By Sean Perryman on October 28, 2014 at 6:36pm
An event 20 years in the making is finally upon us: someone has seen fit to secure the rights to digitally release Lucasarts' "X-Wing" and "Tie Fighter" space shooter sims.
Both games place you square in the pilots seat of either and X-Wing or a Tie Fighter and allow you unfettered access to the flight controls and weapons systems within. These games felt like they were ahead of their time when they were first introduced, providing you with a similar experience to "Wing Commander," but in a universe you were already familiar with. They provided you with the standard simulator first person view, as well as a the option to switch to a third person view in combat.
I gave both of these a quick run through this afternoon, and I must say that they've held up surprisingly well seeing as how they are 20 and 21 years old respectively. Both items come as the "Special Edition Collector's CD-ROM" version, touting update graphics (well, "X-Wing" was updated to the "Tie Fighter" engine), as well as improved cut scenes and new voiceovers.
Purchasing the game from Good Old Games (the only available outlet at the moment) will also net you the game's manual, strategy guides, and printable reference cards. Be sure and print those out on your dot-matrix printer and tape them to your monitor. And yes, for those who are asking I did print them and tape them to my desk, thank you very much.
P.S. You shouldn't try and play these without a joystick or a game pad - seriously.
GOG: "X-Wing Special Edition" GOG: "Tie Fighter Special Edition"
