Anyone remember this one? I always liked the free rotating world and the movement of homing missiles.
This is my attempt at reimplementation of reimagined Seek & Destroy. It's not a carbon copy of the original but also not a completely different game. I tried to keep an essence but spice the rest.
I would be very happy for feedback or your personal memories of playing this back then.
We've been putting a lot of work into OpenPrivateer's modding support recently, and it has grown quite a bit.
OpenPrivateer is our open-source reconstruction and SDL3 port of Wing Commander: Privateer and Righteous Fire.
Multiplayer foundations are already in place, with both PvP and PvE supported.
Classic mode aims to preserve the original experience, while all modding features live in Enhanced and Modern:
Universe
Weapons
Ships and equipment
Missions
New Game
If you need help with modding or want some JSON examples to get started, consult the manual on https://openprivateer.org and feel free to join us on Discord https://discord.gg/5H3vW2STqW or over at r/WingCommanderUniverse.
A built-in mod manager for easy installation and management of mods is also planned for the launcher.
We've also tried to keep this tied closely to how Privateer actually works. Where the original formats can represent something, OpenPrivateer still uses them. A mod-generated mission, for example, becomes a normal Privateer mission internally. OpenPrivateer-specific save data is only needed when the original format simply can't represent something, such as a mission taking place in a completely new system.
And yes, ships are next.
The plan is:
Player ships are the bigger job because they bring cockpits, hardpoints, equipment, damage states, dealers and savegame handling with them. The goal is proper new ships, not just replacing or reskinning one of the existing ship IDs.
As always, OpenPrivateer requires the original Privateer game data. We don't distribute Origin's assets.
Hi all. Long time lurker of this kind of nostalgia, first time posting something of my own.
When I was a teenager in the nineties I ran a board called Roller Software HQ BBS here in Sweden, FidoNet 2:205/431 if that means anything to anyone still. What I remember most from those years is the door games. On my board it was mostly Usurper and Barren Realms Elite, and also Falcon's Eye and Solar Realms Elite. People would call in every evening just to play their turns and read what had happened to them overnight, and I was one of them on other people's boards.
I've wanted something like that again for a long time, so over the last week or so I built a game in that spirit. It's called Candledeep. You don't need a BBS or a client for it, you just open a terminal and type
ssh candledeep.com
and your SSH key is your account. There's also a page at https://candledeep.com that shows who's on and how to get in, if you'd rather look before you connect.
The idea is that you get one candle a day and go down into a pit under a town, and when the candle is burnt out you're done until the next morning. So a day of play is maybe ten or fifteen minutes. There are six classes, gangs that fight over the buildings in town, a yard where you can fight other players' characters while they're offline, robbing people who sleep in doorways, and a morning news sheet that tells you what happened while you were away. That last part was what I loved most about the old games so I wanted it in there. It's drawn in ANSI at 80x24.
A few things I should say up front.
It is not a classic door with a drop file. It runs on its own little server and you reach it over SSH, so you can't install it on your board. I know some of you will ask that first. If your BBS software can launch an outbound ssh from a menu that might be a way to offer it to your callers, but I haven't tried that myself.
It's for adults. The language is rough, in an old-fashioned swearing kind of way, and there's drinking and drugs in it, like Usurper had.
I also want to be honest that I didn't write the code by hand. I designed it, made the decisions and have been playtesting it with a few friends, but the programming was done together with an AI (Claude). I know opinions on that differ, and I'd rather say it than have someone feel tricked later.
It's still early. Right now it's me and a handful of friends on a small VPS, and I'm sure there are things that are confusing or unbalanced. One friend told me after his first day that he had no idea what he was supposed to do, so there's a walkthrough for new characters now. I'd really like to hear what people who actually remember these games think, including what feels wrong.
Thanks for reading, and thanks to everyone who keeps this scene alive.
Marcus
We are working on a full DOS Compatible Automap Feature for Wizardry VI - The Bane of the Cosmic Forge.
Now I know that there are several Automap Versions out for this game, but our solution is directly integrated within the game. You press M to open the Map, you can scroll it with the Cursor Keys - press M again and you are back to the 3D Dungeon View. This way, it also works on real DOS.
Would you use it? Our Loader is not out yet, but it will include this feature.
