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Despite the fact that it was longer than a Redstone missile, The Right Stuff stood the test of time! And if you can believe it, it was our 52nd film and it marked the end to the first YEAR of the Wing Commander movie club. To kick off year two, we're going back to 1942 for a genuine classic: Casablanca. It's one of those movies people in my generation maybe only they assume they've seen… it'll be interesting to see how it goes! You can join us this Friday via Discord to watch along.

Our connection to Wing Commander comes from Wing Commander II Special Operations 2 in which Minx references the movie's famous closing line, "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship", while she is evil flirting with Jazz in the third 'second chance' mission.

JAZZ: You've done well, Minx. And now that my plan has succeeded--- ---and you've brought the Morningstar prototype to the Mandarins--- ---I'm

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The research for one of our recent posts required that we determine what starbases appeared in Wing Commander Prophecy's simulator. Just one problem: there's no guide to the simulator missions online! We decided to create our own and have added a super detailed page for all ten missions to the WCPedia:

• Level 0: Basic Flight Training
• Level 1: Basic Offensive Strategies
• Level 2: Defensive Strategies and Escorting
• Level 3: Heavy Weapons Training
• Level 4: Kilrathi Fighter Gauntlet
• Level 5: Timed Fighter Sweep
• Level 6: Capital Ship Sweep
• Level 7: Carrier Defense
• Level 8 Alien Fighter Gauntlet
• Level 9: Advanced Alien Fighter Gauntlet

We've done a lot of research into how Wing Commander Prophecy works to figure out things like how the gauntlet spawns work... and in the process we've learned some very interesting new things about these oft-ignored missions! Here are some of the high points:

• If you approach within 6,500

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We have terrible news to share today: veteran actor Tchéky Karyo passed away on Friday from cancer at age 72. Karyo was an extremely talented veteran Turkish and French actor who was known for crossing between roles in French cinema and Hollywood. Americans will know him in La Femme Nikita, Goldeneye and The Patriot to name only a few, and space fans in particular will remember his appearance as Georges Méliès in the grand finale of From the Earth to the Moon. Our own Wing Commander movie club recently spotted him in 1492: Conquest of Paradise and immediately declared him to be the only bright spot of the film! I myself knew him for The Bear and Eric Rohmer's Full Moon in Paris well before he ever graced our franchise with his talents. We want to send our strongest condolences to his family, friends, fans and everyone else that loved him. You can read a more complete account of his passing and career

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The Wing Commander movie club has nothing to fear but Sphere itself! The general consensus is that while there's some material of interest in Sphere it doesn't really come together in the end… and it spends a lot of time not quite getting there! In the week before the screening, a lot of people told me that Sphere was a guilty pleasure because they had seen it in theaters when it came out. And there's an argument that that's actually the best kind of movie: one you can enjoy in spite of itself.

... while Sphere may not be a timeless classic, we immediately saw that it had a pretty tangible impact on the Wing Commander movie. We knew going in that this was one of three movies referenced by Digital Anvil's spectacular opening titles… and just like 1492, the influence was obvious in the first seconds of the film. Like 1492, Sphere uses historical drawings as part of the backdrop for the titles… but it

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This is a reminder that we have another fun #Wingnut movie night planned on Discord this evening! The ongoing theme will be movies that are referenced by Wing Commander in some way. Tonight's film is The Right Stuff (1983) and you can find details on why we're watching it in the announcement post here. The movie will start about 6 PM PST/9 PM EST but feel free to drop by and hang any time! Please note that the movie is starting one hour earlier than usual to accommodate its run time.

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We recently posted about the Wing Commander material included in the Keyboard And Terminal Technology (KATT) Game Master Matt, which I was thrilled to see for the very first time. That was all thanks to LigMatrix who has done some truly incredible work preserving the history of this very odd device. And now they've made available a massive archive that includes not only the Wing Commander artwork but everything they managed to collect about the KATT... including a preserved copy of the actual upgrade ROM that adds support for games like Privateer and Academy! You can read all about it at Games That Weren't and you can download the material from the Internet Archive. There's even a well produced 45-minute video unboxing a KATT! Check it out: