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286 systems in 1996, and with 8MB? More likely at least a 486, since 1995 was well into the pentium era..
 
WElcome to the board Mr Cottam, it's great to see more of your work! StarLancer looked beautiful and I always found that Privateer 2 had a very unique design (in a good way!).
 
286 systems in 1996, and with 8MB? More likely at least a 486, since 1995 was well into the pentium era..

So, this is what it took to run Privateer II the Darkening: Intel Pentium 75 MHz or 100% compatible (or greater), 8 MB of RAM or greater, 40 MB free Hard Drive space (or greater), 2x speed CD-ROM drive (or greater), MS-DOS 5.0 or higher, 100% Microsoft-compatible Mouse. DIGITAL: Sound Blaster (SB), SB Pro, SB 16, SB AWE, Ensoniq Soundscape, Gravis Ultrasound or 100% compatible. MUSIC: Sound Blaster, SB Pro, SB 16, SB AWE, Ensoniq Soundscape, Gravis Ultrasound, General MIDI or 100% compatible. Local Bus Video Card with 256-Color SVGA graphics supporting VESA 1.2 (or greater). RECOMMENDED: Intel Pentium 120 MHz or 100% compatible (or greater), 16 MB of RAM (or greater), 4x speed CD-ROM drive (or greater), 16-bit Sound Card, Joystick with CH-compatible Throttle.


We must have had better than this to make the thing?

I now feel my own physical memory is less than 8MB ;o)
 
I remember they said it needed a Pentium, but I seem to recall you could run it on a 486 okay... better than Wing Commander III, even!
 
Yup, I ran it fairly well on a 486/66 with 8 megs of RAM. Priv 2 was pretty much the most efficient Wing Commander engine.
 
Two ships with two different looks; that was the plan. I had a simple layout drawing in Photoshop. Later I did the pencil drawings to show what was in my mind. The rest I made up as I went along.

We had a few simple rules and just put the headphones on and flew; had to work as fast as possible, we only had two of us building the rooms.

Has to be said, Paul Jones was much better than me, he had more experience at the time.

I don't remember a fish. But your right, there was a hamster ;o).


Last night it came to me, Paul had a fish tank in one of his rooms. There was a fish!
 
So there was one designer for the Reliant and one for the Yamato?
Yep, I did the Reliant and Paul did the Yamato (I think his was better). Paul was on the game longer because he started first, he went on to animate and render both ships. When I finished the Reliant, I moved on to in-game models.

I can't remember anyone else working on the Yamoto and Reliant interior shots.

As far as games go, this was a very small team.
 
I couldn't say which carrier was better. They were both impossibly detailed and stylisticly very different, but the contrast was intended i'm sure.
 
I remember they said it needed a Pentium, but I seem to recall you could run it on a 486 okay... better than Wing Commander III, even!
My box actually said it needed a 486DX2/50 with 8MB, and that was lower then WC4's minimum.. I figured it was because of the movies lacking True/highcolor..

By the end of the DOS era some models of videocards and soundcards could make difference in performance as they were capable of offloading things from the CPU, but a higher end machine would not be fitted with low underperforming parts anyway(no one would install an ISA 256KB VGA card into a 486DX), So a game producer would be safe to up the minimum specs somewhat...
 
Had a 486/DX2 100 mhz in the old Packard Bell (read as Hell) that made WC3 spaceflight run like butter. A problem I always had was a hang now and then on FMVs. We upgraded from a SX/66 that me and my dad figured out how to change out the cpu on the motherboard.

When I got WC3 that loading bottleneck would always bother me. What followed was the event that triggered a career that pays the bills and feeds the fam and I can't ask for better.

I read one book called literally, "How Computers Work". I'd cite it if I could remember the author/publisher but it got me thinking about the CD drive cache as the possible culprit. So after some work to generate some $s (bear in mind that I was 13 at the time) I made enough to buy a 16x CD-ROM to replace the aging stock Quad Speed. I'd seen the insides before and I had been studying electronics (Radio Shack 300-in1 Electronics Toolkit) so I felt comfortable but had never done any work on the guts myself before, short of writing up bootdisks. Sure enough I figured it out and WC3 ran without so much as a cough at me.

That triggered a moment of realization that not only did I like what I was doing (I love logic puzzles) but that I could actually get PAID for it. Now I build PCs from workstations to full-on water-cooled gaming rigs, design office networks, troubleshoot everything, and even branched off into copiers, fax machines, and printers.

I can thank Origin and crew for triggering the spark that launched my legacy. :-D
 
OK, time for some more interesting stuff.

I found 4 images on a old cd that was covered in paint. The paint just pealed off to reveal a clean smooth surface and the CD worked.

The CD was in a box thats traveled on a ship from the UK to San Fransisco, a truck to Vancouver, another ship to Australia, then another ship to Singapore and finally a ship back to the UK. All other cd's in the box died, but the paint protected this one.

I think the captains room below was not used in the end. (Just been told it was)

Seats and com desk up:

cap4.JPG


Seats and com desk down:

cap9.jpg


This was a shot I never found in the game (but again, I've been told it was). The Titanic is on display. This was long before the Titanic movie.

Mike_ 5-11-2000 11-39-52 AM 640x360.jpg
 

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My search for the old is bringing up all the lost memories of a time gone by.

I found the image below, it's all the old games I worked on.

The Contract, Harry Potter, National Geo and a few others are missing.

Think I made a small dent in the game industry.

screenshot_04.jpg


Anyone played any ?
 
Had a 486/DX2 100 mhz in the old Packard Bell (read as Hell) that made WC3 spaceflight run like butter. A problem I always had was a hang now and then on FMVs. We upgraded from a SX/66 that me and my dad figured out how to change out the cpu on the motherboard.

When I got WC3 that loading bottleneck would always bother me. What followed was the event that triggered a career that pays the bills and feeds the fam and I can't ask for better.

I read one book called literally, "How Computers Work". I'd cite it if I could remember the author/publisher but it got me thinking about the CD drive cache as the possible culprit. So after some work to generate some $s (bear in mind that I was 13 at the time) I made enough to buy a 16x CD-ROM to replace the aging stock Quad Speed. I'd seen the insides before and I had been studying electronics (Radio Shack 300-in1 Electronics Toolkit) so I felt comfortable but had never done any work on the guts myself before, short of writing up bootdisks. Sure enough I figured it out and WC3 ran without so much as a cough at me.

That triggered a moment of realization that not only did I like what I was doing (I love logic puzzles) but that I could actually get PAID for it. Now I build PCs from workstations to full-on water-cooled gaming rigs, design office networks, troubleshoot everything, and even branched off into copiers, fax machines, and printers.

I can thank Origin and crew for triggering the spark that launched my legacy. :-D
I have us all thinking of the past.
 
Talking of a small team on Starlancer. I found the credits on the web, it was a small team. Some of my teams have been 300 +.

I was down as Art and FMV @ Warthog.

SO much has happened since then my memory has been scrambled. A lot of this team has gone on to create some great things.

Here is the team on the Privateer II the Darkening site: https://www.wcnews.com/wcpedia/Category:Privateer_2:_The_Darkening:_Behind_the_Screens

CREDITS
DIGITAL ANVIL:


Executive Producers Chris Roberts, Erin Roberts

Original Concept Nick Elms, Phillip Meller, Erin Roberts

Game Design Philip Meller, Nick Elms, Erin Roberts, Paul hughes, Stuart Jennett, Eric K. Peterson, Rob Taylor Hendry

Project Coordinator Rob Taylor Hendry

Programmers Paul Hughes, Derek Senior, Kevin Ng

Art Direction Nick Elms, Philip Meller

Art Stuart Jennett, Michael Paul Cottam, Paul Jones, Andrew Whalley, Paul Chapman, Nolan Rowles

Mission Design Nick Elms, Zuby Ahmed, Philip Mervik, Will Whitehead, Brian Flanagan, Darren Vaile, Simon Harris, Steve Routledge

Music and Sound Effects -- Warthog David Blinston, Ian Livingston

Speech and Sound Effects -- Digital Anvil Martin Galway, Amy Hughes

FMV -- Warthog Paul Jones, Michael Paul Cottam, Roy Fielding, John Lomax, John Hackleton, Andrew Whalley

FMV -- Digital Anvil Rodney Brunet, Thett Bennatt, Mike Cahill, Brad Doan, John Ford, Lara Foss, Dean McCall, Curtis Neal, Scott Peterson, Pauline Saab, John Sommer, Jake Rodgers, Sarma Vanguri, Robert Wall

Quality Assurance -- Warthog Tim Welch, Mike Taylor, Jon Radcliffe, Christopher Clarke

Localization Michel Buch-Andersen, Aidan Cunnion, David Foster, Michael Ivory, Suzanne Boylan

Producers -- Warthog Paul Johnson, Rob Taylor Hendry

Executive Producer -- Warthog Phil Gaskell, Nathan Roberts
 
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Awesome, the stuff on the cutting room floor is always the most interesting.
The shower was removed from the final game altogether i think, but the captain's room looks like the place where i received some serious bollocking as far as i remember.
 
OK, time for some more interesting stuff.

I found 4 images on a old cd that was covered in paint. The paint just pealed off to reveal a clean smooth surface and the CD worked.

The CD was in a box that had traveled on a ship from the UK to San Fransisco, a truck to Vancouver, a ship to Australia, then a ship to Singapore and finally a ship back to the UK. All other cd's died, but the paint protected this one.

Neato! I love unused stuff almost more than the games themselves sometimes... regarding the other disks... are they all scratched? Or another kind of damage? Can they be salvaged with one of them CD doctor things that buff the surface?
 
Neato! I love unused stuff almost more than the games themselves sometimes... regarding the other disks... are they all scratched? Or another kind of damage? Can they be salvaged with one of them CD doctor things that buff the surface?

Picture three unprotected disks in a wooden box, then add a broken (model/character paint) jar. Then imagine the damaged disks protected the selvaged one.

I can't work out why one of the glass bottles broke and why the disks were in the box in the first place.

It's like finding a tomb ;o).

My stuff has been at sea for 12 month since I worked at Warthog. Maybe it was on this ship ;o(.

fallen-containers-on-container-ship.jpg
 
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