ncasolobp: Not sure if capital ship gunners improved in the 98 version... I wiped out all of the capital ships in the 2nd mission in an A wing way back when. Took forever but was never in danger of being shot down. Weave in and fire when you come into view and weave out at max speed. Recharge everything and repeat.

gavbloodworth: The X-Wing and Tie Fighter play like more of a (very fun) simulator than an arcade game. And needs to be approached as such. Which means you should pay attention to the mission briefings, and study the controls. I think these games have dog fighting excellence unmatched in any other game.

The best experience is with a joystick. You are handicapped with anything else. Most of the newer joysticks are quite stiff, and dont give you the same fine control needed when individual pixels matter. My excellent old joysick has the old game port connection, so is useless. Am currently using a Cyborg X, but the stiffness will take some getting used to.

M : goes to the in-flight map. Game is paused in this mode. Use it often.
I: Toggles between ID mode and targeting mode. You will want to stay in the latter mode for a bit more visual targeting help unless you need to ID craft as part of a mission goal.
ALT-C: recalibrates the joystick. Can be done at any time and is needed if you start to get joystick drift.
X: Toggles firing mode. You should always stay on single firing mode for lasers because its faster.
??: Matches speed with target. What is the key for this does anyone know? Enter only fires the lasers. I do remember using it but was that only with Tie Fighter? In the absence of this, use the 1/3, 2/3 and full throttle keys as needed to chase mobile targets better.
ALT-D: changes detail setting. Keep it on the lowest setting. Newer gamers would not understand this, but it keeps the display minimalist and allows you focus on the task at hand in destroying craft. And not having the stupid galaxies and debris flying around to distract you.
. : the "dot" on the keyboard toggles the cockpit on and off which gives you the best display for dogfighting. Can be used when you become more familiar with the game and dont need the cockpit cues as much.

Learn how the energy system works and how it relates to shields and speed. Have you lasers charging in increased or max mode (except when you might need max speed - 200, to chase down a distant target) and transfer laser energy to shields periodically. When you need to increase or recover your shields you do NOT want your shield system set to increased or max level as its inefficient. Balance your shields out with the S key when needed after taking hits.

There is much more information that can help with these games, but I wont bother typing it all out here as there are also many excellent guides online. Good luck Red Leader!

geminidomino: Kind of sad that they didn't add "Show target's attacker" (Default "A" in TIE Fighter) - would come in mighty handy in all those damn escort missions.

That, and the ability to view the message log. The message bar in the 98 remake is a little wonky. Likes to repeat messages long-since irrelevant.

geminidomino: I've always had best results with the opposite setup: Using single fire mode for the big, slow ships lets me pump more shots into them because they're not fast enough to (or even trying to) dodge them. Mid-level ships like shuttles and transports get dual-fire mode because they are moving, but slow enough that I don't have to worry too much about losing tracking.

The X/W, Y/W, T/Fs, T/Is, and T/As, though, are what quad-linked fire was made for. My logic being that, either way, I'm only going to get to squeeze off one shot before I have to adjust course to re-acquire anyway, so I might as well get full bang for the buck and, hopefully (in the case of T/As and "pirate" rebel ships) getting hit with multiple bolts will keep their shields from fully regenerating before I get another shot off. I've always cleared them out faster one quad than using spray-n-pray tactics.

Kharnellius: Very much disagree on keeping lasers on single fire. I can take out a tie fighter in one shot with quad cannons linked on the x-wing. You only need one good shot and they are gone. You will start to learn how to lead your shot and suddenly you become the one shot wonder taking out TIEs in one shot.

Linked is also great if you want to solo a capital ship. You can fire a quad shot, change direction a bit to avoid oncoming fire, fire another quad shot, change direction again....so and so forth. Already have a frigate and star destroyer kill in just 7 missions in the first tour of duty (TOD).

Speed is a huge help in avoiding enemy fire. Often I keep my lasers charging at max and my shields decharging at max so I get good speed. Keep pumping laser energy into shields and it will actually fill up faster even though you are decharging your shields.

ReaverT: Next, speed: don't turn your ship at 100% throttle; youll have increassed manuverability at 2/3 speed and the sharppest turns can only bee performed at 1/3 speed. Also, if you're chasing T/A, you should have your shield energy transferred to engines: I know, It seems suicide, but these fighters are the most agile one's in the game. You could try getting one with standard adjustments on an A-Wing but and X-Wing will have to renounce to shields in favor of speed to chase one of this tricky SOBs down.

number33_ak: Not that I doubt you, but I'm curious how did you destroy an SD? Did you fly right up to the engines and fired until the shields went out?

kirghylommax: Actually, I don't think X-wing adjusted turning radius depending on speed. That was a feature they added with TIE and kept through the rest of the series.

acehigh79: When dog fighting you can fire torps when your reticle turns yellow if your head to head as the imps will fly straight at you until they get close enough to fire lasers before breaking off. This way you can get kills or severely damage enemies before getting into a pro longed dog fight.

Pyppon: That works up to about "ace" AI. At "Top-" and "Super Ace" they most often pick off the warheads, and you're more or less entirely evasive during the closure phase. I sometimes get a snapshot off, but most often I don't start shooting until the maneuver phase.
Are you doing 1 on 1's or multiple bogies? I tend to do 3 on 1, so it's easy for them to establish fire superiority early.