Introducing myself (and pics of the KS I just purchased)

koruptor

Rear Admiral
Hey everyone, longtime lurker here at the forums. I've been visiting the CIC for years and have recently been sifting through these forums with a rediscovered obsession with everything Wing Commander.

I ran a search for myself at the CIC and found I made a few contributions over the years, some of which I don't even remember. Long time visitors to the CIC may remember a post made in 1999 about a copy of the Wing Commander movie purchased in Hong Kong (link). I would say that's the biggest contribution I've made to the community. Not a big deal, I know, but it feels good to me knowing that I was able to share something that they felt was important enough to post.

Me, me me. Enough about me.

I recently acquired a copy of the Kilrathi Saga via eBay (where else?) and can't wait to play them all over again. I confess that I have never actually finished the second game and am glad that these are optimized for Win95--I'm running Win7(64-bit) so I'm expecting it'll go pretty smoothly...maybe.

The package arrived today at my office and the first thing I did was document the opening with pictures. I do this with all expensive online purchases in case anything's broken and I need to contact customer service. While most items are in excellent condition the first disc has a few scratches on it. However, I'm confident it'll work.

You'll notice two pictures that might not make sense. Well, they don't to me. It looks like the shop that sold it to me threw in a power supply(?) wiring chart and a tiny screw in a bag. A bonus! :p

I've already installed a few of the other games from my collection. So far I haven't had luck with my copy of the WC4DVD, but I can always fall back on the CD versions. Privateer 2 is running on DosBox, although I'll have to slow it down a bit. Armada runs great. Prophecy works, but the High-Res patch wasn't working for me (doesn't work in 64-bit?). By the way, the link to HCI's patch is broken!

I haven't installed Privateer yet. It seems I have a choice of installing my original copy in DosBox or go with Gemini Gold. This is another game I haven't played (yikes!). If I play Gemini Gold I'm hoping the experience will be as authentic as possible to the original. I've read their FAQ and that's what they aimed to do and the campaign seems to be ready to go.

Last week I put together a list of the games in the order I'll be playing them. I didn't want to play them in release order. Rather, I decided to try to play them chronologically according to canon. Basically what I did was order the obvious games, and the sift through the WCPedia for dates that could help me place the rest. Here is my list (expansions/add-ons are implied with their associated titles):

  1. WC 1
  2. WC 2
  3. Armada
  4. WC 3
  5. Privateer
  6. WC 4
  7. WC Prophecy
  8. Privateer 2

I left out Academy for the lack of a plot. Armada didn't have a very rich plot either, if we can even call it that, but I have to include it because this was the first WC game I've ever played. I have my sister to thank for my obsession with WC when she picked that up for me from the bargain bin at KB Toys back in '96/'97.

That's it for now. I'm hoping I'll be able to contribute more to the forums here and get to know more of you.

Suggestions to which version of Privateer to play (original vs. Gemini Gold), or revisions to my list are welcome!
 

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Welcome (back)!

Original Privateer is my input. The Gemini Gold people have done bang up work, but I've always found the handling felt too different for my tastes.

Congratulations on your purchase! I'm sure you'll have lots of fun setting it up. :D
 
Welcome (back)!

Original Privateer is my input. The Gemini Gold people have done bang up work, but I've always found the handling felt too different for my tastes.

Congratulations on your purchase! I'm sure you'll have lots of fun setting it up. :D

Thanks for the response. I'm leaning towards the original since I have DosBox running for Armada and Privateer 2. :)
 
Always good to see a friendly ship!

Academy actually has a great manual that accompanies it that is worth the cost alone.

I just finished a Priv playthrough (just moved to RF actually) and I'd stick with the original.

Drop by #wingnut this evening (or day...not sure your locale) there are always a few wingnuts willing to talk shop.
 
Always good to see a friendly ship!

Academy actually has a great manual that accompanies it that is worth the cost alone.

I just finished a Priv playthrough (just moved to RF actually) and I'd stick with the original.

Drop by #wingnut this evening (or day...not sure your locale) there are always a few wingnuts willing to talk shop.

I actually have a copy of Academy but I purchased my copy when it was sold in a jewel case on those rotating racks. So I am unsure if that insert has this manual you're referring to.
 
hcl's high-res patch is on his newer site: http://hcl.solsector.net/

academy is a fun romp, and as Dundradal says, the manual is cracking.

kilrathi saga will have serious problems in win7 64 bit, so check out the ddhack that Sol_hsa made: http://sol.gfxile.net/ddhack/

that should fix up the graphics in kilrathi saga wc1-3 and windows 95 wc4. However, it won't fix the dvd version , theres a complicated patch you want for that by gulikoza: http://www.si-gamer.net/gulikoza/dxmci.html

there may be some other stuff.

finally, there's an opengl patch newer than hcl's made for the standoff guys,
https://www.wcnews.com/news/update/8227 but i think there may be a newer set generally for prophecy to let you use the dvd quality movies etc:

i don't have a complete list just now of the patches you need for prophecy , but i made a little compilation of them which i can email you if you want.
 
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hcl's high-res patch is on his newer site: http://hcl.solsector.net/

academy is a fun romp, and as Dundradal says, the manual is cracking.

kilrathi saga will have serious problems in win7 64 bit, so check out the ddhack that Sol_hsa made: http://sol.gfxile.net/ddhack/

that should fix up the graphics in kilrathi saga wc1-3 and windows 95 wc4. However, it won't fix the dvd version , theres a complicated patch you want for that by gulikoza: http://www.si-gamer.net/gulikoza/dxmci.html

there may be some other stuff.

finally, there's an opengl patch newer than hcl's made for the standoff guys,
https://www.wcnews.com/news/update/8227 but i think there may be a newer set generally for prophecy to let you use the dvd quality movies etc:

i don't have a complete list just now of the patches you need for prophecy , but i made a little compilation of them which i can email you if you want.

That's it, I'm adding Academy onto my list! :)

The ddhack worked like a charm and I'm already about 10 missions in WC1! I was even able to map my Logitech Attack3 joystick to it perfectly.

I took Dundradal and t.c.cgi's advice and installed the original Privateer today (w/ RF). I forgot how awesome the intro movie is. I have yet to take my ship out for a spin so I don't know how gameplay will look/function. But the first issue already was a joystick conflict. The cursor persistently moves to the upper-left corner of the screen. Joystick calibration in the menu worked fine. I'll check the forums for more on that.

I've tried to get the DVD version of WC4 to work for years but with little success, even after trying gulikoza's dxmci patch. I remember back in the day when my cousin bought a DVD drive (I think) and it came with this game. I was already into Wing Commander at the time, but played it off like it was no big deal. A year later he was getting rid of some old stuff and still had this game, and I calmly asked for it like it was no big deal. Even thought I never got it to work, I always have this stupid grin on my face when I hold it. :D Maybe one of these days I'll get it to work. The only WC game I'll always truly want to get working is WC4DVD, only because I haven't gotten it to work yet.

Prophecy runs fine, but I'll give that Standoff patch a try and will report back.

Today I happened to find my copy of Worlds of Ultima: Savage Empire and there was a game catalog that included WC and a picture of Chris Roberts. Awesome.
 
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I took Dundradal and t.c.cgi's advice and installed the original Privateer today (w/ RF). I forgot how awesome the intro movie is. I have yet to take my ship out for a spin so I don't know how gameplay will look/function. But the first issue already was a joystick conflict. The cursor persistently moves to the upper-left corner of the screen. Joystick calibration in the menu worked fine. I'll check the forums for more on that.

You have to mess with the joystick setup in the DOSBox Config. I'm on my way out the door so I can't doublecheck what I did to get that to stop...
 
Here's what I have in my DOSBox config for the joystick. I use a Logitech ATTK3.

joysticktype=auto
timed=false
autofire=false
swap34=false
buttonwrap=false
 
@baphomet_irl Yup, noticed that after I unboxed it. :)

@Dundradal I tried many joystick settings combinations but to no avail. However, I managed to get it working a few days ago. I tried this weird trick I found on the DosBox forums where you have to make a copy of JOYA.DAT (in the Privateer folder) and rename it JOYB.DAT. Then you launch the game. The same issue will occur, but if you can manage to get the cursor to take you to the joystick calibration screen and calibrate the joystick, the cursor will stop wandering and it'll work this time. At least that's how I think I got it to work.

Otherwise, my joystick config in DosBox was set properly and the above was just a waste of time.

Either way, I got it to work!
 
nice one on getting KS - I love how the sides of the CD cases make up 'The Kilrathi Saga' when piled in right order

I've seen three different types of Kilrathi Saga CD cases. There's a "paper" case in some regions (Asia/Pacific, I think--it also had a ring-bound manual) and then there was a second pressing where the CDs were silver instead of white.
 
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