Wing Commander Blu-ray Released!

The Wing Commander Movie is now available in high definition on Blu-ray disc! Today's release was finally made possible by Anchor Bay, which republishes cult favorites that may have been overlooked by the major publishers. Many major retailers carry the package online, and specialized entertainment or electronics stores in North America should have physical stock now.

After Wing Commander came out on DVD, VHS and DIVX in July 1999, it looked at first like the film may have had its run and then was done. Although initially not available for purchase, various high definition broadcasts provided a glimmer of hope that a sharper version would someday be released though. And fortunately, strong sales and rentals throughout the early 2000s pushed Fox to kick off a series of budget price reprints. Several online vendors eventually offered the movie for streaming as that technology matured. The first purchasable high definition version appeared in 2010 on the iPad's 1024x768 screen. This was eventually expanded in 2011 to more services and in 720p resolution. The first 1080p versions only recently appeared in 2012. Also in 2011, Fox reprinted the film on DVD again with a new cover.

Anchor Bay also put out a version of the film on standard DVD today. It's very similar to Fox's 2011 copy, but note that the back now calls it out as 'anamorphic'. The text on today's iteration is a bit bolder and the Anchor Bay/Starz branding has been added. The Blu-ray is officially categorized as Region A, which means it will play in North and South America, Japan, Taiwan, Korea and a few other Southeast Asian areas. Occasionally such discs will still play in other regions, and this will need to be tested out. Today's releases don't have any new filmed content, but there is yet again hope for an enhanced edition in the future. In 2015, film's distribution rights revert back to Chris Roberts, and he has said that he would be interested in someday producing a 'director's cut' with digitized Kilrathi and the uncut story.

Today's historic launch parallels last year's improbable release of Wing Commander Academy on DVD. Once again, what was once thought impossible has happened. Diehard Wingnuts always have faith that even greater Wing Commander products are coming, and days like today reaffirm that we are on the right track. Please enjoy the fact that a brand new boxed WC product is again sitting on store shelves right now!

--
Update published on . View all news from that day.

Wing Commander CIC - Visit the front page

Official news, fan projects and topics of particular interest to Wing Commander fans.

Hustle & Bustle on the Concordia's Flight Deck
2013-10-24 -- Howard Day's Concordia Hangar continues to fill up, and it's quite the hive of activity now! Prototype models of the Rapier, Crossbow and Epee have been added to give it a full WC2 assortment of ships. The substantial Crossbow bomber makes things especially crowded alongside the Broadsword and Sabre.

Sharp New Dralthi Concept Brought Into Third Dimension
2013-10-23 -- Longtime Wing Commander modeler Zohrath was a big fan of dczanik's recent reimaginings, so he took it one step further and made full 3D representation of the Dralthi! The Kilrathi ship is unmistakable, but it doesn't just pattern itself off the classic pancake. Sharp leading edges and multi-layer wing sections are reminscent of the Arena Dralthi and even the Vanduul Scythe.

New 3D Printing Options Offer Model Breakthrough
2013-10-22 -- Klavs has been struggling for a while in get Shapeways to allow 3D printing of all his various Wing Commander designs. It's a frustrating situation, since these ships have been ordered and created numerous times by fans over the past couple years, but tighter tolerances have made many previously-printable ships suddenly unavailable. He's been on the search for alternatives to keep the fleet buildup going, and there seems to be some success with a company called Sculpteo.

Text Based RPG Explores Enigma Campaign & Firekkan Reconstruction
2013-10-21 -- grapenut has kicked off a new Wing Commander MUSH. The text-based RPG is currently in testing, so you can try it out now. Origins of the project can be traced all the way back to the popular '90s MUSH WC: Red Horizon, although this game is brand new.

HBO Kicks Off Another Wing Commander Broadcast Run
2013-10-20 -- This is a reminder that Wing Commander will be showing on several HBO channels over the next month. The movie has also recently been added to the HBO GO app for on-demand viewing. If you're not an HBO subscriber, you can also pick up Wing Commander in high definition on Blu-Ray, iTunes and other streaming services.

Best Place to Park a Tarsus?
2013-10-20 -- We've posted a new poll that revists the seamier side of the Wing Commander universe. WC games are well known for their rich 'gameflow' locations where players congregate between spaceflight missions. And even among so many noteworthy locales, the places in Privateer's Gemini Sector are especially memorable.

WC vs History: Ships of the Victory Battle Group - Part II
2013-10-19 -- Last week, we looked at the cruiser Ajax and its historical namesakes. Today, we turn to the flagship of Destroyer Squadron 67, the TCS Coventry.TCS Coventry was a Southampton-Class Destroyer, one of the two in Destroyer Squadron 67.

Wing 4 Actors Test Their Might
2013-10-18 -- Two actors from Wing Commander IV appear in the new season of Mortal Kombat: Legacy. Mark Dacascos (Troy "Catscratch" Carter) plays Kung Lao, a shaolin monk who was introduced in Mortal Kombat II (1993) and is buddies with Liu Kang. Van Dien appeared briefly in Wing 4 but is best known for playing Johnny Rico in Starship Troopers.

Sabres Fill The Concordia's Hangar
2013-10-17 -- Here's an updated look at the development of the Sabre that's been added to Howard's Concordia Hangar. The first shots show off the pure model, and then we can see it in the actual hangar engine. Even though Confed colors haven't yet been applied, very delicate textures are already in place and the engines are glowing a lovely orange.

Hellcat Color's Perfect Now
2013-10-16 -- Whiplash has put together some more great pictures of his model Hellcat, which seems to be another popular ship in the news lately. He's gone crazy with the color accuracy by referencing authentic RGB values. This update also goes beyond primary hull paint and adds engine intake detail.

Test Fly a Hellcat V in Academy Now!
2013-10-15 -- HCl and Howard Day have released a playable preview of their Hellcat in Wing Commander Academy. Just unzip this file (115 k zip) into your WCA data directory. It will overwrite the game's Wraith, so back those two files up if you'd like to restore everything afterwards.

Sabres Dance In The Dark
2013-10-14 -- Klavs' artistic new wallpaper image is titled 'Sabredance'. It coincidentally stars the same F-57 Heavy Attack Fighter that was recently added to Howard's Concordia Hangar. It's a popular ship lately!

Roberts Space Industries Event Video Online
2013-10-13 -- As we mentioned on Thursday, Cloud Imperium Games hosted "Citizen Con 2013" in downtown Austin on October 10. The gathering was primarily a summit to bring together the internal and external development teams that are producing Star Citizen on a global scale. Designers, programmers and artists are busy working in Austin, multiple Southern California locations, Montreal and even Mexico to bring the massive space sim undertaking together.

GOG Discounts EA Games This Weekend
2013-10-12 -- Good Old Games has temporarily taken the price down on EA games, including the Wing Commander and Ultima franchises. It's a nice 60% discount this time around, which makes WC games just $2.39 each (including all expansions and WC1/2 counted as a single title).

WC vs History: Ships of the Victory Battle Group
2013-10-11 -- Wing Commander ships borrow their names from all nations and conflicts in history. Today, we are going to start looking at the ships of the Victory Battle Group from Wing Commander III. We'll look at one of the ships in each update, so be sure to check back in the coming weeks for complete coverage!

Cloud Imperium Games Celebrates Big Birthday
2013-10-10 -- The team over at Roberts Space Industries is celebrating the first anniversary of their Star Citizen announcement. A special live stream will take place this evening at 6:30 pm Central Time (-5 GMT). Chris Roberts and his team are known for pulling off exciting live events, so we would definitely recommend you check it out.

Sabre Adds Extra Muscle To Concordia Hangar
2013-10-09 -- Howard Day has added a new ship to his Concordia Hangar! The heavy attack Sabre now stands alongside the gargantuan Broadsword and tiny Ferret. Everything has been built to scale, so these shots do a good job of showing off that the Sabre is actually a pretty giant beast as well.

The Heart of the Tiger Comes Out Ahead
2013-10-08 -- In a fun contrast to yesterday's news that showed a 3D Hellcat transposed into a world of 2D sprites, today's update turns classic 2D Bluehair into a 3D model. dczanik has actually made two versions of Christopher Blair's head. The first is a stylized cartoon look and the second is his first cut at a three dimensional render.

Hellcat Masterfully Modded into WCA
2013-10-07 -- Howard Day and HCl have taken the wraps off an exciting fan project! They have released screenshots of their success in adding a Hellcat V into Wing Commander Academy. HCl provided much of the technical muscle while Howard created an awesome WC2-style interpretation of the modern WC3 cockpit.

Escort Carrier Gets Crisp Lines & A Full Hangar
2013-10-06 -- Klavs is back with some very nice enhancements to his Wake class escort carrier. We first saw the ship last month with a great comparison that showed off its large transport freighter origins. Today's version is significantly more polished with smoothly refined hull plate lines and a lot more detail.

Wing Commander on HBO Go and TV
2013-10-05 -- From October 15, the Wing Commander movie will be available on demand on the HBO Go service in high definition. This will allow subscribers of the cable channel to watch WC any time they'd like. Traditional viewers also have an opportunity to catch several scheduled TV appearances.

Freddie Prinze Eyes Star Wars Role
2013-10-04 -- According to the Hollywood Reporter, Freddie Prinze Jr. is in the process of being cast in Disney's upcoming Star Wars animated series. Star Wars: Rebels takes place between the two trilogies as the Empire is expanding and Luke Skywalker is growing up on Tatooine.

It's A Real Hot Button Issue
2013-10-03 -- Jumper's custom keyboard has arrived! He decided to go with modular addon keys rather than a completely premade board due to manufacturer issues. They look good!

Shrike Strikes Hard with the Right Pilot
2013-10-02 -- ScoobyDoo is back with another underappreciated Wing Commander ship. He's modeled the Shrike bomber in his characteristic heavy metal style. By some accounts, the TB-81 was a fairly average strike craft, but it did have a few surprises up its sleeve.

WC Documentation Guru Interviewed at RSI
2013-10-02 -- Roberts Space Industries has posted a new employee profile that introduces readers to an Origin vet that has a long history working with the Wing Commander franchise. David Ladyman joined OSI in 1991 and worked on pretty much every Wing Commander game from Wing Commander 2 through Prophecy. His primary role was editing game documentation for WC and other Origin series.

New Privateer 2 Patch Adds Deinterlace Feature & Numerous Fixes
2013-10-01 -- The release of Privateer 2 on GOG recently provided us with the perfect opportunity to release a project that's been in various stages of development for a while. We've been working on a Privateer 2 patch and are pleased to present the initial "beta" version to everyone. This patch will update your gamefiles to a Windows version with a number of bugfixes and minor enhancements, not the least of which include removing the interlacing from the FMV.

'Last Line of Defense' Goes on the Offense
2013-09-30 -- Here's a new scene from Wing Commander Last Line of Defense. It depicts a classic WC2-style strike wing comprised of two Broadsword bombers and two Ferret escorts. ScoobyDoo's models have been incorporated with a Confed space gray here, although RedBaron is likely to make a pass that syncs them up with the fleet color scheme used on other ships in the mod.

Mega Starship Size Comparison Adds Wing Commander Ships
2013-09-29 -- An enormous science fiction collage has been making the rounds lately, and Wing Commander has just been added to the melee! This incredible graphic features hundred of different spaceships from dozens of different movies, books, games and television shows. It was made by DirkLoechel who has provided background info at his DeviantArt site.

Nephilim Models Get More Organic
2013-09-28 -- Dark Sentinel has continued to refine his Orca model. We don't see a whole lot of Nephilim recreations out there, so it's great to see someone attacking these ships for a change. In addition to the iconic destroyer below, there's also a shot of the bugs' capship missile.

Heraldry Alive and Well
2013-09-27 -- A small treat from Klavs today: a roundel design for his Wildcat fighter concept. Military aircraft typically carry an insignia that identifies the nation or faction to which it belongs. A classic roundel is made up of concentric colored circles, but the Confederation star adds a nice touch.

Follow or Contact Us
Facebook Twitter RSS E-mail IRC

Forums: Recent Posts

    Current Poll

    Where to Buy

    WCPedia: Recent Contributions

      Site Staff