by Ken Horowitz
A few years ago, LucasArts released a series of games that made every fanboy wet his pants: X-Wing, TIE Fighter, and X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter. These were the games to have, folks. Who hasn’t wanted to sit in front of their PC, TIE Fighters zipping by, and pretend they’re Luke Skywalker while desperately clutching their control pad?
OK, maybe I’m pushing it a bit. But, so what? I love Star Wars, and these games give socially-challenged people like myself another reason to ignore the outside world.
In actuality, these games aren’t new. They’re sort of a “X-Wing: Special Edition” series. The difference is that LucasArts has retooled each game in the series to take advantage of the modern 3D graphic cards offered today for Windows 95/98. The gameplay may be the same, but hey, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it! X-Wing, TIE Fighter, and a limited version of X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter are all offered here for your enjoyment. Of the three, only the latter has enjoyed true 3D, but the facelift can be seen here as well. Everything from the actual gameplay screens to the mission briefing screens has been touched up, making for a cool new trip to a galaxy far, far away.
The object is to dogfight your way through a variety of scenarios ranging from escort duty to even attacking a Star Destroyer! A host of craft await your novice flying skills, including the famous X-Wing (duh!), B-Wing, Y-Wing, and the A-Wing. Both the A and B wings were seen in the final film of the trilogy; “Return of the Jedi”.
While there are many weapons of destruction at your disposal, the homing missiles are the most useful. Use them against Imperial Gunboats (which you can also fly), TIE’s and anything else that moves. In TIE Fighter, you defend the Empire against those annoying “rebel scum”. You can fly the TIE, TIE Bomber, TIE Interceptor (my personal favorite), and the new TIE Advanced (Darth Vader’s ship).
I, for one, have spent many a night in front of my screen, with my speakers booming in my ears (the soundtrack and effects are AWESOME!!), trying to refrain from screaming: “Red Five standing by!!” Although there isn’t anything new about the games except for the graphics, you MUST have these games if you like flight simulators or just love Star Wars (who doesn’t?). These games are great; or as Darth Vader would say: “impressive, most impressive”. You’ll need a Pentium 90 with Windows 95/98 and 16 MB of RAM to run, but I recommend a Pentium 133 and a 3D Graphics Accelerator to really fly in style. A joystick is required, and the games are DirectX and LAN compatible. The collection retails for about $30, so it shouldn’t put too much of a crimp in you checkbook. It’s rated “E” for everyone, and you can reach LucasArts at www.lucasarts.com.
So folks, until Darth Vader uses his lightsaber to prune his yard, keep those gamepads happy!!
Ken Horowitz is a HAL-PC member and a world class PC Gamer.
System Requirements
OPERATING SYSTEM: Windows 95 required, Windows 98 compatible.
CPU: Pentium 90 or faster required. Pentium 133 recommended. Pentium 100 required for Multiplayer.
MEMORY: 16MB RAM required.
CD ROM: 2X CD ROM required. 4X CD ROM recommended.
GRAPHICS CARD: 100% DirectX compatible PCI graphics card required.
SOUND CARD: 100% DirectX compatible 16-bit sound card required.
INPUT DEVICE: Joystick required.
DIRECTX: Microsoft DirectX 5.2 is included on this CD and must be installed to play.
NOTE: Your system may require the “latest” Windows 95 drivers for your particular hardware.
OPTIONAL SUPPORT
3D ACCELERATION: Supported through Direct3D with most major 3D accelerator cards.
FOR X-WING VS. TIE FIGHTER: FLIGHT SCHOOL
LOCAL AREA NETWORK: Supports up to 8 players via IPX.
MODEM-TO-MODEM: Supports 2 players via 14.4 KBPS or faster.
DIRECT SERIAL: Supports 2 players via null modem cable.
E-mail me at webmaster@hal-pc.org with any comments you have and tell me what you want to see here.