WC: Privateer (1) partition/disk/xp/elvis/toothfairy

W

WillMog

Guest
I've been scouring these pages for some answers and I have found a great deal, though sadly none to my specific query.

I am simply itching to play the original privateer again and my desire has been recently rekindled since I discovered that it can be played, in XP, with the DoxBox. Unfortunatly, my PC (AMD 1.6ghz, 512megs) is simply too sluggish to play Privateer properly. And I believe me, I tried.

I decided though that I simply will not settle for disappointment anymore and took the next step, making FAT partition, a boot disk, and trying to get things to go that way. To add insult to injury however, I was using Partition Magic, which didn't want to work with my new Maxtor HD -- Maxtor Tech support got it to go, but didn't warn me that in the process of doing so I rendered my new HD blank.... years of DIVX and a decent music collection: good bye.

At any rate, I got the damn thing (Privateer) to start up and function partially, but without sound. I haven't managed to find a solution to this for the life of me, and I've tried a number of suggestions, including

http://www.geocities.com/faustino909/bootdisk.html

this interesting one.

As with all other things, the afore-linked solution didn't work for me at all. By turning the sound off the game runs, however I can't get the joystick to function at all and my mouse works but goes nuts once I take off from a planet. That is, the game works fine with the mouse, doesn't see the joy stick... but when you take off to fly to another system my ship merely spins madly out of control, nothing much to be done.

The partition is FAT and I used the Bumblebee boot disc to get as far as I managed (spinning in space). Otherwise the system is WinXP, 512 megs of ram, AMD 1900 (1.6ghz). The game is the non-CD-Rom version. I've got the speech pack too -- but at this point I haven't concerned myself with it at all.

Is there a simple and proven method for those who have gone this far, got the partition, etc to get this game working? I feel as though I'm so close, and yet so far.

Selecting any sort of sound card results in the D00D-FFFF error message (I believe, I might have to double check that). The exception is if I select MIDI only -- in which case the game locks up.

Any suggestions would be so greatly appreciated you can probably hardly fathom them since I freaking loved this game years ago and have been longing to play it again ever since...

Apologies if I'm writing in poor form, leavaing out critical details or otherwise appear as a novice poster.. this is my first time posting here.

Cheers,
Will
PDX, Oregon
 
I know, that it it's too late now, but have you tried out a newer DOSBox CVS version yet? With the latest one I can even run WC3 at playable speed, and someone with less than 1GHz managed to get Privateer playable. If you don't know how to compile it, you can get this one, which gulikoza compiled.
Other than that, for real DOS, we need to know what soundcard you've got, like Nappydman already asked.
 
Privateer “problems” are nearly allways ( like about 99% ) related to sound cards and their settings.
I have no experience with Dosbox since my computer is too underpowered ( P3 866). I do use a DOS bootdisk ( made from Win 98 ) though and the game runs just fine.
If you run the game in DOS, you must have an analog joystick. DOS does´nt “do” digital.
To check if the sound card is the problem ( in DOS ), do the following:
Run the install file and set
“Change music card” to NONE
“Change speech card” to NONE
Start the game
At the screen with “NEW” “LOAD” OPTIONS” “QUIT”
go to “OPTIONS” and choose “KEYBOARD” as your control.
Cick “RESUME” and try to run the game.
If it works, go again to options and choose “MOUSE” as your control.
Again if it works, go to “OPTIONS” and choose “JOYSTICK” as your control, AND “CALIBRATE” it.
If the game works, you know that your problem is your sound card and not your keyboard, mouse or joystick.
N.B If the “JOYSTICK” option does not work ( and your joystick IS analog) the problem is most likely (!) your sound card. In which case post what type it is.
I know the above proceedure seems horribly pedantic, but all the problems I´ve had with playing Privateer ( starting with a 486 SX25 machine and various sound cards ) were very basic and sometimes too embarassing to relate. :D
If you decide to go for the the Dosbox option, just ignore this post! :)
 
progress / thankyouthankyou

Well -- you have all been helpful and, if I may be presumptious, correct in the soundcard suggestions.

I do have an analogue Joystick, it's an ancient "PC Commander" - whatever that means. It does work though, as I've got it to go with other games.

The sound card -- I can't tell you for certain as I don't remember and don't have the original box or any of the things that came with it. That said, the chips are labelled "elixir" and according to the drivers I'm using its a Yamaha Legacy DS1.

I'm going to try the DOSBox option now -- sorry I've been away for a bit, but I'll watch this forum much more closely now. I'm also going to try the step-by-step measures Frazone has just outlined. Another post will come in a few minutes.

All this advice is appreciated horrendously!

cheers,
will
 
Sweet Jesus!

I can't believe this! It works -- I used the dosbox option and it just works beautifully. It had some issues during the intro -- kind of jammed up, but I just clicked and skipped ahead. It runs quite smoothly -- amazing!

Well -- I really, really can't thank you enough. I've been waiting years to play this game. I have tremendously fond memories of playing this in Jr. High -- well, even before then, but in jr. high my friend would come over and we'd take turns playing what was to us the most amazing game.

So -- if you feel like it I am rather curious what exactly it was that I downloaded that so drastically improved the DOSbox performance. What does CVS actually stand for?

God if only I'd turned to these forums first rather than trying to figure all this out myself I'd be in much better shape -- I'd still have my old HD in one piece. I suppose that's how life goes though. Small price to pay though.

man -- really, you all have absolutly no idea how much I appreciate this. I'm probably going to be up all night now fiddling with this game but ... at any rate,

thank you all!

-Will
 
So -- if you feel like it I am rather curious what exactly it was that I downloaded that so drastically improved the DOSbox performance. What does CVS actually stand for?
Click to expand...
I do not know that extreme much about DOSBox. I can only tell you that they massively improved the CPU emulation etc. And CVS stands for: "Concurrent Versions System" (correct me plz, if I'm wrong there). I'd say it's something like beta versions, with the difference that you normally compile it yourself, can edit the source code to fit your needs etc. - I guess my explanation is not really correct, cause I do not now that much about that stuff. But honestly I did never want to know much more details ;)
 
I too wish to add my accolades to WillMog's. I had downloaded DOSBox 0.61 and while I couldn't watch the intro all the way through without a crash to desktop, I was able to Esc and get to the game. My USB Sidewinder Force Feedback 2 joystick would lock up on load, so I played with mouse and keyboard. Totally different game that way, and a bit beyond my poor abilities. Upon finding this thread and the compiled CVS of DosBox, I now have a working joystick (two button type) but the intro runs all the way through, and calibration works fine. Thank you all for your help. I know I wasn't asking the questions, but this thread helped resolve a very frustrating situation.

To claify, I've not investigated whether my joystick can be further refined and have used only button one for firing and button two for missles. Under DOSBox 0.61, when the program was launched with the Joystick plugged into the computer, the preliminary calibration screen would come on and that would be the last activity in DOSBox, it would just freeze there.

Again Thank-you
 
I think there may be something about the music or sound that's causing it to crash on you, but I'm not sure.

Go to the dosBox forums at dosbox.sourceforge.net and see if they can help you if the others here can't help you, since I don't know anything about joysticks, really.
 
since I don't know anything about joysticks, really.
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The only thing I currently know about Joystick support in DOSBox is, that the developer team is working on it and trying to improve it. That would explain why the CVS is better for you than DosBox 0.61. But the Joystick support is not finalized yet and will improve in future DosBox / CVS.
 
*shrugs*

Like I said, go to the forums and see if they can find anything out.

On a side note, I like interacting in these tech support forums. It's lot easier than dealing with commercial tech support personnel, and far more pleasant. It's also nice to help people.
 
Any idea as how to get DOSBox 0.61 to work AT ALL? 0.60 works for me, but .61 crashes with "SDL Parachute deployed" or something like that error.
 
Any idea as how to get DOSBox 0.61 to work AT ALL? 0.60 works for me, but .61 crashes with "SDL Parachute deployed" or something like that error.
Click to expand...
Sorry, no idea what's going wrong there, never had that error :(
Like I said, go to the forums and see if they can find anything out.
Click to expand...
I've seen several Threads about Joysticks there already. Most of them had no replies from the developers, and if so, it was something like: "We don't care" :( - I guess they have just too much work to do for DosBox at the moment...
 
I've never had that error at all. Of course, I don't use a joystick, either. Make sure you've got everything installed correctly, for starters.
 
cff said:
Any idea as how to get DOSBox 0.61 to work AT ALL? 0.60 works for me, but .61 crashes with "SDL Parachute deployed" or something like that error.
Click to expand...
At one point I had the SDL FIle Lock Error. I uninstalled DOSBox using the "uninstall" file in the DOSBox directory. Then reinstalled after retrieving the appropriate installer from soundforge. Didn't have it again. Always worth a try.
 
privateer1-revival - question

hioll,
ma problem: privateer 1 works great in dosbox 0.62, but:
there is no ingame speech, speech in intro:

i can hear: "not a chance, pal, prepare to go to hell."

but i cant hear:

"deliver us oh lord, for we are in neeeeeeeeed".

some1 any idea? I AM IN NEEEEEEEEEED ;-)
 
thx for your hint, i installed the speech pack.

but: not a chance, pal :-(.
 
i have to correct: after full system reboot, some speeches now work ("drop your cargo, before you blow, will ya?"), some dont (barkeeper, "contraband detected, all units close and terminate" etc...)
 
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