Wing Commander: Privateer
Encyclopedia
Wing Commander: Privateer is an adventure space flight simulation computer game released by Origin Systems
in 1993. Privateer and its storyline is part of the Wing Commander
series. Privateer had an add-on titled Righteous Fire (1994) that continues the story and adds other purchasable equipment to the game.
The software features a pseudo-3D world in plain raster graphics at 320x200 with 256 colors.
The player takes the role of Grayson Burrows, a "privateer
" who travels through the Gemini Sector, one of many sectors in the Wing Commander universe. Unlike Wing Commander, the player is no longer a navy pilot, but a freelancer who can choose to be a pirate, a merchant, a mercenary or any of the above in some combination. The player may follow the built-in plot but is free to adventure on his own, even after the plot has been completed.
Burrows' name was unknown to the general public for many years. During that period he was known as "Brownhair", by reference to "Bluehair", the Wing Commander I and II protagonist later known as Christopher Blair.
When flying, the main view is a first-person-look from inside the cockpit onto the cockpit screens (HUDs) and the space before the ship. Space combat simulation is similar to the style of other Wing Commander games of its time. On planets and bases a static overview / first-person-view is used to show the rooms and interact with people. When buying or selling and taking missions from the mission computer, in-game menus are used.
The Gemini sector is frequented by seven factions: merchants, bounty hunters, retros, pirates, militia, the Terran Confederation and the Kilrathi. Some of them attack the player on sight, some are allies of the player. How the members of the factions react is not only pre-set but depends also on the player's actions.
Merchants
Merchants are traders who ferry legal commodities from one base to another, and their initial disposition towards the player is neutral. They primarily fly in large, slow transports, and are generally easy targets for pirates when they travel alone.
Bounty Hunters
Bounty hunters are mercenaries who collect bounties on pirates and other lawbreakers, and their initial disposition towards the player is neutral. While the majority of bounty hunters are legit, some, unlike merchants, do not always abide by the law, sometimes engaging in piracy, illegal blockades, and assassinations for hire. The player can occasionally accept missions against rogue mercenaries.
Retros
The Retros belong to a quasi-religious terrorist organization called the Church of Man who believe that technology is evil and vow to vanquish all forms of it, even if by doing so they themselves must use technology (the ends justify the means). They always have a hostile disposition towards the player and all other factions, though in Righteous Fire they become allied with the Kilrathi in an attempt to overthrow all mankind.
Pirates
Pirates are criminals who mainly attack merchant vessels to plunder their cargo but are also hostile towards all other factions. However, the player can generally appease pirates through repeated pleas for mercy and can, in time, change their general disposition to neutral or friendly by attacking merchants, hunters, and militia craft. Pirates often transport contraband, such as tobacco, drugs, and slaves, and operate out of several pirate bases, all of which the player can land on regardless of their disposition with the pirate faction.
Militia
The Militia are the local police of Gemini Sector and initially have a neutral disposition towards the player. They conduct random cargo scans of spacecraft and will attack any vessels found carrying contraband. They are also hostile towards pirates, Retros, and any craft that open fire on merchant, militia, or Confed ships.
Terran Confederation
Confeds are the military force who act in conjunction with the militia to protect civilians from pirates, Retros, and Kilrathi ships. They, like militia, perform contraband searches on nearby vessels and will attack all violators on sight, although they generally do not intervene when the player attacks merchants or mercenary ships. The Confederation maintains a high concentration of ships in the Clarke quadrant, which borders Kilrathi territory, and have set up three blockade points to quell Kilrathi incursions into Gemini space.
Kilrathi
The Kilrathi are a cat-like alien race and are the primary enemy of humanity in the Wing Commander series. They have a minor presence in Gemini Sector and are found almost exclusively in the Clarke quadrant. Kilrathi are arguably the most powerful faction in terms of ship strength and weaponry, but their small numbers allow the Confed to keep them at bay for the most part. Their initial disposition towards the player is hostile, although like pirates they can be temporarily appeased through flattery. However, the only way to permanently change their general disposition from hostile to neutral or friendly is to repeatedly attack Confed ships; thus, the player will always be considered hostile by either one faction or the other.
The player may conduct his own business as a merchant or fight in combat for non-plot missions provided by the above factions. If playing as a merchant, the player must make a profit from price differences of commodities on different planets or stations. Alternatively, the player may choose from randomly generated non-plot missions from a mission computer. Successful completion of missions results in monetary award, which allows better ship weapons and equipment to be purchased.
During the plot, the player meets fixers, often representing one of the factions above, who assign the player missions in their interest in exchange for money or helpful information. The missions usually consist of plain combat, escorting other ships while combating enemies or commodity delivery including smuggling while combating / escaping enemies. The plot itself can only be played straight, one mission after another in a preset line. But between plot missions or even while being on a mission the player can follow his own interests.
Monkhouse tells Burrows the artifact was made by an ancient technologically advanced race, the Steltek. The artifact is half of a map; Monkhouse has the rest. Burrows agrees to explore the area in the map.
Burrows locates a powerful weapon on an ancient ship and mounts it on his own. When he leaves, a mysterious drone follows him, destroying everything it encounters. Burrows is asked by the Confederation to lure the drone into an ambush, so it can be destroyed.
Burrows then encounters a Steltek scout, looking for the last traces of his technology. He energizes the ancient weapon in exchange for the location of the ship where Burrows found it. It then remains for Burrows to destroy the dangerous drone.
A Retro defector tells Burrows the location of the Retros’ headquarters and warns they have made copies of the Steltek gun. Burrows realises he must defeat the Retro leader Jones and destroy all copies of the powerful weapon.
s were released for Privateer: the Wing Commander Privateer Speech Pack (1993), which added digitized speech voice-overs to the entire game; and the aforementioned Righteous Fire (1994) expansion pack, which continues the story. Righteous Fire differs from the original Privateer in that there is no way to "lose" by failing a mission. If the player does not successfully complete a mission, he is offered the chance to try again.
Wing Commander: Privateer was also released in a CD-ROM Classics edition that included the Righteous Fire expansion and full speech throughout the game, more than what the Speech Pack alone provides. The actor voicing the main character also changes between the Speech Pack and CD-ROM edition of the game.
, Mathilda May
, Jürgen Prochnow
, John Hurt
, and Christopher Walken
amongst many others. After Electronic Arts shut down Origin, Chris Roberts created the game Freelancer
which featured similar art and story to Privateer, but was set in a new universe.
Ascii Sector is a remake of Wing Commander: Privateer using ASCII
-like characters in 16 different colors to present its environment. Its latest version is 0.7.1.2 (Dec, 2010) and it's being developed for Windows
, Mac OS X
and Linux
operating systems. Unlike the original game, Privateer Ascii Sector allows players to create their own missions by using the game's scripting language.
Known as Remake, this fan-made version has a more liberal approach to original game because of new additions not present in the original game, including fancier graphics (especially the ship models) and more gameplay-related features. The first version 1.0 of Remake was released for download on the project's website on March 6, 2005 for Windows
, Mac OS X
and Linux
operating systems. The latest version is 1.2 and was released in the same way on July 15, 2005. After completing the plot and losing the steltek gun, the player can go on with the Righteous Fire missions. As of Aug 2011, this project home site seems to point to Vega Strike
.
In contrast to the above versions, Privateer Gemini Gold strives to be as true to the original Privateer as possible. Originally devised as a purist modification of Remake, Privateer Gemini Gold developed into its own project, which since then has shared resources with Remake. Version 1.0 of Privateer Gemini Gold was released on July 23, 2005 for download on the project's website for Windows
, Mac OS X
and Linux
operating systems, followed by the first patch 1.01 on November 15, 2005. 1.02b2 was released in April, 2007. The game also includes the Righteous Fire missions. Current ongoing developments include remodeling 2D graphics of bases in the original game into high resolution.
Parallel Universe is a stand-alone modification of the Remake version 1.2 mentioned above. Besides the original Privateer content, the project adds some new ships, fan campaign missions, ship equipment and revamped graphics to the game. The project is in a playable state, yet under constant, further development.
Private Remake, Gemini Gold and Parallel Universe all use Vega Strike
, a space flight simulation computer game. Its code is Open-source software
, allowing to make modifications.
Origin Systems
Origin Systems, Inc. was a computer game developer based in Austin, Texas that was active from 1983 to 2004...
in 1993. Privateer and its storyline is part of the Wing Commander
Wing Commander (franchise)
Wing Commander is a video game media franchise consisting of space combat simulation computer games from Origin Systems, Inc., an animated television series, a feature film, a collectible card game, a series of novels, and action figures...
series. Privateer had an add-on titled Righteous Fire (1994) that continues the story and adds other purchasable equipment to the game.
The software features a pseudo-3D world in plain raster graphics at 320x200 with 256 colors.
The player takes the role of Grayson Burrows, a "privateer
Privateer
A privateer is a private person or ship authorized by a government by letters of marque to attack foreign shipping during wartime. Privateering was a way of mobilizing armed ships and sailors without having to spend public money or commit naval officers...
" who travels through the Gemini Sector, one of many sectors in the Wing Commander universe. Unlike Wing Commander, the player is no longer a navy pilot, but a freelancer who can choose to be a pirate, a merchant, a mercenary or any of the above in some combination. The player may follow the built-in plot but is free to adventure on his own, even after the plot has been completed.
Burrows' name was unknown to the general public for many years. During that period he was known as "Brownhair", by reference to "Bluehair", the Wing Commander I and II protagonist later known as Christopher Blair.
Gameplay
Basic gameplay consists of flying and fighting with the ship in a star system, jumping from system to system via jump points, landing on bases or planets, interacting with people (mainly talking) and buying or selling equipment or commodities. The Gemini sector is divided into quadrants, each contains several star systems, most of them with planets or bases that may be visited. Unlike other games in the series, the gameplay is primarily in the sandbox style of play.The Gemini sector is frequented by seven factions: merchants, bounty hunters, retros, pirates, militia, the Terran Confederation and the Kilrathi. Some of them attack the player on sight, some are allies of the player. How the members of the factions react is not only pre-set but depends also on the player's actions.
Merchants
Merchants are traders who ferry legal commodities from one base to another, and their initial disposition towards the player is neutral. They primarily fly in large, slow transports, and are generally easy targets for pirates when they travel alone.
Bounty Hunters
Bounty hunters are mercenaries who collect bounties on pirates and other lawbreakers, and their initial disposition towards the player is neutral. While the majority of bounty hunters are legit, some, unlike merchants, do not always abide by the law, sometimes engaging in piracy, illegal blockades, and assassinations for hire. The player can occasionally accept missions against rogue mercenaries.
Retros
The Retros belong to a quasi-religious terrorist organization called the Church of Man who believe that technology is evil and vow to vanquish all forms of it, even if by doing so they themselves must use technology (the ends justify the means). They always have a hostile disposition towards the player and all other factions, though in Righteous Fire they become allied with the Kilrathi in an attempt to overthrow all mankind.
Pirates
Pirates are criminals who mainly attack merchant vessels to plunder their cargo but are also hostile towards all other factions. However, the player can generally appease pirates through repeated pleas for mercy and can, in time, change their general disposition to neutral or friendly by attacking merchants, hunters, and militia craft. Pirates often transport contraband, such as tobacco, drugs, and slaves, and operate out of several pirate bases, all of which the player can land on regardless of their disposition with the pirate faction.
Militia
The Militia are the local police of Gemini Sector and initially have a neutral disposition towards the player. They conduct random cargo scans of spacecraft and will attack any vessels found carrying contraband. They are also hostile towards pirates, Retros, and any craft that open fire on merchant, militia, or Confed ships.
Terran Confederation
Confeds are the military force who act in conjunction with the militia to protect civilians from pirates, Retros, and Kilrathi ships. They, like militia, perform contraband searches on nearby vessels and will attack all violators on sight, although they generally do not intervene when the player attacks merchants or mercenary ships. The Confederation maintains a high concentration of ships in the Clarke quadrant, which borders Kilrathi territory, and have set up three blockade points to quell Kilrathi incursions into Gemini space.
Kilrathi
The Kilrathi are a cat-like alien race and are the primary enemy of humanity in the Wing Commander series. They have a minor presence in Gemini Sector and are found almost exclusively in the Clarke quadrant. Kilrathi are arguably the most powerful faction in terms of ship strength and weaponry, but their small numbers allow the Confed to keep them at bay for the most part. Their initial disposition towards the player is hostile, although like pirates they can be temporarily appeased through flattery. However, the only way to permanently change their general disposition from hostile to neutral or friendly is to repeatedly attack Confed ships; thus, the player will always be considered hostile by either one faction or the other.
The player may conduct his own business as a merchant or fight in combat for non-plot missions provided by the above factions. If playing as a merchant, the player must make a profit from price differences of commodities on different planets or stations. Alternatively, the player may choose from randomly generated non-plot missions from a mission computer. Successful completion of missions results in monetary award, which allows better ship weapons and equipment to be purchased.
During the plot, the player meets fixers, often representing one of the factions above, who assign the player missions in their interest in exchange for money or helpful information. The missions usually consist of plain combat, escorting other ships while combating enemies or commodity delivery including smuggling while combating / escaping enemies. The plot itself can only be played straight, one mission after another in a preset line. But between plot missions or even while being on a mission the player can follow his own interests.
Plot
The game begins with a mysterious drone attacking shipping in the system. When Burrows lands on the planet New Detroit, a man hires him and gives him a mysterious artifact. On his return, Burrows finds the man is dead. Burrows seeks information about the artifact, eventually meeting Dr. Monkhouse, a Xenoarchaeologist on Palan.Monkhouse tells Burrows the artifact was made by an ancient technologically advanced race, the Steltek. The artifact is half of a map; Monkhouse has the rest. Burrows agrees to explore the area in the map.
Burrows locates a powerful weapon on an ancient ship and mounts it on his own. When he leaves, a mysterious drone follows him, destroying everything it encounters. Burrows is asked by the Confederation to lure the drone into an ambush, so it can be destroyed.
Burrows then encounters a Steltek scout, looking for the last traces of his technology. He energizes the ancient weapon in exchange for the location of the ship where Burrows found it. It then remains for Burrows to destroy the dangerous drone.
Righteous Fire Expansion
While Burrows is docked, the Steltek weapon is stolen from his ship. He travels to Oxford, where he meets someone who help him in return for flying missions against the Retros, a homicidal band of religious extremists led by a man named Mordecai Jones. The informant adds that Governor Menesch, who sells weapons and ships to the Retros and pirates, was probably behind the theft of Burrows’ weapon.A Retro defector tells Burrows the location of the Retros’ headquarters and warns they have made copies of the Steltek gun. Burrows realises he must defeat the Retro leader Jones and destroy all copies of the powerful weapon.
Expansions
Two expansion packExpansion pack
An expansion pack, expansion set, or supplement is an addition to an existing role-playing game, tabletop game or video game. These add-ons usually add new game areas, weapons, objects, and/or an extended storyline to a complete and already released game...
s were released for Privateer: the Wing Commander Privateer Speech Pack (1993), which added digitized speech voice-overs to the entire game; and the aforementioned Righteous Fire (1994) expansion pack, which continues the story. Righteous Fire differs from the original Privateer in that there is no way to "lose" by failing a mission. If the player does not successfully complete a mission, he is offered the chance to try again.
Wing Commander: Privateer was also released in a CD-ROM Classics edition that included the Righteous Fire expansion and full speech throughout the game, more than what the Speech Pack alone provides. The actor voicing the main character also changes between the Speech Pack and CD-ROM edition of the game.
Sequel
Another Privateer game known as Privateer 2: The Darkening was released in late 1996, helmed by Erin Roberts, the brother of Chris Roberts. However, The Darkening is not a storyline sequel, but a spin-off. The naming of the game as "Privateer 2" was not decided until rather late in its development. The Darkening is set a century after the original Privateer and in a different region of space. This setting and the storyline of The Darkening is not mentioned in any other Wing Commander game, but since it was released as a Wing Commander game and does not necessarily contradict the established story, its story is considered by many to be part of the Wing Commander universe. Privateer 2 was most notable for its live action sequences featuring such talents as Clive OwenClive Owen
Clive Owen is an English actor, who has worked on television, stage and film. He first gained recognition in the United Kingdom for portraying the lead in the ITV series Chancer from 1990 to 1991...
, Mathilda May
Mathilda May
Mathilda May is a French film actress.-Early life:May was born in Paris. Her father is playwright Victor Haïm, who is of Greek and Turkish descent. Her mother is Swedish ballet teacher and choreographer Margareta Hanson...
, Jürgen Prochnow
Jürgen Prochnow
Jürgen Prochnow is a German actor. His most well-known roles internationally have been as the sympathetic submarine captain in Das Boot , Duke Leto Atreides I in Dune , the minor, but important role of Neo-Stalinist dictator General Ivan Radek in Air Force One and the villain Maxwell Dent in...
, John Hurt
John Hurt
John Vincent Hurt, CBE is an English actor, known for his leading roles as John Merrick in The Elephant Man, Winston Smith in Nineteen Eighty-Four, Mr. Braddock in The Hit, Stephen Ward in Scandal, Quentin Crisp in The Naked Civil Servant and An Englishman in New York...
, and Christopher Walken
Christopher Walken
Christopher Walken is an American stage and screen actor. He has appeared in more than 100 movies and television shows, including Joe Dirt, Annie Hall, The Deer Hunter, The Prophecy trilogy, The Dogs of War, Sleepy Hollow, Brainstorm, The Dead Zone, A View to a Kill, At Close Range, King of New...
amongst many others. After Electronic Arts shut down Origin, Chris Roberts created the game Freelancer
Freelancer (video game)
Freelancer is a space trading and combat simulation video game developed by Digital Anvil and published by Microsoft Game Studios. The game was initially announced by Chris Roberts in 1999, and following many production schedule mishaps and a buyout of Digital Anvil by Microsoft, it was eventually...
which featured similar art and story to Privateer, but was set in a new universe.
Fan-made remakes
Several fan-driven remakes have also been worked on, to various levels of completion.Ascii Sector is a remake of Wing Commander: Privateer using ASCII
ASCII
The American Standard Code for Information Interchange is a character-encoding scheme based on the ordering of the English alphabet. ASCII codes represent text in computers, communications equipment, and other devices that use text...
-like characters in 16 different colors to present its environment. Its latest version is 0.7.1.2 (Dec, 2010) and it's being developed for Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
and Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
operating systems. Unlike the original game, Privateer Ascii Sector allows players to create their own missions by using the game's scripting language.
Known as Remake, this fan-made version has a more liberal approach to original game because of new additions not present in the original game, including fancier graphics (especially the ship models) and more gameplay-related features. The first version 1.0 of Remake was released for download on the project's website on March 6, 2005 for Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
and Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
operating systems. The latest version is 1.2 and was released in the same way on July 15, 2005. After completing the plot and losing the steltek gun, the player can go on with the Righteous Fire missions. As of Aug 2011, this project home site seems to point to Vega Strike
Vega Strike
Vega Strike is a first-person space trading and combat simulator, developed for Microsoft Windows, POSIX Unix-like operating systems such as Linux, and Mac OS X systems. Many of the core game mechanics of Vega Strike are indirectly inspired by Elite...
.
In contrast to the above versions, Privateer Gemini Gold strives to be as true to the original Privateer as possible. Originally devised as a purist modification of Remake, Privateer Gemini Gold developed into its own project, which since then has shared resources with Remake. Version 1.0 of Privateer Gemini Gold was released on July 23, 2005 for download on the project's website for Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
and Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
operating systems, followed by the first patch 1.01 on November 15, 2005. 1.02b2 was released in April, 2007. The game also includes the Righteous Fire missions. Current ongoing developments include remodeling 2D graphics of bases in the original game into high resolution.
Parallel Universe is a stand-alone modification of the Remake version 1.2 mentioned above. Besides the original Privateer content, the project adds some new ships, fan campaign missions, ship equipment and revamped graphics to the game. The project is in a playable state, yet under constant, further development.
Private Remake, Gemini Gold and Parallel Universe all use Vega Strike
Vega Strike
Vega Strike is a first-person space trading and combat simulator, developed for Microsoft Windows, POSIX Unix-like operating systems such as Linux, and Mac OS X systems. Many of the core game mechanics of Vega Strike are indirectly inspired by Elite...
, a space flight simulation computer game. Its code is Open-source software
Open-source software
Open-source software is computer software that is available in source code form: the source code and certain other rights normally reserved for copyright holders are provided under a software license that permits users to study, change, improve and at times also to distribute the software.Open...
, allowing to make modifications.