I have the same problem with Privateer as with Strike Commander so this is almost a copy of what I posted on that game's board.

My preferred version has always been the floppy version with the Speech Pack. The version here is the 'enhanced' CD-ROM thing with full voice acting that I find distractingly poor, even the re-recorded intro speech for the protagonist sounds worse now but that might be just nostalgia speaking. Anyway, I would love to have the floppy version as an extra - exactly like how the GOG release of Wizardry VII includes both versions of the game.

Alternatively, if there is a way to turn the CD version into the floppy version, I would like to hear about it as that would solve my problem.

There's really no way to change the CD version into the floppy version since so many files are different (I don't think it's a case of just removing a few files), but if you still have your floppies you could install that version under DOSBox yourself.

I wouldn't expect GOG to add the floppy version; so far they have tended to start with a basic version of a game and then updating it to a fancier version later on rather than the other way around.

Yeah, I suppose it wouldn't be easily done. The developers probably didn't think anyone would ever want to not use the full speech when it's available. Too bad they didn't consider the quality of it. :)

My floppies are half the world away from me these days and will be so for quite some time to come. That's why I like services like GOG where I can just download a game from my collection anytime anywhere. Just sometimes money doesn't buy me quite what I'm after it seems.

Is there any option to turn off speech through the sound options? Maybe that would default the game to use subtitles? Maybe that would be one step to 'improve' things for you, even if it isn't perfect.

Other than that maybe create a 'request' page for it, and contact the team with your cocerns?

There are other games I would like to see floppy and cdrom versions included both. Sometimes because the floppy versions included extra dialogue, missions, puzzles, or features that were cut from the cd-rom versions. Loom comes to mind.

That's the first thing I looked for but there doesn't seem to be an option. Disabling the sound card or changing to something that doesn't support digitized speech could possibly have that effect... but I would like to have the in-flight speech and the sound effects going. That's something to look into I guess. Also Sierra's Freddy Pharkas game had that thing going, didn't it? I'm not a big fan of that game though but I read somewhere that the CD version even omits important clues to the puzzles due to the dialogue being cut. At least the Origin games aren't that bad. Though I do miss being called by my name or callsign in the voice overed Privateer, if that counts as a cut.

Looking at my GOG collection I can see a few examples where several versions of the games have been included. In Might and Magic I-VI I can choose if I want the original floppy version of World of Xeen or the 'enhanced' CD version with cheesy full voice acting. With the remastered Broken Sword 1 and 2 games the original version is included as an extra, which is nice as I didn't find the new version of the first one to be preferable to the original.