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09 August 2003 — Scuttled (21)

I'm really getting into this naval adventure stuff, you see? I'm reading Patrick O'Brian and Captain Blood. I want to reread Mutiny on the Bounty and Moby Dick. I want to read Horatio Hornblower and the sea novels of Joseph Conrad. From time-to-time I go to the shed and find a National Geographic article relevant to my reading: the Galapagos, Pitcairn Island, rafting the South Pacific. I look up historical figures in the encyclopedia (oh look — Commodore Anson really did make that voyage, etc.). I'm keen on naval films, too. Joel and I are going to finally learn to play Wooden Ships and Iron Men soon.

Basically, there is something about the whole genre of nautical fiction that I find fascinating. I cannot, at present, possibly explain it, but it's there: when I'm reading sea adventures, I'm swept away in the same manner that science fiction used to sweep me away.

I cannot get enough.

Today I made a trip to the computer store to buy some equipment for a client. While there I checked for computer games based on nautical themes. I found several, but could only allow myself to buy the heavily discounted Age of Sail II: Privateer's Bounty. "Real time naval combat!" touted the box. How could I resist?

When I got home, I didn't install the game right away. I had chores to do, and I did them. In fact, I only went to install the game after Kris went to bed. At last! I'll be sailing the high seas in no time.

The installation is as smooth as silk.

I launch the game, watch the pathetic intro, and then opt for a quick-and-dirty tutorial mission. The game loads the scenario and — wait! nothing happened. The screen says "Loading" and nothing else happens. No disk noise, no animation, no nothing. WTF? I kill the application and try again. Same thing. I try to load a campaign instead. No dice.

Fine.

I try to install the game on Kris' computer, on her Windows 2000 partition. Midway through the install, the computer turns itself off and restarts. ARGH! Okay, fine: I install the game on her Windows ME partition. That works for a time, but then the install freezes at 69%. That was an hour ago. It still says 69%.

sigh

And here I'd had high hopes of blowing the scurvy French out of the sea.

What is it with me and computer games lately? I'm cursed. There aren't many that I want to play, and those that I do want to play do not want to play with me.

I guess I'll clean the room instead.

On this day at foldedspace.org

2005 — A Day Off   I took the day off work yesterday to catch up on life, a task at which I was only moderately successful.

2004 — A Well-Earned Rest   After seven weeks of hard work, we finally said enough yesterday, stopped what we were doing, prepared food for a few dozen friends and family: held our Open House.

2002 — Piss and Pain   Middle-aged over-weight men who have not been exercising regularly ought not play team sports. Such as soccer.

Comments
On 10 August 2003 (06:14 AM), Karen Tynes said:

Hornblower! I am re-reading the entire series right now! This maybe my second or third time. Great stuff!


On 10 August 2003 (06:19 AM), Karen Tynes said:

Hey, the original board game, Wooden Ships and Iron men, was written by a friend of my husband's, Craig Taylor.


On 10 August 2003 (06:21 AM), Karen Tynes said:

One last comment. I never read Patrick O'Brian. My husband, who read O'Brian after years of reading Hornblower thought it just didn't hold his interest.


On 10 August 2003 (09:18 AM), Paul said:

JD,

I'm halfway through Master and Commander. I want to finish a couple of them before the movie comes out. I wish I didn't know that Russell Crowe was cast as Jack Aubrey--I have a difficult time reading the book without seeing him (I hate that). I hesitate to start the series because there are 21 (!!!) of them, there's so much else out there to read. I guess I've got the rest of my life to read them.

I need to find a sailing book to familiarize myself more with the terms: rigging, masts, winds, etc. I've done very little sailing but I could very easily lose myself in it (probably drown). Talk about an expensive activity. We'll probably go to the Annapolis Sailboat Expo in October and fall in love with $1 mil. boats. Such bourgousie tendencies. (Champagne taste, beer budget).

I hope you've discovered the swashbuckling soundtracks from the "Seahawk" etc. This is incredible movie music. Korngold? Yes, the composers name is Korngold (pretty good name for a fictitious captain huh?). I think listening to the soundtrack of "Seahawk" while playing the games (board or computer) would be completely self-indulgent (and fun).

Have you seen "The Seahawk"?

Paul

ps. Who else but you could've gotten kicked out of a premiere? Priceless.


On 10 August 2003 (12:28 PM), kaibutsu said:

So that others don't make my foolish mistake, I will note that naval adventure is not, in fact, navEl adventure. "Moby Dick is an adventure in navel-gazing, eh?"


On 11 August 2003 (04:55 AM), dowingba said:

I used to have the first Age of Sail game. It worked fine, but it was a rather crappy game.


On 11 August 2003 (07:21 AM), Tammy said:

Hate to have to use this site as my email, jd, but for some reason I can't retrieve my mail and the Roth family site is down. You guys working on it or did you all get tired of us!? :) Or maybe it's my own computer problem. Dunno.


On 11 August 2003 (03:55 PM), Craig said:

JD, you must have amazing powers of concentration. I took "Master and Commander" on vacation with me and couldn't get past the first 100 pages. The nautical terms were a definite impediment, but there was something else that made me unable focus on it. My mind kept wandering and I was reading sentences two and three times.

I've heard so many good things about O'Brien that I may try again. But "Moby Dick" and Joseph Conrad?! Forget it.


On 11 August 2003 (03:56 PM), J.D. said:

For anyone who might stumble upon this entry months from now with questions about Age of Sail II: Privateer's Bounty — I finally did get the game to work in Windows XP. To do so, I had to right-click on the application icon and select Properties. Then I had to alter the compatibility to Windows 98/ME. There are still some bugs that cause the game to crash, but now it actually works for the msot part...


On 20 February 2004 (04:46 PM), DC said:

Woot! I just bought Privateer's Bounty and couldn't get it to run. A Google search brought up this page and voila! Now I can play.

I salute you!

I first read Master and Commander 10 or so years ago and found it tough going and never read any of the others (though I had read the entire Hornblower Series). Now I'm reading it again (after seeing the movie) and enjoying it a lot more. I guess with age comes patience (I found the conversations between Maturin and Aubrey very tiresome the first time through...but now I get a kick out of them).

I'd also suggest James Nelson's "Revolution at Sea" series, and if you can find them, Kent's Bolitho series (never published in the US).

Thanks again for the game fix!


On 04 July 2004 (08:23 AM), cb said:

I Also just got Privateer's bounty and just in case anyone else is looking for infor down the road, like I was, don't forget to download the patch for it as well as a bunch of crashes can be attributed to overheating the processor so make sure that there's plenty of space for your cpu fan to blow, especially with a laptop.


On 08 August 2004 (12:11 AM), C-dog said:

I have the demo, and it will not get past the lame opening movie scences. There is no menu, no nothing, all black, only sound. It is there, just not displaying. I'm running Win XP pro, yes I have done the compatibility thing, etc. etc. also I have the patch... any ideas, PLEASE email me @ zorro_of_web_hq@hotmail.com and put AGE OF SAIL in the subject line so I don't discard as spam. ty!
~ C-dog


On 12 August 2004 (11:03 PM), C-dog said:

UPDATE:

I also downloaded the latest video drivers... no dice. :S The companies tech support hasn't come up with anything else, either. :S ~ C


On 13 August 2004 (01:51 AM), Matt Ahoy said:

Just bought Privateers Bounty myself and am enjoying it. I'm currently working out the campaign editor to try and emulate the "Hornblower" series, which I think is excellent. An author that hasn't been mentioned here yet is Dudley Pope's "Ramage" series of books. Sorry C-Dog, can't help you, I too run XP, but I have the full retail version of the game; what I did was install it then download the patch, changed the compatability and it works fine for me. Maybe the problems lies in wherever you downloaded the demo version from??


On 22 August 2004 (11:03 PM), C-dog said:

Well, I just got a new laptop with XP on it... I think I'll try it on there and see what I come up with. :S

~ C


On 28 September 2004 (07:37 PM), Dr Jimmy said:

I recently purchased PB for myself and a gamin' bud. We're fans of the board games Regatta and Broadsides&Boarding Parties and I hoped this would be a new wrinkle. I, of course, set the compatability and patched it(not in that order) but have a major lockup when my hosted game is joined another player.I get a windows panel titled "Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library" and Assertion Failed with some other info.I am running XP Home and my bud is running 2000. Offline it works ok(except of course the scenarios with too many ships). Any thoughts on why or how to get by this???


On 28 September 2004 (07:37 PM), Dr Jimmy said:

I recently purchased PB for myself and a gamin' bud. We're fans of the board games Regatta and Broadsides&Boarding Parties and I hoped this would be a new wrinkle. I, of course, set the compatability and patched it(not in that order) but have a major lockup when my hosted game is joined another player.I get a windows panel titled "Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library" and Assertion Failed with some other info.I am running XP Home and my bud is running 2000. Offline it works ok(except of course the scenarios with too many ships). Any thoughts on why or how to get by this???


On 28 September 2004 (07:37 PM), Dr Jimmy said:

I recently purchased PB for myself and a gamin' bud. We're fans of the board games Regatta and Broadsides&Boarding Parties and I hoped this would be a new wrinkle. I, of course, set the compatability and patched it(not in that order) but have a major lockup when my hosted game is joined another player.I get a windows panel titled "Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library" and Assertion Failed with some other info.I am running XP Home and my bud is running 2000. Offline it works ok(except of course the scenarios with too many ships). Any thoughts on why or how to get by this???


On 31 December 2004 (07:49 AM), Ken said:

The XP to 98/ME compatibility fix.
Use Start - My Computer to find Global Star / Privateers Bounty - Age of Sail II folder. Right click Privateers icon, click Properties. Click Compatibility tab. Click "Run this program ...". Select 98.Me.

I spent a lot of time and effort tracking this down, so it's probably worthwhile repeating.

For those of you who are getting into naval fiction, I'd suggest something other than Patrick O'Brian as a start. I've been sailing for over fifty years and had to get a translator ("A Sea of Words" by Dean King). C. S. Forester is a good start. I think there are ten or eleven in the series. It has a companion "The Hornblower Comapanion" (Naval Institute Press) that has maps and background. He tells his tales, mostly, in modern English. There are several other series that also contribute education toward tackling O'Brian. Alexander Kent has a series of 25 starring Richard and Adam Bolitho. Dudley Pope has a series of 18 starring Lord Ramage. Douglas Reeman, David Donachie, C. N. Parkinson, V. A. Stuart, and others and a website http://www.nauticalfiction.com/.


On 15 January 2005 (06:18 PM), Dar said:

I got this game and couldn't get it to work either on Windows XP, but a Google search brought up this page with the solution. :D

Thanks!


On 23 August 2005 (06:38 PM), john rodgers said:

Well into the O'Brian series, I spent a year at sea and I still miss it. I bought PB and after a bit of tinkering and a new Vid card I got it to work. Fantastic game!!!! it has helped me understand some of the sailing/fighting principles in the O'Brian books. Seeing as most of the factual ships in the books can be used in the scenario editor I was thinking of recreating some of the battles in the books .

Ever get the game to work??


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