Privateer 2 on XP - yes or no

Y

yoyoyojo1

Guest
I read a lot of conflicting statements on getting Privateer 2 to work with XP. Short of using a boot disk (I doubt I can find a real mode driver for my ati radeon, also doubt a dos boot will read a 40 gb hd) and short of hooking up an old PC how many of you have successfully played privateer 2 on XP?

Are you getting 3d acceleration? How stable is the program?

With the help info and patches of this site I can successfully play the following on XP with little or no problems and full 3d support:

Kilrathi Saga
Wing Commander 4 2-side (his res) DVD
Wing Commander Prophecy
 
question about dos to windows patch

Cool. So does this patch make so you get 3d acceleration?

Also do you know if there is a difference between Privateer 2 for DOS with the above mentioned and Privateer 2 delux? I mean does they game look or play different between the two setups?

If not then that would be good news for me since Privateer 2 delux is hard to come by. The DOS version is more available.
 
Privateer 2 3d

I just ntoiced something else you said. You said Privateer 2 is not 3d accelerated. I thought Privateer 2 used the same engine as WC3, no?

Thus I would assume it would support both software 3d and hardware 3d (direct 3d).
 
I believe the DOS and Windows versions are identical, except that there is a patch for the DOS version. Something to do with a CD change bug, I believe. That must already be incorporated in the Windows edition.

No, the patch doesn't add 3D acceleration, and WC3 isn't 3D accelerated either. Prophecy and Secret Ops are the only Wing Commander games that are 3D accelerated.
 
WC3 3d

OK maybe I am confused, well not maybe I AM confused.

When I got WC3 back in the day I played it for awhile with an old ATI rage card. The game was not 3d accelerated with that card. But I upgraded to a 3dfx card (if memeory serves) and then the game was then 3d accelerated. In fact WC3 was designed to work with that video card, the 3dfx.

Right? I know that's right! Damn it I insist it's right! or maybe I did too many drugs in high school ....
 
WC3 is from 1994, quite a few years before 3D acceleration took off (1996-1997?). It sounds like you're thinking of WCP (Prophecy). It has direct support for the 3Dfx chipset, a couple others, as well as Direct 3D.
 
well ...

... No disrespect but I think you are wrong (not that it matters this is strickly academic at this point). I am not talking about MS Direct 3d, I'm talking about 3d acceleration made for specific cards. This was extremely common in the early part of the 90's, Mech warrior 2 for example did this. The last of the DOS game did this as well as early Win 95 games.

Direct 3d only recently has caught up to the point where most are happy with that.

Yes the original WC3 game had 3d acceleration specifically for the 3dfx card. That is the only reason why I bought that card was to get it to work with WC3. The ships looked, well, more 3d and the explosions were better.
 
I know plenty of DOS games were 3D accelerated, but not in the early 1990s. The 3Dfx Voodoo came out in mid 1996, two years after Wing Commander 3. I think your memory needs resorting.
 
Kris is right. Also since it wasn't specifically stated earlier, Privateer 2 uses an engine developed by what was then Warthog based out of Manchester, UK. I forgot the actual name of the engine.. something beginning with B.
 
No...
It was Buffalo something.
And the game was definately pre-3D accellerators, and it was also pre-DirectX.
I recall complaining to Origin that I was having video problems, and wondered why it wouldn't work with Windows 95.
They sent me a floppy with the patch on it, still got it somewhere.

Found it!
Version 17.0e (Buffalo Wings) Jan 31 1997.
The Game came out just after Christmas 1996.
I remember it was the fastest I ever saw a patch released, and it was the first time anyone MAILED the patch to me!!!
(Maybe that's why I've hung on to it!?!!)

Anywho...
It works just fine with the Windows patch.
Just kinda wierd, if ya ask me.
You gotta load Privateer 2 to your HDD.
Run the Patch.
Create a new Disk.
Delete the original setup, and reload from the new disk.
Putting a regular Privateer 2 disk in the CD-Rom drive won't activate it.
(Only a shortcut you create, will.)
But it works, using the original CD's!
(And that's all that counts!)
And it's more stable than it ever was before!
 
Buffalo Wings is just the name of the patch version, I think. I seem to recall it saying something else pre-patched. Search Google Groups for BRender, there's plenty of people there referring to Privateer 2 using the BRender engine. Apparently there's even a BRender logo on the box, but I don't have one handy to check. It seems that BRender was created by a company called Argonaut and not Warthog so I was wrong there.
 
Possible, but unlikely. Its more probable that they just aimed for the same look.
 
OK I am a little bit confused at the moment, I have not played Priv 2 for a long time, at that was during the time I had DOS-Windows now I am running XP how do I get to run Priv on Windows XP??

and questions number 2, what actually happens after completely the game for Priv 2, can you continue playing different missions??
 
Dahan said:
OK I am a little bit confused at the moment, I have not played Priv 2 for a long time, at that was during the time I had DOS-Windows now I am running XP how do I get to run Priv on Windows XP??

and questions number 2, what actually happens after completely the game for Priv 2, can you continue playing different missions??
Click to expand...

There are a substantial number of side-plot missions that have full video sequences recorded for them. Continuing to fly around will run you into a few of those. Is your Privateer 2 still installed? There are dozens of walkthroughs here that discuss how to get games going in XP. Try to install it, then apply the Windows patch, then apply the compatibility mode in XP for 95. Let us know at what point you get stuck.
 
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