Apparently the original Pirates! came with a "Captain's Broadsheet", which was probably a "technical supplement" for whatever platform you bought. I couldn't find this, or what the keystrokes are available for this game in DosBox. Is it missing, or did I just miss it?

The PDF manual makes frequent reference to this document and only mentions keystrokes in "generic" terms, such as... "see the 'Captain's Broadsheet' for specific control information', or "The Captain's Broadsheet (a separate folder) provides loading instructions and a summary of your computer's controls."

The first part of "Pirates Gold - manual.pdf" is the Captain's Broadsheet. Have you tested whether those controls work with original Pirates?

Mostly not. Although a scant few will work (keystrokes for swordfighting) most don't. None of the General Controls from the GOLD PDF work with the original. I still don't know how to quit the game beside killing DosBox. None of the normal MPS variants (Q, Z, X, C with/without all variations of CTL, SHIFT, or ALT) work. Kinda frustrating! I think I found that SPACE pauses the game, however.

You can use the arrow keys and enter button or use the number keys. 4 and 6 act as left and right. 8 and 2 act as up and down. 5 acts as enter. 0 also acts as a pause like the spacebar. You can control your ship with arrows or numbers. Personally i just use the 4 and 6 to steer my ship. 5 is also how you fire the cannons. Swordfighting i use the number keys. I use 7, 4, and 1 for the attack keys and i use 6 to back up. I dont block cuz they rarely hit me.

FYI: This is for the original pirates. Which is the best one btw.

Thanks, zippysox! Also, there's this website:

http://www.allgame.com/game.php?id=20215&tab=controls

which might help (if it's really the right version, there are several at that site).

Also...for land battles. Your men will fire automatically as long as they aren't moving. To move all groups at once press and hold the 5 key and then any direction. Personally I hide in the tree and use my smallest group to lure the enemy close and i wipe them out easy.

To quir try alt+q
There is also an experimental dosbox with savestate support, there is the codes.pdf to get past reading the instruction manual for the copy code.

ALT+Q doesn't work for me. Maybe it worked on a different computer?

Oooh, savestate in DosBox! Love to try that out!!!