both began with two Kilrathi freighters each and cut one for disk space).</P> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/wc3pc_tanker.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wc3pc_tankert.jpg" WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wc3pc_tankert_2x.jpg 2x" class="twittercard"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/wc3pc_transport.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wc3pc_transportt.jpg" WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wc3pc_transportt_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <P>One of the biggest pieces of evidence for this has been that that's how the 3DO port, which had more time to fix bugs and add features, presents the transports. The Dukara is resurrected and the Sha'kar is limited to a single appearance in the refueling mission.</P> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/3DO_Transport1.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/3DO_Transport1t.jpg" WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/3DO_Transport1t_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/3DO_Transport2.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/3DO_Transport2t.jpg" WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/3DO_Transport2t_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/3DO_Tanker1.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/3DO_Tanker1t.jpg" WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/3DO_Tanker1t_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/3DO_Tanker2.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/3DO_Tanker2t.jpg" WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/3DO_Tanker2t_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <P>But it turns out, that isn't what was intended for the Sha'kar at all! The attachment bug did, indeed, create this situation but the Sha'kar was never meant to be a transport. To learn more, I organized the game's unused Kilrathi container options. There are a total of seven. Four of them mirror their Confederation counterparts and the others are a pair of more unique shapes and one special fuel pod. As intended, these would have appeared down the side of the Dukaras with variation depending on the mission… including the tanker mission, which would've used the longer fuel tanks on the chart.</P> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/chart-kilrathimodules.jpg"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/chart-kilrathimodulest.jpg" WIDTH="114" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/chart-kilrathimodulest_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <P>So if the Kilrathi transport and tanker were intended to be the same Dukara triangle transport then what was the Sha'kar designed for? The answer will shock you unless you read the title of this article and/or the introduction: it was originally meant to be a SCOUT! The idea was that the Scout Frigate was an especially unusual Kilrathi ship that is so incredibly rare that it seems to the player to be an incredibly special encounter. It's a fascinating piece of worldbuilding and game design that was unfortunately totally lost to the maelstrom in the final release… despite the fact that the scout appears correctly and works exactly as intended! But because it's "just" a transport the player doesn't notice it and because there's no reference to it in the briefing or debriefing there's no real reason to ever even consider why it has a different name (or why its survival immediately prompts you to lose the series). </P> <P>There's actually a second potential Scout encounter in the game and its presence explains a weird mechanic that WC3 somehow uses only once. If you choose to rescue Flint in the Locanda series you must visit four different nav points. Each nav point has a fixed percent chance of an encounter from a set of four possible. An average play through tends to give you one of these random encounters and then one with Flint fighting a Fralthi II cruiser. But you can have up to four different sets of enemies present chosen at random… with the rarest encounter being a Scout and a pair of Vaktoth. Again, the high level idea is that the Scout is something so incredibly special that players will argue whether or not it even existed. It's so clever, it's a perfect moment of Chris Roberts immersion and it's clearly something that a fair amount of thought and actual development time went into realizing! But it's totally negated by the model being turned into the standard transport!</P> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/wc3pc_scout.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wc3pc_scoutt.jpg" WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wc3pc_scoutt_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <P>But do we know anything else about the Scout? It turns out, we do! There have been some Scout facts in our faces for thirty years and we just haven't been able to see them. Origin's Official Guide to Wing Commander III actually has a full description and a set of specifications for the scout printed in its unusual Kilrathi ships section!</P> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/guide_officialguide_scout.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/guide_officialguide_scoutt.jpg" WIDTH="328" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/guide_officialguide_scoutt_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <blockquote> SCOUT FRIGATE<br> The scout frigate is a glorified frigate, equipped with high-resolution radar and enhanced tracking software that supports electronic jamming techniques. Their purpose is to scout out enemy actions and report fleet coordinates to their base of operation.<br> <br> Class: Frigate<br> Length: 620 meters<br> Mass: 26,000 metric tonnes<br> Max. YPR: 5 dps<br> Max. Velocity: 160 kps<br> Acceleration: 10 k/s^2<br> Shields<br> Fore: 1000 cm equiv.<br> Aft: 1000 cm equiv.<br> Armor<br> Fore/Aft: 600 cm<br> Right/Left: 600 cm<br> Weapons<br> Laser Turrets (3)<br> FF missile turrets (2) </blockquote> <P>See how the role described matches the Caliban 2 mission setup exactly? The Scout is the thing scanning for the Victory and reporting its location to Thrakhath. And the Authorized Combat Guide to Wing Commander III even has a notation about how special the scout is! We knew this existed but assumed it was incorrectly referring to the (cut) Confederation frigate. In retrospect, the reason the stats are so close is because that's how all the similarly-classed ships in Wing Commander III work.. the Confederation's frigate, operated by Paladin's elite Covert Operations, is their equivalent of the special Kilrathi scout frigate.</P> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/guide_combatguide_scout.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/guide_combatguide_scoutt.jpg" WIDTH="773" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/guide_combatguide_scoutt_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <blockquote> Long range sensors show that there's a Kilrathi Scout Ship at nav 3 as well. This is a rare bird, probably the only one in this entire region. The Scout is a hybrid between a Corvette and a Destroyer. While this is a new class of ship and not one we have a lot of tactical data on, our analysis team recommends that you strafe its turrets and take them out first, then switch to your heavy guns and riddle the aft engine sections. </blockquote> <P>Aside: wait, how do I know what the Dukara is? I'm not some filthy 3DO owner! Even though it didn't appear in the game itself, the Dukara was pretty prolific from 1994 to 1996! It appears in the first ever released screenshot of Wing Commander III, in an Intel print ad, in the Wing Commander CCG and was then used for a pretty spectacular (and heavily promoted) cinematic sequence in Wing Commander IV! As you can see, they never return to the Sha'kar as a Kilrathi transport even though it would've been easy and made sense to the audience.</P> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/wc3_promo_ad.jpg"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wc3_promo_adt.jpg" WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wc3_promo_adt_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/Print_Intel_Ad.jpg"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/Print_Intel_Adt.jpg" WIDTH="112" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/Print_Intel_Adt_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/CCG_Transport_Kilrathi.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/CCG_Transport_Kilrathit.jpg" WIDTH="108" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/CCG_Transport_Kilrathit_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/wc4_triangle_transports1.jpg"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wc4_triangle_transports1t.jpg" WIDTH="220" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wc4_triangle_transports1t_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/wc4_triangle_transports2.jpg"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wc4_triangle_transports2t.jpg" WIDTH="220" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wc4_triangle_transports2t_2x.jpg 2x" class="twittercard"></A> </div> <P>Well, that's the end!? No, there's another ship that was cut from Wing Commander III because of the attach bug and replaced by a generic reuse: the Confederation frigate. That's right, both sides had frigates and they were both mercilessly cut down by the God of software development. The Confederation frigate, later slightly confusingly named Caernarven-class, appears in the Alcor system where it is supposed to indicate Paladin's arrival (it's Paladin's frigate!). But in the final game it was replaced with a destroyer NAMED frigate:</P> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/wc3pc_frigate.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wc3pc_frigatet.jpg" WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wc3pc_frigatet_2x.jpg 2x" class="twittercard"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/wc3-cut-frigate.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wc3-cut-frigatet.jpg" WIDTH="222" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wc3-cut-frigatet_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <P>Unlike the scout, the Confederation frigate's specifications actually appear in Victory Streak:</P> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/manual_VS_frigate.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/manual_VS_frigatet.jpg" WIDTH="340" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/manual_VS_frigatet_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <P>You will again recognize the cut frigate immediately: it was rehabilitated for Wing Commander IV where it was decked out as a pirate base ship and in Confederation and Border Worlds liveries. </P> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/wc4_pirate_frigate.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wc4_pirate_frigatet.jpg" WIDTH="191" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wc4_pirate_frigatet_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/wc4_ubw_frigate.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wc4_ubw_frigatet.jpg" WIDTH="224" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wc4_ubw_frigatet_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/wc4_confed_frigate.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wc4_confed_frigatet.jpg" WIDTH="226" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wc4_confed_frigatet_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <P>And then there's one more ever-so-slight ship reuse. To eliminate a bug where you could fly the Torgo minelaying mission without enough mines, the 3DO port of Wing Commander III instead asks you to escort a pair of Confederation minelayers… and like the frigate, they are simply relabeled Southampton-class destroyers! </P> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/3DO_Minelayer.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/3DO_Minelayert.jpg" WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/3DO_Minelayert_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/bigscoutpan.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/bigscoutpant.jpg" WIDTH="437" HEIGHT="300" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/bigscoutpant_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <div id="comments-16717" class="container-comments"></div> <footer> <div class="outer"> <div class="author-avatar"> <img class="news-author-avatar" src="https://cdn.wcnews.com/design/avatars/5.png" alt="author avatar"/> </div> <div class="author-info"> <a href="mailto:news@wcnews.com">LOAF</a> </div> <div id="comment-count-16717" class="comment-bubble discuss-link" data-updateid="16717" data-threadid="32132"> Comment on this </div> </div></footer> </article></section> <section class="daily-content"> <header> <a href="/news/2024/11/20"> <time datetime="2024-11-20">2024.325 (November 20, 2024)</time> </a> </header> <article class="news-post" id="16716"> <h1> <a href="/news/2024/11/20/wing-commander-cover-paintings-detailed">Wing Commander Cover Paintings Detailed</a> <span class="permalink"> <a href="/news/update/16716"><img src="https://cdn.wcnews.com/design/icons/if_link.png" height="20" alt="Update ID"></a> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wcnews.com%2Fnews%2Fupdate%2F16716&t=Wing%20Commander%20Cover%20Paintings%20Detailed"><img src="https://cdn.wcnews.com/design/images/buttons/if_facebook_2581819-20.png" title="Share on Facebook" alt="Share on Facebook" width="20" height="20"></a> <a href="https://twitter.com/home?status=Wing%20Commander%20Cover%20Paintings%20Detailed%20https%3A%2F%2Fwcne.ws%2F16716"><img src="https://cdn.wcnews.com/design/images/buttons/if_twitter_2112797-20.png" title="Share on Twitter" alt="Share on Twitter" width="20" height="20"></a> </span> </h1> <P>Here's a little treasure: six pieces of rarely-seen Wing Commander cover artwork without the trade dress! These stunning paintings were created by sci-fi and fantasy artist <A HREF="https://krasnyart.eu/">Jan Patrik Krásný</A> for the Czech language translations of six Wing Commander novels. The books were published between 2001 and 2005 by Poutnik Knihy. Most interestingly, they were published not for the Wing Commander IP but because Dr. William Forstchen is particularly popular in the Czech Republic! The resulting cover art is a kind of what-if scenario where the novels are imagined on their own without the associated games!</P> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/Czech_Cover_1.jpg"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/Czech_Cover_1t.jpg" WIDTH="99" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/Czech_Cover_1t_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/Czech_Cover_2.jpg"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/Czech_Cover_2t.jpg" WIDTH="102" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/Czech_Cover_2t_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/Czech_Cover_3.jpg"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/Czech_Cover_3t.jpg" WIDTH="89" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/Czech_Cover_3t_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/Czech_Cover_4.jpg"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/Czech_Cover_4t.jpg" WIDTH="96" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/Czech_Cover_4t_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/Czech_Cover_5.jpg"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/Czech_Cover_5t.jpg" WIDTH="105" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/Czech_Cover_5t_2x.jpg 2x"></A> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/Czech_Cover_6.jpg"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/Czech_Cover_6t.jpg" WIDTH="89" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/Czech_Cover_6t_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <div id="comments-16716" class="container-comments"></div> <footer> <div class="outer"> <div class="author-avatar"> <img class="news-author-avatar" src="https://cdn.wcnews.com/design/avatars/5.png" alt="author avatar"/> </div> <div class="author-info"> <a href="mailto:news@wcnews.com">LOAF</a> </div> <div id="comment-count-16716" class="comment-bubble discuss-link" data-updateid="16716" data-threadid="32127"> Comment on this </div> </div></footer> </article></section> <section class="daily-content"> <header> <a href="/news/2024/11/19"> <time datetime="2024-11-19">2024.324 (November 19, 2024)</time> </a> </header> <article class="news-post" id="16714"> <h1> <a href="/news/2024/11/19/take-an-amiga-wc-break">Take an Amiga WC Break</a> <span class="permalink"> <a href="/news/update/16714"><img src="https://cdn.wcnews.com/design/icons/if_link.png" height="20" alt="Update ID"></a> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wcnews.com%2Fnews%2Fupdate%2F16714&t=Take%20an%20Amiga%20WC%20Break"><img src="https://cdn.wcnews.com/design/images/buttons/if_facebook_2581819-20.png" title="Share on Facebook" alt="Share on Facebook" width="20" height="20"></a> <a href="https://twitter.com/home?status=Take%20an%20Amiga%20WC%20Break%20https%3A%2F%2Fwcne.ws%2F16714"><img src="https://cdn.wcnews.com/design/images/buttons/if_twitter_2112797-20.png" title="Share on Twitter" alt="Share on Twitter" width="20" height="20"></a> </span> </h1> Here, enjoy some Amiga WC1! This is far from the first time that we've posted an Amiga playthrough, but it's always fun to watch. Plenty of people got their first look at the game on PC or Super Nintendo, so for those folks, it's fun to see something like this to pick out the many small differences. Check out LOAF's comparison of the <A href="/news/2022/06/15/amazing-variation-in-wc-ports-trainsims">TrainSim</A> and <A href="/news/2022/07/24/no-lack-of-barracks-here">Barracks</A> as an example! <div class="lazyframe" data-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FlndzTSHJvw" data-vendor="youtube"></div> <blockquote> The original Amiga version of Wing Commander had just 16 colors. It was released right before the Amiga 1200, which introduced the 256-color AGA version. Wing Commander is a computer game series from Origin Systems, the series creator is the American game developer Chris Roberts. The series is about humanity's fight for survival in the 27th century against aggressive alien races, particularly the cat-like Kilrathi. </blockquote> <div id="comments-16714" class="container-comments"></div> <footer> <div class="outer"> <div class="author-avatar"> <img class="news-author-avatar" src="https://cdn.wcnews.com/design/avatars/70.gif" alt="author avatar"/> </div> <div class="author-info"> <a href="mailto:news@wcnews.com">ChrisReid</a> </div> <div id="comment-count-16714" class="comment-bubble discuss-link" data-updateid="16714" data-threadid="0"> Comment on this </div> </div></footer> </article></section> <section class="daily-content"> <header> <a href="/news/2024/11/18"> <time datetime="2024-11-18">2024.323 (November 18, 2024)</time> </a> </header> <article class="news-post" id="16715"> <h1> <a href="/news/2024/11/18/wing-commander-movie-night-top-gun">Wing Commander Movie Night: Top Gun</a> <span class="permalink"> <a href="/news/update/16715"><img src="https://cdn.wcnews.com/design/icons/if_link.png" height="20" alt="Update ID"></a> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wcnews.com%2Fnews%2Fupdate%2F16715&t=Wing%20Commander%20Movie%20Night%3A%20Top%20Gun"><img src="https://cdn.wcnews.com/design/images/buttons/if_facebook_2581819-20.png" title="Share on Facebook" alt="Share on Facebook" width="20" height="20"></a> <a href="https://twitter.com/home?status=Wing%20Commander%20Movie%20Night%3A%20Top%20Gun%20https%3A%2F%2Fwcne.ws%2F16715"><img src="https://cdn.wcnews.com/design/images/buttons/if_twitter_2112797-20.png" title="Share on Twitter" alt="Share on Twitter" width="20" height="20"></a> </span> </h1> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/TopGunPoster.jpg"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/TopGunPostert.jpg" WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="300" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/TopGunPostert_2x.jpg 2x" CLASS="align-right"></A> </div> <P>I'm happy to report that our second Wing Commander movie night was a success! We had a great group of fans who enjoyed seeing–and lightly roasting–<a href="/news/2024/11/11/wing-commander-movie-night-the-dam-busters">The Dam Busters</a> together this past Friday night. You can find the complete after action report later this week. So next we're going to be watching a movie that's a little more modern… with some more obvious connections to both the original Wing Commander game and the 1999 film. That's right, on Friday you are welcome to <a href="https://discord.com/invite/vwKE8Tc">join us</a> for a group watch of Top Gun (1986). </P> <div class="lazyframe" data-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ArOMXELHiLw" data-vendor="youtube"></div> <P>Top Gun is a 1986 action film based on the United States Navy's elite program that teaches top fighter pilots skills that they in turn pass on to their compatriots. It helped usher in lead Tom Cruise's ongoing superstardom and is one of the prototypes of the modern blockbuster. My generation loved it for mixing pulse-pounding air combat with engaging characters we couldn't help but root for… but does it hold up compared to the mega-films of today?</P> <P>… and more importantly, how does it connect to Wing Commander? Let me count the ways! For the 1999 film, Top Gun naturally influenced the shape of the dogfights. Visual effects supervisor Chris Brown talked about it in an April 1999 Cinefex interview (<A HREF="https://download.wcnews.com/files/wcm/Cinefex77-April1999-Wing_Commander_Article.pdf">full article</A>):</P> <blockquote> The bold, hand-held look of the live-action was carried through to the digital space exteriors. "Top Gun had some terrific aerial dynamics, which served as inspiration," said Brown. "We decided to let the smaller ships blow right into camera while adding camera shake, as if a shockwave of air has buffeted the camera operator. Of course, there's no air in space; but the visceral nature of this approach served the story best. Adding heat-ripple when a ship's engine passed close by was another thing we lifted from that film." </blockquote> <P>FOX's home video marketing department also made heavy use of Wing Commander's similarity to Top Gun. Advertisements at both the distributor and the consumer levels promised that the film was “‘Starship Troopers’ Meets ‘Top Gun’ in this no-holds-barred battle on the far reaches of space.” Hey, at least it's better than all hell breaking loose at the edge of the universe!</P> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/videobusiness_vhs2.jpg"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/videobusiness_vhs2t.jpg" WIDTH="114" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/videobusiness_vhs2t_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <P>Of course, Top Gun and Wing Commander go much further back. Val Kilmer's Iceman is, of course, the inspiration for the taciturn Michael "Iceman" Casey introduced in the original game. And Chris Roberts himself took his callsign, Maverick, from the movie… and it eventually became the canonical callsign for Blair (used most frequently on Wing Commander Academy, avoided altogether in the film! An early <A HREF="/news/2007/10/05/point-of-origin-vol-1-no-6">Point of Origin</A> even bragged about the December 1991 issue of Omni calling Wing Commander II "Top Gun 2001". Now there's an idea for a movie!</P> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/Iceman_Face.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/Iceman_Facet.jpg" WIDTH="375" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/Iceman_Facet_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <P>There was even a business partnership at one point! In 1996, Origin signed on to help promote Thrustmaster's line of high quality flight sticks and other equipment, going so far as to include advertisements in copies of Privateer 2. And then Thrustmaster, for their part, added one of Privateer 2's Heretic fighters to the box of their best selling Top Gun-branded 'stick! </P> <div class="gallery"> <A HREF="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/thrustmaster-topgun-2.png"><IMG SRC="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/thrustmaster-topgun-2t.jpg" WIDTH="135" HEIGHT="150" SRCSET="https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/thrustmaster-topgun-2t_2x.jpg 2x"></A> </div> <P>The general idea for Wing Commander Academy, with pilots attending a special flight school that offers additional command instruction for the most promising fighter pilots, comes straight from Top Gun.</P> <P>Finally, Top Gun is the rare film that we can authorotatively say is still watched in the Wing Commander universe! Peter Telep's Wing Commander novelizations include an exchange between Blair and Angel about his callsign in which he reveals that he has, indeed, seen Top Gun. </P> <blockquote> "Comm established," she replied, flashing him a thumbs-up on the left VDU. "Lieutenant, your call sign is Maverick? Where'd you get that? From some old movie?"<br> <br> "Actually, ma'am, it's been a standing joke for a while now. Back at the academy, I had a rep for being a by-the-book flyer. So, of course, they called me Maverick. And yeah, I did see that old movie. They flew those big, heavy atmospheric fighters. Must've been fun back then."<br> <br> "We'll never know," she said curtly. "All moorings are clear. External power disengaged. Internal systems nominal, roger." </blockquote> <P>All of which is to say we're going to have a LOT to talk about this time around!</P> <P><B>Where can I find a copy of the movie for the watch party?</B></P> <P>Top Gun is currently <A HREF="https://www.paramountplus.com/movies/video/OZkLn_xRuFBy_B3dQnzkewP0hw99lxaZ/?cbsclick=xZ8TnWWh7xyKTAbWNU36RVnsUkCT93xnNw4lRk0&vndid=2229206&clickid=2229206&sharedid=&ftag=PPM-09-10aag1f&dclid=CMXXt7qO4okDFRxDRwEdbPYZZg">streaming on Paramount+</A> in the United States and is available for rental or sale digitally at all storefronts. If you're interested in tracking down a physical copy, a UHD version was released in 2020 which remains in print. If you are unable to track down a copy please ping a member of the WCCIC staff on the Discord in advance of the watch.</P> <P><B>How do we watch the movie together?</B></P> <P>It's pretty low tech! Simply join the <A HREF="https://discord.gg/vwKE8Tc">Wing Commander CIC Discord</A> on Friday and we will be chatting (in text) along with the film in the main channel. Everyone who wants to join in should bring their own copy and we will count down to play them together at 10 PM EST. Everyone is welcome and we encourage you to join in the conversation; sharing your thoughts helps make the experience better for everyone!</P> <div id="comments-16715" class="container-comments"></div> <footer> <div class="outer"> <div class="author-avatar"> <img class="news-author-avatar" src="https://cdn.wcnews.com/design/avatars/5.png" alt="author avatar"/> </div> <div class="author-info"> <a href="mailto:news@wcnews.com">LOAF</a> </div> <div id="comment-count-16715" class="comment-bubble discuss-link" data-updateid="16715" data-threadid="0"> Comment on this </div> </div></footer> </article></section><div id="archive-links">All news for November 2024 can be found <a href="/news/2024/11">here</a>.<BR/>Older news can be found in the <a href="/news">archive</a>.</div>   </div> <div id="m_right">  <section id="search"> <a href="/news/search"><h1>Search News</h1></a> <form class="content" action="/news/search" method="POST"> <input id="search_keywords" type="text" name="keywords" placeholder="Search..."><input id="search_button" type="submit" value="🔍"/> <div id="search_advanced"><a href="/news/search" title="Advanced search">advanced</a></div> </form> </section> <section id="social"> <a href="/contact.shtml"><h1>Follow or Contact Us</h1></a> <div class="content"> <a href="https://discord.gg/vwKE8Tc"> <img src="https://cdn.wcnews.com/design/images/buttons/4180408_discord_squircle_icon.svg" height="32" width="32" alt="Discord" title="Discord chat with staff and fans"> </a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@WingCommanderCIC"> <img src="https://cdn.wcnews.com/design/images/buttons/986962_youtube_icon.svg" height="32" width="32" alt="YouTube" title="Follow us on YouTube"> </a> <a href="https://www.twitter.com/wccic"> <img src="https://cdn.wcnews.com/design/images/buttons/986958_twitter_icon.svg" height="32" width="32" alt="Twitter" title="Follow us on Twitter"> </a> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/WingCommanderCIC"> <img src="https://cdn.wcnews.com/design/images/buttons/986944_facebook_icon.svg" height="32" width="32" alt="Facebook" title="Follow us on Facebook"> </a>  <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/wcnews.com"> <img src="https://cdn.wcnews.com/design/images/buttons/bluesky_icon.svg" height="32" width="32" alt="Bluesky" title="Follow us on Bluesky"> <a href="/contact.shtml"> <img src="https://cdn.wcnews.com/design/images/buttons/2569496_email_icon_s.svg" height="32" width="32" alt="E-mail" title="Contact the staff & FAQ"> </a>   </div> </section>  <section id="awc"> <a href="/all-wings-considered"><h1>All Wings Considered</h1></a> <div class="content"> <span class="awcheader">Episode 37 - 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