I remmeber the old CD versions of Privateer had subtitles in game and during the intro. I bought the GoG version, fired it up, but found it did not display subtitles. How can I enable subtitles?

The only way I could find was to turn the sound off. Unfortunately that means you'd have to turn it back on every time you leave port or have no sound in space.

The cd classics bundle I have doesn't display subtitles. The original disk versions did though, they weren't subtitles though as there was no speech outside of a few select parts. I don't know whether it was released in cd format before the priv/rf classics bundle. The cd versions included speech so the text was cut out. I guess they didn't feel the need for "subtitles". Full in game speech (comprehensive) was still a relatively new thing at that point still. I think there was a speech pack for the disk version too that added a few voice acting lines. I read somewhere that the voice acting in the disk version for burrows is better than the cd version.

Isn't difficult to enable subtitles and disable speech. You must to edit the sound.cfg with notepad++ and change:

3 1
816 7 -1 -1
544 5 1 -1
0 0

to:

3 0
816 7 -1 -1
-1 -1 -1 -1
0 0

Sadly, the sound effects in space and intro will be disabled. But if i remember correctly, the floppy disk version+speech pak display subtitles for the dialogues and audio whan you talk with people in space. The Cd version present more audio speech but this problem that we are analyzing.

In wing commander 2 is a similiar thing, but if you disable the speech pack, the sound effects remains.

Edit:
Ok ok there is a solution... The Cd version of Privateer present speech in every dialogues of the game, the floppy version+speech packfloppy present speech only in space or in the intro the remaninig dialogues are subbed. Privateer floppy + Expansion without the speech floppy pack presente only subs. So if someone of you have Privateer floppy disk you can make a patch to apply to the gog version.

Easy, you were typing really fast there. OK: floppy version + speech pack present speech ONLY AND ONLY in the intro, AND NOT in space (space and all remaining dialogues are subbed, just to make it clear). Again, too fast. What exactly does "expansion" means? Does it mean Righteous Fire? The Gog version is the CD version of Privateer plus the RF expansion, right? I somehow fail to see it how can a patch be made from the floppy version (I have it) so that subtitles would work together with speech in both games. My respectful opinion is that you were just guessing, sorry :\

I read an interview with someone who was one of the developers at the time. They had a lot of issues getting the movies to work as well as they did, but then in the end there was no way for them to actually add subtitles (it was one of the things they really wanted).

Edit: Oh wait is this about Privateer 1? I meant privateer 2; dunno about 1 ^^

If the game does not find the speech.pak file in the main tre , it will display subtitles instead.

So either hexedit the rf.tre or the prcd.exe , change SPEECH.PAK or speech.pak to say SPEECX.PAK or speecx.pak (several occurences in the exe), but not both, obviously :)

This worked perfectly. Music, sound effects and subtitles, but no speech. "speech.pak" only occurs 3 times in the exe file. Thanks. :)