DOS Days

Wing Commander: Privateer

Released: 1993
Published by: Electronic Arts
Developed by: Origin Systems
Author(s): Chris Roberts, Ed Maurer, Joel Manners, Charles Cafrelli, Reinaldo Castro, Robert Frye, Beverly Garland, Danny Garrett, Nenad Vugrinec, Laura Barratt, Randy Buck, John Tipton

Introduction

Wing Commander: Privateer is a space action and trading game, similar to a modern version of Elite. You play the role of a privateer, trading in a variety of commodities and taking on missions ranging from search and destroy to bounty hunting and cargo delivery.

The game is set in the Wing Commander universe, so some aspects will be very familiar to you if you have played Chris Roberts' other titles. Unlike Wing Commander, Privateer gives you the freedom to make your own path through the game - you can be a pirate, a mercenary or a merchant, and change this through your actions and the missions you choose to accept. While there is a storyline which you can reach the end of, the gameplay will continue beyond this.

Wing Commander: Privateer got a Speech Accessory Pack expansion in late 1993, and a mission expansion called Righteous Fire in 1994.

System Requirements

System Requirements Intel 80386DX CPU, 4 MB of RAM
Graphics support for VGA only
Audio support for Ad Lib, Thunder Board, Sound Blaster/Pro/16, ProAudio Spectrum, Roland RAP-10, General MIDI, Wave Blaster
Keyboard, mouse and joystick supported. Thrustmaster FCS and/or WCS directly supported.
Original Media Six 3.5" 1.44 MB (DS/HD) floppy disks, or one CD-ROM.
Installed Size (MB) MB


From where can it be run?

Privateer must be installed to your hard disk.

 

Copy Protection

Privateer has no copy protection.


How to Setup

To install the game, insert disk 1 and run INSTALL.EXE. The installation and setup utility then runs. Installation to hard disk uses PKZIP compression, where it will ask you to insert the last disk of the backup set, then return to the first disk again. Because of this, you cannot install the game from a temporary hard disk directory that contains all the files from the floppy disk, since all of the other disk files have exactly the same filename: PRIVATER.ZIP.

1) Main menu:

2) Install with these options:

3) Select music card:

4) Select sound (digital FX) card:

5) Change Install Directory:

 

Problems

Symptom: ?
Cause: ?
Resolution: ?

To Quit the Game

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Supporting Documents

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Additional Files, Drivers and Utilities

This section includes any additional files, updated drivers (original and third-party) or utilities that help make the game a better experience.

    • UGE Editor - UGE editor with several pre-made modules for editing Privateer data files (ZIP)
    • PREdit v2.1 - Privateer Save file editor (ZIP)
    • Klaus Reimer's Blogpost on Privateer Weapons (PDF). File offsets are here (TXT).
    • CJ's Privateer Gun Statistics - Contains the data for the projectile weapons in game in multiple byte formats (HTM).
    • Commodity Format (PNG). More info here (TXT).
    • Ship Stuff (TXT) - Contains the costs for purchasable ship upgrades, such as laser cannons, etc. Costs are four byte variables.

 

Save Games

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Versions of the game known to exist

Version Date Comments
? Sep 1993 Initial public release.
? Late 1993 Speech Pack expansion released. Adds speech to all the in-flight elements in the original game, much like what the Speech Accessory Pack did with WC2.
? Feb 1994 Righteous Fire expansion released. New plotline surrounding the 'retros' and new weaponry and ordnance you can add to your ship.
? Late 1994 CD-ROM Edition - comprised the original game and the Righteous Fire expansion. It also added digitised speech for every character you interacted with, much more so than that provided in the Speech Pack.

 


Original Floppy Disk Contents

The floppy disks have no specific volume label. Here are each disk's contents:

    Disk 1 of 6 (3.5" 1.44 MB DS/HD):

     
                
    Directory of A:\
    INSTALL  EXE             35,215 04-09-1993 18:41
    PKUNZIP  EXE             29,378 01-02-1993  2:04
    PRIVATER ZIP          1,392,640 13-09-1993 12:18
        3 File(s)         1,457,233 Bytes

     

    Disk 2 of 6 (3.5" 1.44 MB DS/HD):

     
                
    Directory of A:\
    RIVATER ZIP          1,457,664 13-09-1993 12:21
        1 File(s)         1,457,664 Bytes

     

    Disk 3 of 6 (3.5" 1.44 MB DS/HD):

     
                
    Directory of A:\
    PRIVATER ZIP          1,457,664 13-09-1993 12:22
        1 File(s)         1,457,664 Bytes

     

    Disk 4 of 6 (3.5" 1.44 MB DS/HD):

     
                
    Directory of A:\
    PRIVATER ZIP          1,457,664 13-09-1993 12:23
        1 File(s)         1,457,664 Bytes

     

    Disk 5 of 6 (3.5" 1.44 MB DS/HD):

     
                
    Directory of A:\
    PRIVATER ZIP          1,457,664 13-09-1993 12:25
        1 File(s)         1,457,664 Bytes

     

    Disk 6 of 6 (3.5" 1.44 MB DS/HD):

     
                
    Directory of A:\
    PRIVATER ZIP          1,113,244 13-09-1993 12:26
        1 File(s)         1,113,244 Bytes

     

    Righteous Fire Expansion
    Disk 1 of 2 (3.5" 1.44 MB DS/HD):

     
                
    Directory of A:\
    INSTALL  EXE             24,144 11-01-1994 15:10
    PKUNZIP  EXE             29,378 01-02-1993  2:04
    PRSO     ZIP          1,403,392 25-01-1994  9:05
        3 File(s)         1,456,914 Bytes

     

    Righteous Fire Expansion
    Disk 2 of 2 (3.5" 1.44 MB DS/HD):

     
                
    Directory of A:\
    PRSO     ZIP            280,196 25-01-1994  9:05
        1 File(s)           280,196 Bytes

     

    Wing Commander Privateer: Speech Pack
    Disk 1 of 3 (3.5" 1.44 MB DS/HD):

     
                
    Directory of A:\
    PKUNZIP  EXE             29,378 01-02-1993  2:04
    SPEECH   EXE             35,363 31-08-1993 16:20
    SPEECH   ZIP          1,392,128 31-08-1993 15:58
        3 File(s)         1,456,869 Bytes

     

    Wing Commander Privateer: Speech Pack
    Disk 2 of 3 (3.5" 1.44 MB DS/HD):

     
                
    Directory of A:\
    SPEECH   ZIP          1,457,664 31-08-1993 16:00
        1 File(s)         1,457,664 Bytes

     

    Wing Commander Privateer: Speech Pack
    Disk 3 of 3 (3.5" 1.44 MB DS/HD):

     
                
    Directory of A:\
    SPEECH   ZIP          1,210,345 31-08-1993 16:02
        1 File(s)         1,210,345 Bytes

     

 

Installed Directory Contents

Once installed, the following directory structure exists in the game directory:

    Full Install chosen

     
                
    Directory of C:\GAMES\PRIVATER