On the fringe of Human space, near the Kilrathi border, the industrial machine is running full-tilt to feed the war effort, and there is a lot of shipping... and a lot of pirates... and Retros (fanatical religious nuts who wants to destroy technology), military, militia, merchants, mercenaries, and privateers. In the darkness, a battle between ships has woken up something ancient... Something powerful... Something... deadly.

You are a privateer. Start with the lowly scout, and upgrade to one of the three other superior ships: Galaxy (superior cargo space), Orion (superior protection), or Centurion (superior offense). Buy optional equipment such as armor, engines, shields, weapons, launchers for torpedoes/missiles, and MUCH MUCH more. Take on missions (multiple sources, from the cheapest mission computer, to fixers who has the toughest but most rewarding missions) and earn money for upgrades. Use spare cargo room to trade commodities to further add to your account. Missions can vary from search and destroy to Fedex (i.e. delivery) to bounty hunting, and more.

Privateer is set in the Wing Commander universe, but is more of a free-form game similar to Elite. While there is a central plot, you can deviate from it somewhat and you can continue playing after you finish the main plot. It also has the infamous talking heads dialog Origin pioneered in Wing Commander, this time with higher resolution and more natural look, and still has the lip-sync.

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Alternate Titles

"Trade Commander" -- working title

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Part of the Following Groups

Merchant	Title	Platform	Price
	Wing Commander: Privateer	DOS
	Wing Commander ®: Privateer ™		$5.99
	Wing Commander: Privateer
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User Reviews

Despite some mild flaws, an absolutely superb game that everyone should try	DOS	dogwank (5)
Best game I've ever played, period.	DOS	Cyric (50)
A fine "Elite" derivative, with all the WC flavor intact	DOS	Kasey Chang (3673)
The definitive space mercenary experience.... man, I LOVE this game!	DOS	Zovni (9425)
One wonders why Privateer 2 was a step backward from this classic.	DOS	Chockydonutman (5)
Total Freedom! Choose your career. Make your own destiny.	DOS	Jesse French (2)
Over all the game rocks	DOS	Lord Dragon (3)
General Review	DOS	Chad Henshaw (32)
I'll slow roast your (g)uts!	DOS	Shiek of Geek (27)
A must-see game	DOS	Patrick McCarron (6)

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The Press Says

PC Player (Germany)	DOS	Nov, 1993	90 out of 100	90
PC Player (Germany)	DOS	Apr, 1995	85 out of 100	85
Svenska Hemdatornytt	DOS	Nov, 1993		83
Power Play	DOS	Oct, 1993	81 out of 100	81
WIZ	DOS	Dec, 1993		80
Top Secret	DOS	Feb, 1994	7 out of 10	70
High Score	DOS	1993	3 out of 5	60

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Forums

Topic	# Posts	Last Post
disk 5	1	John Sheehy Dec 17, 2007

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Trivia

When you finish the game, your character was having a conversation with the admiral... Then all of a sudden they started talking back and forth about the game and its creators!

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This entry was contributed by Picard (28435) and IJan (1920)