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While working with Privateer 2, I've found a couple of small-but-interesting unused game assets still present in the release version. The first are two VDU images for what seem to be bases that aren't present in the game. It's likely that these were additional mission-specific spacelabs because they're stored right before and after Spacelab 1 and Spacelab 2.

One of these stations looks a lot like a relative of the Kiowan pirate clan's Kastagan station (which is present elsewhere and has a unique VDU) while the other reminds me a little bit of NASA's Skylab space station... which further suggests the dropped spacelab theory.

While researching these, I also came across this sheet of pre-release VDU images from an earlier build which is pretty fascinaitng. You can see earlier versions of several of the ships (presumably the first ones build) and the placeholder for the fregihters is very different from any

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The Wing Commander movie club had a good time with Flash Gordon (1980)! It's a joy of a film that for the lack of a better description is full of things you haven't seen anywhere else. It's hard to figure how Dino De Laurentiis believed this was going to be the next Star Wars… but it's certainly something. We also noted that it really seems like the missing link between Jodorowsky's Dune pitch and the 1984 David Lynch Dune, produced by this same group. For all we blame the "weirdness" of that first Dune adaptation on Lynch there's actually a great deal in Flash Gordon that suggests much of that comes from De Laurentiis in the first place. Interesting stuff!

Our big Wing Commander connection was that the Wing Commander III team listened to Queen's Flash Gordon soundtrack while the game was being developed. And it's easy to understand why, the theme is catchy. If you were present on Friday night I

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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 Hard Boiled (1992) and you can find details on why we're watching it in the announcement post here. The movie will start at 7 PM PST/10 PM EST but feel free to drop by and hang any time!

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We've got a brand new guide! For the past couple of weeks we've been working on a massive overhaul of the WCPedia's mission guide for Privateer 2: The Darkening. Most Wing Commander games have between 40 and 60 scripted missions... but Privateer 2 has a whopping 167 divided between the main plot, the cinematic missions and then BBS and rotating SOS missions. And for the first time ever we played every single one of them. No one player is likely ever to play them all in one go... which is a shame because they often tell fascinating little stories through their e-mails and diary entries. Which you can now study! Each page now includes:

• Updated mission layouts that include things that weren't in the guide, like space stations, cargo pods and satellites.
• Screenshots of every single uniquely named ships.
• Transcripts and screenshots of every single piece of correspondence.
• Writeups of how the game assigns

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Starports damaged in recent attacks across the Lhou Mans system have been successfully repaired.
The stations bore the brunt of a recent rise in extreme and organised criminal activity allegedly led by the notorious pirate figure known only as Lady Zi.
A joint exercise between system security forces and independent pilots drove hostile forces from Lhou Mans and allowed for the safe evacuation of passengers stranded on the damaged stations before repair efforts could begin.
Following the successful delivery of commodities needed to complete the repairs, system authorities have now confirmed that Dashiell Port, Sabine Gateway, Ryman Enterprise and Webb City are fully operational, with normal services now resuming.
No further sightings of Lady Zi's pirate fleet have been reported in the system and surrounding areas leaving many to question where they could strike next.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

What's in the box? Why, it's crammed full of DOS! That's right, the DOSBox Staging team has released a new version of their wonderful tool that keeps so many of us playing classic DOS games today. 0.83.0 sounds like a huge improvement. Some of these features, quoted below from their release notes, will have a huge impact on how you play Wing Commander. In particular, full SC-55 emulation will be a boon to anyone playing Privateer, Armada or Wing Commander III with MIDI music… and a built-in FMV deinterlacer sure seems like magic!

• 100% authentic Roland Sound Canvas SC-55 emulation via Nuked-SC55. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we’ve bagged this long-coveted trophy of DOS gaming! I really couldn’t tell the difference between our emulation and the hardware SC-55 unit sitting on my desk during extensive A/B tests!
• Authentic CRT colour emulation to take another big step towards faithfully emulating those