When Microsoft attempted to put Windows 10 on my computer without my consent or authorization a few years ago, I jumped through all the hoops to prevent it. Now, after experiencing a HD failure and having to move over to another computer with Windows 10 installed, all my fears and concerns about Windows 10 are confirmed.

Having installed TIE Fighter 98 on this system, I have 1). no music, 2). no Hardware Acceleration, 3). choppy framerates. Now, I've combed this forum, and seen all the "workarounds" that only work for 25% of the people who attempt them, each "workaround" different and more convoluted than the previous one. The only music fix I have gotten to work actually disables keyboard input, and none of the Hardware Acceleration fixes work at all for me. I get this is an ancient game, and I get that this is purely an issue with Windows 10. But I paid GOG money for this game, and I kind of expect them to officially support the product they sold me, and to offer some sort of cogent, centralized patch to fix these issues. I just don't have the time to sit around and try downloaded a host of different dll files that may potentially be viruses in a bid to fix these issues.

So rather than countless hours of trial and error and uninstalling/reinstalling, I will ask one time; Is there an OFFICIAL fix for the no music/no hardware acceleration affecting the GOG version of X-Wing/TIE Fighter/XvT/X-Wing Alliance that is actually proven to fix the issues?

Well, there's a disclaimer in the store page about Win10, so that has to be kept in mind... early Windows games, those at the start of the Direct3D life cycle especially, are those that may encounter the most issues, and TIE 98 is right in that period.

While GOG goes much further than other stores to try and patch things up independently, in the end they are just the distributor, not the original developers, so without access to the actual source code for each and every single game they sell, there's only so much they can do with wrappers/injectors/whatnot, and one cannot expect any miracle and rarely an "official" stamp on those fixes

On the other hand, titles that can be run in a DOSBOX environment are, for the most part, only limited by the power of your hardware and enjoy much better compatibility, and the first two TIE and XWing are one of the "happy" games that are bundled with both DOS and Win version, so the users can choose the best release for their systems

Having said all that:
- The 95 Collectors runs pretty well and in hi-res like the 98 version, save for HW acceleration... joystick are supported, features are the same and iMuse as a welcomed bonus to the Win version; worth a try

- This wrapper so far has worked on more than a PC for me, both with TIE 98 and XWing vs TIE, restoring HW Acceleration, no issue with music, no keyboard input affected, full HOTAS support... just the game as it was back in the days.
I haven't tried the very latest 1.5.1, but 1.5 works perfectly (see the 'releases' page for all the downloads) and it doesn't require much more than copying the files in the folder and run... just in case, the ddraw.cfg I'm using is here but I'm pretty sure it's basically the default untouched

Edit: oh, and don't forget to enable DirectPlay, this one is needed for many retrogames: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XYyGB-Tn3g

I tried this yesterday, and it didn't work (immediate crash to desktop). Today, however, it worked (although everything is super dark, even with brightness turned all the way up).

As far as the music fix, I have only gotten one method to work, but it disables the keyboard and doesn't even restore all the music. And even then, it won't allow TF Reconstructed to work.

Also, I can't run earlier versions of TIE Fighter at all on Windows 10, just a black screen. And there are no dlls in those versions to replace, so I'm at a loss.

For the dos versions you can try and tweak the file .conf with the dosbox graphic settings.
Try to set the output to openglnb and the aspect to true, and set the fullscreen resolution as the same as your desktop.

Just make sure that Vsync for you graphic card is disabled since it tends to mess with the dosbox opengl rendering.

Yeah I've fiddled with all of that to no avail. I can actually play by clicking on "Launch Settings" rather than the desktop icon , but it negates the joy.exe tweak to be able to use throttle on flight sticks/gamepads. Anyway, you can't even map joystick/gamepad buttons to keys in the 95 version without yet another program running. I'm one of the few people that considers the 98 version superior for that very reason (although I'm not happy with the bugs in the 98 version, so I guess you can't have your cake and eat it too).

What stick/gamepad do you use?

I use an XBOX 360 controller, but I've also got a Thrustmaster T-Stick. Neither has ever worked in the 95 version beyond basic flight, firing, and target in sights/roll...no other buttons can be mapped without a 3rd party program, and even those won't map the throttle (triggers on controller). The joy.exe tweak is the only way to accomplish that, but I've yet to even get that to work on Windows 10.

Additionally, I was wrong about X-Wing Vs. TIE Fighter working properly. It continually crashes immediately after completing the primary objective on ANY mission. I haven't even reinstalled X-Wing Alliance, because I know already that it would be absolutely pointless.

I couldn't be less satisfied with the performance of these games on Windows 10, even with these tweaks. Because of constant joystick drift (yes, I have calibrated and calibrated until my face is blue), frequent low FPS and stuttering, and an extremely dark screen even with brightness turned all the way up, I've gone from being really good at a game to absolutely sucking at that game overnight, all as a result of a piece-of-crap operating system. Again, I realize we're talking about ancient games here. But these are my FAVORITE games, and they're not even abandonware. I am bitterly disappointed.

Yes, they can... since the DOS version do not support analog throttle anyway (nor does the TIE 98 version for that matter, throttle is recognized, but used as digital input), you can remap your throttle and any other analog axis using "bands" or "directional" input, so that it will send the keypresses needed for +- power or the 4 presets of 0/33/66/100%.

I don't know the specifics of TARGET but many profiling softwares can do that; the Logitech/Saitek profile I'm using is set exactly in that way, and I'm pretty sure Joy2Key does also... those remappings will carry over into the DOSBOX environment, and you don't need a specific fix for each game like that joy.exe Sorry to hear that, but here is something going on your machine that goes beyond "piece of crap OS", because all those combined problems are not "the norm".

Between here and Steam I have all those games in digital form AND the old disk version too, and save for XW-Alliance (because I had not tried yet), all 3 X-Wing and TIE titles works well with both the original Win10 release and after the Creators update, in either DOSBOX form or native Win with the wrapper mentioned above ¯\_(°_°)_/¯

Wait, which t-stick? The T-flight or the T-16000?
The t-16000 supports the thrustmaster software profiler T.A.R.G.E.T. which allows to customize buttons and deadzones.

It's just a stick, with no hotas. the throttle control is on the stick itself, and no amount of remapping buttons makes the throttle controls work on the 94/95 versions. Works fine on the 98 version, however. According to these forums, as well as the counterpart forums on Steam, it is very much the norm. I mean, it's not like I've just installed these games on a 286 with 4 megabytes of hard drive space. This computer is old, but it's not THAT old, and the only real difference between it and the computer I had before (that ran all these games just fine) is Windows 10. And I KNEW Windows 10 wasn't playing old games well (if at all), which is why I avoided upgrading on my old machine. And here I am, struggling to play any of these games on Windows 10. So I'm really happy for you that you are playing them just fine.....but I'm not. And the only common denominator between my issues and everyone else who are having the same issues.....is Windows 10.

And now I'm crashing if I spend more than 3 seconds in the "Goals" submenu during missions.

I mean...FFS. This is one of the top ten video games of all time, and it won't even run on Windows 10 without error after error. GOG needs to either address this, or pull these games from its library.

T.A.R.G.E.T. works with the supported peripherals, be they HOTAS or not, the included peripherals include the stick-only version of the T-16000, the t-flight (either version) is not supported though.
Also have you tried to change the "timed" setting in the dosbox .conf for the game?
That setting is often problematic for many games including Tie Fighter.

Though I find that with single sticks the throttle control they have on the base is useless since the best way to play is having the non-joystick hand on the keyboard at all times.

The windows version was always very problematic, it worked well on windows 98 but already was a bit of a crapshoot with later OSs.

All those problems *COMBINED* on a single installation?! Sorry, that is not the common situation for all Win10 users, especially the joy drifting (that might be more common in the DOS version, not the Win one, but at the same time easy fixed by turning timed=false in the .conf file, which is also almost always the answer for any DOSBOX game)

I've checked here, and mostly the Steam forums, quite carefully before deciding if continue to use the DOS version or try the '98, and that was not the situation I've found: yes, people were having problems... no, not ALL those TOGETHER, and most importantly, the fixes were usually there
If that level of 'broke' you describe was the norm, you would see both forum FLOODED with the same threads, they do not look like that to me...

Look, I'm not telling all this because I wanna gloat about being some kind of PC genius or whatever, I'm trying to tell you that if it worked for me, on more than one Win 10 x64 installation, and it worked for many other users, then it's not an unsolvable issue inherent with the new OS, but it is fixable and ther are known procedures; if your machine shows all those problems together, maybe there's something else going on that specific Win10 installation, be that a driver problem or whatever, that is exacerbating the issue

I wish I could be of more specific help, but without access to that machine I'm afraid that is not possible; however all I see here is just you thrashing the OS and asking to pull the title from the store for everyone because *you* can't get it to work... how about no?!

EDIT: just 10 minutes ago, out of curiosity, I booted my office laptop; different Win 10 installation, different UI locale, different VGA chipset with drivers from who knows when

- Downloaded the latest GOG standalone installer for TIE98, no Galaxy on that PC
- Default install
- Checked 'DirectPlay' under Windows features
- Connected an ancient MS Sidewinder stick i still have in the closet (which, side note, keeps working wonderfully on Win 10, with no driver at all. BEST. BUY. EVER. ....If only it had more buttons, sigh!)
- Copied the files from 'https://github.com/rdoeffinger/xwa_ddraw_d3d11/releases/latest' in the installation directory, no editing in the default .cfg
- Launched the game, enabled 3D Hardware under 'Option', started Battle 1 Mission 1

Music working, keyboard working, joystick working, D3D accelleration working, goal screen opened and still open as i write this, no crash

The only minor issue, which is also there on my other machines, is that in the map briefieng, if you move the cursor at the very edge of the screen, it sometimes disappears... hitting ESC and then going back fixes this every time.

I have done EVERYTHING you just described, with the exception of your brand of joystick, and I have ALL the problems you don't, even with a fresh install. So you can sit there and tell me everything is fine and I'm stupid until you're blue in the face...that doesn't change the fact that I have TOTALLY different results following the exact same steps as you have taken. Bottom line is that this game worked just fine on Windows 7, and it absolutely sucks on Windows 10. Paying customers shouldn't have to jump through all these hoops just for a slim chance that the non-refundable product might possibly work. And there absolutely needs to be a disclaimer in BIG BOLD LETTERS before you purchase these games (rather than buried in fine print) that states, "THIS GAME MAY NOT FUNCTION CORRECTLY, UNLESS YOUR NAME HAPPENS TO BE ANTANISERE".
It worked just fine on Windows 7.

Also, there is no dosbox.conf file in the 98 version (there is not even a DOSBOX folder). I have verified this each time I've uninstalled/reinstalled GOG's download. There IS a dosbox.cfg file in the 95 version, but there is no way to changed the "timed" setting. It's not a text-based app, all you can do is change the graphic mode under Basic Settings, and under Advanced Settings: aspect ratio, buffering, scaling engine, mouse sensitivity, resolution.....that's it.

Perfect, I believe you 100%... however if everything is the same, including Win 10, and the result are different, what does that suggest you?! it's all the OS fault?
I'm not telling that you are stupid, I'm telling that a) I'm not the only one that got this working and b) *your* Win 10 setup (not THE Win10 setup), has some problem somewhere; sure, it has to be related to the new OS, since it worked on Win7 on the same machine, not denying that, but it is not THE OS alone, and its not the GOG package alone... I am at 3 success on 3 different machines, I can't just be lucky, and I'm not doing anything special, just the above

As far as I know, those titles follows the same 30 day refund policy as the rest of the GOG catalogue.... if you mean that you can't do it anymore because you bought that earlier and you are experiencing the problems only now, well I can undrstand the frustration but, again, that does not mean that if it is not available to you then is non-refundable as an absolute.

No, there is not... his suggestion is indeed only related to the DOS version, which is the one that has no Win10 compatibility issues at all and he's implying it might be a better try on you PC

the .conf files used by DOSBOX are not apps (you are talking about the extra UI tool supplied by GOG, which is not part of DOSBOX proper), they are just plain text files, and you can open them with the text editor of your choice... if you are not OK with that, you can get yourself a more complete UI (eg. D-Fend Reloaded) and import the profile there, you'll find the full range of options available (and it's nice to have for for any other DOS games sold by GOG)

Whatever method you choose, the joystick section should be something like this (works on both X-Wing and TIE DOS titles for me):

[joystick]
joysticktype=4axis
timed=false
autofire=false
swap34=false
buttonwrap=false

This should be fine for most joysticks, and the bulk of the buttons will register natively in the game; you can then use your profiling software for all the other extra buttons/hat switch/throttle remapping

While you are there, if you wanna play TIE 95 in SVGA resolution, the processor section should be similar to

[cpu]
core=dynamic
cputype=auto
cycles=fixed 55000
cycleup=1000
cycledown=1000

and the renderer in the [sdl] section one of these
output=ddraw (this works fine for me)
output=opengl
output=openglnb