Privateer Remake Complete

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."

Drool!

[Anonymous Coward]

Best space-sim EVER!

great

[Anonymous Coward]

this was one of my all time favorites back in the day.

now just gimme x-com on linux

I've tried all 3

[Closest2God]

I've played all 3 - the Mac, Linux, and Win32 version. I hate to say this, but the Linux version simply isn't up to snuff. The graphics are choppy and blocky, making the game unplayable. The Win32 version, on the other hand, is a joy to play. So go out and enjoy this game, but have a Windows partition around to enjoy it on. -Steve

SourceForge Screenshots

[MankyD]

They link to a Source Forge Gallery [sourceforge.net] of screenshots. They also warn that there are spoilers in the gallery.

OT but...

[Anonymous Coward]

Here [sourceforge.net] is one of the Ultima remakes of which they speak. One of the best games ever made.

Torrent for the game

[MjDelves]

http://www.filerush.com/download.php?target=privat eer1.0.exe

Re: Here's downloads on mirrors

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Re:This site has siezed being. It has gone ...

[Psiren]

[My english is better than most other people's german, so please point out mistakes politely. Thank you.]

You probably meant ceased, not seized. Seized is when you grab hold of something. Ceased is when something ceases to be. Hope that's polite enough :)

Actually...

[WWWWolf]

...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 =)

Re:This site has siezed being. It has gone ...

[bobintetley]

MirrorDot [mirrordot.org] as usual.

Re:Escape Velocity?

[moonbender]

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.

According to wcnews.com they have a trademark song

[Anonymous Coward]

This song is apparently supposed to celebrate their release

ftp://ftp.wcnews.com/files/mods/privremakereleas em usic.mp3

I certainly don't remember this from the original privateer.... sounds like something like a cross between the hunt for red october theme and a funeral march

I wonder what it significates for this project other than the (now dead) smouldering pile of junk that is their server.

BitTorrent Download Links

[doublem]

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!

Re:Vega Strike....

[Deusy]

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.

Re:Torrent for the game

[Anonymous Coward]

Or, you know, rather than linking to the download pages already given in the story, we could link to the torrent files themselves:

Windows [filerush.com]
Mac [filerush.com]
Linux [filerush.com]

Re:Vega Strike....

[Anonymous Coward]

Indeed VS was born AS a Priv remake, then it was decided that it should stand alone and the Priv remake ocntinued as a side project.

(yeah, I helped)

Re:I've tried all 3

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey guys,
take a look at his other posts.

This was a troll. Mods, moderate accordingly.

Re:One thing I didn't like

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, there is a new plot. Basically this is Privateer + Righteous Fire + an addon which was never released -- think Wing Commander/Secret Missions/Secret Missions 2.

Also, we will expand Priv to work with the whole Wing Commander Universe.

Re:Drool!

[Txiasaeia]

Righteous Fire. Very interesting expansion pack, but bloody difficult IIRC.

Re:I've tried all 3

[darilon]

Almost guaranteed you have the default DRI drivers from your distribution running. These are fine for 2D but use software rendering for 3D. In order to unleash the 3D hardware power, you need to download and install the proprietary linux drivers from ATI's web site. I have had mixed results with these drivers in the past. Some times they install and work fine and other times they do... strange things and I have to start over again. Read the directions carefully and follow them. Then draw pentagrams and burn tallow candles and mutter latin incantations and hope for the best.

I have them running fine on this box. The only problem I have now is that they refuse to work with the Doom3 Linux native binary (sigh).

Re:copyright?

[Sycraft-fu]

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 suffering from /. burnination, but that's one way to go. Also developers some times release their projects into the public domain, though that is quite rare.

Re:copyright? - New revenue from old game

[evought]

They do, in fact, require the original game to play the remake. The original game provides all of the data files (ship stats, plotlines, etc.). The remake just provides a modern engine to run it.

To my knowledge, it cannot violate copyright because they do not copy anything; they extend. If anything, the existence of the remake provides a revenue stream for a 12 year-old game that does not run anymore on most PCs. The 'classic' compilations of many of these old games can still be bought in many game stores. All a game producer needs to do to cash in is press a few CDs of the original game with no new development costs. Can't argue with that.

What games like this do sometimes run afoul of is *trademark*. By using 'Wing Commander: Privateer" in the game materials, they could arguably violate the original trademark, but 1) there is a world of difference in saying "this game *is* Privateer", and this game is "an add-on for Privateer, which, btw is a registered trademark of ...". There is no way to market an add-on product without referencing the original trademark and this is usually considered fair game (think about an application for Microsoft Windows(tm)). 2) EA (or whoever currently owns the rights) would be insane to not grant the remake a license to use the trademark since they are making money off of it.

Notwithstanding, both law and corporations have been known to be irrational.

Re:Escape Velocity?

[worst_name_ever]

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!

This is a mod to the Vega Strike Project

[ducomputergeek]

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:Settings?

[graysonburrows]

Leave the defaults--they're proper for your computer unless you're advanced enough to understand them. The defaults are carefully tested. also the manual gives detailed descriptions if it goes slow, lower the rez and the detail level