Privateer: Remake (available here) is a novel attempt at making Privateer available to the masses again without messing with DosBox or other programs. The programmers did attempt some novel ideas. For instance, in this game you can hire wingmen (like in Privateer 2), tell your turrets to auto-engage, and many other little things that I've always thought needed to be considered in a future Privateer game.

However, I think this game misses on many counts. My analogy for this game is that it's like taking a Ferrari frame and putting a 4-cylinder engine in it. The graphics are gorgeous. The little things have been changed to improve the game. But I feel in the transition the entire 'magic' of the game has been lost. There's no launch/landing sequence videos. While your ship is docked and you're in-base, the game relies on the old graphics, but not all of them are as interactive. First of all, the graphics are not full-screen in-base due to the limits of the old, bitmap-type images the game was originally built on. There are new interfaces which feel impersonal in the mission computer, the upgrade center, and many other things. So far, I've played the game for about 45 minutes, but I've lost the excitement and anticipation that I went in with.

The solution? Fire up DosBox, get it working, and hop back in the original Tarsus. Don't worry, the magic is still there, waiting.