STAR WARS™: TIE Fighter Special Edition

TIE fighter was back in 1994 the best Star Wars game yet released and most likely still is. With its "sister" game X-Wing, TF represents the only serious attempt for SW space combat sim and both games do the genre very well. Lawrence Holland, creator of these SW sim titles, did terrific job in the late 80's and early 90's with his Lucasarts WW2 combat sims such as Battle of Britain and Secret Weapons of The Luftwaffe, and these two SW games continue this lineage, only in SW universe. Biggest core difference compared to the earlier WW2 titles is the lack of dynamic campaign, but instead we get a scripted campaign with a plot, so these games are similar to Wing Commander series in this sense. For the time, graphics were beautiful and dynamic iMuse music system (unfortunately lacking in '98 verision) created a true SW atmosphere never seen before on PC. '98 version still looks decent and cinematic music is passable, but what still remains intact under the hood is a gameplay of pure gold. With joystick the ship's handling is still rock solid and although graphics are low resolution by modern standards, you have a good sense of what is going on around you. Missions offer nice variety and game gets really challenging later on. I just wish that GOG would've included the '95 version, which is pretty much the DOS version with higher resolution, full voice and iMuse music, which beats the cinematic music of the '98 version hands down. I really hope GOG can offer it later on, but the package even as it is, is still worth every penny. It just baffles me why Lucasarts hasn't recreated the success of these games in modern days.

This seems just as good as it was back in the day almost 20 years ago! A great shame the highly regarded '95 version isn't available though as it seems to give you the best visuals with the best music. Currently you either have to take the better visuals of the later version, or the better music of the earlier version which is a shame. I'd never really imagined how much the music in the original added until I experienced how poor the repeating WAV music is in the latter versions for setting any type of moods, tensions etc. Lets hope GOG add the 95 versions to both this and X Wing!

first of all, let me just say, I played the 1995 version and iMuse is not something I absoultely must have. The 1998 version has better graphics, more detail of exterior vehicles and structures and something very important but often overlooked by most people, in ship engine noise, which much as imuse is for music changes according to how much throttle you give your ship, also engine noise is different on different ships, as it is in X-Wing vs Y-Wing, and B, and A ect. Both of these X-wing and Tie fighter and better cut scenes. It also has spoken voice overs like the 1995 version. The the extra missions would have been nice, the question I have is not why it isn't included here, but why they were not included in the 1998 version. I have nothing against the 1998 version and am personally enjoying it better than i did my buggy copy of the 1995 version which hardly runs on my PC even in DOSbox. I would respectfully request that GOG include the 1995 version in the future for us to download as "new" content to this game rather than charging us for it also. But often they do this well.

TIE Fighter is possibly the greatest DOS game ever released - or at the very least it's on a par with Doom. It has a cracking plot, neatly interwoven with events in the films, and if you stick around for the detail of the story you will find yourself sucked into that galaxy far, far away! Dogfights are intense, tactical affairs where the decisions to push power to engines, shields or weapons is a continuous battle, one where the outcome is rarely certain. One oddity, given the Empire's reliance on mob tactics, managing wingmen is rarely as important in TIE than it ever was in X-Wing. Missile warfare tends to dominate later stages of the game, necessitating a good quality joystick to have any chance of targetting sufficiently quickly! The final Windows re-release has (arguably) better graphics, although the fall back to redbook audio is a disappointment. Note that this release does not contain the CD from 1995, but does cover all the extra ships and missions. If I remember it is possible to copy the campaign data and cutscenes from later versions into the DOS version hence enabling the ability to play them with the cracking iMuse soundtrack. This is what was so special about the 1995 CD release. iMuse flexes with the action and does a much better job of mood setting than the raw John William's score (however good that may be!) If the programming gurus at GOG can come up with a way to run the Windows version, with the textured graphics AND the iMuse soundtrack, that game would immediately get 10 start from me (and would be a reason for me to re-buy the game, despite owning no less than 3 versions of it here already!)

Thank you GOG! I've been checking this site for years waiting for this game. Works as advertised on my Windows 7 64 bit laptop with Xbox 360 controller. I had the 1994 version back in the day (on my 486 DX 4 100), so being able to play the 1998 version for the first time is great. Will be picking up X-wing as well.