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Privateer Remake Complete

Posted by Hemos on Mon Mar 07, 2005 09:45 AM
from the great-game dept.
Classic Games (Games) Programming Entertainment Games IT Technology
flyboy writes "In a similar vein to the remakes of the Origin's Ultima series games reported in 2001 and 2004 a group of Wing Commander fans has remade Wing Commander: Privateer. Unlike the Ultima remakes, the Privateer remake is finished at version 1.0 with 3d graphics and the whole storyline. For the new kids on the block, WC:Privateer was a much loved trading game similar to the more venerable Elite, which appears also to be in the process of a remake. As a linux fan I was most happy with the remake's use of GPL 3d engine software and release of Linux, Macintosh and Windows versions. See Screenshots here."
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  • Escape Velocity? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 07 2005, @09:48AM (#11865230)
    It looks a lot like Ambrosia Software's Escape Velocity series. I had a lot of fun playing those on my Macs a few years back.

    (oh, and FP ;P)
    • Note that Escape Velocity was released for Windows last year. I loved it on the Mac, and on Windows I even paid for it... Although IMO the final scenario (Nova) isn't anywhere near as good as the second (Override) or some of the total conversion add-ons available - probably because Nova is fairly linear. Fortunately, Override was ported to Windows, as well, and is available as a free add-on.

    • Re:Escape Velocity? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by worst_name_ever (633374) on Monday March 07 2005, @11:17AM (#11865891)
      Back in the day when I was just starting to write what later became Escape Velocity, I didn't have a PC, but I did see Privateer at the store and thought it sounded really cool. So, there wasn't really any direct influence, although the phenomenon of parallel evolution applies to open-ended space action/RPG hybrids just like any other game type - certain ideas are just universally fun, so you'll see them crop up repeatedly in different games. Sometimes they cross media types, as evidenced by when I first saw Firefly and said "hey, this is like EV: The Series!" ;)

      Now that I am leet enough to have both MacOS and Windows machines, I should probably download this remake and check it out. It sure looks like fun.

      mcb [ambrosiasw.com]

        • I admit that I did play a ton of TradeWars when I was in highschool, and some of the inspiration for EV came from saying "gee, wouldn't it be cool if you could actuall see what was going on here?" so there was definitely some influence, at least in a general sense!
  • I thought Digital Anvil release "Freelancer" about 2 years ago...

  • Obvious joke (Score:3, Funny)

    by RyoSaeba (627522) on Monday March 07 2005, @09:52AM (#11865265) Journal
    Guess there's an opportunity to make money by supplying many servers to cope with /. load!
    New business plan:
    * post a privateer story on /.
    * wait for servers to melt on the load
    * come in your ship filled with additional hardware
    * PROFIT!

  • SourceForge Screenshots (Score:5, Informative)

    by MankyD (567984) on Monday March 07 2005, @09:53AM (#11865275) Homepage
    They link to a Source Forge Gallery [sourceforge.net] of screenshots. They also warn that there are spoilers in the gallery.

    • Re:SourceForge Screenshots (Score:5, Funny)

      by digidave (259925) on Monday March 07 2005, @10:02AM (#11865376)
      "They also warn that there are spoilers in the gallery."

      Yeah... It's only been twelve years since the original game was released. I wouldn't want to ruin everything.

      P.S. don't tell me what happened in Super Bowl XXVII. I taped it and haven't had a chance to watch it yet.

      • Re:SourceForge Screenshots (Score:5, Funny)

        by Ubergrendle (531719) on Monday March 07 2005, @10:10AM (#11865459) Homepage Journal
        P.S. don't tell me what happened in Super Bowl XXVII. I taped it and haven't had a chance to watch it yet.

        You'd better hurry... shelf life for Betamax is only ~ 10 years before the picture degrades.

      • Re:SourceForge Screenshots (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Deusy (455433) <charlie AT vexi DOT org> on Monday March 07 2005, @11:17AM (#11865893) Homepage
        Just because the original was released twelve years ago doesn't mean everybody played it. I know your sarcasm was an attempt to be funny but not everybody watches or plays something when it comes out, especially if they were just a youngster when it was originally released.

        What if you wanted to watch a movie that was released a decade ago? Would you be pissed if somebody gave away the twist in conversation with you just because it was that old.

  • OT but... (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 07 2005, @09:53AM (#11865279)
    Here [sourceforge.net] is one of the Ultima remakes of which they speak. One of the best games ever made.

  • Torrent for the game (Score:5, Informative)

    by MjDelves (811950) on Monday March 07 2005, @09:53AM (#11865280) Journal
    http://www.filerush.com/download.php?target=privat eer1.0.exe
  • I know it will confuse people who think BioForge is the open source biology organization but the game came first from Origin.
    • Great game!

      Was I the only one who confused that scene at the beginning with the armless guy where you were trying to help him and he attacks you?

      It SOUNDS like your character is saying "I have no wish to ARM you!" when you beat him with his own arm.

      (For those who don't know, your character is trying to tell him "I have no wish to harm you", because this armless greak jumps out and starts kicking you)
    • Remake the Crusader games....

      quite possibly 2 of the best games ever.

      Jainith
  • .. to see it's maker. It is an ex-site.

    Mirrors anyone?

  • TASTE RIGHTEOUS FIRE! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 07 2005, @09:55AM (#11865298)
    Die by the very weapons you adore!

  • Actually... (Score:3, Informative)

    by WWWWolf (2428) <wwwwolf@iki.fi> on Monday March 07 2005, @10:00AM (#11865348) Homepage

    ...there have been "finished" Ultima remakes. two complete Ultima IV remakes for Neverwinter Nights, even. Ultima III was remade for Game Boy Color. And Akalabeth has been known to be remade by programmers on their lunch hours. That's not to even count engine remake projects like exult or xu4...

    Of course, uncompleted ones vastly outnumber the completed ones =)

  • was that the original game was pretty linear...

    Was there any attempt to fix this flaw or was the game pretty much kept as is, except for the graphics?

  • BitTorrent Download Links (Score:5, Informative)

    by doublem (118724) on Monday March 07 2005, @10:14AM (#11865490) Homepage Journal
    Bittorrent for the Windows Version [mirrordot.org]

    Bittoreent for Linux Version [mirrordot.org]

    Bittorent for MAC Version [mirrordot.org]

    Use the torrent, and make MY download faster! MWHAHAHAHAHA!

  • copyright? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Ubergrendle (531719) on Monday March 07 2005, @10:18AM (#11865531) Homepage Journal
    I wonder how the current owners of Origin Systems Inc, or Chris Roberts, feel about this open source work.

    Personally I would feel honoured and accept the compliment that my work is being resurrected ~10 years hence for people to enjoy, but I can't speak for them. How is this handled in the open source community?

    • Depends, they might get around it by requiring the orignal game to play. I've seen that more than once, people reimplement the engine, and what data that needs updating (like 3D graphics) but all other data is left orignal and thus you have to have the game. Doomsday, a Doom engine, is this way. You can override most included content with your own so you can add new music, 3d models for enemies, etc, but to play the oringal game you still need the orignal WADs.

      Not sure in this case since their server is su
      • That's kind of hard to say. Seeing as Richard Garriot is no longer with Origin and has lost the rights to the franchise (Ultima) to Electronic Arts, he probably would be honored at this point.
        Especially seeing as how EA has all but killed off Ultima, first by exerting pressure to change the game style (see Ultima 8's arcade jumping) and then rushing an unfinished Ultima to release (Ultima 9). Lastly, the one remaining Ultima product is Ultima Online which has seen two seperate updated versions killed as wel

  • This is a mod to the Vega Strike Project (Score:3, Informative)

    by ducomputergeek (595742) on Monday March 07 2005, @02:51PM (#11868571) Homepage
    This game is actually a Mod based around the http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/ [sourceforge.net] Vegastrike game engine. Vega Strike is completely opensource creation of a Privateer like game. The graphics engine is actually quite advance even if some of its other features are still lagging behind.

    • Re: Here's downloads on mirrors (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 07 2005, @09:56AM (#11865317)
      Just download it and try it yourself :)

      Privateer for Windows:
      http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/wcuni verse/priv ateer1.0.exe?download

      Privateer for Linux:
      http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/wcunive rse/priv ateer1.0.bz2.run?download

      Privateer for OSX:
      http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/wcunivers e/priv ateer1.0.dmg?download
    • ...the proper 3D Drivers installed for your video card or is the Linux version of the game just that sloppy?

      I have noticed that I tend to get better FPS and smoother performance with same version releases of commercial Windows and Linux games, like Quake 3, when running Linux as opposed to running Windows.

    • Re:I've tried all 3 (Score:5, Insightful)

      by mahdi13 (660205) <icarus.lnx@gmail.com> on Monday March 07 2005, @10:04AM (#11865396) Homepage Journal
      As the last poster said, are you using good 3d drivers for your card or are you on an ATI and using the kernels DRI drivers??

      I've been playing the pre-1.0 release on Linux and have not seen what you described at all.
    • I tried it in Linux and I don't know what you mean, I cranked everything up and to me it's as smooth as it should be. Don't know how to benchmark but from the looks it's constant over 70fps (Can't see any higer :).

      Do you use accelerated 3d drivers?

    • Re:Vega Strike.... (Score:4, Informative)

      by Deusy (455433) <charlie AT vexi DOT org> on Monday March 07 2005, @10:19AM (#11865554) Homepage
      It is a Vega Strike [sf.net] mod, hence the link to VS (as the GPL engine) in the /. article.

      What the article doesn't really mention is that the Privateer Remake development crew is mostly Vega Strike developers. I believe Privateer is one of the games that inspires the VS developers, although VS itself is a very different game universe. Once the VS engine was in a position to make a Privateer Remake possible then they poured a lot of effort into making it.

      I look forward to future releases that should continue to improve upon the graphics 'ported' from the original Privateer and bring the remake further up to date.

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