The End Run novel was one of the last gifts I ever got from my grandfather before he passed away (and as such, still have my beloved, tattered copy nearly 30 years later), so it means to world to me to see this come to life. What a gift you’ve given us OG WC fans!
Dude, I have a similar story regarding my Aunt who purchased a three book collection of stories from Gary Gygax. I was never a true fantasy fan, and I have only read a few stories from one book. Oh, and those stories read like novelized versions of a DnD campaign and "novelized" is a compliment. But you get the idea. I just can't let go of those books even though it was a gross miscalculation by a woman who knew me better than that. Still, they mean something to me.
End Run and Fleet Action by William R. Forstchen, still remember how I found those books in a dinky little scifi bookstore in a neighboring town, damn I've re-read those books a good many times over the years, still as good :)
Yes, this is a reupload. I goofed on the numbers at the end (Thanks Buck), and since the video was only up for a few-ish hours, I figured I could get away with a quick record, reedit, and reupload. Everything else is the same from the previous video except for the number of casualties on both sides at the end. Also, I really did underestimate how many of you would notice the *REDACTED* among the others of it's type.
My nostalgia cranked up to 11. I grew up playing these old games, Back then I was motivated to find good paying jobs just so I could afford a room full of computers. *Thanks for the entertaining Wing Commander lore video.*
@GT I have a theory and it is only a theory but one that explains both the hideous ship designs and the Furless-Freak Kilrathi. EA, owns the Wing Commander franchise and that presumably means everything in it, including the ship designs. The movie used brand new designs, that would be as distinctly different from the classic Wing Commander games, so that Digital Anvil wouldn't have to pay any royalties or licencing fees to EA to use them in the movie. I can assume EA owns the image rights to the Kilrathi too and more over, the Furless-Freak design, was a cost saving measure, since all the Kilrathi that appear in the movie all look the same without distinct fur colours or patterns to make them distinct from one another. As a result, they could get away with having only two or three Kilrathi costumes, to portray them every time they were on screen. It is worth noting that a lot of the capitol ship designs featured prominently in the game Star Lancer, which Digital Anvil worked on about this same time.
Holy cow, you were hella quick to redo the video and you even gave me a shout out. I'm Social media famous now, cool lol. But seriously, great job on all of your contents. Before I came across your channel I used to think I was only 1 of 10 folks in the whole world that read any of the Wing Commander books and it's cool seeing those stories come to life in a new way, outstanding work.
Fantastic! I loved reading End Run as a kid - one of my favorite WC novels, maybe rivaled only by Fleet Action. Really appreciate the hit of nostalgia. Well done.
Well done!!👍👍👍 You bring a year to a 'middle aged' man's eye! I don't think many of the newer generation knows about the Joy of playing games like strike commander and wing commander on a 486 pc with 8 mb RAM! When the WC movie came out, I was absolutely disillusioned...i stopped PC gaming for some time! Home your tribe grows! And fast! Hope to see your version of 'fleet action', 'freedom flight' after this!
@@Sporkmaker5150 One look at the models of the carriers, the space craft made me cry.... Chris Roberts prolly ran out of money midway making that film...
Now that I know how to pronounce Firekkan properly (It's said in WC Prophecy, apparently), Freedom Flight is definitely on the list alongside False Colors. Though more novel coverage will be much later in the future; End Run drove me nuts enough as it was. Fleet Action I did, I just named it as "The False Armistice" because it sound cooler. Although, they were much earlier in my TH-cam lineup, so my production abilities at the time were....less. Fake Edit: Fur-eck-in
the animations and artdesign of the ships looks really good. its not easy to capture the essence of the original pixel clumps and to turn them into texturized 3d models this well
I just found you yesterday. I don't understand how you don't have 100k subs at least. Your ability to tell a story that in movies, shows or games is told over a long period of time, in a concise manner that still gets all the important info included is amazing. Your tone and pacing is excellent. Your video editing to go along with the story is excellent. Top notch man!
Fantastic work. This is probably my favorite WC novel. I enjoyed the portrayal of military life in the TCN and the fact that it showed Tolwyn as a mentor to Jason and someone that wouldn't leave a team behind if there was anything he could do. I look forward to more of these.
Wing Commander was my first truly loved video game. First played on a friends IBM 8086. I even have a printed copy paper back of the book. Hearing the book like this makes me want to read it again!! Bravo!! Keep of the good work.
So, after Wing Commander 3 and 4, it's strange seeing Tolwyn depicted as honourable and loyal to those under his command, when in his two latter appearances in the games, he was pretty much an antagonist
@@DMSProduktions Yeah, he goes from the guy who disobeyed orders to go rescue the Tarawa and her crew, to "Lets kill all the skinny people with Bioweapons"
Yeah, there is a *major* discrepency between how the novels portray him, versus how he came across in the games. I beleive False Colors tried to bridge the gap between the two, but it's been years since I've read it and dont remember the details.
I loved this video game series so much! It was way ahead of its time. I remember buying the first game for my Packerd Bell 360 dx. It had a 60 mgb HD and 1 MGB ram and I added a creative labs sound card since most PC s did not come with sound cards in them at the time. The game was on 3 x 5.25" disks. It was the first game I bought for that computer. I played every game after that. I did not know about the books, I shall have to buy them. Thanks for bringing a smile to my face from nostalgia.
4:30 Wow. As old as I am, and as much of a WWII history geek as I am, this video about a book I read in high school is how I learned that the "Wake" in "Wake Island" isn't pronounced the same way as the "wake" you do when your alarm goes off. TIL.
Nice job! You're really gonna have to teach me Blender one of these days. The VFX and storytelling for this one were your best yet. Also, yes, I noticed the REDACTED :P
I wonder just for the heck of it any chance to do something for the Wing Commander Saga Darkest Dawn freespace mod story for the heck of it as the road to the final days of the war as a diversion for Victory strike
It was an attempt at an Initial D Reference, a "Muffled Eurobeat in the distance" was added to the audio while the Tarawa was doing the slingshot maneuver.
Hi man, sorry for disappearing for a while 🙏🏻 I was busy with movie making for Macao movies, we are working on a sci-fi movie being loosely inspired by the wing commander saga, hope you may see on its release 19 march this year. great work on this video more I see videos explaining wing commander universe then more happy I feel 😊 keep up the good work 🙏🏻
Truly a masterful piece of work. If you're after suggestions for your next video, I have an idea. In Star Wars: X-Wing, after the evacuation of Yavin, the Rebel Alliance was coping with both a vengeful Empire and the loss of nearly all their food stores. A supposed benefactor, Overlord Ghorin, tried to exploit this by selling them poisoned grain and, naturally, the rebels didn't appreciate that. Perhaps you could make a video about how they double crossed his double cross? ...does that make it a quadruple cross?
I wonder why o'Brian was given command, the man was basically useless to the point of actively sabotaging the End Run by nearly fleeing before jumping to Kilrah, not sure if a coward or a quisling.
Different view of events which occurred. Given the guy who got court martial in the beginning of specially operations after marines were lost on the moon. Split story segments
wasn´t the end that the planet kilra was blown up by that superbomb? In that "über"-fighter... that was quite boring and easy... as far as i remember...
Its weird reconciling Good Guy Geoffrey Tolwyn with Scumbag Tolwyn, but it was nice seeing the character as more then just a foil for the player character in WC 2 and the big bad in WC 4. Somehow I skipped 3, so I don't know how he was portrayed there.
I have to say, in this day and age of 'gender fluidity', I find the Kilrathi insult to refer to Terrans as 'apes' comes in very handy---no preferred pronouns to worry about it. ;-)
I never really understood this. So this is the first of two times earth is likely to lose and the first time of two Kilrah is attacked. Second time it being destroyed.
Pretty much. Confed is on the losing end of the war at the start of End Run so they order the launch of Operation Back Lash. After End Run, Confed is actually winning the war, but they mess it up due to the events of False Armistice which pust them in an even worse position then they were previously. That is when Wing Commander 3 comes into play. It's enough to make an Admiral go mad and turn evil by Wing Commander 4.
Things didn't go much better for Confed in 2669, with the Kilrathi advancing on nearly every front, the TCS Behemoth project an utter failure (thanks Hobbes) and with megacarriers TCS Vesuvius and TCS Mount St Helens still years away from completion, there was no choice but to pursue the destruction of Kilrah via deployment of the Temblor Bomb.
I worked at Origin from 91 to 95. It was so neat to see a majority of this video use the old 320x200 snips. Brings back the good ole times.
Wing Commander's Battle of Midway. Someone needs to buy the Wing Commander IP from EA and revive the series.
The End Run novel was one of the last gifts I ever got from my grandfather before he passed away (and as such, still have my beloved, tattered copy nearly 30 years later), so it means to world to me to see this come to life. What a gift you’ve given us OG WC fans!
Dude, I have a similar story regarding my Aunt who purchased a three book collection of stories from Gary Gygax. I was never a true fantasy fan, and I have only read a few stories from one book. Oh, and those stories read like novelized versions of a DnD campaign and "novelized" is a compliment. But you get the idea. I just can't let go of those books even though it was a gross miscalculation by a woman who knew me better than that. Still, they mean something to me.
My god this video goes so hard and brings alive what I read so many years ago. You Sir deserve way more subscribers. 👏
End Run and Fleet Action by William R. Forstchen, still remember how I found those books in a dinky little scifi bookstore in a neighboring town, damn I've re-read those books a good many times over the years, still as good :)
Oh Fleet Action. Defines human stupidity in a nutshell.
@@gabrieliacoboni6951 haha yeah, truth.
Yes, this is a reupload. I goofed on the numbers at the end (Thanks Buck), and since the video was only up for a few-ish hours, I figured I could get away with a quick record, reedit, and reupload. Everything else is the same from the previous video except for the number of casualties on both sides at the end.
Also, I really did underestimate how many of you would notice the *REDACTED* among the others of it's type.
Thank you for these!
It's origins aside, it's such a terrible design, how could NOT notice?
Redacted? Naah, mate. Those never existed.
My nostalgia cranked up to 11. I grew up playing these old games, Back then I was motivated to find good paying jobs just so I could afford a room full of computers.
*Thanks for the entertaining Wing Commander lore video.*
6:15 *(HISSESS at the "Rapier")*
That godawful thing is no Rapier.
@@Sporkmaker5150 And those Furless FREAKS were no Kilrathi
@@weldonwin They are the actual "pathetic descendants of monkeys".
@GT I have a theory and it is only a theory but one that explains both the hideous ship designs and the Furless-Freak Kilrathi.
EA, owns the Wing Commander franchise and that presumably means everything in it, including the ship designs. The movie used brand new designs, that would be as distinctly different from the classic Wing Commander games, so that Digital Anvil wouldn't have to pay any royalties or licencing fees to EA to use them in the movie.
I can assume EA owns the image rights to the Kilrathi too and more over, the Furless-Freak design, was a cost saving measure, since all the Kilrathi that appear in the movie all look the same without distinct fur colours or patterns to make them distinct from one another. As a result, they could get away with having only two or three Kilrathi costumes, to portray them every time they were on screen.
It is worth noting that a lot of the capitol ship designs featured prominently in the game Star Lancer, which Digital Anvil worked on about this same time.
Holy cow, you were hella quick to redo the video and you even gave me a shout out. I'm Social media famous now, cool lol. But seriously, great job on all of your contents. Before I came across your channel I used to think I was only 1 of 10 folks in the whole world that read any of the Wing Commander books and it's cool seeing those stories come to life in a new way, outstanding work.
Fantastic! I loved reading End Run as a kid - one of my favorite WC novels, maybe rivaled only by Fleet Action.
Really appreciate the hit of nostalgia. Well done.
Well done!!👍👍👍
You bring a year to a 'middle aged' man's eye!
I don't think many of the newer generation knows about the Joy of playing games like strike commander and wing commander on a 486 pc with 8 mb RAM!
When the WC movie came out, I was absolutely disillusioned...i stopped PC gaming for some time!
Home your tribe grows! And fast!
Hope to see your version of 'fleet action', 'freedom flight' after this!
That movie "never existed".
@@Sporkmaker5150
Yeah...
I still saw it on Dailymotion a while back
@@hogginarmocount9562 And wasn't that travesty actually directed by Chris Roberts himself? How could he do that to his own legacy.
@@Sporkmaker5150
One look at the models of the carriers, the space craft made me cry....
Chris Roberts prolly ran out of money midway making that film...
Now that I know how to pronounce Firekkan properly (It's said in WC Prophecy, apparently), Freedom Flight is definitely on the list alongside False Colors. Though more novel coverage will be much later in the future; End Run drove me nuts enough as it was.
Fleet Action I did, I just named it as "The False Armistice" because it sound cooler. Although, they were much earlier in my TH-cam lineup, so my production abilities at the time were....less.
Fake Edit: Fur-eck-in
the animations and artdesign of the ships looks really good.
its not easy to capture the essence of the original pixel clumps and to turn them into texturized 3d models this well
Intro is great on its own
This is so good! Please please please keep this going! So much yes!
They did this as a biik a long time back, pretty good
This. I've been waiting for this. Thank you, truly.
I just found you yesterday. I don't understand how you don't have 100k subs at least. Your ability to tell a story that in movies, shows or games is told over a long period of time, in a concise manner that still gets all the important info included is amazing. Your tone and pacing is excellent. Your video editing to go along with the story is excellent. Top notch man!
Fantastic work. This is probably my favorite WC novel. I enjoyed the portrayal of military life in the TCN and the fact that it showed Tolwyn as a mentor to Jason and someone that wouldn't leave a team behind if there was anything he could do. I look forward to more of these.
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Wing Commander was my first truly loved video game. First played on a friends IBM 8086. I even have a printed copy paper back of the book. Hearing the book like this makes me want to read it again!! Bravo!! Keep of the good work.
The production quality goes above and beyond, you glorious mad lad.
Mate, that was so good!!!👏👏👏👏🍻🍻
This is brilliant! well done for using all the assets available.
Nostoglia is nice, presentation of an old favorite series done justice is Great.
Great video! Ugh, the abomination in the section "The Bear & The Tarawa". I was paying attention. Loved the novels by William R. Forstchen.
So, after Wing Commander 3 and 4, it's strange seeing Tolwyn depicted as honourable and loyal to those under his command, when in his two latter appearances in the games, he was pretty much an antagonist
Psychopathic space Nazi! The attack on Sol, drove him mad!
@@DMSProduktions Yeah, he goes from the guy who disobeyed orders to go rescue the Tarawa and her crew, to "Lets kill all the skinny people with Bioweapons"
@@weldonwin Yep! That's Sir Geoffrey!
Yeah, there is a *major* discrepency between how the novels portray him, versus how he came across in the games. I beleive False Colors tried to bridge the gap between the two, but it's been years since I've read it and dont remember the details.
@@MacsLore Careful, or we'll start dipping into STAR TREK levels of canonical zealotry!
I love your videos. Thanks for your high quality
I love these. I really hope you also do more for Star Wars. TIE Fighter's campaign has so much material.
Oh, I've been *waiting* for this. Go get 'em, Bear!
Man I remember reading “End Run” as a kid, was the first book in the Wing Commander universe I ever read.
I loved this video game series so much! It was way ahead of its time. I remember buying the first game for my Packerd Bell 360 dx. It had a 60 mgb HD and 1 MGB ram and I added a creative labs sound card since most PC s did not come with sound cards in them at the time. The game was on 3 x 5.25" disks. It was the first game I bought for that computer. I played every game after that. I did not know about the books, I shall have to buy them. Thanks for bringing a smile to my face from nostalgia.
Nice touch with the Saber spinning hard in to final approach to the Concordia for the briefing.
Man I miss wing commander. I play it every now and then thanks to gog
This whole franchise needs to return. Great work, Mac 👍.
This was my favorite book when I was a kid. Thanks for putting this together.
God damn this is amazing
FANTASTIC AS ALWAYS.
I just wish you got more views. This is the quality content my heart neeeeeeeeds.
One of my favorite games for the SNES thank you for bringing it to life, brings me back...
Absolutely amazing sir!!
4:30 Wow. As old as I am, and as much of a WWII history geek as I am, this video about a book I read in high school is how I learned that the "Wake" in "Wake Island" isn't pronounced the same way as the "wake" you do when your alarm goes off. TIL.
Nice job! You're really gonna have to teach me Blender one of these days. The VFX and storytelling for this one were your best yet.
Also, yes, I noticed the REDACTED :P
One of my favorite novels of all time.
wing commander was the first pc game i ever played. this was great thank you.
absolutely brilliant love the cgi
Awesome Work!
Another great video, please sir can I have some more.
Thank you. I don't care what other people think. I love wing commander. I beat the game when it first came out in one session. I love the concept
Wow the Taking Command part was amazingly suspenseful
I wonder just for the heck of it any chance to do something for the Wing Commander Saga Darkest Dawn freespace mod story for the heck of it as the road to the final days of the war as a diversion for Victory strike
Man! best entertainment I had in years.
Great work, please keep it up! :)
Wow, I've been a fan of Wing Commander III, IV, Prophecy/SecOps, plus the 2 Privateer games. This story was great, and a welcomed nostalgic dive.
31:10 you can hear music in the background, sounds like you were recording next door to a rave
It was an attempt at an Initial D Reference, a "Muffled Eurobeat in the distance" was added to the audio while the Tarawa was doing the slingshot maneuver.
Very cool. I remember this book being far better than any game tie in should be.
Oh yeah!
Loved the movie wish they made more but I didn’t realize this was a series
Hi man, sorry for disappearing for a while 🙏🏻 I was busy with movie making for Macao movies, we are working on a sci-fi movie being loosely inspired by the wing commander saga, hope you may see on its release 19 march this year. great work on this video more I see videos explaining wing commander universe then more happy I feel 😊 keep up the good work 🙏🏻
Read the book. Found your reading and animation very spot on. Great job!!!
Truly a masterful piece of work. If you're after suggestions for your next video, I have an idea. In Star Wars: X-Wing, after the evacuation of Yavin, the Rebel Alliance was coping with both a vengeful Empire and the loss of nearly all their food stores. A supposed benefactor, Overlord Ghorin, tried to exploit this by selling them poisoned grain and, naturally, the rebels didn't appreciate that. Perhaps you could make a video about how they double crossed his double cross? ...does that make it a quadruple cross?
Yeah, I'd like to come back to the Star Wars universe through the X-Wing/Tie Fighter games at some point. Hopefully later this year.
@@MacsLore I'll keep watch, in case that happens. And, again, my compliments on a fine piece of work.
REally wel done video!
I remember reading this book many years ago.
Great Stuff as always. What I would do to play another game in this universe.
I wonder why o'Brian was given command, the man was basically useless to the point of actively sabotaging the End Run by nearly fleeing before jumping to Kilrah, not sure if a coward or a quisling.
Cant wait for more
I saw that.
Good stuff
This was interesting. I’ve seen the movie from “99” but had no idea it was this in depth. I like the ships from the movie more though.
6:11 - Unreal Engine Model of The 'Cinematic' Rapier?
Yup… in all it’s hideousness
Still one of my favorite "pulp" sci fi stories.
Man, I must be blurring two different WC books together, I could have sworn Hunter was in this one.
Fleet action.
@@Sakyosha That's the one! Thanks.
I'm paying attention. BLASPHEMY!
NICE!!!! more wanted!
nostalgic have played 1,2 and 3
Geez it's been so long since I played this game. I am guessing it's over 30 years. Probably longer.
Different view of events which occurred. Given the guy who got court martial in the beginning of specially operations after marines were lost on the moon. Split story segments
We need a remastered wing commander series.
My favorite game wasted hours playing this and privateer fantastic video
wasn´t the end that the planet kilra was blown up by that superbomb? In that "über"-fighter... that was quite boring and easy... as far as i remember...
Its weird reconciling Good Guy Geoffrey Tolwyn with Scumbag Tolwyn, but it was nice seeing the character as more then just a foil for the player character in WC 2 and the big bad in WC 4. Somehow I skipped 3, so I don't know how he was portrayed there.
It me. I paid attention
I wish they'd bring back wing commander.... I loved this series, except the final entry where we don't actually know if Blair is dead... for certain
I'm really enjoying this Mac,
I tried to comment a few days ago but my keypad kept crashing
From what are these game scenes from?❤
6.14, Wing Commander Movie fighter design, not seen in any of the games IIRC.
Think you could do a vid on the novel "Action Stations"?
That's not just a name that's a mouthful and I'm pretty sure that's what her lair mate said
I so wish End run was available as an audiobook 😢
Where are all the VFX from I like the ship fights and ships being shown
I love those CGI cuts where are they from I don5 remember them from any game or are they from wing commander saga online?
Questio: Where did you get the illustrations for this video?
how is the mother of the emperor written and how is the name of the planet written?
So then...has anybody either written about or created a mission/campaign based on how the fighting at Vukar Tag actually played out?
I dont think so? Or if there was, it was abandoned over the years. WC has had a lot of fan projects come and go from my understanding.
@@MacsLore I hear ya! That 'Saga' campaign that was created using the Freespace 2 engine took over a decade to complete, but it was excellent.
do you play star citizen? also wrong era destroyer, this is the time of the Gilgamesh class destroyers
I have to say, in this day and age of 'gender fluidity', I find the Kilrathi insult to refer to Terrans as 'apes' comes in very handy---no preferred pronouns to worry about it.
;-)
The Kilrathi were truly progressive. It doesn't matter what pronouns we use; we're all equally trash in their eyes.
@@MacsLore HAH! Just like Sgt Hartmann in Full Metal Jacket: We "are all equally worthless"
I never really understood this. So this is the first of two times earth is likely to lose and the first time of two Kilrah is attacked. Second time it being destroyed.
Pretty much. Confed is on the losing end of the war at the start of End Run so they order the launch of Operation Back Lash. After End Run, Confed is actually winning the war, but they mess it up due to the events of False Armistice which pust them in an even worse position then they were previously. That is when Wing Commander 3 comes into play.
It's enough to make an Admiral go mad and turn evil by Wing Commander 4.
Let me guess, copyright or something like that
Nah, wrong casualty numbers at the end bothered me enough for a quick redo.
I’m so old I played wc1 on my Pc using the keyboard only
In wing commander kilrathi saga games im cheeter and maverick and wartourist in wing commander kilrathi saga games
Holy shit.
They should make a cross over with Star wars and Transformers 👍👍👍👍💵💵💵🎬
Things didn't go much better for Confed in 2669, with the Kilrathi advancing on nearly every front, the TCS Behemoth project an utter failure (thanks Hobbes) and with megacarriers TCS Vesuvius and TCS Mount St Helens still years away from completion, there was no choice but to pursue the destruction of Kilrah via deployment of the Temblor Bomb.
Some of us were paying attention and WTF was that?
It’s the “Rapier” fighter from the 1999 movie and.. and it’s not great 😵