Privateer 2 deluxe problem when launching.

Privateer 2 Blackscreen when trying to go to space

Hi, I installed the game using the win 95 patch cd and everything worked fined. I was moving around hermes, bought my ship and went to fly off it. As soon as i say leave hermes and some things start to load and then BLAM a black screen and all i can see is the bottom of my start bar. It says there is an error message but i can't read it cause of the black screen, only way of getting rid of the black screen is to CTRL AlT Del the processor, but then i can't read the error message.

So sorry i can't give the error message. But this only happens when I try to fly off a planet, I even edited my save file thinking that it was maybe just when I try and Leave hermes but nope its off any planet or station.

My System Specs are

Amd 3400
Nvidia 6800 Pro
1 gig ram


If you need more info let me now.
 
I keep leaving things out.

I have disabled the 3D Accel from dxdiag and copied the space files to the directory and yet i still can't leave planets.
 
I've moved the three posts above out of their own thread because there are so many others that discuss this issue already. I highly recommend you register, so you and people trying to provide help can keep track of who you are and what your problem is. It would have also let you go back and edit the information into your post.


One of the most important system specs with issues like these is your sound card. What kind do you have? The Windows version of Privateer 2 has conflicts with a number of onboard sound cards and other new features that they might have turned on. You need to try disabling sound acceleration and other options associated with the card. Since you also have the DOS version, I would recommend you play it in DOSBox if none of these fixes the launch error.
 
Can't get past Joe the bartender

Hi there,
I've been trying all that you guys have suggested, but the most I have been able to do is the following:
- Dos Version -> Up to the end of Joe the Bartender's cutscene and then a blank screen.
- Deluxe Version -> Up to the launch off Hermes but then the screen goes blank with engine noise present.

I've tried everything suggested on this forum as well as others. I'm using DOSBOX for the dos version and did everything I was told to do for the deluxe version.

I've got an XP system with 1 gig of ram and 2.8 Ghz. Anyone know what I can do?

Thanks in advance

Mark
 
Have you started with a fresh install and gone through our Tech Support walkthrough? DOSBox is a pretty standardized environment, so you shouldn't have too many random crashes. https://www.wcnews.com/techsupport.shtml#p2 Your operating system or RAM wouldn't matter in that case, but a weird sound or video card could cause a problem.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Can't get past joe the bartender

Yea, I used the site's tech support for DOSBOX. Didn't know how to use it before that. :) I've doen fresh installs for a while now, but they just don't seem to be working.
 
It could be a sound issue. Your particular sound card could have some odd compatibility. You might try selecting different sound cards in the installer or resetting your dosbox.conf for a different IRQ (switch from 5 to 7 or vice versa).
 
Workaround

Okay, I have been struggling for days now trying to get this game to work in XP. I was getting really aggravated with the "get the dos version and run dosbox" answer. For some of us that isn't an acceptable solution. After searching numerous posts and various sources, I finally stumbled across a clue on this forum. The idea came to me when I was reading about mounting an image, and then I read someone had a video error pop-up. The answer was right there, copy the videos folder over to Dark folder from the cd-rom. So I did. It worked. Albeit too fast to play. So I applied the speed patch from http://www.geocities.com/sasa_25/p2speed.htm (the one on the very bottom) and... presto, playing privater like it was 1997 all over again. I haven't had to disable acceleration on my video card or my sound car. Thought all of those struggling like myself should know.
 
After searching numerous posts and various sources, I finally stumbled across a clue on this forum. The idea came to me when I was reading about mounting an image, and then I read someone had a video error pop-up. The answer was right there, copy the videos folder over to Dark folder from the cd-rom. So I did. It worked.

Glad you got it working, that's a good idea. P2 is pretty neat about playing videos off the hard drive. That was a trick to view any movie in the game in 1997 prior to any movie player. Where did you copy the videos to? Just the main Darkening folder?

I was getting really aggravated with the "get the dos version and run dosbox" answer. For some of us that isn't an acceptable solution.

In this case, it does fit many of the people running P2 in Windows. Prior to DOSBox gaining compatibility with P2, there was a popular DOS to Windows conversion patch. Eventually though it got to the point where DOSBox played P2 better than the Windows version of P2 ran in XP. The solution for many people was to go back to the DOS versions that they had put aside and forgot about years earlier (the Windows patch requird creation of a new disc).
 
Yes I copied the movies folder straight into the C:\Dark folder.
 
Can anyone confirm that this works. For some reason I cannot duplicate it now. WTF?
 
Hi there,

after reading through the posts, I tried to start up my old Dos-P2 Version on my Macbook Dos-Box programm. After some struggel to get the cd-rom recognized properly I tried the game and it looked fine. But after flying into space I came over a problem, which makes it quite unplayable. The movement seems fine and fluent until the planet comes into the screen. Then the framerate slows down drasticaly. Does anyone else experience this? Which settings do you use for CPU-Cycles?

Well, I'm just curious. I think some time ago I did get it to work on my xp-pc, but still not as fluent, as I rememberd it...
 
B-b-but... I -don't- have the discs! ;_;

That's odd. What did you do with them?

The movement seems fine and fluent until the planet comes into the screen. Then the framerate slows down drasticaly. Does anyone else experience this? Which settings do you use for CPU-Cycles?

If you haven't already, make sure to install the P2 patch. It shouldn't affect this, but it's good to have in general. I'd say about 12,000 cycles is right, but it can depend. Each person needs to tune it. How many are you running? Don't forget that you can also increase the frameskip to fix the speed in a different way. Are you running core=normal with manual cycles set? What version of DOSBox is this? You might have success with core=auto in the latest DOSBox.
 
I didn't have the disks in the first place, I installed it off of a set of (labororusly acquired) zips containing the data (albeit incomplete, as you might think). Though the game works like a dream, it's completely devoid of any video, and now that I've set out to fixing it, it crashes when it hits sections of video I don't have. A sort of all-or-nothing trap I've apparently fallen into. >:

It often substitutes some videos with others, but the landing videos in particular tend to just strangle the life out of my poor dosbox.
 
Uh oh. Well, you're missing a lot without the videos. They're crazy in P2. You should buy the game as soon as possible.
 
Back
Top