Plywood Fiend has found a tiny trailer for the original Privateer at Archive.org. The narration reads:
Origin presents Privateer, a next generation space combat simulator for the IBM platform. You'll move through an intensely cinematic universe experiencing the two very different thrills of reaching a hard bargain and real time 3D space combat. Make your own alliances and choose the life of a pirate, a mercenary or a merchant. Customize your ship, modify your weapons, armament and systems. Explore a complete universe with more than fifty bases and planets in almost seventy systems!
This trailer must have been made fairly late in the game's development: many people forget that Privateer was originally promoted as Trade Commander, which is where the character name Grayson Burrows comes from. Early Origin catalogs also suggested that the game would have a 3D engine similar to Strike Commander rather than the 2D Wing Commander I/II/Academy variant found in the published version. Recent examination of some of Privateer's cockpit models suggests that the team was serious about implementing this at one point, creating "virtual cockpits" similar to those found in Strike Commander, Pacific Strike and Wings of Glory. You can find the small trailer (3.5 megs) in .asf format here.
TV.com is running an article about Freddie Prinze Jr.'s appropriately titled sitcom, Freddie. They report that, citing high ratings among key demographics, ABC has opted to renew the series for a full season of episodes -- suggesting that wide-ranging industry expectations regarding both the death of the sitcom and the end of Prinze's career may be unfounded. Freddie Prinze Jr. is best known to Wing Commander fans for playing Christopher Blair in the Wing Commander movie. Interested readers can find more information on the show in our previous update, or can catch the series in its regular timeslot, Wednesdays at 8:30 PM on ABC.
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