Star Wars: X-Wing - A Retrospective Analysis
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- čas přidán 28. 06. 2024
- A longform review/analysis of Star Wars: X-Wing.
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0:00 Intro
0:02:31 First Impressions
0:05:32 Flight Controls
0:13:56 Combat
0:16:17 Power Management
0:27:21 Combat II
0:32:30 Player Ships
0:44:17 Tours of Duty
0:53:52 Docking Simulator '93
1:07:40 Mission Design
1:29:08 Damage Effects
1:32:01 Capital Ships
1:37:12 Damage / Repair System
1:41:38 AI
1:44:42 High Level Gameplay
1:51:28 The Meta-Gaming Problem
2:04:54 Mission Design II
2:08:09 Situational Awareness
2:13:18 Wingmen
2:15:06 The Late-Game Experience
2:22:55 The Death Star
2:27:22 The Story
2:29:49 X-Wing (Original Release)
2:39:55 X-Wing Collector's CD-ROM
2:43:14 X-Wing Collector's CD-ROM (Mac Port)
2:46:52 X-Wing Collector Series
2:54:18 X-Wing in 2023
2:55:34 Conclusion
Credits
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Hey just a heads up that someone has been trying to impersonate me in the comments in order to run some kind of scam. I'll do my best to deal with these whenever they appear, but be vigilant in case one slips through the cracks. I will never message you on Telegram or other services like that, and any comments from me on this channel should be specially flagged by CZcams's interface as from the channel owner. Stay safe out there!
That scam is ancient... and what pisses me off most is that CZcams is doing next to nothing about it. But if a content creator has .7 seconds of copyrighted music somewhere, they go nuts.
Hey man where is my Xbox?
It's the highest form of flattery! ;)
You're not the only one, don't worry.
Oh, and on a soft spot, if they actually want to impersonate you, that means you've already left a good mark on the algorithm.
There are people that modded X-win and Tie-fighter for years, look at the total conversion versions.
You touched on it, but the immersion factor _really_ sunk its teeth into 9- or 10-year old me. It never occurred to me that reallocating shields or managing power could seem tedious-I was an ace Alliance pilot, dang it, and the more keys I had to tap on the keyboard during a frenzied battle, the more awesome I felt.
And those medals and ribbons ... getting those felt amazing. I'm not even kidding, I think the main reason I rejoined the Cub Scouts at that age was so I could chase that feeling I got in X-Wing of getting patches on a uniform.
💯
A couple of things from an old XWing veteran:
1. You didn't mention speed management which was a critical part of dogfighting and might have also helped you avoid all those collisions. You see, you're most maneuverable at 2/3 speed so the standard tactic while engaging fighters was to close in to gun range at full, and then hit the 2/3 speed key to drop to that speed, set your laser charge to 75% or 100% and start blasting away. Similarly, there was a key to match speed with target, useful for engaging slower crafts so that you can maintain a safe distance from them and avoid any collision damage that way
2. Concussion missiles are indeed faster and track targets better than proton torpedoes. It's been a while bit in my experience, firing a torpedo at a fighter was a waste. A missile, on the other hand was more reliable choice for hitting fighters, especially in a head on approach where they could close the distance faster and thus hit farther out
3. One way to deal with the laser spread of the XWing (at least in my opinion) was to dual or quad link your lasers. It slows down your rate of fire but gives you a better chance of at least one of them hitting. Dual link was my preferred choice, if for no other reason then that Wedge Antilles does it in A New Hope!
(that's as far as I've gotten in your video. I'll see if there are more things I can add)
There's more Ion cannon stuff in TIE Fighter so he'll definitely need to learn to mash the 'match speed' key when he closes on a target.
Alternately he can just turn off collisions in the menu and save himself the trouble.
The lower speed maneuverability was a feature in tie fighter. Not xwing.
All stuff that's in the manual. Playing this game was such a blast because of how in control you were. It felt like actually flying a starfighter.
Torpedoes can be used effectively against fighters if you lock and fire at them before you get into cannon range, then dive a direction, but keep going roughly at the craft shooting at you (so they keep going at the torp), so the cannons do not hit the warhead. Not many targets for them, since it isn't worth the overkill against most imperial fighters. Works well against tie advanced or interceptors with shields (not sure it X-wing has those, I didn't get very far into it but played the heck out of Tie Fighter and later)
Speed management wasn't actually introduced until the XvT engine. The original DOS versions of TIE Fighter did not have it - you were as maneuverable at 100% as you were at 33.
In XvT, you were most maneuverable at 1/3rd throttle, and they carried that mechanic over to XWA.
I remember being about eight or nine years old when I first played this with my friend in 1994 or so. It took two of us to handle all of the keyboard controls. We took turns where one of us was the pilot, handling steering and weapons, while the other was the astromech droid, handling shields, power, and targeting.
I'm so old school I played wing commander split controls with my friend. "Push A dude!" LOL
That sounds like some amazing memories to have with your friend :-)
I got similar memories, it was incredibly fun.
Your friend was role-playing a R2 unit
Me an my brother use to do this as well. He would pilot and fire and I would be on the keyboard selecting targets and managing the shields and power ratios. It was like having an actual pilot and co-pilot sim. Good times.
It makes you feel like you are actually flying the ships. Making adjustments to systems all the time. Was a great game series. I miss it.
If you still play games, you should look up XWAU (X-wing alliance upgrade)
There has been a lot modding by old developers to keep the old games skeleton but putting on a new skinn.
As of now, X-wing 95, Tie Fighter and X-wing alliance looks up to paar with EA Battlefront.
I remember thinking the power management system was so cool when I played these games. I wasn't expecting so much bellyaching over it in the video.
Pinnacle was really XWA. The modding community on that last game is probably the best there is with revamped models, textures, VR compatibility and Total conversions of Tie Fighter exist. Absolute banger.
This game series made real use of the joysticks of the time.
The proper joystick makes flying the ships very intuitive without having to really use the keyboard much if at all during flight and combat.
I actually came to complain about him using an Xbox controller 🤣
Thrustmaster MKII FTW!
I bought a Sidewinder just to play these games. Once I had all the buttons perfectly configured the game controls were very intuitive.
Hah...Remember when the joystick connected via VGA? LOL
Oh yeah that was me hah...and I brought second hand joysticks that were like 5-10 bucks xD
Tie Fighter was fantastic when I got a joystick with forcefeedback
@1BrknHrtdRomeo ahhhhh, the old "game port" joysticks. Usb was such a breakthrough.
Wing Commander was the casual experience, X-Wing was for us psychos who loved the complicated sims. Honestly, I did love both...but the X-Wing series still takes up the vast majority of my 90's Space Sim headspace and holds a special place in what remains of my cold, black heart. But if you liked Wing Commander more, well that's cool too. More power to ya! It was an amazing time for PC gaming, and these titles were massively influential in their own ways.
Edit: One more thing about X-Wing...it was absolutely necessary to use a flightstick-type joystick...it allowed total control of flying the ship in one hand so the other could seamlessly be used for power management and other functions. Muscle memory took control after a surprisingly small amount of practice. Even using a gamepad today is kinda clunky and imprecise in comparison.
X-Wing Alliance (a sequel) is still my favorite space flight sim. I bought an MS Sidewinder flight stick just for that game. To this day, I can't game with a mouse and keyboard.
For me, TIE Fighter and X-Wing have aged more well, kinda like how LucasArts' Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, and Full Throttle surpassed King's Quest, Quest for Glory, and Space Quest.
And then TIE Fighter came out which allowed you to press Enter to match your target's speed. That was a life-changer. It was hard to go back to X-Wing after that.
Power management is 100% necessary to be successful in this game. It's part of the "basics". There are power configurations that are optimal for max speed so you're not heading at near light speed towards enemies like you were doing on the first training mission. There's many scenarios where you need to know what power config to use for that situation. For example, when the mission briefing says you're going out on a rescue mission, as soon as you come out of hyperspace, you need to immediately dump all power to engines and drain your weapons and shields to get max speed (150). Once you get close enough, then you start charging weapons and shields as you close in. If you don't do that, more often than not, you won't get to the objective in time. Then you just have to target the enemy that is targeting your objective and tap it once so it disengages the objective, and turns its attention to you instead.
When your shields get hit, you have to instantly re-balance them. You just get used to it. Get hit, re-balance shields. X-Wing is a very challenging game. If you can play this game at an expert level, you have accomplished something. I got to the point where I was taking on star destroyers solo after telling my wingmen to go home. To take out a star destroyer, you have to first take out all 52 fighters in its hangar. Then you do runs on its shield generators while doing the "Wotan Weave" to dodge the turrets. This is a "git gud" kind of game that won't hold your hand in any way.
*Edit* Oh yeah! One mistake you made was not realizing you can link all 4 X-Wing lasers to fire at the same time. This gives you more vectors to intercept your target. At least 35 minutes into the video. Just don't go spray-N-pray with it, or your laser energy will be depleted quickly. Deliberate, calculated linked shots is the way to go. Also, you CAN take on cap ships in an A-Wing. You can take on cap ships with anything. A-Wing, B-Wing, X-Wing, Y-Wing, any Alphabet-Wing.
you certainly can take on capital ships with an A wing. so much fun
Yeah valid comment, I remember doing the death star run and setting all shields back.
There was a training mission in an A-wing that thaught you above, you set all power to engine and zipped around and scanned everything.
power management is especially important, because shields recharge super slowly, but lasers recharge faster, so it's more efficient to recharge your lasers and directly transfer that energy to the shields instead of charging them slowly.
No power management = failure. No shield rebalancing = failure. No dumping laser capacitor into shield bank = failure. And sure you can take out all of the tie fighters inside of a Star Destroyer, but is it really even living if you give them a chance to break formation after they launch? As for linked fire on cannons? Against capital ships, sure - and since the fully-charged cannons fire around 1.15 km (or around there) you can start firing before the targeting reticle lights up and dodge away before incoming fire has a chance to reach you with Y-Wing and B-Wing having the greatest advantage because of having both laser and ion cannons which could be fire-cycled by holding weapon selection down (it worked best after all torpedoes were fired off 6 shotting corvettes or blapping shield generators).
100% fire accuracy was a real pain in the ass to get, but completely doable if you didn't mind reloading a save file.
@@stephenkolostyak4087 Yep! There's a lot of tactics in X-Wing! The linked shots comment was specifically for that part when he was talking about how much trouble he was having hitting that tie fighter he kept missing. Mine fields are best cleared with single weak shots at high speed.
Another great way to use your concussion missiles is for those pesky rescue missions where if you don't get there in time, you fail. I would usually lock-on to the ship(s) targeting my objective at long range and fire one missile at it. That's enough to get them to break off their attack, and you'll have plenty of time to close in to protect your objective.
X-wing was the first PC game I had ever purchased. Still have the same box and floppies today :) I understand the annoying collisions, that's why there is an option to turn it off. I would say most of your negative comments are simply because your not playing the game with a keyboard and joystick. Power management and speed control is so much easier when one hand is always on the keyboard. Totally agree with you on the mission designs. Most of the issues were fixed in Tie Fighter.
Flight stick is the ONLY way to play x wing What's even the point otherwise. I rigged mine between my legs top gun style
That is why Tie Fighter is often considered one of the greatest PC games of all times. All of the awesome intact, more awesome added, most of the not-awesome dealt with. The original dynamic music is still awesome.
Tie fighter is where I started.
Tie fighter CD, once you played that, you never go back to x wing. Advancements like goals menu, enemy shield rating, dockig with transports, being able to actually shoot down missiles. Long live the empire.
Yeah, for sure. I very much wish there had been an updated X-Wing using the TIE Fighter improvements.
Loved this game and tie fighter. I wore out 2 of my mom's mice playing this so for Christmas she bought me a flight stick so I'd stop breaking her mice.
Man, took me a second to get that you're not talking about animals.
Man your poor cat. Breaking all those mice like that.
(Lol I loved tie fighter, I played it b4 I got xwing)
I broke a joystick playing it. Don't have any idea how I'd play it with a joypad. Think some mice also took a battering here too.
... how did you break the mice? lol
@@mitcheldurnell267 the tracker ball in thr bottom wore out from me having to move the mouse so fast, often, and hard.
When I talk about this game or Tie Fighter, zoomers think I’m always talking about Rogue Squadron. FML but so glad to be a teen when these games came out to experience how awesome these games were in the 90s. ❤
Both were great! X wing was a ball ache to get working
@@themarchinggoblin8294 no it’s not. Maybe if you are a zoomer used to consoles where you drop a disc in, but basic setup was and is easy for anyone with an IQ above a garden snail.
I remember old people would always talk about how great these games were on GameFaqs Rogue Squadron or Jedi Outcast message boards back in the day, lol.
@@themarchinggoblin8294 Yes, both were great. But this confusion shows a certain level of ignorance with regards to the distinction between different video game genres.
Yeah, it's really rude of people to be born after us and have different experiences
IF YOU DIDN'T PLAY X WING WITH A FLIGHT STICK, YOU DIDN'T PLAY XWING
Played thousands of hours with mouse. I have scars.
@@puntfake It was so much easier with a proper joystick. Also true for Tie Fighter.
@@puntfake Bet your ball mouse had scars.
First mission of TD2. Stars' End was a prison that first showed up in the Brian Daley novel Han Solo at Stars' End. The first of a trilogy of books that gave more backstory on Han Solo. Daley had to make it a prequel and could not involve the Empire, so he created the Corporate Sector Authority as the new villian. Andor used a similair concept in the early episodes. Daley also created the Z95 Headhunter that you will see later in TIE Fighter.
These games embraced the Expanded Universe. Sometimes in little ways like this or in bigger ways by bringing Thrawn into TIE Fighter.
It's weird though because Stars' end is way out of the way, in a tributary state with "Theoretical independence" of the empire. And also kinda long blown up by the start of this game.
@DIEGhostfish Good points. One thing I always enjoyed about the EU, in general, was it tended to make the galaxy feel bigger in a way the movies never did.
I guess we could potentially explain it away as either the CSA rebuilt it, or the Empire liked the idea enough to nationalize it. Much like what happened in Andor, the Empire decided the CSA was dropping the ball, so they took over.
Of course, the real reason was it was a bit of fan service.
@@docweidner Impst just stole the name. Because it sounded cool. All the missions are also focused on a couple of sectors pretty far from CSA space though the galaxy hadn't been mapped at the time.
It's extra lore like that made me feel disappointed with Squadrons. That game felt way too safe, even compared with the Jedi games by Respawn.
@@michaelandreipalon359 Big issue is only having like three things to pin lore onto for Squadrons. And one of those things being Disastermath.
Regarding 26:00 - Power Management
The solution is a HOTAS that you can configure with repeated button presses. When I used to play, I used a throttle with a middle button that was setup to press the S key 3 times, rebalancing shields automatically.
This is why using a modern gamepad is a poor choice for this game.
Being captured in X-wing (or rescued) is determined at the ejection of your pilot from the ship. What determines your fate is "which craft was closest to you?" Enemy => straight to jail, Friend => straight to your homely friendly Nebulon-B-Frigate-hospital ship
That's why you get captured a lot more often than not, because your enemy's usually in very close proximity to you when you die.
Either way, the lack of proper save states is a huge disadvantage for this game, and thank the Force the sequels did a 180 on that.
@@michaelandreipalon359not at all imo, but an option to toggle would be nice for those who don't like it
I remember the first version of the game was on 3.5 disks. No voices until years later with the collectors CD version. So much fun.
Yes, I played both of them as well. Great that they fixed some of the extremly hard bordering to impossible missions in the CD-Version as well...
Your channel is routinely featured in those “how to start a youtube channel” videos as the rare unlikely video with exceptional quality that will break the algorithm with 3hr longform video of all gameplay footage getting over 100k views for the first video featuring a game over 30 years old! Keep it up, man!
I'm hoping to get that kind of title.
Hearing that description of the mission with the infinitely respawning gunboats activated a long buried memory of disabling fighters to prevent their replacements spawning in so I was really happy when you covered that as a valid tactic.
Child me felt so fucking clever.
I remember that at least regular ties couldn't be ion-ed. They still blew up when you got them disabled
I never had any issue with scans. When told to get within 0.2, my first instinct was the high speed fly-by as you discovered.
Secondly there is a huge difference between torpedoes and missiles. The missiles are much faster and manoeuvrable than torpedoes. That's why they're for fighters.
You need to cut your shield power - the X-Wing is very comfortable at 100% laser, 0% shield, and transferring to shields whenever your lasers are at least half supercharged. Also, cutting throttle to 1/3rd when turning. You get the best turn rate when your engines have 50% power (the blue bar on the ELS is halfway) and throttle is at 33%.
The AI (I am 98% sure) aims simple deflection shots. So, if you change speed or course, that's enough to make them miss - fighters and turrets both. But if you're too close/slow/large, they'll still hit your ship. At 2:15:00 you have a Y-Wing with 100% laser, 100% shield, moving at grumpy-toddler pace - any shot aimed at you is gonna hit no matter how extravagently you evade. If folk are shooting at you in a Y-Wing, try 75% or 100% laser, 50% shield. Or 0% laser, 100% shield for a bit.
IIRC I spend a bit of Y-Wing time with 50% laser, 50% shield, using extra speed to avoid hits and using the shields as a battery
Pro tip that I learned from none other than my mom (I guess in the 90s she was the pro gamer of the family): "Pilots" are actually save files that you can copy and avoid the points and your rank.
Yep, .plt files. In the original DOS game, you could pick your wingmen. And you could either copy yourself or the Top ACE pilot if you wanted better wingmen. Later versions, you couldn't do that, but you could, as your Mom did, save yourself.
The dark side is a path to many abilities some consider unnatural....... yeah i did the same back in the 90's
Unlike the Rogue Squadron games, the X-Wing / Tie Fighter series were made by a team of people who specialised in combat flight simulators rather than arcade games. As such these games were designed to simulate as many features of the craft involved as possible based on the movies and made up elements that would flesh out the experience like the scanning mechanic. People back then were used to this as combat flight simulators were quite common back then. It was an age where everyone was expected to RTFM for anything more complicated than an arcade game (including many racing games).
Being huge into flight sims with my first experience shooting the Sopwith Camel in Flight Sim (1984 ver), I couldn't agree more the X-Wing Tie Fighter series were simulators for sure. This series would eventually lead to future hits like the Descent series.
I'm still mad about the lack of support for Squadrons...
It's interesting because from the modern vantage point there are so many valid critiques of this game from the design and mechanics perspective. That being said at the time playing it I had never experienced anything like it. I loved messing with all the controls and things like long travel distances and annoying scanning missions were absolutely part of the immersion experience.
Incredibly fond memories of getting totally lost in playing these games. Thanks you!
Excellent retrospective. One of the things that annoyed me about the final version of X-Wing, the one that used the X-Wing vs TIE Fighter engine was that whoever did the Imperial shuttle got the angle of the wings wrong compared to the original games. They were much to shallow. It might sound nit picky, but to the Star Wars geek that I still am, it was important. Thankfully when X-Wing Alliance was released the Imperial Shuttle wings were back to their correct angle.
Back in the day having some sort of joystick was important and in days before USB a 15 pin game/midi port was included with the Soundblaster cards, and if you were going to play games like the Microprose Simulators or X-Wing you owed it to yourself to buy a Joystick. Indeed trying to play X-Wing without one had you using the mouse to control the X and Y axis, but you had to be constantly moving the mouse to turn. As soon as you stopped moving the mouse you stopped turning, and this often led you to having to move the mouse till you ran out of space and quickly pick it up to move it to the other side of the desk so you could continue steering. TIE Fighter required you to use a Joystick from the outset in comparison.
Even today I would argue that it is still best to play this type of game with a Joystick rather than a gamepad because the extra length of the former provides much finer control.
X-Wing was one of the "Big Three" that convinced me to move on from my Amiga and get a decent 486 back in 1994, the other two being Doom and X-Com.
I hated the giant self destruction discs....
"your base is under attack". One time the Aliens attacked my base, with zero weapons cuz my team was gonne, my remaining guys only had harsh language, but one of them charged a gray and the gray threw a grenade at him and killed himself as well, so another Xcom guys picked the alien's gun and I ended up defending the base...such a great game!
At least Doom as is aged far better. X-Wing got easily surpassed by TIE Fighter onwards, while XCOM has those Firaxis remakes.
@@michaelandreipalon359 X-Com also has the Xenonaughts 1 and 2 spiritual remakes (much closer in design to the original X-Com).
X wing was surpassed by the Atari arcade games. 😂 ... that's came out before it.
@@davidspencer7254 Hmm, how so?
Even so, those will also be eclipsed by TIE Fighter.
I'm glad youtube recommended this video to me. I would have never believed that I too would be a person who unironically watches a 3-hour analysis of an old video game, until now. Thanks for the videos you have been doing- it's been nice to see a modern in-depth analysis on games that I played when I was very young. I hope you will consider doing Privateer at some point.
The bit about meta knowledge reminds me of this mission from TIE Fighter where Admiral Harkov betrays you and tries to get you killed when clearing out some mines. It was very hard and after a point your two wing mates will turn hostile and attack. Almost every guide I see says to begin the mission by shooting them down and because they are hostile and told to do nothing you wont get penalized.
I remember that mission. TIE Interceptor to clear Mines before your wingmen turn on you. One of the few times, iirc, that I used the call for help option, or maybe that was scripted. The Rebels show up as well, and you get a bonus scan a shuttle mission. I think Harkov sent TIE Advanced. That one was one of the hardest, if not the hardest of that game.
I remember there was one TIE Fighter mission where you were sent to intercept some Correllian freighters in a Defender, but they jumped to hyperspace very close to mission start and you started very far away, the idea being they’d jump before you could get there, setting the stage for an ambush. Except that if you took advanced torpedoes, pumped all your shield and laser energy into the engines, barreled toward the freighters at full speed, and emptied your tubes the moment you got in range, you could juuuust barely blow up the freighters before they jumped, which soft-locked the mission. Flying a Defender was just sick.
You are a real smartass pilot?
There's Missile Boat mission where you make many Bothans die. I think you wind up killing about 60ish fighters in that mission alone. And you spend it zipping back and forth with SLAMS. I am not sure if the fact it's Bothan space is supposed to be meta with what Mon Mothma says in ROTJ or not lol. But indeed many Bothans died.
A super hard mission, B5M1, but by the Force, it's still more rewarding and replayable than almost every Squadrons level and even 95% of the X-Wing levels.
Energy Management in a Space Sim is like driving a manual car, you're always shifting gears.
Space Sim is Simulation.
It's why we still play them 30 years later.
I was in college when I played this game. I loved it. The problems you highlight, I learned to manage. It was part of the realism for me. You didn't see X-wings withstand damage well in the films.
can confirm that the opening text scroller was incredibly exciting in 1993/1994. there was neither bad pre- or sequel movies so this was triggering only the best memories.
Similar when playing Dark Forces or Jedi Knight.
They're all sorta bad, some just less bad, since they were made for your age demographic
@@SECONDQUEST...What do you mean?
Tie Fighter was almost a perfect sequel improving on X-Wing in every way. Its hard to think looking back now at how rough the graphics were - I remember playing this and being blown away
I loved this game. As a kid, it introduced me to many facets of the Star Wars lore and fed my fantasy/scifi ship geekdom. I loved the B-Wing. Still do.
If you still play games, you should look up XWAU (X-wing alliance upgrade)
There has been a lot modding by old developers to keep the old games skeleton but putting on a new skinn.
As of now, X-wing 95, Tie Fighter and X-wing alliance looks up to paar with EA Battlefront.
The X-Wing Alliance B-Wing has the better laser link though. Heck, you can even fire both your lasers and ions there altogether.
The B-Wing is my favorite. Armored space tank heavy fighter! 💪
Another challenge with these games, especially Wing Commander was you sometimes needed to boot the computer with its own configuration to properly allocate the memory. I'm not sure if X-wing didn't have this issue as much or if I had just gotten used to it with WC, but I learned a lot about how PCs worked from getting these games to run properly. I think that is why the complexity in the game itself wasn't as much of an issue.
I think when I was a kid, I spent more time tweaking my config.sys and autoexec.bat files to coax my computer into running games than I did playing the games themselves.
shout out to MEMMAKER
@@junglespinner For games like this it was nice to know you could always squeeze out a few more bytes by not loading the German keyboard drivers, because the controls were mapped for US/UK keyboard layouts anyway (and rebinding controls was not a thing back then, at least not for sims).
@@junglespinner This comment just brought some flashbacks of editing autoexec.bat, and config.sys to run certain games with optimal memory! Like using the "LOADHIGH" command to make more conventional memory available, and tweaking how other things were/were not loaded.
@korndogz69 Yeah, I haven't thought of EMS and XMS in years. As I think about it more, I recall having different boot disks for different games since they didn't always agree on how to use system resources.
X-wing, like Star Wars itself, space battles are inspired by WW2 air combat. Speed, turn fighting, avoiding crashing, keeping your six clear, etc. I really loved it when I was 12 and still love it. :D
I played the hell out of this as a teenager. Never noticed any problems with speed or collisions.
My most annoying collisions were hitting the Death Star surface. A whole game of open space, then the missions switch to flat ground underneath and I"d constantly lose track and turn into it unexpectedly.
While Wing Commander might not have been dependent on the manual, my experience from back then (yes, I'm old and started computer gaming on a C-64 in the '80s) was that most flight sim type games did assume you actually read through the manual.
The concussion missiles are faster and more maneuverable than torpedoes and are indeed for targeting smaller ships.
Not sure what happened to the special edition in the Steam version, but the original special edition (from the actual CD) cutscenes were fine. That's what I had.
Most games back then tended to have pretty in-depth manuals (including strategy games).
I was in the middle of high school when this came out and first saw a girlfriends of mine little brother playing it at her house. I thought the whole game was just going through those training rings and still thought it was epic. Imagine my surprise when I bought it that there was an entire military campaign as well. Tie Fighter came out soon after I got X-wing and to say those were amazing games would be an understatement. PG Gamer at the time declared Tie Fighter the ideal game to have on a Deserted Island if you only could have a single game. Good memories.
It still is
The reason you crashed so much early on is that once you get behind them, I think there was "match speed" throttle position button iirc, so you didn't overshoot them all the time.
*edit* I see from reading more replies that I am remembering TIE Fighter for that particular feature. Or you have to play the remake version. It still had Throttle positioning that helped.
And besides, you're also better off speed energy to either shields and/or lasers for efficiency reasons.
I remember playing these games when I was a kid and I think the video game culture of the time was a lot different than it is now. Having a joystick was mandatory for playing games on a PC. Flight simulators were some of the most popular games around. So a game that brought all those fiddly flight sim mechanics into the Star Wars universe was mind-blowing for us.
I know now the idea of looking at a game manual to learn how to play seems crazy, but in the 90s you typically shared a PC with the whole family. Reading and rereading the manual was something you could do when you weren't allowed to play the game. I probably spent more time imagining what it was like playing X-Wing in my bedroom than actually playing it. Probably the reason it's so hard to get a good physical copy of these game manuals nowadays is we would drag them with us everywhere we went. Most of them were kept to together by tape and grime by the time we were finished with them.
I think we were also a lot more used to games being front-loaded with unfair skill challenges. It was fairly common for developers to make a first level of console games super difficult to prevent people from just renting it. A game that didn't take months to master was seen as poor value for money and would absolutely be a financial failure.
Granted, the mouse+keyboard niche still works well for some games and gamers. Look at X-Wing gaming veteran LPhoenix, for example.
Not only that, the manuals also have brilliant story bits in them. One sure hasn't experienced the entire game if they don't know the mostly offscreen backstory from said books.
Power management is honestly one of my fav features, Elite Dangerous still uses it as well.
also, TIEs were based of the Japanese Zero. In the Chinese theater of WW2, the preferred strategy was the Boom and Zoom, where you'd zoom in, shoot the shit out of them, and fly off, because you were bigger and faster, but they'd out maneuver you.
Most space sims do today, though I don't think any are as good as some of the earlier stuff
Funny how all knowledge of exactly which WW2 action films led to the basis of the scenes in Star Wars. Hint: it wasn't the Pacific theatre.
I'm looking forward to the tie fighter review. This was a really great watch. Thanks for including the wing commander context. Oh, if you do tie fighter check out the new total conversion. The remastered music is amazing and the greater amount of original music in tie fighter compared to xwing makes me think it was a budget issue for the xwing project.
'Course, before one should try that still ongoing fan remake, the Collector's CD-ROM Edition is the better starting point.
My friends all agreed that the sequel: X-Wing vs Tie Fighter, was better. But to me, this was the gold standard in the early 90’s. We spent hours playing this game. The music was on point, the explosions were always satisfying, and you had to use your head and develop some skills. It still holds a warm spot in my heart.
I still prefer the singleplayer titles, since XWvsTF unfortunately wasn't made with full on Internet competition in mind compared to first person shooters then and now.
Still beats the rinse-and-repeat state of Squadrons though.
Did you skip Tie fighter CD? That game was perfect
@@hardyakka888 No, their friends did.
Great to see this review come through, have been waiting since your first video. Very comprehensive, please keep it up and looking forward to your next video.
"Chances are its been multiple days since you saw that part".
Ha, nah this was a full sitting from start to finish.
Never been exposed to this game much beyond knowing it exists and Jontron making a couple jokes about it during the old "Starcade" videos.
Definitely looks really interesting, and I think you contrasted it well with Wing Commander despite existing in the same realm.
Great presentation on the game, looking forward to a follow-up about the expansions (lord know why they thought that much was necessary).
How insulting of casual and inane YTuber commentarists like him to belittle great games like this. I swear, every time they sing hossanahs for Battlefront 2 2017 and Squadrons... they make me puke.
Tie up some loose ends between Episodes IV and V, I guess. Star Wars Legends is nicely full of those extra explanatory backstory moments.
I was lucky when I started this game to notice right away that you could transfer gun energy to shields. At the start of every mission I would immediately transfer ALL gun energy to shield to have double protection. It made the missions so much easier.
That's actually the standard mission start procedure shown in the manuals, so you were on point.
The Y-Wing's technical read out should be 75 SBD, 40 RU. The X-Wing is 50/20, and the A-Wing is 50/15.
whoa, the A-Wing has equal shields to the X-Wing? makes sense now you say it but I always thought it was less
I love to tell people how many times X-Wing made me cry as a kid
I was in college when it came out. I don't think I cried, but I screamed at that game on more than one occasion.
And then in TIE fighter you get to murder orphans to make the Emperor proud.
I literally watched your first video yesterday! Keep it up man you’re killing it!
In defense of the laser spacing of the X-wing's weapons, it was a deliberate design choice. The Rebels always expected to fight outnumbered against massed Tie waves. To compensate the X-wings lasers were spaced as they were to maximise hits on multiple targets at the start of combat.
Kind of like grapeshot canons, they're inaccurate but that was the point. They were meant to spray not to hit single targets, the difference being xwings can still do that. Honestly I never had an issue with the spread on my first play through, I just think he doesn't like complexity
Regarding missions: When you get your mission briefing, you're being told what the objectives are for success. It would be unrealistic for the briefing to include how the enemy will react to your mission. You're not going to know which ships the enemy has tasked with attacking your mission objective. That would be pretty dumb really. You have to figure that out yourself just as you would have to in a real mission. That's part of the fun.
This change made Tie Fighter defense missions much easier.
You've done it again! (Caused me to stay up way later than I should have). Awesome video, and storytelling. Another blast of nostalgia!
These space sims were my bread and butter in the 90s. Great to look back and see all the different versions.
I really hope you play you X-wing alliance as it’s by far the most “playable” by today’s standards.
Granted, that game still feels like an obvious beta at times, especially with experience with XWAU and fellow players like LPhoenix trying to remedy this by making a lot of fan fixes on certain missions.
TIE Fighter is different though. Still the peak of the series.
I liked this game a lot, but I loved Tie Fighter even more - For some reason the dark side was even more compelling. Great video
Yeah! Being a pilot for the Empire was more challenging! You had to work your way getting promoted to fly each ship, and the first 3-4 TIE variants have no shields since the Empire sees its pilots as expendable resources.
Same goes for Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II, Jedi Academy, Battlefront II 2005, and Empire at War+Forces of Corruption. Makes me disappointed with Battlefront 2 2017 extremely high.
Thanks for this trip down memory lane! I remember playing both this and wing commander back in the day (to completion), although I had forgotten much. Looking forward to your next videos.
I only played X-Wing a little as a kid, the first game like this I got was TIE Fighter. I do remember this game and enjoying it a lot. Great video dude.
Sequel's so good, the first game nowadays feels like a tad bit skippable demo.
You have earned a sub. If you plan on doing something similar for TIE Fighter and Alliance, I'm soooo here for it. These games formulated my childhood. One of my first memories is sitting in my dad's lap and him letting me pretend I was the one playing X-Wing. OG DOS version baby.
ETA now that I'm further in: I love the power management in these games. It's just four buttons (five if you include beam in TF/Alliance) but it makes you feel like a frantic pilot. Combine that with the 1/3 and 2/3 speed being super important... Mm.
Also if you want to get REALLY spicy, cover Star Crusader. I have everything you need to play that if you're interested.
I wish I had known about Star Crusader a little earlier, or I'd have put it in my Patreon poll. Oh well. All worlds will be conquered assuming I make it that far.
@@spacecadetrewind Heck yeah. The story is absolutely bonkers, and it's like Wing Commander in that 'failing' a lot of missions just branches the story - and gets you a dressing down.
One of the coolest things is that you can disable enemy ships, and one of the three ships you start with has a tractor beam. If you disable a ship, complete the mission, then tractor beam that ship while you warp home... You get to keep that ship and use it.
If only that game wasn't abandonware.
By the way, feel free to check out Tachyon: The Fringe and, though not exactly about space warfare, the first Archimedean Dynasty.
@@michaelandreipalon359 Yeah :( The planned expansion advertised IN GAME and in the manual never came out.
Awesome to see you back!
Star Wars X-Wing Franchise. A beautiful series. Still some of my favorite space sims next to Wing Commander and Free Space.
I loved those games. Your videos hit a special place in my heart, so niche but so spot on. Thank you.
Great to see another great video from you! I only remember seeing X-Wing at a friend's house and playing the training mission, so it was cool to see how it compared to Wing Commander--Since I have played games in that series throughout the years since my childhood. Looking forward to WCII and beyond. Keep up the awesome work!
Played this soooo many times, and the extensions. Then Tie Tighter came along and it was perfect!
Truly an even better and bigger sequel, that.
Tie fighter and xwing alliance
As someone who only very briefly experienced this game to the point I barely remember it as it was a bit before my time, but spent a lot of time as a kid playing X-Wing Alliance, it's interesting to see how much of that game's structure and mechanics already existed here.
As a side note, I really hope this video does well and the channel takes off. Your original video really came out of nowhere, with its high quality and its success despite its subject being on a very niche subject. I'm not normally too fond of very long videos on games and find I prefer them to be within the 30 to 60 minutes margin, but somehow your videos flow so easily that I didn't even realise when I was the 1hr mark. I'd definitely love to see more such videos on this genre and, perhaps, even some let's say genre adjacent games like Rogue Squadron or some of the more open world space games that feature a lot of combat in addition to other mechanics like trading. Thinking of stuff in the vein of the X series.
Same here! Was a little too young for Tie Fighter/X-Wing, though somehow I had and managed to beat Rebel Assault so I guess I should just say I didn’t have access to it. But X-Wing Alliance was an early “hype” game for me. It’s one of the first games I remember reading early previews for and getting excited about, not just seeing a cool box at the store and begging my parents for.
Was a huge fan of Tie Fighter more than X-Wing. When XWA came out at first I was like "OMG wtf is this family stuff? I was expecting the alliance bit!" Until I realised how much depth there was in the story and family elements.
In short, we will be watching him with great interest.
@@cburger4life144Ugh, would never recommend the Rebel Assault to both Star Wars veterans and newbies anytime.
As a 90s kid who liked sci-fi games, this channel was made for me. Many modern games feel like they don't care much for world building and mechanical design, but more like a copy of a copy of a copy. Space sims and mecha used to involve designs where every part of a ship had purpose and function. Now I see so many designs that look like nonsense. I had Wing Commander on the SNES and didn't have the luxury to play every PC space sim, so it's nice to see a channel covering these sorts of games, especially for the younger crowd coming in.
Exactly. I had this game, and _Starfleet Academy_ when I was a kid, and I absolutely loved them. Nothing nowadays gives me that true "simulation" feeling.
Excellent. Good to see you're back man. Have a great one!
My first memory of this game was going to my cousin's house and seeing him playing it and thinking how cool it looked. But he only griped and said he got a bugged copy because it never let him do any new missions.
It was only after I went to school a couple days later and talked to some friends in the computer lab that I found out why. When I told them about his problem they just laughed and said he had to turn off the invincibility option or the game wouldn't let him progress.
I remember taking out a star destroyer with a Y-Wing using protons to take out the shield towers, then disabling it with ion cannons. It starts launching unlimited TIE's but you can mostly avoid those.
Yes, during the missions that have you slowly wearing down the Star Destroyer in order to destroy it, I recall blowing it up in each mission for fun even though it returned in each mission by cheesing it in this way. They probably should not have allowed little fighter ion cannons to disable anything much larger than ships of similar size haha
The grind does give you enough points to gain more stuff for your Kalidor Crescent.
Sure breaks the lore, unfortunately. If it were me, I would nerf the number of replacement waves, whilst giving the STDs/ISDs that'll have to reappear in future missions (or perhaps even future storylines; look up the Immortal in Wookieepedia, and be surprised) due invincibility.
Wow a 3 hour video analysis on X-wing? I just started playing it a month ago and have only a few missions left in tour 5. Can't wait to watch the video.
You just have to know how to use the x wing lazers. Use single shots to put out a constant stream of fire on capital ships, fixed hard targets, or distant groups of fighters. Use the stream to firehouse their flight path. For close range dogfights switch to quad and go for precisely timed snap shots. Sure it wastes energy because not all foir bolts hit or may be needed to destroy the target. But blasting a tie Advanced in a whirling dogfight with an instinctual shot in the split second it's in your cross hairs is deeply satisfying. Dual linked is mostly useless.
I played X-Wing after TIE Fighter and found it several orders of magnitude rougher. TIE Fighter polishes most of the issues up so much, though I do remember there still being lots of downtime in some missions.
There was still downtime, which in a wierd way added some charm and mistery to the mission design (I never liked too much the instant "autopilot to waypoint" when there is no more danger), but they introduced two critical new features: an extended info screen for your target, showing how long it would take for them to complete the next step of their script, and a time compression mode, up to 4X
@@antaniserse Yeah, I do remember that stuff. I also remember there being a screen within missions that would show you what the objectives were and whether they were complete or not. Given that they redid X-Wing after TIE Fighter had already come out, it's crazy that they did not bring any of that stuff back into X-Wing. TIE Fighter ended up as such a smoother experience due to these additions, it really feels like X-Wing was a rough draft.
A sequel so good it makes the fist installment (almost) worth skipping. Brings into mind Age of Empires II > AoE I, Doom and Return to Castle Wolfenstein > Wolfenstein 3D, Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert > Dune II, and Titanfall 2 > Titanfall.
This game was the reason I bought a Soundblaster.
Great video! I'm looking forward to seeing the series.
I got this working with a VKB joystick and had an absolute blast from the past. Great review thanks for sharing
Fascinating. I have played this 30 years ago and do not recall death through crashing. :-) But yes, your basically back then targeted a single pixel at distance
Me neither, but X-Wing is basically played through emulation now so maybe that has something to do with it.
Yes I sort of wonder; I played this shortly after release and do recall destroyed ships sometimes shooting off at some random vector from what they were flying, but never backwards at me. Maybe emulation changes the math that could allow this to happen (or my 27 year old memory is wrong, lol) @@MikeTXBC
Yeah I agree with the others. I think this was not a problem back then.
It was so much easier to use a joystick to kill the Tie Advanced back in 1994. I couldn't imagine doing that with any other kind of controller.
Think you found the perfect niche for YT retro(spective) gaming content. Keep up the good work!
Fantastic video, looking forward to more!
Ahhh the memories... like reporting back from the evacuation of Hoth and having a ridiculous debriefing experience that... if put into a movie would probably look a bit like this:
"Sir, I'm back from my third try to evacuate everyone from hoth, thanks to our Quantum Leap Device, that allows to do missions again... and again... and again. This time the Star Destroyer didn't came out of hyperspace a bit beside the convoy like usual but right within it... maybe a bug in the mission but anyway. This time I resuced them all, also that shuttle with the officers, the troop transports and what not. I managed to save them all, just that one freighter exploded some seconds before I could destroy their attacker. But it only had some supplies and equipment on board... should be easy to replace.
That loss is a bit regrettable but I dare say, given the circumstances the mission was a big success."
"Lost a freighter? Which one?"
"Nothing important, I think they had some old matraces on board, some tables maybe a desk and some office supplies..."
"What?! Our office Supplies?!! *takes a look at a checklist* Indeed... that were our yearly supply in Paperclips!!! Now we can't file stuff properly! And we can't buy any more anywhere. The Empire controls the paperclip market!
You damn fool!!! That little freighter was the most important asset we ever had! The whole war is lost! Without proper filings we're totally doomed!"
"Well you could use scotch tape instead... or maybe a stapler..."
"You damn young fool! Those were also on board!"
"You could buy more... or make them... we still have all the soldiers, supplies, rescued ships and officers... that single freighter can't be that important..."
"Not Important? NOT IMPORTANT! Lieutenant.. or whatever you pilot are... don't you have a heart?! No no no no... that single freighter was special to.... to... to someone! You have to do it again!"
"Sir? That's what feels like 20 minutes of my life, that's totaly nonsensically wasted ... why?"
"Because of the rules here!" *points on a clipboard*
"But why are there such rules? Why not making it so, that 98% is enough and only doing it again if you feel like you want to get better and maybe give a medal or so if you resucue them all... it really was a hard fight out there."
"What?! Yeah, that's what you dream of pilot! Pfff... who do you think we are?! The EMPIRE?! We're here to annoy the hell out of our pilots. You do it all or you do nothing of it.
You won't see anything else of the campaign, like with the Empire.
You won't have contact with any higher ups or secret orders to give you secret additional missions, like in the Empire.
You won't get optional goals as Bonus, like in the Empire.
You won't have any fun from here on, like you would have in the Empire.
You won't see the light of day until you worked like a clockwork and you will like it, you.... hey! Were are you going pilot?! I'm not finished with you!!!"
*from a place far far away, where he should have been a long long time ago* "To the Empire, Sir! You made an extremly good point there!"
The Empire - Treating pilots surprisingly fair since 1994, a renegade Tie Fighter
(Disclaimer: If I didn't got all the goals I did the missions in Tie-Fighter usually again until I got all the goals right, just like in the Alliance, but there it was just much more fun to do so even while you're in a flying tincan at the start of the game. It was a total surprise back then.)
Never got into Quantum Leap, so I just imagined Maarek Stele using a Force empowered buckler shield, not unlike Puella Magi Madoka Magica's Homura Akemi.
And just slyly add references to Groundhog Day, Steins;Gate, and Edge of Tomorrow willy-nilly if and when I can.
Great video! Glad to hear you created a patreon, you deserve the money!
Hey, just wanted to say that your videos have been really good so far. While I'm definitely in the "Elite Was First!" camp, I'm also a true fan of both the Wing Commander and X-Wing games. Your deep dive into the mechanics and game play are well thought out, and your chill attitude is so much better than all the videos that start with "Hey CZcams! Ya Boi Floofy Here!" or some other over the top nonsense. Keep being chill my dude.
I literally popped over to your channel to see if this xwing video dropped yet. Really looking forward to this and the rest of the retrospectives over the next couple years. Your wing commander vid is aces for a 90s nerd like me.
The later games in the series make the power management much better. X-Wing vs TIE Fighter takes so many of the issues you have, and improves them to the point that you won't complain about them anymore.
FTL is the only game I've played where I enjoyed power management.
As I said in my comment on your first video, I love X-Wing's power management. I admit it's not super intuitive and certainly not well tutorialized, and shield recharge rates were not properly thought through. But having to constantly micromanage everything in the moment makes it feel much more like piloting a machine than just playing a first person shooter with six degrees of freedom.
I don't think every game should go for it or that every game that did, did it well. Squadrons completely fails to capture that feeling for me, for example, despite clearly including power management in an attempt to appeal to fans of X-Wing and TIE Fighter. But there really is something to the experience of messing with those little bars in the middle of a fight, scrambling to get power back to the rear shield arc, or enough laser to squeeze off a few more shots.
While it's never going to be my favorite activity, I can acknowledge that if done well, this kind of thing can add to a game.
Thinking about it now, at least some of my animosity towards the concept probably comes from my experience with bad implementations of power management I've had to deal with in other games, despite what I said in the video, heh.
As you said, the biggest problem with it in X-Wing is the learning curve. Once you've gotten past that, it functions just fine as part of the gameplay.
@@spacecadetrewind yes the game had an extremely step learning curve. sadly for me i think it was too steap :(
It's steep, but thankfully not as much as Wing Commander (a reason why I now lost my once reverential and replaying love for that series), Descent (still great, but can be darned at times), and Il-2 Sturmovik: Complete Edition/1946 (then again, that game isn't about starfighters).
I just watched all 5 hours of your content while building Lego, both X-wing and Wing Commander where some of my fave dos era games. Excellent content, I can’t wait to see what’s next. Thanks!
Great work Space Cadet. Thanks for the in-depth info.
This was one of the first PC games I played, and I played it again and again and again, it was awesome!
Wow, I played this game (and TF and XvT) to death when I was a kid.
My only comment on the Imuse and why its better to play with than the Collectors Edition: its key to helping your situational awareness. If you hear that Imperial March drop, it time to immediately cycle through your targets and start looking for the group of Tie bombers or Gunboats that just showed up to kill your mission objective.
They cleaned up the message log by Tie Fighter but in X wing Imuse really helps you know what's going on in real time.
Anyway, great vid.
Thanks! This is a good point and something I hadn't considered.
This will definitely blow up, nice video, man!
Fantastic video. Can't wait for the next one.
Totally right on about the docking. So much docking. There's only one other thing in the universe that also subjects the viewer to such mind-numbingly transcendant levels of docking: Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
Damn, that's a good pull. At least there they had the excuse that at least some of the audience wanted to get a good look at the fancy new Enterprise model.
Aside from the sound effects seemingly made by mouth, all I remember is the ending, which is essentially some dude screwing a satellite. Nothing happened for 2 hours and the climax happened off screen...possibly in an incomprehensible way.
At least TIE Fighter and that Star Trek film's edited cut redeemed these flaws.
When you get to TIE fighter, I’d recommend the DOS CD version, but with cycles set properly to keep it from getting too fast. There’s an extra layer of difficulty added by the hit box changes in the special edition versions.
You also get the dynamic music, and 480 instead of 240 as your resolution.
That Gouraud shading was such a hit fans demanded X-Wing be remastered and released so I played Tie first and then the X-Wing 'redux'. On 3.5" floppys.
Ah yes, the TIECD version was awesome, absolutely loved the narrated mission briefings. The Gouroud shaded SVGA graphics are glorious. Too sad X-Wing never got that treatment (Gouroud shading yes, but no SVGA).
Back then I was super excited by the remakes using the engine from X-Wing vs TIE Fighter, but sadly there were too many compromises, particularly the lack of the dynamic music.
@@NeovanGothAnd even then, CD-ROM X-Wing still doesn't have switchable secondary armaments, time compression, more ships and the availability of space stations, and 3D targeting systems.
Didn't know I've been waiting for this for 3 decades.... but here we are
Love both your vids, look forward to the full set of both game series. 👍
Great series! Keep it up
I'm going to watch this over the course of a few days - lovely content! I REALLY hope a Descent: Freespace video is incoming!
It'll come, but that shall be a reality at least a few years later, what with the other Wing Commander and X-Wing installments.
I somehow missed this video when it first came out, even though I've subscribed and rung the bell. It just came up in the related/recommended sidebar. Thank you for your excellent work.
Woah!! Before I watch this lemme just say thank you and welcome back! You and me seem to love the same old big box pc games.
Another great video. Thanks for taking the time to put it together. I'm really looking forward to that Wing Commander 2 video though. :D Back in the day I was definitely more into Wing Commander than the X-Wing and TIE Fighter games. That said, when I heard people talk about these games they were always most interested in the TIE Fighter game in particular so it will be curious to see how you feel about it. I do have these games on a CD someplace but I can't say I've played them very extensively.
The transfer energy keyboard buttons are the most important ones in this game. Shields DO NOT recharge unless their energy input is set above half. Same for lasers. You need to increase your energy input to recharge them. This will lower the energy to your engines though. So you have to balance between the three. Energy management is what this game is about. Much like dogfighting.
It's nuances like this that really make me like Wing Commander less, Chris Roberts bullkriffery nowadays notwithstanding.
Thanks for this exhaustive review of one of my favorites from back in the day. I have to say that even your criticisms and final evaluation is fundamentally fair. I'd love to see your review of the expansions.
This video and the comments are full of nostalgia that I am enjoying. This game was beyond my skill level and that was so frustrating because I wanted to get to more of the story! Great game and use of all Star Wars elements.