X-Wing and TIE Fighter are available on GOG!

[fredr123]

Originally Posted by Inglewood Jack

wait, there's actually weak spots on the star destroyer hull? stupid internet, why didn't you exist in 1993??

I had to pick up one of those babies.

Also, anyone bootcamp a Mac and get these things to run? Interested to hear how that works before I take the plunge. And buy an old joystick.

[Hugh Jahrmes]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

oh I miss Dos so much

I had *the power* back in the DOS days. Parents wanted to ground me? Good luck doing anything, bozos.

[DownhillGoat]

Originally Posted by fredr123

Also, anyone bootcamp a Mac and get these things to run? Interested to hear how that works before I take the plunge. And buy an old joystick.

I'll let you know this weekend. Can't see an issue with it though.

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by fredr123

I had to pick up one of those babies.

Also, anyone bootcamp a Mac and get these things to run? Interested to hear how that works before I take the plunge. And buy an old joystick.

I have multiple copies of those guides. I loved how they actually weaved a story through the book and missions. Even the TIE Fighter version too.

I still collect guides to this day.

[Handsome B. Wonderful]

I have to give them credit for including both the 1994 and 1998 versions of TIE Fighter. The 1998 version is better in almost all areas, but the original music system was sorely missed.

[underGRADFlame]

While I loved X-Wing... Someone call me when they release Rebellion.

[cDnStealth]

Bah... it looks like my old Sidewinder joystick got tossed at some point. Any recommendations? Don't suggest the Warthog lol.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by Inglewood Jack

wait, there's actually weak spots on the star destroyer hull? stupid internet, why didn't you exist in 1993??

another thing with X-Wing is that I spent about as much time getting it to run properly as I did actually playing. first off I was running a Cyrix 486SLC CPU, which meant I hated all you cool kids with 486DX setups and your fancy math coprocessors. and then it was days/weeks of tinkering with Autoexec.bat and Config.sys to squeeze every last kilobyte of available RAM. when I finally managed to get EMM386 configured properly and I started getting all the digitized sound, I celebrated harder than when I actually finished the game.

In the mission briefing they told you how to take out the shield generators on top of the bridge. After that it was just drop behind the engines for 10 minutes. Not to bad.

I loved the detail level that the ships had. They were built of pieces, lasers cannons and shield gens. Pretty advanced for its day.

[Ashartus]

Originally Posted by GGG

In the mission briefing they told you how to take out the shield generators on top of the bridge. After that it was just drop behind the engines for 10 minutes. Not to bad.

I loved the detail level that the ships had. They were built of pieces, lasers cannons and shield gens. Pretty advanced for its day.

Not to mention your ion guns could disable the Star Destroyer pretty quickly, after which you don't need to worry about it shooting back.

[Inglewood Jack]

yeah I guess I just suck at following directions. still, it's funny when you think about what you're doing...a lone X-Wing bringing down a kilometer long capital ship with a total power output equivalent to an entire star. let's see someone do that in the movies.

also, I remember that the very first mission is some boring transport ship scanning thing with a minor dogfight, but if you waited around after the main objectives were complete, an Imperial Frigate jumps in and starts releasing waves of TIEs. I'm assuming everyone on here also stuck around, defeated every wave and then single handedly blew away the frigate for a medal?

[CaptainCrunch]

Man I'm such a dork.

I'm gonna go and buy a sidewinder this weekend and buy the games

Its more then likely that I'll just buy Tie fighter now. The missions were way more intriguing and complex. But the game wasn't as unforgiving as X-wing. there was also something about coming out of the hanger of the Star Destroyer Garrett and hearing the roar of the Twin Ion Engines.

The missions were varied and interesting from customs sweeps to escorting Stormtroopers on boarding missions to flat out Caps and attacks on rebel ships. There was always the man in the hood in the background giving you secret missions right from the Emperor itself.

Everyone knows that the Empire were the villains in the GFFA. However this game was like the ultimate propaganda reel. you felt like you were on the right side as you stamped out corruption within the empire as Admirals were stealing ship designs and trying to defect to the alliance. There was also the issue of Grand Admiral Zarin who was attempting a illegal coup. The rebels were the ultimate force of chaos and disorder.

You played a young imperial who came from a home beseiged by pirates until the empire came in and saved your system. You immediately joined up with dreams of strapping on a fighter and fighting for the New Order but ended up as a lowly mechanic. But that changed one day when you took a fighter out on a test flight after making repairs and ended up in a battle with rebels.

I loved the story lines and the missions and the games. You had the chance to fly 7 distinct fighters in the game which made it amazing

Tie Fighter - the venerable backbone of the Empire. lightly armed, no shields, no life support and two lasers. This was a man's fighter, and the ultimate filter because only the best pilots survived and moved on. There was something terrifying about this fighter because unlike X-wings or fighters in wing commander or other games, literally one shot could take you out. But you could outspeed and outmaneuver anything in the game, at least until the A-wings entered the theater.

Tie Bomber - There was something very cool about flying this if you were interested in suicide missions. again unshielded and no life support, it was slow and not really agile. But it was more heavily armed with Ion cannons and missiles added on. There was something amazing about lining up on a frigate and hearing the tone of a proton torpedo lockon. But you never really wanted to fly this thing

Tie/in - interceptor - An update on the Tie Fighter with the bent wings. It had four lasers instead of two. and it was incredibly fast and agile. The first time you strapped into this thing you felt the sheer joy of speed. It still had no shields though so one good hit would send you to the hospital or the grave. You could really outfly everything but the A-wing which was just a demon in this game.

Tie Avenger - the first shielded fighter that you got. But you felt very cool in it because it was a variant of Lord Vaders Tie Avenger. This thing was a beat with four lasers, missile launchers and the coolest weapon. the tractor beam. There was nothing better then locking on a tractor beam and holding a fighter in place while you pounded on it. You usually ended up doing missions without wingman once you hit this point so you felt a little lonely.

Tie Defender - If you got to use this fighter you were considered to be an elite pilot, this thing was the ultimate fighter in the game. You were merely invulnerable in this thing due to heavy shields, 4 blasters and 2 ion cannons that could be fire linked, missile launchers and tractor beams. it could function as a bomber or a fighter. It was the most maneuverable fighter in the game and you could take on heavy rebel fighters in head to head running battles and usually come out on top. It outclassed the B-Wing heavy fighter which might have outgunned the defender but couldn't outfly it. Once you hit this point you got several missions flying as Darth Vaders wingman, which was an amazing experience because the AI for him was god mode.

Assault gun boat - Another beast and maybe too powerful in the game. I know they tuned it down in x-wing alliance as an opponent. It wasn't fast or all that agile. But I remember that this thing was designed to be a cap ship killer. it had two lasers and two ion cannons for in close work. But it had 40 concussion missiles. The standard tactic was to stay back from the battle and lock onto fighters with the concussion missiles. Or stand back from capital ships and target their systems. I didn't really enjoy flying this because it wasn't a tie fighter. IT felt more like a shuttle with guns.

Missile gun boat - The near unkillable. Once you got one of these you were the Empires best fighter pilot. This was one of the expansion craft for the final battles. This thing was really configurable for missions and could carry a lot of heavy arms. It could serve as a standoff fighter or a bomber anti ship platform.
This beast also had a SLAM drive which meant that when engaged was the fastest fighter in the galaxy even outspeeding a A-Wing. The usual tactic was to line up a target and then use the Slam drive to leap towards it so you could kill it with missiles before it could react.

I'd go into the rebels available ships, but they were just cannon fodder anyways.

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by Inglewood Jack

another thing with X-Wing is that I spent about as much time getting it to run properly as I did actually playing. first off I was running a Cyrix 486SLC CPU, which meant I hated all you cool kids with 486DX setups and your fancy math coprocessors. and then it was days/weeks of tinkering with Autoexec.bat and Config.sys to squeeze every last kilobyte of available RAM. when I finally managed to get EMM386 configured properly and I started getting all the digitized sound, I celebrated harder than when I actually finished the game.

This was me except with Tie Fighter. Trying to squeeze out every last inch of performance on what I believe was our 486 at the time. Still was very hard to play even with everything graphics wise turned down. Shortly after we got a new machine and it was a brave new world of glory playing it.

Originally Posted by Inglewood Jack

also, I remember that the very first mission is some boring transport ship scanning thing with a minor dogfight, but if you waited around after the main objectives were complete, an Imperial Frigate jumps in and starts releasing waves of TIEs. I'm assuming everyone on here also stuck around, defeated every wave and then single handedly blew away the frigate for a medal?

Hells yeah.

[Maccalus]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Assault gun boat - Another beast and maybe too powerful in the game. I know they tuned it down in x-wing alliance as an opponent. It wasn't fast or all that agile. But I remember that this thing was designed to be a cap ship killer. it had two lasers and two ion cannons for in close work. But it had 40 concussion missiles. The standard tactic was to stay back from the battle and lock onto fighters with the concussion missiles. Or stand back from capital ships and target their systems. I didn't really enjoy flying this because it wasn't a tie fighter. IT felt more like a shuttle with guns.

Missile gun boat - The near unkillable. Once you got one of these you were the Empires best fighter pilot. This was one of the expansion craft for the final battles. This thing was really configurable for missions and could carry a lot of heavy arms. It could serve as a standoff fighter or a bomber anti ship platform.
This beast also had a SLAM drive which meant that when engaged was the fastest fighter in the galaxy even outspeeding a A-Wing. The usual tactic was to line up a target and then use the Slam drive to leap towards it so you could kill it with missiles before it could react.

I'd go into the rebels available ships, but they were just cannon fodder anyways.

I think your are mixing up the Assault Gunboats and the Missile Boat a bit. The assault Gunboat was the slow early game armored/shielded fighter you get to fly. It was armed with 2 lasers, 2 ion cannons and approx. 8 concussion missiles or 6 proton torpedoes.

The missile boat was a 1 man fleet destroyer and some of the later missions had you doing just that. It only had 1 laser cannon, but could hold insane amounts of missiles/torpedoes. I remember just sitting still attached to the reloading tug and just firing on whole fleets in a couple missions.

Tie Avenger was also called Tie advanced in the version I had.

I played this way too much back in the day.

[Coys1882]

Captain - check your PMs.

[Hugh Jahrmes]

I remember we got a 150mhz pentium with Windows 95 for Christmas .. My parents let me open the Star Wars collection on Christmas Eve. Major disappointment because we didn't have a cd-rom on our 15mhz 486sx.. Big surprise the next morning tho.

Was the mission editor built in or was that something I downloaded?

[Imported_Aussie]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

oh I miss Dos so much

Set up DOSBox - it is a DOS emulator.
I use it to run my old DOS games, and it works on any OS - I use Ubuntu (Linux).
I do need a new joystick though, as mine never seems to calibrate properly no matter what I do.

I wasted so much time as a kid on TIE Fighter - was way better than X-Wing.

[Hugh Jahrmes]

+1 for DOSbox. I rocked through ST: 25th Anniversary last year on it. Didn't make it through Judgement Rites though

[CaptainCrunch]

I loved that game, but I always made the worst decisions and killed the red shirts every time.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Hugh Jahrmes

+1 for DOSbox. I rocked through ST: 25th Anniversary last year on it. Didn't make it through Judgement Rites though

Judgement Rites to me was the better game, it was a lot darker and richer in many ways. I really need to go back to that series again.

[Hack&Lube]

I have a Sidewinder 3D Pro and Sidewinder Force Feedback joystick (came with Mechwarrior 3) but I think they use gaming ports on the old sound cards!

Tie-Fighter was amazing, we need more games based on the bad guys.

I'm going to build a space sim setup with Oculus once Star Citizen is released and get a modern HOTAS set up I think.