Running Privateer PERFECTLY in win xp, this is it

Sat Jan 29, 2005 2:38 am by DarkStuff

Just recently came into this info and thought that this would be the best place to share it!

It all comes out to using this program: Dosbox AND ofcause the game privateer. (I have the game from back in the day, but it seems that the game has become freeware, so search the net for it)

Use this link to get it:

http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/download.php?main=1

Get the topmost one called Windows Win32Installer. (Atm. its v0.63)

The first thing you want to do, after having installed dosbox, is to enter the dosbox.conf file with wordpad/notepad or you own favorite text editor.

Here you need to correct the following.

Fullscreen=true (is set to false first, but you want fullscreen don't you

)

Cycles=7000 (this changes the speed with witch the game runs, and starts out at 3000 but I have found that 7000 was great for this game, plz do your own changes as you see fit.

Irq=5(it starts at 7, but most soundblastercards run 5 today it seems, check you own computer settings, and change this value as you need to)

Ems=false(this is set to true from the beginning, make sure to change til to false as the game won't run without the change)

Remember to save you info under the same name dosbox.conf!

Thats it! you are good to go!

Startup dosbox

The program is pretty much self explanatory and with it follows several readmes and such.

But as you start the program go ahead and do this:

Write INTRO to get a nice and easy intro. if that is not enough do this:

Write Mount c c:\Oldgames(this path being where you have your old games)
(This makes your chosen path into a drive called c:\ in dosbox.)

And then use normal DOS writing to start the game

Also if you don't know them, you can ALWAYS write HELP to get a list of what you can write.

SO far so good.

REMEMBER there are 2 versions of the game...

The is the normal privateer with the soundpack addon and Rightious Fire (with is the expansion to the game)
This will give you speach at some points in the game....

Then there is the Full CD version of the game where Rightious Fire is included and also there is a FULL speach pack where all the characters in the game have speach instead of text.

I hope that this will help those that want to play this great game, as much as it helped me. Also this information I have picked up from various forums, so I ofcause take no credit for anything.

Also if this has been mentioned here before, plz delete this post.

Edited by - DarkStuff on 1/29/2005 2:44:41 AM

Sat Jan 29, 2005 4:34 am by Wizard

I know that alot of people here on TLR were trying to figure out a way to get Privateer to work on WinXP. I hope this'll do the trick!

Impressive first post! Let's see what the future holds

Welcome to TLR!

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Sat Jan 29, 2005 5:37 am by DarkStuff

Thanks alot Wizard

Btw. this nice little program runs ALOT of old programs Including Privateer 2 - The Darkening too.

This page shows the compatibility of various games, and also offers a forum of discussion for problems running them.

http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/comp_list.php?letter=a
AND
http://vogons.zetafleet.com/viewforum.php?f=33

The stuff I mentioned above as recomended modifications are for Privateer 1 and is working 100% good for me... (It even supports my Wingman Extreme 3D joy

)

For other games there might be other modifications such as game speed needed, but these things are discussed in the forums...

Edited by - DarkStuff on 1/29/2005 5:37:45 AM

Sat Jan 29, 2005 3:28 pm by Esquilax

Thanks for that Dark. I have been able to get Privateer working using similar methods, but it doesn't run well enough for me; no speech

. Therefore, I am waiting until I pick up the CD version before I spend time getting it up and running at full speed

. In the meantime, I am eagerly awaiting the Privateer remake based on the "Vegastrike" engine. Are you familiar with it?

Sat Jan 29, 2005 5:28 pm by -vamp-

they already have released a beta of the vegastrike one, i downloaded it the other day

Sat Jan 29, 2005 5:40 pm by H.Q. Victor

Esq, that one is out and there was a thread linkin it, if I can find it, you started it

Edited by - Finalday on 1/29/2005 5:41:32 PM

Sat Jan 29, 2005 5:51 pm by DarkStuff

Aye When I got my "I must play Privateer" Frenzy the other day I tried it out too...

What I got was a beta version v. 0.90.

It seems that it will be very good if they can weed out their problems with stability and such.

I just don't see the need for it when I can play the old one here at my own computer perfectly

Also I noticed that they use the vegaengine for the in flight graphics, but they seem to be using he old graphics from Privateer for the bases and to me that looked awefull... it looked very smeared, and not as spot on as the real deal.

It seems there should be an even more updated version of the Remake out than the beta 0.90 , but I wasn't able to find it. The release of the remake final shouldn't be too far off.

Edited by - DarkStuff on 1/29/2005 5:54:15 PM

Edited by - DarkStuff on 1/30/2005 2:31:26 AM

Sat Jan 29, 2005 6:57 pm by Esquilax

They've released version 1.0 Pre4 at this stage to selected people, and are getting closer to a full version release. As for the older graphics, it is my assumption that they used them to keep the feel of the old game.

*Ignores Final*

Sun Jan 30, 2005 2:31 am by DarkStuff

Ah... well that explains alot, I did think that might be it. Oh well I'll just have to live with the 0.90 beta if I want to play it then.

What I ment with the old graphics is that the base graphics from the original Privateer dosn't even look as good in the new game as they did in the original...
It seems that they have taken a SS of it and then just made it interactive.

Oh well, I'm guessing that it will be a great game.

Edited by - DarkStuff on 1/30/2005 2:31:52 AM

Edited by - DarkStuff on 1/30/2005 2:32:48 AM

Sun Jan 30, 2005 3:55 am by Esquilax

Maybe the bases don't look as sharp as the original because they had to be increased in size for the remake and have thus lost some quality. Alternatively, it could just be the juxtaposition between the old graphics and the new

.

Sun Jan 30, 2005 3:59 am by sycho warrior

How big is your screen Esq?

Sun Jan 30, 2005 5:06 am by Eraser

I use Abandon Loader myself instead of DOSbox. It's much easier to work with.

I use it in combination with VDM Sound. You should try it, it works wonderful, I played all my old Wing Commander games with it, including the first one from 1990

Sun Jan 30, 2005 5:55 am by MamiyaOtaru

There's a slight misconception iwth IRQs in the first post. In privateer's setup program, you want to choose IRQ 7, no matter what your sound card uses. Privateer is not actually using your soundcard directly, it is using a simulated soundblaster provided by DOSbox. This pretend soundcard is on pretend IRQ 7 (to put it stupidly). You can change which pretend IRQ it uses in dosbox.conf, but the point is it has nothing to do with the IRQ of your actual soundcard.

Dosbox is a nice little proggy. I use it to get the original running when I don't feel like booting into windows 98. It's pretty good for quickly checking up on stuff, though my 1.4 ghz athlon isn't quite enough to actually run it smoothly. Faster comp though and you should be set.

remake: You can choose not to filter the base graphics at all in the setup program and then they will look exactly the same as when you were playing the original at 320x200

And there is a bit more to it than screenshots hehe

Sun Jan 30, 2005 7:26 am by DarkStuff

err... No there is NO misconception.. you want to go with IRQ 5 Else it won't work.

All you'll get is an errorcode instead of the game loading.

Anyways that is what I'm getting and also what several other people arround the forums I've been at get.

But feel free to go ahead and tryout both.

Edited by - DarkStuff on 1/30/2005 7:26:33 AM

Edited by - DarkStuff on 1/30/2005 7:34:54 AM

Sun Jan 30, 2005 7:29 am by DarkStuff

Oh and ofcause there is more to it than SS, I know that,but it just looked like it to me visuelwise.

Don't get me wrong I'm VERY impressed with the remake too, anyone that takes on such a project are to be commended.

Edited by - DarkStuff on 1/30/2005 7:35:44 AM

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