Wing Commander: Privateer

aka: Trade Commander
Moby ID: 611
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Description official descriptions

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 - but also a lot of pirates, Retros (religious fanatics who want to destroy technology), military, militia, merchants, mercenaries, and privateers. In the darkness, a battle between ships has woken up something ancient, powerful, and deadly.

Wing Commander: Privateer is a space trading and combat simulation. The player assumes the role of 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 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 the account. Missions can vary from search and destroy to Fedex (i.e. delivery) to bounty hunting, and more.

The game is set in the Wing Commander universe, but is more of a free-form game similar to Elite. While there is a central plot, the player can deviate from it somewhat and can continue playing the game after completing the main story missions.

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Credits (DOS version)

58 People (44 developers, 14 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 80% (based on 16 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 82 ratings with 14 reviews)

Meets or exceeds all expectations of the time.

The Good
Just about everything. The gameplay mechanics were completely unique and gave an experience which has still yet to be replicated (unfortunately even with the sequel) of free roaming havok (though I've not personally played some of the space-based MMORPGs yet).

Kill enough merchants without killing pirates? Become a pirate. Pirates don't shoot you but the militia want you for dinner.

Kill enough (I believe its pirates) without touching bounty hunters... bounty hunters don't touch you.

Kill a merchant ship -- take his cargo and sell it.

The game requires an update for handhelds -- it has a fairly light load mechanically and you can play it just for 10 minute intervals if needed -- but gradually work towards ditching your Taurus for a Centurion with Mark5 sheilds kicking Kilirathi back to the top right quadrant.

The Bad
Very unforgiving if you accidentally hit the wrong person. You also can't really run it on modern machines. It desperately needs to be brought to consoles.

The Bottom Line
An addictive space sim which allows jumping from system to system. While you can simply autopilot from nav point to nav point -- its also possible to fly manual straight through the action.

Again, its free roaming and quick to put down nature makes it a perfect game for handhelds. Here's looking at you Sony and Nintendo!

DOS · by Phopo Jijo (1) · 2005

General Review

The Good
Privateer is a Unique game when it comes to games. Rarely do we see an open ended game where the storyline, is optional! wanna go around wasting Kilrathi, or Confed Hotshots, hey, go right ahead! but, the storyline is very rewarding, revelaing lots about the WC universe you never knew.

The Bad
Well, the fact that it requires a special boot up on my machine, so, check the Tips section....

The Bottom Line
Its a Free-Form space combat game, Highly Recommended, Just, stick them infront of the Game and tell them to play, remember the keys are slightly different to WC

DOS · by Chad Henshaw (27) · 2001

I'll slow roast your (g)uts!

The Good
It's fun to be a mercenary on the frontier of Terran space! You have the freedom to play this game whatever way that you like, whether you want to go pirate and attack helpless merchants, or perhaps you want to be a noble and peaceful merchant... it's up to you. You start in a dinky little ship without very good shields or firepower, so you get a great feeling of accomplishment when you finally get your new ship.
It's a blast to insult your enemies while killing them, too, and I do this every chance that I get.
Another plus is the huge variety of items that you can transport... everything from grain to slaves, provided you find the right base.

The Bad
There are a couple of things that could have been better... 1st, this game can get very, very hard. Also, if you ever use one of the cheat options during one of the game missions, you fail it and screw up the game. (So have backup copies of your game!) The last thing is that I wish there had been more ships available. It takes a long time before you can afford a ship, and then you might as well save your money for the Centurion... the best ship in the game if you want to beat it.

The Bottom Line
This is one of my favorite games in my collection.... and someday I'm going to beat it! But until then, it's still fun to play... and I think that's why this game is so well liked.

DOS · by Shiek of Geek (14) · 2001

[ View all 14 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
disk 5 John Sheehy Dec 17, 2007

Trivia

Ending

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!

Hidden game

There is a hidden text adventure. Information on how to access it can be found in the hint section.

Manual

Although Privateer's player's guide was quite run-of-the-mill compared to other Origin game manuals it did come with a short story. The Frontiersman: Interview With A Privateer was the account of an interview conducted to our very own Brownhair (with all names changed to protect the innocent, of course) and which told us his story to the point were he sets sail to the Gemini sector. The story also explains his relationship with the Retros and adds a more somber tone to the game, particularly to it's add-on, Righteous Fire.

Player character

According to an early Origin press release the player character (brownhair)'s name is Grayson Burrows.

System requirements

On the box of the German disk version of privateer there was as hardware minimum requirements announced a 386 DX with 25 MHz. But on the first pages of the manual suddenly they wrote that the minimum is a 386 DX with 33 MHz. From nowadays viewpoint, when clock speed is counted at hundreds, nothing important, but in 1993 this was rather annoying when you just owned a 25 MHz machine.

Awards

  • GameStar (Germany)
    • Issue 12/1999 - #59 in the "100 Most Important PC Games of the Nineties" ranking

Information also contributed by Benjamin Dunham, Kasey Chang, xcorn1602 and Zovni

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Related Games

Wing Commander: Privateer - CD-ROM Edition
Released 1994 on DOS, 2011 on Windows, 2012 on Macintosh
Wing Commander
Released 1990 on DOS, 1992 on SNES, Amiga...
Wing Commander: Privateer - Gemini Gold
Released 2005 on Linux, Windows, Macintosh
Wing Commander 1+2
Released 2011 on Windows, 2012 on Macintosh
Wing Commander Academy
Released 1993 on DOS, 2013 on Windows
Privateer: Righteous Fire
Released 1994 on DOS
Wing Commander: Prophecy
Released 1997 on Windows, 2003 on Game Boy Advance

Related Sites +

  • Privateer entry on Old Skool PC - Classics Reunited
    Nifty site with lots of info on Wing Commander: Privateer. Game details, overview of all the ships in the game, stats on everything from weapons to commodities, the NavMap, list of planets and bases, mission walkthrough, desktop themes... even some soundtrack files. Also has some links to patches and editors.

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 611
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by IJan.

Additional contributors: Terok Nor, test test, Zeikman, Patrick Bregger.

Game added February 19, 2020. Last modified January 19, 2024.