Album Campaign Ends at 150% of Goal! Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Great job, everyone! Once again, hundreds of Wingnuts have come together to pull off a successful crowdfunding campaign! The finally tally was $24,300, which is more than 50% over the $16,000 target. This means that a live orchestra will be able to record the entire Wing Commander album in Budapest and it will be supplemented by a live choir in Salt Lake City. The entire project will come to more than $40,000 when combined with a separate mega donation from Matt Hiltner, so Wingnuts will truly be in for a treat. When all is said and done, the effort will include reprintings of the prior albums on CD as well as vinyl editions of both orchestra pieces. This will be a collectible set for the ages! Even if you're only interested in hearing the final product digitally, it will surely be a treat. Composer George Oldziey has already started placing deposits to secure time with the musicians later this year, so stay tuned for progress updates in the future!
Bravo! You (We) Did it!!

I had such a wonderful feeling watching the minutes and seconds counting down at the end of the campaign knowing that our success was assured. I also have a wonderful feeling from reading all of the very touching comments from many of you about how much the Wing Commander music was not only a big part of your gaming experience but also your lives. I can't tell you how much that means to me. All artists dream of having such an impact on others, and you all have made that dream come true for me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Now the rest of the work begins for me to bring this wonderful project to fruition. I am so looking forward to it! Bravo to all of you!

Musically yours,

George

Final Day for WC Album Campaign Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

We're entering the last day of the Wing Commander album campaign. After yesterday's surge in contributions, the project is currently sitting at more than $22,500 in donations to make a new record of classic WC3-Prophecy music with both a live orchestra and choir. Thanks to all of the very generous fans, the stretch goal has already been met and all aspects of the project should be able to be accomplished. With any remaining proceeds from a last minute bump, Origin composer George Oldziey will attempt to squeeze out a bit more music to fill out the album even further. If you'd like to spend the final hours with fellow fans, Kevin Caccamo will be hosting a Prophecy-themed livestream from noon to 2pm Eastern US time. Then you can also join us in Discord #Wingnut as the minutes tick down to the campaign's conclusion at 5 pm Eastern US time. I'm very excited to see where things end up. Check back tomorrow for the final tally!

Greetings all! Now that we are soaring past the choir stretch goal with only hours left in the campaign, I'm planning on using the additional funds first to fly a conductor from LA to Salt Lake City to conduct the choir sessions. I was planning on doing that myself, but this would enable me to sit in the booth and lend a more critical ear to the recording process.

And if we CONTINUE to soar higher before the campaign is over I'm planning to hire a few more string players to make the string sound even more lush for the orchestral recording.

Again, a profound thank you to all of you wonderful fans!

George


BREAKING NEWS: Album Campaign Hits $22,000 Stretch Target! Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Wingnuts rejoice! Over two hundred dedicated fans have come together to push the Wing Commander album campaign over its $22,000 stretch goal. This means both a live orchestra and live choir will be part of the set of reorchestrated WC music. You all are amazing! If you haven't yet added your contribution to secure a copy for yourself, there's less than 48 hours to do so. The campaign ends Saturday afternoon. Composer George Oldziey also added this sweet addition to thank everyone who participates:
Greetings all! I had an inquiry as to why there is no digital download of the Wing Commander bar music in the reward tiers. It's basically because it slipped my mind! I'm going to add a digital download of the bar music to every reward tier from the $65 level and up! I can't change the text of the reward descriptions after pledges have been offered, but you can count on that becoming available when the project is realized and ready to ship! Thank you so much for your support!
Here's George's excited reaction to hitting the goal!
Greetings all! I have to say I'm STUNNED by the flurry of pledges in the last few days, especially the last few HOURS! I was doing end of semester grading for my Berklee students just a few hours ago with $1300 needed with 48 hours to go to meet the live choir stretch goal, not sure if it would happen. I just happened to look at my phone while having dinner with my lovely wife Suzi a few minutes ago and saw a Kickstarter update. $22,250!! YES!!!

So, as a result, I'll be going to Salt Lake City after the orchestra recording in Budapest to record members of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing the choir parts to the volume 2 music. I can't tell you how happy that makes me!!

I'm actually on the verge of tears of joy. I thank you all SO much for making this, likely my most lasting musical legacy come to fruition. I'm serious when I say you are the greatest and most wonderful fans in the world!

Now the planning starts! I've already booked August 19th in Budapest to record the orchestra parts. I'm looking at some time in September to record the choir, as I'll need to do some preliminary mixes for the choir to sing with. Then there will be mixing all those wonderful parts together to create the masters that will be "printed" for CD, vinyl and digital downloads. So I'm estimating that some time in October you'll be receiving the results of this adventure.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I'm thrilled and humbled at the same time.

Yours ever so truly,

George

The WC4 Installer Is Such a Mood Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Remember the specific point in 1995 where game installers all got hot? Crazy how you go from that to that in a year.

I'm updating all my GOG .conf files to add a bunch of handy options.
I gave the first games a command line option with a debug mode cheat sheet. Easy way to quickly load the EGA version or with a different sound card.
Currently trying to add back Privateer 2's beautiful installer (with lore screen!) to the GOG package in a way that doesn't break everything else.
author avatar
LOAF

Album Campaign Heats up in the Final Stretch Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

We're now just a bit more than three days away from the conclusion of George Oldziey's campaign to create a new Wing Commander album with a live orchestra. Just since this past weekend, the project has added another $1,000 to approach $19,500. With only a few more days left to go, is $22,000 possible? The project has already crossed the minimum $16K threshold, but we'd love to see it hit the $22K stretch target to add a live choir as well. Wing Commander fans have shown up in force many times before, so it's certainly possible!
Greetings all! It seems like with only 3 days to go we are close to the stretch goal of recording a large choir to add to the large orchestra recording for volume 2! We are only a few thousand away, and I REALLY think this would be a beautiful addition to the final mix. I have some amazing sampled choir libraries, but there is NOTHING like the real thing in my humble but very musically adept opinion :)

So, if it is at all possible, let's make that happen! I think it would immensely add to the overall musical impact of the project.

I love you all! You are the best!!

George

Here's some samples of George's wonderful 2019 jazz album full of Wing Commandar bar music. A handful of reprinted copies are up for grabs as part of the new album campaign:


Target Acquired: Microsoft's WC3 Test Copy Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

An eBay find: a copy of Wing Commander III that belonged to Microsoft’s QA folks! I’ll send it back if they promise to get it running in Windows 11.

Microsoft would have used copies like this to playtest compatibility for Windows 95 (and adjust Control+C behavior)!
“Didn’t you already have this one?!” - Sully
author avatar
LOAF

Final Week of Orchestral Album Campaign! Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

The campaign to make a new Wing Commander album had a very good week! It added more than $1500 in pledges from a couple dozen new fans. With that being said, its current $18,500 tally does make it a challenge to hit the $22,000 mark to add in a live choir. As great as it would be to hit the $22K stretch target, composer George Oldziey says that if we end up falling a little bit short, he may be able to generate a little bit more live orchestral material with the funds. Either way, the money will be used to enhance the final product! The final few days of any crowdfunding effort can be unpredictable, so we'll keep our fingers crossed! You can secure your copy and help the project here!
Note that George's comment below is from a few days ago. The Kickstarter officially closes this coming Saturday. Now's the time to jump in if you haven't yet!
Greetings all! As a result of your amazing support we've crossed the $18K threshold with 10 days to go! There is still time to meet that stretch goal of $6K (for a total of $22K) where we can record a live, beautiful choir as well!

Thank you all so much for you generosity and faith! Let's try to hit that mark in the next 10 days!

Musically yours,

George

A Little Taste of WC3 Behind the Scenes Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Today we've got a little snippet unearthed by Sash's RetroBytes. It's a segment from the British TV show Bad Influence! that peeks behind the scenes of Wing Commander 3. Most of the footage looks like material we'd have seen on other longer WC3 BTS features, but it's always nice to see times when Wing Commander was showcased on television!
The Heart of the Tiger! Hollywood comes to video games in a big way - as we see in this clip of Bad Influence series 3 episode 4 where they went behind the scenes of the production of Wing Commander III.

Warning: Not Safe for Enigma Sector Work Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Scout recently found this spicy post on the Game Collecting Reddit. A user named charitysmyth1 had just acquired a copy of Wing Commander 2. Much to their surprise, it contained a collection of vintage early '90s adult media. These look like rather tame items all-in-all, but they might have been considered pretty racy before the internet age. Although not pictured, it sounds like the box did include the WC2 disks at least!
Scored some big box PC games over the weekend. What I found in Wing Commander II completely caught me off guard.

Follow or Contact Us
Discord YouTube Twitter Facebook RSS E-mail

Live Orchestral Recording Vol. 2

Live orchestra Kickstarter campaign has launched!

All Wings Considered
Episode 37 - Back to Gemini!
Archived video streams

Forums: Recent Posts
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  

Current Poll
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Where to Buy

WCPedia: Recent Contributions
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  

Site Staff