[Bandit LOAF]

Did someone say they wanted a small mystery? Check out this spread from an Alias Wavefront Power Animator V7 brochure:





That spaceship in the middle looks kind of familiar… and according to the document's credits, it was provided by Origin Systems! This is 1995 but it isn't from Crusader or Wing Commander IV… so what the heck is it? We asked the ex-Origin community if anyone remembered it. Most did not… but Wing Commander Prophecy producer Billy Cain recalled that it was something developed to promote the original version of Privateer 2. That's the almost-undocumented Privateer 2 game that was in pre-production with Chris Roberts and Tracy Hickman. So this seems to be an extremely rare look at a ship that wasn't from a game that also wasn't!





A reverse image search found a copy of the ship in one other place: a web 1.0-looking Russian website that seems to be reproducing a contemporary article about 3D development standards. Huh!




--
Original update published on September 15, 2026

 

[Exteban]

The true Privateer 2!!!
Is there any more information about this project?

 

[kingmakeress]

In the US you play Privateer 2.
In Soviet Russia Privateer 2 plays you.

 

[Bandit LOAF]

The true Privateer 2!!!
Is there any more information about this project?

Sadly very little!

Back in 1995, Chris started preproduction on Privateer 2 with the thought that it would go into developement alongside Wing Commander IV. Preproduction is the bluesky phase where you have a couple of people working on concepts... and we don't know a lot about that beyond that SFF writer Tracy Hickman was brought in to do the story (and that he spent something like a month at a retreat nailing it down).

There's an assosciated TV pitch from that time by Aaron Allston that took that project and proposed it as part of a pretty insane idea: Origin would make Privateer 2 and 3 in an orderly fashion while a studio in Los Angeles would do a season long Privateer TV show. Privateer 2 would kick off the story and then Privateer 3 would bring everything from the show and the game back for the conclusion. Really neat idea, but logistically pretty unlikely (especially at the time)!