Wing Commander: Privateer

Wing Commander: Privateer cover

Wing Commander: Privateer is an adventure space trading and combat simulator computer game released by Origin Systems on September 23 1993.

Chris Roberts was executive producer, devised the original concept and did a lot of the initial design while Erin Roberts was associate producer.

Plot

The player takes the role of Grayson Burrows, the eponymous privateer who travels through the Gemini Sector, one of many sectors in the Wing Commander universe. Unlike Wing Commander, the player is no longer a navy pilot, but a freelancer who can trade, pirate, be a mercenary as he wishes. The player can adventure on his own between plot missions or after finishing the plot.

The game takes place about 2 years after the events in Wing Commander II and at the same time as the events of Wing Commander III.

While Chris Roberts earlier Wing Commander games were more black and white, Privateer has a more complex, vibrant and nuanced world allowing more opportunities for the different professions. Nevertheless Chris Roberts still felt that if there was more intrigue and tension in the structure of the ruling government, having different potential threats on the borders, the game would be more interesting, which later influenced the choice to use the decline and fall of the roman empire for Star Citizen.

Gameplay

Unlike other games in the Wing Commander series, the gameplay is primarily a sandbox.

Privateer took its inspiration from Han Solo and the the whole idea of being the smuggler. It's all about moving and building your own spaceship and being a commercial smuggler privateer fighter. The player builds up a custom ship over time and you get to customize it, what the weapons are, the engine and the shields. While in combat has to manipulate to manipulate those things, which was way ahead of it time. Privateer was Chris Roberts' first game to feature shield management.

This was the last series to be based on the Wing Commander engine before Origin made the transition to full 3D for its flight sims. It came with an optional speech pack.

Basic gameplay consists of flying and fighting with the ship in a star system, jumping from system to system via jump points, landing on bases or planets, interacting with people (mainly talking) and buying or selling equipment or commodities. Most star systems have planets or bases that may be visited.

The game is mostly played in first person view for immersion, playing from inside the cockpit or to talk with people.

Reception

For a while Privateer was the best selling OEM game ever, often shipped with a new computer or a new sound card.

After the success of Privateer a direct sequel was to be done at Origin by the same team, alongside Privateer III and a Privateer TV serie, however it ended up not happening. In 1995-1996 Erin Roberts was working at Warthog in the UK on a game called first Darkside, then The Darkening, which Electronic Arts decided to call Privateer The Darkening due to its similarity with Privateer before naming it Privateer II.

Following the sucess of Ultima Online, also by Origin, numerous attempts at a Privateer Online were made.

After Tony Zurovec left Origin with Chris Roberts to create Digital Anvil, the team from the Crusader games went on to work on Privateer III but it ended up being cancelled.

in 2006-2007 Electronic Arts did a Wing Commander Arena top down shooter for X-box live arcade for which Ben Lesnick did some lore, wrote the manual, and brought it in line with the Wing Commander continuity. There were plans for a Privateer DLC which did not come to fruition.

Trivia

• The now deprecated max class of engines in Star Citizen was named after Privateer. It has since been replaced by new types of engines to give more range of upgrades as it was considered too restrictive.
• As its predecessors, the game came on floppy disks. Erin Roberts was later in charge of adapting the game for CD-ROM, just when Electronic Arts which had acquired Origin had started using internal emails instead of phone calls and letters. The Origin team would receive emails in the morning saying that the CD-ROM project was cancelled and to move everybody to a different project, which go back and ofrt sometimes multiples times a day. Eventually the Origin team decided to stop reading the emails and finish the CD-ROM project.
• Most of the company names are origin in-jokes.
• The game appears in the 90's TV show Viper.
• The Speeder ship influenced the Star Citizen idea of non combat racers going fast with a small cargo, namely the Herald.
• The Galaxy ship inspired the Cutlass.

External Links

• Privateer at the Wing Commander Combat Information Center
• Wing Commander: Privateer on GOG
• Happy Hour Museum: Wing Commander Privateer