A guide to running Wing Commander: Privateer in DOSBox Staging. This was configured and played to completion a while ago but I've only just gotten round to writing this guide.
Editions, expansions & upgrades
These are the editions, expansions and upgrades available.
Wing Commander: Privateer
The original base game developed by Origin Systems and published in 1993 by Origin Systems and Electronic Arts. It was distributed on 6 high density (1.44MB) floppy disks.
Wing Commander: Privateer Speech Pack
An upgrade pack to add speech to in-flight comms. Developed by Origin Systems Inc and published in 1993 by Origin Systems and Electronic arts. It was distributed on 3 high density (1.44MB) floppy disks.
Wing Commander: Privateer - Righteous Fire
The one and only expansion pack, which adds a new plotline continuing from where the original game left off. Developed by Origin Systems and published by Origin Systems and Electronic Arts in 1994. It was distributed on 2 high density (1.44MB) floppy disks.
Wing Commander: Privateer CD-ROM Edition
A release of the original game, speech pack and Righteous FIre expansion, with further speech enhancements. Developed by Origin Systems and published by Origin Systems and Electronic Arts in 1994, released on a single CD-ROM.
Wing Commander: Privateer GOG Edition
Equivalent to the CD-ROM edition but distributed on-line by Good Old Games (GOG). This is the preferred version due to it being the complete Privateer package, easy to obtain and install. GOG also provides extensive documentation with this release. This is the version used in this guide.
Patches
There is a spaceflight music speed patch which is applicable to the CD-ROM and GOG editions, if a controller isn't going to be used. It is a file replacement patch and can be found at PCGamingWiki. Once downloaded extract into the Privateer installation directory replacing the prcd.exe file. Credit goes to HCl for producing this patch.
Installation
Installation on modern systems is straightforward through the GOG Galaxy app.
For those with a different edition, I recommend converting any physical cds into an iso image format and especially any floppy disks into an img image format which can be read by DOSBox/DOSBox Staging/DOSBox-X. This will save wear and tear on the physical media and drives. Who knows how long those old floppies or a cd drive will last?
Once you have your images, use DOSBox to install the game (and any upgrades or expansions).
Once installed the patch can be applied, if applicable to the edition.
Game Management
I use my game management strategy described in DOSBox game management. The game itself will remain where GOG Galaxy installed it (along with a vanilla version of DOSBox), in my case D:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Wing Commander Privateer.
The DOSBox Staging config file will be in the same parent folder as all my other non-GOG DOS games and DOSBox configurations, D:\Games\Dos. So in my case, the config file can be found in the folder D:\Games\Dos\Wing Commander Privateer\conf.
If you installed a different edition with DOSBox (and followed my strategy), then in your own Wing Commander Privateer folder you might have the following folders:
hdd, hard disk drive, the folder acting as a hard disk in DOSBox.
fdd, floppy disk drive, the folder holding any floppy disk images.
cd, the folder holding any cd images.
conf, the folder storing the DOSBox config file.
DOSBox Staging
This guide assumes the latest version of DOSBox Staging will be used, at time of writing this was v0.81.2. This section will cover changes from the default DOSBox Staging config and any settings of particular interest, listed by configuration section.
[render]
aspect = auto
integer_scaling = vertical
viewport = 89%
glshader = crt-autoThe integer_scaling and glshader are default settings in DOSBox Staging but nice to include in case you want to experiment. They give a nice emulated CRT look to the game. The correct aspect rendering (4:3) will be used by default. The viewport setting of 89% corresponds to a retro CRT screen size. These settings are a personal preference but getting the game to fill a modern monitor doesn't look as good.
[cpu]
cycles = fixed 50000
cycleup = 100
cycledown = 100 These are good settings for my system, you may need to tweak them, but this should be a good starting point.
[mixer]
rate = 22050
reverb = large
chorus = normalAgain personal preference but I feel these settings enhance the midi music in-game. Reducing the rate seems to improve performance without affecting sound quality.
[midi]
mididevice = fluidsynth
# mididevice = mt32The fluidsynth midi device allows you to use of soundfonts to enhance the midi, or for a retro midi sound you could try the MT32 option (if you have the required ROMs).
[fluidsynth]
soundfont = "D:\Midi\Soundfonts\FluidR3_GM_GS.sf2"The soundfont is down to personal preference but I thought this one suited the game quite nicely.
[mt32]
romdir = "D:\Midi\Versioned"If you have MT32/CM32L ROMs this is where you can set the folder where they are located.
[sblaster]
irq = 5It's very unusual to have to change any Soundblaster settings, however Privateer really didn't seem to work properly using the default IRQ 7.
[joystick]
joysticktype = 4axis
timed = true
swap34 = false
deadzone = 0This will probably be dependant on your own controller setup. I use profiling software to create a virtual controller limited to 4 axes which I then use as the basis for a game specific HOTAS config for DOSBox games, which is why I set 4axis. However Privateer will only use the 2 Joystick axes. Deadzone is a personal preference that suits my setup. The timed and swap34 are default settings, although you may need to change these depending on your controllers.
[dos]
ems = falseAgain, very unusual to have to change [dos] settings, but EMS needs to be disabled for Privateer.
[autoexec]
mount C "D:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Wing Commander Privateer"
mount C "D:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Wing Commander Privateer\cloud_saves" -t overlay
imgmount d "D:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Wing Commander Privateer\game.gog" -t iso -fs iso
mixer FSYNTH 33:33
c:
call gog-menu.batAs the games is installed by GOG Galaxy in the 'D:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Wing Commander Privateer' folder, this becomes the DOSBox C: drive.
Next, the overlay mount may (or may not) allow GOG cloud saving to work, if GOG Galaxy is running, but you use this at your own risk as I haven't confirmed this.
'D:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Wing Commander Privateer\game.gog' is the cd iso image (or equivalent) so this becomes the DOSBox D: drive.
With the previous fluidsynth settings, I find the midi music can drown out the in-game speech. The mixer command reduces the volume from left and right channels to 33% which seems a better midi volume.
The call command is described in the extras section below.
The complete configuration
[render]
aspect = auto
integer_scaling = vertical
viewport = 89%
glshader = crt-auto
[cpu]
cycles = fixed 50000
cycleup = 100
cycledown = 100
[mixer]
rate = 22050
reverb = large
chorus = normal
[midi]
mididevice = fluidsynth
# mididevice = mt32
[fluidsynth]
soundfont = "D:\Midi\Soundfonts\FluidR3_GM_GS.sf2"
[mt32]
romdir = "D:\Midi\Versioned"
[sblaster]
irq = 5
[joystick]
joysticktype = 4axis
timed = true
swap34 = false
deadzone = 0
[dos]
ems = false
[autoexec]
mount C "D:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Wing Commander Privateer"
mount C "D:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Wing Commander Privateer\cloud_saves" -t overlay
imgmount d "D:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Wing Commander Privateer\game.gog" -t iso -fs iso
mixer FSYNTH 33:33
c:
call gog-menu.batHOTAS Config
If you have a HOTAS with 4 axes or less, this won't apply. If your HOTAS setup has more than 4 axes you may wish to create a virtual controller, limited to 4 axes, through your profiling software. This is to prevent DOSBox Staging from assigning the axes oddly (e.g. assigning a throttle axis as a joystick axis). Privateer only uses the 2 joystick axes.
For reference this is what I set:
Physical axis | Windows axis |
Joystick x-axis | DX_X_AXIS |
Joystick y-axis | DX_Y_AXIS |
Throttle | DX_Z_AXIS |
Rudder pedals | DX_XROT_AXIS |
Game Configuration
To use general midi in-game you may have to run the installer, install.exe which is an installer/music and sound config utility. Once sound and music is selected use 'Install with these options' to write the changes to the game config file.
Extras
If you try and use the GOG DOS menu from within DOSBox Staging, you'll find it looks odd, this is because the menu is trying to use a Codepage 437 character encoding and the DOSBox Staging config file uses a UTF-8 character encoding. This article, 'DOSBox Staging: Why do GOG menus look bad?' goes into a bit more detail about it.
As a workaround, if you copy the menu to a separate batch (.bat) file, it will use the correct character encoding and work as intended. The last line of the config file calls a separate gog-menu.bat file.
call gog-menu.batThis is a zipped copy of my gog-menu.bat file, I have also added the installer/config utility as an option, to make it easier to select/switch music and sound options. It's entirely optional but if you want to use it, It should be unzipped and added to the Privateer install folder.
Good hunting!
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