In appreciation of TIE Fighter.

[Voids]

I had originally bought the collector's edition CD decades ago from a local Egghead (remember those?). I fell in love with the game immediately and would spend a lot of time just trying to get it to work - stack overflow errors took a heavy toll on me as a young dude. The game is somewhat simple, but had enough interesting missions, design, and just plain soul to keep me interested despite the difficulty in starting it up.


I decided just recently to introduce it to my son, who's 4 and absolutely loves Star Wars. You can imagine the look on his face every time the game fires up and that Lucasarts L comes together with the stars stretched out in the background. It's like seeing the game with new eyes and we'll play maybe 15 minutes a day or so, enough for a mission or two. And best of all, thanks to GOG, no stack overflow errors.

Anyone still playing this? Or have memories of it?

 

[vonAchdorf]

It's the best game of the series. And it's not a modern game, 15 minutes won't be enough to finish two missions, barely one.

 

[Voids]

It's the best game of the series. And it's not a modern game, 15 minutes won't be enough to finish two missions, barely one.

You're probably right. Time flies when you're having fun.

 

[yellowcake]

I bought it a few years ago on ebay actually, back then It wasn't even in legal distribution in Poland. I played all three versions when they came out - disk, then defender and then collectors. Probably my most hours spent game ever, I played it exclusively for a couple of years trying to max out all missions, killing a few sticks in the process. I've never played a single mission on anything other than hard difficulty. Late missions become puzzles as you can only solve them in a specific way (you have to know which wave of fighters carry which missiles - if heavy rockets then engage immediately, otherwise can skip them etc.).

I also built a retro PC few years ago in order to play it on the metal with midi music. Hearing concourse music still makes my eyes wet.

 

[Voids]

I bought it a few years ago on ebay actually, back then It wasn't even in legal distribution in Poland. I played all three versions when they came out - disk, then defender and then collectors. Probably my most hours spent game ever, I played it exclusively for a couple of years trying to max out all missions, killing a few sticks in the process. I've never played a single mission on anything other than hard difficulty. Late missions become puzzles as you can only solve them in a specific way (you have to know which wave of fighters carry which missiles - if heavy rockets then engage immediately, otherwise can skip them etc.).

I also built a retro PC few years ago in order to play it on the metal with midi music. Hearing concourse music still makes my eyes wet.

That is seriously fucking legit. I think my copy came in a box with other Lucasarts games. I don't have it anymore. It had the TIE Fighter Collector's CD, Dark Forces... I think a CD that had some of the "Making of" special effects for the Special Edition of Star Wars. I can't remember what else was in there, but it was about 6 discs all on one long sleeve.

Have you ever read the strategy guide? I thought it was an awesome addition and fills in the "story" of Maarek Stele that goes along with the game. I'm sure it's not high literature but I loved it when I was younger.

 

[DraQ]

Peasant space fantasy is for peasants moisture farmers.

 

[Falksi]

Class game. Haven't played it for a fair few years, but thoroughly enjoyed every playthrough I've ever had of it.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

Is there any kind of mod or version of Tie Fighter that lets you play the Windows enhanced textures/higher rez version with the dynamic music of the DOS version?

 

[Ninjerk]

I bought it a few years ago on ebay actually, back then It wasn't even in legal distribution in Poland. I played all three versions when they came out - disk, then defender and then collectors. Probably my most hours spent game ever, I played it exclusively for a couple of years trying to max out all missions, killing a few sticks in the process. I've never played a single mission on anything other than hard difficulty. Late missions become puzzles as you can only solve them in a specific way (you have to know which wave of fighters carry which missiles - if heavy rockets then engage immediately, otherwise can skip them etc.).

I also built a retro PC few years ago in order to play it on the metal with midi music. Hearing concourse music still makes my eyes wet.

That is seriously fucking legit. I think my copy came in a box with other Lucasarts games. I don't have it anymore. It had the TIE Fighter Collector's CD, Dark Forces... I think a CD that had some of the "Making of" special effects for the Special Edition of Star Wars. I can't remember what else was in there, but it was about 6 discs all on one long sleeve.

Have you ever read the strategy guide? I thought it was an awesome addition and fills in the "story" of Maarek Stele that goes along with the game. I'm sure it's not high literature but I loved it when I was younger.

The X-Wing Strategy Guide with The Farlander Papers (that my mom bought for me with my X-Wing Collector's Edition CD-ROM back in probably 1996) is sitting in a storage box right now because I have refused to get rid of it so far (knowing that in its condition it'll never make it off the shelf of a used book store).

 

[True Ukrainian]

I played the disk version of it. Borrowed it from a friend and made copies of the disks as well as a copy of the manual. Great game, had heaps of atmosphere despite the simple graphics. Even remember using a boot disk so that I could play.

 

[cw8]

Favourite Star Wars game of all time. So much good memories with TIE Fighter, every mission, every cutscene was unique to me. The iMuse music was phenomenal back in the day, still very special till this day, much prefer the iMuse than any orchestrated music.

 

[Wyatt_Derp]

Loved the mission variety. For a brief time in 95-96 Tie Fighter took up most of my gaming time, along with Doom and Command and Conquer. Tie Fighter also became a bit of a measuring stick for my friends to gauge whether they were true gaming nerds or just casuals. Anyone who could sit down at my desk and at least try to learn to play it would get a smoke and a honorary nerd badge. Still have the original CDs in my disk collection box.

 

[Average Manatee]

I remember that first fucking mission on hard, tie fighter vs. 3 of those fucking shuttles with a turret on its ass. Stupid rebels, should have just added a turret to the ass of every craft, would have BTFOed the empire. Took so long to get all objectives on that mussion.

 

[:Flash:]

Is there any kind of mod or version of Tie Fighter that lets you play the Windows enhanced textures/higher rez version with the dynamic music of the DOS version?

A long, long time ago I invested a lot of time into trying to achieve that, but I never did. There were actually references to the original imuse music files in the executable, which made me think there must be a way to re-enable them, but no such luck.

Also there used to be a mod that let you play the entirety of Tie Fighter in the X-Wing Alliance engine. This could also be combined with files from the XWA Upgrade project, which made it look really great. That mod was really impressive, it had the Hangar, the cutscenes, everything in there. But I don't remember about the music. XWA had its own dynamic music system, I don't know if this mod managed to make that use Tie Fighter tunes.
Unfortunately that mod seems to be completely lost and forgotten:
https://web.archive.org/web/20200511162837/https://darksaber.xwaupgrade.com/craftpacktftc2.html

 

[Luka-boy]

Played it a ton as a kid and then replayed it a few times over the years. That first mission in Battle 5 where Harkov is revealed as a traitor (first clear a minefield with a TIE Interceptor and then try to escape as a battle rages around you) is still some of the realest shit ever if you want to achieve a decent number of secondary/secret objectives.

The intro gets me pumped up every time and over the years I really came to appreciate how awesome it was to have Palpatine, Vader and Thrawn scenes back to back.


Also if you don't mind 80s style animu, this was a great little tribute.

I'd kill for a miniseries about an Imperial battlegroup.

 

[Ninjerk]

I can only imagine the absolute shitshow an Imperial miniseries would be in 2020.

 

[Ghostar]

Best Star Wars game ever.
I bought a cheap Sound Blaster clone just to hear the Emperor in the intro.
It wasnt as dificult as Xwing although it had its moment, like disable the platform + SHU + TRN and some other mofo at the same time.

And when Vader appeared when hunting Harkov and Zaarin!

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

this was one of the few games as an amiga owner i envied, but by the time i had been forced to move to this other side it was already so old i was afraid of ruining my expectations. i dread the thought of early '90s controls and interfaces. or is it even a late '80s game? probably a beautiful dream is better than harsh reality.

 

[Gregz]

this was one of the few games as an amiga owner i envied, but by the time i had been forced to move to this other side it was already so old i was afraid of ruining my expectations. i dread the thought of early '90s controls and interfaces. or is it even a late '80s game? probably a beautiful dream is better than harsh reality.

It's perfectly playable.

You're much better off playing TIE Fighter than most of the pozzed 'modern' garbage being released these days.

 

[Voids]

this was one of the few games as an amiga owner i envied, but by the time i had been forced to move to this other side it was already so old i was afraid of ruining my expectations. i dread the thought of early '90s controls and interfaces. or is it even a late '80s game? probably a beautiful dream is better than harsh reality.

I play it with an older usb joystick. It's very accessible. The menus and UI aren't daunting or difficult to manage at all.

 

[:Flash:]

Is there any kind of mod or version of Tie Fighter that lets you play the Windows enhanced textures/higher rez version with the dynamic music of the DOS version?

A long, long time ago I invested a lot of time into trying to achieve that, but I never did. There were actually references to the original imuse music files in the executable, which made me think there must be a way to re-enable them, but no such luck.

Also there used to be a mod that let you play the entirety of Tie Fighter in the X-Wing Alliance engine. This could also be combined with files from the XWA Upgrade project, which made it look really great. That mod was really impressive, it had the Hangar, the cutscenes, everything in there. But I don't remember about the music. XWA had its own dynamic music system, I don't know if this mod managed to make that use Tie Fighter tunes.
Unfortunately that mod seems to be completely lost and forgotten:
https://web.archive.org/web/20200511162837/https://darksaber.xwaupgrade.com/craftpacktftc2.html

Wow!
I just found out that they are indeed still working on this and planning a 2020 release of the all new Tie Fighter Total Conversion. The guy posted a trailer on youtube, and an update video just a few days ago. And yes it will include a conversion of the Tie Fighter music to the imuse system of XWA.



The XWA modding community is incredible. I remember when the XWA Upgrade Project was just some improved opt (model) files, but they are still at it 20 years later and have more or less reverse engineered the entire graphics engine improved it and made it run on modern systems.

 

[Luka-boy]

this was one of the few games as an amiga owner i envied, but by the time i had been forced to move to this other side it was already so old i was afraid of ruining my expectations. i dread the thought of early '90s controls and interfaces. or is it even a late '80s game? probably a beautiful dream is better than harsh reality.

You can easily play the game with a mouse. Other than that you only really need to learn a few keys and key combinations for energy and shieldsmanagement, target selection, weapon modes, ending the mission and giving wingmen orders. There are other hotkeys but they're not quite as important except the one to check the current objectives but still good to learn.

As for the interface, it does a good job of showing you everything you need to know.
- Crosshair in the middle that turns green if you're expected to hit your selected target, shows the weapon and mode selected and also has warning lights if an enemy is targetting you.
- Sensors, one facing forward and another one backwards, which works way better than it looks.
- Gauges for energy management (Lasers and Engine, also Shields and/or Beam depending on the craft and setup) and speedometer.
- Bottom center would be the targeting computer showing the current selected target with information like heading, speed, shield and hull integrity and distance.
- Above it is the weapon status, both missile and energy weapons.
- Display with the general hull integrity of your craft (Green, Yellow, Red) and shield status.
- At the very bottom of the screen you get information about any events.
Except that last one, all those different displays can randomly be destroyed for the rest of the battle if your hull gets damaged.

The sum of all those elements:

EDIT: :Flash: Ohgodohgodohgod

 

[Jack Of Owls]

Wow!
I just found out that they are indeed still working on this and planning a 2020 release of the all new Tie Fighter Total Conversion. The guy posted a trailer on youtube, and an update video just a few days ago. And yes it will include a conversion of the Tie Fighter music to the imuse system of XWA.

Awwwsome! I'll put this on my Watch list since it's definitely something I'd be interested in. Hopefully they have 5.1/7.1 audio support in addition to the imuse since I have a yen to hear the scream of of those tie fighters zooming from front to back and sideways from behind to front again, fucking my head up good. I'd kind of like built-in controller support so I can properly couch-out with my big 43" inch but that's a luxury. Thanks for the info

 

[Jack Of Owls]

this was one of the few games as an amiga owner i envied, but by the time i had been forced to move to this other side it was already so old i was afraid of ruining my expectations. i dread the thought of early '90s controls and interfaces. or is it even a late '80s game? probably a beautiful dream is better than harsh reality.

I play it with an older usb joystick. It's very accessible. The menus and UI aren't daunting or difficult to manage at all.

Hmm. I have a Thrustmaster T.1600M HOTAS in storage that might be fun with this.

 

[:Flash:]

Awwwsome! I'll put this on my Watch list since it's definitely something I'd be interested in. Hopefully they have 5.1/7.1 audio support in addition to the imuse since I have a yen to hear the scream of of those tie fighters zooming from front to back and sideways from behind to front again, fucking my head up good. I'd kind of like built-in controller support so I can properly couch-out with my big 43" inch but that's a luxury. Thanks for the info

It's the X-Wing Alliance engine, so it has full DirectX joystick support.
Also, surround sound was added in the latest official patch of XWA, but I don't know if that works with modern sound cards. Probably not.