STAR WARS™: X-Wing Special Edition

Some kids pretended to be G.I. Joe, others Top Gun pilots, but I was fully convinced, from ages 10-12, that I was a star-fighter pilot in the Rebel Alliance. I dreamed of this game, I thought of this game every waking moment, I played until I had more decorations on my uniform than I could fathom, and even had imaginary wing-men who followed me to school in their x-wings. You shape your career through a series of missions, everything from inspecting and protecting cargo ships to flying through the Death-Star trench. Each mission earns you badges, ribbons, medals, and other achievements you'll certainly be proud to wear. The missions are interesting: you explore much of the back-story of how the rebel alliance exists and maintains its presence across the galaxy. Most campaign adds up to guerrilla attacks against the empire, but you'll be asked to inspect cargo ships, escort medical frigates, take down star destroyers (every bit as awesome as it sounds), and simply dogfight against some great recognizable star wars ships. You'll pilot x-wings (all-around fighters), y-wings (heavy bombers), and a-wings (light and fast attack ships) based on the need for each mission. Prep often consists of choice of wingmen, planes, squadrons, and weapons. Ackbar is there to brief you on every aspect, and you'll find your flight computer to be your best friend during missions. Once in the cockpit, you'll have full control over your speed, weapons, shields ("switch your deflector shields on --- double front!"), and blaster settings. You'll find hot-keys are a must to manage each, as well as situational awareness to survive each mission. Get too lost in a dog-fight and you'll find your target ship or escort too far to reach! This was far superior to x-wing vs. tie-fighter, a later incarnation which had all of the micromanagement without the heart of the story that X-Wing so perfectly embodies. Normally I'd wait for a sale to purchase a classic on GOG, but not this time!

GOG staff comment: The 1994 DOS CD version is now included as of 28.04.2015. X-Wing and TIE Fighter are two game that should be on everyone's list of must-play before you die. These are not just computer games: they are *experiences* that linger for years, even *decades* after you first played them. GOG can't get enough praise for bringing these two classics to a modern audience! There is one thing that future versions should include however, apart from fixing the joystick issue with 1993 DOS edition. This purchase *needs* the 1994 CD-ROM version of X-Wing. The DOS version upon release on GOG is the original floppy-based edition. X-Wing 1994 on CD-ROM upgraded the graphics to be comparable to those of X-Wing (Gourad shading, etc.) and had full-voice as well as the iMuse system playing MIDI score per in-game events. The later Windows version may have the better graphics but it also lost the iMuse in favor of redbook WAV audio... which sacrificed a lot of dramatic effect. Ideally all three versions should be available in one package. Or heck, release the 1994 CD-ROM version on its own. I would certainly pay a fair price to buy this game again!

This was, and likely still is, in my top 5 games of all time. If you're a Star Wars fan as well as a space simulation fan, this game will keep you sat at your screen for hours and hours! Whether you are trying to perfect your training missions, which can be challenging, or blowing up the Death Star, or even trying to dodge pesky mines while balancing your lasers and shields, this game will keep you captivated as you attempt the perfect game by not dying! I haven't had the chance to download the game yet but it looks like this is the version with all fighters available, X-Wing, Y-Wing, A-Wing and B-Wing. Thank you GOG for managing to snag such an incredible title!

It's nice that GOG included three game versions in one. So far, I've installed and played the 98 version, which runs pretty well on Windows 10. Game is still great fun. Energy, weapons, and shield management are a must to succed in the missions. No gimbal or aim assistance, as ships are not bullet sponges, so either you fly or die. If you don't have a good situational awareness, you can bump into a Freighter or Corvette while turning fast and your ship is done. Flying near Imperial destroyers, dodging their turbo lasers, is a kind of thing I've missed for a long time. No current space game can deliver this kind of experience. Having a joystick is a must, and trust me, you don't want to experience this game with a mouse or keyboard. There is no jousting combat in this game, if you know what I mean. Only dogfights : )

I love this game and I just wanted to this out there for people who would like it. So in the 1993 version of the game there was a default pilot called topace. This had the entire game unlocked and able to play all missions as historical missions. Topace you could also put as your wingman, they are really good! That pilot is not in the 1998 version. However if you install the 1993 version you can just copy and paste the topace.plt and topace4.plt into your 1998 game folder and bam! there you go topace wingmen! just keep extra copies incase they die in mission. enjoy!!