As noted previously, the Wing Commander CIC turned 13 yesterday, and as is fitting for anyone or anything entering its teenage years, it had a hell of a party. Folks were still talking in the #Wingnut IRC channel when I went to bed late last night, and the CIC itself saw a ton of updates posted in which an immense amount of Wing Commander historical details and material were released.

The biggest news, of course, was the release of Pilgrim Truth, the third “movie continuity” novel, written by Peter Telep. Its release was cancelled eleven years ago by HarperCollins, but the CIC was (with help from Telep and Electronic Arts) finally able to secure rights to release the work. (It’s also available as an eBook.)

Additionally, the @WCCIC Twitter account (which began as an April Fool’s joke, apparently) was made the official Twitter account for the CIC; do give them a follow if you are on Twitter. A mobile site face for the CIC was also launched; you can see it here. 

In keeping with the theme of site improvements, the Chat Zone was ported from vBulletin to the newer, more secure Xenforo; extant user accounts were migrated between the systems. If you were on the Zone, stop by and see what’s improved. The WCPedia, which turned 4 yesterday, also got a facelift, and also saw several other structural changes made.

Meanwhile, the CIC ground team in Austin, Texas, had a fine time going through the University of Texas Videogames Archive, and unearthed all manner of fine treasures which I honestly hope they have been able to completely document. Interested Dragons and Dragonettes can click through to see the full list; here’s what they found to tease the interest of us Ultima fans:

…Garriott’s papers include a wealth of information on the classic games and Ultima IX, with complete development plans for that game starting in 1995. We also saw large production binders for an Ultima RTS (Battlecry) and a 1997 attempt at Ultima Underworld III. Warren Spector’s papers include concepts for dozens of Ultima titles, especially scenarios for further ‘Worlds of Ultima’ releases. Most shocking was a ‘Savage Empire’ pen-and-paper RPG–which was actually released in a limited printing for Origin employees and local gamers in Aaron Allston’s circle! Allston also has a proposal for an Ultima paper game developed in the late 80s.

As I say…here’s hoping they were able to fully document (and photograph) all of that stuff; I’m sure we’d all love to see it!

And finally, the CIC have released just tons of material — screenshots, documents, sketches, and more — from every Wing Commander game ever released. You’ll have to hit up the CIC proper to check out everything; there’s simply too much to mention here!

Anyhow: congratulations, again, to the CIC and its team for thirteen years of awesome!