I played this a little bit a few years ago. It was a touch crude but fun
vegastrike.sourceforge.net/

well, there's now a Privateer conversion for it. I just installed it and have only flown around a little but it looks like a really good clone and looks like it will be better than the Freelancer Privateer mod, which although it was kind of interesting when I tried it it had a long way to go and I think they stopped work on it

priv.solsector.net/
190MB download but totally worth it. They claim the entire original Privateer plot is in it

since I mentioned Freelancer, it's not free but old enough to probably be cheap. I might reinstall it, it was a pretty fun game too
a good site for mods for it
www.lancersreactor.com/t/

the freelancer privateer mod forum
www.lancersreactor.com/t/forum/forum.asp?forum_id=42&forum_title=Privateer%3A+The+Reckoning+Mod&cat_title=Freelancer+MOD

Tag.

Thanks for the info.  I never did get all the way through Privateer (and the expansion for that matter) and am dying to play through it.

Miss the Wing Commander universe.  It was pretty interesting till Freddy Prince Jr. got in there

ETA:  Did they get the expansion pack in there too?  What was it called....

I think the expansion was called Righteous Fire, or was that the subname of the full Privateer 2 game?
I don't think I ever bought the expansion, and I don'tt hink I finished privateer either. I had found a way to play it in windows98 a while back but it was a touch buggy so I didn't even start the plot.

found some other WC related mods
www.wcnews.com/fanprojects/index.shtml

I think it was Righteous fire.

Bought the add on, but never did play through it.

Spent thousands of hours paying STAR RAIDERS on the Atari 800 and ELITE on the C64...

Besides the previously mentioned, good space sims for the PC include:

Battlecruiser 3000 A.D.
Darklight Conflict
First Encounters
Frontier (Elite II)
Hardwar
Independence War (I & II)
Inferno
Starlancer
Tachyon: The Fringe (Bruce Campbell voiceovers)
X-Wing and TIE Fighter series

I just started down the plot. On the first of the Tayla(I think that's her name) missions

I enjoyed Privateer but I have to admit that I was never any good at it. The plot mystified me. Go here, do this, trade that. Blah. But it was fun to trade stuff for a profit and blast pirates into atoms. The "go where you please" model was unique at the time Privateer was released. Few other PC games attempted to simulate an entire universe. The only similar game I can think of is the Trade Wars 2002 BBS door game.

Galland

Privateer owned. I played the crap out of the original and the expansion. I also enjoyed Starlancer and Freelancer. Thanks for links.

I too liked Freelancer but found the mouse controls to just feel cheap.  To me a fighter should always be controled by a stick, throttle, and pedals.

Quoted: The only similar game I can think of is the Trade Wars 2002 BBS door game. Galland

Ah, how many hours did I spend playing that game?  Geez, thanks for bringing that one up.