Feeling peckish for some Wing Commander/Privateer and need help

[jce3000gt]

So first of all I'm a noob with DOSBox. I can map a drive and run an installer but that's about it. What I'm looking for are some good ways to set it up to play some Wing Commander II, III, IV, and both Privateers to be able to have no hiccups when playing. I'm assuming old games like these are perfectly compatible and I have these all on CDs and I'm currently (not that it matters) using Windows 7 64-bit. I want to use my XBOX One controller (wired) as well.

 

Anyone recently or in the past have these games setup to run in DOSBox AND used a usb controller? There are a ton of settings to mess around with so I'm not sure what if any I should be messing with.

Edited September 16, 2017 by jce3000gt

[Smokeless Joe]

Probably the easiest way to do this, if you just want to play the games, is to buy then again from GOG.com. Their installers do a good job and itll save you time.

 

If youre looking for the whole retro experience of getting a vintage game to run on modern hardware, this article might help with the USB controller:

 

https://itstillworks.com/12226738/how-to-use-usb-joysticks-with-dosbox

[xenomorpher]

Don't you have a flight stick? The T-Flight Thrustmaster is what I used for Tie Fighter from GOG.com and besides the hand throttle not being compatible, it works well. Maybe something to think about down the road. But for less headache for use with a controller on a modern OS, buying them from GOG would be the easiest.

Edited October 5, 2017 by xenomorpher

[jce3000gt]

Thanks for the replies!

 

Don't you have a flight stick? The T-Flight Thrustmaster is what I used for Tie Fighter from GOG.com and besides the hand throttle not being compatible, it works well. Maybe something to think about down the road. But for less headache for use with a controller on a modern OS, buying them from GOG would be the easiest.

My thrustmaster is so old it has a serial port. Besides I like using my XBOX One controller on my PC these days.

[Flojomojo]

I totally agree with Smokeless Joe -- the GOG version's are easy and great. They go on sale ALL THE TIME and if you follow Wing Commander News (https://www.wcnews.com/) they post about it every time the price drops. Everyday price is fair too.

[Reaperman]

In my experience gog's wing commander configs are terrible, being next to impossible to get working with any analog controls.

If anybody knows some good analog settings for privateer, or a way to get rid of gog's audio glitches, let me know.

their support is no help, and has known about the many WC issues for at least half a decade.

Their forums don't seem to fully grasp what 'analog' means, but are filled with many contradictory "fixes" with varying degrees of implementation misery. I've obviously yet to find one that actually works, and have been considering a 486 build as a fix.

 

Wing commander is the main reason I simply cannot stand to hear gog recommended. They don't tell people when they're selling them emulation, and don't even have high enough gaming standards to bother configuring that emulation properly.

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wc news seems to have a setting that may help with my audio corruption at the bottom. Not seeing anything at all for controller, though. Other searches seem to indicate that some non-standard dosbox builds are far better with controllers in general, and I've seen some specific mentions of xbox controllers. Maybe I'll give privateer another go.

Edited October 9, 2017 by Reaperman

[SumerNivek]

I have the GOG version as well as my hold Origin Classic Gold CD version. I use the GOG version mostly, as it is super convenient, even with the audio problems. It may just be me, but I could NEVER play any of the WCs consistently well with a flight stick to get very far in them. In fact, I believe keyboard controls, for me, are far superior to any flight stick. I find the keyboard to be more precise than any stick I tried using back in the day. I have beaten every single WC game (including Privateer and all of the mission packs for WC 1 and 2) with the keyboard as my flight controller. If you have never played WC with a keyboard, give it a try...you may be surprised at how well it handles.