Wing Commander: Privateer
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Superspeed
(1996)
- Gift Pak (1995)
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Wing Commander: Privateer - CD-ROM Edition
(1994)
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
| Original Design | |
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| [ full credits ] | |
Reviews
Critics
Average score: 80% (based on 16 ratings)
Players
Average score: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 83 ratings with 14 reviews)
Total Freedom! Choose your career. Make your own destiny.
The Good
The freedom to do what I want, when I want, the way I want, and for as long as I want to! If I want to be a pirate... I can. If I want to be a merchant... I can. If I want to be a mercenary... I can. And so on. The only thing I don't understand is why they haven't re-made this game with better graphics and why Privateer II was such a step backward. If they has stuck with this same game and just improved the graphics... they would have had a sure-fire winner.
The Bad
The graphics are very old. I think they call it a 2.5D game engine instead of a 3D flight engine like most modern games of it's genre. If you can look past this though... it has unlimited enjoyable game play.
The Bottom Line
Space Sim that puts you in the role of fortune seeker. Though there is a core story, you are free to take the life of a merchant, mercenary, smuggler, pirate, military employee and more.
DOS · by Jesse French (2) · 2001
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
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
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 Sites +
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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 +
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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.