News***News***

Hallo, ich habe mal einen Thread aufgemacht wo man sämtliche News von Wing Commander reinschreiben kann.

BREAKING NEWS: GameTap Wing Commander 2 The good people at GameTap have published an article on upcoming games... and Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi is included! GameTap is a subscription service which gives access to an ever-increasing licensed collection of classic(and modern) video games. The titles are pre-tuned to work on modern systems, so there's no fooling with emulators or slowdown utilities.

Wing Commander II is currently scheduled for an October 11th release - and we'll be counting the days. Wing Commander I and Wing Commander IV are already available through the service, and Privateer has been advertised as a future addition... so subscribe today! What a great year this has been for Wing Commander. [Image: http://www.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wc2logo-wedget.jpg]

Standoff Episode 4 Dated Here's another important date for you to save: September 26th. The Wing Commander: Standoff mod team has announced that the penultimate episode of their game will be released then! Here's the official word:

Things are getting really close to completion now - the missions are in the final stages of bugfixing, we're only missing two pieces of music... and still waiting for quite a few voiceovers (although they've just about all been recorded now). Still, we wouldn't be announcing a release date if we didn't think we could realistically keep it, right? So, watch this space on September 26th - the Battle of Sirius is about to begin! [Image: http://www.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/standoff-episode4.png]

WC2 SNES Revisited Remember Wing Commander 2 SNES, the most exciting lost Wing Commander project? Lead Designer Billy Cain (who went on to fill the same role on Wing Commander Prophecy) was kind enough to answer some questions about the game! Check out the interview below -- it really does sound like it was a very unique project rather than a simple port. If you're part of the SNES community then be sure to keep spreading the word - this game exists... somewhere!

Who are you and how did you become involved with Origin?     I think you can find this somewhere else! 😊

What games have you worked on?     It's on www.criticalmassinteractive.com

What was your role with Wing Commander 2 SNES?     Lead Designer / Project Director

Can you give us some background on Origin at the time of WC2 SNES?     We were completing a series of game contracts for FCI Pony Canyon. WC2 SNES was the last of these. It was completed, but never shipped.

Who else worked on the game?     Axel Brown, Julian Alden-Salter (JAZ), Chris Primozich, and many other people, but we were also working on two other games at the same time so I am not 100% sure who did what on each game. I apologize for not being able to remember.

Do you remember how it differed from the original PC title?     Gameplay was significantly different, but we spent a majority of our time ensuring that the movies were 100% accurate. Story was huge on that game and we wanted to give it the respect it deserved. Since there was no real 'backup' of the original art, we wound up getting art from the FM Townes version that was either still in production or just completed production. It was quite a feat finding everything!!

Did you build off of WC SNES for the game, or did it have a new engine?     We did everything from scratch. It would have been very nice to have had that other engine to start from.

The magazine scans of WC2 SNES show some new artwork - different cockpits, full color Kilrathi VDUs. Who was responsible for that?     I want to say Eric Lund and other amazing artists we had on the team. Hey - write in guys and speak up if you can help fill in the info here! 😊

The original Wing Commander SNES ports were done by Mindscape. When did Origin switch to in-house SNES development?     It was before I got there, but I worked on Ultima IV SNES, that was eventually renamed Ultima: Black Gate. I had a mint copy until I lent it to a friend that promised to keep it in mint condition. He finally gave it back to me after it rode in his backpack for about 6 months, when he told me that he never got around to playing it. These are the things that make me wish I never lent things out. But back to the story... We then took the engine for U7 and did some quick conversion tools to create Savage Empire. I still don't have a copy of that. Then we did Metal Morph on a whim and FCI published it. I'm not particularly proud of that game, but it helped Origin make its quarter with EA, so there was "much rejoicing." After that, we started on Wing Commander II, but the SNES market was drying up. I think FCI made the right decision to not release it financially, but obviously it would be great to have it as part of the canon.

Was WC2 SNES a fun game in its own right, or an attempt to simply reproduce the PC WC2 experience?     It was a fun game in its own right, but the truth is that by the time we were in QA, I had been asked to help on Rugby World Cup '95 in EA's England office in Langley, so I was doing data files during the day in England (fixing bugs), they were being implemented at Origin during the day in Austin (my night), and I did not have a way to burn SNES EPROMs there. I could have done it if it was Sega... 😊 The person to ask if it was fun would be our intrepid tester Chris Primozich. He really did the hard work of getting through that game time and time again.

The game was finished, shipped off... why didn't it come out?     Financial risk in the market would be my only answer.

Do you have any idea where the prototype could be today?     Yes.

What was your favorite project at Origin?     Wow. I don't think I can really say because there were so many. If I had to pick one, it would probably be Wing Commander: Prophecy because I was responsible for guiding the game's design and I'm an action fan. The QA group was obviously helping tell all of us in development whether we were making mistakes and I believe that we did a good job of listening to them. There were many games that I thought would 'make it' but they didn't ship. There were also games that I liked a lot, but they weren't exactly my favorites like WC.

What are you up to these days?     I try to use my experience in the industry to help other games better, either as a consultant or a supplier of talent (contracted), or as a complete game developer for all platforms. And I spend time with my friends, wife, and two kids [Image: http://www.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wc2snes-1t.jpg]

What's Up With... Pioneer? The Wing Commander Pioneer fan project has been quiet for several months... but that doesn't mean it has been abandoned! Programmer Joel VanEenwyk stopped by the forums to give a report:

I'm finally settled into my new job, so I've been coding away last week or so. We're working on a number of test cases to make sure the engine is solid, but we have also switched focus to gameplay for a while, so that we can finally start seeing some results. I could keep working on the engine, but it doesn't lead to playable results, which has been discouraging for us. We hope to have a rough playable demo for ourselves in the next couple weeks. Once we have that, we can focus more on the graphical side of things.

[Image: http://www.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wcpioneer83t.jpg][Image: http://www.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/wcpioneer87t.jpg]

Get Ready To Stand Off There's just three more days until the expected release of Standoff Episode 4. In order to get your system set up and some practice time in, there's a few things you can do right now.

Install the Secret Ops Starter Pack (112 megs) first. Secret Ops doesn't have to be registered to play Standoff (just installed), but you can generate a reg code here. Install Standoff Episodes 1, 2 & 3 (194 megs). This package includes all aspects of the game prior to the upcoming Episode 4. Get recognized on the Simulator Scoreboard. The first three chapters are a complete experience by thsmselves, but players can also get their simulator scores posted to compete against fellow Wingnuts online. Check out the instructions here on how to get set up for online scoring. In addition to a Crius.net account, players will need to advance into Episode 2 to unlock the simulator. [Image: http://www.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/standoffepfour13t.jpg][Image: http://www.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/standoffepfour06t.jpg][Image: http://www.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/standoff-sept07-2t.jpg]

Standoff Episode 4 wird fertig bis 27. September 10 Uhr. Laut CIC schaffen die Jungs, das bis 00.00 Uhr Hawaii-Zeitzone.

Hoffentlich halten die ihre Zeit. Das wär wirklich Klasse.  Freuh!!! Vorfreude!!! ;D :'(

Mh da ich zwischenzeitlich Standoff nicht mehr drauf hatte muß ich jetzt wieder alles durchspielen? Och nö...aber irgendwie bin ich doch gespannt was die neueste Episode bringt.

PS: Das ist ein Grund warum ich Episoden releases nicht mag ^_^

Irgendwie finde ich Standoff zu schwer (zumindest die 1. Episode habe ich als schwer in Erinnerung). Aber ich habe eh nicht die Zeit das zu spielen (oder evtl. auch keine Lust - da ich Saga so oft spielen muss, will ich Weltraum nicht mehr sehen).

Ich auch nicht 😉 Saga ist sowieso viel besser 😁

Tolwyn schrieb: Irgendwie finde ich Standoff zu schwer (zumindest die 1. Episode habe ich als schwer in Erinnerung). Aber ich habe eh nicht die Zeit das zu spielen (oder evtl. auch keine Lust - da ich Saga so oft spielen muss, will ich Weltraum nicht mehr sehen).

Das wiederum glaub ich dir nicht 😉

Catkiller"]

Was denn? 😁

Ich kann Tolwyn schon irgendwie verstehen...ich mag deswegen ab und an mal wieder Crimson Skies ausm Regal holen. Standoff hab ich auch als recht schwer empfunden. Es dauerte lange bis ich mich dran gewöhnt hatte. Deswegen hab ich auch nicht so richtig lust wieder alles zu spielen.

Tolwyn"]

Was denn? 😁

Das mit dem Weltraum. 😁 Haha...

Recht hat er 😊

Aber ich habe kein Interesse andere Weltraumspiele zu spielen.

Standoff bringt nur ein bisschen Vorfreude auf das GROSSE SAGA, Wing commander Vorfreude erzeugen.

Muss leider auch erst wieder alle EPis durchspielen.

Auch keinen neuen Wing Commander, wenn er kommen würde? 😉

Catkiller schrieb: Auch keinen neuen Wing Commander, wenn er kommen würde? 😉

doch 😊

Ich würde gerne endlch mal wieder Freelancer spielen, X3 habe ich zu Hause liegen (noch nicht mal gestartet), aber mir fehlt einfach die Zeit...

Ich hab hier noch Sam&Max Season one liegen...ist zwar kein Flugsim aber würde ich auch gerne mal durchspielen ^^

gevatter Lars schrieb: Ich hab hier noch Sam&Max Season one liegen...ist zwar kein Flugsim aber würde ich auch gerne mal durchspielen ^^

mist, das habe ich auch vergessen. Allersdings habe ichs auf Englisch... 😊

Konnte man die Sprache nicht auswählen?

in den Downloaddingsbums? Nö.

Ach du hast es dir runtergeladen. Ich glaube da konnte man es nicht. Ich hab mir die DVD mit allen Teilen schenken lassen. ^_^

Ich hab mir die 1., 2. und 4. Episode gekauft. Die 4. habe ich noch nicht gespielt und die soll die beste sein *heul*

BREAKING NEWS: Standoff Episode 4 Released

Well, things were looking real nervous there for a while, but we made it - Episode 4 is out at last. As always, you can download the game from the WingCenter , or from Boomtown.net... and as always, Boomtown.net will only become available in a few hours, since I have to get them to upload the new file first :-P.

Episode 4 is definitely the biggest, most challenging - and by far the most troublesome - episode we've done so far. Hopefully you'll enjoy it ;-). This release also adds scoreboard functionality to two more simulator missions - that's missions 9 and 10 - for the remaining six missions, stay tuned for Episode 5 :-P.

As always, we've released the current episode in two versions. If you've already got Episodes 1-3, you'll want to download the Episode 4 package, which takes up 82 MB. And if you've missed out on any of the previous episodes, you should download the Episodes 1-4 package. Naturally, the latter package is just a tad bigger, weighing in at 270 MB - for this reason, it will only be up about one or two hours from now.                                                                                                                                 >Download Hier(82MB)<                                                                                             [Image: http://www.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/standoff-logot.jpg]

Ich bin immer noch in der 2ten Ep bei Sam&Max und hab Standoff gerade mal die ersten beiden Missionen gespielt. Die neuen Hintergründe sind sehr schick und auch die OGL engine sieht meiner Meinung nach besser aus als vorher und es läuft recht gut. Mhh jetzt muß ich doch wieder alle Eps durchspielen um zur 4ten zu gelangen.

Wie wärs, wenn du mal endlich unsere Missionen anspielst? Vor allem die allerneuesten? 😊

Wie schon beim Prologe möchte ich mir nicht die Spannung verderben ^_^

Tolwyn schrieb: Wie wärs, wenn du mal endlich unsere Missionen anspielst? Vor allem die allerneuesten? 😊

Wenn ihr wollt könnte ich euch dabei unterstützen. 😁 ich müsste nur wissen, was dabei zu beachten ist. Vielleicht könnte ich dazu beitragen, dass die "SAGA" schneller fertig wird. 😊

PS:das haben wir ja jetzt schon geübt. 😉

gevatter Lars schrieb: Wie schon beim Prologe möchte ich mir nicht die Spannung verderben ^_^

ich meinte das neueste Package 😊

Ach du meinst DAS pack...mh ja könnte ich wohl einplanen.

bis zu meiner Rückkehr aus dem Urlaub müssen alle Bugs gefunden werden 😉

Der Herr hat also absichtlich ein paar Fehler hinterlassen ^_^

...um zu sehen, wer die Mission wirklich gespielt hat. 😊

BREAKING NEWS: Standoff Episode 4 Released

Well, things were looking real nervous there for a while, but we made it - Episode 4 is out at last. As always, you can download the game from the WingCenter , or from Boomtown.net... and as always, Boomtown.net will only become available in a few hours, since I have to get them to upload the new file first :-P.

Episode 4 is definitely the biggest, most challenging - and by far the most troublesome - episode we've done so far. Hopefully you'll enjoy it ;-). This release also adds scoreboard functionality to two more simulator missions - that's missions 9 and 10 - for the remaining six missions, stay tuned for Episode 5 :-P.

As always, we've released the current episode in two versions. If you've already got Episodes 1-3, you'll want to download the Episode 4 package, which takes up 82 MB. And if you've missed out on any of the previous episodes, you should download the Episodes 1-4 package. Naturally, the latter package is just a tad bigger, weighing in at 270 MB - for this reason, it will only be up about one or two hours from now.                                                                                                                                 >Download Hier(82MB)<                                                                                             [Image: http://www.wcnews.com/newestshots/thumb/standoff-logot.jpg]

Irgendwie erinnert mich das alles hier an wcnews.... *hust* ich hab nix gesagt  ::)

Ja, ist es! wo soll ich auch sonst die Infos herhaben. Naja, wir brauchen diesen Thread auch nicht mehr, denn die News gibt ja jetzt auf der Frontpage. 😊

Catkiller schrieb:Naja, wir brauchen diesen Thread auch nicht mehr, denn die News gibt ja jetzt auf der Frontpage. 😊

*richtig stolz auf sich ist*