Privateer Gemini Gold 1.03 Come get some... Privateering! We have finished Privateer Gemini Gold 1.03!



The new release brings speech support for the additional Righteous Fire campaign, more original Privateer like features, a few new rendered fully animated interiors and a handful of bugfixes. Checkout the changelist for more details. This december release is also our christmas present for the Privateer fans. Enjoy the holidays, kick some retro asses and don't forget to refuel your jump drive!

What the hell are they doing?! Some of you will probably ask, because our last release was back in June 2007. Well, firstly there is only a very small team of people that are constantly working on the project. Secondly most of them are currently in the process of graduation or try to manage life after that.



This means: Everyone is pretty busy and there is not much time left for Privateer...

Privateer on YouTube It has been some time. But here we are and you get something to look at - on YouTube!



Since YouTube is recently providing high definition movie playback and we are working on new cutscenes, we think YouTube is the platform for us to easily show you which scenes are still work in progress and which are already finished.



Now head over to the Privateer Gemini Gold Project channel on YouTube and check out what is already waiting there for you. One last thing: Not all updates to the channel will show up in the news here, so if you love our work on the cutscenes zap to the channel every now and then...

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year We want to thank everyone for their support. A lot of things happened this year, some art experiments include: a first preview of the upcoming high definition cutscenes, a perry superbase wallpaper package and serious attemps on character art (Burrows, Evil Santa, Outlaw-1, Outlaw-2).



While there was no release this year there is a good chance for 2009! Just let us finish up some... cool stuff - both code and graphic wise - first and you will see, it was worth the wait.



One more thing: Next year - more news posts. Now a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone, see you around in 2009!

Next stop Perry! Today many PC video games feature some kind of wallpaper to pin onto your desktop. Privateer never had an official wallpaper but there was nice box cover artwork! We use that for our website's head as well as for the CD covers we provide for download. The original source was only available in 640x480... ...so we took the same models, threw them together and created a high-definition widescreen variant of the scene! It is available now as a wallpaper package (20 MB) for various resolutions. Enjoy!

Project Status and HD Intro Since our last release in July 2007 we haven't had any news for the community about the status of the project. Let's change this. We made some progress on our main goals for the upcoming version.



Most importantly we integrated the long requested in-game movie player (thanks for the hard work Klauss) and we will use it right away for the movie clips you all know from the original game. Besides working on the engine we started rendering the intro in widescreen (16:9) high-definition (720p) and we are proud to show you a small Privateer HD Intro Preview (38 MB Xvid) before the upcoming 1.03 release.

Privateer Gemini Gold 1.02a One month after Privateer Gemini Gold 1.02 was released we are providing another full release.



This version will basically iron out a few nasty bugs and upgrade graphics. We want to thank all people who sent in feedback and helped to make this release possible. That said, don't expect much more from us during the next few weeks, we are starting our summer holidays and therefore won't be around providing support. Everyone have fun and happy privateering!

197,000 Copies Spread During the next few days Privateer Gemini Gold will break 200,000 downloads! Two years after the initial release that are 100,000 downloads per year, 8000 downloads per month and 260 downloads per day. Great, isn't it?

Privateer Gemini Gold 1.02 After more than a year of hard work we are very proud to announce today the next major release of Privateer Gemini Gold.



While earlier versions were still using low resolution base interiors, we are bringing to you now Privateer for the first time ever in an SVGA resolution with 32 bit color depth. Other important improvents are the recreation of almost all original base computer interfaces and an overall better game balance. We hope you will enjoy our latest Privateer Gemini Gold version and if you want to leave some feedback just login here. Happy privateering!

The Beta stands ready! We have worked more than a year on the new Privateer Gemini Gold version. Now it is time to hold our breath and release something playable - version 1.02. With this important milestone we double the effective game resolution and introduce Privateer like interfaces.



Before we release the game a beta test will ensure that it won't bug on your machines. If you are interested to test the Beta and give us some feedback about possible problems as well as suggestions to improve the overall gameplay then direct your applications to priv@solsector.net.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year do we wish first and foremost us and our families.



With more than 140.000 downloads and a lot feedback during the last months, we are sure this project is as much fun for you as it is for us.



Not a special christmas present this year (for all who were expecting another release) but of course we prepared something neat you might find worth taking a look at... Best wishes from the Gemini Gold Crew - don't play too much - spend some time with the one(s) you love and see you all next year!

Oxford will be Oxford again! As you know, we are in the process of recreating all base interiors for higher resolution renders - means you won't get blurry interiors in the next release!



Now here is our newest addition the Oxford Landing Pad created by 3D artist Roman K. It is still not the final version which you will see later in the game but a good one for a last news update before the summer holidays start :) Want to see more? Okay, after such a long time without any updates we have some more cookies out of the development version: first one is a XviD movie showing the New Mission Computer Interface in action and second a test rendering of the polished Ship Dealer's Upgrade Bay.



As you can see we are really making progress - it only needs a bit patience for the next major release and you will experience a lot more Privateer like it was "back in the days"...

Progress update While everyone involved was not able to spend much time on the project due to other obligations, there was still some progress being made. We have finished the mission computer interface and included new interior renderings for all bases except Oxford and Gaia.



The team started to make "talking heads" and cut-scenes possible, optimized speech and wrote a new damage system for the game engine. While you take a look at some new screenshots... keep in mind that another release is not yet in sight. Feel free to make use of the Com Link to share your thoughts on the latest progress update...

92,000 Copies Spread More than 92,000 copies of Gemini Gold were downloaded since the first release in July 2005. Considering that the project is still a work in progress with a lot of flaws the feedback so far is amazing...

What's your status? We are currently working on the next upgrade for the game and have already included some really nice stuff. Major goals are to bring back all the original base computer interfaces, polish the base interiors and get rid of various balancing issues.



Since this is a lot of work you still have to wait quite some time before it is done. Besides, the game's graphic engine gets a major overhaul which causes a delay. While time passes by i will show you some neat stuff out of the current development version... If you have any suggestion, question or just want to help then head over and establish a Link to New Detroid's Communication Network.

Patch 1.01 Released The first Patch for Privateer Gemini Gold is now available. It provides a few urgent bugfixes, gamebalance tweaks and some graphical improvements like overhauled tarsus, galaxy, planet/base textures, an extended manual and new explosions effects.



We want to thank you all for the mails full of suggestions and bugreports we received since the release of Gemini Gold 1.0. Though we were not able to make all your wishes come true you will find for sure a few in.



Here are the changes from version 1.0 to 1.01:



Special Features High Quality textures for the Tarsus

Planets with clouds, Space Stations have lightmaps

Oxford and Palan missions are easier now (rebalanced) Miscellaneous possible speed improvements during bootup and gameplay

luxury/natural goods model gets a new texture

adds high-res explosion animations

bases and planets now have an automatic landing zone

Oxford library computer animation added

adds jump activation sound

repair droids are working a lot faster

sets the ship's starting speed to ~150kps

reduces number of available cargo missions

uses Wing Commander style missile lock animation Bugfixes drone mission bug

Ship Dealer graphic at Oxford

explosion sound for asteroids

Derelict Base now always spawns

*.blank on the navigation computer

"fix" button bug on the upgrade computer

cargo-bug which prevented to accept and fly a mission

artifact-loss-through ship purchase

spawned cargo in cargo hold after ship purchase

mercenary computer display graphic bug

removes unimportant information from commodity computer

removes neutral com faces for the paradigm

ship's energy system fixed (ecm bug)

prevents collision after ship explosion (with eject seats)

never ending escort missions

miggs now shows his face and speaks to you

removes "news" and "ship dealer" from some computer consoles

orion price changed to 75.000

tractor beams removed from talons

request landing "0" removed (without function) You can download the 16MB Patch from the Files Section for your Windows and Linux Version, while we are providing a completely updated version (190MB) for the Mac OSX community.



If you experience any problems feel free to send us a note. Gameplay discussions and suggestions concerning the further development or just feedback can be posted here.

Insights into 1.01 While we still need a few more days to finalize the patch you can visit the WC CIC and learn about some special features we've included recently (page 1, page 2, page 3).

32,000 Copies Spread More than 32,000 copies of Gemini Gold were downloaded within the last 6 weeks, not bad. After the summer vacation we have updated the Files Section and are now busy analysing bug reports and working on a first small patch.

Privateer Gemini Gold 1.0 After a successful Beta Test we are proud to announce the completion of Privateer Gemini Gold Version 1.0. Freely available for all operating Systems (Windows, OSX, Linux) and based on the Open Source Vegastike Engine you can experience the fun of the beloved classic Privateer once again with new graphics and real 3D spaceflight.



Privateer Gemini Gold is a purist remake of the original Privateer. The player starts with a small old scout class ship and low financial resources in a sparsely populated starsystem of the Gemini Sector. Hardly to stay alive you must try to get money through various mission assignments from which you can purchase better ships and upgrades.



It's your choice how to align with the various factions, earn your money as a merchant, bounty hunter, traitor or pirate. Meet Sandoval in a bar on New Detroit and talk to him. Explore the Gemini Sector and learn more about an obviously never ending conflict between catlike creatures called Kilrathi and the human Confederation until you may pass the frontier for the Unknown...



With the Gemini Gold Release we are introducing major improvements for the Privateer Remake like: an authentic Wing Commander Universe

new models, graphics and features

overhauled game balance and better interaction on bases

malfunction of ship systems when damaged

printer-friendly handbook If you have played the Privateer Remake before you can use your savegames with Gemini Gold as well. We wish you a lot of fun and happy privateering...

Beta Test Serious work on Privateer Gemini Gold was finished recently and we are proud to announce that the beta test will start in a couple of hours. You can expect a standalone 200 MB release which will include all game files and of course the recent 1.2 release changes from the Privateer Remake itself.



So what will Gemini Gold be like?

Several additional features were added to make it feel more like the original Privateer as well as a lot of artwork, model stuff and gameplay improvements which may at some point be available in the Privateer Remake as well.



Now we need you to test Gemini Gold to make sure all new features are working properly as well as the campaign. If you have free time in the next few days and are willing to submit a little report about your test write us an email and you will receive an answer with further instructions about the download.