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Any privateer fans here?

This is a free discussion forum on Freelancer. This is the place to discuss Freelancer issues NOT covered by the other boards!

Post Tue Aug 05, 2003 9:47 am

If anyone is looking for Privateer stuff, go here:
http://www.angelfire.com/yt/privater/shipyard.html

There are pics, ship info, and a link to the abandonware site where you can DL Privateer.

JEMM is the environment/memory manager that Privateer used (and that about covers the list of games that did folks...). It does not like Windows at all. Basically it uses some dirty tricks to manipulate memory and video resources that windows pretty much forbids, so JEMM won't run under windows worth a ****.

As far as getting it to run, first step would be to go to bootdisk.com if you don't have a copy of 95/95 or dos 6.22. You can get a dos bootdisk there that should help you get started.

You will also a program like Slowdown or Mo'Slo to get things manageable on a fast machine. This likely means P2 and up, and maybe even some fast Pentiums like a 200MHz or something. I personally like slowdown better than mo'slo, but it can be a real pain finding a download site for it since it's damn name shows up in so damn many contexts.

Privateer needs a TON of memory available. I think it's something like 604 or 614K out of the 640K base memory, so you need to axe all the garbage like ramdrives and cd-rom drivers from that bootdisk image. Tweak autoexec.bat and config.sys to use upper memory for as many things as you can; make sure himem.sys is set to allow upper memory access, include a dos=high, umb line. Dos command help can be found here: http://www.vfrazee.com/ms-dos/6.22/help/

I found the tiny mouse drivers they have available in the downloads section at www.wcnews.com very helpful too. One is 2k instead of 14k for the normal logitech mouse driver.

Most joysticks do not need drivers, although you pretty much need an analog stick- I had fits even with my Microsoft SideWinder 3dPRO v1.0, which was supposed to emulate either a Thrustmaster and something else (Apache?)

The big clinker though is getting dos sound drivers. I found www.soundcard-drivers.com by far had the most available, but many newer cards just don't work in dos. Read the readme that comes with privateer. They tell you about a specific error code that pretty much means you gots sound issues that will crash the game at startup (memory error 44F or something along those lines). www.wcnews.com does say that MyJEMM add support for SOME windows only soundcards, as well as USB devices. In case you were unaware DOS+USB=not gonna happen.

I hope I was of some help. I dug out my copy of Privateer once I got bored of freelancer and had to get the damn thing working. I finally ended up re-appropriating my old P133 from my mom that had an ISA SB AWE-32 to get things to work. It worth it after all the little things that irked me about Freelancer to get it going. I don't think my mom minded too much either- I traded her a 2.4 GHz Athlon XP on an NForce2 MB for it. She does ***** the fan is too loud though

Post Tue Aug 05, 2003 9:54 am

I've got the "Gold Box" EA Classics version of Privateer 1/RF on cd. It included full speech for all the bar rumors on the bases. I haven't tried to run it for a while, but I've got my old computer in a box ready for re-assembly whenever I get bored.

What a great game. I remember I use to think..."hmmm, this would make a great multiplayer game if they could get hundreds of people playing it all at the same time...they should do that some day." Freelancer fell short of that by a lot, but it's a pretty good update.

Check the WCNews.com forums for information on "Privateer: The Reckoning", a project to mod many of the old Privateer and WC1-3 fighters and systems into Freelancer.


http://clanjfp.org
"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." - Thomas Jefferson

Post Sat Aug 09, 2003 3:00 am

Whee, another Priv thread!

I kind of, sort of had Priv up and running on my modern box but the game hates the SB emulation that comes with PCI sound cards. I pieced together a legacy gaming box for all my collective PC nostalgia, it has some oldies but goodies inside like a Celeron 300A overclocked to 450 , a TNT2 Ultra, a Voodoo2 and an SB Live. That's for running not-so-old stuff like WC Prophecy and Final Fantasy 7 PC. Its OS is Win98 SE. But best of all, an SB16 card from 1993 that weighs about 2 pounds sits in one of the ISA slots, and lets really old stuff like Priv run without a hitch.

<My config.sys for pure DOS on this box>
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS /TESTMEM:OFF
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE 15360 RAM
DOS=HIGH,UMB NOAUTO
BUFFERS=20,0
FILES=50
STACKS=9,256
FCBS=1,0
LASTDRIVE=D
DEVICEHIGH=C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\MTMCDROM.SYS /D:MSCD001
SHELL=C:\COMMAND.COM C:\WINDOWS\ /P /E:512

Notes...

The EMM386.EXE line... Don't let Priv see more than 16 MB total system memory. Its digital sound driver may freak out if it does.

The Mistumi ATAPI CDROM device driver... Do try to find a copy of it on the net someplace. It has one of the smallest memory footprints of all the DOS CD drivers out there. 11.2K.

<My autoexec.bat for pure DOS on this box>
@ECHO OFF
PROMPT $P$G
SET MOUSE=C:\DRIVERS\MOUSE
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 T6
SET SOUND=C:\DRIVERS\SB16
C:\DRIVERS\SB16\SB16SET /M:255 /VOC:255 /CD:255 /MIDI:255 /LINE:255 /TREBLE:128 /BASS:128
C:\DRIVERS\SB16\SBCONFIG.EXE /S
LH C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\MSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD001
LH C:\DRIVERS\MOUSE\MOUSE.EXE
PATH=C:\;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND

Notes...
I'm running Microsoft mouse driver version 9 on this thing. CuteMouse is a lot smaller but for some reason it doesn't want to run the mouse in left hand mode for me. And I'm a leftie. So that's a problem. If you're a rightie, then by all means, use CuteMouse instead. I'm at 607K free conventional memory with this config as it is, so there's no memory woes for me with the MS driver.

Hope that helps someone out there. Hats off if you can get Priv running playably well on a modern machine, but for best results IMO it really needs native DOS and an ISA sound card.


Ever get the feeling... you're standing on plastic?

Post Sat Aug 09, 2003 2:45 pm

I'ne still got my 486 in good shape and hooked up. But as I've mentioned elsewhere, my nephew ran off with my Privateer floppies ... and my Privateer II CDs. Argggggg!!!

Jose Chavez: "Trent! It's good to see my kind of scum."

Post Sat Aug 09, 2003 11:34 pm

Puke, if you ever see him Multiplayer, blow his butt out of the stars. Then take the phone off the hook so you don't have to hear how you made him cry from his parents.

Spectre

Post Sun Aug 10, 2003 9:59 am

Privateer was absolutely great !

souvenirs, souvenirs...

Post Sun Aug 10, 2003 11:40 am

I WOULD be a fan of Privateer that is. I downloaded the abandonware programs off a site last winter, but alas this machine uses Windows ME. So I'm pretty much tortured by it just sitting there on the hardrive doing nothing.

I should be handing you your lungs.

Post Sun Aug 10, 2003 6:37 pm

You can find bootdisk images for DOS 5/6.x/7 at bootdisk.com, from there you'd need to track down the files HIMEM.SYS and EMM386.EXE that correspond to the DOS version you're booting and put them on the bootdisk. That way you could set up a Priv-friendly pure DOS environment on a Win ME machine. If you know someone who has a Win95 or 98 CD, you could pull the files from that and make yourself a DOS 7 bootdisk.

Ever get the feeling... you're standing on plastic?

Post Mon Aug 11, 2003 2:06 am

Important notes about the "real" Privateer & Righteous Fire.

The CD version is different from the floppy disk version for RF. Someone at Origin got irritated at the guy who put the mod program out (it would let you switch the max number of missiles, change the guns available, etc.) and redefined all three "green guns" (yes, there were three types, the drone uses a different type than the other two) to be weaker than a laser.

And, of course, you can't get rid of them (without the editor). On the other hand, they make for great handicapping.

I have walkthroughs for the game at http://adrr.com/wing/ -- and I think I left some of the save game files up (though I've been deleting those things -- e-mail me and I'll send you a bunch).

Privateer was really something. You *need* an afterburner and if you don't ride it you will get multiple bad guys on your six so fast you will be toast before you realize what you did wrong.

You can beat both games in the original ship (the Tarsus utility scout), but otherwise ... the best ship solution is pretty clear.




Dire Wolf
http://adrr.com/wing
http://adrr.com/story

Post Mon Aug 11, 2003 8:45 am

Beating Privateer in that original flying box? I couldn't wait to get rid of the thing!

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